gregladen | January 7, 2011I don't often point people to online game-like interactive thingies, but this one has my endorsement. Give yourself a few minutes to watch the process. It can be gruesome:
Personas is a component of the Metropath(ologies) exhibit, recently on display at the MIT Museum by the Sociable Media Group from the MIT Media Lab (Please contact us if you want to show it next!). It uses sophisticated natural language processing and the Internet to create a data portrait of one's aggregated online identity. In short, Personas shows you how the Internet sees you.
Click here to get started.
If it is…
gregladen | January 7, 2011Over the last few days, there have been several reports of mass die-offs of birds, and one report of a fish die-off. These events have been linked, via suggestion but not evidence, to hail, lightning, fireworks, aircraft, aliens, each other, poison gases, and even pockets of oxygen free air. Many have suggested that there may be a cover up. What is the explanation for so many highly unlikely events happening in such a short time period?
The answer may astound you:
Nothing.
According to available records, close to a hundred mass die-offs of birds occur each year in the US. The recent…
gregladen | January 7, 2011The local station ran a "good question" piece (where they address some question they deem as good) to ask: "Is it OK to edit a classic" but they really were speaking of "is it OK to take the N-word out of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (and, as one proposal goes, replace it with the word "slave.")
I would love to know what you think. The web page with this piece has a number of comments already. Here's a sampling, labeled by me in Categories of Complaint:
The reference to arbitrary overarching roolz that always apply to everything:
No, it's not ever OK to edit a classic.
The…
gregladen | January 6, 2011It is difficult to imagine how point mutations, a large number of which are neutral, a certain number of which are deleterious, and a tiny number of which are fitness-enhancing, can add up to the sorts of evolutionary diversity and adaptive elegance we see in real life. However, there are only two possible explanations for what we see in nature: 1) Evolution happened more or less as we think it did or 2) God created life and made it look exactly like evolution happened. Take your pick. I'm betting on number 1.
People will get mad at me for suggesting that it is hard to figure how all this…
gregladen | January 6, 2011This was just across the river from me:
It looks like this may have stopped a local crime wave of armed robberies in the area. More inf here.
In contrast, when this couple was burglarized, there was nothing they could have done to stop it:
A 28-year-old man is facing burglary charges after police say he stole items from the home of an elderly couple who had recently passed away.
Jason Williams, of Newport, Minn., is accused of stealing jewelry, a box of photo lockets of WWI-era pictures and two watches with the couple's initials engraved in them on New Year's Eve. Police say the…
gregladen | January 5, 2011Statistics and various studies show that yes, it might, but they also show that having a gun in the home is also potentially very dangerous, so the net aggregate outcome (and economists have strong armed us into thinking that net aggregate outcomes are the only criteria that are acceptable, bless their pointy heads) of having a gun in the home is that someone in your home is more likely to be shot and possibly killed than that the gun will be used to thwart a home invasion.
But enough about facts, let's look at two very current anecdotal cases and argue about them for a while:
Thwarting a…
gregladen | January 4, 2011Ken Miller and Henry Morris answer questions from the audience.
Since these videos are scattered across the blog, I'll put them all here. The final one is at the bottom.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Thanks to the NCSE
gregladen | January 4, 2011For purely demographic reasons, more Californians read this blog than people from any other US state (with New York a close second). So I know that it will matter at least a little bit if I endorse my friend, Miles Kurland for member of the California Democratic Party Central Committee.
This is from Miles' facebook page:
If you wish that the Democratic party could be more principled, more progressive, more effective than we commonly find it to be, you have a rare opportunity to participate in an election that will help determine the direction of the Democratic party in California.
Every…
gregladen | January 4, 2011In the renowned yet obscure documentary, "Dead Birds," watchful men in a traditional community in Highland Papua New Guinea use the sudden flight of birds as a clue to the possible encroachment of a hidden enemy bent on blood revenge. In mines, canaries signal air too poisoned to breath by dying faster than affected humans. And in Arkansas, apparently, the sudden death of thousands of blackbirds are used to indicate the nefarious activities of aliens from another planet.
These unexplained (or actually, over explained) instances of blackbird death, one a few days ago in Arkansas and one…
gregladen | January 4, 2011Enjoy this recent post on "How does one prove astrology?"
...The meat of Curtis' comment appears to be a way to test astrology, or at least one aspect of it. My problem with the suggestion is the same that I've had with the concept of astrology as a whole -- it depends on a foundation that is simply not there.
Have you ever been to Zzyzx Road, in the Mojave Desert? Carr2d2 has an excellent post on early 20th century woo and politics: Adventures of the Mind.
2010 space odyssey never did happen. But it's not too late to engage in the conversation. You just have to know how to talk like…
gregladen | January 4, 2011I went out with a friend. We were both between relationships, and we both knew somehow that this was a date though it was never called a date. And we had a perfectly good time: Good food, good conversation, good drinks. She drove.
When it came time to go home, she drove me to my house in my urban neighborhood and parked on the street near my house. As we were saying our good-byes, she enigmatically unhooked her seat belt. I wondered why. Then, I discovered that she wanted the freedom of movement to lean across the console and give me a kiss. It was a good kiss. It was actually a…
gregladen | January 3, 2011The Podcast from last Sunday's show is now on line. Go here and find "download now" and click that.
gregladen | January 3, 2011According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, the developers building the new Noah's Ark museum in Kentucky are asking for the gummit to build 'em a road to the place. The State Transportation Cabinet, as they call it there, is officially stating that no commitments have been made, which I'm sure means, "The deal's done and we'z gonna build that road before you ask about it again" or words to that effect.
This is not that unusual or abnormal, actually. State transportation departments normally make road improvements when new things are built. Why, in Kentucky, the state spent 45 million…
gregladen | January 3, 2011The other day, a science teacher remarked that a student who had previously declared herself to be a creationist, and who's parents had previously expressed concern over the teaching of evolution, was suddenly all talky-talky and engaging the teacher in more or less polite and friendly discussion about the topic, coming to visit the teacher outside of class and everything.
I thought at the time, "That's unusual. But it does happen."
What I wasn't thinking is that a recent court decision supports the idea of a teacher who teaches evolution to christians, who does not cave when the…
gregladen | January 3, 2011A discussion of misconceptions in evolution ... about missing links, or great chains of being, or teleology (the idea that evolution is goal-directed) has got to be the most fun you can have with your pants on. Pursuant to this, let's sharpen and clarify our evolutionary theory mojo by considering the concept of "mosaic evolution" ... what is it, and what isn't it?
Of course, the concept of mosaic evolution, meant to clarify how evolution works, is often itself misunderstood. From Wikipedia:
"Mosaic Evolution is the concept that major evolutionary changes tend to take place in stages, not…
gregladen | January 2, 2011Should the Skepchicks start reproducing as soon, and as quickly, as possible? I say yes. What do you think?
Thank you Diandra for making the link between the current Republican effort to "democratize" science and Arnie Proxmire and his Golden Fleece award. You are absolutely correct.
gregladen | January 2, 2011My first bird of 2011 was a crow, so I'll move right along to my second bird which was a hawk, presumably a red tail. That does not count birds I could hear but not see. Register your first bird here at 104Birds.
Is there a sustainable aquaculture? Maybe. It might involve Vietnamese catfish.
Check out these excellent photographs of Angry Birds. Not the video game, the actual birds. Angry.
Holy crap jesus christ on a stick, look at this:
Whoa. That was a sperm whale poking around at an oil rig. HT Kevin
Panda's Thumb asks, Are they fossils of Ediacaran metazoa?
gregladen | January 2, 2011But that isn't always how it goes.
On today's radio show, Steve Borsch was talking about the way in which social networking (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) is playing out -- as an extension of social interaction more than as a new form of shopping mall or marketing environment -- and an observation I made a couple of weeks ago during the Vikings game congealed like mucus in the back of your throat when you are getting over a cold (See Pandemonium Looms in Minneapolis). So, since I have a blog, I thought I'd hack it up for you.
Chris Kluwe is the beloved kicker for the Vikings. I don't really…