gregladen | July 5, 2012Today is the first day of SkepchickCON at CONvergence. CONvergence is the largest fan run fantasy and science fiction convention in the US and or World and possibly Universe, depending. It is held in a suburb of Minneapolis. One gazillion people are in attendance. There are many activities and events, and a double-decker parallelogram of "party rooms" operated by various organizations including but not limited to the Skepchicks, whom you know from the web site Skepchick.
Among the activities are panels where interesting people sit in front of a room of interested people and…
gregladen | July 5, 2012The whole Higgs Boson thing is really interesting. Not only was is not discovered over the last several months, but in a way that makes it certain that it exists, but for other reasons as well. Higgs himself predicted its existence a very long time ago and was told by the greats that it really can't exist, so he should be a model for all those people with Theories ... like "they didn't believe Higgs either, so I must be right!" ... but instead the usual suspects have lined up (at least in the spam section of my blogs) to tell us how the Higgs Particle itself is a conspiracy.
Another thing is…
gregladen | July 4, 2012Most people in a position to read this blog post probably think of marriage as a contract between two people that serves a few different purposes. Initially it may be an extension of the a tacit contract governing sexual access or fidelity that likely preceded marriage. Later on it may be an arrangement that facilitates the decision a couple makes to have one or more children. Along with this a marriage may be a framework for any subset of a longish list of social relations people tend to engage in such as friendship and mutual aid, financial cooperation and joint ownership of things, or…
gregladen | July 4, 2012The following document was written by Benjamin Franklin in 1754, and is said to have been influenced by the structure of the Iroquois Confederacy, of which Franklin was well aware. This is essentially the first draft of the Articles of Confederation and closely reflects Franklin's contribution to the Constitution of the United States.
The Albany Plan of Union
It is proposed that humble application be made for an act of Parliament of Great Britain, by virtue of which one general government may be formed in America, including all the said colonies, within and under which government each colony…
gregladen | July 4, 2012From CERN:
CERN experiments observe particle consistent with long-sought Higgs boson
Geneva, 4 July 2012. At a seminar held at CERN1 today as a curtain raiser to the year’s major particle physics conference, ICHEP2012 in Melbourne, the ATLAS and CMS experiments presented their latest preliminary results in the search for the long sought Higgs particle. Both experiments observe a new particle in the mass region around 125-126 GeV.
“We observe in our data clear signs of a new particle, at the level of 5 sigma, in the mass region around 126 GeV. The outstanding performance of the LHC and ATLAS…
gregladen | July 4, 2012And you too, computer, now that I think of it. I have a list here of things that are annoying that are similar to each other in that they interfere with my most basic use of the computer. Most of the time I demand very little of a computer. Writing text in a text editor or in the text boxes of web pages, and reading things. That is mostly what I do. It is astonishing that in 2012 when we are about to do this that these simple tasks can be thwarted by poor design and engineering in the software running on what is really pretty advanced hardware.
1) Reloading web pages. This is best…
gregladen | July 3, 2012Aha. I'm glad you asked!
There are two events coming up on August 10th and 11th. The first one, I'm definitely going to, the second one...I've not decided yet. First, there will be an Atheist Baseball Game. Here in the Twin Cities we have a minor league team called the Saint Paul Saints. On August 10th, they will be rebranded as the Mr. Paul Aints, and the banners of the Minnesota Atheists and American Atheists will hang in the stadium as they play some other team. Other cute atheistic punny things will be implemented. I won't tell you about all of them becuase that may ruin the shock…
gregladen | July 3, 2012I thought many of you would want to know about this book. It is from the National Academies Press. Costs 40 bucks if you want the dead tree version, but the PDF is free. Gotta love the National Academies.
Here's the description provided by the NAP:
In the five decades since NASA was created, the agency has sustained its legacy from the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) in playing a major role in U.S. aeronautics research and has contributed substantially to United States preeminence in civil and military aviation. This preeminence has contributed significantly to the…
gregladen | July 3, 2012WTF stands for ... Women Thinking Free. It was an organization born in the Skepchick Crucible, and it did things like the "Hug Me I'm Vaccinated" campaign which really truly probably saved liVes or at least reduced misery. It also spawned (though I'm probably oversimplifying here) the MTM (More than Men) project, which reminds me, it is time to repost my MTM project for you.
Anyway, when WTF started out it was cute. The name, that its. You'd say "WTF" and somebody would say "Huh? What" and then you'd say "Women Thinking Free, what did you think I meant?" and so on. But WTF grew beyond its…
gregladen | July 3, 2012I grew up with Andy Griffith. I think Opie and I are about the same age. I didn't have an Aunt Bea but I did have a Great Aunt Tillie. All neighborhoods were small towns in those days. We had an Otis, we had a Floyd and he had a red and white pole, although we didn't have a Barney. Andy's family was non-traditional and he was in North Carolina and no one, in those days, was passing legislation against them. Also, I watched the show from a city in New York with more African Americans than the small North Carolina town he protected and nurtured with his easy going ways. This later caused…
gregladen | July 3, 2012Genie Scott's report from the front, from Texas textbook battles to the Texas Board's attempt to "creationize" the state's science standards. How will this affect the future of education in Texas...and the U.S.? Where: Texas Freethought Convention. When: 10/8/2011.
The books referred to are Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction, 2nd Edition and Not in Our Classrooms: Why Intelligent Design Is Wrong for Our Schools.
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Photo of Eve and Adam by elmada
gregladen | July 2, 2012Apparently not, but something interesting is happening.
The buzz on the blogosphere is that there will be an announcement on July 4th that the Higgs Boson has been proven to exist, but not "found." And by "proven" it is meant that empirical evidence of its existence has been gathered, as opposed to a mathematical argument that it must exist or that they have a jar of them and are ready to pass out free samples to reporters. One of the project researchers, John Ellis, has said "We've discovered something which is consistent with being a Higgs."
What is the Higgs Boson? George Musser will…
gregladen | July 1, 2012
I don't want the scale that tweets my weight. The power stroller is cool, though. It is a hybrid.
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image of radio by x-ray delta one
gregladen | June 30, 2012Every now and then a news story comes along that makes me want to repost this particular thing I wrote a long time ago. And it has happened again. First, the news story:
National Geographic Channel has run a poll in which they found that 36% of Americans "believe UFO's exist." This is in line with previous results. There are other findings as well, but one item is new. The survey asked people who would do a better job of fighting off Aliens if they come to earth and, well, wanna fight. Obama killed Romney on that question.
So just keep that in mind when you are in the voting booth,…
gregladen | June 30, 2012Secular Woman is a organization that just formed, and is currently filing for 501(c)(3) status. I just joined it and you should to. Here's the mission statement:
Mission
The mission of Secular Woman is to amplify the voice, presence, and influence of non-religious women.
Vision
Secular Woman envisions a future in which women without supernatural beliefs have the opportunities and resources they need to participate openly and confidently as respected voices of leadership in the secular community and every aspect of American society.
Values
Humanism
We embrace human-centered ethics informed by…
gregladen | June 29, 2012Just came across this snapshot of an exhibit panel from the Science Museum of Minnesota's exhibit on race.
SMM Race Exhibit Panel addressing the common misconception that a forensic anthropologist can look at a skull and accurately attribute "race." (photo by Greg Laden)
gregladen | June 29, 2012... the hazzards of sickness ... should be provided for through insurance. This should be [charged to] the industries the employer, the employee, and perhaps the people at large ... Wherever such standards are not met by given establishments, by given industries, are unprovided for by a legislature, or are balked by unenlightened courts, the workers are in jeopardy, the progressive employer is penalized, and the community pays a heavy cost in lessened efficiency and in misery. What [European country] has done in the way of old age pensions or insurance should be studied by us, and the system…
gregladen | June 29, 2012This is very very cool. A little gruesome of you are not used to this sort of thing.
I wonder if it had ant insurance.
gregladen | June 29, 2012On August 5th, NASA will attempt to do what may be the dumbest thing they ever did.
Or, possibly, the most brilliant thing they ever did. Hard to say.
Perhaps you've heard about the Seven Minutes of Terror. This pertains to the process of landing the robot Curiosity on Mars. There are several steps and most of the steps have the following characteristics:
1) It won't work if the previous step doesn't happen just right;
2) It really can't work anyway; and
3) The outcome of any given step is very likely to screw up the next step.
A kind of cycle of potential failure. Some of the steps…