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New look

I've switched from hand-crafted html to using Blosxom for my blog. This lets me add some nice features like grouping postings by topic, an RSS feed, comments, search and so on. After a couple of hundred postings about John Lott, I also feel like posting on something else for a change, so it's now Tim Lambert's weblog rather than a weblog examining Lott's research. For readers who are just interested in that topic, you need to visit cgi.cse.unsw.edu.au/~lambert/cgi-bin/blog/guns/Lott and you'll only see the postings on Lott. The old address (http://www.cse.unsw.…

This Week: In Brief (April 11-17, 2010)

While we regularly post lengthy discussions on Obesity Panacea, there are many research updates, news stories, videos, etc. in the field of obesity, physical activity and nutrition that we come across on a daily basis that never grace the pages of the blog. Most of these mini-stories we share with our followers on Twitter, and we encourage those of you with active Twitter accounts to communicate with us there to get real-time updates of all the stuff we are discussing (Follow Peter and/or Follow Travis). For those of you who shy away from Twitter, enjoy below the best mini-stories that…

Comps day 2

So this was the dreaded STS. Crap. Good questions, but really, really not sure about my answers.  I did have the guts to shush people talking loudly outside the door and they gave me dirty looks. Oh well! Q 1 choice between: - relationship btwn science - technology - society. specifically, relationship btwn science and technology, science and society, technology and society... and how does all this influence sci-tech policy or - pick some major themes out of current sts research and describe them. say how you can use them in your research picked the first Q2 choice between - what is a…

Not Dead Yet ...

Yes, that's right, we here at Culture Dish are actually STILL ALIVE! Though you wouldn't know it from our feed.  <brushing off cobwebs> ... After a bit of down time, Culture Dish is back.  The last several months have been jam packed with pre-publication craziness with my book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which is coming to a bookstore near you on February 9th (and is already available for preorder on amazon!).  In coming weeks and months, I'll be posting about the publication process, doing some give-aways of pre-publication galleys of the book, and more.  I'll also be…

What is The Universe

I was reading a fascinating discussion at Cosmic Variance on Boltzmann Brain Paradox and what Feynman made of it. The paradox raises questions about the state of the Universe, why is the beginning different from the end? Why must there be an arrow of Time? In a chaotic Universe, are we living in a bubble of order that randomly arose? As I was pondering things beyond my reach, in my own small way I realized my conception of the Universe was erroneous. You see, I had always thought of the Universe as a really really large 'thing' inside which everything is, there is no outside, and that's that…

Fearful symmetry

The Tiger is the poem where the immortal line 'fearful symmetry' appears. It is a wonderful and famous poem by William Blake ( 1757-1827) from Songs of Innocence and of Experience that talks about Evolution without talking about Evolution. Blake expresses subtle thoughts on Creation and God through these poems. I am not well read to comment upon those thoughts. What makes me re-read this poem every so often is: the way he poetically captures the awe and wonder we feel about Life. The Tiger Tiger, tiger, burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy…

Books

Read three novels in one week. (Why you ask? So I could nod knowingly tomorrow at a one day lecture course on reading modern fiction. See). Haven't done this sort of a thing since I was a wide-eyed teenager from the railway town Jolarpet who walked into his first proper library in the great city of Chennai. The original rush of youth has now been replaced with all the many layers of meaning that age adds to a reading experience. To the novels now. 'Never Let Me Go' by Kazuo Ishiguro A novel set in an alternate/future world where clones are reared to accept, and in fact, believe, that donating…

"At-home" burglaries

Jim De Arras said: Well, Mr. Lambert, lets have the numbers for .au, and see where the trend leads us. Here are all the numbers I have. Country % at-home % gun homicide burglaries ownership rate Netherlands 48 2 0.9 England 26-59 5 0.7 Australia 10 20 2.0 Canada 10 31 2.1 USA 14 49 8.8 The Australian "at-home" burglary rate is actually for Victoria. The range given for England is because the rate is 59% for attempted burglaries and 26% for completed burglaries,…

Raghu , Ketu and Pluto

On the occasion of Pluto being booted out of its planetary status, guess who is using it as a promotional event? Astrologers in India, thats who. "Indian astrology is mathematically concerned with the nine planets, two of which are Raghu and Ketu that are nothing but derivatives from the diameter of earth, which is a circle having a value pi (22/7) imbedded in the equator of earth," he said. The 'he' is Mangal Prasad, an astrologer. If you decipher his statement, enlighten me please. Raghu and Ketu are the much celebrated shadow planets used by Indians all over the world to slack off a few…

Why do antidepressants work only for the deeply depressed? A neuroskeptical look

Neuroskeptic ponders the growing evidence that antidepressants significantly best placebo only in the more (or most) depressed patients. His take is that: antidepressants treat classical clinical depression, of the kind that psychiatrists in 1960 would have recognized. This is the kind of depression that they were originally used for, after all, because the first antidepressants arrived in 1953, and modern antidepressants like Prozac target the same neurotransmitter systems. Yet in recent years "clinical depression" has become a much broader term. Many peopleattribute this to marketing on…

The best bang for the stimulus dollar: Insulate! Insulate!

What we know, Bill speaks: I already knew, from my own modest experience installing and paying for installation of insulation and other energy-saving upgrades in my house, that such work is highly labor-intensive -- and so employs a lot of people per dollar spent. When we had our basement insulated, the material cost was perhaps $400; the total bill over $3000. Some of the difference was in equipment, but that was probably fairly modest. The big cost was clearly in paying two or three guys to make racket spraying goop in our basement for 3 or 4 days. So it stands to figure that a good way…

On my reading table

The 10,000-year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Evolution, of which I've so far read about 1000 words -- but I just got it. Appears to be The Beak of the Finch (faster than expected evolutionary changes) in humans, but with this delicious addtion: the idea that culture can drive evolution, so that the line between "nature" (biology) and "nurture" (culture) finally vanishes. We'll see. Sean Carroll's Remarkable Creatures, which got pre-empted (for work reasons) by the above-named Explosion. Looks quite juicy. The Dangerous River, R.M. Patterson's account of his time exploring the…

Prozac for Pets

Fortune has announced the year's 101 Dumbest Moments in Business, including Prozac for dogs. "Thank God. We've been so worried since Lucky dyed his hair jet black and started listening to the Smiths." "Eli Lilly wins FDA approval to put Prozac into chewable, beef-flavored pills to treat separation anxiety in dogs." It's not just dogs - cats are treated with SSRI antidepressants, along with psychotherapy. If treatment fails to calm behaviour, the next step is neutering. Imagine that veterinary approach integrating with current practices for humans. Patients who have trouble with adhering to…

United States of Stupid: Don't Doubt the Power of Advertising (i.e. Bottled Water)

This is such a great article. It's about the gargantuan con job advertisers have pulled on the American public over the past four decades. For those of us who grew up in the sixties and drank water from supposedly dangerous public water fountains (like the author of the essay), it will remain forever baffling how we turned into a society that now prefers to pay for what was once free. It's such a simple and important essay. To her credit, the author concludes by mentioning the term "shifting baseline," as well as Bill McKibbon's term of "hyper-individualism." And one wonderful additional…

New Sponge Discovered in Bering Sea

Greenpeace isn't only busy busting up the Brussels Seafood Expo. They also explore the world's deepest underwater canyons in search of new life. And they found some! The newly discovered sponge from Alaska's Pribilof Canyon will be named Aaptos kanuux. This discovery will assist in Greenpeace's campaign to protect the Bering Sea, one of the richest marine ecosystems on earth. "We named this sponge 'kanuux,' after the Unungan word for "heart," explained George Pletnikoff, Greenpeace Alaska Oceans Campaigner and a native of the Unungan communities on the Pribilof Islands. "These canyons…

Why Did The Moose Cross The Road?

We all would love to see a moose and its calf along the roadside, right? I woke up to one on my front deck last week. Well in Yellowstone National Park, your chances are better than ever. Moose may be smarter than you think though: they are using you and your car as a shield. Human shields. University of Montana and Wildlife Conservation Society Biologist Joel Berger has been studying Yellowstone moose for decades, and he started noticing that moose were hanging out along roads a bit more than in the past. Why? To hide from grizzly bears. "We think they are doing it because they've figured…

Josh Donlan Joins Shifting Baselines!

You might have noticed the new face here at Shifting Baselines along with the new banner (more on that soon) and, in just a little while, lots of new content. Just one month shy of Shifting Baselines' one year anniversary at SEED's ScienceBlogs, we're branching out--expanding our blogging team and the application of the shifting baselines syndrome. Dr. Josh Donlan joins the blog with an expertise in altered terrestrial ecosystems and a penchant for all things Pleistocene. Don't worry, ocean lovers, Josh also knows a thing or two about the marine environment. In fact, I first met Josh when…

Politics Tuesday: An Exciting Day for Democracy

Posted by Jack Sterne, jack@oceanchampions.org The last month has seen enormous turnout in primaries and caucuses around the country, and today's Super Tuesday vote promises to be no different. Here's a prediction of a 40% turnout in one Missouri district. This is phenomenal for a primary election. There are general elections in this country that don't see that kind of turnout. We saw similar high turnout in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. I cannot remember a primary election that produced more voter and media interest. TV execs aren't even worried about the writer's…

Sushi Tuna Comes with Side Effects

The New York Times' Marian Burros has an article today on high mercury levels in tuna sushi: Recent laboratory tests found so much mercury in tuna sushi from 20 Manhattan stores and restaurants that at most of them, a regular diet of six pieces a week would exceed the levels considered acceptable by the Environmental Protection Agency. Burros also wrote a complementary article reviewing research on the ills linked to mercury: Elevated mercury levels may be associated not only with neurological problems but with cardiovascular disease among adults as well...[Another] study also suggested that…

Explaining the Origin of Evolutionary Novelty

We've got an interesting seminar coming to Morris next Thursday. Thursday, February 18, 2016, 5 p.m. Location: Imholte Hall 109 The origination of novel structures has long been an intriguing topic for biologists. Over the past few decades it has served as a central theme in evolutionary developmental biology, in part to highlight explanatory gaps in the population genetic framework of standard evolutionary theory. Yet, definitions of evolutionary innovation and novelty are frequently debated and there remains disagreement about what kinds of causal factors best explain the origin of…

What Are the Best Ocean Films?

Recently, The End of the Line film crew came to the Fisheries Centre to interview Daniel Pauly, who is one of the characters in what will soon be a "cinematic documentary thriller" about overfishing. In the film's treatment, Daniel is described as "the man who blew the lid off the story [of overfishing] through 25 years of scientific investigation." I read and enjoyed The End of the Line (see booklists), especially Clover's allegation of diet, fashion and health advice in the fisheries crisis. I'm not quite sure how this will transpire on film and how the film will differ from other…

Hawaii: More MPAs Needed

Last year, President Bush set aside a large tract of coast off the northern Hawaiian Islands as a marine protected area (MPA) and National Monument. Politically, islanders tell me, this was not too difficult because U.S. fishing interests in the northern Hawaiian islands are relatively small. In the main islands, it's a different story. At present, only 0.3% of the the main Hawaiian islands' coast is protected. Scientists, such as NOAA's Alan Friedlander (lead author on a study published in April's Ecological Applications on main Hawaiian island MPA's) believe that 20% of the coast needs…

That's not a thesis, it's a junkheap

Well, cool. You can download Judy Wilyman's anti-vaccination thesis from the University of Wollongong and read it yourself. So click, click, wait a second, and… YAAAARGH! My eyes! I thought the social sciences side of the academic world would possibly have higher standards for writing than the science side, but no…it's awful. This should have been shredded, and Wilyman told to go back and start all over. I got a few pages in and couldn't take it anymore. Helen Harris managed to read the abstract, and ripped it apart line by line. Orac read some more bits; would you believe she's criticizing…

Tennis meets perception science: Wait till McEnroe reads this

As an avid tennis player (though it's been a while), I had to love this and do: The busy bloggers at Neurophilosophy bring their usual lucidity to a paper by David Whitney, of the University of California, Davis, on how inherent dynamics of visual perception make line-call errors by tennis referees virtually inevitable. Check it out at You cannot be serious! Perceptual errors by professional tennis referees: The Men's Final of the 1981 Wimbledon Tennis Championships is one of the most memorable events in sporting history. John McEnroe, who was playing against Bjorn Borg, famously challenged…

NYT Scientist at Work: A Young Surgeon-Pianist Who Performs with a Scalpel

For Claudius Conrad, a 30-year-old surgeon who has played the piano seriously since he was 5, music and medicine are entwined — from the academic realm down to the level of the fine-fingered dexterity required at the piano bench and the operating table. C.J. Gunther for The New York Times IN TUNE Dr. Conrad, a pianist and surgeon, says that he works better when he listens to music and that music is helpful to patients. “If I don’t play for a couple of days,” said Dr. Conrad, a third-year surgical resident at Harvard Medical School who also holds doctorates in stem cell biology and…

Catching Up

Boy, diving all day every day sure makes you miss a bunch of stuff on the internets. Here's a quickie catching up of things I should have told you about already: Jason tagged me in a meme because I have some kind of substance*. It would be breaking web etiquette not to follow suit. So here's the deal: I have to sum my "blogging motivation, philosophy and experience in exactly 10 words." So here I go: The world could feel the way I do about science. Oh, and TAG to... let's see... Allie, Scicurious, Travis... and some more people. When I have more time to think. I've got some transit days…

Weekly Dose of Cute

I admit I'm a sucker for cute, furry things. But even those of you who prefer the scaly creatures have to be won over by these little fur balls: Photo credits: Jason Collier/SeaWorld Orlando, c/o Zooborns These are some of SeaWorld Orlando's newest arrivals: a pack of four Asian Small-Clawed Otter pups. The Asian otters (Aonyx cinerea) are the smallest otter species in the world, reaching only 0.9 m (roughly 3 feet) from nose to tip of the tail when fully grown. Like other otters, they live in rivers, creeks and estuaries. These otters are unique in that they capture food with their paws…

13 yr old dad cuckolded!

Remember the story I wrote about a kid who was a dad at 13 yrs old? Little Alfie was supposedly only 12 when he had sex for the first time, unprotected, with his 15 yr old girlfriend Chantelle Steadman. At the time, she told him and the news that he was the only person she'd slept with. Yeah, well it turns out he's not the father, according to a DNA test. Apparently, she's had LOTS of sex. Around half a dozen boys came forward saying they'd slept with her, and after she told her 17 yr old half sister about her behavior, Alfie was pressured to take a paternity test. The results proved he was…

TONMOCON VI (#tcon6) is on youtube

The whole dang conference is available in one giant 8 hour video, and here it is. That's kind of indigestibly huge, so I've been going at it in small pieces. I started with Gabrielle Winters at about 5 hours in, with Cephalopod Neurogenomics: Insights into the Evolution of Complex Brains, just because that's what I'm most interested in. It's a conference for general audiences, so it starts off with a good basic overview of cephalopods and neuroscience and molecular biology, and then, just as it starts getting interesting, the sound cuts out at 15 minutes…and doesn't resume for another 15…

Insanity in a Swimming Pool.

Jonathan Turley posted a YouTube clip of an alarming swimming pool: He can't imagine how a lifeguard would get to a victim in that pool. Speaking as a full-time lifeguard, I can't either. But that's not actually the thing that worries me the most about a situation like that. If, hypothetically, I were a guard at that pool I'd be more worried about maintaining a line of sight to a victim than about getting through the water. And even that is less concerning than the issue of recognition - I honestly don't see how a lifeguard could reasonably be expected to recognize a drowning in progress…

Weatherizing and Jobs

I understand that the following might not be exactly in tune with President Obama's desire for increased civility in Washington, but then I'm not in Washington. It would appear, based on news reports, that House Minority Whip Eric Cantor is objecting to part of the economic stimulus plan for a reason that strikes me as a bit odd: Cantor said Republicans worry that much of the plan that Democrats are pushing "does not stimulate the economy." He singled out a provision for weatherizing poor people's homes, causing it a worthy goal but saying it does nothing to create new jobs. That's…

In the face of the ancient.

Ozymandias was a piker. He left us his legs, most of his face, and a clear statement of what he wanted to achieve. When you get right down to it, he's not much of an enigma. The people who built this left an enigma. Stonehenge was constructed to stand proudly forever, a monument to the greater glory of something, but we don't know what. Their engineering withstood the test of time. They - and their cultures - did not. Stonehenge stands today, on a plane covered with the barrows of the unknown lords of long forgotten peoples. It reminds us, far more than Shelley's statue ever could,…

Hey, Bush! Read Your Frigging Job Description, Wouldya.

The President devoted yesterday's radio address to explaining why he vetoed the Intelligence bill Congress sent him. He concluded the address with the following gem: We have no higher responsibility than stopping terrorist attacks. And this is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe. What are these practices that our terrorist-loving Congresscritters so nicely asked the President to abandon? They're nothing special - just you're run-of-the-mill-Spanish-Inquisition-torture-type-stuff. It's frustrating enough watching the…

Where I'm At

So: Long promised substantive reply to comments on previous post is not materializing anytime soon. Migraines, mom in hospital again, coming down with headcold, sister arriving tomorrow for holiday weekend visit, possible trip to western PA next week to tend to mom when she is discharged from hospital (extra attention on top of what assisted living can provide)...I planned to get a post out today but unexpectedly the roofers we just contracted with on Monday phoned at 7:30 a.m. and said surprise! we're going to be hammering and pounding over your head all day long! and the cats were going…

Links for 3-6-2008

Bora has posted an interview with me at A Blog Around the Clock. See here for all the interviews in the series. He keeps adding new ones so check back now and then. Via the Chronicle news blog, I found this wonderful site with all of Audobon's paintings of North American birds. Bird lovers, rejoice! Thank you, University of Pittsburgh! Again via the CNB, The Scientist has named names - the best places for postdocs to work. The Chronicle advises: Read the fine print: Only 17 international institutions (and 82 in the United States) received five or more survey responses; the magazine…

Seed Offers Fab Prizes If You Cough Up $$ For Donors Choose!!!

Apparently the shabby prizes I am offering are not enough to entice very many of you to donate to Donors Choose. But perhaps you will perk up and open your wallets when you see what Seed is giving away to generous readers! In addition to the $15,000 in matching funds that Seed is putting up for the challenges themselves, DONORS can enter to win one of the following: 1 fresh, new iPod nano 21 "Seed Hearts Threadless" tee shirts 21 ScienceBlogs mugs 21 subscriptions to Seed magazine 9 copies of "The Best American Science Writing 2007" How does this work? Simple: interested donors can…

Women and Science Blogging at the NC Science Blogging Conference

The 2008 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference (organized by ScienceBlog's very own Bora Zivkovic) is fast approaching. Karen Ventii and I will be co-chairing a 1 hour session tentatively called "Exploring Women in Science Blogging". (This announcement also appears on her blog here.) We are interested to get your feedback and comments on what we are proposing and your suggestions for improving or making it better. Here are some details: There will be a diverse panel of female science bloggers (we're thinking one graduate student, one professor, and a third in industry or in business for…

Nifty Free Media Tools at Fairer Science

The fabulous folks at Fairer Science, coming back from a great experience at the AAAS conference, have decided to share with all of us a few of their snazzy power point presentations: ...the session convinced me it was time to add a new section to FairerScience: "Presentation Tools." We've started it with two power points presentations (which can also be downloaded in pds): Women, Science and Media: Where is the FairerScience? provides a general introduction to issues related to women scientists and the media and suggests some things that can be done to get more accurate portrayals.…

Primatology Tells a New Story

The other day I wrote Previously, primate groups were generally seen to be composed of harems, ignoring the active roles of females in mate choice and aggressive sexual behavior with multiple mates. But the entry of women with a feminist perspective into this field opened up the kinds of observations that were made. Another great myth we've always had handed to us is that of Man the Hunter. Now comes evidence from the world of primatology that upsets that apple cart. Carl Zimmer at The Loom writes: Today the journal Current Biology publishes yet another piece of the puzzle: female…

Best Practices: Minorities in Research Careers

I got an announcement over the WEPAN listserv about a National Research Council workshop: I am pleased to inform you about a National Research Council workshop on "Understanding Interventions that Encourage Minorities to Pursue Research Careers: Major Questions and Appropriate Methods" that will be held on May 3-4, 2007, at the National Academies in Washington , D.C. A pdf file included with the email announcement says of the target audience: If you are a PI, program administrator, mentor, project evaluator, or human resource specialist, this workshop will inform and motivate your work…

The Answer to the Critter Quiz

On Tuesday, I posted a "can you identify this animal" quiz. I put a picture of an animal up, along with some information about it. The photograph was taken with the animal in captivity, at a location that was relatively near where the animal lived in the wild. The picture was not taken in Australia, and the DNA sequence that was superimposed over the image came from the animal in the picture. Shawna was the first person to correctly identify both the species of the animal and the location where the picture was taken. The animal is a Brush-Tailed Rock Wallaby (Petrogale penicillata), and…

The Convention on Biological Diversity non-Parties

John Wilkins was browsing through the Convention on Biological Diversity's website, and decided to compile a listing of the countries that are not parties to the treaty. I replicated his experiment and came up with something similar. It's not a very long list: Andorra (Wilkins missed that one) Brunei Iraq Somalia The Holy See The United States of America Most of those countries can be excused for not being parties to the Convention. Iraq and Somalia both have more pressing concerns (although it's worth noting that Afghanistan became a party to the Convention in 2002). Andorra has a long…

SCHIP Hypocrite of the Day: Marsha Blackburn

Google news is currently featuring a comment by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on the House of Representatives' failed attempt to override President Bush's veto of the SCHIP expansion. The comment reads in part: "I remain committed to working with my colleagues across the aisle to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program to protect underprivileged children who currently lack health insurance. However, I cannot support legislation that will expand the welfare state, provide government health care benefits to illegal immigrants, and irresponsibly draw-down the public purse…

Friday Arthropod - Can You Identify This Spider?

A couple of weeks ago, I posted some pictures of some large spiders and asked for help in identifying one of them. Jerry Cates of Bugs In The News got back to me quite quickly, and identified the mystery spider as Nephila clavipes - the same species as the other ones shown in that post. I took some more spider pictures this week. I've identified the species. Can you? The pictures are below the fold, along with some information about the size and where it was spotted. I'll post my identification on Monday. The spider in these two pictures was a little less than an inch long (approx 3/4"-7…

Episode CLIV: What use is a baby?

Forgive me, threadlians, but I just have to riff on this particular video. Don't be surprised, this is how all atheists tenderize their babies before the barbecue. Laugh-a while you can, Monkey Boy! In Russia, you don't go on roller coaster, you are roller coaster. Jane, Tarzan think Boy get enough exercise today. I held my breath anxiously through the entire thing, waiting for that moment when the baby would pee. Or better yet, poop. Right now, my kids are all greatly relieved that they were born long before YouTube. Dad might have gotten ideas. Well, son, I thought I had…

Conservapedia Howler of the Day

In addition to being a boundless resource for those seeking accidental humor, Conservapedia is also used as a resource by homeschooled children. "Lectures" for various "classes" are available on the site, and can easily be used to demonstrate the advantages in requiring that homeschooled children be taught to a certain standard. Here's a choice bit from "American History Lesson 2:" In 1692, Salem Witch trials. There was a panic that some girls, just about your age, were practicing witchcraft. Girls were prosecuted for this. Some were convicted and then executed. The authorities thought…

Philosophy and physics being lost at Indiana State U

Leiter reports that ISU is downsizing, for no apparent reason, its philosophy and physics departments. This is not unique to ISU. I have seen it occur in a couple of Australian universities too. The odd thing is that this is not because student enrolments are low; teaching loads are large in some cases. It appears to be due to individual objections by powers-that-be to philosophy for various reasons. One such reason here is that humanities students attract a lot less funding per head than science students, leading to unreasonable teaching loads to break even. This reduces the research…

Survivor Pharyngula: The Second Round

I have reviewed the audition tapes you all sent in for Survivor Pharyngula, averaged together the scores given to people who had multiple recommendations, and sorted them into a ranked list, and then arbitrarily threw out everyone who got below a score of 40. Here's the list of Enemies of the Threads. yanshen71786 Professor Frink j-brisby Al B. Quirky Sili MaxH Manny Calavera Brownian Joshua Zelinsky Ing Walton Cuttlefish Ogvorbis sandiseattle Rascals and troublemakers, every one. But the list is too long! I have to whittle it down a bit before we move on to the next stage, so in my role…

Shhhh. My wife is sleeping in.

Don't raise too loud a ruckus over this news, because I think she'll be cranky enough when she wakes up and reads about the Obedient Wives Club. A new club in Indonesia that encourages women to be totally obedient to their husbands and focus on keeping them sexually satisfied has generated an outcry from some activists. The Indonesian branch of the Obedient Wives Club, launched early this month in Malaysia, claims to have about 300 members in several cities. Group leader Gina Puspita said the club would offer its members a package of teachings including how to treat their husbands in bed…

Respect his authority!

The Minnesota Senate's loudest voice against climate change, it's chief denialist, is a Republican (of course) named Michael Jungbauer. Sen. Jungbauer is fond of making pronouncements from on high regarding the scientific weakness of the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He takes positions in direct opposition to 98 percent of published and peer-reviewed climate, atmospheric scientists and glaciologists. But the water and sewer treatment specialist by day is, apparently, quite knowledgeable on all manner of science. It certainly appears to be. He uses big words…