Can’t it at least wait until after Thanksgiving?

The War on Christmas starts earlier every year. The first salvo: an advent calendar in Hanover, Germany includes a small, cartoonish portrayal of famous local son, Fritz Haarmann. He was a serial killer who lived over 80 years ago.

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I think the wounds of the monster’s actions are healed over and largely forgotten now, so while not entirely in good taste, I don’t think Christianity should be too outraged at the inclusion of a wicked fellow who killed 24 people. There are other mostly forgotten characters who could be put on a Christmas calendar without causing this kind of misplaced outrage, like Athanasius or Savanarola or Arnaud-Amaury or more than a few popes, who were responsible for many more deaths. I guess it just isn’t the holiday season without something for the right wing to rage over, and it’s better that they’re howling at Fritz Haarmann than some bewildered greeter at Wal-Mart.

But while you’re scowling at the reminder of the holiday season, I’ll mention that this is a good time to order your secular season cards. I fear the “Stop the Lies” card might give Aunt Tillie a heart attack when she opens it, but the Darwin as St Nick cards are nice.

Vote on the Weblog Awards, while you still can

You can vote today, and you can vote tomorrow, and then the polls close…so get out there and vote for Bad Astronomy for best science blog. The forces of stupidity have been motivated and are pushing a denialist blog up in the rankings, and it would be good to consolidate our votes and make sure a decent blog wins. Tim Lambert agrees, and also informs us that Steve Milloy has endorsed the Climate Audit blog—any doubt that it was an undeserving mouthpiece for right-wing hackery has now ended.

Besides, I’m rooming with Phil this weekend in Washington DC, and I really don’t want to have to put up with his bitter tears the whole time, or worse, if he feels compelled to drown his sorrows in vodka. Vote BA, because grown astronomers shouldn’t have to cry, and because I want to have fun, rather than nursing a broken man.

My other suggestions are here.

School shooting in Finland

There has been another tragic shooting at a school, this time at Jokela secondary school in Tuusula, Finland. It was a single gunman on a rampage, and at least seven people have been killed.

We’re going to hear much more about this because the murderer claims to have carried out this act in the name of natural selection. Some of the murderer’s files are available online (so far; that link may not function for long), and they portray a sick man with a distorted view of evolution that he used to justify his actions.

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In which I am compared to Einstein

I think it was intended to be an unfavorable comparison, but the ambiguity of the phrasing does leave open the possibility that Ben Stein is accusing Einstein of having a closed mind.

What we see below are two views of Intelligent Design’s place in science. One quote is from a brilliant, open minded and humble man…the other from a man typical of those who believe that they know better, but who don’t have much to offer, other than a closed-mind.

“My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.”

Albert Einstein (Nobel prize for Physics in 1921)

"Those crazy rascals behind Expelled have some new games they want to play: they’ve put out a casting call for victims of persecution. It’s a pitiful plea, but it will probably net a nice collection of complaints – because it’s true. We do reject Intelligent Design from the academy, from science, and from science education, and there’s a very good reason for that: it’s the same reason we reject astrology, alchemy, creationism, haruspication, necromancy, ornithomancy, and witchcraft from our science courses. Because they aren’t science."

PZ Myers, Neo-Darwinist, blog author and Wisconsin professor

A post from "EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed" spokesperson Ben Stein follows; it continues in the wondrously open – science view of Einstein, and provides an important perspective regarding academic freedom, and the right of every scientist, educator and researcher to pursue the evidence wherever it may lead, free from the persecution of The State, "Big Science" or lesser men wishing to impose an anti-theistic, materialistic worldview on our students, under the guise of “science.”

OK, not really. They’re trying to say mean things about me. I did have a couple of quick impressions about Stein’s remarks, though.

  • I hate to say it, but Einstein sure could talk like an airy-fairy ditz at times.

  • It was very nice of them to include enough of my quote to get the full meaning.

  • The quote is actually from a post where I commend a college student for speaking out against creationist B.S., which makes it a bit ironic.

  • I stand by my words. Good for me!

  • WISCONSIN!?!! Damn you, Ben Stein. Damn you to hell.

Pie in the sky between your thighs

Ladies, there are people who want your menstrual blood. It contains stromal cells, which are a multipotent adult-stem-cell-like population that might be a useful source of fairly plastic, proliferative cells. This distant possibility has prompted one company, C’Elle, to offer to collect, test, purify, and store these cells for you. As they say, these cells “may potentially provide phenomenal life saving treatments and customized therapies in the future“…so you should stash away a supply in cryogenic storage, just in case someone comes up with a use.

There is some serious science here, and Attila Csordas summarizes some of the interesting properties of these cells, but the approach is just weird. This can’t be called fraud — throughout their web site, they plainly admit that there is no practical, applied use for these cells right now, so they aren’t attempting to mislead at all — but they also can’t give a good pragmatic reason why anyone should pay to have their menstrual blood stored away.

That’s right, pay. Fees range from $499 for a single collection, to $1599 for a quarterly collection, with an additional yearly fee of $99-$199 for cryostorage. Yow. And you’ve just been throwing those tampons and pads away, not realizing that that is sludgy red treasure between your legs, and that you ought to be putting it on a high-tech pedestal and preserving it for a lifetime.

We guys are feeling left out, I assure you. I’m hoping we find a multipotent adult stem cell type in mucosal epithelia, so that we too can pay a premium price to honor the potential in our mucky secretions. If there isn’t a company doing this yet, I should start one.

I think I’ll call it “B’ooger™” (pronounced “boo-zhay”, of course).

Later, we may expand to serve a discriminating and exclusively male clientele with “Smeg’ma” (“smay-mwah”). There’s gold in them there slimes!

Can we please form a Rationalist Party now?

I was shocked to open Current Biology and find the leading news article was titled “Call to atheists,” and it was actually a pleasantly neutral article that simply reported on Dawkins’ efforts to organize atheists and promote a positive view of secularism — I guess I’m simply so used to so many media references that get immediately defensive of religion and treat atheism as something scary. It’s very nice.

Right after reading it, however, I got a note from Melissa. If you want to see something that should choke a cockroach, watch the parade of Democrats getting in line to stand up and defend the Bible. It’s nauseating. I want to see my party standing up to defend the constitution and personal liberties, not antique superstitions…but there they are, prioritizing vocal support for a wretched old book of lies while allowing the erosion of democratic principles to continue, and in fact by their praise of state-endorsed Christianity, promoting the demolition of the separation of church and state.

What does that have to do with Dawkins? He makes this comment in the interview:

He has been encouraged in the early days for the race for president by the apparent distancing of Republican candidates from the Christian right. But he found “very depressing” the profession of faith from the Democratic candidates. “I guess the Democrats have to pretend to be more pious than the Republicans because they are under suspicion of not being.”

I think Dawkins is wrong, unfortunately. Watch that video; I don’t think they’re pretending, I think they actually are pious twits.

I hate to admit it, but even I would vote for a Republican if he were openly atheist. I am thoroughly fed up with the sad-sack sanctimony from our representatives, and I don’t care whether it’s feigned or sincere — it’s corrosive garbage.

Williams, N (2007) Call to atheists. Current Biology 17(21):R899-R900.