January 24, 2012
There is a story going around that there is evidence of life on Venus. The evidence would be very convincing if some descriptions of it were true: Scorpion or crab like creatures walking around on the surface sounds a lot like life to me! And, the research is published in a peer reviewed journal…
January 23, 2012
People look at Fox News and wonder how the heck it manages to be taken seriously. Most of what is done on that station is not news, and it isn't even commentary by any reasonable journalistic standards. Fox News is much of the time a mouthpiece for the Right Wing and the Republican Party. The…
January 20, 2012
The More than Men Project is an effort initiated by the Women Thinking Free Foundation to develop a space where men, often white and/or straight and/or Of Priv, could spend a little time and energy telling their fellow Hetero-occidentaloid-Y-chromosomists something useful or interesting about…
January 17, 2012
When my daughter was little, she had a series of ear and throat infections that were frequent enough that the pediatrician finally said "One more in the next two months and Imma recommend we consider taking out her tonsils" or words to that effect. Interestingly, Julia stopped getting the sore…
January 17, 2012
Gleick is the new board member of the National Center for Science Education.
January 17, 2012
There are animations!
Florida couple escape from sinking Italian cruise ship:
Cruise ship Costa Concordia salvage options animated:
January 16, 2012
Why is NCSE Now Concerned with Climate Change?
Press Release
Book excerpt: "The Denial of Global Warming" (from "Merchants of Doubt")
January 16, 2012
Here is a press release that will be distributed shortly:
NCSE TACKLES CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL
A new initiative in the struggle for quality science education
OAKLAND, CA January 16, 2012
Science education is under attack--again.
This time it's under attack by climate change deniers, who ignore a…
January 16, 2012
It is no longer the case that science teachers and concerned parents only need to worry about creationists invading US classrooms, via personal intrusion (by parents, students, or creationist teachers) or by legislation or regulation. Increasingly climate change denialism is being shoved into…
January 16, 2012
According to the examiner:
In a surprise move today, Representative Eric Cantor(R-VA) announced that he will stop all action on SOPA, effectively killing the bill. This move was most likely due to several things. One of those things is that SOPA and PIPA met huge online protest against the bills.…
January 16, 2012
Research using lab rats or mice funded by the NIH is regulated by a set of guidelines that have very recently been upgraded. Mother rats and mice with litters are now recommended to have more room than current guidelines require. The new guidelines are not hard and fast rules, but researchers are…
January 15, 2012
Twitter is telling me that Phobos Grunt is going to do its mostly burning up in the Earth's Atmosphere thing RIGHT NOW. Or it just did. Or really really soon.
#PhobosGrunt is the hashtag.
If you have an aluminum foil hat, now would be a good time to put it on.
That is all…
January 15, 2012
... with Science! And she also talks about fishing, the size of government, Republicans, Obama, government reform And lies, damn lies.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Obviously this is an Obama plot to take away our guns.
January 14, 2012
Below the fold because it is 20 pixels too wide.
The Colbert Report Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
January 14, 2012
UPDATE: With the last orbital elements decay prediction is now january 15, 2012 at 18h27 UTC +/-4h
Thirteen tons of space ship once destine for the planet Mars is starting to lose altitude, and may drop into the thicker layer of the atmosphere and (mostly) burn up Sunday (story at bbc). The…
January 13, 2012
The Research Blogging Editor's Selectionies are out! Hosted by Krystal D'Costa, this award is roughly similar to the Academy Awards, but for blog posts about peer reviewed research. And I won one!!!
My post "A word or two about tobacco, and some neat and new research." It was said of this post "…
January 13, 2012
I'm happy to be introducing this Sunday's guest speaker at the Minnesota Atheists meeting.
Shawn Otto, author of Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America, will speak about his book and related matters at about 2:00. The event is at the Southdale Library. Details here.
I believe…
January 12, 2012
Watch this then get to work.
This bill is up for consideration now. Do something:
Call the Senate switchboard at 202-224-3121
Ask for your Senators and make your voice heard
Ask your friends to call too
Keep calling every week until this important bill passes
Report your call here
Thanks Al…
January 12, 2012
According to one study, yes.
Using a technique called gravitational microlensing, an international team found a handful of exoplanets that imply the existence of billions more.
The findings were released at the 219th American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting, alongside reports of the smallest "…
January 11, 2012
... outside our solar system.
Kepler has discoverd theree planets around the star KOI-961, and they are a mere 0.78, 0.73 and 0.57 times the radius of Earth, rocky like the earth, but alas, they are too close to the star so there can't be any liquid water on them. But still, there are hardly any…
January 11, 2012
Imagine a "primordial soup" on some planet somewhere from which there occasionally emerges a thing that could locomote, and as it locomoted around it would scrape up some of the dust that lay around on the planet, and occasionally eat other things that had come out of the "primordial soup" and it…
January 11, 2012
Don't like Gnome 3.0 or Unity? Linux Mint 12 offers Gnome 2 like option.
The latest version of Mint channels Gnome 2.0 goodness via two different approaches: Firstly, Mint Gnome Shell Extensions add Gnome 2.0 features to the Gnome 3.0 shell. Secondly, Mint now ships with Mate, a maintenance fork…
January 11, 2012
Over the last few weeks I've run into a few misconceptions about tobacco, as well as some interesting news, so I thought I'd share. If you already know some of this, forgive me, not everyone else does.
First, tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum, is a member of the Solanaceae family of plants, which from a…
January 11, 2012
My analysis of the New Hampshire Primary results is here. I summarize another interesting study regarding gun deaths and violence in the US. And you might be interested in this billboard campaign.
January 10, 2012
Sebastian Wernicke thinks every TEDTalk can be summarized in six words. At TEDxZurich, he shows how to do just that -- and less.
January 10, 2012
Those who support unfettered ownership and sales of guns say no, but they are just making that up. A recent study says yes. Check it out.
