March 22, 2013
'In 1645, the twenty-seventh year of the Thirty Years War, Swedish armies inflicted a devastating blow to the Imperial forces in Bohemia and swept into Austria with the aim of capturing of Vienna. The Imperial capitol, was not prepared to give up easily. The Swedes soon found themselves digging in…
March 22, 2013
This just in from Jason at 350.org:
Friends,
The moment is here: about an hour ago, some of big oil's best paid Senators filed an amendment supporting construction of Keystone XL to the Senate's budget bill.
Our goal today is to keep the Senate from forcing Obama to approve the pipeline. The oil…
March 22, 2013
This is a hockey stick:
This is the Grim Reaper's Scythe:
This is global temperature over the last 10,000 years projected into the immediate future using good scientific estimates:
You decide. Should the Hockey Stick be replaced with the Grim Reaper's Scythe?
More information on the climate…
March 21, 2013
National Center for Science Education climate change policy director Mark McCaffrey talks about the history of climate change--and of climate change denial, doubt, and dismay at the Climate and Energy Literacy Forum, Washington, DC.
March 21, 2013
...there is a new study that has significant advantages of the Bumpus study, though the latter will still be useful in teaching about evolution because of its limitations and the questions it raises. The new study is about Cliff Swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) in southwestern Nebraska.
As you…
March 18, 2013
You’ve heard of the The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds (The Crossley ID Guides). It is a revolutionary new way to assemble a field guide, where each page has a drawing of what it would look like if suddenly outside your living room there was a full blown habitat for some species of bird, with…
March 18, 2013
I'm not sure if it is really called "embalmed" when done to a tortoise, but it is the same idea. Lonesome George was a Galapagos Tortoise, Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii, who was known for some time a the last living individual of his subspecies. He lived on Pinta Island in the Galapagos. He died…
March 15, 2013
I put together a page of resources, just a few items but with a plan to grow it, HERE. This is for teachers and their allies, focusing on life science, an organized list of selected posts on this blog that should be of interest. Let me know if there is anything you'd like to see here sooner rather…
March 15, 2013
Fracking, or Hydraulic Fracturing, is a method of extracting hard-to-get oil and gas from shale. For the most part, fossil fuels originally formed in shale, which was in turn laid down by near surface life in anoxic seas. Sunlight powered a high turnover of near surface plankton, algae, and…
March 15, 2013
From Bloomberg
President Barack Obama is preparing to tell all federal agencies for the first time that they have to consider the impact on global warming before approving major projects, from pipelines to highways.
The result could be significant delays for natural gas- export facilities, ports…
March 14, 2013
You know about the Atheists Nightmare, right? Also known as the Evolutionists Nightmare. No? It goes like this:
That's pretty darn convincing. Until someone opens up some closed thing and there is some new species in there, then EVOLUTION IS MADE UP!!!1!!!
Well, it turns out, Evolution is True.…
March 14, 2013
The Republican dominated Minnesota Legislature got almost nothing done over the last two years that they were in power. But they did manage to put two boneheaded constitutional amendments on the ballot for last November, one to restrict voting rights in a way that Republicans would have a better…
March 14, 2013
As you know, I write now and then for the Minnesota Progressive Project. I should do more there, I know, and I try. But anyway, the MPP has a new blog layout which preserves the Kos-esque diary thingie but loads faster and is easier to navigate, with a few cool "discoverability" features that link…
March 13, 2013
In response to a comment on my blog, I issued a snarky tweet (and repeated it on Facebook) to the effect that if your argument involves the phrase "World View" you might be wrong. This led to a number of light hearted but snarky, and often helpful, responses on Facebook and Twitter indicating that…
March 13, 2013
Today, the Christian Science Monitor published on their web site a piece, Global luke-warming: Is the threat of climate change overstated? by James Stafford. It is an interview with climate science denialist Anthony Watts, in which Watts gives his usual argument that climate change is not important…
March 12, 2013
This is an event some of you in the Twin Cities may be interested in attending
Viewing of American Meat at the Bell Museum
"A fabulous panel of dedicated agri-food issue talkers have agreed to walk us through this conversation with the film’s director after the film, all with tremendous credentials…
March 12, 2013
The Crossley ID Guide: Raptors is just now coming out. I was able to spend a little time with it a few weeks ago, though my official copy has not arrived yet. But Princeton (the publisher) is organizing a major blog hoopla over the publication of this new book, and I've signed on to participate…
March 10, 2013
Gun ownership rates in the US have been declining in recent decades. The National Rifle Association has started to produce denialist rhetoric to obscure this well documented fact. One of the reasons there is less gun ownership is because of changes in the demography of the US population; Angry…
March 9, 2013
This is a must watch video from the US Senate:
I'm pretty sure I heard once that there is a rule in the Senate that you can't call another Senator a liar using that word (lier). So when you see Senator Whitehouse not using that word, that may be why.
March 7, 2013
A representative of the conservative group gets it wrong while smirking at Bill Nye at the same time:
Read all about it here at Media Matters.
March 6, 2013
John Platt has a nice summary of recent activity in the are of de-extinction. This is where you use modern genetic techniques to bring species that are extinct back into existence.
I find it interesting that casual talk about this sort of thing almost always starts out with things like de-…
March 6, 2013
Pretty soon, I'm going to be giving away two pounds of free coffee on my blog. Just thought you'd like to know. It is special coffee. You'll have to do something to get it, though.
March 6, 2013
You should check out "The Beauty Issue," the latest issue of MPLSzine, a Twin Cities based on line magazine, in which I have a contribution.
March 5, 2013
I love it when scientists say that! And, so said scientist Daniel Baker, speaking of a newly observed feature of the famous and well known, or at least, we thought well known, Van Allen Belts.
First discovered in 1958, the Van Allen belts have been thought to comprise two reservoirs of high-…
March 5, 2013
The "clanger cicada" can physically kill bacteria by poking and shredding them with tiny pointy structures that seem to look a little like an old fashioned cheese grater. Keep in mind that this happens at a very small spacial scale, so the relationship between objects is different than in normal…
March 5, 2013
That title is ambiguous but only if one admits to vernacular usage. Which is legit.
Huxley is consonantly making grammatical errors that primarily serve to prove how stupid adults are. English has a typical way of marking past tense, for instance, and he uses it all the time, correctly. So he might…
March 2, 2013
For the last 25 years or so there has been a decrease in the amount of ice that remains on the surface of the Arctic Ocean every summer. This is a trend that can be attributed to global warming, which in turn, can be attributed to the steady release of previously fossilized Carbon to the atmosphere…
March 1, 2013
... is not what you thought it was, no matter what you were thinking. According to this interesting moving infographic movie thingie:
March 1, 2013
At the beginning of the 20th century, a traveler in Central Africa made mention of some strange people that he had come across. He was traveling among regular, run-of-the-mill natives…probably Bantu-speaking people living in scattered villages and farming for their food. But along the way, strange…
February 28, 2013
From Peter Sinclair:
One of the most feared of climate change "feedbacks" is the potential release of greenhouse gases by melting arctic permafrost soils. New research indicates a critical threshold of that feedback effect could be closer than we once thought.
