gregladen | January 14, 2010I agree that little has transformed the earth more than agriculture, but it is inaccurate to say that "30 percent of greenhouse gases come from agriculture." The reason that this is inaccurate is because what really counts (though it is not the only thing that counts) is the release of carbon that was previously trapped in fossil form. Such of the "green house gas" mentioned in the video does not involve fossil carbon.
Anyway, having said that, here is a blog post that is linked to the video you just watched:
The Other Inconvenient Truth
It's taken a long time, but the issue of global…
gregladen | January 14, 2010Funny Thing Two and Funny Thing Three.
...... continued
Second funny thing: BFF Stephanie and I were working in the free weight area of the Kimberly gym one evening. There were a lot of people there. Then these two meaty looking guys came in and tossed a big rubber thingie on a bench. One of the guys then proceeded to unpack the rubber thingie, and it was some kind of shirt or jacket, much like (yet different from) a wet suit. So Guy One starts to put the jacket thing on, and Guy Two is helping him, but it seems to be several sizes too small.
These two guys struggled and struggled and…
gregladen | January 13, 2010Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum tries to make several different points. The central framework of the book, on which all the arguments are hung, is that science has a status, a place, in American culture, politics, and economy, and that this status has changed over time. Mooney and Kirshenbaum make the claim that science rose to an increasingly higher status than it had ever previously enjoyed through a series of events and transformations during the early and middle part of the 20th century, and subsequently,…
gregladen | January 13, 2010Mercy Corps is said to be one of the better charities to donate to to help Haiti.
This is their main web page for Haiti.
They are: "... a team of 3700 professionals helping turn crisis into opportunity for millions around the world. By trade, we are engineers, financial analysts, drivers, community organizers, project managers, public health experts, administrators, social entrepreneurs and logisticians. In spirit, we are activists, optimists, innovators and proud partners of the people we serve. "
gregladen | January 13, 2010The user VenomfangX, famous (or infamous, depending on your perspective) for his videos supporting creationism and against atheism, has yet again filed false DMCA notices against several of his critics. He did this before against another YouTube user, Thunderf00t (of the Why People Laugh at Creationists series, among other things), who forced VFX to issue an apology and read a statement outlining his new understanding of DMCA law.
Read about it here
gregladen | January 13, 2010Well? What are you standing there gawking at this blog post for? Go tell DuWayne what culture is!
CLICK HERE
Thank you, that is all...
gregladen | January 13, 2010Does fluoride in the cause brain damage, food intolerance, depression, other gut problems and autism?
Read More
gregladen | January 13, 2010Why did this disaster hit Haiti? Pat Robertson will be happy to tell you.
About mid way through this report, Robertson tells us that the fact that more buildings are collapsed than standing in Haiti is a blessing in disguise.
Starting at 6 minutes, Pat explains the reasons for the disaster. He explains that the Haitian people made a deal with Satan, and have been in this arrangement ever since. The Dominicans did not make the deal with Satan, and they are all happy and not subject to disaster.
Here's a shorter clip with the most important part that may work better:
The only way out…
gregladen | January 13, 2010Obsession can be a good thing. And I'm not talking about some dumb-ass fragrance.
... continued ...
Stuck in the field without a gym for three weeks was going to be tough, but I worked out two ways to stay in shape. First, every time we were in a city with a gym, Lynne got me into the gym, and my field crew usually came along as well. Lynne knew all the gyms and all the people who worked in all the gyms, and generally had the ability to make things happen. This mainly occurred in the city of Kimberly ... which actually has a very nice gym ... but I also worked out in Pretoria and…
gregladen | January 12, 2010A while back we were discussing whether or not President Obama had done "enough" or otherwise the "right" things since becoming president.
Several commenters draged out long lists of things that were discussed during the campaign (many prior to the magnitude of the economic crisis being realized) and insisted that since none of these things had been completed in the first 10 months of his presidency, he was a total failure.
As I pointed out to these commenters, the president actually gets four years, few presidents manage to do all the things they said they would do, Obama (as was also the…
gregladen | January 12, 2010News:
Current news from the BBC
Arikia Millikan's twitter feed. Arikia has relatives in the area, and is tweeting current news.
Help:
US citizens seeking information on your relatives in Haiti, call this number: 888 407 4747
UNICEF page for Haiti: Information and link to donate.
Direct Relief International: Web page and link for donations
American Red Cross International Response Fund
Oxfam now has its Haiti page up, here.
Science and other info:
Tectonics of the Haitian earthquake
Global Seismic Monitor
gregladen | January 12, 2010At the moment, the only secular relief organization that indicates that they are on top of Haiti, and is a respected and effective organization, and so on and so forth, is Direct Relief International. Here is their web site.
UPDATE: If you are a US citizen and seek information on your relatives in Haiti, call this number: 888 407 4747
You'll probably get a busy signal but keep trying.
If you know of any other secular organizations that are providing the opportunity to donate to help people in Haiti, please post them below.
Drs. without borders and the various UN groups are obvious cases…
gregladen | January 12, 2010Before I took the snap, I had a funny feeling that Alec was trying to tell me something. Not verbal communication or any facial expression or signal; whatever it was, I knew that he wanted the deep ball. So I called hike and the ball was snapped to me and I threw the ball as far as I could. The defense looked back, only to see that my brother Alec caught the ball with nobody contesting him. He leaped into the end zone and we celebrated our touchdown. "Wow!" said Victor. "You guys are an amazing team, it's like you guys used some kind of twin telepathy on that play.
Find out what's going on…
gregladen | January 12, 2010The earthquake was 7.0 or more (see Eruptions for info and discussion) and was not far from Port-au-Prince. Apparently damage is widespread and intense, and casualties high, but accurate information is limited because the information infrastructure was destroyed (see this for news details).
gregladen | January 12, 2010She was born as Hermine Santrouschitz in Vienna in 1909.
....Miep Gies, along with Johannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler, Bep Voskuijl, Jan Gies and Johan Voskuijl, made up a team of helpers for the eight Jewish people hiding in the Secret Annex at Prinsengracht 263 in Amsterdam. The office of Otto Frank, where Miep worked as secretary, was located at the front side of the same building.
Following the betrayal and the deportation of the hiders, Miep and her colleague Bep made sure that the diary of the youngest of the group, Anne Frank, did not fall into the hands of the German occupier. ...
Here's…
gregladen | January 12, 2010When it comes down to it, it is all a matter of just how hard you are willing to work. Then, you start with that and work harder.
... continued ...
I got my six free sessions, and then I paid for a lot more. In the end, I've paid less for cars I've driven for years, but it was worth it. Having never been part of the "workout" culture, having never gone to a gym before, I found Lenora's training to be invaluable.
We were efficient. I would arrive at the gym way before hand and do all my warm-ups. I'd do my post-workout stretches after the session, as well as selected exercises that…
gregladen | January 12, 2010The National Academy of Sciences is to honor NCSE's executive director Eugenie C. Scott with its most prestigious award, the Public Welfare Medal. ... "the medal is presented annually to honor extraordinary use of science for the public good"; Scott was chosen "for championing the teaching of evolution in the United States and for providing leadership to the National Center for Science Education." She will receive the award on April 25, 2010, during the Academy's 147th annual meeting.
The president of the National Academy of Sciences, Ralph J. Cicerone, commented, "Eugenie Scott has worked…
gregladen | January 12, 2010This blog and a few others were down for a while this morning. We apologise and promise it will never happen again.
If you see any pages that are still blank, please let me know. You can paste a comment below and point to that page by entering it in the URL of your comment (that's probably the most efficient way).
When I first saw that the blog was a blank page, and noticed that other Sb blogs were operating (by chance I sampled only blogs that happen to be running) I thought that something that had been going on in the background had somehow come to fruition. A commenter on this site…
gregladen | January 12, 2010The Phoenix robot, left by NASA on the Martian Pole last Martian Fall, has been hidden by seasonal darkness and is presumably covered with ice. The explorer had performed very well during its mission, and it is not expected to have survived the winter.
However, if, when sunshine warms its frosty panels, the science robot develops a positive energy balance, its circuits still work, Phoenix will alternately use its two radios and its two antennas to send out a signal. In the mean time, the Odyssey, which is a NASA flying robot circling the planet, will try to pick up this signal and re-…