In Their Shell
The Duck and Cover propaganda has worked maybe. There’s an entire generation prone to thinking they can protect themselves from massive danger by covering their head with their arms until…
science
CBC Science News: Humans Only a Few Thousand Years Old
Maybe it’s just a typo, but it’s a little depressing to see the state broadcaster’s science reporters — people whose salaries I pay — utter statements like the following: if…
Killer Robots From Earth
I grew up thinking that Killer Robots From Venus was a pretty amusing song. Now that we’re living in 2013, the ‘future’, we have to seriously contemplate the implications of…
Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Jim Stanford points out that any “bitumen bubble” will only get worse if the Cons and their provincial cousins get their way…
ID’s deep roots in creationism
Proponents of creationism often try to deny that “intelligent” design (ID) is merely creationism wrapped in a fake lab coat to make it look like it’s pals with science. It…
Russian Meteorite Injures People – UPDATED
Shocking, exciting news from Russia early this morning as coincidentally on the same day a major 50m asteroid is set to fly by Earth, a meteorite has struck Russia. Reports…
Maybe some people are just dense…
Story in today’s Science Daily: Why Some People Don’t Learn Well: EEG Shows Insufficient Processing of Information to Be Learned. While you might initially want to say “because they’re stupid,”…
Holy Sit
Kids were getting chemical burns from a toilet seat (and probably desk, for a boy with burned elbows) at an Ottawa area school. Most likely the disinfectant was sprayed on…
Or maybe doomsday just postponed…
A story in Science Daily today talks about the effect that antibiotics used in animals has had on humans. Or rather, on antibiotic-resistant bacteria which are dangerous to humans. The…
Doomsday averted (again)
Seventeen thousand miles. Seems like a long way, but it’s less than one tenth the distance from here to the moon, and it’s within the satellite belt. In cosmic terms,…
Something In The Water
BCL on the chutzpah of Jonathan Kay, junk science enabler debunker: here’s a real lack of self-awareness here. Jonathon , after all, is comment pages editor at the National Post,…
The chemtrail conspiracy nonsense
Scientists need not apply for membership in the Chemtrail Conspiracy. In fact, scientists will probably be booted out for even walking on the same street where the meeting is being…
vaccines and the selling of fear.
I read an article today about a family in New Zealand where a young boy came down with tetanus. His father is speaking out about their decision not to vaccinate,…
A blog post that fits the icy weather
News from Greenland from the past day: “Ice core drill gives insight into climate future.” An international study into the Greenland ice core is helping scientists predict what a future…
What’s this nonsense about mushrooms?
In the middle of a video parody on YouTube that skewers council on our new rec facilities, there’s a comment about “the mushroom farm debacle.” It then goes on, rather…
It’s snowing, snowing, snowing…
I was looking outside today as the snow fell in Collingwood (-11C when we awoke, -10C when I first walked my dog…) and thinking of my brother-in-law in England, where…
Musings on Game Design
An odd bit of synchronicity. I picked up a few unusual board games* at the discount/remainder store downtown (in the former Shoppers’ Drug Mart building) a couple of weeks back,…
Climate Change Explained
By Bob McDonald, Quirks & Quarks The end of the Kyoto Protocol, and our inability to do something about rising carbon emissions, is like arguing over rising water in the…