gregladen | October 18, 2010... for the truly ungodly time of 9:00 AM Central Time to listen to Air America's "The Voice of Minnesota" Atheist Talk Radio Show on KTNF AM 950.
Ira Flatow (photo)
aDNA (that's "art-DNA") artist and sciJournalist Lynn Fellman and I will have a conversation with Ira Flatow of Talk of the Nation's Science Friday about science communication, media, and the role of media.
The idea for having this conversation originated with the recent news of changes in the support available for Ira Flatow's show. To get the latest information about this (and to learn how we all overreacted to the scary…
gregladen | October 18, 2010We have been watching the Atlantic but ignoring the rest of the tropical storm world, mainly because that (the Pacific storms) is not an area of interest or experience for me. But you should know about this:
The strongest cyclone in years to buffet the Philippines knocked out communications and power as residents took shelter Monday, while flooding in Vietnam swept away a bus and 20 of its passengers, including a girl pulled from her mother's grasp by the raging waters.
npr
gregladen | October 17, 2010A mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus) killed a human (Homo sapiens) in Washington. The human hiker was gored in the leg on Klahhane Ridge in Olympic National Park. The goat, previously identified as an aggressive wild animal, was summarily executed by park rangers. Previously, rangers had tried to put the goat off humans by throwing bean bags and rocks at it.
There are about 300 299 mountain goats in Olympic National Park.
source
gregladen | October 17, 2010This is astonishing. An organization called "Project Prevention" led by a person by the name of Barbara Harris is offering money, which she openly admits to be bribes, to UK addicts who will submit to sterilization.
This comes after some 3,500 Americans were previously paid to not have children. The BBC report is here.
Founder Barbara Harris' bio from the Project Prevention web site:
Director and Founder- Barbara Harris: Former foster parent, PTA member, founded interracial organization in 1992, actively recruits foster parents, adoptive parent, author of assembly Bill 2614 CA, speaker…
gregladen | October 17, 2010The podcast of Desiree Schell's interviews with me (recorded) and Cordelia Fine (author of Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference) ... is now available here.
Check it out!
gregladen | October 15, 2010We speak with academic psychologist Dr. Cordelia Fine. Her new book, Delusions Of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference, challenges the assumption that gender roles are wired into our brains, and shows us how ubiquitous cultural stereotypes are mistaken for actual fact.
and
On "Everything You Know is Sort Of Wrong," Greg Laden asks if modern hobbies are an evolutionary consequence of prehistoric gender roles.
Details here
gregladen | October 13, 2010This video shows how to dress for South Pole weather conditions during the winter (down to -100ºF). Filmed in the library of the Amundsen Scott South Pole Station during winter 2010.
hat tip: Elle
gregladen | October 13, 2010 I dare you to tell me that this is not an argument for stricter control over access to firearms:
The identities of the two ninth-grade students found dead in a Lakeland park were released Wednesday, and authorities said they were both shot in what appears to be a case involving suicide.
...
Deputies found the two Tuesday evening "on the ground with apparent gunshot wounds," the sheriff said in a news release. Deputies recovered "a long-barreled weapon" near one of the bodies, he said.
strib
Here's the facebook page related to their death.
gregladen | October 13, 2010I was under the impression that "Reason" magazine was a libertarian neocon climate denialist rag. I could be wrong, but that's what I thought. I was also under the impression that JREF was pro-science and at this point had gotten beyond the whole "let's remain skeptical about global warming" thaing, especially since Randi stepped in it a while back and accidentally forgot that only paid-off or delusional scientists denied AGW. But now we find the JREF site pushing Reason magaazine in a post on their site.
Someone please help me understand what I'm seeing here.
gregladen | October 13, 2010This should come as a surprise to no one. Byron Williams, known as the "Highway Shooter" for his 12 minutres shootout with CHIPS officers earlier this year, described the connection between Glenn Beck and his activities to a John Hamilton of Media Matters.
... Williams details what he saw as an elaborate global conspiracy [and points to] specific broadcasts of Beck's show for information on the conspiracy he describes. ... Beck's show provided "information on the conspiracy theory that drove him over the edge: an intricate plot involving Barack Obama, philanthropist George Soros, a…
gregladen | October 12, 2010This Friday's Skeptically Speaking will feature ...
... academic psychologist Dr. Cordelia Fine. Her new book, Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference, challenges the assumption that gender roles are wired into our brains, and shows us how ubiquitous cultural stereotypes are mistaken for actual fact.
That will be a life discussion with Desiree Schell.
Also, this Friday's edition of Skeptically Speaking will have the latest "Everything You Know is Sort of Wrong" in which Greg Laden (whoever the heck that is) asks if modern hobbies are an evolutionary…
gregladen | October 12, 2010Or, when the hunting season is closed, watch teh game (the guys), or when there are no sales, admire each other's shoes (the gals)?
This is, of course, a parody of the sociobiological, or in modern parlance, the "evolutionary psychology" argument linking behaviors that evolved in our species during the long slog known as The Pleistocene with today's behavior in the modern predator-free food-rich world. And, it is a very sound argument. If, by "sound" you mean "sounds good unless you listen really hard."
I list this argument among the falsehoods, but really, this is a category of argument…
gregladen | October 12, 2010
Here is an article on the original study form Sociological Inquiry, which I've not read and about which I have no comment other than that it is cool if it annoyed Fox New.