Uncategorized
sporte | November 1, 2010Funding raising drives come and go but the need to educate the coming generations in science and math never goes away.
With your help, teachers can help their students.
DonorsChoose.org is an online charity that connects individuals, like you, to classrooms in need. The average public school teacher spends $500 - $700 on classroom supplies out of his/her own pocket, and students still go without critical supplies they need to learn. At DonorsChoose, teachers post requests for classroom equipment and supplies, like microscopes, DNA kits, even field trips to the zoo, and you can help fund…
kbonham | November 1, 2010It is an honor and a privilege to be joining ScienceBlogs. Many of the first blogs that I ever read were on this network, and the efforts of PZ, ERV and Orac (among others) to communicate science directly from the lab to readers was in large part what motivated me to start blogging myself. I love the process of discovery that is made possible by science, but I also think that any discovery is useless if it's not communicated to others.
We welcome your comments, questions and criticisms, and hope that you enjoy reading. But first, let me tell you a bit about who we are and what we do.
In 1674…
pharyngula | October 31, 2010Don't you know Halloween is supposed to be creepy scary? Yet people keep assaulting my senses with adorableness!
OK, maybe the Hello Kitty shirt is a little bit chilling.
jgoldman | October 31, 2010A nice video from our friends at BBC Earth:
...although I'm not sure why some of the critters in there qualify as scary. In any case, have a Happy (and Safe!) Halloween!
gregladen | October 31, 2010This is a pretty good campaign ad, though I prefer the negative kind a lot more when they are about Michele Bachmann. It is, after all Halloween.
pharyngula | October 30, 2010
If you happen to be up around Thunder Bay, Ontario, you might see these jack o'lanterns glowing in the yard of Corinne and Kevin.
Here's another one, sent to me by Sarah:
gregladen | October 30, 2010Yes, it does matter what is in a placebo (as well as how it is administered, and so on) because the placebo is an important part of the experimental protocol used in pharmaceutical research. Before we get to why this question has even been raised, and an interesting point or two about it, lets quickly cover what a placebo really is.
A placebo is a tool used for making a control in an experiment. So what is a control? A control is a subset of individual variates (which may be people, or samples of some kind, or whatever) that is given a "treatment" that is just like the treatment you are…
gregladen | October 29, 2010Elderly Black Voters Allegedly Intimidated At Their Homes In Texas
Two middle-aged white Republican activists in Texas allegedly harassed and intimidated at least seven elderly African-American voters at their homes in eastern Texas, according to a complaint filed with the Justice Department on Thursday.
Gerry Hebert, executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, submitted a report to DOJ alleging that two unidentified women visited elderly African-American voters at their homes in Bowie County and questioned them about their mail-in ballot applications, Mother Jones first reported.
Read…
gregladen | October 29, 2010A settlement is in the works in Doe v. Mount Vernon Board of Education et al., the case in which John Freshwater, a Mount Vernon, Ohio, middle school science teacher, was accused of inappropriate religious activity in the classroom -- including displaying posters with the Ten Commandments and Bible verses, branding crosses on the arms of his students with a high-voltage electrical device, and teaching creationism. The Mount Vernon News (October 27, 2010) reports that the parties have signed the agreement, which still must be approved by a judge.
Read the whole story here.
gregladen | October 29, 2010If you are a teabagger or a Republican, don't read below the fold. Just go away.
My close personal friend Al just sent me this and even though it's junk mail I thought you should read it.
Dear Greg,
Here are two thought experiments. Indulge me, won't you?
It's the morning after Election Day. 8 a.m. You stumble out of bed. Make some oatmeal. Turn on the TV to find out what happened in that Senate race, the one that was too close to call all night. But you gave $50 to the DSCC by clicking on this link. And, lo and behold, your favorite Democrat -- maybe Russ Feingold or Patty Murray…