gregladen | October 14, 2009I just listened to this and it was good. He seems to have been living in a cave. Full of stick figures.
So, Des, you'll tell me about this tattoo later right?
And now, for an eg:
gregladen | October 14, 2009Research on giant sea scorpions (eurypterids) - the largest bugs that ever lived - has shed new light on why eurypterids became so large and eventually died out.
In the 1930s, Romer argued that eurypterids became larger and larger over time because they were in a kind of arms race with giant fish called placoderms. Presumably the larger would be the predator of the smaller, so the smaller grows. Others have suggested that a greater abundance of oxygen in an ancient atmosphere (and thus sea) just made things big. New research seems to indicate that both ideas are still valid.
There are…
gregladen | October 14, 2009Without the oceans, WE ALL DIE!!! Seriously. And we are totally screwing up the oceans. And Obama has utterly failed to fix this problem after being in office for MONTHS!!!
But wait, there's hope. Something is being done....
Sheril let me know about this:
INTERAGENCY OCEAN POLICY TASK FORCE
On June 12, 2009, President Obama sent a memorandum to the heads of executive departments and federal agencies establishing an Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force (pdf list of task force members) , led by the White House Council on Environmental Quality. The Task Force is charged with developing a…
gregladen | October 14, 2009I have no clue. But I hope to work it out by Friday when Desiree Schell, Omar Mouallem and I talk about this on Skeptically Speaking.
From comedy and music, to scientific studies and how we respond to them, to blogging vs. mainstream media, to attention-grabbing stunts... is all publicity good publicity, or do our own efforts sometimes work against us?
Details Here
gregladen | October 14, 2009Let's look at open source software using a real-world example. To me, the FreeDOS Project will always be the first example I look to, so I'll use that. It should speak to the commitment of the open source software community that FreeDOS continues under active (if slow) development 15 years after it was conceived. How has FreeDOS held the interest of its users? Because FreeDOS embodies the important qualities that an open source project must possess in order for it to succeed.
Jim Hall's second installment...
gregladen | October 14, 2009 A very good day of grunting worms. Credit: Ken Catania So-called Gene-Culture Co-Evolution can be very obvious and direct or it can be very subtle and complex. In almost all cases, the details defy the usual presumptions people make about the utility of culture, the nature of human-managed knowledge, race, and technology. I would like to examine two cases of gene-culture interaction: One of the earliest post-Darwinian Synthesis examples addressing malaria and sickle-cell disease, and the most recently published example, the worm-grunters of Florida, which it turns out is best…
gregladen | October 13, 2009Watch Humanist Views: Humanism and the Bible in Activism & Non-Profit | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
gregladen | October 13, 2009Certainly not Tim Pawlenty, because he (thinks he) is going to be President of the United States. So, it has to be one of these people.
gregladen | October 13, 2009And he gets squid in the deal!!!
Is that an iPod they're looking at just under 3 minutes.
I think I want to eat a banana now.
Go here, learn more, and give them your money. Seriously.
gregladen | October 13, 2009In 1968, and the few years before and after, American commercial aircraft were hijacked to Cuba on a regular basis. It became part of our day to day culture...
The latest essay us up at Collective Imagination.
gregladen | October 13, 2009A repost
This is obviously true, and i’ve been saying this for a long time. And I’m not talking about the butt-slaps and sharing chewing tobacco and stuff.
To a certain extent, digit ratios seem to be a reasonable indicator of the kinds of hormonal environment in which a person develops in utero. It turns out that the indicator of homosexuality is the same as the indicator of athleticism, only turned up even more. In other words, a certain kind of hormonal environment in which a male fetuses develops can result in a higher likelihood of that person growing up to be an athlete. But if that…
gregladen | October 13, 20091975, winter, somewhere in the American Southwest. I am driving across a state border and there is a sign that reads "do not transport citrus fruit across state lines." There on the side of the road is a check point with uniformed federal agents, a place to pull off, some garbage cans. I look at the oranges sitting on the floor over on the passenger side and figure ... "better pull off and dump this contraband." But then something surprising happened.
A repost from the Days of Bush. But has this problem been solved yet?
I started to pull into the checkpoint, and one of the uniformed…
gregladen | October 13, 2009If you don't like Hardball, you won't like this. But Matthews is right.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
gregladen | October 13, 2009So the other day, grandma was taken to the hospital with various medical issues, and treated in the ER. After she was stabilized, she was sent to the ICU, but was unable to get a bed at first because the "ICU was full of H1N1 patients." I'm was not sure what that means because the term "H1N1" does not distinguish between the two flu events we are currently having, but I later asked and found out that the person who said that meant "Swine Flu."*
I have no idea if the flu, whatever kind it was, was really the reason for the lack of a bed, and I'm not sure if the lack of space was the issue…
gregladen | October 13, 2009Chesley Sullenberger is the pilot who successfully crash-landed his plane in the Hudson River after both engines were lost to goose strikes. His book, Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters, is out today.
A while ago he was asked at which point he started praying as the plain went down. He said ...
... that he was not praying, but rather, concentrating on how to land the plane safely.
The writeup of his book and the publicity does not talk about god or prayer, despite the fact that this event is constantly being called "The Miracle on the Hudson."
Simply put, I would like to…
gregladen | October 13, 2009So, I said some things that got my friend DuWayne Brayton mad, and this caused him to write two blog posts (here and here), and now with a little time to spare I'm giving this the attention it deserves.
I'm going to let DuWayne and you, dear reader, piece together most the threads that connect what he said and what I said and what he said and what I said. If you want. I highly recommend that you give it a skip. I have not been directly addressing DuWayne's questions, and his comments have little to do with anything I've said (sorry, but true). Given what DuWayne has said about what I…
gregladen | October 13, 2009I don't think I've poked anybody on Facebook. I was afraid. And I'm so glad I didn't do it!
A woman in Tennessee was, apparently, arrested in September for poking someone. Arrested by real police, not some kind of facebook "police" app.
According to an affidavit filed with the Sumner County General Sessions Court on Sept. 25, Shannon D. Jackson of Hendersonville, Tenn., allegedly violated a legal order of protection that had been previously filed against her when she sent a virtual "poke" to another woman on Facebook.
Well, OK. I've especially not poked anyone who has a current…
gregladen | October 13, 2009October 13th was the eigth birthday of the Office Suite OpenOffice.Org. This is an OpenSource office suite that will look familiar to anyone using Microsoft Office, WordPefect Office, etc. It has a word processor (Writer) that does pretty much everything Microsoft Word does, but with a more logical layout for menus and some other cool features; a spreadsheet (Calc) that is comparable to Excel and other spreadsheets; a database system (Base) which is an SQL system that can integrate seamlessly with MySQL an other high end databases; a chart making utility; a Presentation application (Impress)…