Main Menu
Tagcloud
News categories
I support
Car articles:
Random items:
RSS Feeds
Our news can be syndicated by using these rss feeds.
Facebook Blog Network
linking back to brembs.net
My lab:
Welcome Guest
Currently Online (14)
Extra Information
MicroBlog
You must be logged in to post comments on this site - please either log in or if you are not registered click here to signup
View all posts (112)
Networking
Random Video
SciSites
Besides the English speaking teamhandballnews.com website I'm now also involved in the German handball-blog.de. On this site I'll rather infrequently post news from the developing handball countries, so it complements my work on teamhandballnews.com very nicely.Head on over and read my article about the Itajai handball cup!
I'll try to find some time in the coming week or two to do some much needed server maintenance. I need to upgrade to the latest software versions and given the size that this blog has grown to, it might take a little time. So in case there's some downtime in the coming week, you'll know why 
I've just returned from the 2006 version of the international handball tournament in Itajaí, Brazil. This fantastic tournament is, to my knowledge, the only week-long, one-game-a-day tournament for club teams. For all other competitions like that, you need to be member of a National Team.It was a fantastic tournament with 78 teams of all age groups (male & female). Despite our small and very diverse roster, we managed to secure bronze, in an unexpected and outstanding team effort!
[ Read the rest ... ]
I've joined John Ryan and Bogdan Pasat to create a new independent website for text and audio news and opinion around team handball. Its focus will be mainly on handball in so-called "developing" countries, i.e., countries where handball isn't as popular as in Europe, Asia or Africa. We kicked the site off featuring two interviews with high-ranking officials of the USA team handball federation (see also previous entries below).Have a look and a listen and let us know what yo think:
http://teamhandballnews.com
In a dramatic development over the last few weeks, the US Olympic Committee ( USOC) has filed an official complaint with USA Team Handball ( USATH). As mentioned on these pages, there has been an internal struggle for governance at USATH that was brought to the USOC's attention. I have posted the full complaint (an 86 page and hefty 2.77MB PDF document) by the USOC and a previous, related report from USATH president Mike Hurdle in my download section. This complaint is the first in a series of steps to revoke the status of National Governing Body (NGB) from USATH and, of course, to make the current funding hiatus permanent.Have a look at the two documents and form your own opinion!
In my recent post "Is religiosity an operant?", I laid out some quick thoughts on the psychological foundations for being religious. In an essay for the National Review Online, John Derbyshire puts the topic into a contemporary, societal perspective. I found the article rather informative and insightful. Go and read it! 
On a similar note, James D. Carmine, chair of the Philosophy Department at Carlow University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, wrote an excellent article on how to distinguish religion from pseudo-religion, drawing from current global developments. A very interesting and insipring read!
A recent PloS Biology paper (comment, press-release) shows clear evidence of evolution from lower primates to humans. The study investigated the gene sequences of an important brain-gene in primates and humans. Importantly, the evidence is not in the coding region of the gene (its product shows no variation between humans and apes), but in its regulatory sequence. This case study exemplifies how subtle alterations in gene expression can have far reaching efects on brain function. With studies like this one, it's becoming easier to imagine how 1-2% difference in genetic material can lead to the ape-human difference and how this difference was brought about by evolution.It'll be interesting to see how the creationist crowd will try to explain this now rapidly accumulating sort of evidence
In the past week, there has been some upheaval in the US handball world. Apparently, a number of members of the USATH (US handball federation and National Governing Body for the US Olympic Committee) Board of Directors (BoD) have issues with a new set of by-laws hat were passed by the membership with an overwhelming majority of over 89% of the votes. Most recently, these BoD members have called in a short-notice, online emergency board meeting to remove USATH president Mike Hurdle and to overturn the membership vote on the by-laws. The emergency board meeting excluded Mike Hurdle's vote, but included a prohibited vote by proxy, in order to reach the 75% criterion for the removal of the president.Incidentally, the new by-laws precipitate the removal of the current BoD. The USOC was made aware of the conflict as the dissenting members of the BoD contacted the USOC with their grievances. Consequentially, the USOC has frozen any funding to USATH and is considering to revoke its NGB status.
[ Read the rest ... ]
Reading the article "Why do we believe in god?" in the British newspaper "Guardian" it occurred to me that religiosity may best be explained by operant behavior. Actually, as a by-product of selection for operant behavior. This may not be an entirely new idea, but I nevertheless decided to summarize my insight really quickly. Several bits of evidence brought me to this idea:[ Read the rest ... ]
Have you ever wondered how the scientific publishing system works? Have you ever doubted scientific "experts" on TV or a news report telling you of some some amazing new scientific discovery that seemed just too weird to believe? Then this little flyer is for you! It gives you a good description of how scientific quality is assured in the scientific community and how you can use it to judge the validity of scientific claims made in the public. It is published by the non-profit organization "Sense about Science" in the UK. Check it out, it surely is worth it!Render time: 0.7853 sec, 0.0417 of that for queries.