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EMERGENCY ACTION NEEDED NOW

The creationist-biased Texas Board of Education has assembled a committee to 'review science curriculum standards.' This group includes a few actual scientist types, and ... pay attention folks .. Wisconsin based ID creationist Ralph Seelke, Baylor creationist chemist Charles Garner, and Stephen Meyer, vice president of the Discovery Institute. Yes, you read that right. The Texas Board of Education has appointed the President of the Discovery Institute to a committee to review the state's science standards. un be-fucking-lievable. There is clearly something you can do to stop this now.…

The Nature of the Racist Conversation

This is Melisa Riviere. White People sometimes do hip hop. I have a reading suggestion for you. First a little background. I've gotten into a few arguments on race and racism in my time, some on this blog. Racist thinking is all around us. Why just a few hours ago, a neighbor complained that his car had been robbed by the black kids that pass down our street now and then. How did he know it was the black kids? Because the people who robbed his car like hip-hop. How did he know that? Because they didn't take his rock cds. Oh, did they take his hip hop cd's? Well no, he doesn't…

Hurricane Gustav: Changing Predictions

There has been enough change in the predictions regarding Gustav to make it worth a fresh look. Bottom line: It is weaker than previously predicted, it is still almost exactly on the same track, and it may be speeding up a little bit. Tropical Storm and soon after hurricane force winds may strike the Northern Gulf Coast by 2:00 or so Monday Morning (or even sooner), certainly during the night tonight. The eye may cross the coast about mid day Monday (tomorrow). The center of the predicted path is just far enough west of New Orleans proper to worry a lot about the storm surge. Details: 1…

Bush Administration Prefers That Animals Go Extinct, Ruins The Environment for Everybody

There is a constant battle between conservatives (aka Republicans, or stoopid people) and liberals (aka Democrats, or smart people) as to how to regulate industry. Republicans say "don't regulate industry at all." Why? because they are paid by industry to say this. If you think there is anything else going on here you are not even a tiny bit as smart as you think you are and should go back to school. Each Republican congress tries to remove regulation, and each administration tries to weaken the existing regulation. Currently, the Bush Administration is planning to remove all the…

Al Franken has a Fifty State Strategy

All Franken chatting with supporters at a home in Coon Rapids. "Why?" you may ask, "Why would a guy running for the United States Senate ... in which you represent one state ... have a fifty state strategy?" Good question. Franken discussed his Fifty State Strategy with supporters at a recent fund raiser at a home in Coon Rapids. Amanda, Julia and I dropped in, and were able to hear Franken's current thinking on a number of issues. He discussed Norm Coleman, the economy, the war, America's place in the world, and cracked exactly one Saturday Night Live joke. And, we had an…

The Wrong Way to Approach the Evolution-Creationism Debate

Amy Binder and John H. Evans, associate professors of Sociology at the University of California at San Diego, have written a piece on efforts to force religion in the guise of Intelligent Design and Creationism down the throats of children in Texas. A proposal before the Texas Board of Education calls for including the "strengths and weaknesses" of evolution in the state's science curriculum. This initiative is understood by supporters and opponents to be a strategic effort to get around First Amendment restrictions on teaching religion in science class. The proposal is a new round in an…

The Pope On Charlie Hebdo

Pope Francis engages in some yes-buttery with regard to the Charlie Hebdo murders: Pope Francis said Thursday there are limits to freedom of expression, especially when it insults or ridicules someone's faith. Francis spoke about the Paris terror attacks while en route to the Philippines, defending free speech as not only a fundamental human right but a duty to speak one's mind for the sake of the common good. But he said there were limits. By way of example, he referred to Alberto Gasparri, who organizes papal trips and was standing by his side aboard the papal plane. “If my good friend Dr…

Sunday Chess Problem

This week I want to build on something I discussed near the end of last week's problem. I mentioned that a problem's genre should in some way complement its theme. So, if your problem is a selfmate, it is better if the theme employs logic that is specific to the selfmate genre. If your idea could as easily be expressed in a direct mate, then perhaps you have not chosen the most appropriate way of expressing your idea. I'd like to illustrate this with two of my own problems. We'll go through the first one quickly. It is a selfmate in three: This problem was published in the July 1991…

Tegmark's “Mathematcial Universe” Hypothesis

When I wrote my post last week about the existence of mathematical objects, I had not yet noticed that Massimo Pigliucci was writing about similar topics. More specifically, he is discussing cosmologist Max Tegmark's idea that ultimate reality just is mathematics. Here's Pigliuccia describing Tegmark's ideas: The basic idea is that the ultimate structure of reality is, well, a mathematical one. Please understand this well, because it is the crux of the discussion: Tegmark isn’t saying anything as mundane as that the world is best described by mathematics; he is saying that the ultimate…

Some Light Reading for Saturday

Over at HuffPo, Jeff Schweitzer serves up a cri de couer against religion. He writes: Many factors have brought us to this sad state of affairs, but we can no longer ignore the 600 pound gorilla and trumpeting elephants in the room: religion is killing us. While our kids are being taught that god created gravity, children in Zaire are learning about Newton and Einstein. As children in Lichtenstein are being taught about the warping of space-time, American kids are learning that "people who do not believe in god" are incapable of understanding gravity. Preach it! American religiosity has…

Freeman on ID

Morgan Freeman is one of those actors who is always good, even if the movie is bad. Most recently I saw him in in Now You See Me, which I enjoyed, despite its preposterous story. He is also a big science booster. He hosts the show Through the Wormhole on the Science Channel. So, all in all, I'm a Morgan Freeman fan. Here's a short interview with Freeman, in which he briefly addresses the evolution question. Let's have a look: Do you believe in “intelligent design?” No. Let me clarify that answer. Because intelligent design is exactly what we see. But does that come from some being? I…

More Chess!

The World Championship continues to be a snooze. Five games down, five draws. Only one game has made it past the thirtieth move. Both players seem very hesitant and completely uninclined to take any risks. Still seven games left, though, so we will see what happens. Happily, the U. S. Championship continues to produce one nail-biter after another. Today's tactical exercise comes from the game six match-up between Gregory Kaidanov as white against Robert Hess as black. As you can see, we have a rather unusual material balance:     If you remember your basic point-counting (Pawn=1, Bishop and…

Live attenuated HSV-2 vaccine: One step closer to reality

Hey, remember back in 2008, when I wrote a post on a neat idea in herpes vaccine design? That paper was all ideas. Well, they just published a paper where they test some of the science of those ideas: Herpes Simplex Virus 2 ICP0â Mutant Viruses Are Avirulent and Immunogenic: Implications for a Genital Herpes Vaccine When most people think of 'herpes', they think of a 'social' disease. Yeah, the sores (wherever they crop up) are embarrassing, and its embarrassing telling your boyfriend/girlfriend about it, but its not like herpes kills anyone... right? Well, no. Though its rare, babies born…

"A princess which has a magic wand and whenever she touches something, it turns into sunshine and farts."

I am a huge fan of video games. Bro playing Atari is one of my first memories. Mom and Dad got Bro and I a Nintendo right when they came out. We got a Tandy 2000 when they first came out, and I can remember Bro and I teaming up for hours of Kings Quest. This one summer, my friend and I beat every level (and star levels) of Super Mario World just to see what happened (SPOILER: all the turtles turn into weird/creepy Mario heads. we were suicidal for weeks). The first shooter I REALLY got into was Quake II (high school computer class was really just an hour battle-royal). College was full…

Endogenous NON-retroviruses!

Endogenous retroviruses are weird, but how they got into our genomes and what they mean, evolutionarily, isnt too hard to understand (unless youre an IDiot). A retrovirus has to not only accidentally infect a germ-line cell (sperm/egg), that particular egg/sperm has to successfully mediate fertilization, and where the retrovirus randomly inserts has to not cause trouble for the resulting offspring (cell cycle arrest, cancer, etc), for an endogenous retrovirus to form. But this scenareo, while highly improbable, has happened lots and lots of times (a large portion of your genome is retroviral…

Ongoing witch-hunt against Oklahoma scientists, Part Deux

Quite possibly one of the weirdest things I have ever witnessed in my scientific career-- The president of Oklahoma State University has 'forbidden' an ethics panel approved, NIH funded research project on 'his' campus. What kind of abominable research are these Satan worshiping scientists trying to do? Injecting healthy infants with large doses of heroin? Telling women they have miscarried, when really scientists are stealing their fetuses for medical research? Teaching turtles to tap-dance? What? A project to test anthrax vaccines and treatment on baboons was quashed by Oklahoma State…

Modified virus lets blind kids see (and some adults too)

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, 'visionary' scientists like Francis Collins thought 'genetic diseases' were coming to an end. Because they believed in 'OGOD', 'one gene, one disease' (lol, *blink*), they were sure identifying 'disease' genes would... somehow... give us the ability to cure said diseases. Unfortunately, even ignoring the technical issues weve had with gene therapy, OGOD isnt exactly how genetic diseases work. Yes, some are caused by one dysfunctional gene, like X-linked ALD I wrote about earlier, but many more are caused by a constellation of genes, environmental…

Honey Bee Colony Collapse: Its like, a virus.

Since ~2006, honey bee colonies in the US have been dropping dead overnight. Literally. They call it 'colony collapse disorder'. While large populations of organisms dying is disturbing, no matter the species, we need honey bees-- they help pollinate so many of our crops. I grew up in the banks of the Missouri River, around apple and peach orchards (who always had their own bee hives, and honey) and hell, I eat everything on that list... What is killing our bees? People have accused GMOs and wireless internet and pesticides and antibiotics... We didnt have a clue before. It might be…

HELP US EXPEL LAWMAKERS: A DI TARD-WRECK

The 'fellows' at the Discovery Institute are so kind! They must have heard I was feeling down, so they sent out a hysterical email to brighten my day! Help Us Get Lawmakers Expelled Dear friends, We're excited to be able to tell you that on October 21st Expelled: No Intelligence Allow, starring Ben Stein, will be released on DVD. In Expelled, Stein brilliantly exposed the widespread persecution of scientists and educators who are pursuing legitimate science that challenges Darwin's theory of evolution. Rush Limbaugh called the movie "powerful" and "fabulous" and said Stein's "interviews…

Immunology Woo: MHC Mates

If youve read 'health' news on the internet this week, youve seen this story: Pill may lead women to the wrong guy The Pill makes women pick bad mates MSNBC Pill Users Choose 'Wrong' Sex Partners WebMD Sniffing for Mr. Right Just put 'MHC women' into Google News. Youll get a billion hits for articles talking about this paper: MHC-correlated odour preferences in humans and the use of oral contraceptives Ugh. Guys, at this point in time, research connecting MHC genotype with 'compatible' mates in humans is good old fashioned woo. MHC Class I molecules are on the surface of all of your cells…

Indiana Jones

The big Monty Hall book has finally been sent off to OUP, so it's time to get back to blogging. We begin with lighter fare. I caught the midnight screening of the new Indiana Jones movie last night. Did it live up to its billing? No. It was terrible. A true disaster. Cringe-worthy. Hard to see how it could have been worse. At least there's still Get Smart and The Incredible Hulk to look forward to. I see that P.Z. Myers has a post up describing the process by which Indiana Jones movies get written. Methinks P.Z. is giving them too much credit. There was not one single, solitary…

Harry Potter

J.K. Rowling made some news at Carnegie Hall the other night: But when the questions began -- they had been submitted by audience members before the event -- she came into her own. Finally able to talk freely about the end of a series that had been so long-anticipated, she left nothing out. The big revelation of the night came when she was asked if Dumbledore had ever found love. With a sigh, she seemed on the verge of saying no, but then revealed, “my truthful answer to you... I always thought of Dumbledore as gay.” After a collective gasp, the audience roared with applause. Rowling was…

How Do You Keep Them Down on the Farm...

Via P.Z., I came across this article, from the Colorado Springs Gazette, about Christian teenagers abdoning their faith upon reaching college: The trend is known as the “Great Evacuation,” and the statistics are startling to youth ministers. Studies have shown at least 50 percent -- and possibly as much as 85 percent -- of kids involved in church groups will abandon their faith during their first year in college. In an attempt to reverse those numbers, Focus on the Family on Saturday hosted “The Big Dig,” a conference aimed at teens and youth leaders. The goal was not just to celebrate…

The Creation Museum 8: Concluding Remarks

The only parts of the museum I have not reviewed are the bookstore (pretty much what you'd expect) and the men's room (impressively clean). So what conclusions should we draw? Is this the end of civilization as we know it? No. But it is one more symptom of the disease that has been growing ever since Ronald Reagan started making appeals to religious fundamentalists a standard part of Republican Party politics in the 1980's. Just ponder the fact that AiG had little trouble raising the twenty-seven million dollars needed to build this monstrosity. Consider that now everyone in the…

Cats

Winter break is the time to complete all of those annoying chores you've been putting off during the term. For example, yesterday my car passed its inspection. Woo hoo! And today, Isaac and Emily passed their inspection. By which I mean the vet found that they're in good health (though Isaac, like his owner, really needs to lose some weight.) Vet day is always very exciting. First comes the ritual of wrestling the cats into the carrier. I have a large carrier, really intended for small dogs, that comfortably fits both of them. I figure they take some comort from knowing they are not…

Repeat After Me: Particle Physics Is Not All of Physics

The very last section of the book-in-progress (at least the draft that's with my editor right now...) is titled "Science Is Never Over," and talks about how there are a nearly infinite number of phenomena that you can investigate scientifically. The universe is a never-ending source of amazement and wonder, with surprisingly rich dynamics in the simplest of things. I mean, look at the thousands of words I've gotten out of talking about sticky tape... This is why I sigh heavily whenever I see a title like Ashutosh Jogalekar's "Should Physicists Stop Looking for Fundamental Laws. This is, at…

Laser-Cooled Atoms: Lithium

Element: Lithium (Li) Atomic Number: 3 Mass: Two stable isotopes, masses 6 and 7 amu Laser cooling wavelength: 671 nm Doppler cooling limit: 140 μK. Chemical classification: Alkali metal, column I in the periodic table. Yet another greyish metal. We're almost done with alkalis, I promise. Less reactive than any of the others, so the explosions in water aren't very impressive. Other properties of interest: Lithium-7 is a boson, but has a negative scattering length, meaning that BEC's of lithium-7 tend to implode unless you modify the collisional properties. Lithium-6 is a fermion, and much…

Balance, Productivity, and Temper

It's been a few days since I did a work-life balance whine, but it's not like I'm not thinking about it. The problem for the moment is the psychology of trying to be productive in limited time. Specifically, while I know intellectually that I need to be efficient in working, and make the most of even small blocks of free time, this runs hard up against my personal psychology, which is that I hate being interrupted. The example that brought this to mind is from this morning. This summer, we've established a routine where I get up around 6:30 and take The Pip downstairs for drinking milk and…

More on "Death Rays": Another Estimation Technique

One of the great things about "Fermi Problems" is that there are multiple ways of attacking them. So, for example, when considering the death ray plot yesterday, I used medical devices as an example system to assess the plausibility of the plot, while Physics Buzz talked total energy. But those aren't the only ways to approach this, and turning it over last night, I thought of another approach. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I normally think of light in terms of photon flux or energy flux, and one way to go at this would be to ask how many photons of light you'd be dealing with. The…

Monday Math: Pythagorean Triples, cont.

Time to finish what we started last week. We saw that if a, b, c was a primitive Pythagorean triple, then at least one of a and b is even and one is odd. Let us declare, then, that we will use a to denote the odd length and b to denote the even one. By rearranging the Pythagorean equation and factoring we get: \[ a^2=c^2-b^2=(c+b)(c-b). \]   Let's try this out for a few specific triples: \[ 3^2=(5+4)(5-4)=(9)(1) \] \[ 5^2=(13+12)(13-12)=(25)(1) \] \[ 15^2=(17+8)(17-8)=(25)(9) \] \[ 45^2=(53+28)(53-28)=(81)(25) \]   In each case we find that c+b and c-b are both perfect squares.…

Is High Self-Esteem Bad For Math Education?

Here's an interesting article from The Washington Post. It's title? “For Math Students, Self-Esteem Might Not Equal High Scores.” It is difficult to get through a day in an American school without hearing maxims such as these: “To succeed, you must believe in yourself,” and “To teach, you must relate the subject to the lives of students.” But the Brookings Institution is reporting today that countries such as the United States that embrace self-esteem, joy and real-world relevance in learning mathematics are lagging behind others that don't promote all that self-regard. Consider Korea and…

Maddow States it Plain

I thought Rachel Maddow had a very smart take on the fallout from the Massachusetts Senate race. I've placed a lengthy excerpt below the fold. On paper, after Al Franken was finally certified as winning in Minnesota, Democrats had a filibuster-proof, 60-seat majority. On paper, that's what they had. But in reality, those 60 votes included a bunch of senators who really had no interest in voting with the rest of the Democrats on much of anything. Their little unicorn--their little myth of 60 reliable votes led the Democrats to draft policies in a way that they thought maybe could get all…

!!Ong Bak 2!!

OMG! A new Tony Jaa movie: Back in 2003, a little Thai movie called Ong Bak introduced the world to an elephant-herder-turned-martial-artist named Tony Jaa. Directed by Prachya Pinkaew, the movie became a global sensation and rocketed Pinkaew and Jaa into the international celeb-o-sphere. They quickly collaborated on a follow-up called Tom Yum Goong (aka The Protector) that became the most successful Thai film ever released in America. Two times lucky, the Thai studio Sahamongkol Films eagerly green-lighted Jaa's dream project: Ong Bak 2 (Magnet Releasing), to be written, directed, produced…

Bill Maher is a Fine Choice for the Richard Dawkins Award

Th Richard Dawkins award is given by the Atheist Alliance International based on the following criteria: The Richard Dawkins Award will be given every year to honor an outstanding atheist whose contributions raise public awareness of the nontheist life stance; who through writings, media, the arts, film, and/or the stage advocates increased scientific knowledge; who through work or by example teaches acceptance of the nontheist philosophy; and whose public posture mirrors the uncompromising nontheist life stance of Dr. Richard Dawkins. This year the award is going to Bill Maher. Seems like…

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, SPAC 8/25/09

For my birthday, my parents got me two tickets to see Bruce Springsteen play in Saratoga Springs last night. The idea was that Kate and I would go, and they would come up and spend an evening with the grandbaby. Unfortunately, Kate had some sort of intestinal bug (which I now have, joy), and couldn't make it out, so my father came along with me. The show was scheduled for 7:30, and we walked in the gates at about 7:20, having been forced to pay for parking when a traffic cop suddenly declared that the giant empty field for free parking was full, and steered everybody into the $10 lot. The…

Links for 2009-08-18

slacktivist: The IndigNation "That's an example of what's often missing today in dealing with the IndigNation. These people are offended and outraged and so politicians and journalists respond by trying not to further offend or enrage them. As though that were possible. Indignation is their raison d'etre. They will take offense whether or not it is given. There is no point trying not to offend them. There is no point in trying not to make them angry. An appropriate response isn't to be more offended or more offensive, but it should involve going on the offense. The IndigNationalists are…

2010: The Year in Blog

Because I'm sure everybody is as fascinated by blog stats as I am, here's the traffic to this blog for 2010, in graphical form: In case you can't numerically integrate that in your head, I'll tell you that the total number of pageviews represented there is a bit more than 908,000. We have yet to crack the million mark in any one year, but the total number of pageviews over the history of ScienceBlogs is just short of 3.9 million. Not too shabby. Looking at the overall traffic states for the five years (five years!) that I've been blogging at ScienceBlogs, the thing I'm happiest about is this…

Links for 2010-12-11

Physics Buzz: Holiday Instability "Holiday decorations are unstable. (We're talking about physics here. We'll leave their emotions aside.) To take a closer look at what we're dealing with, I've considered three of the most popular items from the array of December decor: The Christmas tree, the Hanukkah menorah and, of course, the Festivus pole. Which of the three is the most likely to topple over when cousin Fred bumps into it after sampling too much egg nog?" (tags: science physics holiday education blogs physics-buzz) slacktivist: Getting laid off is not the same as getting fired "…

Two Cultures Within Science

The great British physicist Ernest Rutherford once said "In science, there is only physics; all the rest is stamp collecting." This is kind of the ultimate example of the arrogance of physicists, given a lovely ironic twist by the fact that when Rutherford won a Nobel Prize, it was in Chemistry. (He won for discovering that radioactive decays lead to transmutation of elements, causing one contemporary to quip that the most remarkable transmutation ever was Rutherford's change from a physicist to a chemist for the Nobel.) Of course, there's a little truth to the statement-- not the part about…

Links for 2010-11-22

Are you a highly skilled worker? (Blog) - physicsworld.com "But what's this? Kostya's only got 75 "attribute points" (not counting the 10 each for speaking English and having £800), and he needs 80 to qualify as a highly skilled worker. Bad luck, Kostya! Better go do your Nobel-prize-winning research somewhere else! Yes, as it turns out, "Kostya" isn't entirely hypothetical. In fact, he's based on Konstantin Noveselov, the Russian-born Nobel laureate who moved to the University of Manchester as a postdoc in 2001. The only thing I changed in going from Noveselov circa 2001 to "Kostya" in…

Links for 2010-10-24

Hey, Tea Partiers, this wine's for you! - By Mike Steinberger - Slate Magazine "In response to the advent of the Tea Party movement, some people have demanded to know where all these deficit hawks and defenders of the Constitution were during the Bush years. I have a different question: "Where's the Madeira?" If the Tea Partiers wish to evoke the spirit of 1776, it seems to me that alongside the powdered wigs and pantaloons, they ought to be accessorizing themselves with bottles of Madeira, which was a favorite tipple of the Founding Fathers and was supposedly used to toast the Declaration…

Links for 2010-10-21

Views: The Real Cost Equation - Inside Higher Ed "All of these arguments place the higher education system at the center of the universe worth examining. Holding up a magnifying glass to the industry can indeed yield a wealth of detailed information, but without context that information is partial, and it can be quite misleading. The college-centric view of the world all too often lends itself to an easy politicization of complex issues. Before we jump on the apocalyptic bandwagon, there is mileage in placing the higher education industry firmly within the industrial structure of the…

What to Tell Your Dog About Einstein

"Hey, dude, whatcha doin'?" "Signing these contracts. I'm not sure why they need four copies, but they do." "Contracts for what?" "The new book. Remmeber, the one we've been talking about these last few weeks? Sequel-of-sorts to How to Teach Physics to Your Dog? About relativity?" "Oh, yeah, that's right! We're doing another book! Where do I sign?" "What do you mean, 'Where do I sign?' You're a dog." "I could, you know, put a paw print on the line, or something." "I suppose you could, but it wouldn't be legally binding. Dogs aren't allowed to sign contracts." "You know that's horribly…

Why Does E=mc2? by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw

I want to like this book more than I do. As a general matter, this is exactly the sort of science book we need more of. As you can probably guess from the title, Why Does E=mc2? sets out to explain Einstein's theory of relativity, and does an excellent job of it. It presents a clear and concise explanation of the theory for a non-scientific audience, using no math beyond the Pythagorean Theorem. I picked this up partly as research of a sort-- if there is ever a How to Teach Physics to Your Dog 2: Canine Boogaloo, the most obvious topic for it would be relativity, which I mention a few times,…

Links for 2010-01-27

Science Channel Refuses To Dumb Down Science Any Further | The Onion - America's Finest News Source "Along with Bunting's remarks, the Science Channel issued a statement claiming that it currently airs more than 150 programming hours that are tangentially, and often laughably, related to science, and that staff members are unable to bring themselves to make those hours even more asinine. " (tags: science television onion silly education) The Mid-Majority : In the Band for a Day "Several minutes before tipoff, the director made a short announcement. "We have a guest today," he said. "…

Sportz Is Hurting America

Over at the Mid-Majority, Kyle Whelliston (formerly of espn.com) has a great essay on the "Sportz" phenomenon: Sports are great. Actual participation is awesome, but watching other people do sports can still be pretty good too. These days, people can watch sports anytime, anywhere and in whatever state of undress they choose. These are truly the days of miracles and wonders! All thanks to the Sports-Industrial Complex, which brought you mantertainment, lite beer and the Sports Bubble. When sports became industrialized in the latter part of the 20th Century, the S.I.C. became the conduit…

Links for 2009-10-09

From Gourmet to the Daily Gazette « Easily Distracted "This is the real issue for a lot of old media. They used to be a habit, a tradition, a part of life. As such, you ignored what you didn't use or like the same way you ignore a tear or a stain in a piece of furniture that you otherwise find comfortable and can't afford to replace anyway. But now I think a lot of audiences have a much more active imaginative engagement with what they read, and much less patience for a publication that isn't nimble in its response to the needs and desires of its readership. You go to old media for a kind…

Links for 2009-09-30

Oscar-O-Meterâ¢: The A.V. Club's third annual guide to the fall prestige movies, part one | Film | A.V. Club "Provided you take our word for it and don't go back into the archives, the A.V. Club's Oscar-O-Meter feature has quickly become the definitive tool for Oscar prognostication. Through a rigorously scientific process, our writers have quantified each prestige movie based on a set of criteria: Is it a literary adaptation? Is it topical without being too controversial? Risky without actually being provocative? Does it feature a star who lost weight, gained weight, or made some sort of…

Congratulations to the Tar Heels

Between the sleep deprivation caused by being home alone with the baby, and the new Jim Butcher book, I realized that I almost forgot to mention North Carolina's defeat of Michigan State for the NCAA basketball championship. I'm glad to see it for two reasons: their victory let me win two of the basketball pools I was in (neither involving money, alas), but more importantly, I like Roy Williams and I like this team. They play some really good basketball when they're clicking, and they absolutely dismantled the Spartans last night. They're not going to displace Syracuse or Maryland in my…

Why "Clean Coal" Matters

Back before things went pear-shaped this weekend, Jonathan Zasloff had a good post about why "clean coal" is important: I think it's terrific that the Coen Brothers are making funny, effective ads against relying on "clean coal" as part of the US energy program. But I worry that the clean energy community is really missing the boat here. Clean coal research and development is absolutely crucial in fighting climate change not for us, but for India and China. India has the fourth largest reserves of coal in the world -- most of it very dirty, with high ash content. It currently imports 70%…