Friday Links

General Science:

Experiments that could teach us a lot, if they weren't so wrong - http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/07/ff_swr/

Wildlife:

Octopus Tool Use - http://molluscpow.blogspot.com/2011/05/octopus-intelligence-tool-use-in-wild.html

Architecture:

Andres Duany doesn't like sky scrapers - http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2011/08/21/my-conversation-with-andres-duany-an-ardent-critic-of-the-skyscraper-flies-into-a-rage-about-the-asian-skyscraper-boom/

Technology:

Cars that drive themselves - http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/2011/6/leave-the-driving-to-it

More Robot Workers - http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2011/08/foxconn-aims-for-a-million-rob.html

Health:

Something called Immigration Delay Disease - http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/08/the-mystery-of-the-missing-fingerprints.html

Balanced Diets - http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/essays/balanced-diets.php

Education:

Rediff reports on the other side of B-schools - http://www.rediff.com/getahead/slide-show/slide-show-1-career-5-things-a-b-school-will-not-tell-you/20110809.htm

Journalism:

These guys built a retro newsroom - http://journoterrorist.com/2011/08/02/paperball2/

Amit Agarwal is compiling Twitter IDs of Indian journalists here - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rbq85DibtYKWmpKInhgmgUn7YZeBj6-Jlxty2-AUVwY/edit?hl=en_US

Philosophy:

Atheism and Morality - http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2011-07-31-atheism-morality-evolution-religion_n.htm

Religious Virtues from Scientific Necessities - http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2011/07/17/making-religious-virtues-from-scientific-necessities/

Psychology:

On the incorrect use of Psychology in the London riots - http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/cognoculture/riot_redux_stephen_reicher_qa

The troubled Life of Nim Chimpsky - http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/aug/18/troubled-life-nim-chimpsky/

5 Myths About Memory - http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/08/05/five-myths-about-memory-and-why-they-matter-in-court/

Dan Ariely on his favourite Behavioural Economics books - http://thebrowser.com/interviews/dan-ariely-on-behavioural-economics

A note on Reasoning - http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/social-design/201107/why-so-smart-why-so-dumb

Cartoons:

How people in science see each other - http://graphjam.memebase.com/2011/08/21/funny-graphs-i-must-strive-to-become-a-chuck/

Harry Potter/Star Wars comparison - http://graphjam.memebase.com/2011/07/14/funny-graphs-so-are-harry-and-hermione-secret-siblings/

When Avadara Kedavra is acceptable - http://comixed.memebase.com/2011/07/15/koma-comic-strip-when-avada-kedavra-is-acceptable/

Dwayne Johnson is washed up - http://comixed.memebase.com/2011/07/11/koma-comic-strip-dwayne-is-washed-up/

Simba ruined my childhood - http://comixed.memebase.com/2011/07/21/koma-comic-strip-simba-ruined-my-childhood/

Time vs Precision - http://www.thedoghousediaries.com/?p=2965

On spelling mistakes - http://www.thedoghousediaries.com/?p=302

Satire:

Al Qaida and future US attacks - http://www.theonion.com/articles/alqaeda-claims-us-mass-transportation-infrastructu,21008/?utm_source=recentnews

Videos:

Sesame Street spoofs Apple - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_8wY0FD1ZI&feature=youtu.be

Toad eating a Cricket in slow motion - https://plus.google.com/103122031762791562795/posts/EzzyMYViPf9#103122031762791562795/posts/EzzyMYViPf9

Other:

The Free Sound Project has some cool sounds - http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=25760

Weapons check at Comic Con uncovers serious stuff - http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/jul/22/weapons-check-comic-con-uncovers-some-serious-stuf/

Friday Links

Movies Seen - The Holy Mountain, Altered States

I saw these 2 films last year. Really didn't care enough to write about them until now.

The Holy Mountain (1973)

Avoid. This film wouldn't make sense even if you watched it while high. Had to resort to fast-forwarding to get to the end.

Altered States (1980)

An interesting story about devolution. Not realistic, and a bit dated now, but interesting, specifically if you're into psychology.

Movies Seen - The Holy Mountain, Altered States

Assorted Animal Articles

Some popular science articles for laymen:

Danielle Venton on how communicating with dolphins can help us talk to aliens.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seti-dolphins/

Humans and Animals: An ancient and complex bond

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/science/15why.html?_r=1&ref=science

Elephants understand that they need to work in teams

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/03/elephants-can-lend-a-helping-tru.html

Taking a Cue from Ants on the Evolution of Humans:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/science/15wils.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Geology and Evolution

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/magazine/25wwln-geologists-t.html?ref=stephenjaygould

Eye Evolution

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/13/opinion/13tomasello.html

Can Animals be Gay?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/magazine/04animals-t.html?scp=1&sq=can%20animals%20be%20gay&st=cse&pagewanted=2

Assorted Animal Articles

Aubrey Manning & Richard Dawkins Discussion

Aubrey Manning & Richard Dawkins discuss ethology and others topics.

Aubrey Manning & Richard Dawkins Discussion

Discover Blogs

I love the Discover Blogs - http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/

The layout is simple & the blog posts are good reading.

The RSS options are versatile - you can subscribe not only to individual blogs but to specific topics, with an RSS feed for a topic comprising posts for that topic pulled from different blogs.

Here's are some posts pulled from the 'Living World' feed that I'm subscribing too.

1. New population of snow leopards found:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2011/07/here-be-snow-leopards/

2. Farmers use bees to keep elephants away. Interesting comments:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2011/07/14/guardian-bees-protect-kenyan-crops-from-roaming-elephants/

3. Baby parrots learn their 'names' from their parents:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2011/07/13/baby-parrots-learn-their-names-from-their-parents/

4. Tool use in Fish? This story has been doing the rounds:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2011/07/13/fish-join-the-list-of-tool-using-animals/

5. Newts' healing powers don't diminsh with age:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/07/12/newt-healing-factors-unaffected-by-age-and-injury/

6. Snails get around in birds' bellies:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2011/07/11/avian-airways-snails-get-around-in-birds-bellies/

Discover Blogs

Understanding Evolution

Now here's a great site for understanding evolution:

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/evohome.html

Understanding Evolution

Animal Learning Techniques

A quick summary of the different types of animal learning techniques.




Topics discussed are Associative learning (classical conditioning), Fixed action patterns (FAPs), Habituation, Imprinting, Insight learning, Observational learning & Operant Conditioning.

Animal Learning Techniques

Robert Sapolsky on the Uniqueness of Humans

Sapolsky uses vivid examples to discusses the basic similarities between humans and animals vis a vis aggression, theory of mind, reciprocation, empathy, anticipation and culture, and goes on to describe our uniqueness in that we take these concepts to new advanced levels. An excellent introduction to comparative behaviour for laymen.


[via Zooillogix]

Robert Sapolsky on the Uniqueness of Humans

Them Clones at Blue Frog

Not one of the best gigs I've been to (Wednesday, 15 June). Probably the only one where I felt the band sounded better on their album, than live. It's not that they were bad. They weren't that remarkable. The music didn't connect. It seemed to be missing something. Maybe it was the lead singer. I got the impression that he couldn't match the range that their song choices demanded.


Here are a couple of their better numbers:





Thoughts?

Them Clones at Blue Frog

Biology Tutorials

This site provides excellent introductions to a lot of biological concepts like genetics & ecology.

http://www.nature.com/scitable

Just check out the 'Topics' and 'Learning Paths' pages. Seems to be made for students.

Biology Tutorials