Monthly Archives: August 2009

The Falsehoods Come Home to Roost: Dirty Foreign Germs In America

Parasitic infections and other diseases usually associated with the developing world are cropping up with alarming frequency among U.S. poor, especially in states along the U.S.-Mexico border, the rural South and in Appalachia, according to researchers.

Government and private researchers are just beginning to assess the toll of the infections, which are a significant cause of heart disease, seizures and congenital birth defects among black and Hispanic populations.

details

U.S. Chamber of Commerce takes AGW Denialism Stance

The nation’s largest business group is asking U.S. EPA to hold a public debate on climate change science — or face litigation — as the agency prepares to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.

“They don’t have the science to support the endangerment finding,” Bill Kovacs, the chamber’s vice president for environment, regulatory and government affairs, said in an interview. “We can’t just take their word for it.”

The Modes of Natural Selection

There many ways of dividing up and categorizing Natural Selection. For example, there are the trichotomies of Natural Selection, Sexual Selection and Artificial Selection, and Modes of Selection (Stabilizing, Directional, and Disruptive) trichotomy.

We sense that these are good because they are “threes” and “three” is a magic number. Here, I’m focusing on the Mode Trichotomy, and asking that we consider that there are not three, but four modes of Natural Selection. This will cause tremors throughout the Evolutionary Theory community because Four is not a magic number, but so be it.
Continue reading The Modes of Natural Selection

When the eagles are disturbed …

When it comes to observing nature, it pays to pay attention, and it pays to stay in one place for a while. Coming to “The Lake” many spring, summer, and fall weekends (and now and then in the winter) and paying attention to the wildlife and other aspects of the natural environment allows me to see and experience things not otherwise possible.
Continue reading When the eagles are disturbed …

Swine Flu Information from PLoS and Google

PLoS Currents … is a Google/PLoS collaborative effort using Knol to consolidate and organize info about H1N1 novel influenza flu.

The key goal of PLoS Currents is to accelerate scientific discovery by allowing researchers to share their latest findings and ideas immediately with the world’s scientific and medical communities. Google Knol’s features for community interaction, comment and discussion will enable commentary and conversations to develop around these findings. Given that the contributions to PLoS Currents are not peer-reviewed in detail, however, the results and conclusions must be regarded as preliminary. In time, it is therefore likely that PLoS Currents contributors will submit their work for publication in a formal journal, and the PLoS Journals will welcome these submissions.

All the details are here.

The West Wing Parody

The only TV series I ever watched (sine being a kid) was The West Wing. I didn’t watch the West Wing either. But then I met Amanda, and she was into watching the show, so the two of us took in the last year as it happened, then rented the whole thing and eventually saw it all.

The following, courtesy of a friend of mine, is a parody of the show. If you’ve not seen the West Wing, don’t bother, this won’t be even remotely funny. If you have seen it, you will find this to be an excellent parody because it is on one hand ridiculous and on the other and an accurate representation right down to the dialog.
Continue reading The West Wing Parody

Mech On Wolves

Mech originally characterized the “Alpha” pattern of behavior, and has subsequently (over the last forty years) modified this considerably. Science does indeed progress.

However, I hasten to point out that this is a case of inverted skepticism. The change in how we view animal behavioral biology since the 1960s to now has changed in all areas. Rumors that Mech is doing something odd here are clearly overstated. This is run of the mill progress of science.

Hat top: UO

I can’t believe what a total chump you are. Yes, you.

Corporate America removed Bush from office for the pragmatic reason that civilization would have collapsed had they not. Now, with Democrats resting on their laurels and drunk with power, Corporate America seeks to restructure the economy, the regulatory system, and society as benefits them most. Are you going to just let that happen?

Stephanie Zvan at Quiche Moraine explains.

ToDo List Item: Kill child because she converted to another religion.

Traditional Islam is so cool because it really sticks with the old ways, and that’s quaint. But it should be allowed to do this only in a museum where it might be safely kept away from actual people.

Fathima Rifqa Bary is the 17-year-old girl who converted from Islam to Christianity. She packed up her things and ran away to Florida because she feared an honor killing — her own family members killing her because of what she had done.

Her parents say they just want her back safely, but reports say that her mother said Fathima was “dead to her”. The girl also said her father threatened to kill her after learning she had been baptized

Technically, I think she’d be OK if she just “converted” to atheism, but I’m not sure.

The Friendly Atheist has this story covered.