This is interesting: Drupal has released a new code of conduct for their community. It has five points: * Be considerate
* Be respectful
* When we disagree, we consult others
* When we are unsure, we ask for help
* Step down considerately The fucker stole the whole thing from Ubuntu, as it turns out. How dare they!!!!111eleventy!!! Gmail just got like skype, sort of. Five days after the announcement of Voice and Video Chat service in Gmail for Debian-based Linux distributions, Google unveiled a Gmail phone call service for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Rather than having both parties tied to their computers and logged into their Gmail accounts, one user can now call anyone in the US and Canada with telephone service. Google states that rates will remain free for the rest of the year and very low for international calls. source
Aircraft Flight Recorder technology is hardly ever upgraded, and thus, will always be stagnant. Why is that? Why are the designers of something so important so conservative? Maybe they should be. But really, there is no reason that when an airplane crashes, all the flight data has not already been downloaded as part of a continuous process using high speed networks and satellites. That would have been nice for Flight 447, oui? Anyway, here's a story about black box upgrades. Read the comments on this post...

If you teach biology, you probably get to hydrogen bonding pretty early in the term. Here's an inspirational video for you: hat tip: Bora Hydrogen bonding explains everything!!!! Why does water hold so much heat? Why does ice float? How does a water bug not sink? Why does a dog smell everyone's butt? Read the comments on this post...

An offshore oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, west of the site of the April blast that caused the massive oil spill. A commercial helicopter company reported the blast around 9:30 a.m. CDT Thursday, Coast Guard Petty Officer Casey Ranel said. Seven helicopters, two airplanes and four boats were en route to the site, about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast. The Coast Guard said initial reports indicated all 13 crew members from the rig were in the water. One was injured, but there were no deaths. details Read the comments on this post...

I lifted this from the fourth in a series on "why we vaccinate" from Elyse the Skepchick's blog. The first one is here. Read the comments on this post...

The dust is starting to settle after the Hauser-gate scandal which rocked psychology a couple of weeks back.

Harvard Professor Marc Hauser has been investigated by a faculty committee and the verdict was released on the 20th August: Hauser was "found solely responsible... for eight instances of scientific misconduct." He's taking a year's "leave", his future uncertain.

Unfortunately, there has been no official news on what exactly the misconduct was, and how much of Hauser's work is suspect. According to Harvard, only three publications were affected: a 2002 paper in Cognition, which has been retracted; a 2007 paper which has been "corrected" (see below), and another 2007 Science paper, which is still under discussion.

But what happened? Cognition editor Gerry Altmann writes that he was given access to some of the Harvard internal investigation. He concludes that Hauser simply invented some of the crucial data in the retracted 2002 paper.

Essentially, some monkeys were supposed to have been tested on two conditions, X and Y, and their responses were videotaped. The difference in the monkey's behaviour between the two conditions was the scientifically interesting outcome.

In fact, the videos of the experiment showed them being tested only on condition X. There was no video evidence that condition Y was even tested. The "data" from condition Y, and by extension the differences, were, apparently, simply made up.

If this is true, it is, in Altmann's words, "the worst form of academic misconduct." As he says, it's not quite a smoking gun: maybe tapes of Y did exist, but they got lost somehow. However, this seems implausible. If so, Hauser would presumably have told Harvard so in his defence. Yet they found him guilty - and Hauser retracted the paper.

So it seems that either Hauser never tested the monkeys on condition B at all, and just made up the data, or he did test them, saw that they weren't behaving the "right" way, deleted the videos... and just made up the data. Either way it's fraud.

Was this a one-off? The Cognition paper is the only one that's been retracted. But another 2007 paper was "replicated", with Hauser & a colleague recently writing:
In the original [2007] study by Hauser et al., we reported videotaped experiments on action perception with free ranging rhesus macaques living on the island of Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico. It has been discovered that the video records and field notes collected by the researcher who performed the experiments (D. Glynn) are incomplete for two of the conditions.Luckily, Hauser said, when he and a colleague went back to Puerto Rico and repeated the experiment, they found "the exact same pattern of results" as originally reported. Phew.

This note, however, was sent to the journal in July, several weeks before the scandal broke - back when Hauser's reputation was intact. Was this an attempt by Hauser to pin the blame on someone else - David Glynn, who worked as a research assistant in Hauser's lab for three years, and has since left academia?

As I wrote in my previous post:
Glynn was not an author on the only paper which has actually been retracted [the Cognition 2002 paper that Altmann refers to]... according to his resume, he didn't arrive in Hauser's lab until 2005.Glynn cannot possibly have been involved in the retracted 2002 paper. And Harvard's investigation concluded that Hauser was "solely responsible", remember. So we're to believe that Hauser, guilty of misconduct, was himself an innocent victim of some entirely unrelated mischief in 2007 - but that it was all OK in the end, because when Hauser checked the data, it was fine.

Maybe that's what happened. I am not convinced.

Personally, if I were David Glynn, I would want to clear my name. He's left science, but still, a letter to a peer reviewed journal accuses him of having produced "incomplete video records and field notes", which is not a nice thing to say about someone.

Hmm. On August 19th, the Chronicle of Higher Education ran an article about the case, based on a leaked Harvard document. They say that "A copy of the document was provided to The Chronicle by a former research assistant in the lab who has since left psychology."

Hmm. Who could blame them for leaking it? It's worth remembering that it was a research assistant in Hauser's lab who originally blew the whistle on the whole deal, according to the Chronicle.

Apparently, what originally rang alarm bells was that Hauser appeared to be reporting monkey behaviours which had never happened, according to the video evidence. So at least in that case, there were videos, and it was the inconsistency between Hauser's data and the videos that drew attention. This is what makes me suspect that maybe there were videos and field notes in every case, and the "inconvenient" ones were deleted to try to hide the smoking gun. But that's just speculation.

What's clear is that science owes the whistle-blowing research assistant, whoever it is, a huge debt.

My old friend, colleague, suaboya, and educator extraordinaire, Jay Phelan has written what many believe will be the next Campbell. The name of the book is What Is Life?. There are two versions: one regular, and one with extra physiology. And both are based firmly on and integrated thoroughly with excellent evolutionary biology. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...

"The problem with American civil religion is that it reduces faith to a particular brand of nationalism, which is precisely the opposite of the message preached by Jesus and the prophets of the Hebrew Bible. By ignoring passages about social justice and community and highlighting appeals to individual liberties, Deuteronomistic theology, the Exodus, and conquest narratives, Beck attempted to weave together a generic, nationalistic religion that he hopes will appeal to the lowest common denominator of both faith and politics – personal ‘salvation’ via individual liberties – and overlook the more pervasive themes of social justice, equality, and community – which all people of faith are called to do! We are called to live together in community together as one body, not as rugged individuals."
-- Bob Cargill, in a post which rightly bears the title "excellent article on glenn beck’s call to a generic american civil religion"

I missed this earlier, but another of Glenn Beck’s Saturday stunts rips from the classic annals of demagoguery: Making a show of fear for one’s own safety dramatically conjures the specter of enemies, even if they don’t actually exist. This was, again, a stunt used to great effect by Augustus after he assumed sole mastery of Rome. When minting new Senators, to underscore the still-fresh memory of his adopted father’s death at the Body’s hands, and (by some interpretations) keep anger at the Senate alive, thus deferring the Republic’s restoration, the princeps conspicuously wore mail under his tunic, carried a sword, and was followed by bodyguards. See Suetonius, De Vita Caesarium, “Divi Augustus,” XXXV. That the demure father of his fatherland could still fear for his safety, after all the good he’d done, made the point better than any actual assassin could. Similarly, Beck’s decision to flaunt his bulletproof vest speaks to paranoia and persecution but omits any reasonable basis to believe it, or a credible threat, exists. The classier — but riskier move — is to trust. One searches history in vain for any record of Obama, or any American president, wearing a bulletproof vest.  Rumors that 44 wore a suit laced with bulletproof cloth are just that, and underscore rather than refute the point.

As some of you have already noticed, I have turned comment moderation back off. The Internet terrorist who has been posring spam comments seems to want to force bloggers he disagrees with to moderate comments, presumably to hinder free discussion (with which comment moderation interferes). And giving in to what bullies want just encourages them to continue their behavior.

So comment moderation is off, and hopefully no one will find the occasional easily-recognizable spam message (which will always be deleted quickly from the blog anyy, so please don't respond to them) too much of a nuisance. It is a small price to pay for being able to discuss things and express ourselves freely.

Thanks!

The MMR vaccine, since it was wrongly and fraudulently associated with autism, has been a favourite of media scare stories concerning healthcare.  A recent example was the Main on Sunday’s recent story linking a legitimate and successful claim for compensation following a possible injury caused by the vaccine to autism, despite this forming no part of the claim nor the reasons given for its award. Both Evan Harris and Martin Robbins have good analyses of this story in the Guardian’s new science blogs section, citing statements by Nadine Dorries, MP, a member of the Health Select committee, suggesting that she, despite having responsibilities as a politician, in intent on fanning the dying embers of a seemingly settled controversy. Dorries has some ability to attract press attention thanks to questionable judgement and simplistic, and factually wrong, moral judgements but she shows little sign of being much of a threat to society’s understanding of healthcare via her political career.  She is not an obvious choice for any ministerial or lesser government role and has shown a reluctance to attend the meetings of any committee of which she is a member. However, the views of politicians can have an impact on healthcare.  Tony Blair, the former Labour Prime Minister, whose willingness to indulge his wife, Cherie’s, association with alternative health gurus, who are typically associated with anti-vaccination views, has been accused of giving credibility to opponents of MMR when he refused to say whether or not his son, Leo, born when he was in office, was vaccinated despite eventually issuing a statement following press attention. The reason we have refused to say whether Leo has had the MMR vaccine is because we never have commented on the medical health or treatment of our children. The advice to parents to have the MMR jab is one of scores of pieces of advice or campaigns the government supports in matters ranging from underage sex to teenage alcohol abuse or smoking, to different types of advice for very young children on a huge range of activities from breastfeeding to safe play.Once we comment on one, it is hard to see how we can justify not commenting on them at all. However, the suggestion that the government is advising parents to have the MMR jab whilst we are deliberately refraining from giving our child the treatment because we know it is dangerous, is offensive beyond belief. For the record, Cherie and I both entirely support the advice as we have consistently said throughout. It is not true that we believe the MMR vaccine to be dangerous or believe that it is better to have separate injections, as has been maliciously suggested in the press, or believe that it is linked to autism. We now know that, according to Cherie Blair’s autobiography, Leo was vaccinated and a Daily Mail report on Tony Blair’s autobiography suggests that the press were briefed off the record at the time that this was the case, although he appears to regret that he had not been clearer on this issue. Tony Blair is yesterday’s man though, and while his past actions may influence current events he is no longer a frame of reference for current UK politics.  He is out of parliament and out of favour with respect to his party, the press and the public.  We have a new government, a coalition between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, whose views will now influence public health care.  Given that the Prime Minister, David Cameron, has a new baby it is inevitable that some questions of infant healthcare will be framed with reference to his new born daughter.  With this in mind it is worth considering his and his party’s previous views on MMR. In the past Cameron has stated that his children have had the MMR but that he supports the option of single vaccines if vaccine uptake continues to fall.  This support for single vaccines was a feature of the Conservatives when they were in opposition with the then shadow, and now current Health Secretary Andrew Lansley sharing these views.  Single vaccines are regarded as being no safer than the MMR vaccine, and carry additional risks with respect to intervals between vaccinations, and single mumps vaccines are now not licensed for use in the UK.  By contrast the Liberal Democrats, primarily via Evan Harris, then an MP, have supported the MMR vaccine as the best option. However, as supporters of the coalition government often argue, positions held in opposition are often lost in the compromises that come with the wielding of actual power and there is little sign that the current government is going to change policy on MMR, despite the Conservative Party’s previous views.  Jeremy Lefroy, a Conservative MP, recently asked the Health Secretary if he would ‘assess the merits of reintroducing a license for the single mumps vaccine?’.  The answer was to defer to the MHRA – which typically uses an evidence based approach to drug licensing and has opposed single vaccines in the past. The Daily Mail remain opposed to MMR, despite all the evidence of safety and the punishment inflicted on the disgraced Andrew Wakefield, and it would be wise of politicians not to give credibility to their views.  I hope that questions with respect to MMR will not be asked of Cameron, but that if they are he answers sensibly and in accordance with the evidence.

As predicted, Gaston has emerged from from the ITCZ as a named tropical storm in the eastern Atlantic. Unlike Fiona, Gaston will reach hurricane status, and in fact, there is a pretty good chance that Gaston will be a major hurricane. What matters, of course, is where it goes. In any event, formation of a hurricane and nearing land will not happen until Labor Day or later. Meanwhile, Earl, which during the night Thursday and early morning Friday will be turning with 100 knot winds off the coast of the Carolinas, is getting some special attention from NASA. Here's a picture NASA published just a few minutes ago:
AIRS infrared image of Hurricane Earl on Sept. 1, 2010, shows the temperature of Earl's cloud tops or the surface of Earth in cloud-free regions. The coldest cloud-top temperatures appear in purple, indicating towering cold clouds and heavy precipitation. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech In case you wanted to see wind speed and vector data from within the hurricane, we have that for you as well: MISR image of Hurricane Earl captured on Aug. 30, 2010. The left panel of the image extends about 1,110 kilometers (690 miles) in the north-south direction and 380 kilometers (236 miles) in the east-west direction. Earl's wind speeds are shown in the right panel. The lengths of the arrows indicate the wind speeds, and their orientation shows wind direction. The altitude of a given wind vector is shown in color. Image credit: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...

No, not that Cedric. This Cedric. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...

Blogs and schools often don't mix. Many blogs are free ranging entities untethered to an institutional or editorial framework. In public discussions of Scienceblogs.com, the fact that every blogger is editorially independent of each other and of the hosting organization, Seed Media Group, is mentioned without fail, and is often the central topic. Non-Sblings (we scienceblogs.com bloggers call ourselves Sblings) readily accuse us of being under the influence of each other or this or that evil empire, and we just as readily deny it. And it's true ... we are beholden to no one. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...

Natalie Munro (UCONN) and Leore Grosman (Hebrew University) have reported an interesting site dating to about 12,000 years ago in northern Israel. It is interesting because it seems to be the remains of feasting, a specific activity that any cultures around the world engage in. I'm actually writing something about feasting and related activities, so this is quite interesting to me. From the abstract:

We found clear evidence for feasting on wild cattle and tortoises at Hilazon Tachtit cave, a Late Epipaleolithic (12,000 calibrated years B.P.) burial site in Israel. This includes unusually high densities of butchered tortoise and wild cattle remains in two structures, the unique location of the feasting activity in a burial cave, and the manufacture of two structures for burial and related feasting activities. As humans consumed the humped conch, the humped conch's average body size went up, in the Pacific Islands. ... researchers were surprised to find that the average size of the conchs actually increased in conjunction with a growing human population. Specifically, the length of the average conch increased by approximately 1.5 millimeters (mm) over the past 3,000 years. That may not sound like much, but it is significant when you consider the conchs are only around 30 mm long - which means the conchs are now almost 5 percent larger than they used to be. Fitzpatrick believes the size increase is likely related to an increase in nutrients in the conch's waters, stemming from increased agriculture and other human activities. source
So. Pollution. Figures. You may not know this, but I personally discovered what for some time was the oldest house structure known in North America. It didn't get much press because the numbnuts in charge of the excavation didn't want to make waves (the site was bulldozed to widen a road). But that's all post holes under the bridge. Literally. Anyway, now, Oldest house in Ontario discovered at 4,500 year old settlement near Lake Huron, Canada

The find rewrites the history of the Canadian province of Ontario, proving that people were living a sedentary lifestyle at that time, even though they lacked agriculture and pottery. Among the discoveries is a 4,500 year old house - the oldest ever found in the province. "It's semi-subterranean - it's dug partially down into the ground," said Professor Chris Ellis of the University of Western Ontario. He led the team that made the find. "It's as old as the pyramids really." source Check out "Diversity in the geosciences and the impact of social media" by Anne Jefferson: One year ago, Kim Hannula, Pat Campbell, Suzanne Franks, and I launched a survey about women geoscientists reading and writing in the blogosphere. We presented the results at the Geological Society of America meeting, and Kim wrote a great post summarizing and discussing our data. Then I took Kim's post, polished it up with great wording and thinking suggestions from all of the co-authors and submitted it for publication. It went out to reviewers and a few months later, we were accepted for publication. In the September issue of GSA Today, you can find our article... I'll be blogging about that later, time permitting. Read the comments on this post...

According to one of the leading experts on the human circulatory system, blood flowing through veins is blue. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...

If the news reports are correct, the Sharks now have 2 Finnish goaltenders: Antti Niemi and Antero Niittymaki. Is there a trade in the works to trade Greiss and a forward for a much needed defenseman?

The site Cherada has a list of videos on YouTube featuring music of Swedish composer Kurt Atterberg. One of my favorite works by this favorite composer of mine is his Symphony No.3. Here's the first movement:



There's a lot more there by Atterberg, and as you get towards the end of the list you'll start to find links to some other great works by other composers as well.

Read the comments on this post...

PLoS has had a few blogs all along, PLoS.org, everyONE and Speaking of Medicine (the PLoS ONE and PLoS Medicine community blogs respectively). But now there is a new network, at blogs.plos.org, which includes a number of new blogs, including a couple of Scienceblogs.com diasporics. The new blogs are:
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North Carolina will receive hurricane warnings (a significant notch above watches) within a few hours, as the forecasted path for earl shift a bit to the west than previously thought and b) becomes less certain. From NOAA/Hurricane Prediction Center: Hurricane Watch:
North of Surf City North Carolina to Parramore Island Virginia including the Pamlico and Albermale Sounds Tropical Storm Warning for San Salvador Tropical Storm Watch for North Carolina Coast from Cape Fear to Surf City You can expect, approximately, for the first of these watches to be upgraded to a warning soon.
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