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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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March 31, 2008
Category: Creationism
I haven't written a lot here about Expelled: No Intelligence. It'll be a crappy movie, and all the PR in the world won't change that. All the whining about PZ Myers, and criticism of his desire to see the movie he's featured in won't make the movie any better. Plus, I'm helping develop NCSE's response to Expelled, and I don't want to tip our hand. That said, I will predict that Mike Huckabee's endorsement will not save the movie. By all accounts it is boring, and everything I've seen from the producers and writers has been laced through with inaccuracies....
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 7:07 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Creationism
The York Daily Record (known for its coverage of the Dover ID trial) interviews Barack Obama: Q: York County was recently in the news for a lawsuit involving the teaching of intelligent design. What's your attitude regarding the teaching of evolution in public schools? A: "I'm a Christian, and I believe in parents being able to provide children with religious instruction without interference from the state. But I also believe our schools are there to teach worldly knowledge and science. I believe in evolution, and I believe there's a difference between science and faith. That doesn't make faith any less...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 4:20 PM • 23 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 29, 2008
Category: Chatter
It's been a long Friday, so it's time to kick back with some tunes: "Viva Las Vegas" by Elvis Presley from the album Viva Las Vegas / Roustabout (1997, 2:22). "Bad, Wicked World" by Frank Black from the album Teenager of the Year (1994, 1:58). "Dead Horse" by Guns N' Roses from the album Use Your Illusion I (1991, 4:17). "Dixie Cannonball" by Hank Williams from the album The Complete Hank Williams (1998, 2:25). "It Is Obvious" by Syd Barrett from the album Barrett (1970, 2:59). "Sabotage" by Beastie Boys from the album Ill Communication (1994, 2:58). "Love" by Monopoli...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 12:57 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 27, 2008
Category: Planet Earth
Drew Ryun, twin brother of equally clueless Ned Ryun, discusses: the feeling that a vast majority of Americans share. The Democrats are not good on national defense.Hmmm. "Next, please tell me if you think the Republican Party or the DEMOCRATIC Party could do a better job in each of the following areas: Making wise decisions about foreign policy: R=40%, D=45%. Making wise decisions about what to do in Iraq: R=37%, D=47% This isn't new. Gallup found Democrats taking the lead on national security issues between 2006 and 2007, while Rasmussen found in early 2006 that more Americans trusted Congressional Democrats...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 7:05 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
Ned Ryun, former White House staffer and son of fmr. Rep. Jim Ryun, thinks Iraq is just like Germany: The Dems think they’re going to really nail McCain on his 100 years of war in Iraq comment. Can I just say Germany, Korea . . . still there, folks. I would question why we’re still in Germany, but that’s besides the point. The point is that, for better or worse, when we come into a region to provide stability, many times that translates into dozens of years. So McCain was being realistic about Iraq. When you look at Germany and...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 5:48 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 26, 2008
Category: Policy and Politics
The Washington Post digs in an finds interesting parallels: Sen. Barack Obama offers himself as a post-partisan uniter who will solve the country's problems by reaching across the aisle and beyond the framework of liberal and conservative labels he rejects as useless and outdated. But as Obama heads into the final presidential primaries, Sen. John McCain and other Republicans have already started to brand him a standard-order left-winger, "a down-the-line liberal," as McCain strategist Charles R. Black Jr. put it, in a long line of Democratic White House hopefuls. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign has also started slapping the L-word...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 7:11 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 25, 2008
Category: Policy and Politics
Regular readers know why I'm fairly sure that the decline in coalition fatalities recently can be attributed to the unilateral ceasefire by Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. He announced it in August, deaths were way down in September, and have remained at a low level since October. The announcement of an extension of the ceasefire last month was encouraging, but apparently it won't last: The Mahdi Army's seven-month-long cease-fire appears to have come undone. Rockets fired from the capital's Shiite district of Sadr City slammed into the Green Zone Tuesday, the second time in three days, and firefights erupted around Baghdad...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 5:58 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Planet Earth
Forest Service May Move to Interior - washingtonpost.com: Among some lawmakers who hold the purse strings, there is a belief that the U.S. Forest Service is out of place. The 103-year-old agency, which manages 193 million acres of forests and grasslands, is part of the Department of Agriculture. Its bureaucratic cousins -- the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management, which manage 84 million acres, 96 million acres and 258 million acres of public land, respectively -- are in the Interior Department. … At the request of the House Appropriations subcommittee on...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 2:28 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 24, 2008
Category: Policy and Politics
Gun Goes Off Midflight: A US Airways pilot accidentally discharged his gun in the cockpit during a flight from Denver to Charlotte, N.C., according to the Transportation Safety Administration. The round was discharged by the pilot in the left seat and did not result in depressurization, according to government aviation sources. The Airbus A319 landed safely after the incident Saturday and without any injuries to the 124 passengers on board, a spokesperson for the TSA told ABCNEWS.com today.The pilot was a member of TSA's Federal Flight Deck Officer program, which trains and licenses pilots to carry a gun on the...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 11:20 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 21, 2008
Category: Biology
Congratulations to Dakota Abbot, this year's champion muskrat skinner, and the new Miss Outdoors: "Oh my God!" a boy in the audience yelled, at the sight of a woman in perfect makeup with her hand inside a muskrat. Then, from another part of the crowd: an older woman's voice: "She's good." I wish Ms. Abbott the very best of luck in her pursuit of a marine biology degree. She's clearly well-qualified. While you're at it, check out the video of the event. Hat tip to: Digital Cuttlefish....
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 7:20 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
