Archives for December 14, 2007
Young-Theory Overturned
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 Saturn’s rings probably date back billions of years and could likely be around forever although they are continually changing, according to a new study published this week. Data collected by the Voyager spacecraft in the 1970s and later the Hubble telescope originally led scientists to think the planet’s famous rings were relatively young in cosmic…
Science News Tidbits: Climate and Ecology
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 Four dolphins found dead on Florida beach Researchers are examining four dead dolphins that washed ashore on Florida’s Canaveral National Seashore. Biologist Megan Stolen of the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute said the dolphins may have been killed by toxins from a red tide bloom off Florida’s Atlantic Coast, The Orlando Sentinel said Thursday. Ship with toxic…
Cool and sometimes odd stuff from my neighbors in the blogosphere
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 Would you buy caviar from this fish? When the high end caviar gets scarce, who knows where we’ll have to go for more. Read about Lumpfish caviar, the sublime ugly on Blogfish. ~ They say everyone is a little bit bisexual. I dunno. But bisexual flies and the neurochemistry of behavior kinda makes me, you…
How To Eat A Mangosteen
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 VideoJug: How To Eat A Mangosteen
Michael D. Lemonick Loves Science Bloggers
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 But is a love-hate kind of thing: it used to be that science journalists stood between scientists and the public. The scientists did research, then we asked questions and translated their dry jargon and complicated ideas into scintillating prose….Now look what’s happened. Go to the Science Blogs website and you’ll find dozens of actual scientists,…
Science News Tidbits
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 Coral Reefs Unlikely to Survive in Acid Oceans from PhysOrg.com Carbon emissions from human activities are not just heating up the globe, they are changing the ocean’s chemistry. This could soon be fatal to coral reefs, which are havens for marine biodiversity and underpin the economies of many coastal communities. [...] Isotope Shortage Worries Doctors…
Review: The Science of Evolution and the Myth of Creationism
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 REPOST from gregladen.com “Everyone needs to understand the basic facts of evolution as well as the essentials of the scientific method… When people are deprived of a scientific approach to reality as a whole, they are robbed of both a full appreciation of the beauty and richness of the natural world and the means to…
Religion: The Methamphetamine of the Masses…
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 Or maybe even PCP… If religion was merely an opiate, that would be cool. There would be a lot of stoned people waking around. But it could be argued that religion is a harder drug, one that makes people do harder, more unsavory things than just sitting around bleary eyed and happy. Like killing people.…
Oral traditions effectively warn people about tsunamis and reduce mortality
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 From a UC Santa Cruz Press Release: The infamous Indian Ocean tsunami that struck on December 26, 2004, caused tragically high mortality–from 10 to 90 percent of the population at various locations. Yet in 1930 a tsunami of similar size, generated by an earthquake near the Ninigo Islands, struck northern Papua New Guinea and killed…
The Fight for Creationism in the Classroom can be Costly
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 Given the latest efforts in Texas and Florida (and elsewhere) to push religious views into the science classroom, I thought it might be helpful to remind everyone of this blood curdling story.
On the Ninth Day of Hanukkah, My True Love Gave To Me…
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 … Nine Yahoos Dancing… Flushed with Victory, Bill The Moron O’Reilly Adds One Day to Jewish Holiday: Despite declaring “victory” in the “War on Christmas” this week, Bill O’Reilly continued to harp on his favorite subject last night with Focus on the Family’s Carrie Gordon Earll. Discussing the group’s “Attack on Christmas 2007″ list, Earll…
Minnesotans Will Not Let Harm Come to our Women
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 And others who may wear mascara and other cosmetics. We’ve banned cosmetics with mercury. This makes Minnesota stricter in this regard than the Federal Government or any other state. What I find amazing is that Mercury was not already banned from substances that you rub on yourself. [source]
Global Warming Deniers Find Comfort in Geophysical Meetings Paper
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 Global Warming Deniers Find Comfort in Geophysical Meetings PaperA paper presented at the American Geophysical Union is one of the few papers, if any, you will see mentioned on Fox News. The story claims that volcanoes under the ice sheet in Greenland are melting the ice cap. This could be an alternative explanation for what…
Jim Curtsinger on John West
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 Egads! I was so excited about Mark Borrello’s editorial at the MNCSE site, that I totally overlooked This Editorial by MNCSE executive director Jim Curtsinger! This is bad, because it was Jim who told me about Mark’s editorial. What you have to understand is that Mark is a little guy. He’s pretty wiry and tough,…
More evidence that golf is evil
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 Bali: Word of a compromise
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 Despite the best efforts of the American and Chinese representatives, the Bali Climate conference may end up being something more than a huge waste of time. The U.S. and Europe headed toward a compromise solution Friday at the U.N. climate conference, breaking a deadlock over how ambitious the goal should be in negotiating future cutbacks…
Mark Borrello on John West
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 You will remember our blogospheric reactions to John West’s talk at UMN (John West can Play the Violin But Not the Fiddle on my blog, and John West at the McLaurin Institute on Pharyngula for Scienceblogs.com, as well as In Which I Meet John West at Tangled Up in Blue Guy and here at Amused…
MT is now Open Source. Yea!
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 I must say, that when I was asked to be a Scibling, one of the “cons” was switching from an open source platform that I was very familiar with (WordPress) to a non-Open Source platform (Movable Type). But when I looked into it, I found out that there was a plan to switch Movable Type…
Kentucky Bloggers on Evolution and Creationism
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 You are familiar with the Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky, because my brother, Joe, lives in Louisville, often sends me links to their coverage of the Creationism Museum, which I post, and you read. Well, the C-J has a piece called “Point Taken” which “supports a group of non-professional bloggers called the ‘Point Taken Bloggers.’ Several…
My Linux Calendar
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 Dec 14 George Washington dies, 1799 Dec 14 Bonne fête aux Odile ! Dec 15 Argo Merchant oil spill, 1976 Dec 15 Bill of Rights adopted, 1791 Dec 15 James Naismith invents basketball, Canada, 1891 Dec 15 Sitting Bull shot in head while submitting to arrest, 1890 Dec 15 Statue Day in the Netherlands Antilles…
Python: It’s a snake. No, it’s a programming language. No, it’s a snake.
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 … and so on and so on people argue. But they are both right, it is a snake, and it is a programming language. I want to talk about the programming language now. We’ll deal with the snake another time. (and boy, do I have snake stories….)
More on Evolutionist’s Murder
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 Resort killer may be free in a year
Creationist who Killed Evolutionist with Knife Gets Light Sentence
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 Yesterday, in an Australian Court, Englishman Alexander Christian York was sentenced to Five Years max for the stabbing death of Scottish biochemist Rudi Boa during an argument over evolution. The argument happened in January of Last Year. York, traveling alone, and Boa, with his girlfriend, were backpacking in Blowering Holiday Park, near Tumut, New South…
Blogospherics
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 How can you resist these? Loch Ness monster is Still a Fake Don’t forget the geminid meteor shower, Today! Biology trumps astronomy, again! Bill Maher, Fareed Zakaria, that red-headed guy from West Wing, and some Christian woman Mammoth Tusk With Evidence of Meteorite Impacts
The Ultimate in Friday Cat Blogging
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2007 
, which is now available for the 
