Gerlach got himself some fine pseudoscience in his meatspace mailbox.  Specifically, a pamphlet from an organization called The Geocentric Bible Foundation, located in Hugoton, Kansas.  It was addressed to “resident” and, judging by the number of copies discarded on the ground by my neighbors, this must have been one expensive mass-mailing effort.  The cover of the pamphlet entices the recipient with a question (well, one question worded as two, to be correct):  “Have scientists been wrong?  For 400 years?”

Read the rest of this entry »

Last weekend, some right-wing blogs began hyperventilating over a Dunkin’ Donuts ad that featured Rachel Ray wearing a black-and-white scarf that, to them, resembled a keffiyeh, the traditional headdress worn by Arab men:

For example, you have Pam Geller’s breathless overreaction:

Have you seen Rachel Ray wearing the icon of Yasser Arfatbastard and the bloody Islamic jihad. This is part of the cultural jihad.

Read the rest of this entry »

gg at Skulls in the Stars has issued an interesting challenge to science bloggers:  write a blog post about a classic scientific research paper, preferably something pre-WWII.  This is a great idea, and I hope plenty of bloggers take up the challenge.  Reading old papers is great, and I wish that science instructors would utilize them more in their classes.  Not only does it foster an appreciation of the history of science, but it also brings the material to life and makes learning more enjoyable.  Granted, not all old papers are a joy to read, and some are painfully written, but I think they provide the reader with a much deeper understanding of the topic than just learning facts by rote.

Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be able to fulfill gg’s challenge to the letter.  My realm of expertise is in biochemistry, biophysics, and molecular biology, and these fields of study only started to take off relatively recently.  Most of the classic papers in these fields come from the 1950s.  Watson and Crick published their paper on the double helical structure of DNA in 1953.  The first protein structure solved by x-ray crystallography was published in 1959. So when I was researching the topic of this blog post, I had a hard time coming up with much before WWII.  Originally I thought I would write about Messelson and Stahl’s 1958 paper on the semiconservative nature of DNA replication.  Their experiment was really quite elegant, and it would be great paper to write about.  But 1958 seemed a bit late, so I searched a bit more and decided on a seminal paper by Oswald T. Avery, Maclyn McCarty, and Colin MacLeod.  Published in 1944, Avery’s paper, Studies on the Chemical Nature of the Substance Inducing Transformation of Pneumococcal Types, was the first to identify DNA as the molecule that carried genetic information, and became a watershed in the science of genetics.

Read the rest of this entry »

I think this video may have found the most tenuous correlation ever. If beating off to porn turns people into serial killers, then every city in the country would be teeming with them.

Making the rounds this morning is a survey by Coral Ridge Ministries of their membership:

How dangerous are the following to the spiritual health of America?

	Very	Somewhat	Not very
The ACLU and similar groups	96	3	1
Pro-homosexual indoctrination	95	4	1
Abortion	93	6	1
Islamic terrorism	91	8	1
Hollywood	89	10	1
News Media	87	12	1
Darwinism/evolution	85	14	1
Cults and false religion	82	16	2
Atheism	82	16	2
Courts	81	18	1
Apathetic/uninformed Christians	79	20	1
Colleges and Universities	78	21	1
Public education (K-12)	69	29	2
Congress	63	35	2

All the usual bogeymen are there, like the ACLU, homosexuals, and evolution. But what gets me is the 78% who feel that colleges and universities are “very dangerous” to the “spiritual health of America”.  People aren’t supposed to study anything except the Bible, apparently.

Conservative pundits say dumb shit all the time.  But are they really stupid, or just dishonest hacks trying to rile up conservative gomers?  I ask this after reading an atrocious column by Jane Chastain at the WingNutDaily.  It’s a mostly substance free piece, but this bit caught my attention:

Obama has given us a clue as to the type of justices he would appoint. He admires Breyer, Ginsburg and Souter – three of the biggest activists on the high court. On Monday, the latter two were the only dissenters in U.S. v. Williams, a case that upheld a law that punishes people who promote child pornography on the Internet.

Yes, liberals are fond of saying they do it all “for the children,” but when it comes to protecting them from pedophiles, their activist judges are always willing to throw the kids under the train in the name of “free speech.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Several conservative outlets were abuzz yesterday with the news that a global warming denialist group, the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, has found 31000 “scientists” who reject anthropogenic global warming.  From the WND:

More than 31,000 scientists across the U.S. – including more than 9,000 Ph.D.s in fields such as atmospheric science, climatology, Earth science, environment and dozens of other specialties – have signed a petition rejecting “global warming,” the assumption that the human production of greenhouse gases is damaging Earth’s climate.

“There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate,” the petition states. “Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Hillary Clinton has some hardcore supporters, and that’s fine.  Frankly I don’t see what the attraction is, especially considering that she has spent the last 5 months campaigning like a Republican.  But if they feel she is the better candidate, I can’t blame them for expressing their support.  That said, I think the enthusiasm of some Clinton supporters has morphed into fanatical tribalism.  Read the rest of this entry »

There is an interesting column posted at Townhall.com on Thurday’s California Supreme Court decision on gay marriage.  It is interesting because the author, Steve Chapman, makes it clear that he supports the right of homosexuals to marry.  To make such a declaration at a wingnut rat’s nest like Townhall takes some chutzpah, so I have to give Mr. Chapman some props for that.  But on the other hand, his column repeats standard conservative arguments against the ruling.  Read the rest of this entry »

Beware of satanic rock bands, like The Police.  Seriously.