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i don t consider that the same as wanting to be a journalist but why can t a journalist also be a television star what is it about tv that somehow cheapens what may very well be outstanding journalism perhaps it is nothing more than the difference between an editorial and an article but then why do the people who read the news on television which would count as articles not seem like journalists when someone like cooper who can easily cross into the realm of editorial seems legitimate especially when the olbermann s of the world who are clearly editorialists have so obviously crossed the line between journalist and television talking head i m not sure but as i figure out what kind of journalist i want to be and how i want to direct my career it is definitely something that i m thinking about some background on the olbermann msnbc split the washington post keith olbermann leaves msnbc speculation follows cnn keith olbermann signs off from msnbc huffington post final countdown keith olbermann and msnbc announce they are parting ways npr olbermann stuns viewers with swift departure posted by unknown at 10 50 am 3 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest sunday january 23 2011 bear stun gun those of you who read this blog regularly know that i love bears particularly polar bears but in a pinch any ursus arctos i ve seen the taxonomy with and without horriblis on the end also known as the brown or grizzly bear will do i am thus drawn to all stories regarding bears it is a personal bias i suppose source wikimedia commons taking patricia mcconnell s biology and psychology of human and animal behavior course this semester has me thinking a lot about the human role in the lives of other animals and today in particular bears i took a course at lehigh to complete my environmental science minor that had more to do with animal rights than mcconnell s class but there were some similarities to what i m studying now these classes have appealed to me because no matter what your opinion on animal rights or human and animal relationships i think its important to question and think about these issues i say that because once you get your brain into the habit of questioning the things you see hear and read you might view things in a very different light in my daily perusing of the bbc website today i was drawn to the article company in america launches taser bear stun gun this is the kind of article you could very easily glance over i mean what could be wrong with giving members of the national parks service tasers to protect themselves obviously park rangers getting mauled by bears is a bad thing but my first thought when reading this article was that bears live in the woods and i wouldn t like it if someone came into my house to take a tour and then shocked me with a stun gun when i got upset about their presence so why then is it ok to do it to bears tasers used by police have reportedly killed people so does that make it more or less ok to use it on an animal while the taser might not be humane due to the acute sudden onset pain that it causes is it a better option than just shooting a bear with a regular gun and killing it or would you be doing the bear a favor by killing it something along the lines of putting it out of its human induced misery this all then circles back to the question of whether or not people should be in the woods in the first place would it be more or less ok to use tasers on bears if they were used by people who live in towns near forests who need to occasionally protect their lives or property in that instance the bear is then in the human habitat not the other way around so would the violence be justified does the bear have an inane right not to be tased considering it can t choose to follow or not follow human rules and thus can t know that it has broken them should humans assume a guardian role over lesser animals and protect them from the kind of violence we use against each other human taser source wikimedia commons i don t intend to answer any of the questions i posed above the point i m trying to make isn t for or against the use of tasers my point is that even an issue that seems straight forward can have many layers when you tease it apart questioning things is one of the easiest ways we have to educate ourselves especially on science related issues i encourage everyone to try to think critically when they see science topics in the news you might even be surprised by what conclusions you draw i would like to give the bbc article s writer dan cairns a positive review for explaining how the bear taser works in a clear and concise way he writes like other tasers it delivers an electric shock by shooting two electrode darts attached to conductive wires the subjects motor nerves are immediately affected and the brain is unable to send signals to the muscles until the charge is turned off i wanted to draw attention to this description because this type of background knowledge about how the weapon works is really essential to helping readers determine how they feel about the use of the bear taser you can t be for or against something you don t understand well if politics is any indication you can but i don t recommend it even for a short little news article like this you need to have background and i like this article because i think it gives you the information you need to really think critically posted by unknown at 10 31 am 13 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest friday january 21 2011 animals on the black market i ve been thinking a lot about how humans use animals due to the readings i was assigned for my zoology class for next week i like to think that my position on the use of animals is somewhat middle of the road i believe in animal research in work animals like a sheep dog and i do eat meat but i am a firm believer in protecting animal welfare and conducting all animal related activities in a humane way chimpanzee pan troglodytes source wikimedia commons i bring up animal welfare because i saw an article in the bbc today about a huge raid on suspected illegal animal traders conducted by gabon s ministries of water forestry and defense the government agencies weren t able to save any live animals but they found enough evidence heads hands skins etc to charge the five suspects with poaching according to the world wildlife federation the raid resulted in the largest haul of dismembered animals in central africa in the last decade included in the seizure were parts i know awful of a gorilla at least 15 chimpanzees probably several more if the parts came from different animals 12 leopards a lion five elephants and several snakes i feel like animal poaching is the type of issue that can be easy for people to ignore because we associate it with being a far away problem it can be easy for us to forget about i realize that there are some cultures that hunt and eat these animals but selling them for exorbitant prices on the black market when killing them is illegal in the first place is a problem about a year ago i wrote an article for biotechniques about a new method to track animal poaching using genetic analysis of poached animals genetics cracks down on animal trafficking focuses on animals poached in nigeria and cameroon but it is still an interesting way to crack down on illegal animal trafficking posted by unknown at 2 03 pm 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest thursday january 20 2011 blogging experiments this semester for my long form journalism class j880 with deb blum everyone is going to be blogging in their speciality i considered creating a specific blog just for the class but i really like science decoded and i felt like if i was trying to keep up with a second blog this one would fall to the wayside so that being said there will definitely be some changes to my posts for the next few months i want to keep the casual and personal feel that this blog has but i m only going to do personal posts if they are related to my work or school i m also going to be putting up lengthier posts with more background research in them as opposed to my current standard of short posts filled with my own commentary hopefully i can keep up a cohesive feel while i m experimenting with different styles and types of posts i ll probably differentiate posts for class vs regular daily posts in some way i think using the blog for class should be fun to get more traffic to this site and help me try to develop science decoded into a way to market myself posted by unknown at 9 59 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest wednesday january 19 2011 to test or not to test a regulatory question my internship with biotechniques dumped me headfirst into the world of genome sequencing one of the hottest and by that i mean most talked about funded and hyped up biotechnology fields genome sequencing has a lot of power the media loves genome sequencing because it attracts a lot of public interest so its no wonder the technology is a headline maker for those who are unfamiliar with the term genome sequencing is a process by which a machine takes a sample of your dna from saliva or blood and reads it by identifying the nucleotide bases adenine guanine cytosine or thymine that make up your personal dna sequence by comparing this sequence to the human draft sequence a previously read and studied human dna strand researchers can tell if anything in your dna sequence is out of place indicating a chance for genetic disease i tried looking into personal genome sequencing companies for an article for my j800 class last semester while i did come up with an article eventually i decided not to pitch it on the grounds that none of the personal genome sequencing companies would make a representative available to talk to me therefore my article was slightly off kilter apparently no one wants to bother with helping a student and if you don t have a definite place to publish you just aren t important enough for the corporate world to give a damn but i still find personal genomics incredibly interesting which is why the new york times article heavy doses of dna data with few side effects caught my eye the article takes a look at research from the scripps translational science institute that shows that people who pay money to have their genome analyzed often did nothing with the data and even when the results indicated a higher risk for disease people didn t feel any extra anxiety the results are interesting because they go against what you would think the common reaction to obtaining your genetic data would be there has been controversy about public access to genetic information on the grounds that people won t understand it and will thus act rashly or misunderstand their results the new research shows that most people either didn t do anything with the information they obtained or consulted a medical professional before acting the new research doesn t close the door on the issues surrounding personal genomics by any means the idea that the technology and service should be regulated and by who and how strictly are all still prominent concerns however the study could serve to help policy makers decide how to regulate the industry posted by unknown at 12 34 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest first day of school yesterday was the first day of classes for the spring semester as much as i struggled to come back to wisconsin this semester i know that it will be a busy and productive few months my first class was my science elective the biology and psychology of human and animal relationships a border collie like willie source wikimedia commons i was a little concerned signing up for a zoology course considering the majority of my science background is in environmental science with a little biology on the side but i think this class will be incredibly interesting and judging by the readings the material won t be anything that i can t handle my professor patricia mcconnell brought her dog willie to class for the first day he served as an example of the emotions that some humans feel toward animals and started a discussion about why we feel more connected to animals like dogs than we do to say a chicken willie is a border collie and a trained sheep herding dog so he was well behaved enough to be allowed to wander the huge lecture hall walking up and down the rows to be petted it is just the beginning of the semester but already i ve got the ball rolling on several projects i m still doing background for my first primate center assignment but i ve got my first interview for that scheduled for next week i ve got a freelance project that i m working on that is more health medical writing so that is also something that is taking up my time being so busy is helping with my homesickness posted by unknown at 11 53 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest tuesday january 18 2011 shark vision it s a black and white world a great white shark source wikimedia commons interesting research out of australia analyzed the cell types in the eyes of 17 species of sharks and found the the predators are largely color blind the find is significant because it could help developers create new fishing industry equipment and water activity gear to reduce shark attacks based on visibility the researchers from the university of western australia and the university of queensland looked for different types of cone cells in shark eyes humans have three different types of cones that enable us to receive and process blue green or red light waves sharks have only one cone meaning they do not have the ability to distinguish between colors posted by unknown at 12 33 pm 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday january 17 2011 just to clarify the blackbird incident source wikimedia commons there was a great article in the new york times about the confusion that took place between the media scientists the government and the public regarding the new year s eve bird deaths in arkansas conspiracies don t kill birds people kill birds by leslie kaufman does a great job of explaining how the bird story got blown out of proportion basically birds die all the time it s not all that unusual for flocks of birds to die according to the article s statistics from the national audubon society approximately five billion birds die in the us every year rural cats kill 39 million birds a year so basically the whole incident wasn t a conspiracy or a case of poison run amok birds die thats kind of all there is to it flying objects can interrupt birds flight and send them careening into buildings and billboards so while i was pretty skeptical of the fireworks explanation on the basis that if fireworks cause bird deaths we wou...