Somebody needs to write a book called “The McGrath Delusion” now

Alistair McGrath came out with a book called The Dawkins Delusion? a while back, in response to The God Delusion, obviously. It seems to have sank without much of a trace, and what I’ve read of McGrath on the net has been tediously unimpressive — he’s another believer who mistakes criticizing Dawkins for a positive step in defending his faith — so I haven’t bothered to read it, especially since right now we’re flooded with good books on unbelief. I was sent a scathing critique of McGrath that I’ll cite here, though; it looks like his book is nothing but a long tirade against a straw Dawkins.

If anyone has any positive reviews of McGrath’s book, go ahead and post a link. As it stands, it’s a book I don’t have to add to my summer reading list.

Also, how can you do social networking without beer?

I cower away from the horror that is MySpace, and I scarcely know what to do with facebook; I’m all at sea on this social networking buzz. Now I’ve gone and signed up for another one, the Nature Network, a social networking site for scientists. I’m still lost. Maybe if I encourage a bunch of you other scientists out there to sign up, some comprehension will begin to gel for me.

Attila Csordas has a nice writeup of the whole magilla which helps. I’m giving it a shot, anyway.

I already notice it lacks those bosomy young ladies in skimpy clothing that always greet me on MySpace, and the contributors all seem to know how to write plain English, so it’s different on those scores.

It’s a good sign when the creationists are embarrassed to answer

Avidor has a video of an exchange between a defender of science (DFL) and creationist coward (R). It’s amusing. Kate Knuth (DFL) asks a simple question—whether Tom Emmer (R) believes the earth is thousands of years old, or billions of years old—and Emmer runs away from the question. First he babbles about how he has a different science than she does, and then he justs asks her whether she’s an evolutionist.

It’s just weird. They know enough to realize that they sound awfully silly when they claim the earth is ten thousand years old, but they don’t know enough to think that maybe they’re wrong.

Woo hoo IV!

I just finished grading all the genetics final exams, and submitted final grades to the registrar!

I’ve just got two independent study papers that need to be turned in and graded, and then I will be completely done.

The $23 million dollar man: Peter Popoff

You might not want to look at this story about the televangelist fraud, Peter Popoff around lunchtime — it contains graphic visuals of a known con artist cheerfully defrauding the sick and elderly, and it might leave you a little squeamish. Popoff was discredited by James Randi 20 years ago, as is vividly shown at the link, but he’s back now, sucking in millions of dollars every year with his lies.

There’s also a couple in the story who were sick and unemployed, and who borrowed thousands of dollars from relatives to help them pay their bills…and who instead sent all the money to Popoff, who promised them magic Jesus prosperity. It’s a veritable freakshow of stupidity—you’ll despise the con artist, but you’ll also want to kick some of his victims.

Seed supports Science Fairs

Seed is doing a Good Thing and hosting a site and forum for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (when I was growing up, this was better known as the Westinghouse science fair, and it is very prestigious). Some of the projects that come out of that science fair are just plain intimidating—teachers and students might want to browse the fair for ideas, but don’t be discouraged if some of them are a little overwhelming. It probably helps maintain your perspective to notice that Seed has sponsored an amusing gimmick, too, the world’s largest baking soda and vinegar volcano. (I don’t care how big it is, though, it’s not going to win.)

A few items from John Horgan

John Horgan and George Johnson are going at it again on Bloggingheads. The most interesting part, I thought, was the discussion of EO Wilson’s turn towards group selection; one of the themes of Gould’s last book was the existence of levels of selection above the individual and the gene. Gould and Wilson had such a bitter antipathy towards each other that it is fascinating to see this sliver of convergence now.

For more Horgan, check out his recent article in Slate—it’s a skeptical look at neurotheology. Persinger and Hamer, oh my — two guys whose real talent is the ability to prompt eye-rolling and giggles in scientists.

Alas, poor Guillermo Gonzalez

Les Lane has a summary of Gonzalez’s unfortunate tenure situation. To nudge your memory, Guillermo Gonzalez is the Discovery Institute fellow who was working as an assistant professor of astronomy at Iowa State University; he was recently denied tenure there and is protesting the decision.

It’s an awkward position, but very common — academia isn’t an easy career to break into. It also doesn’t help that Gonzalez fails to understand the process.

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Tormenting them right back

As the buggy summer looms, I have to confess to a sadistic enjoyment of this splatter film.

I think the insects are real animals filmed with high speed cameras, but the actual impacts are faked with CGI — the physics weren’t quite right, and the flying insects should have bounced out of the camera field more. It just makes it funnier that no arthropods were actually harmed in the making of this movie.

(via Byzantium’s Shores)