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tqa | April 23, 2007
My wife, it would seem, pulled a fast one on me. She was released from her unit in Iraq a few days ago, but she didn't mention that to me. Instead, she just came home. Around 2:45 this afternoon, she called me from the kids school - she had just picked them up and was wondering if I could come give her a ride home.
So, if you haven't guessed, there's a good chance that blogging is going to be a little light for the next few days.
tqa | April 23, 2007
Over the weekend, another "Egnor" post appeared on the Discovery Institute blog. This one addresses a post I wrote two weeks ago discussing the "Framing Science" article. In his "response," "Egnor" manages to completely distort pretty much everything about my article, in a way that is so ham-fistedly inept that it is simply impossible for me to continue to believe that the "Michael Egnor" articles are being written by a real person who really believes what he (or she) writes.
(For the record, I'm neither a "prominent Darwinist" nor a "prominent scientist." Also, there are only two possible…
tqa | April 23, 2007
Reality called. He's wondering if you're ever going to get back in touch.
Earlier today, the President met with Gen. Petraeus (the commander of all forces in Iraq) in the Oval Office. The media was there for the photo op, and the President took a couple of questions. His answers were nothing short of amazing - they were hysterically amusing, right up until the point when I remembered that this guy really is the President, and really does have access to launch codes. The first of the two questions covered the supplemental war funding bill, and the second covered the Attorney General's…
tqa | April 23, 2007
The theme for today is "accidental humor." In that category, we have a potential television entry later on today, a product that gives new meaning to "invigorating showers," the Kremlin trying to prove that they've got less of a grasp on reality than we do, the President upping the ante on the Kremlin twice in two questions, and an Uncommon Descent speculation on meaninglessness. Oh, and in the unfunny category we've got some helpful suggestions on how to manage pdf files.
Must-See Fox TV:
Later tonight (8 pm EST), Richard Dawkins will be appearing on Bill O'Reilly's Spin Zone show. PZ's…
cmcclain | April 23, 2007
Image from surfersvillage.com. Surfer catching wave at Mavericks
If you want to know where the good surf spots are sure you could ask your local bro', or you could gather some geologist and map the seafloor at high resolution. Sure the first might cost you at most a cigarette and beer while the latter requires a multiyear grant that rivals the budget of a third world country. I still vote for the mapping. Those of you who surf already know about the Mavericks a big wave break off Half Moon Bay in Central Cali. The spot attracts only the best riders where waves can crest…
stoat | April 23, 2007Having been away for the past two weeks i've missed most of the exciting "Framing Science" stuff. I feel most sympathetic to the PZ view... In that addressing your message to your audience seems fairly obvious. But I rather like this from the globalchange mailing list:
> ...how does a field of human endeavour which has at its foundation a
> profound belief in the value of reason go about addressing an audience
> which, for a variety of reasons, has a large proportion of members
> whose response to the issues is irrational and who do not value reason
> in the same way, instead…
mixingmemory | April 22, 2007Below is the text of a post I wrote for the old blog back in March of '06. I'm putting it here now because, given the discussion of the new atheist-suffragist analogy, I think it will provide some much needed perspective. In the article below, you will see just what the women's rights movement was up against, and why rhetorical force was necessary for it to accomplish even the simplest of its goals. I apologize in advance for any typos and misspellings (some of the spellings are just outdated ones, though), because I typed the article out while reading it in a 136 year old journal in the…
cmcclain | April 22, 2007
A recently-discovered jellyfish has been found at newly discovered vents in the Pacific Ocean. Credit: WHOI
Last week while DSN focused on charismatic megafauna with notochords, a newly discovered species without pharyngeal slits at a newly discovered vent field was uncovered at 8500 feet during the expedition discussed by Kevin. The new species is from the Cnidarian (phylum of jellyfish, corals, anemones) order stauromedusae. The jellyfish's resemblance to Medusa lends itself to the new vent's name. The new species is unusual in its color (pink) and its proximity to to the…
tqa | April 22, 2007
This is a repost. Specifically, it's the second of four posts from my old blog about the effects of an invasive insect on an endemic tree in the Hawaiian Islands. I moved the first in the series here last week; the remaining two will follow over the next few days. Once I've moved all of the relevant posts over here, I'll be posting an update on the situation.
One of the comments that was inspired by my earlier post on the invasive gall wasps that are threatening some native Hawaiian plants raised a point that is worth responding to in detail, since it comes up fairly often both in…
grrlscientist | April 22, 2007The 6th edition of the Health Wonk Review is now available at the Healthcare Economist for your reading pleasure. Additionally, the 5th edition of the Gene Genie is now available.
mixingmemory | April 21, 2007This is the way it always works. I quit the nouveau atheist blogs cold turkey, and their nonsense starts popping up elsewhere so that I can't escape it. That's how I learned that some of them are now comparing their movement to the suffragists. The comparison seems to have been first made by Larry Moron Moran in a comment at yet another blog (see, they're everywhere!), and was subsequently endorsed by PZ Myers, who writes in a comment:
When we compare atheists to feminists, the labor movement, gays, or civil rights, we are not saying these are identical; in this case, it is to a narrower…
jjacquet | April 21, 2007
"How inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when clearly it is Ocean."
This famous line from Arthur Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey (who collaborated with Stanley Kubrick on the film), is one to remember on Earth Day.
petnoyer | April 21, 2007
This Earth Day, remember the deep-sea. The goblin shark (shown here) and the frill shark are two of the rarest and deepest dwelling of sharks. Only two of each species have been taken in North America EVER. That's why researcher Jose Castro from Mote Marine Laboratory was surprised when Japanese friends set up a trip to nearby Chiba, where a few goblins are taken each year. Dr. Castro says he saw more rare deep water sharks in Chiba in one day than he has ever seen in the USA: including Dalatias, Deania, Cihrrigaleus, Etmopterus, Apristurus, etc.
Shark populations are hard hit by…
petnoyer | April 20, 2007The core idea behind Megavertebrate Week was to identify neritic species that can be found in the deep sea, in order to make that "deep-sea connection" for people outside our typical readership. It worked.
We hit the list serves for C Turtle and for MarMam. We made the blog rolls in Germany and Russia. We introduced you to many marine animals that you already knew, like the sea turtles, whales, elephant seals, and penguins, and we showed you how these marine megavertebrates spend a good part of their daylight hours diving well below 200m. The marine megavertebrates we profiled are all…
tqa | April 20, 2007
John Stewart really got it right on Wednesday - this administration is really making him obsolete. There's no need for commentary anymore - if you want to get laughs, it's just a matter of figuring out which clips to show today. Yesterday's breakthrough accidental comedian was Alberto Gonzales - a man who seems to have set out to prove that he's got a bigger problem with short term memory than Drew Barrymore did in 50 First Dates.
The counts vary, but most estimates have the AG failing to recall various things - like dates, meetings, reasons for firing people - by one count, more than 70…
zooillogix | April 20, 2007Chinese scientists have made a remote controlled pigeon. By planting micro electrodes in the pigeon's brain, the scientists can make the bird fly up, down, left or right."I'm looking for a boy named John Conner. Have you seen him?"
Chief scientist Su Xuecheng explains, ""The implants stimulated different areas of the pigeon's brain according to electronic signals sent by the scientists via computer, mirroring natural signals generated by the brain."
Whether or not the pigeon is going to defend the city of Detroit from a gang of criminal masterminds, who are headquartered in a toxic waste dump…
petnoyer | April 20, 2007Story by Michelle Kinzel, OSU
How do you study the sperm whale, Physeter catadon, when they dive up to 3 km (1.9 miles) to the bottom of the ocean floor and stay submerged up to 90 minutes? Sperm whales reach lengths of 18 m (60 ft) and possess blood volumes up to 3 tonnes. The blood stores oxygen that enables the whale to dive to great depths to the ocean floor. Dives more than 2 miles deep are possible for sperm whales, but more typical dives are 30 minutes long and 300 to 400 m depth. The elusive behemoths spend a significant amount of time in the deep sea. Spatial technologies,…
tqa | April 20, 2007
...the times have been,
That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
And there an end; but now they rise again,
--William Shakespeare
Macbeth
Act 3, Scene 4
PZ just drew my attention - again - to Dinesh D'Souza. Both PZ and I were a bit annoyed by his diatribe against atheists a couple of days ago. Unfortunately, D'Souza is not a man content to drink only once from that bottomless well of stupidity - he just keeps going back for more. Paul already took a few good shots at some of the more ethically impaired aspects of Dinesh's diatribe (for someone who is savaging atheism on behalf…