Greg Laden's Blog

Beer Summit: Gates Brilliant, Crowley Articulate

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy And then things went rather badly......

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Posted by Greg Laden at 6:23 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

"We completely understand the public's concern about futuristic robots feeding on the human population...

Category: Technology

... but that is not our mission." Right. Except for this robot that powers itself by scooping up ... well, just look. .......

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Posted by Greg Laden at 4:55 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

BGR Blog Carnival will grow on you!

Category: Carnivals

Berry Go Round, the blog carnival about plants, is up an running here at quiche moraine...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 3:47 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

World's second fastest computer

Category: Technology

(The fastest computer is the same thing but running a better operating system.) Hat tip: Joe, copied from here....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 11:17 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Overheard at airport:

"Here," dad to girl, "Get your ID out and have it with your ticket." "Excuse me, sir," said the TSA officer, pointing to the young female, "She does not need to have her ID out, she's a minor." Dad: "How do you know she's a...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 7:21 PM • 48 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Answers in Genesis has a Department of Public Safety????

Yes! And one of the top staff of that department just sent PZ Myers and the Secular Student Alliance a letter warning them to behave on their upcoming trip to the Creation Museum. I hope every single one of those overtly homosexual visiting heathens is...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 10:04 PM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Who gets the first flu shots?

Category: Health

It is decided. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has met, ruminated, voted, and now decrees that pregnant women, health care workers, and children over six months old will be vaccinated first. The reason we even need to worry about this is that there will...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 9:01 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Florida Cop Nabbed for Dishonesty

Category: Cops

Bad cops, bad cops, who ya gonna call? Bad cops bad cops.

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Posted by Greg Laden at 7:51 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

The Transformation of Sarah Palin

Hey man. I confess that did not groove to it, that I did not feel the beat and sense the vibes. But now I do. Hidden. Hidden deep in her sorry salty subtle soul all this time and I did not sense the vibes. Because...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 7:49 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Update on GatesGate: Cop lied, screwed 911 caller.

Category: Cops

Not lookin' good for the cop. He needs to apologize, and I think he should bring the six pack.

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Posted by Greg Laden at 7:25 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

The Water Cone (makes water)

And you can totally step on it and it's OK. Read all about it here....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 6:16 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

A Skeptics View of Mooney and Kirshebaum

Or, more accurately, of their book Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future ... will be found here, in Stephanie Zvan's latest post at Quiche Moraine....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 5:24 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Blog Carnival Four Stone Hearth #72

Category: Carnivals

.. the Anthropology Blog Carnival, is at A Hot Cup of Joe...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 5:13 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Slaughter a Cow Every 28 Days: How the Bible Ruined Western Society

Category: Religion

In which I explain how Abrahamic religious tradition, ingrained in Western society since before its very history began, explains some of the special ways in which we can be so dumb....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 12:47 PM • 84 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

MS + Yahoo = We are Doomed

Category: Technology

My own personal experience with Yahoo is a tale of woe....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 10:21 AM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Cambridge Cop has some 'splainin' to do...

Category: Race and Racism

As more date emerges, evidence of racism persists.

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Posted by Greg Laden at 10:04 AM • 17 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Al Franken on the Supreme Court

Category: Al Franken

Hat Tip: Javier...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 11:14 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Blue Gold World Water Wars Movie

Category: Nature conservation

We're screwed. More information here at Digital Rabbit...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 8:12 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Visit Lovely Capri, somewhere in Italy ...

Europeans laughing at each other: A Swedish couple in search of the isle of Capri drove to Carpi, an industrial town in northern Italy, because they misspelt the name in their car's GPS. Italian officials say the couple asked at Carpi's tourist office where they...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 7:05 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Lesbians in China can't donate bood

Category: GLBTA

Try this logic on for size: "It's a practical law because the gay community has much higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases. We must take our precautions wisely," she said. "Even if they lie on the form and say they are straight, everyone's blood will...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 6:39 PM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

JC = Thumbs Up 4 Sotomayor

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday voted to approve Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice over nearly solid Republican opposition, paving the way for a historic confirmation vote. source Only one Republican voted in favor of Sotomayor (Linsey Graham). What bunch of...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 6:16 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Earth Warrior Saves Canada from Geologists!

Hi everyone; this morning at 8:00am, July 14/09, I proceeded to the Denny Island aerodrome, located on Denny Island in the midst of the BC Central Coast archipelago, aka "The Great Bear Rainforest" where I broke open the welded steel cover and dismantled and destroyed...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 10:34 AM • 17 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Secure in Their Persons

Category: Blogospherics

...Apparently, by nine-o'clock at night, all of the gas stations and restaurants in Newfolden were closed. This was weird, and also weird that in planning for a street dance, the organizers had not considered that people might actually have to go the bathroom. .... ......

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Posted by Greg Laden at 9:23 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

The Natural Basis for Inequality of the Sexes

Category: Anthropology

Is the Natural World a valid source of guidance for our behavior, morals, ethics, and other more mundane areas of thought such as how to build an airplane and what to eat for breakfast?1 When it comes to airplanes, you'd better be a servant to...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 12:50 PM • 55 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Good panfishing today

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Posted by Greg Laden at 9:21 PM • 19 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Reading Human Nature

Category: Anthropology

A short list of foundational readings in ethnography for the Evolutionary Anthropologist.

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Posted by Greg Laden at 12:50 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

My post on Cambridge Police, Gates and Racism is Updated and Revised.

Cambridge Police: A matter of black and white is revised (just the first several paragraphs)...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 11:34 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Help Facebook To Not Abuse You

Carl Zimmer tells us: Facebook lets 3rd party advertisers use your posted photos without your permission. To opt out: Click on SETTINGS (located on top of page in blue bar, next to logout); Select PRIVACY SETTINGS; Select NEWS FEEDS and WALL; Select the TAB that...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 4:07 PM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Cambridge, this is John from Houston. I've got a problem.

My friend Car2D2 told me about this, so I eventually tracked it down to share it with you. Check it out. . Snap on tools, indeed....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 2:34 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Harry Potter Museum Exhibit to Open in October

This fall, Harry Potter fans will get the chance to step inside the famous wizard's magical world through Harry Potter: The Exhibition, which opens at the Museum of Science, Boston on October 25, 2009, at 9 a.m. Tickets are now available online at mos.org or...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 2:01 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Who is smarter, Dogs or Cats?

cat: dog: Yoomans:...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 12:14 PM • 17 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Gov. Crist Pwned by White Supremacist using Hate Film

Category: Race and Racism

Republican Fla Gov takes back suggestion that Holocaust-linked Nazi film would be a good thing to share with all Floridians.

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Posted by Greg Laden at 8:44 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Confusion, Shock as S.A. Judge Declares Himself an Atheist.

Category: Atheism

Nor, enigmatically, is he a Marxist! It is impossible for me to summarize this. You must simply go read it. Interesting mix of religious and racial politics, South African humor and South African anger. Have a look....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 9:25 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

What's it like to be a 13 year old in Ethiopia?

Category: Blogospherics

Or for that matter, a 17 year old in Zambia? For the former, click here, for the latter, click here, and see wht they've got over on Digital Rabbit, the blog about the world wide water crisis....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 4:25 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Cambridge Police: A matter of black and white

Category: Race and Racism

The Cambridge Police have been known to respond differently to black vs. white faces.

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Posted by Greg Laden at 12:45 PM • 123 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

What are hate crimes, and should there be a law against them?

Category: Blogospherics

The vast majority of objections that have been raised to proposed US hate crime legislation are nothing more than politically motivated (and hateful) knee-jerk reactions by yahooistic wingnuts. But that is just my opinion. Which is correct. But if want a more dispassionate and exacting...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 12:20 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Sting catches evil PC repair guys!

So a laptop with a half-unplugged memory chip is brought into a shop. The techie fixes it right way, and calls the owner to tell her that a new mother board is needed. In the mean time, he's looking through private photos on the hard...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 12:00 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Expelled redux? Creationists Misrepresent Historians

Category: Creation Science

A new creationist movie is accused of misleading and misrepresenting its interview subjects. Meanwhile, NCSE's Eugenie C. Scott was interviewed in Science News, and a chance to vote for NCSE -- if you're a Working Assets/Credo Mobile customer.

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Posted by Greg Laden at 11:33 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

New East African Internet Cable

According to the BBC, 17,000 mile cable has just been completed connecting South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique to Europe and Asia. I'm not quite sure how an undersea cable, which this is, connects landlocked Uganda to anything, but well, that's BBC African Geography...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 7:11 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

"Kiss-In" planned at Mormon Temple

Category: Religion

A gay rights group plans to stage a mass kissing demonstration outside the San Diego Mormon temple as a show of support for a gay couple cited for trespassing in Utah after sharing a kiss on church property. Details This will drive the Mormons nuts....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 6:13 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Silence of the muffins.

Category: Blogging

The muffins. They are silent....The brownies. They are made of hemp.

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Posted by Greg Laden at 4:40 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Windows Update Can Ruin Your Day, Maybe Your Computer

Category: Linux

Our desktop support folks couldn't do anything with it. When I told them my story about what happened (at least I'm honest) they realized it would be easier to re-install the machine with a fresh image of Windows Vista. Read this sad but unsurprising tale...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 4:16 PM • 19 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Bin Laden Son Killed?

Reports are now surfacing that the son of Osama Bin Laden was killed by a US Hellfire missile fired from a Predator Drone in Pakistan at an undisclosed date earlier in the year. BBC...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 3:11 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

New Spectacular Image from NASA's Spitzer

Category: Cosmos

Unfortunately, NASA is calling it a "wild creature of the dark" with an "eye-like object at its center." Actually, it is a galaxy, which is plenty cool so they could do without the fancy-talk. Here's the picture:...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 2:15 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Rabbis and Politicians Busted in Graft Sting

Who would think that men of the cloth or elected officials would be involved in graft?!?!? NEWARK, N.J. - Three New Jersey mayors, two state lawmakers, a deputy mayor and five rabbis were among 44 people charged Thursday in a two-track corruption and international money-laundering...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 1:31 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

I and the Bird Web Carnival # 105

is HERE at Picus Blog...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 1:22 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Somebody made a movie of my blog

Category: Blogging

Bonus footage below the fold....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 1:00 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Large Hadron Collider Startup Date Delayed

Category: LHC

Over the last week two vacuum leaks have been found in sectors 8-1 and 2-3 (Sector 7g is still holding). The leaks are similar to each other in position and therefore in likely cause. Unfortunately, these leaks are in already chilled down parts of the...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 12:16 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

To nuke or not to nuke?

Do we use nuclear power to get us past the current climate change crisis? Fight it out here with Jonas Meckling....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 11:05 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Blog Carnivals

Category: Blogospherics

First of all, a reminder: I'm doing Berry Go Round for July 31st so send me your stuff! I might have missed this: The Just Write Blog Carnival for July 17th is here. Skeptical Parents Crossing Carnival is here, at Isis. The new Change of...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 10:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks