September 3, 2011
A small "Signal-to-Noise Ratio" means that there is not enough real information (signal) compared to the background noise to make a definitive statement about something. With a sufficiently high Signal-to-Noise Ratio, it is possible to make statistically valid statements about some measure or…
September 3, 2011
NASA is giving the public the power to journey through the solar system using a new interactive Web-based tool.
The "Eyes on the Solar System" interface combines video game technology and NASA data to create an environment for users to ride along with agency spacecraft and explore the cosmos.…
September 2, 2011
There has been a major dust-up in the climate denialist world. A study published in late July made false claims and was methodologically flawed, but still managed to get published in a peer reviewed journal. The Editor-in-Chief of that journal has resigned to symbolically take responsibility for…
September 2, 2011
As you know, I've started a bit of blogging at The X Blog. Please check out my latest post ...
Evolution is real. Creationism is not. Why are emails from creationists often published in respectable newspapers? There is a reason, and I'll tell you what it is below. (Preview: It is your fault…
September 1, 2011
Here is an extended quote from the Preface of a new publication you may find interesting. I thought it was fascinating:
In 1995, the National Research Council's (NRC's) Committee on Space Debris wrote,
The threat that orbital debris poses to international space activities is presently not large,…
September 1, 2011
It turns on you....
September 1, 2011
This is an experiment. To reduce complexity in my own life and enhance the quality of communication between me and you, I'm going to try this "newsletter" thingie. It will probably be weekly, roughly timed for the middle of the week, and will include links to the blog posts I personally wish that…
September 1, 2011
Is on line, but please be patient if there are technical problems. Lots of blogs are joining Freethoughtblogs.com this morning. I'll update you later on that interesting story.
Click here to visit the The X Blog. To which I am NOT moving. But rather, going.
August 31, 2011
I really am. When I was a kid, we had few books at home, and the library was two blocks away. Before kindergarten, so when I was less than five or six, I had worked out a route by which I would take my wagon to the library, crossing our urban streets away from the dangerous corners, to the…
August 30, 2011
Sharing the results of a massive, worldwide study, geneticist Svante Pääbo shows the DNA proof that early humans mated with Neanderthals after we moved out of Africa. (Yes, many of us have Neanderthal DNA.) He also shows how a tiny bone from a baby finger was enough to identify a whole new…
August 29, 2011
Reporter Gives Update Covered In Sea Foam: MyFoxNY.com
Given the location, New Jersey/New York metropolitan area, this part of the wikipedia definition may be most pertinent:
Where polluted stormwater from rivers or drains discharges to the coast, sea foam formed on adjacent beaches can be…
August 29, 2011
And I'm only half joking:
Three degrees warming doubles risk of civil war
Global patterns of civil conflict are directly associated with planetary-scale climate change. Specifically in tropical countries, the risk of civil war have just been shown to double in warmer El Niño years (to about 6%…
August 29, 2011
Linux probably has a lot more FOSS tools for editing PDF's than other platforms. ImageMagick will do basic manipulation from the command line. But for a GUI interactive kind of editing, you should look at PDFedit
sudo apt-get install pdfedit
You can do what I'm pretty sure is one of the most…
August 28, 2011
No, no, not that kind of addition... What, are you crazy?
I'd like to announce a new page on Evolution ... not just a theory anymore blog. It is a "media page" which consists of podasts and stuff that I've done.
The page is in its infancy, and I've only got a few items listed so far. Soon it…
August 28, 2011
I am not specifically recommending the book Created Equal becuase I've never seen it up close and cannot vouch for its qualities (and it is not cheap) but it was mentioned, with several photographs from the book, here, some time ago.
In Created Equal, photographer Mark Laita pairs images that are…
August 28, 2011
I like the way the godfather smiles when they talk about git.
The Orgfather
Hat tip: Got Emacs.
August 28, 2011
Continuing with the theme of eating insects ...
The people of the eastern Congo plant African rice around June so that it will grow through the wettest part of the wet season, and then they harvest it in the "dry season" which starts about mid or late November. That is around the same time that a "…
August 27, 2011
At present, Irene is a Category One hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph. In 24 hours from now, mid-afternoon on Sunday, Irene will be on or near the coast of New Jersey near Long Branch, and over the subsequent 12 hours she will be captured by mid latitude meteorological forces,…
August 27, 2011
From ants to aphids, mosquitoes to mantises, entomology blogger Bug Girl has covered all kinds of things that creep, crawl and fly. This week, she joins us to talk about her favorite bugs, and why she finds them all so fascinating. And anthropologist and blogger Greg Laden joins us to discuss the…
August 27, 2011
Congress is in charge of the federal budget. That is a constitutional reality. However, since members of Congress are elected and elections are, well, political, the federal budget is a political artifact. And this is often bad news for science.
It all started with William Proxmire. I still run…
August 26, 2011
Hurricane Irene is probably at its strongest moment at this writing, as a Category Two hurricane, and will become weaker over time as she moves north. However, Irene is very large and will be moving very slowly. So, which is worse? Category Two hurricane winds passing quickly through an area or…
August 25, 2011
I remember one day when Richard Stallman, a nobody, was featured on a local news story. Since I was living in Cambridge, some local news stories were about work being done by Harvard or MIT researchers, and in this case, Stallman was an MIT Hacker who had just started to talk about this strange…
August 25, 2011
Category Three Hurricane Irene has just passed over Abaco Islands in the Northern Bahamas, and is generally affecting the northern Bahamas. Widespread damage is reported. Over the weekend Irene promises to be a very significant weather event in the US. In order to understand the events that will…
August 24, 2011
Hurricane Irene is currently located in the strip between the greater and lesser Antillies, heading west-northwest where it will seriously affect The Bahamas and related islands north of Cuba and east of Florida. By late afternoon, Irene will likely be a Category 3 Hurricane.
The storm will turn…
August 23, 2011
Apparently there's been a ca 5.9 magnitude earthquake in northern Virginia about 30 miles east of Charlottesville. The earthquake was shallow so it's effects were felt widely. It is reported that buildings in NY City were evacuated, as well as the Pentagon. The USGS page is here.
August 22, 2011
First of all, I want you to know that I've devoted my life to this blog post so now you have every reason to love it more than any other blog post. Sniff sniff.
Or, could it be that I've been watching too much America's Got Talent (which, clearly, it does not, except that yo-yo guy was pretty good…
August 22, 2011
Speaking of people eating insects ... as we were ... I do have this fun story from the Ituri Forest.
One day something funny happened. I was traveling in the most remote part of Central Africa, several days walk from any place you could possibly drive a car, visiting uncharted villages mainly…
August 22, 2011
The Inspector General of the National Science foundation has completed an investigation into falsifying research data, concealing or deleting emails or other data, misusing privileged information, and seriously deviating form accepted practices in relation to climate change research by climate…
August 22, 2011
The deadline is approaching for you to submit your preferences for the Linux Journal Readers' Choice Awards. For purposes of discussion, here are (most of my) choices:
Best Linux Distro: I'm sticking with Ubuntu, even though I'm increasingly annoyed at several aspects of it. I chose Unbuntu…
August 22, 2011
I agree with Shawn Powers that Unity has offended all that is good in this world by aggressively grabbing so much of my screen real estate much like Hitler grabbed the Rhineland.
Well, OK, S.P. is not so Godwinesque in his language, but still.... Unity = Microsoft-like marketing oriented…
