gregladen | September 12, 2008In many instances, a well thought-out regular expression can convince most non-technical people in the room that you're a computer genius who's brain possesses more synapses, forming more bridges and firing more rapidly than anyone's ever should.
Oh this is so true. The other day I was working on cleaning up some data with a colleague. We had two simple but common problems with our database, which had a few thousand records, and forty or so variables.
1) We needed to get a subset of data that included means for all numeric values based on a single factor (a factor = a categorical variable…
gregladen | September 12, 2008Well, not really lies, but untruths. As perhaps the only person blogging on Scienceblogs.com who has actually eaten an okapi (Okapi johnstoni), I feel the need to clarify some misconceptions that are floating around about this beast.
If you go to the Sb home page, you'll find numerous links to the current Okapi story, about how the first photographs of a wild okapi have been obtained, and how the okapi was thought to have been wiped out due to the current civil war. I do not have time to write extensively about this right now, but I'll make a few points.
First, it is not the case that wild…
gregladen | September 12, 2008"Flee Ike or Face Certain Death"
This is what is being told to residents of Galveston Texas and surrounding areas. I don't know if that is strictly true or not, but it is close enough that you should listen. Or put it this way: If you stay, and you are wrong, those last few minutes as you are being swept out to sea in the crumbling, tumbling remains of your house, unable to distinguish between sea and sky, choking on the salt water and being battered by debris, will be very, very embarrassing. Seriously. Go. Now.
Having said that, I want to make a few notes on what is true and not true…
gregladen | September 12, 2008I have a much larger post coming out about Ike and hurricanes in general, but for now here is a quick update:
Ike is going to come ashore between Seven PM tongight and Seven AM tomorrow morning. Since it is a very large storm, the most severe winds will be affecting a very large area.
You can already see bands of rain off Galveston in this radar image from ten minutes ago (as I write this):
click for most current radar
The estimate for the storm surge is such that if Ike comes ashore at just the right place and at just the right time and intensifies just enough, Galveston Texas will be…
gregladen | September 12, 2008Life Science Teachers: Take special note!
This is not yet an error in the mainstream press, but there is an error afoot, currently represented in the widely read slashdot, which I imagine will propagate. The purpose of this post is to alert you to this problem and prepare you for the occasion when you run into a wackaloon creationist waving their arms around and screaming "Carbon dating does not work! It's been proven." This story also has a Global Warming Denialism component.
What I'm going to do here is give you the basic facts, then the misinterpreted text.
We start with the basic…
gregladen | September 12, 2008The very outermost bands of Ike, which is a very large hurricane, are stroking the Texas coast this morning.
These outer rain band are actually affecting Loiuisana as well.
The center of Ike's projected path is Galveston/Houston Texas, and landfall of the eye of the storm is currently projected at 1:00 AM local time Saturday morning. Ike is currently a Category Two storm and will strength during the day today (Friday) to a Category Three storm, and so will come ashore as a major hurricane. This exact track can change but the forecasters are saying that the models are all agreeing, so…
gregladen | September 11, 2008I know that by blogospheric standards this is ancient but I just came across this particular video and thought I'd share (This is from yesterday).
Hat Tip: Minnesota Campaign Report
gregladen | September 11, 2008Boob ogling is not the only place where male power brokering and sexual politics play out. It turns out that when the crazy Republicans at the RNC were shouting "Drill Baby Drill" they were not merely making an inappropriate (for prime time) sexual reference about oil drilling, they were (inadvertently?) describing what Republican Appointed oil industry regulators are actually doing.
An Interior Department investigation describing a "culture of substance abuse and promiscuity" by workers at the agency that issues offshore drilling leases and collects royalties hit lawmakers Wednesday just…
gregladen | September 11, 2008The Minnesota Science Standards are currently in the process of review and updating. This is what the governor of Minnesota thinks. He's wrong about the "local" thing. He is such a ball-less ass. Oh, I so wish he was in Palin's position. Maybe.
If you are in Minnesota and want to provide your feedback on the standards, and you are not Tim Pawlenty, please click here. If you ARE Tim Pawlenty, bite me.
gregladen | September 11, 2008Some time Friday night or even late after noon on Friday, you can expect hurricane force winds from Hurricane Ike to affect the Texas coast, possibly not too far from Galveston/Houston. Note, however, that the Hurricane is still pretty far out at sea and it is just now beginning a slow right turn that is expected to get more curvy over the next 48 hours. So, the exact location of land fall of the eye is very difficult to predict. Note also that Ike is very large, and has unusually strong winds in places somewhat far from the eye. The strength of the hurricane at landfall will be Category…
gregladen | September 11, 2008 One of the earliest preserved and apparently still funcitonal condoms.
Liberal (as in liberal philosophy) policies such as family planning and feminism, universal health care, support of and respect for scientific research, universal and high quality education, and the rejection -- even within a relatively conservative society -- of conservative beliefs as well as personal and institutional level selfish behaivor should be among the primary values of any country that wishes to succeed in the basic objectives of the pursuit of happiness and freedom. According to this graph:
But this…
gregladen | September 10, 2008Your computer breaks. You are a Microsoft user. So you call technical support.
You: My desktop isn't displaying anything but a error message
John: I am sorry to hear that, what seems to be the problem.
You: My screen is displaying an error message.
John: I am very sorry to hear that, I would like you to reboot.
You: I just did.
John: I am very sorry to hear that, I would like you to reboot.
You: Really, why? I just rebooted.
John: I am very sorry to hear that, I would like you to reboot.
You: Can you just tell me problem that might cause that error?
John (long pause): Please hold I must get…
gregladen | September 10, 2008The same way, more or less, that Bush beat Gore:
Part I
Part II
See this.
gregladen | September 10, 2008In 1992, McCain sparred with Dolores Alfond, the chairwoman of the National Alliance of Families for the Return of America's Missing Servicemen and Women, at a Senate hearing. McCain's prosecutorlike questioning of Alfond - available on YouTube - left her in tears.
Four years later, at her group's Washington conference, about 25 members went to a Senate office building, hoping to meet with McCain. As they stood in the hall, McCain and an aide walked by.
... McCain waved his hand to shoo away Jeannette Jenkins, whose cousin was last seen in South Vietnam in 1970, causing her to hit a wall.
As…
gregladen | September 10, 2008Well, not the actual Scientology, but rather, the Anti-Scientology videos that had been pulled.
According to The Standard,
YouTube may be rethinking their process for handling DMCA takedown notices this week, after receiving thousands of bogus notices alleging illegal content on the site. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), over a period of 12 hours, from Thursday night to Friday morning, YouTube received over 4000 notices, all for content critical of the Church of Scientology.
The notices were sent from an organization by the name of American Rights Counsel, LLC.…
gregladen | September 10, 2008From the Wall Street Journal:
The biggest project that Sarah Palin undertook as mayor of this small town was an indoor sports complex, where locals played hockey, soccer, and basketball, especially during the long, dark Alaskan winters.
The only catch was that the city began building roads and installing utilities for the project before it had unchallenged title to the land. The misstep led to years of litigation and at least $1.3 million in extra costs for a small municipality with a small budget. What was to be Ms. Palin's legacy has turned into a financial mess that continues to plague…