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gregladen | June 11, 2011This happened not far from me:
Uffda. That guy's a little frustrated! Took the Lord's Name in Vane and everything, you betcha!
A little follow up:
Coulda been worse.
cwilcox | June 10, 2011After day after day of me urging you to vote, the results are finally in for the Semifinalist round for the 3 Quarks Daily Science Blogging Prize. Some great posts have made the cut - including these ones by Scicurious, Evelyn Mervine, Allie Wilkinson, Brian Switek, and those Southern Fried Boys.
Thanks to you and all your votes, TWO of my three posts are in! Both "Why Do Women Cry" and "How Do You ID A Dead Osama Anyway" are among the top 20. I'm so grateful for all of your support - I don't think anyone has ever gotten two posts in before!
In a couple days, the crew at 3QD will be posting…
hrynyshyn | June 10, 2011This video, a selection of TV news clips that serve to illustrate Bill McKibben's recent op-ed on climate change denial, has already made the rounds, but as it deserves as wide an audience as possible, I'll do my bit.
It's also noteworthy because the op-ed marked a first for McKibben: the use of a snarky, satirical tone. Until now, he's been a upbeat cheerleader for climate change activists. Sooner or later, it would, we all get tired of banging our head against a wall and have to lash out at idiocy.
gregladen | June 10, 2011Netroots Nation is coming up in a few days, and there will be a Science Policy panel that will include scienceblogger Joshua Rosenau (representing the NCSE), John Abraham (St. Thomas), Darlene avalier (Science Cheerleader), Heidi Cullen (Climate Central) and Rick Loverd (Summet on Science).
Details are here. The panel itself is on June 17th.
This is the science denialism panel from a previous Networks Nation:
gregladen | June 9, 2011This is not an Onion story, this is for real.
Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign imploded Thursday afternoon with virtually his entire senior staff leaving en masse, according to multiple sources familiar with the moves.
"When the campaign and the candidate disagree on the path, they've got to part ways," said Rick Tyler a longtime Gingrich spokesman who was among those who left the campaign today.
It all happened with the last few years ago. The differences seem to be mainly in how serious Gingrich is in running a campaign. Campaign staff were miffed when a disastrous launch was…
gregladen | June 9, 2011Designer Jessi Arrington packed nothing for TED but 7 pairs of undies, buying the rest of her clothes in thrift stores around LA. It's a meditation on conscious consumption -- wrapped in a rainbow of color and creativity.
cwilcox | June 9, 2011If you didn't already know because, by chance, you missed my tweets, posts, and facebook updates, there is a science blogging contest going on RIGHT NOW. The 3 Quarks Daily Science Blogging Prize is currently narrowing down the top 20 posts from 87 nominees. To get through the gauntlet, a post has to get enough votes. Rather than remind you again to vote for Observations of a Nerd, I figured I'd show you why you should. Over the next 24 hours, I'll be reposting the three posts in the competition in case you missed them the first time. If you like them, and haven't already, cast your vote!…
gregladen | June 9, 2011The Minnesota Zoo has been involved in a Mexican Gray Wolf breeding and reintroduction program for some time now. Last I checked, it was not going well .... they were not having mush success in getting the wolves to produce offspring. I think they had some puppies in 2003, but I'm not sure of their status. The problem with at least some of their wolves is that they were born and raised in captivity. The "cultural" side of the reproductive process had been pruned from their lineage, so they kinda-sorta did things vaguely related to wolf-sex but that wasn't enough.
Anyway, yesterday one of…
cwilcox | June 9, 2011If you didn't already know because, by chance, you missed my tweets, posts, and facebook updates, there is a science blogging contest going on RIGHT NOW. The 3 Quarks Daily Science Blogging Prize is currently narrowing down the top 20 posts from 87 nominees. To get through the gauntlet, a post has to get enough votes. Rather than remind you again to vote for Observations of a Nerd, I figured I'd show you why you should. Over the next 24 hours, I'll be reposting the three posts in the competition in case you missed them the first time. If you like them, and haven't already, cast your vote!
Oil…
cwilcox | June 8, 2011If you didn't already know because, by chance, you missed my tweets, posts, and facebook updates, there is a science blogging contest going on RIGHT NOW. The 3 Quarks Daily Science Blogging Prize is currently narrowing down the top 20 posts from 87 nominees. To get through the gauntlet, a post has to get enough votes. Rather than remind you again to vote for Observations of a Nerd, I figured I'd show you why you should. Over the next 24 hours, I'll be reposting the three posts in the competition in case you missed them the first time. If you like them, and haven't already, cast your vote…
pharyngula | June 8, 2011The first part of the Magic Sandwich Show from Dublin is now available on youtube. You know you want to watch it.
lborkowski | June 8, 2011A few of the recent pieces I've liked:
Jamie Holmes in The New Republic: Why Can't More Poor People Escape Poverty?
Maryn McKenna at Superbug: 30 Years of AIDS, and How it Began (also Part II and Part III)
Jesse Green in New York: "A Textbook of Trauma" ("The crash of the Chinatown charter was the worst bus accident in the city's history. Fifteen of its victims ended up at one hospital. Fourteen lived.")
Emily Dugan in The Independent: The unstoppable march of the tobacco giants
Annie Lowrey in Slate: Your Commute is Killing You ("Long commutes cause obesity, neck pain, loneliness, divorce,…
gregladen | June 8, 2011Don't forget to include Global Water Dances on your calendar. That date would be June 25th, 2011. For those of you in the Twin Cities, it is happening at the Stone Arch Bridge. There are about fifty locations world wide. Find your nearest event here.
Check out the details here.
And now, your depressing yet important water fact for the day: Bad water kills 1.4 million children every year.*
Videos of the Global Water Dances project:
SPREAD THE WORD!
mikethemadbiologist | June 8, 2011It's a skorcha! Cool down with some nice refreshing links. Science:
Cancer's New Era Of Promise And Chaos
EAEC / STEC genomes
The PhD Question
EAEC plasmids
Other:
This just in! The Very Serious People in Washington aren't the least bit serious...
An Open Letter from Eugene Mirman to Time Warner Cable
The Problem of Republican Idiots
GOP Can't Handle The Truth: Taxes Are Lower Under Obama Than Reagan
Boston Crime: Homicides Are Down, But Do We Care?
gregladen | June 7, 2011Renowned paleontologist Jack Horner has spent his career trying to reconstruct a dinosaur. He's found fossils with extraordinarily well-preserved blood vessels and soft tissues, but never intact DNA. So, in a new approach, he's taking living descendants of the dinosaur (chickens) and genetically engineering them to reactivate ancestral traits -- including teeth, tails, and even hands -- to make a "Chickenosaurus".
gregladen | June 7, 2011Ed Brayton, known to many of you as the Dispatches from the Culture Wars blogger, as well as co-founder of Michigan Citizens for Science and The Panda's Thumb, will be on Atheist Talk Radio this coming Sunday. Mike Haubrich, Ed and I will chat about the very current, often disturbing, and occasionally entertaining subject of Crazy Preachers. Like Harold Camping for example. We may also touch on other currently in the news individuals who don't happen to be preachers. Perhaps we'll ring some bells and warn some Brits!
Details are here. I hope you can join us.
Here's Ed on Rachel Maddow…
gregladen | June 7, 2011I have four or five things for you.
First off, Joel Rosenberg is dead. He wrote "Everything You Need to Know About (Legally) Carrying a Handgun in Minnesota" and ran the web site "Jew with a gun." I've blogged about him before. Go have a look and pay special attention to the comments The back story, with a few margaritas and the right company, could be commercial.
He donated his organs.
In an entirely different matter, Jeb Baugh tells me that Lamar White has put together a blog post that provides a detailed overview and analysis of the Louisiana Family Forum's finances. Say that five…
gregladen | June 7, 2011It could be a power station, or a biological containment, or a garage or even a weapon. Or, it could be ....
... yet another demonstration that there really are people out there who are not merely movie characterizations of zany paranoid conspiracy theorists, but rather, the real thing. And they have video cameras and know how to use them.