August 22, 2006
From the KC Star's blog:
Nah, a leading Republican strategist says, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius won't take on Sen. Pat Roberts in 2008.
Why? Roberts was once chief of staff to Rep. Keith Sebelius, father of Kathleen's husband, Gary. Too many family ties, the Republican says.
This is undoubtedly the…
August 22, 2006
Via Bill, I discover that I am:
Which Programming Language are You?
It took some tweaking to get this result. I started out as binary, then became Lisp, then Java, before settling down on C++. I have never programmed binary, have only tweaked Emacs files (and don't know exactly what I did), and…
August 22, 2006
The first lab I worked in was a fruit fly lab. As a budding mammalogist, this wasn't the most optimal environment, but it had its advantages. I learned to work with flies, and the advantages of model systems. I learned to clean glassware with speed and grace. I learned that science involves a…
August 22, 2006
Catholic World News : Controversial Jesuit astronomer replaced at Vatican observatory:
Pope Benedict XVI has named a new director for the Vatican Observatory. Father José Gabriel Funes will succeed a controversial American, Father George Coyne.
Father Funes, an Argentine Jesuit, is already a member…
August 22, 2006
Fellow Sber Shelley Dpicks up on a discussion of billionaires stepping up to fund basic research originally from Forbes. The most unfortunate passage reads:
(Dr.) Melton landed enough money to start a separate lab, and he works on turning his stem line into insulin-producing cells to study where…
August 22, 2006
So says the Red Headed Stranger.
"I Couldn't Believe It Was True" by Willie Nelson from the album Red Headed Stranger(1975, 1:32).
August 21, 2006
Dr. Myers was profiled by a creationist journal. The rest of us have to be content with that sort of attention from trolls.
August 21, 2006
A judge refused to toss out a suit over inadequate curricula at some religious schools in California. The schools claim that the University of California shouldn't be allowed to reject certain courses as adequate preparation for college. Or, as a lawyer for the schools explains,
The lawsuit is…
August 21, 2006
The new digs here are taking some getting used to. The biggest change is the comment system. I don't require TypeKey authentication, but if you use a TypeKey, you relieve me of having to manually approve comments. I know the system says your comment is being held for approval otherwise, but that…
August 21, 2006
Bora, discussing whether elephants run, tells a joke:
Two elephants are sitting on a tree. A third elephant flies by. The first elephant turns to the second elephant and says: "Hmmm, I bet her nest is close by"
Which reminds me of the classic question: Why do elephants paint their nails red?
Click…
August 20, 2006
Welcome to the new Thoughts from Kansas. I've moved a few of the posts I'm most proud of across from the old Blogger site, and I encourage you to check them out, that's probably the easiest way to get to know me, and don't be afraid to dig into all the archives back there.
By way of quick…
August 19, 2006
Reposted from the old TfK.
Various people are asking Are We Fighting 'Islamic Fascists'? This in response to the President's claim that, "This nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom." David Ignatius (linked above) says "I have been…
August 18, 2006
Reposted from the old TfK.
Two recent comments on the 25th anniversary of AIDS took up a similar call, one in the New England Journal of Medicine, the other from Scienceblogger Tara Smith.
Both essentially argue for the broadening of HIV testing in American society. The NEJM piece largely recycles…
August 16, 2006
Reposted from the old TfK.
Part of the reason Harry McDonald lost a his Board of Ed. race against incumbent John Bacon was the 10% of the vote that David Oliphant siphoned off. Suggestions that Oliphant's run was intended to weaken McDonald's showing have swirled since Oliphant entered the race,…
August 1, 2006
Reposted from the old TfK, where it was picked up by the Dailykos, MSNBC, and many others.
For the Board of Ed:
Waugh won re-election. There's no Republican challenge, so that seat remains safe.
Cauble appears to have beat Morris! Only 68% of the precincts have reported (with several urban…
October 10, 2005
A repost from the archives.
At last I got a chance to read the last few pages of the book I've been pimping in the sidebar for a few months now. I've made some broad comments drawn from it before, but it's nice to be able to see the full sweep of the book.
Chris Mooney's argument in RWoS is more…
September 17, 2005
A Repost of some classic TfK.
I missed the Bush speech the other night, and from the coverage, I can't say I care. The idea of making No Man's Land an "enterprise zone," like the idea of auctioning off "surplus" federal lands, only justifies the fears expressed by some locals that the wealthy…
August 3, 2005
Reposted from the old TfK.
The DI figured out how a typo gets into print:
[Times reporter Bumiller] apologized for the error saying it was "nothing more than a mistake madie in haste" and has assured us that the Times will run a correction in the print edition tomorrow. In explanation she indicated…
May 26, 2005
A repost of a Wikipedia approved classic, from the old TfK.
it's only a theory...: On the Shoulders of Giant Mistakes...:
Consider the following excerpt from a letter written by Isaac Newton to Reverend Dr. Richard Bentley in 1692, in which he describes some of the implications of his Law of…
May 22, 2005
Reposted from the old TfK.
Burt Humberg has a long and detailed analysis of Creationist Fears, Creationist Behaviors at the Panda's Thumb:
Creationists Are in Fear
To understand why creationists fear evolution, it is necessary to consider three things. First, many creationists believe that the…
April 6, 2005
Reposted from the old TfK.
I say no, Bill Dembski says yes:
Despite intelligent design's clear linkage, both methodologically and in content, with existing sciences that sift the effects of intelligence from undirected natural forces, critics of intelligent design often label it a form of…
March 6, 2005
Originally posted at The Evolution Project.
Chris Mooney asks "should scientists refer to the well-adapted features of a given organism as having been 'designed,' even though we all know these are the result of natural selection?" and citesthis article in The Scientist :: Journals and intelligent…
February 1, 2005
A repost from the archives, providing background in theology
The Leaking of the Wedge:
The story begins, so far as the world at large is concerned, on a late January day seven years ago, in a mail room in a downtown Seattle office of an international human-resources firm. The mail room was also the…
January 16, 2005
Reposted from the old TfK.
I suggested at the bottom of a longish post that the Endangered Species Act ought to be supplemented with an Endangered Ecosystem Act.
The reason begins with thinking like a mountain. If you've read the last post and my Thinking Like a Savannah and you haven't read Aldo…
January 10, 2005
Reposted from the old TfK.
In the last weeks, there have been a bunch of stories about endangered species recovery and possible changes to the Endangered Species Act. I blogged on some of the issues raised before (and before that). The fundamental problem in many cases is that the ESA is not…
December 13, 2004
Reposted from the old TfK.
A few years ago, I someone gave a presentation here, arguing that we should reintroduce a bunch of extinct Pleistocene species into North America. Cheetahs were on the list, along with lions and Asian elephants (like these from the Bronx Zoo). The idea was that human…
November 29, 2004
Reposted from the old TfK.
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…
November 19, 2004
Reposted from the old TfK:
A few years back, I was skinning a baboon that had died in a zoo, and been given to the museum. Skinning animals is interesting, but rarely stunning. It involves a little cutting, a lot of gentle tugging, and great care when you finally get to the hands and feet. Mouse…
August 10, 2004
This was the first post ever on Thoughts from Kansas.
On the third anniversary of the decision to limit stem cell research, Laura Bush endorsed the existing stem cell policy. Lots of bloggers, especially Chris Mooney, have been pushing this as a wedge issue that the Democrats can win on, and…
