January 17, 2011
Xfce 4.8 released after nearly two years of development. Hopefully, there are no added features or functionality! (That's a joke.)
(In fact, there is a loss of functionality for BSD users who implement the *nix desktop environment. But let's not even talk about that problem because it opens a…
January 17, 2011
At the expense of Mel Gibson:
January 17, 2011
It is very reasonable for a parent to worry about vaccines. For one thing, most of them involve sticking the baby or child with a sharp object, thus making the little one cry, and it would be abnormal to not have an automatic reaction to that. For another thing, they are drugs, in a sense. When…
January 16, 2011
Firefox Four is nearing readiness for your use. There are a massive 661 bug fixes, a number people are very excited about, but you've got to ask: How do you get that many unfixed bugs to begin with??? One of the features I'm looking forward is tabs in the title bar. I'm tired of giving up…
January 15, 2011
A blog carnival is a moving periodic blog posting collecting current entries in a particular topic, designed to give blog readers a list of things to do that they really do want to do. Current carnivals of which I'm aware are Berry Go Round, which is about plants; Carnival of the Blue, which is…
January 15, 2011
Virgin Mobile's "unlimited broadband" will be limited, as the communication company goes back on its deal with customers. "Here at Virgin Mobile, our mission is to deliver an outstanding customer experience. Sometimes that means making difficult choices..." I don't see that as a difficult choice…
January 15, 2011
Tom W. Clark, director of the Center for Naturalism and author of Encountering Naturalism: A Worldview and Its Uses, will appear on Atheist Talk radio Sunday Morning.
Free will, as you know, does not really exist, and this has important implications for thinking about morality and so called "…
January 14, 2011
King was born in 1929, and assassinated in 1968, on April 4th at the age of 39.
When he was killed, someone asked "what kind of nation are we?"
January 14, 2011
Holly MIranda, I'd Rather Be Blind
January 14, 2011
Sometimes, that is what I think news reporters do. There are occasions when you know the story and have the opportunity to watch them spew out incorrect information. Sometimes you do not know the story but you can watch them getting it wrong and see that happening while they appear to remain…
January 13, 2011
So, Lizzie1 and I drove up to the restaurant in downtown Minneapolis and spotted the Valet Parking sign. I wanted to valet park because downtown, we'd have to park in a ramp2 anyway, so the cost would be the same or less, and much more convenient and comfortable on this slightly chilly winter…
January 13, 2011
But in a scientific way not a nasty political way. Have a look:
There are many things in this picture that are quite remarkable.
Both of these galaxies are spiral galaxies. You can see that clearly in the blue one at the bottom of the photo. The yellow one at top is as well, but you are…
January 13, 2011
According to the FluView report for the week ending January 1, influenza activity has picked up over the last few weeks in the United States. This increase in activity is typical of the start of flu season. The number of states reporting regional or widespread influenza activity increased. Although…
January 13, 2011
Coming to theaters near you:
January 13, 2011
Right now, the FCC and Department of Justice are preparing to approve the NBC/Comcast merger -- something that would have dire consequences for years to come.
Sign the petition.
January 13, 2011
Remember this?
That was from the time of the first big Tut tour. Well, Steve Martin's silly rendition was not part of the tour, but one of the many fine cultural sidebars.
This is not a cultural sidebar resulting from The Treasures of Tutankhamun:
That comes from the observation of people…
January 12, 2011
"Literally, if we took away the minimum wage -- if conceivably it was gone -- we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level."
January 12, 2011
First, watch this:
Mention of crosshairs at 2:20.
Then, Gabby got her head shot through with a bullet.
Then (blood libel phrase is at ca 3:20) :
Notice how she forgets to use the term "alleged" ... so much for the fifth amendment. Notice the very intense attempt circumscribe responsibility and…
January 12, 2011
The Internet (or at least the network of tubes it runs through) has eventually gotta give as our collective demands grow, and there are signs of this happening. There is a limited amount of bandwith and until that problem is relieved we are heading steadily towards a point where our stuff just won…
January 11, 2011
No, these things are not related.
It was not that many years ago when observations were made, incidentally as I recall, of radioactivity in the upper atmosphere above large thunderstorms. I remember this being sneered at like it was a claim of cold fusion or something. Within a couple of years,…
January 11, 2011
Gun nuts in the Arizona State Legislature have introduced what they insensitively and stupidly call the Gifford-Zimmerman act, named after the wounded Congresswoman Gifford and her slain aid, requiring the state to train politicians and their staff as part of the process of arming them.
Read about…
January 11, 2011
It is very hard to see cold, small, rocky planets like Earth when they are running around stars that are light years away, but Kepler found one. S, it turns out, we are not alone, at least in relation to geology.
NASA's Kepler mission confirmed the discovery of its first rocky planet, named Kepler…
January 11, 2011
On January 10, 2011, the Mount Vernon City Schools Board of Education voted 4-1 to terminate the employment of John Freshwater. A middle school science teacher in Mount Vernon, Ohio, Freshwater was accused of inappropriate religious activity in the classroom -- including displaying posters with the…
January 10, 2011
" I don't think I give as much credence to my own mind, because I see myself as being very limited and very flawed, and lacking in knowledge, and wisdom and understanding. So, I just take the Bible for what it is, I guess, and recognize that I am not a scientist, not trained to be a scientist. I'm…
