Set Your DVR's To "Colossal!"

Sunday night on the Discovery Channel: The Colossal Squid. Rock on!

"I Can't Wait For Biden To Unload On That Dumb Bitch"

The above quote is from the Howard Stern of the south, Bubba the Love Sponge, who--despite being pretty conservative--is supporting Obama. And the "dumb bitch" is McCain's VP pick, whom I loathe: she's an Intelligent Design supporter.

I think picking her was cynical and crass. As a second runner-up in Miss Alaska, she is now the "7 of 9" of the Republican Party.

What You Won't Hear From Cindy McCain

From Michelle Obama's speech to LGBT activists:

...we can work together to repeal laws like DOMA and ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ and we can oppose divisive constitutional amendments that would strip civil rights and benefits away from LGBT Americans because discrimination has no place in a nation founded on the promise of equality.

What are the Republicans going to defend marriage and our military from?

Science Drinks Your Gods

In a letter to Nature, Matthew Cobb and Jerry Coyne sum up what we have been saying for years:

In reality, the only contribution that science can make to the ideas of religion is atheism.

Every mystery explained by experimentation and rationalism makes every god a little bit smaller, a little less relevant, and a little less competent.

Surely science is about finding material explanations of the world -- explanations that can inspire those spooky feelings of awe, wonder and reverence in the hyper-evolved human brain.

And religion?

Religion, on the other hand, is about humans thinking that awe, wonder and reverence are the clue to understanding a God-built Universe. (The same is true of religion's poor cousin, 'spirituality', which you slip into your Editorial rather as a creationist uses 'intelligent design'.) There is a fundamental conflict here, one that can never be reconciled until all religions cease making claims about the nature of reality.

Science drinks religions' milkshake!

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The Bat-Shit Craziest Episode Of Criminal Intent Yet

Last night was Law & Order: Criminal Intent's last episode of the season. It was also the most insane episode ever. I won't post any spoilers, but I do suggest watching it on replays.

The end had a preview for next season that included footage of Wheeler (from this past season), so one can assume she will stay. It also shows footage of Jeff Goldblum, and it makes a big deal of his joining the show. The best news: the new season starts in November!

Hooray Detective Brundle-Fly!

Typewriter fonts for my font geeks

I really like typewriter fonts. I have to stop myself from just using Courier New all the time, but I am using Bookman Old Style in my classes, which is cool in it's own way - 10 Awesome typewriter fonts for web designers.

Okay this is good Olympic sappiness

The son of illegal immigrants, American wrestler hoists his (the American) flag with pride - link.

Gay Scientists Isolate Christian Gene

Georgian cease-fire?

It appears Sarkozy and Rice have negotiated a ceasefire and a Russian withdrawal - color me skeptical - Georgia signs cease-fire with Russia on CNN.

"A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country...."

After Russia's invasion of Georgia, what now for the West?
John R. Bolton

At least for now, the smoke seems to be clearing from the Georgian battlefield. But the extent of the wreckage reaches far beyond that small country.

Russia’s invasion across an internationally recognised border, its thrashing of the Georgian military, and its smug satisfaction in humbling one of its former fiefdoms represents only the visible damage.

As bad as the bloodying of Georgia is, the broader consequences are worse. The United States fiddled while Georgia burned, not even reaching the right rhetorical level in its public statements until three days after the Russian invasion began, and not, at least to date, matching its rhetoric with anything even approximating decisive action. This pattern is the very definition of a paper tiger. Sending Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice to Tbilisi is touching, but hardly reassuring; dispatching humanitarian assistance is nothing more than we would have done if Georgia had been hit by a natural rather than a man-made disaster.

Read it all @ Telegraph.

"The Genius Of Charles Darwin" And Dawkins

The BBC recently aired a program called "The Genius of Charles Darwin." I hope it makes it over here, at least in DVD form. But as one should expect, even in the UK believers cried foul and whined.

Here's one ignorant grievance, published in the TimesOnline:

But most believers are not creationists. Some are scientists. They reckon that an omnipotent being capable of giving humans free will is equally capable of setting a cosmic ball rolling - Big Bang, abiogenesis, all that - and letting it proceed through eons of evolution, selection and struggle. One of the oddest aspects of Dawkins's TV programme, rich in antelope-mauling and gobbly snakes, was his emotional implication that, gee, Nature is too cruel to have been invented by God! A wet, mawkish, bunny-hugging argument.

Can you believe that crass stupidity comes not from Alabama, but from the UK?

Dawkins has replied to this bilge, and his response touches on a previous post on this blog.

I expect it’s true that the few believers Libby Purves meets over canapés are not creationists. But “most believers”? Most believers in Bradford? The Scottish Highlands? Pakistan? Indonesia? The Arab world? South America? Indeed, North America? Polls suggest that more than 40 per cent of the British population are creationists. For the subset who call themselves believers, the figure must be considerably more than 50 per cent. Please don’t say “most people”, when what you really mean is Islington and Hampstead Garden Suburb.

I once heard a radio host and creationist say that Dawkins really gets on his nerves. I bet. Theologic excuses are no match for the unintentionally hilarious wit of well-reasoned arguments/sarcasm.

Any Local Coverage????

NEW YORK (Associated Press) - The Air Force said Friday it has modified a $1.65 billion contract with Boeing Co. for work on space launch rockets.
The Air Force said it was adding $516 million to the originally announced $582 million for work on the Delta IV rocket program. The modification also includes the option for $557 million in the next fiscal year.
Shares of Chicago-based Boeing rose $3.17, or 4.9 percent, to close at $67.86 Friday.


I mean, it is the new local rocket, I figure this might get a mention.

Georgia Update

Georgia overrun by Russia in the Daily Mail - an extensive and informative article.

Just for Bromide1701