gregladen | January 16, 2012Here is a press release that will be distributed shortly:
NCSE TACKLES CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL
A new initiative in the struggle for quality science education
OAKLAND, CA January 16, 2012
Science education is under attack--again.
This time it's under attack by climate change deniers, who ignore a mountain of evidence gathered over the last fifty years that the planet is warming and that humans are largely responsible. These deniers attempt to sabotage science education with fringe ideas, pseudoscience, and outright lies.
But the National Center for Science Education won't let 'em get away with…
gregladen | January 16, 2012It is no longer the case that science teachers and concerned parents only need to worry about creationists invading US classrooms, via personal intrusion (by parents, students, or creationist teachers) or by legislation or regulation. Increasingly climate change denialism is being shoved into science classes by the usual nefarious forces.
This is not really new. "Academic Freedom" bills in many states over the last decade or so were introduced to try to force college professors to shut up about climate change. In the college setting, I've had about the same level of resistance to global…
gregladen | January 16, 2012According to the examiner:
In a surprise move today, Representative Eric Cantor(R-VA) announced that he will stop all action on SOPA, effectively killing the bill. This move was most likely due to several things. One of those things is that SOPA and PIPA met huge online protest against the bills. Another reason would be that the White House threatened to veto the bill if it had passed. .
PIPA, the Senate Version is still in play, however.
gregladen | January 16, 2012Research using lab rats or mice funded by the NIH is regulated by a set of guidelines that have very recently been upgraded. Mother rats and mice with litters are now recommended to have more room than current guidelines require. The new guidelines are not hard and fast rules, but researchers are concerned that not following these guidelines would jeopardize funding, and it appears from my reading of them that the new cage size guidelines are minimum requirements that must be met.
The main difference that is causing some discussion about the new guidelines is that cages that hold females…
gregladen | January 15, 2012Twitter is telling me that Phobos Grunt is going to do its mostly burning up in the Earth's Atmosphere thing RIGHT NOW. Or it just did. Or really really soon.
#PhobosGrunt is the hashtag.
If you have an aluminum foil hat, now would be a good time to put it on.
That is all.
---------------------------------------------------
b0yle Alan Boyle
MT @PhG_Reentry: RT @timmermansr: STRATCOM claiming #PhobosGrunt reentered, crashed in Pacific in last few minutes. Unconfirmed by Russians
_VanillaBlues Alina Razzouk
#PhobosGrunt may have crashed in the Pacific Ocean according to the US Strategic…
gregladen | January 15, 2012... with Science! And she also talks about fishing, the size of government, Republicans, Obama, government reform And lies, damn lies.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Obviously this is an Obama plot to take away our guns.
gregladen | January 14, 2012Below the fold because it is 20 pixels too wide.
The Colbert Report Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
gregladen | January 14, 2012UPDATE: With the last orbital elements decay prediction is now january 15, 2012 at 18h27 UTC +/-4h
Thirteen tons of space ship once destine for the planet Mars is starting to lose altitude, and may drop into the thicker layer of the atmosphere and (mostly) burn up Sunday (story at bbc). The Russian space agency estimates that about 200 kilograms will make it to the ground. It is impossible to predict this far in advance where any of that might fall.
You can track Phobos-Grunt here, but that tracking tool does not give you the location of the object; It shows you where it should be based on…
gregladen | January 13, 2012The Research Blogging Editor's Selectionies are out! Hosted by Krystal D'Costa, this award is roughly similar to the Academy Awards, but for blog posts about peer reviewed research. And I won one!!!
My post "A word or two about tobacco, and some neat and new research." It was said of this post "At Greg Laden's blog, readers are treated to a bit of botany related to tobacco and we learn that physical evidence has been found linking the Maya to tobacco use."
I am truly humbled.
Four other posts won the same award. From Krystal's post:
Is there a relationship between language density…
gregladen | January 13, 2012I'm happy to be introducing this Sunday's guest speaker at the Minnesota Atheists meeting.
Shawn Otto, author of Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America, will speak about his book and related matters at about 2:00. The event is at the Southdale Library. Details here.
I believe he'll have a few copies of his book and he's usually good for a signature!
gregladen | January 12, 2012Watch this then get to work.
This bill is up for consideration now. Do something:
Call the Senate switchboard at 202-224-3121
Ask for your Senators and make your voice heard
Ask your friends to call too
Keep calling every week until this important bill passes
Report your call here
Thanks Al Franken for introducing this bill.
gregladen | January 12, 2012According to one study, yes.
Using a technique called gravitational microlensing, an international team found a handful of exoplanets that imply the existence of billions more.
The findings were released at the 219th American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting, alongside reports of the smallest "exoplanets" ever discovered.
Gravitational microlensing is a method that uses the gravity of a far-flung star to amplify the light from even more distant stars that have planets.
Astronomers used a number of relatively small telescopes that make up the Microlensing Network for the Detection of Small…
gregladen | January 11, 2012... outside our solar system.
Kepler has discoverd theree planets around the star KOI-961, and they are a mere 0.78, 0.73 and 0.57 times the radius of Earth, rocky like the earth, but alas, they are too close to the star so there can't be any liquid water on them. But still, there are hardly any rocky exoplanets known, and the small ones are hard to find.
And the possibility of life being on them is, well, just have a look:
Here's the NASA press release on this new finding.
gregladen | January 11, 2012Imagine a "primordial soup" on some planet somewhere from which there occasionally emerges a thing that could locomote, and as it locomoted around it would scrape up some of the dust that lay around on the planet, and occasionally eat other things that had come out of the "primordial soup" and it would thus grow. Eventually it would wear out as its molecules, put together by some chemical process of abiogenecis in the aforementioned soup, and thusly worn out, molecules broken down by ultraviolet rays from the nearby star, it would eventually stop moving and remain exposed to the elements…
gregladen | January 11, 2012Don't like Gnome 3.0 or Unity? Linux Mint 12 offers Gnome 2 like option.
The latest version of Mint channels Gnome 2.0 goodness via two different approaches: Firstly, Mint Gnome Shell Extensions add Gnome 2.0 features to the Gnome 3.0 shell. Secondly, Mint now ships with Mate, a maintenance fork of Gnome 2.0 that can co-exist with a Gnome 3.0 installation.
Details here.
gregladen | January 11, 2012Over the last few weeks I've run into a few misconceptions about tobacco, as well as some interesting news, so I thought I'd share. If you already know some of this, forgive me, not everyone else does.
First, tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum, is a member of the Solanaceae family of plants, which from a human perspective has got to be one of the most interesting plant families out there. It includes Belladonna, peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes. So, from this one family of plants, you can kill your neighbor, have a nice meal, and a smoke a cigar afterward.
Tobacco is a Native American cultivar.…
gregladen | January 11, 2012My analysis of the New Hampshire Primary results is here. I summarize another interesting study regarding gun deaths and violence in the US. And you might be interested in this billboard campaign.
gregladen | January 10, 2012Sebastian Wernicke thinks every TEDTalk can be summarized in six words. At TEDxZurich, he shows how to do just that -- and less.
gregladen | January 10, 2012Those who support unfettered ownership and sales of guns say no, but they are just making that up. A recent study says yes. Check it out.