gregladen | February 4, 2009With an absurd opinion piece by Henry Morris III.
You can't comment on the piece, so I'll just tel lyou that it is in the current web edition of the paper and you can go dig it up if you want. (Blog policy: No logic, no links. Unless I feel like it.)
Henry Morris is the guy from the Institute for Creation Research (ICR). The publication of this opinion piece by USNWR is roughly like, say, the New York Times Science Section publishing a piece on Large Mammal Conservation by those guys who sold the frozen bigfoot last year. Utterly stupid and irresponsible editorial policy on the part…
gregladen | February 4, 2009Glenn Branch, of the NCSE, has written a wonderful piece in US News and World Report on Intelligent Design. It is here.
I don't know about you, but I'm writing a note to the editors of USNWR praising this piece.
gregladen | February 4, 2009Teenager told to act like teenager when confronting government agents!
A 14-year-old thought to be the youngest bride of jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs was advised through text messages to "please stay angry" and to "keep crying, pout, sleep in" in an attempt to manipulate Texas caseworkers, according to a report filed with a San Angelo court.
Surly, this is against the Geneva Convention! Why, I don't think they are even using the Teenager Torture gambit at Gitmo!
It turns out she was armed as well!
In a report to state District Judge Barbara Walther, filed Jan. 27 in San Angelo,…
gregladen | February 4, 2009I've always been annoyed at women giving birth to seven, eight kids at once. There are too many freakin' people in the world, who do they think they are? But my annoyances is limited.
Other people in the past seem to have been less annoyed, and instead of being miffed they reward these baby factories. The family that has six or seven kids (or more) because of over-done fertility treatments (or some other mojo) gets free diapers, college funds are set up, and so on. They become heroes and society steps up to take care of their children.
I suppose that make sense for the sake of the…
gregladen | February 4, 2009
UPDATE:
The chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board was critically injured Wednesday when his car exploded as the family physician was leaving his home for work, the board attorney said.
Board attorney William Trice said he believed Pierce drives a hybrid, but Trice had no information on what caused the explosion. He said he knew of no heated disputes the chairman was a party to and said that even in board decisions, the chairman does not often vote.
"This is just off the wall," Trice said. "It's just such bizarre circumstances."
gregladen | February 4, 2009Or, more accurately, did these dinosaurs either engage in intraspecific combat (such as territorial or mating contests among males) or fight predators such as Tyrannosaurs, like in the movies?
Well, one thing we know for sure: If any folklore, belief, or 'fact' related to a fossil species sits around long enough, eventually someone will come along and study it. This usually involves reformulating the idea as one or more testable hypotheses, then attacking the hypotheses ... much like Tyrannosaurus might or might not have attacked Triceratops, to see if it can be killed, or alternatively,…
gregladen | February 4, 2009How much are we actually spending on the development of pharmaceutical tools to treat HIV/AIDS, TB, leichmaniasis, malaria and sleeping sickness?
Today, PLoS Medicine Policy Forum asks this question. According to a press release from PLoS:
The first comprehensive survey of global spending on neglected disease R&D, published in this week's PLoS Medicine, finds that just over $US 2.5 billion was invested into R&D of new products in 2007, with three diseases--HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria--receiving nearly 80% of the total.
However, the survey finds that many neglected diseases,…
gregladen | February 3, 2009An article released moments ago in PLoS ONE, by Gingerich et al., describes one of the more interesting fossil discoveries ever.
To cut right to the conclusion: We now have reason to believe that the proto-whale Maiacetus inuus, a true transitional form, gave birth on land, not in the water.
Artist's conception of male Maiacetus inuus with opaque skeleton overlay. Credit: John Klausmeyer and Bonnie Miljour, University of Michigan Museums of Natural History
Maiacetus inuus is a newly described member of a larger group of proto-cetids (proto-whales) that are believed to be largely aquatic…
gregladen | February 3, 2009Human Events is a right wing email newsletter and magazine/publishing thingie that regularly spews out the puss produced by such notable festering sores on the asscrack of humanity known as Anne Coulter and Pat Buchanan, with frequent contributions by Chuck Norris and others. I used to subscribe in order to keep an eye on them.
But now that they have been rendered utterly irrelevant (and will soon be joining David Duke in the new party to replace the Republican Party, which in turn was totally ruined by being led by a black guy), I've stopped paying attention.
That is all.
gregladen | February 3, 2009Well, the above statement, while true, is just a tiny bit beyond the peer reviewed paper I'm reporting to you today, but this paper supports the assertion and the results presented in the paper should not be a surprise to anyone.
Here's the basic idea:
If you focus on categorizing people into races at the expense of recognizing variation within these alleged racial groups, you will a) get 'good' at categorizing races, b) get bad at recognizing individual differences within the "other" races (other = not you), and c) become more racist.
If, on the other hand, you focus on ... learn, train…
gregladen | February 3, 2009... or Argentina or Nurse Ratchet.
In our allegedly multicultural society, there is one religious group which is apparently not to be afforded equal respect, let alone treated for what it embodies - the foundational creed of this nation. That group is Britain's Christians.
Somerset community nurse and committed Christian Caroline Petrie has been suspended and faces being sacked and even struck off for offering to say a prayer for an elderly patient. Although startled, the patient - herself a Christian - did not make a complaint and was in no way offended.
.... and so on and so forth. So…
gregladen | February 3, 2009Two or three items of interest that are scheduled and that you may want to know about.
In order:
1) This evening, at 8:00 Eastern Time (US), the embargo lifts on an amazing new find. Tune in to your favorite science blog to read all about it. It is very cool if you are into science.
2) Friday, at an as yet undisclosed time, will be the unveiling of a new Internetial (pronounced: Internet-shul) project that many of you may find interesting. Watch for announcements here and on Almost Diamonds and TUIBG.
3) Friday evening, as I've indicated before, I'll do a live radio interview with Q.…
gregladen | February 2, 2009"This is a crowd that won't scatter," James Steele wrote in the pages of The Nation some seventy-five years ago. Early one morning in July 1933, the police had evicted John Sparanga and his family from a home on Cleveland's east side. Sparanga had lost his job and fallen behind on mortgage payments. The bank had foreclosed. A grassroots "home defense" organization, which had managed to forestall the eviction on three occasions, put out the call, and 10,000 people -- mainly working-class immigrants from Southern and Central Europe -- soon gathered, withstanding wave after wave of police tear…
gregladen | February 2, 2009
.... so, does this mean Amanda is actually my first wife and not my third wife?
gregladen | February 2, 2009Q Transmissions is a weekly one-hour skeptical call-in talk show based in Edmonton, Canada.
The show airs Friday, 6 pm MST on CJSR FM88.5 or here.
The Q Transmissions Facebook Page is Here.
I'll be interviewed by Desiree
gregladen | February 2, 2009"Amazon Deforestation: Earth's Heart and Lungs Dismembered"
Brazil has historically had the distinction of serving as the world's leader of deforestation. ... during the last three decades, an annual average of 6,500 square miles of the Brazilian Amazon -- an area that is greater than the size of Connecticut -- has been deforested.
Satellite data indicates that the rate of Amazonian deforestation is accelerating; in some areas, the rate increased by 50 percent since last year. And with over 20 million people and 70 million cattle now inhabiting the Amazon, about a 600 percent increase in…
gregladen | February 2, 2009Bora was interviewed on the radio on Sunday AM. You, presumably, were in church so you missed it. No matter, you can listen to the podcast here.
gregladen | February 2, 2009PLEASE NOTE: Unfortunately we are canceling our Big Bang Book Club, which was slotted for February 24th and March 24th at Grumpy's Bar and Grill. We apologize if this causes any inconvenience! Please still join us for our Cafe Scientifique on February 17th and Science Trivia on February 10th.