tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-113904442009-09-03T08:07:13.175-10:00The Questionable Authority has moved. The old posts can still be found here; for the new stuff, go to <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/authority/">http://scienceblogs.com/authority/</a>TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.comBlogger254125http://creativecommons.org/images/public/somerights20.gifThis is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site, subject to copyright and fair use.tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1149875811548877752006-06-09T07:49:00.000-10:002006-06-09T07:56:51.826-10:00

Well, it's moving day here at The Questionable Authority. I've been picked up as part of the newest group of bloggers to move over to scienceblogs.com. I've been working on the new site for a few days now, and I've actually got several posts up over there. You can find the new blog at: http://scienceblogs.com/authority/The posts that are already here will stay here, but I probably won't be

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com2http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/06/moving-day.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1149755355103073242006-06-07T22:26:00.000-10:002006-06-07T22:29:15.136-10:00

It's just been reported that the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq has been killed by an American air strike. I hope it's true, but even if it is I don't know how much good it will do. We've lopped another head off the beast, but there are plenty more where that one came from.

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/06/hydra.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1149545279282046622006-06-05T07:06:00.000-10:002006-06-05T12:07:59.463-10:00

A couple of days ago, I posted a link to a Rolling Stone article written by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. In that article, RFK Jr presented what he considered to be evidence that the Ohio presidential vote suffered from widespread fraud, and that Kerry was robbed of the presidency as a direct result. In the comments for that thread, Jason presented a link to an article at salon.com that rebutted the

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/06/elections-rfk-rolling-stone-and.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1149289920260642852006-06-02T13:10:00.000-10:002006-06-02T13:12:00.323-10:00

Go read this article. And remember it in November.

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/06/read-this.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1149275871251110222006-06-02T08:37:00.000-10:002006-06-02T09:17:52.063-10:00

With the recent online publication of National Review's list of the top 50 Conservative Rock Songs, I decided to see if I could force a conservative worldview onto this weeks list of the ten songs randomly selected by my iPod.1: Pave Paradise Lilith Fair Live VersionThis song has compelling lyrics ("Took all the trees, put 'em in a tree museum/charged the people a dollar and a half just to see

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com2http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/06/friday-random-ten-conservative-edition.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1149223242044168052006-06-01T18:01:00.000-10:002006-06-01T18:40:42.240-10:00

I've had a day or so to recover from yesterday's revelation that I have to get Endangered Species Research Permits to cover the possibility that I might take some of the newly-listed endangered Hawaiian Drosophila along with the ones that I'm after. The paperwork is definitely going to be a royal pain in the ass. That's absolutely certain. Because I am conducting scientific research, I need a

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/06/me-and-esa.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1149128210155676672006-05-31T16:06:00.000-10:002006-05-31T16:16:50.236-10:00

New York City just lost a big chunk of federal homeland security money. According to the New York Times, this was at least in part because the federal government didn't like the way that the money was being spent, but an assessment of risk was also part of the equation. I'm not in a position right now to assess how the money was spent, but as a former New Yorker I was somewhat shocked by part of

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com2http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/05/what-are-these-people-smoking.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1149109208161779402006-05-31T10:28:00.000-10:002006-05-31T11:00:08.226-10:00

...for the following sounds:ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH! F---! F---! F---! No!*thud* *thud* *thud* *thud*Thank you.The preceeding sounds have been brought to you courtesy of a graduate student who has just discovered that the possibility that his study might result in the capture of insects newly-listed as endangered species almost certainly means that federal scientific permits will be required before

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com5http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/05/we-interrupt-this-broadcast.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1149041768400367612006-05-30T16:01:00.000-10:002006-05-30T16:16:08.453-10:00

First, they came for your library and bookstore records.And Congress said, "Damn Straight. Anyone reading both the Koran and The Anarchists' Cookbook is clearly a terrorist, and needs to be shipped off to Gitmo." Then they came to listen in on your overseas phone calls. And Congress said, "Great idea. We need to know if that cab driver in New York is badmouthing the president to his parents back

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/05/for-congress-wherever-you-are.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1148990578622542602006-05-29T20:04:00.000-10:002006-05-30T15:08:41.430-10:00

In a previous post, I presented an example of one of the questions that evolutionary biologists face. In this example, I described three populations of closely related insects, presented a few details about their distribution, and gave the results for some laboratory-based breeding studies that were conducted with these populations some years back. I then asked people to guess how many species

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com3http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/05/how-many-species-3-answer-and-some.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1148854538082242262006-05-28T12:15:00.000-10:002006-05-30T10:15:41.916-10:00

One of the questions asked in the comments of the previous post in this series is quite pointed, and very much on topic for this discussion, so I'm going to take a minute or two to answer it. I'll give the answer to the example in another post, that will shortly follow this one. Karl asked: So why are you asking that question? How is "species" defined. Does it really have a definition? Does it

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com15http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/05/how-many-species-2-what-is-species-and.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1148851077811127432006-05-28T09:31:00.000-10:002006-05-28T11:17:57.993-10:00

It seems that the National Cemetery Administration (part of the VA) is having some difficulties comprehending both the spirit and letter of the Constitution. The widow of an Afghanistan casualty wants to have an emblem representing his religion placed on his government-provided memorial. The VA is currently refusing. The problem is simple - they will only place approved religious emblems on the

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/05/religious-discrimination-and-national.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1148694618558280352006-05-26T11:30:00.000-10:002006-05-26T15:50:18.696-10:00

I've got a little question to keep people busy over the long weekend. There are three populations of an organism. The populations are physically separated from each other as a result of geographical factors. Geographically, they are arranged in a more or less linear fashion. The geographic details are as follows: Population A is the northwestern population. Population B lies to the southeast, and

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com15http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/05/how-many-species.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1148586566167237372006-05-25T08:48:00.000-10:002006-05-25T09:49:26.226-10:00

Over at Uncommon Descent, DaveScot seems to have forgotten that the theme of the blog is Intelligent Design, and gone off on an anti-ACLU rampage. So far today, he's managed to post three items assaulting ACLU positions. One isn't really worth mentioning - it's just a link to "stoptheaclu.com." That site is mostly focused, at least right now, on promoting efforts that are currently underway in

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/05/uncommon-dissonance.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1148452993533732512006-05-23T18:44:00.000-10:002006-05-23T20:43:13.796-10:00

Over at Uncommon Descent, Bill Dembski says that he has purchased the domain name "pro-science.com"Is it just me, or is that just a little bit like Henry VIII buying pro-marriage.com? OJ Simpson buying WhoKilledNicole.com? King Herod buying BethlehemDayCare.com...

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com4http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/05/isnt-that-like.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1148327054545765752006-05-22T08:57:00.000-10:002006-05-22T09:44:14.766-10:00

Over at Uncommon Descent, Dembski lackey DaveScot is plumbing new depths of dishonest, slimy behavior. The attempt is nothing new for him, of course, but this time he may actually have managed to tap previously unreachable depths. Here's what happened: A friend of DaveScot's sent him an email claiming that the ACLU is about to go after the government because they don't like to see soldiers or

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com6http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/05/davescott-and-new-depths-of-slime.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1147727052352513502006-05-15T10:23:00.000-10:002006-05-15T11:04:12.686-10:00

In a little less than four hours, the president is scheduled to address the nation. The subject of the address is immigration, and it has been widely reported that Mr. Bush will announce that he is sending the National Guard to help secure the border with Mexico. The president will undoubtedly give a number of reasons for this in the address (I predict that we will hear about 9-11 once or twice

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/05/tonights-presidential-address.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1147555343767552692006-05-13T10:56:00.000-10:002006-05-13T11:22:23.806-10:00

Over at Uncommon Descent, DaveScot is once again angry with Kevin Padian. This time, it is because Padian dared to suggest that the only thing separating suicide bombers from the murders of abortion doctors is that one commits suicide and the other doesn't. DaveScot apparently thinks that murdering someone because of your religious views is somehow more acceptable, or at least less heinous, if

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/05/killer-is-killer-is-killer.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1147473326215769592006-05-12T12:24:00.000-10:002006-05-12T12:35:26.246-10:00

Via Stochastic (Seed Magazine's in-house blog), we find that those dedicated purveyors of all things Intelligent Design over at Telic Thoughts have decided to compare the volume for the Google searches of "Intelligent Design" and "Darwinism". They're all happy about the results and the trend, but they forgot one thing: most (sane) people don't usually refer to evolution as "Darwinism." For a more

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/05/googling-terms.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1147392577098152032006-05-11T13:30:00.000-10:002006-05-11T14:09:37.236-10:00

Back when I was in high school, I was an intern in the branch of the New York City Mayor's Office that handles telephone complaints. It was an interesting job, and I learned a lot. A great deal of this education was provided by a Hasidic Jew named Isaac, who worked at the desk right in front of me. He was a master at the fine art of subtly penetrating the obtuse workings of the city bureaucracy.

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/05/wiretaps-investigations-and-yiddish.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1147337121623542652006-05-10T16:38:00.000-10:002006-05-10T22:45:21.760-10:00

The State of Hawaii is one of the smaller states in the Union. According to Wikipedia, we're 43rd out of 50 in size, 42nd in population, and, at 3000km from the nearest continent, we're as isloated as you can get. We may be small and out of the way, but there's a lot that we have. We've got a great climate - we're the only state that's entirely in the tropics. Being in the middle of the ocean

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/05/land-of-endangered.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1147191227497396832006-05-09T06:11:00.000-10:002006-05-09T06:13:47.560-10:00

Sorry for the recent lack of updates here. I was sick as a dog for a good chunk of last week, and have family in town. It's also the end of the semester, so grades are coming due and I still have a load of grading to do. Updates will probably remain a bit sporadic for the next day or two, but should get back to normal after that.Oh, and there may be some changes to the blog in the next week or

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com4http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/05/lack-of-updates-apology.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1146598048592687982006-05-02T08:44:00.000-10:002006-05-02T09:27:29.190-10:00

There's an interesting letter in this week's Nature (subscription required). The author of the letter, Michal Jasienski, compared the frequency of use for the words "surprising" and "unexpected" in the scientific literature to their use in other academic literature and in standard English. He found that the two words both appear in scientific writing much, much more commonly than they do

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/05/surprise-surprise-surprise.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1146274494031577352006-04-28T15:17:00.000-10:002006-04-28T15:34:54.066-10:00

I was seriously considering writing a serious post today. Howard Kurtz has an interesting post about blogs over at the WaPo site, which fed into some thinking I've been doing about the subject. That's going to have to wait a day or two, though. My fellow graduate students have honored me by making me one of the four department grad representatives for the next year (put another way, there was a

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/04/friday-random-ten-who-hell-am-i.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1146257977742187932006-04-28T10:53:00.000-10:002006-04-28T10:59:37.746-10:00

Waist Deep in The Big MuddyPete Seeger, 1967It was back in nineteen forty-two,I was a member of a good platoon.We were on maneuvers in-a Loozianna,One night by the light of the moon.The captain told us to ford a river,That's how it all begun.We were -- knee deep in the Big Muddy,But the big fool said to push on.The Sergeant said, "Sir, are you sure,This is the best way back to the base?""Sergeant

TQAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2006/04/yesterdays-song-lyrics-and-todays.html