The IPCC report is out, “An Inconvenient Truth” has been honored by the academy, a sea change is happening in the way that climate change news is being reported, and you can bet the Right Wing and the Ree-pubs are as we speak working up new Talking Points and Spins to deflate the urgency of the issue. It is an axiom that in reporting science, there are two (not one, not three or four, just two) sides to every issue, and one side is the plank nailed to the Democratic Party Platform, and the other side is the plank nailed to the Ree-pub Party Platform. This is a truth as stable and reliable as the fact that Home Depot will always sell 2″ X 4″ studs and plywood in 4′ X 8′ foot pieces. We are already seeing the dubious dichotomies forming up. For instance, yes, the Antarctic Ice Sheet is sloughing off the continent, but it is opening new and wonderful opportunities for both shrimp and scientists. Yes, global warming is real and is anthropogenic, but the Average American thinks, according to Polls, that it is only the third or fourth most important issue. And so on.
Continue reading Global Warming, the Blog Epic ~ 01 ~ Introduction
Monthly Archives: January 2009
After Midnight
I just got an email informing us that Scienceblogs.com is going to go erotic after midnight tonight, owing to some anticipated activities.
Continue reading After Midnight
Autism + Vaccines = Death
… threats. By yahoos.
A new book defending vaccines, written by a doctor infuriated at the claim that they cause autism, is galvanizing a backlash against the antivaccine movement in the United States.
But there will be no book tour for the doctor, Paul A. Offit, author of “Autism’s False Prophets.” He has had too many death threats.
Details here at the NYT
more Coleman sleaze?
The Minnesota DFL Party filed a complaint today with the FEC regarding how Norm Coleman is paying for his recount efforts. Norm doesn’t have the personal wealth to fund this himself plus the Republican donors aren’t probably all that excited about funding a losing proposition. So this means Norm needed to go where Republicans get the vast majority of their donations … corporations. But Melendez and Co. think there is something underhanded going on.
Norm Coleman? Underhanded? Is that even possible?
….. details here.
Your computer can run a Zillion times faster!
If you are currently using Ubuntu 8, the upgrade to Ubuntu 9 will involve the implementation of Ext4. Ext4 is a super duper very fast file system that will make your computer sing. Sing fast.
If you are not using Linux at all, say you are using WinDoze, switching to Ubuntu 9.04 will make your computer run Two Zillion times faster, and it will not keep breaking and doing annoying things.
But remember, Linux is NOT FOR EVERYBODY. No …
Continue reading Your computer can run a Zillion times faster!
Texas, Woe Is You
Meet Don McLeroy
Doesn’t Don look happy? He should. He’s accomplished a great many things. He has an engineering degree, is a practicing dentist, has served in the U.S. Army, and has even helped out with his local Boy Scouts of America chapter, or congragation, or whatever they’re called. On top of that, he’s a Sunday-school teacher!
And he’s a creationist and he’s the head of the Texas Schoolboard.
The gory, awful details are HERE.
Texans, please don’t make me tell you that you are all a bunch of slack jawed morons again! I know you don’t like it. But you keep doing this shit.
Desert Carnival
There is a plan to make a “Web Log Carnival of the Vanities” (aka blog carnival) for all things arid.
Submissions should have something to do with a desert somewhere in the world. (If you’re not sure whether your work is desert-related, check out this definition at Wikipedia, and if you’re still not sure, send it in anyway.) Submissions can be scientific in nature, or history, or travelog. Images are welcome, photographic or otherwise. Discussions of culture and politics are welcome if they’re desert-related. The one restriction, other than geographical, is that — at least when I’m compiling it — paeans to destroying the desert probably won’t make it. (Developers and ORVers take note.) Paeans to preserving or protecting the desert are fine, as are alerts of current pressing issues.
This is a good idea, though I have one problem with this I want to mention and I’m sure we can deal with it.
Back when the guy who decided what a tropical rain forest is and what a desert is went around and did that stuff, he ignored Africa and based all the numbers on Asia and the New World. As a result, the entire Central African Rain Forest is not a rain forest, and the Kalahari is not a desert. For instance.
So I think we need to have a sufficiently broad definition of desert to include the arid lands that don’t quite make the cut for this absurd arbitrary reason. Kay?
Anyway, READ ALL ABOUT IT HERE!
Franken Counter Filing
Al Franken has, as his his right and duty, filed papers to the court now reviewing Coleman’s suit regarding the Minnesota Senate Race.
Eric Kleefeld has an excellent summary of the paper. You can read the papers here, and read Eric’s summary here. Oh, and if you want a real laugh, you can read Coleman’s suit here.
I’ll give you the bottom line. There are the usual hopeful elements in any such filing, which usually have no effect, such as jurisdictional questions and so on. But there are two key elements based on which I would expect a decision by the court to throw out the case. First, some of Coleman’s propsoed remedies are illegal. Second, the one or two remedies that might not be illegal, if applied uniformly, would net Franken as many votes as Coleman (in relative terms). This inparticular applies to Coleman’s claim that there was double counting in some precincts of a few votes. Coleman wants votes thrown out in Franken-supporting precincts. Franken’s camp says: OK, if you do that, we have a list of red-colored precincts to also throw votes out in.
It would be funny if the courts allowed some of this and Coleman came up even more behind. Almost worth a try.
Minneapolitinians: Your Mayor Will Be Your Mayor
RT Rybak is not going to run for Governor, as some of us thought. He’s going instead for another term as Mayor. Good for him. Details here.
Blogging the Origin: New Sb Blog
A new blog called Blogging the Origin launched Monday. It’s a Seedmagazine.com-sponsored blog, written by London-based freelance science writer John Whitfield, who has the particular qualification–for this project, at least–of having never read Darwin’s The Origin of Species. As he now begins to read it for the first time, he will cover each of the 15 chapters (including the introduction) in detail, sharing his thoughts and soliciting those of readers. By the time Darwin Day rolls around on February 12, John hopes to be an Origins expert. Follow his progress here.
Help Help We’re Freezing Here!
OMG it is 17 degrees this morning!
(Below zero F, needless to say)
There is a six mph westerly wind. That is not too bad, but it puts our “feels like” (the index formerly known as wind chill) at about negative 32. Even in Minnesota, on a morning like this some cars will not start, some schools will have kids showing up late because the school buses will take an extra hour to warm up. (In some districts they never turned the buses off yesterday, knowing they would not be able to start them today).
It is expected to warm up, though! The high point will be Five! (Below.) As they say (somewhat inaccurately): “Hey, with luck it will warm up enough to snow.”
I’ve only got one pair of wool lined pants, and I wore them yesterday. So, laundry happens before anything else this morning, you betcha….
Autism Study Examines Cause of Apparent Rise in Rate
A study recently published by Irva Hertz-Picciotto and Lora Delwiche of the M.I.N.D. Institute, UC Davis, addresses the question of an apparent rise in the frequency of diagnosed autism in California.
This study is quickly becoming the focus of attention as the various factions with an interest in autism square off on assessing its validity. In the mean time, the study itself is rather modest in what it attempts and what it concludes.
Let’s have a look.
Continue reading Autism Study Examines Cause of Apparent Rise in Rate
Stuff White People Like Guy Coming to UMN
Popular blogger and author Christian Lander will discuss his book, Stuff White People Like, on Monday, January 26 at 4:00 p.m. at the University of Minnesota Bookstore in Coffman Memorial Union, 300 Washington Ave. S.E. Minneapolis.
Lander decided early on that he did not like white people who did not watch the TV show “The Wire.” His thoughts soon focused on what white people were doing instead of watching the show and thus his widely popular and provocative blog stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com was born. Now after nearly 30 million visitors, Lander has compiled some of his best thoughts and stories from the blog into his story behind the blog–Stuff White People Like.
Lander will sign copies of his book following the discussion. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, or to order a signed copy visit this link.
quote from the UMN bookstore facebook page.
Homeschooling Carnival Up
Homeschool Showcase (Formerly The Carnival of Cool Homeschoolers) #15 is up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. I’ve got an item listed in the carnival, which is typical (I often send potentially useful science content material to the homeschooling carnivals.)
While you’re studying Earth science, you may want to check out Nature’s Evolutionary Gems posted by Greg Laden at Greg Laden’s Blog. It’s up to you whether you use it to teach evolution as fact or as a teachable moment as you discuss God’s creation. I know how we’ll be using it. 😉
Wink wink indeed!
New Autism Study
California’s sevenfold increase in autism cannot be explained by changes in doctors’ diagnoses and most likely is due to environmental exposures, University of California scientists reported Thursday.
The scientists who authored the new study advocate a nationwide shift in autism research to focus on potential factors in the environment that babies and fetuses are exposed to, including pesticides, viruses and chemicals in household products.