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A Warmer World Will Trap Millions In Poverty

From The World Bank. Within a few decades rising world temperatures will create food shortages in Sub-Saharan Africa and leave some parts of Asia flooded while other areas will not have enough drinking water. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim says the world must mitigate climate change as he reveals key findings of Turn Down the Heat: Climate Extremes, Regional Impacts, and Case for Resilience, a scientific report on the expected rise of global temperatures by 2 degrees by 2040.

Skeptically Speaking #193 Science Books for Your Gift List

The just uploaded podcast of Skeptically Speaking is a must-hear: Whether you’re dropping a last-minute hint to a relative, or buying science books for the people you love, Skeptically Speaking has you covered. We’ve enlisted two dozen scientists, science writers and bloggers, including some of our favorite past guests. They’ll bring you their favorites from 2012, and some classics to help fill out anyone’s science library. Happy holidays! (Mine is at about 19 minutes.)

Curiosity Animation

The "Next Media" animation company used to send me several animations a week (a few a day for a while) but then they were bought out by a major media outlet (can't remember which one) so most of the emails I get from them now are about how great they are, rather than providing much current content. But today I got a not-very-current animation that seems pretty good and I thought you might like it, of the Mars Curiosity landing and field research:

Skeptical about global warming? Here's your book.

This is a book for global warming sketpics so they can be more convincing in their skepticism. The title is "The Scientific Guide to Global Warming Skepticism." Hey, wait a second, I might have that wrong. This might be a book for people who want to take a scientific approach to skepticism about global warming. CLICK HERE to get the PDF file. It is not very big. And click here to find out more information about where the book comes from.

ABC Interview with Climate Scientists Michael Mann

You know Michael Mann as the scientist who described recent climate change with the "hockey stick" graph. He also wrote The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines. He is talking about the McCarthyistic tactics of the climate change denialists, including crazy people lurking in the shadows, and sitting members of the United Stated Congress. video platform video management video solutions video player If the interview does not work properly, you can view it here.

The Jet Stream is Misbehaving

From meteorologist Paul Douglas: Published on Mar 14, 2014 Weather seems to be staling. Look into how the speed of the jet stream causes this "stuck in a rut" weather pattern. Meteorologist Paul Douglas also takes a look back as to how this winter compares to years past. Checking out extreme drought conditions, snow cover and cooler temperatures overall. This did not only impact the U.S. but other areas of the world. England experienced their wettest winter yet!

Ask Mitt what he thinks

Alright, Mormonism is weird…but did you know there are some church 'scholars' who think Bigfoot is actually Cain? Here's a Bigfoot theory I haven't heard before. Apparently there are some in the Mormon church who hypothesize that Bigfoot may actually be Cain, condemned to walk the earth forever. Matt Bowman provides some scholarly elaboration on this theory on the Mormon Mentality blog. This is all spun out from an early church leader's tall tale of encountering a hairy giant.

Thursday Firefighter Blogging 070711

This week's Toddler Blogging is a cell-phone picture in slightly dim light, but it's too cute not to use: This is particularly noteworthy because the fire truck was bought by Grandma and Grandpa last year, while the fire hat was bought by Grandma and Grandpa before they were grandparents. In 1974 or thereabouts, I would guess, because it was originally mine, when I was little. And that's really all I've got today, as I'm still tired from travel.

Aard in Open Lab 2007 Anthology

I just learned that my blog entry Your Folks, My Folks in Prehistory has been selected for inclusion in the 2007 Open Lab science blogging anthology! Yay! I was likewise honoured a year ago when I had an entry about the field-archaeological paradox in the volume for 2006. The 2007 volume is edited by Reed Cartwright of the De Rerum Natura blog and Bora Zivkovic of A Blog Around the Clock and will be available in bookstores and from Amazon.

Is It Time to Start Dismissing 'Economics Deniers'?

Asks reason.com. Good heavens no, answer all the nice lefties. Of course not. Refs * Even the intellectual left is drawn to conspiracy theories about the right. Resist them. How not to write about “radical” libertarians by by Henry Farrell and Steven Teles in Vox. * Questions for Progressives About Trump - from CH. * James Buchanan and Hobbes * John Stuart Mill’s 1861 Considerations on Representative Government - CH * Michael Reich Is Wrong About the Booth School Surveys on Minimum Wages - CH

Poll: Most Important Part of Physics?

Over in Twitterland, we have a question from WillyB: If you had to pick one topic to cover in Physics, which do you think is the most important for the gen. public? This sounds like a job for the Internet! To the polling machine! If you had to pick one topic to cover in Physics, which do you think is the most important for the general public? While several of the options allow linear superpositions of solutions, this is a purely classical poll, so you may choose only one answer. Though you should, of course, feel free to bitch about the choices in the comments.

New Swedish Fantasy Novel

My erudite friend Florence Vilén (historian of religion, haiku poet, aficionado of gems and classical music) has published her first novel in Swedish. Tungelblodet ("Blood of the Moon") is high fantasy set in a northern archipelago where wind-witches help fishermen to make good catches. Florence cites Tolkien, LeGuin and Ende as her favourite fantasists (and I concur). The book can be had from Litenupplaga.se (SEK 173) and Adlibris (SEK 177). Order your copy today! I just ordered mine.

Dembski knew

It's all a bit too convoluted to make for snappy copy, but Dembski had been using Harvard/XVIVO's animation in his lectures without permission…and now it's clear from his Design of Life book that he did so in full awareness that he had no right to do so. Hey, I thought these Christian folk were supposed to be the morally upstanding ones. That's what they've always told me, anyway — have they been lying about that, too?

Joe Carter in the New York Times

Joe Carter of Evangelical Outpost, ID proponent and pretty decent guy, is mentioned in a New York Times article on religion and the blogosphere. Joe, Joe, Joe...first you decided to move from a red state to a decidedly blue state and now you're receiving notice in the flagship of the godless liberal media. I see the hand of the devil at work here. (/sarcasm off) Seriously, being mentioned in the Times is kinda cool. And good luck at the new job.

An Incredible Gift

I have just received a surprising and surely too generous gift from a reader named Damon Katz. In appreciation for the work I do here, he has given me a $100 Amazon gift certificate, along with the admonition that I should use it for something fun rather than something intellectually related. It's an incredible kind gesture and it is very much appreciated. Most importantly, it's nice to know that my writing is viewed as worthwhile and important by my readers. Thank you so much, Damon.

Friday Cephalopod: Origin of the Octosquid?

Mastigoteuthis sp. Since I recently pointed out the strange news reports of an "octosquid" that even went so far as to call it half squid/half octopus, I thought I'd show why the preliminary assignment to the genus Mastigoteuthis was suggestive. It probably did have 8 arms and 2 tentacles … before it got sucked up in a pipe and flung to the surface. Those two feeding tentacles are delicate. Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.

Interesting New Blog

Another cool blog I didn't know about, discovered because I'm apparently on their blogroll and someone linked to this page from theirs. The Pryhills are a rather unconventional couple - Christian, conservative, and lesbian. In particular, see this post about the difficulty one set of parents are having accepting that their daughter is lesbian. It reminds us, once again, that homosexual people are still people, that they want the same things everyone else wants - love, acceptance, strong family bonds.

Mystery Anime Revisited

A little while back, I asked for help identifying some anime recommended by a Japanese fan. I have subsequently found the business card on which he wrote the titles: The first one looks like it is "Gurren-Lagann, so a shiny gold star for commenter Patrick. the second one is a total mystery to me. I get "Ba Bu Ru squiggle GO!!" from that, and I'm not too sure about the "Bu." Anyway, any guidance you can provide would be welcome in comments.

"Idea" is a Perfectly Good Word

The rant about "meme" being a stupid idea that I mentioned near the end of Monday's Dawkins post turns out to be from Mike the Mad Biologist, who reposted it yesterday. Executive summary: The word doesn't add much, obscures important phenomena, is imprecise, and is vitalistic. I'm sure you were dying to know this, but I'm posting the link here as much so I can find it again if I need it as because you really ought to read it.

Class Issues in College Admissions

I can stop blogging about college admisions any time I want. Really. In one of the previous posts, commenter AO noted a New York Review of Books article on class issues in college admissions. here's the article in question, a review of several recent books about how the current college admissions system favors the wealthy and privileged. The article is long, fairly comprehensive, and densely written, but you already got that from "New York Review of Books." It's well worth a read.

Quick VP Debate Commentary

I made it through half an hour of last night's VP candidate debate. When they got to the question of global warming, I realized that her answer was indistinguishable from something the Sarah Palin Interview Generator might cough up, and opted for Tombstone on the History Channel (!) instead. "Evidently, Mr. Ringo is an educated man. Now I really hate him." If I'm going to have to listen to someone saying ridiculous things in a funny accent, there should at least be gunfights.

Travelin' again

As you read this, the Trophy Wife™ and I are zooming down I94, on our way to a pleasant weekend together in Madison for the Freedom from Religion Convention. Our hotel does have wi-fi, so have no fear — I won't be out of touch. And perhaps I'll have tales of Julia Sweeney and Christopher Hitchens to share with you all. If you're in Madison, too, don't forget: Saturday, 12-2, at Brocach is the IIDB/Pharynguloid meetup.

Atom bomb hits Nagasaki

..... on this day in 1945. American forces have dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki - the second such attack on Japan in three days. The bomb was dropped by parachute from an American B29 Bomber at 1102 local time. It exploded about 1,625 ft (500m) above the ground and is believed to have completely destroyed the city, which is situated on the western side of the Japanese island of Kyushu. more at the bbc

Progress in Burundi

African Union troops are physically disarming 21,000 fighters from Burundi's last active rebel group, the Forces for National Liberation (FNL). It follows a weekend ceremony where FNL leader Agathon Rwasa symbolically surrendered his own weapons to the AU. A grenade attack killed six people but the BBC's Prime Ndikumagenge says it was not linked to the rebels. But he says it shows how many weapons are circulating in Burundi following more than 10 years of ethnic conflict. bbc

An up close and personal look at flooding in the Red River Valley

In 1997, the sandbagging was not enough to save Grand Forks. The river rose higher than it had been since 1826. Downtown Grand Forks was destroyed by explosions and fire that added on to the damage caused by the water. ... The local TV stations carried stories of cattle stranded in flowing water, unable to reach higher ground. Some cattle were frozen standing in place as the floodwaters froze at night. From A Simple Assignment . Go read it!

Windows market share dives below 90 Percent for first time

Windows OS last month took its biggest market share dive in the past two years, erasing gains made in two of the past three months and sending the operating system's share under 90% for the first time, an Internet measurement company reported today. source In the mean time, Linux grew from 0.71 to 0.83%, and Mac OS X grew by 0.66 percent to reach 8.9 percent. That's a whopping big change for Linux, percentage-wise.

The role of vitamin D in beta-cell function

Sue Lynn Lau chose classical ballet and highly kinetic party dancing as the way to interpret her Ph.D. thesis, "The role of vitamin D in beta-cell function." As The Nutcracker Suite lilts in the background, Lau, a graduate student from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia, appears as the Sugarplum Fairy, delivering marshmallow glucose to four beta cell dancers. Meanwhile, a fifth dancer flings and twirls around the stage--representing the sunlight required for vitamin D biosynthesis. aaas Science

Norm of Reaction

No, this is not about phenotypes and genotypes. It is about smarm. Norm Coleman, the Republican Senator from Minnesota currently fighting to hold his seat against a challenge by Al Franken, is a power hungry amoral selfish bastard who should not be allowed near a public office of any kind. But don't ask me about this guy. Ask Stephanie, who has written a killer post on the topic. I will be over there later to comment. You should go now and get things started.

YA Virgin Birth

Scientists have confirmed the second case of a "virgin birth" in a shark. In a study reported Friday in the Journal of Fish Biology, scientists said DNA testing proved that a pup carried by a female Atlantic blacktip shark in the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center contained no genetic material from a male. The other thing that was strange was that the shark closely resembled Marty the Tank Cleaner, who recently left his job at the aquarium and has not been seen in a while. Details.

Evolution for Louisiana ... a new citizens group.

We made this site to spread the word about our effort to combat Creationism in Louisianan Schools. You may be aware that yesterday(June 28) Governor Jindal signed bill 733 into effect. This bill will allow Creationist material, specifically from the Discovery Institute, to be used in classrooms to 'inspire critical thinking'. It will also allow teachers and students to spread ridiculous religious ideas at will. What's wrong with that, you might ask? .... Check it out.

Earth gets very far from sun, slows down

The Earth Today The Earth has moved as far from the sun as it typically gets, and like a ball that has been thrown into the air, stopping at its maximum height before plummeting back to earth, The Earth has slowed down to as slow as it typically gets. Starting some time today, The Earth will begin to fall back towards the sun. Hang on, its going to be a wild ride! Astronomers call this moment in time Aphelion

New Problem Of the Week

As you might have noticed, Sunday Chess Problem had the week off. If you really need to get your fix, though, you can have a look at this web page I made for my chess problems. You'll recognize a few of them from the Sunday Chess Problem series. I did, however, manage to get the new POTW up. Number seven, this week. I also posted an “official” solution to last week's problem. So go have a look and let me know what you think!

GMO NOMS: Here fishy fishy fishy...

Anastasia over at Biofortified has a post up on the science behind the GMO salmon recently submitted to the FDA. Risk assessment and mitigation of AquAdvantage salmon Hehehe, its interesting to see where the luddites/technophobes got the 'DER BE ANTIFREEZE GENES IN DEM DAR FISHIES!' I thought they were just pulling that one straight out of their asses, but its from the same line of 'reasoning' where they got 'DER BE CANKER VIRUS GENES IN DEM DAR TOMAHTOOS!!'

A Golden Compass boycott?

My daughter works at our small town movie theater, and she's got the inside scoop: apparently the locals are boycotting The Golden Compass. Attendance is down, almost the only people going are university students, the owner has had calls from people in the community complaining about the movie. Darn. I guess the theater should have booked Mel Gibson's Passion again — that thing hung around forever here, and had loads of people showing up every night. Ah, rural America.

Canine Poll: Do You Know Your Enemy?

I've got a couple more things to say about Unscientific America, probably, but I opted for some more David Foster Wallace last night, and don't feel like typing them up now, so I'll give you all a break. Anyway, what you're really here for is the baby and dog stuff, so here's another poll question from Emmy: Cats are(survey) (I think you should be able to choose multiple answers to this one, but I'm not 100% sure I set it up right.)

Thursday Baby Blogging 051409

This is Week 40 of Thursday Baby Blogging, meaning that SteelyKid has nominally reached the point where she has been out in the world as long as she was gestating. Let's see what she thinks: SteelyKid says "Huh? I thought that wasn't for another couple of weeks..." And it's true, she was late in arriving. So, the official celebration of gestational breakeven will be a couple of weeks from now. In the meantime, let's just leave her to wrestle her bison...

Making Physics Relevant

An example problem from today's lecture: A sleep-deprived parent is warming a bottle for a midnight feeding. He places a bottle containing 250 ml of infant formula at 275K into 300 ml of water at 320 K. When the two liquids reach equilibrium, what is the temperature of the formula? Answer: Trick question! While the bottle is warming, he dozes off holding the baby, and by the time they wake up, both bottle and water have cooled to only 288K.

Stewart Gets It Right, Again

As usual, the best commentary on this weekend's shootings comes from Jon Stewart: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c Arizona Shootings Reaction www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> The Daily Show on Facebook If you prefer your sensible commentary in convenient HTML form, John Scalzi's got you covered. Comments closed, because I don't want to host a discussion of this. If you want to hold forth on the situation, it's a big Internet, and there are lots of other places where you can do that.

Poll: Significant Figures

I'm grading a big backlog of homeworks today, so I don't have time to do any really lengthy posts this morning. Thus, a poll question inspired by going through these homeworks: You are doing a physics homework problem. How many significant figures do you report?survey software While the class in question uses some quantum ideas, the poll is strictly classical, so no superpositions of multiple answers are allowed. (Honestly, at some point, I would expect laziness alone to compel people to round their answers off before their hands cramp up from copying all these digits...)

Toddler See, Toddler Do

I'm always taking pictures of SteelyKid going about her business, so a little turnabout is fair play: The "camera" she's using is actually a small calculator that my mom gave her. She also uses this like a phone, to carry on lengthy conversations with her great-grandmother and sometimes friends from day care. She'll also sometimes just punch the buttons to watch the numbers change on the display. Basically, it's a toddler iPhone. A whole lot cheaper than a real one, though...

Thursday Baby Blogging 121009

SteelyKid was kind of overtired today, so she needed a little nap around dinnertime. This provided a nice opportunity to get a sleepy-baby picture for this week's Baby Blogging: Bonus Kate for extra "OMG! Huuuuuge Baby!!!1!" effect. She's wearing a way-cool roaring dinosaur shirt (purchased from the boys section, again...), but you can't really see it in any of the pictures I got tonight. We'll get it the next time she wears it, though. Unless she outgrows it first...

Thursday Baby Blogging 040909

Why is this night different from other nights? Because day care at the Jewish Community Center was closed for Passover, and SteelyKid spent the day at work with Kate, of course. And after a long day of baby lawyering, it's good to relax with a drink: SteelyKid here shows off that she can hold her own bottle, thank you very much. It's not the best Appa-for-scale picture, but new abilities are more important than strict perspective.

links for 2009-03-02

The Neon Season - Why I Would Not Have Greenlit Dollhouse "Last night I watched an episode of a show I had been avoiding due to issues I had with the premise, despite the creator having written some of my favorite TV shows. It had every single problem I would have expected it to have based on my knowledge of the premise, and I wondered why, apart from the Whedon name, executives would have greenlit a show so clearly destined for early cancellation." (tags: television SF writing)

Time to skew another internet poll

Or in this case, perhaps, unskew one. Take a look at this poll that asks, Does Islam Oppress or Liberate Women? The leading answer so far is "Islam is generally liberating to women, freeing them from sexual pressures that exist elsewhere. " Yeah, if by "liberating" you mean "compelling them to wear a bag over their head, not allowing them to drive or hold various public positions, and in some cases, gouging out chunks of their genitalia with a piece of broken glass."

links for 2008-06-03

xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe "Six more weeks of winter." (tags: kid-stuff silly comics) Stanford Law Drops Letter Grades :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs "Those who support the change at Stanford argue that shifting from the precision of letter grades to broader categories will reduce some pressure and refocus students' and professors' energies on classroom learning. " (tags: academia law education society)

links for 2008-04-05

Inactive kids face 6-fold risk of heart disease by teen years, study finds Correlation or causation? (tags: education medicine US social-science science news) Reassigned Time: PSEUDONYMITY is not Anonymity, duh "Pseudonymity is not about being untraceable but rather about taking on a traceable identity that is distinct from one's legal identity, or one's identity at birth. It's about taking on a "pen name," a name that people can follow, and by extension a way o (tags: blogs academia writing society culture)

Monday Night Mystery

Tonight's challenge is this rather unusual insect. What is it? Points will be awarded to the first person to pick the order (3), family (3), and genus (3). Plus, a bonus point for explaining what is unusual about this insect's life cycle. The cumulative winner for the month of June 2010 will get their choice of 1) any 8x10 print from my photo galleries; or 2) a guest post on the safe-for-work topic of their choice.

More ants from Google Earth

Messor capensis nests, as seen by The Google Over at Photo Synthesis, commentator Kate directs our attention to Messor capensis, a South African seed harvester whose nests from the air look like some form of fungal growth. Except much, much bigger. (coordinates here: 33° 36â57.32âS, 22° 08â06.38âE) I've only got one really crappy photo of the beast, but I'll subject you to it anyway: More Google Earth ants here and here.

Busy, busy, busy

Can't devote much to blogging at the moment, but since we're feeling sorry for the dipterists this week here's a fly for you to look at: Gall Midge, Cecidomyiidae - California Maybe one of you fly folks could explain in the comments why Cecidomyiids are so cool.  Aside from looking like little fairies, that is. photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon D60 ISO 100, f/13, 1/200 sec, flash diffused through tracing paper

Ants at the Encyclopedia of Life

The much-hyped Encyclopedia of Life has started adding content for the ants, mostly by harvesting photos and text from Antweb.  The interface is a little odd, as EoL layers Antweb's up-to-date information over the obsolete ITIS taxonomy, losing taxa whose status has changed over the past decade.  We clearly need a centralized taxonomic infrastructure if EoL is going to run smoothly.  As it stands, we're still better off just going to Antweb directly.