I am strongly recommending Amazing Arachnids by Jillian Cowles. This book is in line to win the Greg Laden’s Blog Science Book of the Year. It looks like a high quality, almost coffee table like, book on the arachnids, things like mites and spiders and such. But that is only what it appears to be … Continue reading Amazing Book On Amazing Arachnids
I call it the Minnesota scowl. It is a little like a Minnesota “stern look” but the latter is wielded as necessary and on demand. The scowl is always there, as a gumpy resting face. You’ve heard of Minnesota nice. This is the Minnesota scowl. Same thing, just more honest. As far as I know … Continue reading Minnesota Northern Scowl
In 1919, the farmers of North Dakota got fed up with predatory lenders, and successfully lobbied for a credit union style state-run bank for them to use instead. Private sector financial institutions elsewhere in the country would have none of this, and destroyed this initial effort by freezing the North Dakota bank out of access … Continue reading Minnesota Could Get A “State Bank” if Rebecca Otto Becomes Governor
Natasha Ravinand is the founder of “She Dreams in Code,” a nonprofit focused on increasing opportunities for middle school girls to engage in coding. She is also the author of Girls With Dreams: Inspiring Girls to Code and Create in the New Generation. In this book, Ntasha interviews several women in engineering and technology in … Continue reading Girls With Dreams and Women With Cards
When you see an election result like “98%” for a sitting president who is actually a dictator do not assume that this dictator would have lost the election had the election been fair. I lived in Zaire. Mobotu Sese Seku Kuku Kibombe, the arch-typical syphilitic dictator, the model for all the other African dictators found … Continue reading How Trump Gets To Be Dictator
A PROCLAMATION Every day, women, men, and children across America suffer the pain and trauma of sexual assault. From verbal harassment and intimidation to molestation and rape, this crime occurs far too frequently, goes unreported far too often, and leaves long-lasting physical and emotional scars. During National Sexual Assault Awareness Month, we recommit ourselves not … Continue reading Presidential Proclamation: National Sexual Assault Awareness Month
Regarding the real storm hitting California right now, 30,000 are being urged to evacuate. There is more informaiton about that storm down at the bottom of the post. Meanwhile, on the hypothetical worst case scenario for flooding in California… If an ARkStorm were to come to the US West Coast, this is what the flooding … Continue reading California Flood Worst Case Scenario (hypothetical yet real) UPDATED
Donald Trump will advance the regulation and control of deadly weapons but not in the way you might think. He is currently contemplating, which is a big word to use for Trump so maybe I mean having some verbal diarrhea that vaguely resembles an idea, banning assault style weapons and bump stocks. Of course, he … Continue reading Trump and Gun Control. LOL Republicans.
First, a little clarification on the “Light Brigade.” This term originally referred to a British military unit of light (as in not heavy) cavalry that engaged with the Russians (the enemy in this story) during the Crimean War, in October, 1854. The brigade, made up of Light Dragoons, Lancers, and Hussars, was tasked to take … Continue reading The Charge of the Light Brigade: A Cautionary Tale
This is especially for writers of big things. If you write small things, like blog posts or short articles, your best tool is probably a text editor you like and a way to handle markdown language. Chances are you use a word processor like MS Word or LibreOffice, and that is both overkill and problematic … Continue reading Writing Software for Writers
A new study based in Pennsylvania measured health indicators of children born far, near, and very near, fracking sites. The study showed an effect that reached out to about 3 kilometers, but that was much stronger within about 1 kilometer, from fracking sites. The effects included lower birth weight and similar differences that are associated … Continue reading About 30 Thousand U.S. Newborns At Risk From Fracking per Year?
If you lie to a US Federal agent, they can bust you, and my understanding is that judges like to sentence those convicted of this by juries to jail for long periods of time. But, if you are charged with this crime and plea guilty, so there is no jury trial, then there is room … Continue reading Flynn Lied to the FBI; Here is the charging document