September 27, 2010
'The U.S. Air Force is lying about the national security implications of unidentified aerial objects at nuclear bases and we can prove it,' he said.
The former officer said he witnessed such an event first-hand on March 16, 1967, at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana.
'I was on duty when an object…
September 26, 2010
It's PZ Myers, who has been no friend to the crackers, burying two books of holy scripture and planting daffodils on them. Or, at least, I think it's PZ (I can tell by his nice suit). And it might not be daffodils. Whatever. The point is, if you support the right of a person to make a point by…
September 26, 2010
Evolution is a myth!!!! Why, Charles Darwin Himself .... BlaHH!!
Dabbled in which craft? Oh, witchcraft! Mice have human brains? Maybe this human has a mouse brain! Ugh.
September 26, 2010
Hat tip Amy
September 26, 2010
People often credit their ideas to individual "Eureka!" moments. But Steven Johnson shows how history tells a different story. His fascinating tour takes us from the "liquid networks" of London's coffee houses to Charles Darwin's long, slow hunch to today's high-velocity web.
September 25, 2010
Galapagos Diary: A Complete Guide to the Archipelgo's Birdlife
... Continuing in our look at bird books to consider, I wanted to bring in the Galapagos Diary. I cannot tell you which is the best book for birding in the Galapagos, because, sadly, I've never done that myself. But my daughter,…
September 25, 2010
The UN's human rights chief has said the "scale and viciousness" of mass rapes in DR Congo "defy belief", as a report into the attack was released.
Navi Pillay said that, even for the region, the incident stood out because of the "extraordinarily cold-blooded and systematic way" it was carried out…
September 25, 2010
Caroline Phillips cranks out tunes on a seldom-heard folk instrument: the hurdy-gurdy, a.k.a. the wheel fiddle. A searching, Basque melody follows her fun lesson on its unique anatomy and 1,000-year history.
September 24, 2010
Frankly, I'm not sure what I think about this.
September 24, 2010
Official opened floodgates on two dams causing flooding that required over two million people to move. It is not clear that residents were warned in advance. The dams are normally opened this time of year to track rainfall patterns in the region.
Details.
September 24, 2010
A sidebar in a marine science textbook recommended for approval in Florida is "packed with good ol' fashioned creationist language," Florida Citizens for Science charges. The text in question, Life on an Ocean Planet (Current Publishing, 2011), was recently recommended for state approval by the…
September 24, 2010
Below the fold:
September 24, 2010
A National Academies report Thursday warned of a crummy economic future unless fixes are made to U.S. science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.
Included below are longer reactions to the "Rising Above the Gathering Storm," report:
here
September 24, 2010
After all, the distance between the bits my coffee cup is made of and the distance between the bits the coffee table is made of is absolutely hugemoungous. If you were a person standing on one atom of my coffee cup, scaled so the atom was the size of, say a Sofa, and you looked out in the…
September 24, 2010
Stagnant scientific education imperils U.S. economic leadership, says a report by leading business and science figures.
Released Thursday at a congressional briefing attended by senators and Congress members of both parties, the report updates a 2005 science education report that led to moves to…
September 24, 2010
Tonight's skeptically speaking will be on Improbable Research:
Marc Abrahams
We look at the stranger side of science with Marc Abrahams, the editor of Annals of Improbable Research and creator of the the Ig Nobel Prize. Is science that makes us laugh better at making us think?
and
Speaking up…
September 24, 2010
"Everyone needs to understand the basic facts of evolution as well as the essentials of the scientific method... When people are deprived of a scientific approach to reality as a whole, they are robbed of both a full appreciation of the beauty and richness of the natural world and the means to…
September 24, 2010
The stormy feature in the West Indies has formed into a named storm, and it is Matthew. Matthew is expected to remain as a tropical storm as it follows the North Honduras coast and dissipates over the central Yucatan. Well, it is possible that it will jump the isthmus and do something interesting…
September 23, 2010
The Triassic is old. This book is new. That is a hard to beat combination.
~ A repost for Back to School Special ~
Let's see ... The Triassic is about here:
(You can also look it up in this PDF file supplied by the USGS.
It is situated between two major extinction events, and is especially…
September 23, 2010
When I finished reading the sixth book, I turned to Julia, then about 12 years old or so, and said "Oh crap, now we have to wait for the next book to come out" and she said "Welcome to my entire life, Dad!"
Anyway, we all love the movies, and here's the trailers for the next one:
September 23, 2010
Andrew Brown has written a blog post about the atheist rally in England at which Dawkins gave his now famous speech. Brown quote mines Dawkins in a way that is utterly abominable. Dawkins, in his speech, discusses a somewhat complicated relationship between certain facts ... not too complicated…
September 22, 2010
Once again, I have been awarded an Editors' Choice award on Peter Janiszewski's Research Blogging Blog. They tell me that this is somewhere between an Academy Award and a Nobel Prize. Thank you thank you thank you. And, I'd like to point out that I share this award with several other excellent…
September 22, 2010
Yeah, it's pretty much a joke:
September 22, 2010
A piece by Historyguy Five Three Seven One Six:
Did I mention this was the most boring job in the world? Mind-numbingly, soul-crushingly, stab-yourself-in-the-leg-with-a-pen-to-get-them-to-call-an-ambulance-so-you-can-escape-this-meeting- boring. If she wins this seat, she will spend days in…
September 22, 2010
You can get it here.
This is a nefarious Canadian version of a plot to guarantee that whack-job religious nut parents get to jam their beliefs down the throats of ALL the children, not just their own. Or something along those lines, perhaps I am understating it a tad.
September 22, 2010
Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming I've been putting off posting my review of this book until just the right moment. Perhaps that moment is now, with the juxtaposition of a serious storm ... hurricane Gustav ... arriving in the vicinity of New Orleans and the…
