gregladen | July 2, 2009This might be an actual Microsoft ad that was pulled after it upset people. Below the fold because it is .... well, it's below the fold.
Analysis (or parody) here, HT Lee.
gregladen | July 2, 2009previously reviewed
Giant Dinosaurs of the Jurassic is a children's book for kids in third to fifth grade or, in my opinion, a little younger. Certainly this is an excellent choice, because of the cool illustrations, of a book to read aloud to the pre-literate little ones.
Author Gregory Wenzel does a good job in few words explaining life in the Jurassic, how bones get to become fossils, and something about how they are found. Most of the riveting several hundred words in this 32 page book are about the real stars of the show, the dinosaurs themselves.
Not every single dinosaur in this…
gregladen | July 2, 2009Remember the ice cream cake eating "Hitler kids"? In case you were wondering why you have not heard from them, it could be because the state has a gag order on the whole story. Here is a not very informative update:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
gregladen | July 2, 2009This is not 'legal' so don't do it. Later in the summer it is expected to become a feature.
gregladen | July 2, 2009What is the biggest single threat to your household security? This is the question asked here.
So far it looks like a neck and neck race between Squirrels and the Economy with Bunnies coming a close third.
gregladen | July 2, 2009The best of last June
Continuing with our discussion of the Evolution 2008 conference, I'd like to relate at least the essence, as I saw it, of an excellent talk by Mark Borrello.
I've seen Mark speak at least three times including yesterday, and soon after his talk we continued on the topic in a conversation over lunch and beers, so my comments here are less a summary of Mark's talk at the Evolution 2008 conference than a more general reaction to what I believe to be his main points.
Everyone knows that history repeats itself. Or, at least, as per Samuel Clemens, if history does not repeat…
gregladen | July 2, 2009Science-based medicine = Big Pharma? You hear it all the time from the peddlers of woo, but it's rare that they disclose their own profit motives.
Analyzed at Almost Diamonds
gregladen | July 1, 2009...One day Tashina asked to speak to me privately. "Honey, what do you do to get rid of crabs. Crotch crabs. Just tell me what to do and don't tell anyone we had this little conversation, 'kay?" I told her what to do.
Later that same day, Ron cornered me alone in the foyer. "Hey, my man, I do dee-claire I gotta bad, bad problem. How does a guy stamp out dem little bugs, dem baby micro-scopical crawdads down in the you know where, if you get my drift?" I told him what to do....
At Quiche Moraine...
gregladen | July 1, 2009
A.K.A. Karl Malden.
It may be that most people who know Karl Malden remember him from Streets (with a young rookie named Michael Douglas), but of course, he had an illustrious acting career outside of that well known and ground breaking TV series.
Speaking of Malden's original Czech last name .... as Alfred Hitchcock would always appear as a walk-on in his own movies, Malden would work the name "Sekulovich" in wherever he could. From Wikipedia:
...as General Omar Bradley in Patton, as his troops slog their way through enemy fire in Sicily, Malden says "Hand me that helmet, Sekulovich" to…
gregladen | July 1, 2009From a NASA Press Release: NASA and Japan released a new digital topographic map of Earth Monday that covers more of our planet than ever before. The map was produced with detailed measurements from NASA's Terra spacecraft.
The new global digital elevation model of Earth was created from nearly 1.3 million individual stereo- pair images collected by the Japanese Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, or Aster, instrument aboard Terra. NASA and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, known as METI, developed the data set. It is available online to users…
gregladen | July 1, 2009At least, Survivor's Club is a web site, certainly it is a marketing strategy for a book, and it may be a sort of middle-class-privilaged-heteronormative Christian mission. Or just modern Internet voyeurism. You be the judge.
Have a look at the web site. The videos are ... interesting.
(And they have some interesting endorsements.)
gregladen | July 1, 2009If so, and if you are an American, you are in the majority. But 16% of your fellow Americans have not. If you are a citizen of the UK, where Darwin lived and stuff, 9% of your fellow citizens have not. Shocking.
These are perhaps the least noticed but in my view most amazing results of Yet Another Poll (YAP) about creationism and evolution that is skillfully analyzed by John Lynch at Just Another Prop. I agree with John's conclusion that a (too slim) majority of Americans are "theistic evolutionists." Add that to the a-theistic evolutionists and we have more people in the Evolution camp…
gregladen | July 1, 2009A press release from NASA: Ulysses, a joint NASA and European Space Agency mission, officially ceased operations today, after receiving commands from ground controllers to do so. The spacecraft, which operated for more than 18 years, charted the unexplored regions of space above the poles of the sun.
As planned via commands beamed to the spacecraft earlier in the day, Ulysses switched to its low- gain antenna at 1:09 p.m. PDT (4:09 p.m. EDT, or 2009 UTC). As a result, ground controllers were no longer able to pick up a signal from Ulysses, which had also been commanded to switch off…
gregladen | July 1, 2009On Countdown! The "Best Petard To Be Hoist Upon Later Award!"
Michele Bachmann, who represents the district that is, much to my chagrin, just a few blocks from where I live, has been calling for people to give the upcoming decadal census a pass, is a person of amazing moral integrity. You see she considers the census to be an evil plot by Acorn to facilitate the rounding up and internment of Christians (or something). However, as I'm sure she knows as a member of Congress the census is also the instrument our benevolent government (benevolent now that the Dems are in power) uses to figure…
gregladen | July 1, 2009The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. Although the initial launch of Data.gov provides a limited portion of the rich variety of Federal datasets presently available, we invite you to actively participate in shaping the future of Data.gov by suggesting additional datasets and site enhancements to provide seamless access and use of your Federal data. Visit today with us, but come back often. With your help, Data.gov will continue to grow and change in the weeks, months, and years…
gregladen | July 1, 2009Dear MSNBC,
I know it is appropriate to have a range of opinions among the talking heads representing a news agency, and MSNBC certainly does have a range. Pat Buchanan, regular commentator on two or three MSNBC news shows, probably serves at the most conservative individual in the MSNBC panoply.
But he has to go now.
This letter comes as a reaction to Buchanan's most recent column, which addresses Darwinian theory and evolution in an over the top intellectually dishonest, inaccurate, and offensive manner. I will not discuss the details of his absurd column; several of my colleagues on…
gregladen | June 30, 2009This post was originally titled "Mail Order Brides and Hypergyny." I was prompted to revisit the post because it received a a rather astonishing comment that I chose not to allow, but I did post it on my Facebook page where any attention it would receive would be from the thoughtful people that make up my Facebook community rather than just anybody out there on the Internet. Also, I recently received a complaint from a reader that Scienceblogs.com has been showing a lot of ads for "mail order brides," and this post was originally partly a response to that.
I should also mention that in the…
gregladen | June 30, 2009The best of last June
The first dinosaur bones (that we know of) to have been discovered in British Columbia, Canada, are now being reported. These are bones found in 1971, eventually making their way to the Royal British Columbia Museum, and now being reported by V.M. Arbour and M.C. Graves. The bones were initially found by Kenny Flyborg Larsen, a geologist prospecting for thorium. He was drawn to these bones because the bones themselves are radioactive, and his instruments led him to them.
(This is an update on this, as Arbour kindly sent me a copy of the original paper.)
Arbour and…