Archives for June, 2012
Skeptically Speaking: Don’t miss these shows
Posted by Greg Laden on June 23, 2012 I hear things are pretty busy in the Upper Upper Midwest of Alberta, Canada, and I suppose because of that, Skeptically Speaking has two off-air productions, one with the podcast just out, the other, this week’s show, coming out next week. Both are really interesting to me, and I’m sure to you as well. Here…
What is CERN?
Posted by Greg Laden on June 23, 2012 CERN isn’t just the LHC. It’s also rusty windows and post war big science. Interesting video:
Rainy Day Amusements
Posted by Greg Laden on June 23, 2012 It’s cold and raining at the cabin. We got the physics right, capturing the cold night air through open windows and then closing up so that when it get warmer later in the day we’ll have built in air conditioning, but we might have overshot slightly. Huxley got up early and was sitting in his…
Killer Virus Sequence Published
Posted by Greg Laden on June 23, 2012 Within a few days of the completion of the on-line draft of Sungudogo: A Novel, scientists have published the key data describing a killer H5N1 virus. Coincidence? I would assume so. But still….
Cabin Cooking Tips
Posted by Greg Laden on June 22, 2012 
Tip 1: Get some corn-on-the-cob and a large pot for which you have a tight fitting top. Husk the corn while you boil a large amount of water in the pot (salted if you like, for flavor). Put the corn-on-the-cob in the water and leave the heat on only for a minute, put the top…
Birds and Bloggers For You
Posted by Greg Laden on June 22, 2012 First, I have a new post up at 10,000 Birds: Evolution of the Multi-Media Bird Then, you should check out the recent adds at Free Thought Blogs. You probably know that Zinnia Jones and Ashley Miller were added recently. The other day, Aron Ra of the Ace of Clades was added. And, today, Christina Rad…
Seven Thousand Year Old African Dairy
Posted by Greg Laden on June 21, 2012 
Pastoralism is the practice of keeping and herding animals such as cattle, goats and sheep, and using the products they produce, including meat, hide, bone, horn and of course, dairy. In the old days, armchair archaeologists thought that pastoralism would have been a phase of cultural adaptation following hunting and gathering and preceding horticulture (the…
Wikipedia Wars
Posted by Greg Laden on June 21, 2012 
There is an item in PLoS ONE on one of my favorite topics: Wikipedea. This study examines the Dynamics of Conflicts in Wikipedia … we build up samples of controversial and peaceful articles and analyze the temporal characteristics of the activity in these samples. On short time scales, we show that there is a clear…
Is science on the verge of curing retinal degenerative disease?
Posted by Greg Laden on June 20, 2012 
We can’t say how long the ‘verge’ is. Certainly years. But is it years-years or decades-years? Quite possibly sooner than many might have guessed just a few years ago. I like to be cautious about predicting breakthroughs that have not happened yet, but the results reported a few days ago at a major conference seem…
Music of the Birds. And more!
Posted by Greg Laden on June 20, 2012 
Music of the Birds by Lang Elliott is a classic book and CD combo well over 10 years old, that provided bird lovers with a chance to learn to identify and appreciate the songs of numerous species. Over the last decade or so many other CD-based bird song offerings have become available. More recently, Lang…
Zack Kopplin wins Hefner First Amendment Award
Posted by Greg Laden on June 20, 2012 
Kopplin launched his anti-creationist effort while still in high school, and eventually gathered 55,000 signatures on a petition, enlisted the support of 78 Nobel laureates, and testified State Senate hearings. He is also responsible for Hurricane Katrina. How cool is that? Here’s his talk: Those are peacocks in the background, right?
Creationism News
Posted by Greg Laden on June 20, 2012 
Cringing in Kansas The renewed complaints of a few members of the Kansas state board of education about evolution is making Kansans cringe, according to the editorial board of the Lawrence Journal-World (June 15, 2012). As NCSE previously reported, when the board heard a presentation about the current status of the Next Generation Science Standards…
The Rocks Don’t Lie (geology and flood myths)
Posted by Greg Laden on June 20, 2012 
The Rocks Don’t Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah’s Flood by David Montgomery is new book on the Noachian flood. It is by a real life geologist and is not a creationist book. Might be a good gift for your annoying creationist relative. Here is a write-up from the publisher: In Tibet, geologist David R. Montgomery…
Many Duluth Zoo Animals Dead In Floods
Posted by Greg Laden on June 20, 2012 
Duluth, a second tier Minnesota city on Lake Superior, has been flooding. This is a little unusual; heavy rains following a period of saturation have caused a local river that is usually not even heard of to grow very large and cause flooding that a lot of people haven’t seen before. The polar bear and…
Step away from the security vehicle with the dog in it.
Posted by Greg Laden on June 19, 2012 
The other day I found myself with Huxley standing outside a townhouse with no way to get in, within a walled-in court yard, in Minneapolis. Suddenly a K9 Patrol car with dogs came tearing into the courtyard. Other police cars showed up. Cops with drawn guns were running around. It was interesting to contemplate the…
Remembering Phillip Tobias
Posted by Greg Laden on June 19, 2012 I wrote a remembrance of Phillip Tobias for Scientific American Blogs. Please have a look. Thank you very much.
Nvidia support for Linux UPDATED!
Posted by Greg Laden on June 19, 2012 Linux inventer Linus Torvalds gave a talk recently at Aalto University in Finland. It is a very interesting talk that anyone involved in Open Source technology or computer software development would enjoy. During the talk, the issue of support for Linux from hardware manufacturers came up, and Linus had a comment for Nvidia, which it…
Best web cam, Best good but cheap mike
Posted by Greg Laden on June 18, 2012 Hi folks We did a google hangout thingie yesterday which went very well (you can see it here) but my webcam apparently sucked. Even though I changed the tagline under my name several times to various very funny comments you can’t read it, and this is presumably because the resolution of the web cam was…
The Science Blogs Archive is not deleted
Posted by Greg Laden on June 16, 2012 
If you happened to try recently to get to one or more of the currently inactive yet still extant Scienceblogs.com blogs, you will have gotten an enigmatic message about how the blog is now archived or suspended. That is a technical glitch. The blogs are still there even though you can’t see them. In fact,…
Sarah Mogila (RantaRex) Live Streaming!
Posted by Greg Laden on June 16, 2012 Click here to get the details, Click here to see the live stream, click HERE to donate, because this is a FUND RAIDER for the Secular Student Alliance. You can donate various amounts of money to get Sarah to do or not do various things. Imma give her 10 dollars to write a novel! Anyway,…
Have you seen the latest issue?
Posted by Greg Laden on June 15, 2012 I get grilled
Posted by Greg Laden on June 14, 2012 Check out this interview of me by Dan Fincke at Camels with Hammers.
It is done – Sungudogo: A novel
Posted by Greg Laden on June 14, 2012 
I knew you’d want to know this: I’ve written my first novel,and I did it yesterday and this morning. As part of a fundraiser for the Secular Student Alliance, I produced one chapter (some shorter, some longer) per hour (plus/minus) from just after midnight yesterday morning until a few minutes ago. It has adventure, it…
Sungudogo: A novel about an African adventure and more
Posted by Greg Laden on June 13, 2012 
As part of a fundraiser for the Secular Student alliance, I’m writing a novel as we speak. I’ll post one chapter per hour (approximately) until it is done. I started several hours ago, so there are as of this writing seven chapters (plus front matter) up for you to read. Please visit “Sungudogo: A Novel”…
Escape from Alcatraz!
Posted by Greg Laden on June 12, 2012 
50 years ago today, three men did the impossible. They escaped from Alcatraz. They may or may not have lived. Apparently, the promise was made that if they escaped, lived, then continued to live, they would return today. There are people waiting on Alcatraz today, including the sister of one of the men. So, we’ll…
What is Linked In for? Anybody know?
Posted by Greg Laden on June 12, 2012 
Over the last couple of years I’ve added contacts to Linked In with a certain amount of consideration. In other words, I’ve added only links that are “real” in some sense; they are friends and friends of friends, and colleagues and colleagues of colleagues who’s name I recognized. Then, yesterday, my password was published on…
The Antiskeptics
Posted by Greg Laden on June 10, 2012 
Skeptics fight an up hill battle. This battle consists of deploying critical thinking across a range of cultural landscapes, implementing scientific thinking to solve problems, and the thoughtful evaluation of knowledge, while 90 percent of the world is out to stop you, or at least make it hard. Or so it seems. To be honest,…
What is Dunbar’s Number?
Posted by Greg Laden on June 10, 2012 The term “Dunbar’s Number” refers to a particular hypothesis by primatologist Robin Dunbar. It is a very simple idea with rather complex implications, and it is one of those simple ideas that gets more complicated than ideal as we look into it more and more. Eventually, the idea is required by many who contemplate it…
How to taste wine
Posted by Greg Laden on June 9, 2012 From our Animating Maniacs who Animate Everything:
Technology Film Fest
Posted by Greg Laden on June 7, 2012 Here we have a handful of great technological marvels depicted in small videos.
, which is now available for the 
