gregladen | December 12, 2009You know the old gag where the woman is in labor, and then gives birth, and asks the doctor "What is it, a boy or a girl?" and the doctor says "Both! You have twins!"
Well, astronomers have been playing this gag for some time now with a particular star system and the latest surprise just happened.
It has long been known that one of the stars of Ursa Major is a binary system, with two stars very close to each other. This was apparently discovered in ancient times. They are known as Alcor and Mizar, and are thus the longest-identified binaries.
With telescopes, Mizar was then discovered to…
gregladen | December 11, 2009More than 24 hours after the incident, the Russian Ministry of Defence confirms that it was a failed Bulava missile launch that caused the strange spiral shaped lights over Northern Norway yesterday....
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gregladen | December 11, 2009Today, Amanda marched for her Masters of Biological Science at the University of Minnesota.
gregladen | December 11, 2009If you have not yet read John Wilbanks' posts on OpenSource Science, which is a critique of the idea, than you should. Start with this one. There are two more right after that. But they are very long, so by the time you are done reading all three of those, there will probably be a fourth one!
gregladen | December 11, 2009Orac has been blogging for five years. That's a long time, and it is impossible to look at that five years and say that his blog has not made an important difference.
What? Huh? It's "insolence"? Not "innocence"? Oh right.... all this time I was thinking it was Innocence! ... suddenly, it all makes sense!
gregladen | December 10, 2009Turn the blanket 45 degrees and fold down the farthest corner. Place baby with neck over the fold. Bring one side of the blanket across baby and tuck in behind. Bring lower extension of blanket up over the baby, and tuck one side into the same side you tucked the side into. Bring the opposite, remaining side of the blanket across the baby and tuck that in behind.
The result should look like this:
gregladen | December 10, 2009I mean, you might be, but I'm certainly not going to take your word for it....
I have an email from a blogeague (that's a colleague in the blogosphere) asking for clarification on the use of the word Skeptic in relation to climate change. This is a person very much involved in ocean conservation who had understood the word "skeptic" to mean a person who "does not believe in" anthropogenic global warming, but I had used the term in a blog post to describe a person who is not an AGW denialist. We have a commenter on this site who seems to have been pretending to have just woken up one recent…
gregladen | December 10, 2009Every now and then Rachel goes OTT with her ... disco ball. This is one of those times:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
gregladen | December 10, 2009... with a survey.
This is a survey of The Media and your spending habits, which is being done as informal research pursuant to the writing of what will prove to be a very interesting book on a very interesting topic. Please take the survey and then pass on the link to EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!!11!!
Thanks.
Survey is HERE.
gregladen | December 10, 2009... and other, related issues.
Gore's recent book: Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis
Oh, and did you notice the Inhofe - "kill the gays" link?
gregladen | December 9, 2009This decade is on track to become the warmest since records began in 1850, and 2009 could rank among the top-five warmest years, the U.N. weather agency reported Tuesday on the second day of a pivotal 192-nation climate conference.
For central Africa and southern Asia this will probably be the warmest year, but overall 2009 will "be about the fifth-warmest year on record," said Michel Jarraud, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization.
Only the United States and Canada experienced cooler conditions than average, it said..
Read the rest here.
gregladen | December 9, 2009Google Chrome BETA is now available for Linux. Click here. I get the distinct impression that Google is no taking Linux seriously.
Most interesting Christmas card for under $200.00. ... made out of an iPhone.
Science cookies. (Hat tip PZ)
gregladen | December 9, 2009Traumatized By Truth discussed Kids and Drugs: Time for that chat with the kids about drugs...
Comrade PhysioProf notes the non-skeptical nature of some of the reactions among Skeptics to apparent sex bias in the volume edited by Skeptidemigod Dawkins. I had noticed that as well, and the irony is interesting. See: Defending Dawkins
A poem about atheism from Digitial Cuttlefish.
For today's comic interlude: Kent Hovind's Doctoral Dissertation
And finally, some very cool science: Small bird engineers uneasy alliance between hawk and treeshrew
gregladen | December 9, 2009
This is being covered here, at Dynamics of Cats.
I think it might be the Bat Signal.
Here's a cool video of the event:
gregladen | December 9, 2009Primate Diaries has an excellent writeup on the very important news that came out overnight regarding the "Danish Text" draft climate agreement, leaked to the UK's Guardian. This climate agreement, if implemented, would significantly change the way climate management happens on this planet over the next several years, putting the bulk of the power in the hands of the World Bank and abrogating Kyoto. Check out this description and analysis of the problem.
gregladen | December 9, 2009Carnival of the Elitist Bastards is at Almost Diamonds. It is a particularly literary version of the beast.
gregladen | December 9, 2009The other day I was speaking with my future brother in law about the fact that most people remember that there was more snow in the past than there is now. This is totally true for me because I moved from a part of the country with a lot of snow (NY and New England) to a part of the country with less snow (Minnesota). But for people who live in the same place they grew up how can this be possible? Is it really true?
Well, no it is not true. Your brain is fooling you on this one. Don't believe me? Read about it here.
gregladen | December 9, 2009
Now, if you would like to examine the significance of this new math, check out this post on Denialism at TUIBG
gregladen | December 8, 2009This video does not show the tomato incident, but talks about it. More interesting is the depicted assembly line:
Here's one of our local news reports:
The following is the closest thing I could find to a Japanese simulation of the event: