jlynch | December 5, 2006As Bora notes, the 2006 Weblog Award nominees have been announced and there are some startlingly familiar names:
Best Science Blog
PharyngulaJohn Hawks Anthropology WeblogRealClimateDeltoidGood Math, Bad MathMixing Memory The Panda's ThumbIn the PipelineBad Astronomy BlogSciGuy
Best Medical/Health Issues Blog
BrainhellFleaStayin' AliveShort Gut NewsRespectful InsolenceThe Cheerful OncologistA Life Less ConvenientDoc In the MachineThe Cancer BlogThe Amazing Adventures of Diet Girl
Congrats to all my SciBlings.
Oh, and I'm shocked, shocked, I say, that fine science blogs like Uncommon Descent…
jlynch | December 5, 2006
Your Political Profile:
Overall: 10% Conservative, 90% Liberal
Social Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal
Personal Responsibility: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal
Fiscal Issues: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal
Ethics: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal
Defense and Crime: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal
How Liberal Or Conservative Are You?
Shelley and Chet made me do it.
jlynch | December 4, 2006Terry Bowden points out what could have been had there been a eight-team playoff for the college football championship.
Now that would have been some good football ... although I dispute his claim that Florida would beat Michigan.
jlynch | December 4, 2006
"Unable to win Senate confirmation, U.N. Ambassador John Bolton will step down when his temporary appointment expires within weeks, the White House said Monday" (source). Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
jlynch | December 3, 2006So I guess it is Ohio State versus Florida for the national championship. Florida leapt over Michigan in the BCS rankings and the Wolverines are fated to meet USC in the Rose Bowl (my money is on Michigan).
I still think Michigan (11-1, second place in Big 10) are a better team than Florida (12-1, SEC champions) and could beat the Buckeyes on neutral territory. I can hear it now ... Florida won their conference but Michigan didn't, so the Gators deserve to go to the big one. Yeah, but look at who Michigan lost to (and by only three points at that). Obviously winning a conference shouldn't be…
jlynch | December 3, 2006I don't think anyone is surprised by this ...
Your 'Do You Want the Terrorists to Win' Score: 94%
You are a terrorist-loving, Bush-bashing, "blame America first"-crowd traitor. You are in league with evil-doers who hate our freedoms. By all counts you are a liberal, and as such cleary desire the terrorists to succeed and impose their harsh theocratic restrictions on us all. You are fit to be hung for treason! Luckily George Bush is tapping your internet connection and is now aware of your thought-crime. Have a nice day.... in Guantanamo!Do You Want the Terrorists to Win?Quiz Created…
jlynch | December 3, 2006Over at Framing Science, Matt notes that the WaPo is running a series of pieces by historians putting Bush's presidency in historical context. Back in May 2004, History News Network reported that "eight in ten historians [...] rate the current presidency an overall failure." In particular, the George W. Bush presidency was seen as being the worst since:
In terms of economic damage, Reagan.In terms of imperialism, T Roosevelt.In terms of dishonesty in government, Nixon.In terms of affable incompetence, Harding.In terms of corruption, Grant.In terms of general lassitude and cluelessness,…
jlynch | December 2, 2006I said all along that USC weren't as good as they thought they were and were not deserving of their #2 ranking. After all, when #3, they only beat unranked ASU by a single touchdown. And now, unranked UCLA beat them 13-9 in a great game.
National Championship game ... not yours, USC, not yours.
As Schopenhauer said "Neid zu fühlen ist menschlich, Schadenfreude zu genieÃen teuflisch."
jlynch | December 2, 2006For some years now, we have been hearing about Paul Nelson's forthcoming monograph On Common Descent, which one assumes will stem from his now [eight] year old PhD in philosophy Common Descent, Generative Entrenchment, and the Epistemology in Evolutionary Inference. As the DI/CSC website notes, "[h]is forthcoming monograph, On Common Descent, critically evaulates the theory of common descent, and is being edited for the series Evolutionary Monographs." The Wedge document notes:
William Dembski and Paul Nelson, two CRSC Fellows, will very soon have books published by major secular university…
jlynch | December 1, 2006AP is reporting:
[Incoming Senate Judiciary Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy], business travelers and privacy advocates expressed outrage Friday over the unannounced assignment of terrorism risk assessments to American international travelers by a computerized system managed from an unmarked, two-story brick building in Northern Virginia...
The travelers are not allowed to see or directly challenge these risk assessments, which the government intends to keep on file for 40 years. Some or all data in the system can be shared with state, local and foreign governments for use in hiring, contracting…
jlynch | December 1, 2006
Docker
There, in the corner, staring at his drink.The cap juts like a gantry's crossbeam,Cowling plated forehead and sledgehead jaw.Speech is clamped in the lips' vice.
That fist would drop a hammer on a Catholic-Oh yes, that kind of thing could start again;The only Roman collar he toleratesSmiles all round his sleek pint of porter.
Mosaic imperatives bang home like rivets;God is a foreman with certain definite viewsWho orders life in shifts of work and leisure.A factory horn will blare the Resurrection.
He sits, strong and blunt as a Celtic cross,Clearly used to silence and an armchair…
jlynch | November 30, 2006
Today in 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws.
jlynch | November 30, 2006
USA Today is reporting that Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport will next month begin trials of backscatter x-ray screening. And how are the TSA ensuring that "naked" pictures of passengers wont appear online?
At airports, they will be programmed to shade or blur travelers' bodies and medical devices. Screeners will view the images in remote rooms and delete them instantly.
Yeah, that will work.
(The above picture, by the way, is of Susan Hallowell, director of the TSA's security laboratory, who said "It does basically make you look fat and naked - but you see all this stuff".)
jlynch | November 30, 2006
I like this photo for some reason - seven-day-old stump-tailed or bear macaque (Macaca arctoides). Follow the link for pictures of adults and details of this endangered species.
Credit: AP-Photo.
jlynch | November 29, 2006As part of the Panda's Thumb series debunking Jonathan Wells' latest dreck (The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design), Tim Sandefur, himself a self-avowed conservative libertarian Republican, argues that Wells' work offers "no helpful contribution" to any debate about the compatibility of conservatism and evolution. Tim ends his piece:
The bottom line is this: the genuine conservatism of people like Russell Kirk and Richard Weaver really is fundamentally at odds with evolution, not because of anything having to do with the free market or evolution's alleged links…
jlynch | November 28, 2006 With the ASU football season winding down, it is time to turn to other things. So why not rugby? The Irish team are favorites for the coming Six Nations Championship, after winning the Triple Crown last year, and a series of victories over South Africa, Australia and the Pacific Islanders which left them the #5 ranked team in the world (bizarrely behind two teams that they beat fairly handily).
The first home game will be played in Croke Park, the fourth largest stadium in Europe. This is fairly significant as the Gaelic Athletic Association (governing body for Gaelic Football and owners of…
jlynch | November 27, 2006I've managed to finish my grading. Yipee! What this means is that the semester is finally beginning to wind down. Sure, there will be some grading left to do, but it will be relatively less onerous. Three classes left to teach, a handful of graduate student papers, and some short pieces from my undergraduates. Then Fall graduation and convocation ... and then the winter break (a.k.a. time for writing all those book reviews and suchlike that were put off this semester).
jlynch | November 26, 2006No posting today (or perhaps even tomorrow) as I'm tucked away in my lair grading. In any case, Mike Dunford made the only point I was going to make.