July 30, 2010
Both Erik Paulsen, my representative to the US congress, and Michele Bachmann, the infamous insane person who represents my neighbors a few blocks away, have elected to vote against worker's health compensation for 9/11 first responders.
And they dare to call themselves Americans!!!
According to…
July 30, 2010
The Rover Spirit is hibernating on a dark slope on the winter end of the planet Mars. Solar panels may be providing enough energy to keep its clock going. If not, it will become suspended in time and not know to wake up and send a signal that it is 'alive.' The panels may or may not keep the…
July 30, 2010
The anopheles mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, is the primary vector for human malaria. Mosquitoes in general, the A. gambiae included, find their prey by tracking body odor exuded from the breath and skin. Apparently, the composition of body odor determines A. gambiae's preference for one individual…
July 30, 2010
Desiree Schell of Skeptically Speaking diabolically matched The Culture of Fear author Barry Glassner for a live interview, and a fear-riddled edition of "Everything you know is sort of wrong" (on how poor people are breeding so fast they will take over the earth) by yours truly for TONIGHT's…
July 30, 2010
Can a fly's eye(s) be used for solar cells? Apparently so. Speaking of which, I have a gripe. Nuclear power supporters have always ignored the fact that Nuclear power (a.k.a. "unlimited safe free energy") is more expensive than other traditional forms of energy. In the mean time, anti "…
July 30, 2010
This one is very much worth the effort. Stop here first for some instructions on strategy, then go here to do this thing.
UPDATED!!!!!
Holy crap! The Kent Hovind poll started out looking like this:
What do you believe about evolution?
It's a religion.
* It's a fact!
* It's a…
July 30, 2010
Wanted: A bash utility that sends the contents of a file to standard output. It would be named spew. It would be like cat but with the problems oft' complained about in cat fixed. There would be a few options. One option would be to chomp the final newline if there is one. Other options would…
July 29, 2010
Up to 140 people are feared dead after a boat carrying passengers and goods capsized on a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials say.
The accident happened on the Kasai river - a tributary of the Congo River - in the western province of Bandundu.
Information Minister Lambert Mende…
July 29, 2010
So, do you think there is any connection between this:
9 months, 23 days
Mark your calendars! The end of the world is nigh, and we've got a specific date: the Rapture will occur on 21 May, 2011, and the world ends on 21 October 2011. How do we know this? As near as I can tell, it's pure numerology…
July 29, 2010
For a new project to fund progressive candidates, with the intention of countering the 200 million or so that Republican-aligned special interests have raised for the 2010 election. Click here.
July 29, 2010
I've been interested forever in human perceptions of risk and culturally mediated fear. I got to work with some of the cook risk perception people at the Kennedy School of Government for a while (as a bystander), and as an archaeologist, I find the question of risk and fear important in human…
July 29, 2010
Barbara Forrest, author of Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design, has a major blog post addressing the current maneno in Louisiana. A Parish school board there wants to place creationism on equal or higher footing than evolution. Read Barbara's piece here.
July 29, 2010
As you know, I have a long standing interest in dogs and bears and in the topic of animals eating people.
(SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST)
And now, from Montana, we have a case of a brown bear with cubs invading a camp ground, killing one person and mauling several over several minutes time. The…
July 29, 2010
Hat Tip: Highly Allochthonous
July 29, 2010
Bloomberg? NPR? Or FOX?
You KNOW the white house wants to give it to NPR. But they will look so Librul and stuff if they do that, and they are still living in the Squeemish 90s when it comes to that sort of thing (they need to watch this).
So give them the backup they need: Click here and…
July 29, 2010
It turns out, Sponge Bob Square Pants Roolz. But never mind that. Keep focused on the racism, it is actually important:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
He he ... she said "girlfriend."
July 29, 2010
Are you a "safe guy"? Or do you know someone who (you or he or some else thinks) is?
Stephanie Zvan has written about this at Quiche Moraine, and I think I might have been living in a different world than Stephanie's because my experience has always been that the attribute of "safeness" is a…
July 29, 2010
Tan Le's astonishing new computer interface reads its user's brainwaves, making it possible to control virtual objects, and even physical electronics, with mere thoughts (and a little concentration). She demos the headset, and talks about its far-reaching applications.
July 28, 2010
The word on the street: Yes.
July 28, 2010
From Al Franken:
The Comcast-NBC merger is the first domino. If it falls, the rest will soon follow. If no one stops them, how long do you think it will take before 4 or 5 megacorporations effectively control the flow of information in America not only on television, but online? How long do you…
July 28, 2010
These data were scraped by security consultant Ron Bowles, using code that scans Facebook profiles and collects all data not hidden by privacy settings. Which, as some but not all of you know, are probably not set the way you think they are set for your account.
You can have the data if you want…
July 28, 2010
Al Franken at Netroots Nation
July 28, 2010
Arthritis and injury grind down millions of joints, but few get the best remedy -- real biological tissue. Kevin Stone shows a treatment that could sidestep the high costs and donor shortfall of human-to-human transplants with a novel use of animal tissue.
July 28, 2010
Without looking, can you name five major cities that still exist and have changed their names? Miss Cellania can.
What is a pleurodiran? Second in a series at Tetrapod Zoology.
This is interesting: "For the first time the number of [animal research] procedures involving genetically altered…
July 28, 2010
Whooping cough appears to be back, with a vengeance. It is now an epidemic in California. You need to know that it is serious business.
July 28, 2010
Is the future of the science blogging blogosphere gong to look like the Early Triassic (which followed a mass extinction event)? Bora seems to think so: Science Blogging Networks: What, Why and How
Reversal of hyperglycemia in diabetic mouse models using induced-pluripotent stem (iPS)-derived…
July 28, 2010
It was already stifling at 9 o'clock in the morning as I frantically took notes on what I was witnessing through my field glasses. Without warning a black, hairy arm reached out to smack an unsuspecting victim, immediately giving way to a frantic chase that roused the entire troop. With teeth bared…
