… by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Kindle Edition, is now available (presumably temporarily) for $3.99 HERE. And for only @2.99 you can get the less well known The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist.
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For just a day or two, you should be able to get each of these books in Kindle for for two or three books: The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonegut. The Color of Magic: A Novel of Discworld by Terry Prachett A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution … Continue reading Vonegut, Salmon, Genetics, Magic: Cheap Books
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The phrase “It is almost like praying” is from the song Maria, from the musical West Side Story. The phrase refers to the name itself, if I understand the somg correctly, which makes sense from a Catholic point of view because the name Maria and variants of it thoroughly indurate the prayer-text. Maria is also … Continue reading Almost Like Praying: Lin-Manuel Miranda and Maria
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R. Alexander Pyron, a professor of Biology at George Washington University, wrote an OpEd in the Washington Post urging us humans to care much less than we do about species extinction. In the essay he says: …during an expedition … in December 2013, I spotted a small green frog … Atelopus balios… no populations had … Continue reading WaPo Opinion Piece: Extinction is fine, Climate Change is no big deal
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Did you know that there is a reader poll that you can visit to give the thumbs up or down for each prospect on a fairly long mid-list of possible persons of they year? Click here to participate (will open in a new tab or window). I have no idea how much influence, if any, … Continue reading Did a foreign power hack the TIME Person of the Year reader poll?
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What with the lid coming off the entire Patriarchy and #VAM being taken more seriously than ever, let us not forget the perennial Gay Republican Man who hates himself and his gayness, and gets caught. Wesley Goodman is a cookie cutter right wing yahoo, recently elected as the Republican representative of the Ohio 87th House … Continue reading Ohio Republican Surrenders To Teh Gay, Goes Straight To Hell, Everyone Cheers
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Lots of things like that, but here’s two. 1) An electric boat designed and deployed to clean up the environment in China. Runs on mostly coal generated electricity. Carries coal. Details here. 2) Go to MikePenceGOP.com and where do you end up? A Christian LGBTQ support group! Hat Tip @DaveWeasel.
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Before we get to a handful of holiday suggestions, there are two books currently available cheap in Kindle format: The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America Since the time of Columbus, Indian slavery was illegal in much of the American continent. Yet, as Andrés Reséndez illuminates in his myth-shattering The Other … Continue reading Books you haven’t thought of to give someone for the holidays
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I usually ignore Junior’s yammering whines, but in this case there is an interesting and helpful response providing the bigger picture, a thing to learn from. For context, I provide below links to selected posts of my own about Junior. This most recent event involves an Op Ed published by the largely anti-science-even-if-it-is-bad-for-the-economy The Wall … Continue reading Roger Pielke Junior Is Telling People To Shut Up Again
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A question for you, dear reader. In fact, a poll: Was the Warren Report essentially correct and accurate, or not? Followup question: If not, what do you think happened differently than they said.
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This one, from WKRP: This one, from the Addams Family Movie:
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What is Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is a feast. But what is a feast? Anthropology is all about examining ourselves through the lens of other cultures. Or, at least, that’s what we used to do back in the good old days. Let’s have a look at this great American holiday from this perspective and see what we … Continue reading A Thanksgiving Day Story: Fear, Loathing, Feasting, Family
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First, consider cooking something other than a turkey Cooking turkey is actually kind of a dumb idea. Most people don’t ever cook turkey. Turkey is like chicken … it’s a domestic bird that is familiar to all Americans … but it is very difficult to cook in a way that does not ruin it. So … Continue reading Cooking Laid Back Turkey
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I’ve got two pumpkin pie recipes for you. One is the way I usually make it, and it is the best pumpkin pie. The other way also turns out to be excellent, but it is designed for kids who don’t like pumpkin pie even though we think they should. I think kids are sometimes repelled … Continue reading Two great ways to make a pumpkin pie
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The true meaning of Thanksgiving is gravy. If you want to make some great gravy, you might consider making some great stock first. See this for info on that. Or just buy the stock, that’s fine too. This is hoow to make excellent gravy with no stress and guaranteed success. Without lumps. I don’t do … Continue reading How to make gravy
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I admit that the last several times I’ve needed stock, and that is about once a week for me as of late, I just bought it in the store. For making Amanda’s soup, which she brings to school, I combine one large container of vegetable stock, one large container of some sort of meat stock, … Continue reading How to make stock
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These are items currently, and possibly for only a short time, in Kindle format for two bucks. This is a mixture of books that I either thought you would already know about and want, or maybe didn’t know about but should. An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power: Your Action Handbook to Learn the Science, Find … Continue reading Some Book Deals Including Al Gore’s Truth
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… is anybody’s guess, but I have two supportable (and very different) hypotheses. The first is short and sweet and I’ll give it to you straight. Tweeden and Senator Franken get together, possibly with their families, and have a pow wow. They emerge from this to announce a newly formed organization to destroy the patriarchy … Continue reading How The Franken Thing Is Going To Play Out
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The Al Franken problem is developing in ways too important and interesting to not explore further. So here is a handful of semi-connected but mainly distinct thoughts on the matter. Let me say at the outset, I’m biased. I like Franken, I think he is one of the best US Senators we’ve ever had in … Continue reading Leeann Tweeden, Al Franken, The Patriarchy, Change
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The Despot’s Apprentice: Donald Trump’s Attack on Democracy by Brian Klass. It is the current Amazon best seller in the category … wait for it … “facism.” Here’s the details: An ex-US campaign advisor who has sat with the world’s dictators explains Donald Trump’s increasingly authoritarian tactics and the threat they pose to American democracy. … Continue reading The Despot’s Apprentice: Donald Trump’s Attack on Democracy (Book Note)
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Leeann Tweeden is, according to Wikipedia, a former Hooter hostess and model who has worked for Fox Sports Network, and was hostess of Poker After Dark, a commenter on the Hannity show, and other similar shows, mainly on Fox News. (This is probably why I’ve never heard of her, I don’t watch FOX as a … Continue reading Leeann Tweeden’s Accusation of Al Franken, Franken’s Response
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Here is an email sent by Professor Roger Pielke Jr to Professor Michael Mann: Hi Mike- I hope this finds you well. I see you quoted in the media characterizing my work, and in light of your ongoing lawsuit related to libel, I want to make sure that you have been quoted correctly. *At Salon … Continue reading Scientists And Law Suits
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The last four polls show Moore ahead of Jones by 6% and 10%, even, and Jones ahead of Moore by 4%. All these polls were done over the last week, and there is no temporal trend to speak of. This means, of course, that the race is not fait accompli. While Moore is more ahead … Continue reading Roy Moore will not be elected to the United States Senate by the good people of Alabama. Here’s why.
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Arduino Project Handbook, Volume 2: 25 Simple Electronics Projects for Beginners is a followup of the previously reviewed Arduino Project Handbook (volume 1). Like the previous volume, Volume II is for people first exploring the world of homemade DIY microcontroller fun. The idea is very simple. An Arduino is the same sort of device that … Continue reading Arduino Project Handbook Volume 2
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Catalysts, Explorers & Secret Keepers: Women of Science Fiction, is a publication of the Museum of Science Fiction, and it was released in Kindle form moments ago. From the museum: The Museum of Science Fiction released today the Kindle eBook edition of its anthology celebrating the women of science fiction. Catalysts, Explorers & Secret Keepers: … Continue reading Catalysts, Explorers & Secret Keepers: Women of Science Fiction
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Ancient European humans and their near relatives such as late Homo erectus, “archaic” Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, and Denisovans all come from an African stock. While some of the variation we see in these late members of the genus Homo certainly arose in Eurasia, these groups all represent either African populations or stems coming off an … Continue reading The Untermassfeld Controversy
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Owls Aren’t Wise & Bats Aren’t Blind: A Naturalist Debunks Our Favorite Fallacies About Wildlife by Warner Shedd, with illustratins by Trudy Nicholson, is a pretty good book on fallacies in nature, things people believe that are not true. I.e., that owls are wise or that bats are blind. Did you know that porcupines throw … Continue reading
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The Assault on Reason: Our Information Ecosystem, from the Age of Print to the Age of Trump, 2017 Edition by Al Gore is a book you may want to read, and if that is the case, be aware that it is currently available for $1.99 in Kindle format. Now With a New Preface and Final … Continue reading Al Gore: Trump’s Assault on Reason
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A funny thing happens when you add a little cornstarch to a liquid and heat it up. A funny thing happens when you add a little cornstarch to a liquid and heat it up. https://t.co/BDOCAMbG2z pic.twitter.com/33fPhJ2USy — Science Friday (@scifri) November 8, 2017
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Loyola University’s James Garbarino, author of Listening to Killers: Lessons Learned from My Twenty Years as a Psychological Expert Witness in Murder Cases, addressed the questions (two years ago), why do males do most of the mass killings: Some of it appears to lie in their (“our”) biological vulnerability. … about 30% of males (versus […]
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Part I: Liquids, edibles, slimy things. (The next part will tend towards the electronic and robotish.) Focusing on elementary school, mainly around 2nd or 3rd grade, this is what I see on the market this year. A lot more water, day to day pragmatic science, and specialized kits that generally produce stuff you eat, throw […]
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Perovskite is a special kind of mineral, calcium titanium oxide composed of calcium titanate (CaTiO3), discovered first in the Urals and named after Lev Perovski (though it was discovered by Gustav Rose). This mineral is now known from several locations including Hot Spring County, Arkansas (see image to the right). The image at the top […]
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It is very hard for Democrats to feel comfortable with the idea of a sweep, an election that changes everything, handing us power once again, at least for a while, and wiping out the other guys. This is hard to feel comfortable with for two reasons. First, it nearly never happens, so any thought it […]
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Yet another Republican in the US Congress is leaving. Bob Goodlatte, of the Virginia 6th, and chair of the House Agriculture COmmittee, will retire in December 2018. His seat will be up for grabs. Here is what he says about it, as reported in WaPo: “After much contemplation and prayer,” the 13-term congressman said in […]
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This is just out: Playing with Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics by Lawrence O’Donnell, lately of MSNBC. The 1968 U.S. Presidential election was the young Lawrence O’Donnell’s political awakening, and in the decades since it has remained one of his abiding fascinations. For years he has deployed one of America’s […]
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Expect Republicans to say, “Yeah, by the didn’t win by much, so it doesn’t really count.” When they say that, show them this:
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Yes, of course, you need a person (usually) to pull the trigger. But it is abundance of and ease of access to guns that causes the United States to be off the charts in woundings and killings from firearms. This is what the research has shown for a very long time and continues to show. […]
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It is now being reported that Syria will sign the Paris Climate Pact. This will leave the United States as the only country in the entire world that has not signed the accord. This may be the first time that the US was quite so alone in an international agreement. The reason the US has […]
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An Echo is a small round robot that lives in your house, and that you can give commands to, converse with, get to run your devices, and learn from. (See this review of the Echo and related devices.) An Echo “skill” is an app, essentially, which you can turn on and have available at any […]
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I had earlier noted that I will no longer be blogging at scienceblogs.com, but rather, here, at Greg Laden’s Blog. What happened? Where did Scienceblogs.com go? I discuss this issue with Mike at Ikonokast Podcast, here. In the same podcast, we also discuss other matters of science and nature, and take a close look at […]
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Yahoo! Ride ’em cowboy! Shoot ’em up and get ‘er done! That’s what I say. Tell those namby pamyb libtards to stuff their gun control where the sun don’ shine. You betcha, Texas, give this man all the guns he wants! “The gunman who turned a Texas church into a shooting gallery had a turbulent […]
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Is a particular act an act of terrorism? Is a particular person a terrorist? People want the label applied to acts and people that are readily and resoundingly vilified. It hardly matters if the person is an actual official terrorist. If they killed someone and you are really really mad at them you want them […]
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From now on, I’m bringing Al Franken with me wherever I go so I don’t have to talk to anybody any more.
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on Thursday, November 3rd, 2017, deactivated Donald Trump’s Twitter account. It was an employee of Twitter on his last day of work. He did what Twitter should have done, by its own rules, months ago. Trump’s latest violation of Twitter policy was probably his calling for the death of an American Citizen who had just […]
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In Strength in What Remains, Tracy Kidder gives us the story of one man’s inspiring American journey and of the ordinary people who helped him, providing brilliant testament to the power of second chances. Deo arrives in the United States from Burundi in search of a new life. Having survived a civil war and genocide, […]
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