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An end to climate silence

At today's presidential press conference, New York Times reporter Mark Landler broke a trend that ran through the presidential campaign, a trend of silence about climate change.  From the transcript: Q: Thank you, Mr. President. In his endorsement of you a few weeks ago, Mayor Bloomberg said he was motivated by the belief that you would do more to confront the threat of climate change than your opponent. Tomorrow you're going up to New York City, where you're going to, I assume, see people who are still suffering the effects of Hurricane Sandy, which many people say is further evidence of how…

Standards, standardized tests, and society

In cleaning out my open webpages, I came across the video above in an important post at Wired blogs, and it hardly matters that the post is from last October (yes, I keep too many tabs open in Firefox). Rhett Allain argues that there's an inverse relationship between how much standardized testing students experience, and how much learning they experience, and Ken Robinson, in the video, argues that standardized testing assumes that there is a single standard way of learning, or that such standardization is desirable. The video touches on a wide range of points beyond that, and is well…

As Gnasty As They Wanna Be

Chris Schoen: before we ⦠endorse Coyne's self-congratulation for never having "criticized an evolutionist, writer, or scholar in an ad hominem manner," it's worth taking a quick glance at his blog, where it's hard to find a post that doesn't devolve into ad hom (unless it's about kittens). Starting with the most recent example, earlier this week Coyne called Deepak Chopra (not someone I particularly admire, but a writer nonetheless) "Deepity Chopra," whose significant wealth he calls "an indictment of America." Prior to this he suggests that the critiques ("tripe") of Phil Zuckerman--writer…

The arc of evolutionary genetics is long

Evolutionary ideas have been around a long time, at least since the Greeks, and likely longer. I accept the arguments of researchers who suggest that humans are predisposed to Creationist thinking; after all, cross-cultural data shows the dominance of this model before the rise of modern evolutionary biology. But this does not mean that the possibility of evolution would be totally mystifying to the human race before Charles Darwin's time. After all, it may be that humans as a species have a predisposition toward theism as well, and yet all complex societies produce atheistic movements as…

Finger Trees Done Right (I hope)

A while ago, I wrote a href="http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2009/05/finally_finger_trees.php">couple of posts that claimed to talk about finger trees. Unfortunately, I really botched it. I'd read a bunch of data structure papers, and managed to get myself thoroughly scrambled. What I wrote about was distantly related to finger trees, and it was useful to help understand how fingertrees work - but it was not, in any way, shape, or form, actually a description of fingertrees. Since then, I've been meaning to write a proper post explaining finger trees - but with the work on my book, and…

Chossat's Effect in humans and other animals

Chossat's Effect in humans and other animalsThis April 09, 2006 post places another paper of ours (Reference #17) within a broader context of physiology, behavior, ecology and evolution. The paper was a result of a "communal" experiment in the lab, i.e., it was not included in anyone's Thesis. My advisor designed it and started the experiment with the first couple of birds. When I joined the lab, I did the experiment in an additional number of animals. When Chris joined the lab, he took over the project and did the rest of the lab work, including bringin in the idea for an additional…

Chossat's Effect in humans and other animals

This April 09, 2006 post places another paper of ours (Reference #17) within a broader context of physiology, behavior, ecology and evolution. The paper was a result of a "communal" experiment in the lab, i.e., it was not included in anyone's Thesis. My advisor designed it and started the experiment with the first couple of birds. When I joined the lab, I did the experiment in an additional number of animals. When Chris joined the lab, he took over the project and did the rest of the lab work, including bringin in the idea for an additional experiment that was included, and some of the…

Chossat's Effect in humans and other animals

This April 09, 2006 post places another paper of ours (Reference #17) within a broader context of physiology, behavior, ecology and evolution. The paper was a result of a "communal" experiment in the lab, i.e., it was not included in anyone's Thesis. My advisor designed it and started the experiment with the first couple of birds. When I joined the lab, I did the experiment in an additional number of animals. When Chris joined the lab, he took over the project and did the rest of the lab work, including bringin in the idea for an additional experiment that was included, and some of the…

Birds in the News #46

Mountain Owlet-Nightjar, Aegotheles albertisi . Photo by Bruce Beehler. Click image for larger version in its own window. Birds in Science A team of 25 American, Australian and Indonesian scientists flew by helicopter last December into the midst of a large tract of uninhabited tropical forest in New Guinea where they discovered a "lost world" brimming with new wildlife. Permit me to brag just this once, but I wrote a story about this that you might enjoy. Congratulations to a colleague of mine from grad school, Brian Walker, because he made the front page of the NY Times Science section…

The alleged hiatus in global warming didn't happen, new research shows.

There are two new scientific research papers looking at variation over the last century or so in global warming. One paper looks at the march of annual estimates of global surface temperature (air over the land plus sea surface, not ocean), and applies a well established statistical technique to ask the question: Was there a pause in global warming some time over the last couple of decades, as claimed by some? The answer is, no, there wasn’t. The paper is open access, is very clearly written so it speaks for itself, and is available here. One of the authors has a blog post here, in German…

Sarah Hershberger: "Cancer-free" and proof that natural healing works? Not so much...

One of the more depressing topics that I regularly write about includes of analyses of news stories of children with cancer whose parents decided to stop science-based treatment (usually the chemotherapy) and use quackery instead. There are, of course, variations on this theme, but these stories take form that generally resembles this outline: A child is diagnosed with a highly treatable cancer with an excellent cure rate. Standard science-based treatment is begun, but the child suffers severe side effects from the chemotherapy. After an incomplete course of chemotherapy, the parents, alarmed…

Naturopathy versus science

Naturopathy has been a recurrent topic on this blog. The reasons should be obvious. Although homeopathy is the one woo to rule them all in the U.K. and much of Europe, here in the U.S. homeopathy is not nearly as big a deal. Arguably, some flavor of naturopathy is the second most prevalent "alternative medical system" here, after chiropractic of course, and perhaps duking it out with traditional Chinese medicine, although naturopathy does embrace TCM as part of the armamentarium of dubious medical systems that it uses. In any case, some sixteen states and five Canadian provinces license…

"Big supplement" lashes out, and John McCain caves in

If there's one law that (most) supporters of science-based medicine detest and would love to see repealed, it's the Dietary Supplement and Health Act of 1994 (DSHEA). The reason is that this law, arguably more than almost anything else, allowed for the proliferation of supplements and claims made for these supplements that aren't based in science. In essence, the DSHEA created a new class of regulated entity called dietary supplements. At the same time, it liberalized the rules for information and claims that the supplement manufacturers can transmit to the public and while at the same time…

The Texas Medical Board finally gets off its tuchas and acts against Dr. Rolando Arafiles, Jr.

There's one thing I like to emphasize to people who complain that this blog exists only to "bash 'alternative' medicine," and that's that it doesn't. This blog exists, besides to champion science and critical thinking (and, of course, to feed my ravenous ego), in order to champion medicine based on science against all manner of dubious practices. Part of that purpose involves understanding and accepting that science-based medicine is not perfect. It is not some sort of panacea. Rather, it has many shortcomings and all too often does not live up to its promise. Our argument is merely that,…

Destroying the vaccine program in order to save it

Last week, I did three posts about the anti-vaccine movement. (What? Only three? Well, last week was slower than usual on the anti-vaccine craziness front. It happens.) Two of them were variations on a theme, namely how the anti-vaccine movement vehemently, desperately does not want to be seen as "anti-vaccine, even though that's what many of them are. First, I pointed out how the "health freedom" movement is teaming up with the anti-vaccine movement next week in Chicago to hold an anti-vaccine rally in Grant Park as part of its annual autism quackfest known as AutismOne. My second post asked…

Falsehoods: Human Universals

There are human universals. There, I said it. Now give me about a half hour to explain why this is both correct and a Falsehood. But first, some background and definition. Most simply defined, a human universal is a trait, behavior or cultural feature that we find in all human societies. Men are always on average larger than women. All humans see the same exact range of colors because our eyes are the same. The range of emotions experienced by people is the same, and appears in facial expressions and other outward affect, in the same way across all humans. The term "Human Universal"…

The animal research experience

The Lese of the Ituri Forest raise food in gardens, and they exchange various things for wild animal meat hunted by the Efe (Pygmy) foragers with whom they live in close economic and social association. But the Lese also hunt and gather, to varying degrees, with some individuals never doing it, others often engaged in the process, and among those who are, some degree of speciality. One Lese man I knew hunted only elephants, another mainly fished, and one of the men I most often worked with trapped small forest antelopes using snares. I will call him Marque. As part of my research I "…

Yet another really bad day for antivaccinationists: No link between MMR and autism--again

This is getting to be monotonous, but it's a monotony that I like, as should anyone who supports scientific medicine and hates the resurgence of infectious diseases that antivaccinationists have been causing of late with their fearmongering about vaccines that frightens parents into refusing to vaccinate their children. It's the drumbeat of studies, seemingly coming out every few months, that fail to find even a whiff of a link or correlation between vaccines, thimerosal-containing or otherwise, and autism. You'd think that the pseudoscientists who are so utterly convinced that it absolutely…

Still more oversold placebo research from our old friend Ted Kaptchuk

Here we go again. In the wake of study after study that fails to find activity of various "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) beyond that of placebo, the campaign to a "rebrand" CAM as "working" through the "power of placebo" continues apace, in the wake of the successful campaign to "rebrand" various needle-based medical modalities as "acupuncture." Personally, I've argued that in reality this new focus on placebo effects as the "mechanism" through which CAM "works" is in reality more a manifestation of the common fantasy that wishing makes it so. Meanwhile I've argued that this…

An antivaccine Frankenstein's monster turns on his creator

Almost everyone knows the story of Victor Frankenstein and his monster. It's such a classic tale that has been around so long and told so many times in so many ways that it's almost impossible for someone living in this country not to have encountered it growing up. Frankenstein's monster is also a tale that strikes me as an excellent metaphor for something that I witnessed that puzzled the hell out of me the other day, because, as everyone knows, during the tale the monster ultimately turns on its master, wreaking its revenge by killing people Victor loves and, depending on the telling,…

The Woo Boat, part 2: Andrew Wakefield versus the skeptics

About six months ago, I was highly amused to discover something called the Conspira-Sea Cruise, which I referred to at The Woo Boat. As I said at the time, file this one under the category: You can’t make stuff like this up. Certainly, I couldn't. I've never been on a cruise. Quite frankly, the very concept of a cruise doesn't much appeal to me, at least not an ocean cruise. My wife and I have considered doing a Viking River Cruise, because a river cruise where you get to stop at multiple historic European cities and watch the countryside roll by while on the ship sounds far more appealing to…

Another Week of GW News, October 28, 2007

Sipping from the internet firehose... This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H.E.Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's GW news roundup (skip to bottom) Top Stories, Accelerating CO2 Growth, GEO-4, Mass Extinctions, Roe & Baker, Prins & Rayner, IAC Melting Arctic, California Wildfires, Catch Up Hurricanes, GHG Sources, Glaciers, Pine Island, Sea Levels, Satellites, DSCOVR Impacts, Rainforests, Corals, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts, Food vs. Biofuel, Cereal Production Mitigation, Transportation, Building, Sequestration, Geoengineering Journals, Misc.…

At least one of my votes still makes me happy

Obama has been a disappointment (but still better than the alternative!), but one candidate continues to make me happy: Al Franken. He recently tacked a praiseworthy amendment to a defense bill: there will be no defense contracts to companies that "restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court." I'm rather appalled that such rules exist in some companies, and it's about time that someone shut that kind of criminal behavior down. The weird thing, though, is that 30 male Republicans lined up to oppose that bit of legislation. What's the…

Quote of the Day: The Surge Edition

Because it's never too late to have lots of surgetastic goodness. From Rising Hegemon: NPR actually does its job: Sometime around February 2004, a top military official in Iraq estimated that there were about 15,000 total insurgents. About a year later, U.S. military leaders in Iraq announced that 15,000 insurgents had been killed or captured in the previous year. In private, a skeptical military adviser pointed out to commanders that the numbers didn't make sense. "If all the insurgents were killed," he asked, "why are they fighting harder than ever?" Well, obviously they are either lying…

Loose Lips, Sinking Ships, and Why Bush Won't Pardon Libby

(from here) Much has been written about the Scooter Libby verdict, so I don't have much commentary to add. However, I will make a prediction: Bush will not pardon Libby. Here's why: The lord of the manor does not sacrifice himself for the serfs. Underneath all the 'jus' people' duds, Bush is an aristocrat. He possesses the aristocrat's overweening sense of entitlement combined with a feral cunning used to preserve that prerogative. Little Lord Pontchartrain might actually feel for Libby, but he has been taught his entire life how to avoid becoming upset over the little people's problems…

ASM Microbiology Blog

Moselio Schaechter, former American Society of Microbiology president, has a blog, Small Things Considered. It's pretty good. But the promo letter ASM sent around had one annoying thing (italics mine): Microbes have entered the blogosphere courtesy of past ASM president Moselio Schaechter, professor emeritus at Tufts and a visiting scholar at the University of San Diego. Actually, microbes have been in the blogosphere for some time now. Tara immediately comes to mind, along with the regular contributors to Animalcules (not to mention the Mad Biologist, who has a thing or two to say about…

Links 8/14/11

Links for you. Science: New drug could cure nearly any viral infection Fever in children: 5 facts you must know Half the variation in I.Q. due to variation in genes Going Organic Cuts Poultry Farms' "Superbug" Bacteria in Single Generation Other: Can Teachers Alone Overcome Poverty? Steven Brill Thinks So Simple questions Field Position The Good Old Days Why Michelle Malkin Should Be Caged Like a Rabid Shih Tzu (Teacher Edition) THERE ARE NO LIBERTARIANS IN AIRPLANES The redistribution of federal taxes from state to state in the US Turning Poverty Into an American Crime Too Big To Fail They'…

Links 7/14/11

Beautiful weather here. If you're stuck inside, here are some links. Science: Casey's Case: What Psychology Says About Anthony's Acquittal. Sunday AI: Leaping Cockroaches The Clap Came Back: Multi-Drug Resistant Gonorrhea The Path Of Increased Resistance Other: Rep. Ryan Tastes The Grapes Of Wrath The Pathology of Elite Organizations Whitey's generation: What was life really like for the tough boys of '30s and '40s Boston? From boxes in a basement, a startlingly clear portrait of their lives. JP Morgan Chase Fine: Another Slap on the Wrist for Wall Street 10 Days in a Carry-On State and…

Links 5/5/11

Links for you. Science: How Sugar Affects the Body in Motion Why the Harper Majority is a Step Back for Science - Let Us Count the Ways Wheat stem fungus genome deciphered Vaccine safety talks can burn up valuable checkup time. Half of doctors spend nearly 20 minutes discussing concerns with some parents, despite studies rejecting links between autism and immunization. Other: Imagine If the Unemployed Helped Run the Fed "I don't have a T.V." isn't such a signal anymore.... (I haven't had a TV hooked up to cable since 2005. Hipster!) "I'm From New York." Mythbusting Princess Leia's Hair What…

Links 3/31/11

Links for you. Science: Livestock-associated Staphylococcus aureus in Childcare Worker New paper: Staphylococcus aureus ST398 in a childcare worker "Castrated" Spiders Are Better Fighters, Study Says The spread of superbugs Other: Greg Mankiw: Budget Arsonist Screaming for a Firehose... Journamalism in 2011: Long on hyperbolic headlines and conflation, short on actual facts Thoughts on Libya Eric Cantor Admits Republicans Want to Kill Social Security Craiglist ad seeks "writers to post Right-Wing Comments to social media & news outlets" Value Betrayal States broke? Maybe they cut taxes…

Demography & population genetics

John Hawks has a post up, Handling exponential growth in demographic models. You might like to read it in concert with p-ter's post Modeling human demographic history. One question I have in regards to human evolutionary genetic history is this: how typical are our population dynamics up to this point for a typical sexually reproducing species? And therefore, how might that impact deviations for our species from the norm? Also, if you are interested in the intersection of evolutionary genetics and models of demography you can go back to R. A. Fisher's Genetical Theory of Natural…

Etruscan update - more evidence

Success begets succes, Dienekes was looking closely at genetic data due to the publication two papers which suggest an Anatolian origin for Etruscans (there has been previous mtDNA going back at least 5 years as well). He finds that central Italy exhibits a relatively high frequency of a variant of Haplogroup J, famously connected to the spread of farmers from Anatolia into Europe during the Neolithic revolution. Not that we're on the trail of the definitive answer I suspect that things will "fit into place" far more easily. Scholarship is informed by scholarship, knowing that the Etruscans…

Virginity as a function of IQ

Data from Sexual Experiences of Adolescents with Low Cognitive Abilities in the U.S. What's the reason for these results? I think one of the simple ones (though not the only one) might be a form of positive assortative mating: like with like. If you assume that affinity is proportional to cognitive similarity than the sample of individuals for someone who has an IQ of 100 vs. 130 or 70 is far higher for any given range. For example, nearly 2/3 of individuals on the frequency distribution lay within 1 standar deviation of someone with an IQ of 100. In contrast, only around 1/7 of the…

I was Wrong!!!

Can I get a "What, what?!?!" You can check out the results real time. Here are the exit polls. I'm not going to do the final tally yet since it won't come in at 100% for a few hours, but it looks like I really messed up with Obama vs. Clinton. But I'm in plenty of company. I doubt Paul is going to catch Giuliani either, though I wanted to pick a surprise there instead of just going with the safe bet (it isn't like there was as much uncertainty in New Hampshire as there was in Iowa where we had months of talking and a few straw polls and national surveys to go on). No more predictions…

Larry Craig, making a difference

As my friend Chet Snicker would say to Larry Craig, you sir are no gentleman! Some of you know that I have recently trekked across this great nation of ours. One of the main differences between the most recent of my travels and previous peregrinations has been my relative trepidation and discomfort in public restrooms. Every time I was in a stall and a fellow citizen in distress entered to relieve themselves adjacent I could not help myself from wondering about the appearance of the infamous "wide stance." Gladly I was not faced with such a disquieting circumstance, but it is striking…

Confirming the Sayyids, a historical genetic project?

In many parts of the Muslim world people claim to be descendants of the Prophet. Generally these are Sayyids: Sayyid (سÙد) (plural Saadah) is an honorific title that is given to males accepted as descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hassan and Husayn, who were the sons of his daughter Fatima Zahra and son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib. Are the people who claim to be Sayyids really Sayyids? If they share common descent from Ali, their Y chromosomal lineage should be the same. Or, more likely assuming a small proportion of infidelity per generation you will have one…

The dead hand of the law

Want to make analytic philosophy papers the exemplars of lively and clear prose? Just read some articles from The Harvard Law Review. My own personal experience with lawyers is that most of them know the law as well as a heating & cooling engineer knows the temperature systems of the typical modern building. That being said, heating & cooling engineers don't presume to have insights into the human condition, while many smart lawyers seem to think they do have such general knowledge. Lawyers are the potentates of process, and I give them their due, but they should leave…

Introgression redux

I was going to continue with my review of chapter 5 of Evolutionary Genetics: Concepts & Case Studies today, but time does not permit. This section was to focus on the orgination of advantageous mutations from the stochastic cauldron of generation 1 (which, as we've seen exhibits a 1/3 probability of immediate extinction in th subsequent generation assuming Poisson distribution of reproductive variance and fixed population size), so I will point to my older posts on introgression (of advantageous alleles): The baby model My fixations Archaic-modern hybridization Intogression-1…

What's your utility function?

What is a Good Society? What values should we has a society hold to be Good and True? These aren't light questions, but we often neglect them. I believe that many "political" differences can ultimately be traced back to the weights placed on these initial axioms of value. Ruchira Paul comments on a new book who explores happiness and amity from an economic and philosophical perspective: I frequently irritate champions of the unbridled free market who trumpet the triumphs of nations such as India and China and the recent impressive rise in their GDP, economic growth indices etc. I keep…

Links 3/13/11

I like springing forward in the long run, but hate the day we do it. Oh well. Links for you. Science: Drug-resistant bacteria: To humans from farms via food Teaching Ambiguity and the Scientific Method Budget cuts at the NIH: Department of nose-cutting, face-spiting (for a layman, gets most of the NIH grant stuff right) How I got to know thunder thighs, the dinosaur with a fearsome kick Other: The New York City Bike Lane Backlash is Completely Irrational As history unfolds in Wisconsin, Smithsonian sends curator Why I Had an Abortion M.I.T. Economist David Autor Shows Soaring Demand for…

Links 3/12/11

Sunny. Kinda warm. Seems like a good reason for links. Science: Small Beetles Massacre The Rockies' Whitebark Pines Why the grass is always greener once you hit grad school Nuclear Reactors A More Ancient World: Bird Evolution for Birders Part II (WARNING! Super long and photo rich) Other: Some Thoughts On The Expanding Service Industry: Nickel and Dimed, Decent Jobs, Pity-Charity Liberalism. Did the Singularity Already Happen? Who reaps the rewards of productivity? A 10% increase in productivity since 2008 is enough to cancel concerns about the deficit. But who gains is the crucial…

Links 2/7/11

Links for you. Science: Microbial Landscapes IN WHICH GALILEO PERSECUTES THE POPE. It May Be a Sputnik Moment, but Science Fairs Are Lagging Disease v. culture: Botulism in the Arctic Other: How To Get Someone With Friends In Egypt To Lose His Temper Gender divides in Philosophy and other disciplines Georgia Republican Bobby Franklin: You say you're a rape victim? Uh-uh -- not so fast. Prove it! Returning the Blessings of an Immortal Life Megan McArdle is Always Wrong (Again!): Kitchen History Edition No Prayers for David Kato The Siege of Planned Parenthood Five myths about Ronald Reagan's…

Links 1/20/11

We have ice, ice, baby. Also, some links. Science: The Antibiotics Crisis Time for Astrology to Sign Out (for the Huffington Post, astrology seems to be a woo too far) Superbugs, Agricultural Antibiotics, and Farm-Worker Infections: A New Study Connects the Dots Sit. Stay. Parse. Good Girl! Other: On MLK Day, Some Thoughts on Segregated Schools, Arne Duncan, and President Obama The Role of the Dollar: Who Cares? MLK's Legacy -- Let's Launch a People's Campaign for the Unemployed The Dangers of the Investment Bank Franchise Model Stop treating monsters as reasonable people Are Public Service…

Happy Evacuation Day!

And a Beannachtai na Feile Padraig too! (I've left out the accents cuz MovableType eats them). Tomorrow, in Boston, we celebrate one of the goofiest holidays EVAH! No, I don't mean St. Patrick's Day--which is the Irish Purim*, and has perfectly...sensible traditions associated with it. I mean Evacuation Day, which celebrates the retreat of the British from Boston after an eleven month siege. That, and that the British decided not to burn the place down to the ground upon said leaving. Of course, Evacuation Day--a nice secular holiday--just happens to coincide with St. Patrick's Day. What…

Tuesday Links

Why aren't three day weekends long enough? Anyway, here are some links for you. Science first: Harvard study backs bottle concern: Says plastic used leaches bisphenol A Creation/evolution continuum, or NCSE is too nice to theists...and to atheists! For the Love of Science Science-less in Seattle: Facing a Media With Without "Breaking News Detective Science" Other: Another "Christian Nation" Resolution Journalism's many crises Distinguish between transactional and revolving credit Everything is Unpopular Credit Card Reform: Does my credit card's interest rate mean anything? Poor? Pay Up.…

Saturday Links

Happy Saturday. Links for you. Science: Robot Snowplow from Japan Eats Up Snow, Poops Out Bricks Immunization for Addiction: the Cocaine Vaccine Why are demented women still getting mammograms? Spray-on liquid glass is about to revolutionize almost everything Is the Evolution Debate Over? Parsing NIH's 2011 Budget: Is Big Science Up, Small Science Down? Other: Ben Nelson Wants College Kids to Pay for Nebraska Jobs Will the Real Pam Tebow Story Please Stand Up? Angry Norwegians in scuba gear chase after Google Street View car The Eternal Delusions of the Right-Wing Mind Robert Samuelson…

Sunday Links

The snow is about done up here. Time for some links. Science: MRSA Hospital Infections Can Cost $61,000 Each to Treat MRSA Infections Nearly Doubled Over Last 10 Years: Study Wegman's ghostwriter revealed Why Progressives Would Be "Batshit Crazy" To Listen to Nate Silver On Health Reform Health Care on the Road to Neo-Feudalism Rules of Thumb This isn't what we were promised The GOP had at most 55 Senators during Bush's presidency Greenwashing, Jared, and Stocks: Diamond Looks at Corporations and Sees Green Negotiation 101. Defending Christmas from Christians "defending" Christmas…

Tuesday Link Dump

Here are some links. By the way, I heard some new guy is preznit or something. Science first: Global Warming, The Carbon Cycle, and Fish Poop. Kellogg recalls 16 products due to salmonella risk Phylogenetic inference under recombination using Bayesian stochastic topology selection Ancient DNA analysis of the Icelandic settlers Other: Bailed-Out Firms Have Tax Havens, GAO Finds That Old Saying In Tennessee Here's What Sows Cynicism Obama pushing bailout without solid plan in place How to Cover the White House Coverage of economy repeats Iraq mistakes Redefining Chutzpah: Wall Street Goes…

The official cheesecake maker of Pharyngula

Here's a new tradition I have to encourage: I was brought a cheesecake at last night's talk at Stanford. It was fabulous: white chocolate raspberry chocolate chip. The fellow who sent it along was Victor Harris of Reuschelle's Cheesecakes. He has a huge variety of different kinds of cheesecakes, and he ships…so if you're sitting around somewhere far away from California, and you've got a craving, you can just email for a menu or to order, and the next day a lethally delicious cheesecake will magically appear at your door. Maybe I shouldn't encourage these kinds of gifts at my talks, though. I…

The Texas Republican Party Has Gone Insane

The Texas GOP--from the same state party that gives Representative Joe "I'm sorry" Barton--has gone out of its mind. Someone over at Media Matters, who clearly needs to be given hazard pay, looked through the Texas Republican Party platform. While there is so much stupid in there, for me, this one takes the cake: Further, we urge Congress to withhold Supreme Court jurisdiction in cases involving abortion, religious freedom, and the Bill of Rights. Um, then what should the Court do? Argue over whether blacks get three-fifths of a vote? This is insane, and it's the only way people like…