As we learned back in July, there is absolutely nothing better than Mr. Wizard being a dick to kids. God these kids are so stupid.
Science!
Posted inDrugs
Monkeys: Now With 50% More Cocaine
Science is amazing. Last week I read this New York Times article about an exciting new treatment for dementia and brain damage. Let me explain the experiment: 1.) Scientists teach a monkey to play the game of Memory. Apparently they’re pretty good at it.2.) Scientists give the monkey some cocaine so it’ll be less good […]
Posted inCity Hall
Unanimous Vote for Fluoride; Referendum Expected This Afternoon
Photographs by Denis C. Theriault Jesse Sponberg unfurls a banner shortly before his ouster from council. Commissioners Dan Saltzman and Amanda Fritz snuffed the last remaining bit of political drama looming over today’s Portland City Council vote on fluoride, breaking their silence with well-parsed yes votes that made the council’s expected decision a unanimous one. […]
Posted inCity Hall
Meanwhile, an Update From the Great Big Fluoride Debate
It’s been an hour and a half after the massively packed city hall hearing on water fluoridation got started, and we’re still barely done with the scheduled part of the hearing—the high-powered and much-decorated parade of panelists and experts personally invited by city officials to testify on the health and economic benefits of fluoride. Not […]
Posted inCity Hall
The Fluoride Fight In City Hall Is About to Get Real
In just a few minutes, the Portland City Council will open an hours-long hearing on a policy change that’s already a fait accompli: the fluoridation of Portland’s water. The hearing is such a big deal that, according to the Oregonian (which rents space from the city for an office on the first floor of city […]
Posted inScience!
What To Do With an Injured Invasive Animal?
Morgaine Faye A story I reported for the paper this week, Cute Animal Death Watch, digs into a state policy that requires wildlife rehabilitators to euthanize invasive species—or nonnative animals that cause ecological harm. The policy calls for killing animals many Oregonians probably don’t know are invasive—including possums, and several species of squirrels and turtles. […]
Posted inCity Hall
Looks Like We’ll Be Getting Fluoride in Our Water; Fish and Novick Both Like It
Even though he’s on vacation this week, leaving his staff to field the hundreds of calls and emails that have been flooding city council offices since the Oregonian broke news of a serious political push to fluoridate Portland’s water, Commissioner Nick Fish has decided to weigh in on the incredibly contentious issue. In a statement […]
Posted inMusic
Laser Menomena! Or, Dark Side of the Moms
Alicia J. Rose/Hipgnosis Menomena‘s new album, Moms, is on the way, coming out on Barsuk on September 18. But Menomena is hosting a very special listening party for the new album on Friday, August 24, at a very special place: the OMSI Planetarium! They’re going to have a special laser presentation of the new record, […]
Posted inScience!
When Space Nerds Attack
NASA’s Curiosity Rover. It’s looking like a good week for space nerds. NASA’s budget has shrunk for the last five decades. And while the exploration of the great big starry vacuum that surrounds our tiny world is now considered unimportant by many politicians and policy makers—and perhaps much of the general public—nonetheless, earlier this week, […]
Posted inScience!
What Sort of Drivers Kill Animals for Fun?
Andrew Sullivan directs our attention to Gizmodo, which reports on Mark Rober’s study about drivers who will swerve out of their way to kill rubber animals on the highway shoulder: He found out that 94 percent of drivers did what anyone in their sane mind would do: keep driving on their lane. Remember that the […]
Posted inVideo Games
Now NASA’s Thinking with Portals
Valve Via Valve comes the excellent news that “an anonymous tech at NASA” has managed to covertly arrange for Portal 2‘s Space Core to be launched into spaaaaaace. This is my favorite thing that I have learned today.
Posted inScience!
Mr. Wizard, Destroyer of Dreams
TODAY’S SCIENCE LESSON: Mr. Wizard is the best. These kids suck. Via io9.