Comment

Comment by Hugh Kramer on November 9, 2009 at 1:27pm

Here was the challenge: Can you communicate the most important idea in biology, and one of the most controversial ideas in our society, in a mere 120 seconds? Think you can convince even the most hard-headed creationist that Darwin was right? If so, show us—and that creationist—how it's done.
And we have a winner! It's official. Evolution is a song... or at least the winning entry in Discover Magazine's "EVOLUTION IN TWO MINUTES OR LESS" video contest is.

More, including a link to the videos, here.

Comment by Hugh Kramer on November 7, 2009 at 5:34pm

Every year New Humanist magazine opens the polls to decide who will receive the prestigious Bad Faith Award. Each year, the person deemed by the voters to have made the most outstanding contribution to the cause of unreason. 2008's winner who, with 33% of the vote, was the hands-down victor in a field of nine contestants, was Alaska governor and vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin.
More here (including the list of this year's nominees and how to cast your vote).

Comment by Aiden on November 4, 2009 at 8:55am

Adam Carolla interviews Dr. Bruce, spends the first 20 minutes bashing idiots like Jenny McCarthy, telling her to "shut the fuck up". Good times.

Comment by Dallas (on hiatus) on November 3, 2009 at 5:08pm

I've not read this, I'm just passing the info along. - DG

THINKING IN SYSTEMS: A Primer

Meadows’s long-time associate Diana Wright has edited an unfinished 1993 manuscript into humane, pertinent, and delightful book. Thinking in Systems reflects Meadows’s lifelong effort to understand systems at all scales – their resilience, their pathologies, their response to perturbations, their capacity to defy prediction. A reader seeking to understand the anomalies of our time and to prepare mentally for the likelihood of disruptive change needs this book.

“A system,” Meadows writes, “is a set of things – people, cells, molecules, or whatever – interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behavior over time.” Systems thinking can reveal interconnections, explain behavior, and anticipate outcomes. Changing outcomes – slowing climate disruption, spreading new crop varieties, containing an epidemic – requires action to change a system’s elements, the interconnections among them, or (more likely) both.

Read the rest here.

Comment by Dallas (on hiatus) on November 3, 2009 at 2:09pm

Very interesting slide show: Zombie Creatures: What Happens When Animals Are Possessed by a Para...

Comment by Beachbum on October 19, 2009 at 6:37pm

The assertion that science requires as much faith as religion is first, and foremost, false, but furthermore an affront to thinking and objective observation of the accumulated facts. Facts, that have gradually built up in one particular direction, to the chagrin of apologists the world over. Like evolution, we are where we are by the gradual accumulation of things that work, in an atmosphere of things that don't.

Comment by Gwen on October 10, 2009 at 9:15pm

COOL! (to continue the rhyming theme!)

Comment by Dallas (on hiatus) on October 10, 2009 at 5:46pm

I don't know who wrote this, but it is in response to the discovery of Saturn's new ring. - DG

When Galileo told the Pope
“Here, look into my telescope—
You’ll see much beauty there, I hope.”
His Holiness, the Pope, said “Nope.”

“Now kiss my ring, instead, and swear
That nothing of the sort is there—
I know you think it is not fair,
But I’m the Pope, as you’re aware.”

The Pope’s command was quite absurd,
But Galileo gave his word,
(Though some report him undeterred:
“E pur si muove” overheard.)

In hindsight now, with great delight,
We know, despite his Papal might,
That evidence would come to light
To prove the heretic was right.

With Urban’s ring already kissed,
The chance to get it right was missed,
Just one more error on the list—
But now, we find another twist!

What wonders will the cosmos bring?
Now Saturn sports another ring!
Much bigger than the Pope’s, this thing
Is interplanetary bling!

Four centuries have come to pass
Since Galileo ground his glass;
Far too much time for him, alas,
To tell the Pope to kiss his ass.

But now, the kids will learn in school:
That Saturn sports another jewel;
That telescopes are really cool;
One may be Pope, but still a fool.

Comment by Aiden on October 9, 2009 at 3:19pm

Astronomers creating 3D map of the universe

Team hopes that the map can help in the hunt for more data about mysterious dark energy

Comment by Aiden on October 9, 2009 at 2:07pm

Considering how quick conspiracy nutters are to jump on any little/remote piece of evidence in order to support their claims, I think it's relatively reasonable to say they would have said something before 23 years had gone by.

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