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gregladen | June 1, 2011It is Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. This means that US citizens and I'd bet some Canadians will be receiving the annual Brown Recluse Spider Warnings via Email.
In order to reduce the negative effects of this email spamish meme, I hereby inoculate you. If you get the email, which usually comes with dire warnings and lots of photographs of bad things happening to people's flesh allegedly because of a recluse spider bite, just delete it.
Look at this map and read the caption:
This map is based on data collected by arachnologists and is provided courtesy of Rick Vetter. Generally,…
gregladen | June 1, 2011Moms and Dads: Are your children idiots?
There is a distinct possibility. Better check your paperwork from school, see if there's any warning notes in there.
Here's the thing. For some reason, over the last week, I've been the unwitting recipient of mis-dialed text messages from giddy tweens. In each case there was a series of indecipherable messages that I ignored for a while. Eventually, in each case, I finally sent back a text saying "U have the wrong number." In each case the child did not understand the meaning of that phrase and proceeded to explain how they have the correct…
catdynamics | June 1, 2011Remember the whole Rapture thing?
I just realized, wotsisface obviously worked in the Gregorian calendar,
and clearly that is all wrong!
See, back then they used the Julian calendar and the two calendars drift relative to each other, causing an offset between dates.
So, right now, to convert, just add 13 days, and voila, you're done!
Lets see, 21st May, plus 13, carry the 3, and...
uh-oh.
pharyngula | June 1, 2011I've heard the "waily waily o waily" cries from the mob after the Endless Thread took a brief vacation. Well, too bad, TET had a wonderful time napping on the barren coral sands of Pukasavilivili, but now it's back and is slogging in to work.
Don't listen carefully to the lyrics, or you may learn that TET has not completely shed its cynicism. It would need to spend much more time in the islands to do that, and would also need to meet a lovely Polynesian girl and find redemption for humanity in love and kindness and hope. But no, you had to drag it back.
(Current totals: 12,473 entries with…
gregladen | May 31, 2011Louisiana Senate Bill SB 70 would have repealed Louisiana Revised Statutes 17:285.1, which in turn imposed the inappropriately named Louisiana Science Education Act which, as Barbara Forrest recently noted "was promoted only by creationists. Neither parents, nor science teachers, nor scientists requested it. No one wanted it except the Louisiana Family Forum (LFF), a religious organization that lobbies aggressively for its regressive agenda, and the Discovery Institute (DI), a creationist think tank in Seattle, Washington, that couldn't care less about Louisiana children."
Despite the…
gregladen | May 31, 2011Zack Kopplin, the high school senior who led the fight to repeal the creationist Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA) on MSNBC:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
pharyngula | May 31, 2011It's always a surprise. I'm lounging in St Paul with an iced tea, browsing the City Pages, the news and arts weekly, and after reading a good article about the recent pharmaceutical debacle with levaquin, I turn the page, and there's my name. dang, that's right — I'm expected to perform.
gregladen | May 31, 2011This much:
Benchmark map of carbon stored in Earth's tropical forests, covering about 2.5 million hectares of forests over more than 75 countries. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/Winrock International/Colorado State University/University of Edinburgh/Applied GeoSolutions/University of Leeds/Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux/Wake Forest University/University of Oxford. Click image for slightly larger version . Click HERE for very much larger version.
A NASA-led research team has used a variety of NASA satellite data to create the most precise map ever produced depicting the amount…
gregladen | May 31, 2011This is funny. Have you noticed that lately there has been some interesting synchronization between ads on Scienceblogs.com and our blog posts? Just now, DrugMonkey wrote a blog post concerning discussions in the professional community of scientists who use animals in research. Here is a screen shot of the blog post showing the banner ad that appeared above it:
(Click the picture to get a larger version.)
Interesting idea. You write a blog post defending a particular point of view, and Google figures out how to put an ad for a training program to generate specialized cops to…
gregladen | May 31, 2011Using robotics, laser rangefinders, GPS and smart feedback tools, Dennis Hong is building a car for drivers who are blind. It's not a "self-driving" car, he's careful to note, but a car in which a non-sighted driver can determine speed, proximity and route -- and drive independently.
gregladen | May 31, 2011I see the brown streaks and spots and blotches all across your lawn, every brown area exactly like every other in its tone and hue, because all were caused by a single event, that being your misapplication of high-nitrogen fertilizer, as part of your misguided effort to make your lawn look like a golf course, which I assure you is an entirely futile expenditure of energy. Everyone in the neighborhood does this: They put fertilizer, weed killer, fungicide, grub-killer, and who knows what else all over their lawns. On this sandy plain, most of the chemicals are washed instantly into the…
kcollins | May 30, 2011If there is one piece of advice that marine biologist and Nifty Fifty Speaker April Croxton would give young students aspiring to pursue a career in science it would be: Don't narrow down your career choice in science too early. "Science is so vast an area, encompassing so many disciplines, some of them often intersecting and crossing over to other areas that also may be appealing to you," says April, a fishery biologist at the National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Milford, CT. "Take time to explore and study as many areas of…
tlambert | May 29, 2011I'm here in Orlando to coach the University of New South Wales team in the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest world finals. A team of three uni students gets a computer and five hours to solve nine or ten really tough problems. (See last year's set, for instance). The finals were going to be in Egypt in February, but for some reason or other had to be moved here instead.
There's going to be live coverage of the final starting 9am local time on Monday. The twitter hashtag is #icpc2011.
Here's a picture of our team at orientation. (The balloons are awarded to the teams during…
gregladen | May 29, 2011Back in my days wandering around in Harvard Square, I used to look at the beautiful churches and think ....
"... those would make great indoor parking garages. And we could put bike racks on the steps. Or maybe indoor farmer's markets...." But it never happened.
Then, the Rapture came.
gregladen | May 29, 2011It happens on June 25th. This is going to be a little like the Rapture but it's not the end of the world and it really will happen ....
Water Collection: Ethiopia from water.org on Vimeo.
The Event : Global Water Dances Initiative -
"Dancing for Safe Water Everywhere"
Global Water Dances is a world event planned for June 25, 2011. On this day, a 24 hour series of dances around the globe will be danced, centered around water issues. Beginning in the Western Pacific Rim, and encircling the globe, the series of dances will also be broadcast online. ...
These dances will use dance and music to…
gregladen | May 28, 2011Wake up early on Sunday and catch ""Choice In Dying," Eric MacDonald on Atheists Talk #117"
Choosing one's own death should be the right of every living person facing the process of a long, debilitating, painful terminal illness. Not everyone finds "dignity in suffering," and yet religions insist that the value of "life above all else" trumps individual choice. Eric MacDonald and his wife faced the decision in her choice to end her life. The government of Canada and the authorities of the Anglican Church, of which MacDonald was a priest, threw up legal roadblocks and threats if Elizabeth…
gregladen | May 28, 2011
Wow. And no keyboards!
OK, gotta go. You wouldn't believe how many messages I have to deal with on my electronics correspondence machine thingie.
What really happened ...
Huh. Bill gates was a paranoid ass even in those days!