Steven Milloy. Science. Two things that are immiscible. One of his latest essays on Fox News.com, It’s the Sun, Stupid. It’s time for some Monday Madness.
I’m going to miss being a square, but at least I’m not a cube, yet. That’s right, today I turned 26 years old - the last time my mathematician-sister tells me, I’ll be between a square and a cube (25 and 27 of course). 2 times my lucky* number, 26 is looking to be one of my most interesting years yet. I’m chugging along in my research, going back for my second semester of grad school, and getting my show going again.
Oh yeah, and this year Ariela and I are supposed to find a house (going to be in Madison for 5 years, why not pay rent to ourselves?), get half a dozen bee colonies, and more. 26 ain’t so bad, it’s right on the cusp between one life and another.
NOTE: I’m posting this from a coffee shop which is my only sporadic internet access - posts will be infrequent until I get back to Madison.
Nice to be back in the SF bay area again. Ariela and I met up with Jie and went running around San Francisco. We had lunch at the Fisherman’s Grotto by pier 39, got some stocking stuffers, and went to Haight Street for some more browsing and shopping. Amoeba Music delivered with six new SciFi soundtracks for my collection. One was the soundtrack to Carl Sagan’s Cosmos. Rare find! I also picked up two of the Matrices, the new Dr. Who, and the last two complete Star Wars soundtracks I need - episodes I and II.
Down Haight street, we ate at a Thai restaurant called Phuket. Hungry and laughing, we couldn’t resist. It’s actually pronounced Read More…
It has now been two years since the pseudoscience Intelligent Design got its rectum handed to it by Judge John E. Jones III in the Kitzmiller v Dover case. Each year, it has become a science blogging tradition to highlight the effect that this monumental test case has had on the public image and political strategies of ID. The scientific status of ID has remained unchanged since its inception, namely, empty. What the court case did was turn the tables on the politics of the Discovery Institute and its “Design Proponents,” revealing in a structured evidence-based format just how far from science they really were. Read More…
I am stats masheeen! I just finished my last final today, so now the Molecular Methods for crop Improvement - Hort 550, and Statistics 571 are under my belt. And so, too, is an early lunch. I’m borrowing sleep from the Void right now - gotta finish up a few things at work and then tomorrow I’m off to California for 2 weeks. I was hoping to post my last Mindcast episode before I left, but time is a crunchin’. It’ll have to wait until I get back.
Ariela and I are visiting my parents (or the parents as I always say) in Petaluma, first, and then they’re driving us down to LA to visit Ariela’s folks. Somewhere in the middle I guess my sister Jen is taking us to Santa Cruz and back, and I’m supposed to have a birthday on or about the 27th. It’s pretty much been decided that we’re eating at Cholada - a Thai restaurant on the PCH just north/west of the Pacific Pallisades, or in the vicinity of Malibu. It doesn’t look like much on the outside, but the food… mmmm. I don’t think we can go to LA without eating there.
“Not without my Cholada”
(For the uninitiated, this means everyone, we saw a mexican comedian make jokes about mexican versions of movies. “Not without my Daughter” became “Not without my Chola.” Hence, a trip to LA, “Not without my Cholada.”)
Talk about relevant commentary on the news, Jesus and Mo delivers with another hilarious strip. It is so true!
I’m swamped with finals this week, and I have not the time to finish the Monday Madness post I planned for today. It will instead be posted next week. So please consider an article written by a professional who thinks that the news media needs to regulate blogging. Via Dispatches from the Culture Wars, David Hazinski writes Unfettered ‘citizen journalism’ too risky. Here are a few choice excerpts (actually, most of the article):
The premise of citizen journalism is that regular people can now collect information and pictures with video cameras and cellphones, and distribute words and images over the Internet. Advocates argue that the acts of collecting and distributing makes these people “journalists.” This is like saying someone who carries a scalpel is a “citizen surgeon” or someone who can read a law book is a “citizen lawyer.”
No, someone carrying a scalpel on the street - and performing emergency surgeries on the street in times of need - is a citizen surgeon. Duh. Read More…
I’m happy to report that this weekend, my podcast has just topped 100,000 downloads since its inception! Fantastic!
What is also very interesting to note is that 20,000 of those downloads came after I stopped posting new shows. That means to me that there’s some staying power there, if only I can get the show going again.
This brings me to my next piece of news: Read More…
My friend Jie back in California alerted me last week to news on my own doorstep. Apparently, the Wisconsin State Assembly has been wasting its time this holiday season. Hard up for productive things to do, they proposed, debated, and as of yesterday voted to rename the “Holiday Tree” in the rotunda of the Capital building, the “State of Wisconsin Christmas Tree.” Apparently, 20 years of calling it a fairly religiously-neutral name pissed them off so much that they had to spend their taxpayer-paid time to not only rename it with a specific religious name - but also make sure everyone know’s that it is the State of Wisconsin’s specifically religiously-named decoration. Oy, Madison, this is how my new home makes itself known across the country these days?
I’m surprised at how, even though they decided to spend valuable time on this issue in the state assembly, their arguments for renaming it were weaker than the skin of the ornaments on the tree they were debating. “Most people in Wisconsin are Christians.” “Kids call it the Christmas Tree.” “I thought it was the Christmas Tree when I first joined the assembly.” “We also allow other religious stuff to be displayed.” “They called it the Christmas Tree from 1916 to 1985 when they renamed it - we’re just changing it back.” Simplistic arguments for what is really an involved, nuanced issue. Read More…
Welcome to the 21st edition of Mendel’s Garden, here at The Inoculated Mind. Genetics-related blog posts were submitted from around the blogosphere during the month of November, and here you will find the best of them for your reading enjoyment this December, 2007. It seemed that although the topics were mixed, as they always are, there was a general theme to this month’s submissions. Old DNA never dies. Read More…
