May 10, 2008
Opener This is one of the few Fishing Openers for which I've stayed in the Twin Cities since moving to Minnesota. Before moving to Minnesota, I had never heard of a thing called an "opener" before. Well, I had heard of openers, but they were tools used to open beers in the days before they…
May 10, 2008
Richard Dawkins does pretty good in the debate or discussion format. But here we have an example of Dawkins' skill combined with a bit of luck, the hubris of the interviewer, and other particularistic circumstances converging on a moment. A moment you absolutely have to hear to believe.
There…
May 10, 2008
Despite apparent support from city officials and the local press, a very large majority polled clearly say that they prefer that Frankenmuth Michigan NOT boast a Christian Cross on its official city seal.
See the poll here. More details here.
May 10, 2008
How should public school administrators react to students who sit through the pledge of allegiance in the US? This issue came up recently in a small town in western Minnesota, where kids were suspended and possibly humiliated because they failed to stand (in once case entirely by accident) for…
May 9, 2008
NCSE Press Release:
House Bill 923 was among the hundreds of bills that died in the Alabama legislature "because they did not pass in the house where they were introduced," the Associated Press (May 7, 2008) reports. The latest in a string of "academic freedom" bills aimed at undermining the…
May 9, 2008
Ha! Say no more. Here.
Pharyngula strikes again.
May 9, 2008
Dilworth Minnesota is not far from Fargo. On Thursday, three eighth graders in this small town have been suspended from school because they sat down during the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.
School rules at Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton Junior High requires that students stand during the pledge…
May 9, 2008
The first deliver of aid from the UN World Food Programme was stolen by officials from the Burma military Junta. As a result, the shipment of aid into the country by the UN has stopped.
This is as earlier reports indicating that the death toll would surpass 100,000 are starting to look realistic,…
May 9, 2008
Four Stone Hearth 40 is at Remote Central.
May 9, 2008
Well, in celbration of getting the cats back for a month or so this summer:
May 8, 2008
Moooo
... turn your volume up for this one, it is quiet and you want to hear every word of this astounding performance:
May 8, 2008
Pehdtsckjmba ....
That's Tom Waits, by the way.
May 8, 2008
Carnival of the Recipes: Spring-Fever Edition is Here.
May 8, 2008
May Scientiae Carnival: Career paths, perspective, and changing self-image
May 8, 2008
In this May 1, 2008, visible image from NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft, Cyclone Nargis is ... a Category one hurricane located 370 miles west of Yangon, Myanmar, moving east-northeast at eight knots.... Fishermen are advised not to venture out to sea.…
May 8, 2008
You Can't Hide
...I landed a job in Kansas. Finally, a state with some horse sense! But even here the Darwinian octopus had insinuated its fetid tentacles, depriving the good and open-minded high school students of the state the right hear to both sides of the story. Even when they provided a…
May 7, 2008
It is obvious in the United States that we need to replace the executive with a Democrat and add a few senators in the mix, in order to undo 8 years of Republican policy and replace it with four to 8 years of Democratic policy. This is because Democratic policy is better. Not great, just better…
May 7, 2008
Your brain ... to explore the nature of the conscious mind.
You are the teacher, and you've got a classroom full of reasonably well behaved students.
Tell them: "I want you to close your eyes, and I'm going to ask you a question. ...
Quietly work out the answer to the question and keep your…
May 6, 2008
In a recent poll conducted by the widely respected news outlet The Journal, people were asked:
Should local governmental bodies be allowed to open their meetings with a prayer?
With thousands answering, the results were an astonishing 93 percent opposed! See the results, here.
May 6, 2008
Courtesy of the National Center for Science Education
May 6, 2008
Obama has not only won North Carolina, but he has apparently TROUNCED Clinton. The Clinton Campaign put a great deal of effort into North Carolina in an effort to take the state (and thus truly throw Obama's viability into question) or at least make it close. It looks like it is not close. Not…
May 6, 2008
... So, time to get some gear together. Let's see. I need some new line, a couple of new lures, I'm hoping to get a musky rod (if I can find one on sale...). Let's see, what else.... How about a New Boat!?!?
OK, that's a good one. A little small, but it should do. But we have to be very very…
May 6, 2008
PZ Myers is asking for another poll crashing. So he'll send his 200,000 readers, and I'll send all four of you ....
Should local governmental bodies be allowed to open their meetings with a prayer?
ANSWER HERE.
May 6, 2008
A recent study of dog genetics, published in PLoS, seeks to improve the quality of genetic research by better understanding the underlying patterns of genetic variation at the level of specific dog breeds.
Sometimes we are interested in the evolutionary relationship between two "species" or…
May 6, 2008
Calamari for Everyone! And I mean, Everyone!!!!!
Worry, Willie Geist (or whatever his name is) again.
