Daily Archives: December 7, 2007
My Afternoon With Reverend Zero
John Maynard Smith Interview
Wales: Wikipedia OK for Students
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has said teachers who refuse younger students access to the site are “bad educators”.Speaking at the Online Information conference at London’s Olympia, he played down the long-running controversy over the site’s authority.He said young students should be able to reference the online encyclopaedia in their work.Mr Wales said the site, which is edited by users, should be seen as a “stepping stone” to other sources.As long as an article included accurate citations, he said he had “no problem” with it being used as a reference for younger students, although academics would “probably be better off doing their own research”.
VVVVVVSSSSSSSSSSTTTT ….. KABOOM!!!!
Another round of heavy artillery launched in the War on Christmas. It’s a hit![hattip: PZ Myers]
Dahmer: Darwin Made me Do It
He was saved by creation science. But a little too late, like, it happened after he became a vicious cannibal.
Big Numbers
O’Reilly: Progressive Blog Readers are Devil Worshipers
Click to see the videoRobert Full: Secrets of movement, from geckos and roaches
UC Berkeley biologist Robert Full shares his fascination with spiny cockroach legs that allow them to scuttle at full speed across loose mesh and gecko feet that have billions of nano-bristles to run straight up walls. His talk, complete with wonderful slow-mo video of cockroach, crab and gecko gaits, explains his goal of creating the perfect robotic “distributed foot.”
Huge Tetris Game
Linux: Stable API vs. Not?
There has been a lot of interesting discussion on the benefits and negatives of a stable API on this thread, with good points being made on both sides. If you don’t know or care what that is about, then just move along, nothing to see here… Continue reading Linux: Stable API vs. Not?
The Omaha Shooting
First, I want to say that we should not forget that this was a horrific event, and that I’m sure we all mourn for the dead and their families.A fellow blogger in the science and technology world lost a close friend in this shooting, and has written about it here.Now, I want to ask two difficult questions. Continue reading The Omaha Shooting
Creationists Can be So Funny
There was a time, not so long ago, when you could “Google” the terms “Greg Laden” and “Idiot” and get, well, besides the several thousand hits about me being an idiot and stuff, an Amazon.com page for “The Idiot’s Guide to Human Prehistory by Greg Laden”This is a book I never wrote. But the publishers wanted me to. However, there were complications. The first complication was that I found out (from an excellent source) that the owner of the company had “a problem” with evolution, and I came to believe it was likely that certain things would be changed prior to publication. In particular, the word “evolution” was not going to appear in the title. And so on…. Continue reading Creationists Can be So Funny
Don’t make me spit up formula on you…
No babies were harmed during the filming of this True Documentary:[Totally stolen from Tangled Up in Blue Guy]… Blue Guy has links to another movie in the same genre….
Everybody needs to do this: Learn the Greek Alphabet
Also, know how to pronounce “primer” properly….Hint: Skip ahead to minute two.Omega looks like something I once saw on a button on a toilet in Japan.