Archives for December 7, 2007
Science News Tidbits: Health
Posted by Greg Laden on December 7, 2007 Is infant male circumcision an abuse of the rights of the child? from PhysOrg.com Circumcision is one of the commonest surgical procedures performed on males. Opponents argue that infant circumcision can cause both physical and psychological harm, while recent evidence shows that circumcision is medically beneficial. Two doctors debate the issue in this week’s BMJ.…
Science News Tidbits: Biology
Posted by Greg Laden on December 7, 2007 Nanotube-producing bacteria show manufacturing promise from PhysOrg.com Two engineers at the University of California, Riverside are part of a binational team that has found semiconducting nanotubes produced by living bacteria – a discovery that could help in the creation of a new generation of nanoelectronic devices. [...] New method exploits ancient mechanism to switch genes…
Susan Savage-Rumbaugh: Apes that write, start fires and play Pac-Man
Posted by Greg Laden on December 7, 2007 My Afternoon With Reverend Zero
Posted by Greg Laden on December 7, 2007 Praise Nothin’ We’re in the Age o’ Reason, Brother! Foot worship? [hat tip: Spanish Inquisitor]
Did you hear…
Posted by Greg Laden on December 7, 2007 The one about the creationist surprised when he lost his job at a major research institution? The battle between science and creationism has reached the prestigious Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where a former researcher is claiming he was fired because he doesn’t believe in evolution. more stories like this Nathaniel Abraham filed a lawsuit earlier…
Science News Tidbits: Climate and Ecology
Posted by Greg Laden on December 7, 2007 New research may lead to better climate models for global warming, El Nino from PhysOrg.com One hundred fifty scientists from more than 40 universities in nine countries are starting a coordinated program aimed at gaining new insights about the Earth’s climate and the complex, interconnected system involving the oceans, the atmosphere and the land. [...]…
John Maynard Smith Interview
Posted by Greg Laden on December 7, 2007 Wales: Wikipedia OK for Students
Posted by Greg Laden on December 7, 2007 Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has said teachers who refuse younger students access to the site are “bad educators”. Speaking at the Online Information conference at London’s Olympia, he played down the long-running controversy over the site’s authority. He said young students should be able to reference the online encyclopaedia in their work. Mr Wales said…
VVVVVVSSSSSSSSSSTTTT ….. KABOOM!!!!
Posted by Greg Laden on December 7, 2007 Another round of heavy artillery launched in the War on Christmas. It’s a hit! [hattip: PZ Myers]
Dahmer: Darwin Made me Do It
Posted by Greg Laden on December 7, 2007 He was saved by creation science. But a little too late, like, it happened after he became a vicious cannibal.
Science News Tidbits: Space, the Final Frontier
Posted by Greg Laden on December 7, 2007 SECCHI team obtains images of the solar wind at Earth from PhysOrg.com Using the Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (SECCHI) instruments on board NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft, a consortium of scientists has seen, for the first time, large waves of solar material sweeping past Earth. [...] Astronomer detects atmosphere of…
O’Reilly: Progressive Blog Readers are Devil Worshipers
Posted by Greg Laden on December 7, 2007 Click to see the video
Robert Full: Secrets of movement, from geckos and roaches
Posted by Greg Laden on December 7, 2007 UC Berkeley biologist Robert Full shares his fascination with spiny cockroach legs that allow them to scuttle at full speed across loose mesh and gecko feet that have billions of nano-bristles to run straight up walls. His talk, complete with wonderful slow-mo video of cockroach, crab and gecko gaits, explains his goal of creating the…
Huge Tetris Game
Posted by Greg Laden on December 7, 2007 [Hattip: geekology]
Linux: Stable API vs. Not?
Posted by Greg Laden on December 7, 2007 There has been a lot of interesting discussion on the benefits and negatives of a stable API on this thread, with good points being made on both sides. If you don’t know or care what that is about, then just move along, nothing to see here…
The Omaha Shooting
Posted by Greg Laden on December 7, 2007 First, I want to say that we should not forget that this was a horrific event, and that I’m sure we all mourn for the dead and their families. A fellow blogger in the science and technology world lost a close friend in this shooting, and has written about it here. Now, I want to…
Creationists Can be So Funny
Posted by Greg Laden on December 7, 2007 There was a time, not so long ago, when you could “Google” the terms “Greg Laden” and “Idiot” and get, well, besides the several thousand hits about me being an idiot and stuff, an Amazon.com page for “The Idiot’s Guide to Human Prehistory by Greg Laden” This is a book I never wrote. But the…
Don’t make me spit up formula on you…
Posted by Greg Laden on December 7, 2007 No babies were harmed during the filming of this True Documentary: Good Cop, Baby Cop on FunnyOrDie.com [Totally stolen from Tangled Up in Blue Guy] … Blue Guy has links to another movie in the same genre….
Everybody needs to do this: Learn the Greek Alphabet
Posted by Greg Laden on December 7, 2007 Also, know how to pronounce “primer” properly…. Hint: Skip ahead to minute two. Omega looks like something I once saw on a button on a toilet in Japan.
Tangled Bank # 94
Posted by Greg Laden on December 7, 2007 The web carnival …. is here, at Life Before Death.
Why is Linux Better?
Posted by Greg Laden on December 7, 2007 In 200 6, Greg Kroah Hartman, a well known Linux Kernel expert, as able to declare that the following statement: “Plug and Play in Linux is Still not at the Windows Level” was not only incorrect, but that this statement: “Linux supports more devices “out of the box” than any other operating system ever has”…
, which is now available for the 
