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Green grass makes better neighbors?

Scientific American has an article covering recent research about neighborly relations. The conclusion: people living in desert climates get along better with neighbors when they have nice, shady green lawns, as opposed to natural desert landscaping. From the SciAm article: The 60 or so individual subjects have been living within the various landscapes since 2005 and already have shown a strong preference for lush conditions. In surveys done before the landscaping took place, the residents, particularly those with children, rated mesic and oasis conditions more highly than their desert…

More Hitchens!

Christopher Hitchens was in another debate with his brother, Peter Hitchens. From the quoted material and the video clip at that link, Christopher was brilliant and lucid, and Peter…well, his argument was basically that things were better in the good old days when everyone had that old time religion, without noting that it was only better if you were white, heterosexual, and male. Peter also makes an awesomely stupid series of arguments about morality: that if it were independent of god and religion, it would change (surprise! It does!), and that if it changes it wouldn't be what he calls…

The Discovery Institute is "Outing" Me

Casey Luskin has now dug into my past and found some secularist credentials from my college days. Apparently he views this as some sort of smoking gun. As he puts it: "Chris Mooney provides a yet another example of the fact that many (though certainly not all, of course) leading Darwinist activists are secular humanists." Calling me a "leading Darwinist activist" is flattering, but a bit over the top; I haven't really made a significant peep about evolution-related stuff (other than brief asides) in some time. As you may have noticed, I've been on the global warming beat. Moreover, it's…

Is That How It Will End?

For the first time (at least that I've noticed), the Joint Typhoon Warning Center makes it explicit--Supertyphoon Ioke may ultimately hit Japan. Granted, it will have weakened by then--but still. Here's how they put it: IN THE EXTENDED FORECAST FROM TAU 72 TO TAU 120 STY 01C WILL CONTINUE TO TRACK NORTHWESTWARD AND WILL SLOWLY WEAKEN DUE TO ITS TRACK INTO COOLER SSTS. AN INCREASE IN VERTICAL WIND SHEAR WILL ALSO HELP TO WEAKEN THE SYSTEM THROUGH TAU 120. A SLIGHT POLEWARD DRIFT IS EXPECTED BETWEEN TAU 96 AND TAU 120 AS AN APPROACHING MIDLATITUDE TROUGH STARTS TO WEAKEN THE SUBTROPICAL RIDGE…

Full Disclosure

From today's Post piece on the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet: But some scientists remain unconvinced. Oregon state climatologist George Taylor noted that sea ice in some areas of Antarctica is expanding and part of the region is getting colder, despite computer models that would predict otherwise. "The Antarctic is really a puzzle," said Taylor, who writes for the Web site TSCDaily [sic], which is partly financed by fossil fuel companies that oppose curbs on greenhouse gases linked to climate change. "A lot more research is needed to understand the degree of climate and ice trends in and…

Finally, someone tells the truth about me

One more "he's such a teddy bear" and I am going to set my beard on fire and howl. I met the similarly ferocious AJ Milne in Montreal, and he has written the first honest account of my appearance. I assure you, the man was terrifying. Came into the place on this huge Harley belching clouds of black smoke smelling distinctly of brimstone, its engine thundering in that deep, subsonic register only the truly badass bikes of that brand get right. All while swigging from a bottle of Jack Daniels, which he threw into the audience before mounting the stage. Little known fact: the reason I had that…

The Evolution of Beauty

A couple weeks back, I composed a post entitled 'Science Reveals How To Lose Weight And Keep It Off'. The results weren't surprising... research out of Harvard found that calories are the most significant part of the equation. However, what really resonated with a number of readers turned out to be a different topic related to this point: Weightwise, my take is that we humans have an interesting habit of coming in all shapes and sizes and the most beautiful tend not to fit a particular mold. That said, being healthy--inside and out--is everything. I received several emails in agreement, and…

And So it Begins: De Revolutionibus!

Sane people right now are celebrating Valentine's Day. I am holed up trying to read Nicholas Copernicus's On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres (De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium). Having been an official student of the history of science for two weeks now, and not feeling particularly satisfied with my progress, I've decided it is far past time for me to cast aside Ptolemaic and Aristotelian things, and enter the modern world. I'll have plenty more to say about the experience of reading Copernicus once I've gotten somewhere. And after Copernicus, it's Galileo. But for now, here's an…

The "War on Science" is Over...Now What?

I have a new piece on Slate exploring precisely this question. Here's the core of it: If the war on science is over, we're now entering the postwar phase of reconstruction--the scientific equivalent of nation-building. The Bush science controversies were just one manifestation of a deeper and long-standing gulf between the science community and the broader American public, one with roots stretching back to our indigenous tradition of anti-intellectualism (as so famously described by historian Richard Hofstadter in his classic work from 1963) and Yankee distrust of expertise and authority. So…

Sony's Fat Princess

When this hit my inbox, I thought it was a bad joke: She's plump, powerful and ready to cause more controversy than "SuperSize Me." She's Fat Princess, the star of Sony's upcoming video game of the same name. Debuting at last week's E3 expo, the colorful Fat Princess is a capture-the-flag game with a twist: you can thwart capture attempts by locking the once-thin princess in a dungeon and stuffing her full of cake, thereby increasing her girth and making her harder for your enemies to haul back to home base. Games have sure changed since the days I played Nintendo and I'm wondering whether…

Back From the Road, Very Briefly

I've had some great travel experiences over the past week--taking in the National Hurricane Conference; sleeping in my mom's FEMA trailer; getting to try out a new talk (with "framing" content) in Camarillo, CA, and Salt Lake City, UT; getting to see Sandhill Cranes and strutting Sage Grouse in Park City, UT--but it has all tired me out massively. Luckily, this evening I get back to D.C. (am currently bloging from the Denver airport). That will be a relief. But of course, I'm off to Australia on Thursday, where I'll be giving the opening plenary speech at the World Conference of Science…

Waxman's Having One Hell of a Hearing

At least according to a report I just read from E&ENews (unfortunately subscription only), Henry Waxman's politics and science oversight hearing on Monday is going to feature: * NASA's James Hansen * Philip Cooney, formerly of the American Petroleum Institute, currently of Exxon Mobil, accused of editing climate reports while working at the White House Council on Environmental Quality * James Connaughton, director of the Council on Environmental Quality * George Deutsch, NASA public affairs appointee accused of blocking Hansen's media access * Roy Spencer, University of Alabama,…

Despots and Money

Sometimes we hear the allegation that the war in Iraq is about oil.  That is only an approximation of the truth.  Really, it is about money.  Oil at this point is merely a proxy for money. Certain corporations that are in Iraq stand to make a fortune regardless of whether the oil ever is exploited.  If the place settles down enough to permit exploitation, they will make money developing the oilfields and/or providing security.  If it does not settle down, they make money fighting the war.  They win either way. Remember before the War, from time to time we would read about how despots…

Handheld GPS: Victorian beta version

Glove map of London, 1851, by George Shove. Printed map on leather. (via Mapping the Marvellous) Long before Googlemaps on an iPhone or handheld GPS devices, there was this very analog Victorian Glove Map! (I already posted this wonderful glove on the old bioephemera, but was inspired by a recent conversation with my boss to revisit it.) During the AAAS meeting last month, Stanford's Barbara Tversky showed an illustration of a technique used by Native Americans to remember maps, in which the outline of the hand symbolized the local coastline. I tried to dig up the original reference, but…

I Made It Into Open Lab 2007! Yay!

Its great to come back from vacation with good news waiting for you. Usually I just come back to school (and my blog) to a build-up of spam, bills, and unwanted catalogs so it was quite a welcome surprise to be notified by Bora that a post of mine will be published in the up-coming book, Open Laboratory 2007. The post that got in was a rather notorious one, but one I'm still proud of, entitled "How Much LSD Does It Take to Kill an Elephant?," published a few months back. Not bad, considering there were over 450 entries. The Open Laboratory is a print-published book highlighting the best…

Artomatic 2009: Tracey Clarke

The Age of the Drowning of Sorrows and the miracle of Soju and Etha oil on canvas Tracey Clarke Tracey Clarke has taken nearly every little girl's habit of doodling horses, turned it into startlingly realistic animal portraiture, and then added a frisson of creepiness. Her wild horses, blank-eyed and leaking stuffing, remind me of the Skin Horse from Margery Williams' The Velveteen Rabbit: "Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.""Does…

Win your favorite science blogger a Strange Quark!

It is no secret that 3 Quarks Daily is one of my favorite blogs. It's the first blog I told my boyfriend to put on his Google Reader (he'd already added BioE, but still). Which is why I'm overjoyed to announce that 3QD has created its own prize for blogging. It's called a Quark. Oh, how I covet the Quark - especially the Strange Quark. And the finalists are to be judged by the 3QD editors and their guest judge . . . Stephen Pinker! w00t! Any blog post on a natural or social science topic published since May 24, 2008 is eligible. The catch? Nominations are only open until midnight on June 1.…

Minimalist Sci-fi book covers

I love this line of covers for a UK publisher's re-issue of sci-fi classics: their simplicity underscores the stark, anxious, fractured psychological underpinnings of futuristic fiction. As author Stephen Baxter told New Scientist, "Science fiction has rarely been about the prediction of a definite future, more about the anxieties and dreams of the present." That's why covers that cater to indulgences (lush technicolored paintings of muscular space barbarians defending busty astronaut ladies from tentacled aliens, etc.) are fun, yet leave me feeling too often that the author's vision has…

Glenn Beck is still on the air?

Glenn Beck really is contemptible. Here's how he sees the murders in Norway: As the thing started to unfold, and then there was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like, you know, the Hitler Youth or whatever — I mean, who does a camp for kids that's all about politics? Disturbing. But anyway, so there's this political camp, and some crazy man goes and starts shooting kids. Who does a camp about politics? You mean, like the teabaggers? But wait! There's more! He rambles on and on, and claims that he predicted this was coming, and eventually gets around to summarizing his…

More robots etc. from SFO

Okay, kids - I know you loved those robot photos from SFO's science fiction in popular culture exhibit. So before my flight out of SFO after New Year's, I snagged a few more snapshots! First up: Spaceman Air Freshener. Umm, that doesn't exactly instill confidence - I think the space station probably smells like a rusty latrine. Ahhhhhh! Attack of the space Mrs. Butterworths! Tom Corbett Space Academy. (It's just like a wild west fort - in space.) "Mr. Hustler?" Really? These are a few female space alien figurines. I'm not sure how powerful a blow they struck for feminism in Mr. Hustler's…

New Fred Thompson doll talks, cries, endorses candidates

Last night the staffer and I were watching the Republican National Convention when we noticed an unfortunate, unintentionally hilarious staging problem. Fred Thompson was speaking on the arena's glossy black stage, with a HUGE projected photo of John McCain behind him. The photo of McCain was taken from about desk height in an office, capturing a looming McCain, a window, and the back of a leather desk chair. The net result? It looked like McCain the Giant Senator has a Fred Thompson doll (complete with mini-podium!) perched cutely on his shiny desk: Someone at CNN apparently realized this…

And your very flesh shall be a great poem

"This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book…

Two worldviews

I'm not going to say a word about this video: it's theologian Paul Begley reading from the book of Revelation. What I think of Paul Begley and his explanation cannot be adequately expressed in words so I'm not even going to try to write them. Use your imagination. Here's the scientific explanation. Contrast the two. A drought has left the OC Fisher Reservoir in San Angelo State Park in West Texas almost entirely dry. The water that is left is stagnant, full of dead fish -- and a deep, opaque red. The color has some apocalypse believers suggesting that OC Fisher is an early sign of the end…

Chris Gilmore's Cardboard Art

BIKES cardboard and glue, life size Chris Gilmore, 2003 I've been unpacking after the move, which means I'm surrounded by piles of cardboard boxes that need to be broken down and recycled. I wish I had Chris Gilmore's skill with cardboard! He sculpts machines and mechanisms, from Fiats to typewriters, entirely in quotidian corrugated cardboard and glue - materials we rarely think about and accord very little respect. Of course, these lightweight mimics don't actually function - but that makes a neat statement too, since so many of the everyday objects he sculpts are primarily functional, not…

Shhh. . . . that word is anatomically correct!

Skeletal street art, via Street Anatomy Here's a gem from the Belmont Citizen-Herald, via the July 21, 2008 New Yorker: "A Creely Road resident reported someone wrote an anatomically correct term on his fence in spray paint." Yikes! Now, i'm not saying that fences are the best place to practice one's anatomical vocabulary. Especially when the fence does not belong to you. But I wonder if the term on the fence really was anatomically correct? Because I don't see a lot of clinical graffiti, myself. I presume that in this case, "anatomically correct" is just a euphemism for "obscene," and…

Robert Solomon

I just learned, via Brian Leiter's blog, that Robert Solomon has died. I have been a big fan since I was an undergrad, especially because his book In the Spirit of Hegel helped me to break the "Hegel code" that makes Hegel so unreadable to many. In fact, it wasn't very long ago that I had a short email conversation with Dr. Solomon about that book. I also enjoyed From Rationalism to Existentialism, What Nietzsche Really Said (which he wrote with Kathleen Higgins), and Living With Nietzsche, all three of which are good introductions to their subjects, especially for those who aren't all that…

Cotton Farming and Political Trends

Razib already did the href="http://scienceblogs.com/gnxp/2008/11/fear_of_a_black_president_miss.php">definitive post of voting trends in the South, looking especially at the influence of skin color.   Now, we see there is a peculiar correlation: those areas that had the highest cotton production before the Civil War are the areas in which Obama did especially well. In the map below, each black dot represents 2,000 bales of cotton produced in 1860.  The counties shown in blue had a majority of voters who voted for Obama; red for McCain.  The darkness of the hue indicates the strength of…

46% Swingers

The Pew Research Center informs us that href="http://pewresearch.org/databank/dailynumber/?NumberID=585"> today's number is 46%.  That is the percentage of independent voters who are undecided about their choice for President in the November election in the USA.  This is "much higher" than the same statistic four years ago.  It is likely that this group will swing the election. Of course, you could say the same about almost any group, if the election is close.   I noticed this because I was on their site for something else, and noticed the number in the sidebar, in a little box that…

19th century papier mache model brain

Image: Phisick Antique Medical Collection This highly detailed papier mache model of the human brain, which can be pulled apart to reveal labelled and numbered structures within, was created by the French physician Louis Thomas Jerome Auzoux (1797-1880). In the early 19th century, human cadavers for the study of anatomy were in short supply. The dissection of human corpses was  difficult, due to the fast rate of decomposition, and also illegal. And the wax anatomical models available at the time were both fragile and expensive. Taking his inspiration from the childrens' toys sold on the…

Question time with Oliver Sacks

In an article called Patterns, published in the NY Times earlier this month, neurologist and author Oliver Sacks discusses the geometric visual hallucinations which occur during the migraine auras that he has experienced since early childhood. Sacks explains that the hallucinations occur as a result of waves abnormal electrical activity sweeping across the visual cortex, and that they reflect the cytoarchitectonics of that part of the brain and the complex patterns of activity within it. He goes on to speculate that, because this cellular activity is universal, it forms the basis of art and…

Bravo Science Magazine

I forgot to bring this up yesterday. Science conducted a review of it's publishing practices (due to the whole cloning affair). Honestly it would have been hard for them to have prevented this. In the end the best check on a scientist's work is reproducibility. But the review board did recommend something I like very much. From a NY Times article in yesterday's paper: ... authors should specify their individual contributions to a paper, a reform aimed at Dr. Hwang's stratagem of allowing another researcher, Gerald Schatten of the University of Pittsburgh, to be lead author of one of the…

Map That Campus XX

Yes, it's back. And for the 20th edition we have a nice pair for you. So here THEY are: X: What could it be? x: I'm sure we'll find it, we just need to focus. X: You know, I've never seen you in a modest mood. x: Look we need to go over the evidence. There are others who are hot on the topic. X: Yes but fortunately their first guess was a bit off. x: To recapitulate, there was that first interesting finding here. X: And now we have the diffraction data from our collaborators. x: Yes and don't forget about the ratios. X: All very suggestive. I say we head down to the pub and talk about in…

Surfer dude contemplates theory of everything

Here's another elegant headline from the Telegraph UK publication I mentioned below. You gotta love the Brits. Surfer dude stuns physicists with theory of everything The comments section is pretty fascinating... "Interesting. Similar to my onion-model of the universe. Remove the time dimension...and you get a perfectly rational view of life." This is a compelling story about a mathematical form with 248 points called the E8 which can be described by the same equations that accounts for more of the substance of the universe than the prevailing "string theory". If you're looking for more surf…

Paris Museum Unveils First Plastinated Squid

France's National Museum of Natural History displayed its prize centerpiece today for an exhibit on biodiversity, a plastinated, 21+ foot-long, giant squid named Wheke. The squid was hauled in by a fisherman in New Zealand in 2001 and was plastinated in Italy by a company called VisDocta Research. The process, in which all of the squid's water, fat and other liquids are replaced with a hardening plastic filling, took two and a half years and cost approximately $100,000. I am looking forward to plastinating Andrew's dog, Izzy, some day. Maybe for an anniversary gift? Wheke would be so happy…

Blogger Challenge 2007 thank-you poem: narcolepsy.

Near the end of our 2007 DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge, I received a generous donation from a reader who asked if I could write a poem about narcolepsy. I'm a little late in paying up, but better late than never. Here it is: I tried to write you a narcolepsy poem. Pen meets paper, but -- YAWN Excessive daytime sleepiness, or writer's block? Push through fatigue and -- YAWN Pen in my hand, Body crumpled, inert, but cataplexy won't -- zzzzzz Sleep paralysis. Awake, yet I can't move or try the lines aloud. YAWN Drifting into sleep, vivid hallucinations scare me, but I must -- zzzzzz Talking in…

Question of the day: Is extra credit fair?

We're going to discuss this at a Socrates Café gathering next week, but I suspect there are current and former students and educators reading who have a view, so I'm opening it up: Is extra credit fair? You're free to consider the question from whatever angle you like -- fairness to the person creating and evaluating the extra credit assignment, or to the other students in the class (or in other sections of the class whose meanie instructors don't offer extra credit), or to the person electing to do the extra credit assignment. You're also free to draw distinctions between situations in…

Friday Sprog Blogging: aquarium.

Younger offspring: I drew this picture of what we saw at the Monterey Bay Aquarium with Duke and Super Sally last weekend. Dr. Free-Ride: Cool! I guess you really were paying attention to the exhibits when I thought you were just running around. Younger offspring: (rolling eyes) Of course I was paying attention! So, when you scan this in, put labels on it. Dr. Free-Ride: I think everyone will be able to tell what's what. Younger offspring: (sternly) Put labels on it. Some parts need labels to tell. Dr. Free-Ride: OK. The anchovy with the redness at the gills is swimming, mouth wide open…

Disciplinary misconceptions (chemistry version).

Walking outside with a well-known local blogger: WKLB: I never did take a chemistry course. Me: Why not? WKLB: I'm not good at memorizing stuff, and there's that whole big periodic table ... Me: Hey, my memorization skills are pretty worthless, too. But in chemistry, you don't need them as much as you do in a field like biology. WKLB: Really? You don't ever have to, like, write out the periodic table from memory? Me: Hell no! The idea is to learn how to turn the periodic table into a device for predicting stuff about the different elements -- like a secret decoder ring. They always…

Louisiana gives up on the Gulf

How else to interpret this moronic inaction from the state? While cleanup crews and technical teams continue efforts to stop crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana lawmakers are proposing a different approach: prayer. State senators designated Sunday as a day for citizens to ask for God's help dealing with the oil disaster. "Thus far efforts made by mortals to try to solve the crisis have been to no avail," state Sen. Robert Adley said in a statement released after last week's unanimous vote for the day of prayer. "It is clearly time for a miracle for us." Senator Adley! There…

Welcome back.

My guess is that the first faculty meeting after one's sabbatical year is never an easy one, but when that faculty meeting happens during a state budget implosion the likes of which no one can recall, it's kind of like parachuting into an exploding monkey factory. The high point: We got to discussing the potential long-term (post-furlough and other stop-gap measures) impacts of drastically reduced state funding on our teaching loads. One possibility raised was that faculty might each have to take on another course each semester, with no possibility for "reassigned time" (which releases one…

In which I try to outwit the gastropods

... from a secret location. Because, in light of fluctuations in the slug and snail population when I go away, I think they may read my blog. Tuesday (day 39 of the snail eradication project) and Wednesday (day 40 of the snail eradication project) I found ten slugs each. No snails to speak of. Both mornings were dry and overcast. All the slugs were located underneath the bags of compost and potting soil by the side of the house. I didn't go snailing today on account of being in the aforementioned secret location. Where it is both hot and humid. I haven't seen any gastropods here, but…

In which I paddle a canoe while the younger Free-Ride offspring minds the yard.

A highlight of reunion at my alma mater, as far as I'm concerned, it that they open up the boat house and let alumnae paddle (or sail, or crew, depending on their druthers) around the lake. I've missed the lake. I was also missing the rest of the Free-Ride family, so I took advantage of the excellent cell phone reception from the middle of the lake and called home. Among other things, I learned that the younger Free-Ride offspring went snailing in the yard this morning. The yard was reportedly wet in the aftermath of a light rain. The younger Free-Ride offspring took 18 slugs and five…

So it goes

We all have a request from Kurt Vonnegut. I am, incidentally, Honorary President of the American Humanist Association, having succeeded the late, great science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in that totally functionless capacity. We had a memorial service for Isaac a few years back, and I spoke and said at one point, "Isaac is up in heaven now." It was the funniest thing I could have said to an audience of humanists. I rolled them in the aisles. It was several minutes before order could be restored. And if I should ever die, God forbid, I hope you will say, "Kurt is up in heaven now." That's my…

Nyiragongo Volcano

I've spent a fair amount of time in Goma Congo (Zaire), trying hard to stay out of trouble, and I've flown around this mountain and driven around this mountain or its sister volcanoes, and the very existence of this volcano field has a lot to do with some of the research I've done. Oh, and for a while I had a truck with seats fitted to it that were taken from one of the many aircraft that had met its demise on the slopes of these cinder cones. The reason I mention this at all is because NGS has a feature article with some amazing photos on Nyiragongo Volcano. Go have a look. Looking back…

Drink your wine while you still have time!!!

When Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters came out, I got myself an electronic copy of it and searched for the words "God", "Jesus", "Miracle" etc. Amanda and I had watched Capt'n Sully be interviewed a few times and we guessed that he was a straight up guy who knew how to land an airplane on a river. And did. We were happy to find an example of something extreme and unlikely happening and the key person involved not invoking supernatural powers as causing or stopping something from happening. At an entirely different time in the past, well, a few times, I was almost eaten by a…

ca 140 killed in Congo boat sinking

Up to 140 people are feared dead after a boat carrying passengers and goods capsized on a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials say. The accident happened on the Kasai river - a tributary of the Congo River - in the western province of Bandundu. Information Minister Lambert Mende told the BBC the boat had been overloaded and 80 people had been confirmed dead. After decades of conflict, DR Congo has few roads or rail links and many people travel on often overloaded vessels. I've not been on this boat, but I've been on one like it. It is true that you can't actually drive from,…

Skeptically speaking: Cosmetics, transhumanism, TAM, falsehoods

The podcast for The Cosmetics Cop: Paula Begoun has materialized here. Paula Begoun is the bestselling author of "The Beauty Bible" and "Don't Go To The Cosmetics Counter Without Me." We'll examine the science behind some popular beauty products, and find out what real research says about makeup myths. That also includes this segment: The Amazing Meeting with Austin Luton, Jeff Wagg and K.O. Myers This Friday:'s show is: Transhumanism We explore the predictions and the problems in the quest to "enhance" human beings. We're joined by George Dvorsky of Sentient Developments and the Institute…

The Best of Quiche: My Journey Through Race and Racism

When I was a kid, everyone in my neighborhood was divided into categories along three dimensions. There were color differences (light vs. dark hair and skin), there was the Catholic vs. Protestant divide, and there was the binary distinction of whether or not your dad served in World War II. In fourth grade and again in seventh, I attended a new school and each time encountered a greater diversity of kids and teachers and learned about new kinds of people. At the same time, I would often visit my father at work, and during the summer he and I would have breakfast downtown at the Dewitt…

Pope-linked Cover-up of Catholic Church Sex Scandal Gets Worse

A FORMER vicar-general in the archdiocese of Munich has claimed that he was pressurised last month into taking the blame for a mistake made 30 years ago by the then Archbishop of Munich, Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict), concerning the case of a paedophile priest. Fr Gerhard Gruber has now said he did so only after coming under huge pressure from unnamed Catholic Church sources to take responsibility, so as to "take the pope out of the firing line". Story here I'd like to comment more, but I've been told to shut up in matters of the Pope. Well, not really. The truth is that I've not…

The Pod Cast ... It Exists

I'm talking about the May 4th Podcast of Atheist Talk, from the Minnesota Atheists. The first half was an interview of Lois Schadewald, editor of her brother's posthumous work "Worlds of their Own" ... a book of essays on pseudoscience. The second half was an interview of Yours Truly by Mike Haubrich on "Academic Freedom" and stuff. You have to understand that I did this interview against the advice of medical professionals, with a severe case of near-laryngitis. ... so no, that is not actually my voice .... plus I had a fever and was heavily drugged. And not enough coffee. And I was…