gregladen | April 18, 2010It has long been thought that there are linkages between certain viruses and the weather. The flu season is winter (in whichever hemisphere it happens to be winter in) for reasons having to do with the seasons. One early theory posited that the practices of East Asian farmers, as they tended their animals, caused waterfowl and swine and humans to share space closely enough that nasty new influenzas would emerge and spread around the world. Although that explanation for the annual seasonal flu has been dropped (if it ever really had wings... or hooves, or whatever) it is still possible…
gregladen | April 18, 2010A follow up on the earlier installment of "As the knee turns..."
.... ouch. Don't day "as the knee turns...."
In the video I showed two weeks ago, I raised my upper leg to the level at which my lower leg more or less dropped of its own accord perpendicular to the ground. I then extended my lower leg using all the abilities my quad muscles had at the time.
In the following video I do the same thing, but with the brace on, so my quads are working against the weight of the brace. In the first video, that extension was very very weak. Had there been a headwind, I would not have been able to…
gregladen | April 17, 2010Somebody is wrong on the Internet, and apparently, it's Greg Laden.
"...Greg. Don't get us wrong, we want to see the Pope (and priests) answer for what they've done,..."
We just want it done OUR way, and not your way. So please sit down and shut up.
Signed,
We'll, we're not going to say who we are, are we!
Check it out!
How do we know this web site is not sponsored by The Vatican?
gregladen | April 17, 2010Whitney Houston took a car ferry from Britain to Ireland to attend her concert, rather than flying. Barack Obama has canceled his trip to a state funeral in Poland. A very large magical snake protects a canyon in south Africa. These things are connected a lot more closely than you might think.
Eyjafjallajoekull1 is the volcano in Iceland that is making all the mess in Europe, shutting down most Western European airports. Iceland as a whole is a volcanic feature that sits atop the Mid Atlantic Ridge.
The Atlantic Ocean is a huge rift valley, in some ways similar to the famous rift…
gregladen | April 17, 2010In his first foreign trip since sex abuse scandals in Europe and the US broke, Pope Benedict has said the Church has been "wounded by its sins".
msnbc
The pope did not directly refer to the sex abuse or its cover-up, but it is clear that this is what he meant. And, clearly, the pope has it backwards. Th church is not wounded. The church is the wounder.
The President of Malta, however, has it right:
Maltese President George Abela made the first direct reference to the abuse crisis in his welcome speech at the airport.
The Republic of Malta, whose population is strongly Catholic, has no…
gregladen | April 16, 2010Obama pwns little what's his name for asking dumbest question evah.
Oliver North on How To Be a Good American (OMG!)
Djou: Playing Politics with Our Economic Recovery
And finally, .... A handful of political cartoons
gregladen | April 16, 2010It is not recommended that you trap and move squirrels. It may be illegal in your state, and since squirrels have teeth and may carry disease, it could be dangerous. But if you MUST trap a squirrel to move it, say, to a point a few blocks away, I suggest using a Havahart trap. Havahart traps can also be used to trap other animals such as mice, or larger critters, depending on the size of the trap.
The best way to trap a squirrel is to use the proper bait and a modicum of patience. Also, you must be diligent if you plan to trap the animal live. therefore, place the trap in an area where…
gregladen | April 16, 2010Well, maybe more like tidbits than rants. This is all Linux or ani-Windows stuff, so everyone else you get the clam-hand*.
First, from Linux in Exile we have a discussion of virtual desktops. Virtual desktops, to me, make a GUI computer usable. GUI computers without them suck. Linux has them. Windows does not. Shut up and go read this.
But sometimes you need to run Windows in a virtual machine (or some other thing must be run in a virtual machine). I've been playing around with this and its fun. Have a look at this.
This is a cool new Linux-ready netbook that will run all day…
gregladen | April 16, 2010There are many versions of Linux, but the two biggies seem to be Debian (on which Ubuntu and many other distributions are based) and Red Hat. Red Hat uses a commercial support model, so it is an example of a very different approach than Ubuntu. Many of the commercial applications of Linux are Red Hat. I suppose because of the support, but I'm pretty sure most VP's in charge of things would alway pick the paid over the free version just because, well, they're morons that way.
Anyhow, a fedora is a kind of hat (like Indiana Jones and Nick Danger, Third Eye wear) and the hat in Red Hat is a…
gregladen | April 16, 2010Which is true:
PZ Myers is a witless wanker who peddles pablum
or
"I shall be no friend to the appeasers" -pz myers
... kind of a false comparison. But the debate is real. This time it's
Massimo Pigliucci vs. PZ Myers
Two people that i like and admire fighting it out over an important issue. What could be more fun? The popcorn will be ready in a minute.
gregladen | April 16, 2010Bachmann's health care claims falter
Bachmann has said the new health care act will unleash a wave of new federal funding for abortion ... contrary to Bachmann's claims, the law doesn't fundamentally change federal policy on abortion ...a Bachmann spokesman has backed off her prediction...
Tea Party rally cost taxpayers nearly $14k
...Bachmann solidified her place in the national spotlight ... when she gathered thousands of Tea Party activists in front of the U.S. Capitol for a "House Call on Washington," to stop the Democrats' health care bill..... Months later, official expense reports…
gregladen | April 16, 2010What next, will we be seeing the CEO of Discovery Channel out harpooning whales?
The media conglomerate Discovery Communications used to be known for their earth-friendly offerings. But they've just paid millions to Sarah Palin to host a "nature" show, despite her decidedly anti-environmental stance: She vocally advocates for habitat-destroying oil drilling, she denies global warming is a human-caused threat, and she spearheaded a brutal wolf-slaughter program as governor of Alaska.
More details and a petition for you to sign.
gregladen | April 15, 2010UPDATE: GO HERE.
UPDATE UPDATE: I no longer have that file, because it is not the most current one. However, people who want to read their Kindle books on their Linux machine need only to use the browser-based Kindle Cloud Reader. It's pretty nice.
There is a Kindle reader application for the PC (and the Mac and the iPod touch). But not Linux. Which makes us sad because without Linux, your Kindle wouldn't even turn on.
But despite this deeply insulting unforgivable slight by Steve Bozo or whatever his name is, diligent supergeeks have solved this problem temporarily. The problem is, as…
gregladen | April 15, 2010 A federal judge in Wisconsin ruled the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional Thursday, saying the day amounts to a call for religious action.
U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb wrote that the government can no more enact laws supporting a day of prayer than it can encourage citizens to fast during Ramadan, attend a synagogue or practice magic.
"In fact, it is because the nature of prayer is so personal and can have such a powerful effect on a community that the government may not use its authority to try to influence an individual's decision whether and when to pray," Crabb wrote.
source
gregladen | April 15, 2010On the board? Officer? Opinionated member?
If so I hope you will have a look at this:
Scholarly Societies: Why Bother?
and this:
The American Astronomical Society responds to "Scholarly Societies: Why Bother?"
gregladen | April 15, 2010Videos of the so called fireball:
It's funny that it says in the CNN piece, quoting "NASA":
"Air friction heats the meteoroid so that it glows and creates a shining trail of gases and melted meteoroid particles," it said. "People sometimes call the brightest meteors fireballs."
Which, as I understand it, is a falsehood. There is probably heat from friction, but most of the heat is from compression owing to the supersonic speed of the object.
But that is not my area of expertise so I will leave it to others to expand on that.
More videos:
Iowa:
Close call. It could have been this:
I…
gregladen | April 15, 2010Holy, crap, did you see this??????
Authorities in several Midwestern states were flooded Wednesday night with reports of a gigantic fireball lighting up the sky, the National Weather Service said.
The fireball was visible for about 15 minutes beginning about 10 p.m., said the National Weather Service in Sullivan, Wisconsin, just west of Milwaukee.
"The fireball was seen over the northern sky, moving from west to east," said the NWS in the Quad Cities area, which includes parts of Iowa and Illinois.
"Well before it reached the horizon, it broke up into smaller pieces and was lost from sight,"…