Monthly Archives: September 2011

UK Government Backs ESP Research?

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Apparently, in the UK the government can recognize an organization as an “official entity” and has done so for the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (ASSAP).

Henceforth, the ASSAP is a “Professional Body.”

The Association’s website explains that such a body “exists to further the interests of a particular profession, its clients, [and] the public at large”, adding that professional bodies often set standards for their members. In the UK, for example, the British Psychological Society represents psychologists, the Institute of Civil Engineers represents civil engineers, and so on.

Well, good, they’ll have standards, then!

This does not imply government funding. Here’s a writeup of the news.

New Crime Busting Technology

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Check this out. This is an animation made by the same company that made the famous Tiger Woods animation (you know the one). In this case the purpose of the animation was to reconstruct an unusual crime scene so people could see it on the news, relate better to it, and report anything they may have seen in the area that was suspicious.

This may not be work safe, depending on where you work:

Continue reading New Crime Busting Technology →

Attenborough’s Flying Monsters 3D Is Going To Be Good

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How does David Attenborough crawl through a marshy Cycad forest toward an exposed rocky ledge overlooking a vast plain of grazing dinosaurs, drawing ever closer to a nesting colony of Quetzalcoatlus Pterodactlyoids (known in the business as “Flying Giraffes”) camera crew in tow, nearly out of breath, turning to the camera and speaking of how his adrenalin is surging as he can feel the breeze caused by wingbeats of one of the larger males taking off down an historically ancient Pterosaur runway, and noting a few interesting facts about their physical adaptations to flight and their behavior … when pterosaurs went extinct sixty-five million years ago?

By making 3D models of the beasts, then making a 3D model of himself, and then putting together a convincing script? Quite possibly. But there is more to it than that, as it turns out.
Continue reading Attenborough’s Flying Monsters 3D Is Going To Be Good →

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Don’t Matter No More

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Don’t Ask Don’t Tell may well have been a good idea at the time. It was a step beyond “Find Out, Beat Up, Throw Out.” Thank you Bill Clinton for that improvement.

A lot of people don’t realize that DADT was not a Clinton Administration Policy but rather, eventually, a law passed by Congress. As long as a person I like is in the Oval Office, I might be happy with the arrangement that if the President does not like a law, he or she just eliminates it unilaterally. But, actually, that can’t happen without certain other things happening. Also, laws usually get implemented somehow through policy or regulation, which itself is complex.

To me, a litmus test of how well someone understood the democratic process in the US was whether or not they were screaming at Obama to eliminate DADT, the law, unilateralism. I mean, seriously, think about this. A black guy out jogging. Impeachable offense. Teabaggers in power. Connect the dots, people.

But all this is moot today. Don’t Ask Don’t Tall don’t matter no more.

Climate Scientists Defended!

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i-c850261749cff569a1cd9bd7f7346da9-defense_fund_logo-thumb-178x179-69264.gifYou’ll remember that a few days ago I asked people to contribute to the Climate Scientists Defense Fun. They needed money to stop denialists from personally harassing scientists. The needed funds were obtained from your donations and all is well!!!!

However, the people who organized this have decided to try to generate a standing fund for this purpose, and have asked us bloggers who discuss these issues to let people know about. It is still being developed, but you can learn more about it here.

Thanks for all your help and generosity!

How To Do Good Climate Science Instead Of Bad Climate Science

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ResearchBlogging.orgIn order to do good climate science, you have to understand and control for the sources of variation in the system. In any system that involvs metric change over time, there are four sources of variation:
Continue reading How To Do Good Climate Science Instead Of Bad Climate Science →

What is a blog post?

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Paul Hutchinson (Hutch) is annoyed. Check it out.

I agree that a “blog” is not a post. A post is a blog post just like an article in a magazine is a magazine article, but a post is analogous to an article.

I would add this: A comment on a blog post is not a post. It is a comment. Feel free to comment below or on Paul’s post if you like.

Oh, wait, you can’t comment on Paul’s Blog posts because comments are closed on his blog. Which makes me wonder if it is really a blog. It may not be technically true, but a blog should have a comment section, in my view. And, I know Paul’s web site is a blog (and not an “I’m not a blog I’m a web site” blog) because he calls it a blog in the name of the web site.