jlynch
Posts by this author
June 6, 2007
Tom Waits singing "The Piano Has Been Drinking" on Fernwood Tonight in 1977. Bonus points: Post-performance interview features the classic line "I’d rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy."
June 6, 2007
Anyone have an idea what species of cuttlefish (?) this is? I saw it at the New England Aquarium but never noted down what it was. Thanks.
June 6, 2007
Ed highlights an absolutely asinine regulation (instituted by the Bush administration in 2004) that prohibits
persons subject to the jurisdiction of the United States from purchasing, transporting, importing, or otherwise dealing in or engaging in any transactions with respect to any merchandise…
June 6, 2007
The old story goes that JBS Haldane felt that God had an inordinate fondness for beetles. It also seems he likes catfish. CJ Ferraris has produced a checklist of fossil and living catfishes and estimated that there are 3093 valid species in 478 genera (and 36 families). Of these 72 species are…
June 5, 2007
Events
1969 - The first Internet connection was created when network control protocol packets were sent from the data port of one IMP to another
Births
1436 - Regiomontanus, German mathematician
1519 - Andrea Cesalpino, Italian philosopher, physician, and botanist
1580 - Godefroy Wendelin, Flemish…
June 5, 2007
There has been some blogospheric notice of the Conservation International survey in Surimane which has found 24 new species. Other good news is that the previously thought to be extinct dwarf suckermouth catfish (Harttiella crassicauda, above) has been re-discovered. The species - which reaches a…
June 5, 2007
Behe's latest piece of dreck (The Edge of Evolution) has appeared and it has already recieved quite the beatdown from Michael Ruse, Mark Chu-Carroll, PZ Myers, and Nick Matzke, with Nick's post being fairly damning regarding Behe's "ability" to do basic research (see here as well). I've a copy…
June 4, 2007
Events
1981 - The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that five homosexual men in Los Angeles, California have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems, in what turns out to be the first recognized cases…
June 4, 2007
Today is my birthday, so don't expect any postings from me ... I'm going to relax for the day. I however dutifully present your events for the day ...
Events
1783 - The Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their montgolfière
Births
1787 - Constant Prévost, French geologist
1877 - Heinrich…
June 3, 2007
Events
1965 - Launch of Gemini 4, the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew.
1965 - For 21 minutes, Edward H. White floats free outside the space vehicle Gemini 4 for the first time.
Births
1659 - David Gregory, Scottish astronomer
1723 - Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, Italian-born naturalist…
June 3, 2007
For an explanation of why the shadow of the shuttle’s launch plume is pointed towards the Moon, see APOD (which also has a hi-res version of the image).
June 2, 2007
Events
1966 - Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first US spacecraft to soft land on another world.
2003 - Europe launches its first voyage to another planet, Mars. The European Space Agency's Mars Express probe launches from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan.…
June 1, 2007
Over at Denialism, Mark neatly outlines Alexander Cockburn’s descent into crankdom regarding global warming, a descent that neatly illustrates the clarity of Mark’s crank HOWTO (which predates his exposure to Cockburn’s droolings - I know as it was I who tipped him onto them).
Update (6/2): Tim @…
June 1, 2007
As Shelley has pointed out, Stinky Journalism has done a take-down on the Hogzilla II photos (see here and here) and has concluded that the hog was not as large as claimed. Not all of that debunking is, it appear, correct, so you might also want to see this debunking which claims that the photos…
June 1, 2007
Events
1831 - James Clark Ross discovers the North Magnetic Pole.
Births
1633 - Geminiano Montanari, Italian astronomer
1796 - Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, French mathematician
1899 - Edward Charles Titchmarsh, English mathematician
1907 - Frank Whittle, English inventor of the jet engine.
1940 -…
May 31, 2007
Births
1931 - John Robert Schrieffer, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1941 - Louis J. Ignarro, American pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1799 - Pierre Lemonnier, French astronomer
1832 - Ãvariste Galois, French mathematician
1910 - Elizabeth Blackwell, American physician
1976…
May 30, 2007
Nature recently ran a story about, what it termed, the "Arizona experiment," changes that have been occurring here at Arizona State University. The article briefly quoted Robert Pettit, the former director of the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) which was closed in 2005. Today's Nature features a…
May 30, 2007
You’re either going to get this or not:
HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
I HAS A VAR
GIMMEH VAR
IZ VAR BIGGER THAN 10 O RLY?
YA RLY
BTW this is true
VISIBLE "BIG NUMBER!"
NO WAI
BTW this is false
VISIBLE "LITTLE NUMBER!"
KTHX
KTHXBYE
More details here.
May 30, 2007
According to the Global Peace Index created by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Norway is the most peaceful nation in the world and Iraq is the least. Among the 121 countries ranked, the United States came in 96th. Ireland was fourth.
The index was compiled based on 24 indicators measuring peace…
May 30, 2007
For you whippersnappers who grew up on what counts for rock these days, here's what real rock n' roll sounds like - Neil Young doing "Rockin in the Free World" in 2004. Bonus points: Bruce Springsteen lends a hand. Play it loud!
May 30, 2007
Golden eagles have bred in Ireland for the first time in nearly 100 years. The species became extinct on the island in 1912, and adults were re-introduced in 2001, giving a population of 46 adults. This year was the first that a pair produced young. More here.
May 29, 2007
Births
1423 - Georg Purbach, German mathematician and astronomer
1814 - Eugène Charles Catalan, Belgian mathematician
1908 - Hannes Alfvén, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1912 - Julius Axelrod, American biochemist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1901 - Victor D'Hondt, Belgian…
May 29, 2007
Events
1919 - Einstein's theory of general relativity is tested (later confirmed) by Arthur Eddington's observation of a total solar eclipse in Principe and by Andrew Crommelin in Sobral, Ceará, Brazil.
Births
1675 - Humphry Ditton, English mathematician
1716 - Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton, French…
May 28, 2007
Events
1936 - Alan Turing submits On Computable Numbers for publication.
Births
1676 - Jacopo Riccati, Italian mathematician
1738 - Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, French physician
1807 - Louis Agassiz, Swiss-born zoologist and geologist
1836 - Alexander Mitscherlich, German chemist
1872 - Marian…
May 27, 2007
Births
1623 - William Petty, English scientist and philosopher
1907 - Rachel Carson, American marine biologist and science writer
Deaths
1781 - Giovanni Battista Beccaria, Italian physicist
1896 - Aleksandr Grigorievich Stoletov, Russian physicist
1987 - John Howard Northrop, American chemist,…
May 26, 2007
It's funny how much smaller the "Monster Pig" looks in this photo (source).
And for what it's worth, here's one of the "positive comments" the boy hunter got:
Don't pay attention to those west coast sissys, they live out there because homosexuality is fround upon in the USA
Your dad is teaching…
May 26, 2007
Births
1667 - Abraham de Moivre, French mathematician
1669 - Sébastien Vaillant, French botanist
Deaths
1883 - Edward Sabine, Irish astronomer
1904 - Georges Gilles de la Tourette, French neurologist
2004 - Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh, Russian astronomer