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The effects of windmills and other clean energy on birds

I've been collecting information on this topic for a while, and yesterday, I sat down to write a post that would clarify the question of the impacts of windmills on bird populations. It turns out, however, that I was totally unsatisfied with the available data on everything from windmills to building strikes to cats, so instead I wrote a post making that very point: We really have no idea. This is an interesting and important problem, though, so it is worth having a conversation about. The post is here: "How many birds are killed by windmills and other green energy projects?"

Weekend Diversion: VOTE FOR ME!

"In science, 'fact' can only mean 'confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.' I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms." -Stephen Jay Gould It's been almost three years since I started science writing, and almost two years since I moved over here, to ScienceBlogs. And together, you and I have been through over five hundred posts, nearly ten thousand comments, and more than two million pageviews. No one can take that away from us, just like Billie Holiday sings: They…

Weekend Diversion: Happy 70th, John Lennon

"If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that... I believe in what I do, and I'll say it." -John Lennon John Lennon, assassinated thirty years ago, would have been 70 today. Sometimes, a simple song can say it better than any prose can. JuliaThis was written for his mother, Julia, who died in an accident when John was a teenager. Happy birthday -- to John Lennon and to everyone who remembers his music -- from me and the rest of scienceblogs!

Good news: We're going to Mars. Bad news: During Trump's second term

The Washington Post: What we are reporting here isn't fake news. But it doesn't feel exactly like real news, either. It's in that foggy realm of Trump news in which everything is slightly ambiguous and wobbly and internally inconsistent and almost certainly improvisational and not actually grounded in what you could call “government policy.” LOL On being told that a reasonably ambitious plan for going to Mars would get humans there in the 2030s, Trump directed NASA to speed it up and make sure it happens between 4 and 8 years from now.

Further discussion of the 2016 apparent plethora of celebrity death

A few days ago I posted this item asking if it was really true that more celebrities have died this year than usual. That post went viral, so of course, the famous Doug McIntyre (who is, by the way, originally from Minnetonka, Minnesota) asked me to join him on KABC, McIntyre in the Morning, an LA based drive time radio show, 790 on your dial. We had an interesting conversation, along with Randy Wang, and here it is: [audio mp3="http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/files/2016/12/MIM-790-KABC-12-30-16-G…"][/audio]

Republicans are weakening the "civilian led" US military

The Republicans don't care at all bout the law, the Constitution, freedom, security, or the people of the United States. One way we ensure civilian control of the military is by restricting military associated individuals from being secretary of defense. It is not like it can't happen, but there has to be a waiting period. Trump's current pick for this position is too fresh out of the military to legally take this roll. So, the Republicans are changing the rules. Just for their own guy, though. Just for Trump's appointment. Roll over, Republicans. Sit. Heel.

How to avoid nuclear apocalypse: this will only take you a few minutes.

Right now the number one problem we face in the US is the fact that a) the president of the United States can not be stopped or deterred from launching nuclear missiles if he choses to do so, by design; and b) Donald Trump will be inaugurated, if the electoral college so decides, in January. If you are in a state that has electors slated to vote for Trump. send your city and state name to this email address: votehrc@gmail.com You will then receive instructions as to what to do next. Pass it on.

Hurricane Otto

This is a bit late in the year for an Atlantic Hurricane. The season normally runs from June 1st through November 30th, but that includes a bit of buffer time. Otto is a tropical storm that will turn into a hurricane on Wednesday, probably, and make landfal near the border of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Expect coastal flooding as well as serious inland flooding. The storm will arrive in the Pacific on Friday as a tropical depression. Then, we'll have to see if it turns into something in the Eastern Pacific basin.

See? I get traffic spikes, too!

I got about 5 times my usual traffic yesterday, which explains why there were some occasional slow-downs all across scienceblogs. I think the server held up fairly well, though, and I know the big guys here are planning some server upgrades to handle future growth. Don't worry, it'll ease up. You can tell from the relatively small increase in page views vs. visits that most of these people zipped in to read one post and didn't hang around. The new creationists trying to argue weakly in that thread have been mildly amusing, though.

I fear she was a victim of a Dementor

Laura Mallory wants to ban the Harry Potter books from public schools, and she took her case to court. This is a perfect example of a mixed message: At Tuesday's hearing, Mallory argued in part that witchcraft is a religion practiced by some people and, therefore, the books should be banned because reading them in school violates the constitutional separation of church and state. "I have a dream that God will be welcomed back in our schools again," Mallory said. "I think we need him." Everyone will be relieved to know that she lost.

Profile of Mark Perakh

The North County Times, a local newspaper in Southern California, just published an interesting profile of fellow Panda's Thumb contributor Mark Perakh. I've mentioned his fascinating life before, having spent time in a Siberian prison camp in the Soviet Union before emigrating to Israel and then to the US. And from the picture, he looks pretty good for an 81 year old man! We all continue to send our best wishes to he and his wife Valentina as they put their life back together after their home burned down a couple months ago.

Interview With Wesley Elsberry

DarkSyde continues his interviews with pro-science advocates at DailyKos, this time with my good friend Wesley Elsberry being the victim. Very much worth reading, and worth following his advice and joining organizations like the National Center for Science Education. The NCSE's budget is dwarfed by that of the Discovery Institute and even dwarfed by traditional young earth creationist groups like the Institute for Creation Research and Answers in Genesis. It's only $30 a year to join, a small price to pay to keep science education from being weakened further.

New Blog Alert

Longtime DFTCW reader and Texas BBQ supplier Jeff Hebert has started his own blog. It doesn't look to be too serious at this point, more of a personal blog, but it should be interesting to read. As he put it, the blog will contain "stories of my double life as a nerdy graphic designer by day and country hick by night." Hey, I love those fish out of water situations. Given that I live in the middle of Nascar central, I can relate. I particularly liked this post about his daily transition, both literal and metaphorical, from "Bubba to Geek".

Major Blog Problems

As I'm sure you all noticed, this page has been unreachable for about the past 18 hours. My hosting service, IPowerWeb, apparently had a major hiccup. As you can also see, everything from Saturday forward has been erased. I'm trying to get through to tech support now to see if there is any hope of restoring the lost posts and comments. If not, they are lost forever. I have several new things to post, but I may hold off until I get through to tech support to make sure everything is working right again.

Who are the Illuminati?

From Wikipedia: "Illuminati" refers to various organizations ... links to the original Bavarian Illuminati or similar secret societies, and often ... conspire to control world affairs by masterminding events and planting agents in government and corporations to establish a New World Order and gain further political power and influence. ... the Illuminati ... lurk... in the shadows and pull... the strings and levers of power in dozens of ... They are well documented in this book. And now, there is incontrovertible evidence of involvement of Hollywood and music industry stars in the…

Climate Scientist James Hansen's Retirement

The famous climate scientist James Hansen, author of Storms of my Grandchildren, has just retired from his senior position at NASA. I'll be the climate science denialists are breathing a sigh of relief to have Hansen, who has been instrumental in developing our current understanding of climate change and who has been repeatedly attacked by those denialists, out of the way. Here's what he says about his retirement: Oh. So, they are not getting rid of James Hansen after all. Oh well! More information on Hansen's retirement, future plans, and related things HERE.

Mars Rocks

Don't miss this excellent Skeptically Speaking: This week, we’re looking one orbit outward, at the little red planet that’s inspired so much science and science fiction. Guest host Marie-Claire Shanahan talks to University of Tennessee geologist Linda Kah, about her work as part of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission, analyzing the images sent back by the Curiosity rover. And she’ll speak to geologist Chris Herd, curator of the University of Alberta’s meteorite collection, about using rare meteorites from Mars to study the planet’s composition and atmosphere. CLICK HERE

Swedish soldiers discover bones of a giant

'In 1645, the twenty-seventh year of the Thirty Years War, Swedish armies inflicted a devastating blow to the Imperial forces in Bohemia and swept into Austria with the aim of capturing of Vienna. The Imperial capitol, was not prepared to give up easily. The Swedes soon found themselves digging in for a long seige, negotiating with allies for support, and building fortifications around the occupied countryside. Upriver from Vienna, in the Krems district, while digging trenches, a group of Swedish soldiers discovered the bones of a giant.... Discover the teeth of giants. And say Happy…

Annual Amount of Carbon Released Into Atmosphere

Here are two graphs that show the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere, mainly as CO2 and mainly form the burning of fossil fuels, per year, from various sources for a long span of time. Both graphs are based on the same data set. the first graph was created by the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center and shows the breakdown between different sources of carbon. The second graph, which I made, simply shows the total, and over a shorter time span to make it easier to use for other purposes.

Deliberate and calculated lies

Atrios has links and videos of the Tillman hearings on misinformation from the battlefield; Tillman, you may recall, was the soldier who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan a few years ago. Jessica Lynch also gives an accurate account of her story. The common theme is that our government lied to us, intentionally distorting the facts to achieve propaganda goals. These are ugly stories of a government with no regard for the truth, except in how it can be twisted to support failed policies. Why is this administration still in office again?

Dirty Minds

Skeptically Speaking #155 This week, we're looking into what happens in our brains when we're experiencing some of the most powerful feelings we feel. We'll spend the hour with science writer Kayt Sukel, to talk about her book Dirty Minds: How Our Brains Influence Love, Sex, and Relationships. From pheromones to fMRI, it's an entertaining and informative look at the neuroscience of affection. We record live with Kayt Sukel on Sunday, March 11 at 6 pm MT. The podcast will be available to download at 9 pm MT on Friday, March 16. Details

Darwin's Islands

If you know only a little bit about Charles Darwin, you know that he figured out Evolution via his study of the finches (and other birds) of the Galapagos. If you know a bit more than that about Darwin, you know that he totally messed up his collection of birds from the Galapagos Islands, and didn't really think up Evolution until much later in time. If you know more than that about Darwin, then you know that neither of these characterizations of the great man's work is accurate. Read More

Eugenie Scott: Climate Science in Schools: The Next Evolution

For three decades, the National Center for Science Education(NCSE) has focused most of its efforts on defending the teaching of evolution in the classroom. Increasingly, however, the teachers its executive director, Dr. Eugenie Scott, hears from are under fire for teaching global warming. So much so that in January, the organization formally added a climate initiative to its efforts to support the teaching of science. Scott spoke on August 6, 2012 in Minnesota, sponsored by the Will Steger Foundation and the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs, where she was joined by…

US Drought Over Time

I made a movie you might enjoy. There may be something else out there like this, probably better than this one, but it is still cool. I downloaded all the PDF files from the US Drought Monitor archives, using the version of the connected US that has only the year, month, and day on the graphic. Then I slapped them in iMovie and sped the animation up by 800% over the default 1 sec. per pic. I do not have today's rather horrifying image on it, which I've placed above. Here's the movie:

Nearing the record for the latest first hurricane in the Atlantic

We are two days away from the peak day for hurricane season (with many more days of hurricane season coming, of course). Yet there have been no Atlantic Hurricanes. In just a few days (on September 11th) if we don't have a hurricane, we'll break the record for latest over the period of record keeping. There is a storm forming off the coast of Africa that might become a hurricane before September 11th. Or maybe not. The race is on! Anyway, Paul Douglas of Weather Nation has a video explaining the current situation:

The Recovery of Arctic Sea Ice

Every northern summer Arctic Sea ice melts away and reforms for winter, but how much melts away seems to be increasing on average, at a rate that surprises climate scientists. But there are some who see variation from year to year, and there is variation, in a rather unrealistic way. Here is a graph comparing how climate science denialists view arctic sea ice over time, compare to how "climate realists" (i.e., smart people who can read graphs and such) see it: Go HERE to see the source and learn more about what is behind this graph.

Nuclear Fuel Mining in Niger

In one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking last in the Human Development Index of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), where more than 40% of children are underweight for their age, water and access to improved water sources is scarce and almost three quarters of the population are illiterate, the French nuclear giant AREVA extracts precious--and deadly--natural resources, earning billions for its Fortune 5002 corporation, and leaving little behind but centuries of environmental pollution and health risks for the citizens of Niger. From this (PDF) report.

Of course I am

I'd been kinda hoping to be Inara, but this is good enough. Your results:You are Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) 75% Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command) 75% Wash (Ship Pilot) 70% Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic) 55% Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic) 30% Jayne Cobb (Mercenary) 25% River (Stowaway) 20% Derrial Book (Shepherd) 15% A Reaver (Cannibal) 5% Alliance 5% Inara Serra (Companion) 0% Honest and a defender of the innocent. You sometimes make mistakes in judgment but you are generally good and would protect your crew…

Think Before You Drop-Shadow

No chair could cast a shadow like this Many graphic designers like to cut out objects from photographs and give them a digital drop shadow on the page. Here's an example of why this is often a bad idea. Since it's working with a 2D image, the drop shadow algorithm has to assume that the object has no depth or surface contour. In the example above, we have a 3D chair that's been given a shadow that would only be realistic if the object had been a 2D picture of a chair cut out of a piece of flat cardboard.

The £4 trousers

I needed a new pair of trousers (shorts, actually) at short notice. My wife bought me a pair at Tesco's (sort of like Wal-Mart, if you're not from the UK). Looked very nice, cost £4. At that price, I joked, its cheaper to throw them away rather than wash them. And indeed it might be best. After 1 (2?) washes, the seams are coming apart. So I get to spend far more than £4's worth of my time sewing them up again... Is this the price of globalisation? Or just one bad pair of trousers?

The Dog Particle

I was feeling left out this week-- everybody talking about the Higgs Boson-- I cant contribute anything except links to Ethans fantastic posts (what the hell does 5-some-greek-symbol mean? whats a Higgs?  wat?). But THIS I understand! The photographer who made that image, Seth Casteel, is AMAZING. AMAZING. If you want to make yourself sick to your stomach from laughing really, REALLY hard, check out his gallery of underwater puppahs. He also takes glamor shots of shelter animals to help get them adopted faster. Fantastic photographer and a fantastic person!

How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog On the Radio and in Vestal, NY

The quick publicity items for this weekend: 1) I will be on the Science Fantastic radio show either Saturday or Sunday, depending on when your local affiliate runs it (or when you choose to livestream it over the Internet). The interview has already been recorded, which leaves me free for: 2) I will be signing and possibly reading from the new book at the Barnes and Noble store in Vestal, NY at 2pm on Saturday. If you're fortunate enough to live in the Southern Tier, stop by and say hi.

Have a ticky-tacky Christmas!

It's awfully hard to get into the spirit of the War on Christmas when Christians are so danged tacky. I mean, really…the Jesus loves you sucker is only one comma away from perfect honesty, while the Jesus Tree Topper with the silk gown, gold crown, nail prints in the hands, and built-in light is pure cheese. He really needs a complement, though: Naked Tormented Jesus with Stigmata Squirting Action. Then the kids could battle it out between ascetism and the prosperity gospel right there on the Christmas tree.

Viking Sword Found on the Isle of Man

Members of the Manx Detectorists Society have found fragments of the hilt of a Viking Period display sword. It's cast in bronze with rich Borre Style decoration (c. AD 850-1000) and silver wire frills. Though settled by the Norsemen from about AD 800 onward, the island has not previously produced very many any of their swords. Via BBC, 24HourMuseum and Manx National Heritage. Thanks to Greenman Tim of Walking the Berkshires and Dear Reader Eleanora for the tipoff. [More blog entries about archaeology, vikings, vikingperiod, swords, isleofman; arkeologi, vikingar, vikingatiden, svärd.]

New Archaeology & History Journal

Thad at Archaeoporn and Alun at Archaeoastronomy have alerted me to an upcoming new journal: the Past Discussed Quarterly. "PDQ is a journal designed to provide a bridge between blogging and academia. It will provide stable citeable references for selected weblog posts focussed upon or of interest to the pre-Renaissance past. It is compiled from articles submitted by bloggers on a quarterly basis." And imagine me thinking that P.D.Q. were just the initials of classical music humorist P.D.Q. Bach, and that the acronym meant Pretty Damn Quick. [More blog entries about archaeology, journals;…

Åke Hyenstrand 1939-2007

Professor Åke Hyenstrand, chair of archaeology at the University of Stockholm from 1988 to 20013, died on Wednesday 28 November, aged 68. He was mainly known for his large-scale analyses of the Swedish sites and monuments register and for studies of late-1st Millennium political organisation. A characteristic piece of his work is the 1978 opinion paper "Fornminnesinventering, kulturminnesvård och arkeologisk samhällsforskning" ("Site surveying, heritage management and archaeological social science", with an abstract in English). [More blog entries about archaeology, Sweden, obit,…

Jules Verne's Tomb

Being an archaeologist, I like tombs, and being a science fiction fan, I like Jules Verne. So you can imagine that I'd like Jules Verne's tomb regardless of what it looked like. As it turns out, David Nessle has pictures from Amiens showing the tomb in question, and it's an incredible piece of work. Look at the lettering! Look at that sculpture! "It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's Jules Verne who's been resurrected and learned to fly!" [More blog entries about books, graves, julesverne, sf, sciencefiction; gravar, julesverne, sf, sciencefiction, böcker, läsning.]

Kilnaughton Abbey

From that soft-spoken friend of all Sweden's little idiosyncracies, Paddy K, a fresh cell phone snapshot of Kilnaughton abbey in Tarbert, County Kerry, south-west Ireland. The ruins are 600 years old and the site is still in use as a cemetery: among other illustrious lineages, the K clan has a family plot. Tarbert is a common place name on the Celtic fringe, meaning "isthmus", Sw. näs, a narrow stretch of land between two bodies of water. A well-informed source assures me that the ones in Scotland are quite inferior to the Co. Kerry original.

Lovecraftian Horror in Guatemala

The Great Old Ones are stirring in their sleep beneath Guatemala City. GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala (AP) -- A giant sinkhole opened before dawn Friday, swallowing several homes and a truck and leaving a father and two teenagers missing in Guatemala City. [...] The pit was emitting foul odors, loud noises and tremors, and a rush of water could be heard from its depths. Authorities feared it could widen or others could open up. Security officials were on guard for possible looters and to clear the area of onlookers. Can the stars be right already? Link.

Ask Emmy Questions

The blog is recovering from the transition to WordPress, but I'm still not fully confident in it. So We'll turn to another corner of the social media universe for my procrastinatory needs this morning: Having Emmy answer physics questions on Twitter. The same deal as when we've done this before: If you've got a physics question you'd like my dog to answer, post it to Twitter with the hashtag #dogphysics (or leave it in a comment, or email it to me), and Emmy will answer via Twitter, where she's @queen_emmy.

De-Lurk

Lurker: "In Internet culture, a lurker is a person who reads discussions on a message board, newsgroup, chatroom, file sharing or other interactive system, but rarely or never participates actively." From this follows that a de-lurk is an opportunity for shy regular readers to make their presence known. Please tell us something about yourself, and about what you'd like to read more of here! Even if you're not shy at all. Extra kudos to people who de-lurked already at the first Aard de-lurk or even at the Salto Sobrius regulars roundup of March '06.

Two D&D Virgins

With kudos to Mattias who sent me the link, here are Stephen Lynch & Mark Teich performing a fine song about being a 14-y-o D&D-playing young man. To those of our readers who currently fit that description, let me say that just a few years from now you will no longer have the least interest in sneering high-school jock girls. Instead you will attract the intimate affections of bright college freshwomen, some of whom will demand to do some pretty wild things with you, including but not limited to the playing of D&D.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2014

From the wildlife photographer of the year awards, 2014. Herfried Marek, Austria: Golden birch. I was browsing the book in Waterstones today, and came across this, and was struck. It is brilliant. Shades of Rice terraces in Yunnan in the way that what's actually a photograph looks like a painting. I think it is far better than the winner; the judges wimped out and went for a boring picture of lions. My number two is some fish and an anenome: As you can tell, I like patterns. Number three I think I'd give to the sand dune.

Christina Comers fish will eat TAEs fish

Remember Christina Comer? The woman who was EXPELLED from the Texas Education Agency after forwarding this disgusting, hateful, explicit email to her coworkers? Shes suing TEA. No, not for a million dollars (like the DI wants-- theyd be happy as clams if public schools went extinct). Shes suing for: Her lawsuit seeks a court order overturning the TEA's neutrality policy on teaching of creationism and declaring that her dismissal was unconstitutional. The suit also seeks her reinstatement to her old job. Good luck, Ms Comer! May your fish has many noms.

More Extreme Anti-Judicial Rhetoric

I swear there must be some sort of office pool at Religious Right headquarters to see who can come up with the most ridiculous and hyperbolic rhetoric against judges. Here's the latest from Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council: "The court has become increasingly hostile to Christianity, and it poses a greater threat to representative government -- more than anything, more than budget deficits, more than terrorist groups," he said last week. Can rumors of late night rituals where they drink the blood of children be far behind?

Off to See the Wizard

I'm hitting the road for the day, going to Detroit to have a little reunion dinner with an old student of mine. It's a 3 hour drive, but since I haven't seen him in 15 years, during which time he has graduated from Harvard Law School, joined a firm, gotten married and is now on the verge of fatherhood, I think it's well worth the drive to have a chance to get caught up with him. A couple other old friends are joining us for dinner as well, so it's gonna be a great day all the way around. Hope yours is too.

John Roberts?

Fox News is reporting that the nominee is not Clement, but rather John Roberts of the D.C. Circuit. SCOTUSblog's profile of him can be found here. If Roberts is indeed the choice, then it's obvious that the White House has likely been sending out fake trial balloons to keep people guessing. Roberts was thought to be on the short list of potential nominees (along with McConnell, Alito, Luttig and a couple others) from the very start until all the recent speculation that they were looking at a woman. You can find the SCOTUSblog's profile of Roberts here. Pro-choice groups will undoubtely be…

Mp3 of Harry Browne Show Appearance

I have uploaded the mp3s of my appearance on the Harry Browne Show from July 2nd. It's a two hour show and I was on part of each hour, so there are two mp3s, one for each hour. I came in around the 15 minute mark of the first hour and leave after the first segment of the second hour. Herb Titus is also on the show with me, but it's not much of a debate. We generally agree on the issue. To download, rick click on the links and save the files - part 1 and part 2.

Reason Mag on Potential Nominees

Reason magazine asked a group of libertarian legal scholars who they admire on the federal courts, who they think should be nominated to replace O'Connor and a couple other questions. Here's the stunning part to me - they actually list Larry Klayman as a libertarian legal expert! Larry Klayman? A libertarian? The man who says you can't withdraw life support from a patient even if you know what their wishes are ahead of time? Sorry, no. Klayman is neither a libertarian nor a legal expert. He is a carnival barker on the legal midway, seeking little but his own self-aggrandizement.

The Idiocy of Ann Coulter

Here's a gem from her latest incoherent screed, this one about Mark Felt, whose daughter she feels the need to take shots at along with every other single mother in the country: "I'm still a single mom," she explained, "I am not ashamed of this." She ought to be. See, the idea of marriage is to get a man other than your own father to support you while you raise children. I'll take incredibly stupid statements for $1000, Alex. No wonder my friend Don refers to Coulter as a "hate crime in high heels".