Search Content

Displaying results 53901 - 53950 of 87947

microRNAs and cancer

I'm trying to raise money for the The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and I promised to do a few things if we reached certain goals. I said I'd write a post microRNAs and cancer if you raised $7500. And you did, so I did. I kept my clothes on this time, though, so here's a more serious picture of yours truly: this is what my students see, which is slightly less terrifying, nicht wahr? If you want more, go to my Light the Night fundraising page and throw money at it. If we reach our goal of $10,000, I'll organize a Google+ Hangout to talk about cancer. Note that we're also getting matching…

The God Confusion: Dawkins on theology

Tonight, Richard Dawkins will speak at KU's Lied Center from 7:30 to 9, followed the next morning with a less formal Q&A. In preparation for that, here are some thoughts on The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. In responding to Atrios' comment that "When people start invoking religion in discussing issues …it's utterly meaningless to me personally," slacktivist points out that "Sectarian language isn't much use when trying to communicate with people outside of the sect." Fred continues: This is why it's necessary for religious believers to adopt the common language of others when…

Milton's doctrine or Biblical doctrine?

Even though I said that I had more pertinent material to read than discourses about the perceived clash of science & Christian theology, I contradicted myself by picking up John Hedley Brooke's Science and Religion last night. As I have become increasingly aware during the course of my reading, the present climate of argument around science & religion carries a tone of conflict and warfare that has been maintained for over 100 years the more. It is fashionable to invoke such imagery, religion slowly crumbling under the weight of science, but a historical perspective reveals…

Disco. Inst. tries to hustle Texans

The Disco. Inst. is in a tizzy. No, it's more than a tizzy, it's all-out Disco. Inferno! Spokesman Rob Crowther writes: Liberal Darwin Activists Spin Push-Poll in Attempt to Water Down Science Standards: The liberal Darwin lobby group Texas Freedom Network has just published a push-poll of scientists titled, "Survey of Texas Faculty: Overwhelming Opposition to Watering Down Evolution in School Science Curriculum."… What is stunning is the TFN's jackbooted thuggery of threatening parents! I can hear you all typing your comments now: "Surely not!," you'll tell me. The Texas Freedom Network…

Oh, the inanity! The Dalai Lama and Francisco Ayala vie to be most vacuous

It's been a great week for vapid defenses of religion…at least for atheists, that is. It's been a sad week for the godly, given that their paladins are all such flabby purveyors of tepid tea. First up, let us consider the Dalai Lama, revered all around the world because he's such a nice guy and is always smiling — and I agree that he is an awfully nice fellow, considering that he's the representative of a medieval theocracy. He has an op-ed in the NY Times, sadly, which reveals that behind his happy face is a bubble of confused cortex. Anthony Grayling has already dealt with the core of his…

How the Texas Board of Ed. misrepresented a Nobel Prize winner: a repost

Because Nobel laureate Werner Arber is addressing evolution at the Landau meeting of Nobel laureates, I thought I'd repost this piece from January 21, 2009, which was first posted from the Texas Board of Education meeting room. Enjoy. In November, the Texas Board of Education met to consider their new science standards. As I've mentioned a major point of contention is a reference in the current standards to "strengths and weaknesses" of scientific explanations, a concept only ever applied to evolution, and without any clear explanation of what it means. In the course of 6 hours of…

Egnor lays an egg; or Wrong to life

Shortly after Michael Egnor launched his first defense of creationism at the Disco. 'Tute's blog, the wags at Panda's Thumb coined the term "egnorance," to describe "the egotistical combination of ignorance and arrogance." It was funny, and remains so years later, because it's true. Which brings us to Egnor's reply to me, about the morality of abortion, etc.. His first basic error lies in the opening words of his title: "NCSE's Program Director Josh Rosenau: Human Dependency Obviates the Right to Life." It's true that I work at NCSE, but this blog is not an NCSE product, there's a clear…

Francis Collins and Bill Maher

Bill Maher, anti-vaxxer and Germ Theory denier, got an award named for Richard Dawkins from an atheist group. The award specifies, among other things, that the recipient should be an atheist and should "advocate[] increased scientific knowledge." Orac notes that Maher is not an atheist and that his anti-vaccine work and his arguments against the germ theory advocate against scientific knowledge, calling that work "anti-science." Jason Rosenhouse disagrees, and Orac replies (with Jason defending himself in the comments). I happen to think Orac has the better of the argument. But that's not…

Global warming: Greek tragedy or preventable catastrophe?

When the controversial and talented physicist Edward Teller was doing a PhD. with the great Werner Heisenberg at the University of Leipzig, the question asked at the end of every group meeting that focused on a complex sequence of problems was "Wo ist der Witz?", supposed to be translated as "What is the point"? but more correctly translated as "What is the joke?". The joke part of it consisted of turning a wry eye at the world, donning the hat of the court jester who laughs even as the fire that he predicted would engulf the world rages on. The question about global warming that we ask is…

Responding to Blake, Part 2

In the incredible flood of comments on yesterday's gay marriage post (they were coming at a rate of one every few seconds for a while there), I missed completely Blake's response to the post. I saw several of his later responses to others, but missed the main one to me. I'm moving it up here so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle. He writes: Ed: Your response is exactly what I expected -- lots of self-superior ad hominems and avoiding the real issues. First, you break your own rules of civil discussion that I had to certify I would obey before signing onto this blog: "let's recognize that even…

Ebola Perspective: Risks of spread to the US and elsewhere

LATEST UPDATE HERE It is true that this particular outbreak of Ebola has taken health officials somewhat by surprise. It is impossible to know, but I suspect that if you had asked a few ebola experts, a year ago, if there could be an epidemic that would spread across three or four countries, infect a couple thousand people, and last with no sign of letting up for a few months (that is the current situation, more or less), most would say no, probably not, though it is within the range of possibilities. Does the fact (assuming it is true) that this particular Ebola outbreak is unprecedented…

Global Warming Over The Next Decade: Candidates take note. UPDATED

The Time Scales of Political and Climate Change Matter The US is engaged in the laborious process of electing a new leader, who will likely be President for 8 years. Climate change has finally become an issue in US electoral politics. The climate policies of the next US President, and the Congress, will have a direct impact on the climate, because those policies will affect how much fossil carbon is put into the atmosphere over coming decades. So it is vital to consider what the climate may do during the next administration and the longer period that will include that administration’s…

An interview with David Attenborough

On the fifth day of this year, I found myself sitting in the living room of the legendary Sir David Attenborough, drinking coffee and talking to him about wildlife, filmmaking and his career for the better part of an hour. It was a truly memorable experience, not just for his eloquence and storytelling skills, but because Sir David has been a hero of mine since I first popped Life on Earth into my VCR at the wee age of 8. His clarity and passion have inspired me to become a better communicator of science and it was a privilege to speak to the man in person. He was no less of a superb…

Unscientific America: Are scientists all on the same team?

As promised, in this post I consider the treatment of the science-religion culture wars in Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum. If you're just tuning in, you may want to pause to read my review of the book, or to peruse my thoughts on issues the book raised about what the American public wants and about whether old or new media give the American public what it needs. In the interests of truth in advertising, let me state at the outset that this post will not involve anything like a detailed rehash of "Crackergate", nor a…

Anthroposophic medicine at the University of Michigan? Say it ain't so!

I graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School in the late 1980s. Back then, U. of M. was really hardcore about science back then, so much so that it was viewed as seriously old-school. No new (at the time) organ system approach for us! During the first two years, ever four weeks, like clockwork, we'd have what was called a concurrent examination, which basically meant that we were tested (with multiple choice tests, of course!) on every subject on the same morning. At the time I was there, the medical curriculum for the first two years had been fairly constant for quite some time…

The "vindication of all kooks" corollary to the principle of crank magnetism

A couple of years ago, fellow ScienceBlogger Mark Hoofnagle over at Denialism Blog coined a most excellent term to describe all manners of pseuodscience, quackery, and crankery. The term, "crank magnetism," describes the tendency of cranks not to mind it when they see crankery in others. More specifically, it describes how cranks of one variety (for instance, HIV/AIDS denialists, will be attracted to another form of crankery (for instance, anti-vaccinationism or the 9/11 Truth movement) because, as Mark put it, cranks and pseudoscientists see themselves as iconoclasts, brave mavericks opposed…

Fundamentalist religion, misinformation, and the controversy over embryonic stem cell research in Michigan

Two years ago, there was a brouhaha in Missouri over a ballot proposal to allow state funding for embryonic stem cell research using discarded embryos from fertility clinics. The issue made national news, including some rather despicable rhetoric from Rush Limbaugh about Michael J. Fox, who made ads in support of the Missouri initiative, as well as deceptive ads against the proposal featuring Patricia Heaton and members of the St. Louis Cardinals. It was a big stink that drew national attention. Fast forward to two years later and to my home state of Michigan, and history appears to be…

Torturing more mice in the name of antivaccine pseudoscience, 2017 aluminum edition

  "Why, oh, why do I have to die in the cause of such crappy science?" For antivaxers, aluminum is the new mercury. Let me explain, for the benefit of those not familiar with the antivaccine movement. For antivaxers, it is, first and foremost, always about the vaccines. Always. Whatever the chronic health issue in children, vaccines must have done it. Autism? It’s the vaccines. Sudden infant death syndrome? Vaccines, of course. Autoimmune diseases? Obviously it must be the vaccines causing it. Obesity, diabetes, ADHD? Come on, you know the answer! Because antivaxers will never let go of…

eigenFACTOR: Lots of Shiny New Buttons to Push!

A while ago, I posted about eigenFACTOR, a bioinformatics tool that can be used to calculate the relative impact of scientific journals. Well, the eigenFACTORials have developed a whole buncha new stuff you can do with the program: Maps of science. How different fields of science cite each other. And make sure you check out the groovy interactive map. More data. eigenFACTOR now incorporates data from 1994-2005. There's also some really cool time series stuff you can do (here's the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society). You can also search by publisher. Here's Demon…

I'm So Feminist

At least according to an internet quiz: You Are 95% Feminist You are a total feminist. This doesn't mean you're a man hater (in fact, you may be a man). You just think that men and women should be treated equally. It's a simple idea but somehow complicated for the world to put into action. Are You a Feminist? Of course, the internets tell me that I'm also 55% Irish: You're 55% Irish You're very Irish, and most likely from Ireland. (And if you're not, you should be!) How Irish Are You? That might have something to do with my having had Guinness for breakfast....

Some things never change

Zeno has posted the complete text of a long creationist screed published in the Sacramento Bee. It's got everything: the second law of thermodynamics, the fallacy of the excluded middle, the 'law' of biogenesis, mysterious barriers between species, and of course, the Imminent Death of Darwinism. It's tediously familiar, and you've probably heard it all many times before. Only two things make it interesting. It was published in 1981, and it's mostly indistinguishable from creationist rhetoric in 2009. Which is rather depressing, if you think about it. The author is someone who also defends…

Privatization: What about the Disabled?

In light of El Jefe Maximo's State of the Union speech, where he discussed Social Security privatization, I've dredged from the archives this very short post about a side of Social Security that is completely ingored in the whole debate. Roughly one-third of all Social Security payouts go to the disabled. One thing I haven't heard in all of the discussion about private Social Security accounts is how these accounts would work for the disabled. Suppose you're 45, middle class, and unable to work anymore. How much could your private account be worth? Maybe the privatizers haven't answered this…

Bloggers and Conflicts of Interest

The NY Times had a pearl-clutching article by Daniel Glover about supposed conflicts of interest that progressive bloggers have (even though they typically identify those conflicts...), which has been rebutted all over the place, so I won't waste time doing that. I do have a simple question for Glover: How come someone like David Sirota who, whenever he discusses anything to do with Sherrod Brown or Paul Hackett, readily admits that he has a 'conflict of interest', whereas someone like Henry Kissinger, who has received millions of dollars in fees from foreign governments, is usually not…

"Damaged Goods?"

CNN describes Nancy Pelosi as "damaged goods", and she hasn't even had her chance to screw up the country yet. Digby sums it up nicely: There are no honeymoons for Democrats. Remember that. And "moral authority" is about haircuts and Hollywood, not torture and illegal wars. It is not merely a fight against the Republicans or a fight over politics and policy. It is a non-stop battle with the press to cover events with seriousness and responsiblity. For some reason, when Democrats are in power the press corps immediately goes from being merely shallow to insufferable, sophomoric assholes....…

If Only All Criminals Were So Caring

From Boston's Beacon Hill Times: A resident was robbed at knife-point by an unknown Caucasian male suspect at approximately 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 11, near the corner of Hancock and Cambridge streets. The suspect demanded the victim's wallet, according to police reports. The victim said the suspect offered to pay her back if she told him where she worked. After she handed over her money he asked if she would be able to make ends meet, she said. He then said he was sorry to have to rob her, but that he was having a hard time right now. He's a better class of scumbag than these guys.

Atheist superheroes saving the world!

The godless must have some fans in the comic book world. In an issue of The List: Wolverine, the heroes Fantomex (a genetically engineered supersoldier) and Captain Marvel are faced with an army of zombie-like creatures, people who have been infected with an evil virus that can only take over your mind if you believe in some sort of god. So they swing into action, safe from the infection, because neither one believes in gods. (Click for larger image) Nice. Well, except that I do think atheists will save the world…but not by putting on a mask and drawing a pair of pistols. That's just nuts.

Cephalopodmas Contest!

You've only got a few days left to enter: Everything Octopus is giving away a cephalopod tree ornament, and all you have to do is subscribe to the site and leave a comment. Easy! I already own this very same ornament, and will be putting up our family christmas tree this weekend. I've received a lot of 'pod gear from readers over the last few years, and I'm planning to decorate the tree with lots of it (I'll put up a photo when it's done). If you won this ornament, you'll be on the path to outdoing the awesomeness of my tree. It's something to dream of, you know.

"A Party of Peter Pans"

maha agrees with me that the current Republican leadership is suffering from Peter Pan syndrome: If there's one thing I'm sure of about our President, it's that he has never encountered his limitations. He is as oblivious to his limitations as a spoon is oblivious to soup. He's oblivious to his dark side; the dragon has been bought off; he mistakes his own inhumanity for virtue. He's still a boy, in other words. And I believe the same is true of Dick and Rummy. And while we're on the subject of Big Famous Bloggers who agree with me, Matt Yglesias also thinks that Little Lord Pontchartrain's…

Bush's Sartorial Splendor

I'll get to El Jefe Maximo in a moment, but to dive into even more trivial waters, the thing I've never understood about the whole Paris Hilton affair is how utterly stupid she was. Her personal stupidity doesn't shock me--it's a miracle she doesn't forget how to breathe. But rich people can hire smart people to think for them. Which brings us to Bush. While I can be sartorially challenged, even I would have the good sense not to go outside dressed like this: (from here) He's wearing dark dress socks with shorts. And Crocs. In public. Who dresses him? His mother? Oh Intelligent Designer…

Dismal news from Ireland

It's more of the same; the deeper they dig into the Irish Catholic Church, the filthier it gets. The latest news is a revelation from the senior cleric in Ireland. Cardinal Sean Brady, primate of all-Ireland, admitted he was present at meetings where two abused teenagers were made to sign vows of silence. He was part of a cover-up. In a case of known sex-offender priest, Brady helped conceal the truth about this monster by compelling the victims to silence. And now he shows no guilt, saying "Frankly I don't believe that this is a resigning matter." Why? Because he was only following orders.…

Creationism and Its Critics in Antiquity

I stumbled upon Creationism and Its Critics in Antiquity at the bookstore. I don't have time to read it right now, but I thought I'd point to it since I'm sure some readers would be interested. Accuse me of being excessively Whiggish if you must, but it just reiterates that Creationism doesn't belong in a science class; the basic disputes are a rehash of philosophical & religious clashes which are timeless, or at least date from the rise of philosophy in the ancient world. Creationism is ahistorical; I believe it is rooted in psychological intuitions about ontology which rebel against…

A cornucopia of misconceptions

Instead of an update, I want to specifically point readers to Evolgen's extended post on the nearly neutral theory. He takes my 10 yard pass on genetic drift and jukes and jives all the way to the end zone (with a good block from John Hawks). The take home message is that science is about successively more accurate approximations of nature, with the caveat that in probabilistic field like much of genetics the "answer" is the most likely explanation (expectation), around which there will be exceptions to the rule galore (variance). Chad's initial post seems to have been a little epidemic in…

Fuller full of himself

The Guardian has a piece titled Steve Fuller: Designer trouble, in reference to testimony that the aforementioned professor gave to the Dover court. After reading the article I have to say that I'm not surprised that he testified, he seems to not be of any camp aside from that of Steve Fuller, and oh how he loves himself. Fuller notes that "It is not like people love you for doing this" in reference to his pro-ID testimony at Dover. Sure, but it gets you 1400 word write ups in The Guardian, along with putting "social epistemology"1 on the map that has to make you somebody.

Links 4/20/11

Links for you. Science: More on the mega lab Bats are worth billions What Is This Fallacy Called? Hold Onto Your Floppy Disks, Nerdz! Other: BANANA REPUBLIC The Real Housewives of Wall Street: Why is the Federal Reserve forking over $220 million in bailout money to the wives of two Morgan Stanley bigwigs? Not Only Has He Lost My Vote Why do some of the most capable public servants in America, people like economist Peter Orszag, keep circling back from Washington to Wall Street? One guess. Two for Uncle Sam, One for Shareholders: The 71% NYTimes Co. Tax Rate Robert Samuelson Underestimates…

Links 4/14/11

Links for you. Science: George Price, Group Selection, and Altruism Farming on water: Stackable, sustainable, in the city IonTorrent: Benchtop Sequencing, Streamlined Other: Raghuram Rajan's wrongness rankles America is burning; Washington fiddles Concern About Federal Deficits War Is Paul Ryan Is a Force that gives us meaning Accountability for "Job Creators" I Wonder What John Yoo Thinks of All This Want a Flat Tax? I Got a Flat Tax for You (I like this because it's simple) All We Really Need To Do Is Nothing How Are Ordinary People Responding to Higher Gas Prices? The Post Asks Someone…

Links 3/27/11

Links for you. Science: Big dust-up about kin selection Writing Popular Science Books Doesn't Make You a Scientist Why are these trees completely wrapped in spider webs? Other: Humanitarians of the Year The Gang That Couldn't Lobby Straight Bachman For President (the Tea Party is the theopolitical right) How Not to Respond to Political Bullies: Lessons from the Smithsonian's Response to the Manufactured Right-Wing Controversy Over Hide/Seek Not Good (why cuts made in future payouts don't reduce deficits. If you care about that sort of thing) 'Scuze me while I wave the bloody shirt... The…

An orgasm in your step?

A Woman's History of Vaginal Orgasm is Discernible from Her Walk: In the sample of healthy young Belgian women (half of whom were vaginally orgasmic), history of vaginal orgasm (triggered solely by penile-vaginal intercourse) was diagnosable at far better than chance level (81.25% correct, Fisher's Exact Test P < 0.05) by appropriately trained sexologists. Clitoral orgasm history was unrelated to both ratings and to vaginal orgasm history. Exploratory analyses suggest that greater pelvic and vertebral rotation and stride length might be characteristic of the gait of women who have…

Support the people

Mike Dunford points me to an organization that supports families who've lost loved ones in the Iraq War. From Mike: As I mentioned recently, a number of soldiers in Iraq will be running the Honolulu Marathon this weekend. The course goes around a base several times, mostly over dirt roads. In part, running the Honolulu Marathon lets folks maintain a connection with home, but that's not the only reason that they are running. They're also running to support TAPS - an organization that provides support to the families of people who die while on active duty in the armed forces. You can see the…

Chili peppers go way back

Ancient Americans Liked It Hot: Mexican Cuisine Traced To 1,500 Years Ago: Plant remains from two caves in southern Mexico analyzed by a Smithsonian ethnobotanist/archaeologist and a colleague indicate that as early as 1,500 years ago, Pre-Columbian inhabitants of the region enjoyed a spicy fare similar to Mexican cuisine today. The two caves yielded 10 different cultivars (cultivated varieties) of chili peppers. "This analysis demonstrates that chilies in Mexican food have been numerous and complex for a long period of time," said lead author Linda Perry, of the Smithsonian's National Museum…

Where's my invitation?

Hey, I just checked my mailbox for a fancy gilt envelope, but no joy. I was hoping to hear from the Pope. The Pontifical Council for Culture has announced that it is creating a foundation to focus on relations with atheists and agnostics. See? They should be calling me any minute now…oh, wait. The president of the Council announced the initiative on Wednesday as a response to Pope Benedict's call to "renew dialogue with men and women who don't believe but want to move towards God." Well, I'm out. That's like putting out a call for healthy men and women who want to move towards degenerative…

Slay the pagans!

Interesting piece in The Guardian about the problems that a Catholic revivalist group is making in the pagan-rich town of Glastonbury via heckling and intimidation. In Korea scholar Frank Tedesco has long chronicled the assault which Buddhism has faced from evangelical Christians. In Brazil the rise of charismatic evangelical Christianity has witnessed violence against followers of Afro-Brazilian cults, as well as symbolic destruction of Roman Catholic statuary. Of course in the first story it seems that the local cleric responded in anger at the actions of vigilantes, but it is important…

If CNN Had Covered MLK's "I Have a Dream" Speech...

...they would have talked through the whole thing and nobody would have ever actually seen it. From Jesse Taylor (italics mine): CNN's been talking since Obama was officially nominated about how Obama is the first black major-party candidate, yadda yadda yadda. So, the highest ranking African American elected official in the country steps on stage...and CNN cuts away. Then they come back to cover a seven-minute musical number by Melissa Etheridge replete with shots of teary-eyed delegates. I don't think it even occurs to them that people would want to watch the convention and not their…

Links 3/14/11

Links for you. Science: Everybody Thinks Scientifically Publication Strategy...If I can't beat 'em, I'll wait 'em out... Can libraries survive in a digital world? Arsenic Author Dumps Peer Review, Takes Case to TED (but bloggers suck. Or something) Other: Fareed Zakaria Is Upset Because the Government Spends So Much More on Each Rich Person Than on Each Child Team Sex Is Dirty and their false assumptions If you don't already hate investment bankers The Forbes 400 vs. Everybody Else Real medicine Five Social Security Non-Myths Straight talk from a Green Line attendant (this is awesome) Greed…

Links 2/28/11

Rain? I thought only snow fell from the sky. Anyway, links for you. Science: Oil-Eating Microbes Have the Appetite for Crude. But They Do Not Have the Stomach! NASA cuts In keeping with the spirit of recent events, I bring you...bats, bats, and lolbats Killer Wasps! The lone huntress Other: I Ruined Everything (& Why It Was More Work Than You Thought) @INTERNETTAXTROLLS Look for the Union Label Chris Christie's Brother Threatens Black Star News (how the 'elite' extracts its income) The G.O.P.'s Abandoned Babies And One Day, Perhaps They Shall Write Overpaid Newspaper Columnists John…

Links 2/27/11

Merry Sunday. Links for you. Science: The Effect of Pseudonymity on Blogger Credibility Confirmed: 80 Percent of all antibacterial drugs used on animals, endangering human health Can the electronic medical record contain an entire genome? A drop of treasure, lost in an ocean of debt The best offense is a good defensin Other: Matt Stoller: The Liquidation of Society versus the Global Labor Revival Another Runaway General: Army Deploys Psy-Ops on U.S. Senators Did anti-Mubarak protesters assault Lara Logan? Movement starts to create America's 51st state...splitting Pima County off from…

The Other Finding from the Florida Sex Ed Survey

A survey of Florida teens' sexual health knowledge yielded some very disturbing results: A recent survey that found some Florida teens believe drinking a cap of bleach will prevent HIV and a shot of Mountain Dew will stop pregnancy has prompted lawmakers to push for an overhaul of sex education in the state. There's been a lot said in favor of real sex ed and against abstinence-only 'education' (and rightly so), but, if the consequences of unwanted pregnancy and HIV weren't so serious, this other finding would be funny: The survey showed that Florida teens also believe that smoking marijuana…

Forget the Oil! What About the Hopps?

By way of the Burned Over District, we find out that there is a global hopps shortage: A worldwide shortage of a key beer ingredient, hops, is causing beer prices to spike, beer batches to be delayed, and talk of your favorite pale ales being forced to (gulp) mellow out. Already, in Charlotte, retailers are reporting that beers from smaller, "craft" breweries have risen about $1 per six-pack this year, with more increases coming as brewers pass on the cost of a five- to tenfold increase in hops prices. That's if the brewers can find any hops at all. So whom do we invade to fix this?

Friday Links

Here's some good reading for your long weekend. Science: Dehumanizing the Two Cultures How global warming sealed the fate of the world's coral reefs Great Barrier Reef facing 'catastrophic damage' from climate change Great Barrier Reef faces catastrophe 200-pound snake killed in Okeechobee adds to mounting python woes Other: A Missing Ingredient in Health-Care Coverage The Gestapo Precedent for "EITs" Confusion is not the word you're looking for No, Seriously, Dude, Acolyte? Joke Line v. Crazy Hobo No Jews Need Apply... The system Republicans and other crazies are defending Gang of Six,…

Saturday Links

Happy Saturday. Here are some links. Science: Francis Collins' "Five Themes" for the NIH Who's a scientist? Intelligent Design Question: What Is a Scientist? Other: The View From My Recession THE PENANCE HAS NOT BEEN PAID, PART II.... What's Wrong WIth The Democratic Party, Part #74,397 There Are No Whole Foods Stores Why Orrin Hatch Lies a Lot (and Pete Domenici, Bob Dole, and Chuck Grassley too) "Death Panels." A most excellent term. Deconstructing the Right Wing Lies on the Health Insurance Bill -- Pages 1-500 Pre-existing conditions, perverse incentives The Burden of Private and…

Saturday Links

Some reading to start your weekend. Science: Friendly bacteria could evict MRSA in nasal turf wars Evolution is false, the Bible tells me so Who are the creationists? (by the numbers) Novel human microbiome genomes unveiled NIH Human Microbiome Project Researchers Publish First Genomic Collection of Human Microbes: Diversity of Human Microbes Greater Than Previously Predicted Other: What hath Reagan wrought? Part One Fundamentalists have a smaller vocabulary The trajectory of American Jews, lessons from history Blumenthal Recap What Dems Don't Want Mentioned In the Rand Paul/Civil Rights…