- NYT article on Carolyn Porco – A wonderful article on one of our favorite astronomers and her work on the Cassini mission. From Billy.
- fMRI scanning of dead salmon highlights risk of red herrings – Did anyone else hear the voice of Steve Novella in their head warning about misunderstanding fMRI results while reading this? From Emory.
- TIME article on vaccination – Joel Stein writes humorous essays for TIME and this time his topic is how he and his wife compromised on vaccinations for their child. From Martin.
- Take the secular pinky swear – “The humanist community’s answer to abstinence pledges.” There’s more to the pledge but I love the line, “Without need for religious reference, I will make every effort to take a mature, intelligent approach to decisions regarding my sexuality.” Here’s an accompanying video.Â
Great. Now I’ve got Sylvia Browne’s gravelly voice in my head endlessly repeating, “Your fish is dead!”
I wish Joel Stein success in persuading his wife to work her way out of Wooville. I’ve been diligently easing my wife towards Enlightenment, but she is a stubborn one. She’s still raging the battle on valerian root and echinacea, belief in karma/chi, and gets stuck on the problem with the placebo effect (which, I admit, is a difficult thing to debate). But she’s a really cool chick and lets me touch her boobies, so I’ll keep at it.
I sympathize with the author of the TIME article. My wife and I haven’t had the vaccination talk yet, but I get the impression that we’re on the same page with that at least, to a certain extent.
Dammit. I already thought dead fish were creepy staring at me. This does not make my love of seafood any easier.
I wonder if Amy could make some Impurity Rings or something similar.
@Steve: Ooooo!
Good idea. With little filthy images on them!
@Skept-artist: Porno rings. Love it!
Put on your C-Ring and pinky swear you’ll be naughty!
Who wouldn’t want to , err, get behind that?
Carolyn Proco
-is an influential female scientist
-formats her website entries as entires in the “Captain’s Log”
-was a “majorette in a Buddhist marching band”
-was a friend of Carl Sagan’s
-was a science adviser for Contact and Star Trek (2009)
Has anyone asked her if she would blog as a Skepchick?
I cannot, in good faith, take the secular pinky swear. It has been too long for me to deny pretty much any opportunity that arises.
@durnett: I think Carolyn Porco (who was one of the speakers at … TAM4 IIRC) already has a pretty popular blog of her own.