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Tangled Bank: Four Days Away!

I have 14 submissions right now. Where are your words of wisdom? Tangled Bank: Only four days away! Article Submissions: email links to your submission(s) to PZ Myers, or to the Tangled Bank host [at] tangledbank [dot] net by 14 March 2006. Please write "Tangled Bank" in the subject line. All submissions will be acknowledged by email within 24 hours, so if you do not receive a response from me in that time frame, please resubmit (this is to avoid loss of any submissions to an overactive spam filter). I wish to encourage lots of "new faces" and third-party nominations, so please let me know…

Blog Carnivals Available

Okay, I am back in business after finally resolving the coding issue on my blog, thanks to kind advice from my blog sibling, Tim. Several blog carnivals have been published recently that will interest you. First, my favorite blog carnival, Tangled Bank, issue 47, was published by Kete Were. Tangled Bank is a celebration of the best science, nature and medical writing recently published on a blog. There is plenty of good writing there to keep you busy during your lunch breaks. They also included a piece that I wrote. The granddame of them all, that blog carnival that started off all blog…

An opportunity to query a deity

In an awesome development, I have been chatting with Mr. Deity (which, by the way, makes me officially a prophet. I'm working on letting my beard grow long now), and he has offered to answer almost any questions you might have. What would you ask an omniscient, omnipotent being? Leave your questions in the comments, I'll pass them on, and then I'll stroll down from the mountain with the answers chiseled on digital stone tablets. I don't want to catch any of you frolicking with golden calves while I'm getting the words of the Lord now, you hear? And keep in mind that I'll only pass along the…

State of the Union Drinking Game

Did anyone play this game last night while listening to Bush's State of the Union Address? If so, have you recovered from your hangover yet? The rules are so complicated that it can easily qualify as a sobriety test. Several favorites of mine include; you are supposed to drink a double shot of something green every time he says the word "environment"; locate the nearest Texan and mess with him/her, then drink for every time he says "Don't mess with Texas!"; and you are supposed to drink until your liver cries every time he mentions "Ted Kennedy". Don't forget to check out the Democratic…

More About That Conference Call Regarding Bipolar Disorder

A couple days ago, I mentioned that I, along with several other blog writers, had been invited to participate in a conference call-interview with several experts who were going to discuss the topic of bipolar disorder with us so we could write about it on our blogs. Well, thanks to a friend here in NYC, who lent me his cell phone so I could make that call without using more of my severely limited daytime minutes, I did get to participate in this discussion. Even though I was not sure what to expect, I found it to be fascinating. I have not yet received the recording of the phone call, but I…

Encephalon: Request for Submissions

tags: blog carnivals, encephalon, cognition, learning I suppose it goes without saying that I have been interested in learning about brain and behavior for most of my life, and many of my interests have focused on all aspects of the development of birdsong and bird food caching behavior. Additionally, since I have lived with parrots for nearly my entire life as well, I am of course very interested in understanding how they learn their behaviors and how to speak. So, as a result, I have been invited to host the next edition of the blog carnival, Encephalon, two weeks from now on 24 September…

ScienceOnline'09 Conference in North Carolina

tags: annual science communication conference, ScienceOnline'09, SciO09, Sigma Xi, Research Triangle Park, science blogging conference, nature blog writing You are all cordially invited to the third annual ScienceOnline'09 conference which is scheduled for 16-18 January 2009 at the Sigma Xi Center in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. I am determined that I will be present this year, and that I will speak about something useful while I am there! So far, things look promising because my topic suggestions have been met with positive feedback. (Since I am so optimistic, I have already…

Mama Shakespeare's Guacamole?

tags: Northern cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, birds, Central Park, Image of the Day Mama Shakespeare's Guacamole? Female Northern Cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis. Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George [larger]. The photographer writes; Mama Shakespeare interrupted her meal to pay me a visit in, where else, Central Park's Shakespeare Garden. Look at her closely. No, that isn't guacamole squirting out of her beak. It is of insect origin but I do not know precisely what creature it formerly was. I do know that I have seen this same light shade of green protruding from Northern Cardinal…

Cell phone warning

I just got a bunch of email from various people warning me that my cell phone number (no, you can't have it) is going to be sold to telemarketers next month, and I need to call a certain phone number right away to get it blocked. I must have a cynical mind, because my first thought was that if I were a telemarketer who wanted to fish up a bunch of ripe cell phone numbers, I'd send out bulk email telling people who hated telemarketers to call me on their cell phone. I was right. I checked Snopes, and there is no proposed sell-off of cell numbers, and calling the number given won't help you in…

Gift from a Reader, and an Update

After several of you asked me to make a wishlist, I did so. Shortly after that, one of you sent me a book from my wishlist that I've wanted for quite some time, Dinosaurs of the Air, by Gregory Paul (2002). I just received the book today and I want to thank you, Biosparite, for your kindness. As soon as I pulled it out of its packing, I showed this book to several of my colleagues, all of whom are very interested in it and they all thought the drawings are wonderful, too. By the way, I am sorry for falling silent for so long. I have been overwhelmed these past few weeks with a paper and with…

Weekend reads

Good stuff to keep you occupied over the next couple of days: Systemic issues in science journalism - the reinforcing cycle of niche reporting Investigative science journalism The Bias of Veteran Journalists Dangerous DNA: The truth about the 'warrior gene' The Language of Science - it's 'just a theory' Should journalists report on unpublished research? Joe McLaughlin will be an excellent journalist Scientists Embrace Openness with a good vibrant discussion of both Open Science and Open Journalism on FriendFeed. Home Libraries Provide Huge Educational Advantage Why Do We Dream? NSF governing…

Immaterial

Okay, this is the last word from Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. Immaterial (im-uh-TEER-EE-uhl) [Latin im- without, not mÄteriÄlis; of, belonging to matter.] adj. of no essential consequence; unimportant. not pertinent; irrelevant. not material; incorporeal; spiritual; having no material body or form. Usage: Mr. Fletcher, retired, of the Treasury, Mrs. Gorham, widow of the famous K. C., approaached Him simply, and having done their praying, leant back, enjoyed the music (the organ pealed sweetly), and saw Miss Kilman at the end of the row, praying, praying, and, being still on the…

Found: Top 10 iTunes in Connecticut

The iTunes selection of two random strangers in Connecticut this morning... Joe's iPod Waterloo - ABBA SOS - ABBA (only from the best) Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day I wanna be sedated - Ramones Fear is a man's best friend - Billy Bragg Liar - Sinthetix He Likes Me - Violent Femmes Should I Stay or Should I Go - Clash Bush War Blues - Johnny Cash Vote for We - Clint Eastwood and General Saint Ned's iPod We Are the Champions - Queen Mr President - Pink Truth #2 (Live) - Dixie Chicks The Boy Done Good - Billy Bragg Perfect Day - Lou Reed Ofboðslega Frægur - Stuðmenn…

Change of plans

I know many of you had your hearts set on a debate between me and Ray Comfort, but there has been a slight change of plans, for the better, I think. Instead of a debate, Comfort will be on tomorrow morning, Tuesday, at 10am Central time, and will express himself without fear of snorts of derision from me. I will then be on Wednesday, same time of day, to address the same topics. It's a better plan, since we all know Comfort is going to gallop through a scattershot collection of nonsense, and I'll be able to say something coherent in contrast the next day. You can listen to WDAY radio live. I'…

A Chief Scientist

John Mather is head of the Office of the Chief Scientist at NASA That is an interesting move by Stern. And Paul Hertz directs Science Policy, Process and Ethics Office! Which puts him in charge of solicitation, review and awards! Yay Paul! Mather remains JWST senior project scientist. So, I'm guessing JWST is safe from cuts ;-) This will be very interesting: Stern and Mather are both experienced scientists in charge of ongoing missions. They ought to have a lot of disgression within the Science Mission Directorate, but things could still get very painful if the SMD budget is squeezed out by…

on the proper use of tasers

State College is a small town, it is also a university town. Not exactly your high crime area. So, statistically, the scum who took the Munchkins' slide from our front yard after the game on saturday night were probably a multiplet of cheerfully inebriated male students. Well, congratulations, you made a two year old very sad. Interesting thing is: we called it in to the police, mainly so if it were found we would get it returned. Officer on duty has young kids, as it turns out, very empathetic and intense man. Also not very busy, with thanksgiving week coming town is half empty. So he is…

A Song for Sci Blogs

Things you learn at 37,000 feet. Muse has a song titled "Supermassive Black Hole". Hm from the best selling Black Holes and Revelations Who knew? Supermassive Black Hole (You set my soul alight) Glaciers melting in the dead of night And the superstars sucked into the supermassive (You set my soul alight) Glaciers melting in the dead of night And the superstars sucked into the 'supermassive' Supermassive black hole Supermassive black hole Supermassive black hole You just gotta admire any band that will deal with Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals and tidal disruption. Hey, I wonder if they worked…

volcanic rumbles

Icelandic media are reporting audible rumbles from Eyjafjallajökull sunday evening. Earthquake activity is not up, though over the last few weeks there have been some small tremors under the glacier. No sign of an actual eruption, and no sign of activity under her big sister, Katla. Yet. There is a spike in earthquake activity at the northern edge of Vatnajökull by Kistufell. There are frequently surges of activity up there, it is right along the major line of the North Atlantic Ridge as it goes across the island, and there are at least three major active volcanoes right along there,…

Andromeda: a study in blue

Swift does a large field mosaic image in the ultraviolet of M31 Ok, so Astronomy Picture of the Day beat me to this... Andromeda in optical (click to embiggen) Swift took a 330 picture mosaic of our nearest respectably sized neighbour galaxy, the venerable, and naked eye Andromeda, aka M31. They used the itsy bitsy little Ulvtravioler/Optical telescope on board, which has surprisingly decent UV capability. Andromeda - ultraviolet mosaic (click to embiggen) Very, very nice. Go to apod to get the nice gif flick between the UV and optical images. The UV images preferentially trace young…

serious proposal

if research universities moved to a 4 day week, and cut salaries 20%, would this be acceptable? IF, faculty were permitted to get an extra 2 months "summer salary" from research grants in compensation? This would have to be for real: no classes or committee meetings or other service duties on mondays, or fridays, whichever. Would it be acceptable to faculty? Would it be acceptable to funding agencies? It would probably not be acceptable to staff, I wonder if it would be acceptable to administrators? Students would love it. BTW: the "trimming" in response to cuts at universities are about to…

Really Scary

Destiny's Child: Me, in a suit, on television... The Daily Show, in Dec 2002, back when they used to do real fake news instead of serious commentary and analysis The camera does add about ten million solar masses... I lost my copy of the press video (this is taken from a rather fun NASA Space Science Update conference). Was amused and gratified to see it appear in tDS archives. Maybe the first time most of my family has seen me in a suit since my cousin's wedding... I have vague memories they showed another clip of me laughing, intercut with Gunther looking embarrassed, need to browse some…

Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!

DHS excludes revokes Mills College Prof and Elgar scholar visa. Prof Ghuman, british musicologist, Berkeley PhD expelled from the US I personally find Elgar to be a ponderous and rather tiresome, not to mention heavily abused at both the Proms and US graduations, but this seems a bit of an overreaction. Land of Hope and Glory, or sheep? At the very least Prof Ghuman, or her US host institution, should be given an account of the what the charges against her are, and, some hint of the proferred evidence. ... Thine equal laws, by Freedom gained, Have ruled thee well and long; By Freedom gained,…

"No solar link to global warming"

duh I'll grab the original paper soon as I can see it on Proc Roy Soc (Lockwood and Frölich in press) PS: here is a pointer to the paper itself here is the full text - pdf (subscription) It is a nice compact paper - good summary of recent history and proposed mechanisms, then a very straightforward look at the data set over the last 40 years - figures 1 and 3 really tell the story. View image Figure 3 as a pop-up image, reproduced from Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 10.1098/rspa.2007.1880 http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/content/h844264320314105/ "Recent oppositely directed trends…

Is sunshine good for you?

Depends... When I were a lad, we would occasionally get dismissed from school, particularly in early spring, usually at noon. These were known as "Sun"-days, and were those rare days on which the sun shone in a clear blue sky and the temperatures reached a balmy 10-15 C (50-60F you heathens). This is because, as everyone knows, 8-12 year olds should be out soaking up the sunshine in free outdoor play whenever they can, synthesizing themselves some vitamine D, not stuck behind school desks all afternoon. Of course, when I were a lad, I also ventured to southern latitudes (Morocco, if you must…

Meet the ribosomes

Ribosomes are molecular machines that build new proteins. This process of synthesizing a protein is also known as translation. Many antibiotics prevent translation by binding to ribosomal RNA. In the class that I'm teaching, we're going to be looking at ribosome structures to see if the polymorphisms that we find in the sequences of 16S ribosomal RNA are related antibiotic resistance. This is related to our metagenomics project where we investigate the polymorphisms we find in 16S ribosomal RNAs. This 6 minute video introduces ribosomes, discusses where they're found, what they're made of,…

undiplomatic news you might have missed

"...Chávez last night ordered the US ambassador to leave Venezuela within 72 hours and accused Washington of fomenting a coup attempt..." Grauniad has more "...Chávez also ordered Venezuela's ambassador to Washington to return home and threatened to cut oil supplies, plunging relations between the countries to a new low. "Go to hell a hundred times, fucking Yankees," he told a televised rally thronged with supporters clad in red." Heh, that crazy Chavez dude, what a wild man. Clearly not related to the first of two Bear Reconnaissance/Bomber aircraft coming to visit from Russia…

weather porn

It is the season, and there is a hurricane heading for the gulf with another 1-3 in the pipeline from Africa Master's Wunderblog is the place for news but the models used for forecasting are on the web. Here is the GFDL current 5 day forecast, showing Hurricane Gustav hitting Lousisiana as category 4 storm Forecasts that far in advance are highly uncertain, but current models show Gustav shooting the straits between Cuba and Yucatan into the Gulf as a major hurricane. Could turn any direction after that, though models are converging on impact more to the northwest side, on monday-ish. Full…

Music Mondays: Five Ronnie James Dio songs I really love

Yesterday was a very sad day in the hard rock/heavy metal community as Rainbow/Black Sabbath/Dio/Heaven & Hell vocalist Ronnie James Dio died at the age of 67. I've been a big fan of Ronnie James Dio ever since way back in 1980 I heard the song Neon Knights, the first big song he did with Sabbath. Five (ok, six) songs to remember him by. Neon Knights by Black Sabbath I by Black Sabbath (performed here by Heaven & Hell) The Last in Line by Dio Man on the Silver Mountain by Rainbow Bible Black by Heaven & Hell Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple. Ronnie guests on this concert…

Best Science Books 2009: Physicsworld.com

Not surprisingly, a very fine list from the AIP's Physicsworld website: The Physics of Rugby by Trevor Davis First Principles: The Crazy Business of Doing Serious Science by Howard Burton Oliver Heaviside: Maverick Mastermind of Electricity by Basil Mahon Atomic: The First War of Physics and the Secret History of the Atom Bomb by Jim Baggott Lives in Science by Joseph C Hermanowitz 13 Things That Don't Make Sense by Michael Brooks Deciphering the Cosmic Number: The Strange Friendship of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung by Arthur I Miller Perfect Rigor by Masha Gessen Plastic Fantastic: How the…

remember, remember

the fifth of november... I spent a year living in Lewes, just down the hill from the castle and jousting field shown at the start of the video. In fact, my bedroom window looked out over the exact spot where Virginia Woolf committed suicide, or so we were told - the location does not exactly match what wikipedia claims. One of the few times in my life where I have been frightened was when we went to bonfire night that year and got swept up in the crowd. Gave me an uncomfortable hint of what a mob might become if roused. Peoples' memories are long and sharp, though I expect a lot of them…

Hagfish and Their Slime

tags: hagfish, slime, streaming video I learned about hagfish in my vertebrate zoology courses. Basically, hagfish are mysterious jawless fishes that live in the ocean. Despite being classified as vertebrates by many zoologists, they lack vertebrae, thus they are considered to be very primitive fishes. When threatened, hagfish secrete a mucus that forms threadlike fibers similar to spider's silk. When mixed with water, a small amount of this mucus can tranform itself into an astonishingly huge slimeball, as seen in the video below the fold. It has been observed that hagfishes use this slime…

Sótano de las Golondrinas

tags: cave of the swallows, Sótano de las Golondrinas, pit caves, cave diving, streaming video The Cave of the Swallows is an enormous pit cave in a rainforest in San Luis PotosÃ, Mexico. The cave is known by the native name of Sótano de las Golondrinas, which means Basement of the Swallows, because of the large number of birds living in holes in the cave's walls. The low point of the entrance provides a 1094 feet (333 m) freefall drop to the bottom of the cave while the high point provides a 1220 feet (372 m) freefall drop. To free themselves from the cave, the birds fly in circles around…

About the Upcoming Issue of Birds in the News ..

I am really excited; I have been working on tomorrow's Birds in the News and this issue is very special because I have managed to get an image and sound file of the White-crested Elaenia, Elaenia albiceps, that is currently in Texas, on South Padre Island. This is the first North American sighting for this species, which is normally found throughout much of South America. Some evidence (recorded call notes) suggests that this particular individual is from Chile! Not bad for a bird that doesn't migrate long distances (and many populations don't migrate at all; they are year-round residents).…

Carnivalia

Here's the latest blog carnivals to be published for you to read and enjoy; Review Bloggers Carnival. This features reviews of all sorts of trinkets and other items, including (best of all!!) books! Just Write Blog Carnival, 19 June 2009 edition. Writing, book reviews, and lots of other fun stuff to read. Author Love, #2. This blog carnival is new, and focuses on sharing information about writing from writing tips and stories to .. you guessed it .. book reviews. Carnival of the Cats, #274. Of course, the name of this carnival is self-explanatory. Carnival of Family Life, the Cathy Thorne…

Another Taste of Beebster Programming

tags: BBC America, natural history, nature programming, television, entertainment, education, streaming video I just wanted to let you all know that every one of you with a television is the subject of my enduring envy because I just learned from Nicole Wetzold that my favorite radio news and television programming source has done it again: BBC is now bringing all of its natural history content together under one brand, BBC Earth. This programming is available in the United States on BBC America. As a taste of what to expect, here is a video they sent me to share with you. It is a tiny bit of…

Hurricane Has Left Haiti; Cholera Remains

It's a relief that Hurricane Tomas didn't destroy the camps in and around Port-au-Prince where 1.3 million survivors of Haiti's January earthquake are crowded. The storm hit western Haiti hardest, causing flooding and killing 20 people. There are still concerns about how flooding will affect Haiti's cholera outbreak. The outbreak's official death toll is 544, CNN reports, and more than 8,000 cholera cases have been confirmed. So far, none of the confirmed cases is in Port-au-Prince, but 91 residents of a Port-au-Prince slums are being tested to see if they've been infected. Cholera…

Worth reading: Antibiotic resistance, invisible workforce, and detectives dismissing rape allegations

A few of the recent pieces I've liked: Maryn McKenna at National Geographic’s Germination: How We'll Tackle Diseases That Are Becoming Untreatable (“The United Nations just declared antibiotic resistance “the greatest and most urgent global risk.” Here’s what they’re going to do about it.”) Kelli Garcia in US News & World Report: We Can’t Wait: With Congress unconscionably failing to act, states must move quickly to protect pregnant women from Zika Kelly Heyboer at NJ.com: The Invisible Workforce: Death, discrimination and despair in N.J.'s temp industry Alex Campbell and Katie J.M. Baker…

I Should Blog About Västra Vång

I should blog about the recently announced finds of Romano-Celtic era cult images and Vendel Period gold foil figures at Västra Vång in Blekinge, but I find it kind of boring to act as an archaeological news purveyor. I'll just refer you to this paper about the first find from the site and say that Västra Vång is an instant classic in Scandy Iron Age studies. I'll be happy to answer any questions in the comments section. It's a busy month for me, seeing as I am employed at >100% counting two universities at air commute distance and my steady Fornvännen gig. Also I'm copy-editing a lot of…

Annushka

I found this lovely portrait on Wikipedia. 18th century portraits almost exclusively show people with European looks. But here a Russian painter has painted a Kalmyk girl in 1767. The Kalmyks are a Western Mongolian group living in south-west Russia. The girl looks just like Juniorette's buddy whose parents are from Afghanistan and Korea! This picture presses all my dad buttons. Her name was Annushka and she was a serf and protegée of Countess Varvara Sheremeteva (later Countess Razumovsky). In the picture, the girl is holding a portrait of the Countess. The painter, Ivan Argunov, is a major…

Hernia Brand Glue

Scandinavians generally speak pretty good English. But every now and then you come across reminders that they are still very far from being native speakers. Witness this pail of wall-paper glue that I bought earlier today. Dear Swedish glue-maker, "hernia" means brock and is defined as "the protrusion of an organ or the fascia of an organ through the wall of the cavity that normally contains it". Wikipedia continues, "By far the most common herniae develop in the abdomen, when a weakness in the abdominal wall evolves into a localized hole, or 'defect', through which adipose tissue, or…

The Rundkvists Have Taken Their Swine Flu Shots

My family and I just came home from our local vÃ¥rdcentral, the public medical centre, where we've taken our shots for epidemic H1N1/09 swine flu. It cost us nothing and we waited for only about 15 minutes. We got something called Pandemix, which appears to be Pandemrix mixed with another vaccine. They're not sure if a second shot will be needed or not, but if so then we will take it at the same time as I get my annual non-swine flu shot. Juniorette cried a little after the jab but calmed down after eating two saffron buns. She then went with her mom to swimming class. [More blog entries…

Lusty atheism

Greta Christina hosts the Carnival of the Godless this week, which means the atheism is laced with sex. This is an avenue for recruiting people to the atheist cause that has not been adequately pursued. Although there is something to be said for goddesses: the Sunday Sermonette is a hymn from Janis. Whoa, but she could sing. We also learn that the Reveres were young doctors in 1969, had a chance to go to Woodstock, and skipped it because it was going to rain. I missed it, too, but my excuse is a little better: I was 12 years old and on the opposite side of the country. I was a fan of Janis at…

Rowing

Last sunday was the Champs head (named after the pub where they meet rather than their status :-) and it was a lovely day and we got to borrow Christs first boat which was lovely too. We were sort of OK, rather rushed and splashy, not long enough (race results from http://www.championrowing.org.uk/; nothing to see, move along quietly...). You can play spot-the-me if you like. Yesterday, though, back in the old K8 we had a gorgeous outing, down below 1:45 in sprints and down below 1:30 very briefly. Onwards to the bumps... Pic is frmo Denis; click on it for the original or http://picasaweb.…

Hows the ice?

Gareth inquires if bets are still available for 2008. The answer is yes (although I reserve the right to remove them at a moments notice when things turn against me). At the moment, NH ice seems to be back to "normal", ie about 1Mkm2 down on the long-term mean; see Le blog de ICE for a current pic from CT. Based on that, I can't see any reason to expect a record in 2008. Disagree? Then out with your wallet :-). Interesting to note that Antarctica is still high. Perhaps I should add that I'm not ruling out the possibility of a record min in 2008, nor am I predicting lots of ice. I'm just…

In My Earbuds Lately

Here are some albums that I've been listening to lately. (The previous peek into my listening habits is from May 2010!) Daikaiju. Daikaiju. 2005. Virtuoso instrumental surf rock. Dungen. Skit i allt. 2010. Psychedelic 70s prog. Graveyard. Hisingen Blues. 2011. Bluesy and psychedelic 70s metal. Jobriath. Jobriath. 1973. Piano-heavy folk/glam rock. Jobriath. Creatures of the Street. 1974. Piano-heavy folk/glam rock. Karaboudjan. Sprodj. 2001. Heavy instrumental prog metal. Mercury Rev. See You On The Other Side. 1995. Psychedelic art rock. OK Go. Of the Blue Colour of the Sky. 2010. Funky new…

Ancient Swedish Fishers Put Human Heads On Stakes

The Mesolithic is the period between deglaciation and the introduction of agriculture in Europe (up to about 4000 cal BC in my parts). Within Swedish research into this period in recent years, no single site has been able to compete with the small town of Motala in Ãstergötland county. Located at a series of rapids on the main waterway from Lake Vättern to the Baltic, the spot has always been important for fishers and travellers. Its Mesolithic record has gained the limelight thanks to major railroad construction in an area with waterlogged sediment that preserves organics. Thus any number…

The use of Damon and Laut

Thanks to BG, we have a screen capture of the solar graph from the silly "Swindle" prog; I've inlined it. Now this is nice, because it says S+C as source. Which means we can look-up the ever useful Damon and Laut. First off, notice that the data plotted *isn't* solar variation directly, but an index of solar cycle length. There was speculation that it might be related to solar variation, but this was never clear. Now notice that the solar graph stops in 1980. Why could that be? Look at D+L's figure 1c: when the correct data is used, the upturn after 1980 disappears and the correlation with…

Hitchens has big brass ones

It takes some confidence to charge into this: Hitchens will be debating Jay Richards (of the Discovery Institute), with Ben Stein as "moderator", in an event sponsored by the Stanford IDEA club. The creationists are stacking the deck against him rather thoroughly. I'm not enthused about the idea — the only people who have anything to gain from this are the loons on the side of ignorance. But if there's anyone who can pull it off, it's a master of fiery rhetoric … or a comedian. The topic is purportedly "Atheism vs. Theism and the Scientific Evidence of Intelligent Design," and since the…

Church of Sweden Church Sold As Housing

In England and other countries, churches have long been deconsecrated and used as shops and for housing. In Sweden, this has previously only happened to nonconformist chapels - quite frequently, actually. But now, the first Church of Sweden church with a churchyard has been sold. Örja church near Landskrona in Scania is a neo-Gothic yellow brick structure built in 1868 after its Medieval predecessor on the site was torn down. It was closed in 2003 due to insufficient interest from congregants, and in 2005 it was deconsecrated. But unlike the nearby 1909 new church of Maglarp, Örja isn't…

El-Mag Crank Gets Galileo Argument Wrong

I got a letter with criticism from a man who believes in electromagnetic hypersensitivity and thinks I should too. Most of the letter is the Galileo argument, where the letter writer refers to an anthropologist whose ideas were, in his view, once highly respected until they were taken apart by critical thinkers. I should be as critical of the current medical consensus regarding radiation phobia as these thinkers were of the anthropologist, says the letter writer, because the current medical consensus has been paid for by the telecomms industry. In other words: it's a conspiracy. But who, then…