gregladen | May 6, 2008Willie Zeit (or whatever his name is) is very, very annoying. So I hesitate to show this. But religion is even more annoying. Therefore, I show this (only the first bit is essential).
It is conceivable that this is the most fun these kids will be having for a long time. At least they are not getting any body parts sliced off.
gregladen | May 6, 2008The Myanmar/Burma death toll is now experiencing the usual effects of poor information, limited reporting, and the outcome of being stuck between sensationalism and horror.
Most agencies are reporting 22,000 dead with twice that missing. I do think that these numbers are meaningless at this point, as the Junta government can't be trusted to be able to deliver this sort of information, and aid agencies are only now arriving on the scene.
About 50 million people live in the country,
The main cause of death appears to have been a storm surge that swept across towns and villages in the low…
gregladen | May 5, 2008Oh, I forgot ... that radio appearance was not free. I waived my usual fee of $1,500 per appearance in lieu of the following really cool gift from Minnesota Atheists:
(click the card to get yours!)
gregladen | May 5, 2008I'm talking about the May 4th Podcast of Atheist Talk, from the Minnesota Atheists. The first half was an interview of Lois Schadewald, editor of her brother's posthumous work "Worlds of their Own" ... a book of essays on pseudoscience.
The second half was an interview of Yours Truly by Mike Haubrich on "Academic Freedom" and stuff.
You have to understand that I did this interview against the advice of medical professionals, with a severe case of near-laryngitis. ... so no, that is not actually my voice .... plus I had a fever and was heavily drugged. And not enough coffee. And I was…
gregladen | May 5, 2008... This is one of several interesting questions being asked by Bitch writer Maya Schenwar in: Learning Curve ... Radical "unschooling" moms are changing the stay-at-home landscape.
From the article:
Not long ago, homeschooling was thought of as the domain of hippie earth mothers letting their kids "do their own thing" or creationist Christians shielding their kids from monkey science and premarital sex. ...
These days ... parents are homeschooling for secular reasons as well as faith-based ones: quality of education, freedom to travel, their kids' special needs, or simply a frustration…
gregladen | May 5, 2008Linux is not for everyone.
Linux is an operating system that is idea for people who need their computers for important tasks, require reliability, and who do not need the hand holding and eye candy that some of the other operating systems seem to focus on. In short, Linux is for people who are smarter and more serious than average.....
Offended? You must be a Mac or Windows user!
Whether or not what I say above is true is not important. I did want to show you something, though. The following are two lists provided in a recent post called "How to Mke People Love Linux." This is just a…
gregladen | May 5, 2008This is in Myanmar, where a repressive military government has yet to allow relief workers mustering now in nearby Thailand to enter the country to lend assistance.
Cyclone Nargis made land fall Saturday in southern Myanmar in the vicinity of Labutta with sustained winds of up to 120 mph. It is only now being reported to any significant degree, even though it was clear that this would be a major disaster even before land fall.
"Reports are coming out of the delta coast, particularly the Irrawaddy region, that in some villages up to 95 percent of houses have been destroyed," said Matthew…
gregladen | May 5, 2008I woke up to an icky world this morning. After painfully clearing my lungs and scarfing down some medication, I scanned the TV channels for news. and the blogosphere for inspiration. The TV was giving me mainly god, while the blogosphere was giving me measles, pandemics, murdered sea lions, and this poor eagle with its beak snapped off.
TV land was still in it's pre-day stage (which runs an hour later here in the Midwest). Therefore, fully half or more of the stations were busy peddling Christianity. I learned that it was easier to accept faith and know that God has a plan than to…
gregladen | May 2, 2008On May third, 1978, Gary Thuerk, working for the Digital Equipment Corporation Marketing Department, sent 393 unsolicited emails to users of Arpanet (arpanet would eventually become The Internet).
Thuerk and Digitial Equipment Corporation were both chastised for this, and the official Arpanet administrators reprimanded DEC. Nobody liked the fact that Gary Thuerk had done this, and it was all round considered to be a bad idea, an abuse of the system, and something that should never happen again.
Check out this page at New Scientist, on Spam.
Also on this day, in 1491 Kongo leader Nkuwu…
gregladen | May 2, 2008I've been laid up with a nasty disease the last few days, so I've not been doing much productive. But I have gotten some TV watching in.
Just in time, too. Has anyone else noticed that House (last night) and Numbers (tonight, in fact, airing this very moment) contain thinly veiled attacks on Intelligent Design, Expelled, and/or Ben Stein?
gregladen | May 2, 2008I almost literally grew up in the shadow of the Albany Medical Center. Many of my family members were at one time or another employed there, perhaps cleaning the floor while in high school or in a clerical position as a part time job, etc. I have been in and out of the emergency room there countless times (though hardly ever as the patient). Some of my favorite stories begin or end at AMC.
Well, I never realized it before, but the Albany Medical College (part of the center) has a thing called the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research which is, according to many,…
gregladen | May 2, 2008I was just recently annoyed by a large female human bosom with a cat on it. Never mind the details. Anyway, I looked into it and discovered this:
gregladen | May 2, 2008Boo!
...
That scurrying sound you hear is the pitter-patter of libertarian homeschoolers running to their battle stations. These are the people who make home schooling ... which isn't such a bad idea in some cases ... a bad idea. All the time.
This is a community of people who claim to represent a sizable proportion of home schoolers. If that is true, perhaps home schooling should be shut down as an unregulated, unsupervised practice right now. Or maybe I'm just over reacting. I'm just a bit concerned over the inability to converse normally or reason clearly, the reactionary nature of…