gregladen | February 1, 2010The joys of markdown are many.
Markdown is a formatting “language” like HTML that you can use to specify the final appearance of text. When you use a “word processor” like Microsoft Word or Openoffice.org Writer, the text you generate is “marked up” (or “marked down” as it were) with formatting codes that determine how the text looks on a screen or when printed out. If you were to look inside a PDF file you would find commands that do this as well. And, a web page is rendered properly in your browser because of formatting codes in HTML. (If you want to see what the HTML guts of this web page…
gregladen | February 1, 2010Is scheduled!
It will be held Feb 13 and 14 at Har Mar Mall, at the corner of County B and Snelling in Roseville MN.
Here's some info from the web site:
Have you been to the Home School Science Fairs? They are great! Some of the best and brightest kids in Minnesota were there. You could have learned how stable the Ark was in strong winds, how to, and how not to make yogurt, how weight effects the speed of a sled, and how to get energy from chicken droppings. Over 60 projects were up for display with many passersby stopping to check them out. It was a wonderful opportunity to place a…
gregladen | February 1, 2010PLoS Blog Post Pick of the Month for January 2010 is as the NN blog Endless Forms, written by Anne-Marie Hodge.
Click here to read this post.
THERE IS A PIK-CHER OF A KITTEH!!!!
gregladen | February 1, 2010Ideas that were once championed by evolutionists are no longer valid, much like the false science behind man-made global warming. Students deserve the truth.
That's from a guy running for school board in Wisconsin. Pharyngula has the details.
gregladen | February 1, 2010From the amazon web site:
....ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it's reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book.....
(Source. Hat tip)
For some back ground and discussion, see this earlier post and links among the comments that describe the situation.
I gave the specific quote because I love how Amazon notes that…
gregladen | January 31, 2010Does
Chris Matthews "forgetting that Obama is black" falls into that same range of racism as "Pretty for a black girl" and the "You're not like those other black people" claptrap often espoused by the "I'm not racist, but..." crowd. They're coded as compliments, but the subtext is still an ugly one that frames racism as being the fault of the oppressed...
see: Transcending Race...A History Lesson
gregladen | January 31, 2010The iPad ... what is it like?
NZ school ditches Microsoft and goes totally open source (hat tip: LIX
The Amazon Kerfuffle
gregladen | January 31, 2010I told you so, but most of you would not listen. Amazon has tossed an entire publishing company off its site (hat tip: H.G.) because that company would not comply with Amazon's universally imposed Kindle edition pricing strategy. That places Amazon at the decision making table where the publishers and the market (the buyers of books) usually sits, and not just as a stakeholder but as the holder of everyone else's nuts. (And when I say nuts, I'm talking chestnuts, so don't get any ideas.) Amazon is not a book store. It is a public utility that delivers a wide range of products (including…
gregladen | January 30, 2010Meal and Reel, Feb 19, Creation w/special guest Greg Laden at Edina Cinema
Edina, the home of Al Franken, the town known locally as "Every Day I Need Attention" because of their quaint suburban attitudes, the place that appears to have the only half decent woman's hair stylist in the city (because every woman I've ever known has gone to the same exact one, though they don't individually know that. Well, they will if they read this ... but I digress) will be the location of a showing of Creation, the movie about Darwin. MnA is orgainzing a "Meal and Reel" event and has asked me to say a few…
gregladen | January 30, 2010Any octopus experts out there wanna give this a look? (At Digital Rabbit blog)
gregladen | January 30, 2010This is the question that was raised in the wake of a Science Online 2010 session on civility. I did not attend the session so I am only addressing the issues that were subsequently discussed on blog posts written in the aftermath of a now infamous conversation that appears to have been (by their own admission, I believe) between Henry Gee of Nature and Nature Blogs Network and Zuska the Magnificent of Scienceblogs Dot Com. Much of that discussion is now happening on the Nature Network on a blog post celebrating 5 X 104 comments on that network.
(As an aside, I really think it is shameful…
gregladen | January 30, 2010The broadcast networks that air the Super Bowl have historically rejected advocacy ads. Yet CBS, which is airing the Super Bowl this year, has accepted an anti-choice ad by the ultra-conservative group Focus on the Family.
Details here
gregladen | January 29, 2010I did not appreciate the sentiment that the New York Yankees had to win the World Series because Osama Bin Laden blew up the World Trade Center. I do not appreciate the sentiment that the New Orleans Saints have to win the Super Bowl because George Bush let poor New Orleans residents die in the Super Dome. I do appreciate the equivalence ... between an uncaring homicidal mass murdering maniac and some guy from the Arabian Peninsula who seems to have been the mastermind of dozens of failed terrorist attacks and a couple of ugly ones. But that is another story.
I do not appreciate the idea…
gregladen | January 29, 2010
A few people asked me if I saw any polar bears during my recent trip to Antarctica. No, I didn't...
None? Not even one? Did you even see any prints????
Polar Bears in Antarctica at Digital Rabbit
gregladen | January 29, 2010On Feb 12, Feb 19th the Darwin-related film "Creation" will debut in at least one local theater here in the twin cities. A group of us will be getting together prior at a restaurant or other appropriate venue, at which I will be asked to say a few words about Darwin. This event will be organized by the Minnesota Atheists, so please keep an eye on their web site for details!
You might as well also check out the info on Camp Quest in case you are looking for a great summer volunteer opportunity (or a place to send the kids!?!?)
gregladen | January 29, 2010One opinion you should check out:
...Obama is missing the opportunity of a lifetime to give us serious climate change legislation, and he's blowing it by going down the middle of the road, trying to please everyone. This year could be the end of any meaningful climate change legislation, until the point where it's obvious and too late....
Here
gregladen | January 29, 2010Howard Zinn died on Wednesday.
But first, he got very old and before that he inspired two or three generations of skeptics and questioners of history and society.
Of all the books I've ever given to people, A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present is the one I've given the most copies of to the most people. I've given it to history teachers and to people who seemed to have an interest in history but needed to know some things. I gave it to my daughter when she took her first serious history class and told her to carry it on top of her textbook so the teacher would see it…