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mspringer | June 20, 2009It's Saturday, and it's' sort of tradition to set the topic to something not necessarily connected to science. At this point I think there's not a whole lot in the world that's of more immediate interest than what's going on in Iran.
The summary, which you already know: Iran is a theocratic state run with absolute control centered on an Assembly of Experts headed by a Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei. They're unelected and above any system of checks and balances. But on the other hand, they're not really a governing body as such either. The actual daily government is an elected…
gregladen | June 20, 2009First, let's suppose that Jehovah God is real. Good News for the religious, right? Then, let's twist it a bit and see what happens should Jehovah die. This would cause a major problem for at least the Abrahamic religions. After all, how could we hope for eternal life if the Provider Himself is subject to mortality? The guarantee of eternal life in His Presence would at that time become null and void. Steps must be taken and a coverup must be carried out. Hiding bodies is difficult enough, but when the body of Jehovah falls from Heaven and turns out to be two miles long, complications…
pharyngula | June 20, 2009This is big news, a first in the history of that institution! The student who led the LU College Democrats, the student club that was shut down by the administration because apparently, anything other than Republican Wingnuttia is the antithesis of the conservative Christian ideals they hope to promote, has written a letter describing the important lessons he learned at Liberty.
That lesson, of course, is to get the hell out and go to a different university.
Give them time, and with a little hard work, maybe the rest of the student body there can master that important skill, too.
cwilcox | June 20, 2009So, I kind of have an obsession with small and miniature versions of things. I saw this car in a parking lot yesterday, and I just couldn't help snapping a pic. I WANT THIS CAR.
It's a baby car! Isn't it ADORABLE? Someone should buy me a car like this. Seriously.
gregladen | June 19, 2009... than previously reported. The word from his assistant, interviewed earlier today with the report coming out in the last ten minutes or so, indicate that Cronkite is going to be fine. Really old and stuff, but fine.
"he is aging. He's suffering the challenges of age, but he's not gravely ill. Only God knows when life will end and for Walter, it's not imminent." said Marlene Adler, Cronkite's assistant.
gregladen | June 19, 2009Through the filter of time ... a repost that may still be interesting to you from two years ago.
This is brilliant. A bunch of Orca, incorrectly known as Killer Whales because, well, they would never kill anything, right? Anyway, a bunch of Orca either trying to eat a baby seal or playing with a baby seal. Or is the baby seal playing with them?
Thanks to Richard Conner.
pharyngula | June 19, 2009He's going to be lecturing in Phoenix at the end of August on "Why Ben Stein is wrong about science and history", which really should win some sort of prize for one of the one of the most obvious titles ever. He's going to have to talk for days to cover the topic adequately, so pack a lunch.
Wish I could go. It should be entertaining, in a Mike-Tyson-battles-PeeWee-Herman sort of way!
gregladen | June 19, 2009Through the filter of time ... a repost that may still be interesting to you from two years ago.
In an essentially Christian society, we expect governmental or other social organizations to disrespect non-Christian belief systems. An example of this is the widespread positioning of official holidays on Christian holidays, but never unless by coincidence on, say, Jewish or Muslim holidays. The birth of Christ day is usually a day off. Spring break is often positioned along side Easter Sunday. and so on. A non-Christian religious person could get annoyed.
It is also the case that an…
mspringer | June 19, 2009I have a friend who is also in the science business on the outreach/educational side of things. Last night he and some other friends and I were out on the town (is that what the kids call it these days?), and he mentioned that he liked this site as it's been while I'm on break from school. Less math. Which kind of surprised me, I didn't realize I had been doing it. Maybe I do tend to be less rigorous when I'm not actively doing work. In either case it's about to come to an end, as in about a week I'll be back at school teaching and getting some research done. There will be math. (But it…
pharyngula | June 19, 2009A reader wrote in to say his mother was being victimized by a putative religious organization called Elite Activity Resurrected. It has to be seen to be believed. It's all dressed up in egalitarian pieties about ending world poverty, but when you look at the actual operation, it's a remarkably blatant con game.
The World's first Interdenominational Belief System on the Internet!
Poverty is our Adversary!
"True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on…
cortex | June 19, 2009I've gotten numerous emails about my recent post on animal rights - I called animal experimentation a "necessary evil" - but I think this note from a reader eloquently captures the ambivalence that many scientists feel:
I have a child with insulin-dependent diabetes. I am constantly aware that every single advance keeping her not only alive, but so healthy that others never notice her condition, rests on the shoulders of thousands upon thousands of creatures. These animals have suffered, and these animals feel pain as much as we; many are almost unbearably intelligent and are emotionally...…
nisbetmc | June 19, 2009
Framing food problems as a matter of public accountability and sinister corporate control.
As I wrote earlier this week, the new documentary Food Inc. has the potential to significantly boost the public profile of a range of food-related problems, connecting them together under the perceptual umbrella of public accountability and corporate malfeasance.
In achieving this goal, it appears that Food Inc. has cleared the first hurdle, garnering strong reviews from the film critics who tend to drive the media narrative about a film including those at the NY Times, New York magazine, the…
grrlscientist | June 19, 2009Here's the latest blog carnivals to be published for you to read and enjoy;
Review Bloggers Carnival. This features reviews of all sorts of trinkets and other items, including (best of all!!) books!
Just Write Blog Carnival, 19 June 2009 edition. Writing, book reviews, and lots of other fun stuff to read.
Author Love, #2. This blog carnival is new, and focuses on sharing information about writing from writing tips and stories to .. you guessed it .. book reviews.
Carnival of the Cats, #274. Of course, the name of this carnival is self-explanatory.
Carnival of Family Life, the Cathy Thorne…
cortex | June 19, 2009Here is the NY Times, describing the latest weight-loss fad:
Like almost every dieter in America, Wendy Bassett has used all sorts of weight-loss products. Nothing worked, she said, until she tried Sensa: granules she scatters on almost everything she eats, and which are supposed to make dieters less hungry by enhancing the smell and taste of food.
The maker of Sensa claims that its effectiveness is largely related to smell: the heightened scent and flavor of food that has been sprinkled with Sensa stimulate the olfactory bulb -- the organ that transmits smell from the nose to the brain -- to…
gregladen | June 18, 2009Through the filter of time ... a repost that may still be interesting to you from two years ago.
The NYT is running a piece discussing the domestication of the cat.
I love watching wild cats. It is fairly easy to see them in the Kalahari, where the population of cats is almost certainly untouched by genetics of any domesticated form. Despite the kitty-osity shown in the photograph provided with the NYT article, the actual wild cats show themselves to be very different than the domesticated ones. They don't look the same, they don't act the same, they don't have the same overall…
gregladen | June 18, 2009PETA has become the laughing stock of the Planet Earth when it called for a change in US government policy regarding the swatting of flies by the POTUS.
From the PETA web site:
Well, I guess it can't be said that President Obama wouldn't hurt a fly. The commander in chief was recently pestered by a fly during an interview. He swatted at the insect and killed the little guy instantly.
Believe it or not, we've actually been contacted by multiple media outlets wanting to know PETA's official response to the executive insect execution.
In a nutshell, our position is this: He isn't the Buddha, he'…
gregladen | June 18, 2009The Four Stone Hearth Anthropology Blog Carnival is up at Wanna Be an Anthropologist. Please visit the carnival, click on all the links, digg up and stumble all the entries, etc.
mspringer | June 18, 2009Tom at Swans on Tea (You do read Swans on Tea, right? You're missing out if you don't.) points out one of the more impressive physics demos out there. It's quarter shrinking, in slow motion.
You take a $0.25 coin, stick it in the middle of a coil of wire, and dump an tremendous amount of current through the wire all at once. The following sequence of events then happens in a tiny fraction of a second: the current very rapidly generates a magnetic field, in accordance with Ampere's law. This rapidly increasing magnetic field generates an electric field, in accordance with Faraday's law.…