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gregladen | October 10, 2012This morning, my inbox had a handful of interesting data that are totally unconnected to each other, each interesting in its own right, and together, a veritable potpourri of bloggyness. So, here goes:
First, Don Prothero at Skeptiblog has written one of those posts you want to keep handy next time you need to refer to Noah's Ark. The title of his post is "Ship of Foolishness" but I'm going to catalog it under Noah’s Ark compared to the Titanic. Here's the embedded data comparison:
I gotta get me some of that Gopher Wood.
Ok, I said these different data comparisons were not related to each…
lbock | October 9, 2012PLEASE SHARE IF YOU ARE INSPIRED BY THIS STORY!
(Send us your opinion today: What are the challenges faced by NASA engineers and scientists in keeping the Space Station and its astronauts safe from harmful bacteria, viruses and other nasty microbes? Tell us what you think of Monserrate’s contributions!)
Microbiology may not come to your mind when the name International Space Station (ISS) is mentioned, but it should, says NASA microbiologist Monserrate Roman. She should know. Monserrate, born and raised in Puerto Rico, was a member of the team which built the early stages of the ISS and…
gregladen | October 9, 2012David Schnare is a climate change denier, right-wing activist, and lawyer, and he works for the conservative “free market” think tank American Tradition Institute (ATI). Evidence has come to light suggesting that Schnare acted unethically during the course of a recently settled legal battle over access to private emails exchanged among university based climate scientists. In particular, Schnare may have worked at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at the same time he was engaged with work at ATI, without the required permission.
Almost two years ago, ATI initiated legal proceedings…
lbock | October 8, 2012
PLEASE SHARE IF YOU ARE INSPIRED BY THIS STORY!
(Tell Us What You Think: What are some of the science and engineering skills that Lonnie used to invent the Super Soaker? He proves that science can be TOTALLY fun!)
It seems that Lonnie Johnson was born to be an engineer. Growing up in Mobile, Alabama, he was a quiet and curious child who was fascinated about how things worked. “Lonnie tore up his sister’s baby doll to see what made the eyes close,” his mother recalls. As he grew older, he began making things, including rockets powered by fuel cooked up in his mother’s saucepans. In his…
illconsidered | October 8, 2012Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
skip to bottom
Another Week of Climate Instability News
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
October 7, 2012
Chuckles, COP18+, 50 Months, Too Conservative?, CCS vs Renewables, Maldives
Bottom Line, Hochberg, Cook
Fukushima Note, Fukushima News, Nuclear Policy
Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, Geopolitics, Antarctica
Food Crisis, Fisheries, Food Prices, Land Grabs, GMOs, GMO Labelling, Food…
gregladen | October 8, 2012NCSE executive director Genie Scott chats with polar explorer Will Steger about their experiences and perspectives on climate change education. Steger is an educator and author of several books on his expeditions and environmental issues, including climate change. Where: University of Minnesota.
gregladen | October 7, 2012On July 9th, 2012, Anoka High School student Justin Aaberg committed suicide. Here in Minnesota, when a kid commits suicide we don't talk about it; often the other kids in the school are never told. There's just a funeral service and a yearbook page but no discussion, no action, no response. But, Justin was one of several kids who successfully took their own lives in the Anoka Hennepin School District, the largest school district in Minnesota, and they were among a much larger group who came close to doing so, because they were gay or thought to be so, and were thus bullied and shunned and…
gregladen | October 6, 2012Would it really matter? What would really happen?
Science blogger Kevin Zelnio has the story: A Post-PBS Educational Television Landscape
What is the bottom line of Kevin's post? Well, go read it and find out.
And for when you get back from Kevin's post, here is Rick Santorum letting the genie out of the bottle:
gregladen | October 6, 2012We've been talking about marriage, and we'll continue that conversation. But for now I just wanted to alert you to the fact that a big chunk of money, allegedly about 2 million bucks from one person, has been given to the anti-same sex marriage organization, "National Organization for Marriage," and it is expected that this money will be funneled into ads in Minnesota and the other states where this fight is being fought.
See this for the reason that this is all so stupid.
And then click here and send money. Just do it. I just gave Minnesotans United for All Families 90 bucks. That was…
gregladen | October 5, 2012Ask Allison Hagood and Stacy Herlihy about Vaccine Safety
They are the authors of Your Baby's Best Shot: Why Vaccines Are Safe and Save Lives, and they will be Desiree's guests on Skeptically Speaking.
This week, we’re looking at the science – and pseudoscience – that affects the healthcare decisions parents make for their children, and women make for themselves. We’re joined by Allison Hagood and Stacy Herlihy, to talk about their book Your Baby’s Best Shot: Why Vaccines are Safe and Save Lives. And on the podcast, we’re joined by Skepchick.org founder Rebecca Watson, to talk about…
gregladen | October 5, 2012I usually avoid writing about research that has not been done yet. I get press releases every day about grants awarded to universities and private companies to pursue one research project or another. There is always some reason those grants are awarded, some prior research that indicates a potential finding. The early indications of what could happen in combination with the verification of wonderfulness of the research team demonstrated by six or seven figures of dollars being provided to develop the work results in a press release with promise. The thing is, the potential results often…
gregladen | October 5, 2012Wed, October 10th
Join us at the Barnes & Noble in Har Mar Mall in Roseville at 7pm, Wednesday, October 10 for a fun evening. The Atheist Voices of Minnesota will be featured for an authors' event and we would love to see a room full of occupied seats!
Six of the book authors will read and/or discuss their essays and then be available to take questions from attendees. The featured authors are Norman Barrett Wiik, Stephanie Zvan, Robin Raianiemi, Tim Wick, Kori Hennessy, and August Berkshire. The host will be Eric Jayne. After the one hour (maybe an hour and a half) event some of us will…
gregladen | October 5, 2012When I was a kid there were no boy scouts. Well, there were, but not exactly where I lived. There were cub scouts and I was a member, and older kids in my neighborhood were boy scouts, but then somehow when it came time for me to leave the Cub Scouts and join Boy Scouts, they had mysteriously disappeared, so instead, I joined a different group, the Young Marines. We Young Marines ate boy scouts for snacks.
[ADDED: I've noticed that this petition is getting signatures at a rate of hundreds per minute.]
But anyway...I actually have very little sympathy for people who join the Scouts and…
lborkowski | October 5, 2012by Kim Krisberg
In the west Texas city of San Angelo, Planned Parenthood has been serving local women since 1938. It was one of the very first places in Texas to have a family planning clinic.
"We have grandmas bringing their granddaughters in," Carla Holeva, interim CEO of Planned Parenthood of West Texas, told me. "We're very much part of the community."
Today, the San Angelo clinic is preparing for some big, and unfortunate, changes. Last year, Texas lawmakers voted to exclude Planned Parenthood and other organizations affiliated with abortion providers from the state's Women's Health…
illconsidered | October 5, 2012NCSIDC has it's monthly analysis for September done and as expected, it ain't pretty.
Arctic sea ice extent averaged for September 2012 was the lowest in the satellite record, and was 16% lower than the previous low for the month, which occurred in 2007. Through 2012, the linear rate of decline for September Arctic ice extent over the satellite record is now 13.0% per decade, relative to the 1979 to 2000 average. The six lowest September ice extents over the satellite record have all occurred in the last six years. Compared to the 1979 to 2000 average ice conditions, the September 2012 ice…
gregladen | October 5, 2012By making constant but weak measurements of a quantum system, physicists have managed to probe a delicate quantum state without destroying it – the equivalent of taking a peek at Schrodinger's metaphorical cat without killing it.
The story is at the New Scientist.
gregladen | October 5, 2012This WILL be an historic year at the polls when it comes to the issue of same-sex marriage. The question remains, though, what will this year's election, and the society voting in it, be remembered for? There four states with ballot items related to this issue: Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington.
I heard the following from a state legislator the other day. The pages who come from all over the state, brought in by elected members of both of our ruling parties, get together and do political and educational stuff. One thing they do is to vote on issues. Here are two things this…
gregladen | October 4, 2012This is not something you see every day:
... well, unless you live in Mala Mala or someplace.
gregladen | October 4, 2012You know, there's a pretty good chance that Justin Vacula is an OK guy. Really, that's probably true of all of the SlymePitters. Hell, I used to count Abbie Smith among my eFriends, back when the two of us shared certain views about stuff going on at Scienceblogs.com, such as being unimpressed with the Drama of Pepsipocalypse.
But, Justin and some (or all?) of the self-described SlymePitters do not share the modern feminist view of society and politics that underlies a majority of secular, skeptical, atheist, and related activism, or that is found fairly widely among that community. Some…
gregladen | October 4, 2012The whole point of being indoors is to get out of the elements, so it is a little strange that we bring miniature suns inside, take off most or all of our clothing, and irradiate ourselves on purpose. But we (well, some, not all of us) do and the result seems to be an increased risk of disease. This just out:
Indoor tanning and non-melanoma skin cancer: systematic review and meta-analysis
Results 12 studies with 9328 cases of non-melanoma skin cancer were included. Among people who reported ever using indoor tanning compared with those who never used indoor tanning, the summary relative…