A while ago I pointed you to Ginny Hughes blog where she was conducting an informal survey as prep for a conference she is attending. She has some comments on the results here.
The most interesting result to me is that people in the “autism community” seem to have higher fertility than scientists.
A baby weighing 9 lps, 9 oz, a 9 minutes after 0 on 9/9/09 was born … in LaCrosse Wisconsin.
Clearly, this is the Dolly Llama.
Or, maybe it’s the Beatles’s Baby. Number 9, Number 9, Number 9 ….
Or maybe … No, wait, wait, if this baby had been weighed using the Metric System, it would be 4.337 kilograms.
…
Never mind…
We appear to be having technical difficulties with commenting. Technicians have been scrambled. But this site is based on the perl language, so the technicians were probably already scrambled.
Actually, I’m thinking it is a problem in the interface between the sql server and the apache server. If you think I’m wrong, go ahead and leave a comment!!!!
HAHAHAHA!!!!!
But seriously, maybe this would be a good evening to get to bed early. I know that works for me, I have a long day planned for tomorrow.
John Dean revealed the answer on Olbermann’s show today. And the answer is …
Continue reading What were the Watergate Plumbers looking for?
Tell me if this is a good nomination. It’s a two-fer. The incident ended in death, so this is the real thing, not some sort of honorable mention.
Continue reading Darwin Award Nomination
Since there appears to be a lack of general cultural knowledge of Henry Gibson and Laugh In, some foggy memories (not least being my own) and deep time historical knowledge of comedians Arte Johnson, the early form of Goldie Hawn, Rowan and Martin themselves, Ruth Buzzi, Jo Anne Worley, and Lily Tomlin 1.0, here’s some material for you.
Adam Savage, co-host of Myth Busters will be on to discuss skepticism, celebrity advocacy, and of course, the wildly popular MythBusters and it’s role in skepticism.
and
Derek Bartholomaus, creator of The Jenny McCarthy Body Count will discuss anti-vaccination advocates, the recent rise in treatable illnesses, and why some people really hate science.
“[T]here will come a day when the speaker [of the United States House of Representatives] will be hauled into federal court and threatened with jail because she dares to stand at that podium .. and ask the chaplain to start our day with the prayer.”
Not soon enough, I’m afraid.
These words were uttered by Virginia Rep J. Randy Forbes in reference to a trial going on now in Florida in which two sdhool official are facing charges for violation of the Constitution of the United States of America. Which part of The Constitution? The part that Republicans, Right Wingers, Libertarians and other conservatives chose selectively to ignore.
Continue reading School officials face possible jail terms for praying against court orders
The evolutionary history of mammals can be reviewed as the evolutionary history of tooth loss. The early mammals had many teeth, and every now and then in evolutionary time, a tooth is lost wiht subsequent species arriving from that n-1 toothed form having that smaller number of teeth. With ver few exceptions, no mammals have added a tooth during the history of mammals. (Excepting maybe the very very earliest period, but probably not.)
Well, the loss of enamel itself is also an evolutionary trend in mammal history, and recent research published in PLoS Genetic associates genetic changes over time with what is known of the morphological evolution of mammals.
Continue reading Evolutionary enamel loss linked to molecular decay of enamel-specific gene
Finding one’s way out of the religious right.
And it’s on You Tube!
This is the 199th anniversary of one of the many, many events in Mexico that can be thought of as formative in its long and complex history. Mike has an interesting post comparing the very different patterns of “Independence Making” in Mexico vs. the US.
One of the biggest differences, of course, was that the Native American population in what is now the US was much more systematically exterminated than was the Mexican native population. That meant that when the revolution came, the guns were being held primarily in brown hands in Mexico and white hands in the British colonies.
Steve Harvey is cool with me being an idiot. And you too, likely (being an idiot that is).
Continue reading Atheists are Idiots
We know there is a link between education, church going behavior, and the inability or unwillingness to accept that evolution is real and that humans evolved. But what exactly is the relationship? I think the following diagram includes the correct answer, but I’m not sure which one it is: