Mike Dunford
tqa
Posts by this author
September 14, 2007
I'm making a few changes to the left-hand sidebar for the blog this weekend. One of them is already in place - if you look to the left, you'll see a presidential election poll. It's linked to Newsvine's ElectionVine project. You can vote once a month, and if you play around with the widget, you…
September 13, 2007
I've been paying a little more attention to Hurricane Humburto than I do to most hurricanes, mostly because the thing came out of nowhere, and got really strong, really fast. I'm not a hurricane-pundit type, but I thought it was a little strange that the storm developed so quickly. Turns out I'm…
September 12, 2007
Staff Sergeant Yance T. Gray and Sergeant Omar Mora died on Monday in a vehicle crash in Baghdad on Monday, along with six other American soldiers and two "detainees." During their time in Iraq, both Gray and Mora displayed more than just the courage needed to face the enemy. They also displayed…
September 12, 2007
The New York Times/CBS News poll that was released on Monday got a fair bit of media attention. Most of the attention focused on the revelation that Americans, by an overwhelming margin, trust the military leadership to resolve the war in Iraq (68%), rather than Congress (21%) or the White House (…
September 12, 2007
This is a continuation of a post I wrote (and updated a couple of times) earlier today. Since the tsunami is no longer a possibility - it's an actual event - I thought a new title was probably a good idea. Here's the situation as it currently stands:
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a…
September 12, 2007
A very large, shallow earthquake occurred at 11:10 UTC today. The earthquake epicenter is located in the Indian Ocean, about 375 miles from Jakarta, Indonesia, and is currently estimated at magnitude 7.9. The magnitude of the earthquake and the shallow depth of the quake have lead the Pacific…
September 11, 2007
We can never forget the pain, the terror, the anguish that a few twisted individuals were able to cause in just a few short hours. We must never forget the strength, the hope, and the love that thousands upon thousands of people demonstrated in response over the days, weeks, and months that…
September 11, 2007
I was out walking yesterday morning when I saw several very large spiders sitting on webs. I had my camera with me, so I shot a bunch of pictures, and got a couple of really nice ones. I think I've managed to identify the species for a couple of the spiders, but there's one that I'm not quite sure…
September 5, 2007
From an article in the Baptist Press, linked from the Uncommon Descent homepage:
"You have to understand, in the current academic climate, Intelligent Design is like leprosy or heresy in times past," [Dembski] said. "To be tagged as an ID supporter is to become an academic pariah, and this holds…
September 5, 2007
Last week, I reposted four old articles that I wrote back in 2005, when a group representing a number of Christian schools in California filed a lawsuit against the University of California claiming that UC's rejection of several of their courses was illegal "viewpoint discrimination." In a more…
September 4, 2007
When it comes to teaching first and second graders about things, nothing beats the classroom pet. The little kids learn so many important things. They learn about animals. They learn about responsibility, and about the importance of taking care of things. And they learn about death.
A lot.
It'…
September 3, 2007
Over the last few days, I reposted a series of four articles that I wrote two years ago. Those articles discuss a California lawsuit filed by a group of Christian schools against the University of California. They are suing in an attempt to force UC to recognize some of their classes as meeting…
August 31, 2007
Lucy went on display today at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and there was no way I could resist paying her a visit. I went in to the exhibit with very mixed feelings about it. A lot of people, including quite a few scientists I respect, have been extremely vocal in their opposition to the…
August 30, 2007
Michael Majerus has spent countless hours conducting research on the Peppered Moth (Biston betularia). He's observed them in the field, bred them in the lab, watched them get eaten by things, kept careful count of the things that he's seen, and, recently, given a talk about his findings. Jonathan…
August 30, 2007
From the archives - the following article was originally posted on my old blog back in August of 2005. For reasons that will become clear shortly, I've been reposting this series of stories over here. This is the final old post, and I'll have a follow-up post on more current events going up…
August 30, 2007
From the archives - the following article was originally posted on my old blog back in August of 2005. For reasons that will become clear shortly, I've been reposting this series of stories over here. There's one more after this, and I'll have that up over here later today.
Someone named Emma…
August 29, 2007
From the archives - the following article was originally posted on my old blog back in August of 2005. For reasons that will become clear shortly, I'm going to repost this and a couple of follow-ups to the story over here.
In a post earlier today, I noted that a group of creationists are suing…
August 29, 2007
From the archives - the following article was originally posted on my old blog back in August of 2005. For reasons that will become clear shortly, I'm going to repost this and a couple of follow-ups to the story over here.
It appears that yet another creationism-related lawsuit is in the…
August 28, 2007
Daniel Dennett just wrote an article on chess-playing computers and Artificial Intelligence, and a few bloggers are already talking about it. I'm sort of surprised that the concept is getting so much attention. To me, the answer to the question, "does a computer that can play chess demonstrate…
August 28, 2007
It's always a good day when I can blog about profit hungry companies trying to protect their profit margins or about some group using sleazy tactics to try to get special interest legislation passed or blocked. Today is a very good day - I get to do both at the same time. That's right, folks, the…
August 24, 2007
Most of yesterday's news about Iraq focused - to the extent that today's media can be said to "focus" on anything - on our President's latest inept attempt to explain why we need to keep troops in Iraq, and on the inapt historical comparisons he drew during this predictably incoherent and…
August 22, 2007
In yet another moment guaranteed to make you wonder if there's been a mass defection of writers from the Daily Show to the White House, President Bush is expected to argue later today that the war in Iraq is, in fact, very similar to the war in Vietnam. Before you drop to the ground in shock, I…
August 21, 2007
It's good to take the train every now and then. It lets you get a taste of something special, something that you don't find much any more. Modern air travel sucks the soul out of the journey. It takes the process of getting from Point A to Point B and boils it down to the barest essentials. You…
August 20, 2007
Here's a few pictures from the New York event. I might post a couple of more in the next couple of days, but most of the pictures I took are really similar to the stuff some of my other Sciblings have posted.
Professor Steve Steve was not only kind enough to attend, he brought a puppet friend…
August 19, 2007
If you read the blogs here, you probably noticed the lack of posts on Friday and Saturday, but you definitely shouldn't tale that to mean that things were quiet in the Scienceblogs world. A large group of Sciblings got together here in New York this weekend for two days and long nights of fun. The…
August 17, 2007
They've got a while to go before they catch up to Southwest in my personal pantheon of airline demons, but ATA seems to be getting set to give it a real good try. When we woke up - already at the airport - at 5, our 6 am departure was listed as being on time. That lasted for a whole 20 minutes -…
August 17, 2007
Every now and then, the placement of stories on Google News can be slightly amusing. Here's two stories that turned up, one on top of the other, this morning. It's always nice to know that we're getting the important news first.
August 16, 2007
If getting there is half the fun, I don't want the other half, thanks.
The family and I are on our way to New York at the moment. It's been too long since I've had a good slice of pizza and a good bagel, and visiting family and friends is a great excuse to fix that problem. We're in transit…
August 16, 2007
Here are a couple of pictures I took of a Great Frigate Bird (Fregata minor) that was cruising around near Flat Island, just off Kailua, Oahu back in March.
August 16, 2007
Paul has a post up with a really great political cartoon. I just printed it and stuck it on my refrigerator. You should, too.