Archives for September, 2011
Le docteur est très, très désolé
Posted by Greg Laden on September 24, 2011 Jane Goodall on “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me”
Posted by Greg Laden on September 24, 2011 It is here.
Cancer Killing Virus News
Posted by Greg Laden on September 24, 2011 The virus that kills cancer is in the news again. Recent research at Penn State is being reported that indicates some interesting new findings. I have not read any of the original work in this and won’t likely have time to, but there is a press release:
Why do I even bother with the Internet any more????
Posted by Greg Laden on September 24, 2011 I very rarely read a story on the WCCO web site. That’s my local news station. I don’t scroll down below the headlines, and that by the way means that I don’t see any of the wonderful ads that are down there. I often don’t respond to facebook conversations with anything more than a sentence,…
Evolution Book for Kids
Posted by Greg Laden on September 24, 2011 Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be, a kids evolution book, has won the 2010 Lane Anderson Award. The reason I mention this is because of this blog post which discusses how the book is published in Canada but not the US. This bit of the post is interesting: Loxton has reported…
Why isn’t there a lunar eclipse every month?
Posted by Greg Laden on September 24, 2011 Or, for that matter, a solar eclipse? If the moon is going around the earth once a month shouldn’t the moon’s shadow fall on the earth (a solar eclipse) every month, and the earth’s shadow fall on the moon (a lunar eclipse) once a month?
Emulating The Terminal Emulators For Fun (with emacs color-theme)
Posted by Greg Laden on September 23, 2011 I have a small laptop that I carry to the coffee shop for writing. It is a bit shaky in the hardware department, very small, and has no functioning wireless. The hard drive is encrypted. These attributes together make it the perfect laptop to carry around between, say, the gym, the coffee shop, the grocery…
UARS Update: Lookin’ Good, Australia!
Posted by Greg Laden on September 23, 2011 Twitter Feed (most recent on top): UARS_Reentry UARS Reentry RT @SPACEFLIGHT101: Indications are that UARS is down following its last perigee. Waiting for official words. #UARS ztresearch Tom A. Warner by UARS_Reentry RT @mycatthesquee: People north of Edmonton AB Canada saying they saw something “like fireworks” and 3 lights falling at10:20 pm MDT #UARS SchwartzNow…
The winners of NCSE’s bumper sticker contest
Posted by Greg Laden on September 23, 2011 NCSE headquarters was flooded with almost 550 entries from almost 150 people, including sixty entries from a single indefatigable sloganeer. After days of statistical analysis and rigorous peer-review, we are pleased to congratulate the winners — David Cone, Tom Griffiths, Michael Keller, Tania Lombrozo, Jerry Newton, Bill Pogson, S. Michael Smith, Drew Weller, and a…
UPDATE: UARS delays impact slightly, all bets off on location.
Posted by Greg Laden on September 23, 2011 Newer update from NASA: Update #11 Fri, 23 Sep 2011 23:30:46 GMT As of 7 p.m. EDT on Sept. 23, 2011, the orbit of UARS was 90 miles by 95 miles (145 km by 150 km). Re-entry is expected between 11 p.m. Friday, Sept. 23, and 3 a.m., Sept. 24, Eastern Daylight Time (3 a.m.…
Attenborough Speaks Out Against Creationism
Posted by Greg Laden on September 23, 2011 Sir David Attenborough: “Evolution is an extremely powerful idea that lies at the heart of biology. At the same time, it’s a sufficiently simple concept that there’s no good reason why it should be left out of the primary curriculum. If creationism is discussed, it should be made clear to pupils that it is not…
UARS Update
Posted by Greg Laden on September 23, 2011 Here’s the latest from NASA. Look for an update fairly soon. Or a loud noise, perhaps! Update #9 Thu, 22 Sep 2011 09:01:35 PM CDT As of 9:30 p.m. EDT Sept. 22, 2011, the orbit of UARS was 110 mi by 115 mi (175 km by 185 km). Re-entry is possible sometime during the afternoon…
Minnesotans: Save the Planet Saturday!!!!
Posted by Greg Laden on September 22, 2011 Ride your bike to the state house on Saturday for MN 360 2 to 7pm on the State Capitol Lawn – St. Paul, MN Inspiring Minnesotans to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis: to create a new sense of urgency and possibility for our planet. On September 24th, millions of people all around…
Aquarius Yields NASA’s First Global Map of Ocean Salinity
Posted by Greg Laden on September 22, 2011 The first global map of the salinity, or saltiness, of Earth’s ocean surface produced by NASA’s new Aquarius instrument reveals a rich tapestry of global salinity patterns, demonstrating Aquarius’ ability to resolve large-scale salinity distribution features clearly and with sharp contrast. NASA/GSFC/JPL-Caltech One of NASA’s newest Big Sci machines has generated a high quality map…
Your Inner Fish
Posted by Greg Laden on September 22, 2011 Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body is a book you should read. With one small caveat I’ll give you below, it can be used as a behind-the-desk supplement for teachers of anatomy or any kind of organismic biology in High School or Intro College. It can be assigned…
Death, Dating, Doubting, and More Death
Posted by Greg Laden on September 22, 2011 A few items over on The X Blog that you may not want to miss: “Our Generation Has The Power To End It” regarding the tragic death Jamie Rodemeyer (feel free to spell that “Jamey”); We address the question “Should Scientists Date People Who Believe in Astrology?“; Huxley got called a sissy by some guy…
UARS Satellite Crashing Into Earth Update: North America LEAST Likely Spot
Posted by Greg Laden on September 22, 2011 As you know, the UARS (Satellite) is in the process of de-orbiting. It is a bit more like a death watch (have you ever done one of those?) than a technological procedure. The satellite was pushed into a dangerous orbit that would drag it down within several days, and it is now losing its grip…
Selling condoms in the Congo
Posted by Greg Laden on September 21, 2011 Just a few things …
Posted by Greg Laden on September 21, 2011 Just wanted you to know, for those who have asked, I have indeed written something on the tragic fate of Troy Davis. Here: Day of Justice, Day of Shame: The killing of Troy Davis. I just sent off my submission to the Minnesota Atheist Book Project. If you were thinking of doing that, better get…
Do we know how Pirates Spoke? Arrrrr…
Posted by Greg Laden on September 21, 2011 … or rather, Narrrr. Arrrr is the term for “yes” spoke in a part of England whence that rascal Robert Newton hailed, so when he formed his dialect model for his stint as Long John Silver in Disney’s Treasure Island, he threw that in. His other piratitisms he fetched from like personal background. The truth…
Google Plus is no longer invite only
Posted by Greg Laden on September 21, 2011 The details are here. Information on changes in Google’s “real name” policy that would allow people to protect their identity here. Oh. Right. Squat.
Getting WISE to the ways of black holes
Posted by Greg Laden on September 21, 2011 NASA’s WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer ) telescope has collected some important data on black holes, in particular, about the big jets of energy that stream out of them. Scientists study jets to learn more about the extreme environments around black holes. Much has been learned about the material feeding black holes, called accretion disks,…
Entomogist dreams to take over the world
Posted by Greg Laden on September 21, 2011 Very cute song. But, I do find it a little poignant and even mildly disturbing that the primary motivating criteria for her raison d’être have to do with the whole journal thing and being like the established heternormativeoccidopatriarchic white guys. Instead of just discovery of things not previously known about bugs. Hat tip: Bug Girl
New Crime Busting Technology
Posted by Greg Laden on September 20, 2011 Check this out. This is an animation made by the same company that made the famous Tiger Woods animation (you know the one). In this case the purpose of the animation was to reconstruct an unusual crime scene so people could see it on the news, relate better to it, and report anything they may…
Cats vs. Laser Pointers, Scaled Up
Posted by Greg Laden on September 20, 2011 Remove all cats from the room before starting this video. Especially the big ones.
Attenborough’s Flying Monsters 3D Is Going To Be Good
Posted by Greg Laden on September 20, 2011 How does David Attenborough crawl through a marshy Cycad forest toward an exposed rocky ledge overlooking a vast plain of grazing dinosaurs, drawing ever closer to a nesting colony of Quetzalcoatlus Pterodactlyoids (known in the business as “Flying Giraffes”) camera crew in tow, nearly out of breath, turning to the camera and speaking of how…
UARS will crash on September 23rd, +/1 one day
Posted by Greg Laden on September 20, 2011 According to the latest estimates from NASA, the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere next Thursday, Friday or Saturday. It will strike somewhere between …. well, it will strike the earth somewhere, not likely near the poles. Could hit anywhere, really. UPDATE HERE
Climate Scientists Defended!
Posted by Greg Laden on September 19, 2011 You’ll remember that a few days ago I asked people to contribute to the Climate Scientists Defense Fun. They needed money to stop denialists from personally harassing scientists. The needed funds were obtained from your donations and all is well!!!! However, the people who organized this have decided to try to generate a standing fund…
How To Do Good Climate Science Instead Of Bad Climate Science
Posted by Greg Laden on September 19, 2011 In order to do good climate science, you have to understand and control for the sources of variation in the system. In any system that involvs metric change over time, there are four sources of variation:
, which is now available for the 
