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tqa | September 28, 2006Over at Uncommon Descent, DaveScot says something stupid about atheism and science. (In other news, Dog Bites Man, Pope Still Catholic, Bear Arrested for Indecent Exposure in National Forest, and Ocean Wet and Salty.)
At the end of a passage in his new book (The God Delusion) that discusses the relative frequency of "avowed atheists" in the National Academy of Sciences (~93%) and the United States Congress (~0%), Dawkins wrote, "What is going on here? I think we all know." DaveScot responded with this:
Yeah, I think we all DO know, Richard. The National Academy membership is a self-elected…
cortex | September 28, 2006When it comes to stocks, ticker symbols seem to be extremely important. Instead of evaluating a company's financial fundamentals, investors get seduced by cute abbreviations. As the WSJ notes:
For at least two years, Harley-Davidson Inc.'s investor-relations folks had thought about it: Their ticker symbol, HDI, wasn't exactly evocative of the motorcycle maker's image. And there was something better available: HOG, biker-slang term for a Harley motorcycle.
Something surprising has happened since Harley-Davidson adopted the symbol in mid-August: Its shares have gained nearly 16%, compared with…
stcynic | September 28, 2006Ew. Just ew.
He may have played nerdy eighth-grader Samuel (Screech) Powers in the sitcom "Saved by the Bell." But former TV geek Dustin Diamond can now take his place with Colin Farrell, Tommy Lee and Kid Rock as the star of his very own sex tape.
Everyone who remembers Diamond as a lovable putz is in for a shock once they see a 40-minute video in which he engages in a kinky three-way with two women, sources tell us.
We can't get too graphic here, but word is that the action includes some bodily functions and an act known as a "Dirty Sanchez."
How pathetic do you have to be as a groupie when…
stcynic | September 28, 2006I just looked at the roll call for the votes on HR 2679 and I was quite surprised and disappointed to see Fred Upton's name on the yea list. Upton is a Republican congressman from the 4th district in Michigan, where I grew up and where my parents still live. He's been in office since 1986 and has long had a reputation as a bipartisan thinker, a non-ideologue and a moderate. Why on earth he would align himself with the religious right on this bill is beyond me. This man was elected to office in a primary challenge against Mark Siljander, a complete wingnut who actually sent tapes to all the…
bcohen | September 28, 2006It's the Ecological Footprint Quiz. Yeah! If you've never taken it, give it a whirl. About a 3 minute process. My test results: If everyone lived like me, we would need 3.7 earths to get by.
Some background on Ecological Footprints, you ask? Here and here. And, for the faint of link clicking, two summaries:
About the quiz: "The quiz is based on national consumption averages and is meant to give you an idea of your Ecological Footprint relative to other people in the country you live in. It is not highly detailed, but should give most people an idea of where they stand."
About EF…
stcynic | September 27, 2006From the "cops that have nothing better to do with their time" department comes this story from Hillsborough County, Florida. The Sheriff's department launched a major investigation into allegations that strippers in the area were getting too close to customers during lap dances. $6000 and 92 lapdances later, they concluded that, sure enough, they were getting too close. This won Keith Olbermann's Worst Person in the World award on Tuesday. As always, I am reminded of Doug Stanhope's statement about vice cops: their only job is to fuck up the party.
tqa | September 27, 2006I got a little frustrated while grading quizzes yesterday, and wrote a post about my frustrations. I asked for feedback, and boy did I get some. Some of the comments were more or less supportive of my approach. Others were not.
After reading the comments about my teaching approach and taking some time to think about the situation, I've reached the conclusion that the folks who wrote comments and blog posts that thoroughly trashed my approach are probably right. I've got to go teach the first of my sections in a little while, so it's time to see what I can do to fix the problem. I know what…
stcynic | September 27, 2006Folks, if you're a reasonably literate person scientifically and you're new to the evolution/ID debate and you're looking for a perfect example of the utter vacuousness of ID arguments, I urge you to read this column by Jonathan Wells in the Worldnutdaily. Even by ID standards, the irrationality of his arguments is absolutely stunning. I was going to do a line by line fisking of it, but PZ beat me to it and did a fine job. I would just add one thing. Wells finishes his essay with this line:
If I were a Darwinist, I would be afraid. Very afraid.
The obvious response: if I was a Moonie, bought…
stcynic | September 27, 2006The train wreck that has been Liza Minelli's entire life has entered the trial phase with her divorce from and dueling lawsuits with David Gest. I've actually been paying attention to this just because I think it's hilarious. This woman is basically a walking SNL sketch and when I first saw the two of them on Larry King it was obvious this was going to be a fantastic journey of dysfunction. For God's sake, when they got married, Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor were the best man and maid of honor (quite possibly not) respectively. If that doesn't foreshadow some major league washed up…
stcynic | September 27, 2006The AP reports:
Gunmen on a motorbike Monday killed an Afghan women's rights activist who ran an underground school for girls during the Taliban's rule -- the latest victim of increasingly brazen militants targeting government officials and schools.
Safia Ama Jan, a provincial director for
Afghanistan's Ministry of Women's Affairs, was slain outside her home in the southern city of Kandahar as she was on her way to work, said Tawfiq ul-Ulhakim Parant, senior adviser to the women's ministry in Kabul....
Mullah Sadullah, a regional Taliban commander, claimed responsibility for the killing in a…
tqa | September 26, 2006Monday, I posted an entry here that discussed, in part, a Discovery Institute blog article claiming that the Dover ruling qualifies the cdesign proponentsists textbook Of Pandas and People as a "banned book." As I explained at the time, the claim is complete and total nonsense, so I suppose I really should have guessed that the anti-evolution movement would get behind it in a hell of a hurry.
That appears to be just what's happening. The latest twists involve the Uncommon Descent blog and the Wikipedia entry for banned books.
Over at Uncommon Descent, Dembski posted an item noting that, "A…
tqa | September 26, 2006I just learned, via Mike the Mad Biologist, that the Newsweek cover for the United States this week is just a little different than the covers for the international editions. (Click the link, and look at the sidebar.) That's right, folks. Right now, with just over a month to go before a mid-term election where terrorism and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan look to be major issues with the voters, Newsweek has a terrorism issue front and center everywhere but in the US. Here, an article about a photographer gets the cover slot. I'll never be able to prove it, but I bet I know why.
The editors…
tqa | September 26, 2006This semester, I'm teaching Zoology 101 labs (Intro to Zoology for nonmajors). I'm enjoying my self a lot, and it's a class I've wanted to teach for a while. Right now, though, I'm grading quizzes and not enjoying life too much. Most of the scores absolutely suck, and I'm trying to figure out how much of that is the result of me setting the bar too high, how much is the result of me sucking at teaching, and how much is entirely due to other factors.
The quiz in question was on diffusion and osmosis. These aren't the easiest topics for non-majors, and they aren't all that interesting, so I…
tqa | September 26, 2006If you haven't already, go over to Pharyngula and watch the Assylum Street Spankers performing their new single, Stick a Yellow Magnet on Your SUV.
stcynic | September 26, 2006He writes pretty much exactly what I was thinking as I watched it last night:
I have a few pictures and some thoughts on New Orleans I'll share later. For now though, I'm wondering: New Orleans is more than anything known for its music. Jazz, blues, zydeco -- or some combination of the three. So the NFL decides to celebrate the city's rebirth with...um...U2 and friggin' Green Day? Yeah, they threw in a backup New Orleans brass band to cover their asses, but they were drowned out by the edge and Billy Joe. And come on. Green Day's music doesn't exactly lend itself to the New Orleans sound. Nor…
purepedantry | September 26, 2006Reason #1 why children are not cute:
A three-year-old boy has used his mother's computer to buy a £9,000 car on an internet auction site.
Jack Neal's parents only discovered their son's successful bid when they received a message from eBay about the Barbie pink Nissan Figaro.
Rachael Neal, 36, said her son was quite good at using the computer.
Mrs Neal, of Sleaford, Lincolnshire, said she had left her eBay password in her computer and her son had used the "buy it now" button.
The car is incidentally a Pink Nissan Figaro. I say they make him drive it when he turns 16 as punishment.
stcynic | September 26, 2006Bruce Wilson has a report at Talk to Action about a speech by Sen (!) James Inhofe of Oklahoma at last weekend's Values Voter Summit. This speech will be enough to make you think that "values" is synonymous with "braindead". His speech said that global warming is a hoax cooked up by the UN. And along the way, he throws around some wildly inaccurate claims and shows just how ignorant he truly is. He refers to the "Horton School of Economics" rather than the Wharton School of Business. He refers to a UN agency called The Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change as the "International Plant…
tqa | September 26, 2006Yesterday, three retired military officers spoke on the Hill. They weren't talking to an actual Congressional committee of some sort, because Congress wants no part of oversight these days. Instead, they spoke before the "Democratic Policy Committee." The topic of the "hearing" was Rumsfeld's performance. Most, if not all, of what was said was not particularly new. There were a couple of things, however, that should be repeated over and over until they sink in.
The first, and most important, is this: the current tempo of deployment is breaking the Army, and cannot be sustained:
"There…
tqa | September 25, 2006Last week, both PZ Myers and I posted about some anti-evolution candidates running for the school board out here in Hawaii. The state primary election was Saturday, so I thought an update on this election might be a good idea.
There's good news, not-too-bad news, and bad news.
First, the good news. Out of the small number of candidates who responded to a newspaper question about whether or not they think Intelligent Design should be taught in the science classroom, two candidates running for "At-Large" seats expressed views that did not indicate that they would be good for science…
stcynic | September 25, 2006Joe Queenan has a review in the New York Times of a new book by Joe Eszterhas, the guy responsible for a whole boatload of bad movies including Basic Instinct, Flashdance and Showgirls. The review is positively dripping with sarcasm. My favorite part:
Ruthlessly honest, uncompromisingly ethical, Eszterhas comes across as an enormously likable, homespun prole who feels more at home with welding Rust Belt ballerinas than big-shot Hollywood muckety-mucks, because female welders won't ever get tired of hearing about Sharon Stone, whom he created (and bedded) when he wrote "Basic Instinct" --…