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grrlscientist | April 26, 2006I have been preoccupied with other things recently, so I did not post an online quiz over the weekend, as I usually do. I hope that you can forgive me, especially since I found this quiz that you might enjoy.
Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.
But if I change the answer to question 15, I end up being ..
Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.
Who did you end up as? And were you one answer away from being someone else amongst the Harry Potter crew?
tags: Harry Potter, online quiz, personality
stcynic | April 25, 2006This is one of those monumentally idiotic ideas that just makes me stare with jaw agape at the notion that a legislator would seriously propose it, much less that it would pass. A state rep in South Carolina by the name of Ralph Davenport has submitted a bill tha would ban the sale of sex toys:
The South Carolina bill, proposed by Republican Rep. Ralph Davenport, would make it a felony to sell devices used primarily for sexual stimulation and allow law enforcement to seize sex toys from raided businesses.
But here's my favorite part of the article:
Rep. Davenport, who is from Spartanburg…
grrlscientist | April 25, 2006I always enjoy picking up my mail from my post office box, but there are days -- many days, recently -- when walking to my post office to check my snailmail is the only thing that I look forward to each day. And so it was yesterday; once again, I enjoyed a small break by walking to my mailbox shortly before I was to teach a class. But yesterday, unlike most days, I was greeted with gifts! And with excellent news!
Yes indeed, several readers sent gifts to me. First, I received a large box from Amazon that, I later discovered, contained not one, but two books from my wishlist, wrapped in mint-…
stcynic | April 25, 2006I saw this post on Volokh the other day and intended to comment on it, but it got lost in the shuffle and I forgot. Thankfully, a reader sent me the link, wondering why I hadn't written about it. It seems the Bush administration has changed the standards for the funding of "abstinence-only" sex ed curricula. Not only do they require that the courses not even mention contraception except to talk about failure rates, they've now gone even further and required that the courses demand that students pledge to forego all sexual activity until marriage and to exclude gay sex entirely:
Abstinence…
grrlscientist | April 25, 2006
Garlic on Onion.
This image appears here with the kind permission of the photographer,
Katrin Eismann, PhotoshopDiva.
After I read this poem by WisÅawa Szymborska, I knew I had to read more of her material. I love the way that she plays with words. This is even more amazing when one realizes that all of her poetry is translated from Polish. It takes tremendous skill to retain her poetic playfulness and phrasing while also making the poem accessible in another language!
The Onion
by WisÅawa Szymborska
The onion, now that's something else.
Its innards don't exist.
Nothing but pure onionhood…
stcynic | April 24, 2006Steve Reuland, the author of the No Free Hunch ID satire that I posted the other day, has just finished successfully defending his dissertation and has now been awarded a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology from the Medical University of South Carolina. So I guess that increases the number of Steves by one.
Another Panda's Thumb contributor, Reed Cartwright, is scheduled to defend his dissertation in genetics at the University of Georgia in June. So congratulations to Steve and good luck to Reed.
tlambert | April 23, 2006Cyclone Monica is heading for Darwin (which was devastated by Cyclone Tracy in 1974. Ken Parish is getting out of town. Fingers crossed for Darwin and Darwinites.
Update: It was category 5 at landfall, but fortunately it was down to category 1 when it reached Darwin.
grrlscientist | April 23, 2006
Male wood duck, Aix sponsa.
Resized (Click image for a truly larger view in its own window).
Photographer: Edenpics.com.
Although it is incredibly difficult to choose, this is probably my favorite poem that I've ever read.
The Peace of Wild Things
by Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I…
pharyngula | April 23, 2006The guy who started the interesting discussion about race is Wilkins—so go argue with him. So far, I'm still on his side of the issue—these claims of correlated groups of linked genes tell us something about ancestry and history, but don't rescue the concept of race at all.
stcynic | April 22, 2006Some of you may be interested in an exchange of comments at Positive Liberty in response to the posting of my essay on the ACLU and legal fees on that blog. I just finished a long and detailed response to someone named PurpleThink concerning the Dover case and the legal fees.
grrlscientist | April 21, 2006
Alfred Russel Wallace collected this specimen of
an adult male Red Bird of Paradise, Paradisea rubra.
Museum Victoria (Australia), Ornithology Collection. Photographer: Rodney Start.
I first read this poem in a natural history museum, where I worked awhile ago.
In a Museum
by Thomas Hardy
I
Here's the mould of a musical bird long passed from light,
Which over the earth before man came was winging;
There's a contralto voice I heard last night,
That lodges with me still in its sweet singing.
II
Such a dream is Time that the coo of this ancient bird
Has perished not, but is blent, or will be…
grrlscientist | April 21, 2006Today's issue of the top-tier journal, Science, has a special online portal to its current issue about influenza, including several excellent articles about avian influenza. This issue is free to the public if you register with them.
This issue includes;
A complete guide and free access to the 21 April 2006 special issue, including articles on antivirals and vaccines, flu transmission, flu biology, and flu preparation -- along with an accompanying podcast.
A collection of recent Science News, Review, Perspective, and Research articles on influenza, the potential for a new pandemic, and the…
tlambert | April 21, 2006Via Patterico I find that Howard Kurtz has reported on Hiltzik's use of a sock puppet:
The Los Angeles Times suspended the blog of one of its top columnists last night, saying he violated the paper's policy by posting derogatory comments under an assumed name.
It's good to see the paper taking this seriously. I don't think he should be fired for this, but he should admit that it was wrong, apologize and not do it again.
Tom Maguire asks:
For a bit of perspective, let's check the reaction to John Lott when his "Mary Rosh" sock puppet was outed. Here is Kieran Healey of Crooked Timber, Tim…
grrlscientist | April 20, 2006I am excited because today, unexpectedly, I received a wonderful gift in the mail .. the gift of a book! This big, beautiful book, The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins (2004, Houghton Mifflin), is one that I've wanted for a looong time, so I am excited to finally have it! This book, a hardcover, was sent by a reader and was accompanied by this note; I read this one recently! It was wonderful! BTW I thought of you today while walking along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. There were three bald eagles hunting the river.
Thanks so much! I am so pleased to be surrounded by a bunch of great…
tlambert | April 20, 2006Patterico catches LA Times columnist Michael Hiltzik using a couple of sock puppets. Hiltzik admitted making the posts but denied that they were deceptive. I disagree. It is not deceptive to use a pseudonym, but it is deceitful to have two identities pretend to be different people and support each other.
Still, his reponse is more honest than Michael Fumento, who I caught using a sockpuppet, and responded with three posts on his blog and a whole pile of comments on other blogs. He called me a liar, claimed that I was insane and falsely accused me of using sock puppets myself. What he…
grrlscientist | April 20, 2006
Mourning dove, Zenaida macroura, sitting in a tree.
Photo by Pam Shack.
Today is Pam's 70th Birdday, so go to her site and wish her a happy one, with many returns!
Some of you, dear readers, might remember a link I posted last week, Dove Love, that directed you to a reader's photoessay about a pair of mourning doves, Zenaida macroura, that are nesting in her yard. Her name is Pam and she recently posted an update and sent the link to me so I could share it with you, which I am finally doing now.
In that same email message, Pam also told me that she posted several more photoessays that you…
stcynic | April 19, 2006Very interesting. The professor who led her students in destroying a display has been placed on leave and will retire from the university, apparently as a result of a vote of the faculty senate at Northern Kentucky. Unversity President James Votruba has sent an email message to the entire campus, faculty and students, which was published by Instapundit. I'll reproduce the entire letter below the fold:
I am writing to comment on the recent destruction of an approved campus display created by the Northern Kentucky Right to Life student organization.
One of the important roles that a university…
stcynic | April 19, 2006Is the subject of an article in Slate. Count me squarely in Olbermann's corner on this one. There are few people on the planet I find as loathsome and ridiculous as Bill O'Reilly and I love watching Olbermann consistently taunt him into making an even bigger ass of himself. I think the Slate article nails the two competing personalities pretty well. I'll post it below the fold:
So, if the dispute isn't political, why do they persist? Lemann's piece portrays O'Reilly as driven by class resentment, a sense of inferiority acquired as a byproduct of attending a minor college, and his failure to…
stcynic | April 18, 2006Leave it to the Worldnutdaily to report things like this:
Amid the aftermath of the Palestinian suicide attack today that killed nine comes news of a miracle as a rabbi's life reportedly was spared when a book of Psalms held in a pocket next to his heart was ripped in two by a piece of shrapnel.
When I see things like this, I'm always reminded of the old Woody Allen bit about the guy who carried a bullet in his shirt pocket that his grandfather had brought back from WW1. One day he's walking past a hotel and a guy throws a Gideon Bible out a 20th story window and it hits the man right in the…
grrlscientist | April 17, 2006
Mourning dove, Zenaida macroura, gathering nesting materials.
Photo by Pam Shack.
For those of you who would like to look at a pair of nesting mourning doves on a reader's blog, take a peek at Pam Shack's wonderful photo essay.
Update: Pam tells me she has an update coming soon and will share the link here.
tags: birds, photoessay