October 2, 2007
Making Light addresses Ben Stein's descent into hackery, and other such cinematic chicanery. Stein is the star of a new movie the Disco Inst. is touting. To gather interviews, the producers of the film misled various folks about the name and nature of the film, and have produced a gross…
October 1, 2007
In order to compete in Federated Media's contest, I will be sending an NCSE bumper sticker to each of the first 20 donors to my challenge. One sticker demands that other drivers honk at you if they understand punctuated equilibrium, while the other announces that evolutionists (like the driver) "…
October 1, 2007
Last year (just before I joined the fold) the Scienceblogs gang teamed up with a company called DonorsChoose to help out teachers with good ideas about how to make science education better.
DonorsChoose is a website that lets teachers post proposals for funding, and lets potential donors search…
September 27, 2007
Take a long drive with me
on California One, on California One
Take a long drive with me
on California One, on California One
And the road a-winding goes
from Golden Gate to roaring cliff-side
and the light is softly low as our hearts become sweetly untied
beneath the sun of California One
"…
September 20, 2007
Salon observes:
Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts have written a letter to the Department of Veterans Affairs urging full funding for a new cemetery at Fort Riley in Kansas.
The reason: With an influx of casualties from Iraq, the existing cemetery at Fort Riley is now full. Well, not entirely…
September 19, 2007
The National Review writes an analysis of the impact of the internet on the 2008 election, but focuses entirely on the impact of Googlebombing in one race, Jim Ryun's loss to Nancy Boyda. My guess is that the reporter and Drew Ryun met at a party, and started talking about the evils of the…
September 18, 2007
Reposted from the old TfK, in honor of the late, great Greg Beck.
Over at Death's Door, there is a certain degree of consternation about the possibility that mallard ducks would be gang raping each other.
There is a bunch of confusion wrapped around that so let's start slow.
I also wasn't aware…
September 16, 2007
I apologize for not noting this earlier, but the one and only Greg Beck died last week. I knew Greg through his astonishing blog, and had the pleasure of meeting him in person a few times as well. Like the rest of the KC blogging world, I'm stunned and shocked.
There's very little to be said…
September 11, 2007
It was all supposed to be different after 9/11. Everyone agreed that everything had changed. For a while, Democrats lay down with Republicans, France and America agreed on things, and non-New Yorkers didn't think so poorly of the Big Apple.
It's a shame everyone didn't get together and figure out…
September 10, 2007
Fred Thompson's pro-life credentials may be harmed because he hasn't shed enough blood:
Rick Scarborough, a Southern Baptist preacher and president of Texas-based Vision America, said that while he is encouraged by Thompson's strong voting record in the Senate against abortion, he questioned the…
September 8, 2007
Many years ago, I heard a story about a mohel (the man who performs ritual Jewish circumcisions), and this comment by the Disco. Institute's Bruce Chapman reminded me of it. Bruce told Tom Bethell (author of the Incorrect Guide to Science):
if I were to carry around Discovery fellows' peer-…
September 6, 2007
I realize that my ratio of Random Tens to non-music posts is getting dangerously high, but work has been keeping me busy, and I'm still trying to figure out where blogging fits in my schedule. Blame the Discovery Institute.
"Chimes of Freedom" by The Byrds from the album Mr Tambourine Man (1965, 3…
September 4, 2007
Ben Stein cannot grasp what the GOP's problem is with Larry Craig:
What I don't understand is why the GOP is tossing Senator Craig overboard as if he were a terrorist.
Even if it turns Senator Craig is gay, so what? Barney Frank is gay and he's one of the best members of the Congress. There are…
September 4, 2007
If I heard right, the radio offered an unusual explanation for a local traffic disruption. I was still only half awake, so it's possible that I misheard or misunderstood, but I believe that a mass exodus of slugs was said to be interfering with the morning commute.
I made it in safely.
An…
August 30, 2007
At Billy Dembski's blog, Granville Sewell wonders What if we DID find irreducibly complex biological features?:
In any debate on Intelligent Design, there is a question I have long wished to see posed to ID opponents: “If we DID discover some biological feature that was irreducibly complex, to your…
August 30, 2007
Reposted from the old blog.
Last week we discussed endosymbiosis, the hypothesis that mitochondria and chloroplasts originated as free-living bacteria captured by another cell and essentially enslaved.
This week's Science has evidence of this process at work today. A Secondary Symbiosis in…
August 28, 2007
Last night I didn't get to bed until 4 am. Along with a couple hundred other people, I hung out at the Chabot Observatory, watching the Earth slide in between the Sun and the Moon. One of the Observatory's telescopes was open, and several people brought their own 'scopes, some homemade. The…
August 27, 2007
At around 3:37 am, Pacific time, the moon will be entirely swathed in Earth's shadow. If you live in the right areas, and are prepared to stay up late, you can watch it happen.
Oakland's Chabot Space and Science Center and Wichita's Lake Afton Observatory are both holding special events all…
August 27, 2007
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Resigns - washingtonpost.com:
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales announced his resignation today, ending a controversial cabinet tenure that included clashes with Congress over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys and over the use of warrantless wiretaps in the war…
August 20, 2007
After much planning and coordinating, our munificent overlords at Seed arranged to bring a substantial fraction of the gang here at Scienceblogs together in New York last weekend. Beyond the drinking, the carousing, and the karaoke, it was a great chance to see the other Sciblings and talk science…
August 14, 2007
The Dallas Morning News observes:
North Texas didn't have a single charter school with the state's top academic rating two years ago. Now there are four.
But those campuses remain outnumbered by low-performing charters: 11 this year across the region, up from eight a couple years ago. The same…
August 13, 2007
Kansas State GOP Chairman Kris Kobach is a busy man. He's running around the country, trying to keep children some who've graduated from public high schools in a given state from getting in-state tuition at public universities. He's also been working hard to make sure the state Party spends more…
August 10, 2007
Break from heat not expected soon:
Lawrence’s high temperature reached 100 degrees Thursday for the second day in a row, and triple digits are expected to stick around. Wednesday’s rainfall accumulation, .77 of an inch, wasn’t enough to ward off a heat advisory that is in effect in Douglas County…
August 9, 2007
Not content to mangle science, the DI's Logan Gage declares war on the English language. After Time states that ID is "a stealth creationist theory," Gage quotes a definition of "stealth" stating that it involves proceeding "furtively, secretly, or imperceptibly," and then furtively observes that…
August 7, 2007
Via Salon.com's Broadsheet, we get this helpful reminder of basic facts about human anatomy. Be warned that some parents might not want to explain the picture to small children, or perhaps to their bosses. It's safe for work, though.
Thanks to Dulamae for the poster and to the Duggars for their…
August 6, 2007
August 1, 2004 was an auspicious day. From the hot, humid hills of eastern Kansas, a voice cried out and invited his nonexistent readership to "Check out my ActBlue list." The next day, this bloggish neophyte expressed his disgust at the rape, sodomy, and general abuse which went (goes?) on at…
August 6, 2007
I'm still getting moved in and catching up on email and other stuff, but this photo from NCSE HQ confirms what I already knew.
August 3, 2007
On the assumption that I'm in California, some happy music for your Friday:
"ELT" by Wilco from the album Summerteeth (1999, 3:46).
"Walls (Circus)" by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers from the album She's the One (1996, 4:25).
"Blue Eyed Soul" by Wilco from the album A.M. (1995, 4:05).
"…
August 3, 2007
Reposted from the old TfK.
Cass Sunstein finds that Cost of Iraq War > Cost of Kyoto Protocol:
The cost of the Iraq war, to the United States alone, is about to exceed the anticipated cost of the Kyoto Protocol (designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions), to the United States alone. As of this…
August 2, 2007
"Humble Me" by Norah Jones from the album Feels Like Home (2004, 4:36).
"I'm Goin' Down" by Bruce Springsteen from the album Born In The U.S.A. (1984, 3:31).
"Dancing In The Dark" by Bruce Springsteen from the album Born In The U.S.A. (1984, 4:05).
"I Wanna Be Your Man" by The Beatles from the…
