March 11, 2008
You know that old Bradbury story, and the Simpson's redo of it, where someone goes back in time, steps on a butterfly, and when they return, everything is slightly different? Has this happened?
I look at Google's Press Center, and I find no mention of this, but things have changed ever so slightly…
March 11, 2008
I had a plan, to get on board with Sciencwoman, who is putting out a series of posts on Racial Diversity, Race and Racism, with a post on this topic. However, Friday was a tough day, Saturday was a no-blogger (because of something else I was doing that I'll tell you about later), I don't remember…
March 11, 2008
Photosynthesis; This is how the British to it (teaching, not photosynthesis).
From Crackle: Biology Education - Photosynthesis for GCSE / K12 ...
I'm not sure why he says we don't know how photosynthesis works.
Look at how well behaved the students are. You can tell this is not America, even…
March 10, 2008
I've been pressured to supply a photograph of Dancing Boys to gender balance the Dancing Girls provided earlier. I can do this. But you have to understand, that Dancing Boys and Dancing Girls are not the same thing. Dancing Boys in Drag are like Dancing Girls, but otherwise, Dancing Boys are…
March 10, 2008
It turns out that most of our elected representatives, in the U.S., are going to hell. I just found out. Do you want to know why?
Do you remember the dust up regarding newly elected Congresmember Keith Ellison (of the Fabulous Fifth District, Minnesota)? Ellison is a Mild Muslim (has never…
March 10, 2008
You may have noticed that I've been entirely silent about the movie Expelled. This is because of something that I do: Utterly ignore certain aspects of reality because my level of interest does not exceed my level of annoyance. I also ignore entire chunks of reality because I find them too…
March 9, 2008
(Includes footage of a stuffed octopus)
March 9, 2008
It almost seems like there are two separate research project under way regarding the evolutionary history of Homo sapiens. One focuses on recent humans, tends to use DNA as a major source of information, and from this base projects back into the past. This approach tends to confirm the idea that…
March 9, 2008
Illustrious jugglers the Raspyni Brothers show off their uncanny balance, agility, coordination and willingness to sacrifice (others). Now, if you'll just stand completely still...
March 9, 2008
Loons are the fish eating canaries of secluded northern lakes. Actually, over the last several decades, loons seem to have gotten more used to people then they used to be, but are still not really big on development.
My personal belief (based on anecdotal observation) is that loons can identify…
March 9, 2008
There are two books called "Icons of Evolution." One is by Jonathan Wells. The best way to learn about Well's Icons of Evolution is to watch Randy Olson's Flock of Dodos. It is an anti science piece of dreck.
The other is a more recently published is Icons of Evolution [Two Volumes]: An…
March 8, 2008
Today is PZ Myers birthday. I live roughly in PZ's neighborhood, so I broke into his house last night and scanned a couple of images from the Myers family photo album. I thought you might enjoy them...
There is a LINKFEST growing of other LOL PZ posts (and perhaps other items) at A Blog…
March 8, 2008
The Boneyard Ex-Vee is up at Laelaps. Its a good one, enjoy it!
March 8, 2008
Don't fall behind.
It is Daylight Saving Time
(In most parts of the US)
March 8, 2008
A Ryerson University freshman set up a Facebook study group for his Chemistry class. He now faces 147 counts of academic misconduct.
The computer engineering student has been charged with one count of academic misconduct for helping run the group - called Dungeons/Mastering Chemistry Solutions…
March 8, 2008
Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design is a must read for those interested in the Evolution - Creationism controversy. In particular, this volume is an essential part of the personal library of every science educator, for reasons that I will describe below. If you know a Life…
March 8, 2008
... Week 161 is Here, at The Education Wonks
March 8, 2008
The age of the Universe is 13.73 billion years, plus or minus 120 million years. Some people might say it doesn't look a day over 6000 years. They're wrong.
The quote above is from Bad Astronomy, where Phil explains the latest WMAP results. Highly recommended. A very nice history of the study of…
March 7, 2008
Linnaeus' Legacy #5: You Can't Stop the Beat is at Catalogue of Organisms.
March 7, 2008
If you thought robotic snakes were creepy, you should check out this (very serious) proposal for how to make a "manned" Mars trip a reality.
Will humans ever really go to Mars? Let's face it, the obstacles are quite daunting. Not only are there numerous, difficult, technical issues to overcome,…
March 7, 2008
From Slashdot:
"After major improvements in SMP support in FreeBSD 7.0, benchmarks show it performing 15% better than the latest Linux kernels (PDF, see slides 17 to 19) on 8 CPUs under PostgreSQL and MySQL. While a couple of benchmarks are not conclusive evidence, it can be assumed that FreeBSD…
March 7, 2008
Scott Rowed published an Op Ed piece in the Calgary Herald last October that has just come to my attention. It is about evolution in schools in Canada, and provides an interesting perspective.
Should we reward them with taxpayers' money to pass on these wonderful insights to the next generation?…
March 7, 2008
.... 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 after class (never at the beginning of class, rarely during class) mentions something about "carbon dating." This usually happens around the…
March 7, 2008
Internet Explorer 8 passes the Acid2 test. Huzzah!
But waitaminnit... What's this stuff about forward compatibility by adding some new X-UA-Compatible header to my pages or my server? Am I reading this right? Are you telling me that in order for IE8 to use its fully compliant rendering, we have to…
March 7, 2008
... Because they are concerned about that "who's going to answer the phone at 3:00 AM" thing.
while the consensus is that the 3 a.m. ad helped Clinton, it has also drawn criticism as a tactic that ultimately benefits John McCain, particularly if he is to face Obama in the general election. In…
March 7, 2008
Scientists have long projected that areas north and south of the tropics will grow drier in a warming world -- from the Middle East through the European Riviera to the American Southwest, from sub-Saharan Africa to parts of Australia.
These regions are too far from the equator to benefit from the…
March 7, 2008
Midges, baseball fans recall, are the gnat-like insects that rose from Lake Erie last October and descended upon Chamberlain in the bottom of the eighth inning of a playoff game against the Cleveland Indians, distracting him into throwing two wild pitches. Cleveland scored the tying run without a…
March 6, 2008
I want to refer you two two items, one older piece by me and another very new, fresh out of the box piece by Carl Zimmer. Not that I'm trying to compare Zimmer and me. But the two posts are somewhat complementary, yet very much on the same page.
How to Date the Grand Canyon: Go With the Flow…
March 6, 2008
A team of scientists including Linda B. Buck, who shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, has retracted a scientific paper after the scientists could not reproduce their original findings.
...
In the paper, the researchers described how they produced genetically engineered mice that…
