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gregladen | November 2, 2013I think it was Johan Huizinga, who noted so many things about the Middle Ages, who noted that more than one Christian architect, captured by muslims during the crusades, was put to death for insolence after put to service to design a mosque and making it appear as a holy cross from the sky. If I recall correctly (and this was all before the Internet so nobody is going to check) the idea was this: If you build a church the way your daddy, the architect before you in your lineage of architects, built it, you don't necessarily think of why you are doing what you are doing. Way back in the…
egrossman | October 31, 2013According to a new report from the Center for Effective Government, American workplace health and safety is suffering from – and as a result of – a serious lack of resources. While the number of US workplaces doubled between 1981 and 2011 and the number of US workers increased from 73 million to 129 million during this time, during the same 30 years, the number of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspectors has declined. Instead of one inspector for every 1,900 workplaces, there is now only one inspector for every 4,300 workplaces (or, measured in other terms, one…
gregladen | October 17, 2013...When we look at living species (A and B) that we know shared a common ancestor resembling one of them (A), we can guess that the features seen in A evolved in steps more or less linearly to eventually resemble the corresponding features seen in B. For example, we think that chimpanzees and humans shared a common ancestor that resembled chimps a lot more than humans, and in fact, we consider living chimps to be a pretty close analog to this common ancestor. Chimp teeth are somewhat larger in relation to body size than human teeth, and human teeth have somewhat thicker enamel than chimp…
gregladen | October 16, 2013It is not helpful to elaborate the important stories of women talking about harassment to generate lies. Nor is it respectful to those women. So don't do that.
This:
Bora and I were walking in the same direction and chatting, a bit tipsy, when he asked me if I would walk him back to his hotel. I lost my breath for a second. I froze and stuttered, “No, I have to go.”
does not equal this:
Friends of @boraz, how do we justify a request to go to his hotel room? Innocent hugging? https://t.co/jGWffWMGQQ
— Dr. Isis (@drisis) October 16, 2013
So we start by getting the facts straight. The…
gregladen | October 13, 2013UPDATE:
Happy to announce that @Dnlee5 post is now back up: http://t.co/XVentvp35T #SciAmBlogs
— Bora Zivkovic (@BoraZ) October 14, 2013
This just in...
A Message from Mariette DiChristina, Editor in Chief
Scientific American bloggers lie at the heart of the SA website, pumping vitality, experience and broad insight around the community. Unfortunately our poor communication with this valuable part of the SA network over the recent days has led to concerns, misunderstandings and ill feelings, and we are committed to working to try to put this right as best we can.
We know that there are real…
gregladen | October 13, 2013UPDATED:
Happy to announce that @Dnlee5 post is now back up: http://t.co/XVentvp35T #SciAmBlogs
— Bora Zivkovic (@BoraZ) October 14, 2013
This is a very interesting and important question, and it probably requires more context than I have the ability or time to give, but I think it is worth putting on the table.
If you look at the twitter hashtags #standingwithDNLee and #IstandwithDNLee (which, interestingly, have distinctly different groups of people using them, which itself is worthy of study ... perhaps an example of Tweet Drift?) you'll be able to catch up if Twitter does not drive you…
aardvarchaeology | October 4, 2013
I put the business part of my electric shaver in methylated spirits for half an hour. Loads of organic gunk sloughed off of it. Now I know where half of my face has been all these years.
Neighbour from Afghanistan describes his interpreter gig with refugee children & teens in Sweden. They're traumatised and violent towards each other and themselves. This portly middle-aged father of five comes once a week, cooks the kids food from the old country and has long talks with them in Dari and Pashtu. Afterwards they're calmer for a few days.
I like my new life as an itinerant archaeology…
gregladen | October 2, 2013A few days ago I wrote a note to each of several trusted fellow political activists asking them to provide me with a short list of which of the many candidates running for Mayor of Minneapolis they would feel comfortable with winning this important race. I did not ask for their number one choice, but rather, which of the candidates they would be reasonably comfortable with if they won. These fellow travelers in local politics were assured that I would include any and all names they gave me on the list, the list would be alphabetical and not ranked, there would be no indication as to who…
gregladen | October 1, 2013An interview with Michael Mann on metastable shifts in climate:
Published on Sep 24, 2013
In recognition of climate week, Thom talks with renowned climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann about the dangers of global warming. Dr. Mann in concerned we may be running out of time to rein in global temperatures.
gregladen | September 29, 2013I've been a guest or interviewer on Minnesota Atheist Talk radio a number of times. I never talk about atheism because I'm nothing close to an expert on that or related issues (though I do have a chapter in a book about it, here!). And, of course, I'm very involved, professionally, in certain church-state separation issues (like this and this). But on Atheist Talk Radio I mainly engage in either science (lately climate change science but also evolution) or the afore mentioned church-state separation issues vis-a-vis the evolution-creationism "debate."
Anyway, I've been meaning to finally…
gregladen | September 26, 2013“We won’t include gays in our ads, because we like the traditional family. If gays don’t like it, they can always eat another brand of pasta. Everyone is free to do what they want, provided it doesn’t bother anyone else.”
Details here.
gregladen | September 23, 2013... on Skeptically Speaking:
This week, we’re diving back into neuroscience, to learn how common conceptions of the brain stand up to real research. Desiree Schell speaks to neurologist and author Robert Burton, about his book A Skeptic’s Guide to the Mind: What Neuroscience Can and Cannot Tell Us About Ourselves. She’s joined by neuroradiologist Jeff Anderson, to get the scientific perspective on the differences between the brain’s right and left hemispheres. And she’ll speak to cognitive scientist Gary Marcus, about the promise and peril of the push back against pop neuroscience.
gregladen | September 21, 2013This is about Obama Care:
Here's Obama on the defunding effort:
If you can't see that second video, it is HERE.
gregladen | September 21, 2013Hat tip Miss Cellania:
I would like to add this. Some devices that are meant to replace a knife may save you time when you chop the food item but then, can't be put in the dishwasher and have to be cleaned with a tiny toothbrush or something which takes way longer than the time you saved.
gregladen | September 19, 2013No.
First, let me tell you that the Journal of Cosmology has a very checkered history and anything published in it can not be trusted in the same way one might trust counter-intuitive results, provisionally at least, in a legit journal.
An article in the journal indicates that British scientists found stuff way high up at the edge of the out space-atmosphere boundary that must be from comets.
They give the argument that it must be from a comet because they did their sampling of it during a time when comet dust would be likely found in the region (because a comet's remains,a meteor swarm,…
jdupuis | September 13, 2013Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson's book The Big Shift: The Seismic Change in Canadian Politics, Business, and Culture and What It Means for Our Future is pretty obviously not a science book. Rather, it's a book about Canadian politics. But of course here in Canada these days, it's hard to talk about science without talking about politics at least a little. This book is interesting from a science policy perspective since it endeavors to give insight into the deeper rationale behind the current Conservative government's actions. In a sense, it asks, "What kind of Canada do Stephen Harper and…
gregladen | September 11, 2013I just heard about this:
University of Manitoba climatologist among three killed in fatal crash in Arctic Ocean
A Manitoba researcher is dead after a helicopter crashed into the Arctic Ocean Monday evening.
The University of Manitoba climatologist, Klaus Hochheim, was among three people who died in the crash, which happened around 7 p.m. CST in the McClure Straight in the Northwest Territories.
The helicopter was on a routine mission to check ice conditions at the time it crashed and was travelling with the CCGS Amundsen, a coast-guard ice breaker.
Marc Thibault, the commanding officer of the…