Cool Links

Stop those boneheaded Facebook comments - CNN

Stop those boneheaded Facebook comments - CNN

Sep 08 2010 | comment(s)

Some Facebook tips from CNN guest columnists Andrea Bartz and Brenna Ehrlich, Ehrlich being editor at Mashable.com and Bartz editor at PsychologyToday.com:

Facebook gets a lot of attention for being, uh, your space -- a handful of entry fields in which to sum up your awesomeness, right down to the bewildering "Write something about yourself" box.

Researchers fixate on what your profile says about you, while increasingly complex pages, plug-ins and boxes (what are those all about, anyway?) make it clear that Facebook is all about you.

Still, at least one tab of your Facebook profile is largely left to others' devices: the wall.
Benchmark And Accel Partners Fund ResearchGATE - $5 Million?

Benchmark And Accel Partners Fund ResearchGATE - $5 Million?

Sep 08 2010 | comment(s)

Oddly, the company won’t disclose the size of the round, other than to say it’s a typical series A round, which implies $5 million or so.
Classic UFO Battle Waged Online - Livescience

Classic UFO Battle Waged Online - Livescience

Sep 07 2010 | comment(s)

Are airplane pilots more reliable witnesses than others, lending more credibility to UFO sightings?

Rob Britt at Livescience: An interesting argument is playing out in the Space section of MSNBC. It began when veteran space reporter James Oberg questioned the foundation of a new book about UFOs called "UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record."

'Newt', the Pixar/Disney film you'll never see - except for this artwork

'Newt', the Pixar/Disney film you'll never see - except for this artwork

Sep 07 2010 | comment(s)

You've probably never heard of "Newt" unless you are an animated film aficionado.   Not to worry, Disney/Pixar has cancelled it anyway.  Nothing new, studios cancel things all of the time if they don't pan out as being quality stuff.   

But on their Facebook page they at least posted some cool art from the cartoon-you-will-never see.  Smart move.  They will get a ton of free attention for a picture that people likely would have hated and so didn't want to finish.


Retro Science Fiction: Harrison Ford Discusses Star Wars In 1977

Retro Science Fiction: Harrison Ford Discusses Star Wars In 1977

Sep 07 2010 | comment(s)

In 1977, Harrison Ford had a sporadic career and was mostly a carpenter but he had done another film with George Lucas and sat down with KXAS-TV reporter Bobbie Wygant to discuss it. The new project? "Star Wars". Next stop: mega stardom.
CERN wants patents on its taxpayer-funded developments

CERN wants patents on its taxpayer-funded developments

Sep 06 2010 | comment(s)

CERN owes its historic aversion to patenting to its 20 European member states, says spokesman James Gillies. They pump millions of euros into the organisation every year to help develop new technologies – and don't want to have to pay to use the inventions in their own country. "So we have to square a circle: how do we protect the technology without double-billing member states?"

Last week, it struck a deal with the United Nations' World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to ensure that it profits better from its engineers' innovations.
A cunning bid to shore up the ruins of the IPCC - Telegraph

A cunning bid to shore up the ruins of the IPCC - Telegraph

Sep 05 2010 | comment(s)

British newspapers have always been more contrarian than US ones when it came to global warming coverage.   One skeptic thinks the damaging IAC report last week didn't go far enough.
An economic analysis of which journal to choose for your publication: Dianthus Medical Limited

An economic analysis of which journal to choose for your publication: Dianthus Medical Limited

Sep 04 2010 | comment(s)

In line with my article today, How To Make Open Access Better: Make Publishing Free Too, here is an economic analysis of which journal to choose for your publication.
Dorothy wanted to submit to PLoS One, whereas Al wanted to submit to a more prestigious journal. The advantage of publishing in PLoS One is that they have a very high acceptance rate and are fast 
What Social Science Does—and Doesn’t—Know: City Journal, Jim Manzi

What Social Science Does—and Doesn’t—Know: City Journal, Jim Manzi

Sep 03 2010 | comment(s)

Unlike physics or biology, the social sciences have not demonstrated the capacity to produce a substantial body of useful, nonobvious, and reliable predictive rules about what they study—that is, human social behavior, including the impact of proposed government programs.

The missing ingredient is controlled experimentation (read on)
Ye cannae change the laws of physics - Or can you? Economist

Ye cannae change the laws of physics - Or can you? Economist

Sep 03 2010 | comment(s)

RICHARD FEYNMAN, Nobel laureate and physicist extraordinaire, called it a “magic number” and its value “one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics”. The number he was referring to, which goes by the symbol alpha and the rather more long-winded name of the fine-structure constant, is magic indeed.

Move over Britney, Lady Gaga’s in physics now - Symmetry Magazine

Move over Britney, Lady Gaga’s in physics now - Symmetry Magazine

Sep 03 2010 | comment(s)

For years, the Britney Spears Guide to Semiconductor Physics has been floating around the Web intriguing, amusing, educating, troubling, or infuriating different people. Doing one better, pop star Lady Gaga is now immortalized in the name of a published physics paper.
Stephen Hawking: God was not needed to create the Universe

Stephen Hawking: God was not needed to create the Universe

Sep 02 2010 | comment(s)

The Big Bang was the result of the inevitable laws of physics and did not need God to spark the creation of the Universe, Stephen Hawking has concluded.
BBC had

BBC had "massive bias to left" - director general

Sep 02 2010 | comment(s)

Unless you happened to be a BBC fan (and therefore on the left, so you saw them as 'balanced) you knew the BBC contained liberal bias.  There were too many examples to count and so by 2007 there was an internal report which concluded that greater efforts were required to avoid liberal bias.

"In the BBC I joined 30 years ago, there was, in much of current affairs, in terms of people's personal politics, which were quite vocal, a massive bias to the left," Thompson said.
New science blog networks mushroom to life - Scientific American

New science blog networks mushroom to life - Scientific American

Sep 01 2010 | comment(s)

The science blogosphere is shrinking and growing at the same time. Today, the Public Library of Science (PLoS) starts a new network called PLoS Blogs.   Consisting of 11 blogs by scientists and journalists,  it joins several other relatively small networks launched this summer, including those by the Guardian, Wired and Scientopia. 
Love Plus Dating Simulation: Japanese Men Vacation With Virtual Girls - WSJ

Love Plus Dating Simulation: Japanese Men Vacation With Virtual Girls - WSJ

Sep 01 2010 | comment(s)

Atami, Japan, once popular with honeymooners, is turning to a new breed of romance seekers—virtual sweethearts, in a dating simulation called Love Plus.  

Since the marriage rate among Japan's shrinking population is falling and with many of the country's remaining lovebirds heading for Hawaii or Australia's Gold Coast, Atami had to do something. 
Bjørn Lomborg: the dissenting climate change voice who changed his tune - Guardian

Bjørn Lomborg: the dissenting climate change voice who changed his tune - Guardian

Sep 01 2010 | comment(s)

With his new book, Danish scientist Bjørn Lomborg has become an unlikely advocate for huge investment in fighting global warming. But his answers are unlikely to satisfy all climate change campaigners.

IPCC's Rajendra Pachauri is damaging the world - Telegraph

IPCC's Rajendra Pachauri is damaging the world - Telegraph

Sep 01 2010 | comment(s)

The IPCC's head should quit to avoid harming the global warming cause further, says Geoffrey Lean.
Robert Krulwich - Here's Something You Don't Want To Know: NPR

Robert Krulwich - Here's Something You Don't Want To Know: NPR

Sep 01 2010 | comment(s)

It’s an 80-year-old illustration showing the largest animals and plants in the world. The ugly little secret is item no. 10, that totally unnoticeable line in the middle of the picture just below the dinosaur and the snake.



The image first appeared in H.G. Wells, J.S. Huxley and G. P. Well’s book "The Science of Life", published in 1931.
In Defense of Links, Part Two: Money changes everything - by Scott Rosenberg

In Defense of Links, Part Two: Money changes everything - by Scott Rosenberg

Aug 31 2010 | comment(s)

Consider this sad fact: 15 years into the era of Web publishing, most print publications still don’t link at all from inside the text of their articles posted online. They began shoveling their print stories, sans links, into the content-management system way back when; today, they’re shoveling still.

How did we get here? 
.50 Cal Sniper Takes Out A Target From A Mile Away - Through A Wall

.50 Cal Sniper Takes Out A Target From A Mile Away - Through A Wall

Aug 28 2010 | comment(s)

If you are anti-military this is not for you but if you've ever shot competition rifle, or just have an appreciation for anyone who is among the best at what they do, you can appreciate this Marine sniper who takes out a target over a mile away - through a brick wall.  The tactical breathing issues alone to make a shot from a mile away are unfathomable.    Better: after he makes the shot, the sniper stays there for another 12 hours.   

I don't recommend doing this at your local shooting range, even if they have a .50 cal.  Why?   The air will positively shimmer when that thing goes off and the recoil, even with a low-recoil gas system, will make inexperienced shooters physically ill.