Archives for February, 2008
Creationism, Stupidity, Linked
Posted by Greg Laden on February 29, 2008 According to a poll this week, approximately 31 percent of surveyed Americans believe Roger Clemens is telling the truth about never taking performance-enhancing drugs. This is about the same percentage of Americans who believe in creationism, and still insist George Bush is doing a good job. And here’s my theory: These are all the same…
My Uncle Is A Man Named Steve (Not A Monkey)
Posted by Greg Laden on February 29, 2008 That is the title of the First Place science fair project from a baptist science fair. The description of the project: Cassidy Turnbull (grade five) presented her uncle, Steve. She also showed photographs of monkeys and invited fairgoers to note the differences between her uncle and the monkeys. She tried to feed her uncle bananas,…
Carnivals
Posted by Greg Laden on February 29, 2008 Carnival of Education # 160 Friday Ark # 180 Carnival of the Liberals #59
The Origin of the Chicken
Posted by Greg Laden on February 29, 2008 Where and when were chickens domesticated? From whence the humble chicken? Gallus gallus is a domesticated chicken-like bird (thus, the name “chicken”) that originates in southeast Asia. Ever since Darwin we’ve known that the chicken originated in southeast Asia, although the exact details of which one or more of several possible jungle fowls is the…
Two Cell Level Animations
Posted by Greg Laden on February 29, 2008 are here: HIV infection at Wissen schafft Kommunikatioin Other cellular stuff (an oldie but a goodie) at WeiterGen!
Ricin
Posted by Greg Laden on February 29, 2008 At this moment, there is a guy laid up in the hospital in Vegas with ricin poisoning. A stash of ricin has been found in his hotel room/apartment. His dog is dead (not sure why but probably due to lack of water and food) and a couple of other pets are either dead or not…
Roy Gould: WorldWide Telescope
Posted by Greg Laden on February 29, 2008 Science educator Roy Gould and Microsoft’s Curtis Wong give an astonishing sneak preview of Microsoft’s new WorldWide Telescope — a technology that combines feeds from satellites and telescopes all over the world and the heavens, and weaves them together holistically to build a comprehensive view of our universe. (Yes, it’s the technology that made Robert…
We ain’t outta Texas yet … Creationist Stacked School Board Looms on the Horizon
Posted by Greg Laden on February 29, 2008 It turns out that there are TWO (not just the previously reported Barney Maddox) distinct threats to the delicate pro- vs. anti-science balance on the Texas School Board. I had earlier alerted you to trouble brewing in Texas, with Full Blown Creationist Nuthead Barney Maddox poised to take the swing seat on the Board of…
Microsoft Execs Struggled with Vista
Posted by Greg Laden on February 29, 2008 Microsoft Execs Struggled with Vista Emails show Microsoft’s Vista problems from PhysOrg.com E-mails suggest Microsoft executives struggled to make Windows Vista work on their own computers after it was released, a published report said. [...]
When the Maya sang the blues …
Posted by Greg Laden on February 29, 2008 … it was time to skip town. I’m going to Mayaland in a few weeks. I know nothing about Mayan archaeology, even though I attended graduate school at one of the world’s premier locals for the study of Mesoamerican archaeology. Since I was working towards a double PhD (in Biological Anthropology and Archaeology) I was…
The navel is starting to attract a crowd
Posted by Greg Laden on February 29, 2008 Janet Stemwedel provides an interesting and well reasoned reaction to the recent criticisms from BlaBlaBlog about the insularity and generally evil nature of Scienceblogs.com. Janet is merely a puppet in this case. We had a big meeting last night in the secret clubhouse and decided how to react to this biting criticism, assembled a document,…
Check out this navel, baby.
Posted by Greg Laden on February 29, 2008 Janet Stemwedel provides an interesting and well reasoned reaction to the recent criticisms from BlaBlaBlog about the insularity and generally evil nature of Scienceblogs.com. Janet is merely a puppet in this case. We had a big meeting last night in the secret clubhouse and decided how to react to this biting criticism, assembled a document,…
Peer Review on Science Blogs
Posted by Greg Laden on February 29, 2008 This has existed for a while (a couple of weeks?): A new scienceblogs.com feed for blogs addressing peer reviewed research. You can see the feed here at the Sb RSS feed page (from which you can subscribe or whatever you do with your feeds). So, together with things like Ask a Science Blogger and the…
The Force is With Us
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2008 So, maybe scienceblogs is special after all…
Polar Bears Under Threat …
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2008 As usual. Along with seabirds, owing to decisions made by the US government. The US Government has auctioned leases to drill for oil and gas in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska, putting at risk internationally important concentrations of seabirds, and a number of threatened bird species, including the Critically Endangered Kittlitz’s Murrelet Brachyramphus brevirostri. Audubon…
What’s Up Doc? Well, local extinction, silly wabbit …
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2008 Historical records indicate that 130 years ago, the white-tailed jack rabbit was abundant in the Yellowstone vicinity. The last confirmed sighting was in 1991. What happened? This apparently remains a mystery, according to Rabbit Expert Joel Berger.
SARS comes from bats
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2008 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is caused by a coronavirus that is now believed to have originated in bats. In 2004, thousands of palm civets (a cat like carnivore) were killed off in China because it was believed that they were the main reservoir of this disease. Ooops.
Are emerging diseases emerging more?
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2008 Or is it just that they are more often recognized. Or more sensationally reported. A recent study suggests that “emerging” diseases such as HIV, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), West Nile virus and Ebola are more common.
Rare Birds Yearbook 2008
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2008 Rare Birds Yearbook 2008: The World’s 189 Most Threatened Birds is, according to BirdLife International, proving to be a great success. Last year’s Rare Birds Yearbook photo competition was a huge success with more than 1,000 images being submitted and the best were presented in Rare Birds Yearbook 2008, with each published photographer receiving a…
Why are the bats dying?
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2008 Thousands of sick and dying bats are being found in caves in New York, Vermont and Massachusetts. These are mostly Myotis lucifungus (the fairly common little brown bat) but at least three other species, including the endangered Myotis sodalis (Indiana bat) are affected as well. But why?
Four Stone Hearth # 35…
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2008 … is up at Archaeoporn
Kenyan Birds and Sugar Cane
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2008 A flourishing wetland on Kenya’s northern coast is under serious threat from plans to grow vast amounts of sugarcane, partly for biofuel production. Developers want to transform nearly 20,000 hectares of the spectacular Tana River Delta, into sugarcane plantations with other parts of the Delta earmarked for rice. “This development would be a national disaster,…
An Ocean of Despair
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2008 Almost half of the world’s oceans have been ruined to some degree … often very severely … by human activity. You’ve heard a lot on the news and in the blogosphere about this lately. This increased interest is in part because of the recent production (Feb 15th Science) of a map of the ocean showing…
Life After Darwin Part 08
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2008 More Life After Darwin Parts 9 and 10 exist, and may be found on YouTube, but the versions that I’ve looked at are broken (no sound). Sorry!
Very Large Parks are the Wave of the Future
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2008 Across Africa, and to some extent Asia, existing large parks and preserves are being combined into very large parks in order to serve several important functions. One is to make the parks so large that there will be interior areas that are impractical for most poaching or other encroachment. Another is to allow movement of…
Wild Gorillas Gone Wild
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2008 This is a photograph of wild western lowland gorillas copulating in, sort of, the missionary position. This shot was taken in the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo.
Wind Turbines Gone Wild
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2008 I’ve seen wind turbines from a distance, and they looked big, but I had no idea how big they were until I was as the State Fair (Minnesota) last year, and saw a single blade, mounted vertically like an enormous sculpture, extending gracefully so high in the sky that passing comets and asteroids were getting…
Lemur Family Tree Mapped
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2008 A DNA phylogeny based on over 200 species of lemurs and related species is now available.
New Zealand announces measures for albatross
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2008 BirdLife International has welcomed the measures announced by New Zealand Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton to reduce the number of seabirds killed in New Zealand’s fisheries. This follows an incident last year where a single longline vessel fishing in the Chatham Rise area of New Zealand was responsible for the deaths of 36 albatrosses including 12…
The Coming Plague
Posted by Greg Laden on February 27, 2008 You have probably heard that the current flu vaccine matches the current flue strains in the US very poorly, perhaps at about a 40 percent rate. Flu and the vaccine mismatch is a post at Effect Measure that will update you on this important issue. This is especially important because you need to understand what…
, which is now available for the 
