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grrlscientist | May 25, 2006Since the world ended today, I am guessing that all of us (and our blogs) have been collectively elevated to a higher plane of being without our knowledge, unless we experienced The Rapture during our sleep. That might explain this morning's king-sized headache. Anyway, whatever happened, it was a true non-event, since today is, as it was yesterday and the day before and the day before that, "business as usual." And part of that business as usual is .. blog carnivals!
The 24th edition of the carnival devoted to celebrating the best blog writing about birds, I and the Bird, is now available.…
grrlscientist | May 24, 2006
Ghost owl.
Dustprint on glass of an Eastern screech-owl, Megascops asio.
Photograph appears here with the kind permission of the photographer, Dave Rintoul.
Click image for larger view in its own window.
Dave writes;
The image is a dustprint that an Eastern Screech-owl left on a sliding glass door. The bird was pursuing a moth (the dustprint of which is actually visible in the image) and smacked into the door. I presume that the components of this image, like those of the Shroud of Turin, might be mysterious, but I hypothesize that it is dust, or feather dust. At any rate, the owl was…
stcynic | May 24, 2006I've written many a post skewering the claims of ID advocates over the years, but I have to bow down and genuflect before this treatment by Nick Matzke of young earth creationist/IDist Nancy Pearcey at the Panda's Thumb. There are good fiskings, there are verbal beatdowns, and then there are first round knockouts like this one. This is the Globetrotters and the Washington Generals. This is Tyson against Trevor Berbick. This is fun to read.
stcynic | May 24, 2006Krauze at Telic Thoughts has a post about the recent disagreement between Sandefur and I that was posted partially here and partially at Positive Liberty. First was my post objecting to Daniel Dennett's suggestion that Genie Scott is being less than sincere in arguing that evolution and religion can be compatible. Then Sandefur, an advocate of the incompatibilist position, replied at Positive Liberty. I actually never got round to replying to his post, but I may do a bit here. First, I want to answer Krauze's question as best I can.
The disagreements between these two camps are usually…
grrlscientist | May 24, 2006The Tangled Bank, issue 54, is now available. As usual, this carnival has a lot of essays for you to read, including a contribution from me.
The Carnival of the Vanities, issue 192 is now available. This carnival is focused on the meaty goodness of the blogosphere, as suggested by the name "carnival" (which means, goodbye, meat). And yes, there is a contribution from me somewhere in there.
stcynic | May 24, 2006This post by Radley Balko is a must read about drug war. Not only is it a massive failure, it's costing us untold billions of dollars and destroying countless lives. The numbers are staggering. 55% of all Federal prison inmates are there on drug charges, their number quadrupling between 1986 and 1999, and half of those are there solely on possession, not trafficking. And that's not including state prisons, with a much higher population and about the same percentages. There are more non-violent offenders in prison today than the populations of Alaska and Wyoming combined, at a cost of tens of…
grrlscientist | May 23, 2006Before I name the winner of the "Nickname That Bird" contest, let me share Pete Dunne's favorite bird nicknames with you;
Solitary sandpiper: Puddlepiper
American woodcock: Meatloaf on a stick
Rock pigeon: Bronx petrel
Belted kingfisher: Aquakestrel
Red-headed woodpecker: Tri-colored woodpecker
Bluethroat: Rainbow in a Plain Brown Wrapper
American Robin: Lawn Plover
Yellow-rumped Warbler: Swarm Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler: Zebra Creeper
American Redstart: Flash Dancer
And the list of all entries received, in reverse chronological order;
Natalie
Kathy
Rolan
comments and rules.
If I…
stcynic | May 23, 2006Ladies and gentlemen, we have our winner of May's Robert O'Brien Trophy for the idiot of the month: Pat Boone. Yes, that Pat Boone, the has-been entertainer from the 50s turned columnist for the Worldnutdaily. And that esteemed web rag is now reporting that Pat Boone is hopping mad at the Dixie Chicks for daring to criticize President Bush. His reasoning, as you might imagine, is quite absurd:
Music legend Pat Boone is ripping into the Dixie Chicks for withdrawing their apology for a previous attack on President Bush.
"I have four daughters, and I taught them to respect their elders, even if…
grrlscientist | May 22, 2006This is the list of all entries received so far, in reverse chronological order, that I will use to choose the winner of Pete Dunne's book. If I don't have you listed here, please email your entry or post it to comments here;
Natalie
Kathy
Rolan
Entries submitted in the comments section
grrlscientist | May 22, 2006And yet another entry ... this is fun! I wish I could host such a fun contest every week! Below the fold is another entry that you'll enjoy;
Crows/Ravens - General Nuisance
Starlings - Major Disaster
Hawks/Owls - Rat Patrol
Swallows - Roof Rats
Natalie
grrlscientist | May 22, 2006Hello [GrrlScientist]
The book would be nice but seeing people's original and not-so-original names is fun! Here are mine, some original, most not;
Common Loonie (Common Loon)
Peanut Butter Grebe (I abbreviate as PB Grebe, hence the translation)
Canoodle Goose (Canada Goose)
Necklace Goose (Brant)
Whistle Duck (Wood Duck)
Fish Hawk (Osprey)
Motorcyle Bird (Ruffed Grouse)
Chicago Quail (California Quail)
Cooties and Cootlets (American Coot and babies)
Screechy Screechy Bird (Killdeer)
Tippy Bird (Spotted Sandpiper)
Unidentified Gulls -- sung to the Beach Boys tune "I wish they were all…
grrlscientist | May 22, 2006Yes, a few blog carnivals were recently published that you should check out. First, the Carnival of Children's Literature, 4th edition, has a mountain of contributions, ranging from commentary to book reviews, and at least a few of those should appeal to you.
The Literature carnival, 12th edition, also has a wide variety of contributions for you to read, including two from me.
stcynic | May 22, 2006You've gotta hand it to DaveScot - when he goes down, he does so while ducking directly into the punch. Here's his absolutely perfect reply to everyone who pointed out that he fell for a scam. I could not have written it to make him look more ridiculous if I'd done so myself. You could not have intelligently designed this kind of hilarity; it can only arise spontaneously:
To everyone who's pointed out that the ACLU story is a fabrication according to snopes.com - that's hardly the point. The pictures of Marines praying are real. The fighting and dying to protect the interests of the United…
grrlscientist | May 22, 2006Bob Levy, whose book, Club George, I recently reviewed here, very kindly agreed to participate in an email interview with me that I could publish here. It took me a little while to follow up on it, but thanks to the magic of email, and to Bob's quick response, the interview is below, for you to enjoy. It also includes some cool new news that no one (to the best of my knowledge) has revealed before!
[Note: minor editorial changes were made in square brackets to improve clarity]
Do you consider yourself to be a bird watcher or do you instead think of yourself as someone who enjoys the company…
stcynic | May 22, 2006Okay, this is absolutely hilarious. Over at Dembski's Home for Wayward Sycophants, DaveScot has fallen for one of the dumbest and most obvious email scams to come from outside Nigeria (with Dembski himself cheering "Right on!" in response to it). It's one of those idiotic "pass this on" emails ranting about how the evil ACLU is against soldiers praying. There's just one small problem - it's entirely fictional. I debunked this email scam a year and a half ago. It's also been debunked as an urban legend all around the net. But that didn't stop DaveScot and Dembski from falling for it hook, line…
stcynic | May 21, 2006Okay, I know you're all probably tired of Fafarman by now, but I saw this comment on his blog and just had to copy it here. This tells you all you need to know about his dramatically inflated sense of self-importance:
BTW, PvM, my blog has been in existence for over a month and now has about 20 controversial articles dealing with the evolution controversy, but no Panda's Thumb article has yet taken a swipe at this blog. How do you explain that if I am supposed to be such a big crackpot?
Here's the rule when you deal with cranks and trolls - if you engage them, it proves that their ideas have…
stcynic | May 21, 2006In the wake of the Dover trial, we here in Michigan have been waiting to see whether the next major ID trial will take place here in reaction to the battle in Gull Lake (for all my previous posts on that situation, click here). In Gull Lake, two science teachers had been teaching ID in their classes for a couple years, including using the same book as in Dover, Of Pandas and People. My group was involved and we won the battle when the school board voted to prohibit the teachers from using creationist materials in their classes. Even after losing so badly in Dover, the Thomas More Law Center…
grrlscientist | May 21, 2006Many suggestions for the "Nickname that Bird" contest have been submitted via reader comments where everyone can read them. However, I have also received some entries via email, so I am posting them here (below the fold, last names and contact info removed) so everyone can enjoy them. Don't forget; you still have some time to get your entries in! The deadline is midnight on tomorrow, 22 May. The winner receives a free hardcover copy of Pete Dunne's Essential Field Guide Companion, a $30 value.
Three nicknames that spring to mind almost immediately are:
Bufflehead, which I call the ghost duck…