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gregladen | September 21, 2012
Elizabeth J. Laden, a few years ago.
Some of my earliest memories are of my sister, BJ, who later preferred to be called Elizabeth. Each of my three siblings, all older than me, had a measurable influence on my life, influences that happened when I was little when they, much older, were mostly ignoring me (I'm not saying that is a bad thing). In the case of Elizabeth, the influence was mainly socio-political. She was the girl that the Catholic school probably regretted admitting because she was trouble, or at least, that's the sense I got. She was a hippie when being a hippie was the…
gregladen | September 20, 2012Hahaha
It's great to see a Juluka number in such a prominent place.
Hat tip: Kristi Lewton
gregladen | September 19, 2012
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gregladen | September 19, 2012I just want to remind everybody that the fundraiser at which Romney proudly declared he would not represent 47% of Americans, claimed that if he was brown he'd get elected, and promised that if there was a hostage situation in the middle east during the present election season that he'd find a way to take advantage for political gain, was a $50,000 per plate dinner.
The median income in the US is close to that amount.
If you wait 10 tables at an event like that and get a 15% tip, you make more than the median annual income in one night.
gregladen | September 18, 2012There is some brand new research on those New Caledonian Crows that seem to be able to do all sorts of things we thought only smart Humans could do (like making tools, understanding physics, that sort of thing). I've written it up here: The Incredulous New Caledonian Crows, on 10,000 Birds, where, as you know, I write a monthly entry on bird evolutionary biology. It turns out they can do something that I'm not so sure all humans are great at. Other than flying.
Please go have a look!
gregladen | September 18, 2012What could be wrong with presenting in a science class "both sides" of controversial topics like evolution or climate change, or having students debate the topics, using argumentation to improve their critical thinking skills? In the case of evolution, presenting supposed alternatives, such as intelligent design or young-earth creationism, is not only considered bad practice, but also unconstitutional in public schools due to the separation of church and state. However, in the case of climate change, the practice of teaching it as controversial and presenting "both sides" as if they are…
gregladen | September 17, 2012The tape was running, he was speaking at a fundraiser, didn't know he was being taped. Holy crap:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Details here.
gregladen | September 17, 2012Alber Saber is a pro-democracy blogger in Egypt who also runs a facebook page for atheists. His neighbors found out about this and, of course, mobbed his house. The police arrived on the scene, and of course, they arrested him. He was thrown in jail and, of course, he seems to have been attacked by razor blade wielding prisoners.
Rebecca Watson has started a petition for you to sign to help make the point that the whole world is watching. Please click here and sign the petition.
gregladen | September 17, 2012This is Denise Bader, who is running against a very extreme Tea Party candidate:
mspringer | September 17, 2012In most books or articles that talk about lasers, you'll see a definition of laser light in terms of "coherence". But coherence is sort of a term of art, and the books will go on to explain coherence in terms of the waves being in sync with each other, or the emitted light being very monochromatic, or something else slightly vague.
This is all pretty good as far as it goes, but we'd like to do a little better. (Though for this post, not much math. But don't get too comfortable!) The word "coherence" means something like "holding together", and this is actually a pretty good description of the…
gregladen | September 14, 2012President Obama experienced a significant post-convention bounce. Already a little bit ahead, this places Obama more firmly ahead of Romney. But, the news would be so much more interesting if the two were much closer. How does one solve this problem if you are CNN? Make stuff up!
Yesterday CNN reported polls that showed Obama ahead of Romney by several points in key swing states of Virginia, Ohio and Florida. Then, according to Steve Singiser, "CNN's Gregory Wallace, writing up the polls on the media outlet's website, categorized Florida and Virginia as a tie. A tie.
gregladen | September 14, 2012The median income for Americans is about $50,000. Thus...
Question: Is $100,000 middle income?
Answer: No, middle income is $200,000 to $250,000 and less.
The question was being asked by George Stephanopoulos and answered by Mitt Romney.
source
lborkowski | September 14, 2012by Kim Krisberg
Funny cats and disaster preparedness. It's a marriage made in Internet heaven.
"Cats are all over the Internet," says Michele Late, coordinator of the American Public Health Association's (APHA) Cat Preparedness Photo Contest. "And if cats are what people want, then marrying them with emergency preparedness seems like a smart fit."
Launched just after Labor Day weekend, APHA's cat photo contest takes its inspiration from the enormous popularity of an Internet meme known as LOLcats, in which — yep, you guessed it — people take funny photos of cats and photoshop them with funny…
mspringer | September 14, 2012Back before my now-ended blogging hiatus, the server machinery that keeps ScienceBlogs running was not so snazzy as it is now. Now it's running a WordPress implementation that includes LaTeX support. LaTeX is a free environment for (among other things) typesetting mathematics. Let's give it a test run:
$latex 3 = \sqrt{6+\sqrt{6+\sqrt{6+\cdots}}} &s=2$
I actually came across the above expression in a Mathematica book, which used it as an example of how Mathematica could do typesetting. It didn't include anything other than the expression - no proof or anything else. We might as well test…
sastyk | September 13, 2012I have more to write, but it may get done tomorrow, or maybe after Rosh Hashana, depending. Right now I'm just recovering from the frantic compulsive worrying and cleaning the preceded my annual home inspection to remain a foster parent. I shouldn't have worried, but I do - our way of life is sufficiently different from that of most of the caseworkers that I never know how they will take it, but it went fine. They are far more worried about my smoke detectors and how many beds we have than they are about anything else, and they never notice that I scrubbed under the washing machine (as far…
gregladen | September 13, 2012Have you read, or at least acquired your copy of, Atheist Voices of Minnesota: an Anthology of Personal Stories? Just so you know, it is an anthology of (just like the title says) personal stories of individuals' journey to atheism. And, those people are writing from a Minnesota perspective. There are a lot of really great stories in the anthology, and a forward by Greta Christina.
Anyway, this Sunday, at the Southdale Library in the Greater Minneapolis area (just south of the city), at the monthly Minnesota Atheist meeting, there will be a special event involving the reading out loud of…
gregladen | September 13, 2012
Fusion Wallpaper
There comes a time in each person’s life when it is time to change the wallpaper. And the drapes, but we’ll focus on wallpaper here. And by wallpaper I mean the picture on your computer screen that is normally covered by icons and open windows. I came across a few neat individual wallpapers, as well as some good sources, and thought you’d like to see them. Since these wallpapers are from sites run by the artists who designed the wallpapers, it is appropriate that you go to those sites to get them, so here I’ll just show a few thumbnails but mainly talk about topics and…