Uncritical journalists piss me off. Uncritical religious people piss me off, too, but it’s their natural state at least. When the two converge, as they typically do on the religion pages, I turn purple and start shredding newsprint (which is why I usually avoid reading the religion pages). Today, the Star Tribune has an interview with Lee Strobel.
Right-wing crank Mark Steyn plagiarizes his way through another exercise in formulaic hackery. Alas, he will not have died a painful and horrible death by page 2.
I’d flunk him, too, and I’d also report him to the academic integrity committee. He’d probably complain that I’m out to get him, though.
Seeing ourselves as others do can be a strange experience. Here’s an article in the Humboldt County Times Standard that discusses Morris, Minnesota, and pretty much exclusively praises us.
Recently I was listening to Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion.” I had to pull my car over to the side of the road after he said that Morris — a city located in Stevens County in his home state of Minnesota — had a high school dropout rate of less than 1 percent. In addition, 95 percent of the high school graduates in that city and county go on to some kind of postsecondary education.
Huh. I’d been wondering why I’ve been getting so much complaining email lately, defending Pensacola Christian College.
Pz Myers,
I’m A Christian. I came across your blog when searching for PCC in Pensacola FL. This web site was the first on the list. I of course disagree with you, but I do know why you as a “professor” at a University can not understand why someone would go to that college. I mean think about it? no fun, not accredited, religious? What sparks the endurance for a average 18 year old to go were the rules are so strick? Is it their parents? the answer is no. Is it the society? the answer in no. Is it the higher level of education? no. What is it then? If your a Professor at the Univeristy of Minnesota, then it likely to believe that you a never been inside the college, Your information sounds accuracted, but I bet you never been there. I’ll will go on and further say you will never go there to see this “jail” yourself. You in my book are thoughtless on this topic. You can not judge what you not seen. I think you need to be educated on why Christians do the things they do. Search it out, If you have any questions write them to me at redacted, Any logical person would examine both sides. Remember a three letter word make you and me different. GOD!
Nah, it’s an eight-letter word. LITERACY!
I’ve got to admit, though, that this fellow’s letter was one of the better written ones coming from these PCC wanna-be pseudo-collegiates.
Ken Cope sent me this link to Pirate Baby’s Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006.
He did not tell me to drop acid before watching it, and he could have at least warned me about the epileptic seizures I’d be having near the end (the ending itself, though, is beautiful).
And what’s with all the hostility towards cephalopods?
The new weekly question is:
“If you could shake the public and make them understand one scientific idea, what would it be?”
I’m going to get all fundamentalist on this one. The one thing I wish everyone understood is…
It’s easy: less scientific rigor, and get rid of pesky controls.
Four of my favorite things are development, evolution, and breasts, and now I have an article that ties them all together in one pretty package. It’s a speculative story at this point, but the weight of the evidence marshaled in support of the premise is impressive: the mammalian breast first evolved as an immunoprotective gland that produced bacteriocidal secretions to protect the skin and secondarily eggs and infants, and that lactation is a highly derived kind of inflammation response. That mammary glands may have had their origin as inflamed glands suppurating mucus may not be the most romantic image to arise in a scientific study, but really—they got better and better over the years.
Human milk is potent stuff. The Greek for milk was gala, and as you might be able to see if I hadn’t had to reduce this Tintoretto so much, the galaxies were created from the spray of milk from Hera’s breasts. Modern astronomers might quibble with that explanation of the origins of the extrasolar universe, but what do I know…I’m a biologist. I’ll stick to biology now, and with that, here’s a short summary of the biology behind mother’s milk.
