Discovery Institute Fellow runs for school board as “Darwinist”?

Nina Shapiro of Seattle Weekly reports that a retired college professor by the name of John Campbell is running for a school in North Mason County. Shapiro reports that:
A retired communications professor, Campbell says he has the skills to foster a more civilized dialogue, “restore trust,” and “establish transparency.”
Although campaigning on “trust” and “transparency”, [...]

Baksa and Dover

In the series of events leading up to the 2005 Kitzmiller trial, one of the most tragic figures is Michael Baksa. The lead roles are taken – the school board on one hand, led by oxycontin-addicted Bill Buckingham, who turned to intelligent design
only after they failed to get the Bible back in science class. [...]

Pivar drop suit

Stuart Pivar dropped his $15 million lawsuit against PZ Myers.  Great news.

Bye bye Alberto!

Alberto Gonzales resigns! At last
H/T TPM
Update: As dKos diarist seesdifferent pointed out (drawing upon Robert Niles writing at the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review), a lot of the credit for Gonzales’ resignation goes to Josh Marshall and TPM and their work “breaking and publicizing the US Attorney firings” (to steal MissLaura’s words).

And the magic word is…crackpot

According to the Pivar lawsuit, calling someone a “crackpot” is libel per se… Scott Pilutik wrote:
Libel per se means libel on its face, without requiring any other facts (in contrast with “libel per quod”, where the libel can only be understood as libel if more was known to the reader).
There are only a few [...]

PZ sued

Apparently Stuart Pivar, author of the book Lifecode is suing PZ Myers (of Pharyngula) and ScienceBlogs. Imagine that – being sued for a negative book review (or, well, several of them). I always knew the academic publishing world was cut-throat, but seriously? (Not that Pivar’s book is actually an academic publication. [...]

Mind boggling

Apparently Turkish creationist Adnan Oktar, aka Harun Yahya, has managed to get a Trukish court to shut down access to all WordPress blogs because of “unlawful statements regarding…Adnan Oktar”.
Official WordPress blog
Matt’s blog
Ed Darrell’s blog, and some older background notes
PZ Myers
The offending blogs:
http://adnanoktar.wordpress.com
http://adnanoktarveislam.wordpress.com/
http://fitikado.wordpress.com
http://oktarbabuna.wordpress.com
http://adnancilar.wordpress.com/
http://adnanoktarveislam.wordpress.com/
http://whoisharunyahya.wordpress.com/
http://adnanoktargercekleri.wordpress.com/
http://quiestharunyahya.wordpress.com/
http://harunyahyaarabic.wordpress.com/
http://safsataciharunyahya.wordpress.com/
http://savsatalaracevap.wordpress.com/
And, most interestingly, the demands of Yahya’s lawyers:
WE DEMAND YOU TO REMOVE AND PROHIBIT [...]

Empty calories, part II

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The Zimmerman et al. article* points out that shows like Blue’s Clues, Sesame Street and Barney provide real educational benefits for children 2.5 – 5 years old, but that nothing has been shown to be valuable for child under the age of 2. Despite this utter lack of evidence though, a wide range [...]

“Empty calories for the mind”

According to an article in ScienceNOW, videos like Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby, which are marketed to improve toddler language skills have exactly the opposite effect – children: [f]or every hour per day spent watching the videos, children understood an average of six to eight fewer words than did those of the same age who [...]

Non-Christians keep out

Apparently non-Christians are not welcome in Alorton, Illinois.   Signs around the town proclaim that in that town, “Jesus is Lord” (and Randy McCallum is mayor).  According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch:
In this town of 3,000 residents, there are at least 15 churches. Maybe 20. They’re featured prominently on business street corners. They’re also [...]