gregladen | December 13, 2007From Dinosaurs and the Bible:
If you're living in or is near the Ontario area, go pay a visit to the Royal Ontario Museum to get a load of the unveiling of a huge dinosaur mount that was previously hidden in the museum storage and forgotten for 40 years until it was rediscovered last year by Dr. David Evans, one of the curators of the museum. A large Barosaurus skeleton nicknamed "Gordo" is going to be on display at the museum as part of the museum's renovated galleries of dinosaurs.
[source]
Go to Dinos and the Bible to get directions to the museum.
gregladen | December 13, 2007Scientists in the US have presented one of the most dramatic forecasts yet for the disappearance of Arctic sea ice.
Their latest modelling studies indicate northern polar waters could be ice-free in summers within just 5-6 years.
[BBC]
gregladen | December 13, 2007 173 medical staff from the emergency department of a Turkish university hospital responded to a questionnaire about domestic violence. 69.0% of the female and 84.7% of the male respondents declared that they agreed or partially agreed to at least one reason to justify physical violence.
[source]
This research is published in an open access paper on BMC Public Health. From the paper:
Violence against females is a widespread public health problem in Turkey and the lifetime prevalence of IPV ranges between 34 and 58.7%. Health care workers (HCW) sometimes have the unique opportunity and…
gregladen | December 13, 2007The conflict between Microsoft and the Rest of the World, this time represented by the widely loved if somewhat cultish Opera Browser, is being played out int the EU. Opera Software ASA has filed a complaint with the European Commission asking regulators to force Microsoft to allow users a choice of Internet software to use with it's operating system.
Oper also alleges that MS was stifling developing efforts in the area of interooperability by not following accepted web standards. Microsoft did not comment.
Norway-based Opera said it was asking EU regulators to apply the principles of their…
gregladen | December 13, 2007Fearless Mouse
In this undated photo released by Tokyo University's Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry Graduate School of Science, a genetically modified mouse stays near a cat in Tokyo. Using genetic engineering, scientists at Tokyo University say they have successfully switched off the rodents' instinct to cower at the smell or presence of cats, showing that fear is genetically hardwired and not leaned through experience, as commonly believed. (AP Photo/Ko and Reiko Kobayakawa, Tokyo University Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry Graduate School of Science)
[source]
... This…
gregladen | December 13, 2007Using digital techniques and INT Photometric H-alpha dohinkies, astronomers have generated a new picture of our galaxy. One picture is here (click below enlarge) and below the fold is the abstract from the paper in Astrophysics.
View full, very large version of this image
The INT/WFC Photometric H-alpha Survey of the Northern Galactic Plane (IPHAS) is an imaging survey being carried out in H-alpha, r' and i' filters, with the Wide Field Camera (WFC) on the 2.5-metre Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) to a depth of r'=20 (10 sigma). The survey is aimed at revealing large scale structure in our…
gregladen | December 13, 2007The Central African Rainforest (as distinct from the West African Rain Forest) spans an area from the Atlantic coast to nearly Lake Victoria in Uganda and Tanzania. In fairly recent times (the mid Holocene) this forest was probably continuous all the way to Victoria, and probably extended farther north and south than one might imagine from looking at its current distribution.
Within the forest are major rivers, including the Congo. The Congo River is the only major river in the world that crosses the Equator twice. This trans-equatorial configuration guarantees that the rivers picks up…
gregladen | December 13, 2007Never mind the debate on science. We've got a new approach cooking up here. It's all about sin.
A RADICAL Christian group with the ear of prominent politicians has blamed "sinful" Australians for the nation's record drought.
Catch the Fires Ministries, which has links to several prominent politicians including Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, has hired Festival Hall so 5000 of its followers can pray for rain on Australia Day.
Leader Danny Nalliah said moral decline, not climate change, was responsible for the drought.
"Australia has turned away from Almighty God ... the sinful condition of…
gregladen | December 13, 2007Too hot? There is more than one way to cool down a PC. Air is a great insulator, so having your PC in the air (like, where it is right now) is a bad idea. Stop doing that. Instead, submerge it in oil.
gregladen | December 13, 2007To distract you from all that damn Christmas music..
Toronto Father Beats His Daughter To Death for Cultural-Religious Reasons
Pope Launches Surprise Attack Global Warming Non-Deniers
US Likely To Scuttle Climate Change Talks
Enjoy!
gregladen | December 13, 2007Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council (a Christian Right non-profit "think" tank founded by James Clayton "Jim" Dobson) blames the secular media for home schooled Matthew Murray's deadly rampage in Colorado. According to Perkins:
"It is hard not to draw a line between the hostility that is being fomented in our culture from some in the secular media toward Christians and evangelicals in particular and the acts of violence that took place in Colorado yesterday."
Sources:
Colorado shootings blamed on "secular media"
Fundamentalist Christian Uses Colorado Shootings for Political Gain…
gregladen | December 12, 2007Director: Dominic Howes & Joel Weber
THE LISTENING PROJECT
Screening will begin at 7:30 PM with 84 minutes of film, followed by a Q and A with the filmmakers.
The Official After Party will continue right next door at Stub and Herbs where you can continue to mingle with the filmmakers and local film community. Fearless guests will also have the chance to have everyone listen to them, as they rock out to GUITAR HERO. Be ready to be aurally stimulated the entire night as Fearless Filmmakers turns TWO!
Who: Featured Filmmakers include Executive Producer Jim Pohlad, Co-Directors Joel Weber…
gregladen | December 12, 2007
Erase Racism
Carnival of the Godless
Gene Genie
Carnival of Political Punditry
Mendel's Garden
Philosophia Naturalis
School Politics and Philosophy
Carnival of Education
Oekologie will be hosted at Behavioral Ecology Blog, coming up SOON. Send in your submissions now! (This is mainly a reminder for myself, I've going something coming out tomorrow on Gorila Genetics and Biogeography ...)
gregladen | December 12, 2007This just in ...
Virtual world Second Life's chief technology officer ... has resigned. Cory Ondrejka... quit Tuesday and will depart at the end of the year.
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Philip Rosedale, CEO of the eight-year-old company, said Ondrejka resigned to "pursue new professional challenges" and said he and Ondrejka had strategic differences.
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Second Life has been criticized for technical problems - graphics that load painfully slowly on older computers, and bizarre glitches where avatars appear unintentionally naked....
Ondrejka has appeared in Second Life as the Flying Spaghetti Monster - [the god of…
gregladen | December 12, 2007A team of U.S. and Chilean scientists working high in the Andes have discovered the fossilized remains of an extinct, tank-like mammal they conclude was a primitive relative of today's armadillos. The results of their surprising new discovery are described in an upcoming issue of Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
The partial skeleton was unearthed by the group in 2004 and found to represent a new species of glyptodont--a family of hard-shelled, grazing mammals that may have occasionally tipped the scales at two tons. The newly described animal, which was given the tongue-twisting name…