March 28, 2012
What are we looking at here? Your answer will depend on the angle with which you approach the problem.
hat tip: Sarah Moglia.
March 28, 2012
I will be interviewing Maggie Koerth-Baker this Sunda, April 1st, no fooling.
Maggie Koerth-Baker is the author of the new book, "Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us". Maggie is the science editor and a regular writer at Boing Boing, and hails from the…
March 28, 2012
Just wanted to let you know that Matt Soniak, science writer, was interviewed on Skeptically Speaking last Sunday, March 25th, and a cleaned up version of the interview will be released on Saturday as a podcast . Matt was talking about Predators and Prey.
And, on the podcast there will be a pre-…
March 27, 2012
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
I'm still reading Drift. It's been hard to get the time with all this conventioneering I'm doing, but I'm loving it.
See also this preliminary look at the book.
March 27, 2012
Faking it? He's a fake? Do tell!
More details, context, here.
March 27, 2012
There is a spreading belief that if you put Nitrogen (instead of regular air) in your car tires, that you will get better gas mileage. The reasoning behind this may be sound, but the facts on which the reasoning is based are not correct. Therefore, the answer is no, it is not advantageous for the…
March 27, 2012
Tennessee "monkey bill" passes legislature
House Bill 368 passed the Tennessee House of Representatives on a 72-23 vote on March 26, 2012, the Chattanooga Times Free Press (March 26, 2012) reports. The bill would encourage teachers to present the "scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses" of…
March 26, 2012
Click Here to explore freeDOS's new site design, now in testing stage. I think it looks much much better than the old site and is noticeably more functional. It is actually a good model for other similar software supporting sites. The thing I like about it most is that you need to do very…
March 26, 2012
Run!
Interesting. I don't know what I think of the US thing. How's that working out with Torchwood? (I'm a year behind on everything because I only see these things on Netflix.)
March 26, 2012
I have participated in Minnesota Democratic Party (officially known as the DFL1) activities in the past, but never as intimately as this year. In doing so, I've observed a number of very interesting things about how a political campaign works, and I'd like to share those observations with you. In…
March 26, 2012
Tennessee is where the famous Scopes Trial of 1925 played out, and more recently two state level state bills (one house and one senate) are in play in a move by legislatures to further enhance Tennessee's reputation as a place where people don't value education and would not know of valid…
March 25, 2012
This is what a Democratic Party Walking Caucus looks like. It is a thing we do in Minnesota. It is so arcane and complicated that the press never covers it, so no one has any idea that we are doing this to select our nominees for political office. We have a fake "primary" at the beginning of the…
March 25, 2012
Careful; it cause large red question marks to pop out of your head.
March 24, 2012
Read this for context.
Finally, someone has rhymed Praxis with Taxes.
March 23, 2012
John Childs is the very first person to fly in America. He did it in 1757, on September 13th, from the steeple of the Old North Church in Boston. This is the same church from which Sarah Palin hung some lanterns to direct Michel Bachmann on her ride to Concord New Hampshire to warn the British…
March 23, 2012
The Black Tailed Prairie Dog
March 23, 2012
Potholer54 has written a letter to Monkton that you will want to read, and he's also made a video that you will want to see. First the letter (from here):
Open letter to Christopher Monckton - please return to the debate
Dear Mr. Monckton,
A couple of months ago you entered into a debate with me…
March 23, 2012
Skeptically Speaking 156:
This week, we're experiencing the power of stories to communicate science. Join us for Beyond 42: How Science Can Use Stories to Explain Life, the Universe and Everything. This event, recorded live in Edmonton, features Scientific American Blog Editor Bora Zivkovic, and a…
March 23, 2012
If you are a birder and you are going on Spring Break (from the US), don't forget that there are birds where you are going. And, probably, there are bird books that cover your destination.
One of the really cool things about North American birding is that when you do go down to tye Yucatan,…
March 22, 2012
Do you hear that loud, repeated smashing sound coming from the general direction of the Upper Midwest and Plains? That's us. Here in Minnesota, we have been breaking high temperature records left and right. Most of the TV weather reporters are wearing slings, eye patches, and bandages around…
March 22, 2012
Posted without further comment because the biggest Tattoo is really your brain anyway:
March 21, 2012
NASA's Dawn spacecraft has revealed unexpected details on the surface of the giant asteroid Vesta. New images and data highlight the diversity of Vesta's surface and reveal unusual geologic features, some of which were never previously seen on asteroids.
These results were discussed today at the…
March 21, 2012
A talk by Genie Scott of the NCSE:
March 21, 2012
On January 29th, 2010, I wrote:
I do not appreciate the fact that the New Orleans Saints defense, when playing the superior Minnesota Vikings, clearly designed, practiced, and successfully implemented a strategy that if adopted by other teams and not stopped by new rules, will change the way the…
March 21, 2012
There is an interesting development in the area of Aids Denialism (and by extention climate change denialism and the rest of it) in Italy:
The University of Florence has launched an inquiry into the teaching activities of an academic who assisted on a course that denies the causal link between HIV…
March 21, 2012
These are not the same thing, and the distinction is important. Please have a look at: The real impact of gun laws, and what that means
March 20, 2012
In discussing the relevance of archeology to anything, there is an easy answer provided by my friend Peter Wells, a specialist in Culture Contact and the Central European Iron Age. Peter tells his students on the first day of class that "Archaeology is the study of everything that happened…
March 20, 2012
The Walter Cronkite of the Twin Cities, Emmy Award Winning news anchor Don Shelby, retired a couple of years ago and started writing for the excellent local news blog MinnPost. Shelby's articles were always excellent and on point, and he often wrote about climate change related issues that I know…
