gregladen | October 6, 2009The Carnival of Muse on Everything is HERE.
The Carnival of the Vanities is HERE.
The Current Blogger Bio Blitz is HERE.
gregladen | October 6, 2009I've always had a fondness in my heart for cycads.
Encephalartos princeps
Years ago, while working in the Ituri Forest (in what is now the Congo), I kept hearing of a particular place in the forest, where the Efe Pygmies would occasionally but not often go for various reasons. Over time I asked about this place, and eventually made arrangements to visit. My first trip to what was known as the Kakba was a very long and difficult walk from a camp that was already about a day into the forest from the villages, where our research base camp was located. On approaching the Kakba, it was…
gregladen | October 6, 2009
The course of the biotic recovery after the impact-related disruption of photosynthesis and mass extinction event at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary has been intensely debated. The resurgence of marine primary production in the aftermath remains poorly constrained because of the paucity of fossil records tracing primary producers that lack skeletons. Here we present a high-resolution record of geochemical variation in the remarkably thick Fiskeler (also known as the Fish Clay) boundary layer at Kulstirenden, Denmark. Converging evidence from the stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen and…
gregladen | October 6, 2009Welcome to Bizzaro Land, computer users.
Since June 26, retailers and computer manufacturers have urged shoppers to buy computers already on store shelves loaded with the much-maligned Windows Vista operating system because they would qualify for a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it was released in October. As it turns out, Mouse Print* has learned that some computer purchasers will be asked to pay shipping, handling and other junk fees that total between $11 and $17 to receive their "free" upgrade disks.
The story is here.
gregladen | October 6, 2009This is a site I pointed out to you about a year ago, but it is worth another visit.
gregladen | October 6, 2009LOS ANGELES, Oct. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The debate over Darwin will come to California on October 25th, when the Smithsonian Institution's west coast affiliate premieres Darwin's Dilemma: The Mystery of the Cambrian Fossil Record, a new intelligent design film which challenges Darwinian evolution. To view a trailer and clips from the film, please visit www.darwinsdilemma.org.
Darwin's Dilemma will be screened at 7 p.m. on Sunday, October 25th in the IMAX theater at the California Science Center, with a post-film discussion featuring Darwin skeptic Dr. David Berlinski, author of The…
gregladen | October 6, 2009Monty Python's Flying Circus is 40.
The show, which was written and acted by John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Graham Chapman, first aired on October 5, 1969 and ran for a total of 45 episodes.
I know I know it was yesterday, but I just heard.
Details here.
gregladen | October 6, 2009An important finding was reported last week in the same issue of Science as the new studies of Ardipithecus, and unfortunately, overshadowed by the news of the 4-million-year-old hominid. This finding may turn out to be even more important because it relates not to the evolution of a single species, but to the recovery of life in general on Earth following one of the greatest catastrophes ever....
Read the rest as surprising science.
gregladen | October 5, 2009...male and female cattle (including the many wild versions such as the African Cape Buffalo) and wildebeest (a kind of antelope) have horns, while in most other bovids only the males have horns. Both male and female caribou (a kind of deer) grow antlers each year, while in most other deer only the males do so.
But why? Read this.
gregladen | October 5, 2009Aggressive African bees were accidentally released in Brazil in 1957. As "killer bees" spread northward, David Roubik, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, began a 17-year study that revealed that Africanized bees caused less damage to native bees than changes in the weather and may have increased the availability of their food plants.
Let me add a little context before you go back to the press release.
Apis mellifera, is most well known 'honey bee,' and is one of the only stinging honey bees (famous for being suicidal stingers ... worker bees will swarm an invader…
gregladen | October 5, 2009For today's Linux Hint: How to pick which browser will open when you pick a link while using apine in Ubuntu.
Sometimes there is a URL in an email that you want to visit. In a GUI email brower, you click on it with the mouse. In apine you navigate to the link with the usual navigation keys (but the first link will already be selected for you) and hit enter to open the link.
The default that alpine comes with, at least on my machine, seems to be the Epiphany browser I have no idea why. And when it goes there, it opens the browser and freezes the alpine screen, so I have to close the…
gregladen | October 5, 2009Don't miss it! October 6th, on a PBS station near you.
NOVA and National Geographic Television present the extraordinary human drama that led to the birth of the most influential scientific theory of all time. Acclaimed screenwriter John Goldsmith (David Copperfield, Victoria and Albert) brings to life Charles Darwin's greatest personal crisis: the anguishing decision over whether to "go public" with his theory of evolution. Darwin, portrayed by Henry Ian Cusick (Lost), spent years refining his ideas and penning his book the Origin of Species. Yet, daunted by looming conflict with the…
gregladen | October 5, 2009First there was the question of Goldilocks, a Very Cold Winter Night, And a Strange Sense of Empty-ness. Then, there was The Mystery of The Returned Outboard Motor. Which turned into The Mystery of the Missing Boat Motor Deepens. Then there was the complexification described in What makes a perfect day at the lake?.
And now, I have received the strangest email:
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 2009 12:45:14 -0700 (PDT)
From:BLANKED OUT
To: greg@gregladen.com
Subject: oder.........
My name is Rev BLANKED OUT. and I am sending you an email regarding an order of some Out Board Motto.I will like you to e-…
gregladen | October 4, 2009This idea has been knocking around for a a few days, and is regularly discussed by David Dobbs at his blog. This concerns me quite a bit, as my wife is 8 months pregnant, flu is a very serious risk for pregnant women and their babies, she teaches in a high school, and got her seasonal flu shot last week. It's called the Hoskins effect and it seems to happen now and then with viruses.
Here's the story: There is a study coming out of Canada, done in Canada, that seems to show that in Canada people who get the seasonal flu shot have an increased, perhaps doubled, chance of getting H1N1
The…
gregladen | October 4, 2009Rep. Michele Bachmann will be headlining a fundraiser in November for controversial ministry You Can Run But You Cannot Hide (YCRBYCH).
Based in Annandale, Minn., the group has made a name for itself as an anti-drug Christian punk rock band that organizes motivational student assemblies to bring Christ to public schools. But over the last several years, parents and school administrators have complained that the ministry misrepresents itself, claiming that the group is not transparent about its Christian mission.
source
This is actually a fairly common problem in public schools. Groups…
gregladen | October 4, 2009Better send in Kissinger....
I really want to know what was said during that missing ten seconds...
gregladen | October 4, 2009Fear has been a subject of discussion around here lately. Pursuant to that, Stephanie Zvan has an interesting piece on it here at Quiche Moraine.
This is in part a follow-up on the Bomb Swarm in Princeton, Minnesota, which is starting to look more and more like what I said it was. A homecoming prank.
If we want people to become more rational, particularly about fear, we need to change what we're telling them.
And what would that involve? Click here. Don't be afraid.