CONvergence, Minneapolis' great big science fiction and fantasy convention, also has a whole series of panels based on hard science—Skepchickcon. This year, I was invited to speak on a few of the panels, including two that dealt with climate science. The best bits of those panels—"The Chilling Effects of Denialism," and "Who Will Save the Polar Bears"—have been edited up and published online as this week's Skeptically Speaking podcast. Besides myself, the panels included engineering professor John Abraham, science advocate and writer Shawn Otto, and biological anthropologist Greg Laden. We had some great conversations! Take a listen.
Climate science, climate change, and denial
The blurry sonar blob tabloids turned into a sunken UFO
In June 2011, a Swedish treasure-hunting team called OceanX returned from the Gulf of Bothnia with a blurry sonar image of something on the seafloor: a roughly circular, 200-foot feature… READ THE REST
They boiled a toadstool to eat it and tripped for hours instead
Amanita muscaria — the red-and-white toadstool of fairy tales and Mario games — is poisonous raw, but boiling breaks down enough of its toxins that brave people around the world… READ THE REST
A T. rex skeleton just sold for a record $50.1 million
A fossilized Tyrannosaurus rex nicknamed Gus sold at Sotheby's in New York on Tuesday for $50.1 million to a phone bidder, making it the most valuable dinosaur fossil ever auctioned.… READ THE REST
Skip the subscription with Microsoft Office 2019 for $20
Disclosure: Boing Boing earns a commission on purchases made through links in this post. TL;DR: Get a lifetime license to Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for Windows — including Word, Excel, PowerPoint,… READ THE REST
This $45 Microsoft Visio deal makes diagrams a lot easier
Disclosure: Boing Boing earns a commission on purchases made through links in this post. TL;DR: Microsoft Visio Professional 2024 includes more than 250,000 templates and shapes for creating flowcharts, floor plans, network… READ THE REST
Stay connected with this refurbished $112 flip phone
Disclosure: Boing Boing earns a commission on purchases made through links in this post. TL;DR: For just $111.99 (reg. $269.99), the Kyocera DuraXE Epic E4830 flip phone is a reliable, premium downgrade… READ THE REST
