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stcynic | March 31, 2004Freespace, the blog of Timothy Sandefur, is celebrating its 1 year anniversary tomorrow. Tim is one of the reasons I'm glad I started blogging. In the early days of my blog, I found his and we hit it off right away. We share a love of James Madison and Daniel Dennett. I also recruited him to write for The Panda's Thumb, where he's done a terrific job over the past week as well. People like Tim are why blogging can be so interesting - smart as a whip, highly educated on a wide range of subjects, and a good writer to boot.
stcynic | March 25, 2004I have been so unbelievably swamped with everything going on at The Panda's Thumb, the new group science blog, that I haven't posted anything here. I'm not letting this blog go by the wayside, I promise. Things have absolutely exploded with the new blog though. We got mentioned by a couple big blogs yesterday and were absolutely overrun with visits. At 5:15, Wes Elsberry sent an e-mail out saying, "Hey, we're at 700 hits on our second day. This is incredible." Well within 2 hours, we had tripled that and it hasn't stopped since. On our third day of operation, we're at nearly 7000 hits and…
stcynic | March 23, 2004Announcing the formation of a new group blog, The Panda's Thumb. Like a father with a new baby, I'm excited about this project and I'm telling everyone about it.
The Panda's Thumb is a group blog that will focus primarily on explaining the theory of evolution, critiquing the claims of the anti-evolution lobby, and defending the integrity of science education in America and around the world. The list of contributing authors is long and distinguished, representing a variety of scientific disciplines as well as a variety of academic and business backgrounds. The list includes recognized…
stcynic | March 22, 2004From my ever-slovenly but impishly charming pal Skip Evans comes the news that this past Saturday was National Corn Dog Day. For anyone out there who doesn't know what a corndog is, this webpage explains it:Corn dogs are hot dogs dipped in corn batter, deep fried and served on a stick. Corn dogs were supposedly created in 1942 for the Texas State Fair by Neil Fletcher.
Corn dogs are an excellent source of calories, fat, cholesterol and salt.
That about sums it up.
stcynic | March 22, 2004When we talk about evolution, we almost always talk about animals or microbes, with only a rare mention of plants. The reality, though, is that evolution is a powerful theory in explaining the natural history of flora as well as fauna. The study of plants is called botany. Last summer, the Botanical Society of America released a statement about the importance and validity of evolution that is a must-read for anyone who wishes to understand this issue. One of the great things about this statement is that it emphasizes the usefulness of evolutionary theory, the fact that plant biologists use…
stcynic | March 21, 2004Is there anything scarier than watching C-Span when they have live call-in shows? There are apparently a lot of insane people sitting in their apartments with C-Span on speed dial, just praying for an opportunity to spew their personal pet peeves at the world for 30 seconds. There appears to be some sort of time warp between the people in the studio and the people on the phone. They've got a columnist on this morning talking about railway safety, but Ernie from West Virginia, who has been trying to get through since Thursday, doesn't care. He has something to say in response to Mildred from…
stcynic | March 21, 2004The first is Stranger Fruit, a blog by John Lynch, a professor at Barrett Honors College at Arizona State University. Looks like it will be a very valuable resource for information about evolution.
The second is the Evolution Blog. This blog is actually older than mine, but I just found it. It's written by Jason Rosenhouse, a professor of mathematics at James Madison University. So he's immediately one of my favorites both because of his defense of evolution and for teaching at a university named for my favorite founding father. His articles have appeared frequently in Skeptic and Free…
stcynic | March 19, 2004Via Brian Leiter, the wonderful Strange Doctrines blog by Tadlow Windsor II (read the "about me" link for an explanation). Evolution, constitutional law, culture war stuff - it's like reading me! He also provided Brian with this quote from Bertrand Russell that is absolutely perfect:"A stupid man's report of what a clever man says is never accurate because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand."
Bravissimo!
tlambert | March 18, 2004 When I was looking in the Philip Morris Documents Archive for information on their astroturf operations, I noticed some familiar names: The American Enterprise Institute, The Heartland Institute and the Cato Institute. All have been involved in employing and/or promoting John Lott.
For example, here is a quote from Philip Morris' 1999 communications plan: Our communications plan will include enlisting allies and other potential third parties to help provide an "echo chamber" of opinion in local, regional and national media, consistent with our messages.
Some…
stcynic | March 18, 2004Goes to Rhea County, Tennessee:Rhea County commissioners unanimously voted to ask state lawmakers to introduce legislation amending Tennessee's criminal code so the county can charge homosexuals with crimes against nature.
"We need to keep them out of here," said Commissioner J.C. Fugate, who introduced the motion.
County Attorney Gary Fritts also was asked by Fugate to find the best way to enact a local law banning homosexuals from living in Rhea County.
And irony of ironies, these same people celebrate the trial that made a laughingstock of them:Rhea County, about 30 miles north of…
stcynic | March 18, 2004Please welcome Reed Cartwright's De Rerum Natura to the blogosphere. Reed is currently finishing his PhD in genetics at the University of Georgia and is involved with the Georgia Citizens for Integrity in Science Education. A few weeks ago I cited his analysis of the proposed Georgia science standards, which have thankfully been changed.
You may recall that Georgia Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox, in one of the most flagrant displays of idiocy I've seen from a public official in a long time, called a press conference to announce that they were leaving the word "evolution" out of the new…
stcynic | March 17, 2004Found on another blog:I believe in life, liberty, and the pursuit of those that threaten them.
Here here. Or "Hear, hear", as Jim Foley just reminded me. Take your pick. :)
stcynic | March 8, 2004Paul Myers has a wonderful post about his experience, as a Philadelphia native, eating a cheesesteak sandwich in Minnesota. It contains this paragraph:You know, I don't think evil is loud or vicious or fiery or alarming. True evil is bland. It's tedium and boredom and mindrotting monotony. It's the sanctimonious certainty that something is good because it offends the smallest number of people. It's insipid. It sneaks in and tries to make you settle for the lowest common denominator, and strives to just generally lower your standards for everything. This sandwich was evil. Cthulhu-level evil.…
stcynic | March 5, 2004"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea."Robert Heinlein
stcynic | March 5, 2004Just to alert anyone who happens to come across another blog on this site, Patriot Edition, by a man named Billy Kess. Billy is a guy I've chatted with in a political chatroom for a while. I never liked him much. He's pretty much a braindead rightwinger. But I was nice enough to help him get his blog set up here on mblog. I wandered into that chatroom today for the first time in several days to find out that this guy sent out a fake news article to everyone in that room appearing to be from the Dallas/Ft. Worth paper and saying that another regular chatter in that room had been arrested for…
stcynic | March 5, 2004I'm a huge college basketball fan, as some of you may know. It's the only sport I really watch religiously. In fact, the most holy of holidays - March Madness, Baby - are almost upon us, praise be to Alaa Abdelnaby (and if you get that obscure reference, you're either a major Duke fan like me or you have way too much time on your hands). Anyway, the University of Georgia last year fired one of the true scumbags of college coaching, Jim Harrick, due to all sorts of NCAA violations like paying players and fixing grades. Harrick has achieved the rare career trifecta of leaving 3 different…
stcynic | March 1, 2004From Paul Myers comes a link to a new blog by University of Chicago physicist Sean Carroll. From his academic webpage, it's obvious that he is interested in the intersection of religion and science and I hope he writes on that subject extensively on his blog. Welcome to the blogosphere, Sean.
stcynic | March 1, 2004For anyone who thinks that Roy Moore isn't in this for the money, fame and power, check this out:Saturday night, ushers with red, white and blue buckets collected donations as the emcee assured people. "We're not keeping any of it. It's all going to the judge," he said. So does the $50 it cost to have a photo taken with Moore.
Praise the lord, eh?
stcynic | February 28, 2004This is my better half, Lynn. Well, she's 4'10" and about 90 pounds, so she's probably more accurately referred to as my better one-third. The best thing about her is that the fact that she is beautiful isn't even in the top 10 of her most praiseworthy traits. She has an incredibly strong spirit and she has taught me so much about life. If you want to find out more about her and the incredible work she has done with AIDS patients and their families, click here.