December 16, 2008
Owing to popular demand among the readership of this blog, I've taken a closer look at the original article claiming that spent coffee grounds can be employed as a source of fuel. There are several important details that come though in the paper coming out in the next issue of the Journal of…
December 16, 2008
Hat tip: Coyote Crossing
December 15, 2008
(Hat Tip Ana)
December 15, 2008
Researchers in Nevada are reporting that waste coffee grounds can provide a cheap, abundant, and environmentally friendly source of biodiesel fuel for powering cars and trucks. ... [The authors] note that the major barrier to wider use of biodiesel fuel is lack of a low-cost, high quality source,…
December 15, 2008
Has, sadly, died.
It was just a month ago that ScientificAmerican.com reported the happy tale of a lost cat named George that came home 13 years after rescuers traced his owners through information on a microchip in the scruff of his neck.
He was nearly 17, sick and rail-thin, less than half the…
December 15, 2008
Welcome to the December edition of Oekologie.
The previous edition of Oekologie, Oekologie returns!, is at The Infinite Sphere. The present edition is a veritable potpourri of disjunct and disparate topics. We see habitat loss and bad dogs, fascinating evolutionary stories, sussing out…
December 14, 2008
Three videos:
Thanks to Stacy for the tip on the first of the three. The next two were sort of obvious after that...
December 14, 2008
We got on another one of those lists of the mostest or the bestest. Let's see, what did we do this time...
Oh. Never mind. It seems that our congressional representative from the Sixth District, Michel Bachmann, has gotten on the list of the Most Embarrassing Re-elected Members of Congress, a…
December 14, 2008
WASHINGTON--In an unexpected judicial turnaround, the Supreme Court this week reversed its 2000 ruling in the landmark case of Bush v. Gore, stripping George W. Bush of his earlier political victory, and declaring Albert Arnold Gore the 43rd president of the United States of America.
The court,…
December 14, 2008
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December 14, 2008
OMG!!!! ... I have new respect for Bush. He's really good at ducking, it turns out.
Yes, yes, indeed. In Arab culture (which may or may not pertain to Iraq, depending on ethnicity) the sole of the FOOT is very very dirty. I don't know so much about the sole of the shoe. But I'm thinking that…
December 14, 2008
Bachmann's Religious Cult Organizes Minnesota School Assemblies that Frighten, Disturb Students. Female students are told they "... should be pretty much [their] husband's slaves." One's student's reaction: "When I graduate, I'm not going to shake my school administrators hand."
I drive…
December 14, 2008
Math Gains Reported for U.S. Students
American fourth- and eighth-grade students made solid achievement gains in math in recent years and in two states showed spectacular progress, an international survey of student achievement released on Tuesday found. Science performance was flat.
NYT…
December 13, 2008
Secretary of State Mark Ritchie discusses the Recount of the 2008 Senate Race in Minnesota between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. These remarks are part of a forum held on "The Minnesota Tradition of Fair Elections" hosted by the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the Hubert H…
December 13, 2008
But he's going down fighting.
First, the going down part:
This concerns Paul McKim, who is the former CEO of a Houston company, Deep Marine Technologies Inc.. He has filed a lawsuit in district court in Harris County, Texas that alleges that a majority shareholder, Minneapolis based Nasser…
December 13, 2008
What was Neanderthal-Modern Human interaction really like? Fifty four teeth (some of which are fragments) and nine other bones dating to about 40-43,000 years ago represent the "most recent, and largest, sample of southern Iberian late Neanderthals currently known."
These and some closely…
December 13, 2008
I and the Bird #90: Christmas Count Tally Rally
Festival of the Trees #30
Just Write Blog Carnival December 12, 2008 Edition
Storyblogging Carnival XCIV
N.B.: The Next Edition of Oekologie, the Ecology and Environmental Science Carnival, will be hosted HERE. So send me your submission. This…
December 13, 2008
There are a number of arguments that turning your computer off during non-use periods (like overnight) is a bad idea. This wears out your computer, the power-up cycle uses so much energy that it is offset only by hours of down time, etc. etc. For the most part, these beliefs are incorrect. You…
December 12, 2008
This is the Velvet Worm, phylum Onycophora. These worms actually bear live young.
December 12, 2008
In a Playboy Magazine! (Below the fold, of course)
The details (and another photo, because you know you want to see more) can be found here.
December 12, 2008
... because it is hard to be a Senator from Prison. The latest from Fox News:
The FBI is reportedly investigating allegations that a Minnesota businessman tried to funnel $75,000 in campaign contributions to Sen. Norm Coleman through the senator's wife, Laurie, at the same time Coleman was going…
December 12, 2008
Pampam and Jason kept getting huge water bills. They knew beyond a doubt that the bills weren't representative of their actual usage, and no matter how they tried to conserve, the high bills continued. Although they could see nothing wrong, they had everything checked for leaks or problems: the…
December 12, 2008
"The actions today by the Canvassing Board can only be described as confusing to us."
Coleman's chief lawyer, Fritz Knaak, has filed papers to stop 133 votes in a Franken-leaning section of Minneapolis ... mainly college students ... from being counted. Why? Because he is too stupid to…
December 12, 2008
... and not just in his closet, but in his CABINET!
The Protestant Christian Right (and their allies) are wringing their collective hands and forecasting doom. Why? Because President-elect Barack Obama is including gay people in his administration and has vowed to work toward equality for all…
December 12, 2008
Something very interesting just happened in Minnesota.
You know about the recount, and you know that today the canvassing board is deciding what to do about a number of possibly improperly rejected absentee ballots.
At least 630, and possibly as many as 1,500, absentee ballots have been…
December 12, 2008
Next week, probably over a four day period, the ad hoc State Canvassing Board will go through all the recount data and look at the 3-4 thousand contested ballots and come up with a final number in this very close Minnesota senate race. But today they are expected to make a couple of decisions that…
