Middle World

One of the traditional ways to explain a scientific subject is the historical approach: start at the beginning of the endeavor and explain why people asked the questions they did, how they answered them, and how each answer blossomed into new potential. It’s a popular way of teaching science, too, because it emphasizes the process that leads to new discovery. Middle World: The Restless Heart of Matter and Life(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Haw, exemplifies the technique. Not only is it effective, but this one slim book manages to begin with a simple, curious observation in 1827 and ends up synthesizing many of the major ideas of modern physics, chemistry, and biology!

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Oops, someone needs a lesson in “framing”

Sheril seems like a well-intentioned person, but when she decides to step into the science/religion wars, it’s a horrendous mistake to label atheists as “fundamentalists” (a term I despise) and compare me to Rush Limbaugh. Without even saying a word about her position on the issue, it’s quite clear where she stands.

While giving us that great big clue, though, she also fails to explain anything about how religion and science are supposed to interact — she just calls for a “discussion”. You cannot get a productive discussion if one side hides their point of view.

Shorter me: Sheril violated Blake’s Law.

An invitation to heresy! Picket Wal-Mart!

This may sound like pro-religion news, but it’s really not: Wal-Mart is going to sell Jesus action figures.

Maybe it is spreading religious mythology through cheap general stores, but it is also the commodification of a religious hero…so it’s devaluing Jesus.

The other thing to consider is what perverse little kids do with their dolls. Get Barbie and Ken alone in the bedroom, and swooosh, off come the clothes, here come the interesting poses, and ooooh, Ken, can my friend Midge come and play, too? Now Jesus gets to join in the action.

I hope the Jesus action figure is anatomically accurate, too. Otherwise he won’t be allowed to go to church (see Deuteronomy 23:2).

Open season on gay men, apparently

Religion can be used to justify anything. Even the virtues of killing the innocent. It’s amazing how the combination of needing to control sexual behavior and the presence of an accommodating religious impulse can lead to deeply deranged behavior.

A Cypress man charged in the death of a Southwest Airlines flight attendant said Saturday that he was doing God’s work when he went to a Montrose-area bar last month, hunting for a gay man to kill.

“I believe I’m Elijah, called by God to be a prophet,” said 26-year-old Terry Mark Mangum, charged with murder June 11. ” … I believe with all my heart that I was doing the right thing.”

Interviewed in the Brazoria County Jail Saturday morning, Mangum said he feels no remorse for killing 46-year-old Kenneth Cummings Jr., whom relatives described as a “loving” son who never forgot a holiday and a devoted uncle who had set up college funds for his niece and nephew. He worked at Southwest for 24 years.

Mangum, who described himself as “definitely not a homosexual,” said God called on him to “carry out a code of retribution” by killing a gay man because “sexual perversion” is the “worst sin.”

Think for a moment for a few words to describe yourself. Would “definitely not a homosexual” be one of the first phrases to come to mind? Somebody is a little obsessed.

And if sexual perversion is the worst sin, how come it didn’t make it into the ten commandments? “Murder” is in there, though. This fellow who studied the Bible for “thousands of hours” seems to have missed that.

Cruise from hell

No, I don’t mean the infamous cruise of diarrhea and vomiting, I mean something far, far worse — a trip that would make a week locked in the head with fluids gushing from your orifices seem enticing. I mean…

The National Review’s Cruise.

Neo-cons. Casual racism. William F. Buckley, Dinesh D’Souza, Norman Podhoretz. Fear of Mexicans. Nuke the liberals. Bernard Lewis and Kate O’Beirne. Muslims must die. Desiccated ancient WASPs urging their kind to breed.

Steven King must ship out on one of these cruises sometime. It will spawn a horror novel so terrifying that it will need to be stored in a secret crate in a warehouse somewhere near Washington where it will be promised that Top Men will study it.

(via at-Largely)

Books must be read

Some of you have noticed I’ve irked Stuart Pivar with my review of his old book, Lifecode, and as he’s been quick to tell me, he has made substantial revisions in his new version, which has the same name. Anyway, he has left comments

here,

here,

here,

here, and

here, and I’ve got a mailbox full of his frantic hallooing, some of which claims I “have transcended the barrier separating protected commentary from libel.” (Now, now, Stuart — threatening reviewers with lawsuits is not a good way to get a positive review, and also tends to compromise what good reviews you do get. I’ll pretend it wasn’t said.)

He promised to ship me a new copy by the next day last Friday; I’m sorry to say it isn’t here yet, but no fault of Stuart’s — I coulda told him the stagecoach from Sauk Center only comes to Morris twicet a week, and it ain’t never on a Sunday, and the driver always gets drunk in Glenwood on a Saturday night. I’m sure it’ll be here tomorrow, though, and I’ll be sure to read it as soon as possible with the same critical diligence as the last one and put up a new review.

Stuart also threatened promised to send copies to all of my biology colleagues here at UMM. I’m sure they will be thrilled.

Alas, though, all these incoming books remind me that I have a stack sent to me by publishers pending review, and I’ve got about eight at once that I’m trying to read, one for each tentacle, and I’ve got to do something to diminish the pile. I have set myself a goal therefore: this is going to be Book Review Week. I am going to finish at least one a day and put up a review here — five books in five days. I think I can do it if I just get disciplined and apply both eyes to one book at a time until it’s absorbed, and there are a couple that aren’t too weighty and should be readily digestible.

Lifecode Mk II will be one of them, I promise.