(via Bad Astronomy)
I love MagicEyes, where you diverge your eyes to see a 3d image appear in a staticky picture. The technical name for them is a 3d anaglyph or stereogram. I’ve gotten so good at them that I can diverge my eyes at will without straining. Well now it seems that someone has put together an animated one! Check it out. Read More…
Episode 66 of the Mindcast is up!
Download it here. Read More…
It’s amazing to see anti-evolutionists repeat again and again that credentials mean nothing, brushing aside the judgements of thousands upon thousands of scientists, and then do the opposite. Intelligent Design’s latest proponent is a highly-skilled neurosurgeon named Dr. Michael Egnor, and he’s been invited not only for an interview on the Discovery Institute’s low-listenership podcast, but is now repeating age-old debunked arguments against evolution on the DI’s news blog. Wildly claiming that evolution has nothing to do with medicine, Dr. Egnor has revealed to us that on this subject, he is woefully ignorant. Read More…
Check out this video of some members of the Davis Bee Collective collecting a bee colony. It’s the beginning of the season for swarm-catching, however, this is not a swarm. Four of us (Yes, I’m in this video - all suited up) headed over to ‘rescue’ a free-hanging colony that fell out of a tree. When the weather got warm this week, the wax softened and it plopped on the ground. While the camera was rolling, I was telling the people that called us out all about bees, so you’ll hear a couple clips of that. Read More…
Ah, Springtime. The grass is young and lush, the weather is warming up, and the fruit trees are budding forth and bursting into bloom. The bees have awoken from their slumber and are rearing brood and trucking in the pollen. Birds chirp, the wind blows, and humans, recently turning forward their clocks, are planting gardens and spending more time outside. Including me and my allergies.
You know what the worst thing about Spring is? Read More…
Abstract: There is a widespread phenomenon that has developed in recent years. Human beings, around the world, have begun to exhibit a novel behavior when they receive visual stimuli resembling cephalopods. Collectively, yet independently, they send emails describing their cephalopod-related experiences, often accompanied by pictures, to a single person.(1) This person is PZ Myers, the author of the popular science blog, Pharyngula.(2) It has been hypothesized that when the brains of these individuals receive stimuli related to octupi, squid, and other such organisms, that it causes activity in a Pharynguloid Activation Center, or “PZ Spot.”(1) Here we present the results of a preliminary investigation into the location and function of the PZ Spot. Read More…
Back in the summer, I interviewed Philip Neustrom, founder* of the Davis Wiki. He told me then that he was working on setting up a system whereby someone could easily found their own wiki. Well, now Philip tells me that the system is ready. So last Friday, right before I took off to Florida, I started my wiki project. Read More…
