gregladen | June 30, 2009I just got an email from my close personal friend, Al Franken. Here's part of it (I cut out the personal smushy stuff):
I've said it before, and I want to say it again: THANK YOU.
We just received word that the Minnesota State Supreme Court has ruled on Norm Coleman's appeal. I wanted to let you know right away, the court upheld our victory in a 5-0 decision.
Paul Wellstone said that successful organizing is based on the recognition that people get organized because they, too, have a vision. He also said that politics only has to do with trying to do right by people.
Throughout this campaign…
gregladen | June 30, 2009Acetaminophen dose recommendations will be lowered significantly by the FDA, and some products will be pulled off the market, because of concerns over liver damage. If you look up "Tylenol" on Wikipedia as I write this, you see the following:
Indeed.
From MSNBC:
Despite years of educational campaigns and other federal actions, acetaminophen remains the leading cause of liver failure in the U.S., according to the FDA.
Panelists cited FDA data indicating 60 percent of acetaminophen-related deaths are related to prescription products. Acetaminophen is also found in popular over-the-counter…
gregladen | June 30, 2009Powerup: 3G by a mile, Palm Pre pwnd
Browsing: Palm Pre wins, 3Gs slowest
Real World Test: 3Gs broke, Palm Pre wins.
gregladen | June 30, 2009Seconds ago, Norm Coleman announced that he concedes the election to Al Franken. He just called Al a minute ago, and stepped out side his home to thank everyone and make the announcement.
It is over.
gregladen | June 30, 2009UPDATE: COLEMAN CONCEDES
The Minnesota Supreme Court has rejected a legal challenge by Norm Coleman, thereby leaving the vote count determined by an election contest judicial panel placing Franken in the lead standing.
The basis of the Coleman legal challenge is was essentially that all abentee votes shoudl be counted no matter what, because they are, after all, votes.
The reason that is bad election procedure and bad law is that absentee voting is subject to serious abuses, and thus demands a certain amount of procedural control. This has been established previously. The absentee…
gregladen | June 30, 2009After nearly eight months, Al Franken has won the election to the United States Senate.
There are indications that Pawlenty will sign the election certificate.
I'll update shortly as soon as I have more information.
UPDATE HERE
UPDATE UPDATE: COLEMAN CONCEDES
gregladen | June 30, 2009Science steps in and looks at the processes of nature and shows us how to tease apart the secrets of their workings, slowly and carefully and with missteps along the way. The missteps are readily acknowledged and re-examined. The successes are retested to make sure they closely approximate (within a high confidence interval) the truth. Then they are once again examined as new questions arise that cast doubt on the answers.
... Mike Haubrich on Quiche Moraine
gregladen | June 30, 2009 Although the paper addresses Tanzanian lions, this is a photograph of a Namibian lion Starting some years ago, we began to hear about revisions of the standard models of lion behavioral biology coming out of Craig Packer's research in the Serengeti. One of the most startling findings, first shown (if memory serves) as part of a dynamic optimization model and subsequently backed up with a lot of additional information, is the idea that lions do not benefit by living in a group with respect to hunting. They live in groups despite the fact that this sociality decreases hunting…
gregladen | June 30, 2009Nature has a special ... special thingie ... on science journalism. It appears to be more or less open access so even you, a virtual nobody from the perspective of the pirate publishing companies, can actually see it. There are commentaries and articles on blogs and twitter, on the future of science journalism, and so on.
To mark the 6th World Conference of Science Journalists from 30 June-2 July 2009 in London, Nature is shining a spotlight on the profession in changing times. Science journalism faces an uncertain future. But to what extent should scientists help -- or care?
Looks pretty…
gregladen | June 30, 2009And I'm still sayin' it, and I'm going to continue to deny I'm sayin' it, and I'm going to keep sayin' it, and Joe the Plumber, the liberals, I was trapped, they gotta do their job and vet the liberal views in congress, and that's that's what I was getting at....
Apparently, the following video from last October was just released by the Star Tribune:
From the Dump Bachmann web site
gregladen | June 29, 2009The best of last June
Note: Since writing this post a year ago, at the time of Scott's talk, I learned something interesting that I think it is OK to share with you. Prior to the talk, Scott has received an injury, which was causing him considerable pain during the talk itself. He left from the podium directly to seek medical attention. In addition, his power point slides and notes were destroyed somehow, so he gave the talk cold. And you could not tell. It was an excellent talk.
The Evolution 2008 conference started out today with a special program for K-12 teachers (mainly life…
gregladen | June 29, 2009
Intermedia Arts Presents
B-GIRL BE
:: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN HIP-HOP ::
Fourth International Multimedia Festival
Summer Camps -- August 11 - 14, 2009
Mama Said Knock U Out! Exhibition -- August 27 through October 23, 2009
Dance Performances -- September 17 - 20, 2009
B-Girl Be Block Party-- Saturday, September 19, 2009
art . dance . dialogues . dj . fashion . film . graff . history . media . poetry . rap
Minneapolis, MN-- After B-Girl Be's year hiatus and a challenging start to 2009 for Intermedia Arts, the organization and directors of B-Girl Be are proud to announce that the much-…
gregladen | June 29, 2009Eric Michael Johnson has a Bachelors degree in Anthropology and a Masters in Evolutionary Anthropology. He pursued his PhD in Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University before joining the University of British Columbia to complete a doctorate in the History and Philosophy of Science.
And he now blogs here.
gregladen | June 29, 2009I very recently reviewed Carl Hiaasen's novels. Among his fiction are two books that are written explicitly for kids. Looking just at Hiaasen's titles it may be hard to pick them out from the pack, so I'm making a special reference to them here. They are called "Hoot" and "Flush." Details follow:
Hoot
Roy Eberhardt is the new kid--again. This time around it's Trace Middle School in humid Coconut Grove, Florida. But it's still the same old routine: table by himself at lunch, no real friends, and thick-headed bullies like Dana Matherson pushing him around. But if it wasn't for Dana…
gregladen | June 29, 2009Following the excellent round of rocket photography by Steve Jurvetson, we now come down to earth with minerals photographed by B. Jefferson Bolender.
gregladen | June 29, 2009A racist arrested by chance at a railway station was "on the cusp" of waging a terror campaign using tennis balls and weedkiller, a jury has heard.
Neil Lewington, 43, had a bomb factory at his parents' home in Reading, Berks, and wanted to target those he thought "non-British", prosecutors alleged.
The Old Bailey heard he was carrying bomb parts when arrested at Lowestoft, Suffolk, for abusing a train conductor.
details here at the BBC
gregladen | June 29, 2009The novel swine flu has affected its one millionth American. The first death in England has been recorded (a 9 year old girl). Yesterday, the first Brazilian death was recorded. When we look at the map of the disease, note that many regions of Africa are totally devoid of cases. Just so you know ... this is not some special African immunity. This is simply because the global health network has failed Africa and we have no clue what is going on there, and never have had a clue.
A new wrinkle in the process for North Americans, possibly with parallels elsewhere, is the summer camp…
gregladen | June 29, 2009Skepchickcon is a Track at Convergence 2009. Convergence 2009 is one of those science fiction conventions where everyone dresses up as Klingons and such. I've never been to one but I've sure seen plenty of them on TV and in the movies.
Skepchickcon is a "Track," which means it is a series of panels and stuff integrated with systematic planned partying parallel to other "Tracks" at the convention.
Personally, I'm on three of the panels: Blogging Skeptically; Science Online, and Evolution 101. Plus I'll try to attend some of the parties.
Here is my schedule:
I'm less sure about the…
gregladen | June 29, 2009Time Pawlenty has become famous for his ability to be extraordinarily vague. Now we are seeing this in relation to the expected Minnesota State Supreme Court decision on the Franken-Coleman Senate election contest.
For the most part, Pawlenty has signaled that he will only sign the election certificate if he is instructed to do so by the court. He has implied, therefore that he will not sign it if he is not instructed even if the court has made a decision.
He has not explicitly stated which court he is referring to, but it seems that he is expecting that the state court may instruct him to…