You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that it loses itself early and does not find itself any more. --Mark Twain
Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at the National Center for Science Education. He is formerly a doctoral candidate at the University of Kansas, in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. When not battling creationists or modeling species ranges, he writes about developments in progressive politics and the sciences.
The opinions expressed here are his own, do not reflect the official position of the NCSE. Indeed, older posts may no longer reflect his own official position.
The Lawrence City Commission will be considering a proposal to maintain a registry of domestic partnerships. The state attorney general has reviewed the proposal, and feels it's probably legal. All the registry would do is provide a place for people (possibly restricted to Lawrence residents) to write down that they have made a lifetime commitment, and then their employers can check that registry to see which employees actually made that commitment. No employer would have to do anything, and the registry would not have any special meaning to the government or to anyone other than the registrants and their employers....
Nail gun injuries on the rise with growth of DIY trend: Doctors in the nation’s emergency rooms are used to seeing so-called bagel cuts — the injury that results from slicing a finger or palm instead of a bagel and is most common on weekends. Now North Carolina researchers report that ER physicians are increasingly treating another kind of painful household injury: wounds inflicted by pneumatic nail guns wielded by weekend carpenters who bought the machines at home improvement stores. Such accidents more than tripled between 1991 and 2005, the researchers found, and 96 percent of victims were [guess what?...
Many moons ago, I presented my theory on Intelligent Falling to the scientific community in the only way recognized as valid: I posted it on the internet without any supporting evidence. Important journals like The Onion picked it up later, but it has taken longer to fulling infiltrate the ID movement. In a discussion at Bill Dembski's blog, "bornagain77" writes: I Find it very interesting that materialism had to invent hypothetical particles to keep the equations of Gravity working properly when Theism would of predicted Gravity as a primary cause and would not have seen a need to invent them....
Afarensis points out that Malaysia and the Philippines are making it harder to make accurate maps. The goal there is to block indigenous groups from using GPS and GIS to map their historic lands and defend their lands from developers. A few years back there was a student here at KU who grew up in the Soviet Union. On birding trips, he'd check a map, then ask where features really were. Soviet maps would always put roads and bridges in the wrong place, whether to confuse invading capitalist pigs or internal dissent I couldn't say. What I do know is...
The inimitable John B. of Blog Meridian answered five questions posed to him on his blog, and I volunteered to do the same. His questions are above the fold, click through to see the answers: 1) Recall your first politically-sentient moment. 2) Tell a little about your research at KU in language even a liberal arts major who took his last formal science course 26 years ago (that would be me) can follow. I ain't too proud to be talked down to. 3) Ginger or Mary Ann? 4) Pick an actual or potential political candidate for any...
While many things about the promos for "Starter Wife" bother me (the plot and the cast, for starters), I find myself simply confused by a scene in which Debra Messing's husband opens his robe and she reacts with disgust. All we can see is his hairy chest, though it's possible she's reacting to something off-screen. I fail to understand how a certain amount of hair on a man's body is supposed to be a bad thing. Everything from The 40-Year-Old Virgin to Queer Eye suggests that men ought to be hairless. Can anyone think of another prominent secondary sexual characteristic...
Via Joel Mathis, a Japanese gentleman named "Cobra" explains his dangerous hobby: "When you get down to air sex, you've got to immerse yourself in the air sex world. "Air sex can't be performed in half-measures," he continued. "If it is, you're only asking for trouble."Yes, the idea is roughly the same as "air guitar." Which is apparently also now a competitive sport....
When Kurt Vonnegut passed away, I pointed out that the Bokononist mantra "Busy, busy, busy" is one that I find useful in my own life, especially this week. So it goes. The Kansas Guild of Bloggers, normally put online on Monday, is thus appearing on Friday, and incorporates only submissions to the blogcarnival.com system. Heck, I'm even using their boring "instacarnival." I'm sure there's been a bunch of good stuff out there that I've missed, and I apologize. Next Monday it's at Paul Decelles' place. Submit! John B. presents A stretch of river XXXV: "Here comes a frame-house down on...
See Flock of Dodos and talk with the director on May 7 at 7:30: Randy Olson, the filmmaker behind 'Flock of Dodos,' is the featured Watkins visiting professor, May 7-8 at Wichita State University. A question and answer panel discussion will follow the movie. Panelists will include Olson; Les Anderson, associate professor of communication; Niall Shanks, Curtis D. Gridley Distinguished Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science; and Phil Shull, pastor, University United Methodist Church. Members of the audience may ask questions of the panel.Be there. Even creationists seem able to find something in the film to enjoy, though...
My Scibling Shelley has gotten into and out of a bit of fuss while I've been incommunicado. She posted about a paper discussing the role of alcohol in protecting antioxidants in fruit. As so many of us have done, she posted a graph and table from the original paper to illustrate her description of the study. Wiley Interscience complained, but has, thankfully, buckled to their obvious wrongness. To me and most observers, what Shelley did is an obvious instance of "fair use," as described by U.S. law: the fair use of a copyrighted work … for purposes such as criticism,...
Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at 
