Politics
pharyngula | June 24, 2010Australia has a non-religious woman as prime minister! This is nominally promising, but we'll have to wait and see if she actually follows through with some kind of commitment to secularism (the former PM, Kevin Rudd, was known for recruiting god to his party's side).
Also, unfortunately, in all the hullabaloo about having two X chromosomes, red hair, no husband or children, and making a secular affirmation instead of a religious oath of office, I'm not hearing much about her politics, other than that she's more or less expected to continue current Labor Party policies. Is that good or bad? I…
grrlscientist | June 24, 2010tags: Education Innovation in the Slums, education, technology, poverty, slums, curriculum, philosophy, learning as a productive activity, Charles Leadbeater, TEDTalks, TED Talks, streaming video
Charles Leadbeater went looking for radical new forms of education -- and found them in the slums of Rio and Kibera, where some of the world's poorest kids are finding transformative new ways to learn. And this informal, disruptive new kind of school, he says, is what all schools need to become.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the…
illconsidered | June 23, 2010Kevin Rudd is quite suddenly not the Prime Minister of Australia anymore.
I know we have a high proportion of Aussie regulars here, so I'll just ask: what does this mean for Australia's climate change policy? I travel to Australia regularily but did not know that was coming, is that just because I don't pay attention?
eklemetti | June 23, 2010The latest news from the world of volcanoes, brought to us by the Global Volcanism Program, USGS and the Smithsonian Institution. They are also brought to us by Sally Kuhn Sennert - and if you have a question for her about her job at the GVP preparing the Weekly Volcanic Activity Report and all things volcanic (and hopefully it won't end like another recent volcanically-mitigated interview).
Some highlights (not including Gorely and Sakurajima):
Ioto (aka Iwojima) in the Volcano Islands of Japan produced an ash plume of unknown height. The volcano has frequent phreatic eruptions and abundant…
pharyngula | June 23, 2010Roy Zimmerman released this one today as appropriate to the dissent at the top in the conduct of the war in Afghanistan.
I have to applaud Rolling Stone for exposing the chaos in leadership in the war.
The Rolling Stone article highlights how President Obama has long had an even bigger decision to make. His Afghan team is widely regarded as dysfunctional. There is an astonishing web of animosities and rivalries between key civilian and military players.
McChrystal comes off as an honest — too honest — jerk who is so arrogant that he doesn't care that the follies of the conduct of war are…
gregladen | June 23, 2010How can a nation call itself civilized if it executes its own citizens?
The story goes like this. A famous scientist whom you've likely never heard of was in China for several years excavating a famous archaeological site that you certainly have heard of. During that time, he felt the need, as we all do now and then, to hold in his hand a defleshed human skull. It would be nice to have available the skull of a modern human, in order to compare it with the skulls of not-so-modern humans he was busily digging up.
So he inquired.
He asked local officials and notables who might be able to help…
gregladen | June 22, 2010According to reports.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Check it out.
pharyngula | June 22, 2010Ophelia Benson is having a giggle over the Texas Republican Party Platform, which you can download, too. It's the usual: guns, US out of the UN, immigrants must be controlled, etc. They really don't like homosexuals.
We believe that the practice of homosexuality tears at the fabric of society, contributes to the breakdown of the family unit, and leads to the spread of dangerous, communicable diseases. Homosexual behavior is contrary to the fundamental, unchanging truths that have been ordained by God, recognized by our country's founders, and shared by the majority of Texans. Homosexuality…
catdynamics | June 22, 2010So, it appears that Le Bleus were ill-starred in the World Cup.
There may have been some lions in defence, but not enough water carriers and too many goats...
Yes, Domenech, the french coach, uses astrology to select the team...
"...few took Domenech seriously. It was discovered that he consulted the Zodiac in squad selection. Robert Pires was supposedly rejected owing to his mistrust of Scorpios, while William Gallas is among those challenged by perhaps his most infamous remark: "When I have a Leo in defence, I've always got my gun ready." "
I guess Anelka was in opposition.
Maybe you…
clock | June 20, 2010Republican candidate for Arizona State Superintendent of Public Instruction and current State Senator John Huppenthal gets schooled by Tempe's Corona del Sol High School student journalist Keith Wagner during an interview about the state legislature's vote to cut career and technical education funding by 99.9%.
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grrlscientist | June 20, 2010tags: Religion, weird beliefs, suicide bombings, wars, funny, humor, comedy, social commentary, mind control, streaming video
The first time this video was uploaded to youtube, it was removed for being "inappropriate." Fortunately, a bunch of people also uploaded it to their youtube accounts and mirrored it. Well, the original filmographer uploaded it again, so youtube .. it's baaaack!
grrlscientist | June 19, 2010tags: Religion is the Problem, religion, cults, faith, funny, humor, comedy, social commentary, Bill Maher, television, streaming video
Bill Maher points out some of the more idiotic beliefs that various religions claim are truths .. beliefs that have been shown to be false.
clock | June 18, 2010Back in 1999, during the NATO bombing of Belgrade, Salon.com bragged that they could send a reporter to Serbia - the first online-only magazine to do such a thing. That was a sign that online-only journalism was maturing. But Dave Winer, while agreeing this is a sign of maturity for a US-based outlet, voiced the opinion that the Web was already there, in Yugoslavia, and that the people were on it, using it. Last week, Dave remembered that episode in a different context and I have, in a few posts before (regarding Mumbai attacks and Iran revolution), wondered why would American audience put…
grrlscientist | June 18, 2010tags: birds, BP, oilspill
Image: Mike Keefe, Denver Post, 13 June 2010.
grrlscientist | June 16, 2010tags: Black Market Soccer, sports, soccer, futbol, World Cup Soccer, human trafficking, slavery, documentary, investigative reporting, television, streaming video
Sadly, slavery is not dead after all. This video shows a scene from the documentary "Soccer's Lost Boys." In this video, correspondent Mariana van Zeller goes undercover to explore the last, desperate hope of young West African players living illegally in Paris: a pick-up game with sketchy middle-men who try to sell the players to outside agents.
The reason that FIFA, the governing body of the sport, has decided to hold the World…
catdynamics | June 16, 2010there have been some speculative stories out there on catastrophic consequences of the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, up to and including Florida being swallowed
can't happen
the ecological consequences are going to be bad enough, along with damage to economy and tourism
the leak has now been estimated at 60,000 barrels per day,
or 2.5 kb per hour, as I'm sure BP would like it to be referrred to
if the leak continues for 3 years, without being capped, that would be about 60 million barrels, or 2.4 billion gallons, or about 10 billion liters of oil.
that is probably about the maximum that…
pharyngula | June 16, 2010The good news, first: the Mormon church has been found guilty on 13 counts of lying about their involvement with California's proposition 8. Mormonism is now officially a faith of convicted liars.
Now the bad news, or more accurately, the pathetic news. The church lied about spending only $2078 on campaigning in California, when they'd actually raised over $30 million, but admitted to spending $190,000, and certainly spent much more than that to influence the election. The penalty for this ethics violation was…
$5538.
The lesson learned, I'm sure, is that when evil religious masterminds are…
grrlscientist | June 16, 2010tags: Drop into the Ocean, Greenpeace, documentary, whaling, overfishing, fish farming, mining, oil drilling, climate change, underwater marine parks, endangered species, conservation, marine biology, streaming video
Take a deep breath and imagine the oceans.... This disturbing video is a short Greenpeace documentary outlining the threats that humans pose to our oceans and a proposal for what we ALL can do to help restore their health. [In short, if you haven't stopped eating all fish -- and most especially shrimp -- yet, this video will make you think seriously about this decision]
stoat | June 15, 2010Well, that was a bit of a surprise. Had you asked, I would have predicted a far weaker report. Shame it took so long. Cameron has responded well.
The Bloody Sunday killings were unjustified and unjustifiable, the Prime Minster has said. Thirteen marchers were shot dead on 30 January 1972 in Londonderry when British paratroopers opened fire on crowds at a civil rights demonstration. Fourteen others were wounded, one later died. The Saville Report is heavily critical of the Army and found that soldiers fired the first shot. Prime Minister David Cameron said he was "deeply sorry". He said that…