Science Etcetera Venusday, 20080411

April 11th, 2008

A geometrically elegant recipe for making Sierpinski Cookies

Why pricing things at $19.95 works on us.

The Olympic Torch emits 5,500 Tons of CO₂.

I’m sure there’s no conflict of interest in The New Republic letting British Petroleum run a blog on Energy and the Environment.

Finally! A study on the habits of blog readers.

As food prices go up, farmers are abandoning farming subsidies that promote environmentally friendly agriculture.

Story of a man who had his genetic identity stolen and his fight to get it back.

The first animal on Earth wasn’t the simple sponge, but the suprisingly complex comb jelly.

Comb Jelly
Photo by Bastique

Creationism takes another sneaky step toward being taught in Florida schools.

Mary Roach’s book Bonk explores the science of sex.

A bill to make hybrid vehicles noisy to protect blind people is being introduced to Congress.

Chinese dyslexia is caused by different brain functions than English dyslexia.

Most powerful laser ever.

These hi-resolution photos of Mars’ moon Phobos are out of this world!!! (HT Clint)

Phobos
Photo by HiRISE

Fish have noisy mating calls that can be heard on land. link to audio of fish

One fifth of scientists take cognitive performance-enhancing drugs, and 70 percent said they would.

The black hole at the center of our Milky Way is currently dormant, but a recent survey of neighbor galaxies have revealed active black holes where there shouldn’t be. Could our black hole become active again and fry us with gamma and x-rays?

The Expelled movie plagerized the Life of a Cell video.

I can’t figure out what this video is about. I think it’s putting down scientists, but it kinda makes me proud. Still, it’s not as cool as MC Hawking’s What We Need More of Is Science (free MP3).:

2 comments to “Science Etcetera Venusday, 20080411”

Yeah its hard to figure out what side the video is taking. I’m sounds to be in favor of atheism and down plays religion.
by sour Swinger April 11th, 2008 at 10:20 am
That cancer story (guy who suffered identity theft while dying from cancer) was quite touching. It also illustrates the many flaws in not having a nationalized health care system. The fact that he was saved using a procedure that his girlfriend had to look up online is deplorable. Conservatives continue to espouse that we have the best medical system on the planet, but that’s wrong: We have the best medical system on the planet for people who can pay for it.
by ClintJCL April 11th, 2008 at 12:37 pm