Daily Archives: August 25, 2010
McLean vs. Arkansas 20 Years Later: Part III – Gould speaks!
Teabagger attempts to kill Muslim in NYC
In addition to a serious neck wound, Ahmed H. Sharif suffered cuts to forearms, face and one hand while trying to fend off Enright, prosecutor James Zeleta said while arguing against bail.
TD 07 –> TS Earl
Earl, previously known as tropical depression 07, is now Tropical Storm Earl, and is cranking up through this ‘middle school’ phase of the cyclone life cycle so quickly that by the time you read this Earl might be a hurricane. Or in his case, a himicane.
Continue reading TD 07 –> TS Earl
“A new theory of evolution proves what Sarah Palin has always known: Darwin was a retard”
As I predicted earlier today, various journalists are taking up the theme that “Darwin was wrong” because he did not predict that niches into which organisms evolved would be a major controlling feature in the overall pattern of evolution.
But of course, he did, and the new research being referred to does not “disprove darwin.”
At least the piece I’m referring to here takes a somewhat tongue in cheek attitude towards the story.
Less than a week to private space launch
In which an actual living person, instead of just the ashes of TV actors, will be launched into space.
Here’s a picture of the rocket and it’s friend, the submarine:
Our mission is very simple. We are working towards launching a human being into space.
This is a non-profit suborbital space endeavor lead by Kristian von Bengtson and Peter Madsen, based entirely on sponsors and volunteers.
Click here to find out more, and if you like, give them money.
I’ve never been paid a dime by a Democrat
Obviously, I have to switch parties:
Katie Couric once described bloggers as journalists who gnaw at new information “like piranhas in a pool.” But increasingly, many bloggers are also secretly feeding on cash from political campaigns, in a form of partisan payola that erases the line between journalism and paid endorsement.
“It’s standard operating procedure” to pay bloggers for favorable coverage, says one Republican campaign operative. A GOP blogger-for-hire estimates that “at least half the bloggers that are out there” on the Republican side “are getting remuneration in some way beyond ad sales.”
Whoa. Sign up here!
Is Obama really a Muslim?
Or is he merely …. an atheist?
07 at about 31W 14N
More on being a dick
Don’t be a random, arbitrary dick. Be meaningful and relevant in your dickosity:
If your dickishness is going to help you communicate the values of skepticism, it has to relate, directly and immediately, to the circumstances that warrant anger.
And then, if you want to know everything else about this topic, click here. Don’t worry, nothing bad will happen. Just. Click. It. Trust me.
Danielle is back UPDATE
Danielle is a hurricane again. Not real well organized but showing signs of getting its act together, Danielle will likely continue to strengthen for a couple/few days, remain a hurricane for a couple of days, then start weakening in about five days. This is all going to happen out in the middle of the Atlantic, which is, of course, where Bermuda is. But, there are no coastal warnings in effect now.
The other system that has been forming A number, “7”, has been given to the system that has been developing in the vicinity of the Cape Verde islands is getting better organized and will probably become a tropical depression within the next few hours. It is fully expected that this will become a major storm by the end of this week. Stay tuned.
TD 7 is fairly large and wel defined, with visible cyclonic curvy bands. TD 7, just named because it just got organized enough to be a depression, will probably become a tropical storm very soon, probably by mid afternoon. Then, what will be a named tropical storm (Earl, I believe) will continue to travel across the very warm Atlantic Ocean and become a full blown hurricane by Saturday or so.
Danielle has left a path in its wake for Earl to follow. This and other factors suggest that the fast forming and very likely intense Earl will veer north and head out into the middle of the Atlantic.
However, if Earl is very strong, and other conditions change somewhat, it may not be the case that this storm will dissipate in the middle of the ocean. It is too early to say. Keep an eye on this one.
It is also worth noting that the track of this storm … and this is a bit early to say this but nobody’s paying me to be right here …. seems more directly aimed at Bermuda. If I lived in Bermuda I’d buy an umbrella this week.
US troops punished for avoiding religious concert?
From Military.com via the TFN:
The Army said Friday it was investigating a claim that dozens of soldiers who refused to attend a Christian band’s concert at a Virginia military base were banished to their barracks and told to clean them up.
Natural Selection vs. Opportunity in Macroevolutionary Patterning of the Fossil Record
I’m going to talk about one or two peer reviewed papers, but in doing so, I’m going to have to say a few words … and this will not be pretty … about a certain science writer’s report at the BBC.
In an article titled “Space is the final frontier for evolution, study claims” BBC “science writer” Howard Falcon-Lang uses the old, tired, and quite frankly, stupendously unethical tack of making a claim that Darwin has been overthrown by new research. If someone actually overthrows Darwin, then so be it. But this is not what has happened. Falcon-Lang, or perhaps his BBC handlers, have used the cheap trick to sell their wares, and this is not appreciated.
If Howard Falcon-Lang did not a) claim to be a science reporter and b) have a dumb-ass hyphenated name, I’d be nice in my critique of his recent writeup. But no. He left me no choice. I will have to take it apart red in tooth and claw.