July 16, 2012
I'm back in Virginia for a few days. I'll be hitting the road once again on Friday, heading west this time to visit friends in Kentucky. In the meantime, here's an interesting photo of the light fixture hanging between the garage doors of my parent's house:
What's that ball-like thing…
July 10, 2012
I have now reached the last leg of my travels. I was in Philadelphia for several days last week, and was in upstate New York over the weekend. Currently I'm in New York City.
Last night I attended Monday Night Magic at the Players Theater in Greenwich Village. All of the acts were very enjoyable…
July 3, 2012
As preparation for your fourth of July barbecue, watch this video about how to cook a hot dog. It's very clever, despite being spoiled somewhat at the end by the application of ketchup to the finished dog. As Dirty Harry once said, nobody but nobody puts ketchup on a hot dog!
July 1, 2012
I haven't tried to solve this yet, but considering the headline I feel honor-bound to give it a try. It's a pity it wasn't available in time to include in the Big Sudoku Book, since we have a section discussing how the difficulty of a puzzle is determined.
June 28, 2012
I've decided it's time to get out of Virginia for two weeks or so. I came up with the most exciting and exotic locales I could think of. I will be visiting central New Jersey, Philadelphia, upstate New York and New York City. Do I know how to travel or what?
It'll be a mix of business and…
June 24, 2012
Among the side effects of all the asinine hand-wringing over the phony problem of “scientism” is that it distracts attention from the real threat facing the humanities. I am referring to the corporate mindset that has come to dominate many aspects of higher education.
That threat is on full…
June 21, 2012
As a counterpoint to Monday's post about Genesis, consider this essay, by Craig Kanalley. He writes:
I felt I needed a shake-up in my life. And that's what happened. I decided to make a career change, abruptly leaving my job at NBC News, and coming back to where I was happy in a prior phase of my…
June 20, 2012
I'm coming very late to the party on this one, but I wanted to comment on Philip Kitcher's recent article on scientism, published in The New Republic.
A while back I did two posts on scientism (here and here). The first of these posts was titled, “What is Scientism?”, since it's never been…
June 19, 2012
Over at Kevin Drum's blog, there is an interesting exchange between Drum and an unnamed college professor. In a post that was primarily about issues related to paying for a college education, Drum wrote:
The fact is that UCLA provides undergraduates with an education that's just as good as…
June 18, 2012
Update: June 19, 10:56 am: The commenting issues have now been fixed! Yay! So please ignore the first paragraph of the post.
The commenting issues around here remain unresolved. In the past I have been told by the overlords that this was being treated as a high-priority problem. If that is so…
June 13, 2012
You know that long-running Gallup poll about evolution and creationism, the one that has consistently shown that support for creationism has been in the mid forties for the last thirty years or so? Well, the latest numbers are out, and they are not good news. The creationism number, which was at…
June 11, 2012
Scot McKnight, a Professor of New testament at Northern Seminary in Illinois, has posted a review of the Big Evolution/Creation Book. He describes it as “a good read,” though it is hard to pick out one quote that perfectly summarizes his reaction to it. So go have a look for yourself. You don't…
June 11, 2012
Still no word on when the commenting issues will be resolved. Hopefully soon. But I did want to poke my head up long enough to warn you away from seeing Ridley Scott's Alien prequel, Prometheus. Really, really bad. This one's going to be on a lot of ten worst lists at the end of the year.
When…
June 7, 2012
By now I'm sure you have heard that Ray Bradbury has died. I can't say that I was ever a huge Bradbury fan. I recall being a bit bored with Farenheit 451 when I tried reading it in middle school, but I was probably a little too young to appreciate it. I enjoyed The Martian Chronicles, though I…
June 7, 2012
The commenting problems are proving harder to fix than I expected. The overlords have assured me that this is a high priority problem and that they are working on it. Apparently there is only one other blog around here that has been similarly affected. I don't want to return to regular blogging…
May 31, 2012
After some nervous moments, Viswanathan Anand defeated Boris Gelfand to keep the title of World Chess Champion. When the classical games resulted in a tie (one win for each with ten draws), the match was decided via a mini-match of four rapid games. All four of the games were exciting and hard-…
May 30, 2012
A while back P. Z. Myers posted an essay entitled, “You Want Evidence That Religions is Bad for the Species? OPEN YOUR EYES.” Myers was replying to an earlier essay by David Sloan Wilson. Here's an excerpt from Myers:
Whenever I hear that tripe about the beneficial effects of religion on human…
May 30, 2012
I have now done three posts since the migration, but I have not received any comments. Now, the first entry was a chess post, and I'm used to not getting any comments on those. I raised an eyebrow when I got no comments on the House post, surely I'm not the only one around here who enjoyed the…
May 29, 2012
If the assertion, “Science and religion are incompatible,” simply means, “It is highly unreasonable to accept simultaneously the claims of modern science and the claims of traditional Christianity,” then I agree with it. The trouble is that the word “incompatible” is vague. People often take it…
May 28, 2012
As we continue to get caught up on the most important issues of the past week, we really should take note of the final episode of House.
The first episode I ever saw was Season Two, Episode 19, entitled “House vs. God.” The patient of the week was a fifteen-year old faith healer who claims to be in…
May 28, 2012
It's time to stop sulking about the various headaches caused by the migration and get back to blogging. I managed to get the banner the overlords sent me to load properly, so that seems like some sort of victory at least. Alas, there doesn't seem to be much space between the base of the banner…
May 21, 2012
ScienceBlogs is moving to a new publishing platform this evening. As of 7:00 tonight, any comments left here will not be transferred to the new site. Regular blogging will resume as soon as the transfer is complete. Sorry about the inconvenience.
May 19, 2012
Hikaru Nakamura has won the U. S. Chess Championship by a full point. It was a dominating performance, capped off with a stunning win with black, in the penultimate round, against the other pre-tournament favorite Gata Kamsky. This is Nakamura's third title. So, congratulations to him.
Today's…
May 19, 2012
I had a pleasant trip down to Richmond on Wednesday. I spoke to a small crowd of twenty people about evolution and creationism and all that jazz. I think most of the audience was to the left of me on these issue. Whenever I said something about evolution challenging religion it was all smiles and…
May 18, 2012
More precisely, if we say that theistic evolution is a form of intelligent design, then we have to stop saying that intelligent design is a form of creationism.
Over at HuffPo, Victor Stenger writes:
But when surveys ask moderate Christians what they really believe, they all say that evolution is…
May 17, 2012
When MSNBC fired Keith Olbermann and replaced him with Lawrence O'Donnell, I was a bit annoyed. But now that Olbermann had crashed and burned over at Current TV, and O'Donnell has turned into a pretty effective pundit, I have changed my mind. For an example of why I like O'Donnell so much,…
May 17, 2012
The World Championship continues to be a snooze. Five games down, five draws. Only one game has made it past the thirtieth move. Both players seem very hesitant and completely uninclined to take any risks. Still seven games left, though, so we will see what happens.
Happily, the U. S. Championship…
May 15, 2012
Sometimes I wonder what the mailman thinks of me. One day he's delivering the new issue of Free Inquiry, the next he's leaving something from Creation Ministries International.
The latest missive from CMI contains a lengthy pamphlet advertising their forthcoming Creation Superconference. Of…
May 14, 2012
This coming Wednesday, May 16, I will be speaking at the Library of Virginia. I will be discussing my book Among the Creationists Refreshments go from 5:30-6:15. The talk will go from 6:15-7:15, with the plan being to speak for thirty minutes, and then take questions for the remaining time.…
May 14, 2012
Economist Robin Hanson poses an odd challenge to atheists:
A few days ago I asked why not become religious, if it will give you a better life, even if the evidence for religious beliefs is weak? Commenters eagerly declared their love of truth. Today I'll ask: if you give up the benefits of…
