Archives for June, 2012
Peter Gleick Reinstated
Posted by Greg Laden on June 7, 2012 Peter Gleick has been reinstated in his position as president of the Pacific Institute. The Pacific Institute is pleased to welcome Dr. Peter Gleick back to his position as president of the Institute. An independent review conducted by outside counsel on behalf of the Institute has supported what Dr. Gleick has stated publicly regarding his…
Philip Tobias 1925-2012
Posted by Greg Laden on June 7, 2012 Philip Tobias passed away this morning, according to a mutual friend. I’ve not heard any details. Tobias is the most important hominid anatomist to have lived in the 20th and early 21st century, having taken the chair originally established by Raymond Dart at Wits University. He literally defined several of the hominids, being the anatomist…
Ray Bradbury Has Died
Posted by Greg Laden on June 6, 2012 He was one of the first authors (other than the likes of Dr. Seuss) that I read. NPR says: The website io9.com, which appears to have broken the news, says the 91-year-old author of “The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked this Way Comes, and many more literary classics” died in Los Angeles, possibly early…
This Day was D-Day
Posted by Greg Laden on June 6, 2012 
D-Day was today in 1944. My father was involved. Wikipedia is silly. Kids these days have no idea. There is, of course, a classic movie on the topic.
What Would Darwin Say to Today’s Creationists?
Posted by Greg Laden on June 5, 2012 
A talk by Genie Scott of the NCSE: __________________ Photo of Darwin Statute by KevinZim
Should you convert your dead cat into a helicopter?
Posted by Greg Laden on June 4, 2012 
Orville the cat was named after Orville Wright, and when he died, Bart Jansen, the cant’s “owner” taxidermied him and, in collaboration with Radio Controlled Flying Objects expert Arjen Beltman, they converted Orville the cat into a working helicopter. From the daily mail: Jansen said the Orvillecopter is ‘half cat, half machine’, and part of…
Firefox menu, FreeDOS, bash, Mint, question
Posted by Greg Laden on June 3, 2012 
The big new of the day in the OpenSource world is that FreeDOS’s web site, revised and updated, is out of Beta and fully up and running, here. If you click through you’ll find an update on a number of recent changes and updates to the operating system. Just in case you need to know…
The Sun is Exploding!
Posted by Greg Laden on June 3, 2012 
Well, it is always exploding. But I just heard that “A big coronal hole is turning directly towards the Earth. Solar wind flowing from the opening should reach our planet on June 5-7, possibly sparking geomagnetic storms” and maybe the aurora will be visible over a larger area. I heard that from the iPad app…
How many countries have ever had a woman leader?
Posted by Greg Laden on June 3, 2012 
First, a little Benazir Bhutto story, since we are on the subject of women leaders. A friend of mine was to be on the podium of Harvard’s graduation the year Benazir Bhutto was to give the keynote, and heard this conversation. John Galbraith, the economists who was also a professor at Harvard, Bhutto’s former undergraduate…
Liars and Outliers
Posted by Greg Laden on June 3, 2012 
Tonight, on Skeptically Speaking, Desiree Schell will interview Bruce Schneier, author of Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive. From the Amazon page, the author notes: “This book represents my attempt to develop a full-fledged theory of coercion and how it enables compliance and trust within groups. My goal is to…
Who are you?
Posted by Greg Laden on June 2, 2012 
With the changeover to National Geographic Branding, we’ve reconfigured the Google Analytics account. In the old days (last month) all of Scienceblogs shared a single account, which made it interesting (we could spy on each other’s blogs) and annoying, because if you are only a subdomain on one account there are a lot of things…
Help with a study being conducted at the University of Western Australia.
Posted by Greg Laden on June 1, 2012 The study is on Science and Society and they would like you to fill out a survey. Thanks. The link to the study is here.
, which is now available for the 
