June 16, 2012
If you happened to try recently to get to one or more of the currently inactive yet still extant Scienceblogs.com blogs, you will have gotten an enigmatic message about how the blog is now archived or suspended.
That is a technical glitch. The blogs are still there even though you can't see them…
June 14, 2012
Check out this interview of me by Dan Fincke at Camels with Hammers.
June 14, 2012
I knew you'd want to know this: I've written my first novel,and I did it yesterday and this morning. As part of a fundraiser for the Secular Student Alliance, I produced one chapter (some shorter, some longer) per hour (plus/minus) from just after midnight yesterday morning until a few minutes ago…
June 13, 2012
As part of a fundraiser for the Secular Student alliance, I'm writing a novel as we speak. I'll post one chapter per hour (approximately) until it is done. I started several hours ago, so there are as of this writing seven chapters (plus front matter) up for you to read.
Please visit "Sungudogo…
June 12, 2012
50 years ago today, three men did the impossible. They escaped from Alcatraz. They may or may not have lived.
Apparently, the promise was made that if they escaped, lived, then continued to live, they would return today. There are people waiting on Alcatraz today, including the sister of one…
June 12, 2012
Over the last couple of years I've added contacts to Linked In with a certain amount of consideration. In other words, I've added only links that are "real" in some sense; they are friends and friends of friends, and colleagues and colleagues of colleagues who's name I recognized. Then, yesterday…
June 10, 2012
Skeptics fight an up hill battle. This battle consists of deploying critical thinking across a range of cultural landscapes, implementing scientific thinking to solve problems, and the thoughtful evaluation of knowledge, while 90 percent of the world is out to stop you, or at least make it hard.…
June 10, 2012
The term "Dunbar's Number" refers to a particular hypothesis by primatologist Robin Dunbar. It is a very simple idea with rather complex implications, and it is one of those simple ideas that gets more complicated than ideal as we look into it more and more. Eventually, the idea is required by…
June 9, 2012
From our Animating Maniacs who Animate Everything:
June 7, 2012
Here we have a handful of great technological marvels depicted in small videos.
Raspberry Pi Enclosure
ASUS Taichi dual screen
It seems to be running Windows but hopefully that can be fixed:
New Parking Concept
Well ... new 60 years ago, but still:
New Droid Looks Like Budgie
June 7, 2012
Peter Gleick has been reinstated in his position as president of the Pacific Institute.
The Pacific Institute is pleased to welcome Dr. Peter Gleick back to his position as president of the Institute. An independent review conducted by outside counsel on behalf of the Institute has supported what…
June 7, 2012
Philip Tobias passed away this morning, according to a mutual friend. I've not heard any details.
Tobias is the most important hominid anatomist to have lived in the 20th and early 21st century, having taken the chair originally established by Raymond Dart at Wits University. He literally defined…
June 6, 2012
He was one of the first authors (other than the likes of Dr. Seuss) that I read. NPR says:
The website io9.com, which appears to have broken the news, says the 91-year-old author of "The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked this Way Comes, and many more literary classics" died in…
June 6, 2012
D-Day was today in 1944. My father was involved. Wikipedia is silly. Kids these days have no idea. There is, of course, a classic movie on the topic.
The term "D-Day" is military for "The Day" just like "H-Hour" is military for "The Hour" on which something will happen. However, once D-Day…
June 5, 2012
A talk by Genie Scott of the NCSE:
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Photo of Darwin Statute by KevinZim
June 4, 2012
Orville the cat was named after Orville Wright, and when he died, Bart Jansen, the cant's "owner" taxidermied him and, in collaboration with Radio Controlled Flying Objects expert Arjen Beltman, they converted Orville the cat into a working helicopter.
From the daily mail:
Jansen said the…
June 3, 2012
The big new of the day in the OpenSource world is that FreeDOS's web site, revised and updated, is out of Beta and fully up and running, here. If you click through you'll find an update on a number of recent changes and updates to the operating system.
Just in case you need to know how to figure…
June 3, 2012
Well, it is always exploding. But I just heard that "A big coronal hole is turning directly towards the Earth. Solar wind flowing from the opening should reach our planet on June 5-7, possibly sparking geomagnetic storms" and maybe the aurora will be visible over a larger area.
I heard that from…
June 3, 2012
First, a little Benazir Bhutto story, since we are on the subject of women leaders.
A friend of mine was to be on the podium of Harvard's graduation the year Benazir Bhutto was to give the keynote, and heard this conversation. John Galbraith, the economists who was also a professor at Harvard,…
June 3, 2012
Tonight, on Skeptically Speaking, Desiree Schell will interview Bruce Schneier, author of Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive. From the Amazon page, the author notes: "This book represents my attempt to develop a full-fledged theory of coercion and how it enables…
June 1, 2012
The study is on Science and Society and they would like you to fill out a survey. Thanks.
The link to the study is here.
May 30, 2012
DJ Grothe has done some great things and he's taken the James Randi Educational Foundation a long way; he's made an important mark and we should all appreciate him and his prior efforts. Hell, we should create an award named after him and give it to people every year. Thank you DJ Grothe for all…
May 30, 2012
Perhaps.
The project is a collective effort funded by the European Commission, and led by British company Ricardo which develops engines, transmissions, and vehicles systems among other things. Chief among the consortium’s participants is Swedish auto manufacturer Volvo.
Utilizing Volvo’s own…
May 28, 2012
Who is this, and in what bit part do we see him here?
May 28, 2012
First, I want to say that tomatoes are a fruit. Here is a scientific definition of fruit:
Fruit noun, plural: fruits
(1) (botany) The seed-bearing structure in angiosperms formed from the ovary after flowering.
source
See? Tomato is a fruit.
Having said that, in common English parlance we do not…
May 26, 2012
Timothy Caulfield's book, The Cure For Everything: Untangling Twisted Messages about Health, Fitness, and Happiness, attempts to be a corrective in the area of personal heath (as in diet and exercise) management.
From the publisher: "In The Cure for Everything, health-policy expert and fitness…
May 26, 2012
Elizabeth Norton has an interesting write-up in Science Now. Some years ago, after a long period of suspicion, it was seemingly demonstrated that neurogenesis (the formation of new neurons) happened in the human nose. This research was based on the identification of proteins that would be…
May 25, 2012
I just happen to come across this interesting cameo and snapped this fair use impromptu screen shot...
Who is it, what show is this, and if you are that good, what episode!
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posted from my iPad
May 25, 2012
According to the Dr. Who Fan Site on Google+
Matt Smith will be carrying the Olympic Torch this weekend when it reaches Cardiff in the latest leg of its 70 day trip around the United Kingdom.
Smith will bear the torch early on Saturday morning, at the start of its journey from Cardiff, the capital…
