Monthly Archives: March 2009

Condor Shot, Wounded, In Treatment

March 16, 2009UncategorizedBirds, Nature conservationGreg Laden

A California Condor was apparently ill (with suspected lead poisoning) so it was brought in for treatment. It was then discovered that it had been shot some time earlier .

Unable to eat on its own, the condor was under intensive care at the Los Angeles Zoo and its prognosis was guarded, said Susie Kasielke, curator of birds.

X-rays taken at the zoo turned up shotgun pellets embedded in its flesh, she said. Those wounds had healed.

It could not be determined if the pellets were lead or steel, but the poisoning was most likely caused by the bird ingesting spent lead ammunition in carcasses of animals that had been shot by hunters, Kasielke said.
Yahoo

Hat tip, Corey at 10KB

My Neighbor’s New Planter

March 16, 2009UncategorizedUncategorizedGreg Laden

i-76deb5bd9b449a3719e3e4a01543910e-neighbors_new_planter.jpg

Ron Silver Is Dead

March 16, 2009UncategorizedUncategorizedGreg Laden

At age 62, political activist and actor (Reversal of Fortune, West Wing). He was a co-founder of the Creative Coalition.

He was a good Democrat who Went Rogue after 911.

The Quattro Toilet

March 16, 2009UncategorizedTechnologyGreg Laden

This is really good, because I can never get those damn chess sets to go down in one flush.

null – Watch more free videos

And that was perfect toilet music, don’t you think?

An open letter to Barack Obama

March 16, 2009UncategorizedOpenSourceGreg Laden

Dear President Obama,

Congratulations on passing the stimulus package! I hope that the stimulus package will help the economy get back on track.

One thing that could help is to eliminate some of the approximately five billion dollars a day that we waste as a world economy with closed source, proprietary software.

How do I arrive at that figure?…

continued here.

NASA has space satellites in 3D

March 16, 2009UncategorizedUncategorizedGreg Laden

… cool! Oh, but wait, it’s all Flash Multimedia stuff and you have to install extra plugins and that doens’t really work that well (their servers may be jammed).

OK, NASA is going to eventually have Space Satellites in 3D. Click here to check it out, and let me know if it starts working properly.

The 94th Carnival of Space

March 16, 2009UncategorizedUncategorizedGreg Laden

… is Here, at Out of the Cradle.

Tim Berners-Lee: The next Web of open, linked data

March 16, 2009UncategorizedUncategorizedGreg Laden

Condom Breakage Survey Breaks Survey Site

March 16, 2009UncategorizedUncategorizedGreg Laden

The survey site burst open releasing all the data into …. wherever. So please go do it again. Scicurious has a more robust survey site that won’t break. It might not feel as natural but it won’t break.

HERE

Actually, if you took the survey and were able to finish, then you can relax, have a smoke, take a nap, whatever, and you don’t need to do it gain. If, however, you were unable to finish last time, you can now go and try again.

My new favorite music video. And operating system.

March 16, 2009UncategorizedUncategorizedGreg Laden

Sort of techno jazz fusion. And yes, there really is going to be a Jaunty Jackelope. Whcih, I think, is the first non-real animal to use for an Ubuntu release.

Hat tip: Javier

Do you know what the EFCA is?

March 15, 2009UncategorizedUncategorizedGreg Laden

EFCA stands for the Employee Free Choice Act, and it is the controversial US federal bill that would change the way Unions can be formed in the workplace. This bill is so controversial that it is one of the reasons that the Republican Party is willing to do whatever it takes to keep the Minnesota Senate Recount going as long as possible (the Republicans oppose the bill, as they oppose all that is Union).

Having said that, it is very true that most people don’t really know diddly squat about the EFCA, yet most of the same ingoramouses (myself included¹) manage to have an opinion about it. But that is no longer necessary, as Stephanie Zvan explains the bill RIGHT HERE.

¹ Don’t even think about getting cute with me on this, or I’ll kick your ass out your left nostril. Sorry, I had to say that to counteract the effects of breaking Number One Rule of Blogging, which is Never Admit a Weakness or the Trolls Will Eat You.