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Paul Kurtz: The Local Leader Who Happens to Be an Atheist

Ask yourself: What's the best way you can promote atheism in your community or on your campus? Do you want to gain attention through polarizing attacks at your blog or in public statements, alienating even your moderately religious neighbors? Or do you want to be known as the community builder and leader who happens to also be an atheist? The latter is a strategy for promoting atheism at the local and national level that I discussed in a previous episode of the Point of Inquiry podcast. I am reminded of that strategy by an article that appeared recently in the Buffalo News. The article…

Sex with a parrot anyone?

Recently, I was on Australian radio doing a bit about the phylomon project and one of the creatures that the host brought up was the Kakapo. As well, an article at the Escapist was just published (again on the phylomon project), and within the comments there, the Kakapo was highlighted once again. What is it with this bird that delights the imagination of biology enthusiasts? Well, first you have to check out this video, which is maybe one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Anyway, I think Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine describe the kakapo best in their wonderful book, "Last Chance…

Linnaeus, Heisenberg, and Cereal Studies

Wherein the author, Dave Frye, finds in his doctoral research that "it remains fairly safe to say that the modern science of cereal studies began no earlier than with the 1764 publication of Linnaeus's De Cerialibus." This, despite some early finds about "the famously lactose-intolerant Pythagoreans." There are some good findings in Frye's work, and one wonders how long it might be until his research is complete. I was particularly struck by the solid integration of the history of science and food studies into true, deeper cultural and political context. Many graduate students seek that…

Clearly, it's holiday season, so let's switch gears a little. Share your musical recommedations.

Well judging by the slowing down of comments, it would appear that the holiday internet slowdown is upon us. Which also means that it's time to put out a post that is a little on the light side. For me, one of the things I'm curious about is musical preferences - especially since I was once (way back in my undergrad days) one of those audio geeks who reveled in finding that great band that nobody else had heard of. Nowadays, I don't have much time to find new music and usually resort to relying on my brother or hearing something awesome on CBC radio (CBC is great for that), or maybe even…

Useful graphic: disparity in the number of single men and women by city

What an astonishingly useful graphic (click to enlarge, source): Richard Florida (author of one of the most interesting books I have ever read) comments on the gender disparity in singles: By far, the best places for single men are the large cities and metro areas of the East Coast and Midwest. The extreme is greater New York, where single women outnumber single men by more than 210,000. In the Philadelphia area and greater Washington, D.C., single women outnumber single men by 50,000. I met my wife outside Detroit, where the odds were greatly stacked in my favor - single women outnumber…

Extra money for young researchers

Well, that's good: Medical scientists just starting at universities have been, more and more often, left empty-handed when the federal government awards grants. So on Monday the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to medical research, announced a little help: a new program that will award $300-million to as many as 70 young scientists. The Early Career Scientist Program will pay salaries and provide research money for people who have held tenure-track positions for only two to six years, with the goal of supporting them through the early period before they are…

Elsewhere on the Interweb (1/4/08)

ScienceBlogs has a new blog entitled A Good Poop which is quite apt because it is funny as shit: In other news, they have a disease called Bird Fancier's Lung. Or, as my good friend Frat Boy Steve calls it, That Gay Ass Bird Disease. Nature summarizes the Presidential candidates positions on science with useful quotes. This one from Ron Paul is just lovely: Neither party in Washington can fathom that millions and millions of Americans simply don't want their tax dollars spent on government research of any kind. Exhibit B for why Iowa does not matter: the Giuliani campaign intends to ignore…

I might have a career in video games

Video games of late have gotten crazy complicated. Making life-like characters and realistic worlds is an incredible computational challenge. Popular Science lists the 10 Biggest Challenges in video game production, and number 4 struck my eye: 4. Artificial Intelligence Like teaching 1,000 kids to think for themselves overnight Problem: Once upon a time, the bad guys in videogames wandered around mindlessly, shooting at you while they waited to die. That doesn't cut it anymore. Players demand sophisticated enemies to fight and reliable in-game allies with which to fight them. Thing is, it's…

A Lawsuit for a Broken Heart?

Thanks to Marginal Revolution for this astonishing story. It refers to a man who sued his wife's new lover for damages on the grounds that the new beau had alienated his wife from him. And the guy won! All Arthur Friedman wanted to do was liven things up in the bedroom. He and his wife, Natalie, had been married for ten years, and things were getting a bit, ahem, stale. Instead of the usual suspects -- lingerie, porn, toys, weekend get-a-ways -- Arthur had one tiny request: he wanted to watch his wife engaging in sexual acts with other men and women. (We imagine her response was something…

FOX and CBS reject Trojan condom commercial

Boooo, I say! FOX and CBS have rejected a commercial for Trojan condoms on the grounds that they believed the ads stressed pregnancy prevention over disease prevention. From the NYTimes coverage: Fox and CBS both rejected the commercial. Both had accepted Trojan's previous campaign, which urged condom use because of the possibility that a partner might be H.I.V.-positive, perhaps unknowingly. A 2001 report about condom advertising by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation found that, "Some networks draw a strong line between messages about disease prevention -- which may be allowed -- and…

Ants fill potholes without a work order

Research in army ants has shown that they will plug holes in the road using an interesting technique: Certain army ants in the rainforests of Central and South America conduct spectacular predatory raids containing up to 200,000 foraging ants. Remarkably, some ants use their bodies to plug potholes in the trail leading back to the nest, making a flatter surface so that prey can be delivered to the developing young at maximum speed. The raid always remains connected to the nest by a trail of forager traffic, along which prey-laden foragers run back to run back to the nest. This trail can be…

Already compromised

Ken Ham is currently hawking his new book, Already Compromised, in which he whines about the way universities — even many bible colleges — don't take the Old Testament absolutely literally. This leads, of course, to students actually examining evidence and arguments outside the Bible, which inevitably leads to…atheism. He preaches no compromise and accepting every single gosh-darned letter of the Bible in the plainest possible sense. This leads to logic like this at the Creation "Museum". In Genesis 6:19-20, the Bible says that two of every sort of land vertebrate (seven of the "clean"…

Your Monday Mammal: Mystery in Borneo

What is this mystery beast captured on film in Kayan Mentarang National Park, East Kalimantan, Indonesia in 2003? Initial claims were that it was a new species of carnivore. But is there evidence for this claim? Initial discussions centered on whether the specimen was a viverrid of some kind (e.g. the very rare Hose's Palm Civet, Hemigalus [Diplogale] hosei). The WWF, who sponsored the original research, for their part felt that this was most likely a new species of civet. Recently a study by Meijaard et al. has analyzed the two available photos of the specimen (and in so doing generated…

Historians on Bush

Over at Framing Science, Matt notes that the WaPo is running a series of pieces by historians putting Bush's presidency in historical context. Back in May 2004, History News Network reported that "eight in ten historians [...] rate the current presidency an overall failure." In particular, the George W. Bush presidency was seen as being the worst since: In terms of economic damage, Reagan.In terms of imperialism, T Roosevelt.In terms of dishonesty in government, Nixon.In terms of affable incompetence, Harding.In terms of corruption, Grant.In terms of general lassitude and cluelessness,…

Screening football player's hearts

The University of Georgia has started doing health screens to check their football players for possible arrhythmias or heart abnormalities: Makiri Pugh is not your typical college freshman. At age 18, he knows more than most young adults about the structure and health of his heart, and it's not because he's sick. Pugh, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was recruited to play football for the University of Georgia Bulldogs, ranked No. 1 in pre-season polls. Like other elite athletes at the school in Athens, Georgia, he was required to undergo a battery of medical tests before he took the field.…

Missouri screws up

I don't know whether it's by design or fortuitous incompetence, but creationists are masters of the fuzzy statement that opens the doors to all kinds of new opportunities for ignorance. Missouri, for instance, just passed a law giving themselves the freedom to pray (a freedom they already had, which is not in peril) and at the same time, just had to toss in this lovely and dangerous clause: no student shall be compelled to perform or participate in academic assignments or educational presentations that violate his or her religious beliefs. Raise your hand if you think you can spot the…

Cyborg Bugs to Engage in Warentless Eavesdropping

In a breakthrough heralded by some as "a major advancement toward the annihilation of the human species," a military contractor known as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is utilizing robotic hybrid insects for surveillance and intel gathering. Using microelectromechanical systems or (MEMS), researchers are able to control the movements and flight of insects with a remote control and a GPS system. Big Mothra is watching... Darpa is funding four research groups at various universities for a four-phased development/deployment strategy. The third phase is the demonstration…

Mythical Monster Sloth, the Mapinguary!

As you know, we rarely stray into the realms of cryptozoology. But when reports emerge of a monstrous, Amazonian sloth that shows no fear and has the power to hypnotize its victims, we just can't resist. As it turns out, legends of the creature called the mapinguary (pronounced ma-ping-wahr-EE) have existed for centuries. Hundreds of alleged eyewitnesses have independently come up with very similar descriptions of the mapinguary, including members of different Indian tribes who have never had contact with one another. Could there be some truth to the rumors? Eyewitnesses seem to agree on…

This is why I could never be an anthropologist

Somedays, it's just awful to have the mind of a 12 year old boy. So I'm reading this serious and interesting paper on Neandertals, and learn something new. Two particular characteristics have received considerable attention; pronounced humeral diaphysis strength asymmetry and anteroposteriorly strengthened humeral diaphyseal shape. In particular, humeral bilateral asymmetry for cross-sectional area, and torsional and average bending rigidity, appear exceptionally high in Neandertals (averaging 24–57%) compared to skeletal samples of modern Holocene H. sapiens (averaging 5–14%). That's…

A place of interest, education & curiosity

Where is this wonderful place? You're already there! Neurophilosophy gets reviewed for the first time: Neurophilosophy presents a unique opportunity to explore the many facets of the human condition with the guidance of a very well educated tour guide. From cannibalism to athleticism, "molecules, minds and everything in between," Neurophilosophy offers us a look at the human brain as most of us have never seen (or considered) it before. Neurophilosophy is a place of interest, education, contemplation, and curiosity. It's hard to imagine what you might learn here, but it's safe to…

Does Gore Contribute to the Communication Crisis?

A busy day but a quick analysis of breaking news: Gore's Inconvenient Truth has been a stunning success in generating news coverage to his preferred "pandora's box" framing of the "climate crisis" and in mobilizing a latent base of concerned citizens. His perspective is likely to only be amplified after winning the Nobel prize. But as we describe in our framing article at Science and as I explain at NPR's On the Media, there still remains a Two Americas of climate change perceptions. Over the past year Democrats have grown even more concerned about the issue while Republicans remain…

E.O. Wilson Calls for Atheists and Evangelicals to Come Together on Common Ground

E.O. Wilson is on a noble mission to bridge the perceived divide between science, religion, and partisanship. In his book, The Creation, by framing environmental stewardship as not only a scientific matter, but also one of personal and moral duty, Wilson has engaged an Evangelical audience that might not otherwise pay attention to popular science books, or for that matter, appeals on the environment. Shifting his focus to the partisan divide, Wilson employs a similar strategy by penning the forward to a forthcoming book by former Republican Congressman Newt Gingrich. In A Contract with the…

INTERVIEW WITH GLOBAL WARMING'S TOP REPORTER: NY Times' Andrew Revkin Discusses Hurricane Debate; Peer-Review; His 'Bird's Eye View' of Climate Science; and His Next Book

Over at the "ideas site" World Changing, David Zaks offers up an interview with the NY Times' Andrew Revkin. As I've written on this blog before, Revkin is one of the top science writers in the business, and the country's leading journalist covering climate change. For ScienceBlogs readers, the interview along with the World Changing site are definitely worth checking out. Here's how World Changing describes its mission and content: WorldChanging.com works from a simple premise: that the tools, models and ideas for building a better future lie all around us. That plenty of people are…

THE TWO FACES OF MERKEL ON SCIENCE: German Leader Joins Bush in Opposing Public Funding for ESC; Adding to the Complexity of the Debate, Many Opponents of ESC Are "Pro-Science"

The Bush administration isn't the only government opposing the expansion of publicly-funded ESC research. This week, Germany joined with Poland, Austria, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Malta and Slovenia in opposing a EU proposal to allow public funding for ESC research on embryos left over from in vitro clinics. Germany is trying to rally Italy to join in the EU coalition opposing stem cell research. The announcement features the multiple faces of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government when it comes to science. Just a week earlier, Dr. Merkel, who holds a doctorate in physics, wrote in…

Thor and the magical power of Natalie Portman

I saw the new Thor movie tonight. I'll give you the gist of the movie, with no spoiler details. First of all, atheists are allowed to watch the movie. The Asgardians are actually super-advanced aliens who live in a high-tech mega-city with trans-galactic transporter technology that uses wormholes. They use it to oppress distant worlds and impose their medieval political system on the universe. We're supposed to feel all right about that because the king is Hannibal Lecter. Thor is a bad, foolish bully-boy who picks fights with the Blue Man Group, so Hannibal Lecter flings him to Earth to…

A Feast of Bugs

In the past few months, the New York Times science section has been putting together some special packages of articles, and this week's bundle is on the topic of evolution. You can read John Noble Wilford on hominids, Nicholas Wade on recent human evolution, Carol Kaesuk Yoon on the evolution of animal development, and more. No animals for me, thanks--I got the microbes. Which is just fine with me. It's a world of evolution I get all to myself. In my article, I take a look at experiments in which scientists watch microbes evolve, testing out hypotheses about natural selection and other…

The Big Fact-Check: Thoughts On the Day After Dover

When Judge John E. Jones III issued his decision in the Dover creationism trial on Tuesday, I downloaded the document with a vague sense of dread. It wasn't just that the decision was 139 pages long. I knew that Judge Jones had ruled that teaching intelligent design was unconstitutional, but I was worried that he might have accepted that it was anything but a warmed-over form of creationism. Months of media coverage of the trial had nurtured my dread. Again and again, reporters felt an obligation to give "equal time" to intelligent design advocates, without feeling an equal obligation to…

Malaria For Brains

The red blob in this picture is a human red blood cell, and the green blob in the middle of it is a pack of the malaria-causing parasites Plasmodium falciparum. Other species of the single-celled Plasmodium can give you malaria, but if you're looking for a real knock-down punch, P. falciparum is the parasite for you. It alone is responsible for almost all of the million-plus deaths due to malaria. How did this scourge come to plague us? In a paper to be published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists have reconstructed a series of molecular events…

It may not look like much but it's family

So what do you see? A groove and some lines? Truth be told, this is possibly the oldest recorded chordate fossil (or, should I say, one of a number of seventeen specimens of same). It dates from the pre-Cambrian - i.e. before 543 million years ago - during a period known as the Ediacarian. Found by Ross Faraghar seven years ago in the Flinders Range of Australia, the specimens represent our earliest view of chordate evolution, that is, the evolution of the group that we belong to (along with a few squishy things, and the more familiar fish, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals). Unfortunately,…

"At-home" burglaries

The Terminator said: In England, the percentage of burglaries committed when the occupants are at home is something like 30%, while in the US, it's around 9%. Let me add two more data points that I was able to find: Canada (Edmonton) 10% (Canadian Urban Victimization Survey #9) and Australia (Victoria) <10% (Burglary, a Social Reality). Obviously, no conclusions about cause and effect can be reached by looking at these stats alone, however, the desired conclusion can be reached by looking at how jailed perps responded in interviews. Fear of encountering an armed victim WAS important to…

How Exactly Do Infant Brains Wire Themselves For Speech, Anyway?

We seem to have a plethora of posts pertaining to Pure Pedantry's penchant for peroratory punditry. I found a recent press release that I fear will only encourage him. Using magnetoenephalography, this group tracked how the brains of newborns, 6 month olds, and one year olds work when speaking. They specifically looked at cross-talk between Broca's Area, which is responsible for comprehending speech, areas responsible for audition in general, and other areas responsible for generating it. The babies were exposed to three kinds of sounds through earphones -- pure tones that do not resemble…

Comparing Australia with the US

Gary Strand said: 'Twould seem that the difference between Australia's gun laws and the US' gun laws have no effect on suicide rates, since the numbers are nearly identical. By the same reasoning, you can conclude that Australia's more restrictive gun laws are the reason for the lower homicide rate in Australia. Actually, I'm working from the assumption stated above (which, in various forms, is used by nearly every anti-gunner) towards the one I made. What I'm curious about is, if Oz's gun laws have created it's lower crime rate (vis-a-vis the US) why didn't they create a lower suicide rate…

Presentation: New Approaches to Training Working Memory

Yesterday I was invited to give this 15-minute presentation (PPT, PDF) to LearningRX about recent perspectives on working memory limitations, and their potential for informing cognitive training and enhancement programs. In case you're curious, here's a list of references: Baddeley, A. D. (1986) Working Memory. Oxford University Press. Broadbent, D.E. (1975), The magic number seven after fifteen years. In A. Kennedy and A. Wilkes (eds.), Studies in Long-Term Memory, New York: Wiley, 3-18. Duncan J, Emslie H, Williams P, Johnson R, Freer C (1996) Intelligence and the frontal lobe: the…

The Great Patriotic War in Sand and Sorrow

   Recruitment poster calling for defense of the "Soviet Motherland." Woman holds a document that translates roughly to "military oath."My grandmother sends me a lot of chain e-mails. Many of them are of the right-wing Evangelical Christian variety that have been resent so many times that I have to scroll down several pages just to get through the history of everyone it's been sent to. I've received a video about how Muslims are out-breeding Europeans and how this will be the death of Christianity. Another celebrated the anti-Muslim Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders who claims "there is…

Tusks and Swords

Enthusiasts of marine biology -- the most accessible branch of the Sciences, considering its general aesthetic -- will probably have already pounced on this news item, which has been floating along the New York Times science section for a few days. For those who haven't the time, however, to remain constantly updated on experimental developments in Narhwal Tusk Theory (an ancient discipline, practiced by the Phoenicians), here is the gist: a team of Scientists -- always in teams!! -- from Harvard and "The National Institute of Standards and Technology" has just turned an electron microscope…

Trying to heal, trying to figure out what happened

So the last time we heard from our heroine, she was battling the evil germ invasion. But that was over a week ago. What's happened? Has our heroine successfully fought off the germs, brought balance and rest back to her life, and gotten back on track with work? Well, not exactly. She's just gotten herself sicker. I don't know what it is about this job. Even if you prioritize the hell out of everything, even if you cut out all of the non-essentials, even if you swear on your grandma's secret veggie noodle soup recipe that you will get to bed at a decent hour for the next week....well,…

New Podcast - ScienceBloggers Chat About Grad School

Today we have Scibling Showdown # 2 - the pros and cons of grad school.  This episode includes Jason Goldman of the Thoughtful Animal, Christie Wilcox of Observations of a Nerd and Scicurious of Neurotopia.  We talk about how we chose our current labs, things we wish we had known before we started grad school, and where we plan to end up (spoiler: none of us have any idea!).  We also discuss how blogging plays into the graduate school experience, and here it sounds like we've all had overwhelmingly positive experiences.  I think any student will admit that grad school is a bit bipolar -…

Noting rejection rates for journals across disciplines (from 1967)

One of the anti-PLOSone arguments is that its acceptance rate is too high at about 70%. Since I had my RK Merton compendium open to this article, I thought I would quote some bits to backup my argument that the anti-PLOSone folks are completely full of crap on this point.  Here's the citation: Zuckerman, H., & Merton, R. K. (1971). Patterns of Evaluation in Science: Institutionalization, Structure and Functions of the Referee System. Minerva, 9(1), 66-100. (I believe this might be in JSTOR if you're at an academic institution, but it's also reprinted in Merton, R. K. (1973). The sociology…

Anybody can code

Anybody can code but what just anybody codes can be crap. There's a real problem in my place of work and probably in other places where you have scientists and engineers who haven't been formally trained in CS and haven't taken the time or effort to learn about proper techniques but who are writing a lot of code.  It's one thing to whip something up quickly to answer a question, but some of this code becomes pieces of larger things or gets delivered to a customer. And someone has to maintain it, but it's got memory leaks, isn't documented, it is unreliable, it's not secure, and no one knows…

In the UK is defensive gun use only lawful against gun-armed attackers?

Clayton Cramer wrote: "The Offences Against The Person Act of 1861 only allows use of deadly force against an attacker similarly armed. Otherwise a firearm can only be used with the intent of frightening an attacker -- even if the warning shot accidentally hits the attacker. For practical purposes, guns are seldom used defensively in Britain because there are so few circumstances where it is legal to do so. I doubt that a rape victim could use a gun against a rapist in Britain unless he had a knife or a gun. J.B. Hill, Weapons Law, (London: Waterlow Publishers, 1989), p. 60. The Nit Nurse…

Genes, Memes, hos, Hums

There is, I must say, a rather unconventional article in New Scientist called Evolution's third replicator: Genes, memes, and now what? by Susan Blackmore about ... what's the word I am looking for...hmm.. Human Culture + Technology. Susan suggests that we have unleashed a technoculture goo. Remember Eric Drexler's Engines of Creation? Something like that--with mixed metaphors but without the encumbrances of technical nitty-gritty that Drexler had. So, what's this goo? Let Susan explain, because however hard I tried I could not write a summary (and I tried very hard, trust me). What do I…

What are the strings in String Theory made of?

Layman: What are the strings in String Theory made of? Physicist: Well, they are not made of anything. They are fundamental. Layman: Like how sometime back protons were fundamental, and then how quarks were fundamental? Physicist: You see, physics usually advances gradually, building upon our earlier understanding. Sometimes, we have breakthroughs: times such as when Newton published his Principia, when Einstein published his Theory of Gravitation or when Quantum Mechanical Laws were published. New models of reality that change our conception fundamentally are found and we begin again. The…

What happens when you split your brain

What happens when you split your brain in the middle? By splitting I mean the surgical kind where the corpus callosum (the connecting neural tissue between right and left hemispheres) is severed. Why would anyone do that, I hear you scream. Well, there are instances when this may be the only possible option for someone to survive their ailment (like severe epileptic seizures). Back to the question. So, what happens? Back in 1950s Nobel laureate Roger Sperry assisted by his colleagues and his able protege Michael Gazzaniga tested a patient - before his brain was split and after his brain was…

Bordua study finds correlation between gun homicide and gun ownership

No I have not. I quote from page 173: "there is a positive relationship [of firearms ownership] with firearms murder but not with criminal homicide generally." See table 9.2 on page 174. I should note again that Bordua felt that this relation was spurious but that his reasoning was faulty. In any case, the relationship does exist Rick Cook writes: So Bourda found what he considered a spurious relationship and you trust his work enough to believe that the relationship existed, but you don't believe the relationship was spurious. All right then: The relationship exists (provided Bordua did…

2007 TheScian Scifi Story Contest Results!

Hooray! After days of anticipation, they are finally out! First Prize - A Story in Blue by J Ramanand Joint Second Prize - Call of the Running Tide by Anita Murthy Joint Second Prize - The Going Got Tough by Dr Shantala Congratulations to the winners! A few words on the stories. Ramanand's story is a thoughtful take on the effects of religion on what is probably the most momentous event in human history: meeting a whole new lifeform. I enjoyed it greatly and it made me think. Call of the Running Tide by Anitha Murthy is a gentle story about childcare in a world that relies increasingly on…

High on Pi

It's one of the most wonderful, confounding, nerve-racking and sublime mathematical conundrum of all times. In the spin of quantum mechanics, in the accretion of galactic clouds, in a little girl's twirl, when a pebble is dropped on a quiet lake; wherever and whenever there is rotation, it lurks, right at the center. This then, is Pi, the ratio of a cirlce's circumference to its diameter, an infinite series, a transcendental number, one of the uncountable many that is familiar and distant, like a far away galaxy. Euclid proved every circle has a Pi in it, Archimedes dabbled in it, Ramanujan…

Indians and Science blogs

Arunn has collected thoughts from folks who could talk science but do not do so. He concludes with the question "Is science blogging in India yet to have its time?" Hop over and make your point. Come back and read the below in leisure. Every week I do a search to find science blogs by Indians that I could add to my reading list. It's slim pickings. I'd look at the number of science related blogs elsewhere (see Pharyngula's blogroll for instance). Shit man, I would tell myself, we Indians are fucked. We'll learn, we'll grow and we'll adopt technology as it suits us but we won't share our…

Top 15 science hotties and labia-punching

I'm putting this post under "education" because I define a new term at the end of it. Which, of course, qualifies it to be educational. By now you've probably picked up on the Sexiest Female Scientist list being passed around by some atheist guy, so I won't bother to link to it and drive up the turd's traffic. I will, however, give my quick 2 cents on this particular brand of sexism. Sheril and PZ already hit this topic, among many others, but I think Janet's take comes closest to my own position. She writes: However, it's pretty assy to dismiss not just the intuitions but the actual…

The Crypt of the Capuchin Monks

Mark Dery, guest blogger for Boing Boing, has a piece up on the "philosophical investigation into the paradox of horrible beauty and the politics of 'just looking.'" In it he highlights the 17th century crypt where the Capuchin's (the religious order, not the monkey) buried their deceased brethren. I visited the crypt when I was in Rome a few years ago and, I can assure you, it's every bit as creepy as he describes. From 1631 until 1870, the monks buried their dead here---some four thousand of them, reportedly. The musty, mineral smell of the hard-packed dirt floor mingles with the sweaty…

State taxes inversely related to certain undesirable outcomes

The Tax Foundation recrently ranked the states according to their tax load, with low taxes generating high rankings. My home state of Vermont did not fare well. Enter my friend David Goodman (Davidgoodman.net) who has written several books with his famous radio-host sister, Amy, and whose wife, Sue Minter, is a Vermont state legislator. David found some notable correlations with these rankings. He used them to create this Interesting Facts sheet for Sue, so she could remind people what taxes do.    Do you ever wonder which states offer the worst education, have the highest school…