Daily Archives: October 6, 2011

Blog Woes

You may have noticed that the Freethoughtblogs have been running a bit rough, sometimes not accessible sometimes slow.

That is because you love us so much and there is so much activity that our server is overloaded.

Alternatively, you hate us and are carrying out denial of service attacks on us.

Either way, someone’s gonna loose themselves a tray-lor, and we’re getting a new server. Soon. I don’t know any more details than that (well, I know the specs of the new server and it’s mondo).

Thank you for sticking with us. If you can even read this because our server is probably down.

Oh, and I love you too. Or hate you too. As the case may be.

What do Donald Prothero, Dinosaurs, Climate Change and Bigfoot have in common?

I’m very excited to have the opportunity to interview Don Prothero this coming Sunday on Atheist Talk Radio. If you are local to the Twin Cities, you can listen in on AM 950. If not, you can get there via the Minnesota Atheist web site (where you will have to pretend you live in a twin cities zip code, such as 55433). Also, AM 950 is available on at least one digital radio station server … I seem to be able to get it on my Roku.

Prothero is a palaentologist who has been featured on the Discovery Institute web site (they don’t like him) as well as several podcasts (see below). He is a prolific writer and has produced numerous books, some widely known and some much more esoteric but among my favorites (I happen to be in to the evolution of Artiodactyls, as are most people who study human evolution).

The number of things Don and I can potentially talk about is huge, but among them will be a few questions I’ve been saving up for him regarding climate change vis-a-vis Polar Dinosaurs, the melting of the Ice Caps, inter-species competition and macroevolution, and of course the magnetostratigraphy of the Eocene-Oligocene boundary. We will also speak, perhaps extensively, of his new writing project which involved another one of my favorite subjects, cryptozoology.

Don is in town for the Geological Society of America meetings, and he is also going to give a talk for Minnesota Atheists on Sunday afternoon (Details here.). I know some of you are going to ask me: Are we going to Q-Cumbers after the radio show? I don’t know. Hopefully we will know before the show starts and if we are, hopefully somebody will remember to mention it. So listen in!

Professor Prothero is Professor of Geology at Occidental College and Lecturer in Geobiology at the California Institute of Technology. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and the Paleontological Society.

Links of interest:

Donald Prothero – The Psychology of Cryptozoologists on Point of Inquiry
Skeptics Guide to the Universe Interview with Don Prothero
American Museum of Natural History Podcast
Don Prothero on the East Coast Earthquake

Here’s a short list of some of Donald Prothero’s books:

Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters
Catastrophes!: Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Tornadoes, and Other Earth-Shattering Disasters
Greenhouse of the Dinosaurs: Evolution, Extinction, and the Future of Our Planet
After the Dinosaurs: The Age of Mammals (Life of the Past)
The Evolution of Artiodactyls

What are the adverse effects of vaccines?

A study incorporating over 12,000 prior peer reviewed publications, addressing the question of vaccine safety, is due for release by the National Academies of Science. The study attempts to understand adverse effects of vaccines and to assign causality to supposed negative outcomes. The 667 page study covers a large number of vaccines. And yes, it addresses autism.
Continue reading What are the adverse effects of vaccines?

A River Runs By It: Children growing up with science all around them

Look at this map, of a small part of the state of Minnesota:
i-549b4bc6c1d95840299a8590a36e04b2-Warren_River_Minnesota_River_Red_Riever_Falls_Glacial_Geology.jpg
See the wide channel that runs from left to right with the windy river in it? You are looking at one of the most amazing stories in geological history ever. I’d like to tell you about it.
Continue reading A River Runs By It: Children growing up with science all around them