Culture
« Previous EntriesHow fMRI Scans Should Be Used in Court
Thursday, May 13th, 2010Last week, a Brooklyn judge had the good sense to prevent a lawyer from using fMRI scans as evidence in a civil suit. But, as Wired bloggers report, new cases are already popping up.
For whatever reasons, the focus has been on using fMRI for lie detection. I find it hard to believe this will ever [...]
The Weird Connections between Me and Colbert
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010A few years ago I ran into Stephen Colbert at the airport. It was around 6 am, and we were both flying out of Newark to head south for Thanksgiving (I to North Carolina, he to South Carolina). I hadn’t had coffee yet and was a little out of it, so it took me a [...]
Another Nobel Snub
Monday, September 21st, 2009Credit: American Institute of Physics
A few weeks ago, the Museum of the City of New York released a list of 400 influential New Yorkers to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s arrival to the island. I was looking at the scientists included on the list (there were about six or seven, as I recall) [...]
World Mosquito Day and Other Pest “Holidays”
Thursday, August 13th, 2009Credit: quapan via Flickr Creative Commons
Apparently August 20 is World Mosquito Day. These types of events are usually started to pay tribute to something or someone, but it seems World Mosquito Day was set up to remind people that mosquitoes are bad news. I wondered if there were any other pest-themed holidays–a National Termite Day, [...]