“…. The car stopped on a dime. Unfortunately, the dime was in Mr. Rococco’s Pocket….” and other great moments.

If you don’t know Firesign Theater, then a) your soul is empty and b) you won’t know who Peter Bergman is/was.

Here’s a post by a friend of his.

And now, go get and ingest some hallucinatory substances and listen, in no particular order, to the following: How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You’re and This Side and Don’t Crush That Dwarf Hand Me the Pliers and Everything You Know Is Wrong and Waiting for the Electrician Or Someone Like Him and Firesign Theatre’s Box of Danger and misplaced oxford comma I Think We’re All Bozos On This Bus.

That is all. If you were a faster reader, you’d be done with this blog post by now.

Hat Tip, Claudia Sawyer.

Yes, folks, it’s YouTube Weekend! (Our daycare is closed and it’s convention/caucus season in Minnesota and I’ve got a candidate!)

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)

Have you see KONY 2012? You’ll need a spare half hour. When you have it, click here.

This podcast is out: “A Universe From Nothing” Lawrence Krauss on Atheists Talk #157, Sunday, March 4th, 2012

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.

click here

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.

Details

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:

• What organization(s) or individual(s) is/are your primary source(s) for scientific information?
• With the overwhelming body of evidence for both evolution and climate change, why do you still not believe that both are true?
• Why do you oppose drug decriminalization when science and practical experience in Portugal support it?
• How can we use research, science and technology to help reduce the costs and improve the quality of health care?

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!

Climate scientist Michael Mann’s private e-mails and research notes will remain private, thanks to a ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court. “Virginia’s highest court has ruled that Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli cannot compel the University of Virginia to turn over records dealing with the work of a former university climate scientist,” reports the Roanoke Times (March 2, 2012). The Guardian (March 2, 2012) explains, “The court rejected Ken Cuccinelli’s demand for Mann’s email, research notes, and even handwritten memos from his time at the University of Virginia, ruling that the official did not have the legal authority to demand such records.”

That’s from the NCSE. Full report here.