April 1, 2010
So the other day Sam Harris was asked to speak to the TED conference, and he presented what he believes to be a basis for scientifically validating morals and values. This is interesting, as most people who've studied the issue have concluded, for pretty compelling reasons, that this is not the…
April 1, 2010
In an exciting move that should revolutionize scientific publishing, Nature and Science have merged, creating a new, combined publication that can withstand the difficult financial environment for science journalism.
The journal's editor refers to its business model as "Web 3.0," but some experts…
March 31, 2010
A parliamentary inquiry found no wrongdoing by scientists at the University of East Anglia. At issue were emails stolen from the university and offered as evidence of improper behavior by climate scientists:
The committee's report entitled The disclosure of climate data from the Climatic Research…
March 29, 2010
Shorter Bruce Chapman, Disco. 'tute bossman: Church Suffers for Past Appeasement:
For 40 years, the Catholic Church has covered up rape by priests, with responsibility for the coverup reaching Cardinal Ratzinger â now Pope Benedict XVI. If only the licentious '60s and its culture of psychotherapy…
March 29, 2010
In a monumental step towards bringing sanity to biotech patents, a court ruled that a patent granted for the sequence of a gene associated with breast cancer was invalid. Basically, Myriad Genetics held a patent on the use of the sequence of BRCA1 and BRCA2, genes with alleles associated with high…
March 29, 2010
First, who knew that the Boston Herald would run a story about the New York archbishop? And if they did, that the story would involve the archbishop defending the pope against the sex abuse furor:
New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan was greeted with applause after ⦠defending Pope Benedict XVI…
March 29, 2010
The New York Times issues an Apology for suggesting that political dynasties are political dynasties:
In 1994, Philip Bowring, a contributor to the International Herald Tribuneâs op-ed page, agreed as part of an undertaking with the leaders of the government of Singapore that he would not say or…
March 25, 2010
When the Senate can operate as the Founders meant â allowing simple majorities to pass legislation â things move tolerably fast. The House passed Affordable Care late on Sunday, the Senate passed the reconciliation sidecar (with small amendments) on Wednesday, and the House just passed the…
March 25, 2010
This morning the Templeton Foundation announced the winner of the Templeton Prize: Francisco Ayala, a former priest and current biologist who testified against creation science in the '80s and now continues to demolish "intelligent design" â the madness that creation science became. In the…
March 24, 2010
Republicans in the U.S. Senate continue their campaign to make you poor and sick:
âThey got health care,â [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell [R-KY] told POLITICO with a mischievous glint in his eye. âWeâll see whether thatâs a gift worth receiving.â
Here's the thing about McConnell. Since…
March 22, 2010
Casey Luskin, Disco. DJ and legal eagle sparrow asks "When Is it Appropriate to Challenge the [scientific] 'Consensus'?"
Simple answer: When you can make a convincing scientific argument.
Casey disagrees, joining Jay Richards â Prodigal Son of the Disco. 'Tute â in arguing that:
we must carefully…
March 22, 2010
It's like he's been reading my mind. He's even nearly re-derived Intelligent Falling. But upside down!
March 22, 2010
Ari Fleischer had to resign as Tiger Woods PR advisor when it became clear that Fleischer is still less trusted than the massively dishonest Woods. Apparently people are quicker to forgive overwhelming infidelity than shilling for George Bush's invasions of various nations and of our own civil…
March 21, 2010
Just watched the House pass the Health Care Reform bill. It's history at work, an achievement on the scale of Social Security and Medicare, a civil rights bill of a sort we haven't seen since the 1960s. President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and indeed Majority Leader Reid all deserve to take a bow.…
March 18, 2010
Shorter Richard Sternberg: Beginning to Decipher the SINE Signal:
If science fiction weren't fiction, ID would be really good science.
In responding tangentially to our earlier criticism of him for employing arguments of a paranoid schizophrenic nature which treated movies as if they were evidence…
March 18, 2010
I don't care for North Korea. It's a repressive Stalinist cult, walled off from reality. But sometimes they find a nut:
A government official in North Korea blamed for the nation's currency devaluation has been executed by the state. "Pak Nam-gi, who was reportedly sacked in January as chief of…
March 17, 2010
Kevin Drum surveys California politics:
It's like living in a Lewis Carroll novel, except with real people. Assuming you still consider California Republicans to be real people, that is.
The inspiration?
In order to tackle a massive deficit, Democrats were willing to cut a billion dollars out of…
March 16, 2010
Shorter Richard Sternberg for the Disco. 'Tute: Ayala and Falk Miss the Signs in the Genome:
We should learn how to do science by watching movies.
For reference, actual Sternberg:
In this and subsequent posts, I will provide other sorts of evidence that so-called âjunk DNAâ is not junk at all, but…
March 15, 2010
Shorter Ginni Thomas in WaPo: Wife of Justice Thomas starts group for 'citizen activists':
Caesar's wife was a pussy.
Actual spokeswoman for Mrs. Thomas, who recently started a teabagging group using corporate funds as permitted by her husband's vote on Citizens United:
"She did not give up her…
March 14, 2010
Let it be said, before explaining the lore of Pi Day, that we're planning to have pie, not cake, at my wedding in August. I adore pie in its many forms. I like eating it and I like baking it.
Every year, I get to celebrate pie at least twice. First on March 14, ideally just before 2 o'clock.…
March 13, 2010
One of my colleagues from Scienceblogs.com.br contacted me a week or so ago to talk about creationists and global warming deniers, and I just checked and his story for Brazil's largest paper is online. Frankly, I think I gave him one of my juicier quotes:
"Dos negacionistas do aquecimento global,…
March 11, 2010
Attention conservation notice: A couple thousand words of reply to questions about why I think NCSE does what it does, delivered in my capacity as a random blogger not as an NCSE staffer. People who don't care about accommodationism or about how I read the NCSE website should probably just go…
March 11, 2010
Today's Washington Times covers the nexus between global warming denial and creationism, quoting from my ScienceProgress piece to show that:
diehard scientists are striking back.
Yipee-kay-yay muppethuggers!
March 10, 2010
Upchucky award runner-up and Disco. 'Tute staffer Casey Luskin is upset. Last fall, we were on a panel together, and I mocked his defense of the neo-creationist "orchard model" described in Explore Evolution as claiming that life "poofed" into existence. In the course of one of Casey's regularly…
March 9, 2010
Casey Luskin, intrepid Upchucky also-ran, is aflutter. Last week's New York Times story about creationists and global warming deniers partnering up has the whole Disco. 'Tute in something of a tizzy, but Casey's outrage is of a special sort.
Casey, you see, thinks the the Times misdescribed Selman…
March 9, 2010
When I started tweeting (@JoshRosenau), I was unconvinced. I'm already overwhelmed with silliness and interesting people writing interesting stuff, so why would I a) want to read more and b) want to restrict myself and others to 140 characters. And the character limit still grates, though I'm…
March 9, 2010
I can't say I disagree with these pro-octopus sentiments, though having a cheap and charismatic supergenius escape artist does not preclude having a panda too:
Washington needs a new animal celebrity, one more in line with our character, intellect, values and personality. We need to love and…
March 8, 2010
Larry Moran is unhappy with me. This is fine; I knew that posting "On the need for grownups" would get people angry, and it did. I hoped it would spark some productive discussion, and it has, at least via email.
What bothers me is that the reasons Larry is upset seem to entirely misconstrue…
March 8, 2010
If you were curious why Farah Fawcett and Bea Arthur and Ed McMahon were omitted from the In Memoriam section of the Oscars show, apparently Hollywood has discovered Wikipedia's notability requirement:
"I would not say that it was an oversight," Leslie Unger, spokeswoman for the Academy of Motion…
March 6, 2010
Attention conservation notice: This post should have been broken into about three parts, but it's written now and I don't care. Read it at your risk. Consists of points I've made before to little avail, thinly veiled disdain for people I respect, and cartoons.
As I've said before, reading anti-…
