Five years ago, on August 29th, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the coast of Louisiana with sustained winds of 125 mph. In what Republicans at the time claimed to be an utterly unrelated event, New Orleans was devastated by a flood around the same time. Apparently, New Orleans remains pretty much still devastated. Well, the poor parts do, other parts have been fixed up, I hear.

Scientists had predicted that a hurricane like Katrina would hit New Orleans and do pretty much what it did. So, we call August 29th “Oh fuck, we should have listened to the scientists” day.

So, happy “Oh Fuck” day.

ultimate showdown
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Wanted; A storage container for data media (cd’s, dvd’s, SD cards, etc.) that is not made of materials that seem to be even more delicate, subject to weathering, and flamable than the data medium itself.

See the whole “WANTED” list here.

With each new drop of information spilled by the media, the case seems clearer that Hauser made up data. As Nicholas Wade reports, this would potentially be “the unforgivable sin.”

Continue reading NYT: Hauser “May Have Fabricated…” →

Check out the Furious Purpose blog, written by a long time denizen of the Internet, yet newish blogger, written by …

…an overworked emergency room doctor, a father and citizen, and I blog infrequently about stuff that interests me.This might include things like Health, Politics, Religion, and whatever tickles my fancy !

I have a particular interest in issues related to public health including health politics, the role of religion in public life, and rationalism/skepticism.

I’ll leave it to you to go find the post that focuses on yours truly, but really, the rest of the blog is quite interesting and there is a lot of promise here. Medical blogs can be among the most interesting.

Have you got a question about nature? Ask a Naturalist . The blog claims:

Just post it at Ask a Naturalist.com, and I’ll do my best to answer as quickly as possible. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll research it and find out if anyone does. And if no one knows why or what or how, I’ll explain why your question is such a difficult one. After all, there are so many questions about nature for which we don’t yet have answers.

And, if you want to know more about the paper that recently raised the furor over Darwin being Rong and stuff, you can read the blog post about it by one of the authors.

I think the work is important and interesting, but I’ve never seen an advanced study of “competition” that does not parse competition out into a number of types, some of which would include niche-related effects. So, I conclude that a) the Darwin was Rong thing was actually part of the original work, inappropriately, b) the work is still interesting and c) we must learn as scientists and science commentators that the press will always grab and run with certain themes no matter what we do. Anyway, go read the blog post and the comments.

Jim Emery’s series is complete, and you should look through it. I find it interesting that he speaks about the “Macaca moment” and all that entails, given the current situation in the Minnesota Governor’s race.

Jim’s posts describe what it was like to be in the communications division of a major congressional campaign:

• Inside the Political Process: Jim Emery and the Madia Campaign
• Inside the Political Process: The Role of Communication
• Inside the Political Process: Framing the Debate
• Inside the Political Process: Epilog

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In addition to a serious neck wound, Ahmed H. Sharif suffered cuts to forearms, face and one hand while trying to fend off Enright, prosecutor James Zeleta said while arguing against bail.

Continue reading Teabagger attempts to kill Muslim in NYC →

In which an actual living person, instead of just the ashes of TV actors, will be launched into space.

Here’s a picture of the rocket and it’s friend, the submarine:

Our mission is very simple. We are working towards launching a human being into space.
This is a non-profit suborbital space endeavor lead by Kristian von Bengtson and Peter Madsen, based entirely on sponsors and volunteers.

Click here to find out more, and if you like, give them money.

Obviously, I have to switch parties:

Katie Couric once described bloggers as journalists who gnaw at new information “like piranhas in a pool.” But increasingly, many bloggers are also secretly feeding on cash from political campaigns, in a form of partisan payola that erases the line between journalism and paid endorsement.

“It’s standard operating procedure” to pay bloggers for favorable coverage, says one Republican campaign operative. A GOP blogger-for-hire estimates that “at least half the bloggers that are out there” on the Republican side “are getting remuneration in some way beyond ad sales.”

Whoa. Sign up here!

Don’t be a random, arbitrary dick. Be meaningful and relevant in your dickosity:

If your dickishness is going to help you communicate the values of skepticism, it has to relate, directly and immediately, to the circumstances that warrant anger.

Read the rest here

And then, if you want to know everything else about this topic, click here. Don’t worry, nothing bad will happen. Just. Click. It. Trust me.

What does skepticism look like from a Native American perspective?

…change is never an easy obstacle to overcome. People fear the unknown and find comfort in daily routines, habits, and ritual tradition. Society itself has become too comfortable with some of the ways we think and perceive issues in America. People tend to not understand what is outside of that “comfort zone” that they have created for themselves simply because they are afraid of a change….

Visit Native Skeptic on Blogspot.

Yet another study on why women shop, from an evolutionary perspective:

In an unconscious attempt to outdo female rivals, ovulating women buy sexier clothing, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

“Not unlike the chimps featured on the Discovery Channel, women become more competitive with other females during the handful of days each month when they are ovulating. The desire for women at peak fertility to unconsciously choose products that enhance appearance is driven by a desire to outdo attractive rival women,” write authors Kristina M. Durante, Vladas Griskevicius (both University of Minnesota), Sarah E. Hill (Texas Christian University), Carin Perilloux (University of Texas at Austin) and Norman Li (Singapore Management University).

Continue reading Why do women shop? →

Terra Sigillata has settled at Central Science. Click here to visit the new blog and find out the details.