Those are two subjects that leave me queasily nauseated, so this time I’ll let John Lynch have the honor of poking about in the puke.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Those are two subjects that leave me queasily nauseated, so this time I’ll let John Lynch have the honor of poking about in the puke.
I’m going to have to visit the American Museum of Natural History and see the
new permanent exhibit on human origins. It sounds very good; they’ve done something I try to do in some of my talks on evolution, splitting it between the more easily comprehended, sexy stuff of fossils and reconstructions and the more abstract and more recent material on molecular biology and genetics. There’s an oft-told myth among the creationists that evolution is dying, but it’s precisely that explosion of new information we’re gaining from molecular approaches that has been revitalizing the research for some time now.
The do throw one sop to the culture wars:
One issue cannot be entirely sidestepped in any public presentation of human evolution: that many people in this country doubt and vocally oppose the very concept. In a corner of the hall, several scientists are shown in video interviews professing the compatibility of their evolution research with their religious beliefs.
This is a new permanent exhibit, but I vaguely recall seeing a video presentation like this at a museum somewhere; was it on display at the AMNH before? It’s not a big deal, as what I remember of it was being faintly embarrassed at these scientists professing to be proud of their archaic bone-in-the-nose magic rituals. That part will be skippable—I look forward to seeing the real evidence, that wonderful piece of the universe that is untainted by the delusions of tradition.
The big, important news is, of course, the death of a gold-digging addlepated model (I’m sorry that she’s dead, but really…it’s not something worth flogging over and over on the news), so the feature on atheism that CNN was going to show has been bumped to Friday.
Unless somebody in programming gets a yen for accordion music, I think.
They invariably get it wrong. This time they’ve noticed it’s cold outside, and they see an news report about colder temperatures in the Antarctic, so they leap to the conclusion that global warming is bunk. Or rather, they always held that conclusion (on faith, no doubt), and are overjoyed to see any scrap of out-of-context evidence that they can play up to bolster their confidence.
OK, here’s the latest word on tonight’s show on atheists with Paula Zahn: there will be a different version of the previous report on ostracized atheists. Dawkins’ interview will be four minutes long. There will also be a panel with Niger Innis (a conservative Republican), Roland Martin (a religious commentator), and Christopher Hitchens (atheist pain-in-the-ass). Apparently, they searched the entire United States of America and couldn’t find a single atheist, so they had to import a couple from one of those godless foreign countries. You know, if they’d called me this morning I could have rushed off to the airport; when one is the only atheist in America, as I seem to be, one has to get used to making these emergency runs to meet demands to appear on a freakshow.
I guess this is standard operating procedure, with much last-minute juggling of the schedule, so you might tune in at 8pm EST tonight and discover that they thought 10 minutes of some guy playing the accordion would be more entertaining. Don’t be surprised, it could happen.
Carel Brest van Kempen is going to be at the Hogle Zoo on Friday evening, showing off his artwork. We have fond memories of the zoo; our apartment was just down the road from it in Salt Lake City when we lived there, and when the kids were at that perfect age to be enthusiastic about it all. (Salt Lake City, despite the weird religion everywhere, is actually a wonderful place to raise kids; when we atheists take over the country, we have to remember to build zoos and big parks and lots of schools in our cities.)
Admission is free from 7-9pm. If we were living a little closer, we’d be there—if you’re in that part of Utah, you should make the trip!
Oops, not free, but still a good deal!
The Opening Reception on Friday (Feb 9) from 7-9 is for artists and invited guests only. However the show will run from Feb. 10 – April 1 and is free with paid admission to to Zoo. We have 10 of Carel Brest van Kempen’s pieces in the show as well as the poster for this year’s show he created. The poster will be available for sale for only $5!
Really, I don’t read Debbie Schlussel’s blog—a reader sent me a link, so I put on the waders and gas mask and climbed down into the sewer. I’m now completely baffled; why is this insane and deeply stupid person ever put on television? Her response to the CNN complaints is illustrative, and even if you sympathize with her, you’ve got to recognized the big picture here: she’s not very bright.
One sign that the fading Bush administration knows that they’ve been on the wrong side of reality is that they’re now busy scrubbing the archives, trying to change what was said in the past. Chris Mooney catches a blatant attempt to rewrite the administration’s history on global warming.
Man, the GW Bush Presidential Library is going to be a real work of art, isn’t it? Maybe it should be called a “propaganda archive” rather than a “library”.
Got a jar you can’t get open? Tired of straining just to get a dab of peanut butter? You need Violet, the incredible jar-opener*, complete with suction cups. Act now, and perhaps you can train her to use a can opener, too!
*Offer void where prohibited. Violet not responsible for damp, salty flavor of opened product.
