gregladen | April 7, 2008It is a little ironic that all nature enthusiasts know that it is "bad" to feed the animals ... they become dependent on the food, and in some cases will become a nuisance or dangerous, prying open cars or breaking into homes to get more food. Then the animal has to be put down or moved to a new habitat. But that sort of bad outcome is more common with, say, bears than it is with, say, chickadees. The irony here is that bird lovers, who are always nature enthusiasts, do not seem to balk at setting up bird feeders. In fact, approximately on half a million metric tons of seed is put out for…
gregladen | April 7, 2008Following up on our discussion of how it is OK to be an Atheist as long as you know your place, we find a classic example of the kind of thinking that rationalist non-believers encounter all the time, even if it is not spoken out loud. This time it is spoken out loud:
This is a conversation between atheist Rob Sherman, presenting testimony before the House State Government Administration Committee in Illinois, and Democratic Representative Monique Davis, last Wednesday:
Davis: I don't know what you have against God, but some of us don't have much against him. We look forward to him and his…
gregladen | April 7, 2008Police said William Singalargh, 27, had hurled the hedgehog about 5m (16ft) at a 15-year-old boy.
"It hit the victim in the leg, causing a large, red welt and several puncture marks," said Senior Sgt Bruce Jenkins, in the North Island town of Whakatane.
It was unclear whether the hedgehog was still alive when it was thrown, though it was dead when collected as evidence.
Story here
gregladen | April 7, 2008Louisiana now has an Academic Freedom Act in the works. Academic Freedom Acts are right wing ploys to force specific issues ... or more commonly, specific politically or religiously motivated version of issues ... into the classroom at various levels. Academic Freedom Acts also typically are designed to silence faculty who teach things that conservatives, evangelicals, global warming deniers, and so on do not want to hear.
From a commentary in The Daily Advertiser:
Gov. Bobby Jindal's first regular-session legislative plan is designed to help Louisiana schools train a better work-force. So…
gregladen | April 6, 2008
Grrrrrrrrrrrrr....
Welcome to the Lucky 13th Edition of The Boneyard ... the Web Carnival about Bones and Stuff.
"The Boneyard is a blog carnival covering all things paleo, from dinosaurs to pollen to hominids and everywhere in between. It's held every two weeks (the 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month), traveling around to a different blog for each installment, connecting some of the best blogging on ancient life."
The previous edition of The Boneyard is here, at Dragon's Tales. The next edition of The Boneyard will be Here at Archaeozoology. If you would like to submit an entry to the next…
gregladen | April 6, 2008We all know Genie Scott is hot, but I never knew she was THIS hot!
And isn't if funny that all those singers with British Accents don't sing (or in this case rap) in British Accents?
Hat Tip: PZ Myers
gregladen | April 6, 2008Catholic Ex Wife looking rather holy.The players:
Dad. David Ryan, atheist. Plaintiff, represented by Ed Kagin of American Atheists.
Mom. Susin Bisig, Catholic (That's her in the photo, wrapping herself around the cross, it would appear.)
Kid. Michael.
The question: Where does Michael go to school, a Catholic School where both he and his mom want him to go, or to an academically equivalent public school, where his dad wants him to go?
This is a case being decided in Kentucky and pertaining to state constitutional law regarding religion. The case was effectively decided several…
gregladen | April 6, 2008If you came here with the question "Is blood blue" or "Is blood ever blue" or "Is the blood in our veins blue?" then please visit this post: "Is Blood Ever Blue, Science Teachers Want To Know!"
Here, we look at the question "What does the term "Blue Blood" mean?
A "Blue Blood" is an upper classer, or one with new money, or nobility, or something along those lines (the use of the term varies, as is the case with almost all terms in any language, of course). The meaning of the term came up in discussion of actual blue (or not) blood, here. Well, I looked it up on Wikipedia and following is…
gregladen | April 6, 2008When you get a chance (but not right now, only when you have absolutely nothing whatsoever else to do) have a look at Matt Nisbet's latest thinly veiled attack on PZ myers*.
It is the usual crap. Atheists are not allowed to express annoyance, disgust, or anger, or to vilify, sillify, or nullify the religious, no mater how whacked-out those religious individuals are. If PZ reads this, he'll probably ignore it, but it is entirely up to him to respond (or not), if he does indeed view it as a veiled attack.
I just wanted to point out one thing about Matt's post.
The following comprises sections…
gregladen | April 6, 2008"A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism."
-Carl Sagan
gregladen | April 6, 2008
I have had this experience. I've traveled literally hundreds of kilometers by foot together with Efe (Pygmy) hunters in the Ituri Forest. We see very few animals. The few we do see are attacked, killed, and eaten. Well, a lot of them actually get away, but that is the idea.
But I've also traveled many kilometers (not as many) alone. I would see many animals, and yes, they would run (or climb or whatever) away, but not as desperately. They knew I was not really one of the hunters, although I tried my best to look tough and hungry.
Of course, when I use the word "animal" here I mean…
gregladen | April 6, 2008Charlton Heston, Ben Hur, friend to future apes, Moses, English King, has died at the age of 84.
In the words of Michael Levine, Heston's agent:
"If Hollywood had a Mt. Rushmore, Heston's face would be on it"
Here some footage of Heston getting stoned:
(... and meeting his ape-anthropologist girlfriend ... )
gregladen | April 6, 2008Quick! Send me your submission for The BoneYard!
I've got a bunch of good ones, but there is still time for more. I'll finalize it tonight.
gregladen | April 5, 2008"A fool is a man who never tried an experiment in his life."
-Erasmus Darwin
gregladen | April 5, 2008There is an updated version of this post here: "Is Blood Ever Blue, Science Teachers Want To Know!"
According to one of the leading experts on the human circulatory system, blood flowing through veins is blue.
I'm not going to mention any names. All I'll say is this: A person I know visited a major research center last year and saw a demonstration of organ removal and some other experimental stuff. A person also visiting asked the famous high-level researcher doing this work if blood was ever blue. What he said was not recorded in detail, but it was very much like this statement I found…
gregladen | April 5, 2008Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.
gregladen | April 4, 2008"I have no dress except the one I wear every day. If you are going to be kind enough to give me one, please let it be practical and dark so that I can put it on afterwards to go to the laboratory."
"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood."
-Marie Curie
gregladen | April 4, 2008A very important and truly wonderful paper in Nature described a tour-de-force analysis of the Mammalian Evolutionary Record, and draws the following two important conclusions:
The diversification of the major groups of mammals occurred millions of years prior to the KT boundary event; and
The further diversification of these groups into the modern pattern of mammalian diversity occurred millions of years later than the KT boundary event.
The KT boundary event is the moment in time when a ca. 10 km. diameter object going very fast hit the earth in the vicinity of the modern Yucatan,…