Science Etcetera Jupiterday, 20080313

March 13th, 2008

North Island brown kiwi

A North Island brown kiwi, one of the world’s most endangered species, has hatched at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo Bird House.

Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! I love it when brilliant minds put the smack down on someone. First Lawrence Lessig schools Andrew Keen on what the CopyLeft movement is about, then David Brin schools Bruce Schneier on transparency in society.

Paul Ehrlich argues that we must devote more energies to studying cultural evolution. I think Jared Diamond did a great job of jumpstarting this with his book Collapse.

With 250,000 pacemakers installed in people each year, the revelation that researchers were able to hack them remotely, telling them to shut down or fatally electrocute, is pretty scary.

Traffic lights with cameras have more accidents, because people slam on their breaks to keep from getting a ticket. Thanks Government.

This guys is a DIY GOD!!! Using mosquitoes irradiated to weaken the parasite, Stephen Hoffman successfully vacinated himself against malaria.

A retinal implant connected to the brain with a hair-sized wire holds the promise of Cyborg Eyes (cool photo accompanies the article (HT BMF).

Feathers from the dinosaur era have been found preserved in amber.

Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Hewey, Dewey, and Lewey, check out 3-D Skeletons of Cartoon Characters.

Scientists are rushing to figure out how to stop the spread of Fungus Ug99, which has spread from Africa to Iran, wiping out wheat crops and threatening starvation, and now threatens Pakistan, putting Asia in it’s line of fire.

Don’t stress the solar panels and new hybrid car, here’s Six Cheapskate Ways to Help the Earth you can do right now. My personal favorite, and one I’ve adopted for myself: stop buying things.

Another great and simultaneously odd example of inter-species altruism, as a dolphin rescues stranded whales.

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor realized one morning that she was having a stroke. She then proceeded to study and remember every moment as her cognitive functions failed one by one until she became like an infant. A wonderfully told story… although I still prefer to live in my left hemisphere.

Ohhhh… Ahhhh… A Moment of Science to appreciate Science Image Awards 2008. My favorite is the crystalized vitamin C, which I can’t post here because it’s copyrighted.

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I’ve long made the red light camera argument — esp with Brent — that it increases accidents, and that is bad, because *I* might get rear-ended by someone following too closely to me.

The retort usually made back by most people is that if you look more closely at the data, yes, rear-endings increase — but fatal accidents and accidents with serious injury decrease; the AGGREGATE BODILY HARM is lower.

I was disappointed when this article did not address the data in more detail like that — I’m still waiting to find out who is actually right :)
by Clint March 13th, 2008 at 10:18 am
That stroke lecture was pretty amazing.
by Clint March 13th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Wow, I was under the impression that kiwi birds were already extinct, and had been for some time. Maybe I’m getting it confused with another odd bird from New Zealand.

My brothers lived there for several years, so I learned a lot about that stuff at some point, but they’ve been back in the U.S. for 20+ years, now, I think, so I don’t remember much of it.

I do enjoy some kiwi fruit, though, and my kids do, too.

It’s unfortunate that we’re not likely to ever have the opportunity to eat a kiwi bird, though (to make reference to another recent entry on this blog). :)
by spugbrap March 13th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Kiwi are damn good fruit — eat the skin, it’s good. The best^H^H^H^H2nd-best hairy thing you’ll ever eat in your life!
by Clint March 13th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
I’m gonna try this eating-kiwi-skin thing you mention, but I’m wary. It just doesn’t look appetising, especially the hairiness part of it. If this is a practical joke, I’m gonna get revenge! : )
by ideonexus March 13th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
That would be a great practical joke.
But I truly enjoy them.

Perhaps someday I should make a YouTube video of this to help convince the world that it is, in fact, NOT a practical joke.
by Clint March 13th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Also, I don’t get put off by texture very often. Much less often than other people. The skin is super-sweet — much sweeter than the fruit. Carolyn says the fruit is much sweeter than the skin.

I can’t claim to truly know the difference between all forms of sweet and all forms of sour.
“Intense” tastes “intense” to me.

I like to suck on raw vitamin c pills until they dissolve — not the fake flavored ones, the natural actual taste. It’s good. I used to put 4 on my tongue every night, but stopped when I dozed off a bit and it burned me.

So… keep this in mind. All textures and sweet/sour levels are acceptable to me.

The hair… swallows. I guess. It’s not that much. Artichokes piss me off MUCH more!
by Clint March 13th, 2008 at 10:15 pm