The Positive Aspects of Negative Thinking

Check one off the list

noreply@blogger.com (Tony) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 13:46:00 +0000

Remember that stuff about loving thy neighbor and helping the underserved? Apparently the agnostic and atheists of the medical world are actually more likely to do so. So much for morality without the good book.

Yeah, that makes sense.

noreply@blogger.com (Tony) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 00:19:00 +0000

Looks like monkeys learn in the same way as humans. Why am I not surprised? It seems, given that apes and monkeys are our closest living relatives, that we should share alot of the same brain functioning. Then again, I'm no primatologist. Then again, we've all had jobs that we figured a chimpanzee might be better suited for.

Thank you Wyoming!

noreply@blogger.com (Tony) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 00:03:00 +0000

Some enterprising young scientists from the University of Chicago have found a fossil that fills a gap in the body of knowledge surrounding the development of limbs. Read it here. What I really like about the find is that, being another coelacanth fossil, you can compare it to the fossils previously discovered and illustrate the significance of it to the lay person. There is nothing better than an easily understood physical example to get the public to an comprehensive understanding of evolution. Yay for transitional forms.

Appealing to my former life as a shovelbum

noreply@blogger.com (Tony) — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:25:00 +0000

This cartoon makes a hapless appeal to my emotions.....and it worked. This is the winning cartoon from the Union of Concerned Scientists "Science Idol" editorial cartoon. I really do agree with the premise of the cartoon, although I think that the Feds should be joined by serveral other groups. I must admit, I dont really miss the CRM world yet.

If you have some extra time to peruse, check out this link from the UCS. An A to Z guide on the interference of politics on science. I can't think of a more appropriate post for this blog.

I bet this guy gets tons of action...

noreply@blogger.com (Tony) — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 15:58:00 +0000

Yeah, so this guy is considered a mathematical genius. I would agree for the most part, especially when I see this:

Well try this for size.
The task is to find the 13th root of 85,877,066,894,718,045, 602,549,144,850,158,599,202,771,247,748,960,878,023,151,390,314,284,284,465,842,798,373,290,242,826,571,823,153,045,030,300,932,591,615,405,929,429,773,640,895,967,991,430,381,763,526,613,357,308,674,592,650,724,521,841,103,664,923,661,204,223.
The answer's 2396232838850303. Multiply that by itself 13 times and you get the above. Even with a calculator you wouldn't beat Alexis Lemaire doing the calculation in his head.

On your marks... Lemaire prepares to break the record at OxfordLast week, at Oxford's Museum of the History of Science Lemaire broke his own record for the task, taking it down to 77.99 seconds.

That's sick. It kinda makes me wonder what he does in his spare time, if he knows what that is.

When religious beliefs become child abuse...

noreply@blogger.com (Tony) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 02:19:00 +0000

There's been alot of squawking about Richard Dawkins assertion that religious beliefs can constitute a form of child abuse (you can find it here.), and Catholic priests violating the innocence of altar boys is clearly that, but what about this guy:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/29/exorcism.death.ap/index.html

That's child abuse because of religion. This jackass was deluded enough to A: think its possible to be possessed by demons, and B: assume that for some reason he could remove a demon by choking a three year old. Superstition and irrationality are child abuse, adult abuse and an all out crime against humanity. Call it an isolated incident if you want, but I'm sure if someone did the legwork, they would uncover a much more systemic vision of these occurrences. If you have Showtime, take a moment to watch Penn and Tellers Bullshit about excorcisms; I cant believe that people actually buy into this garbage.

That's how they roll in the U.K.

noreply@blogger.com (Tony) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 22:57:00 +0000

So, while I do generally agree with the point she's making, I really only wanted to link to this article because Susan Greenfield is referred to as "Baroness".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/29/nteach129.xml

I'm thinking we should institute some more categories here in the states. Britain has had the lions share of duchesses, dukes, barons, knights etc. for far too long.

Post labels

noreply@blogger.com (Tony) — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 17:15:00 +0000

So, I need consistent labels for my posts, and since I'm primarily interested in politics, religion, science and education, I'm starting with these:

Educational Jackassery
Educational Wisdom
Religious Wackery
Religious Decency
Scientific Wisdom
Scientific Perversion
Political Nonsense
and maybe political nonsense again, since I'm not sure there is a good antonym

In fact, I think I'll treat it as a taxonomic system, like a genus-species kind of thing where I can give any post a consistent genus, like "educational jackassery", and then specify it with a species, like "creationist appointee".

Oh, the irony.

noreply@blogger.com (Tony) — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 16:39:00 +0000

After numerous recent reports of the Bush administration putting the squeeze on scientists at the FDA, EPA and the Surgeon General's office, it looks like its the time of year when the prez bestows medals on scientists that accord with his political motives, or at least dont interfere.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-bush-medals,1,1107615.story

Some of what these people have done is really impressive, particularly the work on the Big Bang theory. I wonder if Tony Snow put out a caveat before hand, something like "we realize that the Big Bang theory is a false opinion, fundies of the world, but Congress is making us give them a medal anyway". By the way, thanks to my friend Ryan for trying to explain bootstrapping to me. Guess I need more Corrucini face time.

Tejas gets worse and worse.

noreply@blogger.com (Tony) — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 16:08:00 +0000

This story has been widely reported on most up to date science blogs, but I figured I'd add my two cents. Texas has decided to appoint an outspoken religious conservative to head the state board of education. Looks like evolution is just an "opinion" now:

But Dr. McLeroy said his vote on the biology books had nothing to do with censorship or religion and was based on "good science."
"It is wrong to teach opinion as fact," he said.

Per the Dallas News @ http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/education/stories/DN-sboe_18tex.ART.State.Edition1.3bba4d6.html

Apparently this guy has his own website too, and the gentleman at http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2007/07/25/texas-doomed/ has done a fair amount of homework on him. Check it out for yourself. My personal favorite is when the bablogger points out that a quote on McLeroy's page actually paints him as an anti-intellectual. Enjoy.

Hey, I learned something. About the Host.

noreply@blogger.com (Tony) — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 19:36:00 +0000

So, I was doing some research on Serratia marcescens the other day for a presentation I was giving in my bacteriology lab, and I happened upon this little gem: A naturalistic explanation for "blood on the eucharist" and transubstantiation.

http://jb.asm.org/cgi/reprint/31/2/205.pdf

As a little background, Serratia marcescens is a microbe that causes numerous infections, including in the urinary and respiratory tract, is often found in places that are supposedly sanitary (catheters, saline solution bags, etc.), and was once thought to be harmless. Harmless enough in 1950 for the Navy to spray on San Francisco for two days to study the effects of biological warfare, and harmless enough to put on your hands to illustrate the transmission of bacteria.

What made it so useful? Serratia marcescens produces a bright red pigment called prodigiosin, making it easy to see. Because this bateria grows on bread, it has been suggested that it can be a naturalistic explanation for the miraculous "blood on the host" phenomena of the 12th and 13th centuries. It's all right there in the article. Neat.

As a sidenote, we now know that this bacteria is indeed pathogenic. San Francisco experienced a rash of pneumonia, numerous cases of rare and serious UTI, and one death. Who knows what happened to those biology teachers and students who were high fiving each other after dipping their hands in the stuff.

P.A.N.T. #1

noreply@blogger.com (Tony) — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:29:00 +0000

That's right, the inaugural post is here. By most criteria, I'm so far behind the blogging revolution that its almost laughable. However, I've been recently inspired to stand on my soapbox, but more so to communicate issues that I think are relevant to the world that I'm becoming a part of.
I've always been a fan of the sciences, and I recently started graduate school in biology education after working in the contract archaeology field for about four years on and off. I chose to move into science education in part because of the high demand for teachers and my love of the content, but there was a part of me that wanted to get my hands in the controversy. Its pretty clear that there is a strong anti-intellectual, anti-science movement in this country, and as a skeptic, unabashed atheist and cheerleader for a rational worldview, I felt like I could make a difference as an educator in the sciences. Debating creationists, pseudoscientists and those on the lunatic fringe can only do so much to enlighten the public; maybe as a biology teacher I can help to steer the worldview of young folks away from the dogma, before they decide to shut their minds to new ideas. I realize that such "noble" aspirations don't always come to fruition, but I guess I consider it my small contribution to society at large.
So, the plan is to post information about current events in the intersection of politics, religion and education. Scienceblogs, as a rule, are wonderful, and this is my feeble attempt to follow in the footsteps the likes of Pharyngula, Aardvarchaeology, Bad Astronomy, and all the other masters of science blogging around the net. We'll see what I can do.

By the way, the name of my blog is taken from the title of a Bad Religion song. Greg Graffin is great.