Tag: Linkonomicon

Old Maps, Ingenuity, and the Internet

Plate CXXVIII. Roseburg Quadrangle, Oregon, Land Classification and Density of Standing Timber (Cartography Associates CC BY-NC-SA)
Plate CXXVIII. Roseburg Quadrangle, Oregon, Land Classification and Density of Standing Timber (Cartography Associates CC BY-NC-SA)

I love old maps. Many are wildly inaccurate. Many are fanciful. Many are surprisingly well done. In our era of Google Maps and GPS, it is easy to forget that early mapmakers could not easily see what they were drawing from above. The combination of skills, tricks, rules-of-thumb, and artistry that goes into cartography bends the mind.

David Rumsey has collected maps for decades and decided to donate his map collection to the Internet. Now, the internet has one more thing with which it can distract me.

*Hat tip to Rebecca Rosen.

 

An argument between Dawkins & Wilson

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal features an argument between Richard Dawkins and EO Wilson, with a cameo by Michael Lynch.


*I fear this may be a very inside evolutionary biology joke which greatly oversimplifies the positions held by all three individuals.

When Dr. Seuss sold things other than books

Contractor postal cards, between 1930 and 1940, Dr. Seuss Collection, MSS 230. Mandeville Special Collections Library, UC San Diego (Fair Use)
Contractor postal cards, between 1930 and 1940, Dr. Seuss Collection, MSS 230. Mandeville Special Collections Library, UC San Diego (Fair Use)

The Mandeville Special Collections Library at UC San Diego has a special exhibit of the artwork of Dr. Seuss from before he made a living selling books when he helped other people sell things.

You may notice much of the work is signed “Dr. Seuss”, which drove me to spend a significant chunk of time reading up on Theodore Geisel and when he started using the pseudonym. If that was my rabbit hole, then that signature was my white rabbit.

It is really interesting to see versions of recognizable characters, like Horton the elephant, appear in the ads. It’s like finding old commercials done by celebrity actors when they were young (except that these ads are more good-looking and stylish than embarrassing).

*Hat tip to Neatorama.

 

Giving credit where credit is due

Earlier this week, the very popular Facebook science outreach site, I Fucking Love Science, came under fire for its seemingly systematic use of copyrighted material from a variety of artists without attribution or their permission. This sparked a “conversation” – most of which is depressing and not worth reading – about how content should be shared. Over at the Symbiartic blog at Scientific American, artist (and the guy you want to design your tattoo for you) Glendon Mellow has, in the words of Peter Edmonds, composed an “important, smart post” summarizing his thoughts on the issue.

As members of the online culture, we don’t have to accept that image theft will always be the dominant way of sharing visual information online: culture matures. Expectations change. But right now, large portions of science communication online are part of the problem. – Glendon Mellow, “Mash-Up This! Science Communication’s Image Problem”

*Hat tip to Peter Edmonds.

Francois Jacob, 1920-2013

François Jacob, a pioneer in our understanding of the regulation of gene expression, passed away on Friday. His work with Jacques Monod was foundational to much of the work in my PhD thesis lab and inspired our approach to understanding splicing regulation in my post-doctoral lab. Like many true insights, his realization about a basic mechanism of biology was so basic and fundamental that seemed like the kind of thing we must have known all along. Maybe we did, but until François Jacob we didn’t know we knew it.

Carl Zimmer tells the story of Jacob’s moment of insight:

In the darkness of the Paris movie theater, Jacob hit on an answer. The repressor is a protein that clamps on to E. coli’s DNA, blocking the production of proteins from the genes for beta-galactosidase and the other genes involved in feeding on lactose. A signal, like a switch on a circuit, causes the repressor to stop shutting down the genes…Perhaps these circuits are common in all living things…But when François tried to sketch out his ideas for his wife, he was disappointed.

“You’ve already told me that,” Lise said. “It’s been known for a long time, hasn’t it?” – Carl Zimmer

*Hat tip to Heidi Smith via PZ Myers.