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grrlscientist | May 1, 2006I am amazed and humbled by you, my readers. You have made me feel so appreciated by sending me emails as well as the most wonderful gifts. Recently, one reader sent the entire set of the Lord of the Rings DVDs! I am excited because I have not seen all of the films yet, although I have read the books quite a few times (and I still have my original set of LOTR books from when I was a kid). This particular reader decided I needed the platinum series special extended edition instead of the basic starter series I asked for so I am still watching them -- there's hours of video to be seen on each…
grrlscientist | April 30, 2006
The skull of the Berlin Archaeopteryx lithographica specimen [resized].
Notice that feathers are faintly visible near the throat region.
Photo: Nick Longrich.
Click image for larger view in its own window.
Today is the last day of National Poetry Month. For some reason, I had forgotten this was National Poetry Month until it was more than halfway over. I regret that; I had planned to share a poem every day with you, but maybe I'll be more organized next year.
I had wanted to finish the month by writing a review of my friend's newly published book of poetry, but it has not arrived yet, so…
stcynic | April 29, 2006As an unofficial member of the Keith Olbermann fan club, how on earth could I possibly resist plugging a website and a book with the name Sweet Jesus, I hate Bill O'Reilly? I suggest reading it with a side order of falafel.
grrlscientist | April 29, 2006
Burning Sun over Iceland.
Image appears here with the kind permission of Hallgrimur Sveinn Sævarsson.
More spectacular photographs of Iceland can be viewed at his other site, Nykur.
(The image is linked to its source).
This poem was written by another Seattle pal of mine. Neile Graham is a Canadian poet who lives and works in Seattle. She is married to Jim Gurley, whose poem, "Field Guide", I featured yesterday. Neile has won all sorts of prizes and awards for her poetry, although I remember well the excitement surrounding her third place prize awarded by the League of Canadian Poets in…
grrlscientist | April 29, 2006Finally, my band has a name!
Your Band Name is:
The Screaming Panties
Band Name Generator
And what sort of rocker am I?
You Are an Emo Rocker!
Expressive and deep, lyrics are really your thing.
That doesn't mean you don't rock out...
You just rock out with meaning.
For you, rock is more about connecting than grandstanding.
What Kind of Rocker Are You?
These quizzes were donated by my blog pal, Orac.
grrlscientist | April 29, 2006
Your Theme Song is Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd
"There is no pain, you are receding.
A distant ship's smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves."
You haven't been feeling a lot lately, and you think that's a good thing.
The comfortable part is nice... but you should really work on numb.
What's Your Theme Song?
grrlscientist | April 28, 2006
Andes, Ecuador [resized].
Photo: Born2Bird.
Okay, most people thought yesterday's poem was a stinker, so I am making up for that today by posting a wonderful poem written by a Seattle pal of mine. My friend, Jim Gurley, supports his poetry by working as a librarian. He writes about nature, science and medicine and was the 2002 winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize for his first book of poetry, Human Cartography.
Field Guide
by James Gurley
-- For Ted Parker, ornithologist & conservationist, 1953-1993
Above the canopy in Ecuador, Ted Parker's Cessna
flies into a cloud, a mountainside.
The…
stcynic | April 28, 2006A reader alerted me to a situation down at Calvin College, right here in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I have many friends associated with Calvin, including the theistic evolutionist mentioned many times in the comments on a thread below, Howard Van Till (he's a retired physics professor from Calvin). Every year, the Calvin College student newspaper puts out a spoof issue and, apparently, this year the school censored it heavily. Since Calvin is a private school, such censorship is entirely legal. But the folks who put together the spoof issue decided to put their work up on a webpage and get…
drorzel | April 28, 2006I'm going to Vegas, baby!
A good friend from college is getting married this summer, and there's a bachelor party for him this weekend at a casino in Las Vegas. It looks to be quite the affair, with thirty-odd guys, and reservations at a bunch of cool spots, because they're high-rolling financiers.
This is going to be quite the experience, as I've been living like a freakin' monk for the past two months, on account of my stomach problems-- no booze, in bed early most nights, highly restricted diet... It'll be an adventure, seeing whether I can avoid doing major damage to myself. Then again,…
stcynic | April 28, 2006If you're looking for a really amusing response to the Jesus cartoons, look no further than this column by Kevin McCullough at the Worldnutdaily. Unlike Donohue, he doesn't attempt to censor the paper; he figures God will do that when he sends those blasphemers to hell. Good for a chuckle or two.
stcynic | April 28, 2006Okay, this is just funny. After my post yesterday about the Jesus cartoons in an Oregon newspaper and the Catholic League's attempt to censor them, someone named mnuez left the following comment. My regular readers will no doubt find this as ridiculous as I do:
Boy, you sound pretty upset. Now, I haven't read every one of your pieces but I'd love to see whether you're as angry and tantrumesque about the worldwide Muslim response to cartoons of Mohammed that were a whole lot less insulting. Did you have balls enough to reprint tyhe Mohammed cartoons? I did. I, my friend, am a free-speech…
grrlscientist | April 27, 2006Okay, my peeps. I just have to brag, just a teensy bit, and this is a gloat that you will enjoy, too. Bob Levy, the author of the book, Club George, stopped by to read my review of his book and he commented, too! Of course, I am trying to work his contact into an interview with him for my blog, and if that works out, you will be able to read that, too! But nothing has been decided yet.
grrlscientist | April 27, 2006
Germ #14
by Warron Prentice.
When I saw the above painting, the first thing I thought of was the poem, The Microbe. This is another poem that I was introduced to by Gene Wilder when he starred in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971), except he quoted the last two lines of this poem instead of the first two as he did for yesterday's poem. (Has anyone noticed how that particular film is crammed with brief quotes from lots of fabulous poetry? And the film made learning this poetry so painless, too). Anyway, this particular poem is a rather inaccurate and out-of-date description of a…
stcynic | April 27, 2006I sent Afarensis a link to this post by Casey Luskin at the DI blog about human evolution, hoping that he would write up a critique of it. And indeed he has. It's very much worth reading. And it's another example of why most of the arguments made by ID advocates are not at all consistent with Jeremy Pierce's claim that ID is consistent with theistic evolution or the "fully gifted creation" position. If ID only means that a designer set up the initial conditions and natural laws that make the evolution of life possible, likely or inevitable (take your pick), then of what possible use would it…
grrlscientist | April 27, 2006There is yet another blog carnival to add to the parade of blog carnivals that have been published within the last 24 hours. This time, I and the Bird, issue 22, was published this morning on Home Bird Notes. This blog carnival focuses on the best writing about birds that has been recently published on a blog. This issue is really fabulous because it has some rather famous people in the line-up; people who, unlike me, are famous in real life! As usual, they had plenty of submissions from me to choose from, but I am very pleased to see their linked choice because that particular essay deserves…
grrlscientist | April 26, 2006Wow, today must be blog carnival publication day because I just learned that the Carnival of the Liberals, issue 11 was recently published at And Doctor Biobrain's Response Is.... This is a new blog carnival for me, so I look forward to reading my fellow contributors' material over the next few days (along with everything else in all the other carnivals that were published today! yeow!). Anyway, in the midst of intense sarcasm there, I was, once again, merely comic relief.
grrlscientist | April 26, 2006Tangled Bank, issue 52, is now available at The Innoculated Mind. This time, it has a Star Wars theme (complete with the streaming soundtrack) and I, as a proud fighter against the Evil Emperor, am referred to as "GrrrlJedi".
Because I am a Jedi, I will tell you my light saber color (below the fold)
What Color is your lightsaber?
Orange. This is mainly held by Jedi Sentienls in the Council. They use half combat half force to get things done or at least usually. The Crystal that creates the orange colors is pretty rare compared to the common colors of Red, Blue, and Green. Jedi…
grrlscientist | April 26, 2006The Carnival Of Education, Week 64, is available at The Education Wonks. This carnival focuses on the best writing about education that has been recently published on a blog, and there is a lot of really great stuff there! They also saw fit to include something insubstantial by me, more as comic relief than anything else.
stcynic | April 26, 2006Last week the New York Academy of Sciences held a conference on Teaching Evolution and the Nature of Science, an event I wish I had been able to attend. Several friends and colleagues were speaking there, including Rob Pennock, Glenn Branch, and Ken Miller. Ars Technica has two reports on the conference. The first includes discussion of Pennock's presentation, including this:
The first session was on the nature of science and biology, presented in part by Robert T. Pennock of Michigan State, who testified at the Dover trial. He suggested that teachers should present evolution as part of a…
grrlscientist | April 26, 2006The 188th edition of the Carnival of the Vanities is now available. For those of you who don't know, this is the first and longest-running of all the blog carnivals, and it celebrates the best writing on any topic that has been recently published on a blog. In addition to the long list of great writing that they've linked for your reading pleasure, they also included two essays by moi.