gregladen | December 17, 2007Warning: This site opens with a video in play mode, and it is a bit noisy. Normally, I would not link to such as site because I think that is obnoxious. But it is an interesting site.
Welcome to the Computer History Museum on YouTube. We're committed to preserving and presenting the history and stories of the Information Age. Here on YouTube we offer videos of the many events and lectures at the museum.
The site is here.
gregladen | December 17, 2007Today, in conjunction with the Creative Commons 5th Birthday celebration, Science Commons announces the Protocol for Implementing Open Access Data ("the Protocol").
The Protocol is a method for ensuring that scientific databases can be legally integrated with one another. The Protocol is built on the public domain status of data in many countries (including the United States) and provides legal certainty to both data deposit and data use. The protocol is not a license or legal tool in itself, but instead a methodology for a) creating such legal tools and b) marking data already in the public…
gregladen | December 17, 2007The Cost of twenty years of Reagan and Bushes has been very high. In about 1991, I wrote an article for a monthly newspaper in which I summarized the available data for Global Warming, and was very easily able to conclude that it was a real phenomenon with consequences already felt in a number of areas, a reasonably well understood mechanism, and a tangible set of solutions to work on. In 1997, the Kyoto protocol was signed on to by a number of nations (the US not included because of congressional Republican opposition). This month, in Bali, a re-run of something like Kyoto happened, and…
gregladen | December 16, 2007
Every few years a paper comes out "explaining" short stature in one or more Pygmy groups. Most of the time the new work ads new information and new ideas but fails to be convincing. This is the case with the recent PNAS paper by Migliano et al.
From the abstract:
Every few years a paper comes out "explaining" short stature in one or more Pygmy groups. Most of the time the new work ads new information and new ideas but fails to be convincing. This is the case with the recent PNAS paper by Migliano et al.
From the abstract:
Explanations for the evolution of human pygmies continue to be a…
gregladen | December 16, 2007Dec 16
Constitution Day in Nepal
Dec 16
National Day in Bahrain
Dec 16
Victory Day in Bangladesh
Dec 16
Day of Reconciliation in South Africa
Dec 16
Don McLean's "American Pie" is released, 1971
Dec 16
Ludwig van Beethoven christened in Bonn, Germany, 1770
Dec 16
N'oubliez pas les Alice !
Dec 16
Bonne fête aux Adélaïde !
Dec 16
Aujourd'hui, c'est la St(e) Ãvrard.
Dec 16
N'oubliez pas les Ãberhard !
Dec 16
Décembre de froid trop chiche
Ne fait
pas le paysan riche.
Dec 16*
3. oder 4. Advent
Dec 16
Beethoven geboren, 1770
Dec 16
Day of Reconciliation in South…
gregladen | December 16, 2007Creationists plan British theme park
The latest salvo in creationism's increasingly ferocious battle with evolution is about to be fired in Lancashire. Not in a fiery sermon preached from the pulpit, but in the form of a giant Christian theme park that will champion the book of Genesis and make a multi-media case that God created the world in seven days.
The AH Trust, a charity set up last year by a group of businessmen alarmed by the direction in which they see society heading, has identified a number of potential sites in the north west of England to build the £3.5m Christian theme park…
gregladen | December 16, 2007In New York City, a group of Jews were beaten by Christians, as an expression of Christmas Holiday cheer. One of the assailants was previously convicted of anti-black hate crime.
Bill O'Reilly has some strong supporters in New York City....
A group of people exchanging holiday greetings on a subway last week hurled anti-Semitic slurs and beat four Jewish riders who had wished them "Happy Hanukkah," ...
The four Jewish riders were on a train in lower Manhattan during the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights when they were approached by a group of 10 people who offered holiday greetings.
When…
gregladen | December 15, 2007I am amazed at the giddiness amongst Christian Fundamentalists that has fomented from the mere utterance of a holiday greeting by Richard Dawkins. The counter-insurgents in the War on Christmas ... the Red White and Blue, squeaky-faced smirking shits that call themselves commentators or preachers are creaming in their jeans. But they are also stepping over the line, and I'm calling them on it.
I do not really know or care what Richard Dawkins thinks, or said, about Christmas. I do know what I think and how my multi-canonical family celebrates the holidays, and I certainly know a…
gregladen | December 15, 2007
Fins into Limbs: Evolution, Development, and Transformation by Brian K. Hall, Ed., University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2007. 459 pp.
Reptile and mammal limbs and bird wings are all modifications of the original tetrapod limb that, in turn, arose from the fins of earlier fish. That original transition was complex with some parts of the original fin being incorporated in the new limb, others not. Subsequent modification of the tetrapod limb has also, obviously, been diverse, including the functional reversal that involved the forelimbs of the forms ancestral to whales, seals, etc. turning…
gregladen | December 15, 2007Otherwise known as Intelligent Design (the "g" is hard).
Billy loves science. So he's going to hell where the Nazi's live.
gregladen | December 15, 2007
This is actually a pretty good video.
The video concludes, unabashedly:
The positive impact of Darwin:
-Science became a respectable profession.
-Freed science from theological influence.
-Established evolution as a valid theory.
Negative impacts:
-Darwinism misused by eugenicists.
-Creationists wouldn't go away.
Here is a Senior Group Documentary created for National History Day (NHD) 2006, with the broad theme "Taking a Stand". Our specific topic ... all » is Charles Darwin and his stand for his evolutionary theory. Featuring original artwork and interviews! It won 1st place in Rhode…
gregladen | December 15, 2007The Four Stone Hearth Blog Carnival will be at The Greenbelt on December 19th. You should send your posts in any area of anthropology to host@fourstonehearth.net ...
The current Four Stone Hearth is at remote central.
gregladen | December 15, 2007Google is building its own version of communally-constructed online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which consistently ranks among the most visited websites in the world.
The Internet search powerhouse is inviting chosen people to test a free service dubbed "knol," to indicate a unit of knowledge, vice president of engineering Udi Manber said Friday in a posting at Google's website.
"Our goal is to encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it," Manber wrote.
"There are millions of people who possess useful knowledge that they would love to share, and there…