Chris PZ is right. And it’s not just Michelle Malkin, right wing thugs regularly beat up on teachers as over paid parasites using children as pawns. Demonizing teachers has become epidemic in the failing conservative movement, it’s time they were called to account.
Update: President will address nation any minute, and looks like media posted wrong Facebook pic of shooter, now other outlets are following suit and posting the same wrong pic. Live Updates
The shooter in the Connecticut elementary school massacre that left 27 dead this morning has been identified. Meanwhile, Gov Rick Snyder is about to sign a wingnut bill allowing more guns into schools. First the latest perp’s name: [Read more…]
If you ever dealt with creationists sooner or later one will cough up Last Wednesdayism to explain the “apparent” age of the universe. Pushed to an extreme there’s no reason why the entire universe couldn’t have been created by divine magic last Wednesday, right down to your loose filling and the half eaten gallon of ice cream in the fridge. The problem is a perfect simulation isn’t testable — by definition it perfectly resembles a real universe — but an imperfect one might be. [Read more…]
(Click image for more info )PASADENA, Calif. – Scientists with NASA’s Cassini mission have spotted what appears to be a miniature, extraterrestrial likeness of Earth’s Nile River: a river valley on Saturn’s moon Titan that stretches more than 200 miles (400 kilometers) from its “headwaters” to a large sea. It is the first time images have revealed a river system this vast and in such high resolution anywhere other than Earth.
Update: Twitter hashtags #Shooting; #Clackamas; #ClackamasShooting; @ClackCoSheriff; Timeline/discussion; there are people likely still in mall safe rooms awaiting police escort, hundreds or thousands streaming to mall worried about loved ones, eyewitness accounts have been riveting. Police now report at least one critical injury, two fatalities/victims, plus one dead shooter. Eyewitness accounts and reports of heroism lighting up social media. [Read more…]
As you can probably see, we’ve had an overnight make over at FTB. If you notice any problems, if you can’t sign in or the UI is out of frame, ads overlapping or covering up content, etc, let us know. Please include your operating system and broswer info, thanks!
The annual bleg
Check out this sweet little HANNSpad 7″ tablet, powered by Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich complete with wifi. The best part, I got two of ’em basically for the price of one! Which would never have happened if not for generous response to my annual bleg. All I need to know now is how in the hell to configure it …
This is the last day I’ll ask for handouts, at least until next year and hopefully forever. If you already gave a few bucks or are considering it, thank you, those contributions really touched me at a time when I was feeling sorry for myself and really needed it. And now? .:Happy Dance:.
Thanks again, have great Christmas and happy New Year!
The annual bleg
Statistics predict that of the several thousand people who visit this site every day, the vast majority live in households that make between $20,000 and $200,000 a year. That’s quite a range. But one thing we have in common is our paychecks will be lighter come New Year’s Day if no deal is reached, by about 50 to 500 dollars a check depending on where you fall into that spectrum. Being poor sucks, for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is begging readers for holiday handouts this week. But it has taught me to be extremely frugal. These are all obvious, I’m sure we all know about them, but being reminded doesn’t hurt, and knowing and practicing are two different things. [Read more…]
The annual bleg
Remember when, things were different then? Lo, these many years ago, when there was a season I looked forward to all year. Alas, decades of deregulation and tax cuts threw our economy into the shitter and left the national savings account badly overdrawn. I was a victim, no recession has ever hit me like this. In no time I went from comfortable to trying to survive on a 12 dollar an hour job with no viable path to a living wage. It basically turned Christmas into another bill I couldn’t afford. Fortunately, I have some really kind readers who changed that when they pitched a few bucks into this week’s annual bleg. [Read more…]
Streaming here. For some inexplicable reason Ustream has made it either difficult to find the embed code or felt it necessary to not have it available at all. Also the log in button using Facebook doesn’t work for me and tons of people. WTG guys! So far the speakers are trying to pretend this wasn’t a first class PR screw up by saying things like, “The big important news is Curiosity landed on Mars”. Weak. I’ll have a recap when it’s available.
Recap: As best I can tell so far, Curiosity found nothing newsworthy on Mars at all. The soil analyzing instruments worked and that’s it, that’s what set this whole thing off last month.