gregladen | April 24, 2008Linux is more than grandma-ready. Linux is by far the preferred operating system for most grandmas.
The other day graduates of my UMN degree program presentations of their work. One of the students had borrowed a laptop from the UMN unit she worked for to give an on screen presentation. She had borrowed a Windows XP computer the week before for the practice session, and everything went fine. But this time, with the same computer, same software, same presentation, etc. she could not get it working.
At the last second, I whipped out my laptop, booted it up, we threw her presentation on…
gregladen | April 23, 2008But plans for the Institute for Creation Research Masters Degree in Creationistic Biology for High School Teachers is out of Texas.
Members of the Academic Excellence and Research Committee and the Participation and Success Committee voted unanimously to approve the recommendation of Raymund Paredes, the state's commissioner of higher education, not to approve the Institute's application. The full Coordinating Board will vote on the committees' recommendation on Thursday.
"The issue before the Coordinating Board isn't about academic freedom or free speech. The issue is whether the state…
gregladen | April 23, 2008Never mind why this joke exists. It just does. And I thought I'd share it:
How many feminists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
The very choice of patritypical hyper macho sexual imagery in reference to what one might do with a light bulb exposes a deeply held and hegemonic bias objectifying the light bulb as both passive, willing victim and as compliant proxy for the colonial fate of southern hemisphere alterity.
gregladen | April 23, 2008The Institute for Creation Research (ICR) has, some time ago, filed for approval to run a masters degree program in life science education. The purpose of the degree is to train educators to present biology in a way that is consistent with Christian Biblical beliefs, as opposed to actual scientific knowledge. The Texas board in charge of these matters is taking the proposal under consideration this week. (Please sign the petition linked below!)
The Texas Freedom Network has recently conducted a survey of Texas colleges and university faculty to get their opinions on this proposal.
The…
gregladen | April 23, 2008A bill designed to make it easier to introduce creationism into public school classrooms has passed in the Florida Senate by a 21 to 17 vote margin. The bill was proposed by Senator Ronda Storms, Republican, and is modeled after a template provided by the Discovery Institute.
Storms filed the bill shortly after the State Board of Education adopted new science standards that require for the first time the teaching of evolution. That was a controversial decision that upset many residents who argued evolution was unproven, in conflict with their religious beliefs -- or both.
But Storms said…
gregladen | April 23, 2008Despite the fact that the producers of Expelled! have the most nefarious of motives in mind, and that we can expect more from them (we are waiting for the other shoe to drop), it is interesting to note how many conversations this documentary about Intelligent Design Creationism has sparked. Ultimately, the intended purpose of Expelled! is to silence real scientists and set back scientific research that is on the verge of filling one of the most important "gaps" in which the Christian God of the theistic evolutionist currently lives. In the long run, conversations that arise from movies like…
gregladen | April 23, 2008Evolving in Kansas provides a lie-fighting fact revealing review of Expelled!'s showing in Iowa.
The film debuted at the Varsity Theater in Ames, Iowa on Friday night (April 18). Ames is important because it is the home of Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez, the pro-ID astronomer, who lost his tenure bid at Iowa State. He contends that it was purely because of his Intelligent Design work, while his opponents contend that ID either was not a factor or it was not the most important factor.
In any case, the headline of the Discovery Institute reads "Expelled in Iowa gives Standing Ovation to Persecuted…
gregladen | April 22, 2008Now that Expelled! No Intelligence Allowed, the movie, exists, we wait not so quietly for the other shoe to drop. I'll tell you in a moment what that other shoe is going to look like and where it is going to drop. First I want to make a couple of topically linked but otherwise discombobulated comments.
First, I want to express my heartfelt warm fuzzies for all those of you who have come out to tell me "Yes, Greg, you are an asshole, but that's OK. In fact, it's what we love about you" and shit. Appreciate it.
Second, you did notice that the take for Expelled! fell short of the expected…
gregladen | April 22, 2008Matching donations/memberships for the National Center for Science Education... still 75 bucks left as of this writing!
Check it out.
What a great idea!
gregladen | April 22, 2008Chris Mooney has made an "appeal to authority" (Randy Olson) in asserting that Expelled is a success by Hollywood standards, and this may be correct. PZ Myers and his comet tail may have increased that success as per Mooney's Framing TOE, but the reverse is also true: the science blogging share of the blogosphere has expanded and participation in that community has significantly increased. Oh, and nobody understands me.
What Chris actually does is to cite Olson, who in turn makes the argument. One could ask why Chris did not make the argument himself because the argument should stand on…
gregladen | April 21, 2008
Happy Earth Day, Earth! Do you recognize any of these locations?
A:
B:
C:
D:
gregladen | April 21, 2008The democratic party is polling tomorrow in Pennsylvania. The conventional wisdom says that there is a number of percentage points reflecting Clinton's expected win above which this would truly count as a win for her, and below which it could be perceived as a victory for Obama. If Obama "wins" in this election, things could change quickly with Clinton being seen as heading for the door. However, a win is a win, and even a small margin for Clinton may be seen by the Clinton campaign as, well, what it would be, to be fair: Winning Pennsylvania. Were Obama to actually, numerically, win the…
gregladen | April 21, 2008
Watching wolves, moose -- and heat -- on Michigan island from PhysOrg.com
(AP) -- Ignoring our observation plane circling above the frozen Lake Superior wilderness, the eight gray wolves seemed as harmless as your beloved pooch cavorting with its pals in the yard. Trotting along Siskiwit Bay, they playfully nipped and pawed each other, pausing occasionally to roll in the snow.
[...]
Humane Society files emergency appeal for sea lions in Ore. from PhysOrg.com
(AP) -- An animal rights group isn't giving up on blocking the government and two states from harming California sea lions that…
gregladen | April 21, 2008[hat tip]
OK we have room for one engineer joke:
A mathmatician, a physicist, and an engineer were all given a red rubber ball and told to find the volume.
The mathmatician carefully measured the diameter and evaluated a triple integral.
The physicist filled a beaker with water, put the ball in the water, and measured the total displacement.
The engineer looked up the model and serial numbers in his red-rubber-ball table.
gregladen | April 20, 2008Chris Mooney, who every day seems to transmogrify more and more into a creationist apologist, makes the case that Expelled! is a box office success. He seems almost giddy about it in his post on the topic. I'm sure Chris will be blaming PZ Myers, me, the rest of us people for part of this. But see below.
Elsewhere, and in contrast, we find evidence that Expelled is "on track to be a box-office bomb" (from Laelaps).
There is other evidence of Expelled! lack of success.
Playing in 1,052 theaters, the pic distributed by Rocky Mountain Pictures earned $1.2M Friday for what should be a $3.4M…
gregladen | April 20, 2008I have to confess that I really like Sim City. I have not touched it since I started blogging .... but I have many fond memories of firing all the hospital workers and unleashing tornadoes on wealthy neighborhoods, or using the terraforming tools to build landscape with a barely hidden but rich geological history then paving it over with suburbs, slums, and mixed used residential projects.
But somehow, having all this power is a little unsatisfying. Maybe it would be more fun to be ... I dunno, maybe ....
God!
Well, Will Wright, who invented The Sims, starting this whole thing out, has…
gregladen | April 20, 2008... I'm talking about the "office suite" known as Microsoft Works. I'm not suggesting that Microsoft works.
Increasingly, more an more people don't know what Microsoft Works is because it has fallen into increasing obscurity. It is a kind of office suite that has a word processor, spread sheet, and maybe some other stuff. It is very inexpensive compared to, say MS Office.
In years gone by I've taught a number of classes designed for High School Teachers. I discovered that a lot of teachers used MS Works. I discovered this the hard way when I started receiving assignments and other…