Other – Greg Laden's Blog

Benjamin Zander: Classical music with shining eyes

Greg Laden — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 22:29:21 +0000

Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it — and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections.

Darwin’s Bulldog

Greg Laden — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 12:16:10 +0000

On this day in 1895, T. H. Huxley died at the age of 70. Huxley was known as “Darwin’s Bulldog” because of his defense of Darwin’s important work in evolution. He debated Samuel Wilberforce in 1860, and people have been debating creationists since.Huxley invented the term “agnostic” and described himself as one.

Nellie McKay:”Clonie”

Greg Laden — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:28:38 +0000

Singer-songwriter Nellie McKay performs the semi-serious song “Clonie” — about creating the ultimate companion.

Growing Up, and The Process of Discovery

Greg Laden — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:55:21 +0000

This is not a time to be profound. This is a time to rehydrate and make some more coffee. And search around for stuff that fell out of pockets.I normally do not blog very many day to day details of my private life, especially regarding other people, because it is obnoxious to know someone who could at any point arbitrarily write in a very public way about anything that happens to occur at dinner, anything a person may say, and so on. But I have a small story about last night when I went out (and I never go out, so that in itself is kind of an event).The plan was simple: I would stop by TUIBG‘s house and pick him up and we would car pool down into South Minneapolis (my old neighborhood) to visit Almost Diamonds. While there, we would be joined by commenter Elle. (I’m speaking in blog-o-names here only, to protect the innocent.) For margaritas. Kick-ass sixty proof margaritas.Since Mr. Almost Diamonds had recently killed a medium size mammal, there would also be meat. Very nice venison fajitas, actually.I had never been to either location before, so I wrote down the street address numbers. I didn’t need to write down Almost Diamond’s street name because I once live on that street, and having looked at Goolge Maps I had TUIBG’s street location imprinted on my brain, so I didn’t need that name either. Just the numbers.I wrote them on my Moo business card.My Moo business card is my Scienceblogs.com business card. Every S^bling gets one box of Moo business cards paid for by the overlords. After that we are on our own.Moo cards are different from other cards. They are cool and edgy and different. They are thick, plasticky, and not as wide as regular business cards. There are other things about the company that are different as well, but I can’t remember what they are.Anyway, I got to the vicinity of Mike’s place, and there was no way I was going to find his crib without the number. So I pulled out the business card and all the stuff I had written down was smeared off. The ink had never dried! Owing to the edgy plasticky nature of the product.This is why evolution works the way it does, and this is why institutions such as corporations and universities work the way they do. Innovation/mutation is usually a step backwards. All change is bad. Hammer down the nail that sticks out or it will snag your socks. Calling cards and business cards have always been roughly the same size and printed on roughly the same kind of stock, since the 19th century. Moo ruined business cards.Fortunately, I had an Internet device with me. I turned it on and scanned the neighborhood for wireless networks. There were about a dozen. It reminded me of that scene in the movie with Burt Reynolds and Sally Fields where they are in Macy’s and someone says “I need a Valium” and two dozen people reach in their pockets or purses and pull out a pill vial. Only with wireless signals.I scanned the list for names such as “belkin” and “linksys” and found two networks that were properly installed but not secure, one of which was a very strong signal. So I borrowed a little bandwith mojo to check my email and re-learn the street address I needed.This morning, by chance, on the Scienceblogs.com back channel (in the “bloggable” thread … which is not confidential) I found out about this interesting story regarding Moo (the business card people). It turns out that the most common request that Moo gets (which they cannot fulfill) is for regular normal business cards. The different, edgy ‘notice me I’m cool’ cards that they are famous for are fine, but more people want the normal cards. So now they are going to start producing them, apparently.To me, the most important thing is that you can write on the card when you need to.So, another item that crossed my desk this morning was an email from TUIBG asking if anyone had seen his cell phone. So I went out to the car to look. Unfortunately for me, the car was way down the street because they are paving out front of the house. So I couldn’t just walk out into the driveway and look in the car, I had to put on clothes/shoes/etc. So I go down the street and open the car and get on my hands and knees and look under the seat.There I find the missing cell phone and a can of tuna fish that went missing about a month ago from a grocery store run. Lucky me, because I was just running out of food!Another item that came across my desk was an email from my brother asking me if I had gotten my birthday present in the mail. Whether or not my brother and I exchange birthday presents is semi-random, but this was a birthday with a zero in it, so I’m extra special this year. Anyway, I had seen no package, so as long as I was outside wandering around I checked the mail box, checked the package place, and eventually found on a nearby out of the weather porch thingie a rug with a suspiciously large and square object underneath it. I picked up the rug and there was a package addressed to me!It was a pretty cool present I discovered under that rug. Once I get it working, I’ll tell you all about it …

Mike!

Greg Laden — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:27:26 +0000

(Side note: I love Tangled Up in Blue Guy’s quote rotator. It goes to fast to be able to actually read most of the quotes, but the last three I just saw wizzing by were, in order, by Greg Laden, PZ Myers and Charles Darwin. Brilliant.)

How to get a death certificate BEFORE getting a birth certificate

Greg Laden — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:14:20 +0000

In India, a baby was stillborn, apparently dead of the effects of complications at a seven month delivery. The mother had been suffering convulsions of some kind and was heavily medicated.The next day, as the parents were on the way to the burial ground with the corpses of their baby, it started to gurgle and breath and stuff.The baby …”showed attempts to breathe … Under such circumstances, it would appear that doctors had no reason to assume that the baby was dead,” said Dr Suleiman Merchant, acting dean of Sion Hospital in Mumbai.Apparently the drugs the mother had been given repressed the heartbeat to the level at which it was not detected. The infant is still in critical condition.

So THIS is”emo”… I had no idea …

Greg Laden — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:14:39 +0000

Freaky Picture

Greg Laden — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:19:44 +0000

Look closely at this picture.

Albert Einstein, right?Now, stand up. That’s right, stand up and step away from the computer. Get 10-15 feet back if you can. Look at the picture, then report back here and tell us who you see.Hat tip: Duane

The Sexies Are Out!

Greg Laden — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:00:18 +0000

The winners of the Sex Positive Journalism Award (The Sexies) have been announced!!! And here they are:News or feature (daily newspapers): “Never Too Old for Sex,” by Jill Bauer, Miami HeraldNews story (other general-topic news publications*): “Hysteria, Exploitation, and Witch Hunting in the Age of Internet Sex,” by Debbie Nathan, CounterpunchFeature (other general-topic news publications*): “Naughty Nursing Homes,” by Daniel Engber, SlateNews or feature (sex-themed news publications): “Sex in Iran,” by Pari Esfandiari and Richard Buskin, PlayboyOpinion (all news publications): “Abstinence 1, S-CHIP 0,” by Amanda Robb, New York TimesColumn (all news publications): Between the Briefs, by Alysha Rooks, Res Gestae, University of Michigan Law SchoolFrom the Sexies Site:

More often than not, sex seems to fall outside of the media’s standards for objectivity and fairness: The spectrum of sex-education opinions is assumed to run from abstinence-only to abstinence-primarily. Science-based information on sex, sexuality, and the diversity of human sexual practices is lacking, and sometimes misleading conventional wisdom is reinforced. A man in a court case who participates in BDSM is described as having “unsavory habits” and a professional domme is described as an “admitted” dominatrix. No sources are sought to counter the government officials who proudly describe how they are manipulating local ordinances to shut down a sex toy store or a venue that hosts “swingers” parties. Stories that treat sexuality as something other than a problem or prurient curiosity are few and far between.

Many, many more details here, and the criteria are listed here.Hat Tip: Jake.

Fathers’Day Is… And other matters

Greg Laden — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:38:05 +0000

…. something I never encouraged. But these days it is practiced in my extended family. So what did I get and what does it all mean?Two shirts, a subscription to Linux Journal, and something else that is still a surprise I don’t know yet.Mothers’ day was invented a very long time ago and may even go back to the ancient Greeks. It is usually celebrated around the Ides of March. Father’s day was an afterthought by many, many centuries, invented in the early 20th century, presumably by Hallmark Cards Inc.The fishing started to get good this weekend. Julia and I caught a few bass, but cousin Michael swamped us all with two Giant Northerns. And, we had a very interesting odd fish behavior sighting that I will report soon, but not tonight. More research is needed first. But I’ll tell you this: It has to do with North America’s only cannibalistic lungfish … of sorts. Stay tuned…