gregladen | May 6, 2009... according to Texas education experts.
Of course, everyone in Texas is a moron. Apparently.
gregladen | May 6, 2009Many years ago, a sudden event occurred that changed everything. Or at least, that is what we think now. But in truth, the event took longer than many today believe, and many of the specific details, the exact order of events, the actual meaning of each detail, are not fully understood. Indeed, in the process of describing this event today, we find considerable disagreement, or at least, it is clear that one person's version is different than another's. I'd be happy to give you my version of it. What qualifies me to do that? Well, for one thing, I was there when it happened...
I refer,…
gregladen | May 6, 2009The press has been reporting that the swine flu is waning, and that it is not as serious as once thought. Well, they've got that totally wrong, as usual.
No one directly involved in this thought or asserted that the H1N1 swine flu was especially serious. They simply did not know. Being a very deadly disease that would spread quickly and kill easily was a possibility. Being like the seasonal flu in severity and pattern of spread was a possibility. For days now, people have been leaning towards the latter, and now that is pretty much where everyone is. The swine flu H1N1 virus is at present…
gregladen | May 6, 2009Have you ever:
... tried to order a BLT at Subway?
... been really hungry so your bones stuck out and you passed out now and then?
... given someone a sandwich so they could get through the next day?
Well, who cares. But do go read my latest post at Quiche Moraine on these topics. Thank you very much.
gregladen | May 5, 2009Keller has been one of the leading voices opposing the impact KT boundary extinction hypothesis. According to a press release from her university, she has more on this matter.
Press Release:
Gerta Keller, whose studies of rock formations at many sites in the United States, Mexico and India have led her to conclude that volcanoes, not a vast meteorite, were the more likely culprits in the demise of the Earth's giant reptiles, is producing new data supporting her claim.
Keller, a Princeton professor of geosciences, and several co-authors lay out the case in a paper published April 27 in the…
gregladen | May 5, 2009Erik Klemetti has an excellent description of the situation here.
Redoubt is WSW of Anchorage, Alaska but is otherwise, I think, pretty isolated.
Keep an eye on it here and here, via web cam.
Good thing someone is keeping an eye on these volcanoes!
gregladen | May 5, 2009We have been discussing the relative quality of support in OpenSource v. proprietary software, and I am reminded of some other issues that we've spoken of before. We had a fight here some time back (in November) over the question of Black Boxes in research software (I won the fight), a topic which has been touched on in the present discussion. The code has to be exposed. (see also this for a specific example)
Another argument we've had is how a system like Linux is maintained vs. a system like Windows. Developers argue about this, but the truth is that since Linux and most of what is…
gregladen | May 5, 2009First, write a reasonably good thesis. Write a brilliant one if you can manage. Then....
Give birth to the President of the United States of America!!!!
A dissertation written by President Barack Obama's late mother is being published.
Duke University Press said Monday that an edited version of Ann Dunham's anthropological study about rural craftsmen in Indonesia is scheduled to reach stores this fall. Dunham completed the study three years before she died in 1995.
source
I don't mean to sound snarky. I think it is a great idea for a number of reasons.
HT: Stephanie
gregladen | May 5, 2009That's "lesbian" as in "a lesbian person" not a lawyer who specializes in "lesbian law," whatever that might be.
Most people think Obama will pick a woman, in part because only one of the nine seated justices is female at present. But it appears that at least one short list is forming up that includes even additional diversity. The list of candidates that has been circulated by the AP includes Kathleen Sullivan, openly gay, who if memory serves would have overlapped with Obama at Harvard Law (he may well have taken classes from her).
Kathleen Sullivan, former dean of Stanford Law School.…
gregladen | May 4, 2009Which is great, because I understand we have LOTS of neutrinos here ....
The University of Minnesota and the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory plan to break ground south of International Falls today on a multimillion-dollar project designed to help understand the universe.
The NuMI Off-Axis Electron Neutrino Appearance Experiment (NOvA) will be the Northland's second detector studying subatomic particles being shot through the earth from near Chicago. Learning more about the mysterious particles, called neutrinos, will help scientists better understand how the universe formed and how it…
gregladen | May 4, 2009An interesting take on the Merk Maneno:
It's a safe guess that somewhere at Merck today someone is going through the meeting minutes of the day that the hair-brained scheme for the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine was launched, and that everyone who was in the room is now going to be fired.
from the bioethics blog
gregladen | May 4, 2009Congressperson Keith Ellison has endorsed Matt Entenza for Governor of Minnesota.
This is of general interest because of the role of the current Minnesota governor on the broader national scene, and of course, it is important to us Minnesotans.
Here's Enteza's web site.
gregladen | May 4, 2009Russia is planning a fleet of floating and submersible nuclear power stations to exploit Arctic oil and gas reserves, causing widespread alarm among environmentalists.
A prototype floating nuclear power station being constructed at the SevMash shipyard in Severodvinsk is due to be completed next year. Agreement to build a further four was reached between the Russian state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, and the northern Siberian republic of Yakutiya in February.
details
In how many ways is this a bad idea?
gregladen | May 4, 2009I just watched a movie that made me ROFLMAOOL about fifty times. Maybe a hundred times. You'll not want to miss this...
~-~-~-~-~-~
There are a lot of reasons that I love my friend Ana, and I fully admit that one of them is that she give me things now and then that make me happy. Like cookies. And hysterically funny movies on DVD. And more cookies.
But enough with the cookies. Lets talk about the DVD.
On a recent religious holiday, Ana gave me a copy of "... and on the 7th day, God Rocked." Yesterday, I finally got around to watching it. It turns out that this film is a…
gregladen | May 3, 2009Is software support that you pay for better than software support you get for free? Are you going to do better, for instance, with Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org Office when you need to fix something?
The answer is obvious. But still, many of you manage to not understand. But this can be helped...........
.......... CLICK HERE NOW.
gregladen | May 3, 2009The podcast for today's radio discussion with Fellman, Scott and Laden is available.
A bit about the history of the NCSE; cultural relativism in the science education movement; Greg disses bench scientists again; The appeasement question; A phone call from a famous Pharyngulistum; Science standards; Local control. The Minnesota Science Standards. An intelligently designed buffet and the question of "alternative curriculum."
Go listen, and come back and comment.
gregladen | May 3, 2009Lithium has long been used as a psychotherapeutic drug, and treatment with lithium demonstrably reduces incidence of suicide. Lithium also occurs naturally in groundwater to varying degrees. This study explores the relative amount of Lithium in groundwater and suicide in 18 municipalities in Oita prefecture, Japan over a period running from 2002 to 2006. There are two principle findings:
1) There is a negative correlation between standardized (adjusted) suicide rates and the amount of lithium in the water; and
2) It does not take much lithium to produce this effect.
The study reports…