We do not know if the airing of "13 Reasons Why" caused an increase in suicide or not, and that in and of itself is astonishing. In the world of very advanced techniques for collecting and monitoring data, and in a world that we are led to believe is on the edge of the next epidemic, you would think the suicide rate could be estimated on the fly, with minor corrections later. Climate scientists are able to assimilate tens of thousands of data readings taken multiple times a day around the world into estimates of global surface temperatures. There is a daily ongoing estimate that I assume…

I don't use clickbait titles very often, but this was one, because I want to talk to people who think that nine out of ten things that the collective known as Donald Trump, his white house staff, and the Republicans in Congress do is a distraction from ... whatever. Yes, distractions can happen, but most of what happens is not a distraction. The Trump administration is incapable of that much forethought and planning. When Trump throws trans people under the bus, telling that is a distraction is YOU throwing trans people under the bus. Here are some examples of the distraction meme playing…

I don't, and a couple of months ago I decided I probably wouldn't, because of apparent possible connection to Russian hacking. Check this out: There is absolutely nothing to see here.

I did some research on mice, and I thought I'd pass it on. First, though, let me suggest that you get some of this stuff. Use it to paint a symbol on each of your wireless mice that matches a symbol on each of your mice dongles. It will help keep you sane. You'll still find yourself constantly in possession of mice and dongles that do not match, but at least they will have these pretty little symbols you drew all over them. There is some interesting and exciting stuff going on with mice. Best but most expensive small mouse for general mobile use The Logitech MX Anywhere 2 Wireless Mobile…

And the cops cheered. Trump gave a talk to a gathering of police out on Long Island, earlier today. It went horribly. There are cops that are going to take Trump’s lead, take what he said seriously, and because of that, they are going to harm or kill Americans and end their own careers, destroying their own families and parts of their communities along the way. The President of the United States egged the police on to disdain their civilian bosses, and they cheered him. The President of the United States told the police that they should not avoid harming suspects, and they clapped. The…

Donald Trump has consulted with his generals and military experts ... https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/890193981585444864 and declared that Transgender individuals will not be allowed to serve in the US Military in any capacity because the Military has other things to do https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/890196164313833472 which apparently includes world domination will will be disrupted by the burden of transgenderness. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/890197095151546369 We'll see.

If you give your children over to the Boy Scouts for a day or two, they may do something to them akin to abuse. This happened. The Boy Scouts knew what they were getting into when they invited Donald Trump to speak at their national event. They even posted warnings for the troop leaders and scouts, on their blog. As a unit leader or staff member, you can help make the president’s visit a success by ensuring that any reactions to the president’s address are, as we state in our Scout Law, friendly, courteous, and kind. This includes understanding that chants of certain phrases heard during the…

John McCain has a good heath care plan, and if has his way, you won't. The Senator most often accredited for thinking for himself (that's a lie) will vote with Russian agent Donald Trump and the rest of the Republicans to take away Obama care. The moment he gets a chance. However, he can't right now because he is indisposed, recovering form surgery. We at Greg Laden's Blog wish Senator McCain a speedy recovery and hope he is well. But we also urge him to think about his privilege and not take access to the sort of health care he has from other Americans. Speaking of the Russians, The Looking…

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1776 by David McCullough is not a new book -- it was published in 2006 -- but I just got around to reading it, enjoyed it, and wanted to say a few words about it. But first my David McCullough story. You probably don't know Scotty MacNeish (aka Richard Stockton MacNeish), but you should. He ended his illustrious career in a car accident in the field (in Belize, if I recall correctly) about 15 years ago, but many years before that he started out his career by discovering the origin of Maize, identifying its site of domestication and the timing of that important moment in Native American…

First, a word about Arduino and why you should care. An Arduino is what is called a "prototyping micro-controller" aka "really fun electronic gizmo toy." Micro-controllers are everywhere. When you "turn on" a machine in your house, chances are there was already a micro-controller sitting there, running on a minute bit of juice from a built in battery, waiting for you to push a button. Then, you turned a dial or selected an option on your dishwasher, or changed the setting on your thermostat, or picked some alternative mode on your coffee pot, or shifted into a different gear using a "gear…

Giant insects can eat tiny dinosaurs. In this case, the giant insects are praying mantis, and the dinosaurs are hummingbirds and other small birds. In some cases, maybe most cases, this involves small birds like hummingbirds being taken at nectar sites (natural or otherwise) by introduced species of praying mantis in the US. Here's the info from the recently published paper: Bird Predation By Praying Mantises: A Global Perspective, by Martin Nyffeler, Michael R. Maxwell, and J. V. Remsen, Jr. ABSTRACT We review 147 incidents of the capture of small birds by mantids (order Mantodea, family…

At the moment, all these are anywhere from free to two bucks. The Darwin books are always cheap, the others are probably temporarily cheap. If you've not read The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, you should. It is always avaialable for next to nothing on the kindle, currently this version is 99 cents. Concerning his autobiography--written when Darwin was 59 and originally published as the first part of “The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin” (1887)--Darwin explained: “A German editor [wrote] to me for an account of the development of my mind and character with some sketch of my…

You've seen this horrid person in this horrid video calling for white people to take up arms and kill black people (and maybe Jews). In this video, the NRA calls white supremacists to arms against everyone. In so many words. The ad uses mostly dog whistles, so if your head is stuck deep in the sand, or up some orifice or another, you may be able to block out the message. But anyone with 2+ neurons to rub together and who has not been living in a cave for the last 30 years knows the exact meaning of "clenched fist" and "I'm freedom's safest place [gasp]" against the propaganda spread by…

People talk about resurrecting the Mammoth, the Dodo, the Quagga, or the Tasmanian devil, or any number of extinct (or mostly extinct) creatures. I'm all for that. I suggest removing cattle farming in Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana and adjoining areas of Canada, and repopulating the region with extinct megafauna. That would just be cool. There are difficulties with this, including figuring out exactly how to piece together the genome for the extinct animal, how to get a good level of genetic diversity in the neo-founding population, and how to raise the critter up from a zygote. For all these…

Part of the active effort to defend Trump and his administration and campaign against accusations that they directly engaged with the Russians to alter the outcome of the 2016 presidential election appears to be the faking of explosive documents, sent to news agencies. When these fake documents are then used, and subsequently discredited, the news agency, the reporters, the specific story at hand, and the entire investigation against Trump and his people all lose credibility. Here, Rachel Maddow reports on a document sent to "Send it to Rachel." Who is behind this attack? I assume someone…

It really is true that global warming has made heat waves more common and more severe. The heat wave last month that affected the American southwest was one of these. Yet, of the 433 local broadcast events in local TV affiliates in Phoenix and Las Vegas to mention the heatwave (which was current news at the time) only one event mentioned a climate change connection, and that was to downplay it. Similarly, governments are ignoring the connection. This is the people who are supposed to help or at least disseminate correct information, letting everyone down for, I assume, political reasons.…

Science and The American Experiment Click here to find out how attacking science is attacking the Declaration of Independence. Read this book to discover the link between science and democracy. We have Three Years to safeguard our climate, and the world probably needs America to take part in that. From the Striving to Kill Civilization Department Let's maintain all those racist symbols in America's national parks! A few hundred armed militia group members, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Ku Klux Klaners, supporters of President Donald Trump, and other self-described patriots descended upon…

I speak, of course, of America. America became very ill early last year when one of the two main political parties seriously embraced a fake candidate for the most important job in the land. America was given a very poor prognosis in August when that party endorsed this clown for president. Then, in November, the fatal blow happened, but as is the case with many fatal things -- being sentenced to death, being told you have incurable cancer, etc. -- it took a while before the death throes. From some point in time, around January, though the late winter and spring, we gained the full…

The Tesla Model 3 will have a 215 mile range. Zero to sixty in 6 seconds, in case you ever have to do that. Seats five adults. Five star safety rating. Uses supercharging (so, if supercharged, charges in something like the time it takes to fill up a gas car IF you also use the bathroom, pick up a candy bar, there's a few people in line ...). It cost the same as a lot of cars a lot of people buy: $35,000. It is 100% electric. You can't have one yet, but if you really one one and work on it you might be able to get one by the end of the year. The first ones out will be distributed to their…