gregladen | January 19, 2010There is an interesting conversation developing on The Intersection (What Should Science Organizations Say About Religion? Answer: A Lot) to which this is my response:
The conversation you have modeled here (people talking past each other ... see the original post) is very close to what actually happens in an NCSE like conversation, except that someone following the NCSE approach (as I usually do in this context) also mentions that for most religions this is not an issue, etc. etc. (I usually throw in a few quotes from this or that pope).
And, noting that many religious people have no…
gregladen | January 19, 2010Now that USB 3.0 is out, when will Linux get it?
Well, Linux has it. Windows does not. Mac does not.
Are you shocked? If so, you have just exposed a limitation on your own thinking. Linux supports more hardware (overall configuration and bits and piece) than any other system, by far. Linux is quicker to support hardware other than cases where proprietary drivers come out with the hardware from closed source companies, but Linux then ultimately tends to support those drivers sooner than other non-targeted OS systems do.
In fact, let me tell you just how bad your thinking was on this, if…
gregladen | January 18, 2010This was a project by a high school video class. As you watch, you'll see objects doing things that they should not do as students take turns singing a Hall and Oats song while they walk/dance along the halls of their high school.
The entire thing is filmed backwards, which explains how paper air planes unfly and bubbles unblow and baloons unpop and stuff unfalls. But if you watch the lip syncing students, you'll notice that they are lip syncing correctly ... their lips are matching the words as well as lip syncing does. But how did they make this happen if they were filming backwards…
gregladen | January 18, 2010Well, not really.
But, as noted in Eruptions, there is a new swarm of little earthquakes underneath the Yellowstone Caldera. You'll remember we discussed this here last time that happened. Since that time, of course, we've gotten to see what it would actually look like if the world's scariest caldera (maybe) actually went off:
gregladen | January 18, 2010is here art Ionian Enchantment. Please have a look, there is good stuff there. Honest. No need to be skeptical about it. Just go and look!
gregladen | January 18, 2010Miriam Goldstein of The Oyster's Garter will now be blogging at Deep Sea News.
Miriam is the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch researcher featured here.
Bookmark DSN. Interesting things will be happening.
gregladen | January 18, 2010... in the latest episode of Psycho Talk.
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gregladen | January 18, 2010Last weekend I attended Science Online 2010, which is a conference of science communicators with a heavy mix of bloggers, many journalists and others from the print industry, an increasingly large number of book authors, and OpenX (X=access, notebook, science, or whatever) advocates and practitioners.
Science Online is now reaching a tipping point. It is a fantastic conference partly because of its small size and its focus, but it is now becoming much more popular, and faces the possibility of growing over the next couple of years to become not what it is today. Perhaps it will evolve into a…
gregladen | January 18, 2010I will be doing a Cafe Scientifique with the above title on Tuesday, January 19 (tomorrow as I write this) at 7:00 p.m. at the Bryant Lake Bowl. Doors open at 6. Get there early or call for reservations! The venue is small and the last CS sold out. Call 612-825-8949 for reservations (tickets are 5 - 12 bucks depending on something, not sure what).
gregladen | January 18, 2010There are a LOT of videos coming out on Science Online 10. Go to YouTube and enter Scio10 in search and you'll see them. Here are a few chosen from what is there already.
This is not comprehensive ... but will give you a flavor of the event.
Enjoy:
(Caution: The sound levels change dramatically from video to video.)
The Saturday Night Banquet. SEe all the people tweeting. By next year, I gotta get me one of those phones.
Scott Baker and Darlene Cavalier on citizen science
Dr. Kiki Sanford Intro:
Melina Interviews Artist Glendon Mellow
Here's a still picture with me in it
And go…
gregladen | January 18, 2010In reference to this
Bullet Point 1: I agree, and I wanted to do that to you but for some reason we did not hook up.
Bullet Point 2: It is good to match up the flesh to the sound, it changes everything!
Bullet Point 3: I'm sure you are right about the explosion. Brilliant, actually (imagine that said in an Oxford accent).
Bullet Point 4: I saw this as well, and some of us are now talking about a "blog book tour" idea as an example of that. I hope you are interested.
Bullet Point 5: Sorry about your brain breaking, but it will get better (imagine that in a Monty Python accent).
Bullet Point…
gregladen | January 18, 2010
Bullet point 1: I just laid down and passed out.
Bullet point 2: I stayed as far away from SciCurious as possible, for that very reason.
Bullet Point 3: I also want to bottle Damond Nollan.
Bullet Point 4: LOL. But seriously, this is a philosophy that not only applies to phones but to all technology. Keep it simple = keep it accessible (often).
Bullet Point 5: OMG, is that how we looked? That's the last time I do something with PZ Myers! : )
Bullet POint 6: ... Question 1: Yeah. But funnily enough, a "fact checker" probably always knows one when one sees one. Question 2: I don't…
gregladen | January 18, 2010Well, I got back last night, but then I was asleep until now. So, as I have my morning cup of coffee I'm going through a couple/few hundred emails. Sorry some comments were trapped in moderation, but I've released all the real ones.
Later, I'll tell you all about the conference. I had long interesting talks with Sheril, Chris, PZ, Rebecca, which you should have expected, but also I have some interesting stuff from Chicago's Rabiah Mayas, some reactions to Abel Pharmboy and Damond Nollan's section, and others. A lot of what I learned at this conference is very useful to me but not…
gregladen | January 15, 2010If you haven't seen, ah, heard it, you should check it out. Free sounds. For free.
The Freesound Project is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds. Freesound focusses only on sound, not songs. This is what sets freesound apart from other splendid libraries like ccMixter. New to this site? Read the What is Freesound page to learn more!
Click here to see, ah, hear the free sound project.
gregladen | January 15, 2010Now, I know all the ditto heads are going to show up and start arguing whether or not "horse-whipped" is spelled with a dash, but that is just a distraction. Check this out:
You should be horse-whipped for the insult you have paid to the highest office of our nation.
Having followed President Obama's suggestion and donated money to the Red Cross for relief in Haiti, I was offended to hear you suggest the President might be a thief capable of stealing money intended for the earthquake victims.
For the record, Ebert provides a transcript of Limberger's asinine remarks:
Justin of Raleigh, North…
gregladen | January 14, 2010Every time Rush Limbaugh opens his mouth I grow less enamored with the mindless fetish for free speech that permeates American culture. And notice that I use the word "culture" and not "civilization." Because as long as this sort of thing is routine on our airwaves, we ain't got that civilization thing.
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gregladen | January 14, 2010All good things come to an end. But then if you work hard enough, you can get them back.
.... continued
Like I said earlier, I returned from South Africa in similar or better shape than I left in. And I kept that level of exercise up for a long time, and kept in shape for a long time. Over the years, I had a couple of friends I'd go to the gym with on a regular basis. Amanda and I formerly did that quite regularly, but we have slacked off a bit.
But eventually, life got the better of me, and I started to slack off and go to the gym less and less often. Then, I got a job that actually…
gregladen | January 14, 2010The Center for Inquiry is accepting disaster-relief donations through its S.H.A.R.E. program to support those providing care to the survivors of the 7.0 earthquake that struck Jan. 12 near the capital city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
All donations--100 percent with no operating costs retained--will be sent directly to the secular aid group Doctors Without Borders, which suffered the loss of all three of its medical facilities and is working against difficulties to provide the basics of first-aid care and stabilization.
The needs of those who've lost their family members, their homes, and their…
gregladen | January 14, 2010The new strain of virus is likely to replace the older one; and if there's a third wave later in the year it could be more virulent. We had the equivalent of a flu season's worth of illness and deaths from August to November, when there are normally very few. In Canada, most of the people who died have been younger women (which is most unusual). So getting your flu shot is important, perhaps vital.
Read about it here