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Welcome to Greg Laden's Blog.
September 30, 2008
Category: Blogospherics
on October 3rd. If you click there now, you will get this: James Nachtwey, one of the world's greatest photojournalists and winner of the 2007 TEDPrize, received "one wish to change the world": "I'm working on a story that the world needs to know...
Posted by Greg Laden at 11:18 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Atheism
Happy New Year! I was a good little atheist today, and made a reasonably convincing argument that Bill Maher has NOT gone too far in trashing religion. After all, no one expected the Spanish Inquisition. Or at least, the elderly Jewish and Catholic people were...
Posted by Greg Laden at 11:03 PM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Here's a poll you may be interested in. The question is: Do you think Sarah Palin is qualified to serve as Vice President of the United States? And so far the answer is "Yes" by a small margin. This poll is at PBS. Here....
Posted by Greg Laden at 9:59 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
So, what do you'all think of this guy? Should I trust him?...
Posted by Greg Laden at 9:55 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Computer Tricks
A few more shortcut keys for you to learn and live by: Alt + F1 Opens the Applicantions Menu . Alt + F2 Displays the Run Application dialog. Print Screen Takes a screenshot, opens dialog to save the screenshot as a PNG file. Alt +...
Posted by Greg Laden at 9:07 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Not long ago, Minnesota was moved to the "undecided column" by many pollsters. Well, in the words of the great Inspector Clouseau, "Nit Iny Meour"..... In Minnesota, Barack Obama has opened an eight-point lead over John McCain. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Minnesota...
Posted by Greg Laden at 5:32 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Climate
This is a photograph from the vicinity of Galveston Texas. These fish were stranded in this fence after Hurricane Ike's storm surge receded. This photo is one of a dozen or so I received that are allegedly being used in FEMA disaster training, and...
Posted by Greg Laden at 4:27 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
You'll need two/three cases of beer, three/four bottles of wine, a few friends, and understanding neighbor. Do not watch this video if you intend to drive. And now, How to remove red wine stains from your carpet:...
Posted by Greg Laden at 3:54 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
This is from Robert Reich's blog: Prediction: A scaled-down bill will be enacted by the end of the week. It will provide the Treasury with a first installment of $150 billion. Treasury can use it to back Wall Street's bad debts with lend no-interest loans...
Posted by Greg Laden at 2:27 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
We need a society in which laws are based purely on secular reasoning. So, for example, let's take the marriage laws. There's no reason to prohibit same-gender, same-sex marriages. The government is supposed to treat all citizens equally, so there's no secular reason to be...
Posted by Greg Laden at 10:30 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: People
It is a cartoon power point-like thingie about the current financial crisis. Click the picture....
Posted by Greg Laden at 10:20 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Michael Moore's critique of the bailout recently mailed around the intertubes includes this list of problems: 1. The bailout bill had NO enforcement provisions for the so-called oversight group that was going to monitor Wall Street's spending of the $700 billion; 2. It had NO...
Posted by Greg Laden at 10:10 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Nature conservation
See also this short article on film director Randy Olson....
Posted by Greg Laden at 9:58 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Thirty Days Hath September, which means that tonight I'll be compiling the Carnival of Evolution. I'll actually be putting it up during the day tomorrow, and can probably take late submissions even through the early AM. Either way, please send me your blog posts on...
Posted by Greg Laden at 7:19 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 29, 2008
An article just out in PLOS Biology explores one of the most important, but also difficult to observe, phenomena related to DNA regulation. Figure 1 from the paper: "Atomic Force Microscopy of Lac Repressor-DNA Complexes (A) Schematic structures of biotin (bio)- and digoxigenin (dig)-labeled DNA...
Posted by Greg Laden at 11:00 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Fossils of a newly discovered species of dinosaur -- a 10-meter-long, elephant-weight predator -- were discovered in 1996 along the banks of Argentina's Rio Colorado, and are now being reported after a long period of careful study. This dinosaur dates to about 85 million years...
Posted by Greg Laden at 5:32 PM • 17 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Other
And just in case, you better also learn how to walk in high heels....
Posted by Greg Laden at 4:54 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
Open Laboratory 2008 is the third year of the annual Open Laboratory publishing project. This involves readers picking science blog posts that they like, then a bunch of judges choosing among them. The final batch is then published. This is a good thing. The first...
Posted by Greg Laden at 4:39 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Human societies tend to be at least a little polygynous. This finding, recently reported in PLoS genetics, does not surprise us but is nonetheless important. This important in two ways: 1) This study uncovers numerical details of human genetic variation that are necessary to understand...
Posted by Greg Laden at 3:25 PM • 23 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Republicans failed to come up to the plate, and with 66 voting for and 132 voting against, the critically important bailout bill has failed in the house. As the vote turned against the bill, we watched the stock market dive precipitously. The Dow stands...
Posted by Greg Laden at 2:15 PM • 48 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
560 Billion Dollars Cost of the Iraq War to the US so far. 700 Billion Dollars Cost of the one time bailout to compensate for deregulation and greed in the financial markets. 560 Billion Dollars Pluse 700 Billion Dollars The cost of two terms...
Posted by Greg Laden at 1:32 PM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science Education
Hat top: blgoSci...
Posted by Greg Laden at 11:09 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Earth Science
Geological time scales for you to use on your blog.
Posted by Greg Laden at 10:15 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Technology
Here are excerpt from a list of things you will never see on Star Trek 1. The Enterprise runs into a mysterious energy field of a type it has encountered several times before. 2. The Enterprise goes to visit a remote outpost of scientists, who...
Posted by Greg Laden at 9:26 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 28, 2008
The proof is finally in. John McCain has the uncanny ability to say whatever he wants no matter how utterly untrue it is and retain support in the double (albeit diminishing) digits. The Chinese are also able to say whatever they want (like, this girl...
Posted by Greg Laden at 9:45 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Ready for more shortcuts? And a small rant? These days, I find myself using a Windows computer far more often than I want to, and every day I am reminded of how much better the user interface that you get with Gnome running on Linux...
Posted by Greg Laden at 9:09 PM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
The waiting is over. Republican house representatives initially reluctant to support the newly crafted legislation to fix the markets have been meeting for the last two or three hours. It took a lot longer for these Republicans to go over the bill than it did...
Posted by Greg Laden at 8:29 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Climate
But Nova Scotia will take it in the neck, so to speak. Kyle has made a pretty hard right turn and is going to make landfall in Nova Scotia. This changes the landfall estimate by many hours, because of the complex shape of the New...
Posted by Greg Laden at 7:30 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
These parodies are getting better and better . This one is hysterical:...
Posted by Greg Laden at 4:43 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Caption Needed
Posted by Greg Laden at 11:30 AM • 28 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Climate
As a supplement to my essay on Maine here is the actual important information on Kyle. Kyle is only barely being thought of as a hurricane at this moment. The forcasters are using terms like "Ugly" (which means not well formed as a hurricane) and...
Posted by Greg Laden at 10:59 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
To go "down east" is to go "to Maine" ... or if you are already in Maine, to go to the "real" Maine. As you drive down east on Route One, you can see the transition as clear as the gull shit on Schooner Head....
Posted by Greg Laden at 10:50 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science Education
Posted by Greg Laden at 10:00 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Many people are frustrated with the level of debate these days, and it is not uncommon to wax nostalgic for the good old days, the days when debates were entirely live, in person, and went on and on until they were done, unconstrained by a...
Posted by Greg Laden at 9:00 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Hey, she didn't get where she is by eating moose burgers and popping out kids:...
Posted by Greg Laden at 8:36 AM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
... of the blog Highly Allochon ... Highly Allochthon ... no, wait, .. Got it Highly Allochthonous....
Posted by Greg Laden at 12:02 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 27, 2008
Category: Politics
H/T...
Posted by Greg Laden at 11:12 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Not only is our universe expanding, but with the LHC online we may even find the elusive Higgs Boson soon. Tune in this Sunday for a discussion about the very small and very large in our universe with two prominent physicists: Keith Olive, Physicist...
Posted by Greg Laden at 9:19 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Carnival of Feminists #65 Carnival of Education, #190 Announcement: New Book Review Blog Carnival Social Media Blog Carnival - September 24, 2008 Carnival Of The Liberals, #74 Working at Home Blog Carnival-104th Edition Four Stone Hearth Anthropology Blog Carnival Carnival of Eastern European Genealogy...
Posted by Greg Laden at 9:12 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Technology
It has been a while since I've updated you on the latest very important technology movies. If you are PC, don't bother watching. You won't like any of these They are below the fold....
Posted by Greg Laden at 7:09 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogospherics
By model I mean model explaining the origins of agriculture, and you can read all about this hot number right here at ABW. And while you are working on that mind boggling concept, consider the role of r-strategists in your garden. Science in action. Almost...
Posted by Greg Laden at 6:16 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: LHC
(BTW: It does not "straddle both France and Switzerland" ... it straddles the border.) Totally stolen from ABATC...
Posted by Greg Laden at 3:32 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
A lot of people think the debate was pretty even. Obama supporters liked Obama, McCain supporters liked McCain, I assume (that is utterly obvious). But what matters is the effect on uncommitted voters. Aside from the effects of the three major gaffs that McCain made...
Posted by Greg Laden at 12:47 PM • 27 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Technology
Which operating system is best for you? Tired of the OS wars between Mac, Linux and that other one? Try one of these OS's. Richard Stallman will be speaking at the University of Minnesota on October 21st (Thanks for the tip, Ben) Today, by the...
Posted by Greg Laden at 10:00 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 26, 2008
Category: Politics
It was fourteen years ago today that New Gingrich, then Leader of the Republican Delegation to the United States House of Represented initiated the absurd stunt known as the Contract on America (or something close to that, anyway). The Contract was originally circulated as a...
Posted by Greg Laden at 11:03 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
I want to officially complain about T. Boone Pickens. What an offensive dit. I am tired of his commercials (the most recent having just been aired ... the post debate commercial) telling us that we need to become energy independent, and blaming the very same...
Posted by Greg Laden at 11:00 PM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
This is McCain's preferred debating weapon: And this is what he looked like during the debate: While at the end, this is how Obama looked: But McCain got a hug in the end......
Posted by Greg Laden at 10:40 PM • 24 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
From Kathleen Parker of the National Review: If at one time women were considered heretical for swimming upstream against feminist orthodoxy, they now face condemnation for swimming downstream -- away from Sarah Palin. Oh what fun. Parker, a very conservative columnist writing for a very...
Posted by Greg Laden at 8:50 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Don't forget to watch the debates tonight. In watching the pre-debate coverage, we learn that Ted Kennedy has been brought to the hospital. For a man with brain cancer, this may be a not uncommon thing, and there are no details. Stay tuned (to the...
Posted by Greg Laden at 7:25 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Tim Lambert 11.22.2009
PZ Myers 11.19.2009
PZ Myers 11.22.2009
Ed Brayton 11.22.2009
Ed Brayton 11.22.2009
