Mike Dunford
tqa
Posts by this author
March 20, 2009
The 2009 State of the Birds report, released yesterday, is not a happy read. Over the last 40 years, bird populations in the United States have not been doing well, as a whole. There are a few hopeful signs here and there - some populations have recovered - but almost 1/3 of the species in America…
March 19, 2009
Those of you who followed the recent (and prolonged) saga involving thed anonymous holds that were blocking confirmation of John Holdren (the President's nominee for Science Adviser) and Jane Lubchenco (the NOAA Administrator nominee) will no doubt be relieved to learn that the drama has…
March 19, 2009
Update 2: PTWC has cancelled the regional warning. A tsunami was in fact generated, but the waves have been measured and are very small (about 1.5 inches in height).
Updated: The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center states that a tsunami was generated by this earthquake. The size of the tsunami is not…
March 19, 2009
Denyse O'Leary is nattering on over at Uncommon Descent - and several other places - about some sort of connection between "Darwinists" or perhaps "Darwinism" and the recent and tragic case where a pet chimpanzee attacked and mutilated one of the owner's neighbors. A large portion of the various…
March 18, 2009
One of the pictures in a Walter Reed Army Medical Center collection of historic photographs is a simple, black-background shot of what we can only assume is some sort of scientific equipment:
The question is, what is it? According to the caption, it's a 1984 picture of a "mouse-tail wash…
March 18, 2009
Update: My praise for Charlie Rangel in this post was, sadly, premature. Politico is now reporting that Rangel has gotten behind a 91% tax bracket for AIG bonuses.
When it comes to the AIG bonuses, I'm about as angry as any other taxpayer who has been paying attention. This morning, I was…
March 17, 2009
As you may know, there's a special election campaign going on in the 20th Congressional District in NY. Jim Tedisco is the Republican candidate for the seat. He's running against a Democrat named Scott Murphy. Initially, Tedisco was considered to be the strong favorite for the seat. The…
March 16, 2009
Below the fold, you'll find a picture taken from an earlier post on this blog. In the image, you'll see three very different locations. These three locations have at least one biogeographical feature that they share and that relates to today. What is it?
March 16, 2009
I've been going back through some pictures I took last month, trying to identify the birds in the pictures. I've found one gull that I'm having problems with. I've got a couple of shots I'm going to share with you, and then I'll give my current thoughts and reasoning.
The picture was taken on…
March 16, 2009
As one of the smaller, lower-traffic bloggers here, I don't have PZ's fame and fortune. But I also don't have his problems. Today, I'd settle for one of the problems. In classic lemonade from lemons fashion, PZ just found a solution to dealing with annoying commenters that makes me almost wish I…
March 16, 2009
A couple of weeks ago, Interior Secretary Ken "Cowboy Hat" Salazar went ahead with a decision to remove endangered species protections from grey wolves in several western states. The decision in question was first proposed by the Bush Administration, and was extremely controversial. Needless to…
March 15, 2009
I'm the top three results for this Google search. It looks like they've definitely managed to pin down just how credible I really am.
March 14, 2009
If you hadn't figured it out by now, Senator David Vitter (R-LA) is not my favorite member of Congress. If asked for my personal ranking of Senators, I'd probably place him somewhere in the bottom 2%. That said, I really can't claim that he's always wrong. Every now and then, he proposes something…
March 14, 2009
The Center For American Progress recently released the results of a political positions survey. They asked respondents to rate their level of agreement with 40 questions on a scale of 0-10, with 0 at the 'disagree' end of the spectrum. They converted each person's responses into a numerical value…
March 13, 2009
(Fair warning: I usually keep the language clean in this blog, but I didn't manage it this time. Below the fold may be NSFW.)
OK, I admit it. I've still got last night's Jon Stewart CNBC Massacre (with full orchestration and five part harmony) stuck in my mind. I think that's going to be the…
March 13, 2009
Sam: Toby, do you really think it's a good idea to invite people to dinner and then tell them exactly what they're doing wrong with their lives?
Toby: Absolutely. Otherwise it's just a waste of food.
The West WingSeason 1, Episode 7, The State Dinner
Jon Stewart understands better than anyone…
March 12, 2009
The New York Times has just reported that the Senate Commerce Committee held a closed-door, unannounced markup earlier today. During the markup, the Committee unanimously approved both John Holdren and Jane Lubchenco, and both nominations are expected to move to the floor.
According to the Times…
March 12, 2009
UPDATE - 17:35 CDT: According to the New York Times, all holds are gone as of this afternoon, the Commerce Committee has unanimously approved the two nominees, and they're expected to be confirmed by unanimous consent early next week.
But that's because the holds are still going. And going. And…
March 12, 2009
A moderately large piece of space debris has only recently been identified as a threat to the International Space Station - too recently for the station to be moved out of the way. The object is now projected to pass close enough to the ISS to put it into the high threat category. As a result, the…
March 12, 2009
Several news agencies are reporting that a massive academic fraud case has surfaced. A single researcher apparently fabricated data used in the publication of at least 21 journal articles published over a 12-year period.
After an internal reviewer raised concerns, Baystate Medical Center…
March 11, 2009
The latest entry is one of the more recent "news" articles on the main page. This particular one is more malignant than humorous:
"Dressed in black," a German 17-year-old former public school student kills 15 people.[19]Wearing all black is characteristic of anti-Christian belief systems. Our…
March 11, 2009
To the best of my knowledge, there have been no significant developments in the continuing saga of "who is blocking the science nominees in the Senate". Progressive Alaska's Philip Munger noted in a comment here that Senator Mark Begich's (D-AK) office says Begich is not involved, and that he has…
March 10, 2009
Tonight's episode in the Conservapedia Follies comes in the form of their page on the "Religion of Barack Obama". Specifically, it comes from a section of the article that attempts to "correct" what the Conservapediots perceive to be "errors" in an article about Obama and religion that appeared in…
March 10, 2009
As of this morning, the situation surrounding the Senate confirmations of John Holdren as head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and Jane Lubchenco as NOAA Administrator is somewhat confused. A number of new news articles and blog posts have appeared over the last couple of days.…
March 9, 2009
Tonight's entry isn't actually from one of Conservapedia's "encyclopedia" articles. Instead, it's from one of their "debate" pages. The topic for the debate is "Women in the Military", and the first entry on the "No" side contains an absolutely fantastic sentence:
Also, there are some jobs that…
March 9, 2009
As many of you know, I've been closely following the complex situation involving President Obama's nominees for Science Advisor and NOAA Administrator. Early last week, we learned that both John Holdren (the Science Advisor designate) and Jane Lubchenco (the NOAA Administrator nominee) were stuck…
March 6, 2009
A few weeks ago, I read, enjoyed, and reviewed Phil Plait's Death From the Skies. After I caught my daughter looking at the book a couple of times, I managed to bribe convince her to write a review of the book. The result is the following review. I fixed the formatting a little bit, but I had…
March 5, 2009
The Catholic Church in Brazil is off its frigging rocker. I'm not talking about being a tiny bit nuts here. We're talking over-the-top sheer gibbering insanity. The kind of insanity that's indistinguishable from pure evil, and has much the same effect.
The BBC is reporting on a hideously tragic…
March 5, 2009
I'm no Nate Silver, but I do enjoy reading polls. Most media reports give you the high points - approval numbers, disapproval numbers, that sort of thing. If take a few minutes to dig a little deeper, you'll often find things that didn't make the highlights, but are still very interesting. Case in…
March 5, 2009
As of this morning, it appears that the nominations of both John Holdren and Jane Lubchenco (the President's picks for Science Advisor and NOAA Administrator, respectively) are still stalled in the Senate. If we don't raise more hell over this issue - and keep raising hell - it's likely that these…