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gregladen | December 27, 2009This will be the topic of discusiion at a new Monthly Political Meetup in Madison, WI. The first of these meetings will be with...
... Shawn Francis Peters. He will discuss public regulation of religious behavior and the current debate in Wisconsin over state law that appears to exempt parents from criminal prosecution for the death of a child when they choose prayer and other faith practices over standard medical care.
Pub Politico has a dumb web site (or a broken web site) which makes it difficult to find out the details if you don't have a computer that is the one they tested the site on…
gregladen | December 27, 2009I wish I hadn't done that. I wish I hadn't convinced my teachers and parents that I was smarter than all the rest. I wish I had spent more time actually learning and studying and working hard than trying to show off to people.
...
Mike's latest entry on Quiche Moraine relates to the numerous discussions on IQ and related issues.
gregladen | December 27, 2009"Tensions in Latvia...are tense..." .. You know all those silly misquotes and verbal foibles that get passed around the internet that you've heard a thousand times? Here's a bunch that seem newer and less previously heard. At least to me.
They are, of course, GNU quotes. Check them out.
A couple of more good ones:
"I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix." (by guess who)
"That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and I'm just the one to do it." (by some Congressional Rep from Texas).
gregladen | December 25, 2009Due to an ovewhelming influx of drek from various commenters, I've turned comment moderation up a few notches. This will probably mean that your comments will be grabbed by the moderation monster no matter what you say or who you are, because the Moveable Type comment moderation system totally sucks. I'm doing this because I am now about to spend a bit of family time and can't sit here sorting through shit. I'll do it later when I have time.
Sorry for the inconvenience. As I noted in a comment a moment or two back, between the AGW denialists and the "scientific" racists, and their…
gregladen | December 25, 2009The first Google search page
First Atomic Clock Wristwatch
How floating cities will work.
Albert Einstein Page
gregladen | December 25, 2009What? Is it Christmas again? Damn. Every year I wake up on Christmas and realize I totally spaced the solstice. So what am I going to do with this GOAT I forgot to sacrifice????11??
Well, anyway, now that the War on Christmas is over for another year, you can re-read this.
gregladen | December 24, 2009Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
gregladen | December 24, 2009I'm reading that Dan Browne book about the Illuminati. Given that, I doubt this could really happen:
This, however, seems very likely to happen:
gregladen | December 24, 2009To you, Comrade PhysioProf is anonymous (and pseudonymous). But of course I know his true identity. In fact, I'm a good friend of the PhysioProf family. And I recently came across this document written by CPP's sister when she was a little girl living in New Zealand. I thought I would share it with you.
tlambert | December 24, 2009Here at Deltoid world headquarters we built a gingerbread ruin. Pictures below the fold.
The house.
Decorated. Note gummi bear heads on roof.
The final step to acheiving a fashionable ruin is to let it stand for half an hour while it collapses under the weight of the decorations.
Best wishes to all my readers!
gregladen | December 24, 2009If you liked the Congo Memoirs, and you live in New York City, you might want to check this out:
What strange new species lurk beneath? Join Museum Curator Melanie Stiassny, an ichthyologist, as she discusses her team's adventures and amazing discoveries in Africa's Congo River, the deepest in the world.
A science cafe at the American Museum of Natural History.
gregladen | December 24, 2009I don't like it, but I'll take it. This bill lacks important features and includes some bad things. But, as Satan's greatest feat is to convince us that he does not exist, the Health Care Insurance Industry's greatest feat is to convince us that we can only revise the industry every 15 years. (Except that second item is true. I assume.)
This means that "something" had to be passed, even if the nose needed to be plugged by doing it. I fully respect and understand the alternative position of killing the bill because it is not good enough. But I also understand why it is good for Ralph…
ddobbs | December 24, 2009
The last time a president won with 60 percent of the vote, for instance, was when Lyndon Johnson trounced Barry Goldwater in 1964. Health-care reform passed the House with only 50.5 percent of the body voting for it. And the senators making up this morning's 60 votes actually represent closer to 65 percent of the population. Harry Reid has much to be proud of today.
via voices.washingtonpost.com
Posted via web from David Dobbs's Somatic Marker
gregladen | December 23, 2009Rather than demo another new technology, Tom Wujec reaches back to one of our earliest but most ingenious devices -- the astrolabe. With thousands of uses, from telling time to mapping the night sky, this old tech reminds us that the ancient can be as brilliant as the brand-new.
gregladen | December 23, 2009Wed - 15:40:
No snow yet.
Wed - 15:55:
Flurries, a little wind.
Wed - 17:01:
Roads are being glazed, numerous accidents reported.
Wed - 18:08:
Going out to check out the weather, buy ingredients for hot dish. And replacement cookies : (
Wed - 19:30 (32F):
Ack.... I lost an entry. I'll reconstruct it here.
Going out to the the store, there was no visible snow, just a light slushy breeze. Leaving the store with the hot dish ingredients, the air was full of snow and the storm was in progress.
Wed - 20:43 (28.4F):
It has been snowing steadily, not heavily, icy crystals rather…
gregladen | December 23, 2009Here in Minnesota, we don't get much snow. Minnesotans THINK they get lots of snow, because Minnesota is thought of as a wintry state. But the snowfall here is moderate, not great, in a typical year. If Minnesota were snowy, and Minnesotans could handle that, it would be hard to explain the 400 or so accidents that happen on the Twin Cities highways every time it snows.
Click to continue reading "What If Chicken Little Is Right?"
mspringer | December 23, 2009In the study of probability there's a concept called expected value. If you're measuring some random process, the expected value is the average over a very large number of trials. For instance, if you roll one dice you can expect to come up with a value of 3.5. Now obviously no individual roll can give you a 3.5, that's just the average you'll get over a large number of trials.
The expected value is calculated in the following way. Take the probability of one of the outcomes, multiply by the value of that outcome, repeat for all possible outcomes, and add them all up. For dice, the…
gregladen | December 22, 2009Following our discussion of Twilight a while back, I thought it would be a good idea to get together a bunch of vampires to see what they had to say about it. The conversation got off topic the moment it started, but I did get it recorded with my flip:
In case you can't see the video, I also uploaded it to YoutTube, here.