gregladen | May 31, 2017Just a pointer to this fantastic, big league idea to convert Trump's tweets into eight year old script.
gregladen | May 31, 2017The brand new just published (June 1) book Beren and Lúthien presents the story of the human (or should I say "Man"?) Beren Erchamion, or "The One-Handed" (AKA Beren Camlost, for "the Empty Handed") and the Elf-maiden Lúthien Tinúviel.
If you read The Lord of the Rings you may recall Aragorn telling their story to Frodo.
This Man and this Elf-Maiden lived over 6,000 years before the time of the Lord of the Rings, and their story is told in several places throughout the LOTR literature, in books that, frankly, most people don't read. Christopher Tolkien, heir of J.R.R. Tolkien, and…
gregladen | May 30, 2017A statement has just been released by the White House, regarding President Donald Trump:
President Trump has a magnetic personality and exudes positive energy, which is infectious to those around him. He has an unparalleled ability to communicate with people, whether he is speaking to a room of three or an arena of 30,000. He has built great relationships throughout his life and treats everyone with respect. He is brilliant with a great sense of humor … and an amazing ability to make people feel special and aspire to be more than even they thought possible.
There are a thousand ways to…
gregladen | May 30, 2017Al Franken, Giant of the Senate By Al Franken. This book claims to be this:
From Senator Al Franken - #1 bestselling author and beloved SNL alum - comes the story of an award-winning comedian who decided to run for office and then discovered why award-winning comedians tend not to do that.
This is a book about an unlikely campaign that had an even more improbable ending: the closest outcome in history and an unprecedented eight-month recount saga, which is pretty funny in retrospect.
It's a book about what happens when the nation's foremost progressive satirist gets a chance to serve in the…
gregladen | May 30, 2017Installment # 1 is here
Without delay, here are four five star choices and four four star choices:
The Emperor's New Clothes, the classic story by Hans Christian Anderson, illustrated for the modern retro child by Virginia Lee Burton.
You know the story, so I won't give you a summary, and the whole point is the illustrations so you should just click through to see. (The graphic at the top of the post is from within the book, illustrating the overall reading level and quality).
So Few of Me by Peter Reynolds.
Alternate title: Calming the helicopter parent.
Leo's list of things to do keeps…
gregladen | May 26, 2017What, with all the attacks on science and scientist these days, we may not want to be focusing on those times when science goes off the rails and makes a huge mess of things. But, science at its best and scientists at their best, will never shy away from such things.
Dr. Paul Offit just wrote a book called Pandora's Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong, which not about an evil black dog that escaped from a box, but rather, seven instances when the march of scientific progress headed off a cliff rather than in the desired direction. People died. Many people died. Other bad things…
gregladen | May 25, 2017It is hard to find a good book for kids between the ages of 5 and 9. These are kids who can read, but at varying (and rapidly changing) levels, and who are too fancy for the little kid books (thick, big pictures, few words, boring).
Amanda and Huxley spend a lot of time figuring out what the good books are. They forage at two different libraries, they take home huge piles of possible good books, then narrow that down even more to identify just the best, and then, those are often re-acquired and re-read multiple times. We purchase some of these knowing that we can pass them on to the…
gregladen | May 24, 2017A little while back I posted this: Taking The Axe To The Environmental Movement: Resolute v. Greenpeace.
Some of you complained because you don't like Greenpeace. But that is hardly the point. Greenpeace has a history of working towards important goals and sometimes even attaining them, and there are a lot of whales that want you to lay off and give them credit.
Anyway, the point of that post was to let you know about a SLAPP lawsuit Greenpeace had been slapped with by Resolute Forest Products.
The long and the short of it is this: Resolute, if they get legal traction and win, are setting…
gregladen | May 24, 2017Did you ever hear the expression, "You're a real card!" Well, if you are a notable woman in the physical sciences, you just might be a card!
My sister has a project, and Amanda and my niece Koren and some others are involved, that puts notable women in the physical sciences on cards, with a bit of biographical information. The idea is to underscore women in STEM while at the same time getting cards! The long term model is to sell the cards to interested buyers, such as YOU, and use the net thusly obtained to get decks into classrooms.
So, here's what you need to do. Click here, and buy…
gregladen | May 24, 2017The Congressional Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has released their scoring of the Republitrump Health Insurance reform bill, passed recently by the House but not yet taken up by the Senate.
The OMB says the bill will leave 23 million more Americans uninsured by 2026, compared to sticking with Obamacare.
gregladen | May 23, 2017In The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction, Charles Lane describes the events -- several years of events including the Civil War and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, though only briefly -- that led up to the Colfax Massacre. What happened was incredibly complex and only a very detailed description can do justice. But, I'll try to summarize it his way: A war was fought over slavery, and slave holders lost. A conflict then ensued between the new, victorious, anti-slavery government and the racist pigs of the Confederacy, who…
gregladen | May 23, 2017Here’s why: All the available data strongly indicates that Otto will beat all the other contenders across state in the upcoming Governor's race.
Democrats have two major problems to face in 2018 and beyond. First, how do we win elections? Second, how do we remain true to our progressive and liberal roots?
For Democrats, 2018 is a must-win election, and Minnesotans have a lot at stake. Will the state remain the shining star of the North, or will it go the way of Wisconsin, and sink into a Republican dark age of union busting, environment polluting, professor bashing, service slashing, and…
gregladen | May 23, 2017Roger Moore just died, and you will hear that he was the third, or second, or fourth, "James Bond." He wasn't. Here is the list of James Bond actors:
Barry Nelson, who played in "Casino Royale" in 1954. This was an episode in the "Climax!" TV anthology series, like they used to do a lot.
Sean Connery is often regarded as the "original" or "first" James Bond, and in a way he was, since he was the first to repeat the role in several movies. But he was actually the second actor to play the role in front of a camera. He did seven Jame Bonds.
David Niven, who played also in "Casino Royale," a…
gregladen | May 16, 2017This collage herein is precious. I was thinking of constructing something like this myself, but there it was already made for The 11th Hour:
gregladen | May 16, 2017I had the immense pleasure and great honor of joining Molly, Nick, and Tim on the Geeks Without God podcast to talk about the recent mailing of a book and some other material about climate change to science teachers, by the Heartland Institute. This mailing was an effort to sow seeds of doubt about climate science, but the way they pulled off this little caper will probably have the opposite effect.
The Heartland Institute does not survive this conversation. No kittens or puppies were harmed, though.
Go Here To Listen To the Podcast, and Support Geeks Without God (not safe for work,…
gregladen | May 16, 2017Every single regular reader of this blog has read or intends to read Stephen Jay Gould's The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History. I just noticed that the Kindle version of it is available for $1.99, and I assume this is temporary. I already had the book on dead-tree matter, but I picked this up because ebooks are searchable! You will want one two.
Every single regular reader of this blog SHOULD want to read, or should have already read, Mary Doria Russell's excellent binary set including The Sparrow: A Novel and Children of God. (The Sparrow is first, COG second.)
Right now…
gregladen | May 15, 2017This is very simple, and it has more to do with the philosophy and marketing of operating systems than the technology of the operating systems themselves, though the technology does matter a great deal as well. First, lets have a look at how this ransomware attack was allowed to happen to begin with.
The vast majority of affected systems in this latest world wide cyber attack were Windows based computers that were not updated with recently available and easily deployed patch. The attack did not affect other operating systems, and Windows systems that had a recently released security patch…
gregladen | May 13, 2017I'm currently reading Paul Offit's Pandora's Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong, in preparation for an interview with him that I'll be recording later this week. I'll let you know about the interview, but at this time I can say that I'm very much enjoying the book. The publisher's description:
What happens when ideas presented as science lead us in the wrong direction?
History is filled with brilliant ideas that gave rise to disaster, and this book explores the most fascinating—and significant—missteps: from opium's heyday as the pain reliever of choice to recognition of opioids as a…
gregladen | May 12, 2017Its like this.
Only with Trump instead of Josh, and it is real life. Yet, less like real life.
Trump, remembering something about watergate, tweets:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/863007411132649473
and the Washington Post reports:
Trump suggests there may be ‘tapes’ of his private conversations with former FBI director
Trump experiences verbal diarrhea and says, "In fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should…
gregladen | May 11, 2017Automate the Boring Stuff with Python: Practical Programming for Total Beginners by super Python expert Al Sweigart is a pretty thick intermedia to somewhat advanced level programming book.
It covers how Python works, so someone familiar with programming languages can get up to speed. Then, the book tackles a number of key important tasks one may use a computer for. This includes working with Regular Expressions, file reading and writing, web scraping, interacting with Excel spreadsheets and PDF files, scheduling things, working with email, manipulating images, and messing around with the…