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grrlscientist | January 30, 2010
Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
-- Sir Francis Bacon.
Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) is almost here once more and it is still seeking submissions for tomorrow's edition of this blog carnival! Can you help by sending URLs for well-written blog essays to the host?
Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) is a traveling blog carnival that celebrates the best science, nature and medical writing targeted specifically to the public that has been published in the blogosphere within the past 60 days.
The…
gregladen | January 30, 2010Meal and Reel, Feb 19, Creation w/special guest Greg Laden at Edina Cinema
Edina, the home of Al Franken, the town known locally as "Every Day I Need Attention" because of their quaint suburban attitudes, the place that appears to have the only half decent woman's hair stylist in the city (because every woman I've ever known has gone to the same exact one, though they don't individually know that. Well, they will if they read this ... but I digress) will be the location of a showing of Creation, the movie about Darwin. MnA is orgainzing a "Meal and Reel" event and has asked me to say a few…
gregladen | January 30, 2010Any octopus experts out there wanna give this a look? (At Digital Rabbit blog)
gregladen | January 30, 2010This is the question that was raised in the wake of a Science Online 2010 session on civility. I did not attend the session so I am only addressing the issues that were subsequently discussed on blog posts written in the aftermath of a now infamous conversation that appears to have been (by their own admission, I believe) between Henry Gee of Nature and Nature Blogs Network and Zuska the Magnificent of Scienceblogs Dot Com. Much of that discussion is now happening on the Nature Network on a blog post celebrating 5 X 104 comments on that network.
(As an aside, I really think it is shameful…
gregladen | January 30, 2010The broadcast networks that air the Super Bowl have historically rejected advocacy ads. Yet CBS, which is airing the Super Bowl this year, has accepted an anti-choice ad by the ultra-conservative group Focus on the Family.
Details here
pharyngula | January 30, 2010The crafty Taisha McFall, creator of the Ray Comfort Tampon Case, is having a birthday tomorrow. What she'd like for her birthday is that women everywhere be free of fear and able to live their lives in some security, but barring that, you could make her happy by donating to Women for Women, an organization that works to help women survivors of war.
Donate online. It's a nice present for Ms McFall and even nicer for women who've been raped, who've lost their homes, or worse, lost their children.
gregladen | January 29, 2010I did not appreciate the sentiment that the New York Yankees had to win the World Series because Osama Bin Laden blew up the World Trade Center. I do not appreciate the sentiment that the New Orleans Saints have to win the Super Bowl because George Bush let poor New Orleans residents die in the Super Dome. I do appreciate the equivalence ... between an uncaring homicidal mass murdering maniac and some guy from the Arabian Peninsula who seems to have been the mastermind of dozens of failed terrorist attacks and a couple of ugly ones. But that is another story.
I do not appreciate the idea…
gregladen | January 29, 2010
A few people asked me if I saw any polar bears during my recent trip to Antarctica. No, I didn't...
None? Not even one? Did you even see any prints????
Polar Bears in Antarctica at Digital Rabbit
gregladen | January 29, 2010On Feb 12, Feb 19th the Darwin-related film "Creation" will debut in at least one local theater here in the twin cities. A group of us will be getting together prior at a restaurant or other appropriate venue, at which I will be asked to say a few words about Darwin. This event will be organized by the Minnesota Atheists, so please keep an eye on their web site for details!
You might as well also check out the info on Camp Quest in case you are looking for a great summer volunteer opportunity (or a place to send the kids!?!?)
gregladen | January 29, 2010One opinion you should check out:
...Obama is missing the opportunity of a lifetime to give us serious climate change legislation, and he's blowing it by going down the middle of the road, trying to please everyone. This year could be the end of any meaningful climate change legislation, until the point where it's obvious and too late....
Here
mspringer | January 29, 2010I believe we have a Super Bowl coming up. Or, if the NFL is so picky about the use of their trademarks, I believe we have a "Big Game" coming up. As a native south Louisianian, I'm for the eternally long-suffering Saints, who in all their years have never even been to a Super Bowl. That hypothetical situation was really a part of New Orleans culture - instead of "when hell freezes over" it was always "when the Saints win the Super Bowl". Maybe they'll finally do it. I'm not holding my breath, but honestly New Orleans is pretty much crazy with joy that they actually made it to the game…
gregladen | January 29, 2010Howard Zinn died on Wednesday.
But first, he got very old and before that he inspired two or three generations of skeptics and questioners of history and society.
Of all the books I've ever given to people, A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present is the one I've given the most copies of to the most people. I've given it to history teachers and to people who seemed to have an interest in history but needed to know some things. I gave it to my daughter when she took her first serious history class and told her to carry it on top of her textbook so the teacher would see it…
gregladen | January 29, 2010There is a big fight going on over at Quiche Moraine. Apparently, my friend and co-blogger Mike made a comment or two, months back, about someone and she didn't like it. So she complained to Stephanie. Well, she complained to me, and I forwarded her complaint to Stephanie. And then they got into it. And Stephanie has turned what would otherwise be a series of emails worthy of little more than deletion into an interesting study of libel, defamation, accusation and loathing.
Libel and Legalistic Bullying
There are a couple of lessons to be learned here. One is don't ever blog anything…
pronald | January 29, 2010Roger Beachy has been attacked by some who feel that his willingness to fund work at his non-profit institute with Monsanto money will bias his work as director of NIFA.
John Tierney does not think so. Read his opinion piece
pharyngula | January 28, 2010Here's a new tradition I have to encourage: I was brought a cheesecake at last night's talk at Stanford. It was fabulous: white chocolate raspberry chocolate chip. The fellow who sent it along was Victor Harris of Reuschelle's Cheesecakes. He has a huge variety of different kinds of cheesecakes, and he ships…so if you're sitting around somewhere far away from California, and you've got a craving, you can just email for a menu or to order, and the next day a lethally delicious cheesecake will magically appear at your door.
Maybe I shouldn't encourage these kinds of gifts at my talks, though. I…
gregladen | January 27, 2010Not the actual babies, but the birth weight of the new ones.
Just a snippet; I've not looked into this yet. But given that human size goes up and down over secular time, this probably would mean (if it means anything at all) that we've peaked out with whatever causes that cycle:
Birthweights in the US are falling but no one knows why, according to a study of 36.8 million infants born between 1990 and 2005.
A 52-gram drop in the weight of full-term singletons - from an average of 3.441 to 3.389 kilograms - has left Emily Oken's team at Harvard Medical School scratching their heads.
source
gregladen | January 27, 2010Skeptics ask questions (Q's) and try to do so in a systematic, scientific, way. But what about IQ (and here I use IQ as a euphemism for smarts). The recent discussion here and elsewhere about the Skepchicks touched on this issue. I've been (temporarily) avoiding it, but skepchick car2d2 is staring to think about it.
Please have a look at this: Skepticism: Your IQ must be this high to ride