Uncategorized
gregladen | March 23, 2012John Childs is the very first person to fly in America. He did it in 1757, on September 13th, from the steeple of the Old North Church in Boston. This is the same church from which Sarah Palin hung some lanterns to direct Michel Bachmann on her ride to Concord New Hampshire to warn the British that we were "Not going to take it any more."
Childs tied himself to a glider made of bird feathers, and he did it a three times in a row, firing off guns the third time, but he caused such a distraction that he got banned from doing it again. Based on the description of the event, Childs was really…
stoat | March 23, 2012As this Economist debate demonstrates, the people in charge are stupid, complacent, wasteful, smug, mendacious and incompetent. Not that uncommon, alas.
Refs
* The Economist Debate on Airplane Security
gregladen | March 23, 2012Skeptically Speaking 156:
This week, we're experiencing the power of stories to communicate science. Join us for Beyond 42: How Science Can Use Stories to Explain Life, the Universe and Everything. This event, recorded live in Edmonton, features Scientific American Blog Editor Bora Zivkovic, and a fantastic cast of scientists telling moving stories that communicate the wonder of science and discovery.
There is no live show this week. The podcast will be available to download at 9 pm MT on Friday, March 23.
Details here.
gregladen | March 22, 2012Posted without further comment because the biggest Tattoo is really your brain anyway:
gregladen | March 21, 2012On January 29th, 2010, I wrote:
I do not appreciate the fact that the New Orleans Saints defense, when playing the superior Minnesota Vikings, clearly designed, practiced, and successfully implemented a strategy that if adopted by other teams and not stopped by new rules, will change the way the sport is played forever. During the playoff game with the Vikings, the Saints' defense got through the Vikings' defensive line and knocked down the quarterback something like 19 times. Not sacked. They knocked him down after he had thrown or passed off the ball. One time there was a penalty, and the…
gregladen | March 21, 2012These are not the same thing, and the distinction is important. Please have a look at: The real impact of gun laws, and what that means
sb admin | March 20, 2012There is only one truly kosher sport when it comes to the Olympics: athletics. All those ancient Greeks did was run around in the dirt butt naked. It took over fifty years for them to add a second sport: more running, but in a wild twist, a race over twice the distance as before. Over the years more sports were added, including one involving running in full armour, which much have provided much-needed advertising canvas for Classical games sponsors.
After the revival of the games in 1894, various sports have been added, some successfully, whilst others fell by the wayside. Take a tour…
sciencepunk | March 20, 2012There is only one truly kosher sport when it comes to the Olympics: athletics. All those ancient Greeks did was run around in the dirt butt naked. It took over fifty years for them to add a second sport: more running, but in a wild twist, a race over twice the distance as before. Over the years more sports were added, including one involving running in full armour, which much have provided much-needed advertising canvas for Classical games sponsors.
After the revival of the games in 1894, various sports have been added, some successfully, whilst others fell by the wayside. Take a tour…
gregladen | March 20, 2012The Walter Cronkite of the Twin Cities, Emmy Award Winning news anchor Don Shelby, retired a couple of years ago and started writing for the excellent local news blog MinnPost. Shelby's articles were always excellent and on point, and he often wrote about climate change related issues that I know are important to people who read this blog. He has also supported the cause of science in public policy in other ways.
Here are three examples of my earlier posts pertaining to Don: Minnesota AGW Denialist Jungbauer Disembowled by Respected News Anchor Don Shelby; Shawn Otto's Book Launch Talk (…
gregladen | March 20, 2012It's the Scopes Trial all over again!
"The Senate approved a bill Monday evening that deals with teaching of evolution and other scientific theories," the Knoxville News-Sentinel (March 19, 2012) reported, adding, "Critics call it a 'monkey bill' that promotes creationism in classrooms." The bill in question is Senate Bill 893, which, if enacted, would encourage teachers to present the "scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses" of "controversial" topics such as "biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning."
Among those expressing opposition to…
gregladen | March 20, 2012There's an app for that!
A free, new iPhone app from NASA literally puts the whole world in the palm of your hands. "Earth Now" immerses cyber explorers in dazzling visualizations of near-real-time global climate data from NASA's fleet of Earth science satellites.
Available at the iTunes Store or by visiting http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/apps , Earth Now displays data on many of the key vital signs of our planet that NASA satellites track. Whether your interest is current surface air temperatures over Australia, carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide levels over Canada, ozone over Oman, water vapor…
gregladen | March 19, 2012It slows my system way down, it breaks my desktop, it makes the browser work very poorly, and it requires me to force the computer to shut down and reboot now and then.
It also appears to boot quickly but it is mostly faking it.
gregladen | March 19, 2012On Sunday, Google Chrome surpassed Microsoft Internet Explorer in browser market share.
I would now like to welcome our new Internety Overlords!
(Please don't hurt me.)
source