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A few hurricane records considered

Although there was not much buzz about hurricanes this season (which is not quite over yet), this year has in fact set a few records. I guess since New Orleans (narrowly) escaped Gustav there seems so much less to talk about! Well, New Scientist has an article about some of the things that are worth noticing about the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. Perhaps the most notable record is "for the first time major hurricanes formed in five successive months, from July through November." Hurricane Paloma reached category 4 this month (November) and battered poor Cuba for the fourth time this…

Whores to Industry

Over at DesmogBlog, I saw an interesting video that covers some of the history of climate change denialism, starting with its roots in tobacco-lung cancer denialism. Interesting how some of the names are so familiar, such as Steve Milloy and Myron Ebel. Is "sociopathic whore to industry" too strong a term for those characters? Real people die as a direct result of their actions, and it is next to impossible to believe that they don't know full well of exactly that consequence. A name missing from that list with Milloy and Ebel is Fred Singer, also very active in the tobacco propoganda wars…

Cheney Aide Considered for Top Energy Dept Position

From yesterday's DemocracyNow headlines: The Washington Post reports F. Chase Hutto III, a senior aide to Vice President Cheney, is the leading contender to become a top official at the Energy Department. The promotion would put one of the administration's most ardent opponents of environmental regulation in charge of forming department policies on climate change. Officials say Hutto has played a prominent behind-the-scenes role in shaping the administration's environmental policies for several years and has been one of the oil and gas industry's key points of contact for energy and…

Buju Banton Denies Bashing Gays

Buju Banton, a Jamaican reggae artist whose tour is being greeted with protests by gay rights supporters all over the country, says he's not a gay basher: "I have never bashed any gays before, and if I bashed gays, I bashed them 16 years ago," Banton tells Billboard magazine in an interview conducted on his tour bus. "There's no tolerance from [the gay community]. I'm not a gay-basher. I'm not a homophobe." Beautiful, he should be a politician. I've never done that, and if I did, it was a long time ago. Mind you, one of his songs talks about shooting gays in the head, pouring acid on them and…

A Tiny Taste of Vinx

I just found this on Youtube. It's a clip of Every Breath You Take from Sting's Unplugged performance on MTV about 13 or 14 years ago. Singing backup on the song is Vinx, the guy I'm going to see with friends tomorrow night in Ann Arbor (this was when he was the opening act on Sting's Soul Cages tour). He doesn't really get involved until the end of the song, but the vocal harmonies he goes into with Sting at the end give you some idea of the power of his voice. So please watch the whole thing. I've asked Vinx' manager to post some of his own stuff to Youtube, which he said he would do, so…

Today's Looney du Jour

A family in Germany who says they have to scream and sing while praying, loud enough that they wake up the entire building, because the volume is necessary in a battle with Satan: A seven-member family faces eviction from an east Berlin apartment tower after neighbors complained about loud prayer sessions that keep the whole building awake at night, a German newspaper said Thursday. "I really don't want to disturb the neighbors but the high volume is needed in the battle against the devil," Pierre D., the 42-year-old father of the Christian family, told Bild newspaper. He is fighting an…

Porn as a Health Hazard

Gotta love that religious right logic (scroll to the bottom): Marriott Hotels has banned smoking from their rooms -- now Concerned Women for America is wondering when the chain is going to ban another health hazard: pay-per-view pornography. "We've been after Marriott for years to stop providing pay-per-view porn," says Jan LaRue, CWA's chief counsel. "But their excuse is that 'some' customers want it." Imagine that, a company having to "excuse" offering a product that some of their customers want. Wait, aren't conservatives all for the free market? Their rhetoric says so; reality says…

Lancelet on AIG, ICR and Tiktaalik

The IDers aren't the only ones sounding foolish trying to dismiss Tiktaalik roseae as a transitional fossil, the old fashioned young earth creationists are too. Lancelet has two posts on the subject, one on Answers in Genesis and one on the Institute for Creation Research. The one on the ICR includes this delightful quote from John Morris on how an evolutionary transition between fish and amphibians could be documented: If some type of fish evolved into some type of amphibian, there should have been distinct steps along the way of 90% fish/10% amphibian; then 80% fish/20% amphibian; etc.,…

Hear Me on the Radio Tonight

I'm going to be on tonight with the HIllbilly Atheist. For those who don't know him, the Hillbilly Atheist is a good ol' boy from Oklahoma who is extremely funny. He has a radio show on the Freethought Media network, which is owned by the Infidel Guy. To listen to the show, click here. On the right hand side an inch or two below the top are three links tha say "Listen At" and it has three speeds, 128K, 48K and 24K. You actually don't need the top speed for it to sound good. We go on the air at 8 pm eastern time. You can see a profile of the Hillbilly Atheist here and you can download some of…

Physics Conference Blogging

It's not as sexy as Strings 2006, but it's easier to understand what the talks are about: Nathan Lundblad is blogging from the International Conference on Atomic Physics in Innsbruck, Austria (the bastard). Posts so far: First day introduction. First day talk recaps. (The latter includes the announcement of the [Norman] Ramsey Prize, "to be given to the first credible measurement of a nonzero electron EDM, with the caveat that it be done in his lifetime." For those not in the field, Ramsey is 91, so that's an important caveat...) Now that I've plugged this, Nathan will no doubt crumble…

So, CERN Has a Particle Accelerator?

A little while back, JoAnne at Cosmic Variance reported on the status of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the giant next-generation accelerator that is the cover story for the current print issue of Seed. Particle experimentalist Gordon Watts reports in with some more technical details about the delay in the proposed turn-on schedule. He's also got a link to a PDF of a talk by someone associated with LHC, for those who really want to geek out. The bottom line appears to be that this is just normal, prudent caution, and not really unexpected. Though the delay is a little disappointing to those…

Previously, on the Ted Haggard show…

Poor Pastor Ted had been fired from the New Life Church, and was trying to get his life together. He put out a plea claiming poverty and soliciting donations to support his new calling, ministering to the poor at a halfway house. Your humble narrator was righteously suspicious. In the latest turn of events, his former church tut-tuts reprovingly at his unseemly begging for handouts, and tells everyone about his $138,000 severance pay. The halfway house, aghast, says Mr Haggard sure isn't moving in with them, and there's no way he's going to be counseling the needy. What will happen to the…

Carnivalia, and an open thread

It's Friday! I have no classes today, so this is the day where I desperately struggle to catch up with the backlog; it also happens to be the day we're hosting a party at our house (you're invited: 5:30, my place, across the street from the university; everyone who is anyone will be there). If you can't make it, I expect you to make small talk and chat sociably in this open thread. Here are a few ice-breakers to help you get started. Carnival of the Blue #4 Friday Ark #155 Carnival of the Feminists #44 I and the Bird #57 The next edition of the Tangled Bank will be at the Behavioral…

This is not a Polish joke

Doesn't it make you happy to see people wanting to help other people? "This is a service which is sorely needed," said Jankowski, who holds a doctorate in spiritual theology. "The number of people who need help is intensifying right now." What service is Jankowski providing? That he claims to have a doctorate in "spiritual theology" is one clue. That he claims theological support from the Vatican and his Catholic archbishop is another. Yeah, he's an exorcist. A professional expert at casting out imaginary demons. The article goes on to claim that this is a growth industry. They're busy…

Strange days indeed

Congratulations to SpaceX, who have connected their Dragon to the ISS. [That's a screen-grab, BTW, not a clickable video. Go to msnbc for video.] That isn't what I find so strange, though it is potentially the start of a big exciting Newe Worlde. What was so strange, so bizarre, was the mixture of the real-time video from the ISS with the Dragon capsule on the end of the robot arm with the world turning underneath it oh so beautiful and delicate, and all flung carelessly out onto the web for anyone who wanted to watch; with the stupid irritating Pringles advert I was forced to sit though…

Things I'm glad other people have said

So I don't have to bother saying them myself. * SpaceX Dragon on its way to the ISS! (and watch more of it - though I'd skip the first ~40 mins of talk if I were you). Note: I'm a bit behind the times here; see the next post. * The Magistrate's blog - more down to earth: pointing out the stupidity of the press complaining about "unelected European judges" when we don't elect our own either. * More about the facebook IPO from Timmy. * Peter Gleick cleared of forging documents in Heartland expose - actually this one doesn't fit my title. Its interesting, but so vague on detail as to be not much…

Finally!

I'm fed up. There have been 5.5 Amaz!ng Meetings with James Randi, and I haven't gone to a single one…yet. That's finally going to change, though, as I've been invited to speak at TAM6, in Las Vegas, on 19-22 June. Who else is going? Maybe a few of you will think about marking your calendars and making the pilgrimage for the first time this summer, so that I'm not the only TAM virgin there? I haven't quite settled on what I'll be talking about, just yet, although I have a few ideas. Maybe Phil and I should have a joint session in which we publicly play the dozens? He did just get back from…

You're sharpening stones, walking on coals / To improve your business acumen

REM, of course. Or perhaps more appropriately, Its the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine). I won't elaborate on the I-feel-fine for the sake of not tempting fate, not that I'm superstitious mind you. Where was I? Oh yes, commenting on CIPs vision of our government as competent. No prophet has honour in his own city, of course. I thought Broon was largely copying Buffett. While I'm here, hat tip to Quark Soup for digging up this space oddity from Krugman. Nice to see that economists have a sense of humour, though his physics isn't so good and, though he hides it well, relativity…

161/366: Mobile Office

Some time back, I posted a photo of my usual spot at the Starbucks in Niskayuna. When I was in Newport News earlier this week, of course, I had to find a different space from which to rant about Twitter. Here's that spot: My "office" when I was in Virginia. As you can see, the principal difference between the two is that I didn't bring my stainless-steel travel mug with me on the trip. The store in Newport News is laid out almost exactly the same way as my regular one in Niskayuna. I'm probably more amused by this than any of my readers will be, but then, this was the only remotely photo-…

047/366: Late Bloomers

Another Saturday full of kid stuff, chiefly a rather brisk soccer game-- around 45F at game time, with a stiff breeze. It was interesting to see how different kids reacted to the cold. One or two got hyper, and ran around crazily to stay warm, while some others just disengaged from the game. And a couple had so many layers on that they appeared to be having difficulty running. I was solo coaching today, so no action shots this week. I did, however, take a picture of these flowers by our front walk: October flowers. They're very pretty, as you can see, and you should admire them while you…

Ask Ethan #46: What is a Quantum Observation? (Synopsis)

“You can observe a lot by just watching.” -Yogi Berra Sure, the quantum Universe is a little bit spooky. Things that we're used to being "determined" here in the macroscopic world, like where a particle will end up if you throw it, aren't so simple if we head on down to subatomic scales. Image credit: user Ufonaut99 from network54's GSJ Physics Forum, original via http://universe-review.ca/. While you might have often heard that things are only determined by observation, does that have anything to do with you, the observer? Or is that just an anthropomorphized way of talking about what…

Throwback Thursday: Global Warming for Beginners (Synopsis)

“There is no question that climate change is happening; the only arguable point is what part humans are playing in it.” -David Attenborough If you had never heard of global warming before, how would you figure out whether it was happening, whether humans played a role, and what the magnitude of it was? Image credit: NASA, Johnson Space Center, Apollo 17 crew. Thankfully, we already have all of the scientific pieces in place, we just need for them to be put together in a way that we can understand it. What follows below is my attempt to do exactly that, with plenty of help from the…

Messier Monday: The Biggest One of them All, M87 (Synopsis)

“I recognize my limits, but when I look around I realise I am not living, exactly, in a world of giants.” -Giulio Andreotti There are a huge number of deep-sky objects visible from Earth, and every Monday -- with the Messier Monday series -- I've made it my goal to tell you about one of them in spectacular fashion. Image credit: Tenho Tuomi of Tuomi Observatory, via http://www.lex.sk.ca/astro/messier/index.html. But only one can be the largest of them all. For today's Messier Monday, meet our supercluster's largest, most gigantic galaxy: Messier 87! Image credit: John C. Smith of Hidden…

That's gonna leave a mark: Jerry Coyne batters Behe

Coyne not only dismantles Behe's argument, he gives a nice primer in the basics of evolutionary biology. He also points out that Behe, one of the few biologists in the Intelligent Design camp, has conceded virtually everything to science, and is left clinging to one forlorn hope, that mutations are inadequate to produce the variation that is the fuel of natural selection. I think he should have titled his book The Edge of Intelligent Design: Behe is hanging from the precipice by one trembling hand, and Coyne and nearly every other biologist in the world is stomping on his fingers. Whoops, if…

The Queen of Code

From FiveThirtyEight: You probably don’t know the name Grace Hopper, but you should. As a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy, Hopper worked on the first computer, the Harvard Mark 1. And she headed the team that created the first compiler, which led to the creation of COBOL, a programming language that by the year 2000 accounted for 70 percent of all actively used code. Passing away in 1992, she left behind an inimitable legacy as a brilliant programmer and pioneering woman in male-dominated fields. Hopper’s story is told in “The Queen of Code,” directed by Gillian Jacobs (of “Community” fame). It…

Game Of Thrown Under The Bus By Brexit?

Television and movie producers currently have a good deal in Great Britain, not in small part due to stability in various markets and some funding. For example, Game of Thrones, an HBO production, is filmed in Norther Ireland with funding from the European Regional Development fund. Both the stability and some of the funding for various productions is now at risk because of the Xenophobic whiny baby Leavers. This may be on the smaller end of negative effects of the UK leaving the EU, but it is a microcosm of the bigger problem, and likely to get a disproportionate share of attention if The…

Trump Loses Another Fight, or two

The Trump Administration, in the person of Interior Secretary Zinke, tried to eliminate Obama-era limitations on greenhouse gas emissions from the petroleum industry. The Administration tried to use the "Administrative Procedure Act to turn off provisions intended to reduce how much natural gas petroleum drillers could vent or burn on public or tribal lands. This would have been administered via the BLM. The federal government was sued by California, New Mexico, and various environmental groups, and yesterday, the court ruled in favor of the environment. This is the second loss for Trump…

Weekend Diversion: Take On Me

Do you remember when music videos were brand new things, and ranged from Cartoonish Violence to Eclectic Pleas for Individual Freedom? Well, one of my favorite videos was by the Norwegian band A-Ha, whose surreal, romantic fantasy video for their single Take On Me won me over instantly. I think it holds up pretty well, even nearly 25 years later: But someone had the brilliant idea of changing the lyrics around to actually match what's happening in the video. Have a few of those weekend beers, and then check out the literal version of A-ha's Take On Me: And -- if you like -- you can…

Berlinski Interviews Berlinski

David Berlinski may be one of the lesser known ID advocates, but he is surely the one who is easiest to dislike. The man has turned the striking of a pompous pose into an art form. If you want to see his gift for ignorance-fueled condescension on full display, check out this post where he interviews himself. If you can walk away from reading that without wanting to smack him (metaphorically, of course), I suggest you read it again. It would make a perfect example for Andrew Sullivan's "poseur alert" series. He sniffs, he sneers, he dismisses virtually all of biology and physics, and he says…

More Bork Brilliance

From the December 19, 2005 issue of National Review, in an article on "How to increase liberty in America", Bork goes Orwell on us. Jacob Sollum has the money quote: "Liberty in America can be enhanced by reinstating, legislatively, restraints upon the direction of our culture and morality," writes the former appeals court judge, now a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "Censorship as an enhancement of liberty may seem paradoxical. Yet it should be obvious, to all but dogmatic First Amendment absolutists, that people forced to live in an increasingly brutalized culture are…

Stupid Celebrity Tricks

So I'm watching TV last night and they show a clip from an interview that Barbara Streisand did a couple weeks ago with Ellen Degeneres. And in the interview Streisand suddenly announced that four was her favorite number because, "it's the most creative number in the universe. If you have four, then you can make five." I'll just file this one in the "shut the hell up" category next to Shirley MacLaine's chakra nonsense and Madonna's pseudo-kabbalah fad. I really should start a weekly feature on stupid things celebrities say. I remember many years ago seeing Patrick Swayze on the Tonight Show…

Preacher's Trial Date Set

Shawn Miller stopped by here last night and left a comment with a link to this story about his trial. Miller, you may remember, is a street preacher who is being defended by the ACLU in New Mexico after being arrested and spending more than 3 months in jail on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest when a police officer tried to stop him from standing and preaching on an empty street corner. This is one of hundreds of examples of the ACLU defending the religious freedom and free speech rights of Christians. Contrary to the lies told by the religious right, when it doesn't involve…

Climate Change Worsens Drought, Strains Economy....

Here we have a nice new infographic for you to gaze at, share around on your facebook accounts, and so on. (It is below.) Here in Minnesota, we've got a problem getting that last one million acres of corn planted (about 1/8th of the normal amount), not because of drought, but because of excessive rain. However, all that extra rain is not expected to alleviate the effects of our drought long term, so we get to have both. If the price or availability of major food types ("commodities") goes south (up and down, respectively) here and there, adjustments can be made. But if climate change…

Dark Snow Project on The Weather Channel

The melting of the Greenland ice sheet is a problem, and it seems to be happening faster than scientists had originally thought it might. This is probably because of soot darkening the snow, which collects solar heat and melts the ice. Some, perhaps much, of this soot may come from the extensive fires we are experiencing. That increase in fires is probably caused by global warming. The problem is, we don't know enough about the "Dark Snow" phenomenon. There is a group of scientists trying to study this, and they have turned to Crowd Funding to help make this possible. Here is recent…

Permafrost

As you know, the permafrost is melting due to global warming, and this is releasing greenhouse gasses which cause global warming. What you may not know is that we could not have had this conversation even a century ago because science has only recently recognized permafrost (it was not clearly defined and known of in the early 20th century). John McKay, an expert on hairy elephants and related things, has written up a description of what may be the first scientific description of permafrost, from a century or more prior to it's incorporation into the scientific conversation as a reasonably…

Important Information About Information

NASA's Earth Now Android App One of the top iPhone education apps in the iTunes store is now available for Android. The free NASA "Earth Now" Android app immerses cyber explorers in dazzling visualizations of near-real-time global climate data from NASA's fleet of Earth science satellites, bringing a world of ever-changing climate data to users' fingertips. Available HERE. TruthMarket by Rick Hayes-Roth on Point of Inquiry Wouldn't it be nice if there were a way to make American politics just a little more rational, just a little more evidence based? Wouldn't it be even nicer if there was a…

Romney on Pre-Existing Conditions

Romney would replace Obamacare with a law that would require insurers to do what they were already doing before Obamacare, but makes it sound better than it is: The key phrase here is "continuously insured." As pointed out by Jonathan Cohn via Think Progress: the federal government already forbids insurers from denying coverage to the continuously covered through the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). But the measure has been seen as a failure because “there is no limit on what insurers can charge under HIPAA” and the law does “little to regulate the content…

Sex, Genes & Rock ‘n’ Roll

Skeptically Speaking #175: This week, it’s part one of a two-week focus on genetics. For our first installment, we’re looking at the ways that evolution might influence our modern lives, from obesity to overpopulation to heavy metal music. We spend the hour with Rob Brooks, Professor of Evolution and Director of the Evolution & Ecology Research Centre at the University of New South Wales. He’ll join us to talk about his book Sex, Genes & Rock 'n' Roll: How Evolution Has Shaped the Modern World. Email questions to live@skepticallyspeaking.com, or join us live in the chat! More details…

Beware the False Profits. As it were.

This week, we're joined by Robert FitzPatrick, founder of Pyramid Scheme Alert, and co-author of False Profits: Seeking Financial and Spiritual Deliverance in Multi-Level Marketing and Pyramid Schemes. He'll discuss the promises and pitfalls of schemes, and how to tell legitimate direct selling from multi-level marketing scams. And on the podcast, we'll speak to Paul Piff, researcher at the Institute of Personality and Social Research at the University of California, Berkeley, about his research on the relationship between social class and unethical behavior. We record live with Robert…

The chunky numbers that underlie electoral statistics

I just wanted to show you this histogram. I love this histogram because it demonstrates the underlying chunkiness of the electoral college. This is not at all an uncommon phenomenon in nature and culture, even though we tend to conceptualize and model things as nice curvy well behaved lines. This also shows the underlying pattern from which people like Nate Silver get these percentages of who is likely to win. Each little chunkette (one electoral vote = one chunkette) of data on this histogram is a possible coin flip with a coin with two heads or two tails. You put all the biased coins…

The Chilling Effects of Denialism and Who Will Save the Polar Bears?

One of the more interesting and useful individual projects I was involved in over the last year was the production of two expert panels about climate change at CONvergence 2012. The panels were moderated by Desiree Schell, recorded, and edited by KO Myers into an episode of Skeptically Speaking. The panels included Maggie Koerth-Baker, John Abraham, Shawn Otto and Yours Truly. I mention them now because all of the issues discussed in those panels are still very current and relevant, and if you have not listened to the podcast, I'm sure you will want to. Click here to reach the Skeptically…

Mann's False Hope Graphic Presentified

I needed a copy of the "False Hope Graph" that Michael Mann painstakingly created for his Scientific American piece "Earth Will Cross the Climate Danger Threshold by 2036" for a presentation I'm doing, but it had to be simpler, leave some stuff off, and be readable across the room on a screen. The original graphic looks like this: It is a major contribution showing the relationship between climate sensitivity and climate change in the future depending on various important factors. The graphic I made from it is here (click on it to get the big giant version): You'll notice I left only one…

Wave Google Wave Good Bye

From Google Wave: More than a year ago, we announced that Google Wave would no longer be developed as a separate product. At the time, we committed to maintaining the site at least through to the end of 2010. Today, we are sharing the specific dates for ending this maintenance period and shutting down Wave. As of January 31, 2012, all waves will be read-only, and the Wave service will be turned off on April 30, 2012. You will be able to continue exporting individual waves using the existing PDF export feature until the Google Wave service is turned off. We encourage you to export any…

There are new ads

There might be trouble. I've already seen a lump of coal with legs go running across the Pharyngula logo, and a frog (it is a nice frog) go hopping across the page. We have not had good luck with ads that try to escape from their cage in a box on the page — send me a note if you're experiencing annoying obstacles in reading the site. As long as I'm mentioning site weirdness—we're also experiencing some slowdowns and annoyances in posting. If you get a "500 Internal Server Error", don't assume your comment failed — it was probably accepted, and then something in the server choked. You aren't…

How does today's explosion in Minneapolis compare to TMI and Chernobyl?

Daemonic underground gasses exploded to the surface in a fiery fireball in South Minneapolis today, blasting a huge hole in a parking lot, causing several cars to meltdown, and potentially damaging a newly rebuilt section of God's Highway (I35 W).1 The news agencies noticed it when checking the traffic cameras for their local traffic report. Local Minneapolitonians: This was on 60thE and Nicollet, near the Crosstown Junction. Route 62, closed for a time, is reopened, but as of this writing, 35 W is closed both North and South as they are checking for damage. Of the just moments ago…

Fluoride and Water

From the Roman aqueducts to the latest research on what happens when you turn the tap, it's an hour on water. Dr. William James joins us for a lesson on the history and technology of municipal water systems. And we'll talk to University of Toronto researcher Dr. Marc Grynpas about the science and safety of water fluoridation. TONIGHT Last Night! on Skeptically Speaking. I wrote this notice two days ago but forgot to hit "Publish" .... well, anywah, the pod cast for Skeptically Speaking generally comes out late Sunday, so tune in then if you did not catch the show live. Also, Sunday Morning (…

"Intelligent design" legislation in Texas

"Disingenuous efforts by creationists to portray themselves as persecuted in mainstream academia for their anti-evolution beliefs are getting a boost from a Texas lawmaker," reported the Texas Freedom Network in a March 9, 2011, post on its blog. House Bill 2454, introduced in the Texas House of Representatives on March 8, 2011, would, if enacted, provide, "An institution of higher education may not discriminate against or penalize in any manner, especially with regard to employment or academic support, a faculty member or student based on the faculty member's or student's conduct of research…

Another entry in the annals of crackpottery

This is kind of sad, actually. It's a slick website from a guy in Utah who claims to have discovered pre-Cambrian dragons. Browse around his gallery, and it's clear that what he's got are pictures of random rocks, and that he's seeing shapes in them like one sees shapes in the clouds. He reminds me of Ed Conrad. His name is Mike Hallett, so of course this period of gigantic dragons is called the Hallettstoneion. He has also written a book, which has to be seen to be believed. I swear, I think it's actually written in crayon. Here's a sample, in case you'd really rather not download a 40MB…

2015 Enlightener & Deceiver Awards

The Institutet radio show: 2015 Enlighteners of the Year The Swedish Skeptics have announced their annual awards for 2015. The Enlightener of the Year award is given to a radio show on Swedish Broadcasting's channel 3, Institutet, "The Institute". Show hosts Karin Gyllenklev and Jesper Rönndahl use humour to reach out with science content to a wide audience. The Deceiver of the Year anti-award is given to a neighbouring show of the aforementioned, channel 1's Kaliber, "Calibre". They get this doubtful honour for a show where they suggested that vaccination against HPV, Human Papilloma…

In My Earbuds Lately

GOAT: the new groovy weirdness from Gothenburg Here are some good albums that I've been listening to lately. Dowling Poole - Bleak Strategies (2014). For all who miss the later Beatles and the Super Furry Animals. GOAT - World Music (2012). Eclectic psychedelia with screamy female vocals and bongos! GOAT - Commune (2014). Again! Mahavishnu Orchestra - The Inner Mounting Flame (1971). Proggy jazz fusion with violin and odd time signatures. Nashville Pussy - Say Something Nasty (2002). AC/DC rock with dirty funny lyrics. Soundtrack of our Lives - Behind the Music (2001). Classic rock…