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gregladen | May 1, 2012Sometimes it's spelled "Waco" but we all know that it should be Wacko. Yet Another Zany Thing (YAZT) has happened there which you may find amusing.
Bill Nye the Science Guy gave a talk there in which he made the claim that the Moon does not emit its own light. Rather, he said, it reflects the light of the Sun. Now, that probably wouldn't have bothered anyone in the audience because most of them were what you might call situationally informed. In other words, they would not know a thing unless it was pointed out to them, so without any added information they would not know that a thing they…
gregladen | April 30, 2012Yes. But don't assume you know a stupid person when you see one.
Our governor just vetoed a bill passed by our Pointy Headed Republican Legislature which would have significantly reduced regulation on dangerous fireworks in the state, allowing everyone access to explosives that are currently banned.
Which reminds me of a story.
When I first moved to the Twin Cities, I was told by people at the University that there was only one Saint Paul neighborhood to live in. All other neighborhoods were inadequate. The same exact people who told me that then later said things that confirmed that…
gregladen | April 30, 2012So you can help them collect data????? OMG, this is so cool!
The USGS is trying to achieve a denser and more uniform spacing of seismographs in select urban areas to provide better measurements of ground motion during earthquakes. These measurements improve our ability to make rapid post-earthquake assessments of expected damage and contribute to the continuing development of engineering standards for construction.
To accomplish this, we developed a new type of digital seismograph that communicates its data to the USGS via the internet. The seismographs connect to a local network via WiFi…
gregladen | April 29, 2012Technically, it was a few days ago, but I missed it. Here's Rachel Maddow's coverage:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
gregladen | April 29, 2012Features Michael E. Mann, author of The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines
tfk | April 28, 2012Not to dredge up old fights, but a topic we discussed on the blog back in 2009 has cropped up in a couple of recent essays. The issue is whether there is a form of truth that literature can convey, perhaps even a level of literary truth which cannot be conveyed through other means. The topic came up originally in the context of ways we might interpret religious texts, but it applies more generally.
So, in this week's New York Times book review section, we have an exchange between the editors and reviewer Mohsin Hamid in which Hamid explains:
Iâm a political animal. How the pack hunts,…
gregladen | April 27, 2012Staring tomorrow morning, if you are in the Twin Cities, there is Lynn Fellman's talk at the Hennepin County Library downtown.
Lynn Fellman creates art that combines genetic data with creative imagery. Fellman will discuss basic genetic concepts, how art can uniquely express science concepts, and why many of us may find Neanderthal genetics in our DNA. Q&A session will follow.
Click here for more details on Lynn's talk.
Then, on Sunday Morning, listen to Richard Fortey on ATT:
"Living fossil" is a term that might well have been calculated to drive evolutionary biologists insane.…
gregladen | April 27, 2012Have you been getting bitten by a lot of spiders lately? Are you concerned about Brown Recluse Spiders?
Well, I know people don't like to hear this, but those spider bites you woke up with this morning were probably not spider bites. Spiders don't really bite people.
Or, more accurately, if I had a dime for every time I've heard someone claim they were bitten by a spider, and had to give back 20 dimes every time they actually were bit by a spider, I'd have a lot of dimes.
If you want to get rid of an excessive number of spiders in your house, click here for instructions.
Meanwhile, this…
gregladen | April 26, 2012Before reading any further, you need to know that the transport and release of trapped animals, such as mice or squirrels, is regulated and may be illegal in your community.
Having said that, there are times when people want to live trap a mouse or squirrel, and this is one of the two times of year when people's interest in doing so seems to increase, based on google search terms that bring people to my site.
The short version for mice: Mice are granivores, so a wheat germ is to a mouse what bacon is to a human. Yumm. People often think peanut butter is great mouse bait, and it can be, but…
gregladen | April 25, 2012Here is a way you can support the Life Science teachers in your local school. Give them a poster or a hat or a T-shirt or a book or something. I'll tell you why in a moment.
First, you have to find the teachers and start up a relationship with them. I have various relationships with various teachers around the Twin Cities area, but strangely enough my efforts to strike up a relationship with the Life Science teachers at Coon Rapids has led to nothing. The school is very close to my house. I go by it every day to do one thing or another. But when I've emailed the staff there I've never…
gregladen | April 24, 2012The USDA has just confirmed that a dairy cow in California had bovine spungiform encephalopathy (BSE) sometimes known as "Mad Cow Disease," which causes Creutzfeldt-Jakob, a deadly human disease affecting the brain. The animal was about to be, or was in the process of being, "rendered" ... turned into glue or soap, most likely ... and none of it entered the food supply. It has not been demonstrated that BSE can be transferred to humans via milk. Even so, cattle futures have dropped sharply in Chicago over the last few hours.
From Reuters:
The carcass of the cow, which the USDA said was…
gregladen | April 24, 2012Don McLeroy is the creationist formerly on the Texas School board who tried very hard to ruin science education both in Texas and across the United States. He is an ill informed, paranoid, mean spirited dick head. He thinks humans and dinosaurs walked the earth at the same time. I repeat. He was on the Texas School Board. He also hates atheists. He doesn't have the qualification to breath the same air the rest of us do.
Colbert has an interesting conversation with him. Below the fold because it is a little wide.
The Colbert Report Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political…
gregladen | April 24, 2012Yes, it was a crime; it was a crime against nature and against the law of the land, and now the first criminal charges are being filed, according to an exclusive report at NPR.
"The first criminal charges in connection with the BP oil spill have been filed against a former BP engineer named Kurt Mix," NPR's Carrie Johnson reports exclusively.
Carrie just told our Newscast unit that Mix has been charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly deleting text messages after the spill. The texts were related to the amount of oil gushing into the Gulf. Mix will make his first appearence in court…
gregladen | April 24, 2012DON'T ANSWER AN DON'T GOOGLE IT
Click here to record your response.
Thank you very much, that is all for now.