A Rational Girl in Irrational Times
Medicine
Facinating time lapse video
Mar 23rd
I like time lapse videos and was particularly drawn to this one of a woman with HIV/AIDS (on Boing Boing).
Mother’s Day links
May 10th
None of which have much to do with Mother’s Day at all.
H1N1 may be nasty, but parasites are still a global problem. They can be hugely problematic for humans — and a complete nightmare for the rest of the animal kingdom (warning: do not read while trying to eat).
Is that whiskey really as old as the seller claims? One way to find out is to check for nuclear fall out. If you find it in a whiskey which was supposed to have been bottled in 1850, the seller is lying.
The new Trek movie briefly touches on torture, but the torture is Hollywood-style and the movie doesn’t have much to say about it. TNG’s take on torture, on the other hand, was far more nuanced (not to mention prescient).
Oprah tells her audience about a coupon for free KFC chicken and causes a lot of headaches for libraries. How does that work?
Every Episode of ‘House’ Ever
Nov 26th
This week: House seems to have the diagnosis all worked out until the patient poops a lung.
Meanwhile, Polite Dissent has the medical lowdown.
Clearing up misconceptions
Mar 11th
Top 15 Misconceptions about Evolution – 14 is a biggie for me — evolution is not about realizing some kind of organic master plan. Either you can survive in your own environment, or someone else does it better. That’s it.
What Social Media Isn’t – 10 Misconceptions: It’s not easy, fast, a substitute for a website, something your interns should be doing, or a system for achieving instant popularity.
Top 5 Misconceptions about Dungeons & Dragons:
You learn about as much about “real life” magic from a D&D game as you do about aquatic life from watching Spongebob Squarepants.
I think I’ve been watching Spongebob for all the wrong reasons.
Dispelling 8 Misconceptions of Organization: or, “good luck with that!” Even correct conceptions about organization are difficult to implement.
Six misconceptions that appear in literature about vaccination: and let’s add “vaccines lead to high rates of autism” to this.
Seven Common Misconceptions About Atheism. I kind of agree with “Atheism implies life is absurd.” Life is often pretty absurd (especially with 4 cats and a toddler) but that’s okay. Absurd keeps us on our toes.
Saturday Night Linkdump Fest
Nov 17th
I think these are mostly for Seth, but the rest of you might enjoy them, too:
Dadlabs: a short, funny vodcast on the dad-life.
The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush: Joseph Stiglitz on the fallout we can expect from this administration after January 2009.
Composters.com: I’m looking for an easy-to-use urban composter. Any recommendations?
No Alternative: A surgeon questions unproven medical practices.
Three Things Cloning Isn’t: so much for the Great Clone Army.
Feminist Gamers: on the intersection of politics, pop culture, and Carcassonne.
Religious scholars mull Flying Spaghetti Monster: papers to be presented include “Holy Pasta and Authentic Sauce: The Flying Spaghetti Monster’s Messy Implications for Theorizing Religion” and “Noodling around with Religion: Carnival Play, Monstrous Humor, and the Noodly Master.”
Not a Cough in a Carload: how the tobacco industry used advertising to downplay the effects of cigarettes.
Top 10 Myths About Thanksgiving
The New Dawn of Solar: the amazing nanosolar power sheet.
Via lots of places, including The Presurfer and Boing Boing.
Dumping all over the Internet — some links for the new week
Aug 5th
Mashable! – The Social Networking Blog — looks like a good source for new tech news.
What Autistic Girls Are Made Of — are there significant differences between autistic boys and autistic girls?
Supergirls Gone Wild: Gender Bias In Comics Shortchanges Superwomen — new story, old news.
Ultimate fiesta — where is the balance between honoring old traditions and setting viable limits?
The Star Dust Mystery — The tale of a plane that crashed on landing sixty years ago. Some thought the disaster was caused by aliens, others thought conspiracy was the obvious explanation. The truth isn’t exactly down to earth.
Never had to knock on wood
Aug 1st
Respectful Insolence’s analysis of NYT’s recent article on cancer choices. The premise of the article is mostly sound (e.g. choices aren’t consistent across geographic boundaries) but the focus case is too extreme to illustrate the point of the article.
