aesmael

Again, not so much read. Didn't I used to read more? Most of it after the point I decided I was too tired to do anything productive but not yet willing to sleep. Eventually I worked out why: it is because I am doing other things with my time, often social things. If I spend a few hours on Skype with soltice and pazi_ashfeather, of course I am not going to doing quite so much reading in the day.

Cosmic Variance

1. Dark Matter and Fifth Forces [Unfortunately I know this stuff less well than I ever did, but still a moment of "Oh wow, that is really interesting" in reading.]

Google Reader Shared Items

1. Biodiesel Mythbuster 2.0: Twenty-Two Biodiesel Myths  Dispelled [via soltice. Long, interesting. Not something I am really qualified to evaluate. Looks decent though.]
2. Electric Skateboard (Double Comic) [via gentle_gamer. skipped because I am not reading xkcd yet.]
3. Gibson intros SG Robot Guitar, new edition of Les Paul version [via soltice. My first thought was that this must be a guitar designed by William Gibson. I still do not know.]
4. What is the big deal about stuff white people like? [via gentle_gamer. When I started reading this I thought I would have some quick, possibly snarky thing to say in response, but it turned out to be a serious criticism of the blog, one that made a lot of sense to me. Oh, one thing to add. I am inclined to agree with the comments to this post that 'Stuff White People Like' is fairly conservative in outlook in cliche in line, but the way it is framed still does some good by jarring white people to take another look at their assumptions and culture. At least, it did for me the first time I encountered it.]
5. Video: Little Big Man - today is a good day to die [via soltice. A robot driving a robot. Sort of. But it tempts me to have thoughts about things so it must be art.]
6. Australian government wants power to snoop work e-mail, IMs [via soltice. Oh, those insidious terrorists.]
7. Toon: A Few Reasons Why (We Need a Transgender Rights Bill) [via gentle_gamer. Interesting. Not ever seen this site before. The rest of her work on the site seems pretty neat too.]
8. Libraries in crisis? [via soltice. Refers to here. Not so great news for someone hoping to work there next year. I am not convinced the writer of the article knows what ey is talking about though.]
9. Toon: The Joys of Tax Time! [via gentle_gamer. If this keeps up, I may subscribe myself. Or this is good too.]
10. Burning Car [via gentle_gamer. First thought: bored. On further examination, fascinated by the moments which might be so captured and their preservation marking dramatically the stilled moments of time marking the shifting sources of these images.]
11. Yuri's Planet [via gentle_gamer. Thought I had starred this for possible desktop use. Apparently not. Fixed now.]

ScienceDaily

1. solticepazi_ashfeatherLeishmaniasis Parasites Evade Death By Exploiting Immune Response To Sand Fly Bites [Sometimes I wonder what immune systems do when they are not being subverted. Sometimes.]

From Zuska|Thus Spake Zuska via Julianne|Cosmic Variance:

This paper describes a statistical analysis showing clear discrimination by gender among postdoctoral researchers participating in a particle physics experiment. So far as I am aware it has not been published, nor is scheduled to be published. Nor am I capable of evaluating the rigour of the analysis, having only one mostly-forgotten class on statistics in my past (if anyone reading this can do so, that would be appreciated). Such constitutes my disclaimer.

For people interested in getting straight to the results, here is the most straightforwardly worded portion of this paper:

We find that females were allotted 40% more service work than males, and that the chances of this occurring in the absence of gender bias are less than 1%. This observation that females are significantly more often shunted into service work roles echoes the results of a study performed 27 years ago by Mary Gaillard (1980) on the status of of female physicists at CERN, a very large European particle physics laboratory. Particle physics has not progressed very far in this respect in the last three decades.

We also find that females were significantly more productive than their male peers in both
physics and service work, yet were awarded significantly fewer conference presentations; all 9 females in our sample were more productive than 24 out of the 48 males, yet the females had to be on average 3 times more productive than their male peers in order to be awarded a conference presentation. The chances of this occurring in the absence of gender bias are
less than 1%. This result is in remarkable concordance with the research of Wenneras and Wold, who found that females in their study had to be on average 2.5 times more productive than their male peers in order to receive a postdoctoral fellowship.

We note that this dearth of allocated conference presentations appears to hinder the ability of otherwise highly qualified females to become faculty members.

On a personal note, this study is one of many things convincing me I made a right personal choice not to pursue a research career. Although I still believe myself entirely capable of the work, I simply lack the drive required to overcome the obstacles of the non-scientific portions of the profession.

Stolen from metaquotes:

Cutlery and Utensils: A Brief Taxonomic Study of the Evolution of Eusociality in the Kitchen
Trojanhorse Heales-Shadowfax, BSc (Hons)


The oldest known members of the Order Utensillida (Kingdom; Objecta, Phylum; Kitchenae, Class: Preparata) are those of the Family Incisidiformes; the Knives. Today the only common extant genus of incisids is the nominate genus Incisa, which are brood parasites.
From basal incisids arose the two groups of higher utensils; the nominate family Utensillidiformes, which includes the rarer and more solitary forms such as Whisks (Miscidae), the Slicers (Egg-Slicers, Ouefcoutidae, and Cheese-Slicers, Fromagecoutidae), and the predatory Meat-Tenderisers (Carneidae) and Garlic-Presses (Alliumsativumidae); and the large family Plataeiformes, or Spoons. The plataeids have two basic modes of life; monogamy (practised by the Spatulidae) and eusociality (as seen in the Plataeidae). The tendency for the more advanced plataeids to be smaller than their less specialised cousins is well documented.

Incisa cuculia, the Steak Knife Cuckoo.

Incisa cuculia is the most common of the incisids. Adults form colonies living in wooden blocks, and may be highly diverse in form. In general, females are slender, gracile forms known as boning or filleting knives. Males are heavier, and dominant males may become cleavers in later life. Juvenile forms are steak knives and seek shelter in the cutlery drawer amongst colonies of Plateus eusocialus, the spoon-bee, where they masquerade as soldiers until maturity.


Misca misca, the Common Whisk

This utensil is a parasitoid, ultimately responsible for the demise of any utensil drawer or jar. It draws nourishment from entangling other utensils and may end up snarling so many hapless victims in its maw that it can no longer function itself.

Meat tenderisers, garlic presses, cheese and egg slices, (genera Carna, Alliumsativum, Ouefcouta and Fromagecouta)

Most utensil drawers will have only one or two of these hermit utensils; they do not cohabit easily and there is usually fierce competition between them until their numbers are reduced to a sustainable level in any one kitchen.

Spatula pisca; the Faithful Spatula

Technically, the spatula is the female of the species, where the fish-slice is the male form. This level of sexual dimorphism is responsible for their being placed often in separate species by early taxonomists. Interestingly, this genus practices live birth of young; young spatulas resemble the female closely but will be smaller and more rubbery, thus making them both easier to give birth to, presumably, and more useful to the cook.

Plateus eusocialus; the Spoon-Bee

These are an indispensible kitchen organism, eusocial with the ladle as queen, knives as soldiers, spoons of various types as workers, forks as drones and teaspoons being the larval stage. The spork is a sad hermaphrodite mutation, the increase of which is probably due to increased use of pesticides in food. Often, cooks will find measuring spoons (Plateus sucraetcetera) in spoon-bee colonies; thi is an example of symbiosis; by using the measuring spoon the cook is giving it more food, and the use of it for the task of measuring means more time in the hive (cutlery drawer) for the teaspoon larvae. If there is more than one ladle in the drawer, they will fight to the death and often wreck the drawer at the same time. This fight to the death may take years; it works by one ladle being pushed towards the front of the drawer, inducing the cook to use it more often and thus wear it out faster.

More research is being conducted as this article goes to press.

This is the kind of thing which prompts me to try and restrict delicious postables to other such gems[1]. Perhaps interestingly, biology is blue while chemistry is white and physics yellow.

[1] Although 'gems' is privileging the value of inorganic matter over organic as something to be treasured I did not find a suitable alternative. At least they are both reducible to impure carbon.

    Those are tasty. Star Wars: Attack of the clones, less so. I prefer stories where I don't have to roll my eyes and ask "But why didn't they...?" Although that is fun too.

    I have not written anything since my last writing post, however I did update my silly studying wiki. It is not so good but hopefully I can fix that as I learn. Perhaps tomorrow will see both activities happening. We shall see.

    It turns out installing Doom 3 on the desktop and playing it in between study was a good productivity choice. I made more progress on my learning wiki than I have in a fair while (although rather less so in the game). Now it is getting late and soon time for sleep. I may have lots more to do but I am pleased to be making better progress than I have been.

    If anyone spots an error or unclear phrasing while checking that link, I suppose it would help me for you to point it out so I can fix it. I will be examined on my knowledge of this after all.

    No words written yesterday, plus other bad things I do not wish to speak of. I did get Skype working in Ubuntu though! The trick is remembering that someone has encountered my problem before and finding their solution.
    Today I made a bit of progress on schooling related items. As well as some library related homework, I also started up a wiki for the electromagnetism unit I am taking at university. The idea is that if I attempt to organise and explain the information we are being taught so that (hypothetical) others can understand it, I will have a better chance of passing the course and graduating and lording it over the rest of you. Possibly with an iron fist.
    A while (weeks) ago whimsical_esper and I were talking and we both agreed a wiki would make a useful medium for collecting and organising story notes. I don't intend to use this one for that purpose because it is too public (but talking with whimsical_esper today has showed me it is still possible to use mediawiki so this can be considered practise) but I may expand it to include other material too*. We shall see.

P.S. Click here for Wiki-Make-Go. Try not to vandalise too much or I will have to lock you out, kay?

*other material may include further self-education efforts, notes of various kinds perhaps on things read and possibly acts of fiction I have committed**.

**This is the kind of information sensible people do not mention unless and until it actually happens, because they are sensible.

The world was fresh and new and damp today. I felt recharged. Nothing of particular note happened here though, so instead I offer some links.

First, the science: Clifford|Asymptotia explains Light Cones. The super short version is, since no signal can travel faster than light, the region of the universe you can affect or be affected by is limited by where light could have reached you from a signal emitted in the past, or where a signal you emit could reach in the future. Nothing happening on Eris in the past hour, for example, could possibly have affected us yet, not until there has been time for light to arrive. Now go read the actual entry if you haven't already. Even if you know all about it Clifford's style is delightful.

Cool enough to get a separate mention, Neil of What You're Doing Is Rather Desperate mentioned in a comment a site which allows people to set up an RSS feed showing when their light cone (from the moment of their birth) passes celestial objects. I'm setting one up now.

On the recent anniversary of the rather important U.S. case Roe v. Wade was held Blog for Choice day, in which people were invited to write about why they support the right of women to control their own bodies. I don't have much particular to say for myself so here are some links to a few prominent feminist bloggers instead.

First the succinct: Roxanne|Rox Populi asks 'Why am I Pro-Choice?'

Amanda Marcotte|Pandagon writes in Blogging for choice and beyond choice why expanding talk about women's rights will actually recruit more people to the cause, not fewer.

Jill|Feministe writes the very thorough Why I'm Pro-Choice and the disturbing Antichoicers bring the Crazy. And the misogyny. And the racism. In the comments of the latter post ako says of antichoice people: "Maybe they think rape just pops out of the sky like lightning. It’s no good trying to blame lightning for existing. The only thing to do is avoid attracting it."

[Edit: More from Shakespeare's Sister on why it is important not to be complacent, plus links to others]

And in other areas of enlightenment, Frank the Financially Savvy Atheist hosts the 52nd Skeptic's Circle while over at Abe Linkum can be found the latest Carnival of the Godless.

Now would also be a good time to start reading Order of the Stick and/or Erfworld for those who aren't already. Rich Burlew has just added an RSS feed to the site and it goes right back to the beginning of the comics. Handy for just scrolling through them.