Now on ScienceBlogs: "Investigative science journalism" and books I like to read [All of My Faults Are Stress Related]
Evolution, Life Sciences, Science Education, Human Evolution, and Stuff
Welcome to Greg Laden's Blog.
March 31, 2008
Canada, land of the holier than thou. Hey, some of my best friends are Canadians, but really, most Canadians look down on Americans for being all the bad things that we truly are. So fine, we deserve it. But if you are a non-Canadian of...
Posted by Greg Laden at 8:12 PM • 34 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Cosmos
Jennifer Gooch's mission was to create a simple Web site where people could go to find their lost gloves. Even if no happy reunions ever took place, she was just content to spread a little goodwill. But just a month since http://www.onecoldhand.com went live, the...
Posted by Greg Laden at 5:00 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Fall, a very sunny, very breezy day on the lake, Amanda and I sitting in the cabin minding our own business. Suddenly, ...thwack... ... well, it was a sort of tiny miniature thwack, but a thwack nonetheless. Peering outside through the window, we could see...
Posted by Greg Laden at 12:43 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 30, 2008
How do you avoid having sex with your close relatives? Well, not you, specifically, but how is it done generally, or perhaps among mammals in particular?...
Posted by Greg Laden at 5:00 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Other
Posted by Greg Laden at 3:31 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Nature conservation
Power lines kill raptors. Tens of thousands of raptors a year die on power lines. But there are ways to avoid this. On 26 February, the Hungarian Ornithological and Nature Conservation Society (MME; BirdLife in Hungary) signed an agreement with the Ministry of Environment and...
Posted by Greg Laden at 12:05 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 29, 2008
Posted by Greg Laden at 7:04 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The question is basic: Is evolutionary change largely random or is it more often shaped by selective forces? The former is linked to what is called Neutral Theory, and it has a lot of support, to the extent that it most likely true. The latter...
Posted by Greg Laden at 5:00 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 28, 2008
Category: Other
... below the fold....
Posted by Greg Laden at 11:23 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Environment
The Earth Hour, that is! March 29th is Earth Hour Day. From 8pm to 8pm in your local time zone, you are to switch off the lights and stuff. A number of astronomers out for an early evening look at the stars will thank you,...
Posted by Greg Laden at 10:13 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
The Friday Ark on Modulator and Carnival of the Liberals # 61 at Last Left Turn......
Posted by Greg Laden at 8:42 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
PZ Myers is not pulling punches with Expelled! and the enigmatically moronic producers of said movie....
Posted by Greg Laden at 7:23 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Education
The University of California Board of Regents today (March 27) voted unanimously to appoint Mark G. Yudof, current head of the University of Texas system and a recognized leader in American higher education, the 19th president of the University of California. The appointment was...
Posted by Greg Laden at 6:45 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Welcome to Gene Genie #24: with a heavy emphasis on Personal Genetics The previous Gene Genie was hosted at DNAdirect Talk and it is still fresh, so go have a look if you have not already. The next Gene Genie will be hosted at...
Posted by Greg Laden at 4:56 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Orgasms
[Hat Tip: Ana]...
Posted by Greg Laden at 3:28 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
According to a study just out in PLoS, you can learn to be nice. This study, using functional MRI brain imaging, assessed brain activity while meditation experts produced a meditative state called a "loving-kindness-compassion state" (and here I was thinking that the "loving-kindness-compassion state" was...
Posted by Greg Laden at 1:14 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Details:...
Posted by Greg Laden at 12:51 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Branta ruficollis is endangered. The Red Breasted Goose International Working Group (RbGIWG, which is unpronounceable) has a new species action plan to save this critter. Here's some info from Redbrested Goose Central: Red-breasted Goose (Branta ruficollis) is a charismatic globally threatened species highly dependent on...
Posted by Greg Laden at 11:43 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 27, 2008
Category: Cosmos
NASA astronomers were blown away last week by what was far and away the strongest gamma-ray burst (GRB) ever observed. GRB 080319B, shown here in x-ray [left] and optical/ultraviolet [right] views captured by the Swift satellite, burned so brightly that its afterglow was briefly...
Posted by Greg Laden at 11:30 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Birds
Don't mess with me, man, I'm a Philippine Eagle, Pithecophaga jefferyi. You can call me Jeff. This bird is almost extinct....
Posted by Greg Laden at 10:28 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Please get me your Gene Genie Blog Carnival Entries by tomorrow afternoon! I'd like to get the carnival up ca midnight on Friday. I've got lots of good stuff already, but I don't want you to miss your chance....
Posted by Greg Laden at 9:42 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The ape human split is a bit of a moving target. In the 1970s and early 1980s, there were geneticists who placed it at very recent (close to 4 million years ago) and palaeoanthropologists, using fossils, who placed it at much earlier. During the 1980s,...
Posted by Greg Laden at 8:29 PM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
The blog carnival, Number XVI, is here, at Dragon's Tales....
Posted by Greg Laden at 7:03 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Religion
Bible scholar and NorthPointe Christian High School teacher Kent Dobson resigned Tuesday after he and the school board parted ways over Dobson's role in a Discovery Channel program, "Jesus: The Missing History." "It was apparent to both Kent and the board that some of the...
Posted by Greg Laden at 6:04 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A California appellate court agreed Wednesday to rehear arguments in a controversial case that called into question the legality of home schooling, court documents show. A statewide uproar began when a panel with the 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled in last month that...
Posted by Greg Laden at 5:41 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science Education
Accepting his 2008 TED Prize, physicist Neil Turok speaks out for talented young Africans starved of opportunity: by unlocking and nurturing the continent's creative potential, we can create a change in Africa's future. Turok asks the TED community to help him expand the African Institute...
Posted by Greg Laden at 4:03 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Having examined Learning the bash Shell (In a Nutshell (O'Reilly)) (see here, here, and here), it is now time to turn to a more advanced reference to help you geek out on your Linux computer. If you want to have only one book on bash,...
Posted by Greg Laden at 2:03 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Old books can be wonderful sources of information, ideas, and even inspiration. I collect them and sometimes even read them. Reading a 100 year old book in your field of interest is a challenge and can be a rewarding experience. It is a challenge because...
Posted by Greg Laden at 12:24 PM • 22 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Let us begin by noting that "Europe" is an arbitrarily defined geographical unit occupied for the last few hundred years or so by people who believe that "Europe" is the Center of the Universe. Therefore, this statement: "The earliest hominin occupation of Europe is one...
Posted by Greg Laden at 9:31 AM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
The Four Stone Hearth #37 - The Pulp SciFi Edition is HERE at Hot Cup of Joe. Four stone hearth is the Anthropology blog carnival....
Posted by Greg Laden at 8:27 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 26, 2008
Category: Events
Emetrece Productions invites you to come 'sim simmer' with us! "Sim Simmer Latino" A special 'private party' free show to thank our friends and fans! Featuring Maria Isa, The Kamillion and Omari Omari on the 1s & 2s. FREE // 9PM - 12AM // 21+...
Posted by Greg Laden at 9:50 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Study shows the upside of anger from PhysOrg.com Here's a maxim from the "duh" department: People typically prefer to feel emotions that are pleasant, like excitement, and avoid those that are unpleasant, like anger. [...] Despite awareness of global warming Americans concerned more about...
Posted by Greg Laden at 9:01 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The following is not really a poll. It is just a picture of a poll. If you click on it, you will be swept away to the actual poll. I voted for gnome but I like some of the other ones too. I don't like...
Posted by Greg Laden at 8:15 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Cosmos
A new NOVA is on the way. "Voyage to the Mystery Moon" is about Titan and the planet it goes around, Saturn. Chronicling a bold voyage of discovery--the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn and its enigmatic moon Titan--"Voyage to the Mystery Moon" delivers striking images of...
Posted by Greg Laden at 7:39 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Anne Coulter sends me emails now and then (she doesn't know who I am ... don't tell her) so I get the inside anorexia, I mean, the inside skinny on some of the moves the hard right wing are making now and then. Astonishingly, very...
Posted by Greg Laden at 7:32 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Human Evolution
I have not read the paper yet, but there is a news report out. This will be in tomorrows nature: MADRID, Spain - A small piece of jawbone unearthed in a cave in Spain is the oldest known fossil of a human ancestor in Europe...
Posted by Greg Laden at 6:57 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Time for another installment of our look at the book Learning the bash Shell (In a Nutshell (O'Reilly)). Today's foray into Linux Land: Unix Command Substitution....
Posted by Greg Laden at 6:52 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Gun Ownership
An investigation is underway into how a gun carried by a US Airways pilot was discharged during a flight. No-one was hurt when the gun went off as the plane was preparing to land at Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday. A hole in a cockpit...
Posted by Greg Laden at 2:45 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
When you get a chance (not right now) have a look at this video. This is a piece done by Brian Rooney, a professional TV journalist with ABC News Nightline. He follows around Billy Jack and Rusty Carter, two young earth creationists who are leading...
Posted by Greg Laden at 9:29 AM • 29 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Welcome to Berry Go Round #3, the blog carnival deicated to all things botanical. The previous installment, Berry Go Round #2, is located here, at Further Thoughts. If you would like to submit an item to the next Berry Go Round, you may use this...
Posted by Greg Laden at 8:19 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
The Beagle Project The Birdchaser The Carnival of Education The Cheerful Oncologist The Corpus Callosum The Daily Transcript The Dispersal of Darwin The Education Wonks The Ethical Palaeontologist The Flying Trilobite The Friends of Charles Darwin The Frontal Cortex The Greenbelt The Inoculated Mind The...
Posted by Greg Laden at 1:36 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 25, 2008
Category: Evolutionary Biology
Posted by Greg Laden at 9:15 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
New findings from Tibetan Plateau suggest uplift occurred in stages from PhysOrg.com The vast Tibetan Plateau--the world's highest and largest plateau, bordered by the world's highest mountains--has long challenged geologists trying to understand how and when the region rose to such spectacular heights. New...
Posted by Greg Laden at 8:37 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Birds
Azores Bullfinch, known locally as Priolo, is confined to eastern São Miguel in the Azores, Portugal. It has suffered through widespread loss of native forest and invasion by exotic vegetation, which has largely overrun the remaining patches of natural vegetation within the species's breeding range....
Posted by Greg Laden at 6:16 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Archaeology
Two lion skulls found during excavations at the Tower of London originated in north-west Africa, genetic research suggests. The big cats, which were kept by royals during medieval times, have the same genetic make-up as the north African Barbary lion, a DNA study shows. Experts...
Posted by Greg Laden at 5:33 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Hat Tip Gwenny Todd...
Posted by Greg Laden at 4:15 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I believe I knew before PZ Myers did that an Asteroid had been named after him. I heard it on the radio. and much later on he confirmed it on his blog. See this post. [Correction: He knew, he was just being cool. See this.]...
Posted by Greg Laden at 2:10 PM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A "radiation" (sometimes called an "adaptive radiation") is when a single ancestral species gives rise to a number of novel species, often in a fairly short (geological) period of time. Following this radiation event, it seems often to be the case that subsequent speciation is...
Posted by Greg Laden at 12:06 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
UPDATE: Rumor confirmed. Today it was announced that an asteroid is being named after PZ Myers. Details at 11....
Posted by Greg Laden at 10:20 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Yesterday it was announced that 4000 American Soldiers had been killed, in total, in Iraq. I am not sure if this counts contract soldiers (such as Blackwater; Added: See notes below. It does not.), and I do not know if it includes American deaths since...
Posted by Greg Laden at 10:14 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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