I assume he means Linux ...

It is very likely that Sarah Palin's political career will end in a few hours from now. Sarah Palin's Gubermail, the email that was sent or received from her office during her aborted term as Governor of Alaska, will be release to the public any minute now. Some news agencies such as the Washington Post have set up web sites to have readers sift through the trove of trouble and find what they may. Even a smart and effective, but otherwise boring and well behaved politician will have Wieners of some sort in his or her email. Sarah is a dumbass with questionable family relationships.…

Apropos Linux in Exile losing his Linux System to a Predatory Windows Install the other day (see Windows killed my laptop, again) I've been thinking about and beginning to do something about cleaning house. See below for my latest Windows mini-horror story (not as bad as LIE's). But first, a word about Cthulhu. Who lives in my blog cave. I have three computers sitting here in the blog cave, two of which I use on a regular basis. The Windows computer is used at this time only for scanning slides because the software that comes with the scanner for Windows is convenient and nice and the…

Netroots Nation is coming up in a few days, and there will be a Science Policy panel that will include scienceblogger Joshua Rosenau (representing the NCSE), John Abraham (St. Thomas), Darlene avalier (Science Cheerleader), Heidi Cullen (Climate Central) and Rick Loverd (Summet on Science). Details are here. The panel itself is on June 17th. This is the science denialism panel from a previous Networks Nation:

Please join Abbi Allan and me at the black Dog Cafe next Tuesday. Art and Human Evolution - June 14, 2011 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Are humans the only creatures who create art? At what point in human evolution did artistic creations become separate from tools, become art for arts' sake? What in us is so driven to create? Dr. Greg Laden is a biological anthropologist who has done research in human evolution as well as eco-tourism in South Africa. In his own words: "I think of myself as a biologist who focuses on humans (past and present) and who uses archaeology as one of the tools of the trade…

This is not an Onion story, this is for real. Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign imploded Thursday afternoon with virtually his entire senior staff leaving en masse, according to multiple sources familiar with the moves. "When the campaign and the candidate disagree on the path, they've got to part ways," said Rick Tyler a longtime Gingrich spokesman who was among those who left the campaign today. It all happened with the last few years ago. The differences seem to be mainly in how serious Gingrich is in running a campaign. Campaign staff were miffed when a disastrous launch was…

Designer Jessi Arrington packed nothing for TED but 7 pairs of undies, buying the rest of her clothes in thrift stores around LA. It's a meditation on conscious consumption -- wrapped in a rainbow of color and creativity.

The Minnesota Zoo has been involved in a Mexican Gray Wolf breeding and reintroduction program for some time now. Last I checked, it was not going well .... they were not having mush success in getting the wolves to produce offspring. I think they had some puppies in 2003, but I'm not sure of their status. The problem with at least some of their wolves is that they were born and raised in captivity. The "cultural" side of the reproductive process had been pruned from their lineage, so they kinda-sorta did things vaguely related to wolf-sex but that wasn't enough. Anyway, yesterday one of…

There is no chance that there is any connection between the release of fossil carbon into the atmosphere, no chance, for instance that severe weather is increased because of global warming. Don't give it a second thought. The following video proves that you have nothing to worry about:

"I gotta make a choice and go with the intelligent woman who's every bit as attractive" That's what Michele Bachmann's new high-powered advisor, Ed Rollins told Politico the other day. This is perfect. We are being asked, by the Bachmann campaign, to chose between Bachmann and Palin using the following decision chain: 1) Is the candidate attractive? (Yes/No) ...2a) If No, reject candidate. ...2b) If Yes: Is the candidate intelligent? ......3a) If no, reject candidate. ......3b) If yes, vote for candidate. And this is supposed to lead us to select Michel Bachmann over Sarah Palin? And that…

Don't forget to include Global Water Dances on your calendar. That date would be June 25th, 2011. For those of you in the Twin Cities, it is happening at the Stone Arch Bridge. There are about fifty locations world wide. Find your nearest event here. Check out the details here. And now, your depressing yet important water fact for the day: Bad water kills 1.4 million children every year.* Videos of the Global Water Dances project: SPREAD THE WORD!

In terms of radiation fallout Fukushima is said to be approaching Chernobyl by at least certain measures, and the potential for Fukushima to be worse in terms of total radioactive material released is very real. However, the two disasters really can't be compared sensibly because the circumstances of release, and the potential effects, are very different. It has become increasingly clear that the authorities involved in the initial construction of the plant should have considered the Tsunami risk as a serious factor, and this is not just because the Tsunami actually happened. The…

I've recently reviewed bird or nature books for some fairly exotic places (see this for all the reviews) including the Antarctic and the West Indies. Now, I have a book on the birds of one of the most exotic places ever: New Jersey! OK, if you are from New York like I am, you know that was a joke. In all seriousness, New Jersey is an excellent place to go to see wildlife and I'm not talking about Atlantic City. New Jersey has some of the largest swamps and marshes around, an extensive shoreline, and extensive pine barrens. Why, there are even mountains. The state, small and flattish…

Renowned paleontologist Jack Horner has spent his career trying to reconstruct a dinosaur. He's found fossils with extraordinarily well-preserved blood vessels and soft tissues, but never intact DNA. So, in a new approach, he's taking living descendants of the dinosaur (chickens) and genetically engineering them to reactivate ancestral traits -- including teeth, tails, and even hands -- to make a "Chickenosaurus".

Ed Brayton, known to many of you as the Dispatches from the Culture Wars blogger, as well as co-founder of Michigan Citizens for Science and The Panda's Thumb, will be on Atheist Talk Radio this coming Sunday. Mike Haubrich, Ed and I will chat about the very current, often disturbing, and occasionally entertaining subject of Crazy Preachers. Like Harold Camping for example. We may also touch on other currently in the news individuals who don't happen to be preachers. Perhaps we'll ring some bells and warn some Brits! Details are here. I hope you can join us. Here's Ed on Rachel Maddow…

I have four or five things for you. First off, Joel Rosenberg is dead. He wrote "Everything You Need to Know About (Legally) Carrying a Handgun in Minnesota" and ran the web site "Jew with a gun." I've blogged about him before. Go have a look and pay special attention to the comments The back story, with a few margaritas and the right company, could be commercial. He donated his organs. In an entirely different matter, Jeb Baugh tells me that Lamar White has put together a blog post that provides a detailed overview and analysis of the Louisiana Family Forum's finances. Say that five…

It could be a power station, or a biological containment, or a garage or even a weapon. Or, it could be .... ... yet another demonstration that there really are people out there who are not merely movie characterizations of zany paranoid conspiracy theorists, but rather, the real thing. And they have video cameras and know how to use them.

Context, details and discussion are here: PZ MYERS VS ISLAMISTS ON EMBRYOLOGY

I'm not sure why colonial Americans thought they could succeed at blowing off the British to make their own country or countries, but that they needed to do something was obvious to a lot of people during the middle of the 18th century. In the end, it would turn out that the American Revolution was a little like a lot of other things that have happened in history (and prehistory): Very unlikely to have come out the way it did, because at so many junctures something quirky or unlikely happened, and shaped the course of events significantly. It might have been inevitable that the British…