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clock | November 30, 2009
Deadline is December 1st at midnight EST!
That is roughly 37 hours to go.
The submissions for OpenLab 2009 to date are under the fold. On December 2nd, I'll put them all above the fold for all to see all the submissions. And then SciCurious and a large gang of judges will start sorting them all out and judging them until only 50 essays, one poem and one cartoon remain.
Please use the submission form to add more of your and other people's posts (remember that we are looking for original poems, art, cartoons and comics, as well as essays). Realize that nobody knows your archives as well as you…
gregladen | November 30, 2009The question of pacifiers (and for that matter bottles) arises when there is a new baby. In the case of Huxley, he will be breast milk fed if possible, but that involves bottle feeding at some point. Also, since our society does not practice cross nursing all Western babies go through a risk period when they begin to starve while the mother's milk is not yet in. Sometimes that is a couple of days, sometimes longer.
In any event, the question comes up, do you let a baby anywhere near a nipple that is not attached to a human breast, and a related question is do you use a pacifier if the…
gregladen | November 30, 2009Josh Rosenau has an excellent post on the recent theft and release of (selected uncontextualized?) emails of climate scientists. See: Stolen emails, climate change, and the practice of science.
I have been in the room when scientists got personal and forgot to be objective. I've been in the room when scientists made up data, or at least, tried to. I've also been in the room when people's personal agendas, such as they are, were pitted against other people's personal agendas and moderators and observers jumped in and science progressed. Or, in some cases, failed to progress because it…
gregladen | November 29, 2009Here is the video you all have been looking for of the guy eating the hold up note from his bank robbery. This video also commemorates an interesting anniversary.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
agelman | November 28, 2009Mark Rank and Thomas Hirschl recently published an estimate that 50% of American kids are on food stamps at some point during their first twenty years of life. Their estimate is based on an analysis of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, from 1968 through 1997.
This news article by Lindsey Tanner provides a good overview.
The survey followed up families annually, thus there are kids in the study who were included at age 1, 2, . . ., 20. From this you can easily just count the proportion who were never on food stamps, the proportion who were on food stamps for one year during the…
gregladen | November 28, 2009This might take a while
Obama To Hold Job Performance Review With Every American Worker
awild | November 28, 2009November 2009 edition.
The fearsome mountain lion surveys his domain from the cliffs.
To the rafters!
Just try to come get me.
Charming at dinner parties.
Sitting on the favorite spot on the favorite rug.
agelman | November 27, 2009. . . where shooting someone in the head gets you four months in jail and a $1200 fine. Not a biggie, though--apparently it was only a "warning shot."
More generally, I don't know that prison is the solution to this sort of problem. If you put a violent criminal behind bars, he very well might be even more full of hatred and violence when he comes out. And, looking at it from the other way, it's hard to imagine that the threat of a prison sentence is enough to deter someone from this sort of behavior. I mean, what kind of person shoots an unarmed man in the head on the street in front of…
gregladen | November 27, 2009Skeptically Speaking Tonight!
We'll be talking to Nicky Garratt, guitarist in the legendary punk band, the UK Subs, who also happens to be an active skeptic.
Does speaking out against psuedoscience, magical thinking and unexamined beliefs get in the way of damning the man?
And, back by popular demand, we'll introduce our new semi-regular segment "Ask a Pharmacist" with Scott Gavura. Answering all the questions you'd ask your own pharmacist, if the line wasn't so long.
gregladen | November 27, 2009Build a Binary marble adding machine
Amazing Folded Paper Art
Yet Another Cell Size and Scale Demonstratomatic Machine
mspringer | November 27, 2009Yesterday, as expected, severe underdog Texas A&M lost to #3 ranked Texas. Not as expected, the game was competitive right to the end, with an upset being threatened down to the final minutes. It was a great game to watch, with a final score of 45-35 - the highest total score in the history of the rivalry.
In this game as with pretty much all games at the college and pro level, the offense is very reliant on the forward pass. The quarterback picks a wide receiver, throws the ball, and with some luck the ball is caught for a gain. Now pretend you're filming such a pass on a video…
agelman | November 27, 2009
If this stuff is for real, it's really impressive. (Link from Aleks's twitter.)
