] We study empirically how fame of WWI fighter-pilot aces,
] measured in numbers of web pages mentioning them, is
] related to their merit or achievement, measured in
] numbers of opponent aircraft destroyed. We find that on
] the average fame grows exponentially with achievement; to
] be precise, there is a strong correlation (~0.7) between
] achievement and the logarithm of fame. At the same time,
] the number of individuals achieving a particular level of
] merit decreases exponentially with the magnitude of the
] level, leading to a power-law distribution of fame. A
] stochastic model that can explain the exponential growth
] of fame with merit is proposed. The model also provides
] likelihood of deviations from expected fame; it predicts,
] that the odds to be ten times more famous than expected
] from one's merit are ten in a million, while the odds to
] be ten times less famous are as high as one in ten.

[cond-mat/0310049] Theory of Aces: Fame by chance or merit?

] As described in the 15th November, 2002, issue of the
] journal Science (Ferber, 2002), the current
] administration has engaged in political screening of
] appointees to peer review study sections that are charged
] with evaluating the scientific merits of research
] proposals on HF/E issues in the workplace.

Strong protest from workplace ergonomics community about political interference from the Republicans in their scientific workgroups.

[IP] Political interference with scientific committees

] Mars holds court in the sky this week as the Red Planet
] makes its closest approach to Earth since our ancestors
] lived in caves.
]
] "It is amazingly bright," said David Hudgins, a lecturer
] in astronomy at Rockhurst University. "You cannot
] possibly miss it."

Mars is very, very bright. Even from city parks and streets -- where very few stars are visible at all -- Mars is unmistakable.

Decius: Oh, BTW, the ancient Babylonians thought that a passing of mars like this would lead to plauges and wars.

Kansas City Star | 08/24/2003 | Red star at night is their delight

] The job of the hippocampus appears to be to "encode"
] experiences so they can be stored as long-term memories
] elsewhere in the brain. "If you lose your hippocampus you
] only lose the ability to store new memories," says
] Berger. That offers a relatively simple and safe way to
] test the device: if someone with the prosthesis regains
] the ability to store new memories, then it's safe to
] assume it works.

This is amazing stuff.

How to cure the guy in Memento.

] People in the genetics industy claim that it is a hoax.
] Nobody has seen pictures of the baby yet and there's been no
] scientific proof yet that they've cloned anything, but yet the
] media is jumping on this shit like it's proof.

According to the Washington Post, the Raelians claimed a similar cloning success back in 1978, but further investigation proved it to be a hoax.

The story is also interesting because it comments on the reputation of the ABC Science Correspondent, Michael Guillen, who's going to be conducting the DNA testing of the mother and baby to determine if the cloning is real or not. Evidently a few years back, the James Randi Foundation (http://www.randi.org) gave Guillen its annual "Pigasus" award, for his "indiscriminate promotion of pseudoscience and quackery."

Stay tuned...

Cloning a Previous Hoax?