Deep thoughts and silliness

I didn’t know…
In the US today, it’s National Post-doc Day. In keeping with tradition position of post docs, I expect everybody to ignore this, and demand the writing of 3 more manuscripts.

Hm. it does sound bit like National Brotherhood Week, doesn’t it?

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Yep, it’s here! The newest, shiniest, issue of Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) was just published by the Lab Rat. This is Scientia Pro Publica, the 12th edition
It includes on of my pieces, but don’t let that put you off. There’s more scientific goodness than that.

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I wouldn’t comment on this, as it’s another country’s politics. But it’s just too good to pass by, and also has scientific relevance.
The US Congress has just passed legislation with the aim of defunding ACORN. This is an organisation that helps US voters register. As these voters tend to be supporters of the Democrats, the Republicans would like to stop them.
But the bill was written rather broadly, so that it would defund

Any organization that has been indicted for a violation under any Federal or State law governing the financing of a campaign for election for public office or any law governing the administration of an election for public office, including a law relating to voter registration.

These organisations would not be able to receive any federal funding at all, or even any promotion by the federal government.
Well, someone looked into this, to see who would be affected. They have created a top 100 list of organisations which would be banned from any federal funds under the act. This includes several arms companies (oops, there goes the industrial-military complex), and computer firms.
But the following are also on the list:

• Johns Hopkins University Oh dear, no NIH money for you, now
• Massachusetts Inst. of Technology Or NSF funding
• University of Chicago it’s OK. Obama didn’t study there
• Government of Canada (CCC) snicker

• University of California all of it?

But, best of all, sitting at no. 18 in the list:

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A few days ago Eric Michael Johnson (formerly of this parish) put up a post about laboratory evidence for the breakdown of the selfish gene, which he started like this:

My previous post on a potential problem for the selfish gene theory in explaining cooperative behavior resulted in a fair amount of heated discussion. However, there are quite a few misconceptions regarding the controversy surrounding the selfish gene, group selection, multilevel selection, generalized reciprocity, etc. that need to be clarified.

He then went on to perpetrate some of these same misconceptions.

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Last week Nature had a feature on data sharing. Most of it revolved around the areas of science like bioinformatics that are producing piles of data very quickly. I work a lot with data that has been collected over long periods of time, which is rather different in character: a single datum might be the result of sampling hundreds of individuals over a year. Sharing that sort of data brings its own problems, even if the data have already been described in a publication. Because of the importance of this to me, I thought it was worth sharing my rambling thoughts on the matter. Hopefully someone can explain why I’m totally wrong – I have some severe biases in this area.

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I have been neglecting my duties, so here’s a reminder. Grrlscientist has now proven her insanity by agreeing to marry me. And, just to make sure there is no doubt, she has actually married me. So, in return, I want to send her somewhere cold and uncivilised.

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Some of you might have noticed the, um, slow-down in posting here. This is because of a few things that have gone on in the real world (don’t worry, The Beast is fine).

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Yesterday I got back from New York, where, amongst other things, I got married. More on that later, now I’m enjoying the jetlag.
Last night I fell asleep about 7pm Helsinki time, and woke (as you do when you’re jetlagged) in the middle of the night, at about 1am. That’s 6pm New York time, which seems an odd time for the body clock to say “Get up you lazy Brit“.

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I haven’t been promoting this as much as I could, mainly because anyone who reads my blog probably reads Grrl’s and Henry’s as well, and they have been doing a better job than I could.
But anyway, Grrl wants to go to Antarctica, and has entered a competition organised by Quark Expeditions. They are searching for an Official Blogger to join a voyage to Antarctica, to blog about the trip and to help raise public awareness of the environmental and conservation issues that pertain to the Antarctic. GrrlScientist would, of course, be the ideal candidate for this position: she’s a prolific blogger, and has written about these issues. You can read more about why she’s so good.

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Taken (wholesale!) from Random Knowledge

Concentrate on the four small dots in the middle of the picture for 30 – 40 secs. Then look at any smooth single coloured surface near you (wall, paper,…). You will see a circle of light developing. Now blink your eyes a couple of times and you will see an image emerging. Do you recognize the image?
Click through to the original site if you want some spare white-space on your screen (and also to give the guy hits).
Can anyone explain to me how it works?