Via Kombiz, it appears the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s newest push towards the hard-right has resulted in another new policy as well. According to a statement released at around the same time as the Planned Parenthood defunding was being planned, the Komen Foundation will also be denying any funding for cancer research that uses embryonic stem cells [PDF]. The statement language is lifted directly from far-right rhetoric on the matter, saying they will only fund stem cell research “derived without creating a human embryo or destroying a human life.”

This seems to go even farther than George W. Bush was willing to go, as it appears to offer no grandfathering of existing embryonic stem cell lines, but instead formalizes a blanket funding ban on all such research, no matter what the origin of the cells. It’s about as extremist a position as exists on the matter.

source

As my friend Mike suggested, we need to ask our local sports team to drop the whole “wear pink” thing.

Climate change denialism has it’s Dave Mabus, and his name is Markus Fitzhenry. I just got this note slipped under my eDoor.

You made a big mistake, lying about me.

MEMBERS

There is enlightenment coming, it will be a cleansing wind throughout academia. This is just the tip of an iceberg, that is going to sink, the titanic of AGW, and all those on board. They are of the dark ages.
Ask David Evans, see his expose at Jo Nova science blog (au). Go to Tallbloke (uk). Go to Judith Curry (com).
The greatest fear I have is polluted minds around me. What have we become, men, who give their minds to others for safekeeping. We should pity ourselves, as well as them.
My countrymen are in danger, we have never had such wide divides between us, it is threatening division and insurrection. It must stop. We are close to solving the mystery of climate, we have most of the pieces now, and great minds will complete the puzzle soon. The Greens are deluded, we will prove it.
I am but a troubador, with a spatha of iron will. By His grace.
Yours sincerely,
Markus Fitzhenry

Then following that there’s a bunch, like thousands of words, of “bla bla bla” including this little gem:
Continue reading Ruh Roh. A crazy nutbag is saying scary things to me. Again. →

Dear reader, if you follow my blog at Science Blogs you won’t need to check out any of these links, but if not, let me tell you that this has been the busiest single week of climate change related blogging that I’ve personally engaged in, and it is all pretty interesting and even rather exciting, in a “hey, did you see that multi-car pile up on the interstate” kinda way.

The climate change and science denialists are at it again, and we’ve been, well, addressing their issues.

It started with the Wall Street Journal publishing a horrific editorial (Two incontrovertible things: Anthropogenic Global Warming is Real, and the Wall Street Journal is Political Rag UPDATED) followed closely by a piece on a different but related topic on the Daily Mail (New British Studies Confirms Climate Change Consensus, Daily Mail Gets It Totally Wrong). This all comes amid concern that Coral Reefs will be Gone by the End of the Century. After first addressing the problem that Global Warming Is Ruining The Minnesota Winter (including but not limited to the Cancellation of the Lake Elmo Ice Fishing Contest), I reminded my fellow North Star Staters that Unless you really know what you are doing stay off the ice!, then I posted a satire on Global Cooling.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, Mike Mann, the famous climate scientist, released his new book: The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars.

Then, this thing happened where various bloggers were talking about a Meteorologist who was Exposed as a Scientific Fraud and in so doing some of used a really cool graphic, including Phil Plait the Bad Astronomer guy. Phil was then ATTACKED by a bogus statistician over matters concerning this graph and while Phil was wiping the sweat off his brow and about to dive into the fray, I jumped in with an extensive and intensive look at how William M. Briggs has misunderstood a high-school level data graph, the comments section of which is now the site of a brewing all out bloggy war.

Meanwhile, remember that Wall Street Journal piece? It was signed by a handful of fake scientists, and now it has been followed up by a response from Actual Scientists. And I can’t be sure but I suspect the WSJ published that in part because of pressure from YOU, the blogosphere!

And this period of sudden activity is momentarily punctuated by a low point in Minnesota, wherein Minnesotan Republicans Disrupt Attempts to Save Civilization From Itself. As per usual.

This is not over. I just thought you’d like to know now so you can start trying to catch up.

State Legislator Ellen Anderson is an energy expert, who authored seven energy related bills one of which became a national model, all of which were signed into law by a Republican Governor. She was recently appointed by Governor Dayton to the Public Utilities Commission. Republicans, however, organized a vote against the apointment because her views on energy are too radical.

What are her radical views? Well, she she thinks coal is dirty, for one thing. She’d like to see more conservation and use of solar and wind. That sort of thing.

Here’s the story on our local news station.

Who owns the Republican Party? Who do you think ….

You all know about how Susan G. Komen for the Cure has screwed over women and broken ties with Planned Parenthood under a false pretense, bowing to pressure from Right Wing Yahoos. (See this.)

You probably want to sign this letter to “all of the anti-choice, anti-women people out there.”

I love it. It’s a rant from Planned Parenthood. Go sign on.

A Carin Bodnar’s Crib.

… can be found HERE.

What I’m talking about is the complete series of stories told at The Monti at ScienceOnline 2012. (I mentioned them here.)

You will laugh, you will cry, you will go “WTF?”

Jessica M. Budke has the Berry Go Round carnival up at her site. Have you heard about the plants that eat nematodes? Solar powered sea slugs? Have you considered covering your house instead of painting it?

Go here to find out all about these amazing topics and more.

“Parallel Evolution” is not really a kind of evolution, but rather, an observation we make about the pattern of evolution in particular cases. Many species have a “woodpecker adaptation” by which a hard sharp thing is used to get at grubs and other insect (or non insect) meat hidden beneath bark. Some of the sharp things are beaks, one bird uses a cactus spine, and there is a primate with a special elongated finger for doing this, and most or all “woodpeckers” (bird like or otherwise) have related adaptation allowing them to figure out where to poke through the bark to find their prey. This is parallelism. But other cases of parallel evolution involve several different populations (which may or may no be different subspecies or different species) undergoing Natural Selection from a base population with some genetic variability such that the smaller sub populations all have a high incidence of the same genetic allele (variant). The loss of bony plates in various freshwater sticklebacks seems to be a case of (mainly) this sort of evolution.

The case of the sticklebacks is especailly interesting because the genetic variant that causes this trait in most (but not all) of these fish is also associated with a behavioral trait. Intrigued? You should be! As you know, I’m guest blogging for a couple of weeks at Smithsonian.com, and I’ve just put up a post examining the sticklebacks: What Robot Fish Can Tell Us About Parallel Evolution.

Go have a look and leave nice comments so the Smithsonian likes me!

The following is a fictionalized version of a true story recently told to me by two of the people involved. All the names of those still living have been changed. Please do not let this happen to you.

Continue reading Unless you really know what you are doing stay off the ice! →

I remember the first time I visited a penguin colony. It was not hard to find. Penguin colonies smell really really bad. Here’s why:

Continue reading Senate Resolution Number 92 →