jfiore
Posts by this author
October 17, 2006
I live in the 24th Congressional District of New York State. For over 20 years we were represented by Sherwood Boehlert, a moderate Republican (a real moderate, that is). Congressman Boehlert decided to retire this year and we now have what is considered to be one of the hottest races in the…
October 13, 2006
According to Purdue researcher Ken Ferraro, the answer is yes, sort of.
To be more precise, Ferraro found a 14 percent increase in obesity among women who use religious media resources. Ferraro studied the religious habits of over 2500 people to reach this conclusion. Interestingly, he found that…
October 13, 2006
If you're like many SciBlog readers you probably have an interest in just how well your elected representatives are truly representing you, whether it's concerning stem cell research, same-sex marriage, church-state separation issues, or what-have-you. For convenient one stop shopping, take a trip…
October 4, 2006
As an electrical engineer and college professor, I often have to correct my students' use of the words ironic and optimize. Lots of people use ironic when they're referring to what might be better called a curious or interesting coincidence. No, it's not ironic that Larry died on his father's…
October 3, 2006
This weekend, October 6-8, San Francisco will be the site of the 29th annual convention of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Among the activities will be talks by Sam Harris (The End of Faith) and Dr. Richard Sloan (Blind Faith: The Unholy Alliance of Religion and Medicine). Julia Sweeney, of…
September 19, 2006
I decided to do something a little different the other day. This doesn't seem to have much to do with science per se, but eventually perhaps it will. Just how sensitive are a musician's "hands" to their instrument?
For over two decades I have been playing electronic drums, designing my own in the…
September 16, 2006
Jason over on EvolutionBlog has some interesting commentary regarding Greg Easterbrook and string theory. Like Jason, I find Easterbrook to be tiresome and a less-than-worthy commentator on topics scientific. I had written my own frisking of Easterbrook with respect to Richard Dawkins on a previous…
September 15, 2006
I was reading David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding the other day and came across a lovely item. Mind you, I tend not to wallow in philosophy texts, but I find the occasional jaunt into the realm a welcome relief from my usual reading in science and politics. Given the inevitable…
September 9, 2006
Well, well, we seem to have a bit of war, a tussle if you will, concerning who claims the mantle of most nerdy-worthy sci-blogger. After taking the test and giving it a bit of thought, I have come to the conclusion that the test is faulty (one might even argue that it is a Tower of Fawlty-ness).
I…
September 4, 2006
Suppose you want to raise a little money for a charitable organization. Suppose you do it by spoofing the premise of a comedic Hollywood movie, having yourself be the butt of the joke. Finally, suppose that you live in the so-called moral heartland of America, say Iowa. What could possibly go wrong…
August 26, 2006
Is it just me, or has there been an almost annoying increase in the number of "Let's see how smart you are" ads on the Web these days? From self-propelled pseudo-IQ tests to numeric sequences to who-knows-what-else, I see these little buggers pop up on all manner of pages. I find them to be a waste…
August 24, 2006
My wife and I went to a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young concert the other evening at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. It was a great show in spite of a little rain. You can read a local review of it here. What does this have to do with photons and pressure waves? I'll get to that in a minute…
August 10, 2006
If you haven't seen it, 30 Days is Supersize Me author Morgan Spurlock's show on FX. The premise is straight-forward: immerse someone for 30 days in a situation opposite to what they're used to. Ostensibly, the idea is to learn "how the other half lives", so to speak. The August 9 episode featured…
August 9, 2006
So, Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut lost his Democratic primary bid to Ned Lamont, 48 to 52 percent. Many have suggested that it was Lieberman's apparent "cozyness" with the Bush administration that did him in. I was never either a fan nor a detractor of Lieberman, but I thought that maybe he…
July 28, 2006
Not to be outdone by the good Doc, I have included a few quick flower porn snaps from the hot, lurid, sexually charged grounds surrounding my house. Well, to be honest, it's just plain hot, as in approaching 90F with more humidity than a swimming pool.
First on our parade of porn is the common…
July 26, 2006
The other day I picked up the September issue of Running Times and noted an item concerning the ACLI Capital Challenge. The Capital Challenge is a three mile road race open to teams representing the three branches of the federal government and the media. The proceeds benefit the District of…
July 21, 2006
I have little doubt that George W. Bush likes to think of himself as a protector of the good and a promoter of life. As evidence, I offer his recent veto of HR 810, the stem cell research bill. His remarks indicated that he was concerned about destroying human life. So concerned, apparently, that…
July 19, 2006
HR 810. The president's only veto after six years in office. The failure of the House to override the veto with a 2/3rds majority due primarily to the muddy-headed thinking and religious dogma-addled brains of conservative Republican lap-dogs. One can only hope that rational people will remember…
July 6, 2006
I meant to post this shorty the other day, but as they say, better late than never.
As this is science blogs, I think it's fitting to remember what one of the founders of the USA had to say about July 4. The following is from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote in response to a request that he attend a…
June 26, 2006
OK, I've got nothing but good things to say about Warren Buffett's announcement that he's giving $37 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Well, other than that I wonder how we've managed to create a system where someone can amass that much in the first place, but I digress. $37 billion…
June 20, 2006
The question has been raised as to whether or not organized religious fervor will eventually win out over the Enlightenment ideals of humanistic atheism, and if it does, the consequence of America devolving into a theocratic hegemony. On their side, the humanist-atheist camp operates from a…
June 14, 2006
I just saw a few minutes of Fox's Bill O'Reilly being interviewed by Matt Lauer on The Today Show regarding President Bush's surprise visit to Baghdad along with other issues of the Iraq war. Undoubtedly, there will be some folks who will parse and critique every word that Matt and Bill uttered,…
June 12, 2006
Sometimes the little things mean a lot. I normally get out of bed around 6:00 AM. In the foothills of the Adirondacks in mid June, this means that the sky has been light for an hour. I like this. For whatever reason, my brain just doesn't want to fully engage in the morning when it's dark out. This…