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Deranged creationists: here are your instructions

Oh, that little scamp, Billy Dembski. He's all upset about his shabby treatment at Baylor, and he's displacing his anger into a defense of Robert Marks. President John Lilley of Baylor appears to have made up his mind that Prof. Robert Marks's Evolutionary Informatics Lab is to have no place at Baylor. There is only one court of appeal now, the Baylor Board of Regents, who can reverse Lilley's decision and even remove Lilley as president. Here is the list of board members. I encourage readers of UD to contact them (respectfully) and share their concerns about this gross violation of academic…

Literature Check

In one of the weirdest attempts to pretend that creationism is a real science, a student at Harvard Law School wrote a favorable review in the Harvard Law Review of a book about Intelligent Design. You'd think that this would be so irrelevant that it would vanish off the cultural radar in a flash. But it has ballooned into something of a blogospheric hurricane, mainly because the National Review Online wants to pretend that criticism of the review is an Inquisition-style persecution. It's a cute way to distract attention from the basic issue of whether creationism in any of its manifestations…

The Sad, Unfortunate Argument for Geoengineering Research

My latest Science Progress column just went online--I look at the issue of geoengineering, and reluctantly conclude that given our current predicament, the case for at least studying possible options makes a lot of sense. Research isn't the same as implementation, but it could give us a fallback. It could give us choices. To wit: Sure, research might make ultimate meddling more likely. But then, isn't the climate situation forcing our hand anyway? What if a rogue government, or a crazy billionaire, decides to unilaterally execute one of these geoengineering proposals regardless of what the…

1st Annual CRASH THE INTERSECTION Contest

Well, I showed up here at The Intersection, and boy, the place needed some cleaning up...Chris's bad habits, leaving unwashed dishes in the sink, mountains of empty Miller Lite bottles everywhere, and most troubling...we have no proper Scibling banner. So after some sidebar housekeeping and other small-scale fixing up of things, it was time to address that major faux pas. As a result, Chris and I are now ready to announce: The 1st Annual CRASH THE INTERSECTION Contest Design an "Intersection" banner and have your art displayed atop our blog for at least one year where the world can be…

An unstable contest of minds

I was reading last week's New Yorker, and this passage by Adam Gopnik - part of a long piece about professional magicians - caught my attention. I really agree with this: Whatever the context, the empathetic interchange between minds is satisfying only when it is "dynamic," unfinished, unresolved. Friendships, flirtations, even love affairs depend, like magic tricks, on a constant exchange of incomplete but tantalizing information. We are always reducing the claim or raising the proof. The magician teaches us that romance lies in an unstable contest of minds that leaves us knowing it's a…

Blogging Pro Bono

Photo source. The blogosphere can be a strange world for writers, offering vistas as broad ranging and fickle as human nature itself. Bloggers relying on pageviews for sustenance, even those who do not, face the challenge of attracting as many readers as possible, sometimes at the cost of becoming an uncivil "woo meister," provocateur or even worse, a demagogue. From my first post at "Dean's Corner," I wanted to avoid these potential traps and to simply share what I love about science, sometimes bringing to light mistruths or misrepresentations - at least in my opinion. So, I blog for…

Must-see TV? Frontline takes on anti-vaxers

This is an excellent review of a program that will be on tonight: Tonight on Frontline, "The Vaccine War" presents both sides of the controversy over whether young children should be vaccinated for diseases such as measles and polio, and in a rare display of TV-news common sense and independence, one side is shown to be — sorry — wrong. Frontline's documentary will, I hope, leave any sensible viewer feeling that you'd have be deluded or selfish not to have your kids vaccinated. Now I'm going to have to tune in just for the unbelievable spectacle of a television show taking a skeptical,…

Blogs and the Future of Science

This was one of my first posts about blogging, and THE first about the impact of blogging technolgoy on science. A lot of time has passed since then. There are several science-related carnivals now, not just Tangled Bank. There are SEED scienceblogs. It is fun to look back at my first raw thoughts and see if, or how much, I was right or wrong on specifics. Under the fold.... I have done meta-blogging, i.e., written about the phenomenon of blogs, very, very little. Actually, I found only five posts in the archives that are specifically about blogging. The first three are very early and are…

Journalism at ScienceOnline2010

The year that just ended, 2009, was a year that saw huge changes in the world of media and the world of journalism. Science journalism has also been greatly affected, with many media outlets firing their science journalists first, then firing all the others afterwards. Much virtual ink has been spilled on the topics of "death of newspapers" and "bloggers vs. journalists is over" and "future of journalism", etc. If you checked out everyone who's registered for the ScienceOnline2010 conference, or followed my posts introducing everyone, you have probably noticed that this, fourth meeting is…

Journalism at ScienceOnline2010

The year that just ended, 2009, was a year that saw huge changes in the world of media and the world of journalism. Science journalism has also been greatly affected, with many media outlets firing their science journalists first, then firing all the others afterwards. Much virtual ink has been spilled on the topics of "death of newspapers" and "bloggers vs. journalists is over" and "future of journalism", etc. If you checked out everyone who's registered for the ScienceOnline2010 conference, or followed my posts introducing everyone, you have probably noticed that this, fourth meeting is…

10 Or 20 Things To Do After Installing Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr

MOST CURRENT INFORMATION WILL BE FOUND HERE: Things To Do After Installing Ubuntu 16.04 LTS NEW: Very first look at Ubuntu Linux 15.04 Vivid Vervet Beta Mate Flavor See: Books on Linux and Ubuntu NOTE: This may not be the blog post you are looking for. If you have installed Ubuntu 14.10 and want to tweak that, GO HERE. Continue on for 14.04. Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr has just been released, and I’m sure you are about to install it. I’ve put together a few ideas for what to do after installation in order to make it work better for you. You’ll find that below. First, a bit of ranty…

Stephanie Coontz On Marriage

You probably know that I am quite interested in the history, current state, evolution and future of the institution of marriage, mainly because it is an important indicator of societal attitudes towards sex and towards gender-relations, which is the key to understanding political ideology. Between May 29, 2005 and February 23, 2006 I frequently mentioned Stephanie Coontz and particularly her latest book - Marriage, A History, e.g., in New History Of Marriage, Stephanie Coontz On Marriage, Op-Ed on the 'End of Marriage', Don't Know Much About History.... and What 'traditional' marriage?.…

Stephanie Coontz On Marriage

You probably know that I am quite interested in the history, current state, evolution and future of the institution of marriage, mainly because it is an important indicator of societal attitudes towards sex and towards gender-relations, which is the key to understanding political ideology. Between May 29, 2005 and February 23, 2006 I frequently mentioned Stephanie Coontz and particularly her latest book - Marriage, A History, e.g., in New History Of Marriage, Stephanie Coontz On Marriage, Op-Ed on the 'End of Marriage', Don't Know Much About History.... and What 'traditional' marriage?.…

World Series of Poker

The World Series of Poker is going on right now at Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas. Most people are familiar with it from the replays on ESPN, watching Chris Moneymaker win last year. But if you're not a poker player, you probably don't realize that the event that is televised is only the last of 33 separate tournaments played over about 5 weeks. The events run the gamut of different games played, buy-in amounts, and limits, leading up to the Big One, the championship event, which is a $10,000 entry No Limit Holdem tournament. This year they are expecting something on the order of 1400-1600…

Occupational Safety and Health Classic Movie Festival

By David Michaels Lifelines Online, the safety and health publication of the Laborersâ Health and Safety Fund of North America, is publicizing some important videos â dealing with the history of occupational health and safety in the U.S., industrial hygiene pioneer Alice Hamilton, and the lung disease silicosis â that are now available for free online viewing. Iâve added recommendations of videos on a pesticide that sterilizes workers and on asbestos that are also well worth viewing and sharing, particularly if youâre an educator or leader of a group that deals with occupational health. Stop…

What Dutch librarians now know about the Steacie Library

Yesterday York University Libraries was visited by a delegation of 39 academic librarians, mostly from The Netherlands but also a couple from Belgium. They are on a tour of many of the academic libraries of Southern Ontario, hoping to learn and share a bit about how libraries in different countries are handling the challenges of the future. You can follow their progress on Twitter using the hashtag #nvbcan. As I said, they were here yesterday. During the morning they got some presentations about the York Libraries in general and a tour of the Scott Library and its new Learning Commons. In…

Best Science Books: Electronic Frontier Foundation

Every year for the last bunch of years I’ve been linking to and posting all the “year’s best sciencey books” lists that I can find around the web in various media outlets. From the beginning it’s been a pretty popular service so I’m happy to continue it. The previous posts for all the 2013 lists are here. This time it's EFF's Reading List: Books of 2013. The Internet Police: How Crime Went Online, and the Cops Followed by Nate Anderson On Internet Freedom by Marvin Ammori Beyond WikiLeaks: Implications for the Future of Communications, Journalism and Society edited by Benedetta Brevini,…

Brain & Behavior and Technology Weekly Channel Highlights

In this post: the large version of the Brain & Behavior and Technology channel photos, comments from readers, and the best posts of the week. Technology. From Flickr, by mugley Brain & Behavior. From Flickr, by woodleywonderworks Reader comments of the week: In Lunch with Heather Perry, Neurophilosophy interviews a woman who underwent a voluntary trepanation—that is, she had a hole drilled in her head. Heather cites one of her reasons for undergoing the procedure as wanting "more mental energy and clarity." Reader Ian isn't exactly compelled by that: I think people need…

Science Online Satellite Seattle Salutes Science Blogging

Tonight, I'm going to be speaking on a panel at the University of Washington with fellow science bloggers: Alan Boyle (@b0yle) from CosmicLog and some company called "NBC" news. (I only watch TV programs on Netflix and iTunes, these days, so I forget TV stations still exist.) Brendan DeMelle (@bdemelle) from DeSmog Blog, and the Huffington Post and Adrienne Roehrich (@fiainros) from Double X Science  More details and event information can be found at our event page at Seattle Science Online.  #ScioSEA Photo courtesy of Mandy Hunter, Madison College. I feel really fortunate to be in…

MSHA takes bold step to end black lung disease, proposes tough new regulation

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and MSHA asst. secretary Joe Main are proposing new rules to protect U.S. coal mine workers from developing illnesses related to exposure to respirable coal mine dust. The most commonly known adverse health effect is black lung disease, but exposure is also associated with excess risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, progressive massive fibrosis, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema. The proposal, scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Oct 19,* takes a comprehensive approach to the problem. I've not had a chance to read carefully the entire…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Life Elsewhere In Solar System Could Be Different From Life As We Know It: The search for life elsewhere in the solar system and beyond should include efforts to detect what scientists sometimes refer to as "weird" life -- that is, life with an alternative biochemistry to that of life on Earth -- says a new report from the National Research Council. The committee that wrote the report found that the fundamental requirements for life as we generally know it -- a liquid water biosolvent, carbon-based metabolism, molecular system capable of evolution, and the ability to exchange energy with the…

UK fuel prices

Whenever people ask me about the possibility of us running out of fossil fuels, I usually reply that I'm no expert on oil reservoirs but that there are markets out there that are, and if we were going to run out the price should have been rising rapidly. That probably still true, despite oil prices staying high - according to the FT they have managed to fall to $63.55 a barrel (Brent crude). More interesting for the UK is the story of our gas prices. Just recently there was a four-fold spike in gas prices (although the spike itself is not much bigger than the brief spike in mid-november); due…

The Friday Fermentable: A Liveblogging Wine Tasting at ScienceOnline'09

Let's face it, after the holidays I'm not terribly interested in drinking any beer or wine for the next two weeks. However, two weeks from today will mark the beginning of ScienceOnline'09, the online science communications unconference being held in our little ol' neck-o-the-woods. Being as how I'll have the chance to meet so many of you then, I'd like to throw out the idea of having a live Friday Fermentable. On the evening of Friday, 16 January, conference attendees will be gathering at the Radisson RTP headquarters hotel bar and Sigma Xi conference center between returning from…

Nuclear Power Can't Curb Global Warming

And, we'd need 10 dumps the size of Yucca Mountain "to store the extra generated waste by the needed nuclear generation boom." (Full story through Reuters here.) This from a new report commissioned by the non-profit Keystone Center (whose website was giving me link trouble before, but the final report itself should be here, as a *.pdf). "Historical and Projected Commercial Spent Nuclear Fuel Discharges as of May 14, 2007" (from Keystone report linked above, with apologies for the poor quality reproduction/blurriness/squinting requirement) That report, called "The Nuclear Power Joint Fact-…

A Cautionary Tale about Copyright Protection

When you get in a conversation about pharmaceuticals, everyone always asks me: "Why can't they just give them away? Drug companies make so much money anyway. Why do we even have patents?" Well, the reason is that piracy stifles innovation. If people can't make any money off what they make, then they can't afford to design anything new. Don't believe me...read this: Kingsoft Corp.'s English-Chinese dictionary program is used on most of China's 60 million PCs. That's the good news. The bad news: Kingsoft doesn't make any money from it, because 90 percent of those copies are pirated. One…

The Morula Solution?

It's obvious from yesterday's vote that embryonic stem cells will continue to split the country (California versus Washington DC, for one thing). But in an ironic bit of timing researchers at the Reproductive Genetics Institute have just published some results at Reproductive BioMedicine Online that could--possibly--short-circuit some of the arguments against using embryonic stem cells. The RGI researchers have figured out how to derive stem cells from a four-day old embryo--a stage known as a morula. Until now, scientists have been using older blastocysts, and have been destroying them in…

Terror Bird couldn't fly but probably could swim

The terror bird or Titanis walleri was a flightless, carnivorous bird present in North America. Researchers at the University of Florida have determined that it was probably present in North America prior to the formation of the land bridge that connected Alaska with Asia North America and South America: A University of Florida-led study has determined that Titanis walleri, a prehistoric 7-foot-tall flightless "terror bird," arrived in North America from South America long before a land bridge connected the two continents. UF paleontologist Bruce MacFadden said his team used an established…

Weiner Twitter 'Prank': Lies of a "Panicked" Politician

This is incredible, from The Wall Street Journal!! "I panicked and said I was hacked," said Mr. Weiner at the late afternoon news conference at a midtown Manhattan hotel. What was he thinking? See my previous post, giving him the benefit of doubt. So much for the dangers of hacking and computer privacy in this case, but it's all too real. Excerpts: New York Rep. Anthony Weiner on Monday admitted sending sexually suggestive photographs to women online but said he doesn't plan to resign from Congress because of the scandal. "I panicked and said I was hacked," said Mr. Weiner at the late…

Josephoartigasia monesi, a true ROUS

A capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) at the Cape May Zoo. Josephoartigasia dwarfs this animal, the largest of the living rodents. One of the most interesting evolutionary patterns is an increase in the disparity of sizes in a group, small representatives persisting and changing even as some lineages get larger (I'll address this issue a bit more in a separate piece of Cope's Rule, if such a thing even truly exists). A new Pleistocene fossil rodent from Uruguay called Josephoartigasia monesi further elucidates this trend, being the largest fossil rodent yet discovered with an estimated…

Addicted to Gambling: The New Twinkie Defense?

From the LA Times: Paul Theodore Del Vacchio, now 41, is a gambler. In Riverside County Superior Court, a psychologist testifies that Del Vacchio fed his impulse-control disorder with online wagering, not caring about the win or loss, just the high of the bet. This is why he stole half a million dollars from his employer, an Indian casino, Del Vacchio tells the judge. It was a compulsion. He needed to cover his losses. Needless to say, the addiction defense didn't work: the Judge handed Paul Del Vacchio a four year sentence. If we aren't going to show mercy for crack addicts, then we…

ScienceOnline2010 - interview with Mary Jane Gore

Continuing with the tradition from last two years, I will occasionally post interviews with some of the participants of the ScienceOnline2010 conference that was held in the Research Triangle Park, NC back in January. See all the interviews in this series here. You can check out previous years' interviews as well: 2008 and 2009. Today, I asked Mary Gore from The Duke Medicine Office of News and Communications to answer a few questions. Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Where are you coming from (both geographically and…

Just Not Made that Way

Madeline Holler at Salon has a rather cute essay about her failures at becoming a radical homemaker. On my first quick skim through it (it was sent to me by several readers, so thanks!), I was inclined to give it a total pass, because I found myself rather liking Holler, and sympathizing to an extent. At least she was trying to live on a comparatively lower income. At least she made the yogurt. If she really hated it, well, at least she was sort of trying to live up to her principles - something all of us have a tough time doing. I may make my own bread, but I have my own hypocrisies.…

The US screws with WHO's mission

I've spent some time here (old site, here, here, here, here and here) explaining WHO's place in the international system. It explains certain things I thought important to understand. An important part of the international "system" (Westphalian-style) is there is no official authority over sovereign nation states. That means that power politics operates, sometimes quietly, sometimes nakedly. WHO is not immune. A shocking case in point relates to some highly questionable decisions made by the late WHO Director General, Dr. Lee Jong-wook. It is awkward to bring this up in the wake of his…

Cognitive Surplus

Over at the Barnes and Noble Review, I have a short review of Cognitive Surplus, the new book by Clay Shirky: Cognitive Surplus, the new book by internet guru Clay Shirky, begins with a brilliant analogy. He starts with a description of London in the 1720s, when the city was in the midst of a gin binge. A flood of new arrivals from the countryside meant the metropolis was crowded, filthy, and violent. As a result, people sought out the anesthesia of alcohol as they tried to collectively forget the early days of the Industrial Revolution. For Shirky, the gin craze of 18th-century London is an…

Homeopathists should just hide their polls and lie low

It's pointless for these loons to try and make their case with a goofy online poll, since we'll just smack it down. Here's another one. Do you believe homeopathy is an effective form of treatment? 51%Yes 49%No The evidence is all against it, and reason suggests there is no mechanism. Perhaps they ought to correct those deficiencies before playing poll games.

Friday Links

Here are some links for you. Science: Pork producers resist resisting antibiotic resistance George Will's Crack Fact-Checkers Continue Their Nap Why False Positive Results Are So Common In Medicine Other: Should We Bring Back The 90% Top Tax Rate? Bookblogging: The rise of the efficient markets hypothesis Nightmare on Ware Street Medieval battle records go online Fifty Ways To Kill Recovery

âGuide to Asian Emoticonsâ

tags: Guide to Asian Emoticons, online life, cute, Japan, culture, silly, big boobs, streaming video This is a rather silly guide to Asian emoticons .. except the emoticons I am seeing in this video are Japanese .. is Japan the emoticon capital of the Asian world? Hrm. Anyway, the straight boyz in the audience will especially like this video -- need I say more? =^.^=

Get out your 3D glasses!

Unfortunately, I left my red-green glasses at home, on the arm of my comfy chair, I think, so I had to settle for watching me looking flat. I was interviewed by 3D Science News, and they've just put the video of the first part online. Don't get your hopes up, Vincent Price was much better in the 3D House of Wax movie.

The Buzz: ScienceBlogs on Times Online

Notable ScienceBlogs posts will now be featured daily in the Science Times section of The New York Times Online, directly below the top 10 most popular science items in the Times. Likewise, this link exchange will provide visitors to the ScienceBlogs home page one-click access to recent Science Times articles, further extending the largest conversation about science on the web.

AstrobiologyFuture.org: Forum Apertum Sit

Over the next 10 years, what research done on bodies within our Solar System (measurements and theory) will be most important for informing our search for life beyond the Earth? This is the current topic posed as the Single Question on the Future of Astrobiology at the ongoing NASA Astrobiology Institute Roadmap online exercise. If you want to opine, The Forum is Open

Should Search Engines Warn of Denialism?

Evgeny Morozov argued in Slate last week that search engines could do more to warn readers about kooks online. Among other things, he cites to a recent article in Vaccine that details the tactics of anti-vaccine denialists. Morozov points to Google's special treatment of certain searches, such as "ways to die." Perhaps an alert can appear when one searches, "should I vaccinate..."

Pimpin' ain't easy (or, another SB in the OJR post)

As others have mentioned, Scienceblogs got a mention (okay, an entire story) in the Online Journalism Review. And hey, in addition to quoting me, they mentioned my post on Chikungunya--gotta love that. They did misquote me, though (or I misspoke)--I don't have cable. Can't get it in the sticks here; the compensation pays for my internet. Other than that, an overall thumbs up.

Science 2.0

Do you remember when Mitch Waldrop wrote a draft of an article about Science 2.0 and asked for community feedback? He got 125 comments. Using them, he has now finalized the text and it appears in today's edition of Scientific American: Science 2.0 -- Is Open Access Science the Future? Is posting raw results online, for all to see, a great tool or a great risk?

Free Online Journal Available: Avian Conservation and Ecology

In an effort to make their research freely available to the public and to support a greater global exchange of knowledge, Avian Conservation and Ecology provides open access to all of its content. Such access is associated with increased readership and increased citation of each author's work. This journal is available in both English and French. . tags: online journals, ornithology, birds, avian, conservation

How Skeptical Are You?

tags: skeptic, online quiz You Are Very Skeptical Your personal motto is: "Prove it." While some ideas, like life after death, may seem nice... You aren't going to believe them simply because it feels good. You let science and facts be your guide... Even if it means you don't share the beliefs of those around you. How Skeptical Are You?

Anthro Blog Carnival

The ninety-eighth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at The Prancing Papio. Catch the best recent blogging on archaeology and anthropology! The next vacant hosting slot is on 15 September. All bloggers with an interest in the subject are welcome to volunteer to me for hosting. It's a good way to gain readers. No need to be an anthro pro.

Anthro Blog Carnival

The ninety-seventh Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Zenobia. Catch the best recent blogging on archaeology and anthropology! The next vacant hosting slot is on 15 September. All bloggers with an interest in the subject are welcome to volunteer to me for hosting. It's a good way to gain readers. No need to be an anthro pro.

Anthro Blog Carnival

The ninety-fifth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Afarensis. Catch the best recent blogging on archaeology and anthropology! The next vacant hosting slot is already on 21 July. All bloggers with an interest in the subject are welcome to volunteer to me for hosting. It's a good way to gain readers. No need to be an anthro pro.

Anthro Blog Carnival

The ninety-fourth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Anthropology in Practice. Catch the best recent blogging on archaeology and anthropology! The next vacant hosting slot is already on 23 June. All bloggers with an interest in the subject are welcome to volunteer to me for hosting. It's a good way to gain readers. No need to be an anthro pro.

Anthro Blog Carnival

The thirty-fifth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Archaeoporn. Archaeology and anthropology is quite a lovely and ladylike pastime for us ladies! The next open hosting slot is on 9 April. All bloggers with an interest in the subject are welcome to volunteer to me. No need to be an anthro pro. But you must be a lady, like me.