Ronin on the Radio

So, this is reposted from the Ronin Blog, presented here for you to enjoy in the default Blogger font, rather than the default Wordpress font:

Buongiorno Ronineschi!

I had two opportunities to speak on the radio about the motivation and goals of the Ronin Institute this week.

Yesterday, I was on WBUR's Radio Boston, along with Victoria Blodgett, Associate Dean and Director of Career Services for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Yale. If you're interested in listening, you can find the segment here.

On Monday, I was interviewed on New Hampshire Public Radio's Word of Mouth (listen here). The WBUR segment is about 25 minutes, while the Word of Mouth segment is something like 10-12. 

The WBUR segment was called "nice and didactic" on twitter, which I choose to interpret as a compliment.

F*** me Ray Bradbury, RIP

So, Ray Bradbury passed away yesterday. It's a sad occasion, but the best thing in these cases is to celebrate the person's life.

In that vein, here's this absolutely awesome (but completely NSFW) Rachel Bloom video from a couple of years ago.

Enjoy!



h/t Jim Rutt.

Garfunkel and Oates on 29 versus 31

So, what's the difference between being 29 and 31? Two years, you say? Well, that sounds just like you, you idiot.  Here's the right answer:

FBI Profiles Scooby Doo Terrorist as "All Ron Paul Supporters"

So, the FBI is offering a reward of $150,000 in their search for the person responsible for mailing 380 letters over the past four years. Each letter contained a white powdered substance that was not anthrax, but resembled anthrax in that it was white and powdery.

According to the FBI website:

During the week of May 7, 2012, over 20 letters containing white powder were received by early childhood development centers, elementary schools, and an aerospace-related business. 

The most recent batch of letters contained this Scooby-Doo-rich gem:

Try singing this to the tune of the Scooby Doo song. It works better than you might think.

The FBI has also helpfully published a profile of the suspect, just like on Criminal Minds. The profile lists seven characteristics, which could have been presented much more succinctly by simply stating that the mailer was a Ron Paul supporter:

The difference with this guy is that he is doing IRL what most Ron Paul supporters only do in internet comment threads.

via Boing Boing.

FDA Recommends more Judicious use of Antibiotics in Agriculture

So, the FDA recently put out its report recommending that the agriculture industry reduce its use of antibiotics. Specifically, they urge that the use of antibiotics that are also used to treat humans be used more "judiciously."

There are two specific widespread practices that the FDA aims to discourage: 1) the use of antibiotics to make animals gain weight faster, and 2) prophylactic use of antibiotics to prevent the outbreak of a disease, even in the absence of any indication that such an outbreak is likely. Both of these are commonly achieved by feeding animals a constant, low dose of antibiotics in their feed or water. This constant-low-dose scheme is, of course, optimal, assuming that your goal is to maximize the rate at which bacteria acquire antibiotic resistance.

As per the FDA's website, the plan is this: "implementing a voluntary strategy to promote the judicious use in food-producing animals of antibiotics that are important in treating humans," which basically means leaving it up to the food producers themselves. So, you can fully expect that absolutely nothing will happen, and that you will still die a very slow, painful death from a virulent antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection.

Nature Reviews Microbiology has just published an editorial on the topic in which they point out that these steps by the FDA are not nearly enough, and they provide this depressing tidbit:

In 1977 the FDA began a process which could have resulted in a similar ban to that seen in the EU, by issuing notice of their intention to hold hearings into the withdrawal of approval for the use of penicillin and tetracycline in animals. However, these hearings never took place, and in December 2011 the agency announced that these notices had been formally withdrawn. 

Really, FDA? Are you really that incompetent and corrupt? Don't answer that, it was a rhetorical question.

Anyway, here's a strip that appeared last year at Darwin Eats Cake, where Andy and Eleonora debate the use of antibiotics in agriculture. It's from back before I increased the font size, so it is easier to read on the original site.

Best URL for sharing (or reading, really): http://www.darwineatscake.com/?id=34
Permanent image URL for hotlinking or embedding: http://www.darwineatscake.com/img/comic/34.png

Time-lapse map of Europe, 1000-2005

So, this is a pretty cool thing. In three and a half minutes you can watch a thousand years of European history unfold before your eyes. The one downside is that there is no timeline with a little running dude, or date-o-meter, or something to let you know where you are (when you are, said Inspector Spacetime). If you know a smattering of history here and there, you can pin it down though.

It looks like the progression of time is not completely uniform, though. If you're interested, here's a little guide for you

1066 = 0.05 (Norman conquest of England)
1204 = 0:18 (Fourth crusade sacks Constantinople)
1478 = 1:11 (Conquest of the Novgorod Republic by Ivan III)
1580 = 1:32 (Union of Spain and Portugal)
1603 = 1:37 (Unification of England and Scotland under James I)
1795 = 2:24 (Third Partition of Poland)
1812 = 2:33 (French Invasion of Russia)
1914 = 2:53 (Start of World War I)
1942 = 3:06 (Farthest German advance in WWII)
1990 = 3:15 (Reunification of Germany)



Ooh, and, as I was writing this, the creator posted another version, which is much slower, running for 11 minutes, and more zoomed in.

Happy Mother's Day -- Biology Style

So, happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, but especially to my mom, and to my kid's mom, who are both awesome, even in the pantheon of moms.

How better to celebrate than with a nerdy biology song? No better, that's how.

Enjoy:



via Joanne McMaster.