Definition of Irony
April 29th, 2008 ecoliyou gotta love this one. (thanks BBC)
Just another SFN weblog concerning the science-y things that concern me
This guy must really like Cricket
April 24th, 2008 ecoliThe things rich people will do… No offense to cricket enthusiasts, but I can hardly imagine this being a solid investment.
How to control MRSA
April 23rd, 2008 ecoliMicroblogology shares a study by the Evanston Northwestern’s MRSA screening program that demonstrates that the most effective ways to control infectious diseases can also be the cheapest, and least ’scientific.’ To study epidemiology is to be smart about pathogens. Where are they coming from, how do they infect, what physical barriers can we set up to stop the spread of pathogens from patient to patient?
The study found that 8.5% of their patients carried MRSA into the hospital (carried, not necessarily infected with). By isolating these patients and taking special precautions, in terms of hygienic practices, the hospital was able to cut down hospital-acquired infections 70%.
This is a more cheaper way to control MRSA than drug development, and it doesn’t give the bacteria a chance to development new antibiotic resistance in the first place. Simple cleanliness and hygiene can probably to attributed to the lessening of the roles of infectious pathogens to the human death rate perhaps even more than antibiotics or vaccines. We seem to have forgotten this along the way; that chemicals and not efficient planning is the more effective method of preventing infections.
Earth Day
April 22nd, 2008 ecoliApparently, today is earth day.
Go grab an earth wallpaper for your desktop.
“Here’s ecoli with the traffic and weather…”
April 22nd, 2008 ecoliEven though I didn’t get a chance to update my blog over the weekend (family is visiting for passover) somehow my page views increased to over 11 thousand from around 2 thousand. I think this is quite a feat for a couple days. I think this was mainly due this post: Why Objects are Blurry Underwater, which has been getting some love from StumbleUpon. So thanks to the stumbleupon community for taking an interest. Hopefully I’ll have more decent posts ahead of me that will draw even more traffic in the future.
So, hello to all stumblers. Be sure to check out my parent site: www.scienceforums.net for all your science forums needs.
And now the weather: cloudy with a small chance of a microbiology post sometime within the next 24 hours.
Update: now over 15500 page views… thanks stumblers!
16 year-old GW skeptic
April 16th, 2008 ecoliFrom Adventures in Science and Ethics
Ultimately, what bugs me about this story is that it seems to boil down to a piece about a teenager who has done something unusual and become a minor celebrity because if it. Yet, there’s no critical examination of the something unusual that she’s done — in particular, of whether she’s done it in a way that holds up to scientific scrutiny — of what sorts of deeper motivations might be behind it, and of what the impacts of this project might be for the rest of us. To the extent that the “something unusual” this particular teenager is doing is presenting herself on the internet as a reliable source of scientific information, it feels to me like the critical analysis missing from this story is very important indeed.
From Respectful Insolence:
Sadly, the one thing that Kirsten could have used is a public smackdown on NPR from a climate science who really knows his or her stuff, someone who could demonstrate in excruciating detail just how thin her knowledge base really is… By doing the piece, though, NPR put itself in a no-win situation. If it criticized Kirsten’s denialist arguments, NPR would have looked as though it was making fun of a teenaged girl who’s clearly smart but not well trained in science or critical thinking. If it didn’t, well, the results are easy to see: A puff piece that portrays the plucky outsider taking on the scientists and apparently beating them at their own game.
Comeuppance for Ben Stein
April 14th, 2008 ecoliThis has been making the rounds on the blogs.
Ben Stein’s expelled movie is in hot water for using secondary party content without permission. Read science after sunclipse’s witty response.
NY Mets get ‘RickRolled’
April 8th, 2008 ecoliThanks to the excellent folks at Digg, the last opening day at Shea Stadium was graced with the sounds of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.” Link.
The song received 5 million votes in the Met’s new theme song contest, but will probably be replaced with Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” or Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline,” because Rick Astley’s song was booed when it was played at the game today. I guess Mets fans can’t appreciate genius when they hear it. It’s no wonder they haven’t won a World Series since 1986.
New Theme (same great content)
April 8th, 2008 ecoliDon’t be shocked, faithful readers, but I’ve decided to go with a new theme. I think this gives my blog a slightly more professional look.
What do you think?
I-CON 2008
April 2nd, 2008 ecoliAny science-fiction, fantasy, anime, and science fans should head down to New York this weekend for the 27th Island Convention (I-Con). It’s at Stony Brook University April 4-6. I’ll be volunteering (as usual) at the con, setting up the dealers room all day thursday. It should be a great con, with plenty of awesome guests, RPGs, computer/console gaming, music, food, demonstrations, lectures, etc…
Check out the website at www.iconsf.org.
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