NY Times turns a leaf on social media

From the Poynter Institute, regarding the change at NYT -

"...social media needs to be — and is already — a shared responsibility."

Great 2 of the big sites online are easily hacked

http://ping.fm/MFVL6

Hmmm....Ping.fm, let us begin your trial run...best of luck to you

From Farm to Fridge to Garbage Can

The New York Times: Health

A quarter to half of food produced in the United States goes uneaten, a lot of it thrown out or forgotten until it spoils.

Read Tara Parker-Pope's blog about this problem, and discussion with the author of the new book, “American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food”.

Recycled Denim Challenge Finalists From Ecouterre And Gap (PHOTOS)

Check out these desgins by some fashion-foward, eco-friendly people.

From The Huffington Post
November 1, 2010

Don't waste that Pumpkin! [INFOGRAPHIC]

Don’t throw away your pumpkins right after Halloween! How to effectively use all parts of your pumpkin.

From Pure Organic
October 28, 2010

Visit post for larger image

Scientists use Stem Cells to Grow Miniature Liver

Scientists have managed to produce a small-scale version of a human liver in the laboratory using stem cells.

The success increases hope that new transplant livers could be manufactured, although experts say that this is still many years away.

The team from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center presented its findings at at conference in Boston.

UK experts said it was an "exciting development" but it is not yet certain a fully-functioning liver is possible.The demand for transplant livers far exceeds the number of available organs, and in recent years, research has focused on ways to use cell technology to support failing organs in the body, or even one day replace them.

Their building block is the stem cell, a "master cell" which can, in certain conditions, can divide to produce different types of body tissue.

However, constructing a three-dimensional organ from stem cells is a difficult task. Click here to read the rest of the article from the BBC...

Afrojack Ft. Eva Simons - Take Over Control (Extended Mix)

Dialogue on Climate Stifled by Political Two-Step.

I hereby propose a new television show. It will be a hit in the current election season: Dancing with the Stories... A Two-Step Flow of (mis)Information.

When it comes to accepting scientific information as fact, even facing decades of peer-reviewed and publicly available data, top political leaders can still sway the "debate" toward head-in-the-sand willful-ignorance. Case in point: Dick Cheney and other top Republicans who deny the existence of human-caused climate change.

By stating that there is not enough solid data (total rubbish), these "leaders" are influencing a two-step flow of (mis)information to the detriment of all. Why would certain politicians find it beneficial to perpetuate such views? How does the role of corporate money come influence what politicians view as pertinent or relevant issues?

Save the Whales, Save the Poop

Gross, but interesting.

From Discovery News

Chances are, you've heard a multitude of arguments against the killing of whales.

It's cruel. It has decimated whale populations. Whale meat is full of pollutants. Continued whaling will prompt preventive measures by 23rd century time travelers.

To which, we may now add another.

The ocean needs whale poop.

It wasn't long ago that researchers first confirmed that whales contributed to ocean ecology even after death, their carcasses landing on the seabed and forming the basis for unique communities known as "whale falls". Now, two whale scientists have found that, as well as seeding the seabed, whales also stimulate biological production at the ocean's surface, thanks to their nutrient-rich feces.

Continue reading...

A free press in China? Not yet.

The invisible hand of state-controlled censorship looms large in China's growing flirtation with Western concepts of intellectual expression and freedom.

A group of retired Communist Party officials, along with members of the tightly controlled state media, issued several public demands recently. The core of these call for China’s rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress, to dismantle censorship procedures “in favor of a system of legal responsibility” for items that are freely published.

Would you risk personal safety and professional status to stand up for a free press? Has censorship every affected your intellectual life? If so, how?

Google has self-driving cars!!

Google! You wiley minx you! Been sitting on something pretty spectacular, huh? A car that drives itself???!? Jeez! C'mon, you know that's exactly the kind of thing I want to own...I thought we were friends man...

Anyway, check it out...super cool! They even have an Audi TT edition. I call dibbs!





By MG Siegler

It all makes sense now.
At our TechCrunch Disrupt event a couple weeks ago in San Francisco, Google CEO Eric Schmidt took the stage to give an impressive speech across a wide range of topics. But the most interesting thing he had to say what about automobiles. “It’s a bug that cars were invented before computers,” he said. “Your car should drive itself. It just makes sense.”
Well guess what? Surprise, surprise: Google has been working on a secret project to enable cars to do just that.
As they’ve revealed on their blog today, Google has developed a technology for cars to drive themselves. And they haven’t done it on a computer, or in some controlled lab, they’ve been out on California roads testing this out. “Our automated cars, manned by trained operators, just drove from our Mountain View campus to our Santa Monica office and on to Hollywood Boulevard. They’ve driven down Lombard Street, crossed the Golden Gate bridge, navigated the Pacific Coast Highway, and even made it all the way around Lake Tahoe. All in all, our self-driving cars have logged over 140,000 miles. We think this is a first in robotics research,” Google engineer Sebastian Thrun (the brainchild of the project who also heads the Stanford AI lab and co-invented Street View as well) writes.
Further, The New York Times, which has a bit more, says a total of seven cars have driven 1,000 miles without any human intervention (the 140,000 mile number includes occasional human control, apparently). These cars are a modified version of the Toyota Prius — and there is one Audi TT, as well.
So how does this work? The automated cars use video cameras, radar sensors, and a laser range finder to locate everything around them (these are mounted on the roof). And, of course, they use Google’s own maps. But the key?

This is all made possible by Google’s data centers, which can process the enormous amounts of information gathered by our cars when mapping their terrain.

Google says it gathered the best engineers from the DARPA Challenges (an autonomous vehicle race that the government puts on) to work on this project. They also note that these cars never drive around unmanned in the interest of safety. A driver is always on hand to take over in case something goes wrong, and an engineer is always on hand in the car to monitor the software. Google also says they’ve notified local police about the project.
So has it worked? Apparently, yes. There has been one accident so far, but it was when someone else rear-ended one of these Google cars.
Google notes that 1.2 million people are killed every year in road accidents — they think they can cut this number in half with the tech. It will also cut energy consumption and save people a lot of time.
I want this yesterday. This is all kinds of awesome.
But don’t get too excited just yet. “Even the most optimistic predictions put the deployment of the technology more than eight years away,” according to NYT.

A Vanishing Journalistic Divide

The stallion of free-range journalism has broken free and is rounding up its herd. The Wild West of Ye Olde Interweb has not been reigned in by any metaphorical barbed-wire fence, yet. It just keeps moving forward.

New York Times reporter David Carr writes that, "more and more, the dichotomy between mainstream media and digital media is a false one. Formerly clear bright lines are being erased all over the place. Open up Gawker, CNN, NPR and The Wall Street Journal on an iPad and tell me without looking at the name which is a blog, a television brand, a radio network, a newspaper. They all have text, links, video and pictures. The new frame around content is changing how people see and interact with the picture in the middle."

The question is, is print dead or is print-ONLY dead?

Avatar 3-D Imaging to Improve Athletes' Form?

From ‘Avatar’ Playbook, Athletes Use 3-D Imaging

The New York Times
By JAMES GLANZ and ALAN SCHWARZ

In the endless quest for athletic advantage, a handful of major league baseball teams are engaged in an elaborate, largely clandestine race to master an advanced imaging technology that some baseball officials think could influence the way athletes of all ages train, perform and recover from injuries.

Read more...

The Republican re-branding of Cap-and-Trade

A small segment of society refuses their opinions to be clouded by facts. Recent Yale polling shows that about 6 in 100 Americans seriously doubt the overwhelming majority of scientific evidence that 'global warming' or 'climate change' is caused by human activity. Media often portray it as a "debate" about climate science, where one side is fighting to get legislative action and the other side is against it because the evidence is "inconclusive." As if it were a 50/50 fight. Is this balance bias responsible journalism?

In communications we often refer to this process as related to "framing." As in, the same information can be perceived as different depending on the angle to which it is referenced. Several right-wing politicians have shown great skill in pushing to cast doubt on the empirical results of decades of scientific research. This NYT article shows just this type of twisting of fact to fit political fiction. Is this effective politicking or the fleecing of an entitled, uninterested and apathetic citizenry? Probably both. And who will pay the price for delay and malaise regarding perhaps the most pressing (yet diffuse and distanced) environmental crisis the modern world has witnessed?

Goo.gl URL shortener can also spit out QR codes, if you ask it nicely

If you're not already aware of it, QR codes are the next big thing to be hitting...well...everything! If you have a smartphone, most likely, you'll be able to download an app to scan these little codes, which is really cool it you ask me. For the iPhone, download the app "i-nigma" to scan this code and see what happens.

BTW...if you want to make your own QR code for an email, ad, or business card, just add the prefix qr.cx to any URL. For example:

http://google.com would be http://qr.cx/http://google.com.

By Vlad Savov

Once again, Google fails at being ordinary. Although the claim with its Goo.gl URL shortener is that it's more about quality than features, the search giant couldn't help itself and has inserted a QR code easter egg into the mix. Should you be so daring as to append a .qr at the end of your contracted hyperlink -- such as turning http://goo.gl/JCKW into http://goo.gl/JCKW.qr (both point to this post) -- you'll be treated with a QR code, built especially for you by the company's imaging smurfs. So, in case you still don't have Android 2.2 and its awesome Chrome to Phone functionality, here's an alternative method for transitioning the webpage you're reading onto your phone. Heavens forbid we'd ever have to actually type anything out ourselves.

Facebook starts rolling out high resolution photo sharing to users

All I have to say is that it is about time they did this.










By Laura June

Facebook is already a popular way to share photo with your 'friends,' but the quality leaves a little something to be desired, to say the least. Well, that's all about to change, as the company has announced that it'll be rolling out high resolution photo uploading to all of its users over the coming weeks. Users will be able to upload and store photos that are eight times larger than what the service now allows (720 pixels). At the same time, the photo viewer will be upgraded to have a lightbox feel -- black background -- for better viewing. Great news, no doubt, for those of us who just couldn't stand another low res shot of someone's baby doing something silly.

US apologizes for infecting Guatemalans with STDs in the 1940s

Another atrocity in the history of U.S. medical research has come to light.  In the late 1940s, the U.S. Public Health Service Sexually Transmitted Disease Inoculation Study purposely infected more than 1,600 Guatemalans with syphilis, gonorrhea and chancres.  The study, which came to light recently when a  Wellesley College researcher found unpublished notes from the project, has drawn an official apology from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

By the CNN Wire Staff

October 1, 2010

 

The United States apologized Friday for a 1946-1948 research study that purposely infected people in Guatemala with sexually transmitted diseases.
A statement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called the action "reprehensible."

"We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologize to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices," the joint statement said. "The conduct exhibited during the study does not represent the values of the United States, or our commitment to human dignity and great respect for the people of Guatemala."

Clinton called Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom on Thursday night to inform him, said Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela.

"They were obviously concerned about this information. They were saddened by it," Valenzuela said in a telephone news conference Friday.

Continue reading....

This is a news website article about a scientific paper

Feel like you've read that article before? One of my professors showed us this article in class, and I think it is really funny demonstration about how science is covered by the media...

By the Lay Scientist, Martin Robbins

In the standfirst I will make a fairly obvious pun about the subject matter before posing an inane question I have no intention of really answering: is this an important scientific finding?

In this paragraph I will state the main claim that the research makes, making appropriate use of "scare quotes" to ensure that it's clear that I have no opinion about this research whatsoever.

In this paragraph I will briefly (because no paragraph should be more than one line) state which existing scientific ideas this new research "challenges".

Read more...

Human Trial Suspended Animation Treatment Set to Begin at Mass GeneralLegitimate, human trial suspended animation: Coming soon to Boston!

This. Is. SOOOO COOL!!! I'll let the article speak for itself.








By Jack Loftus

Legitimate, human trial suspended animation: Coming soon to Boston! What a lucky boy I am to have such mind-bending near-sci-fi research being conducted almost in my backyard, over at Massachusetts General Hospital.

It's true! Human trials for a cutting-edge suspended animation surgical treatment are all but set to begin at MGH. It's an incredible process that will see human beings (who have suffered trauma) cooled to the point of near-death using cooled saline solution, so that they can potentially survive longer and get the treatment they need in the OR:

The cold treatment, which is being developed at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and is featured in a BBC Two Horizon documentary, will see patient's bodies being cooled to as low as 10 degrees C.

The normal human body temperature is 37 degrees C and usually humans quickly die if the core body temperature drops below 22 degrees C. - The Telegraph

Dr. Hasan Alam, the man leading this research at Massachusetts General Hospital, is so optimistic about the effectiveness of the freezing technique that he now believes 90% of "certain death" trauma cases (horrific auto accidents, et al) can be saved once human trials are completed, with no side effects whatsoever:

"The body is essentially in real life suspended animation with no pulse, no blood pressure, no electrical waves in the brain." he told the Telegraph. "We didn't find any evidence of functional impairment after the surgery."

Aliens sleep chambers this development certainly isn't, but that's ok. This is wild enough already.

National Punctuation Day!

Just in time for the LSC 100 grammar unit, today, September 24, is National Punctuation Day. Grammar can stump even the best of writers, and can be tedious to learn. Many have attempted to make grammar a bit more fun, and at least one has succeeded. The website, The Oatmeal, features comics about common grammar errors and misused punctuation marks, such as the dreaded semicolon, or as the creator puts it, "the most feared punctuation on earth". If you're feeling a little unsure about your grammar skills, check out The Oatmeal.

Where's the Women in the blogosphere???

A recent post over at Seed Magazine describes the sad state of gender inequity in the science blogosphere. Is this because of discrimination, apathy, or representative of the science world in general?

Corpse flower starting to bloom at D.C. Smith Greenhouse

The corpse flower, which is famous for the repulsive odor it emits when at its maturity,  is currently blooming on campus at the D.C. Smith Greenhouse.  This is the first time that the 9-year-old plant has bloomed.  The bloom will only last about a day so, if you're interested, try to make it to the greenhouse tomorrow to see and smell this flower in action!


By Johanna Oosterwyk
From CALS News

9/21/2010, 12 p.m.:
The flower's spathe is starting to open, revealing the dark purple on the surface of the plant's big "petal." It doesn't stink much yet, but the scent will grow stronger over the next 3-4 hours as the bloom matures.

9/21/2010, 9 a.m.:
It looks like the Titan Arum may bloom later today. There's already a faint aroma around the spathe. If it does, the D.C. Smith Greenhouse will stay open until 10 p.m. for viewing.

9/17/2010:
The flower, now 46 inches tall, shed its final sheath. All signs point to the flower blooming early next week, probably on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

Proofiness? Like Truthiness or Wikiality?

This is a review for a new book called Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception. While it's a book review, the article does raise some interesting questions about how statistics and numbers can (and are often) manipulated in the media and other sources that we trust.

The author reminds us that Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy stated he had a list of 205 (?) suspected communists because he knew how "numbers have power."

Read the article here!

Life Is No Nintendo Game

I thought this was a rather interesting article that I found on GayConservative.org. Eminem's songs have always been controversial, yet we (myself included) continue to listen. I'm not attempting to get on a soapbox right now and condemn lyrics or freedom of speech, but take the time to check out this article; it brings up a lot of great issues about domestic violence in both hetero- and homosexual relationships.




By Mel Macguire

I have said before that lyrics are every bit as important as the tune of a song to me; I choose which music I listen to carefully. That said, I typically hate rap. The vast majority of it makes women into property, gang violence heroic, drug use and alcoholism chic, and prison time something to aspire to for “street cred”. I particularly dislike Eminem. However, late one night while on duty, I was watching a spot on Fox News where they discussed the song “Love the Way You Lie” and the subject matter of the lyrics: domestic violence. Finding that especially poignant considering Rhianna’s participation, I broke my rule and downloaded the song.

The lyrics are powerful. I would not suggest this song for a kid, but the lyrics bring up some very good points.

Domestic violence is an enormous problem worldwide, but here in the US it wasn’t always a crime. Rape and violence against a married partner, for a long time, was not necessarily classified as a crime, rape in particular. It took years of fighting to convince lawmakers that being married doesn’t grant a person the right to abuse their spouse either mentally, physically or sexually. Domestic violence (which, in my profession, we simply refer to as DV) somehow still manages to be a blight on our society, one that is worse in many ways than other problems we face – and often more expensive, costing nearly $6 billion a year to deal with (most of that being for medical care).

According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV), 85% of DV victims are women. One in every four women will experience DV in her lifetime. An estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault every year. Witnessing violence between one’s parents or guardians is the strongest risk factor for the continuation of DV from one generation to the next, and boys who witness such violence at home are twice as likely to behave the same way against their partners as adults. Approximately half of all abusers also abuse children. What about reporting? DV is one of the most underreported crimes in our society. Only 25% of all physical assaults and a paltry 20% of all rapes perpetrated by intimate partners are reported to the police. Only 20% of those who experienced serious DV applied for restraining orders, and among those issued a full half of those served with such orders violated them. The most sobering fact is that a full one-third of all female homicide victims were murdered by their intimate partners after experiencing DV at their hands. Less than 20% of victims seek medical attention for injuries incurred by DV. There is a separate figure for the costs of homicides that end DV relationships: a whopping $37 billion.

Today, Arizona residents saw a harrowing story of domestic violence. Antwon Smith, born in 1984, has applied for four different orders of protection against four different girlfriends since 2003. In the first three cases, his partners fought back and the orders were rightfully quashed; in 2008, he got one to stick when an ex-girlfriend didn’t fight the order. Either that ex didn’t realize that she had to fight it or she was so terrified of him that she simply didn’t want to face him in court; either way, today’s video from a Circle K in Mesa was horrifying. Smith’s ex girlfriend fled from him after he put a razor to her throat and ran into a Circle K store to call police. As she was dialing the phone Smith stormed in, took the phone away, then grabbed her arm and bodily dragged her from the store and forced her into his car. He then led police on a chase before being caught. The girlfriend, who has not been officially named, is probably lucky to still be alive. Smith was found not guilty of aggravated assault stemming from another relationship in 2007 but still had a warrant out for his arrest for a serious driving offense.

Not all DV stories have such relieving endings, though. On September 4, 2005, Jorge Mario Gurrola got into yet another argument with girlfriend Monica Sanchez. Monica’s mother Maria did not want her to move to Arizona to be with Gurrola because she knew he was dangerous, but because she already had one child with him she came anyway. She didn’t want her daughter to grow up without a father. On that fateful September day five years ago this month, Gurrola found a picture of another man in Monica’s wallet and he exploded in a fit of rage, beating her so severely she fell into a coma. She died two days later – along with her unborn child. His parents sued Monica’s for access to their daughter just two months later. In June 2007, I went to the Mesa branch of the Maricopa County Superior court to observe his sentencing and watched his relatives behave poorly, mocking the Sanchez family and trying to claim that Gurrola was really a good man. Childhood teachers wrote letters about what he was like as a boy. Not one member of his family acknowledged the gravity of his crime. In his initial 2008 appeal, after having claimed in court at his sentencing to deserve the hatred of Monica’s family, Gurrola argued that because he didn’t mean to kill their unborn child, it shouldn’t count as an actual crime and come attached with a separate prison sentence. Such contrition.

Gay and lesbian couples are not immune, either. Any intimate partner can commit acts of DV. It often starts out slowly; a partner becomes jealous of other relationships you have, insisting more and more with each incident that you cut off other people. They eventually isolate you completely from the outside world. They have impossible expectations, believing that you are supposed to supply everything they need. They’re easily offended, very touchy – the slightest remark becomes a personal attack and generates a strong response. Jealousy will give way to violence against others, whether verbal or physical. They’ll start lying to turn you against people who are important to you. They’re very moody, often depressed and angry. Their moodiness first gets blamed on others, along with their anger; then, when others can’t be blamed anymore, they blame you. They claim they can’t help their feelings or the subsequent reactions. When you refuse sex, they may try to force you into it or wait until you’re asleep. They’ll self-medicate with alcohol or narcotics. Eventually it will give way to physical violence, injuries, and sometimes death.

What’s worse about DV is that often, the victim feels they’re trapped because their entire lives are wrapped up in their abuser – including their finances. Leaving seems impossible with no money (or access to it), no vehicle to legally take, and no job away from where they live with their abuser. Most despairing of all is that many don’t even recognize that they are being abused.

Eminem’s lyric “you don’t get another chance, life is no Nintendo game” was meant to convey the fact that you can’t take back the cruel acts you commit against your partner. Whether words or deeds, it cannot be taken back. If you are the victim, then you should get out at the first sign rather than giving them opportunities to give you others. The heinous nature of DV is why I believe it has long been far more important to face than hate crimes. It has cost far more in so many ways.

Cacao genome 'may help produce tastier chocolate'

Some very important news from the science community  ;-)


By Katia Moskvitch
September 17, 2010

Scientists have released a draft sequence of the cacao genome, in a move bound to give farmers hopes of higher yields, and consumers - of tastier chocolate.  The study, funded mainly by the US chocolate producer Mars, is aimed at ensuring a sustainable cocoa supply.

IT firm IBM and the US Department of Agriculture also took part in the research. The results have been published on the Cacao Genome Database website.

According to the global head of plant science and research at the confectionery firm, Howard-Yana Shapiro, the sequence is of great importance. "This opens the door to improving the lives for 6.5 million small farmers directly, but over 40 million individuals who are involved in the cocoa industry, whether they are brokers, or traders, or manufacturers," he told BBC News.

The scientist explained that despite many people being directly or indirectly dependent on cocoa crops to survive, until now there has been little investment in research to improve the cacao tree.  "As plant breeders, we're always looking after the golden traits: pest and disease resistant, drought tolerance, the ability to adapt to climate change, tree architecture, yield quality, etc," said Dr Shapiro.

Continue reading...

Bats at risk of extinction

Bat populations across eastern North America are at risk of extinction  to the rapid spread of a devastating disease called white-nose syndrome. The fungus that causes this disease was discovered by scientists at the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, WI.  Now NWHC scientists, in collaboration with local state wildlife health agencies in affected areas, are working to learn more about the white-nose syndrome and control its impact on bat species.

From The Scientist

August 5, 2010 

Bat populations across eastern North America are at risk of extinction -- possibly within just 16 years -- as a result of the spreading incidence of white-nose syndrome, according to a study published this week in Science.

"I think people who study and care about bats had a sense that something this dire was happening," said evolutionary physiologist Craig Willis of the University of Winnipeg, who did not participate in the study. But, he added, "the speed -- the 16 year timeline -- I think was a bit of a surprise."

"It's a sobering analysis," agreed microbiologist David Blehert of the USGS National Wildlife Health Center, who was also not involved in the research.

Continue reading...

Internet Blurs Plagiarism Lines

There has been recent media attention about students' ignorance of what constitutes plagiarism. An article featured in this week's Cap Times, a local newspaper, discusses a recent situation on the UW-Madison campus in which 42 students were accused of plagiarizing. This article comes on the heels of a New York Times report in August on the same topic. As new forms of technology make it easier and easier to access information, and for anyone to post information, it can sometimes be a struggle to know how to cite information properly. Learning how to credit a source appropriately can be tedious, but, as these articles illustrate, it is a skill that is worth learning. Read the Cap Times article by Todd Finkelmeyer below. 


When UW-Madison chemistry lecturer Jeanine Batterton accused 42 students last fall of plagiarism on a written lab assignment in Chem 104, she was floored by the range of “bizarre excuses” offered by the undergraduates.

Some contended that cutting and pasting information out of Wikipedia — the Web-based, user-generated encyclopedia — was OK because no single author writes the entries.

Others argued that since the assignment was a group project, and since they didn’t write the part of the report in question, how could she punish them for any wrongdoing?

One student even told Batterton that when he was caught copying homework answers in another class, the professor let him re-do the assignment — so why couldn’t she do the same?

“I’m like, ‘um, because you just admitted you’ve cheated at least twice and you didn’t learn your lesson,’ ” says Batterton. “A lot of them would claim they didn’t know what plagiarism is and then argue, ‘So how can you hold me responsible?’ These are college students. It’s hard for me to tell if the students honestly believed that, or if they were just saying that because they hoped I’d believe it.”

Welcome to the sometimes confounding topic of plagiarism in the cut-and-paste Internet era. While most seem to agree with the notion that plagiarism — taking the work of others and presenting it as your own — is wrong, everyone from national experts to professors and students say the vast quantities of easily accessible online information coupled with fuzzy definitions of intellectual property and common knowledge make this matter thorny. Many campuses are grappling with it. Continue reading here...

A New Name for High-Fructose Corn Syrup

What's in a name?

A recent New York Times article describes the Corn Refiners Association plea to the FDA for a name change. Author Tara Parker-Pope describes how the trade group believes that "a name change is the only way to clear up consumer confusion about the product." High-fructose corn syrup has gotten a bad rap lately as a contributing factor to America's so-called "obesity epidemic," among other health issues.

What do you think? Would a name change alter consumers' perception of this food additive? What other products have changed their name in an attempt to alter public perception of health risks/benefits? One example: KFC used to actually be Kentucky Fried Chicken but has since tried to minimize the "fried" aspect by using only its initials.

A week without social media?

The Provost of Harrisburg University of Science and Technology recently decided to propose that the university take a week-long hiatus from using social media. It's hard for us to imagine what that might be like, but think about how different your week might be if you weren't able to use Facebook, Twitter, or other social media tools.

[ Read / Listen to this story on NPR ]

What if one day Facebook, Twitter and Instant Messenger just weren't there?

Provost Eric Darr of Harrisburg University of Science and Technology in Pennsylvania tells NPR's Guy Raz that he wanted his students to not only think about this question, but live it.

"Often there are behaviors, habits, ways we use technology that we may ourselves not even be able to articulate because we're not aware of them," Darr says.

So this week, Darr will enforce a campus-wide social media blackout — no Facebook, no Twitter, no instant messaging — nothing.

Read more...

High Interest in 3D HDTV...Low Interest in Paying for it

Just as quickly as 3D TV's and accessories rolled out, the public replied with a mixed response. They want to watch 3D programming and want to forge ahead into this years new trend, but there are few that want to pay for it...with good reasons too.



By Richard Lawler

This year's hot new feature in HDTVs is 3D, but just as fast as the products have rolled out, complaints have come in the form of comments and editorials, citing the glasses, dearth of content and lack of interoperability between different manufacturer's TVs and glasses. Nielsen and the Cable & Television Association for Marketing have completed what they claim is the first comprehensive study including exposure to 3D TV content with qualitative focus groups and a quantitative study. Analyst wordplay aside, what Frank Stagliano, Nielsen general manager of TV Primary Research calls a "marketing challenge" becomes apparent with the numbers of consumers saying they are likely to buy a 3DTV in the next year dropping after they experience it and consider the additional cost and limited content, with 57% taking issue with the necessary glasses. Though the same number of people said 3DTV made them feel like part of the action, those kinds of responses explain the hype over glasses free technology, despite its significant limitations. While more people that ever will get the chance to get their eyes on 3D football, Tennis and movies this weekend, manufacturers and retailers should prepare for a hard time coaxing consumers to buy in immediately (exclusive content is not helping) with the possible exception of videogamers -- 71% of hardcore and regular gamers were interested in playing in 3D.

Scientists discover tiny solar panels that create themselves

Humans may not be the only ones that can construct solar panels.  MIT scientists have found evidence of the existence of self-replicating, self-arranging solar cells.

From DVice

September 7, 2010

File this one under "holy crap," but scientists at MIT have discovered molecules that spontaneously assemble themselves into a pattern that can turn light into electricity — essentially a self-creating solar panel. In a petri dish.

The researchers set out to create a synthetic process that imitates photosynthesis. Certain molecules respond to light by releasing electrons; the trick was discovering a substance that sticks them together in a consistent structure. Phospholipids do just that, and they also attach themselves to carbon nanotubes, which conduct electricity. With the nanotubes holding the phospholipids in a uniform alignment, the photoreactive molecules are all exposed to light at once, and the tube acts as a wire that then collects the resulting electrical current.

Read more...

A fringe figure takes center stage

The New York Times "Room for Debate" column recently posed an interesting question: When does a fringe figure deserve the media spotlight?

The case in point is Gainesville, FL preacher Terry Jones who had planned to hold a ceremony involving the burning of Korans as a 09/11 protest.

Did the media take notice only because esteemed figures such as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama, among others including Sarah Palin, made a point to condemn the planned event? If the media would have ignored the story, would the high level of anti-Islamic sentiment and outright religious persecution that Muslims in America face today been brought to light in such a way?

As the Times asks: How should the news media have responded to this event?

Public Engagement with Science

The Age of Engagement blog by American University prof. Matthew Nisbet, is a really good example of a blog that mixes communication scholarship, ideas about public engagement, framing, and social commentary in an accessible and entertaining way. Some posts can be a bit long but all offer insight into the nexus of science and communication.

Again, this is at the aggregator site Big Think (also see previous post, from bt) which situates Nisbet's thinking within a milieu of other contemporary scholars and professional "thinkers."

What do you think? Will this so-called up-stream journalism provide a better context of facts beyond press-release regurgitation? Are news outlets that still provide longform journalism destined to die in a market of sound-bites and quicky information scanning?

Better health, better media?

Take a look at this post from the Big Think site. It's about 5 ways to improve your health. Yeah, that's great and all, but note the format.

Are short video clips such as this, with the transcribed text attached below, a sort of evolutionary step in journalism? Is this sort of multimedia approach where all "news" and information (such as health or science and political information) should be headed in order to keep up with technology and the changing tastes of an ever more discriminating media audience?

Check out other expert video spots on Big Think and ponder how you may (have or have not) given the topic much time had you simply seen it in a magazine or newspaper. Does format matter or is it just about good writing and interesting information?

A Personal Braille Buddy

How cool is this? Imagine the possibilities it can open up for the visually impaired when it comes to learning braille in the first place? I'm sure even non-braille readers could find it much easier to learn braille too. Plus, it looks like something made for the Nintendo Wii and if I could throw out a million dollar idea, maybe this could be used for some new video game on the Wii...I mean the Wii Fit did wonders and that was basically a pressure sensing scale.



By Sean Hollister

We've seen any number of gadgets designed to help the visually impaired read (and even occasionally drive), but it's not all that often peripherals come along that teach Braille in the first place. Yasaman Sheri's Braille Buddy concept is clearly the exception to that rule -- it's a six-key device that unfolds like a pearly-white Batarang and audibly speaks letters to you. Would-be learners can then feel the six-dot formation of each corresponding Braille character on the electronic polymer screen up top, then key in the newly-learned unit of writing with the six buttons on the swinging handles below. A description at Yanko Design suggests Sheri is serious about making these available at libraries and schools, where they'll hopefully spend more time generating text than sailing through the air. Spot the device unfolded right after the break.

Via Engadget

New Research on Effective Study Techniques

 

As we begin a new school year, it can be hard to get back into the swing of studying. New research shows that some of the study habits we've been taught may not be the best for retaining information. Read the New York Times' article on how to improve your study habits.

Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits
By Benedict Carey

Every September, millions of parents try a kind of psychological witchcraft, to transform their summer-glazed campers into fall students, their video-bugs into bookworms. Advice is cheap and all too familiar: Clear a quiet work space. Stick to a homework schedule. Set goals. Set boundaries. Do not bribe (except in emergencies).

And check out the classroom. Does Junior’s learning style match the new teacher’s approach? Or the school’s philosophy? Maybe the child isn’t “a good fit” for the school.

Such theories have developed in part because of sketchy education research that doesn’t offer clear guidance. Student traits and teaching styles surely interact; so do personalities and at-home rules. The trouble is, no one can predict how.

Yet there are effective approaches to learning, at least for those who are motivated. In recent years, cognitive scientists have shown that a few simple techniques can reliably improve what matters most: how much a student learns from studying.

The findings can help anyone, from a fourth grader doing long division to a retiree taking on a new language. But they directly contradict much of the common wisdom about good study habits, and they have not caught on.

For instance, instead of sticking to one study location, simply alternating the room where a person studies improves retention. So does studying distinct but related skills or concepts in one sitting, rather than focusing intensely on a single thing.

Read more...

Our Organs, Our Property?

It is currently illegal to sell our own organs; however, the need for organ transplants far surpasses the number of available organs. One bioethics expert argues that we should be allowed to put our organs on the market in order to help the supply match the demand. This undoubtedly raises numerous ethical questions, but should we, as rightful owners of our organs, be allowed to receive compensation for donation? Read the following article by Professor Martin Wilkinson, ethics expert at Keele University for one perspective. 

When people's organs fail, their best hope - sometimes their only hope - is a transplant. Transplants are not only effective treatment, they are worth the money too. But there are not enough organs. Tinkering with the rules for consent, using less-than-pristine organs, and more donations by living people have still left a big gap between supply and demand.

Should the law be changed so that people could sell their organs? I think it should. Permitting sale would mean more people could get the organs they need. People should not be stopped from selling their organs because they have a right to do what they want with their bodies when they would not be harming others.

And would allowing sale make more organs available? The most basic economics lesson says that supply increases with price. Organs currently have a price of £0. Give people money for their organs and you will get more of them.

Basic economics is a bit too basic though. Perhaps few people would want to sell; perhaps people who would have donated now would not because, for instance, they are offended by the idea of money changing hands. In theory, the supply of organs could even fall if sales were allowed. However, when Iran gave generous compensation to live kidney `donors', it not only met demand but cleared the backlog on its waiting list.

Of course, people in the UK may not behave like people in Iran, so it would be sensible to do some research into people's willingness to take money for their organs. Still, if the aim is to increase the supply of organs, it would be worth giving sale a try. Click here to read the whole article. 

Eggs recalled, a nation scrambles

From CNN
8/24/2010

As you've probably heard, there has recently been a massive egg recall due to a widespread salmonella outbreak.  So how eggs-actly (lame pun intended) did this happen? The video (and the accompanying article) provides a great summary about what is known about the outbreak so far.

Read more...

The Consent Conundrum

Read this article and consider the importance of patient consent in medical research.  Then finish writing your impromptu essay assignment.

By Jeremy Singer-Vine
Published Feb. 2, 2010 by Slate

In February1951, Henrietta Lacks lay unconscious, her feet in stirrups, at Johns Hopkins Hospital as doctors examined the particularly aggressive cervical cancer that would soon kill her. The 31-year-old had traveled 20 miles to Hopkins, the nearest major hospital that would treat black patients. She may have been a regular patient, but she was about to achieve an odd form of immortality in the medical world.

At the time, Hopkins' head of tissue culture research, George Gey, was refining the art of sustaining cells in stews of placental blood, chicken plasma, and other savory ingredients. After her surgery, Lacks' surgeon passed a thin disc of her cancerous cells to Gey's lab. Those cells became the first human tissue to replicate indefinitely in test tubes, launching a series of revolutions in medicine. The value of the so-called HeLa cell line that sprung from Lacks' tumor is incalculable: Its resilience and rapid growth made it ideal for testing Jonas Salk's polio vaccine, developing numerous cancer drugs, studying basic cellular processes, and honing experimental methods now standard in biology. Over the years, Lacks' cells have been sold for $10 to as much as $10,000 a vial—and her chronically impoverished family has received nothing.

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