Imagine that in order to get a vasectomy, you must agree to have a needle inserted into your testes to extract sperm, which is then photographed and shown to you. You may either view the photo or hear it described to you in detail.
While it may or may not be true that there are people out there who would pay dearly for this experience, Rebecca Watson is making a different point. Click here and bask in her rage.
… in two parts: Among the Nonbelievers and Among the Nonbelievers: Part II.
Freethoughtblog.com readers will note that Ophelia Benson (Butterflies and Wheels), PZ Myers (Pharyngula) and I (The X Blog) were on panels what are discussed in the second of those two write-ups.
It was fun getting to know Ron and he and Razib and I pal’ed around a bit at the conference, presumably trying to get a bead on each other’s talks before moving in for the kill on the panel we shared wit Pat Schroeder. Don’t read the summaries unless you have a cast iron stomach, because it was pretty gruesome, as you may well expect!
(or maybe not)
Quite possibly Pete Sinclair’s best and most important videos yet.
Click here to get more background from Peter Sinclair’s site.
The post refers to this book: The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines
Tonight, in Minneapolis; bring your ideas and some money and we’ll make things happen! I’ve already put my One Good Shirt in the laundry and hope to have it dry in time. See you there?
Key women leaders celebrate Sharon Sund on International Women’s Day
To celebrate International Women’s Day, a large group of prominent women leaders in government, business and the community are co-hosting a fundraising event for Sharon Sund, candidate for congress in Minnesota’s Third District.
“I am honored that so many respected, talented, courageous women are standing up for me on a day when we need to stand up for all women,” said Sund. “International Women’s Day is a time for us to celebrate the achievements women have made–and are making–worldwide.”
The celebration taking place today in conjunction with International Women’s Day is being held at the home of former State Representative Betty Folliard. It is co-hosted by a large group of prominent and influential women who are supporting Sund. They include: State Senators Chris Eaton and Ann Rest, along with State Representatives Denise Dittrich, Rena Moran, Sandra Peterson and Linda Slocum.
Other prominent women activists co-hosting the event include: former State Representative Luanne Koskinen and long-time community activists: Dottie Gilkeson, Laurie Pryor, Rosemary Rocco, Ruth Usem and Deborah Watts.
Edina City Council Member Joni Bennett, one of the co-hosts of the event, talked about the need for women to be engaged in the political process. “It’s important for women to be involved at all levels of government,” said Bennett. “At a time when much of our discussion is about finding solutions to environmental problems, Sharon Sund’s training and work in science make her a strong candidate for congress.”
Tonight, in Minneapolis; bring your ideas and some money and we’ll make things happen! I’ve already put my One Good Shirt in the laundry and hope to have it dry in time. See you there?
Key women leaders celebrate Sharon Sund on International Women’s Day
To celebrate International Women’s Day, a large group of prominent women leaders in government, business and the community are co-hosting a fundraising event for Sharon Sund, candidate for congress in Minnesota’s Third District.
“I am honored that so many respected, talented, courageous women are standing up for me on a day when we need to stand up for all women,” said Sund. “International Women’s Day is a time for us to celebrate the achievements women have made–and are making–worldwide.”
The celebration taking place today in conjunction with International Women’s Day is being held at the home of former State Representative Betty Folliard. It is co-hosted by a large group of prominent and influential women who are supporting Sund. They include: State Senators Chris Eaton and Ann Rest, along with State Representatives Denise Dittrich, Rena Moran, Sandra Peterson and Linda Slocum.
Other prominent women activists co-hosting the event include: former State Representative Luanne Koskinen and long-time community activists: Dottie Gilkeson, Laurie Pryor, Rosemary Rocco, Ruth Usem and Deborah Watts.
Edina City Council Member Joni Bennett, one of the co-hosts of the event, talked about the need for women to be engaged in the political process. “It’s important for women to be involved at all levels of government,” said Bennett. “At a time when much of our discussion is about finding solutions to environmental problems, Sharon Sund’s training and work in science make her a strong candidate for congress.”
Via The Huffington Post: ” The Republican Party in a small, conservative South Carolina county expects its candidates to lower taxes. They also expect them to not watch porn, be faithful to their spouses and not have sex outside of marriage. The Laurens County Republican Party originally decided that anyone who wanted to run for office with the GOP’s blessing would have to sign a pledge and be approved by party leaders…”.* Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur discuss on The Young Turks.
Have you see KONY 2012? You’ll need a spare half hour. When you have it, click here.
Dr. Lawrence Krauss is a leader in the fields of theoretical physics, science advocacy in public policy and education, and scientific skepticism. We are honored to have Dr. Krauss join Atheists Talk this Sunday to discuss his recently published book, A Universe From Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing.
A Universe From Nothing tackles ideas of thrilling complexity and importance. After all, in this book we are not merely gathering facts and formulae about the physics of our universe. We are also exploring those questions that keep us mortal dreamers awake at night: Where did we come from? Did God start it all? Where are we going to end up?
Lawrence Krauss tells a story that weaves together the history of the fields of cosmology and astrophysics with the newest discoveries of the day, and by the end of the book we come to understand that never has nothing been so fascinating.
Skeptically Speaking‘s #153 Mathtastic! Part One and #154 Mathtastic! Part Two are podcasts that you can download and stuff.
Skeptically Speaking #155
This week, we’re looking into what happens in our brains when we’re experiencing some of the most powerful feelings we feel. We’ll spend the hour with science writer Kayt Sukel, to talk about her book Dirty Minds: How Our Brains Influence Love, Sex, and Relationships. From pheromones to fMRI, it’s an entertaining and informative look at the neuroscience of affection.
We record live with Kayt Sukel on Sunday, March 11 at 6 pm MT. The podcast will be available to download at 9 pm MT on Friday, March 16.
KONY 2012 is a film and campaign by Invisible Children that aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice.
PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft orbiting the moon officially have begun their science collection phase. During the next 84 days, scientists will obtain a high-resolution map of the lunar gravitational field to learn about the moon’s internal structure and composition in unprecedented detail. The data also will provide a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed and evolved.
“The initiation of science data collection is a time when the team lets out a collective sigh of relief because we are finally doing what we came to do,” said Maria Zuber, principal investigator for the GRAIL mission at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, “but it is also a time where we have to put the coffee pot on, roll up our sleeves and get to work.”
The GRAIL mission’s twin, washing-machine-sized spacecraft, named Ebb and Flow, entered lunar orbit on New Year’s Eve and New Years Day. GRAIL’s science phase began yesterday at 5:15 p.m. PST (8:15 p.m. EST). …
This is going to be cool. Read the rest here.
In particular, what do you want to ask them pertaining to science? For instance, the following questions have recently been proposed:
These and many other questions have been proposed here, at ScienceDebate.org. You can go to that site and vote on the questoins or propose your own.
The Top Science Questions Facing America: 2012 Edition
What do YOU think are the top science questions the candidates for president should answer? We’ve posted the original 14 from 2008, preceded by their question numbers, and users have added others. Vote for those you feel are most important, add comments, or add your own! Check back often to vote on the new questions.
A suggestion: look at the questions we asked the candidates in 2008 and craft your question in a similar way. We’re not interested in quizzing candidates on the 4th digit of pi or the particulars of cell mitosis. We want to know their positions on the big science and engineering policy questions that affect all our lives. The questions we will consider most successful will probe the candidates on the important issues of our day around science.
Some rules: Post questions, not statements. Categorize your question. Don’t be redundant with existing questions. Don’t spam the forum or use it to grind political axes. Be respectful. Use comments to discuss questions, not to answer them.
If you are a blogger, please put a pointer to this on your blog!
A small non-profit concerned with climate change is seking a “Climate Wiki Intern” which sounds very interesting. Knowing that many of my readers would be very good at this, It thought it was worth a blog post to point you in this direction:
Continue reading Open Position: Climate Wiki Intern
