Monthly Archives: November 2011

Apologize for telling the truth? NBC and Jimmy Fallon drop the ball.

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Michele Bachmann intentionally lies. She lies to gain power, she lies for personal gain, she lies all the time. So, when the band on Jimmy Fallon’s talk show played ‘Lyin’ Ass Bitch’ … which, is, apparently, a song, they were making a fairly accurate statement.

One might question its appropriateness as a song or the use of the word “bitch” but aside from that, the shoe fit. There was no reason for NBC or Jimmy Fallon to apologize. Michele Bachmann is the one that needs to apologize.

Here’s the event in question: Continue reading Apologize for telling the truth? NBC and Jimmy Fallon drop the ball. →

The Best Eclipse Ever (of the moon and of the sun)

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I remember my first solar eclipse. I was a kid, and it was the one Carlie Simon sang about, in March 1970.

(The eclipse reference is just past three minutes. Some other time we can argue over whether or not Carlie, singing in this video on Martha’s Vineyard, was referring to the March 1970 eclipse or the July 1972 eclipse, but I’m sure it was the former, because that’s the one everybody got all excited about.)

I was such a geek that I actually missed the eclipse because I was busy collecting data. There was a phone number you could call and a lady’s voice would give you the time and temperature. Perfect. I called the number again and again and wrote down the time and temperature and made a graph. And I got results!
Continue reading The Best Eclipse Ever (of the moon and of the sun) →

We will be doing an experiment; I thought you should know.

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As you know, freethoughtblogs.com has switched to a new server, and we are now in that post server-switch phase of adjusting everything that got broke during the move.

One of the problems we are having behind the scenes is this: Normally, if you open a blog post (or start one up) in edit mode, you see the current text and HTML code and stuff, you can change that, you can save that, and then the post on line is different according to those changes. What is actually happening is that there is almost no relationship, sometimes, between what you do and what comes out on the site. If you make a change, publish the change and verifiy it is there, then re-open the post and make a second change, there is a pretty good chance that the first change will be gone. Or, if you just let the post sit there and auto-saving happens, then the post may revert to an old form. And so on.

So, we are doing an experiment in which The X Blog (singularly and in particular) will have it’s HyperCache turned off. We are not sure but we are thinking that could be the cause. Or, more exactly, I was whinging about it possibly being the cause, in the back channel, and the IT Tzar, Mat, took that as me volunteering to have mine turned off to see what would happen.

Thus, HyperCache will be disabled on The X Blog during the night tonight (Wednesday).

After that, I’ll mess around with editing stuff and see if those problems go away. For your part, you can report anything interesting or strange that you observe, and make comments on performance.

The strange things you observe and issues of performance may or may not be related to this blog. As long as it is interesting.

Thank you very much.

What will you be cooking for Thanksgiving?

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If you are looking for some recipes, here are a few suggestions.

Theory and background

Cooking Thanksgiving Turkey

The True Meaning of Thanksgiving: Gravy

Stuffings

Thanksgiving Side Dishes

Thanksgiving Deserts

Additional Information:

So, what can you add to this list?

Lynn Margulis Has Died

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i-1c9ffe9bf605754c1423eb6a49ec7057-225px-Lynn_Margulis.jpgLynn Margulis died yesterday at her home in Amherst at the age of 73.

Margulis is best known and best remembered for her endosymbiotic theory. You know what this is because you took basic biology and it is now part of every textbook. Notably, at the time Margulis published this idea, it was rejected and continued to be shunned for some time, but eventually was accepted. Margulis made a number of other important and accepted contributions to evolutionary biology.

Margulis has also pressed forward with a number of other theories (either hers, or as an advocate for others) that are just plain wacky. But they only deserve the briefest of mention at this time of her death.

Margulis, who began her University training at the University of Chicago at the age of 14, earned an MA from Madison and a PhD from Berkeley (1963) won the National Medal of Science, was a member of the National Academy, and had many other awards and accolades. She was married to Carl Sagan, and their children are well known for their various contributions to science, science writing, and technology.

Image from wikipedia

I am the Angry Left. But if I was in Congress I’d still be polite.

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We know that the right wing revels in stupidity; Willful stupidity and well practiced stupidity are thought to be the way elitist anti-populous tax-the-middle-class Republicans capture support from the masses. Seems to work rather well. But increasingly this trope of (ig)noble ignorance is being supplemented by large doses of mean spirited in your face angry verbal assault. Imagine a member of congress saying to an expert witness at a committee hearing “As long as I’m sitting here and you’re sitting there, I can call you whatever I want.”

Seriously. The last time I heard that kind of talk in real life was in a bar, late at night, everyone was drunk, and the words were slurred.

I would like you to look at two freshly produced essays reflecting on one recent incident:

Continue reading I am the Angry Left. But if I was in Congress I’d still be polite. →

Manspace

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In an old colonial-looking restaurant that served ten kinds of steaks, I met up with an experienced explorer and a local farmer, to have dinner and discuss plans for an upcoming research project that would be managed by The Explorer and that would partly be on The Farmer’s land, which adjoined a rather extensive and remote wilderness area. I don’t remember a lot about the conversation, but one memory of the evening stands out: That was when The Farmer, rooting around in a bag for some cash to tip the waitress, pulled out this big-ass gun … a small cannon, really … that was in the way. For just a moment, the gun came out of the bag and went on the table, then back in the sack. I wondered if this was a random event or if it was a not too subtle way to let everyone around see that This Particular Farmer was packing Major Heat. I’d seen that move before in this part of South Africa, which is where, by the way, this dinner was being enjoyed.

Earlier that day, The Explorer, whom I had commissioned to be my field logistics manager, drove me out to a possible research site — an island centered in one of Southern Africa’s more significant rivers. The island had once been part of a farming project, now defunct, and at some point a levy was built there to divert water into an irrigation system. The now defunct and overgrown levy was about four kilometers long, flat topped, and exactly the width of a vehicle’s wheel-base plus 30 centimeters. There were numerous erosional cuts on both sides of it, so as The Explorer drove our truck along the top of the vegetation-covered berm, the wheels would take turns dropping into these open-ended Potholes-Of-Death. I wondered what would happen if we hit an erosional gully that was a bit bigger than the others, or two at once, and just as I was wondering about that, The Explorer uttered some words that made all that seem less important. Continue reading Manspace →