gregladen | March 27, 2008Bible scholar and NorthPointe Christian High School teacher Kent Dobson resigned Tuesday after he and the school board parted ways over Dobson's role in a Discovery Channel program, "Jesus: The Missing History."
"It was apparent to both Kent and the board that some of the views expressed on the program were outside of the Statement of Faith of NorthPointe Christian and therefore his resignation was given and accepted," according to a statement made by NorthPointe Superintendent Jim Hofman and e-mailed to NorthPointe parents.
Dobson, the 31-year-old son of retired Calvary Church pastor Ed…
gregladen | March 27, 2008
A California appellate court agreed Wednesday to rehear arguments in a controversial case that called into question the legality of home schooling, court documents show.
A statewide uproar began when a panel with the 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled in last month that there is no constitutional right to home school children.
The ruling arose following an investigation into abuse inside a Los Angeles family that home schooled its children.
The court agreed to rehear the case based on a request from the father in the family at the center of the case. The father, identified only as Philip L…
gregladen | March 27, 2008Accepting his 2008 TED Prize, physicist Neil Turok speaks out for talented young Africans starved of opportunity: by unlocking and nurturing the continent's creative potential, we can create a change in Africa's future. Turok asks the TED community to help him expand the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences by opening 15 new centers across Africa in five years. By adding resources for entrepreneurship to this proven model, he says, we can create a network for progress across the continent -- and perhaps discover an African Einstein.
gregladen | March 27, 2008Old books can be wonderful sources of information, ideas, and even inspiration. I collect them and sometimes even read them. Reading a 100 year old book in your field of interest is a challenge and can be a rewarding experience.
It is a challenge because it is dangerous. I worry that I might accidentally learn something that is no longer true. What if I remember it at some later time, like at a cocktail party or while giving a lecture, but don't remember the source: "... As is well known, flies spontaneously generate from certain forms of mud ..."
Repost from gregladen.com ... apropos…
gregladen | March 27, 2008Let us begin by noting that "Europe" is an arbitrarily defined geographical unit occupied for the last few hundred years or so by people who believe that "Europe" is the Center of the Universe. Therefore, this statement: "The earliest hominin occupation of Europe is one of the most debated topics in palaeoanthropology" is more about European Ego than it is about human prehistory.
Nonetheless, there is an interesting find ... of a hominid mandible ... reported in the current issue of Nature that relates to human prehistory in the region of Western Eurasia.
The mandible is associated with a…
gregladen | March 27, 2008The Four Stone Hearth #37 - The Pulp SciFi Edition is HERE at Hot Cup of Joe.
Four stone hearth is the Anthropology blog carnival.
gregladen | March 26, 2008Emetrece Productions
invites you to come 'sim simmer' with us!
"Sim Simmer Latino"
A special 'private party' free show to thank our friends and fans!
Featuring Maria Isa, The Kamillion and Omari Omari on the 1s & 2s.
FREE // 9PM - 12AM // 21+
Thursday, April 3, 2008
600 Washington Avenue North
"Sim Simmer Latino" presented by Emetrece Productions and hosted by Camel Beast House, is a special 'private party' free show to thank our friends and fans celebrating Emetrece's birthday. Hip-Hop, R&B, and reggaetón artist Maria Isa headlines with her live band along with rising Latin…
gregladen | March 26, 2008The following is not really a poll. It is just a picture of a poll. If you click on it, you will be swept away to the actual poll.
I voted for gnome but I like some of the other ones too. I don't like KDE.
gregladen | March 26, 2008A new NOVA is on the way. "Voyage to the Mystery Moon" is about Titan and the planet it goes around, Saturn.
Chronicling a bold voyage of discovery--the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn and its enigmatic moon Titan--"Voyage to the Mystery Moon" delivers striking images of these fascinating planetary bodies nearly a billion miles from Earth. Saturn's broad rings hold myriad mysteries, and Titan, whose soupy atmosphere is similar to the one that enshrouded our planet billions of years ago, may hold clues to the origins of life. In hopes of answering some long-standing astrophysical…
gregladen | March 26, 2008Anne Coulter sends me emails now and then (she doesn't know who I am ... don't tell her) so I get the inside anorexia, I mean, the inside skinny on some of the moves the hard right wing are making now and then. Astonishingly, very little of this is ever of any interest. But the latest tidbit is somewhat interesting. The righties are creaming in their jeans about the republication (which actually happened last year) of Sebastian Adams' "time line of history."
This document from the 1870s is historically interesting because it is one of the early "time lines" and it does reflect what some…
gregladen | March 26, 2008I have not read the paper yet, but there is a news report out. This will be in tomorrows nature:
MADRID, Spain - A small piece of jawbone unearthed in a cave in Spain is the oldest known fossil of a human ancestor in Europe and suggests that people lived on the continent much earlier than previously believed, scientists say.
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The researchers said the fossil found last year at Atapuerca in northern Spain, along with stone tools and animal bones, is up to 1.3 million years old. That would be 500,000 years older than remains from a 1997 find that prompted the naming of a new…
gregladen | March 26, 2008An investigation is underway into how a gun carried by a US Airways pilot was discharged during a flight.
No-one was hurt when the gun went off as the plane was preparing to land at Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday.
A hole in a cockpit wall apparently caused by the shot is visible in photos obtained by AP news agency.
Under a programme implemented after the 9/11 attacks, US airline pilots are allowed to carry guns on domestic flights following a training course.
...
The gun discharged just before noon on Saturday aboard Flight 1536 from Denver to Charlotte, as the Airbus A319 plane was…
gregladen | March 26, 2008Welcome to Berry Go Round #3, the blog carnival deicated to all things botanical.
The previous installment, Berry Go Round #2, is located here, at Further Thoughts. If you would like to submit an item to the next Berry Go Round, you may use this handy submission form. The Berry Go Round Home Page is here.
Let us begin right away with the Artichokes. Seeds Aside has a piece on the relationship between the artichoke and the cardoon, both known in ADL (ancient dead language) as Cynara cardunculus. The phyloge relatinship between the two, and the story of domestication for each, is very…
gregladen | March 25, 2008
Azores Bullfinch, known locally as Priolo, is confined to eastern São Miguel in the Azores, Portugal. It has suffered through widespread loss of native forest and invasion by exotic vegetation, which has largely overrun the remaining patches of natural vegetation within the species's breeding range. These funds will enable the continuation of crucial habitat restoration work to increase the core range of this species. The exact number of bullfinches is unclear. In the 1990s the population was estimated at 200-300 individuals. However, surveys since 2002 have indicated a rise to around 340…
gregladen | March 25, 2008Two lion skulls found during excavations at the Tower of London originated in north-west Africa, genetic research suggests.
The big cats, which were kept by royals during medieval times, have the same genetic make-up as the north African Barbary lion, a DNA study shows.
Experts believe the animals were gifts to English monarchs in the 13th and 14th centuries.
...
The two well-preserved lion skulls were recovered during excavations of the moat at the Tower of London in 1937. They have been radiocarbon dated to AD 1280-1385 and AD 1420-1480.
Rest of the story here.
gregladen | March 25, 2008I believe I knew before PZ Myers did that an Asteroid had been named after him. I heard it on the radio. and much later on he confirmed it on his blog. See this post.
[Correction: He knew, he was just being cool. See this.]
Curiously, PZ claims that we do not know what the asteroid looks like. He relies on a description provided by his arch rival, Phil Plait. Why would he trust Phil Plait to describe his asteroid?
Anyway, I went into the NASA archives (to which I have special access because of my work on the robot problem) and dug out a pretty clear photograph of the asteroid. Here it…
gregladen | March 25, 2008A "radiation" (sometimes called an "adaptive radiation") is when a single ancestral species gives rise to a number of novel species, often in a fairly short (geological) period of time. Following this radiation event, it seems often to be the case that subsequent speciation is less common. In fact, many living clades that have only a small number of extant species have such radiations in their history. It is quite possible that the radiation event occurred for reasons local in time and space, such as a recent extinction leaving various niches open, or the presence of a particular…