gregladen | June 1, 2008Or, is the Clinton Campaign painting that picture as a threat?
Are women being pushed out of the Democratic Party by latent sexism bubbling to the surface everywhere?
Or are women not strong democrats? (It has been argued that women elected Bush, twice.)
Or is this all a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy? (That's my vote, by the way...)
gregladen | June 1, 2008The Party's rules committee has met, deliberated, and decided to seat Florida and Michigan, but with only half a vote each. This is an odd compromise that serves to preserve and ruin democracy at the same time. it is a nineteenth century compromise that may be viewed as an anti-Clinton move, but in the end may serve to save Clinton face. In the short term Obama may gain (indirectly) but in the longer term there will be a cost for him.
And, the Democratic Party leadership of Florida and Michigan need to be ashamed of themselves. They have served their citizens very, very poorly.
But first…
gregladen | May 30, 2008 water spout Check out this series of photos of a water spout up on Leech Lake, Minnesota.
These were shot by Roger Underwood, of Ames, Iowa.
gregladen | May 30, 2008 Bill Thompson's Young Birder's Guide The Young Birder's Guide to Birds of North America (Peterson Field Guides) is a book that I highly recommend for kids around seven to 14 years of age. (The publishers suggest a narrower age range but I respectfully disagree.)
This is a new offering written by Bill Thompson III and published by the same people who give us the Peterson Field Guide to the Birds and many other fine titles. The book includes excellent illustrations by Julie Zickefoose.
A birder since childhood, Thompson says he would have loved a book like this one when he was just…
gregladen | May 29, 2008Is this funny, or is it sexist? Probably depends on who you plan to vote for...
[Hat tip: GrrlScientist]
gregladen | May 29, 2008 Mark Madden ESPN shock jock jock Mark Madden made the following remarks on his radio show the other day:
I'm very disappointed to hear that Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts is near death because of a brain tumor. I always hoped Senator Kennedy would live long enough to be assassinated.
... and thus, got his own ugly ass fired. [source]
Sharon Stone Sharon Stone, famous actress, made some remarks too. She
suggested last week that the devastating May 12 earthquake in China could have been the result of bad karma over the government's treatment of Tibet...
"I'm not happy about the…
gregladen | May 29, 2008 Adam and Eve with a couple of pterosaurs in the Garden of Eden before The Fall The whole issue of LOL Pterosaurs came up (here and here), so of course, I went looking for them. In the process I found something even funnier. This is a web site at Objective Ministries on pterosaurs in the bible. The picture here shows how pterosaurs were used to cover up Adam and Eve's private parts. And of course there is the baby pterosaur wresting on Eve's outstretched arm as she hides her apple behind her in the other hand. Adam is obviously using the grapes to distract the large goofy looking…
gregladen | May 28, 2008 Photograph of Francis S. Collins Just passing along the details from Associated Press:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government is losing its gene guru: Dr. Francis Collins, who helped lead the breakthrough unraveling of the human genetic code -- and found common ground between the belief in God and science -- is resigning.
Collins, arguably the nation's most influential geneticist, announced Wednesday that he will leave the National Institutes of Health this summer, to write a book and explore other opportunities.
The folksy geneticist helped translate the complexities of DNA into everyday…
gregladen | May 28, 2008This just in from NASA:
This image shows a ghostly ring extending seven light-years across around the corpse of a massive star. The collapsed star, called a magnetar, is located at the exact center of this image. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope imaged the mysterious ring around magnetar SGR 1900+14 in infrared light. The magnetar itself is not visible in this image, as it has not been detected at infrared wavelengths (it has been seen in X-ray light).
Personally, I think what we've got here is one of these:
But NASA says different. Their story:
Magnetars are formed when a giant star ends…
gregladen | May 28, 2008In Boy Scouts, a person must agree to sign a 'Declaration of Religious Belief,' in which he must agree that "only a person who acknowledges his duty to God can be the best kind of citizen".
Freecamp thought is an alternative where you don't have to sell your soul ... which is good, because you don't have a soul...
Camp Quest is crossing the Atlantic to Great Britain next summer.
The residential summer camp for the children of freethinkers, skeptics and humanists, is planning on opening a site in the U.K. in July of 2009. ...
Camp Quest was created in 1996 by the Free Inquiry Group, Inc. (…
gregladen | May 28, 2008Special Events; Summer Camps; Exhibits' Field Trips; Nature Play; Nature Tots
Read all about it:
BioBlitz
Friday, June 13, 5 p.m. through Saturday, June 14, 5 p.m.
BioBlitz is part scientific survey, part community event, and part festival. This year, BioBlitz participants will help survey part of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Newly acquired by the refuge, this beautiful land is a scientifically interesting site that is surrounded by the rapidly developing Carver County. The data collected will be used to help manage the site. Activities will take place all day. For…
gregladen | May 28, 2008Every few minutes I get an email from NASA telling me which button they've pressed on the Phoenix Robot, recently landed on Mars. And I'm only slightly exaggerating. OK, I'm exaggerating a lot.
The latest: Phoenix has been commanded to move its arm:
Scientists leading NASA's Phoenix Mars mission from the University of Arizona in Tucson sent commands to unstow its robotic arm and take more images of its landing site early today.
The Phoenix lander sent back new sharp color images from Mars late yesterday. Phoenix imaging scientists made a color mosaic of images taken by the lander's…
gregladen | May 28, 2008... But don't panic. Apparently, this is normal.
It turns out that bacteria living at the bottom of the sea are far more abundant and diverse than scientists had previously thought. These bacteria appear to be consuming the planet's oceanic crust. This raises several interesting questions regarding the interaction and co evolution of life on Earth and the Earth itself.
[UPDATED]
This is all according to a paper being published May 29 in Nature. According to one of the study's authors, Katrian Edwards of USC:
A 60,000 kilometer seam of basalt is exposed along the mid-ocean ridge…
gregladen | May 28, 2008Encephalon - 46th Edition
Grand Rounds, 4.36
Carnival of Political Punditry - May 25, 2008
Carnival of the Liberals #65: Skepticism and Politics
Gene genie #32 - googling the genie
Carnival of the Green #129
Carnival Of Homeschooling #126
gregladen | May 28, 2008 Lead What causes some individuals to be more violent than others? Obviously, being male is a risk factor for violence and more broadly for criminal behavior. The behavior of one's parents or other adult caretakers, as one is growing up, has been implicated in some studies as well. Poverty is an indirect factor as it can be associated with more direct risk factors.
A new study in PLoS looks specifically at one of several possible environmental factors linked to arrest patterns in general and arrest for violent crimes in particular: Exposure to lead.
Lead is a toxic metal that…
gregladen | May 27, 2008This:
Is a picture of Phoenix landing on Mars, taken from above.
One always wonders where the camera operator is during these things....
PASADENA, Calif. -- A telescopic camera in orbit around Mars caught a view of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander suspended from its parachute during the lander's successful arrival at Mars Sunday evening, May 25.
The image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter marks the first time ever one spacecraft has photographed another one in the act of landing on Mars.
Meanwhile, scientists pored over initial…
gregladen | May 27, 2008 A very large Azhdarchid shown with a human for scale. Azhdarchids were pterosaurs (flying reptile-like creatures) of the Cretaceous. These included some gigantic critters with up to a 10 meter wing span, but also some little ones (2.5 meters or so). Most reconstructions of these flying animals have them skim-feeding across the surface of bodies of water, grabbing near-surface animals with their beaks.
A new paper in PLoS criticizes this view suggesting that there is very little evidence in support of it, and offers an interesting alternative interpretation of Azhdarchid morphology.…
gregladen | May 27, 2008The Answers in Genesis Creation Museum of Kentucky is planing to expand. Some of the expansion will be internal ... the construction of additional kiosks. Some will be external, including the construction of a playground. All of the planned expansion efforts will be targeted towards children.
Ken Ham, director of the museum, also indicated in a recent interview that the purpose of the museum was to convert people to Christianity. This is something that should be noted by any public schools planning on sending children to this facility.
[source]