Archives for July, 2008
Carnivals!
Posted by Greg Laden on July 28, 2008 Tangled Bank #110 is at Pharyngula. The strangest and most creative carnival EVAH, the seventh edition of Berry Go Round, is up at A Blog Around the Clock. I CAN HAZ LINK LUV! Philosophers’ Carnival at Beyond Borders. The Carnival Of Education: Week 181 at The Education Wonks Friday Ark #201 at the Modulator Welcome…
Operating Systems Can Be Funny. Sort Of
Posted by Greg Laden on July 28, 2008 How many Microsoft software engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
McCain Might Tap The Governor of the Falling Bridges for Veep Slot
Posted by Greg Laden on July 27, 2008 On August 1st, 2007, the I35W Bridge over the Mississippi collapsed, probably because the Minnesota DOT, run by a crony of the Republican no-taxes (and thus no spending on essential services) governor Tim Pawlenty failed in the areas of inspection and/or engineering. It was a big mess, people died, and we are spending millions to…
The “Dumbo Octopus”
Posted by Greg Laden on July 27, 2008 Strangest thing I’ve seen all weekend:
Patch your OS now
Posted by Greg Laden on July 27, 2008 In early July it was made public that Dan Kaminsky, internet security guru, had figured out (several months earlier) a way to use DNS (the internet name server thingie) to do bad things. It is called “cashe poisoning.” DNS uses a cache to remember typically redundant info about addresses so it does not have to…
Yet Another Shooting Rampage
Posted by Greg Laden on July 27, 2008 Jim Adkisson entered the Unitarian Church for a children’s play earlier today, carrying a guitar case. But instead of taking out a guitar and singing Kumbaya, he pulled out a shotgun, killed two adults, and wounded seven others before being overpowered. This was in Knoxville Tennessee. Jim Adkisson, 58, of Powell, Tennessee, was charged with…
Sushi and Canaries
Posted by Greg Laden on July 27, 2008 The end is near, if you are a tuna fish. “The rage for sushi and sashimi, Japan’s raw fish dishes that overtook the West and have now spread to increasingly prosperous China, risks wiping out one of the Mediterranean’s most emblematic residents: the bluefin tuna.” according to a recent report. Shouldn’t be much of a…
Amphibian Immune Systems and Survival
Posted by Greg Laden on July 27, 2008 Frog The Major Histocampatibility Complex (MHC) is an adaptive feature of the immune system that probably evolved in basal tetrapods. The MHC is genetically diverse in most populations, so the pattern of genetic variation of the MHC is probably behind the pattern of morbidity and mortality when a population is challenged with a given pathogen.…
Live blogging PZ Myers on Atheist Talk Radio
Posted by Greg Laden on July 27, 2008 PZ Myers‘ appearance on Atheist Talk Radio was positively Orwellian. Host Mike the Madman Haubrich actually asked PZ about developmental biology (evodevo). Fish embryos? What about crackers!!!! I wanted crackers!!!! And I get Zebrafish! The interview was actually very interesting, in which PZ discussed homologous structures in the mouse and the bat, in reference to…
This photograph needs a caption
Posted by Greg Laden on July 27, 2008 Blogospherics: Recommended reads
Posted by Greg Laden on July 27, 2008 This looks like something I would do. Flying through the tropics (in a plane) is worse than other flying, environmentally speaking. Or so it says here. “Zhongornis haoae is an itty-bitty, teeny-weeny juvenile bird from the Early Cretaceous of China. At just over 10 centimeters long, the little guy is positively tiny.” Read the fine…
Blog Roll
Posted by Greg Laden on July 26, 2008 Corpus Callosum ~ The Field Negro ~ The Flying Trilobite ~ Reasic (global warming) ~ Angry Toxicologist ~ Bad Astronomy ~ Shes such a geek ~ The Island of Doubt ~ lunartalks ~ An Inconvenient Truth ~ Egyptology News ~ Life Before Death ~ Neurophilosophy ~ Mendel’s Garden ~ Mechanically Separated Meat ~ Salamander Candy…
Video Editing with Eff Eff Em Peg
Posted by Greg Laden on July 26, 2008 The shit is hitting the fan in Nigeria
Posted by Greg Laden on July 26, 2008 Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) commandos Nigeria is where Western graduate students in political science who study corruption go to do their fieldwork. There appears to be an ensconced elite and externally connected ruling body and a down trodden underclass organized into various resistance groups. The discovery of abundant petroleum reserves…
The Wrong Way to Approach the Evolution-Creationism Debate
Posted by Greg Laden on July 26, 2008 Amy Binder and John H. Evans, associate professors of Sociology at the University of California at San Diego, have written a piece on efforts to force religion in the guise of Intelligent Design and Creationism down the throats of children in Texas. A proposal before the Texas Board of Education calls for including the “strengths…
Sunday Atheist Talk Radio: PZ Myers and CL Hanson
Posted by Greg Laden on July 26, 2008 Minnesota Atheists’ “Atheists Talk” radio show Sunday, July 27, 2008, 9-10 a.m. Central Time P.Z. Myers discusses “Evo-Devo: What do a mouse’s leg and a bat’s wing have in common?” Also, atheist blogger C.L. Hanson discusses her book “Ex-Mormon.” “Atheists Talk” airs live on AM 950 KTNF in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. To stream live,…
He’s Al Franken and He’s OK.
Posted by Greg Laden on July 26, 2008 Hat Tip: TUIBG But wait, there’s more:
Head of UMN Morris Backs PZ Myers
Posted by Greg Laden on July 25, 2008 It appears that the Chancellor of the University of Minnesota, Morris put out a statement today regarding PZ Myers’ recent activity in relation to the cracker/eucharist. This led to coverage in the Star Tribune where you can, if you like, leave a comment. The story: Morris chancellor defends instructor who defiled Eucharist, tore Qur’an The…
Is McCain Even with Obama and Coleman Killing Franken in Minnesota?
Posted by Greg Laden on July 25, 2008 According to the Star Tribune: But the Star Tribune is wrong, and they know they are wrong (according to sources close in). So, is their front page editor on crack or something? Let’s test this hypothesis. (UPDATE: See: Senate race polling breakdown)
PZ Myers vs. The Cracker
Posted by Greg Laden on July 25, 2008 The same guy made this film:
Are Gnome and Ubuntu ruining the Linux Desktop?
Posted by Greg Laden on July 25, 2008 Some current news in the Linuxosphere, and some things going on on my very own desktop, have me wondering about the nature of the Linux Desktop. Here are a few questions to ponder. Are Gnome and Ubuntu ruining the Linux Desktop? And if they are, what do we do about it? Is Linux currently at…
Ding Dong
Posted by Greg Laden on July 25, 2008 … door bell ringing in the middle of the afternoon. Either a neighbor in trouble or trouble for whomever is bothering me…. I look through the peep hole and see two young men in white shirts and dark pants. Bloody Mormons. Vaguely curious as to how they are going to identify themselves, (since Mormon has…
The New World Order
Posted by Greg Laden on July 25, 2008 Hey, this seems like a great idea, what do you think? (I have to admit that I got board and did not watch it to the end…. as long as they are not planning on planting chips in our bodies.)
Is the grass is greener on the other Knol?
Posted by Greg Laden on July 25, 2008 Sorry for the mixed metaphor, but I assure you, it gets worse. Google may be taking a shot at Wikipedia (and similar projects) with its newly unveiled Knol project. Knol was announced many moons ago but has been under cover and password protected with only a few special people allowed in to see what was…
Carnivals
Posted by Greg Laden on July 25, 2008 The Carnival of Cinema MedBlogs Grand Rounds 4:44 The 200th Edition! Change of Shift: New Year, New Logo (Vol.3, No. 2) The 134th Carnival of Homeschooling – The 12 Labors of Hercules Olympic-themed I and the Bird #80!
First Test Tube Baby Born
Posted by Greg Laden on July 25, 2008 The birth of the world’s first “test tube baby” has been announced in Manchester. Louise Brown was born shortly before midnight in Oldham and District General Hospital. Weighing 5lb 12oz (2.61 kg) the baby was delivered by caesarean section because her mother, Lesley Brown, was suffering from toxaemia. The consultant in charge of the case,…
On line surveillance of emerging infectious disease?
Posted by Greg Laden on July 25, 2008 Enough monkeys banging on keyboards over enough time should produce, through random chance alone, sensible prose now and then. But if the monkeys are bloggers and reporters and other people, the noise they generate would become merely pseudo-sensible because of (highly unlikely) chance events, but it should actually contain some information. With a little tweaking…
Book Meme
Posted by Greg Laden on July 24, 2008 Below the fold is a memetic book list. You are supposed to copy it on to your blog and bold the ones you’ve read. The initial assertion is that the ‘average American’ has read six items on this list of 100. Since this is an international blog, I’d like to see what the non-American perspective…
, which is now available for the 
