gregladen | September 22, 2012First this, from a blogpost by David Firestone:
On the most basic level, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is responsible for saving and creating 2.5 million jobs. The majority of economists agree that it helped the economy grow by as much as 3.8 percent, and kept the unemployment rate from reaching 12 percent.
The stimulus is the reason, in fact, that most Americans are better off than they were four years ago, when the economy was in serious danger of shutting down.
But the stimulus did far more than stimulate: it protected the most vulnerable from the recession’s heavy winds. Of…
gregladen | September 22, 2012Skeptically Speaking #182 Science Cinema
Sunday, September 23rd, Skeptically Speaking will record "before a life UStream audience" as per usual:
This week, we’re looking at film and video as an exciting, engaging way to communicate science to the public. Guest host Marie-Claire Shanahan spends the hour with independent film-maker and former BBC video journalist Brady Haran, and artist and filmmaker Henry Reich, creator of the Minute Physics YouTube series. They’ll discuss the promise and pitfalls of telling science stories in moving pictures.
We record live with Brady Haran and Henry Reich…
gregladen | September 21, 2012
Elizabeth J. Laden, a few years ago.
Some of my earliest memories are of my sister, BJ, who later preferred to be called Elizabeth. Each of my three siblings, all older than me, had a measurable influence on my life, influences that happened when I was little when they, much older, were mostly ignoring me (I'm not saying that is a bad thing). In the case of Elizabeth, the influence was mainly socio-political. She was the girl that the Catholic school probably regretted admitting because she was trouble, or at least, that's the sense I got. She was a hippie when being a hippie was the…
gregladen | September 20, 2012Hahaha
It's great to see a Juluka number in such a prominent place.
Hat tip: Kristi Lewton
gregladen | September 19, 2012
The Daily ShowGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook
gregladen | September 19, 2012I just want to remind everybody that the fundraiser at which Romney proudly declared he would not represent 47% of Americans, claimed that if he was brown he'd get elected, and promised that if there was a hostage situation in the middle east during the present election season that he'd find a way to take advantage for political gain, was a $50,000 per plate dinner.
The median income in the US is close to that amount.
If you wait 10 tables at an event like that and get a 15% tip, you make more than the median annual income in one night.
gregladen | September 18, 2012There is some brand new research on those New Caledonian Crows that seem to be able to do all sorts of things we thought only smart Humans could do (like making tools, understanding physics, that sort of thing). I've written it up here: The Incredulous New Caledonian Crows, on 10,000 Birds, where, as you know, I write a monthly entry on bird evolutionary biology. It turns out they can do something that I'm not so sure all humans are great at. Other than flying.
Please go have a look!
gregladen | September 18, 2012What could be wrong with presenting in a science class "both sides" of controversial topics like evolution or climate change, or having students debate the topics, using argumentation to improve their critical thinking skills? In the case of evolution, presenting supposed alternatives, such as intelligent design or young-earth creationism, is not only considered bad practice, but also unconstitutional in public schools due to the separation of church and state. However, in the case of climate change, the practice of teaching it as controversial and presenting "both sides" as if they are…
gregladen | September 17, 2012The tape was running, he was speaking at a fundraiser, didn't know he was being taped. Holy crap:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Details here.
gregladen | September 17, 2012Alber Saber is a pro-democracy blogger in Egypt who also runs a facebook page for atheists. His neighbors found out about this and, of course, mobbed his house. The police arrived on the scene, and of course, they arrested him. He was thrown in jail and, of course, he seems to have been attacked by razor blade wielding prisoners.
Rebecca Watson has started a petition for you to sign to help make the point that the whole world is watching. Please click here and sign the petition.
gregladen | September 17, 2012Michael Mann is reporting this on his facebook page:
Breaking: A victory for science! ATI loses ATI/UVa FOIA case. Judge issues final order. Affirms the university's right to withhold scholarly communications and finds that the documents & personal emails of mine demanded by ATI were indeed protected as the university had contended.
I am gratified for the hard work and vigorous defense provided by the university to protect scholarly communications and raw materials of scholarship. Fortunately Virginia has a strong exemption in the public records act that protects research and scholarly…
gregladen | September 17, 2012In March, 2012, I attended a conference called Moving Secularism Forward run by the Council for Secular Humanism and the Center for Inquiry. I spoke as part of a panel called Does Secular Humanism Have A Political Agenda? along with Ronald Bailey of Reason.com, Razib Khan of Secular Right, and former Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder. This panel was assembled and moderated by Lauren Becker of the Center for Inquiry. Tom Flynn, executive director of the Council for Secular Humanism and editor of Free Inquiry, the Council for Secular Humanism’s bi-monthly journal liked our session (for good…
gregladen | September 17, 2012This is Denise Bader, who is running against a very extreme Tea Party candidate:
gregladen | September 17, 2012Yeah, I'm bringing back the term "Sea Change" which was briefly popular a few years ago, in reference to the perception of party difference, the difference between Democrats and Republicans, in handling foreign policy. Let me say first that it has never been true that the Republicans were better at handling foreign policy than the Democrats. Individual presidents and individual congresses (if that term is appropriate) have varied a lot, and it could be that one party is not better than another. Having said that, I think Democrats have been better over recent decades, more or less. Imagine,…
gregladen | September 16, 2012Stephanie Zvan wrote a post re-addressing a few earlier posts she and I had written a few years ago which caused a firestorm of testosterone drenched reaction from men (and a few women) who somehow had a problem with the political, social, and scientific investigation of wartime rape. (A rape in progress, A rape in progress, Part II, Is there a rape switch?, and When Is a Rapist?) In my view, and those of you who know me will recall that I’ve noted this before, this set of posts was actually the first Internet Event in the current Holy War against women and their allies. Certainly,…
gregladen | September 14, 2012
She explicitly says, without any window dressing, that there are Americans, and there is Islam, and the Muslims are the enemy. No punches pulled here. And, she explicitly says that President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton are aiding and assisting the enemy.
This was at the so called "Values Summit" which, I think, they didn't know was being video taped. I assume.
gregladen | September 14, 2012Remember Rover? Rover is still finding stuff, and this latest find is strange, enigmatic, interesting, and worthy of further investigation. So far there is only a press release from NASA, here:
NASA Mars Rover Opportunity Reveals Geological Mystery
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's long-lived rover Opportunity has returned an image of the Martian
surface that is puzzling researchers.
Spherical objects concentrated at an outcrop Opportunity reached last week differ in several ways
from iron-rich spherules nicknamed "blueberries" the rover found at its landing site in early 2004 and
at many other…