October 22, 2014
Last summer we were driving up north, in our Prius, and one of those coal rollers tailgated us for a while, then passed us. On the right. On the median. Jerk.
When we were trying to decide whether or not to buy a Prius, last winter, I looked into the usual things one looks into. I learned from…
October 21, 2014
Sins of Our Fathers, by Shaw Otto, is coming out shortly but can be preordered.
JW, protagonist, is a flawed hero. He is not exactly an anti-hero because he is not a bad guy, though one does become annoyed at where he places his values. As his character unfolds in the first several chapters of…
October 21, 2014
that I wrote is here.
October 21, 2014
I could rephrase this question. What should we do about climate change. The reason I might rephrase this is because we may not be that sure of what we can do, but we should do something. Or, more accurately, some things. There are a lot of possible things we can do, and we have little time to do…
October 21, 2014
Parrots are smarter than Nebo the dog
"Nebo."
The dog's name came from the direction of the enclosed front porch of the tin-roofed concrete block home of my friend Bwana Ndege, in Isiro, Zaire.
"Nebo."
It sounded like an older woman, a somewhat crackly voice, insistent.
"Nebo. Kuya. Nebo."
The…
October 18, 2014
Obama made Ebola the subject of his weekly address. He emphasizes some unique concepts: Science and facts.
October 18, 2014
How many lakes are there? We don't actually know. Lakes are often undercounted, or small lakes ignored, in larger scale geophysical surveys. It is hard to count the small lakes, or in some cases, even to define them. A recent study (published in Geophysical Research Letters) examines this…
October 17, 2014
You know Guy Himber's work. He worked on special effects for Aien 3, Underworld, Independence Day, Edward Scissorhands, I, Robot, lots of other productions. And now, he is playing around with LEGO.
Steampunk Lego by Guy Himber is subtitled "The illustrated researches of various fantastical…
October 17, 2014
There has not been much hurricane activity in the Atlantic for a while now, so unsurprisingly the reporting is starting to slip again. This post goes out to all you reporters at CNN and Reuters and Yahoo and everywhere else. Imma give you an example of what you are doing wrong, then I'll send…
October 17, 2014
Two items related only because these two seem to like each other and there are coeval happenings.
Mark Steyn and Dr. Michael Mann's book
Michael mann wrote a great book called The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines. It really is a good book, I highly recommend it…
October 16, 2014
Atlantic Hurricane Gonzalo is a Major Hurricane, Category 3 at the moment, and it is heading towards Bermuda. The storm will weaken a little bit before getting there but it will still be major. This is a significant event. It is possible that a storm surge of about 10 feet could occur there.…
October 16, 2014
Given the current and developing situation in Dallas, where two health workers have become infected with Ebola while caring for a patient, it is reasonable to ask if health workers might decide to call in sick for a few months until this whole highly infectious often fatal disease thing blows over…
October 16, 2014
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released its official prediction of what this winter is going to be like.
And yes, it is in ALL CAPS!!! I've pasted it below, but first a summary of the relevant points.
According to NOAA
El Nino
There will be a weak El Nino, late…
October 16, 2014
Apply for an all-expenses-paid eight-day raft trip down the Grand Canyon with the National Center for Science Education! Winners will receive free airfare, lodging before and after the trip, and the trip of a lifetime, exploring the wonders of Grand Canyon with a team of scientists, educators, and…
October 16, 2014
Peter Sinclair has done some nice work to clarify the famous Methane Bomb thing.
Briefly, the Methane Bomb is where methane trapped on the floor of the Arctic ocean gets out in large quantities because it is warm. This makes more warming. So, more of this Methane comes out, causing it to get…
October 15, 2014
Monday, the 20th, I'll be in Saint Cloud. More information here.
Details:
On October 20,2014 the Central Minnesota Freethinkers are proud to present a program by Greg Laden, noted writer about climate change, evolution, science education and more at National Geographic, Science Blogs and other…
October 15, 2014
It is now known that the second infected health worker who had cared for Dallas Index Patient Duncan took a Monday air flight from Cleveland to Dallas-Forth Worth after she started to have a fever. It was a Frontier airline flight and it arrived in Dallas at 8:16 PM, was put to bet overnight,…
October 15, 2014
UPDATE: The first health worker to have been affected with Ebola in Texas may not be moved to Maryland.
From NBC:
Nina Pham, one of the two nurses who contracted Ebola in Dallas, is expected to be moved to a National Institutes of Health isolation unit in Bethesda, Maryland, a federal official…
October 14, 2014
This is breaking news as of Tuesday PM. According to the nurses at the hospital, no, not initially. Anonymous nurses have claimed via their union:
-Patient Zero was left for several hours in a place with up to seven other patients, not in isolation. When a senior nurse attempted to insist he be…
October 14, 2014
I might.
This is a preliminary look, based just on the web site and some tweets with the developer, of the imp (all lower case), a small computer somewhere in technology and power, perhaps, between a Raspberry pi (which is mainly a hobbiest toy) and the Intel Nuk (which is sort of a non-Mac Mac…
October 14, 2014
This is an endorsement by Climate Hawks Vote, which I support.
Climate Hawks Vote is delighted to endorse in four California Congressional elections, joining our prior endorsement of Scott Peters (CA-52, San Diego). In order purely alphabetical, they're Lois Capps, Heidi Hall, Mike Honda, and Ted…
October 14, 2014
Live blogging.
Dr. Tom Frieden talking.
Don't say "hand in glove!"
What the are doing in Dallas:
1) Site manager on the site in Dallas every hour of the day, checking protective gear use.
2) Enhanced training, including by experienced nurses with Ebola experience.
3) Limit number of care staff so…
October 13, 2014
We have been having a run of very warm months, and according to the GISS database, updated yesterday, September was the warmest on record, and the records go back to the late 19th century. This is global average temperature of the surface.
I'll have more about this later, as other databases are…
October 12, 2014
Science Online was an amazing annual unconference that started a few years back and grew and became part of the reshaping of public communication about science. This year, the people running the conference started out with the plan to move the conference to a new venue, Atlanta, and last week…
October 12, 2014
This is an endorsement by Climate Hawks Vote, which I support.
Climate Hawks Vote is delighted to endorse Scott Peters in California’s 52d Congressional District of San Diego for his strong climate leadership and for taking first place in our August 2014 survey. And his approach just may break…
October 12, 2014
The first person ever to catch Ebola in the United States is now in isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
Don't panic, even if you live in Dallas. But also, don't fall into the hyperskeptical trap of assuming that because scientific authorities tell you everything is fine that concern…
October 11, 2014
According to those intimately involved in the response to the West African Ebola outbreak, NewLink Genetics owns the rights to a piece of the puzzle needed to quickly test and deploy one of two likely Ebola vaccines and they are holding up the entire process because they are not entirely sure they…
October 11, 2014
Last June (and May and July and part of August) we had a lot of precipitation in Minnesota. This caused lake levels to rise modestly. One lake, which is large enough to have meaningful waves, has older settlement along it so lots of cabins, boat houses, and such are right on the shoreline. With…
October 10, 2014
This is an endorsement by Climate Hawks Vote, which I support.
Climate Hawks Vote announces endorsements of two Michigan Democrats: Paul Clements for Congress in Michigan’s Sixth District, and Gary Peters for Senate, because the Koch brothers and Big Oil need to stop using Michigan’s shores as a…
October 9, 2014
Did you ever leave your freezer door slightly open on a humid day only to find chunks of new ice formed at the gap? When that happens, did you conclude "Oh, my freezer is colder than usual, I wonder how that happened?" No. You concluded that you had left the door slightly open, some cold got out…
