February 8, 2007
The WWF reports that researchers in Turkmenistan spotted a striped hyena in a park. The species once ranged from Africa through to India and Central Asia, but habitat degradation and declining prey populations have caused their Asian populations to decline.
This discovery in a protected area of…
February 8, 2007
The DI Complaints department replies to my post calling them on their lies about Haeckel.
Alas, they couldn't be bothered to link to my post, where their readers could have looked at actual evidence presented, not just their words. The image they presented is not Haeckel's, nor is it, as its…
February 8, 2007
John Edwards writes:
The tone and the sentiment of some of Amanda Marcotte's and Melissa McEwan's posts personally offended me. It's not how I talk to people, and it's not how I expect the people who work for me to talk to people. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that kind of intolerant…
February 8, 2007
The bald eagle will remain listed as endangered for a little longer:
With a court-ordered deadline looming for removal of the bald eagle from the endangered species list, the Interior Department, rejecting the advice of its staff wildlife biologists, tried to limit a separate set of protections for…
February 7, 2007
A 15-year-old girl was arrested for child pornography and child sexual abuse for posting pictures of herself online. Would it be statutory rape if she touched herself? Or would that fall under Romeo and Juliet laws?
February 7, 2007
The image above is Haeckel's famous drawing of embryos, a series of images which he presented to illustrate his now discredited notion of recapitulation. He fudged the details to make the whole thing look more convincing, which was undeniably a bad choice.
This figure was reproduced by some…
February 7, 2007
When John Edwards hired the bloggers who wrote at Pandagon and Shakespeare's Sister, I thought it was a great move. Both are excellent writers, and it's always nice to see great writers and great bloggers moving into paid political positions. Hiring them suggested that Edwards groks the…
February 7, 2007
The ADL reports that the recent focus on immigration has revived many local KKK organizations. Modern Klan members don't wear bedsheets, but dress like skinheads. The ADL's slideshow suggests that the sheets are reserved for special occasions.
The KKK, though famous for its hatred of African-…
February 7, 2007
TPMCafe summarizes yesterday in the discussosphere, focusing on a point Mark Schmitt made, that proposing detailed healthcare plans is pointless. Kevin Drum, Steve Benen, Matt Yglesias and Ezra Klein all weighed in for or against laying out detailed policy plans in the campaign, and I think Ezra's…
February 7, 2007
Pew put together an interesting review of polling in biracial elections, and the results are interesting. Through the '80s and '90s, polls tended to underestimate the ultimate vote for white candidates opposing black candidates. This suggests that poll respondents may have been acting more…
February 6, 2007
The Bill Richardson staff pass along video of the Governor's speech to the DNC's winter meeting. I don't know that he's an orator on the scale of John Edwards or Barack Obama, but he definitely has a record of accomplishments and knows how to talk to Democrats. Coturnix thinks he's merely the…
February 6, 2007
A paper in Science shows that certain grasses found near hotsprings in Yellowstone can only persist thanks to a three-way symbiosis. Márquez et al. (2007) showed that the grasses could not survive near hotsprings unless a symbiotic fungus was growing in them. No, not a true mushroom, I only put…
February 6, 2007
The House will create a select committee on climate change:
Ending a three-week long turf war, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) have reached an agreement on the parameters of the select committee on global warming.
In a new…
February 6, 2007
The KC Star confirms that Bill Clinton will be addressing the Kansas Democratic Party at its annual spring meeting:
Clinton will speak at the Topeka event March 2, the same day he'll deliver the Landon Lecture at Kansas State University.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius released a statement saying she is "…
February 6, 2007
Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts, both of whom have expressed concerns about the future of George and Dick's excellent adventure in Iraq, voted against debate on a non-binding resolution opposing the escalation of that conflict. This, despite Brownback's opposition to that escalation, and his belief…
February 5, 2007
A few days back I criticized two posts at Cato's blog, one about vouchers, the other an argument by Andrew Coulson about how we could end the wars over creationism. Coulson replied. In response to my observation that he tended to treat evolution as anti-religious, Coulson replies:
Evolution isn’t…
February 4, 2007
Knight-Ridder's Washington Bureau, now owned by McClatchy, was long-regarded as the most reliable source of information about the invasion of Iraq both during the run-up to the invasion and throughout the occupation. I mention this because I think it gives useful context to their report that…
February 3, 2007
1994: Rwandan hate radio compares Tutsis to cockroaches.
The director of the human rights organization, African Rights, Rakiya Omaar, was following the events from northern Rwanda.
"In Rwanda they referred to Tutsis as cockroaches," explains Omaar. "They were not human beings. This is very…
February 3, 2007
I am not convinced it is the truth that "Gin is better than whiskey." I truly cannot stand the stuff.
Whiskey, however, is often excellent.
But in the USA, the only truth is that gin and whiskey are horrible until your 21st birthday, after which they are no big deal.
February 3, 2007
I haven't been pimping books lately, but it's time.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) by J. K. Rowling
First, the last Harry Potter book is scheduled for 7/7/07, and if you buy it through this link a portion of the sale goes to the important project of keeping TfK afloat.
Second, the…
February 2, 2007
Via Afarensis.
You know the Bible 90%!
Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic! Ultimate Bible QuizCreate MySpace Quizzes
February 2, 2007
Via Obsidian Wings, Obama's plan for Iraq:
It caps troops in Iraq at their Jan. 10 levels, requires the re-deployment of combat troops out of Iraq starting on May 1 and ending on March 31, 2008 (though "a residual U.S. presence may remain in Iraq for force protection, training of Iraqi security…
February 2, 2007
According SurveyUSA, when 500 Kansans were asked:
When a United States Senator runs for President of the United States, the Senator often misses votes. Other times, the Senator needs to leave the campaign trail and return to Washington to make a vote. Do you think it's possible? Or impossible? For…
February 2, 2007
Key findings:
The understanding of anthropogenic warming and cooling influences on climate has improved since the Third Assessment Report (TAR), leading to very high confidence that the globally averaged net effect of human activities since 1750 has been one of warming, with radiative forcing of +…
February 1, 2007
The DI spends millions on PR for their absurd nonscience. The Bush administration pays "journalists" to pimp their policy proposals. And as ThinkProgress points out, oil companies have offered $10,000 to scientists who will go against the new IPCC report:
Scientists and economists have been…
February 1, 2007
Retrospectacle asks Is a Species' Survival Inherently Valuable?
My answer is "yes," but I agree with Shelley that the question is tricky. If someone found a way to make chiggers go extinct, would I really mind that much? Do I really care that this or that dam would make some guppy go extinct?…
February 1, 2007
While I think it's foolish to comment too specifically on what the IPCC will say until the report is actually released, I join Chris Mooney and Roger Pielke, Jr. in finding this report interesting:
Global warming has made stronger hurricanes, including those in the Atlantic such as Katrina, an…
February 1, 2007
Knowledgeable observers have long suggested that this was the case, but an official Congressional Budget Office analysis agrees that the escalation in Iraq will be larger than officials have claimed. The issue is that when the President talks about 21,500 extra combat troops, you have to send…
February 1, 2007
What does a guy have to do to get onto Dinesh D'surrendermonkey's Enemies List?
Have I not been sufficiently vocal in demanding liberty and freedom? Are there policy positions of his which I agree with? Surely he isn't merely picking a few famous people to criticize rather than really putting…
January 31, 2007
According to The New Yorker of 10/31/1994, Ivins made a promise to her mentor, John Henry Faulk: "I don't want you to worry about the First Amendment. I'm gonna take care of it."
As Lawrence Wright observed, "Ivins finds that humor is the best weapon in the war against intolerance." And for…
