gregladen | June 16, 2012If you happened to try recently to get to one or more of the currently inactive yet still extant Scienceblogs.com blogs, you will have gotten an enigmatic message about how the blog is now archived or suspended.
That is a technical glitch. The blogs are still there even though you can't see them. In fact, for some people logged in a certain way, they can be visited.
I am assured that this is being looked into and will be fixed.
Sorry for the inconvenience!
There is a huge amount of really important and cool stuff in those blogs. The evolution of the science blogosphere happened there. It…
gregladen | June 14, 2012I knew you'd want to know this: I've written my first novel,and I did it yesterday and this morning. As part of a fundraiser for the Secular Student Alliance, I produced one chapter (some shorter, some longer) per hour (plus/minus) from just after midnight yesterday morning until a few minutes ago.
It has adventure, it has primates, it has sex, and it has ... other things.
You can read Sungudogo by clicking here. And go from there.
gregladen | June 13, 2012As part of a fundraiser for the Secular Student alliance, I'm writing a novel as we speak. I'll post one chapter per hour (approximately) until it is done. I started several hours ago, so there are as of this writing seven chapters (plus front matter) up for you to read.
Please visit "Sungudogo: A Novel" .... Start Here.
gregladen | June 12, 201250 years ago today, three men did the impossible. They escaped from Alcatraz. They may or may not have lived.
Apparently, the promise was made that if they escaped, lived, then continued to live, they would return today. There are people waiting on Alcatraz today, including the sister of one of the men. So, we'll see.
Mean time, here's the trailer from the movie, "Escape from Alcatraz";
In case you were interested in escaping from Alcatraz yourself, you could try this:
And finally, the MythBusters tackled the story and here's what they came up with:
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Photo by…
gregladen | June 12, 2012Over the last couple of years I've added contacts to Linked In with a certain amount of consideration. In other words, I've added only links that are "real" in some sense; they are friends and friends of friends, and colleagues and colleagues of colleagues who's name I recognized. Then, yesterday, my password was published on the internet. That's now been changed, but again, it is effort I've expended.
I've gotten no benefit from being on Linked In. So far, I've spent time, and I've been at risk but with no reward.
Why am I here and why should I stay? Anybody know?…
gregladen | June 10, 2012Skeptics fight an up hill battle. This battle consists of deploying critical thinking across a range of cultural landscapes, implementing scientific thinking to solve problems, and the thoughtful evaluation of knowledge, while 90 percent of the world is out to stop you, or at least make it hard. Or so it seems. To be honest, I can't back up that 90 percent figure with any hard facts. Sorry.
But the Skeptic faces more than just uncritical thinking, incorrect facts, or poor scientific judgment. The Skeptic must also wrestle with ... The Anti Skeptic.
Of which there are several kinds.…
gregladen | June 10, 2012The term "Dunbar's Number" refers to a particular hypothesis by primatologist Robin Dunbar. It is a very simple idea with rather complex implications, and it is one of those simple ideas that gets more complicated than ideal as we look into it more and more. Eventually, the idea is required by many who contemplate it to do more work than was ever intended, and in this way seems to fail, though it really doesn't. I personally think Dunbar's number is useful if it is properly understood, so I want you to give it a chance, and to help you do that I'd like to use an analogy.
I'm thinking of a…
gregladen | June 7, 2012Here we have a handful of great technological marvels depicted in small videos.
Raspberry Pi Enclosure
ASUS Taichi dual screen
It seems to be running Windows but hopefully that can be fixed:
New Parking Concept
Well ... new 60 years ago, but still:
New Droid Looks Like Budgie
gregladen | June 7, 2012Peter Gleick has been reinstated in his position as president of the Pacific Institute.
The Pacific Institute is pleased to welcome Dr. Peter Gleick back to his position as president of the Institute. An independent review conducted by outside counsel on behalf of the Institute has supported what Dr. Gleick has stated publicly regarding his interaction with the Heartland Institute. This independent investigation has further confirmed and the Pacific Institute is satisfied that none of its staff knew of or was involved in any way.
Dr. Gleick has apologized publicly for his actions, which are…
gregladen | June 7, 2012Philip Tobias passed away this morning, according to a mutual friend. I've not heard any details.
Tobias is the most important hominid anatomist to have lived in the 20th and early 21st century, having taken the chair originally established by Raymond Dart at Wits University. He literally defined several of the hominids, being the anatomist to author the official diagnosis of several species. He was also a human rights champion, an excellent poet and decent singer and performer, an excellent teacher, a great friend, a strong and central personality in human evolution and unbelievably demure…
gregladen | June 6, 2012He was one of the first authors (other than the likes of Dr. Seuss) that I read. NPR says:
The website io9.com, which appears to have broken the news, says the 91-year-old author of "The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked this Way Comes, and many more literary classics" died in Los Angeles, possibly early this morning. "We've got confirmation from the family as well as his biographer, Sam Weller," io9 adds.
gregladen | June 6, 2012D-Day was today in 1944. My father was involved. Wikipedia is silly. Kids these days have no idea. There is, of course, a classic movie on the topic.
The term "D-Day" is military for "The Day" just like "H-Hour" is military for "The Hour" on which something will happen. However, once D-Day happened everyone started to use the term "D-Day" to refer to this event. The idea is you can put the date "D-Day" in your planning documents and refer to it without having the date set, or if you do have the date set, to avoid saying the date out loud.
So, in English, in normal culture, D-Day is…
gregladen | June 5, 2012A talk by Genie Scott of the NCSE:
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Photo of Darwin Statute by KevinZim
gregladen | June 4, 2012Orville the cat was named after Orville Wright, and when he died, Bart Jansen, the cant's "owner" taxidermied him and, in collaboration with Radio Controlled Flying Objects expert Arjen Beltman, they converted Orville the cat into a working helicopter.
From the daily mail:
Jansen said the Orvillecopter is 'half cat, half machine', and part of a visual art project to pay tribute to his cat Orville.
Jansen, part of the art cooperative Generaal Pardon, said: 'After a period of mourning he received his propellers posthumously.'
Click through to see more photos, and here's the video:
Are these…
gregladen | June 3, 2012The big new of the day in the OpenSource world is that FreeDOS's web site, revised and updated, is out of Beta and fully up and running, here. If you click through you'll find an update on a number of recent changes and updates to the operating system.
Just in case you need to know how to figure out what day of the week it is using only bash scripting (including some awk) click here.
Apparently Windows users have something Linux users don't. But there's a fix, so it no longer matters:
It is done. Almost. As predicted here on this blog but denied by many, it is probably true that with…
gregladen | June 3, 2012Well, it is always exploding. But I just heard that "A big coronal hole is turning directly towards the Earth. Solar wind flowing from the opening should reach our planet on June 5-7, possibly sparking geomagnetic storms" and maybe the aurora will be visible over a larger area.
I heard that from the iPad app "3D Sun." This is an app that informs me whenever the sun is up to anything interesting, and also provides images of current and older solar events, a handy glossary of terms, and an excellent 3D sun "globe" (as it were) which can be used to find landmarks and stuff:
Pinch-able…
gregladen | June 3, 2012First, a little Benazir Bhutto story, since we are on the subject of women leaders.
A friend of mine was to be on the podium of Harvard's graduation the year Benazir Bhutto was to give the keynote, and heard this conversation. John Galbraith, the economists who was also a professor at Harvard, Bhutto's former undergraduate advisor, and her friend, was also to be on the stage, and all the famous people who were to be on that stage were to walk out in procession. The Secret Service, who were protecting Bhutto who at the time was Head of State, arranged the people so that two or three guys,…