gregladen | February 3, 2008I'd like to point you to an interesting piece on teaching evolution in Florida:
Sometimes, Allyn Sue Baylor doesn't teach evolution in her science class, even though the state requires it. She knows of other teachers who duck the issue, too.
They fear a backlash.
"There are cases when parents have gotten really upset," said Baylor, who teaches at Palm Harbor Middle School in Pinellas County. "It's scary. You can lose your job."
Its an interesting article in the St Pete's times. Here.
Which reminds me to remind you. If you want your public school teachers to teach evolution to your children…
gregladen | February 3, 2008With all five school board members believing evolution should not be taught as fact, the School Board of Highlands County on Tuesday will consider a resolution opposing the state's proposed new science standards stance on evolution.
The proposed resolution states, "The board recognizes the importance of providing a thorough and comprehensive science education to all students in Highlands County, which the board believes should include the multiple theories regarding the origins of the universe and life on earth."
[source]
gregladen | February 3, 2008Ralph Nader has formed a presidential exploratory committee and said he will launch another presidential run if he believes he can raise enough money to appear on most state ballots in the fall. ...
...now with John Edwards also out of the race, Nader said he feels his candidacy is more urgent than ever.
"When Kucinich threw in the towel, now you have Edwards gone -- who's going to carry the torch of democratic populism against the relentless domination of our government" by "powerful corporations," he told ABC.
"You can't just brush these issues to the side because the candidates are…
gregladen | February 3, 2008There many ways of dividing up and categorizing Natural Selection. For example, there are the Natural Selection, Sexual Selection and Artificial Selection, and then there is the Modes of Selection (Stabilizing, Directional, and Disruptive) trichotomy.
We sense that these are good because they are "threes" and "three" is a magic number. Here, I'm focusing on the Mode Trichotomy, and asking that we consider that there are not three, but four modes of Natural Selection. This will cause tremors throughout the Evolutionary Theory community because Four is not a magic number, but so be it.
[…
gregladen | February 3, 2008Ed Brayton asks us to sign this online petition "...to keep the pressure on the state Board of Education to adopt the new proposed science standards as they are ..."
Please go do it.
gregladen | February 3, 2008Or at least, Caucus! (but caucus for Al, Really) It is sort of like going to the gym, but slower...Here's how it works:
Al's Site is Here.
The Caucus Finder is HERE.
gregladen | February 3, 2008Behold this humble passage by Darwin, which is what immediately follows his discussion of the octopus. This passage is a touchstone to several important aspects of what Darwin was doing and thinking, and is a poignant link to what Darwin did not know:
ST. PAUL'S ROCKS.--In crossing the Atlantic we hove to, during the morning of February 16th, close to the island of St. Paul.
Ah, sorry to interrupt. Saint Paul's Rocks are in the Atlantic roughly half way between South America and Africa. That geographical information should give you a hint of why these rocks are important!
"Hove to"…
gregladen | February 3, 2008Have a good time.
But you may want to have a look at this.
NFL cracks down on Super Bowl church parties
Hat Tip: Evolgen
gregladen | February 2, 2008The Google Summer of Code is a project run by Google which matches up ideas, programmers (focusing on students) and OpenSource development project to advance the technology.
Speaking at open source conference Linux.conf.au yesterday (Thursday), Google's head of open source programs, Leslie Hawthorn, hinted that the IT giant is evaluating a southern hemisphere version of the Summer of Code during the Australian summer months.
Stopping short of confirming the program, Hawthorn said Google is looking into finding the human resources - as opposed to the financial resources - to make it happen.…
gregladen | February 2, 2008
This looks like a photograph of a mountain, possibly a volcano, with natural drainage systems emanating from it. But it is not.
It is actually a large depression with numerous troughs emanating, perhaps, into it. They can't be erosional features because that would require some kind of liquid, presumably not available on this planet.
This is not the first photograph of a strange thing on the planet Mercury. We need to start doing some 'splaining.
Pictured here is a photo from space of Mt. Hood, near Seattle. You can see a similar pattern, but in reverse. So, I would propose that the…
gregladen | February 2, 2008Tatiana was the captive Siberian Tiger who, on Christmas Day, leaped out of her cave to attack teenage boys who were taunting her. She killed one of them. Zookeepers are investigating how she did it, considering the possibility that the wall of her enclosure was not high enough (technically, it was lower than recommended height by a short distance). Tatiana's leap has, indeed, has rekindled a long term dialog regarding zoos, and big cats in zoos in particular.
Now, a physicist at Northeastern University in Boston, has produced an analysis indicating that what did happen was possible.…
gregladen | February 2, 2008Solanum tuberosum, is an American cultivar related to the tomato and the eggplant (Remarkably, they are all in the same genus, but rarely to all three appear in the same dish). Potatoes, the lovely underground storage organ (USO) without which we would not have French Fries, or dipping chips to eat during the Super Bowl, twice baked potatoes, or Mr. Potato Head and his family, were domesticated by Native Americans in two local centers, one in the high Andes in eastern Venezuela and northern Argentina, and in the lowlands of south-central Chile. During the last half of the 16th century, they…
gregladen | February 2, 2008or at least, the US Space Age. And belated (sorry, The Space Age, please don't get mad at me!)
It was fifty years ago on Janurary 31st, 1958, when Explorer 1 was thrown into space by three Rocket Scientists (pictured here seconds before launch). Explorer 1 basically went up and then came down. Later, following the invention of the Rocket Launcher, similar efforts went higher, sometimes into orbit.
[source]
Here's a video:
I think this is very cool. Notice that they had a whole different conception of what a countdown is. Also, they take off at night, presumably to not run into the sky…
gregladen | February 2, 2008
"all human beings would like to be able to fly--not by plane or helicopter or oversize cannon, but strapped to a thunderous gadget with intuitive controls"
So, what's the problem with getting a functioning jet back off the ground? According a recent piece in Popular Mechanics, "everything."
First, let's get one thing straight. Most of these devices are not jet packs. They are rocket belts. The distinction is important. Rocket belts are gimmicks that emit steam (or whatever) at a high velocity for a few seconds so you fly around a little. This is essentially the humanoid equivalent of…
gregladen | February 2, 2008That's one way to turn French Onion Dip into Frenched Onion Dip.
A Clemson University Professor has tested George's Conundrum, also known as the Seinfeld Hypothesis of Germ Theory.
You know the story, and in case you don't, watch it here:
Double Dipping? 'Seinfeld' Was Right from PhysOrg.com
(AP) -- Keep an eye on the salsa this SuperBowl Sunday: A researcher inspired by a famous "Seinfeld" episode has concluded that double dipping is just plain gross.
[...]
This is, of course, a critically important topic, with the Superbowl scheduled for tomorrow. Some scientists suspect that the…
gregladen | February 2, 2008Of his time on the Beagle (1832 - 1836), Darwin wrote, "The voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life and has determined my whole career." Of the manuscript describing that voyage, he wrote, "The success of this my first literary child always tickles my vanity more than that of any of my other books."
An early version of "The Voyage."Taking a cue from these reflections, I'd like to spend some time with this book. To begin with, it is appropriate to clear up some potential confusion. Or if not clearing it up, perhaps creating it because you may not be aware of…
gregladen | February 2, 2008In two apparently independent events, a total of three undersea cables normally carrying a large amount of data, including Internet and Telephone signals, have been cut. The first two cables were in the Eastern Mediterranean offshore from Egypt, and the third cut, apparently a day later, is between Dubai and Muscat
There are conflicting reports of how the two Alexandria cables were cut. Oman's largest telecom, Omantel, said a tropical storm caused the damage while ...the United Arab Emirates' second largest telecom, said the cables were cut due to ships dragging their anchors.
Iran is said…