gregladen | April 1, 2009Several very important events or finds are in the news this morning.
I've already reported the discovery of an amazing new rodent. In addition, the Volcano at Yelllowstone Caldera seems to have unexpectedly erupted. Details here. Non one was hurt, but activities on the lake will be canceled for the remainder of .... the Holocene.
Recent work in Evolutionary Theory, just published, seems to show that Darwin was Wrong about Everything. John Wilkins, who himself is walking proof that Evolution is Wrong (or, why would there still be gorillas?) has the details on this story.
Chris Rowen…
gregladen | March 31, 2009For implying, no, stating clearly, that you think that we run a crooked election system in this state.
On letterman. Film at 11. Or whenever I find it.
gregladen | March 31, 2009
Aprile Pazzo was about to call it a day when she noticed that the penguins she was observing seemed strangely agitated. Pazzo, a wildlife biologist, was in Antarctica studying penguins at a remote, poorly explored area along the coast of the Ross Sea. "I was getting ready to release a penguin I had tagged when I heard a lot of squawking," says Pazzo. "When I looked up, the whole flock had sort of stampeded. They were waddling away faster than I'd ever seen them move."
Pazzo waded through the panicked birds to find out what was wrong. She found one penguin that hadn't fled. "It was sinking…
gregladen | March 31, 2009Dean's Diner
For some reason, Susan didn't seem to like me very much. I have no clue as to why not. I was as agreeable as a kid as I am now as an adult. Whenever we would go into her restaurant, she would smile at my friends and then give me a disapproving glance....
Mike's Latest Post on QuicheMoraine.com
gregladen | March 31, 2009The authorities of the Russian town of Kemerovo arranged a special expedition to find the yeti habitat which was discovered by Google maps.
Recently there have been more than 20 claims from the local hunters who said they had seen strange creatures in the forests. These creatures resembled yeti. After the claims from the local hunters Kemerovo authorities decided to create the team of scientists for yeti searches.
The expedition turned to be successful. Scientists managed to find 'fresh' yeti footprints in the Azassky cave.
Scientists found two identical yeti footprints. One of them was left…
gregladen | March 31, 2009Scientists have reported a strange twist in the tale of Europe's harbinger of spring the Common Cuckoo Cuculus canorus. In a dramatic discovery, returning cuckoos have been heard and filmed calling with a highly distinctive variation of the normal call. The new call is best described as "Ooo-Cuck, Ooo-Cuck".
Bird Life International
gregladen | March 31, 2009The judicial panel that has been off somewhere deciding what to do about the Coleman election challenge has ordered 400 additional ballots opened and counted on April 7th.
If (and we do not know this for a fact) these are THE remaining ballots to count, them Coleman would have to get a statistically unlikely majority to overtake Franken's lead of 225 votes. I suppose this is possible. So I suppose we'll be sitting on the edges of our respective seats for the next week.
There does not seem to be any systematic meaningful bias in which candidate is likely to come out ahead in this group.…
gregladen | March 31, 2009Are there any concerned liberal-minded faculty or students at St. Cloud State in MN who can help us out with something? Email me. kthxbye
gregladen | March 31, 2009
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Note the continued threats of violence by the Right Wing. We continue to await word from the court.
gregladen | March 30, 2009Polycarbonate water bottles have received plenty of bad press for releasing potentially toxic compounds into unsuspecting drinkers, but there may be another culprit: everyday plastic packaging.
A German study of commercially-available bottled water found contamination by chemicals that mimic natural sex hormones. When the researchers raised snails in the water, they bred with extreme rapidity -- a warning sign that the chemicals were active. Contamination levels were twice as high in brands packaged in plastic instead of glass, suggesting that plastic was the culprit.
Wired Science
gregladen | March 30, 2009
Six bonobos, a species of chimpanzee, have died from a flu epidemic in a month at the Lola Ya Bonobo in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Ten more have contracted the flu.
These are apes in a rehab center, and apparently the flu (we'll assume for the moment that the diagnosis is accurate, but keep in mind that the term "flu" has different meanings in different parts of the world) hits hard and the animal dies in a few days after showing symptoms.
Details here.
gregladen | March 30, 2009
The caption of this photograph at The Guardian says only, "Nowruz celebrations in Afghanistan." Nowruz is the name of the Iranian New Year, which is celebrated in a number of countries by people of several faiths. The baskets of dried fruits eaten during the holiday provide the only visual connection to the colorful festivities, and you have to know more than the paper tells you to see that. For many viewers, this will a thoroughly conventional image of the Middle East.
How do you view a photograph when the ethnicity represented is the context? How do you view a photograph when the…
gregladen | March 29, 2009Check it out.
I saw you working out on that new machine," the personal trainer, folding towels at the counter by the locker room, was saying to some guy he knew. You see more trainers folding towels these days, what with the economy and all.
"The new machine?" was the reply.
"Yea. The wave."
"The wave?! Oh, you mean the thing next to the Stair Master. The Hockey Machine."
"... Ah, right.... the 'Hockey Machine ..."
The wave is a low impact aerobic machine that simulates shushing, like with skate-skiing. Apparently the guys like to call it the "Hockey Machine." Which it isn't It's "…
gregladen | March 29, 2009
OBJECTIVE: To establish if the 'myth' about whether the size of a man's penis can be estimated from his shoe size has any basis, in fact. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Two urologists measured the stretched penile length of 104 men in a prospective study and related this to their shoe size. RESULTS: The median stretched penile length for the sampled population was 13 cm and the median UK shoe size was 9 (European 43). There was no statistically significant correlation between shoe size and stretched penile length. CONCLUSION: The supposed association of penile length and shoe size has no scientific…
gregladen | March 29, 2009Hanna Rosin paints breast feeding, in a recent item in The Atlantic, as a social requirement for the privileged, a "no-exceptions requirement" and a badge of being a good mother. She also examines the possibility that breast-feeding is " ... an instrument of misery that mostly just keeps women down."
I dutifully breast-fed each of my first two children for the full year that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends. I have experienced what the Babytalk story calls breast-feeding-induced "maternal nirvana." This time around, nirvana did not describe my state of mind; I was launching a…
gregladen | March 29, 2009
A new study warns that cold-blooded land animals like lizards and insects in the tropics may wither as the world warms. "Cold-blooded" is the layman's term for ectotherms--animals whose body temperature is contingent on the surrounding environment, rather than internally regulated like that of warm-blooded creatures. They thrive in temperatures ranging from 68 degrees to 104 degrees Fahrenheit (20 to 40 degrees Celsius), above which they overheat. As the globe warms, researchers warn they may be forced to swelter in burrows and under bushes with little time to eat, find mates or rear young…
gregladen | March 28, 2009Well, I suppose we could go get guns and knives and bludgeons and just go KILL HER. That certainly would be a kind of ironic justice. But since we are all peace loving non violent types, I suppose we are going to have to make sure she does not win the next election. Whatever. But clearly, one way or another, we have to figure out a way to
REPLACE MICHELE BACHMANN!!!!
Which is what the Replace Michele Bachmann Web Carnival is all about. The new, revived edition of this carnival is up and it is known as:
Revenge of Daughter of the Replace Michele Bachmann Blog Carnival
Submit your posts…