Archives for April 10, 2008
Oh Crap, What are we Gonna Do Now?
Posted by Greg Laden on April 10, 2008 This is the first time we are forced to weather a major storm in the Twin Cities without Paul Douglas! We’re doomed!!!! This storm is supposed to go for another 24 hours or so. I am reminded of last spring when there was a particularly bad storm raging outside…
Homeschooling May Be the Better Choice …
Posted by Greg Laden on April 10, 2008 … if you live in Baltimore … Details and a poll for you to take:
I Never Liked John Stossel, and Now I Know Why
Posted by Greg Laden on April 10, 2008 John Stossel is the woo-loving moronic co-host of the formerly not too bad but these days totally sucky tv “news” show 20-20. It turns out Stossel is a libertarian home schooling supporter and reality denialist
Above-Average Hurricane Season Predicted
Posted by Greg Laden on April 10, 2008 A noted hurricane researcher predicted Wednesday that rising water temperatures in the Atlantic will bring a “well above average” storm season this year, including four major storms. The updated forecast by William Gray’s team at Colorado State University calls for 15 named storms in the Atlantic in 2008 and says there’s a better than average…
Nature News
Posted by Greg Laden on April 10, 2008 Deep-sea sharks wired for sound from PhysOrg.com Deep-sea sharks have been tagged and tracked and their habitats precisely mapped in world-first research to test the conservation value of areas closed to commercial fishing. [...] Shorebird numbers crash: survey alarm from PhysOrg.com One of the world’s great wildlife spectacles is under way across Australia: as many…
Christopher deCharms: Looking inside the brain in real time
Posted by Greg Laden on April 10, 2008 Neuroscientist and inventor Christopher deCharms demos an amazing new way to use fMRI to show brain activity while it is happening — emotion, body movement, pain. (In other words, you can literally see how you feel.) The applications for real-time fMRIs start with chronic pain control and range into the realm of science fiction, but…
Rube Goldberg Contest: Make a hamburger
Posted by Greg Laden on April 10, 2008 Rube Goldberg is the inventor of the Mouse Trap … the better mouse trap that is… He was actually a cartoonist who made famous the Rube Goldberg machines, which were increcibly complicated, intricate devices to do something simple in as many unlikely steps as possible. The board game “mouse trap” is based on this concept.…
Mark Shuttleworth: Playing Nicely with Windows
Posted by Greg Laden on April 10, 2008 Shuttleworth is the man behind Ubuntu. He has written an essay on his blog (Here be Dragons) on playing nice with windows. Windows is a very important platform, and our justifiable pride in Linux and the GNU stack shouldn’t blind us to the importance of delivering software that is widely useful. I believe in bringing…
Health News
Posted by Greg Laden on April 10, 2008 Methamphetamine use in pregnancy changes learning ability of the offspring from PhysOrg.com Studies have suggested that infants exposed to methamphetamines while in the womb can suffer irreversible brain damage, although the exact effects of these drugs during pregnancy have been hard to pinpoint due to many other negative behaviors that often occur in meth users.…
Skeptic’s Circle Carnival
Posted by Greg Laden on April 10, 2008 The Skeptic’s Circle Number 84 is HERE.
Do Recent Home Schooling Bills Threaten Home Schooler’s Freedoms?
Posted by Greg Laden on April 10, 2008 Yes, and it probably should. The bill requires that the home schooled students receive instruction from qualified individuals, and that the students be registered with the state. Both are reasonable requirements for any educational program, home schooling or otherwise. But this is considered unacceptable by many homeschooling proponents (but not all). I found an interesting…
Good Bye Paul Douglas
Posted by Greg Laden on April 10, 2008 The story goes like this: Paul Douglas was a back-room meteorologist for a local Twin Cities news show. He was one of the guys in the back that actually predicted the weather, which was then delivered by the pretty boy/girl weathermen/women on camera. One day the main weatherman was out of town, and the other…
Blogospherics – Recommended reads
Posted by Greg Laden on April 10, 2008 Why do we read blogs? “The rise of blogging clearly represents a significant social phenomenon, but studying it poses a challenge in part because defining a blog is not a simple thing….” Blogging Meets Literary Analysis… at ars technica… Blogs Bashing Expelled! The Movie Press Releases are Written by Stupid People and What can be…
Expelled Busted
Posted by Greg Laden on April 10, 2008 Things are happening exactly as I predicted…(Expelled! The Movie To Be Pulled From Theaters Following Myers/Dawkins-Gate Screwup) The movie “Expelled!” with Ben Stein (you may have heard of it) includes a segment consisting of the animation of the inside workings of a cell. It is said to look a lot like a production that came…
Microsoft Wants Yahoo
Posted by Greg Laden on April 10, 2008 A letter from Steven Ballmer to Yahoo: Dear Members of the Board: It has now been more than two months since we made our proposal to acquire Yahoo! at a 62% premium to its closing price on January 31, 2008, the day prior to our announcement. Our goal in making such a generous offer was…
, which is now available for the 
