Greg Laden's Blog

OMG, Ken Ham is Right!!11!!

Category: dinosaurs

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Posted by Greg Laden at 11:51 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Is this the best the Republicans can do?

Category: Republicans

It turns out Jindal was lying about the Katrina story he told during his response to Obama's "State of the Union" address. Jindal had described being in the office of Sheriff Harry Lee "during Katrina," and hearing him yelling into the phone at a government...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 5:56 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

LeRoy Bell

Category: Music

Since someone is posting love songs, I figured I could do that too. Peace Monday! OK OK so that was not a love song. But the love song is not a video, just a still with the music in the background, and that just isn't...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 5:10 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Carefully Selected Cool Intertubual Items

Category: Blogospherics

Poking around in my blogroll. So you don't have to. A letter to Robert Mugabe. This is a must read. By Mugabe especially, but you as well: "Happy Birthday Bob Mugabe" by Nkawzi N. Mhango at Afrospear. Speaking of ironies, here is a list of...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 2:29 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

LEGO Turing Machine

Category: Technology

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Posted by Greg Laden at 1:51 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Massimo Pigliucci v Jonathan Wells on evolution and intelligent design...

Category: Religion

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Posted by Greg Laden at 12:00 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

How to Tell the Difference Between Science and Bunk. Massimo Pigliucci on Atheists Talk

Category: Creationism

... Being interviewed by ME! (So don't expect this to go well!!!!) Sunday March 1, 2009 Prof. Massimo Pigliucci, of the Stonybrook Institute in New York, is a biologist and a philosopher who has published about a hundred technical papers and several books on evolutionary...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 10:54 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

For Ol' Times Sake

Laughing at Coulter. Below the fold....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 11:49 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Inside CPAC

Category: Republicans

Rachel takes 'em down.

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Posted by Greg Laden at 9:19 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

How much would you bet on this economy?

Or, more precisely, during this economy? Stephanie Zvan at Quiche Moraine examines the question of using gaming as a way out of the state's fiscal crisis in the North Star State, in Assessing the Odds....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 8:42 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Why didn't Darwin discover Mendel's laws?

Category: Evolutionary Biology

Perhaps we are all subject to falling into the trap of what I call the Hydraulic Theory of Everything. If you eat more you will be bigger, if you eat less you will be smaller. Emotional states are the continuously varying outcome of different levels...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 8:26 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Tickets to Dawkins

Category: Atheism

Minnesotans: Get your tickets to Dawkins by joining Minnesota Atheists. Details here....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 4:46 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Understanding Michele Bachmann in the context of Human Evolution

Category: Brain and Behavior

Years of training have converted much of the Republican base to a pack of dogs, chained to an ideological stake, always ready to bark at the movement of shadows beyond the fence. Bachmann's congressional district is demographically as close as any district can be to this Republican ideal. This is why Bachmann can get re-elected and continue to be invited to speak at major Party gatherings. Bachmann is not Newt Gingrich. She does not grasp the overarching strategy. She is not a simpleton's face hiding a brilliant political mind. She is just the simpleton. I doubt she is even taking marching orders from anyone. Bachmann is merely one of the dogs, among many, barking at the shadows moving behind the fence.

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Posted by Greg Laden at 12:11 PM • 33 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

PLoS Paleontology Collections

Category: Paleontology

PLoS ONE is a veritable fire hose of OpenAccess research. Which is nice, but how do you browse a fire hose? By using the PLoS ONE collections you can track your favorite topic or delve into the earlier literature or just browse around. And now,...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 6:53 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Fear 101

Public Schools new dress code enforced - watch more funny videos...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 11:51 PM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Technology Tidbits

Category: Linux

Microsoft's Ballmer indicates that Linux is moving ahead of Mac as a threat to Windows. UK Goes OpenSource Women in OpenSource Report...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 8:44 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

'Pre-Existing Condition' Fueled Killer Cyclone

Category: Earth Science

A "pre-existing condition" in the North Indian Ocean stoked the sudden intensification of last year's Tropical Cyclone Nargis just before its devastating landfall in Burma, according to a new NASA/university study. The cyclone became Burma's worst natural disaster ever and one of the deadliest cyclones...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 5:33 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Karmic Koala Prospects Kloudy

Category: Technology

In a good way. Ubuntu 9.10 is scheduled for release in October of this year, and will include the Amazon EC2 API. This will allow anyone to have a cloud using all OpenSource raw materials. And it will be energy savvy. From Mark Shuttleworth: What...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 3:31 PM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Please Don't Play Games With My Date and Time Data

Category: TOTBAL-software

An Open Letter to All Software Developers, You're doing it wrong. I don't like changing, shifting, cutsie, idiotic date formats, and I don't like rounding off much either. Please stop.

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Posted by Greg Laden at 2:35 PM • 19 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Advising, Advisee-ing, Mentoring, Mentoree-ing

Category: Education

This week we touched on the adviser/advisee relationship between faculty and students in class, and by coincidence blogger k8andcat has posted a very insightful and useful post on this topic. If you are a student (grad or undergrad) or a potential mentor, please read it....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 1:52 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Insane snowfall

Category: Welcome to the Twilight Zone

We are expecting the storm of the year today in the Twin Cities. I'm looking at a weather map, and there is snow everywhere around Minneapolis and Saint Paul, including where I am. Events have been canceled. The whole nine yards (important planning related sports...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 12:18 PM • 19 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Viva la Evolucion Shirt

This t-shirt company uses designs by teenagers in a way that may provide for an interesting creative outlet. Interestingly, a few of these kids are making creationist shirts, and a few are making evolution-friendly shirts....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 12:03 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Myostatin mutations

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Posted by Greg Laden at 9:58 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Bash 4.0 = **, $>>, and associative arrays

Category: Technology

Bash 4.0 includes associative arrays, a superwildcard called "**" and a new redirection operator. Details are here....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 9:41 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Franken Coleman MN Senate Recount Update

Category: Politics

Ana has contributed a detailed comment....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 9:04 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Male vs. Female Brains

Category: Anthropology

The male and female human brains are different. Some of the better documented differences are similar to differences seen in other mammals. They are hard to find, very small, and may or may not be of great significance. Obviously, some are very important because they...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 8:48 PM • 39 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Topi or not Topi ...

Category: Evolutionary Biology

Go to any bar and you'll see a lot of males standing and sitting around not mating. I'll bet you would have guessed that the reason they are not mating is that no females will mate with them for one reason or another. But there...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 7:09 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Midori's Floating World Cafe

I highly recommend dinner with Lizzie. But since most of you can't have that, I recommend that you try Midori's Floating World Cafe in South Minneapolis with someone who makes you smile.

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Posted by Greg Laden at 5:34 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Coleman Goof

Category: Norm Coleman

So Ana IM's me, and I can tell through the text that she was almost out of breath with excitement or fear or something. But then I remembered shes been observing the Minnesota Senate court challenge. Turns out something rather interesting happened. Luckily, TPM has...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 5:25 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

First it was bear paternity tests, now it is volcano monitoring

Category: Politics

OK, so clearly the Republicans are mean spirited knowledge-free hypocrites and Jindal is therefore a great spokesperson for them. And Maria and Sciam are right. But everyone is missing the true irony here.

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Posted by Greg Laden at 1:48 PM • 32 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Why is There no Birth Control Pill for Men?

Category: Anthropology

Why is there no Birth Control Pill for men? The answer I'd like to propose can be summed up in two closely linked words pilfered from the question itself:...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 10:54 AM • 40 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Tech Tech Boom

Category: Education

... is a social networking site for kids (teenagers?) who are into STEM. It is in Beta version, and it is here....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 9:25 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

i just

joined twitter...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 9:03 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Chimpanzee Food Sharing

Category: Anthropology

Is chimpanzee food sharing an example of food for sex? One of the most important transitions in human evolution may have been the incorporation of regular food sharing into the day to day ecology of our species or our ancestors. Although this has been recognized...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 9:01 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Marta's (good) questions, ... fur

Category: Behavioral Biology

Why did humans evolve hairlessness? Hair (fur) protects mammals from heat and cold, what would be the benefit from losing this asset? I think the most commonly held theory is that fur works on quadrupeds, but once you stand upright, it is less effective, and...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 7:09 PM • 23 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Diversity in Science Carnival

Category: Science

I want to draw your attention to this carnival: Diversity in Science #1: Black History Month Celebration This is the first one, and this should prove to be an important blogospheric contribution....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 4:20 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Technology Stuff

*nix Sunday Funnies. Type this at the command line: netstat -tp and see what software you've got running is talking to the Intertubes. Details....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 11:13 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Marta's (good) questions, ... continued

Category: Evolutionary Biology

Why did the evolution of a large brain happen only once (among mammals, and in particular, primates?) Larger brains have evolved a number of times. It seems that there has been a trend over several tens of millions of years of evolution of larger...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 9:29 AM • 32 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

A very bad experience with Microsoft

Category: Technology

Read over this poor man's experiences (below the fold) and tell me what you think he should do. The options are: 1) Keep using Windows; 2) Switch to using a Mac or Linux; 3) Reboot himself. Bonus question: Name the chump....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 9:58 PM • 36 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Marta's (good) questions, Greg's (oft' lame) answers: Bonobos?

Category: Behavioral Biology

My student, Marta, exploded the other day. She was sitting there in class two weeks ago and exploded. She does not know that I know this, but I noticed it happen. Since she was sitting, as usual, in the front row, and it was all...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 9:20 PM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

BBG at GLB

Good evening. Starting in a few seconds we will be having Behavioral Biology Redux Days at Greg Laden's Blog. For various reasons that are not interesting enough to relate, it is time for me to dust off some of my notes and meanderings related to...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 9:16 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Look Around You

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Posted by Greg Laden at 8:56 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Homosexual Geneticists Isolate Cause of Christianity

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Posted by Greg Laden at 8:44 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

The Recluse Spider Warnings

It is almost Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. One thing this means that US citizens and I'd bet some Canadians will be receiving the annual Brown Recluse Spider Warnings via Email. In order to reduce the negative effects of this email spamish meme, I hereby...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 7:01 PM • 25 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Technology Tidbits

Category: Technology

A Minty Fresh Linux Install MS Office is not integrated with itself at Linux in Exile...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 6:17 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

The Credit Crisis Visualized

Part I Part II Hat tip: Analiese....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 4:53 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Cool Reading (mainly science)

Category: Blogospherics

when satellites collide, it's really a drag at Cocktail Party Physics. Disgusting science news of the week: arsenic in toenails by Virginia Hughes. New blog: The Weekly Virus....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 1:17 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Ken Ham and David Mento on Christian Radio in Minnesota

Category: Religion

Ken Ham, Founder and President of Answers in Genesis and Dr. David Menton, Professor and Speaker with Answers in Genesis will explain why Creationism is scientifically more plausible than Darwinism and offer several ways Creationists can confidently defend their position.

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Posted by Greg Laden at 8:16 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

On Edge

Category: Congo Memoirs

A routine had settled in. Joan would go off with Zorba and the crew and look for bones. I would go off by myself and track the lions. Biker would go every four hours to check on his burning experimental tree stump. Then one morning it all went very badly.

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Posted by Greg Laden at 8:11 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Fear of buttons

Totally stolen from Decrepit Old Fool...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 11:59 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks