Where’s are the Dr. Gregory Houses when this happens? A teenage kid was convinced that if he received a standard, life-saving blood transfusion then he would have been “unclean” and “unworthy.” Now he is dead.
Join the discussion on Pharyngula, and read the comments on this one. Right from the top it gets good: Read More…
Hmmm, it appears that one of the readers that leaked over from Climate Audit learned about the Wikispot project I’m involved in (and have two wikis on). There’s now a Climate Audit 101 Wiki. The wiki, started by Carl Gullans, is billed thus:
This Wiki aims to collect, organize, and explain the findings at Steve McIntyre’s blog
http://www.climateaudit.org as they pertain to the climate record.
Maybe we need a RealClimate Wiki to debunk half of the Climate Audit wiki? This may be interesting.
Still, good to see that the Wikispot community is expanding! Wiki the planet!
Update: 11-27 8:03 AM. It appears that the trackback that was placed on the Climate Audit blog by linking to it on this post has been deleted. Fascinating. Let’s see what happens when I re-ping the blog…
Update: 11-27 11:26 AM. Deleted again. I should get a screenshot…
…and here’s the screenshot. I was hoping to have the trackback be identical to the first and second one, but this time it displayed the text of the latest update. Note: the time displayed on Climate Audit is not the actual time (Central Time) that I made the comment. It appears to be behind by about 20 minutes.
I just came across a fascinating article in the New York Times about biotechnology and religion. (via onegoodmove) Are Scientists playing God? It Depends on your Religion. What Princeton University’s Dr. Lee Silver found was that cultural perspectives on plant, animal, and human biotechnology varied from country to country, and correlated with religious beliefs. (Human biotechnology being primarily stem cell research.)
Here’s the breakdown: Read More…
We all know the game of the Intelligent Design Creationist crowd. Yes, point at something that looks complex, find out that we don’t have the complete story for how it came to be, erroniously call this evidence for design, whip out some flash animations making fun of scientists, and then whine about the dogmatic repressive science establishment and the school system and the constitution and whatever else they think is keeping their empty ideas out of the schools. (Notice how at no point in this process, they actually do any scientific research.)
Some of you may know that “Irreducible Complexity” is Michael Behe’s way of saying “I don’t know. Therefore it was designed.”
Some of you may know that “Complex Specified Information” is William Dembski’s way of saying “If we don’t know how it evolved, it has CSI. If we do know how it evolved, it doesn’t have CSI. Therefore, CSI demonstrates that if we don’t know how it evolved, it was designed. And evolution cannot generate CSI, by definition. I’m so smartt.”(sic)
But have any of you heard what Toronto-based ID proponent and Dembski’s Co-blogger, Denyse O’Leary thinks intelligent design predicts? Stupid. Another topic ripe for Monday Madness. Read More…
Hello readers! I appreciate those of you who take the time to write comments for my posts - I’m happy to report now that your comments now outnumber my posts! Posts (including this one) number 237, and comments just shot past at 245!
It doesn’t sound like much, considering that means that there’s an average of one comment per post, but you know, when starting up blogging, and not doing it every day, it can be hard to keep an audience. I have noticed that a lot of people are reading and subscribing to my Monday Madness posts, so I’ll try to keep them up, and posting on time on Monday morning if possible. (For some reason, people still keep reading Darwin Undermined Math - it remains one of the most viewed posts each and every month! Read More…
I’ve made a couple more changes to the website, here.
First, have you ever wondered where all those images that come and go on the left came from? Well, a rotating image plugin, of course. That’s not what I mean. I mean: what’s that molecule, whose bees are those, and why is someone drilling a hole in my head with their eyes? I just finished a page explaining the background behind each one of the rotating images that I have on the left, which will only grow more numerous over time.
So check out About my Images and maybe there are some that you haven’t even seen yet?
Also, in case anyone hasn’t noticed, I replaced that silly cartoon-ish grass image at the bottom with an image of a field of corn from this summer. But not just any corn, research corn! My corn was in there somewhere. My dinky little inbred runts. Only a couple last tweaks and this will be perfect! For now. 
The internet is a wonderful thing - it puts information at everyone’s fingertips. What it also does is enable complete idiots to put out information and make a whole lot of people think that it is true. Have you seen the video about how to charge an iPod with just Gatorade and an onion? Well, sit down my friends, watch a couple quick videos, and get ready for some Monday Madness.
Some may have noticed Kirsten Sanford stopping by on a previous post. Kirsten now has the only science show in Davis… ok… she’s back to having the only science show in Davis ;). I’ve had her blog in my blogroll for some time, The Bird’s Brain, but if you’ve ever browsed on over and tried to comment - you would have been stymied by a bizarre password window popping up preventing that.
I just looked over there, and she has a new banner, and what looks to be a functioning comment system. Comment away, and welcome to the discussion, Kirsten! (Glad to see you’re using Wordpress!)
Kirsten also seems to be working on some food science-related videos. Can’t wait until there’s a blog post to tell us more about it.
P.S. She (and Justin) were also on my show, Episode 73. And I on theirs.
Ariela and I went to go check on our bees today (I didn’t write a post about them? OK I will soon!), and it looks like they’re doing fine, considering. A feral colony that has lived for years in the wall of a barn, had a rocky late-season start (hived in late July), I was getting worried. But all is fine - and now I’ve got some news about my bees! Read More…
It’s not like I watch cable TV directly. But I support the current strike by the Hollywood Writers. Why?
There’s a metric ass-load of crap produced out there. On TV and in the theaters. I’ve gone to one crappy movie too much and regretted not buying a book on philosophy with the movie instead. I’ve sat through way too many crappy sitcoms and other TV shows when I was younger. I’ve watched with dismay as “Reality TV” shows cropped up and people ate them up without thinking. Because not a lot of thinking goes into it all. Read More…
