imagine that

I actually agree with an NYT editorial:

None of the investigators’ major assertions, however, have been tested in cross-examination or evaluated by outside specialists. It is imperative that federal officials make public all of their data so independent experts can judge whether the mailed anthrax was indeed identical to Dr. Ivins’s supply and only that supply.

It is also critical for officials to explain more fully how they eliminated the many other people with access to the material. (emphasis added)

and

Because Dr. Ivins killed himself before he could be indicted, there will be no opportunity for an adversarial testing of the F.B.I.’s conclusions. The bureau, unfortunately, has a history of building circumstantial cases that seem compelling at first but ultimately fall apart.

Hatfill had odious associations with white supremacists, and this was leaked out to cast aspersions on him when he was the main 'person of interest' in the case. So excuse me if I'm a little skeptical when many of the the first things to come out about Ivins are of a similar nature.

waiting

Researcher Meryl Nass quotes CBS:

It is unclear how the FBI eliminated as suspects others in the lab who had access to the anthrax. It's not clear what, if any, evidence bolsters the theory that the attacks may have been a twisted effort to test a cure for the toxin. Investigators also can't place Ivins in Princeton, New Jersey, when the letters were mailed from a mailbox there.

If I have time, I'll wander over to the document dump at the DOJ and see if it looks convincing. I have an open mind on this, but after Hatfill I think we should all consider the evidence carefully.

actually this makes sense

Having a hearty appetite, eating potassium-rich foods including bananas, and not skipping breakfast all seemed to raise the odds of having a boy.

The British research is billed as the first in humans to show a link between a woman's diet and whether she has a boy or girl.
...
Dr. Michael Lu, an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and public health at the University of California at Los Angeles, said the results "are certainly plausible from an evolutionary biology perspective."

In lean times, more females would be born; in good times, the sex ratio would be more nearly equal. Since males can fertilize more than one female, fewer males are strictly 'necessary', and indeed they might be a drain until resources are more plentiful.

busy busy

I have not been posting a lot lately, things are busy! At work I have been busy writing the various reports that are due this time of year on our marine mammal work, plus we are doing some interesting work on species for which there aren't many data, and a few of these might be worth a publication.

At home, things are going well, Kianga seems to be gearing up for Spring, which means there will probably be new egg blogging soon!

Happy Vernal Equinox!

in the news

An editorial about keeping NOAA's research vessels stationed at Lake Union in Seattle.

To be fair, I also understood that the Port of Everett was also in the running, and really, perhaps a lot of the businesses (and folks working at them) that service these ships would not mind so much moving to Everett, because housing is much cheaper and one could actually afford to live closer to work, something many of us in this traffic-congested region would love to be able to do.

In other news, they have opened I-5 at Chehalis finally. I feel badly for the poor folks having to clean the mud out of their homes (some of them for the second time in only 11 years) - just in time for the holidays. Give to local charities helping out if you can.

indeedy

Dr. Watson finds himself in deep doo-doo with other scientists:

There is wide agreement among researchers on intelligence that genetic inheritance influences mental acuity, but there is also wide agreement that life experiences, even in the womb, exert a powerful influence on brain structure. Further, there is wide disagreement about what intelligence consists of and how — or even if — it can be measured in the abstract.

For example, in “The Mismeasure of Man,” Stephen Jay Gould, the evolutionary biologist, dismissed “the I.Q. industry” as little more than an effort by men of European descent to maintain their prominence in the world.

Nevertheless, Dr. Watson, 79, is hardly the first eminent researcher to assert that inherited characteristics like skin color are correlated to intelligence and that people of African descent fall short. For example, William B. Shockley, a Nobel laureate for his work with transistors, in later life developed ideas of eugenics based on the supposed intellectual inferiority of blacks.

His ideas were greeted with scorn, and Dr. Watson is encountering a similar reaction. According to the BBC, the Science Museum of London canceled a speech Dr. Watson was to have given there today, saying that much as it supports robust discussion of controversial ideas, Dr. Watson’s assertions on race and intelligence are “beyond the point of acceptable debate.”

Henry Kelly, president of the Federation of American Scientists, a private group that works to bring science to policy making, said it was “tragic that one of the icons of modern science has cast such dishonor on the profession.” (emphasis added)

Dr. Kelly, I could not agree more.

godwit migration

The godwit migrates between New Zealand and Alaska, without even stopping to feed. The flight is over 7,000 miles. Simply amazing.

very sad

Alex has died at 31:

But last week Alex, an African Grey parrot, died, apparently of natural causes, said Dr. Irene Pepperberg, a comparative psychologist at Brandeis University and Harvard who studied and worked with the parrot for most of its life and published reports of his progress in scientific journals. The parrot was 31.

Now, many parrots are kept under less than ideal conditions, and die prematurely. African Grey parrots in captivity should live twice as long. Alex always showed signs of being stressed, for example, his feather picking. As a wild-caught bird, I think Alex was less suited to being a research subject than perhaps the two domestic Greys Pepperberg has more recently been using.

I do hope I can avoid losing any of my Greys at this young an age - I certainly have the expectation that they would even outlive me. That said, Alex has done much to further our understanding of what birds are capable of cognitively speaking - between his language skills and the problem-solving abilities displayed by corvids, we have a whole new appreciation for "bird brains."

Be in peace, Alex.

Update: Reading more about Alex, it appears that he may have been a domestically bred bird after all, though I had read before that he was wild-caught. Still, hopefully birds Griffin and Wart will prove to be less stressed out as research subjects than Alex obviously was at times.

alien!

Something to think about when you're watching those Alien movies...it turns out there really are creatures with those double-jaws – and they're right here on Earth!

well of course I am!

My Liberal Identity:

You are a Reality-Based Intellectualist, also known as the liberal elite. You are a proud member of what’s known as the reality-based community, where science, reason, and non-Jesus-based thought reign supreme.

Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com

extinct...or maybe not

Great news if true:

A species of egg-laying mammal, named after TV naturalist Sir David Attenborough, is not extinct as was previously thought, say scientists.

On a recent visit to Papua's Cyclops Mountains, researchers uncovered burrows and tracks made by the Attenborough's long-beaked echidna.

The species is only known to biologists through a specimen from 1961, which is housed in a museum in the Netherlands.

The team will return to Papua next year to find and photograph the creature.

The month-long expedition by scientists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) involved travelling to parts of the mountain range, covered by thick jungle, which had remained unexplored for more than 45 years.

I'm going to have to do some Googling, but it seems that this isn't the only species named after Sir David. However, it would be really cool to 'rediscover' this one within his lifetime.

no, no, no!

I don't know how to explain it to these people: this

The theory offered by the economist, Rick Nevin, is that lead poisoning accounts for much of the variation in violent crime in the United States.[emphasis added]

is not equal to this

Lead exposure causes crime, economist says.

Go read echidne's take on this instead. She is exactly right. (Go to her blog, then scroll down to her July 8th entry - the permalink isn't working for some reason).

giant birdlike dinosaurs found

Now this would have been one scary bird:

The remains of a giant, birdlike dinosaur as tall as the formidable tyrannosaur have been found in China, a surprising discovery that indicates a more complicated evolutionary process for birds than originally thought, scientists said Wednesday.

Fossilized bones uncovered in the Erlian Basin of northern China's Inner Mongolia region show that the specimen was about 26 feet long, 16 feet tall and weighed 3,000 pounds, said Xu Xing, a paleontologist at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology & Paleoanthropology in Beijing.

Here, chickie chickie!

on the occaision of PZ's birthday

Today is PZ Meyers' 50th Birthday. He asked for poetry....this isn't much, but it does rhyme, and contains all matter of evolutionarily-relevant invertebrates:

The squids are on parade
And the cuttlefishes too
The nudibranchs are twirling
Like shawls in the Deep Blue

Drosophila are buzzing
'Round Hovind's empty zoo
All because it's PZ's Birthday
And poetry is his due

Happy Birthday, PZ! Arrrgh!