May 24, 2010
It's tomorrow.
May 24, 2010
In the first part of this discussion, I reminded you that we are talking about "falsehoods." "Falsehood" is a term I and others have co-opted and have used for well over a decade in anthropology and biology courses across the land. The idea is to identify a statement that, when uttered in some…
May 24, 2010
Or should I say "ice."
The Phoenix Mars Lander seems to be dead in the dust, with its solar panels having suffered severe winter ice damage as shown by photos from the Odyssey Orbiter:
The blue color on the left shows clean, reflective, round solar panels. The blacky-browny image on the right…
May 24, 2010
My honored colleague Vanessa Woods, author of Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo (which I am currently reviewing .... stay tuned) will be on Skeptically Speaking this coming Friday, so don't miss that.
Also, yours truly will be on (not live but recorded assuming certain…
May 24, 2010
Go pour yourself a cup of coffee, sit back, relax and watch this PolitiPorn. Take notes. Discuss.
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May 23, 2010
Oil firm BP may be "pushed out of the way" if it fails to perform in the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster clean-up, a top US official has warned.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the British company had missed "deadline after deadline" in its efforts to seal a blown-out oil well.
source
May 23, 2010
But seriously ...
May 23, 2010
Skeptically Speaking's Massimo Pigliucci interview is now on line here. He talks about his book: Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk
May 23, 2010
Kelly McCullough, author of the Raverin series (starting with WebMage of fantasy/science fiction and dealing with artificial intelligence, magical computer technology, and mythology) will be making a local appearance here in the Twin Cities. Those of you who have followed the Twin Cities…
May 23, 2010
As long as "anything" includes being a total dumb-ass:
Hat tip: Ana
May 23, 2010
A "falsehood" is a belief held by a number of people that is in some way incorrect. That incorrectness may be blatant, it may be subtle, it may be conditional, it may be simple, it may be complex. But, the unraveling of the belief, even if much of that belief is in fact true, can be a learning…
May 23, 2010
Harakat Al-Shabab is a militant Islamic youth movement engaged in the Somali war. Yesterdaythey mortared the presidential palace in Omgadishu, setting off a fight killing 14 people.
A landslide caused by heavy rains and a flooding river on the slope of Nyiragongo killed over 50 people in the DR…
May 22, 2010
... (and one other guy). And Gardner died on Saturday.
He was born in October 1914. So that made him ...
Do the math.
Here is a sampling of his works. He published dozens of books, IIRC, so this is a very loose sample.
Martin Gardner's Mathematical Games
When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a…
May 22, 2010
The mother (on the right) was raised in captivity, released, got pregnant, and is now raising her daughter on the Waterberg, South Africa.
May 21, 2010
Probably a member of Euphorbia milii, aka, "Crown of Thorns" or "Christ Plant."
May 21, 2010
OK, before you answer, I'm going to tell you what I think. No. But that is not what is going on here (my snarky title is designed to get the attention of the usual suspects who will decry what is going on at Sandwalk Blog as repression). What is going on is a community of science-oriented people…
May 21, 2010
I recently watched this film for the first time since I was a little kid. The plot is much more nuanced than I had realized at the time.
Interesting mixture of science and religion.
May 21, 2010
While it lasts.
May 21, 2010
When I was first in the Ituri Forest, I Noticed there were many kinds of plantains grown in the gardens there They varied by size and shape. One version seemed to have numerous black spots on the outside. When asking what it was called, I found its name was the same as the variety without the…
May 20, 2010
Why are most stars in binary systems? New Spitzer results may help explain.
Stars form from cosmic dust accumulating in sufficient quantities to generate sufficient gravity to mush the atoms with sufficient compression to cause nuclear fusion. The dust initially gathers in a large formation long…
May 20, 2010
Philosophy professor and author Dr. Massimo Pigliucci joins us to discuss his new book "Nonsense On Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk." We'll discuss why people embrace pseudoscientific beliefs, and how it affects our culture.
Details
(Reminds me of this: Massimo Pigliucci: "Politics,…
May 20, 2010
The Saba Bank is a major coral reef in the Caribbean which sports a high level of biodiversity but also attracts oil tankers, and is thus an important natural area under threat. The tankers anchor here to avoid paying fees in various ports, but the anchors themselves drag along the reef and cause…
May 20, 2010
"In today's lecture, I will be casting false pearls before real swine"
... I won't tell you who said that, but when he did say it, he was in front of a classroom of several hundred Harvard freshmen, and he was referring to the idea of telling little white lies to the unwashed masses in order to…
May 20, 2010
buk buk buk
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May 20, 2010
Scientists are reporting that they have made a living cell from DNA that was originally synthesized in a lab. This isn't quite a synthetic organism. But the result is an important, and some would say troubling step on the road to creating life in the lab.
Craig Venter is the scientist behind the…
May 20, 2010
One of the fascinating side stories in Dragnet is the quirky relationship between Bill Gannon and Joe Friday, and in particular, Bill's reporting of his occasional schemes and Joe's incredulous reaction to them. ...
Read on (qm)
