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Josh at work 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.

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    September 27, 2007

    California One

    Category: Chatter

    Take a long drive with me on California One, on California One Take a long drive with me on California One, on California One And the road a-winding goes from Golden Gate to roaring cliff-side and the light is softly low as our hearts become sweetly untied beneath the sun of California One"California One" by The Decemberists from the album Castaways and Cutouts (2002, 9:50). I always enjoyed this song, but until last weekend, it didn't fully make sense. Some of the Berkeley biology grad students, including my predecessor at the NCSE, organized a camping trip up north on the...

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    September 21, 2007

    Bush "double down" strategy means military gravesites must "double up"

    Category: Policy and Politics

    Salon observes: Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts have written a letter to the Department of Veterans Affairs urging full funding for a new cemetery at Fort Riley in Kansas. The reason: With an influx of casualties from Iraq, the existing cemetery at Fort Riley is now full. Well, not entirely full: A spokesman for the facility tells Reuters that bodies can be buried on top of other bodies if family members want to share plots. Thank heavens we have such stalwart men looking out for our troops. It would be horrific to force families to have to share their...

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    September 19, 2007

    Jim Ryun discovers the Interwebs

    Category: Policy and Politics

    The National Review writes an analysis of the impact of the internet on the 2008 election, but focuses entirely on the impact of Googlebombing in one race, Jim Ryun's loss to Nancy Boyda. My guess is that the reporter and Drew Ryun met at a party, and started talking about the evils of the internets. A few days later, this emerged: Obviously, the 2006 midterms went very well for Democrats, though there's no way to quantify the contribution of Google bombing to the Democrats' electoral success, especially amidst all the G.O.P. scandal and other national developments heading up to that...

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    September 18, 2007

    Mallard Rape

    Category: Biology

    Reposted from the old TfK, in honor of the late, great Greg Beck. Over at Death's Door, there is a certain degree of consternation about the possibility that mallard ducks would be gang raping each other. There is a bunch of confusion wrapped around that so let's start slow. I also wasn't aware that duck's had duck cocks to gangbang with. I never eaten a duck but I've eaten a lot of chicken, and when you buy the chicken in the store and pull out that little pouch of giblets and shit, I've never seen a tiny chicken cock sittin...

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    September 17, 2007

    Greg Beck, R.I.P

    Category: Chatter

    I apologize for not noting this earlier, but the one and only Greg Beck died last week. I knew Greg through his astonishing blog, and had the pleasure of meeting him in person a few times as well. Like the rest of the KC blogging world, I'm stunned and shocked. There's very little to be said about Greg that he didn't say already. His blogging represented the peak of the form; it was personal, raunchy, opinionated and, without fail, interesting. His years as a bouncer in the nightclubs of Kansas City gave him a wealth of material to work with,...

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    September 11, 2007

    9/11+6

    Category: Policy and Politics

    It was all supposed to be different after 9/11. Everyone agreed that everything had changed. For a while, Democrats lay down with Republicans, France and America agreed on things, and non-New Yorkers didn't think so poorly of the Big Apple. It's a shame everyone didn't get together and figure out what, exactly, had changed about everything. The President seems to think that the Constitution changed, that it suddenly became a document granting tremendous power to the President, and virtually none to the other branches of government. The other branches seem still to wonder whether he was right about that. The...

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    September 10, 2007

    Leatherface for President

    Category: Policy and Politics

    Fred Thompson's pro-life credentials may be harmed because he hasn't shed enough blood: Rick Scarborough, a Southern Baptist preacher and president of Texas-based Vision America, said that while he is encouraged by Thompson's strong voting record in the Senate against abortion, he questioned the candidate's commitment to social issues. "The problem I'm having is that I don't see any blood trail," Scarborough said. "When you really take a stand on issues dear to the heart of social conservatives, you're going to shed some blood in the process."...

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    September 8, 2007

    ID is a joke

    Category: Culture Wars

    Many years ago, I heard a story about a mohel (the man who performs ritual Jewish circumcisions), and this comment by the Disco. Institute's Bruce Chapman reminded me of it. Bruce told Tom Bethell (author of the Incorrect Guide to Science): if I were to carry around Discovery fellows' peer-reviewed science journal articles on Darwinian theory and intelligent design I would need a suitcase, not a coat pocket.Boy howdy! A whole suitcase in a decade or so of "research." It's a shame that, even when Chapman stretches, he can't come up with anything more impressive. Speaking of which, the...

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    September 6, 2007

    Random Ten

    Category: Chatter

    I realize that my ratio of Random Tens to non-music posts is getting dangerously high, but work has been keeping me busy, and I'm still trying to figure out where blogging fits in my schedule. Blame the Discovery Institute. "Chimes of Freedom" by The Byrds from the album Mr Tambourine Man (1965, 3:53). "The Whistling Song" by Meat Puppets from the album Meat Puppets II (1983, 2:57). "Money For Nothing" by Dire Straits from the album Brothers In Arms (1985, 8:33). "She Caught The Katy And Left Me A Mule To Ride" by Taj Mahal from the album The Natch'l...

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    September 4, 2007

    Ben Stein is Confused

    Category: Culture Wars

    Ben Stein cannot grasp what the GOP's problem is with Larry Craig: What I don't understand is why the GOP is tossing Senator Craig overboard as if he were a terrorist. Even if it turns Senator Craig is gay, so what? Barney Frank is gay and he's one of the best members of the Congress. There are lots of fine gay public servants. But Ben, Barney Frank is not a Republican. The list of prominent members of the Log Cabin Republicans is very brief, and entirely devoid of members of Congress. If the GOP treats a gay member as a...

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