How are birds related to dinosaurs, crocodiles, and pterosaurs? Where do birds live, and not live? How many bird species are there, and how many actual birds, and how does this vary across the glob? What about endemics?; Where ate the most local species found? Mike Unwin’s The Atlas of Birds: Diversity, Behavior, and Conservation
Continue reading The Atlas of Birds: Diversity, Behavior, and Conservation
Yearly Archives: 2011
Google gmail and ads and “Importance Signals”
A Republican and Climate Change Skeptic Talks About Climate Change
Eagan Minnesota Overrun by Coyotes!?!?!?
Check it out:
This is more coyote activity than usual for these parts. They are fairly common generally. The solution? Bring in wolves!
The Gun Lobby and Military Suicides
Andrew Rosenthal:
Of all of the lobbying organizations that feed off fear, and rely for their funding and power on dividing Americans, one of the worst is the National Rifle Association.
The NRA never misses a chance to misrepresent the positions of people who advocate reasonable gun control, to make Americans afraid that the government wants to take away their right to defend their homes and their loved ones, and to turn any attempt to have a sensible conversation about guns into an assault on the Second Amendment.
Why else would the NRA support a law that makes it more difficult to prevent suicides among members of the armed forces?
Let me explain. …
LeRoy Bell: Brimming with Confidence!
First, have a look at LeRoy giving Bono a lesson or two: Continue reading LeRoy Bell: Brimming with Confidence!
Site Upgrade Imminent
At Oh Three Hundred hours ZULU, or 10:00 PM EST, this site will go down for a major hardware upgrade. The current server will swapped out and replaced wiha new, bigger, better, faster server. We expect the site to go self aware within seconds, so ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN.
But don’t worry. We’ll be back. Continue reading Site Upgrade Imminent
Alaska Freezes Out Wells Fargo Bank
Eugenie Scott: “Crusader against Creationism”
Michele Bachmann vs. the 99%
Oh, and if your blood isn’t boiling and you want it to, here’s a little Ann Coulter for you: Continue reading Michele Bachmann vs. the 99%
November 10, 1975 . A day that will live in infamy.
Church State Separation Wins Tennessee Battle
Americans United for Separation of Church and State earlier challenged the Johnson County, Tennessee Commission’s decision to allow the display of the Ten Commandments and other Christian rhetoric including literature in the county courthouse lobby, while at the same time refusing to allow Ralph Stewart’s posters about separation of church and state through US history.
The case has been settled. The County has agreed to put up Ralph’s posters and the County will make other changes in it’s rules.
Here’s the full press release:
Continue reading Church State Separation Wins Tennessee Battle
Evolution and Politics: November 13th
Skeptically Speaking:
This week, we’re looking at what happens when a bedrock scientific theory goes up for debate in the contentious realm of politics. We’ll speak to Dr. Eugenie Scott, Executive Director, and Steven Newton, Programs and Policy Director, at the National Center for Science Education, about evolution as a political issue. And on the podcast, anthropologist and blogger Greg Laden analyzes the fallout from the so-called “climategate” emails.
We record live with Eugenie Scott and Steven Newton on Sunday, November 13 at 6 pm MT. The podcast will be available to download at 9 pm MT on Friday, November 18.
Keystone Pipeline Dead
President Barack Obama said on Thursday he supported the State Department’s decision to study alternative routes for the Keystone XL pipeline, which will delay a decision on the project for more than a year.
The delay means a final decision to approve or reject the controversial Canada-to-Texas pipeline would not occur until after next year’s presidential election, taking political heat off of Obama, who is running for re-election.
Occupy Michele Bachmann
About 30 Occupy Wall Street protesters have interrupted a foreign policy speech by Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann in South Carolina.
Bachmann was delivering the speech Thursday on the deck of the mothballed aircraft carrier USS Yorktown near Charleston when the protesters stood up and began shouting, “Mike check!”
They told her she was more concerned with dividing Americans than helping them. They chanted for about three minutes while the Minnesota congresswoman left the stage.