January 31, 2008
Category: Gun Ownership
In 1998, 13 year old Mitchell Johnson and his 11 year old buddy Andrew Golden gunned down four students aged 11 and 12 and English Teacher Shannon Wright, and wounded 10 other people, at Jonesboro Westside Middle School. They had pulled the fire alarm to...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 2:00 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
When life and art collide ......
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Posted by Greg Laden at 12:00 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Tatiana was the tiger that leaped from its enclosure in the San Francisco Zoo, killing one and wounding others. Details of the investigation have been released, and apparently, the tiger was taunted....
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Posted by Greg Laden at 12:00 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I wish we had more details of this story, but this is what we know so far:...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 10:00 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Proposals to give the latter part of the present geological period (the Holocene) a new name ... the Anthropocene ... are misguided, scientifically invalid, and obnoxious. However, there is a use for a term that is closely related to "Anthropocene" and I propose that...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 7:07 AM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 30, 2008
Can you hear me wee beastie? Can you hear me?...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 9:00 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is a very interesting guest post at Remote Central: All species vary through time and space. You don't necessarily look the same as any one of your ancestors. Therefore "like begets like" but each individual can be a bit different. It is impossible for...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 6:00 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Cat
I'm talking about herdin' cats, bro...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 6:00 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Other
Paola Antonelli, design curator at New York's MOMA, wants to spread an appreciation of design, in all shapes and forms -- and to remove any stigma of it being considered mere decoration. She takes the TED2007 audience on a whistlestop tour of some design exhibitions...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 4:51 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Anthropology
Color is funny. Anthropologists have long known that different cultures have different relationships, linguistically and in day to day practice, to the color spectrum. For example, the Efe Pygmy Hunter-Gatherers of the Ituri Forest describe things as white, black, or red, and that's it. They...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 3:41 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
... according to news reports flying around the airwaves. It will be interesting to see what happens to those currently supporting him. It is likely that if Edwards does not endorse anyone, his supporters would drift to Clinton, since it is believed that Edwards has...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 10:30 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Welcome to the Four Stone Hearth Blog Carnival #33, 'specializing' in the four fields of anthropology. The previous edition of 4SH can be found at Testimony of the Spade, and the next edition will be hosted by Our Cultural World. The main page for...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 9:44 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 29, 2008
Category: Science News
A Biology News Browser; Green Porno; Naked Mole-Rats and Chili Pepper; 3D from 2D; New View of Middle Earth Stuff...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 11:00 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
"Dover may be the first of many battles to follow..."...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 10:00 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Technology
The Torch is the world's brightest and most powerful flashlight. It is capable of melting plastic, lighting paper on fire within seconds, and if you like, fry an egg or a marshmallow on a stick....
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Posted by Greg Laden at 9:00 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is the first time I've seen this argument made, in a letter to the editor in LJWorld of Lawrence, Kansas:...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 8:00 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogospherics
Four Stone Hearth, the anthropology blog carnival, will be hosted here tomorrow. Please send me your entries! I've got a lot of good ones so far, so expect an interesting ride. greg at gregladen.com or laden002 at umn.edu...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 7:00 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
You may not want to miss this (Feb 13th) episode of Wife Swap:...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 6:00 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Creationists Acting Badly, as usual... [Hat Tip: Pz Myers]...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 5:06 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Lee Salisbury, a former evangelical preacher, comments on evolution and creationism....
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Posted by Greg Laden at 4:00 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Robots
From Slashdot: Schneier points out an interesting (and long, 117-pages) paper on the ethical implications of robots in war: "This report has provided the motivation, philosophy, formalisms, representational requirements, architectural design criteria, recommendations, and test scenarios to design and construct an autonomous robotic system architecture...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 3:00 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Evolutionary Biology
UC Berkeley biologist Sheila Patek gives a wide-ranging talk on the effort to measure the hyperfast movements of peacock mantis shrimp heels using high-speed video cameras recording at 20,000 frames per second. She and her team slowed down the movements of these amazing animals and...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 2:00 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
And neither does a lot of proprietary technology. But the possibility that ads will show up on either type of technology is obviously very different. Now, we are about to see add supported P2P services....
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Posted by Greg Laden at 1:00 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Cosmos
You've probably already heard that a US spy satellite known as USA-193 is no longer able to keep itself up because the software on board has failed. This is a secret spy satellite so we don't at present know what the software was (any guesses?)....
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Posted by Greg Laden at 12:00 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Ecuadorean officials are investigating the slaughter of 53 sea lions from the Galapagos Islands nature reserve, which were found with their heads caved in. [source] Thanks, Coturnix, for the tip....
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Posted by Greg Laden at 10:00 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Larry Craig, or as we call him in Minnesota, Happy Feet Larry, stepped in where Michelle Bachmann could not perform, in an overt act of erotic love with the President of the United States, George Bush....
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Posted by Greg Laden at 8:22 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 28, 2008
"The first witness called by attorneys for the parents was Dr. Kenneth Miller"...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 8:00 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Other
Guitarist and singer Raul Midon performs "All the Answers" in a world premiere at TED2007. "This is a song I wrote about the meaning of technology," he says, and he asks his listeners: What will we do with all this information we have at our...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 4:51 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Darwin
of The Beagle Project! Here, at A Blog Around the Clock. The Beagle Project is Here....
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Posted by Greg Laden at 1:43 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Twin Cities Creation Science Association Home School Science Fair, held each year in February, in Har Mar Mall, Roseville, Minnesota, will occur this year on Saturday & Sunday, February 16 and 17, 2008. The Application Deadline is January 31st, 2008 ($5.00 entry fee) You...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 8:16 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 27, 2008
Category: Technology
What would be worse, Crows or Robots taking over the world?...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 10:00 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Other
... I usually become very nauseated or fall asleep. (If I was Woody Allen there would be a joke about sex right about here) Anyway, I'm with Bill......
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Posted by Greg Laden at 9:27 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts will endorse Senate colleague Barack Obama for president, party officials confirmed Sunday. The endorsement will be announced Monday in Washington, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the record....
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Posted by Greg Laden at 9:12 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Other
I've chosen one to whet your appetite: See the rest at Laelaps....
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Posted by Greg Laden at 7:23 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
So there, 'intelligent' cdesign proponentists, eat your hearts out....
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Posted by Greg Laden at 5:25 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is my reply to a post by Coturnix called The Hopeless Monster? Not so fast!...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 4:39 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
"Eventually, I came up with a name for it. I called it 'irreducible complexity'"...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 4:00 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
"Counterknowledge," I would have thought, includes things like how a particular customer likes her eggs, or if another customer gets antsy if he does not get his refill right way. You know, like in a diner. Counter knowledge. But it turns out that Counterknowledge is...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 3:00 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Other
J.J. Abrams traces his love of the unseen mystery -- the heart of Alias, Lost, and the upcoming Cloverfield -- back to its own magical beginnings, which may or may not include an early obsession with magic, the love of a supportive grandfather, or his...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 2:00 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
You need: a pair of binoculars a pair of tweezers a bottle a cork an elephant call....
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Posted by Greg Laden at 2:00 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: fish
The loss of sight in cave dwelling species is widely known. We presume that since sight in utter darkness has no fitness value, the mutation of a gene critical to the development of the sense of sight is not selected against. Over time, any population...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 12:00 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 26, 2008
"Twelve mentions of Charles Darwin in a 1,400 page textbook..."...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 10:00 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In the US, we (the general citizenry) are never going to agree on gun control. I have a solution....
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Posted by Greg Laden at 8:00 PM • 29 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
is here...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 7:16 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
... but it might be a sexual organ... The Federal Communications Commission has proposed a $1.4 million fine against 52 ABC Television Network stations over a 2003 broadcast of cop drama NYPD Blue....The fine is for a scene where a boy surprises a woman as...
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Posted by Greg Laden at 6:00 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks