gregladen | March 28, 2012What are we looking at here? Your answer will depend on the angle with which you approach the problem.
hat tip: Sarah Moglia.
gregladen | March 28, 2012I will be interviewing Maggie Koerth-Baker this Sunda, April 1st, no fooling.
Maggie Koerth-Baker is the author of the new book, "Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us". Maggie is the science editor and a regular writer at Boing Boing, and hails from the Twin Cities. She was once described as "A lighthouse of reason in a churling ocean of stupidity," which is exactly why we all need to read her book and listen to her interview Sunday, April 1st on Minnesota Atheists Talk Radio.
From the publisher's review of "Before the Lights Go Out":
"Hi, I'm the…
gregladen | March 28, 2012Just wanted to let you know that Matt Soniak, science writer, was interviewed on Skeptically Speaking last Sunday, March 25th, and a cleaned up version of the interview will be released on Saturday as a podcast . Matt was talking about Predators and Prey.
And, on the podcast there will be a pre-recorded conversation with Desiree Schell and me on "Man the Hunter" (more or less), a new installment of "Everything you know is sort of wrong."
Details here.
gregladen | March 27, 2012Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
I'm still reading Drift. It's been hard to get the time with all this conventioneering I'm doing, but I'm loving it.
See also this preliminary look at the book.
gregladen | March 27, 2012There is a spreading belief that if you put Nitrogen (instead of regular air) in your car tires, that you will get better gas mileage. The reasoning behind this may be sound, but the facts on which the reasoning is based are not correct. Therefore, the answer is no, it is not advantageous for the average person to use Nitrogen in their car tires. On even more detailed examination, it maybe that regular air is better than Nitrogen for most people. Nitrogen is in fact used in certain tires, and there may be a good reason for that, though the information I have is probably missing something…
gregladen | March 27, 2012Tennessee "monkey bill" passes legislature
House Bill 368 passed the Tennessee House of Representatives on a 72-23 vote on March 26, 2012, the Chattanooga Times Free Press (March 26, 2012) reports. The bill would encourage teachers to present the "scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses" of topics that arouse "debate and disputation" such as "biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning"; it now proceeds to Governor Bill Haslam, who will have ten days to sign the bill, allow it to become law without his signature, or veto it. Haslam previously…
gregladen | March 26, 2012Click Here to explore freeDOS's new site design, now in testing stage. I think it looks much much better than the old site and is noticeably more functional. It is actually a good model for other similar software supporting sites. The thing I like about it most is that you need to do very little work to find out what the heck the software is, if, why, and how one might install it, and what you can use it for . I would add a single sentence or two to the context material, but otherwise it looks nearly done.
While you are there, visit the bottom of the page to find links to the freeDOS…
gregladen | March 26, 2012Run!
Interesting. I don't know what I think of the US thing. How's that working out with Torchwood? (I'm a year behind on everything because I only see these things on Netflix.)
gregladen | March 26, 2012I have participated in Minnesota Democratic Party (officially known as the DFL1) activities in the past, but never as intimately as this year. In doing so, I've observed a number of very interesting things about how a political campaign works, and I'd like to share those observations with you. In particular, I'll contrast the campaign I'm volunteering for whenever I have a chance (Sharon Sund for US Congress) with the opposing campaign (Brian Barnes for US Congress).
The Sund-Barnes campaign is not over, and we don't yet know how it will turn out. At this point, the campaigns are about…
gregladen | March 26, 2012Tennessee is where the famous Scopes Trial of 1925 played out, and more recently two state level state bills (one house and one senate) are in play in a move by legislatures to further enhance Tennessee's reputation as a place where people don't value education and would not know of valid scientific theory if it bit them on the ear.
You'all knew that if you've been following the news from there. Yesterday, an editorial was printed by four scientists who are rather fed up with Tennessee's playing fast and loose with reality, and it is worth a look.
... Even the religious mainstream has…
gregladen | March 25, 2012
This is what a Democratic Party Walking Caucus looks like. It is a thing we do in Minnesota. It is so arcane and complicated that the press never covers it, so no one has any idea that we are doing this to select our nominees for political office. We have a fake "primary" at the beginning of the process, and that is what the press reports, but the "primary" result has nothing to do with the outcome of the process.
In this particular caucus, in my State Senate District, one of the main issues was selecting delegates for US Congress. In this race, Sharon Sund's team more or less wiped the…
gregladen | March 23, 2012John Childs is the very first person to fly in America. He did it in 1757, on September 13th, from the steeple of the Old North Church in Boston. This is the same church from which Sarah Palin hung some lanterns to direct Michel Bachmann on her ride to Concord New Hampshire to warn the British that we were "Not going to take it any more."
Childs tied himself to a glider made of bird feathers, and he did it a three times in a row, firing off guns the third time, but he caused such a distraction that he got banned from doing it again. Based on the description of the event, Childs was really…
gregladen | March 23, 2012Potholer54 has written a letter to Monkton that you will want to read, and he's also made a video that you will want to see. First the letter (from here):
Open letter to Christopher Monckton - please return to the debate
Dear Mr. Monckton,
A couple of months ago you entered into a debate with me on wattsupwiththat.com (See "Update on the Monckton-Hadfield debate" - http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/02/07/update-on-the-monckton-hadfield-d…) about alleged errors in your public lectures - allegations that I made in a series of videos on my YouTube channel "Potholer54". But as soon as I presented…
gregladen | March 23, 2012Skeptically Speaking 156:
This week, we're experiencing the power of stories to communicate science. Join us for Beyond 42: How Science Can Use Stories to Explain Life, the Universe and Everything. This event, recorded live in Edmonton, features Scientific American Blog Editor Bora Zivkovic, and a fantastic cast of scientists telling moving stories that communicate the wonder of science and discovery.
There is no live show this week. The podcast will be available to download at 9 pm MT on Friday, March 23.
Details here.
gregladen | March 23, 2012
If you are a birder and you are going on Spring Break (from the US), don't forget that there are birds where you are going. And, probably, there are bird books that cover your destination.
One of the really cool things about North American birding is that when you do go down to tye Yucatan, Caribbean, or Central America you'll see birds that are migratory and familiar, but in their other home (but just on their way back). They'll be surprised to see you!
I just got a copy of Birds of Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire, though I've got no personal travel plans for Aruba and environs at the moment…