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gregladen | October 28, 2012One of the more interesting and useful individual projects I was involved in over the last year was the production of two expert panels about climate change at CONvergence 2012. The panels were moderated by Desiree Schell, recorded, and edited by KO Myers into an episode of Skeptically Speaking.
The panels included Maggie Koerth-Baker, John Abraham, Shawn Otto and Yours Truly. I mention them now because all of the issues discussed in those panels are still very current and relevant, and if you have not listened to the podcast, I'm sure you will want to.
Click here to reach the Skeptically…
gregladen | October 28, 2012A wild GNU was spotted at some sort of event organized by a computer company named "Microsoft" which was launching a new version of its operating system. The GNU, accompanied by some friends carrying literature related to the widely used Unix-like operating system, GNU/Linux, did not cause any damage or harm to the attendees, but is it reported that later in the evening several Windows using people took out their old hardware, the hardware that would no longer run on Windows, and installed the GNU/Linux system so they would have a computer that worked just in case the new "Windows Bites" (…
lbock | October 27, 2012Meat production stinks. And I’m not referring to worries about bacterial contamination. I mean it literally stinks. Here’s the story. Hold your nose.
We crave meat. To satisfy our hunger Canadian feedlots ready some three and a half million cattle for slaughter every year. And those cattle produce more than meat. A single steer can crank out up to 30 kg of manure and urine every day, and some feedlots house over 40,000 animals! That means more than a thousand tons of pee and poo have to be dealt with in some fashion every day! Obviously, all that waste creates a massive odour problem…
gregladen | October 27, 2012Before I go any farther I'd like to note, with concern, that the automatic spellchecker thingie on the computer I'm using does not recognize the word Ixnay. Ameshfulsnay.
Anyway, this is fun, and important, about Ryan telling lies.
And by "fun" I meant "very disturbing." Thank you Rachel Maddow for doing what you do.
gregladen | October 27, 2012Col. Lawrence Wilkerson former chief of staff to Colin Powell is very blunt and candid about racism in the Republican party.
lbock | October 26, 2012PLEASE SHARE IF YOU ARE INSPIRED BY THIS STORY!
(Send Us Your Comment: Dan Lipinski, one of only a few engineers in Congress, is responsible for bringing nanotech advocacy to the House! What do you think of the role he’s playing?)
Born in Chicago into a political family, Congressman Dan Lipinski (who represents the 3rd District of Illinois) is the son of former U.S. Congressman Bill Lipinski. Dan replaced his father in Congress in 2005. Always fascinated with solving problems, Dan gravitated to engineering and science as a young student. "I remember in high school," he says, "my calculus…
gregladen | October 25, 2012Obviously, a lot of women are going to vote for Mitt Romney. Otherwise the numbers would be way skewed. But there is this thing that any women thinking of voting for Mitt Romney should watch, a video made by some women that I think are not planning on voting for him. Check out their message. You may change your mind.
gregladen | October 25, 2012Somebody asked me about colic and Chiropractic treatments. The evidence for: One or more very small studies suggest that some kids have upper spinal "damage" associated with childbirth, and some Chiropractors carried out minor "manipulation" thus reducing the colic. This evidence is very weak, as the assertion that there is an upper spinal damage syndrome is unverified, there is not an independent (or any kind of, as far as I can tell) measurement that the treatment affected the injury that may or may not have been there, and the effectiveness of the treatment is indicated in studies that did…
lbock | October 25, 2012PLEASE SHARE IF YOU ARE INSPIRED BY THIS STORY!
(C'mon, Hit Us With Your Comments! -- Yvonne, a pioneer of today's GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) technology, came up with the propulsion system that helps keep communication satellites in a fixed geosynchronous orbit. Tell us what you think!)
When Yvonne Brill accepted the prestigious National Medal of Technology and Innovation award in 2011 from President Obama, it helped to further cement her place in science history as a pioneer in greatly improving space propulsion technology. Her recent presidential award -- among the highest honors…
gregladen | October 24, 2012This is the second NOT WORK SAFE installment of one of the latest Brain Barnes for Congress Ads (Minnesota 3rd district)
lbock | October 24, 2012Satyendranath Bose collaborated with Einstein, and is for whom a family of subatomic particles known as "Bosons" is named
Born during British colonial rule in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India in 1894, Satyendranath Bose, even as a child, showed promise as a creative mathematical and scientific thinker. As a young student he loved experimenting with different methods to solve mathematical problems and improvising various ways to conduct science experiments. When he joined the University of Calcutta in 1916 as a researcher studying the theory of relativity, it was an especially exciting period to…
gregladen | October 24, 2012I'm voting for Brian Barnes for Minnesota's third district and not only because he keeps his shirt on.
lbock | October 23, 2012Adopted when she was two weeks old, Lisa Perez Jackson grew up in the New Orleans, LA area of Pontchartrain Park with her adopted parents Benjamin Perez (a postal worker), his wife Marie and their two sons. While exploring less fortunate neighborhoods of New Orleans as an adolescent, she noticed the unsafe and polluted waterways and canals that plagued these areas caused by oil refineries and drilling. Lisa often expressed concern over the negative impact that these problems had on the surrounding environment and its residents. It was most then that she began considering a career in…
sastyk | October 23, 2012I was asked this by a friend recently, and it has been stuck in my head (even though the whole idea requires an egomaniacal suspension of disbelief) - "If you could sit down to dinner with the people you think see the world we're in most clearly and spend dinner working on how to change things and be ready for a crisis, who would you invite to eat with you?" He added the caveat that I can have as many people as I want, and no, I don't have to cook and clean up ;-).
Actually, if I were going to do this, I would love to host. I like nothing better than to be the one doing the cooking,…
gregladen | October 23, 2012I'll be at Mayday Books with other authors of Atheist Voices of Minnesota: an Anthology of Personal Stories for a thing. Specifically, we'll form a panel to discuss how atheism informs our political views and activism.
The discussion will be moderated by George Kane, and the panelists include Ryan Bolin, Greg Laden, M.A. Melby, Kim Socha, and Stephanie Zvan....
Mayday Books is a unique and fascinating little bookstore. Located in the West Bank community in Minneapolis, it’s a volunteer collective dedicated to selling radical and left-wing literature, and providing a space for political…