January 8, 2012
Mike Haubrich, of Tangled Up in Blue Guy blog, has documented a discussion between a biologist, a commenter, and the Discovery Institute (a creationist "think" tank). No apes were harmed during this incident, but one of them may be rather embarrassed. It's quite intresting, have a look: Cornelius…
January 7, 2012
I have two items for you. First, I'd like you to inspect this brilliant computer game and come up with a bash equivilant (or something that will run from the Linux Command Line). The current version of the program is 32 megabytes of some kind of DOS based source code. I'm sure we can do this in…
January 7, 2012
There is a new kind of guitar. It is the electronic version of a guitar in the same way that a MIDI keyboard is an electronic version of a piano. And, it runs on Linux and is OpenSource!
The Misa Kitara consists of three main components: a full fretboard, a multi-touch screen and an onboard…
January 7, 2012
In a world first, University of Queensland and CSIRO scientists have measured the relationship between current climate, climate change and habitat loss on plants and animals on a global scale.
Their results, published recently in Global Change Biology indicate that areas with high temperatures and…
January 7, 2012
Skeptically Speaking # 146
This week, we're looking at some of nature's most accomplished materials scientists, and the amazing substance they produce. We're joined by Leslie Brunetta, co-author of Spider Silk: Evolution and 400 Million Years of Spinning, Waiting, Snagging, and Mating. We'll…
January 7, 2012
For a full year, A.J. Jacobs followed every piece of health advice he could -- from applying sunscreen by the shot glass to wearing a bicycle helmet while shopping. Onstage at TEDMED, he shares the surprising things he learned.
I always thought it would be interesting to assemble ALL of…
January 7, 2012
Within this generation, an extra 30 years have been added to our life expectancy -- and these years aren't just a footnote or a pathology. At TEDxWomen, Jane Fonda asks how we can think about this new phase of our lives.
See also:
Falsehood: "If this was the Stone Age, I'd be dead by now…
January 7, 2012
... Well, it could happen ...
Intelligent Life Detected by SETI: A radio signal which is too narrow to be natural, changes frequency in an interesting way, and changes amplitude in an interesting way was detected by SETI while gazing at Kepler-discovered planets a great distance away. When SETI…
January 7, 2012
Iran is cracking down on Internet Freedom:
In the most sweeping move, Iran issued regulations giving Internet cafes 15 days to install security cameras, start collecting detailed personal information on customers and document users' online footprints.
Spain passes new Internet "Piracy Law"
United…
January 5, 2012
It is best to use two hands, and to nod frequently to mom to let her know it's OK. Also, it's easier if it's a Minnesota Taco which is actually a Burrito (but we call Burrito's "Wraps" here, of course).
January 5, 2012
I had never heard of The Chaos before today. I suppose that makes me unkulterd, and I'm afraid that I can't use the excuse that it came out in the 1980s when I was either in a trench underneath Boston or deep in the Jungles of Zaire, or doing double duty taking classes and teaching and writing a…
January 4, 2012
In the beginning of the Fukushima Nuclear Crisis, in the hours and days after the earthquake and tsunami struck, nuclear power experts assured us that no matter how bad it seemed, nuclear material would stay in the reactors. It was unlikely that the reactors would melt down, and if they did melt…
January 4, 2012
As you certainly know, Jean Baret was a famous botanical explorer of the 18th century, travelling on Louis Antoine de Bougainville's expedition and circumnavigating the world collecting and discovering new plants. But Jean was Jeanne, a female, who at first pretended to be a man, then later…
January 4, 2012
NO SOPA is a google chrome extension that warns you when you browse to a web site of an entity that supports SOPA. Go here to get the extension. Then, go to the Mosion Picture Association of America (fer instance) to test it. Seems to work fine.
January 4, 2012
The sun heats the earth, but unevenly. The excess heat around the equator moves towards the poles, via a number of different mechanisms, the most noticeable for us humans being via air masses. That's what much of our weather is about. Heat also moves towards the poles, in the ongoing evening-out…
January 4, 2012
... in the Republican Party.
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has canceled the climate change chapter in his upcoming book of environmental essays after Rush Limbaugh and other commentators targeted its author, atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe.
Read the rest here.
January 4, 2012
Only hours after indicating that she would take the fight to New Hampshire, we now hear that Michele Bachmann will suspend her presidential bid today. She is expected to make the announcer soon from West Des Moines.
January 4, 2012
... of my bloggy three-ring circus.
Over the years, I've blogged quite a bit about election politics, with increasing attention paid at appropriate times, including the Minnesota Recount (winner: Al Franken!) and other timely issues. As of last night, the 2012 election season is officially up and…
January 3, 2012
Along with some other deserving people including ...
Greta Christina, Ophelia Benson, Jen McCreight, Amanda Marcotte, Stephanie Zvan, Greg Laden, and PZ Myers
It's hardly a secret that last year was a challenging one for me in terms of a large number of people in our community shitting on me on a…
January 3, 2012
The history of human thought is an epic adventure of exploration and discovery. Since the beginning of time, humans have been curious about order and chaos in nature and our place in the world. By understanding the natural world around us, we understand ourselves better. But how we attempt to…
January 3, 2012
Obviously! But they mostly don't. Check this out:
New Hampshire scientists call on "all candidates" to "acknowledge" cliamte change
In 2008, one of the little acknowledged political subtexts was how significantly global warming played in the Republican primary process. Both independently and as…
January 3, 2012
In April, we continued to look at the disaster in Japan, focusing entirely on the nuclear disaster at Fukushima. Miller and I were criticized for not focusing on something other than Fukushima. It became apparent that TEPCO had ignored warnings that Fukushima was poorly cited with respect to…
January 2, 2012
Despite tens or hundreds of thousands of years of very strong Natural Selection, wildebeest do not arrive at the Mara River with a genetically determined brain mechanism or module that helps (much) to keep them from being eaten by the crocodiles that live in the river. Most of the wildebeest that…
January 1, 2012
March was a particularly important month for this blog, and for everybody in the world, really, because it is when the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, and Fukushima meltdown started. Although I blogged early on about the quake and tsunami, my colleague and friend Analiese Miller and I eventually…
January 1, 2012
One of the most read posts of the month was titled Justin Bieber's New Haircut but it was actually about something else. It was about a bunch of things, including #Occupy (even though #Occupy had not happened yet) and the end of civilization as we know it.
In February, we also explored the…
January 1, 2012
In January I noticed, and blogged, that Michele Bachmann is an Unmitigated Idiot and Racist. And I proved it. Also, during the winter of 2010-2011 there were a handful of die-offs of birds and some other critters that happened to get into the news, and for some, caused great anxiety. We explored…
January 1, 2012
Last night, a Minneapolis woman gave birth to twins. Two of them. But labor was tough. The first one was born just before 7PM on December 31st, 2011. The second one was born just after midnight, Januray 1st, 2012. This will get interesting in about 12 years.*
The following tragic news story…
January 1, 2012
If you have a touch screen device that requires a password to unlock, and the location of the password is fixed on the screen, add repeating digits to you PIN. For obvious reasons.
December 29, 2011
I mention the New Hampshire anti-evolution bills at The X Blog. Here's an update from the NCSE:
The two antievolution bills in the New Hampshire legislature attracted the attention of the Concord Monitor (December 29, 2011). As NCSE previously reported, House Bill 1148, introduced by Jerry Bergevin…
