Obama supports science over ID

It was very refreshing (and reassuring) to read this reply that Barack Obama made in an interview with the York Daily Record:
Q: York County was recently in the news for a lawsuit involving the teaching of intelligent design. What’s your attitude regarding the teaching of evolution in public schools?
A: “I’m a Christian, and [...]

Virtual Law?

While I am fairly familiar with some types of online communities, there has always been a vast world into which I have never delved – the world of MUDs, the best known of which are probably World of Warcraft and Second Life.  I can’t say I’m surprised by the idea of virtual law, but I [...]

Tangled bank

I will be hosting the April 2nd edition of the Tangled Bank. What’s that, you ask? It’s a blog carnival dedicated to posting on the subject of biology, medicine, or natural history, defined very broadly, and it’s sufficient that you show some passion for the science of the natural world. So pick [...]

Stein blames wrong scientists?

Obviously Expelled is a propaganda piece adding pseudohistory to the pseudoscience of intelligent design. But as Orac points out, if Stein actually wanted to slur scientists for inspiring the Holocaust, there’s a far strong case to attack Pasteur and Koch for inspiring Hitler.
In fact, it has been seriously argued that the Holocaust was based [...]

Hitler was a YEC?

From J-Dog at Antievolution.org
BUT – There is a passage in your re-print that is worth pointing out that seems to be direct evidence that HITLER  WAS A YEC!!

“… and once again this planet, empty of mankind, will move through the ether as it did thousands of years ago ” – (my emphasis)
His comment [...]

Genetic legacies of human invasions

Really interesting stuff: according to the BBC, a paper published in the American Journal of Human Genetics reports that a faint genetic legacy of the Crusades appears in Lebanon, mostly among Lebanese Christians. And while Lebanese Christians and Muslims are overwhelmingly of the same stock genetically, Lebanese Muslim populations showed a genetic signature originating [...]

Noah’s Ark

The story of Noah’s Ark is one of the more disturbing of the well known stories in the Bible.  The idea of a deity that would wipe out all but eight humans in order to knock back (but not eliminate) evil in the world… It’s a disturbing story on so many levels.  James McGrath takes [...]

Berry Go Round #3

The third edition of Berry Go Round is up at Greg Laden’s Blog.  Berry Go Round is a new, botanically-oriented blog carnival.  You can submit a blog post for the next issue here.

Disturbance and recovery in tropical dry forests

When people think about the destruction and degradation of tropical forests, they tend to focus on rainforests. Tropical dry forests tend to get overlooked. They aren’t as striking – no cathedral-like understorey, no mind-boggling biodiversity. But more importantly, they often just aren’t there. Over much of their potential range they have [...]

Dawkins and Myers discuss the Expelled fiasco

Apparently they use the Harvard XVIVO film is used with a creationist commentary.  Is it the same Big Gay Al narration that Dembski used?
There’s a version at RichardDawkins.net.  Dawkins calls it “a spectacular own goal” and describes it as shoddy film making.
H/T Scott Hatfield.