gregladen | October 4, 2009In a first-of its-kind study, epidemiologists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that, on average, guns did not protect those who possessed them from being shot in an assault. The study estimated that people with a gun were 4.5 times more likely to be shot in an assault than those not possessing a gun.
source
From the abstract of the paper:
Objectives. We investigated the possible relationship between being shot in an assault and possession of a gun at the time.
Methods. We enrolled 677 case participants that had been shot in an assault and 684 population-based…
gregladen | October 4, 2009This is a continuation of a discussion on the role of Global Warming in the decline of moose populations in Minnesota. It is also a discussion of Global Warming denialism.
When I started to write Part II of this post, I realized that one aspect of the argument would probably distract from all the others, could be dealt with quickly and summarily, and makes a nice pithy post all by itself. This aspect is the claim made by commenter Gerard on an earlier post regarding global warming (or lack thereof) in Minnesota.
Gerard made this claim:
The average monthly high/low temperatures for January…
gregladen | October 3, 2009If you are using alpine as your email client, you may find that hitting ctrl-T to invoke a spell checker does not work, in alpine 1.0 as installed in Ubuntu. It is easy to fix.
I looked around for the answer to this question, but it is a bit esoteric so there is very little, and what there is stands mainly as examples of the down side of community support. People state that the spell checker is not working, and others answer with various bits of advice that do not work at all because they are nothing other than vague guesses that do not address the problem.
It is possible, even probable,…
gregladen | October 3, 2009This is a bit gruesome so I've put it below the fold.
Little Boy Heroically Shoots, Mutilates Burglar
gregladen | October 3, 2009Going Rogue: An American Life is the name of Sarah Palin's new book, due out on November 17th.
Here's the publisher's summary:
From her humble beginnings to her time in the spotlight as the first female Republican Vice Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin has led an extraordinary life. Going Rogue will recount her political experiences, her time as Mayor of Wasilla and as the first female governor of Alaska, as well as her rapid rise on the national stage during the 2008 campaign. Additionally, she'll share insights into the personal challenges she's faced including balancing her time as a…
gregladen | October 3, 2009Which is here.
There is an article that I know is written by my friend and colleague Lynn Fellman, though I don't see the author's name anywhere on the post. Have a look, and please promote this new site!
gregladen | October 2, 2009Berry Go Round # 20 is HERE at Further Thoughts.
Circus of the Spineless is Here at Quiche Moraine.
The October 16th Issue of The Giant's Shoulders will be hosed at Quiche Moraine. Please submit something!
Friday's Ark is at The Modulator
Festival of the Trees 40 is at Local Ecologist
gregladen | October 2, 2009Part four or five ....
This is really funny. And enraging.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
gregladen | October 2, 2009The Louisiana Science Education Act opened the door for creationism to be taught in the state's public schools, and now the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is propping the door open, the Louisiana Coalition for Science charges. In a September 28, 2009, press release, the LCS noted, "On September 16, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) ignored the recommendations of science education professionals in the Louisiana Department of Education (DOE) and allowed the Louisiana Family Forum (LFF), a Religious Right lobbying group, to dictate the procedure concerning…
gregladen | October 2, 2009Though its trailer gives no clue as to its true agenda, this venomous supposed comedy is set in a world where lying is unknown and every word spoken is accepted as truth and where -- not accidentally, the screenplay implies -- God does not exist. Until, that is, failed documentary screenwriter and all-around loser Mark Bellison (Ricky Gervais) spontaneously discovers the ability to deceive.
That quote is from a movie review in The Catholic Spirit Dot Com.
Have a look:
Has anybody seen it?
(Hat tip: Virgil Samms)
gregladen | October 2, 2009The Medieval Religious State of Saudi Arabia has a school called King Abdullah's University of Science and Technology, which is co-ed (that is an extraordinarily progressive idea for Teh Kingdom) and very science oriented. The idea, obviously, is for Saudi Arabia to maintain it's old patriarchal relgious-oligarchic ways but at the same time not get mushed by the modern world by including some rational thinking and stuff. But a senior Saudi cleric has called for a vetting of the university's curriculum in order to remove "alien ideologies."
Evolution is an alien ideology, apparently.
"…
gregladen | October 2, 2009Which means, fellow Americans, that Chicago didn't. I think Ed Brayton is suggesting that soon we'll be hearing about how the Obamas ruined our chances, but the word on the street is a bit different. It is generally thought that Chicago's best chance was to get the African votes, and these votes didn't come through at least in part as a reaction from 8 years of being treated like crap by the US.
gregladen | October 2, 2009The last time I had a blogger dream was a steel cage non-death match between Greg Laden and Comrade PhysioProf, over who was going to get to be my post grad mentor. ...
Don't ask me, just go and read it. If you dare.
gregladen | October 2, 2009I have mixed feelings about automatic updates of one or more social networking sites from another social networking site. Like when you twitter something and your Facebook status gets the same string of words, or visa versa. I know a few people who do this on a regular basis, and it seems to work very differently depending on what the person tends to write and how the connection between her or his social networking sites is set up.
As background to this discussion I should tell you how I interface with the various intertubual entities.
Posts on Greg Laden's Blog are automatically tweeted,…