September 9, 2010
Much in the same way that "woodpeckers" have evolved several times (most are birds that look like each other, but then there is the aye-aye and Darwin's finch), one can say that the nightjars are birds poking around in the insect-eating bat niche.
Nightjars are crepuscular birds also known as…
September 9, 2010
Microsoft says Teh Gay is "inappropriate." The corporate computer giant and evile empire banned a kid from having an X-box account because he listed the name of his home town in his profile, and happens to live in Fort Gay. The people of Fort Gay are not putting up with this. When challenged,…
September 9, 2010
Live from Skeptrack at Dragon*Con, we talk to the women of skepticism about the contributions they're making to science and critical thinking.
In this episode:
Panelists: Kylie Sturgess of The Token Skeptic, Robynn "Swoopy" McCarthy of Skepticality, and Heidi Anderson and Jenna Marie Griffith of…
September 9, 2010
A documentary on education. And culture.
Here's the page.
September 9, 2010
"Maybe Hawking should leave God alone," claims Marcelo Gleiser.
Poor god. Getting beat up by a guy in a wheel chair.
Gleisser essentially argues that Hawking can't make the claims he makes about the irrelevance of god in an origin physics. Yet, Gleisser freely implies the possibility of god-…
September 9, 2010
The U.S. Army honors soldiers wounded or killed in combat with the Purple Heart, a powerful symbol designed to recognize their sacrifice and service.
Yet Army commanders have routinely denied Purple Hearts to soldiers who have sustained concussions in Iraq, despite regulations that make such wounds…
September 9, 2010
You have to tell your child's life science teacher (or, any science teacher for that matter) that your family does not support creationism, does not want to see anyone "teaching the controversy" and that you know that "Intelligent Design" is a form of creationism. I promise you, the creationist…
September 9, 2010
Technically, Igor is no longer a tropical storm, but the National Hurricane Center had decided to let Igor keep it's Tropical Storm Symbol and that status that goes along with that for the rest of the day. If Igor shapes up and gets its act in gear, then, well, we'll see.
Igor is in the vicinity…
September 9, 2010
Rachel Sussman shows photographs of the world's oldest continuously living organisms -- from 2,000-year-old brain coral off Tobago's coast to an "underground forest" in South Africa that has lived since before the dawn of agriculture.
September 9, 2010
Have a look at this video, done by Brian Rooney of ABC News Nightline, in which he follows around Billy Jack and Rusty Carter, two young earth creationists who are leading a school group through the Denver Museum of Nature and Science:
A revise repost.
Young earth creationists, or 'YEC's' believe…
September 8, 2010
Because Igor is now a tropical storm.
Igor is not much of a storm yet, and is showing no clear pattern of increased intensification. However, Igor's current path will take the storm through a region where there will be very little to weaken it and a great deal of very warm water to strengthen it…
September 8, 2010
Education scientist Sugata Mitra tackles one of the greatest problems of education -- the best teachers and schools don't exist where they're needed most. In a series of real-life experiments from New Delhi to South Africa to Italy, he gave kids self-supervised access to the web and saw results…
September 8, 2010
Why does the wind blow, and why does it blow the way it does?
~ A repost for Back to School Special ~
When I teach human evolution, I feel compelled to bring in climate change. When I do that, I find it very unsatisfying to mention climate change as a thing that simply happened. I need to also…
September 8, 2010
It happens. A very large percentage of life science teachers are creationists. In Minnesota, and Minnesota is not that unusual, about half the population or more are creationists, but among life science teachers, that number is reduced by almost one half. In other words, one in three life…
September 8, 2010
.... Have you ever had this happen: You are minding your own business, teaching your life science course, it's early in the term. A student, on the way out of the room after class (never at the beginning of class, rarely during class) mentions something about "carbon dating." This usually…
September 7, 2010
William Chaloner reminds me of a handful of people I've known. He possessed a sense of entitlement balanced by a remarkable capacity for greed and tempered with an acute sociopathy. He clearly had a keen intellect and extraordinary manual skill. When Isaac Newton murdered Chaloner (to put it the…
September 7, 2010
Published by Yale University Press A Portrait of the Brain by Adam Zeman is a new book describing how the brain works (and does not work) in something of an Oliver Sack's experiential manner, but with a twist.
Zeman is a Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology at the Peninsula Medical…
September 7, 2010
Reminder: The National Center for Science Education has a new web page, as part of their ever-improving and getting really quite wonderful web site, on Creationism and The Law. Here.
September 6, 2010
Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments: All Lab, No Lecture (DIY Science) is a new book by Robert Thompson. The premise is simple. The coolest thing in the world is a home chemistry set like this one from Gilbert, which combined both chemistry and microscopy:
Chemistry Set Combine the…
September 6, 2010
... In public schools. According to one Federal Judge in the US, not much.
A Mission Viejo high school history teacher violated the First Amendment by disparaging Christians during a classroom lecture, a federal judge ruled.
a repost
James Corbett, a 20-year teacher at Capistrano Valley High…
September 5, 2010
I just thought I'd put this up on Jaf's recommendation as an example of a non-dirty campaign ad. Substance free, perhaps, but at least it's not smear. Read Jaf's update on the Minnesota Campaigns and their ads.
As Jaf points out, Bruce Kennedy was such a nice guy, and Minnesotans are so nice,…
September 5, 2010
In the Gulf oil spill's aftermath, Lisa Margonelli says drilling moratoriums and executive ousters make for good theater, but distract from the issue at its heart: our unrestrained oil consumption. She shares her bold plan to wean America off of oil -- by confronting consumers with its real cost.
September 5, 2010
Hat Tip Mike
September 5, 2010
And now for our weekly history lesson ...
Bonus lesson: Hieroglyphics ...
September 4, 2010
Hat Tip: Miss Cellania
September 4, 2010
Cartoonist Jim Toomey created the comic strip Sherman's Lagoon, a wry look at underwater life starring Sherman the talking shark. As he sketches some of his favorite sea creatures live onstage, Toomey shares his love of the ocean and the stories it can tell.
September 4, 2010
The Vaccine-Autism Link has been ruled non-existent by a federal court. Details.
Homeopathy still doesn't work. Even a little. Very little.
Corexit in Florida water supply?
A health related blog post, Pushing towards acknowledging sex differences in physiology and treatment efficacy by the…
September 4, 2010
A key binding that selects all and places it instantly on the clipboard, and works in all software. This is such a common sequence of commands it should be made into one command. It could be called "mop" or "nom."
See the whole "WANTED" list here.
September 3, 2010
Ferrel monk parakeets in Brooklyn (They've been living there long enough to get into some bird identification guides) are being poached by .... parakeet poachers! Here is the story.
Check this out:
Exelon, a nuclear giant that recently backed away from building new nuclear plants, is moving…
