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The Energy East Pipeline Is Toast

Witness the overall demise of fossil fuel pipelines, thanks in part to the hard work of amazing activists, and in part to the fact that the value of these pipelines is dropping fast, which in turn, can be attributed in no small part to the hard work of amazing activists. And now, the latest: From The Globe and Mail: TransCanada scraps controversial Energy East Pipeline project TransCanada Corp. has pulled the plug on its controversial $15.7-billion Energy East Pipeline proposal, after slowing oil sands growth and heightened environmental scrutiny raised doubts about the viability of the…

Anti-Science Political Hack Named To Run NASA

First, please take two minutes to watch and listen to this, in order to calibrate: https://youtu.be/g25G1M4EXrQ Now, remove all liquid containing vessels from the vicinity, put on your head-desk helmet gear, and watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=GUcsAFnwC7k Then, behold the fact that Jim Bridenstine, who has demanded that President Obama apologize for believing that global warming is real and important, is being appointed to run NASA. By the way, global warming did not stop in 2003 No surprise here, planetary warming does not care about the election. Now…

Senate Health Care: John McCain is busy

John McCain has a good heath care plan, and if has his way, you won't. The Senator most often accredited for thinking for himself (that's a lie) will vote with Russian agent Donald Trump and the rest of the Republicans to take away Obama care. The moment he gets a chance. However, he can't right now because he is indisposed, recovering form surgery. We at Greg Laden's Blog wish Senator McCain a speedy recovery and hope he is well. But we also urge him to think about his privilege and not take access to the sort of health care he has from other Americans. Speaking of the Russians, The Looking…

The Skeptic's Circle

The latest issue of the Skeptic's Circle is up at Paige's Page. One of my favorite entries is this post by Jim Lippard about his long experience with Scientology. Jim does really good work in this area. He's not only taken on Scientology but also Amway, an organization with many of the trademarks of a cult including the same kind of heavy handed intimidation of critics that he ran into with Scientology. I really should write more about Amway myself. Another excellent entry is this one from The World According to Pooh, which fisks a really pretentious article taking Jon Stewart to task for…

Science and Theology News on Dover

Science and Theology News has a series of invited commentaries on the Dover trial and Judge Jones' ruling that are worth reading. Among others are commentaries by Steve Fuller, witness for the defense in the trial; Alvin Plantinga, prominent Christian philosopher; Paul Gross, fellow Panda's Thumb contributor; and Robert Pennock, my MCFS co-founder and witness for the plaintiffs in the Dover trial. Pennock, by the way, has just become a father for the second time (at least I assume the baby has been born by now, since she went into labor on Wednesday) and I'm impatiently waiting to hear the…

Upcoming Publication

This has been in the works for a few days, but now it's official. I am joining forces with Burt Humburg to write a detailed history of the Dover trial for Skeptic magazine. Burt, as I noted before, is the Typhoid Mary of the ID movement. He's not afflicted himself, but he appears to be a carrier; everywhere he goes finds itself up to its ears in ID activity - Kansas, Minnesota, now Pennsylvania. We're working on legislation that would prevent him from ever coming to Michigan. But in the meantime, it'll be fun collaborating with him on this article and I thank him for the kind invitation to do…

Will they come when you do call for them?

We're scatter-brained touristas on vacation, so pinning us down to specific times and places is hard. However, we are going to be puttering about in downtown Seattle on Friday, and I think we can commit to one thing: lunch! We're going to pop into the Food Court at Seattle Center House around noon, and since it promises to be a gorgeous sunny day, we'll then hang out around the International Fountain, where I will practice calling spirits from the vasty deep. I still have to get the family to agree to evening plans, and some of my party absolutely refuse to have anything to do with heaping…

Partisan Hypocrisy Alert

President Bush has pardoned David McCall, a Plano, Texas businessman who pled guilty to bank fraud in 1996. He and 4 others pled guilty to creating a scheme to hide bad loans from bank regulators during the Savings and Loan scandals of the 80s and 90s. Prediction #1: the Republicans who howled in self-righteous anger at Clinton's pardons as he left office in 2001 will come up with all sorts of reasons why this is totally different and nothing like that. Prediction #2: the Democrats who defended Clinton on the pardons will be screaming bloody murder over this pardon as though it was the first…

Reproductive Rights at FTBConscience

I'll be joining a panel of amazing people, organized by my friend Brianne Bilyeu, to talk about reproductive rights, on Saturday. I expect my contribution to be relatively minimal and I'll be listening with great interest to ... A panel of reproductive rights activists come together to discuss access to abortion in current events , clinic escorting and some common religious and non-religious arguments against abortion. Our panel consists of clinic escorts - including one panelist who volunteered before FACE laws went into effect (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances), health care…

Buy Tostitos Flour Tortilla Chips!

Commercials baffle me, but this one for Tostitos more than others. It's a little trite, using the scenario of the little kid who asks "why?" to every explanation as a transparent excuse to drive exposition about why you should try their product, but it has an odd conclusion. We're all made from different DNA. Why? So we can adapt and survive. OK! It's a bit clumsy, but there it is: biology used to sell snack food. Why? I know we evilutionists are a minority—why would there be a commercial to target such a narrow slice of the market? Could it be a test, to see if the ad generates a little…

Cabin At The Lake Tip # 3342

When installing a "porch light" (to light the entrance way ans any stairs, and the immediate area outside the cabin) do not place the light near the door as is often the custom. The light is meant to be used at night. Out in cabin country, when you turn that light on at night, 22 gazillion insects will flock to it and form a giant swarm covering a blob shaped area several feet in diameter. If the light is placed next to the entrance door, this makes that door unusable unless you wish to admit about half of the insects (about 10 gazillion of them) into the cabin. Instead, place the outdoor…

A Penny for your Thoughts (about Mars Exploration)

This August, Mars Science Robot Curiosity will land on the surface of the Angry Red Planet equipped with a Penny to tell how big things are. The camera at the end of the robotic arm on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has its own calibration target, a smartphone-size plaque that looks like an eye chart supplemented with color chips and an attached penny. When Curiosity lands on Mars in August, researchers will use this calibration target to test performance of the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager, or MAHLI. MAHLI's close-up inspections of Martian rocks and soil will show details so tiny, the…

The War on Science: Interview

This is an interview at Atheists Talk (TV), an update on the war on science, and a rare opportunity to see me wearing a suit. The first few seconds are sound free; do not adjust your television set. I mentioned the NCSE, here's their web site. Here's a couple of books related to the topic: Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future by Chris Mooney and Sheril Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America by Shawn Otto Something on crying babies and vaccination is here, and something on milk allergy is here. Minnesota Atheists YouTube channel is…

Pseudonymous and anonymous identities on the interent

An interesting thing happened the other day. The identity of a pseudo-anonymous internet troll kown as Franc Hoggle, who writes the blog "Grey Lining" was revealed (probably) to a number of Hoggle's internet targets, and they had a discussion about whether or not to out him. The general consensus was that he should be outed as well as drawn and quartered, but that it would be a violation of Internet Ethics to do so. That is not going to stop his name from getting out into public. If one group of people can figure out who he is, others can, and eventually were' all gonna know who this guy…

Typhoon Rammasun

There is a major typhoon (hurricane) in the Western Pacific, Rammusan, which has already caused flooding and damage in the Phillipenes, where it killed 12 people, heading for southern China, and expected to affect northern Vietnam later on. From Accuweather: Warm ocean waters combined with light wind shear will allow the storm to remain well organized through Friday as it approaches Hainan Island. Rammasun will likely bring widespread winds of 100 mph to northern Hainan Island on Friday afternoon and Friday night with higher gusts. Widespread wind damage is expected across northern Hainan,…

Record CO2 levels

A variety of stories have come in recently (or at least fairly recently - I'm a bit behind the times, and it was a heavy weekend, wot with E getting chickenpox and the central heating failing) about CO2 levels, e.g. Sharp rise in CO2 levels recorded from the BBC. This turns out to source at a NOAA release, which has a nice pic but I can't find the data for 2005, only up to 2004. Also note that is "global" avg; just Mauna Loa is here. Anyway, the point I was going to make was that this could have been better titled; CO2 levels are now at a record (though not at Mauna Loa, because of the annual…

"Science, trust - and choosing to vaccinate"

Science is nothing without trust. We trust each other to perform experiments exactly how we say we did. We trust each other to report our findings exactly how they turned out. We *have* to trust each other, or else we just sit in our labs doing the same experiments over and over and over, to see the results with our own eyes. That is one of the reasons why scientists get so pissed off when experimental protocols are not accurately reported, or worse, when data is not accurately reported (if not outright fabricated). This article highlights the role trust plays in science from a different…

Links for 2011-05-22

con_or_bust: Con or Bust NOW taking requests for July-September cons! "Con or Bust is pleased to announce that as of this very moment, and through May 31, fans of color/non-white fans may request assistance to attend SFF cons in July, August, and September 2011. Because there was no advance notice that we'd be taking requests, please repost and link to this post far and wide so that people know that assistance is possible. I will announce the precise amount after WisCon, once the T-shirt sales are counted up and I hear from some cons I've contacted, but a minimum of $600 will be available…

Links for 2011-04-09

Confessions of a Community College Dean: Remedial Levels "[T]he CCRC found that the single strongest predictor of student success that's actually under the college's control -- so I'm ignoring gender and income of student, since we take all comers -- is length of sequence. The shorter the sequence, the better they do. The worst thing you can do, from a student success perspective, is to address perceived student deficits by adding more layers of remediation. If anything, you need to prune levels. Each new level provides a new 'exit point' -- the goal should be to minimize the exit points…

Baby loves…disco?

Usually I'm complaining about some fresh inanity from the religious side, but I have to be fair: this is an example of secular child abuse. It's the Baby Loves Disco franchise, that is driving parents to bring the little kiddies to a club, where they are forced to relive the horrors of the 70s, with Travolta-esque dancers and the shrill falsettos of the Bee Gees ringing in their ears. I lived through the 70s. I was on the dating scene in the 70s. I have been to a KC and the Sunshine Boys concert; I have seen the glitter and the flash, and heard the maddening, endless beats. I would never…

Eight Pieces of Data

Been tagged with the same chain letter by the guys at Why Don't You Blog? and Tim at Walking the Berkshires. So, in the interest of full disclosure, here are eight random facts about me. I've played seven matches of Jeopardy. I'm a Lord of the Forodrim. I once caught chlamydia from a registered midwife. Along with a hoard of other forodrimites, I once ran around a golf course on a Midsummer Night in the nude, showering in the sprinkler system. I'm myopic on the right-hand eye only, giving me poor stereoscopic vision. The hardest mind-altering drug I've ever taken in a dose large enough to…

Ancient Molluscan Warlord

I sometimes run appreciations of little-known blogs here. By no stretch of the word can Pharyngula be called little-read: it's one of the top-few-hundred blogs on the entire net. But today is P.Z. Myers's 50th birthday, and that's cause for rejoicing! Dear Reader, let's say you happen not to know of PZ and Pharyngula. Then let me tell you that if you want to learn developmental biology and liberal U.S. politics from a witty godless polemicist with a squid fetish, then PZ's your man. Happy first half century, PZ! May your second one be even better! Your living tissue is now measurably younger…

Swedish Atheist Ad Campaign

The Swedish Humanist Association is currently running our version of the Atheist Bus Campaign in the Stockholm subway. Gud finns nog inte -- "God probably doesn't exist". It may seem a little gratuitous in a country where few people are religious any more, but the ads make the point that there's a lot of quiet Christian influence still around in society. For instance, the country's flag carries a cross. Anyway, the campaign isn't making much of a splash as far as I'm aware, though Göran Rosenberg (a liberal columnist who contributed to a pro-Anthroposophy anthology five years ago) wrote…

Tåby Figurine

Last Thursday I went to Norrköping and checked out the Town Museum's collection of prehistoric metalwork. Most of it is decontextualised, but I did manage to collect some useful data on the movements of my 1st Millennium aristocrats across Östergötland. Among the things I handled was, unexpectedly, the Tåby statuette. It's a stray find from a field near Tåby parish church. Arthur Nordén published it in Fornvännen 1924 and suggested a Late Medieval date about AD 1400. I don't know if the piece has been discussed in print since. It looks neither quite like Bronze Age figurines nor Early Iron…

Denier Fight IS STILL GOING!!

I cant take this, guys. I cant take this anymore. Im physically ill from laughing so hard over the past couple of days, and THEYRE STILL GOING AT IT! Duesberg was back on that radio show again this morning, fighting by himself. I have a years worth of blog fodder in the 30 minutes Duesberg gets to talk (host jabbers the first 20-25 minutes, but still funny, LOTS more commercials). If you have time to listen and have specific Qs, leave a comment and Ill get you an answer! But I will be trudging this new river of sludge, panning for educational HIV-1 posts, so THANKS Duesberg! **THUMBS UP…

Another Creationist Bonbon On Natural Selection

Reading Douglas Axe's rather simplistic musings on natural selection reminded me of one of my very favorite creationist quotes. It comes from Jonathan Sarfati, in his book Refuting Evolution 2. Sarfati is one of the more fire-breathing young-earthers. I've always had some sympathy for him, since at one time he was the chess champion of New Zealand. But his writing on evolution is pretty much a bottomless pit. Have a look at this: When they begin to talk about mutations, evolutionists tacitly acknowledge that natural selection, by itself, cannot explain the rise of new genetic…

A Little Light Reading

I'm currently working out of my New Jersey office, which is to say that I'm visiting my family for Thanksgiving. But if you're looking for a little light reading, try this short post by Andy Borowitz at The New Yorker: Many Americans are tired of explaining things to idiots, particularly when the things in question are so painfully obvious, a new poll indicates. According to the poll, conducted by the University of Minnesota's Opinion Research Institute, while millions have been vexed for some time by their failure to explain incredibly basic information to dolts, that frustration has now…

Those are not useful study materials

A Yale student, David Light, was arrested after firing a gun a few times inside his fraternity house. The reaction of some students was noteworthy. "He's a perfectly normal person," he said. "He's not a crazy guy. To be honest … things always get blown out of proportion when it comes to arrests with firearms." Not a crazy guy? The New Haven Register reported Tuesday on its Web site that the weapons seized from Light's residence included a .50-caliber rifle, AR-15 assault weapon, a Russian M-91 infantry rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun, various pistols and bomb-making materials, including a large…

Gays in the Military

A group of former members of the armed forces who were discharged from the military for being gay have filed suit asking to be reinstated. The timing of this suit shows the lunacy of the military's policy of throwing gays out of the military. At a time when our armed forces are stretched so thin that they are extending tours of duty and even bringing middle-aged folks out of retirement to send them to Iraq and elsewhere, how stupid is it that we're simultaneously throwing some people out of the military solely because they're gay? The fact is that gay people can serve their country just as…

Black holes and academic walls (Synopsis)

100 years ago, Einstein put forth his General Theory of Relativity, and 99 years ago, Karl Schwarzschild came up with the mathematical solution describing a black hole, a solution we now know is not only physically valid, but one that has many examples all across the Universe. Image credit: NASA / Dana Berry / Skyworks Digital. Yet when you consider quantum physics, the matter gets complicated: while you ought to be able to run the laws of physics the same forwards and backwards, a black hole seems to wind up in an irreversibly different state, in the end, from what you started with. That'…

Throwback Thursday: What is a variable star? (Synopsis)

“To be is to be the value of a variable.” –Willard Van Orman Quine Those constant, fixed points of light in the night sky -- the stars -- turn out not to be so constant if you looked with great precision at them. A star like our Sun varies in brightness, periodically, by about 0.1% over the span of a few years, but many stars vary by 99% or more from brightest to dimmest. Image credit: British Astronomical Association Variable Star Section, via http://www.britastro.org/vss/. For centuries, we knew of only a handful of these objects, yet now they're known to be commonplace. What causes this…

Astronomy at the edge of the sky (Synopsis)

When you think of the night sky -- of a good, dark night sky -- you probably think of going away, far into the wilderness, away from all human activity. If you're a little more clever, you'll head up, to the top of a high mountain, where the air is thin and steady. Image credit: Mike Prokosch. And if you live in a country like Chile, that has the high altitude of the Andes mountains that overlooks the still air of the South American Pacific, that's exactly what you're in for. Luckily, Starts With A Bang writer (and theoretical astrophysics professor) Brian Koberlein recently took a trip…

Weekend Diversion: a new twist on the art of balloon animals (Synopsis)

“Laughs don’t come in barrels. They come from inside you as your body’s response to delight.” -Pinkie Pie Every once in a while, a constraint is placed on an artist, musician or creator that results in something more powerful than you would have ever found otherwise. Have a listen to Keller Williams' wonderful song, Slo Mo Balloon, while you consider the constraint inherent to... balloon animals? Image credit: Masayoshi Matsumoto, via his tumblr at http://isopresso.tumblr.com/. Artist Masayoshi Matsumoto has begun creating balloon creatures -- animals, plants, even humans and fantasy…

The Illusion of Reality (Synopsis)

When you look out at the nebulae in the night sky -- especially if you're seeing them with your eye through a telescope for the first time -- you might be in for a big surprise. Image credit: Chris Spratt of http://www.islandnet.com/. These faint, fuzzy, extended objects are far dimmer, sparser and more cloud-like than almost anyone expects. Yet thanks to some incredible image processing, assigning colors to different wavelengths and adjusting the contrast, we can make out detailed structures beyond what even your aided eye could ever hope to perceive. Hubble images of M57 taken at…

Could the LHC make an Earth-killing black hole? (Synopsis)

“There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil, a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome.” “And your defect is a propensity to hate everybody.” “And yours… is wilfully to misunderstand them.” -Jane Austen Every time we go to higher and higher energies in our particle accelerators, we've got a chance for new discoveries, a new understanding, and if we're lucky, some brand new (and unexpected) physics. Image credit: CERN. But -- on the downside -- the crazies all come out of the woodwork, and it's time to take on the most regularly-…

Unreal

At a time when we have mandatory minimum laws putting people busted for drug possession in prison for 5-10 years or more, how about this story about a cop in San Diego - a cop who operated a website telling parents how to protect their kids against predation on the internet - who has been convicted of possessing child pornography and of soliciting phone sex and naked pictures from a teenage girl (after he convinced her he was 16 years old). What is his punishment? How about 30 days of community service and probation. Oh, but if he violates his probation he could get one year in jail. And this…

Confirmation Contradictions

I've noticed an interesting irony in the conservative backlash against the Miers nomination. Many of them are upset because they just don't know where Miers stands on issues like abortion, affirmative action, gay rights, and so forth. But weren't they telling us a few weeks ago that not only do those stands not matter, but it's outrageous to even ask a nominee about them? Weren't they telling us with Roberts that the only thing that matters is that he's smart, knowledgable, loyal, thrifty and brave? In fact, weren't they telling us that they didn't have any "litmus tests", that those are only…

Wow!

I'm busily tied up for the most of the day at the Twin Cities branch of the University of Minnesota — Skatje is taking the new student tour because she plans to transfer here in a year — but I also took advantage of this visit to get my own copy of Haryun Yahya's Atlas of Creation. My thanks to Aaron Barnes, who rescued a copy from a recycling bin here, It's a behemoth! As everyone has said, it's full of pretty pictures, but the content … well, it leaves much to be desired. It's mostly a collection of pictures of fossils and animals that asserts a non-existent contradiction between them and…

Flag Burning Amendment Passes House - Again

In their annual drive to pander to the hyper-emotional right, the House has yet again passed an amendment to ban flag burning. The award for the most shameless demagoguery so far: "Ask the men and women who stood on top of the (World) Trade Center," said Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham, R-Calif. "Ask them and they will tell you: pass this amendment." Come on Duke, you could have done better than that. You didn't mention godless commies, mom or apple pie. You're losing your touch. The award for the most sensible statement so far: But Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said, "If the flag needs…

Math: It's Good For You

That's the conclusion of a new study from Harvard and the University of Virginia, anyway: Researchers at Harvard University and the University of Virginia have found that high school coursework in one of the sciences generally does not predict better college performance in other scientific disciplines. But there's one notable exception: Students with the most rigorous high school preparation in mathematics perform significantly better in college courses in biology, chemistry, and physics. This is not terribly surprising to me, as the biggest weakness I see in entering students is usually in…

He seemed like such a smart fellow

I met Thomas Martin the other day in NY — he's the fellow who wrote the winning essay in the Seed science writing contest. I had no idea he was a flaming creationist! At least, you'd get the impression that his essay was ID-friendly from the assessment of Uncommon Descent. Of course, what the essay actually says is that science works because "it compels smart people to incessantly try to disprove the ideas generated by other smart people," and that one goal of science is to "find those ideas that can withstand the long and hard barrage of evidence-based argument." I don't think Martin was…

LOL Vincit Omnia

Via the Little Professor, I learn that Geoffrey Chaucer can hath cheezburger. For many dayes ich haue desyred to maak Lolpilgrimes from the smal peyntures that Mayster Linkferste hath ymaad for my Tales of Canterburye - not oonly wolde it be a thing of muchel solaas to me, but it wolde be a good "pre writing exercise" (the which myn tutor, Archbishop Arundel, did alwey saye were of gret necessitee). And thus to-daye whanne ich had a smal spot of tyme bitwene a meetinge wyth a feng shui consultant and a recopyinge of the inventorie of carpentrie supplyes in Windsore, ich did go unto the…

Dorky Poll: Presidential Questions

I was expounding on my dislike of the routine questions being asked of Wesley Clark last night (see previous post) to a colleague from Math, who suggested "Which do you prefer, C or Fortran? And if you use Fortran, do you declare all your variables?" as an alternative to boring policy questions that produce nothing but rehearsed answers. Clearly, this is a niche that needs to be explored, thus today's Dorky Poll: What great geek controversy should Presidential candidates be asked about? Because, really, how could you consider voting for a man (or woman) without knowing his (or her) position…

Snarkin' Across the Universe

Monte Davis, of "Thinking Clearly About Space" has another snarky look at overblown space enthusiasm, providing a helpful taxonomy of X-Treme Spacers: Alt.Tech Chemical rockets have let you down: after decades of gritty engineering they remain expensive and trouble-prone. It's time to start over with a space elevator, deployed by laser launch and magnetic catapult. From the top, nuclear salt-water hotrods will set out to roam the solar system. This team will take the field as soon as a few remaining kinks are worked out. On a vaguely related note, Dennis Overbye questions the need for a Moon…

It's a Technical Term

Dave Bacon explains heating-induced decoherence: One problem with ion traps qubits has been the heating of the motional degrees of the trapped ions, due mostly to fluctuating potentials on the trap electrodes. The electrode potential goes yee-yaw and the ion goes wee-wah, heating up and thus ruining the motional degree of freedom of the ion. See, this is why he gets to be Pontiff, and I'm a cardinal at best... The highly technical use of "yee-yaw" and "wee-wah" is in order to introduce a new paper from Chris Monroe's group in Michigan, who have found that cooling the trap electrodes greatly…

Ah, the Power of Labor

It's Labor Day today in the US, which means it's a day off from work for everybody who isn't in academia. Our fall classes start Wednesday, though, so I'm going to spend Labor Day, well, laboring. This is nothing new, but at least it's better than my first year, when classes started on Labor Day. Anyway, I know that in the current Gilded Age, we're supposed to regard labor unions as just this side of Pure Evil for their interference with the joys of unfettered capitalism, but if you're lucky enough to have the day off, take a few minutes to reflect on the good things organized labor has given…

Bicycling Report

One of my Christmas presents was a small mileage/ speed calculator for my bike, because there are few activities that can't be improved by making them nerdier. Thus, I am able to report on today's ride: Total Distance: 17.1 miles Maximum Speed: 23.5 mph Average speed: 13.4 mph I'm actually a little surprised by the distance-- the bike path route to Lock 8 is longer than I thought. I checked the calibration against the posted mile markers, though, and while the readout is a little high, it's only off by about 6% (the above numbers are corrected figures). Why am I posting this? Well, why not…

Chemistry Nobel for Glowing Green Stuff

The 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded for the discovery of green fluorescent protein. It's split equally among three scientists, Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, and Roger Y. Tsien (and just out of curiousity, how do they choose the order in which they list those names?). The citation just says "for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP," which is bound to produce some snickering. Perhaps it was used in an earmark-funded study of bear DNA, or some such... My impression, though, based on several years worth of sitting through student talks about…

Two-Word Lyrics Quiz, #2

I've got meetings and phone calls most of the day, so here's something to keep you amused. Each of the following two-word phrases is taken from a pop song, some well-known, some faintly obscure. If you think you can identify one, leave a comment containing a more complete version of the line in which it appears-- enough to indicate that you know the whole song. Then supply a new two-word lyric for other people to guess (or don't-- it's all good). strobe-lit space rowboats landing devil jumped wearing tulle she cat-sits circus floor said, quote talking allegorically wrestling gators spare…

Thursday Baby Blogging 082108

We had a pediatrician appointment yesterday, at which it was declared that SteelyKid is in excellent health. She gained 8 ounces in the last week, or 1/16th of her weight (she was 8lbs even last week, and 8lbs 8oz this week). To put that in perspective, for me to make an equivalent change, I would need to gain more than 15 lbs in one week. Here's this week's picture with Appa for scale (for the record, Appa is 23 inches from nose to tail): We had put her in the "Smart Cookie" onesie that I picked up as a counter to all the frilly pink things we've been sent, but she spit up on it before I…