Uncategorized
gregladen | January 17, 2012When my daughter was little, she had a series of ear and throat infections that were frequent enough that the pediatrician finally said "One more in the next two months and Imma recommend we consider taking out her tonsils" or words to that effect. Interestingly, Julia stopped getting the sore throats and ear infections just then. (Kids do stop getting the sore throats and ear infections eventually, and I guess it was time!) Had she continued to suffer these infections and the question of tonsillectomy come up, I'm sure I would have researched it and made a scientifically informed…
gregladen | January 17, 2012There are animations!
Florida couple escape from sinking Italian cruise ship:
Cruise ship Costa Concordia salvage options animated:
carlyo | January 17, 2012Just in case you haven't heard the Festival dates are set for April 28-29th! The doors are open on Saturday from 10am-6pm and on Sunday from 10am- 4pm. This year the Festival will be held in Washington D.C. at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
Visit our website for all of the upcoming events leading up to the Festival, to plan your day at the Expo and to browse our exhibits. Best of all- don't miss out on the chance to pre-register for the Expo for an opportunity to win a cool prize! You will automatically be signed up to win a chance to meet Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage of the…
gregladen | January 16, 2012
Why is NCSE Now Concerned with Climate Change?
Press Release
Book excerpt: "The Denial of Global Warming" (from "Merchants of Doubt")
gregladen | January 16, 2012Here is a press release that will be distributed shortly:
NCSE TACKLES CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL
A new initiative in the struggle for quality science education
OAKLAND, CA January 16, 2012
Science education is under attack--again.
This time it's under attack by climate change deniers, who ignore a mountain of evidence gathered over the last fifty years that the planet is warming and that humans are largely responsible. These deniers attempt to sabotage science education with fringe ideas, pseudoscience, and outright lies.
But the National Center for Science Education won't let 'em get away with…
gregladen | January 16, 2012It is no longer the case that science teachers and concerned parents only need to worry about creationists invading US classrooms, via personal intrusion (by parents, students, or creationist teachers) or by legislation or regulation. Increasingly climate change denialism is being shoved into science classes by the usual nefarious forces.
This is not really new. "Academic Freedom" bills in many states over the last decade or so were introduced to try to force college professors to shut up about climate change. In the college setting, I've had about the same level of resistance to global…
gregladen | January 16, 2012According to the examiner:
In a surprise move today, Representative Eric Cantor(R-VA) announced that he will stop all action on SOPA, effectively killing the bill. This move was most likely due to several things. One of those things is that SOPA and PIPA met huge online protest against the bills. Another reason would be that the White House threatened to veto the bill if it had passed. .
PIPA, the Senate Version is still in play, however.
drorzel | January 16, 2012SteelyKid and I have developed a weekend routine: I make pancakes (with her help in mixing and occasionally measuring ingredients) on Saturday morning before we head out (usually to SoccerTots, but the last couple of weeks to birthday parties). On Sunday, we make French toast, before going to the Schenectady Greenmarket.
Of course, while this routine may not seem like it involves Science!, it does, as demonstrated by these two pictures:
"What do you mean?" you ask, "Those are just two pictures of a pancake. Where's the science in that?"
Yes, but why do they look that way?
To be a little…
gregladen | January 16, 2012Research using lab rats or mice funded by the NIH is regulated by a set of guidelines that have very recently been upgraded. Mother rats and mice with litters are now recommended to have more room than current guidelines require. The new guidelines are not hard and fast rules, but researchers are concerned that not following these guidelines would jeopardize funding, and it appears from my reading of them that the new cage size guidelines are minimum requirements that must be met.
The main difference that is causing some discussion about the new guidelines is that cages that hold females…
j7uy5 | January 15, 2012
href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jyaroch/6705513045/"
title="IMG_2804.JPG by Joseph j7uy5, on Flickr">
src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7015/6705513045_23cc0c3390.jpg"
alt="IMG_2804.JPG" align="left" border="1" height="188" hspace="3"
vspace="3" width="250">This is one of those medical diagnostic
mystery stories. Except, as you can tell from the picture, it is
not about diagnosis of a human. Rather, it is about diagnosis of
a machine. The photo shows the inside view of a Fellowes SB-87Cs
paper shredder. I bought this several years ago to shred several
boxes full of old charts…
gregladen | January 15, 2012Twitter is telling me that Phobos Grunt is going to do its mostly burning up in the Earth's Atmosphere thing RIGHT NOW. Or it just did. Or really really soon.
#PhobosGrunt is the hashtag.
If you have an aluminum foil hat, now would be a good time to put it on.
That is all.
---------------------------------------------------
b0yle Alan Boyle
MT @PhG_Reentry: RT @timmermansr: STRATCOM claiming #PhobosGrunt reentered, crashed in Pacific in last few minutes. Unconfirmed by Russians
_VanillaBlues Alina Razzouk
#PhobosGrunt may have crashed in the Pacific Ocean according to the US Strategic…
gregladen | January 15, 2012... with Science! And she also talks about fishing, the size of government, Republicans, Obama, government reform And lies, damn lies.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Obviously this is an Obama plot to take away our guns.
gregladen | January 14, 2012Below the fold because it is 20 pixels too wide.
The Colbert Report Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
gregladen | January 14, 2012UPDATE: With the last orbital elements decay prediction is now january 15, 2012 at 18h27 UTC +/-4h
Thirteen tons of space ship once destine for the planet Mars is starting to lose altitude, and may drop into the thicker layer of the atmosphere and (mostly) burn up Sunday (story at bbc). The Russian space agency estimates that about 200 kilograms will make it to the ground. It is impossible to predict this far in advance where any of that might fall.
You can track Phobos-Grunt here, but that tracking tool does not give you the location of the object; It shows you where it should be based on…
gregladen | January 13, 2012The Research Blogging Editor's Selectionies are out! Hosted by Krystal D'Costa, this award is roughly similar to the Academy Awards, but for blog posts about peer reviewed research. And I won one!!!
My post "A word or two about tobacco, and some neat and new research." It was said of this post "At Greg Laden's blog, readers are treated to a bit of botany related to tobacco and we learn that physical evidence has been found linking the Maya to tobacco use."
I am truly humbled.
Four other posts won the same award. From Krystal's post:
Is there a relationship between language density…
gregladen | January 13, 2012I'm happy to be introducing this Sunday's guest speaker at the Minnesota Atheists meeting.
Shawn Otto, author of Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America, will speak about his book and related matters at about 2:00. The event is at the Southdale Library. Details here.
I believe he'll have a few copies of his book and he's usually good for a signature!
denialism | January 13, 2012Via Zite I found the article How Doctors Die by Ken Murray and was surprised to find it one of the best I've read on the issue of end-of-life care. The context is that of how Doctors typically forgo extreme measures in the face of terminal diagnoses, and often reject the type of care we routinely provide to our patients as "not for us". While the article lacks hard data on the prevalence of these attitudes or behaviors, I have to say this viewpoint is consistent my experience of learning my colleague's beliefs and how I now personally feel about ICU care . And I'm someone who is interested…
gregladen | January 12, 2012Watch this then get to work.
This bill is up for consideration now. Do something:
Call the Senate switchboard at 202-224-3121
Ask for your Senators and make your voice heard
Ask your friends to call too
Keep calling every week until this important bill passes
Report your call here
Thanks Al Franken for introducing this bill.