Pro-Science News
Another Level of Recycling
I signed up for a couple of recycle / “freecycle” email lists, one for Pinellas County, and the other for Manatee County. If you haven’t seen these, people who want to pass along items that they aren’t using will put up an “OFFER: item” type email, and people interested in using the item can respond [...]
Categories: Pro-Science News
The casual assumption of privilege
See update at the end of the post One would think after two years of public hoorah in this county over church/state issues in the Freshwater case that there would be a heightened sensitivity to those issues among employees of Knox County (Ohio) schools. But that’s apparently not the case. A Job Training Coordinator at the Knox County Career Center, a vocational high school, is organizing a prayer group for county educators to meet at...
Richard B. Hoppe
Categories: Pro-Science News
And the winners are...
with contributions by Matt Young Due to some hanging chads, we have two winners this week for the “invasive” category—kinda makes sense—Al Denelsbeck and Malcolm S. Schongalla. Balanus improvisus, bay barnacle by Al Denelsbeck — They are now showing up far removed from their originating Atlantic home. Here, I caught detail of the “toes” (cirri) during feeding, with a depth of field estimated at less than 2mm. And of course, Darwin spent no small amount...
Reed A. Cartwright
http://dererumnatura.us/
Categories: Pro-Science News
Birdwatching for creationists
I question that there is a mexican [sic] gray wolf. Subspecies don’t exist. Its [sic] just a wolf. It breeds and would with any wolf anywhere. Any slight difference in colour of fur etc is ireelevant [sic]. I’m sure the shades of this mexican [sic] are as varied as every mountain. In facxt [sic] its [sic] of a kind. This creationist says the dog kink [sic] is the smae [sic] as the bear kind and...
Matt Young
http://www.mines.edu/~mmyoung
Categories: Pro-Science News
Catching up with RNCSE
Selected content from volume 30, number 3, of Reports of the National Center for Science Education is now available on NCSE's website.
Categories: Pro-Science News
NCIS: LA “Found”: A Demurral
I caught a repeat of the “NCIS: Los Angeles” episode, “Found”, earlier this week. There are synopses and reviews various places, like here and here. Neither of those took any notice of the issue of vigilantism in the episode. I think that it is something that should be a bit higher on the radar.
In case [...]
Categories: Pro-Science News
"Darwin was not wrong"
Steven Newton
Writing at the Huffington Post (August 26, 2010), NCSE's Steven Newton debunked the latest round of "Darwin was wrong" sensationalism in the media.
Categories: Pro-Science News
Freshwater: More sanctions coming against Hamilton?
The defendants in Freshwater v. Mount Vernon Board of Education, et al. have requested that R. Kelly Hamilton, John Freshwater’s attorney, be subject to sanctions for failure to comply with discovery demands. What’s interesting about the request (pdf) is that it specifically singles out attorney Hamilton for the sanctions, and not Freshwater. Recall that in Doe v. Mount Vernon BOE, et al., sanctions were also imposed on Freshwater and Hamilton. In that case the operative...
Richard B. Hoppe
Categories: Pro-Science News
And the winner is...
with contributions by Matt Young Don’t forget to vote in our new Invasive contest. The winner of the threatened or endangered category is Dan Stodola for his splendid photograph of a Mexican Gray Wolf. Canis lupus baileyi, Mexican gray wolf, by Dan Stodola — A subspecies of the gray wolf. Was intentionally eradicated from the wild to protect domestic livestock. Has now been reintroduced to a limited range in Arizona. Photo taken at Brookfield Zoo....
Reed A. Cartwright
http://dererumnatura.us/
Categories: Pro-Science News
Photography Contest: Finalists, Invasive
Note: Matt Young directed the selection of the finalists and wrote most of this text. We received approximately 60 photographs from 20 photographers. Most of the pictures were excellent. Approximately half represented endangered or invasive species, very loosely defined. We therefore established 3 categories: general, threatened or endangered, and invasive. Choosing finalists was difficult. We considered what we thought was the scientific and pictorial qualities of the photographs, and also attempted to represent as many...
Reed A. Cartwright
http://dererumnatura.us/
Categories: Pro-Science News
Embark with Darwin's Armada
NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of Iain McCalman's Darwin's Armada: Four Voyages and the Battle for the Theory of Evolution (W. W. Norton, 2009).
Categories: Pro-Science News
Allen West: Anti-American, and Proud of It
Tea Party candidate Allen West made clear his disdain for the “Coexist” bumper sticker. West was quoted as saying,
“[A]s I was driving up here today, I saw that bumper sticker that absolutely incenses me. It’s not the Obama bumper sticker. But it’s the bumper sticker that says, ‘Co-exist.’ And it has all the little [...]
Categories: Pro-Science News
AiG Responds to Comment; Dog Bites Man
“The Underground Site” passes on some arguments from Answers in Genesis responding to comments made by an ethnologist, Bernadette Barton, who took a few trips to the “Creation Museum” facility. From the looks of the responses, AiG probably should have just kept mum; they seem to be of the “Bridgewater Treatise” sort of reply that [...]
Categories: Pro-Science News
I'm Proud of Wyoming
I recently finished some fieldwork in Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains, and was favorably impressed with many road signs describing geological formations in the area. No appeasement of young-earth creationists here! Wyoming is telling visitors just how old the area actually is. Hurrah for Wyoming!...
Dave Thomas
http://www.nmsr.org
Categories: Pro-Science News
Are psychics liable for crackpots?
A couple weeks ago, the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe (the best podcast there is, by the way) covered a horrific story about an Australian couple who tortured a woman after a psychic led them to believe that she was responsible for a theft they had suffered. Their attack on her was really godawful. But then the Rogues got to talking about whether the psychic was herself criminally or civilly liable for her part in...
Timothy Sandefur
http://sandefur.blogspot.com
Categories: Pro-Science News
And the winner is...
with contributions by Matt Young We forgot to declare a winner of the “general” category yesterday The winner is Nicholas Plummer for his splendid photograph of a Robber Fly Eating a Wasp. Robber fly (possibly Promachus rufipes, red-footed cannibalfly) eating a wasp that it has caught in flight, by Nicholas Plummer. The Talk Origins Archive Foundation has generously offered to provide the winner with an autographed copy of Why Evolution Works (and Creationism Fails), by...
Reed A. Cartwright
http://dererumnatura.us/
Categories: Pro-Science News
How reviewers sometimes tell as much about themselves as about the book
I generally do not think authors should comment publicly on book reviews, but this spring I came across two reviews of a book that I coauthored, which had somewhat divergent viewpoints and were written by reviewers who were put out by our treatment of religion. Both reviewers, to some extent, project their own views onto us, but for very different reasons, and I thought that this interesting divergence called out for a brief response. The...
Matt Young
http://www.mines.edu/~mmyoung
Categories: Pro-Science News
Photo Contest
Voting on the general category has ended. Now is time to vote on the Threatened or Endangered category....
Reed A. Cartwright
http://dererumnatura.us/
Categories: Pro-Science News
Photography Contest: Finalists, Threatened or Endangered
Note: Matt Young directed the selection of the finalists and wrote most of this text. We received approximately 60 photographs from 20 photographers. Most of the pictures were excellent. Approximately half represented endangered or invasive species, very loosely defined. We therefore established 3 categories: general, threatened or endangered, and invasive. Choosing finalists was difficult. We considered what we thought was the scientific and pictorial qualities of the photographs, and also attempted to represent as many...
Reed A. Cartwright
http://dererumnatura.us/
Categories: Pro-Science News
Futurama: Evolution under Attack
Since Comedy Central took Futurama from Adult Swim, I have boycotted watching Futurama on Comedy Central. (Adult Swim is the reason why Futurama lives.) That may have to change. FuturamaThursdays 10pm / 9cPreview - Evolution Under Attackwww.comedycentral.comFuturama New EpisodesRoast of David HasselhoffIt's Always Sunny in Philadelphia...
Reed A. Cartwright
http://dererumnatura.us/
Categories: Pro-Science News
