Archives for July, 2012
A Brief History of Infinity
Posted by Greg Laden on July 13, 2012 Brian Clegg, author of A Brief History of Infinity: The Quest to Think the Unthinkable, was the guest on Skeptically Speaking last Sunday. I’m sorry I missed it, but I was recovering from several days hanging out with the very host of that show mostly working and hardly sleeping. It will be available for download…
Drop Box Raises Stakes
Posted by Greg Laden on July 12, 2012 Just thought you’d like to know: Dropbox has doubled the amount of storage you get when you get Dropbox. I wonder if I can now fit my photographs on dropbox without resizing and compressing them first? Probably. But the videos: no way. Damn you, Huxley, for being so cute!
This is my 11 thousandth’s post on this blog
Posted by Greg Laden on July 12, 2012 Using a base ten numbering system. In another numbering system, it is a different numeral.
Comedians and Society
Posted by Greg Laden on July 11, 2012 George Carlin was ahead of society. He led freethinkers, skeptics, others. Think of all those clips from George Carlin routines that we play today as reference to important, vibrant, current ideas. Those clips are always years old, sometimes decades. Something similar could be said of Louis Black. Ellen. There are others. Recently we have seen…
Science Based Pharmacy
Posted by Greg Laden on July 11, 2012 Available now for download: Skeptically Speaking #171 Ask A Pharmacist We’re back live this week, and we’re giving you the chance to Ask a Pharmacist. Ontario pharmacist Scott Gavura is the founder and editor of Science-Based Pharmacy, and a contributor to Science-Based Medicine. He’ll be answering audience questions for the full hour. Click Here and…
NPR: Your Headline Offends
Posted by Greg Laden on July 11, 2012 I am not happy with this NPR title: Will Medicaid Bring The Uninsured Out Of The Woodwork?. Dear New York Times: The uninsured are not in the woodwork. They are in pain. They are in trouble. They are in debt. They are not in the woodwork. Cockroaches are in the woodwork. The uninsured are not.…
ABC Interview with Climate Scientists Michael Mann
Posted by Greg Laden on July 10, 2012 You know Michael Mann as the scientist who described recent climate change with the “hockey stick” graph. He also wrote The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines. He is talking about the McCarthyistic tactics of the climate change denialists, including crazy people lurking in the shadows, and sitting members of…
GOP Bob Inglis: Stop with the climate change denialism!
Posted by Greg Laden on July 10, 2012 This just in: Former South Carolina GOP Rep. Bob Inglis, is urging conservatives to stop denying that humans are contributing to global warming. Inglis … will lead a new initiative at George Mason University to promote “conservative solutions to America’s energy and climate challenges” … Inglis lost his 2010 primary to Trey Gowdy, who went…
Almost three in four of Americans polled accept recent global warming
Posted by Greg Laden on July 10, 2012 Almost three in four of Americans accept recent global warming, according to a new poll conducted for the Washington Post and Stanford University — but only three in ten agree that it is mainly due to human activity. Asked “Do you think that the world’s temperature probably has been going up [“slowly” was used with…
Welcome to the Rest of Our Lives
Posted by Greg Laden on July 9, 2012 A new climate change video by greenman3510:
Free Chapter from New Global Warming Book
Posted by Greg Laden on July 9, 2012 There is a new book coming out called How We Know What We Know about Our Changing Climate: Scientists and Kids Explore Global Warming. Here is a description: When the weather changes daily, how do we really know that Earth’s climate is changing? Here is the science behind the headlines – evidence from flowers, butterflies,…
Reason and Creationism
Posted by Greg Laden on July 9, 2012 A talk by Genie Scott of the NCSE. Do reason and creationism ever intersect? What reasons do creationists cite in explaining their beliefs? Genie Scott examines how “reason” is misunderstood and misused by creationists. When: 4/15/2012. Where: Global Atheist Convention, Melbourne, Australia
Skepchickal Sex Ratio in Context
Posted by Greg Laden on July 9, 2012 The question has been asked: What was the sex ratio of attendees of the recent SkepchickCON Track at CONvergence, and of the panelists? To this it would be nice (and appropriate) to add the same questions for CONvergence as a whole. I have some, but not all, of that information. I looked at the panelist…
Debbie Goddard
Posted by Greg Laden on July 9, 2012 One of my favorite people is Debbie Goddard, and she was in town for the last few days for SkepchickCON. (That is where we originally met, a few years back.) We managed to have a few longish conversations about the history and current state of skepticism and secularism. Debbie has been involved in these movements…
This cute kitteh needs your help
Posted by Greg Laden on July 9, 2012 
Cute Kitteh is a Metaphor for Atheist Talk Radio. What do all these people have in common? Don Prothero Ed Brayton Eugenie Scott Ira Flatow Jennifer McCreight John Abraham John Hawkes Lois Shadewald Lynn Fellman Maggie Koerth Baker Martin Rundkvist Massimo Pigliucci Neil DeGrasse Tyson Peter Lipson PZ Myers Randy Moore Sehoya Cotner Shawn Otto…
CNN hates on Bill Nye the Science Guy. Nye will have none of it.
Posted by Greg Laden on July 6, 2012 We just might be experiencing the hottest year on record (can’t be sure yet, but it looks like it might be) and if that is the case, I estimate it may be the hottest year (except a few unidentified and undocumented outliers) for a half a million years or so. She’s wrong about the forest…
SkepchickCON @ CONvergence
Posted by Greg Laden on July 5, 2012 Today is the first day of SkepchickCON at CONvergence. CONvergence is the largest fan run fantasy and science fiction convention in the US and or World and possibly Universe, depending. It is held in a suburb of Minneapolis. One gazillion people are in attendance. There are many activities and events, and a double-decker parallelogram of…
Higgs Boson Makes Me Laugh
Posted by Greg Laden on July 5, 2012 The whole Higgs Boson thing is really interesting. Not only was is not discovered over the last several months, but in a way that makes it certain that it exists, but for other reasons as well. Higgs himself predicted its existence a very long time ago and was told by the greats that it really…
Marriage is a tool society uses to reproduce
Posted by Greg Laden on July 4, 2012 
Most people in a position to read this blog post probably think of marriage as a contract between two people that serves a few different purposes. Initially it may be an extension of the a tacit contract governing sexual access or fidelity that likely preceded marriage. Later on it may be an arrangement that facilitates…
Albany Plan of Union
Posted by Greg Laden on July 4, 2012 The following document was written by Benjamin Franklin in 1754, and is said to have been influenced by the structure of the Iroquois Confederacy, of which Franklin was well aware. This is essentially the first draft of the Articles of Confederation and closely reflects Franklin’s contribution to the Constitution of the United States. The Albany Plan of Union It is…
Higgs
Posted by Greg Laden on July 4, 2012 
From CERN: CERN experiments observe particle consistent with long-sought Higgs boson Geneva, 4 July 2012. At a seminar held at CERN1 today as a curtain raiser to the year’s major particle physics conference, ICHEP2012 in Melbourne, the ATLAS and CMS experiments presented their latest preliminary results in the search for the long sought Higgs particle.…
Dear Internet Don’t Do This
Posted by Greg Laden on July 4, 2012 
And you too, computer, now that I think of it. I have a list here of things that are annoying that are similar to each other in that they interfere with my most basic use of the computer. Most of the time I demand very little of a computer. Writing text in a text editor…
What does an atheist baseball game look like?
Posted by Greg Laden on July 3, 2012 
Aha. I’m glad you asked! There are two events coming up on August 10th and 11th. The first one, I’m definitely going to, the second one…I’ve not decided yet. First, there will be an Atheist Baseball Game. Here in the Twin Cities we have a minor league team called the Saint Paul Saints. On August…
Recapturing NASA’s Aeronautics Flight Research Capabilities
Posted by Greg Laden on July 3, 2012 I thought many of you would want to know about this book. It is from the National Academies Press. Costs 40 bucks if you want the dead tree version, but the PDF is free. Gotta love the National Academies. Here’s the description provided by the NAP: In the five decades since NASA was created, the…
Hug the new WTF, I mean, WTI
Posted by Greg Laden on July 3, 2012 
WTF stands for … Women Thinking Free. It was an organization born in the Skepchick Crucible, and it did things like the “Hug Me I’m Vaccinated” campaign which really truly probably saved liVes or at least reduced misery. It also spawned (though I’m probably oversimplifying here) the MTM (More than Men) project, which reminds me,…
Good Bye Andy
Posted by Greg Laden on July 3, 2012 I grew up with Andy Griffith. I think Opie and I are about the same age. I didn’t have an Aunt Bea but I did have a Great Aunt Tillie. All neighborhoods were small towns in those days. We had an Otis, we had a Floyd and he had a red and white pole, although…
The Texas evolution wars
Posted by Greg Laden on July 3, 2012 
Genie Scott’s report from the front, from Texas textbook battles to the Texas Board’s attempt to “creationize” the state’s science standards. How will this affect the future of education in Texas…and the U.S.? Where: Texas Freethought Convention. When: 10/8/2011. The books referred to are Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction, 2nd Edition and Not in Our…
Has CERN “found” Higgs?
Posted by Greg Laden on July 2, 2012 
Apparently not, but something interesting is happening. The buzz on the blogosphere is that there will be an announcement on July 4th that the Higgs Boson has been proven to exist, but not “found.” And by “proven” it is meant that empirical evidence of its existence has been gathered, as opposed to a mathematical argument…
I want this iPhone dock for my car
Posted by Greg Laden on July 1, 2012 
I don’t want the scale that tweets my weight. The power stroller is cool, though. It is a hybrid. ____________________________ image of radio by x-ray delta one
, which is now available for the 
