Technical difficulties!

The server here is not working well—people are getting lots of “Internal Server Errors” when they try to post comments, and I’m seeing the same problem when I try to post articles. Despite the error message, though, the comments are usually going through. IGNORE THE ERRORS.

Here’s the usual run of affairs. You type in a witty and insightful comment as you always do, and then click “Post”. Usually, this goes smoothly, the comment gets sent, the server tucks it into its database, and the page is refreshed to show your sweet, beautiful words in the thread.

Lately, something is balking after the server stores your comment, and it’s showing you an error page instead of your sweet, beautiful words. Now here’s the problem, and this is important. Do not ever do this: click the “back” button in your browser, and then click on “Post” again to resend it. Your comment is already there, and you’re just piling up more copies of the same comment.

Here’s what you should do if you get the error. Click the “back” button. Select your comment from the text box, and select “copy” from the edit menu. Then click on the “refresh” or “reload” button in your browser, and see if your comment was actually stored. If it was, you’re done. If it wasn’t, then you should paste your words back into the text box, and then click on “Post” again.

Remember, the error messages may be lying to you. Don’t trust them. Verify.

If you’ve made umpty-eleven submissions of the same comment, don’t ask me to delete them for you, either. When I go in to the control panel to tinker, I get those error messages on just about every operation. It’s driving me a bit nuts, so please don’t add to it.

Physics of the Sandman

James Kakalios gets to use the latest Spider-Man movie as an excuse to explain the physics of granular materials in the New York Times. Good thing they didn’t ask a biologist about Sandman … all I could think about was that there was no way a loose aggregate of coarse sand would be able to mimic the function of the human brain, which is built upon the sub-micron-scale specific organization of diverse molecules. I would be such a wet blanket.

No, wait, I did think of another thing: could you incapacitate Sandman by dumping your cat’s litterbox on him? I’d think he’d go running off to do some emergency particle segregation right away.

I will say that the Sandman special effects were the best part of the movie. The rest — plot, acting, dialogue — eh, not so much.

Carnivalia, and an open thread

Here’s a slew of good stuff to entertain you on a pleasant Friday, the last day of finals week here at UMM. I have to give my genetics students their final exam in a short while—I fear they are not having a happy time right now. When they’re done, though, the sun will be shining, commencement awaits tomorrow … and I will be sitting in gloomy room somewhere, red pen in hand, grading.

A good start

Rupert Murdoch has openly admitted that global warming is a real problem.

At an event held this morning in midtown Manhattan and webcast to all News Corp. employees, Murdoch launched a company-wide plan to address climate change that includes not only a pledge to reduce the company’s emissions (which has come to be expected at such biz-greening events) but also a vow to weave climate messaging into the content and programming of News Corp.’s many holdings.

Ironically, though, Murdoch still employs that ignorant junk science guy, Steve Milloy, as a Fox News columnist. Here’s a suggestion to Murdoch for a good start: stop disseminating lies about science, and fire Steve Milloy. Sign the petition and give Rupert Murdoch a hint.

Hammer has risen from the grave

Rumor has it that Hammer Films might be coming back—I don’t know if this is good news or not. I love the old movies and have a stack of their DVDs right next to me, but all the money in horror movies seems to be in ghastly 1½ hour extended torture scenes, like the hideous Hostel and unwatchable Saw series. Let’s hope they don’t taint the brand by putting some hack like Rob Zombie to churn out seedy, misogynistic squish-and-splatter flicks.

Maybe they’re reading this post right now

Neddie finds something rather disturbing: a border guard leaving a comment in a blog, flaunting his knowledge of the comings and goings of the blogger at a border crossing. It’s vaguely threatening, in a “I know where you live” kind of way. The assertion that “you do not have a right to privacy” is even more creepy—I think someone on the border patrol is a little too full of himself.

I’ve driven up to Canada a couple of times now, and the remarkable contrast has been how pleasant and casual the guards at the entry into Canada have been, and how surly, snide, and officious the guards coming back into the US have been. I don’t quite understand the point of having the guards at the border treating people as potential criminals; it’s not as if real criminals and terrorists are going to be at all dissuaded by supercilious snottiness, but legitimate visitors to our country are going to be dismayed by our gracelessness at the doorway.

Even us residents aren’t at all thrilled with their behavior. After showing multiple forms of ID and answering all their questions, they still acted suspicious and resentful, as if they were offended that I had dared visit a foreign country, and they weren’t sure if they should let me come back home. (Uh-oh…next time I visit Canada, are the guards going to mutter about my blog and subject me to a strip search now?)

Dodos on Showtime, extras on YouTube!

First, an important message from Randy Olson:

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Second, another important message from Randy Olson: one of the DVD extras for the movie has been released to YouTube! It’s got my picture in it, but skip that, watch for…

  • Jack Cashill’s little falsehood about Haeckel’s embryos. He accuses SJ Gould of sitting on the problems of Haeckelian recapitulation for 25 years, only mentioning it in 1995. Of course, Gould published a whole book in 1977, Ontogeny and Phylogeny, that laid out the failures of Haeckelian recapitulation in pedantic detail. Cashill also claims “…the Haeckel embryos which are being reproduced in every single significant textbook1 in America as the single best proof2 of Darwinism3…”; how many errors can you count in that short sentence? I get at least 3.

  • And most importantly, catch the cynical quote from Michael Behe at the end of the clip. It’s worth watching for that alone.

    “My kids don’t go to public schools, what do I care?”