gregladen | June 24, 2012Despite the fact that we observe the world around us everyday, for many common phenomena we have a very poorly developed sense of the important variables of size, shape, position, and motion. As I sit here by the side of the lake and look around numerous examples come to mind. One example arises from a (somewhat) rare phenomenon I'm seeing right now. I'm looking north at a lake. To my right, east, is a cloud looming over the rising sun. The cloud is bight white and the contrast between the top of the cloud and the blue sky above it is sharp, and I can see structure to the cloud ...…
gregladen | June 23, 2012Are you aware of Dana Hunter's current project? The author of En Tequila es Verdad, the blog that always makes me want to take a shot, is writing detailed essays that track events connected to the 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens. She's writing them as part of her blogging over at Scientific American, but she just posted an update on Freethoughtblogs that serves as an index to all of the stories so far, so you should click here to get oriented and then click through to the stories.
Even though we know how the story turns out, Dana's posts make for an edge of your seat thriller. Also,…
gregladen | June 23, 2012I hear things are pretty busy in the Upper Upper Midwest of Alberta, Canada, and I suppose because of that, Skeptically Speaking has two off-air productions, one with the podcast just out, the other, this week's show, coming out next week. Both are really interesting to me, and I'm sure to you as well. Here are the details:
#169 Play Reality
... we’re looking at the intersection between science and play time. Guest host Julieta Delos Santos talks to Dr. Jayne Gackenbach and Teace Snyder, about their book Play Reality: How Videogames are Changing Everything. And we’ll listen back to “The Petri…
gregladen | June 23, 2012CERN isn't just the LHC. It's also rusty windows and post war big science. Interesting video:
gregladen | June 23, 2012It's cold and raining at the cabin. We got the physics right, capturing the cold night air through open windows and then closing up so that when it get warmer later in the day we'll have built in air conditioning, but we might have overshot slightly. Huxley got up early and was sitting in his crib counting to ten over and over again as the sound of rain provided an accompaniment to the white-noise making fan that was running in his room. On about the 28th count, so he was heading towards 300, he hit "seven" and a flash of lightning and an instantaneous clap of thunder stopped him in his…
gregladen | June 23, 2012Within a few days of the completion of the on-line draft of Sungudogo: A Novel, scientists have published the key data describing a killer H5N1 virus.
Coincidence? I would assume so. But still....
gregladen | June 22, 2012Tip 1: Get some corn-on-the-cob and a large pot for which you have a tight fitting top. Husk the corn while you boil a large amount of water in the pot (salted if you like, for flavor). Put the corn-on-the-cob in the water and leave the heat on only for a minute, put the top on and turn off the heat. Since there is no more boiling the corn will not likely overcook. In ten minutes or so it will be ready, but it will sit there in the hot water for a long time (did you remember to keep the to on?) as long as you keep the top on.
Variation: If you have a smallish pot, microwave the corn for a…
gregladen | June 22, 2012First, I have a new post up at 10,000 Birds: Evolution of the Multi-Media Bird
Then, you should check out the recent adds at Free Thought Blogs. You probably know that Zinnia Jones and Ashley Miller were added recently. The other day, Aron Ra of the Ace of Clades was added.
And, today, Christina Rad and TunderfOOt were added.
gregladen | June 21, 2012
Pastoralism is the practice of keeping and herding animals such as cattle, goats and sheep, and using the products they produce, including meat, hide, bone, horn and of course, dairy. In the old days, armchair archaeologists thought that pastoralism would have been a phase of cultural adaptation following hunting and gathering and preceding horticulture (the growing of plant crops). Why did they think that? No really good reason, just a guess. However, over time evidence came along and ideas where altered and minds were changed and now it is generally thought that in Europe and West Asia…
gregladen | June 21, 2012There is an item in PLoS ONE on one of my favorite topics: Wikipedea. This study examines the Dynamics of Conflicts in Wikipedia
... we build up samples of controversial and peaceful articles and analyze the temporal characteristics of the activity in these samples. On short time scales, we show that there is a clear correspondence between conflict and burstiness of activity patterns, and that memory effects play an important role in controversies. On long time scales, we identify three distinct developmental patterns for the overall behavior of the articles. We are able to distinguish cases…
gregladen | June 20, 2012We can't say how long the 'verge' is. Certainly years. But is it years-years or decades-years? Quite possibly sooner than many might have guessed just a few years ago. I like to be cautious about predicting breakthroughs that have not happened yet, but the results reported a few days ago at a major conference seem to have solved or significantly advanced solving some of the key problems in using stem cells to grown eye tissue.
There had been a lot of promising news over the last few years, and one of the most astonishing finds was reported from Japan just a few days ago at the annual…
gregladen | June 20, 2012Music of the Birds by Lang Elliott is a classic book and CD combo well over 10 years old, that provided bird lovers with a chance to learn to identify and appreciate the songs of numerous species. Over the last decade or so many other CD-based bird song offerings have become available. More recently, Lang teamed up with Marie Read to produce an iBook (iAuthored) version of Music of the Birds which takes advantage of the iAuthored iBook format in many ways. This is my first review of an iAuthored book, and obviously the first one on this blog, so I want to use the opportunity to discuss what…
gregladen | June 20, 2012Kopplin launched his anti-creationist effort while still in high school, and eventually gathered 55,000 signatures on a petition, enlisted the support of 78 Nobel laureates, and testified State Senate hearings.
He is also responsible for Hurricane Katrina. How cool is that?
Here's his talk:
Those are peacocks in the background, right?
gregladen | June 20, 2012Cringing in Kansas
The renewed complaints of a few members of the Kansas state board of education about evolution is making Kansans cringe, according to the editorial board of the Lawrence Journal-World (June 15, 2012). As NCSE previously reported, when the board heard a presentation about the current status of the Next Generation Science Standards on June 12, 2012, Ken Willard, a member of the board, distributed a letter arguing that the draft standards " ignore evidence against evolution, don't respect religious diversity, and promote secular humanism."...
Read the rest here.
NCSE's Newton…
gregladen | June 20, 2012The Rocks Don't Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood by David Montgomery is new book on the Noachian flood. It is by a real life geologist and is not a creationist book. Might be a good gift for your annoying creationist relative.
Here is a write-up from the publisher:
In Tibet, geologist David R. Montgomery heard a local story about a great flood that bore a striking similarity to Noah’s Flood. Intrigued, Montgomery began investigating the world’s flood stories and—drawing from historic works by theologians, natural philosophers, and scientists—discovered the counterintuitive role…
gregladen | June 20, 2012Duluth, a second tier Minnesota city on Lake Superior, has been flooding. This is a little unusual; heavy rains following a period of saturation have caused a local river that is usually not even heard of to grow very large and cause flooding that a lot of people haven't seen before.
The polar bear and the seal were able to leave their enclosures in the high water. The bear was darted and is safely put away somewhere, the seal is said to have taken a stroll around the neighborhood. But the barn animals, apparently including cattle, ovicaprids, and donkey have all perished in the flood.
This…
gregladen | June 19, 2012The other day I found myself with Huxley standing outside a townhouse with no way to get in, within a walled-in court yard, in Minneapolis. Suddenly a K9 Patrol car with dogs came tearing into the courtyard. Other police cars showed up. Cops with drawn guns were running around. It was interesting to contemplate the difference in strategy to avoid ricochet bullets within the stone and brick enclosed area vs. attack dogs who might assume that we were bad guys. I moved Huxley to a corner facing away from the action and then I watched, prepared to throw him up on my shoulders while I wrestled…
gregladen | June 19, 2012I wrote a remembrance of Phillip Tobias for Scientific American Blogs. Please have a look. Thank you very much.
gregladen | June 19, 2012Linux inventer Linus Torvalds gave a talk recently at Aalto University in Finland. It is a very interesting talk that anyone involved in Open Source technology or computer software development would enjoy. During the talk, the issue of support for Linux from hardware manufacturers came up, and Linus had a comment for Nvidia, which it seems is not only non-supportive but maybe even anti-OpenSource. Linus's comment is below the fold becuase it is not work safe:
If your browser does not support moving GIF's then you may want to go to the source, here.
UPDATE: Nvidia has responded. They say…
gregladen | June 18, 2012Hi folks
We did a google hangout thingie yesterday which went very well (you can see it here) but my webcam apparently sucked. Even though I changed the tagline under my name several times to various very funny comments you can't read it, and this is presumably because the resolution of the web cam was low so the whole thing got messed up.
(Compare my part with other people who had better resolution.)
The folks who made this video are passing around notes on what seems to work but I thought I's start a thread here to discuss it as well.
What are your recommendations?