Decrepit Old Fool

Awesome lightning pictures

Chicago had an unusually intense lightning storm a few nights ago, and Chicago Tribune readers sent in their pictures. Beautiful, amazing stuff.

Posted by George on 08/10/08 at 08:37 PM
Science & Technology • Weather • (3) Comments • Link

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Decrepitude

A few selected articles from the last few years. Feel free to nominate others because really, I can't remember what all I've written.

A brief history of FAIL

One Impossible Thing
9/11: five years on
Story from a picture
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What was lost
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Mary Mallon: being evil vs. being an evil
Artifacts of the long-gone man
Apple software review:
Because nature isn't waiting for us to wise up

About

Decrepit Old Fool is the online pseudonym I use so people won't know my real name is George Hussein Wiman. Scroll down for more boring information about me including my email address.

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Currently reading:

Science and History

In semi-alphabetical order
Aetiology
Bad Astronomy
Baloney Detection Kit
Berkeley Understanding Evolution
Climate Progress Blog
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Deltoid
Damn Interesting (on hiatus)
Discovering Climate Change
Richard Dawkins portal
Earth Observatory
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NCSE YouTube Channel
Wayne Hale's NASA blog
Greg Laden's Blog
International Polar year 07/08
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Logical Fallacies
Mike, The Mad Biologist
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub
National Center for Science Education
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Paulos, John Allen, Who's Counting
Open Mind
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Pump Handle, The
Randi, James
Real Climate
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Carl Sagan portal
Scientific Activist
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Swans On Tea
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Talk Origins dot org
Thoughts in a Haystack
Understanding Evolution at Berkeley
Unscrewing the Inscrutable
The Volcanism Blog
What's New
Carl Zimmer Blog

Science News and Sources

In no order yet
A few things ill-considered
Basic Concepts In Science
Science Daily
MIT Technology Review
New Scientist
...and Climate Guide for the Perplexed
Scientific American
Science News
World-Science
Wikipedia
How Stuff Works
What's New

Solutions

Websites that propose fixes to the big problems
The Algebra Project
Congress.org - easily find your representatives and how to contact them
Just Foreign Policy
Campaign For America's Future
American Friends Service Committee
Leroy pedals: Cycling For Scholarships
Cape Town Open-Education Declaration
Edutopia, the George Lucas Educational Foundation
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Testing the water
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Tech links

Make Use Of
Lefty.crupps' GNUski Bacon
HowTo Geek

Quote code experiment

Playing with a php script to insert a daily quote. Apparently, something about Expression Engine paths I'm not grasping.

Quote string goes here

; ?>

Creative Commons stuff

I tried to figure out the Creative Commons and Wikimedia stuff but it was like doing your taxes in another language. Short version: it's OK if you copy my stuff as long as you give attribution and you're willing to share what you make of it with others. Here's the little logo:

This work by George Wiman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

More boring information about me

'Decrepit Old Fool' was intended to be an ironic/humorous pseudonym; I am only one of those things but the other two are creeping up on me. It refers to being over fifty and working in a technology field, or to having grown children who are much smarter and hipper than I am.

I started blogging to improve my writing skills, and discovered I simply enjoyed it so that is why I do it now. I am a computer support specialist at a great MidWestern university, am married (sorry girls), and have three children of whom the youngest is a junior in college. After a (brief) term as a Christian minister, I have had a series of technical service jobs including darkroom printing, advertising layout, production xerography, photography, camera repair, and computer repair. I have a bachelor's degree from a good liberal-arts college in Tennessee and my home is cluttered with a tangle of books and periodicals.

I have a hard time with political groups; the 'liberals' are right about some things, 'conservatives' are right about others, and 'libertarians' about still other issues (of course, that's in the world view where I am right about everything).

I don't believe in the supernatural, including assorted spirits, gods, demons, afterlife, or miracles - but I once did so I am sympathetic to those who do. I am not sympathetic to those who want to use the power of government to further their supernatural beliefs, however.

My Unitarian Jihad name is "Brother Pepper Spray of Quiet Reflection" ... Get yours

And about Lucas...

'Lucas' is a co-author on this blog, and when he sends me some text for this column, I'll paste it in here.

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Please feel free to leave comments; strong opinions are welcome but let's try to keep it civil. Abusive comments are simply deleted; repeat offenders will be banned. For more information please visit my DOF Comment Policy Page

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