Would you date this woman?

Tara is talking about a trial that’s putting the HIV-denialists in the same position the creationists were in the Kitzmiller trial—having to publicly defend absurdities in a critical venue. It sounds like they aren’t coming off well, and this might be another trial where we collect amusing snippets of testimony. Maybe I just have a sick sense of humor, but I thought this was hilarious.

She was asked by prosecutor Sandi McDonald whether “you would have unprotected vaginal sex with a HIV-positive man”.

“Any time,” replied Ms Papadopulos-Eleopulos.

Slut.

How do you correct the problem of a teacher caught screwing up in the classroom?

Well, obviously, the problem isn’t the “screwing up”, it’s that the teacher was caught, so you make that more difficult. In this case, the Kearney school district has decided to ban tape recorders in the classroom. That sounds smart.

It makes me wonder how many teachers other than David Paszkiewicz are peddling ignorant cant in Kearney classrooms, that they have to make a special effort to protect them from exposure.

Oh, and my students can tape my classes any time they want.

It’s me again

I only mention this because it infuriates the wingnuts and religious ravers, but if you go to my university’s main web page you might see an article about me (I say “might” because only 4 are shown at a time, and which 4 is random). It’s awfully hard to get across to the critics, but the university supports me despite not necessarily endorsing my every opinion, and despite individuals in the administration feeling a little uncomfortable with some of my views, because there is this principle of academic freedom—it’s part of the job of an academic to make people uncomfortable. If you want vacuous pablum, that’s what the right-wing think tanks are for.

I don’t visit the main page much, so I wouldn’t have noticed this except that Larry Moran brought it to my attention. I should have made sure the photo accompanying the article had been properly credited, with something like “Photo courtesy of Larry the Camera Guy” across the bottom.

Franken in 2008

Go, Al! Franken will definitely be running for Coleman’s senate position in 2008. This is promising: the Republicans are already upset.

After seeing an account of Franken’s calls [to DFL leaders] on the Star Tribune website, Minnesota Republican Party Chairman Ron Carey issued a statement criticizing Franken’s “anger and slash-and-burn partisanship.”

That’s an excellent endorsement right there.

A new Circus of the Spineless, and a call for submissions for the next

As is traditional at the end of the month, a new Circus of the Spineless is up at The Voltage Gate. And the next Circus of the Spineless at the end of February will be…here! Start sending me good stuff on invertebrate organisms—remember, there are over 30 animal phyla, and all but one of them are fair game, and even that one contains non-vertebrate classes. Will we be able to get them all represented?

Whoa. John Edwards just got a big boost

He must be a smart guy: he just picked Amanda Marcotte to run the John Edwards blog. And since Amanda will be slightly distracted, she’s brought in five (it takes five people to take Amanda’s place?) new people to keep Pandagon humming…and one of them is Chris Clarke. Everything’s shuffling around! I’m getting confused! I think I’m willing to vote for Edwards so far, as long as Amanda keeps him in line and makes sure he doesn’t start pumping up the war talk or professing for creationism.