November 24, 2009
The test saw the Solar Impulse take some slow steps down the runway using four solar-powered electric motors. The plane taxied without landing gear -- just like in a normal takeoff. Now that the runway test was successful, the Solar Impulse team will taxi to takeoff speed and let the plane take off…
November 24, 2009
More on the CA tuition thing:
What do you think about this news story? It is a product of Newsy.com, which I think is new.
November 24, 2009
Mark Pagel, evolutionary theorist extraordinaire, has published an Insight piece in Nature on Natural selection 150 years on. Pagel, well known for myriad projects in natural selecition theory and adaptation, and for developing with Harvey the widely used statistical phylogenetic method (and for…
November 24, 2009
I hear the cries and the calls of the religious moderate, and they are as usual correct. We have been too uppity, and I apologize on behalf of all of us. We should have known better, of course but in our exuberance at the publication of books by Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris,…
November 24, 2009
With ID proponents increasingly and more loudly decrying Darwin as the reason the Holocaust happened, Bogused-Up copies of The Origin being circulated by Banana Loving Christians, and attacks on real science and real science education in the US continuing as though there were no Constitution or…
November 24, 2009
REMOVED BECAUSE THE "AMAZING ATHEIST" IS A VERY VERY BAD PERSON AND HIS STUFF IS NOT ALLOWED ON THIS BLOG ANY MORE .
November 24, 2009
Perhaps we are all subject to falling into the trap of what I call the Hydraulic Theory of Everything. If you eat more you will be bigger, if you eat less you will be smaller. Emotional states are the continuously varying outcome of different levels of a set of hormones, forming "happy" or "…
November 24, 2009
A podcast from earlier in the year, celebrating Darwin's birthday.
A few essays focusing on Darwin's Voyage on The Beagle
Bon Voyage HMS Beagle
The Voyage of the Beagle
Darwin Crossing The Atlantic
Charles Darwin and the Rain Forest
Darwin Gets his Wellies Wet
South America on Five Dollars a Day…
November 24, 2009
Modally speaking of course. And those are utterly different modes so the title of this post is of course nonsense. But, we do have some interesting data.
This is from the Gallup Pole of weekly job approval by demographic groups. The main thing this poll shows is that Obama has high job approval…
November 24, 2009
The The Origin Of Species by Charles Darwin was published 150 years go as I write this. At the time, several different alternative theories of the origin and history of life were being discussed in the West. Some of these theories were theological. Theological ideas included a literal…
November 24, 2009
Honoring the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, Evolution of Evolution: 150 Years of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" is a multi-disciplinary one-stop-shop of resources on evolution and Darwin himself that are available nowhere else--including eye-catching graphics;…
November 23, 2009
This is the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species. I will be posting Darwin related items all day.
SOURCE OF VIDEO
November 23, 2009
The Large Hadron Collider has produced some data!
Geneva, 23 November 2009. Today the LHC circulated two beams simultaneously for the first time, allowing the operators to test the synchronization of the beams and giving the experiments their first chance to look for proton-proton collisions. With…
November 23, 2009
I recommend the following two blog posts for the latest thinking on the conspiracy to force the anthropocentrical global warming conspiracy on the conspirators.
Hacked emails, tree-ring proxies and blogospheric confusion
...As has been pointed out numerous times, nothing in the stolen emails and…
November 23, 2009
Over the last several years, the cost of a college education in Minnesota has gone up several percent, but the range of services and opportunities one may have access to has not gone up (and in many cases gone down). This is probably true across the country. Right now, in California, there is…
November 23, 2009
Diversity in Science Carnival #4 is at Urban Science Adventures
November 23, 2009
A warning before going any further: This blog will not be used as a dumping ground for the text of climategate related "released" emails. I have surveyed my readers and overwhelmingly have been told that people would prefer to not see that. So don't do that.
Now, on with the show...
Just two…
November 23, 2009
Interview by Jimmy James Bettencourt
It was dark and the streets were wet as I pulled out of the ER where I had seen enough carnage for the night and found the highway heading straight into town. Right away there was a sense of trouble and randomness in the air as police cars careened desperately…
November 23, 2009
A six-metre croc with three sets of fangs is among the five ancient relatives of modern-day crocodiles found in the Sahara Desert, scientists said Thursday.
Three of the fossils, discovered by researchers led by Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago and Hans Larsson of McGill University,…
November 23, 2009
The Free Market is a god-like powerful force that we can rely on to solve our problems, especially those of supply and demand. So if, as the WHO estimates, about 2% of the population is going to be covered by H1N1 Swine Flu vaccine then ... shall we assume that the other 98% of the world's…
November 22, 2009
Hat Tip: Ana
November 22, 2009
Fellow Sbling Chad Orzel's book, How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, just might be out in time for you to give it to your dog for Christmas!
I don't know what the book is about, but then again, neither does your dog, really. Anyway, check it out, there is a picture of it here.
November 22, 2009
This week is Thanksgiving in the United States. This means that over the coming weekend many Americans will be putting up Christmas decorations in and outside their houses. Many children will be putting finishing touches on their letters to Santa. The shopping malls will start to fill and while…
November 21, 2009
The vote was 60-39 to bring the health care bill to debate. The Republicans failed to stop health care insurance reform on procedural grounds.
details.
November 21, 2009
Julia ended up with a minor concussion today.
Too many face palms during the movie 2012!
But seriously folks, we did just watch the movie 2012, and I can make a few comments on it. I'd like to start out by making a list of academic and applied areas that were butchered by the movie:
Ship building…
November 21, 2009
Do not do this at home. This is for certified scientists only. Do not put your finger in this.
