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Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at the National Center for Science Education. He is also a graduate student at the University of Kansas, completing a doctorate in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. When not modeling species distributions or battling creationists, 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.
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May 31, 2007
Category: Policy and Politics
One of the best ways to illustrate the growing societal consensus on global warming is the reaction of businesses. An alliance of conservation groups, car makers, utilities and industrial manufacturers is backing a system of cap and trade which would reduce allowable carbon emissions over several years, and create a market in efficiency and carbon reduction. The new owners of a utility in Texas scrapped plans for new coal plants and will replace those plans with low-emissions plants which will sequester carbon dioxide and extract energy from coal more efficiently. Other Texas utilities are able to sell wind power at...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 2:39 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
Shorter Sam Brownback: Science and theology don't conflict, but when they do, science is wrong. Even shorter Sam Brownback: Vote for me. I'm the real conservative. What fun we had when Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo and Mike Huckabee distinguished themselves from the pack of Republican candidates for the presidency by declaring that they didn't believe in evolution. Many were surprised that only 3 out of the legion of candidates took that bold stand against science and empirical evidence. In today's New York Times, Kansas Senator and protector against manimals Sam Brownback is trying to walk that back. He begins his...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 1:02 PM • 33 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 29, 2007
Category: Planet Earth
The question of how to cut our production of carbon dioxide grows more urgent every day, and the focus tends to be on new sources of energy. Increased efficiency tends to get lost in the mix, even though it's the easiest and most readily implemented approach. Improving the carbon efficiency of buildings by 25% would produce one of seven "wedges" of carbon reduction needed to let atmospheric carbon dioxide level off. Doubling fuel efficiency of cars from 30 to 60 miles per gallon would have the same effect. Carbon efficiency can be boosted many ways, from simple steps like turning...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 12:22 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 28, 2007
Category: Culture Wars
Mousie Cat writes: our Ken-doll of the Religious Right is headed for big thingsSo many options on who that could be. Sam Brownback? Fred Phelps? Jerry Johnston? None of them seems likely to reach higher office, thankfully....
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 7:44 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
On this day when we remember our war dead, it's worth looking back at the when and the how of the 3455 US military fatalities in Iraq, 100 of them soldiers from Fort Riley. Rates of woundings and fatalities in Iraq show the same pattern, a sharp rise in fatalities and woundings since roughly last November. There is too little data to attempt to determine whether the escalation since January has changed the trend. Daily fatality rates are higher than the levels during the invasion itself – the era known as "major combat operations." In the time before the "Mission...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 5:02 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 25, 2007
Category: Policy and Politics
The purchasing power of the minimum wage has dropped to the lowest level in 50 years, but a bill passed yesterday will bring some relief to working Americans at last. The hike $5.15 per hour to $7.25 over two years will provide an income of around $15,000 per year (depending on overtime and time off). The current minimum wage provides an annual income around $10,700, only $500 more than the poverty line for one person. The new minimum wage is enough that one person could keep a family of two above the poverty line (though not by much). This means...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 4:10 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 24, 2007
Category: Chatter
Via Peg Britton, we learn that this Sunday you too could enjoy the Annual Testicle Festival at Al's Bar and Grill in Wilson, KS (right off I-70): For $20.00 you can have all you want to eat from the buffet of Rocky Mountain oysters, fried fish, salads, French fries, beer and music. It starts at noon and goes until they run out of food. Now…that’s something to do in Wilson.Does Al have the balls to pull this off, or is he just nuts? Speculate in the comments....
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 8:03 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 23, 2007
Category: Policy and Politics
The New York Times and Paul Decelles point out that wingnut Kansas Board of Ed. member Kenneth Willard is running unopposed to be president of the National Association of State Boards of Education. Willard's faults include voting for and strongly promoting the atrocious science standards last year. He beat Jack Wempe and Donna Viola in last year's elections. Paul Decelles explains the problem: Willard says that his disagreement with Darwin has nothing to do with the association's work. And personally if I felt that Willard could be impartial and genuinely interested in education, OK. But remember, he is part of...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 1:03 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
The Star's Buzz blog reports: According to the AP, President Bush plans to rally support for the war by citing intelligence reports that have Osama bin Laden ordering "a terrorist unit to hit targets outside Iraq, and that the United States should be first [hit]." At some point, we were "fighting them there so we don't have to fight over here," a silly argument that only gets sillier when combined with the claim that they are perfectly happy to do both. If they are planning to fight us elsewhere, shouldn't we get out of Iraq and prepare for that attack?...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 12:37 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Culture Wars
One of the lines you hear a lot in the immigration debate goes something like "we need to strengthen the idea of assimilation to immigrants. Keep your heritage, but you are now Americans. If you want to live in America, you are Americans first." I don't know exactly what that is supposed to mean. I certainly have a sense of what being American means to me, but it has relatively little with what our correspondent above (Ned Ryun, former congressman Jim Ryun's baby boy) would think. In fact, without getting overly "meta," I'd have to say that being American means...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 12:27 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
