gregladen | November 14, 2011This is obviously a fake. Can't be real:
It is not really a fake NASA video. It comes from here.
gregladen | November 13, 2011There are thirteen canary islands. But there are about to be fourteen. Well, actually, there's probably more than 13 as these island chains usually have a few extra rocks sticking up that people aren't sure about including in the final count. The point is, there is a volcano erupting under the sea in the Canary Island chain and the top of the volcano is about 70 meters from the surface of the sea according to some reports.
There has been concern about the volcanic activity, and the associated earthquakes in the region, and there is even a threat of tsunami. A small volcanic disaster…
gregladen | November 13, 2011The British Medical Journal has published an editorial calling for a Parliamentary investigation realted to Andrew Wakefield's dishonesty:
It is now more than 18 months since the UK's General Medical Council found Andrew Wakefield guilty of dishonesty and other serious professional misconduct; and it is nearly a year since the BMJ concluded that his now retracted Lancet paper linking the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine with autism and bowel disease was an "elaborate fraud." At that time, January 2011, we called on Wakefield's former employer, University College London (UCL), to…
gregladen | November 13, 2011Below is a letter from the Amerian Academy of Pediatrics to the President of Delta Airlines. Apparently, Delta Airlines has decided to continue to show the video in question.
Dear Mr. Anderson,
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) objects to the paid advertisement/public service message from the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) being shown throughout the month of November on Delta's in-flight programming. The ad urges viewers to become informed about influenza and how to stay well during the flu season without resorting to the influenza vaccine.
While hand washing and covering…
gregladen | November 12, 2011How can we begin to understand the way the brain works? The same way we begin to understand a city: by making a map. In this visually stunning talk, Allan Jones shows how his team is mapping which genes are turned on in each tiny region, and how it all connects up.
gregladen | November 12, 2011Face it. Half the time ... most of the time, really ... you use your Peterson (or some other favorite "field guide") as a checklist. You see a bird and you pretty much know in your head what it is, but you need to look it up to see what the three or four similar ducks or woodpeckers or whatever are in your area in order to be sure that it is a Common Merganser or a Red Headed Woodpecker or whatever. All you need is a basic picture (drawing preferred for this sort of thing) the names of the birds and basic range maps.
That is the role played by the Princeton Illustrated Checklists; These…
gregladen | November 11, 2011This refers to a subspecies of "Black Rhino" also known as the "browsing rhino."
The Western Black Rhino of Africa was declared officially extinct Thursday by a leading conservation group.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature said that two other subspecies of rhinoceros were close to meeting the same fate.
The Northern White Rhino of central Africa is now "possibly extinct" in the wild and the Javan Rhino "probably extinct" in Vietnam, after poachers killed the last animal there in 2010.
A small but declining population survives on the Indonesian island of Java.
msnbc
Black…
gregladen | November 11, 2011How are birds related to dinosaurs, crocodiles, and pterosaurs? Where do birds live, and not live? How many bird species are there, and how many actual birds, and how does this vary across the glob? What about endemics?; Where ate the most local species found? Mike Unwin's The Atlas of Birds: Diversity, Behavior, and Conservation covers this and more in a richly illustrated detailed global survey of Aves.
This new and very impressive, and highly accessible volume covers bird biogeography with an overview of counts and diversity followed by a continent-by-continent review, to give you an idea…
gregladen | November 11, 2011Here's the talk:
And here's the web site.
Eventually, there will probably be a book.
gregladen | November 11, 2011Check it out:
This is more coyote activity than usual for these parts. They are fairly common generally. The solution? Bring in wolves!
gregladen | November 10, 2011Skeptically Speaking:
This week, we're looking at what happens when a bedrock scientific theory goes up for debate in the contentious realm of politics. We'll speak to Dr. Eugenie Scott, Executive Director, and Steven Newton, Programs and Policy Director, at the National Center for Science Education, about evolution as a political issue. And on the podcast, anthropologist and blogger Greg Laden analyzes the fallout from the so-called "climategate" emails.
We record live with Eugenie Scott and Steven Newton on Sunday, November 13 at 6 pm MT. The podcast will be available to download at 9 pm MT…
gregladen | November 10, 2011Birds don't live in nests. They make nests for specific purposes, use them for that purpose, then abandon them. Or, sometimes they don't abandon them, but rather add on and use them again and again, but in between they don't live in or on them. Well, sometimes they hang out on them a lot. And not all nests are for putting their eggs in. In fact, sometimes a nest is more of a symbol of quality and overall bird sexiness than it is a place to keep the chicks. As it were. Oh, and sometimes they live in the nests, now that I think about it ... It's complicated.
But there is a book that…
gregladen | November 9, 2011That you get to listen to the XFactor contestants and then Vote For LeRoy Bell! On in five minutes central time and in the East.
gregladen | November 8, 2011It's hard to round up a bunch of cowboys!
(I assume everybody in Idaho is a cowboy, right??!!??)
Anyway, great job, guys!
gregladen | November 8, 2011Some people have been complaining about LeRoy and I want to make clear why they are wrong to do so. This is not a subtle or nuanced situation at all. People with the complaint to which I refer are embarrassing themselves. So this missive is just as much in support of LeRoy as it is to help those unfortunate individuals who are not quite up to speed in the logic department.
Let me 'splain. During the XFactor singing contest show last week, there was this big-ass extravaganza song, where all the singers came out at the same time and sang a big song and there were big lights on the big stage…