Uncategorized
tqa | November 16, 2006Via Bitch, PhD and Pharyngula, we find this video of a Tuesday night "incident" in the UCLA library. According to the campus paper, the incident is "under investigation." After watching the video, which shows a student repeatedly being tasered for failing to obey officers orders to "get up" (after having already been tased), I really hope that the investigation is being conducted by the local DA.
lborkowski | November 16, 2006The story of the pump handle is familiar to any first-semester public health student: During the London cholera epidemic of 1854, John Snow examined maps of cholera cases and traced the disease to water from a local pump. At the time, the prevailing theory held that cholera spread through the air, rather than water, so Snow faced criticism from others in the science community â not to mention resistance from the water companies. He finally convinced community leaders to remove the pumpâs handle to prevent further exposure
Weâve created The Pump Handle blog to serve as a gathering place for…
stcynic | November 16, 2006Paul Kurtz, founder of the Center for Inquiry and editor of Free Inquiry, has opened an office in Washington DC to act as that organization's Office of Public Policy. The new think tank will work to promote science and reason in public policy. The Washington Post has a report on the new group.
The announcement was accompanied by release of a "Declaration in Defense of Science and Secularism," which bemoans what signers say is a growing lack of understanding of the nature of scientific inquiry and the value of a rational approach to life.
"This disdain for science is aggravated by the…
tqa | November 16, 2006As some of you have already seen at Pharyngula, Dispatches, and the Lippard Blog, a New Jersey public high school teacher was caught on tape teaching religion instead of history. One of the audio recordings is available online. The quality is poor, but a with a little bit of equalizer work it is mostly understandable. The material that is on it is absolutely and completely outrageous. Things were said that don't belong within ten city blocks of a public school classroom, and it's a damn shame that the worst than can be done to the teacher is terminating his employment. Some of the things said…
stcynic | November 15, 2006Thanks to Bartholomew for linking me to this blog by a rabbi named Lazer Brody who almost makes Yehuda Levin seem sane by comparison. He is allied with Levin in trying to destroy the rights of gay Israelis to march through any means necessary, including violence. In this post, he talks of Levin's partnership with equally authoritarian Muslims in trying to make sure no gay person has the right to protest and march that everyone else has:
What brings Rabbi Levin and Sheikh Temimi together? Temimi says, "The Gay Pride marches promoted by the highest levels of the Zionist Government... a wild…
stcynic | November 15, 2006And it's yet another outgoing military commander saying that there was no plan for the post-war occupation of Iraq:
Unfortunately, Hagee's comments only deepen the mystery. He says he was deeply concerned about who would take charge of major Iraqi cities, like Najaf, as the Marines pushed through them on their way to Baghdad.
Hagee says he asked his boss again and again who would take charge of those cities. He wanted to know what the plan was for Phase IV -- military terminology for the phase that follows the end of major combat operations. Phase IV is, in other words, what comes after "…
stcynic | November 15, 2006In the 80s, the standard name for the enemies of the religious right was "secular humanist." The secular humanists were on the march everywhere. Roving gangs of literature professors and philosophers were alleged to be at the very gate of civilization and, like the Jews previously, they were said to be in control of virtually every institution. Somewhere along the line, the preferred term changed from "secular humanist" to "pagan". Now, the dictionary definition of pagan is simply anyone not a Christian, Jew or Muslim. But they like to use it to mean "non-religious" as well.
I've noticed that…
tqa | November 15, 2006The fieldwork I did earlier this month left me behind at work, so I haven't been able to post much over the last week or so. I'll be able to get back to regular posts soon. In the meantime, here's a picture I took during a little break from my fieldwork.
For those who might be interested in such things, the picture is a 2 second exposure at F3.5 taken using an 18mm lens and a Pentax *istD dSLR camera.
stcynic | November 14, 2006This is interesting. According to an interview with Lou Sheldon, head of the Traditional Values Coalition, he and many others knew that Haggard was gay long before the gay prostitute came out publicly over it.
Then, as if things could not get worse, there was the disgrace of Sheldon's own friend and colleague, Rev. Ted Haggard, the Colorado mega-church leader and president of the National Association of Evangelicals, an even bigger pillar of Republican support on the Christian right. Sheldon disclosed that he and "a lot" of others knew about Haggard's homosexuality "for awhile ... but we…
grrlscientist | November 14, 2006I know that there are three or four of you, dear readers, who have been eagerly awaiting my release from the hospital -- although none more eagerly than me! My release day was supposed to be tomorrow, but alas, it has been postponed once again, but this time, it was postponed indefinitely. When I asked my doctor if I would be out of the hospital by Thanksgiving, he told me no, that was not going to happen. Needless to say, I am very disappointed, so much so that I've not been posting much to my blog. At this point, the best I can hope for is to be released by December -- hopefully early…
stcynic | November 14, 2006Jay at STACLU is foaming at the mouth over Patrick Leahy saying that he wants to try and pass a bill to prevent the administration from arbitrarily removing habeas corpus protection in individual cases. "Leahy Vows To "Restore" Habeas Corpus For Terrorists", the headline screams; as usual, this misses the point completely. If there was a STACLU during the constitutional convention, the headline would say, "Madison vows to give 'trials' to criminals." But the whole point of habeas corpus is to provide a means of discerning criminals from non-criminals.
Typical moonbat that thinks this Act was…
stcynic | November 14, 2006Jon Rowe has a post at Positive Liberty where he deftly shreds the nonsense being spewed by Mike Adams about legislating morality. Here's what jumps out at me about Adams' screed. In the first part of his two part article on the subject, he declares himself to be the noble myth destroyer:
Part of my job as your professor is to dispel certain myths you learn in your other classes, especially sociology. If you decide to question these myths in Sociology 101, your professor is likely to assign you to sensitivity training sessions...
Needless to say, I can't take on all of the myths you will…
stcynic | November 13, 2006I am home now, but I took the redeye home last night and got in after noon today. I am thoroughly exhausted and I'm going to take a nap. I'll post some stuff later.
grrlscientist | November 13, 2006This is another fine word that I found in Richard Dawkins' new book, The God Delusion. I am still nearly finished with this book and will be reading a new one tomorrow.
Abrogation (ab-RUH-gey-shun) [from Latin abrogÄtus repealed]
noun.
to abolish by formal or official means; annul by an authoritative act; repeal: to abrogate a law.
to put aside; put an end to.
Usage: Sookhdeo goes on to explain how Islamic scholars, in order to cope with the many contradictions that they found in the Qur'an, developed the principle of abrogation, whereby later texts trump earlier ones.…
cortex | November 13, 2006From Newsweek:
Rove's miscalculations began well before election night. The polls and pundits pointed to a Democratic sweep, but Rove dismissed them all. In public, he predicted outright victory, flashing the V sign to reporters flying on Air Force One. He wasn't just trying to psych out the media and the opposition. He believed his "metrics" were far superior to plain old polls. Two weeks before the elections, Rove showed NEWSWEEK his magic numbers: a series of graphs and bar charts that tallied early voting and voter outreach. Both were running far higher than in 2004. In fact, Rove thought…
grrlscientist | November 12, 2006This is another fine word that I found in Richard Dawkins' new book, The God Delusion. I am still reading this book, but because it inspires so many flights of fancy on my part, I have not yet finished it, as I expected.
Aggrandizing (a-grndz) [French agrandir, agrandiss-, from Old French: a- to (from Latin ad-) + grandir, to grow larger (from Latin grandre, from grandis, large)]
verb.
To increase the scope of; extend.
To make greater in power, influence, stature, or reputation.
To make appear greater; exaggerate: aggrandize one argument while belittling another.
Usage: Why…
revere | November 12, 2006It's the Sunday after the midterm elections in the United States. The American people have had enough of the Iraq War. Finally. So here are two poems, the first from Stephen Crane (1871-1900); the second, from Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956):
A Learned Man Came to Me Once (Stephen Crane)
A learned man came to me once.
He said, "I know the way, -- come."
And I was overjoyed at this.
Together we hastened.
Soon, too soon, were we
Where my eyes were useless,
And I knew not the ways of my feet.
I clung to the hand of my friend;
But at last he cried, "I am lost."
Untitled poem (Bertolt Brecht)
General…
grrlscientist | November 11, 2006This phrase was found in EO Wilson's new book, The Creation. This is the most important word or phrase that I've taught you so far. If you have not read this book yet, I think you should. I also plan to review it after I get out of the hospital, when my computer access is not divided up between 25 people, and when I am using my computer instead of the hospital's crappy Dell computer that crashes without warning.
Eremozoic Era (ehre mo ZO ik) [Origin: EO Wilson, 2006]
noun.
the age of loneliness.
the upcoming biological age after the sixth great extinction, when earth will be…
moleculeoftheday | November 10, 2006
I know a lot of people don't have access to these journals, so I try and avoid links to walled content, but there's a review article on fenestranes and planar carbon in Chemical Reviews some might enjoy. Check out "Carbon Flatland: Planar Tetracoordinate Carbon and Fenestranes."
Check out the Fenestrane/Windowpane entry again if you like.
Have a good weekend.