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The Creationists Discover the Nearly Neutral Theory

Billy D (no, not that Billy Dee) is pimping an anti-evolution book by John Sanford. I refuse to link to outright liars, but you can find a link to Bill's blog here. More after the jump. From what I can gather, the author postulates that the human genome is deteriorating, and this is evidence against Darwinian evolution. This is another argument -- in a long line of many others -- that basically amounts to the same bullshit: natural selection cannot explain the diversity of life on earth. Interestingly, Michael Lynch used a similar argument (albeit without supernatural forces) in describing…

Sexy Science versus Good Science

It has always bothered me when certain scientific publications get a lot of popular press despite the fact that the results are not that revolutionary. But the general public probably does not care to learn about a discovery in some esoteric discipline, so I understand that bias. What irks me more is the bias in high impact journals to publish sexy publications even if the science is limited. A correspondence to Nature addresses this issue: "The broad audience of Nature forces its editors to pre-screen papers according to how appealing they will be for its readers, even if appeal and…

Scientific American Editor Says, "I'd Hit That"

In a round-up of some of the coverage of Shelley's run-in with Wiley, Scientific American's Nikhil Swaminathan wrote the following: Anyway, on Tuesday, over at the ScienceBlog Retrospectacle, neuroscience PhD student Shelley Batts (who based on her pictures alone seems to be both attractive and avian-friendly) posted an analysis of a study appearing in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, which suggested that the antioxidants properties in fruits were boosted by alcohol. So, Nik wants to hit that shit. This is, like, two steps away from passing Shelley a note in homeroom that…

The Sweetest Sixteen

PRESS CENTER | UPDATED BRACKET The folks that brought you the Second Round of the Octopus Region of the Science Spring Showdown (part 1, part 2) will be bringing you one of the marquee match ups of the third round. Those folks are us, and the place is here at evolgen. We're down to sixteen teams (some would even call this collection of teams "sweet"), which means there are eight games that will be played on the internets over the course of the next week. We'll be playing host to a game from the Chair Region between Darwin and Corporate. That's right, we're delving into the Philosophy of…

Nicholas Wade's Parasites

The New York Times has published an article in their Science section on the evolution of human parasites, and it's not by Carl Zimmer. In the article, Nicholas Wade (another good science writer at the NYTimes) presents a few vignettes of human-parasite co-evolution, including a bacterium that causes tooth decay, the ulcer causing Heliobacter, and a tapeworm we share with pigs. I guess Carl called dibs on the pubic lice. Anyway, Wade made me smile when he presented the phylogeography of one human parasite: The latest organism to be identified as a longtime member of the human biota club is…

On second thought . . .

The USC offensive line sucks. Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian suck. Absolute failure. When you play against a speed defense, you run right at them. You attack them. You make them overrun and overplay. You don't run slow developing plays. And when you play against a young, crappy QB who likes to run the football, you hit him hard -- real fucking hard -- early. You make him question his ability to play the game. You make him question his skill level. You make him question his manhood. You don't wait until the 4th quarter to kill the motherfucker. You don't get a 15yd. personal foul by tapping…

Friday Galaxy: NGC 7331

NGC 7331 is a spiral galaxy, probably not too dissimilar from our own (except that it lacks a bar), which is relatively nearby. (At a mere 49 million light-years, it's not in our own back yard, but it's just down the block.) Image: Paul Mortfield and Dietmar Kupke/Flynn Haase/NOAO/AURA/NSF Several years ago, the first time I thought Astronomy 253 ("Galactic Astrophysics"), I had an entire problem set entitled the "NGC 7331 problem set." In fact, this was a general problem set about the properties and dynamics of spiral galaxies, but I chose NGC 7331 as the example that was referenced in…

Friday Galaxy : Nearby Starburst Galaxy M82

M82 is a galaxy that's relatively near to the Milky Way. It's not in our own local group, but it's in a nearby group of galaxies (the "M81 group"), and is only about 12 million light-years away (which is close for a galaxy). It's notable because it's a "starburst" galaxy— it's undergoing a burst of rapid star-formation, producing large numbers of stars in big clusters in a relatively short period of time. A lot of this activity is near the nucleus of the galaxy. M82 is a favorite target for infrared astronomers. My cohort in graduate school, James Larkin, wrote his first grad school paper…

Mary's Monday Metazoan: Rorqual!

This is a Minke Whale, in life. FactZoo Unfortunately, it's going to be a little harder to see them in life. The Japanese whaling fleet has just returned to base with a lot of carcasses that will be destined for cans and pet food. Japan's whaling fleet has returned to base with the carcasses of 333 minke whales, in apparent violation of a ruling by the International Court of Justice. Reuters quoted a statement by Japan's Fisheries Agency that said 103 male and 230 female whales were caught during the fleet's summer expedition to Antarctic waters. Ninety percent of the mature females were…

Big Tobacco/Big McD's VS. PETA

Normally I'm all for ripping PETA a new one, but there are all sorts of problems with this ad, which (among others) has appeared in Time Square and in the NYT. It seems that the Center for Consumer Freedom, who is sponsoring the ads and bills itself as a grass roots organization, is actually a front for big tobacco and the fast food companies. From Wikipedia: The group defines its mission as fighting against "a growing cabal of food cops, health care enforcers, militant activists, meddling bureaucrats, and violent radicals who think they know what's best for you, [who] are pushing against…

fMRI of daydreaming

Oooo... I like this :) Some people seem to continually have their heads in the clouds. Perhaps they are pondering during their drive to work the next pickle 24 protagonist Jack Bauer will find himself in. Or maybe they are assessing while buttering toast the Indianapolis Colts' chances of finally making it to the Super Bowl. Or considering where they will dine that evening as they tap out an e-mail. The question is: What makes their minds veer from the task at hand? Researchers at Dartmouth College may have the answer. They found that a default network of regions in the brain's cortex--a…

Mind Control and Severed Heads

It looks like there are a couple of interesting articles/TV shows out there in the last couple days highlighting some Omni Brain topics of the last few weeks. You know how I love the mind control people, It looks like the Washington Post has a great article on it... Mind Games New on the Internet: a community of people who believe the government is beaming voices into their minds. They may be crazy, but the Pentagon has pursued a weapon that can do just that. And of course you all remember the severed dogs head! National Geographic is producing a show about the Russian research that came up…

Sneezing and Personality

I apologize for the previous post on sleeping positions and personality...that was clearly wrong, since this is obviously the correct way of determining someones personality type. ...you may want to listen to all that sneezing: A body language expert said that a sneeze can offer a revealing look at someone's personality. "Most of us have a sneeze style that we stick with throughout our lives that matches our personality," said Patti A. Wood, a body language expert who created the Achoo IQ Study for Benadryl. And just like the sleeping positions, there are different types: be right…

The Big Bird Count Coming Up

The 11th Annual Great Backyard Bird Count, run by Cornell's Ornithology Lab and the National Audubon Society, is set for February 15th to 18th. Anyone can participate, and enter their results on line. The reports contribute valuable scientific information for conservation, spotlighting changes in bird population and distribution from year to year. Participation is free, and no registration is required. Last year, birders submitted a record-breaking 80,000 checklists -- reporting 11 million birds and 613 species. Count results over the years show how such species as the Eurasian-collared…

Asking The Candidates Questions

Science Debate 2008 people may be intereted in this effort by SlashDot: This is your usual Slashdot reader-generated interview, except we're only going to pick five questions, not 10, and we're going to send the same five questions to all the major-party presidential candidates and publish each one's answers (in our Politics section) as soon as we get them. Please try to come up with questions the candidates have not been asked in the many interviews and debates to which they've already been subjected, all of which have been notably light on Slashdot-popular topics such as software patents,…

Happy Birthday Alfred Russel Wallace

We are reminded, via Mousie Cat at Evolving in Kansas, that Yesterday (I'm so embarrassed I missed this) was Alfred Russel Wallace's birthday! Wallace was born in 1823. We should now clearly recognise the fact, that the wealth and knowledge and culture of the few do not constitute civilization, and do not of themselves advance us towards the "perfect social state." Our vast manufacturing system, our gigantic commerce, our crowded towns and cities, support and continually renew a mass of human misery and crime absolutely greater than has ever existed before. They create and maintain in…

Minnesota has its quirks

And some are very very annoying. We had crazy Christians running around last year putting up anti-Evolution billboards. Now, this: Running right through the heart of the Twin Cities is a spiritual road that dozens of evangelical churches say is specifically mentioned in the Bible as the "Way of Holiness." They call it the "Highway of Holiness." Others call it Interstate 35. Evangelicals throughout the Midwest... have been praying at 24-hour prayer rooms for a month for Interstate 35 in order to "light the highway." Young people in the movement have been holding "purity sieges" in front of…

Minnesota creationist update

I am such a trendsetter. First I pick up on the Paszkiewicz story weeks before the NY Times, and now another creationist I took a shot at, Julie Haberle, is written up in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Ms Haberle is responsible for a set of anti-evolution billboards going up in the region, and she does not come off very well. Here are a few quotes from her that expose her shortcomings. Julie Haberle, 55, said she once believed creationism "was absolutely nuts" and has over the past nine years come to the contradictory conclusion that "evolution is just silly." "I'm just a hack." "I'm not a…

More details on Delaware Teabaggers and Voter Intimidation

The Delaware Democratic Party claimed Tuesday that Republican Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell's supporters were rallying outside polling places and creating a disturbance that amounted to illegal "voter intimidation"... The state Democratic Party first leveled the charge in a brief written statement Tuesday afternoon. "There have been some reports of voter intimidation from the O'Donnell campaign or her supporters throughout the state. This activity is illegal and contrary to our rule of civility in Delaware," the party said. ... voters had called their hotline to complain that groups of…

Say what, History Channel?

Guess what period the History Channel characterizes as 600 years of degenerate, godless, inhuman behavior? Come on, guess! The Dark Ages. Bunch o' brutal atheists running around covered in dirt and boppin' each other on the head with clubs is what it was, I guess. If you take a look at their timeline, they define the Dark Ages as the period from 410 AD, when Alaric of the Visigoths (Christian) sacked Rome (Christian), to 1095 when Pope Urban II (Christian, probably) sent an armed mob of knights and hangers-on (Christian) to savage the people of the Middle East (Muslim, mainly). In between, we…

"Climate Gate" ... the latest scandalous outrages

A warning before going any further: This blog will not be used as a dumping ground for the text of climategate related "released" emails. I have surveyed my readers and overwhelmingly have been told that people would prefer to not see that. So don't do that. Now, on with the show... Just two items, recent blog posts on this issue: Real Climate: The CRU hack: Context This is a continuation of the last thread which is getting a little unwieldy. The emails cover a 13 year period in which many things happened, and very few people are up to speed on some of the long-buried issues. So to save…

Threats Against Obama

Continuing on with our theme of anti-Obama wackaloonery, including the inherent racism involved in that, there is not additional evidence that there are indeed more death threats against our President than usual. From the Boston Globe: The unprecedented number of death threats against President Obama, a rise in racist hate groups, and a new wave of antigovernment fervor threaten to overwhelm the US Secret Service, according to government officials and reports, raising new questions about the 144-year-old agency's overall mission. This is leading some to consider the possibility that the…

Intelligent Design vs. Evolution: Evolution wins again.

An international team of researchers, including Monash University biochemists, has discovered evidence at the molecular level in support of one of the key tenets of Darwin's theory of evolution. ... that it happened ... Trevor Lithgow said the breakthrough, funded by the Australian Research Council and published recently in the prestigious journal PNAS, provides a blueprint for a general understanding of the evolution of the "machinery" of our cells. "Our cells, and the cells of all organisms, are composed of molecular machines. These machines are built of component parts, each of which…

Your email account could be shut down at any time for no good reason

Unlikely, but it could happen. A judge recently ordered a person's Gmail account to be shut down. Why? Because that person received an email from a bank. The email was not supposed to be sent to that person, and it contained account information that person was not supposed to see. The order, issued Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge James Ware in the northern district of California, also requires Google to disclose the Gmail account holder's identity and contact information. The Gmail user hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing. The Rocky Mountain Bank, in Wilson, Wyoming, sent…

Atheists are the cause of 911 - treat them accordingly

Dave Mabus sent me this along with a threatening e-mail with a subject line I've used as the title of this post. The email was cc'ed to me, but meant of PZ Myers, and it says: Hey PZ Myers, you little fool... Just wanted to let you know this has been posted on every forum of the internet. Some good came out of you after all. They will remember your ugly blaspheming head forever! Good riddance.... If you comment on this post, I recommend you do not include a link-back because Dave will mine it for your email address and from now on you will get an obnoxious emails like this too. The emails…

Big Question: Feast or famine?

I agree that little has transformed the earth more than agriculture, but it is inaccurate to say that "30 percent of greenhouse gases come from agriculture." The reason that this is inaccurate is because what really counts (though it is not the only thing that counts) is the release of carbon that was previously trapped in fossil form. Such of the "green house gas" mentioned in the video does not involve fossil carbon. Anyway, having said that, here is a blog post that is linked to the video you just watched: The Other Inconvenient Truth It's taken a long time, but the issue of global…

Hitler pans the Torchwood season finale

Ever since it appeared as an "adult" spinoff of Doctor Who, I've had a love-hate relationship with Torchwood. The first season was about as uneven as anything I've ever seen, ranging from a truly execrable (and, even worse, unforgivably stupidly and badly written) "homage" to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Countrycide) that ranks among the worst hours of television to which I've ever subjected myself to a handful of pretty darned good episodes (Out of Time, Captain Jack Harkness), with a whole lot of mediocre episodes in between. This season was generally more consistent, but a lot of problems…

Understanding the 'Russian Mortality Paradox' in Central Asia: Evidence from Kyrgyzstan

Michel Guillot says: In the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, ethnic Russians have exhibited higher adult mortality than native ethnic groups (Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, etc.) in spite of their higher socioeconomic status. The mortality disadvantage of ethnic Russians at adult ages appears to have even increased since the break-up of the Soviet Union. The most common explanation for this paradox, which we term the "Russian mortality paradox," is that deaths are better reported among ethnic Russians. In this study, we use detailed mortality data from Kyrgyzstan between 1959 and 1999 to…

Ada Lovelace Day - Diane Cabell

I am just back from my wedding and have a lot of catching up to do - notably I will respond to the eTech announcement of the Science Commons collaboration with Microsoft, and the small furor that my comment "there is no crowd" in science has caused. But first things first. I'm a day late posting but I wanted to make sure I got this in. Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. We are asked to blog about a female role model for us in technology. Mine's pretty easy. Diane Cabell. When I was a wet behind the ears kid masquerading as…

Women in Science Blogging-a session at the 2008 NC Blogging Conference

The 2008 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference (organized by ScienceBlog's very own Bora Zivkovic) is fast approaching. Suzanne Franks and I will be co-chairing a 1 hour session tentatively called "Exploring Women in Science Blogging". 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 herself) to share their experiences as science…

Ask the Expert: How does burning protein free up water?

A reader sent in this question regarding our continuing conversation about how birds burn proteins to conserve water during long distance migrations: "It's not immediately clear to me how burning intracellular proteins is going to automatically "free up" much water. I do know that burning fat makes more metabolic water, from scratch, per gram fuel burned. But I haven't read the paper." -Sven So we asked Dr. Christopher G. Guglielmo to provide a response and here is what he had to say: "Dear Sven, Thank you for your comment and you are correct that on a dry mass basis oxidation of fatty acids…

Top 20 Common Birds in Decline

It should not be surprising that the decline of most bird species may be attributed to changes in their habitat. These changes may include human-related causes such as increased farming, urban sprawl, industrial development, logging, drilling and mining. Global warming is to blame for earlier springtimes that can impact the mating habits of birds. Fires are additionally potential causes for the decreased populations of some bird species. Whatever the reason, many populations are on a downward slope. Here is a list from the National Audubon Society of the top 20 common birds in decline: 1.…

"Coastal Creatures May Have Reduced Ability to Fight off Infections in Acidified Oceans"

Photo: Blue crab being monitored for metabolism using a respirometer, courtesy of Louis and Karen Burnett. Based on information presented at the Global Change and Global Science: Comparative Physiology in a Changing World conference, August 4-7, 2010 in Westminster, Colorado. Louis Burnett, professor of biology and director of the Grice Marine Laboratory of the College of Charleston and Karen Burnett, research associate professor at Grice Marine Laboratory have been examining the effects of low oxygen and high carbon dioxide levels on the immune system. The results of their research,…

Reasoning versus Imagination?

Jack Hassard wishes us well (and tasks us with being as provocative as we can) in his blog named after his book, The Art of Teaching Science (Oxford, 2004). Summarizing his own approach to science education, he credits Jacob Bronowski as his main inspiration, especially his belief that reasoning and imagination work closely together. Hassard quotes Bronowski at perhaps his most provocative: "You may have been told, you may still have the feeling that E=mc2 is not an imaginative statement. If so, you are mistaken." Georgia Tech's Mark Guzdial, in his Computing Education blog, takes exception…

A few words about Bibs & Blather

Long-time readers of Cites & Insights will know all this. Bibs & Blather is my alternate name for the ejournal itself--and may have made more sense when the ejournal (ezine?) was heavily composed of "Cites," that is, citations for various articles and discussions of those articles. Bibs & Blather is also the running head for random notes related to the ejournal itself (and my other sites and projects)--sort of a letter from the editor. This time around, in Cites & Insights 9:8, the brief note includes three elements: One relating to sponsorship of the ejournal (I've had…

Are Humans Homogenizing the World?

From The Atlantic's Niraj Chokshi: "Seed magazine explores the idea that humans are eradicating cultural, language and species differences. Rates of species extinction have grown by as much as 10,000 because of us and half of the world's languages are expected to vanish by the end of the century. A worthwhile read." Even before we've been able to take stock of the enormous diversity that today existsâ--âfrom undescribed microbes to undocumented tonguesâ--âthis epidemic carries away an entire human language every two weeks, destroys a domesticated food-crop variety every six hours, and kills…

More problems with piercings

Santucci RA, Deng D, Carney J. Removal of metal penile foreign body with a widely available emergency-medical-services-provided air-driven grinder. Urology. 2004 Jun;63(6):1183-4. Dude! Remember that one time when they had to remove that barbell from my dick with an air grinder? That was so sick! --- Sandhu A, Gross M, Wylie J, Van Caeseele P, Plourde P. Pseudomonas aeruginosa necrotizing chondritis complicating high helical ear piercing case report: clinical and public health perspectives. Can J Public Health. 2007 Jan-Feb;98(1):74-7. Y'know what debridement and removal of necrotic…

Silly Science Sunday

This week in Silly Science: *Attractive young psychology professor is stunned to discover that "it sucks to be rejected based on how you look." Three new studies spearheaded by University of Buffalo Assistant Professor Lora Park provide the "first known evidence that some people anxiously expect that they will be rejected by others because of their physical appearance," according to a January 27 article in Science Daily. But wait that's not all: Park's research also suggests that people who deem themselves unattractive are "preoccupied with their body and weight in unhealthy ways." Next…

Graph of the week

Brendan Nyhan links to this hilariously bad graph from the Wall Street Journal: It's cute how they scale the black line to go right between the red and blue lines, huh? I'm not quite sure how $7.25 can be 39% of something, while $5.15 is 10%, but I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation . . . Follow the above link for more details. As Brendan notes, the graph says essentially nothing about the relation between minimum wage laws and unemployment ("Any variable that trended in one direction during the current economic downturn will be correlated with the unemployment rate among teens or…

The science of wishful thinking

A few months ago I read Charles Seife's excellent book, "Sun in a bottle: The strange history of fusion and the science of wishful thinking." One thing I found charming about the book was that it lumped crackpot cold fusion, nutty plans to use H-bombs to carve out artificial harbors in Alaska, and mainstream tokomaks into the same category: wildly-hyped but unsuccessful promises to change the world. The "wishful thinking" framing seems to fit all these stories pretty well, much better than the usual distinction between the good science of big-budget lasers and tokomaks and the bad science…

Is Stephen Sizer a jack-booted, censorship-loving, anti-Jewish hate-monger?

From my pal Arikia, I learned of a disturbing case in the UK. A blogger over there has been posting information about Stephen Sizer, an Anglican vicar and holocaust denier. The vicar apparently felt so threatened by the dissemination of his own ideas that he called the cops. According to various news and blog reports, Sizer is cozy with terrorists and neo-fascists. I don't know much about this guy, but he apparently is very active in anti-Israel activities that have blended into frankly anti-Jewish activities. He has apparently take his concern for the plight of Palestinians and thrown…

Gird your loins---please

Do you know how many people have chlamydia? Syphilis? No? Me either. But it's a lot. Depending on the group evaluated, chlamydia rates among young women range from 7-15%. And with STDs, there is always at least one other victim. The holidays tend to be a time of seeing old friends and drinking with them. I see a lot of STDs after the holidays. Both men and women can carry STDs without symptoms, but in women, these infections can ravage the reproductive organs leading to ectopic pregnancies, infertility, and other long-term health problems. If infertility doesn't sound so bad, you…

Every time I think I'm out...

I really didn't mean to get dragged back in to the Morgellons controversy. Really. But I made a flippant comment on a recent post, and here I am. Let me put down some brief thoughts here: 1) There exists a loosely affiliated group of people who are suffering from diverse and (to them) unexplained symptoms, and they have named these "Morgellons". 2) The public voices of these people are dominated by people who come off as being nuts. This is not the fault of the sufferers. 3) The suffering is real---the is the clearest truth. 4) The science to date does not support any new and unusual…

Don't be surprised—physics has always been a target

As long as I'm making addenda to posts, let's hit up this one, too. Some people have mentioned that they knew the creationists would come gunning for other domains of science sooner or later, and see George Deutsch's remarks as confirmation. There is absolutely no surprise to the criticism of physics, and it's been going on for a long while. Ultimately, the gripe the religious have isn't with the simple facts, it's with the process. Science is a tool that has been incredibly successful at digging into the nature of the universe, and religion is a proven flop next to it. That rankles, I'm sure…

The "Darwin Is Dead" carnival

I love blog carnivals. In fact, I love 'em so much that I hosted four of them took one over when its creator decided to retire from blogging. But here's one that PZ, RPM, Afarensis, and all of the other ScienceBloggers inclined to defend evolution will want to wander over to see just how inane some creationist arguments can be. Indeed, the Pooflinger has already targeted them for some particularly ripe debunkings: Yesterday marked the launch of an entirely new carnival over at Radaractive called, amusingly, the "Darwin Is Dead" carnival. Oh yeah: and it began with a whopping five (count…

Grim Death awaits you, O my children

Any parents out there? I bet you know the children's book, Goodnight Moon. I read it a few million times myself, with each kid as they came up through those preschool years, and I can still remember each page and how the little ones had to repeat each goodnight. Lance Mannion finds the strangest summary of the book, though—it's a dark nihilist tract that portrays the inevitability of death. Whoa. Heavy, man. The other obsessive touchstone of my children's early years was Pat the Bunny, where each page had a different texture glued on — a piece of sandpaper, a feather, some soft fluff — and…

How can dangerous interference with the climate system be avoided?

This is the question asked in a current paper from PNAS that is available to you as an Open Access article. Peaking profiles for achieving long-term temperature targets with more likelihood at lower costs Abstract How can dangerous interference with the climate system be avoided? Science can help decision-makers answer this political question. Earlier publications have focused on the probability of keeping global mean temperature change below certain thresholds by stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations at particular levels. We compare the results of such "stabilization profiles" with a…

Where Are They Now? Lemurs Let Loose Live

Ten years ago, thirteen lucky lemurs were taken from Duke's primate center and the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City, and other facilities, and let loose in their native lands in Madagascar. These were black and white ruffed lemurs, Varecia variegata variegata. They are rain forest dwellers native to Madagascar. Several were almost instantly eaten by predators, which is not at all surprising because the Predator IQ is pretty much determined by environmental factors in primates (as is intelligence in general). Of the original 13, three survive today. Lemurs being lemurs, there was also…

The marriage of creationism and antivaccinationism—literally

Believe it or not (and you probably won’t believe it), but I never intended to post today, as it’s a holiday, and I had to write my usual level post for my not-so-super-secret other blog. But then one of you had to send me this: I couldn’t resist at least a quick comment on this. That’s right. Kent Hovind, one of the world’s most famous young earth creationists and frauds (given that he went to jail for tax evasion) is marrying Marry Tocco, Michigan’s own most annoying antivaccinationist and someone about whom I’ve written several times, most recently in 2014. In the video, he goes on about…

Baseball, cupping, and quackademic medicine

I hate to do this to you guys twice in one week, but sometimes the situation mandates it. Basically, there’s no new Insolence today. I do, however, have an excuse. Because of a gift the Ilitch family gave to our department, a couple of times a year our department is invited to attend a Tigers game in the owner’s suite at Comerica Park. This was the third time I’ve gotten to experience a major league baseball game this way. I only have one thing to say. It is good to be in the owner's suite. There was everything from really tasty stadium hot dogs to even more tasty salmon and filet mignon…