DId you all catch Comer on Science Friday?

It was short, mainly taken up with Chris Comers trying to tell her side of the story, and not getting it all in within the time allotted. The main points I got out of it were:

  • It sure sounds like this was a planned expulsion, with pressure being applied for weeks ahead of the incident that prompted it.

  • It’s not entirely clear, but this does not sound like a voluntary resignation. She was sandbagged with a letter from the Bush appointee, Lizzette Reynolds, that opened with a statement that she had committed a firing offense; she was later summoned without warning to a long meeting that grilled her over the “problem”; and she was then summoned to the Human Resources director’s office. Perhaps she signed a resignation letter, but this was not a case where she was given any choice.

  • At the last Texas Education Agency textbook approval session, McLeroy invited the whole board of the Discovery Institute to testify, as well as Eugenie Scott. Scott was scheduled last … and came up to speak at 2am. What a sneaky way to make sure the opposition is ignored!

  • The real bad guy is being exposed: Glenn Branch of the NCSE was openly credited with being the fellow who sent the email that got Comers fired. Phooey. Now everyone will know who the Secret Satan at the NCSE is.

LOLScience, now?

Those cats are just everywhere — now lolcats can has science. Even worse, it’s dominated by geology LOLcats. Geologists are too abrasive and intrusive to have a sense of humor, and it takes ages for them to tell a joke.

I do have something to say to physics cat, though.

i-194359f925451b0aa2d36c9b0cd8db8c-physics_cat.jpg

Here, kitty kitty. I have a box, a geiger counter, and some cyanide for you.

A Christmas Carol

Hank Fox sent me the link to this lovely little ditty. I don’t know why he didn’t forward it to Bill O’Reilly or Bill Donohue.

I hope you have headphones if you try to listen to this in a public place. And do try to avoid singing along.

On that appeal to you sentimental bastards, let me mention another thing: a webblogger in this holiday season in difficult straits. It’s going to get uglier still in the future, I suspect, since this collapsing housing bubble is going to hurt a lot of people in real estate, finance, property management, etc. Kevin Hayden of the American Street is in that position — if anyone can help him out, please do.

For the War on Christmas.

Professor Post: Dear Students,

Dear students of Biol 4003: Neurobiology—

EXTRA CREDIT? You haven’t even turned in your final lab reports, and you’re already asking for extra credit? This speaks of a serious lack of confidence, and I don’t know that I should pander to your low self-esteem. Tell me instead that your work on the final exam and the last lab report will dazzle me so much that giving you a mere “A” will be insufficient, and I’ll have to come to your homes and clean your house to make up the difference.

Besides, didn’t anyone ever tell you that a cluttered lab is an active, happy lab?

And that tank with the yellowish water in it is actually a dilute bleach solution that I use for sterilizing. It is true that I should flush that and replace it with a fresh solution, though.

So maybe there is a place for having a lab clean-up day. I could make meticulousness part of the lab grade, and dock you all 10% of your score if the lab is in a less than sparkling state at the end of the term. Yeah, that’s what an evil professor should do … I’ll have to think about it.

Sphingolipid Synthesis

I’ve spent this last week familiarizing myself with this article for my biochemistry class. Obviously, the article is way to large to bite off in one blog. One spot that draws my curiosity.

The AUR1 is promoted by the presence of Galactose. The kicker is that the presence of Glucose will turn off the gene. The organism is unable to live without the target sphingolipids. Is there some reason for this? I would think that adaptation would have long since accounted for this. Weird.