November 11, 2012
Paul Broun is THIS GUY. As of this writing there are some 80,000 signatures on a petition to have him removed from the US House of Representatives Science Committee, where clearly does not belong. Click here to read and sign it!
November 11, 2012
This week, we’re looking at the science of sexual orientation, where debates over nature vs. nurture have influenced law, policy and equal rights. We’re joined by neuroscientist and writer Simon LeVay, to talk about his research on the topic, and his book Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why: The…
November 11, 2012
Wrong.
October was, nationally in the US, kinda cold. Not record cold, but colder than average. However, as Jeff Masters at Weather Underground has calculated, we would have to have some kind of Snowball Earth scenario kick in for December in order for 2012 to not be the warmest year on record in…
November 11, 2012
I want to talk about the book Across Atlantic Ice: The Origin of America's Clovis Culture. It was written by Dennis Stanford and Bruce Bradley, both highly respected archaeologists. The point they make in the book is very simple: An important archaeological culture known as the "Clovis" is…
November 11, 2012
An anti-same sex marriage amendment was on the ballot this year in Minnesota. It was defeated, but there is still an anit same sex marriage law on the books which obviously has to be removed somehow. The new legislative leaders in Saint Paul, following a total change in ruling party, has said they…
November 10, 2012
First, just in case you didn't know, Grover Norquist is a right wing lobbyist who developed the "Taxpayer Protection Pledge" that most Republicans are required to sign in order to run for office. He apparently hosted a "victory party" on election eve, but the party was crashed, and pawned, by a…
November 10, 2012
I am sure that by now you know about ScienceDebate Dot Org. It was set up for the 2008 US presidential election by a bunch of people including my friend Shawn Otto. The idea is to simultaneously push for an actual debate focussed on science and science policy as part of the presidential election…
November 9, 2012
I want to see Green Economy jobs and Alternate Energy Strategy technology and infrastructure growth. Can I haz Smart Grid please?
November 9, 2012
Let's look at Birds of India: Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives (Second Edition) (Princeton Field Guides):
The best field guide to the birds of the Indian subcontinent is now even better. Thoroughly revised, with 73 new plates and many others updated or repainted, the…
November 8, 2012
You know who she is, right? An openly gay candidate for congress in Arizona's 9th district. Apparently there is a recount going on there, and it looks pretty good for Kyrsten.
But, recounts are tricky and unless both sides have equal and quality legal presence, the side with more lawyers can win…
November 8, 2012
What are Global Warming and Climate Change?: Answers for Young Readers is a fairly unique book, as far as I know. It explains climate change, contextualized global warming, discusses causes and consequences and directly addresses the politics of climate change and global warming. The official book…
November 8, 2012
This is brilliant.
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Note the affirmation by Rachel of the whole High Water Mark thing.
November 7, 2012
The term “War on Science” comes from multiple sources, one being Chris Mooney’s book “The Republican War on Science” (see below) and another, the made up “War on Christmas,” a term attributed to Bill O’Really. Throw in a little “Culture War” rhetoric and I think we have a good basis for the origin…
November 7, 2012
One of the more popular books I've ever reviewed here, judging by the number of people who read the review, was this one on home chemistry. Now, let's see if we can meet or beat the physical sciences with this new title:Illustrated Guide to Home Biology Experiments: All Lab, No Lecture (DIY…
November 6, 2012
I'll be jotting notes here. Feel free to jot notes in the comments.
Bernie Sanders re-elected
6:22 PM Central: Virginia reporting good numbers for Obama. Larger turnouts than 2008 in VA.
6:54 PM Central: Senate: 30 DEM seats called, 37 GOP seats.
Leaving the polling place today, there was a…
November 6, 2012
Earlier today I posted pictures of the politically motivated signboard at the church that is just down the street from my house. Click here to review. Later in the day, after picking Julia up at the local Minnesotans United for All Families, where she's been volunteering many hours a week, and…
November 6, 2012
Have ever really thought about the elements? Have you ever really asked questions about them? If you are some kind of scientist or science geek, you probably know a lot about them, and that could even be a disadvantage for you, in a sense. For instance, if you learned early on that elements were…
November 6, 2012
I have no idea if the Coon Rapids Baptist Church, is a real church with tax exempt status, but let's assume for the moment that they are. The question then would be, is this church jeopradizing their tax exempt status by taking and explicit stand on a certain issue and telling people how they…
November 6, 2012
I just wanted to show you this histogram. I love this histogram because it demonstrates the underlying chunkiness of the electoral college. This is not at all an uncommon phenomenon in nature and culture, even though we tend to conceptualize and model things as nice curvy well behaved lines.…
November 5, 2012
A bunch of climate people talking about Sandy:
November 5, 2012
Bottom line: In the popular vote, Obama will win over Romney by a surprisingly small margin, if he wins.
People generally think Obama is going to win, as per this graphic:
But the actual "I'm voting for X" numbers are 50% Obama, 47% Romney. That is within the margin of error.
The poll, which is…
November 5, 2012
When I was a kid, I loved the almanac. I don't remember where they came from, but every couple of years a new one would appear in the house, and as soon as I got my hands on it, it moved into my room and anybody who wanted to look stuff up in it after that needed to see me first. And, actually,…
November 5, 2012
I’m a guy who “gets” nasty threats from haters. I receive anti-atheist threats and icky comments, I receive a LOT of nasty stuff from climate science denialists (and that often comes along with bogus threats of law suits), I receive nasty emails and tweets from the sexist and racist SlymePitters…
November 5, 2012
... Astronaut Fish and Other Weird Animals...
"Look, for the last time, we're not angry lesbians! We just considered all of the options and it makes more sense for us to reproduce on our own!" ... "Ha! I told you she'd yell. Yo owe me fifty bucks."
I remember when the story of the blood shooting…
November 5, 2012
This is an interview at Atheists Talk (TV), an update on the war on science, and a rare opportunity to see me wearing a suit.
The first few seconds are sound free; do not adjust your television set.
I mentioned the NCSE, here's their web site.
Here's a couple of books related to the topic:…
November 4, 2012
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA fired him for performance reasons.
Ars Technica's John Timmer has the story:
Coppedge had worked on the Cassini mission to Saturn, starting as a contractor in 1996, and later becoming a full-time employee. But one of the projects he pursued on his own time was…
November 4, 2012
Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan ... they all have birds, it turns out. Until now there has never been a field guid to the birds of this regino. Raffael Aye, Manuel Schweizer, and Tobias Roth have written one, and it is called, fittingly, Birds of Central…
November 3, 2012
But he needs a Democratic Congress to do what we really need him to do.
