Archives for April, 2012
Did you hear that big giant meteor?
Posted by Greg Laden on April 23, 2012 Who says that if you scream in space no one will hear you? A rare daytime meteor was seen and heard streaking over northern Nevada and parts of California on Sunday, just after the peak of an annual meteor shower. Observers in the Reno-Sparks area of Nevada reported seeing a fireball at about 8 a.m.…
Primary Cilia Connect
Posted by Greg Laden on April 23, 2012 Here is a press release from BioMed Central that is just so interesting I had to give it to you as it is without delay: Connecting cilia: cellular antennae help cells stick together Primary cilia are hair-like structures which protrude from almost all mammalian cells. They are thought to be sensory and involved in sampling…
Local Cat Meets Local Bobcat
Posted by Greg Laden on April 23, 2012 Human Evolution: The meaning of it all
Posted by Greg Laden on April 22, 2012 We had a great discussion with John Hawks on the radio today. The podcast of that conversation is available via any one of the routes indicated here. We discussed australopiths, Homo, Paleolithic sex, ancient DNA and fossil casting calls. And more. Check it out. Thanks, John, for your time!
Happy Earthday, and Thank You BP
Posted by Greg Laden on April 22, 2012 A special thanks to BP on this fine Earth Day. Modifications made to the ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico have had several important improvements. Much of the pesky coral living at the bottom of the gulf seems to have been doused with deadly doses of BP oil, some species have been provided with hip…
Without Linux, Life as we Know It would be IMPOSSIBLE
Posted by Greg Laden on April 22, 2012 Here is why, how, and who:
“Your Inner Neandertal”
Posted by Greg Laden on April 22, 2012 Keynote talk by multimedia artist Lynn Fellman for Minneapolis DNA Days Do you know why some people are 1 to 4% Neandertal? Lynn Fellman explains how your Uncle Ned and maybe you have an “Inner Neander” during her art and science talk on April 28th. The presentation is one of many talks at Twin City…
What happens if I eat mold?
Posted by Greg Laden on April 21, 2012 A common concern people have is the outcome of eating food that is moldy. This happens when you are not paying attention to what you are eating and suddenly realize that you just ate half a sandwich made with bread that has some mold on it. Then you go “Oh, crap, I just ate some…
Neal Stephenson is a very, very important person, according to him.
Posted by Greg Laden on April 21, 2012 Speaking before a packed lecture theater at MIT yesterday, Neal Stephenson worried that the gloomy outlook prevalent in modern science fiction may be undermining the genre’s ability to inspire engineers and scientists. Describing himself as a “pessimist trying to turn himself into an optimist,” and acknowledging that some of his own work has contributed to…
Earth the Owner’s Manual
Posted by Greg Laden on April 21, 2012 I have it on good authority that this is going to be great. Jeff Masters has a writeup. Penn State climate scientist Dr. Richard Alley hosts parts II and III of Earth: the Operator’s Manual on PBS beginning at 7pm Sunday, April 22–Earth Day. Part I of this excellent series aired in April 2011. The…
Louisiana Senator Embarrasses Himself in Hearing on Evolution
Posted by Greg Laden on April 20, 2012 It’s almost like the guy had had nooklar meltdown right there. Hat tip: Barbara Forrest, author of Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design
Why does Google hate Linux?
Posted by Greg Laden on April 20, 2012 Picasa sucked. Make no mistake about it. Whether on Linux or Windows, Picassa took the worst of all the different photo management software and combined it into a single app that I would never recommend anyone install. Except one thing; Picasa was good at enhancing photos. It had a couple of automatic buttons that would…
Shark Chumming?
Posted by Greg Laden on April 20, 2012 Isn’t something like this thought to have happened in California as well, in recent years?
Still angry that those X-Ray Glasses never worked?
Posted by Greg Laden on April 20, 2012 There’s an app for that! This is woo, right?
Jefferson Fietek for the House!
Posted by Greg Laden on April 20, 2012 I am supporting Jefferson Fietek for the Minnesota House of Representatives in district 36A. The details are complicated, and I would like to explain.
Does sitting = death?
Posted by Greg Laden on April 20, 2012 There is a study that shows that people who sit more per day die sooner, despite other factors such as overall health. It is reported in The Atlantic and written up here.
Beware the False Profits. As it were.
Posted by Greg Laden on April 19, 2012 This week, we’re joined by Robert FitzPatrick, founder of Pyramid Scheme Alert, and co-author of False Profits: Seeking Financial and Spiritual Deliverance in Multi-Level Marketing and Pyramid Schemes. He’ll discuss the promises and pitfalls of schemes, and how to tell legitimate direct selling from multi-level marketing scams. And on the podcast, we’ll speak to Paul…
What questions do you want to ask John Hawks on Sunday?
Posted by Greg Laden on April 19, 2012 John Hawks is one of the nation’s leading palaeoanthropologists, and has lately been working with ancient DNA, recent and earlier Human Evolution, and an interesting project that is a sort of casting call for extinct humans and their relatives. Most of you know John from his famous Internet site called “John Hawks Weblog: Paleoanthropology, Genetics…
Good Bye Glaciers
Posted by Greg Laden on April 19, 2012 Most of the world’s mountain glaciers are either totally melted or reduced significantly in size. For every one of these glaciers, there’s somebody who will tell you that that particular glacier has disappeared or is disappearing for some reason that has nothing to do with anthropogenic global warming. Once, some guy tried to convince me…
Levon Helm Called Up his Big Mamma and He’ll be Rollin’ In
Posted by Greg Laden on April 19, 2012 One of my favorite musicians ever died today at the age of 71. I happen to play two songs with him singing and playing today. I do that most days because they are on my gym tape.1 Levon was a member of The Band, but he was also in The Hawks (with Ronnie Hawkins) and…
Remember SOPA? It’s baaaaack ….
Posted by Greg Laden on April 19, 2012 … only worse, apparently. The Lousy Canuck has it covered. I think you should go read his post and get the conversation going. I don’t know enough about it to say much more than Jason has already said. I’m not a big Mike Rogers fan. He has called for the execution of those involved in…
Replace referees with robots?
Posted by Greg Laden on April 19, 2012 Animated:
The Eagle’s Nest
Posted by Greg Laden on April 19, 2012 I live near a highway. All winter, I almost never went west on that road, only east, but a couple of times I did go west. And, in a tree off to the right in that direction, I noticed a mass of stuff that resembled a Bald Eagle’s nest as much as any mass of…
GNU Science and otter matters
Posted by Greg Laden on April 18, 2012 Joey Bernard, who writes about science under Linux, has just started a multi (as in two?) part series on GSL, the GNU Scientific Library. It is here. Just browsing through the files of GSL is fun. You find little gems like this:
An Open Letter to Arianna …
Posted by Greg Laden on April 18, 2012 … Huffington, by Shawn Otto: Dear Arianna, Congratulations on the Huffington Post’s Pulitzer prize. That is an important feather in the paper’s cap. I want you to know how much I value your publication, and how I think the dust up over the antiscience HuffPost article “NASA Global Warming Stance Blasted By 49 Astronauts, Scientists…
Anti-evolution and anti-climate science bills laid bare
Posted by Greg Laden on April 17, 2012 Evacuated Tube Transport
Posted by Greg Laden on April 17, 2012 Animated:
Congratulations Shawn Otto!
Posted by Greg Laden on April 16, 2012 Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America by Shawn Otto has won the prestigious Minnesota Book Award. The award is very well deserved. Here’s my writeup off the book, and here’s a radio interview with the author that we did a couple of months back. Shawn’s book is a critically important analysis…
Wild Bear in LA!
Posted by Greg Laden on April 15, 2012 What’s wrong with this picture? (hint)
We lost, but we won
Posted by Greg Laden on April 15, 2012 Yesterday, at the Democratic Farmer Labor (DFL) Convention in Minnesota’s United States Congressional District 3, my candidate, Sharon Sund, did not gain the endorsement of our party; the endorsement went to the Gentleman from Edina, Brian Barnes. Brian won fair and square, and it was a good campaign. This morning, my car sits in the…
, which is now available for the 
