jlynch
Posts by this author
May 15, 2008
It's been a few years (2002, probably) since I used a Linux box regularly. Yesterday I dual-booted my laptop with Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron" and everything works flawlessly. So now I'm asking - what are the essential software packages I should install? Utilities, games, whatever ... make a…
May 15, 2008
No sooner had I read this today:
There is by now an entire book to be written about the way that "Munich," "appeasement," and "Churchill" have been ritually invoked, from Suez to Vietnam to Iraq, so often in false analogy, and so often with calamitous results.
than I saw this:
U.S. President…
May 14, 2008
Keith Olberman on Bush’s sacrifice of his golf game:
"Mr. President," he was asked, "you haven’t been golfing in recent years. Is that related to Iraq? "Yes," began perhaps the most startling reply of this nightmarish blight on our lives as Americans - on our history. "It really is. I don’t want…
May 13, 2008
Some conservative nimrod by the name of Mike Norman in Marietta, Georgia is selling these t-shirts and what is more is claiming that he’s "not a racist". Quoth the nimrod: "Look at [Obama] . . . the hairline, the ears, he looks just like Curious George". There’s a poll over at the Atlanta Journal-…
May 13, 2008
A new letter has surfaced from Einstein which would appear to once and for all clarify his views on theism. Writing to Eric Gutkind (Jan 3rd 1954), Einstein states:
The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but…
May 12, 2008
It seems Stuart Kauffman has come out as a pantheist. Discussing his new book Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion for New Scientist, he writes:
The unfolding of the universe - biotic, and perhaps abiotic too - appears to be partially beyond natural law. In its place…
May 12, 2008
MartinC (who gave us the wonderful Bensteinian Rapsody) has been busy uncovering secret artifacts that further demonstrate the ambitions of the cdesign proponentsists. First there is some deleted scenes from Expelled! featuring such dialog as:
VINCENT: You’ll dig it the most. But you know what the…
May 11, 2008
Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi, a trapdoor spider recently discovered in Alabama and named after Neil Young. Arachnophiles can click to enlarge - arachnophobes probably don’t want to.
May 10, 2008
Remember Tony Zirkle? He’s the Indiana Republican who cavorted with Hitler-worshippers at the Saddest Birthday Party Ever and claimed that he didn’t "know enough about the group to either favor it or oppose it." Well, May 6th saw his defeat in the Republican primary. But get this, he got 16% of…
May 9, 2008
Believe it or not, on Wednesday, 177 Republicans disagreed that "the House of Representatives celebrates the role of mothers in the United States and supports the goals and ideals of Mother’s Day" this following a 412-0 vote in favor (H.Res 1113). Flip-floppers! Why do they hate mothers so? Next…
May 9, 2008
Not looking good for the cdesign proponentsists and their attempts to weaken science education by proposing "academic freedom" bills. First Florida. Now Alabama.
May 6, 2008
Two-month old black Jaguar cub born in captivity at the Huachipa zoo in Lima, Peru. (click for larger version)
photo source: AP Photo/Martin Mejia/Scanpix
hat-tip: Green Expander.
May 5, 2008
Over at TfK, Josh more-or-less reads my mind about the rank stupidity of McCain and Clinton calling for a suspension of the gas tax:
This is stupid, because it won’t actually cut prices (the price of a good like gasoline is dominated by how much customers are willing to pay, and fiddling with the…
May 5, 2008
Burmese Ferret Badger, Melogale personata Saint-Hillaire 1831
Chinese Ferret Badger, Melogale moschata Gray 1831
There are two further putative species of ferret badger for which I’m unable to find suitable images: Everett’s ferret badger (Melogale everetti Thomas 1895) and the Javan ferret…
May 3, 2008
"Multiple world champion Oscar De La Hoya registered a unanimous decision victory over fellow American Steve Forbes in a non-title bout on Saturday."
Huh?
May 3, 2008
I may be treading in hot water here but ... two years ago a colt named Barbaro broke a leg and was put into surgery while a nation apparently wept (here is what I said then). Yesterday I watched a filly named Eight Belles fracture two legs and be unceremoniously killed on the track (Grrl has a good…
May 3, 2008
If you haven’t already, you must check out Charles Darwin’s blog, if only for this:
However in the dramatic presentations it is clear what science is for: it is to help the police elucidate which American has killed which other American. It is also clear who becomes a scientist: people of eccentric…
May 2, 2008
New Chick tract - have at it! Especially you, Tyler.
Update: I see PZ beat me to this. *shakes fist*
May 2, 2008
Ox Forgotten
Reaching home on the back of the ox,
Rest now, the ox forgotten.
Taking a nap under the noon sun,
Whip and rope abandoned behind the hut.
K’uo-an (trans. Stanley Lombardo)
[image source]
May 1, 2008
I forgot to mention that yesterday (technically still today here in Arizona) was National Mission Accomplished Day. Nice job, Bushie.
May 1, 2008
Regular readers may remember the paper about a gay necrophiliac duck rapist with sexual staying-power (see here). Andrew Bleiman now gives us this gem - a seal attempting to get it on with a penguin. Disney probably has a lot to answer for.
May 1, 2008
Busy here so here are a few things to keep you amused:
Larry Arnhart asks whether Michael Behe has fallen from favor at the Discovery Institute.
Dembski (a pseudo-mathematician) wonders what a pseudo-documentary is and in so doing naturally calls folks names. Stay classy, Bill.
Jeffrey Shallit (…
May 1, 2008
Ben Stein’s anti-science stance continues. In March he opined that scientists "were the people in Germany telling Hitler that it was a good idea to kill all the Jews." Now he’s giving us the following gem of wisdom:
[T]he last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they…
April 28, 2008
Eurasian badger Meles meles L.Click for big version - they’re cute. Way cute
April 27, 2008
With much time being now spent by ID supporters on the Darwin/Eugenics meme (as opposed to any actual research), it is worth while revisiting this essay by Dennis Durst which discusses the engagement evangelicals had with eugenics between 1900 and 1940. Durst notes:
[O]n the whole the evangelical…