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Why Accelerated Adaptive Evolution isn't Faster Evolution

There's been a whole lot of hype around the Hawks et al. paper describing a recent burst of adaptive evolution in the human genome. The problem is a lot of people are conflating accelerated adaptive evolution with accelerated evolution. Take this for example: 12/11: Accelerated Human Evolution In recent years, humans have evolved at a much higher rate than previously thought, according to a new paper in PNAS. By analyzing genome variations, researchers found that the rate of human evolution was fairly stagnant until about 50,000 years ago, and then--because of larger populations, climate…

I am the angry left (Repost from last election season)

"If the Hanoi Hilton could not break John McCain's resolve to do what is best for his country, you can be sure the angry Left never will." -- President George Bush, addressing the RNC via satellite feed, September 1, 2008 "I Am The Angry Left." -- T-Shirt seen at demonstration outside RNC, September 2, 2008. * A criminal trial against Eight American Patriots is about to start in Saint Paul. These eight patriots armed themselves with information and guts and planned to attack dogma and repressive politics at the Republican National Convention. They were arrested, treated like animals, and…

Sham acupuncture is better than "true" acupuncture!

Believe it or not, there was a time when I didn't consider acupuncture to be a form of woo. I know, I know, it's hard to believe, given the sorts of posts I've done recently on acupuncture, but it's true. Certainly, I didn't believe the whole rigamarole about needles somehow "restoring the flow of qi" or anything like that, but I did wonder if maybe there was some physiologic mechanism at work behind acupuncture that produced real benefits in terms of pain relief above that of placebo. Sure, I may have dismissed homeopathy as the pure magical thinking that it was, but acupuncture I wasn't so…

David Irving on trial for Holocaust denial

Well, today's the day. After all the waiting, it's finally here. David Irving is going to stand trial for Holocaust denial in Austria today. Those of you who have read my old blog a while know what a despicable human being I consider David Irving to be. He's clearly an anti-Semite, most famously having said that "more women died in the back seat of Edward Kennedy’s car at Chappaquiddick than ever died in a gas chamber at Auschwitz" and being known for repeating anti-Semitic doggerel. He's spent decades in essence falsifying history, denying that there were gas chambers at Auschwitz, that the…

Big pharma wins a battle on off-label prescribing

There's a phenomenon known as off-label prescribing. Basically, to prescribe something off-label is to prescribe it for an indication that is not FDA-approved but that is supported by considerable evidence. For example, it could involve using an FDA-approved drug for an indication that is not within its approval, for an unapproved age range (such as children), or at an unapproved dose or in an unapproved form. Although the FDA has the power to approve drugs for specific indications, it doesn't actually have the power to regulate the practice of medicine, which means that physicians can use…

Stanislaw Burzynski: Slapped down by the FDA once again

I sometimes think that Stanislaw Burzynski is a lot like the Bloody Mary of folklore, or perhaps Candyman of the famous horror movie—or perhaps like a number of other legends and horror stories—in that all it seems to take for him to show up in the blogosphere again is for me to recite his hame enough times. Yes, I know that it's a bit of confirmation bias on my part and whether or not some new Burzynski news happens to come to the fore again has little or nothing to do with my invocation of his name, but it is a rather amusing thought. Be that as it may, it was just late last week that I…

A slightly different alternative medicine cancer cure testimonial

And now for something completely different... Well, not really. It's a little different, but regular readers will soon recognize it as a variation on the same old theme. One topic I've been writing about since the very beginning of this blog is the alternative medicine cancer cure testimonial, or, more specifically, the breast cancer cure testimonial. Indeed, one of the very first (perhaps the very first) of my "classic" Orac-length deconstructions was about this very topic. It's a topic that's come up again and again, even quite recently. To make a long story short, many breast cancer cure…

"Forced" to be an antivaccinationist?

Every so often there are articles or posts about which I want to blog that, for whatever reason, I don't get around to. I've alluded before to my observation that blogging tends to be a "feast or famine" sort of activity. Sometimes, there isn't a lot going on, and, if there's one thing I've failed to learn, it's not to try too hard to find blog fodder when not much is going on and just chill out. On the other hand, one thing I have learned is not to try too hard to blog about everything you want to blog about when the blog fodder is hitting you fast and furious, as it sometimes does. It's…

Naturopaths: Able to turn even Epsom salt potentially deadly

Naturopathy and naturopaths are a fairly frequent topic on this blog—and for very good reason. If there is an example of a pseudomedical "discipline" that has been gaining undeserved "respectability," it's naturopathy. It's licensed in all too many states, and physicians who have fallen under the spell of so-called "integrative medicine," a specialty that rebrands science-based lifestyle medical interventions as somehow "alternative" or "integrative" and uses them as a vessel to "integrate" quackery into medicine, seem to have a special affinity for naturopaths. Indeed, so common has the…

A "clinical trial" of foot bath "detoxification"

One of the most reliable indicators of a quack clinic that I know of (besides its offering homeopathy and reiki) is the inclusion of “detox foot bath” treatments on its roster of services. Detox foot baths, whatever the brand, are of a piece with other “detoxification” pseudoscience involving the feet, such as Kinoki foot pads. Basically, the idea is that you can some how remove toxins through the soles of your feet using either a nice mineral bath with a weak electrical current passed through it or a foot pad. Inevitably, nasty looking stuff is seen apparently coming out of the feet. In the…

From The Desk of Zelnio: Dermochelys coriacea

So you walk into the pet shop, you're looking around at all the little animals and you see a cute little turtle in a freshwater terrarium. You think to yourself "wow, that's really neat, a cute little turtle." What you might not realize is that a cousin of this pet store turtle holds some most amazing physiological adaptations for non-fish marine vertebrates, can grow more than 2m (6 1/2ft) long, regularly weigh over 500kg (~1000lbs), and dive deeper than most fully-equipped marine organisms can!  Description Dermochelys coriacea, a.k.a. the Leatherback Sea Turtle, was described originally…

A Response to Russ of Planktos

Russ comments in our previous post Au contrair. The record shows that Planktos was long advocating and involved in ecorestoration not merely recently. The Way Back machine easily proves this. The strawman of Planktos that was created and the ad hominem attacks that were and are the hallmark of those opposed to this work for selfish reasons continue here. For example the fact that the Planktos ship Weatherbird was staffed by top scientists from around the world seems not only missing but refused. That Weatherbird was equipped and maintained by the same academic organizations that equip and…

The Problem with Gregg Easterbrook, Redux

Jason over on EvolutionBlog has some interesting commentary regarding Greg Easterbrook and string theory. Like Jason, I find Easterbrook to be tiresome and a less-than-worthy commentator on topics scientific. I had written my own frisking of Easterbrook with respect to Richard Dawkins on a previous incarnation of the Refuge some time ago. It follows, below. I was reading an interview with Richard Dawkins the other day. Quite nice. Dawkins is his usual clear and straightforward self regarding the public's take on evolution versus so-called intelligent design. What caught my eye, however, was a…

The molecular foundation of the phylotypic stage

When last we left this subject, I had pointed out that the phenomenon of embryonic similarity within a phylum was real, and that the creationists were in a state of dishonest denial, arguing with archaic interpretations while trying to pretend the observations were false. I also explained that constraints on morphology during development were complex, and that it was going to take something like a thorough comparative analysis of large sets of gene expression data in order to drill down into the mechanisms behind the phylotypic stage. Guess what? The comparative analysis of large sets of…

The Republican War on Science

A repost from the archives. At last I got a chance to read the last few pages of the book I've been pimping in the sidebar for a few months now. I've made some broad comments drawn from it before, but it's nice to be able to see the full sweep of the book. Chris Mooney's argument in RWoS is more complex than it might seem from the title. He isn't decrying the lack of scientific basis for policies per se, but the ways in which the Republican Party in particular misrepresents the state of science and the nature of science in order to promote certain actions or forestall other actions. I'll…

OCA2 makes East Asians white and Europeans blue

Over the history of this weblog I have blogged about pigmentation a fair amount. The major reason is that that's where the money is; unlike height, let alone intelligence, the genetic architecture and evolutionary history of pigmentation has been elucidated with relative clarity. That is, we know roughly the number and nature of the genes which control much of the between population variation in pigmentation. And, we also have some sense of whether the variation is due to natural selection, as well the historical trajectory of the between population differences. For example, consider the…

Apes and Angels

A silverback Western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla), photographed on July 23, 2008 at the Bronx zoo. During my elementary school years I was spoon-fed the classic, textbook mythology about evolutionary theory. Although Jean Baptiste Lamarck had come up with a ridiculous notion to explain the neck of the giraffe the world was wholly unprepared for Charles Darwin's crystal clear scientific revelation in 1859, On the Origin of Species instantaneously being accepted as the only reasonable explanation for the unity and diversity of life. This is absolute nonsense, of course, but as we approach the "…

Spring Motion and Numerical Calculations

Maybe you know I like numerical calculations, well I do. I think they are swell. [VPython](http://vpython.org) is my tool of choice. In the post [Basics: Numerical Calculations](http://scienceblogs.com/dotphysics/2008/10/basics-numerical-calculation…) I used vpython and excel to do something simple. I will do that again today (in that this problem could also be solved analytically). However, there is one big difference. This problem has a non-constant forces. Suppose I have a mass that is connected by a spring to a wall. This mass-spring is sitting on a table with no friction. ![…

Chickens come home to roost

Even John McCain's supporters don't care for his campaign's tactics of attacking Obama with lies. Meanwhile, Sarah Palin has referred to her own campaign and its supporters as "atrocious and unacceptable." She told the Christian Broadcasting Network: If I ever were to hear that [threats to Senator Obama] standing up there at the podium with the mic, I would call them out on that, and I would tell these people, no, that’s unacceptable, let’s rise above that please. Asked whether that denunciation included her own claim that Senator Obama has been "palling around with terrorists,” however,…

Another courtier speaks up

A couple of years ago, I sat down one morning, bemused by yet another bit of empty apologetics from god's sycophants, and banged out a short bit of amusement called The Courtier's Reply. It got picked up everywhere, to my surprise. I mean, seriously, I have to confess that I whipped that out in 20 minutes, no edits or rewrites, just shazam, it's done. I'm really peeved at myself for anguishing over this book I'm working on, because apparently, all I've got to do is get a big glass of root beer, pop some bubblegum in my mouth, put something bubbly and light on the stereo, and once I enter a…

What's the opposite of a counterfactual?

David Klinghoffer is surprised that his Disco. 'tute colleagues managed to get an article published at the Huffington Post. Klinghoffer's colleague must've known this was coming, and HuffPo isn't notorious for refusing essays, so I can't fathom why it was any sort of surprise. Nor is "pleasant" the word that came to mind on reading the essay, or anything coming from Disco. Anyway, Klinghoffer asks us to "Try to Imagine Our Country's Founding if the Founders Had Not Been Advocates of Intelligent Design: The Huffington Post pleasantly surprised us today with an excellent piece on the…

Johannes Mehserle guilty of involuntary manslaughter in BART shooting

On New Year's Eve, 2009, Oscar Grant and his friends were taking BART back from the San Francisco celebrations to their homes in the East Bay. They were raucous at minimum, and reportedly started a fight on the train. Police pulled them off the train because of their behavior, and planned to arrest them. Grant struggled during his arrest, and two officers pinned him down while trying to cuff him. One officer, Johannes Mehserle, drew his service pistol and shot Grant once in the back, killing him. The shooting was caught on a cell phone video camera, which amplified the shooting's impact…

Categorizing ideas & humans

Andrew Gelman has a post up titled Difficulties in trying to understand the views of others, responding to a Robin Hanson taxonomy outline the motivations of liberals, conservatives and libertarians. Gelman is skeptical of Hanson's glosses of each group. The human ability to engage in Meta-Representation is one of the hallmarks of our species. We can analyze abstract ideas, take the positions of others, examine counter-factuals and what-if's. In terms of core competencies our Theory of Mind is a sharp knife, we are unparalleled at modeling social relations contingent upon the mental states of…

Yellowstone Vacation Photos

I'm back from vacation! There was no network access in Yellowstone, and virtually no cellphone service. Anyway, a bunch of people asked me to post photos. I've got three sets of photographs, for the three main areas of the park that I visited: the Geyser area, the Terrace area, and the Canyon area. The first (and largest) batch - the Geyser area - is uploaded into an album on Picasa. The album still needs a lot of work - many things are out of order, mislabeled, etc; but the photos are there, and some of them are amazing! (No credit to me - I'm a mediocre photographer at best, using a…

Tuesday Link Terror

Here's some links for you: The housing crisis, as in people can't afford housing, has hit the 'burbs A security expert explodes the idea that terrorism is a serious threat. Very provocative. A good post about the historical roots of the Holocaust. A stunning and revealing interview with a Republican chickenhawk. Wars are for the little people. Jesus' General has a nice photo essay on the same subject. Lindsay invents a new term: hugmeat. Kung Fu Monkey discusses, in far too much detail, the Underoos of Righteousness. Also, from Kung Fu Monkey, a great old post about terrorism. Apparently…

Some Sunday Reading

Here are some posts I collected off those internets you might find interesting: The NSA literally doesn't have enough electricity to run all of its equipment. At least, it will be harder for them to violate our freedoms. Maybe there is an upside to global warming... An interesting take on upper middle class subsurbs. I'm not sure I agree, but it is interesting. A nice takedown of the Bush Administration's economic 'accomplishments.' Juan Cole gets all Dark Lord of Mordor on your ass. Seriously, he proposes a very interesting hypothesis. Given all of the ridiculousness Little Lord…

Deep Rifts in Seattle

This is fast becoming the theme of news stories about atheists this year: that there are differences in tactics in the atheist community, with some people being more in-your-face about it (yours truly takes a bow), and others wanting to be more conciliatory towards religion. Well, how surprising that a movement of diverse freethinkers who value critical thinking, skepticism, and open argument, and which lacks either a charismatic central leader or a hierarchy of control, might have members with diverse views… Here's another example of journalists jumping on the bandwagon: a story about the…

Separability

Yesterday in my conversation with David Miller I told him I didn't think that the new autosomal "ancestry" tests really delivered the extent of separability of ancestral quanta that most people really expect. Well, look at this principal component chart that Dienekes put up from a paper published by Dr. Mark Shriver. Granted, these tests are good at differentiating continental races...but many people want to know if they are "pure Hakka" or "pure German," as opposed to Cantonese whose ancestors picked up the Hakka dialect or Slavic Sorbs who were Germanized. In terms of the autosomal tests…

Links 8/25/11

Links for you. Science: Why biology (and chemistry) is not physics That's One Gigantic Wasp Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue? When you say flu, what do you really mean? Newly found: the world's oldest fossils! Other: Legal academia and the problem of bad faith Why the World hates economics (the end has a really good discussion of the actual--not economist-postulated--role of bank reserves) Don't kill America's databook The Taking Care of Our Shit Initiative Opinion: A White, Powdery Substance in Copley Square Our Broken Democracy, in One Headline Food Safety in China, and the Risk to the…

Exorcism is a booming business

Hard to believe, but this medieval nonsense is still going on. Poland has more than 100 professional exorcists, and they recently met in a conference. Congress participants argued that demonology lessons should be treated more seriously in seminaries and that ordinary people, too, would benefit from knowing more about exorcisms. During the congress, the priests discussed the main causes of possession by demons such as occult, esoteric beliefs like magic, eastern meditation and homeopathy. Oooh, demonology lessons. Those should be good. Don't forget to take them seriously when some geezer…

Links 7/20/11

Links for you. Science: The narrow mind of Greenpeace Tom Coburn wrong on behavioral research After 8 Decades, Tiny Toad Resurfaces in Asia Food Companies Act to Protect Consumers From E. Coli Illness Other: On Early Retirement (must read) Other People's Money A Response to Corey Robin on The Political Idea of Monetary Policy (this is why I write about that new fangled technology known as money) With ALEC Exposed, Common Cause Demands an IRS Audit of Corporate-Funded Group's Gaming of State Lawmaking Law and law school economics Google+ Circles? More Like a Hole Questioning the Inca Paradox…

A week of Just Science, what it's about

RPM and Chris have hit most of the points in regards to the Just Science project. To be short, what it's not about is anti-science. Just one week, that's all. It certainly isn't about traffic or comment response. It isn't about ease of posting, expressing a clever opinion, but rather a tight exposition of a difficult concept. And it isn't about any one blogger, and it isn't about you, it's about science. Myself, I don't have the marginal time to spend writing one deep scientific post a day, so I'm putting things in the queue right now. I'm going to set up Just Science as an aggregator…

That incompatibility problem

On Saturday in Melbourne, I'm going to be giving a talk on the incompatibility of science and religion. Now what happens? Another eruption of those accommodation arguments, and I've got this big pile of stuff I could say right now, but I'm going to hold it in, so it's at least a little bit fresh for the end of this week. Until then, read Larry Moran, who has it covered. I am particularly appalled that Larry's comments contain that hoary old chestnut, "science can't explain love," with the bizarre claim that "No scientist that is also a decent human being subjects all her/his beliefs to…

Interview with Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza in Nature

The genetic map maker. Read the whole thing, but this is interesting: How did you feel about being accused of racism? Well, many mistakes are made and that was a very curious one. I'd argued for decades that the concept of 'race' defined by external characteristics -- such as skin colour, size variations or facial fat -- is nonsense. These visible characteristics evolved under natural selection, mostly to cope with local environments, and have no deeper base. [my emphasis -r] Hm. That's interesting. In his magisterial The History and Geography of Human Genes Cavalli-Sforza sketched out the…

I'm an "upbeat"?

I noticed some blogs were talking about a new Pew Political Typology, and I decided to take their survey to see where I fit in. It said I was an Upbeat, which seemed wrong to me as I'm not that partisan (I voted for Kerry though my registration is Republican). So I took the Political Compass test, and I got my usual result: Economic Left/Right: 2.13 (I'm fiscally conservative) Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.38 (I'm socially liberal) I'm a moderate libertarian who leans toward the slightly more liberal side. My political intensity has been decreasing over the years, and I've probably…

Race mixing confuses the soul

A report in The University of Chicago Magazine details the problems that interracial children have in relation to monoracial children, specifically, violence, drug abuse and disciplinary problems. Ah, but note this: Choi has yet to decipher all the factors that exacerbate multiracial youths' "bad outcomes," but racial discrimination is part of the equation. Kids act out in response to ridicule or ostracism. In junior high and high school, "some [racial] groups are very exclusive. Other children will push you out if you're a racial combination." In similar surveys in Hawaii, she notes,…

Links 3/9/11

Happy Wednesday. Links for you. Science: Genetic Genealogy and the Single Segment Fungi Developed to Fight Malaria in Mosquitoes What a real astrobiologist at NASA has to say You can increase your intelligence: 5 ways to maximize your cognitive potential Other: Why employee pensions aren't bankrupting states When it Comes to Sex, Teens Are People Too Robert Samuelson Wants to Take Money from Seniors to Make the Wall Street Boys Richer (actually, I think he's just not that bright) Government in the cross hairs: Who are these evil workers who throw away our tax dollars so thoughtlessly? They'…

FOX News Is Running a Con on Elderly People

That's really the only way to think of it. Fox 'News' Bill O'Reilly's show has an average viewership age of 71, which isn't 'middle-aged', but elderly. Anyway, one of the propaganda pieces Fox has been catapaulting is the false notion that the Wisconsin protests are out-of-control or violent (police have described the crowd as 'civil'). So this video from O'Reilly's show shouldn't be surprising: What is surprising is what you see at the 0:16 mark. Go back, look at it again. That's right: Palm trees. In Wisconsin. In February. They're not even trying anymore. Seriously, how is this any…

The Political Failure of Charter Schools: Conservatives Reap What They Have Sown

For the last two decades, give or take, charter schools have been a cause celebre for conservatives. Yet they seem to have abandoned them as a political issue. Here's one reason why (italics mine): Bill Burrow, the associate director of the Office on Competitiveness under the first President Bush, has noted that school choice is "popular in the national headquarters of the Republican Party but is unpopular among the Republican rank-and-file voters who have moved away from the inner city in part so that their children will not have to attend schools that are racially or socioeconomically…

Maybe they should send them to the moon, then

I guess we've been outdone. While the godless are raising money for the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, a Christian group is sending boxloads of solar-powered digital Bibles to Haiti — just what they need, I'm sure. Called the "Proclaimer," the audio Bible delivers "digital quality" and is designed for "poor and illiterate people", the Faith Comes By Hearing group said. According to their website, the Proclaimer is "self-powered and can play the Bible in the jungle, desert or ... even on the moon!" I'm trying to imagine an audio speaker that works in a vacuum. And why you would need…

Excellent Move by the Democrats on Healthcare

At least someone knows how to play hardball. From Politico: Under a Republican amendment approved Tuesday in the HELP bill, every member of Congress and their staffs would be required to enroll in the public insurance option. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) authored the measure, which has become a rallying point for conservatives opposed to the public option. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), who voted by proxy, and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) called their bluff and voted with Republicans to pass the amendment -- effectively neutralizing the issue for now. It seems unlikely that it would survive the many…

Well, the Good News Is That a Republican Accepts the Fact of Evolution...

Oops, there's been another GOP bigot eruption. This time, it's Michelle Obama who has been called an ape: A state Republican activist has admitted to and apologized for calling a gorilla that escaped from the Riverbanks Zoo Friday an "ancestor" of First Lady Michelle Obama.... Longtime SCGOP activist and former state Senate candidate Rusty DePass responded with the comment, "I'm sure it's just one of Michelle's ancestors - probably harmless." DePass told WIS News 10 he was talking about First Lady Michelle Obama.... DePass took his apology a bit further. He also said, "The comment was hers.…

Sunday Links

Happy Sunny Sunday! Links fahr ya. Science: The Sequencers Working 10 Hours or More a Day Raises Heart Risk, Study Finds Walking and Obesity: The City Life vs the Country Life Why Spiders Always Eat Ants By Starting With The Head Life on Earth Arose Just Once Other: Pecunia Emptor How to Save the News The Nominee From Davos It's Official ---Bart Stupak Is A Moron Trading in Hubris: Pride, Overreach, and the Inevitable Blowback and Consequences I'd Hear the Talking Through the Wall A Non-Fighting Faith: Where Obama should shove his plea for civility. Robert Downey Jr, clean and sober but…

Tuesday Links

There's this big ball of fire in the sky. It scares me, so how about some links? Science: The language of elephants Anti-HIV properties of... bananas? Journalistic malpractice on global warming The value of "this is cool" science stories Measles week, part II: Emerging disease NASA finds shrimp dinner on ice beneath Antarctica MRSA research round-up: hospitals, vitamins, pets Other: Library branches won't hang separately: Backers form citywide group to fight for them; will oppose Liberty Mutual tax cut Father FOXy Beyond Helter Skelter The Trouble With Textbooks Excerpts From the New Texas…

Friday Links

Thank the Intelligent Designer it's Friday. Links for you. Science: Reviewer Blues Broad Director wins prestigious medical prize Dengue virus returns to Florida after decades Humans found to have sixth taste - fat Body mass index (BMI) as a measure of obesity and health: a critical appraisal Disease hunting with whole genome sequences: the good news, and the bad news Other: "Adam Smith was not a Laissez-Faire Ideologue" DELIVERING THE GOODS Guest Post: No One's Issuing Credit--Why Are Auerback and Parenteau? How the War on Drugs gave birth to a permanent American undercaste Why a Big Mac…

Wednesday Links

Halfway through the week. Some links for you. Science: Poll: American Public Supports Investment in Prevention As Part of Health Care Reform A SMART Plan? No, A Wackaloon Dumbfuck Plan! The common cold and influenza Holy Shit! A new way of finding out how diet affects gut microbes What's killing the bats? At least 1 million have died in the past three years from a mysterious disease, posing serious questions for our environment. Other: Why Jews Vote Like Puerto Ricans (and not Episcopalians) Where are the real deficit hawks? Krugman on the Need for Jobs Policies Stupak and the bishops, the…

Creationism as a "Conversation Ender"

Despite some of the gnashing of teeth and wailing around these parts about how mean we are to creationists on ScienceBlogs and how this will backfire, as I've noted before, creationist is slowly becoming mainstreamed as a pejorative (as opposed to a religious belief that should be exempted from criticism). Steve Benen writes: I call them "conversation enders." These are comments that lead you to know, the moment you hear them, that the writer/speaker is either clueless or intellectually dishonest, and there's really no reason to engage the person in a serious dialog. I suspect we all have…

How Technology Can Make Movies Obsolete

A couple of weeks ago, I rewatched Memento, a movie about someone who has no long term memory. It's told from his perspective, moving backwards as he learns what has actually happened. His coping mechanisms are writing notes to himself and on himself, as well as a library of Polaroid pictures. It's full of suspense, and you can't really pretend how it ends (or, since the movie moves backwards, maybe that should be begins?). It was Guy Pearce's breakthrough role. And it wouldn't work at all today. We have iPhones that can take pictures, record sounds, and take notes. Video cameras and…

Carnivalia

The latest Carnivalia has been published for you to dig your teeth into. Bobo Carnival of Politics is weird: the host spends a fair amount of space telling me that I am wrong about Bush being history's worst president by claiming that Bush will be recognized as one of the best presidents -- OMG. Seriously. Just like the religious wingnuts among us, this guy has an obvious fantasy life that overrides all reality and reason. Anyway, be sure to go over there and chew him a new one! Movie Monday, issue 88. This blog carnival links to everything about film! Europe Travel blog carnival, where they…

AAI: Evolutionary Genealogy

One other exhibit in the hall was for Evolutionary Genealogy, an excellent site run by Len Eisenberg of Ashland, Oregon. I was in Ashland a while back and got a tour of the geology walk he installed there, which is phenomenal — look it up if you're ever in town. He's selling posters and t-shirts to support his work in evolution education. One of the hooks he uses to get people interested is to talk about relationships in the great big family of life on earth, and he estimates the number of generations that separate us from any organism you might be interested in. He's got nice shirts that…