gregladen | July 28, 2010Sheena Iyengar studies how we make choices -- and how we feel about the choices we make. At TEDGlobal, she talks about both trivial choices (Coke v. Pepsi) and profound ones, and shares her groundbreaking research that has uncovered some surprising attitudes about our decisions.
gregladen | July 28, 2010
The Triassic is old. This book is new. That is a hard to beat combination.
Let's see ... The Triassic is about here:
(You can also look it up in this PDF file supplied by the USGS.
It is situated between two major extinction events, and is especially interesting because it is during this period that modern day ecological systems and major animal groups took a recognizable form. The preceding Permian, if contrasted with modern day, would form a very stark contrast while the Triassic would be at least somewhat more recognizable.
But of course the Triassic was in many ways distinct,…
gregladen | July 27, 2010Note: On the Intertubes, he word "strike" and "scienceblogs" now occurs randomly in relation to topic at hand rather than in connection with Pepsico. Such as "Lightning Strike" and "Hunger Strike" and "doesn't strike me as shocking"
Note: When you are a single parent, it's pretty much baby OR blogging. I've been a single parent for several days, but getting back to the whole "village raises the child" thing shortly.
gregladen | July 27, 2010Everybody should do this:
Dear Target,
What's $2183.70 to a big company like you, beloved by millions of shoppers throughout the land, with sales of $63.4 billion during 2009? Not much, but it's what my little family of three spent at your stores in 2009 and 2010, up to now. I know you don't need me anymore. After all, your 2009 results "reflect the strongest retail segment profit in [your] history".
It's been grand, or, dare I say "Super", but I think it's time we see other people....
... Read the rest here.
gregladen | July 27, 2010Details on the Barbie Video Girl Doll:
Your Barbie Video Girl doll is a real working video camera! With Video Girl, it's fun and easy to make your own movies. Here's how it works: her necklace is really a video camera lens! Lift her hood and you'll see a color LCD screen and three easy-to-use controls. The screen lets you see what you shoot! With just the push of a button, you can record any video you want, and then play it back instantly. You can also plug Video Girl into your computer and download your movies, then watch and share them with your friends! Includes doll, USB 2.0 cord. Barbie…
gregladen | July 27, 2010Break down the oil slick, keep it off the shores: that's grounds for pumping toxic dispersant into the Gulf, say clean-up overseers. Susan Shaw shows evidence it's sparing some beaches only at devastating cost to the health of the deep sea.
gregladen | July 27, 2010I've significantly expanded the search domain (or is that range?) of the Evolution ... not just a theory anymore Skeptical Search Engine. Click here to give it a try. Look up stuff like "ghost" and "vaccine" and "fluoride" and see what you get. Let me know if you think I'm missing any important sites.
gregladen | July 27, 2010Can you imagine Stephen Jay Gould recast as a tall and lanky Jesuit priest who has an interest in evolution? Can you imagine someone actually attempting the famous experiment of getting a large number of chimpanzees at keyboards to see if you can get any Shakespeare? Eventually? (The experiment is enhanced with the use of carefully dispensed M&M's.) Did you ever wonder, if a chimpanzee did make the switch to human levels of intelligence (by training, drugs, surgery, whatever) what kind of scotch if would prefer?
Normand de Ratour is the main character of three novels written by my…
gregladen | July 27, 2010Or, more accurately, it is the rubber-meets the road part of the broader abuse known as religion.
OREGON CITY -- A Beavercreek couple who left their infant daughter's fate to God rather than seek medical treatment for a mass that grew over her left eye will face charges of first-degree criminal mistreatment.
Prosecutors revealed Thursday during a custody hearing that a grand jury has indicted Timothy and Rebecca Wyland, members of Oregon City's Followers of Christ church.
more, details
gregladen | July 27, 2010If the restaurant was being forced closed by the city making dumb tax-related decisions and the public works department acting almost vindictively against a certain neighborhood, as was the case when JP's closed, I'd be pissed. If it was a restaurant that was really trying to do well but failed because of the economy or because people did not appreciate it, I'd be unhappy. If it was a restaurant that served as the only anchor in a neighborhood at an uncertain tipping point, I'd be concerned. But none of those things are true.
This is the restaurant where a small handful of friendships formed…
gregladen | July 26, 2010Unless they are stopped which, frankly, does not seem very likely.
The Livingston Parish School Board, in Louisiana, is poised to enthusiastically support the introduction of creationism into the school curriculum as a requirement, and possibly even toss out evolution. You people in Louisiana are truly a bunch of morans*. You do know that, right?
Barbara Forrest, author of Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design, has written a letter that you may want to read about the school board's intentions, and the NCSE has a detailed press report here.
Here's the thing that is so…
gregladen | July 25, 2010What matters is if he gets an obscene exit deal which essentially rewards him for overseeing the destruction of the Gulf of Fucking Mexico, or if he is tossed out on his ear and disgraced. I don't expect BP to do the right thing, but they will apparently do something soon.
gregladen | July 25, 2010Did you know that it is a fallacy that poor people have more babies than other people? I'll be discussing this topic next Friday at 6PM Mountain Time on Skeptically Speaking Talk Radio, with Desiree Schell, in the next installment of "Everything You Know is Sort of Wrong" (This is part of the Falsehoods discussion.)
Speaking of fear, Barry Glassner, author of The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things, will be the main (and live) guest on Friday's show. I'm looking forward to that.
Also, last friday's show on The Science of Sleep with Kimberly Cote is now up in…
gregladen | July 23, 2010Wanted: A Firefox plugin that automatically scrolls pre-selected web pages down a certain distance to automatically cover the ubiquitous banner ad. It could be called "curtains."
gregladen | July 23, 2010The whole Pepsi maneno is over, and we are moving on. But I thought you'd like to see this site just because it is so unbelievably ugly. Be careful. The first time I opened this web page up on one of those old fashioned CRT monitors, the glass broke.
gregladen | July 23, 2010And that time may be now.
There is a beer (a Belgian ale to be exact) which costs over US$700 a bottle. It is 55 proof and looks like this:
Yes folks, that is a bottle of beer embedded in an actual taxidermied squirrel.
Seems funny, certainly strange to look at, but when I think about it, this is really one of the most demented things I've seen in a long time. A bottle of beer should never cost hundreds of dollars, and it should never be bottled in a taxidermied rodent. The people who have done this are sick and need to be rounded up and institutionalized before they have any more…
gregladen | July 23, 2010There are several characteristics that make up a field guide. It should be "pocket size" (and birders have huge pockets, so this may not be as much of a restriction as it sounds). It should cover the geographical region in which you are watching the birds, although in some remote areas of the world you may not have this luxury. During my years working in Zaire, we had only a Southern African bird guide, and made due. And the book should be of the right kind and level for your needs.
By level, I mean beginner or advanced. Sadly, most bird book publishers assume that there is a gene for…