July 5, 2012
Today is the first day of SkepchickCON at CONvergence. CONvergence is the largest fan run fantasy and science fiction convention in the US and or World and possibly Universe, depending. It is held in a suburb of Minneapolis. One gazillion people are in attendance. There are many activities and…
July 5, 2012
The whole Higgs Boson thing is really interesting. Not only was is not discovered over the last several months, but in a way that makes it certain that it exists, but for other reasons as well. Higgs himself predicted its existence a very long time ago and was told by the greats that it really can…
July 4, 2012
Most people in a position to read this blog post probably think of marriage as a contract between two people that serves a few different purposes. Initially it may be an extension of the a tacit contract governing sexual access or fidelity that likely preceded marriage. Later on it may be an…
July 4, 2012
The following document was written by Benjamin Franklin in 1754, and is said to have been influenced by the structure of the Iroquois Confederacy, of which Franklin was well aware. This is essentially the first draft of the Articles of Confederation and closely reflects Franklin's contribution to…
July 4, 2012
From CERN:
CERN experiments observe particle consistent with long-sought Higgs boson
Geneva, 4 July 2012. At a seminar held at CERN1 today as a curtain raiser to the year’s major particle physics conference, ICHEP2012 in Melbourne, the ATLAS and CMS experiments presented their latest preliminary…
July 4, 2012
And you too, computer, now that I think of it. I have a list here of things that are annoying that are similar to each other in that they interfere with my most basic use of the computer. Most of the time I demand very little of a computer. Writing text in a text editor or in the text boxes of web…
July 3, 2012
Aha. I'm glad you asked!
There are two events coming up on August 10th and 11th. The first one, I'm definitely going to, the second one...I've not decided yet. First, there will be an Atheist Baseball Game. Here in the Twin Cities we have a minor league team called the Saint Paul Saints. On…
July 3, 2012
I thought many of you would want to know about this book. It is from the National Academies Press. Costs 40 bucks if you want the dead tree version, but the PDF is free. Gotta love the National Academies.
Here's the description provided by the NAP:
In the five decades since NASA was created,…
July 3, 2012
WTF stands for ... Women Thinking Free. It was an organization born in the Skepchick Crucible, and it did things like the "Hug Me I'm Vaccinated" campaign which really truly probably saved liVes or at least reduced misery. It also spawned (though I'm probably oversimplifying here) the MTM (More…
July 3, 2012
I grew up with Andy Griffith. I think Opie and I are about the same age. I didn't have an Aunt Bea but I did have a Great Aunt Tillie. All neighborhoods were small towns in those days. We had an Otis, we had a Floyd and he had a red and white pole, although we didn't have a Barney. Andy's…
July 3, 2012
Genie Scott's report from the front, from Texas textbook battles to the Texas Board's attempt to "creationize" the state's science standards. How will this affect the future of education in Texas...and the U.S.? Where: Texas Freethought Convention. When: 10/8/2011.
The books referred to are…
July 2, 2012
Apparently not, but something interesting is happening.
The buzz on the blogosphere is that there will be an announcement on July 4th that the Higgs Boson has been proven to exist, but not "found." And by "proven" it is meant that empirical evidence of its existence has been gathered, as opposed…
July 1, 2012
I don't want the scale that tweets my weight. The power stroller is cool, though. It is a hybrid.
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image of radio by x-ray delta one
June 30, 2012
Every now and then a news story comes along that makes me want to repost this particular thing I wrote a long time ago. And it has happened again. First, the news story:
National Geographic Channel has run a poll in which they found that 36% of Americans "believe UFO's exist." This is in line with…
June 30, 2012
From the folks who brought us all those animations:
June 30, 2012
Secular Woman is a organization that just formed, and is currently filing for 501(c)(3) status. I just joined it and you should to. Here's the mission statement:
Mission
The mission of Secular Woman is to amplify the voice, presence, and influence of non-religious women.
Vision
Secular Woman…
June 29, 2012
Just came across this snapshot of an exhibit panel from the Science Museum of Minnesota's exhibit on race.
SMM Race Exhibit Panel addressing the common misconception that a forensic anthropologist can look at a skull and accurately attribute "race." (photo by Greg Laden)
June 29, 2012
... the hazzards of sickness ... should be provided for through insurance. This should be [charged to] the industries the employer, the employee, and perhaps the people at large ... Wherever such standards are not met by given establishments, by given industries, are unprovided for by a legislature…
June 29, 2012
This is very very cool. A little gruesome of you are not used to this sort of thing.
I wonder if it had ant insurance.
June 29, 2012
On August 5th, NASA will attempt to do what may be the dumbest thing they ever did.
Or, possibly, the most brilliant thing they ever did. Hard to say.
Perhaps you've heard about the Seven Minutes of Terror. This pertains to the process of landing the robot Curiosity on Mars. There are several…
June 28, 2012
This looks like one of those questions that pops up when you start typing a query into a Google Search Box, but it is really a question asked rhetorically by Claudia Sawyer on my facebook status where I made mention of the fact that toddlers will put anything you give them in their mouth (even…
June 28, 2012
Just so you know, scientists do not seem to be able to detect the difference between a 3 foot and a 30 foot deformation of the surface of a planetoid body that is about one and a half billion kilometers away, and we know this because NASA's Cassini space ship had to actually go all the way to one…
June 28, 2012
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
June 28, 2012
Here is a valuable discussion about the following video and related topics.
June 28, 2012
We expected increasing wildfire activity with global warming, and we've got it.
The Waldo Canyon Fire has been burning since June 23rd and as of this writing is essentially out of control, with about 5% of it "contained." Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated. A friend of mine is on…
June 28, 2012
Antonin Scalia wrote a dissenting opinion for today's Obamacare decision; the majority opinion upheld the Affordable Care Act. But, it appears that Scalia thought he was in the majority at the time he wrote the opinion, used terminology appropriate to that situation (referring to the other opinion…
June 28, 2012
This is like an episode of Dr. Who. A star erupted and vaporized the atmosphere of a nearby planet. Holy crap. Details:
JUNE 28, 2012: An international team of astronomers using data from the NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has made an unparalleled observation, detecting significant changes in the…
June 28, 2012
UPDATE: Here's the full text of the decision.
Amy Howe of the SCOTUS Blog writes:
In Plain English: The Affordable Care Act, including its individual mandate that virtually all Americans buy health insurance, is constitutional. There were not five votes to uphold it on the ground that Congress…
June 27, 2012
Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life. From the publisher:
If it weren't for mitochondria, scientists argue, we'd all still be single-celled bacteria. Indeed, these tiny structures inside our cells are important beyond imagining. Without mitochondria, we would have no cell…
June 27, 2012
A young woman, "of age" but unmarried, appeared out of the forest near the base of the hill, a few of her relatives and friends staying in the woods while she headed alone up the well worn path. Before she had taken a dozen steps, six or seven women, of her age or a bit older, spotted her and ran…
