gregladen | September 18, 2008The Carnival of Evolution is a new carnival, the second edition of which is here at Evolution Blog!
The next issue, issue nuber 3, will be hosted HERE. No, not there, here, right here on this blog you are looking at now.
Pleas send me your blog posts about your favorite topic, which is evolution, so I can put them in the carnival! Send them here, or use the Blog Entry Form here.
I'd like to post the carnival on October 15th, so please get me your submission by the 14th.
gregladen | September 18, 2008
8 Linux Laptop - The HiVision miniNoteby Charbax
For $98 [if you wait until October], you get an ultra-portable notebook with MIPS-based processor, 7" LCD, 1GB flash storage, 3 USB ports, Ethernet, SDHC card reader, WiFi, audio in and out, voice-chat, multi-tabbed Firefox browser support, Abiword word processing, Skype and Linux user interface.
Hat Tip: Joe
gregladen | September 18, 2008There was a DNC bounce, then there was an RNC bounce. Really, the RNC bounce was a Sarah Palin bounce. And now the numbers are back to pre-convention levels and the horse race begins.
Or was there another factor?
But seriously.... New polls.
gregladen | September 18, 2008I truly hate that Contessa chick who pretends to be a news reporter on MSNBC. Let me recreate a recent annoying interview for you.
The guest is an expert on taxes and stuff. The issue is the Obama plan to tax the wealthy.
Contessa sticks her lower lip out and sarcasticizes her voice a bit more than usual and says, "So, what about this? The Obama tax plan is to raise taxes on individuals with incomes of more than 250,000 per year. But I checked (lip goes out farther, head bobs a bit) and that is like 2.5 million people. Biden is saying 'Let's be patriotic, let's stick up for America…
gregladen | September 18, 2008I think it might be important that Barack Obama knows how to use email and John McCain does not.
gregladen | September 18, 2008http://i.abcnews.com/Travel/popup?id=4232823
IATB #84 A Beginner's Guide to Bird Blogs
Carnival of Evolution, #2
Carnival of Homeschooling
Carnival of Cool Homeschoolers #9
Tangled Bank #114
Carnival of the Recipes
Praxis Second Edition
gregladen | September 18, 2008The other day I was reading this really fantastic blog and came across the following campaign video. This is for Ashwin Madia, running for Congress in Minnesota's Third Congressional District. Have a look:
Is there something interesting about this particular ad?
Listen. My understanding is that if Barack Obama is elected as POTUS, he will be the first president in the United States of America who already, on his own, uses email.
Let that sink in for a moment.
I am probably typical of a scientist/academic, in that I was using email in the conventional sense in the 1980s (bitnet and…
gregladen | September 18, 2008The same man who said "God will protect us against gays" and who has done much more for repression of diversity generally in East Africa than the average person has gotten all hot under the collar (or somewhere) about women's skirts that end above the knees. He wants them banned like cell phones.
James Nsaba Buturo has also served in Uganda as Minister of Information where is he generally known to have been more corrupt than the average government minister in East Africa. Uganda generally needs to be (and I think mostly is) embarrassed by this guy. By the way, gayness is a life in prison…
gregladen | September 17, 2008Sheikh Muhammad Munajid claimed the mouse is "one of Satan's soldiers" and makes everything it touches impure.
But he warned that depictions of the creature in cartoons such as Tom and Jerry, and Disney's Mickey Mouse, had taught children that it was in fact loveable.
The cleric, a former diplomat at the Saudi embassy in Washington DC, said that under Sharia, both household mice and their cartoon counterparts must be killed. source
Hey, Regular Muslim People: Go tell your crazy counterparts to take it down a notch, OK? I mean, I agree that Mickey Mouse and the other mice must die and…
gregladen | September 17, 2008It what may be little more than a turf battle among members (committees, really) in the US Congress, a major piece of legislation supporting Open Access in research may be in danger.
There is an interesting piece about this in ars technica:
The House of Representatives has seen the introduction of legislation, HR 6845 that, depending on its final format, may significantly curtail or eliminate the NIH's ability to continue its open access policy. The current bill would prevent any arm of the federal government from making research funding contingent upon "the transfer or license to or for a…
gregladen | September 17, 2008
If you are a Republican and you don't think you look like this, think again.
Hat tip Joe
gregladen | September 17, 2008This is almost National Lampoon Vacation Movie funny, except that it is not funny. As five of you, who have read my piece at the new blog A Vote for Science know, the ultimate outcome of events ... and how society reacts to them ... may depend on the level at which were are set up to respond, and by level, I mean level in the hierarchy of government. So one of the most threatening dangers to which our children are exposed ... ice cream trucks ... are ignored. Meanwhile, Killer Clothing, which is actually quite rare, is under lock down at the Federal Level.
I have not even learned to "…
gregladen | September 17, 2008
A car bomb and rocket attack on the US embassy in Yemen has killed at least 16 people, including civilians and Yemeni security guards, Yemen officials said. -bbc
Why Yemen?
You might not know this, because the Bush Administration prefers you not, but Yemen is one of those places that is a major training ground and stopping off point for al-Qaeda linked (= can be hired by al-Qaeda at discount rates) groups. Yemen is more of a threat to US 'interests' in the middle east than Afghanistan, if we measure in numbers of crazy anti-US terrorists per cave or in absolute numbers. The entire time…
gregladen | September 16, 2008For a mere half a billion dollars, NASA plans to send a robot to the Red Planet in 2013.
NASA has selected a Mars robotic mission that will provide information about the Red Planet's atmosphere, climate history and potential habitability in greater detail than ever before.
Called the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft, the $485 million mission is scheduled for launch in late 2013. The selection was evaluated to have the best science value and lowest implementation risk from 20 mission investigation proposals submitted in response to a NASA Announcement of Opportunity…
gregladen | September 16, 2008I'm back from HQ and I must say phone banking is both frustrating and rewarding. Let me tell you some facts about Minnesota's third congressional district:
1) Nobody is home.
Well, OK, that's one fact, but a very solid one.
But seriously, Starting tomorrow and for ten days hence, Madia HQ has some super hot technology to make the phone calling more effective and efficient. If you've thought of putting in some volunteer time for Madia in the MN 3rd district, make contact with your contact and book a time!
Madia is a great guy, but he's starting to get a bit spooky with this technology…
gregladen | September 16, 2008Not enough people are visiting A Vote for Science yet. So we've got a special offer. Go to A Vote for Science and get your free LOL Kitten!!!!!
In the mean time, I'm off to Ashwin Madia HQ to wrangle up some votes.
You do realize, yes? ... that McCain has pulled ahead of Obama in the national polling? Because of Sarah Palin apparently? You knew, this, right? Let me ask you two questions?
1) Why am I putting a question mark after ever sentence? and
2) What are you doing to try to limit the chances that the yahoos take over the US in November?
Voting, in and of itself, is not enough…
gregladen | September 16, 2008What does the well informed American voter interested in the intersection of science and politics read? Well, not just read, but read to become more informed about current events and controversies. And, I'm thinking here of books that look at the science/politics intersection rather than how politics works or how science works.
I do not harbor the illusion that any one is really looking for something to read in order to pick a candidate or a party. That one of the parties is anti-science (mainly) and the other is pro-science (mainly) is well established. But one likes to become more…