tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-124584332011-12-02T15:31:33.918-05:00An irregular exploration of the ongoing struggle between the power of rational discourse and the scientific method on one hand, and the forces of superstition and dogma on the other.james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.comBlogger1131100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1149874510512883592006-06-09T13:30:00.000-04:002006-06-09T13:35:10.546-04:00

The Island of Doubt has moved. Please direct yourself to:scienceblogs.com/islandofdoubtwhich is a collection of blogs overseen by SEED magazine.

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1149780406432854952006-06-08T11:22:00.000-04:002006-06-08T11:29:38.390-04:00

The latest and greatest science blogging is available at Tangled Bank 54, hosted this fortnight by Get Busy Livin', or Get Busy Bloggin'.This is will be my final post at islandofdoubt.blogspot.com. I know I've promised that before, but it looks like the webheads at my new home, Scienceblogs.com, are finally ready to launch their new collection of science bloggers. Beginning noon EDT, Friday, June

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1149620329425070802006-06-06T14:33:00.000-04:002006-06-06T14:58:49.450-04:00

Via the J-Walk Blog and John Lynch's Stranger Fruit, comes the latest eruption from Ann Coulter, who's got yet another book out today. I've always considered Coulter one of the wackier examples of right-wing winnuttery, but worth paying attention to because so many other people do just that.I don't know what to think of her latest comments on evolution, as told to her ideological compatriots at

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1149279838414951772006-06-02T15:59:00.000-04:002006-06-02T16:23:58.436-04:00

In a sure sign of desperation, the NIMBY forces aligned against wind power -- wherever it might be -- have enlisted the support of the Department of Defense. According to the Chicago Tribune's Michael Hawthorne, "The federal government has stopped work on more than a dozen wind farms planned across the Midwest, saying research is needed on whether the giant turbines could interfere with military

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1149268863344964192006-06-02T13:07:00.000-04:002006-06-02T13:21:03.370-04:00

The Union of Concerned Scientists is running a contest for editorial cartoonists:Science Idol: the Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon ContestThe subject of the cartoons must relate to political interference in science in the federal government. UCS defines political interference in science as action by elected officials or political appointees to manipulate, alter, or suppress independent

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1149181690893626432006-06-01T12:52:00.000-04:002006-06-01T13:08:10.916-04:00

The 1997 recipient of the Royal Society's Michael Faraday prize for communicating science to the public isn't going to take it any more:A leading British scientist said yesterday that he had given up trying to persuade creationists that Darwin's theory is correct after repeatedly being misrepresented and, he said, branded a liar.Speaking at the Guardian Hay festival at Hay-on-Wye, the

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1149108445267435992006-05-31T16:32:00.000-04:002006-05-31T18:00:11.746-04:00

Research linking climate change with poison ivy isn't the only newsworthy story to be found in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, but it's easy to understand why it's the only one to attract heaps of media attention this past week.What editor could resist running a story that says global warming will make poison ivy grow faster and nastier? Everybody

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1148731958903712352006-05-27T07:53:00.000-04:002006-05-27T09:46:53.306-04:00

Bill Gray is not a young man. But he does sound like an angry young man. One who can't abide the foolish ways of his elders peers. He is, according to the Washington Post's Joel Achenbach "the World's Most Famous Hurricane Expert" and one of the more reputable, if stubborn, climate change skeptics.This coming Sunday's Washington Post Magazine includes almost 7,500 words on Gray and his arguments

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1148649481945783102006-05-26T08:38:00.000-04:002006-05-26T09:26:31.623-04:00

The three-minute preview of USA Network's new dramatic comedy series "Pysch" doesn't offer enough evidence to pass judgment on its merits as entertainment. But I, for one, am looking forward to television that offers a skeptical view of the supernatural.Pysch premieres on July 7, and a week earlier on the network's new broadband channel (the sure-to-be-renamed Character Clique). It features a

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1148565971953058922006-05-25T09:01:00.000-04:002006-05-25T10:47:52.350-04:00

John J. Miller of the National Review has comes up with a list of the top 50 conservative rock songs expressing a conservative political outlook. An interesting exercise, to be sure and one guaranteed to generate debate. Let me be among the first to oblige by asking: what is Miller smoking?The magazine is taking its time releasing the complete list, but the New York Times has the complete thing

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1148477283479743862006-05-24T09:01:00.000-04:002006-05-24T09:28:03.546-04:00

The opportunity to discuss "arctic monkeys" -- and attract hits from fans seeking information on the latest Britpop export -- is one I could not pass up. For this I extend my sincere appreciation to Molly Tayara, a member of the Kativik School Board, which oversees elementary and secondary education in Salluit and other Inuit communities in the far northern reaches of Quebec.The occasion is the

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1148469348505649492006-05-24T07:12:00.000-04:002006-05-24T07:51:13.306-04:00

A mess o' the best in science blogging -- enough to take you through the Memorial Day weekend -- is up at the 54th edition of the Tangled Bank.Host Bora Zivkovic introduces it thusly:Long gone are the days when science blogging was a Dog-And-One-Trick-Pony-Show (mixing metaphors is my hobby, as are parentheses): 5 posts debunking Creationists, 5 posts debunking global warming deniers and 5 posts

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1148391805640335292006-05-23T08:47:00.000-04:002006-05-23T09:47:53.076-04:00

The news that professional doubter Michael Shermer (that's him on the right) has finally decided to get off the fence and accept the scientific consensus on climate change serves as an excellent entry point for a look at the philosophical justification for skepticism.In his latest Scientific American column, the editor of Skeptic magazine admits to being a "skeptical environmentalist" for quite

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1148064577797729152006-05-19T14:49:00.000-04:002006-05-20T09:13:13.093-04:00

Today's Montreal Gazette brings some chilling news from Canada's subarctic:A high-school science teacher vowed Friday to continue telling his Inuit students about Darwin's theory of evolution, despite complaints from parents in the northern Quebec community of Salluit.Education officials from the Kativik School Board said the principal of Ikusik High School cannot ban the teaching of evolution,

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1147905203225662402006-05-17T18:10:00.000-04:002006-05-23T13:28:39.970-04:00

The Competition Enterprise Institute today unveiled a pair of pro-carbon dioxide television ads designed to assuage fears about climate change. Which is to be expected from a think-tank funded by ExxonMobil.But the CEI isn't playing fair and though the ads are so far only scheduled to play in limited markets, anyone who cares about the accurate representation of science should be up in arms.You

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1147893224837033912006-05-17T14:46:00.000-04:002006-05-17T15:13:45.000-04:00

The poor reputation with which the social sciences are saddled by practitioners of the harder variety may or may not be completely deserved. (See the Sokal hoax.) But sometimes they just make it so easy.A few weeks back, you may recall, Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council denied a Montreal researcher's request for $40,000 to study the effects of the intelligent design

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1147721775595974412006-05-15T14:26:00.000-04:002006-05-15T16:06:54.463-04:00

Ordinarily, I would recommend all visitors to the Island watch last night's episode of The Simpsons, which parodies the Scopes Monkey Trial. In end, Homer saves the day, shores up the theory of evolution, and puts the final nail in creationism's coffin by demonstrating that he's the missing link. But after reading a new study that suggests political parody could actually be bad for us, I'm

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1147373256003015942006-05-11T13:43:00.000-04:002006-05-11T14:47:36.100-04:00

If anyone should understand the value of a willingness to compromise, it should be a member of Congress. And yet, an all-or-nothing attitude seems to have taken hold of a growing number of Massachusetts congressmen who can't bring themselves to admit that finding a way out of our reliance on fossil fuels will require some kind of environmental trade-off.How else to explain their opposition to the

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1147200318780867242006-05-09T14:39:00.000-04:002006-05-09T14:46:40.803-04:00

Christopher Frayling, rector of London's Royal College of Art, has an eight-part slide show up at Slate on the depiction of mad scientists in cinema. He concludes by noting that such films:are usually about science as a source of anxiety, scientists as outsiders and oddballs, research as very likely to get into the wrong hands, and scientific institutions as dangerous places to be.Maybe that's

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1147095144242457472006-05-08T08:50:00.000-04:002006-05-08T11:25:01.366-04:00

File this one under the "“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" category, even in Casper, Wyoming, where, according to an AP report:some prognosticators practitioners say it's time to repeal an old law that prohibits fortune tellers, palm readers and card readers from charging for their services.... The consumer protection portion of Casper's municipal

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1146845337469802002006-05-05T11:01:00.000-04:002006-05-05T12:19:11.586-04:00

The marquee that caught my eye as I drove home this morning from my weekly shopping expedition doesn't usually inspire me. But there's a first time for everything. I didn't have a digital camera handy, so I've recreated the message with the help of Church Sign Generator.It was the last line that got me to thinking. Indeed, anyone can honk. It proves nothing. Saying you're a good Christian

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1146608758544765212006-05-02T18:13:00.000-04:002006-05-03T13:56:08.020-04:00

One of five Canadians has dispensed with religion, according to a new poll, which concludes that the secular slice of society there is between half again and twice as large as the American rate, depending on which survey you're using for comparison. (One of the more reputable, a 2004 Pew survey, pegs the atheist slice of the US population at 9 percent.)The encouraging part of the Statistics

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1146491441257555492006-05-01T09:00:00.000-04:002006-05-01T09:50:42.180-04:00

"It's funny because it's true," said Homer Simpson. But just how far can you take the adage that all humor is rooted in truth? Saturday night's White House Correspondents Dinner suggests there is a limit.This year's event featured comedian du jour Stephen Colbert playing his right-wing blowhard alter ego, also named Stephen Colbert, celebrating President George W. Bush, who sat, mostly unamused,

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1146223418762707942006-04-28T07:15:00.000-04:002006-04-28T07:23:38.776-04:00

Just a brief post to set straight anyone who might be intrigued by reports in the mainstream media that 12,000-year-old pyramids have been discovered in Bosnia.They haven't. Consider the source, one Semir (Sam) Osmanagic, a self-described archeologist who is working outside the scientific mainstream. As the understandably annoyed people at Archeological Institute of America point out, Osmanagic

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1145995002439257632006-04-25T15:36:00.000-04:002006-04-25T15:59:05.680-04:00

A couple of weeks back Canada's new Conservative government demonstrated both its lack of respect for the Charter of Rights -- the one that guarantees free speech -- and its poor understanding of public relations by ordering a science fiction novelist not to attend his own book launch.Guess what happened? Sales of the book, Hotter than Hell, by government climatologist Mark Tushingham, shot up

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1145897344428734272006-04-24T12:48:00.000-04:002006-04-24T14:09:28.096-04:00

Is Joseph Ratzinger, better known these days as CEO of the Roman Catholic Church, a closet liberal? Signs of progress are leaking from the Vatican, where a breakthrough on contraception policy may be imminent. From The Guardian:Pope Benedict has asked senior theologians and scientists to prepare a document discussing the use of condoms as a means of preventing the transmission of HIV, a Vatican

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1145800979957707372006-04-23T10:01:00.000-04:002006-04-23T10:05:09.840-04:00

As I asked a few weeks back, what if all the Liberals stop having children? G.B. Trudeau now puts such fears into cartoon form.

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1145635002709894662006-04-21T11:04:00.000-04:002006-04-21T12:00:45.530-04:00

What if the universal constants, the numbers that are supposed to be so well tuned that life wouldn't exist if any of them were just a fraction of a percent different -- weren't actually constant?It is almost incontrovertible that one of the most puzzling aspects of reality is the apparent fine-tuning of the universe for life. If several key absolutes, like the strength of electromagnetism and

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1145370313297555292006-04-18T09:05:00.000-04:002006-04-18T10:28:09.086-04:00

Convinced the signal-to-noise ratio in society isn't low enough, the advertising industry has finally decided to exploit that most intimate of media: the personal conversation. If you live in a major American metropolitan center, there is now a 1 in 2,000 chance that your so-called friends and even family have been assimilated by marketing equivalent of the Borg.I came up with those odds after

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1145023742595805262006-04-14T09:39:00.000-04:002006-04-14T10:09:03.533-04:00

More signs of trouble, and antipathy to science, among the new powers that be in Canada, where the rookie environment minister ordered a government climatologist not to attend his own book launch.Here are the facts:Veteran scientist Mark Tushingham is the author of a science-fiction novel, Hotter than Hell, that depicts a world in turmoil thanks to climate change.Rona Ambrose is a member of the

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1144794116908899822006-04-11T18:14:00.000-04:002006-04-11T18:21:56.923-04:00

I just received a reply from Janet Halliwell, executive director of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, to my letter expressing concern regarding the rejection of an application for funding to study the effects of the intelligent design movement on students.The good news is the SSHRC believes evolution is real. According to Halliwell,The theory of evolution is not in

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1144758902332937682006-04-11T08:20:00.000-04:002006-04-11T08:35:02.346-04:00

Getting weary of all the bad news? I know I could use a good dose of optimism right about now. Enter political scientist Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College. According to his review of a couple of new books in the Chronicle of Higher Education, everything that's going wrong is only paving the way for a backlash of intelligence....

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1144507909567209822006-04-08T10:40:00.000-04:002006-04-08T10:51:49.583-04:00

Further to the post on the rejection of an application by a Montreal researcher to study the impact of intelligent design on science education in Canada.Hannah Hoag, the journalist covering the affair for Nature, has a story (subscriber only) in today's Globe and Mail that contains a couple of disturbing paragraphs. She tried to get at the reasoning by the rejection of the research funding

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1144422819642190232006-04-07T10:44:00.000-04:002006-04-23T10:01:20.416-04:00

PZ Myer's explanation of Plan B, a.k.a. the morning-after pill or emergency contraception, and the accompanying exchange of ideas generated by his post at Pharyngula, is the best example I have ever come across of what every blog aspires to be. If you have a free half-hour, and are even remotely intrigued by either reproductive biology or blogging in general, read the whole page.First, the

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1144236443263726192006-04-05T07:18:00.000-04:002006-04-05T10:24:35.226-04:00

Nick Matzke at the Panda's Thumb alerts us to what is a genuinely shocking development in Montreal, where the Canadian federal government's primary social sciences granting agency has rejected research on the grounds that the theory of evolution may not be correct.Brian Alters of McGill University's Evolution Education Research Centre wants to find out how the "intelligent design" movement is

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1144071336585265652006-04-03T08:39:00.000-04:002006-04-04T07:16:40.700-04:00

One of my local dailies, the Asheville Citizen-Times, recently added a sophisticated talkback forum to its online edition, and it didn't take long for the backtalking to turn to the merits of the theory of evolution. Which is a good thing, I suppose, seeing as the other local daily, the Hendersonville Times-News, has banned the subject from its letters to the editor section

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1143902965120430042006-04-01T09:35:00.000-05:002006-04-01T09:49:25.140-05:00

If this story had appeared today, instead of a couple of days ago, I would have written it off as a too-subtle April Fool's gag. It's not the main thrust of the story, a Reuters report first drawn to my attention my Matt Nisbet's Framing Science blog, that's suspicious:CHICAGO - A study of more than 1,800 patients who underwent heart bypass surgery has failed to show that prayers specially

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1143814158988253342006-03-31T08:53:00.000-05:002006-03-31T09:10:00.026-05:00

For those who need a little light relief after seriousness of the Tangled Bank, how about a trip back to the Ice Age? The Times, via The Australian, reports today on an ambitious plan to turn back the ecological clock.A HERD of bison is to be flown from western Canada to far-eastern Russia next month, more than 5000 years after they died out in the region. The first 30 animals from Elk Island

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1143566133283136862006-03-28T12:02:00.000-05:002006-03-29T20:37:38.013-05:00

Herewith the 50th edition of the Tangled Bank, the fornightly showcase of good weblog science writing, selected by the authors themselves.I have organized more than three dozen submissions, many of which embraced multiple fields, into the most logical sequence of categories I could come up with, beginning with the most basic of all the sciences and wrapping up with the least.Mathematics Don't you

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com72tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1143130669062605462006-03-23T11:07:00.000-05:002006-03-23T11:17:49.076-05:00

Pop culture currency exchange:One disembodied Beatle buys 0.67 disembodied Princess of WalesPsychics to try contacting John Lennon in TV seanceThe ex-Beatle, who was murdered over 25 years ago, is the latest subject of a pay-per-view seance arranged by the producers of a 2003 attempt to contact the dead Princess Diana. That show made money but was slammed by critics as hitting a new low in

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1143116003739605242006-03-23T07:13:00.000-05:002006-03-23T11:20:53.696-05:00

When it comes to the art of group persuasion, you first have to get your own act together, yes? Well, maybe not.I was struck the other day by the similarity between two debates. Exhibit A is the never-ending argument among scientists over the role, if any, of atheism in the evolution-versus-creationism battle. Meanwhile, we have Exhibit B: the progressive political community's inability to decide

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1143028182367495462006-03-22T06:43:00.000-05:002006-03-23T07:08:12.396-05:00

I have the great honor of hosting Tangled Bank No. 50.Submissions of the best in the past fortnight's weblog writing on biology, medicine, or anything else that deals with the general workings of the natural world can be sent to PZ or me.The complete list will appear here March 29.

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1142945683344137352006-03-21T07:48:00.000-05:002006-03-21T08:25:57.046-05:00

The president of the United States of America said something very frightening yesterday.At around 12:45 ET, at the Renaissance Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio, a member of the City Club of Cleveland asked George W. Bush this unscripted and unvetted question:Former Nixon administration official Kevin Phillips, in his latest book, American Theocracy, discusses what has been called radical Christianity

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1142865245129717242006-03-20T08:32:00.000-05:002006-03-20T10:25:55.733-05:00

I'm not an avid birder. Sure, I appreciate the brilliant colors of the jays and cardinals that flit through the woods here in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, but I have no idea how many species call this place home and I couldn't even produce a single scientific name for the ones that nest in our yard. And yet, there's something undeniably intriguing about the prospect that the ivory-billed

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1142858031869120822006-03-20T07:27:00.000-05:002006-03-23T13:59:43.946-05:00

A departing columnist with one of my local papers has assembled a good summary of the philosophy that guides this blog. Arch Montgomery, head of Asheville School in Asheville, NC, writes in his ultimate column that...certainty is conviction absent humility. Certainty is intolerant. It is absolute. It knows the answers and will not tolerate disagreement. It is inflexible, permanent and

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1142442267253182552006-03-15T12:04:00.000-05:002006-03-15T12:37:44.710-05:00

... get out of the kitchen.Which is just what Chef, the sex-obsessed South Park character voiced by soul man Isaac "Shaft" Hayes, did this week when he quit the show. His raison d'exit? He says he's fed up with "intolerance and bigotry," but considering the the satirical cartoon series has made its reputation on just that since it debuted a decade ago, something else must be involved.According to

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1142368000031251392006-03-14T15:25:00.000-05:002006-03-14T15:26:40.046-05:00

The proposition that the religious right enjoy an evolutionary advantage over the secular progressive factions because the former have more children is not particularly new. But this essay in Foreign Policy is a good introduction to the argument for those who haven't thought about it before.Towards the end comes this nightmare scenario:Tomorrow’s children, therefore, unlike members of the postwar

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1142269370803164902006-03-13T11:20:00.000-05:002006-03-13T14:31:36.666-05:00

Unless you're a hard-core whale hugger, it might be hard to see the significance of the loss of one member of a population of Orcinus orca, a species commonly and misleadingly known as killer whales. But the death of L98, or "Luna," last week in a remote bay on the western coast of Vancouver Island is not only a serious concern for the entire population from which it was separated five years ago,

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1142019030858691502006-03-10T13:38:00.000-05:002006-03-10T15:14:04.966-05:00

Or: A Short History Of Everything-you-ever-heard-about-x-is-wrongI fell into a rather nasty little trap the other day when I bristled at the suggestion that those who deny that HIV causes AIDS are easily comparable to creationists who deny evolution. My initial impulse was to argue that the two camps, while equally annoying, are sufficiently distinct to warrant separate strategies when dealing

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1141924276415168192006-03-09T12:11:00.000-05:002006-03-09T12:11:16.476-05:00

Having helped draw attention in my last post to some flawed reporting on HIV and AIDS, I thought it only fair to do the same for some good journalism on the subject. The latest edition of The Walrus, which is sometimes thought of as the Canadian analog of Harper's, includes Brent Preston's informative "The HIV Resurgence." Whereas Celia Farber's Harper's feature implies that HIV infection rates

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1141755974383772482006-03-07T12:03:00.000-05:002006-03-08T09:54:41.506-05:00

I seem to have hit a sore spot with a comment I left on Chris Mooney's Intersection. The topic was perhaps the least politically correct subject of all. Less correct than creationism or even global warming denial. Even giving a micrometre of credit to anyone involved with the idea that HIV doesn't cause AIDS is a dangerous game, indeed.First, I need to make it clear that I claim no expertise on

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1141566128630215582006-03-05T08:42:00.000-05:002006-03-08T08:17:25.333-05:00

For the second sequential Sunday,. G.B. Trudeau demonstrates his ability to hit the nail on the head in the wacky world of science vs. silliness.Last Sunday he took on intelligent design. This Sunday it's the politicization of science.

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1141409795161351312006-03-03T11:49:00.000-05:002006-03-04T18:20:20.726-05:00

OK. I've had enough. The "at an alarming rate" stories on the latest climate change research are beginning to spiral out of control. This one, from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, was the last straw:Residents of Iqaluit and Pangnirtung have been stowing away their parkas and kamiks this week and pulling out raincoats. Warm temperatures and rain showers across southern Baffin Island have

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1141222915863717362006-03-01T08:56:00.000-05:002006-03-02T09:02:05.200-05:00

Attention spans being what they are, the fuss generated by the posting of a personal email exchange by two of the giants of the skepticism community -- Michael Ruse and Dan Dennett -- has already evaporated. But it was good while it lasted, and it's worth reviving for a least a few more nanoseconds, in part because it sheds light on one of the biggest challenges facing defenders of reason in the

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1141163109896830072006-02-28T16:06:00.000-05:002006-02-28T16:46:23.010-05:00

For your consideration, some questions I had to answer twice -- once in writing and again during a personal interview -- as part of the application process for Legal Permanent Residence in the US of A -- the so-called Green Card.I watched as our Immigration officer double-checked the list I had already checked off a few months ago. To her credit, we whizzed right through them. I kind of wish

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1140790896947662232006-02-24T08:49:00.000-05:002006-02-24T09:23:59.696-05:00

Arizona is the scene of the latest affront to common sense to come to my attention (via Making Light via Pharyngula):PHOENIX -- A Senate committee voted Wednesday to let university and community-college students opt out of required reading assignments they consider personally offensive or pornographic. (Arizona Star, Feb. 16)This particular misguided committee on higher education acted in

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1140705472563045082006-02-23T09:13:00.000-05:002006-02-23T09:41:27.766-05:00

This is completely off-topic, but anyone who knows me will recognize the subject matter as something I've been harping about for the past decade: E-paper.I've long considered the notion of a single-use medium like newsprint to be an egregious waste of a resources. Yes, we can recycle the cellulose of newsprint, but that requires energy, water and more ink. Yes, reading online solves those

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1140622438284190282006-02-22T09:18:00.000-05:002006-02-22T14:55:29.486-05:00

The never-ending madness of the cartoon controversy reminds me of what's wrong with the National Rifle Association.The New York Times' latest attempt to give a voice to moderate Muslims who would rather talk about their problem with the depictions of their No. 1 prophet than burn down embassies in protest lays bare the fundamental problem with the idea that it's not Islam that threatens us, only

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1140617852745846242006-02-22T09:09:00.000-05:002006-02-22T09:17:32.763-05:00

There's a guy who lives a couple of blocks from me who has actually paid for the services of a pet psychic, so I'm not surprised to read this AP story: "Psychics join search for show dog that escaped at New York's Kennedy Airport." It seems that a dozen psychics are helping searchers check cargo buildings for "Vivi."My friend Pierre, who brought the tale to my attention this morning, asks some

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1140549185051106982006-02-21T14:13:00.000-05:002006-02-21T14:13:05.096-05:00

The Flying Spaghetti Monster, caught live on tape. Watch it here.(Thanks to Orac.)

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1140366274881403542006-02-19T11:06:00.000-05:002006-02-19T11:24:34.900-05:00

A couple of follow-ups to recent posts:First, anyone interested in the Mohammed cartoon controversy should spend a few minutes with the editor of the paper that started it all, Flemming Rose. He writes in today's Washington Post that not only was it a good idea, but the net result of the controversy in Denmark has only served to promote cross-cultural understanding and improved relations with

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1140024644475461322006-02-15T12:30:00.000-05:002006-02-15T16:12:09.506-05:00

Michael Moore was right. We do live in fictional times. Just how fictional? Well, you know things are bad when a novelist is among the most powerful Americans involved in setting government policy on one of the biggest challenges facing the country.It's been three days since word came that Fred Barnes' new book on the second Bush presidency contains a reference to a visit between the president

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1139761699936226752006-02-12T11:20:00.000-05:002006-02-13T13:59:29.326-05:00

Of all the depressingly polarized reactions to the publication in a Danish newspaper of a dozen editorial cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, this one is particularly troubling:The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, comprising more than 50 states, published on its Web site a statement condemning "the aggressive campaign waged against Islam and its Prophet" by

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1139414049882219592006-02-08T10:51:00.000-05:002006-02-08T10:59:27.780-05:00

Today we learn, thanks to the skepticism of blogger Nick Anthis (sort of a U.K. analog of Chris Mooney), that one of George W. Bush's political appointees at NASA's public relations office lied about graduating from university on his résumé. The New York Times reports this morning that George Deutsch has now resigned.Anthis got curious when he realized that a 24-year-old with no science education

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1139325515278338232006-02-07T10:18:00.000-05:002006-02-07T10:21:40.493-05:00

Another in an occasional series of great little science stories. Recommended this week is:"Whale sharks can be identified using astronomical star pattern recognition program."I just can't resist a story involving the application of the lessons or techniques of one discipline to another. "“This is an example of space technology finding an important application here on Earth," said Dr. Zaven

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1139082530100567102006-02-04T14:48:00.000-05:002006-02-04T20:15:53.366-05:00

The big news last week from the most dangerous of America's religious windbags is that they can't agree on what to do about climate change. To that, I say, "And a good thing, too."The knee-jerk reaction among those who have been trying to haul Christians aboard the environmental movement -- desperately, and usually futilely, looking for ways to reinterpret the Biblical directive to "have dominion

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1138977767336007652006-02-03T09:39:00.000-05:002006-02-03T09:42:47.350-05:00

So, America's on the road to energy independence, eh?That's the impression GWB's State of the Union speech left us with the other night. Efficient cars, nuclear power and alternative fuels will wean the country off Mid-East oil. Right.So where's the plan to increase fleet mileage in the American auto industry? What about the tax increases needed to subsidize nuclear's sky-high costs?And the money

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1138638775840418132006-01-30T11:26:00.000-05:002006-02-01T14:58:41.506-05:00

Just in time to watch Sam Alito get confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but too late to influence the debate, New Scientist weighs in this week with some thoughts on the future of American science at the hands of a court tilting rightward. It's subscription-only (worth it if you have $200 burning a hole in a pocket somewhere), so I'll steal a few excerpts for you:Areas affected could include

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1138398053341307872006-01-27T15:37:00.000-05:002006-01-28T12:52:50.980-05:00

Rule No. 1: Everybody loves a good list.Rule No. 2: Criteria for inclusion and/or ranking of lists need have absolutely no grounding in reality.That's a lesson I learned about a decade ago during one of my stints as a newspaper reporter and editor. The boss had us compile "top 10" lists of just about anything, even though we were ostensibly a serious paper covering Canada's Parliament. We didn't

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1138312125947461932006-01-26T16:48:00.000-05:002006-01-28T12:38:20.296-05:00

Much is being made of a new poll of Brits that suggests Charles Darwin's homeland isn't quite as intellectually advanced as previously believed. The main poll question and statistic of interest is "44% said creationism should be included" in science classes. PZ Myers, for example, heralds the Ipsos MORI poll, conducted for the BBC-TV Horizons series, as evidence that "Brits are just as stupid as

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1138283743760205292006-01-26T08:55:00.000-05:002006-01-26T16:52:04.296-05:00

Regulars will recall my review of Ray Kurzweil's new book, The Singularity is Near. One of the author's fans, realizing that the book's length probably exceeeds the attention of span of most of us mere mortals, has condensed the Singularitarian vision into a few stanzas, sung to the tune and meter of "I am the very model of a modern major general" from the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1138111578463782122006-01-24T09:06:00.000-05:002006-01-24T09:11:08.763-05:00

The implications for Canada of the victory of the Conservative Party in last night's federal election aren't immediately obvious. The most likely scenarios hint at very little change on just about every front, and when it comes to things children of the Englightenment care about, the strongest language I would use is the old standard of "cautious optimisim."For the benefit of American readers

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1137775227569373972006-01-20T10:57:00.000-05:002006-01-20T18:17:55.506-05:00

Science culture blogger Chris Mooney wonders whether he's getting needlessly worked up over the cinema ad now playing around the country in which polar bears and emperor penguins get all chummy over a bottle of Coke. (See it here, if absolutely necessary.) I share his discomfort with the confused biogeography that would suggest the two species even share the same hemisphere, let alone habitat. I

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1137689092142948072006-01-19T11:44:00.000-05:002006-01-19T12:16:29.326-05:00

It's amazing what the some newspaper websites moderators will let through in the name of fairness and balance. In the public comments section of a story in today's Globe and Mail about the fascinating discovery of a raft of new species in a California cave, one "Rain SM from Vancouver, Canada" offers the following complaint in response to a quote referring to adaptation.How does someone turn an

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1137531444148782272006-01-17T15:54:00.000-05:002006-01-18T14:34:13.386-05:00

Among my lamentations in my year-end review was the continuing campaign against evolution in such places as Frazier Mountain High School, which is part of the El Tejon Unified School District in California. Today we learn, through the ever-vigilant folks at Panda's Thumb, that the district has agreed to bring its creationist-inspired "philosophy of design" course to an early end. And, according

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1137506404064324242006-01-17T09:00:00.000-05:002006-01-17T09:08:35.693-05:00

Anyone who has ever had even a passing encounter with publishing a scientific paper, and anyone else with a high school education and a sense of humor, will love today's gag in the New York Times.

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1137343327160500422006-01-15T09:48:00.000-05:002006-01-17T07:11:54.230-05:00

Two of the biggest stories of recent times in science and politics share a common theme: deception. How society deals with the offenders in each case could hardly be more different, and that disparity has got me thinking.For perpetrators of laboratory fraud, there can be no redemption, even though no lives have been lost and the only careers to be ruined are those of the liars themselves. In the

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1137077285322106242006-01-12T09:43:00.000-05:002006-01-12T09:58:34.160-05:00

At first blush, 2005 seemed a like great year for those who believe in good old fashioned science. Looking back just a few days after Judge John E. Jones III's devastating blow to intelligent design in his Kitzmiller ruling, it was hard not to adopt an optimistic outlook for the coming year.There was the positive reception for Chris Mooney's The Republican War on Science and growing acceptance of

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1136917792510189482006-01-10T13:29:00.000-05:002006-01-10T13:31:49.220-05:00

The advent of user-targeted advertising is a curious phenomenon, one that raises some troubling privacy issues. But there may be a positive, unintended, almost ironic side-effect of this trend, thanks to the shortcomings of the targeting software. Allow me to explain.Along the top and down the sides of many a commercial website, private blog and even webmail pages can be found small

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1136819428883569972006-01-09T10:10:00.000-05:002006-01-09T10:16:31.216-05:00

Once again, Canadian voters are getting ready to cast ballots in a federal election without the benefit of a fair national debate thanks to the collusion of the major television networks and what the media call the "main" political parties. The problem is the leaders' debates, which are restricted to the main parties by arbitrary and self-serving qualification criteria. Any party that isn't

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1136586469752488372006-01-06T17:10:00.000-05:002006-01-06T17:27:49.766-05:00

Most Texans were probably too drunk celebrating the Longhorn's Rose Bowl win to notice that their governor, Rick Perry, thinks intelligent design is "a valid scientific theory" and should be taught to public school students in the state.His announcement came just a few weeks after Federal Judge John E. Jones III brutalized the ID movement in Pennsylvania by ruling it isn't science and therefore

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1136471034488182882006-01-05T08:34:00.000-05:002006-01-05T09:23:54.503-05:00

Much has been made lately of the dangers of letting politicians tread onto scientists' territory. (see Chris Mooney's The Republican War on Science for a primer on how poorly most members of government understand the scientific process.) But there is a corollary that gets far less attention.I refer to the dangers of letting scientists set public policy, and a speech this week by a former

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1136298011992813012006-01-03T09:00:00.000-05:002006-01-03T15:13:34.853-05:00

SUVs kill babies.That may be a bit of an exaggeration, or at least a decontextualized distortion, of a new study published this week in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. But compared with today's confusing media coverage of the study, it's at least straight to the point.The truth, of course, is that all sort of vehicles, and all sort of other things, kill babies. What the new

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1135802014965684272005-12-28T14:14:00.000-05:002006-01-19T23:37:06.443-05:00

The most problematic scene in the both the book and new cinematic versions of C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe takes place early on, potentially poisoning the rest of the work. Fortunately for those who look forward to suspending disbelief, what follows makes for compelling storytelling and, in the case of the film, dazzling cinematography.Nevertheless, a few days later, I found

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1135717907791763232005-12-27T16:11:00.000-05:002005-12-27T16:27:15.213-05:00

If the deluge of coverage afforded Federal Judge John E. Jones III's trouncing of intelligent design in Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School Board has sparked your interest in the philosophical underpinning of either creationism or evolution -- and if it hasn't, why not? -- the current issue of Spiegel Online has just the thing: an interview with one of the biggest names in the field, Daniel C.

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1135174375852481962005-12-21T09:06:00.000-05:002005-12-22T14:01:17.773-05:00

Permit me to draw your attention to my most recently published essay, which appeared Dec. 16 in the News and Observer of Raleigh, N.C. It concerns the teaching of evolution in North Carolina schools. At the end of the piece is a link to a letter to the editor that appeared Dec. 20 in response to my essay.That letter is why I do what I do. I am not usually given to naked displays of pride, but

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1135119046117964362005-12-20T17:16:00.000-05:002005-12-20T17:52:21.690-05:00

Today's decision in the Dover, Penn., "intelligent design" lawsuit is going to make a lot people very angry. Very, very angry indeed.Not only did Judge Jones rule four-square in favor of the parents who objected to the inclusion of a mere one-minute reference to creationism-in-disguise in their children's public high school science classes, but he specifically described as liars the former

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1135022380824260292005-12-19T14:44:00.000-05:002005-12-19T15:03:07.660-05:00

My apologies to those have been hoping for something new in this space over the past few days. I'm afraid my Internet connection is a casualty of the ice storm that crippled our neck of the woods last Thursday. Power was out from 2 p.m. Thursday to 2 p.m. Sunday, and Charter Communications has yet to reestablish its broadband service to Saluda.I'll be back as soon as possible. I am doing my best

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1134500006596352062005-12-13T13:29:00.000-05:002005-12-14T06:53:10.600-05:00

If there really is a "war on Christmas," consider me a conscientious objector. My draft card from the ACLU/Secular Humanist Association/Pagans United Against Wal-Mart alliance went up in smoke this morning in our kitchen's wood stove.The mainstream media is chock-a-block full of references to this nefarious campaign, which is supposedly being waged by liberals intent upon removing all references

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1134482087872552712005-12-13T08:47:00.000-05:002006-01-28T02:16:09.056-05:00

A marvelous example of how passion, curiosity and dedication can combine to produce stellar science can be found in today's New York Times' story on the narwhal's tusk and a segment on NPR's Morning Edition.You don't have to love whales to appreciate the story, just an idea of what it means to have sensitive teeth. The lead researcher is Martin T. Nweeia of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine.

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1134067906837584722005-12-08T13:51:00.000-05:002005-12-12T20:39:00.973-05:00

"Are you sure?" is a common enough question. But it's often the wrong question to ask, especially when the stakes are really high, as they are when it comes to climate change.Responsible leaders, whether in government or business, demand the best available information from their advisers and experts before making consequential decisions. But knowing when to act in the absence of certainty is the

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1133897943948552202005-12-06T14:15:00.000-05:002005-12-07T13:47:02.963-05:00

Coming on the heels of Gregory Paul's paper suggesting that we can all get along just fine without religion (I wrote about it a few weeks back) is an even more detailed exploration of the value of a secular society.Phil Zuckerman, an assistant professor of sociology at California's Pitzer College, contributes a chapter on "Atheism: Rates and Patterns Worldwide" to a forthcoming book from

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1133888459282038242005-12-06T11:56:00.000-05:002005-12-06T12:01:38.980-05:00

Apalling news from the Associated Press: LAWRENCE - A professor whose planned course on creationism and intelligent design was canceled after he sent e-mails deriding Christian conservatives was hospitalized Monday after what appeared to be a roadside beating. Read the rest of this nightmare, courtesy the Wichita Eagle, here.

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1133797485077559652005-12-05T10:40:00.000-05:002005-12-05T10:50:35.170-05:00

I was betrayed as a young boy by Charles Berlitz.No, I didn't blow my allowance on a failed attempt to learn an exotic language, although I strongly suspect others have been disappointed down that particularly avenue. In my case, it was the language-guru's other claim to fame, his 1974 bestseller, The Bermuda Triangle, that did the damage.When you're 13, you'll believe anything set in type. At

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1133792001368730602005-12-05T09:03:00.000-05:002005-12-05T09:14:42.270-05:00

If you're at all interesting in how science is used and abused by those behind the curtain, check out Framing Science, a new blog by journalist Matthew C. Nisbet. Thanks to Chris Mooney for drawing my attention to it."Framing" is an old idea that has found new currency thanks to linguist George Lakoff's Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate (A Progressive Guide to

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1133449434918098192005-12-01T09:51:00.000-05:002005-12-01T20:41:35.860-05:00

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.-- Albert EinsteinReuters has picked up Italian press reports that the fate of limbo is in (where else?) but limbo.Apparently, a Vatican committee set up last year by the previous pope (whose fate would now appear, technically at least, to be a bit more uncertain than before) wants to do away with the whole concept of limbo.

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1133386003163057962005-11-30T16:18:00.000-05:002006-01-30T15:42:32.020-05:00

For my Western North Carolina/Upstate South Carolina readers only:(Everyone else, skip the rest of this post, and read instead this fascinating account of the latest research into the tendency of the human brain to see evidence of design where none exists.)I'll be speaking at the Polk County campus of Isothermal Community College (directions here)on Sunday, 4 Dec 2005, at 2 p.m.The topic isNo

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1133297168241978172005-11-29T15:30:00.000-05:002005-11-29T15:58:44.953-05:00

Alert: the following will make sense to Canadian readers only(Americans without a good grasp of late 20th-century skullduggery in Canada might as well click right on over to Dilbert, Doonesbury or Boondocks)My old pal Derek Raymaker has posted a bang-on summary of the atrocious behaviour of the Canadian media in a story that should never have revolved around one of their own, but has.Anyone who

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1133188969399208382005-11-28T09:31:00.000-05:002005-12-02T14:59:16.223-05:00

As part of my campaign to avoid acquiring the reputation of a curmudgeon -- not that there's anything wrong with that -- I offer here a brief list of good news from the front lines of the culture wars.First, a word from the 14th Dalai Llama Tenzin Gyatso, born Lhamo Dhondrub: "If science proves some belief of Buddhism wrong, then Buddhism will have to change." (New York Times, Nov. 12).It's

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12458433.post-1132582800351253322005-11-21T09:17:00.000-05:002005-11-21T21:03:36.506-05:00

In these simple times, it comes as no surprise that among members of the government and media, those charged with reviewing the qualifications of candidates for the most powerful court in the land would find it difficult to deal with something as complex as the law.Which explains why analysis of a Supreme Court nominee's myriad interpretations of the Constitution is often reduced to a binary

james hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17439101607007034689noreply@blogger.com0