Monthly Archives: June 2012

Peter Gleick Reinstated

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Peter Gleick has been reinstated in his position as president of the Pacific Institute.

The Pacific Institute is pleased to welcome Dr. Peter Gleick back to his position as president of the Institute. An independent review conducted by outside counsel on behalf of the Institute has supported what Dr. Gleick has stated publicly regarding his interaction with the Heartland Institute. This independent investigation has further confirmed and the Pacific Institute is satisfied that none of its staff knew of or was involved in any way.

Dr. Gleick has apologized publicly for his actions, which are not condoned by the Pacific Institute and run counter to the Institute’s policies and standard of ethics over its 25-year history. The Board of Directors accepts Dr. Gleick’s apology for his lapse in judgment. We look forward to his continuing in the Pacific Institute’s ongoing and vital mission to advance environmental protection, economic development, and social equity.

“I am glad to be back and thank everyone for continuing their important work at the Pacific Institute during my absence,” said Dr. Gleick in a statement. “I am returning with a renewed focus and dedication to the science and research that remain at the core of the Pacific Institute’s mission.”

Philip Tobias 1925-2012

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Philip Tobias passed away this morning, according to a mutual friend. I’ve not heard any details.

Tobias is the most important hominid anatomist to have lived in the 20th and early 21st century, having taken the chair originally established by Raymond Dart at Wits University. He literally defined several of the hominids, being the anatomist to author the official diagnosis of several species. He was also a human rights champion, an excellent poet and decent singer and performer, an excellent teacher, a great friend, a strong and central personality in human evolution and unbelievably demure and humble for a man of such stature.

Philip Tobias

I remember the first time I met him. I was standing in the lobby of the Peabody Musuem, where we were hosting an LSB Leakey Foundation Event. I had just seen off Gordon Getty and his staff who were heading for lunch, ridden down the elevator with Yo-Yo Ma, I’m pretty sure the Presidents of two or three countries were milling around and some other stuff was going on when Mary Leakey and Philip Tobias walked up to me. I instantly dropped all the other names and gave them my full attention.

“We heard you might be able to drive us to the bookstore,” one of them said. “Harvard Square is meant to have some good ones.”

I thought for a moment and it occurred to me that I might not be a normal graduate student because I hadn’t soiled myself yet. Truth is, I wasn’t, having had a normal live before I started the project of Piling it Higher and Deeper.

“I can,” I replied. “My pickup is out in front, but it has a miniature cab. One of you will have to ride bitch.”

They walked to the bookstore.

The last time I met Philip was in his lab at Wits. I’ve told part of that story before, so I won’t bother you with it now.

RIP Philip. Thank you for everything.

Greek Nazi MP Violently Assaults Fellow MP on TV

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Golden Dawn is the Greek Political party that is widely considered to be a modern Nazi party. They took a handful of seats in recent elections. You will remember that I helped to support petitions to close down the Golden Dawn web site, not because I wanted to “violate their first amendment rights” but because their party and their web site advocated violence against “immigrants” and others with whom they disagree. And, because they are Nazis. Personally, I’m not that big on protecting the rights of Nazis. Or, perhaps I should refer to what a friend of mine who is a political activist here in the Twin Cites, and who happens to be Jewish, said to me last night: “Afford them the rights that they would afford you.” Anyway, there were those in Greece who, alarmed at my activism against the Nazis, investigated me, and seeing various links between me, Harvard, the Masons, the Illuminati, and so on, decided that I am the Anti-Christ. (Again, referring to my activist friend, “Well, you do fit the profile…” But I digress….)

Anyway, now we have further evidence of the Nazis being just plain bad. Several hours ago, on morning TV ANT1, Golden Dawn/Nazi MP Ilias Kasidiaris punched out MP Liana Lanelli. Watch: Continue reading Greek Nazi MP Violently Assaults Fellow MP on TV →

Ray Bradbury Has Died

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He was one of the first authors (other than the likes of Dr. Seuss) that I read. NPR says:

The website io9.com, which appears to have broken the news, says the 91-year-old author of “The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked this Way Comes, and many more literary classics” died in Los Angeles, possibly early this morning. “We’ve got confirmation from the family as well as his biographer, Sam Weller,” io9 adds.

Wisconsin. You blew it.

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A while back, about the time protesters were occupying the Wisconsin State House, I mentioned that while I fully supported the recall of Walker, I also thought the voters of Wisconsin had to take a certain amount of responsibility. They did elect the guy, after all. It was their fault, collectively, that he was in office.

People got mad at me and told me I should say things like that. The people of Wisconsin were victims, they didn’t mean to put an evil Democracy-hating crook in the state house. They needed our support, not our admonition.

But guess what. I was right. The majority of voters in Wisconsin are union busting dickheads, and the rest of the voters, the almost majority, are either not sufficiently persuasive, not showing up at the polls, or are not reproducing quickly enough. Officially, Wisconsin is a Stupid State. I’d love to just think that whatever happens to you, Wisconsin, you deserve because you brought it on yourself (I can say that more Passive Aggressively if you like). But unfortunately, what you did was worse than just screwing yourselves. You’ve screwed the entire country. You let yourselves be the first domino to fall in what was left of a delicate system set up to maintain certain rights and certain responsibilities. We got here with a lot of violence, hard work, death and destruction, nearly revolution. Remember? No, of course you don’t. And you have knocked over the first domino. You idiots.

If you are a Wisconsin resident, and you understand that Scott Walker had to be recalled, and you did not show up at the polls, then you are my enemy. You are everybody’s enemy. You are worse than the yahoos who wanted him to stay and showed up and voted, because at least they participated in the process.

If you make less than a quarter of a million dollars a year, and you voted to keep Walker in, you are an idiot. If you don’t have a job and you want one, of if you have a job in anything where Unions matter even if you are not in a union, and you voted for Walker, you are an idiot. I could go on. I think you get the point.

And the Packers suck even when they win.

Good night. Don’t bother calling me and emailing tomorrow for money and pizza. Dig yourself out this time. I’m busy over here in Minnesota trying to keep our yahoos down. Maybe we’ll send them there, you like them.

Jeesh.

Same Sex Marriage: Atmosphere changing

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While we wait for what I’m pretty sure is going to be bad news from Wisconsin, where Democracy is about to get kicked out by a pack of hoodlums, there’s this:

California’s Prop 8 Same-Sex Marriage Ban Looks Headed To Supreme Court

A federal appeals court in San Francisco says it will not reconsider an earlier ruling that California’s Prop 8 ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.

…

Today’s decision is posted here. It does not mean that same-sex marriages are suddenly legal again in California. KQED writes that the court said its decision “is stayed for 90 days pending the filing of a petition for writ of certiorari in the Supreme Court.”

That is probably good news.

And, in Minnesota: Continue reading Same Sex Marriage: Atmosphere changing →

DJ Grothe vs. Tony Stark

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I think the DJ Grothe thing has run its course. DJ issued a lengthy apology to Rebecca Watson on Skepchick. The apology has some good things in it, DJ has said some of the proper, need-to-be-said things. But as has been pointed out by both Rebecca and Stephanie (see also this) with added commentary by Jason, DJ’s comment…what it said, how it was said, what wasn’t said, to whom it was said, and to whom it was not said, among other things…underscored rather than diffused the problem. Now, he should be prepared to take the next needed steps.

Dr Phil tells us that there comes a time in many relationships for one person to be a hero. It is now time for DJ Grothe to be the hero. Pursuant to this, I give you … DJ Grothe, Joining The Avengers for a Trial Period: Continue reading DJ Grothe vs. Tony Stark →

Should you convert your dead cat into a helicopter?

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Orville the cat was named after Orville Wright, and when he died, Bart Jansen, the cant’s “owner” taxidermied him and, in collaboration with Radio Controlled Flying Objects expert Arjen Beltman, they converted Orville the cat into a working helicopter.

From the daily mail:

Jansen said the Orvillecopter is ‘half cat, half machine’, and part of a visual art project to pay tribute to his cat Orville.

Jansen, part of the art cooperative Generaal Pardon, said: ‘After a period of mourning he received his propellers posthumously.’

Click through to see more photos, and here’s the video:

Are these people true cat lovers, or are they monsters? Modern technology does certainly bring up novel ethical concerns for cats …

Firefox menu, FreeDOS, bash, Mint, question

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The big new of the day in the OpenSource world is that FreeDOS’s web site, revised and updated, is out of Beta and fully up and running, here. If you click through you’ll find an update on a number of recent changes and updates to the operating system.

Just in case you need to know how to figure out what day of the week it is using only bash scripting (including some awk) click here.

Apparently Windows users have something Linux users don’t. But there’s a fix, so it no longer matters:

It is done. Almost. As predicted here on this blog but denied by many, it is probably true that with Windows 8, new hardware will be required by Microsoft to refuse to run Linux unless you mess with it a lot. This will make the act of simply installing Linux on that hardware hard enough that a lot of potential newbies will not bother. Also, it may make dual booting difficult (I’m just guessing at that).

Mint 13 is out.

Anybody know how to make a G5 boot to an install CD? A way that works?

The Sun is Exploding!

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Well, it is always exploding. But I just heard that “A big coronal hole is turning directly towards the Earth. Solar wind flowing from the opening should reach our planet on June 5-7, possibly sparking geomagnetic storms” and maybe the aurora will be visible over a larger area.

I heard that from the iPad app “3D Sun.” This is an app that informs me whenever the sun is up to anything interesting, and also provides images of current and older solar events, a handy glossary of terms, and an excellent 3D sun “globe” (as it were) which can be used to find landmarks and stuff:

Pinch-able moveable 3D sun graphic from the iPad 3d Sun app.

With 3D Sun, which can be set to supply push notifications, I’ll always know when to don the tin foil hat.

Data used in the 3D sun view come from NASA’s STEREO mission and the app is said to have been developed in cooperation with NASA scientists. It is free, but I’d pay $0.99 for it for sure. This app could be great for physics classes. Installed it uses a mere 12.5 megabytes.