Found while looking up something else1:
misogallic adj. characterized by hatred of the French.
1: In case you were
wondering, the thing I was looking for was another word for
“homophobe”, since homophobes sometimes say that the word doesn’t
apply to them, because they’re not afraid of homosexuals. I haven’t
found anything better, so may I suggest “misohome”?
Over at casa de Dembski,
DaveScot tries to debunk a debunking of an ID argument. It goes
something like this:
Michael Behe: The bacterial flagellum is irreducibly
complex, that is, all of its components need to be in place before
it’ll work. It can’t have evolved by gradual addition and improvement,
because none of the subparts do anything until they’re all put
together.
Nick Matzke: Ah, but the Type Three Secretory System (TTSS), a
sort of bacterial syringe, is made up of proteins that look an awful
lot like ones used in the flagellum. That is, you can build
something useful using just some of the parts requied for a
flagellum, and that gives natural selection something to work with.
For instance, the flagellum could have evolved by adding parts to a TTSS.
DaveScot:
Ah, but I have here a paper about a species of bacterium that started
out with a flagellum, but lost most of its parts through natural
selection, leaving only the parts needed to construct a TTSS.
To which I reply below the fold.
The conflict in Georgia also upended Bush’s travel plans. He decided to postpone by one or two days a planned vacation beginning today at his ranch in Crawford, Tex.
Yeah, I’m sure he remembers how bad it looked when hurricane Katrina struck while he was on vacation. Then again, most New Orleans residents are black. Georgians are Caucasians.
Badoom-sha! Thank you, I’m here all week.
One cluster of reasons people sometimes give for not voting is that
“none of the candidates represent my views, and I’m tired of voting
for the lesser of two evils.”
(Another, of course, is plain old apathy. A coworker of mine is very
straightforward about not caring about who gets elected. He knows
he’ll catch shit from the rest of us if we catch him complaining about
the government that he didn’t bother to help elect, and he doesn’t.
For people like him but who aren’t quite out of the closet, here are
some tips on
pretending to give a shit about the election.)
Since PZ’s on vacation, I might actually get a chance to scoop
Pharyngula with the
news
that a panel at the University of Central Florida voted unanimously to
dismiss all charges against Webster Cook and his friend Ben Collard in
the Crackergate matter. Good.
HT
Bill Donohue.
The Bush administration yesterday proposed a regulatory overhaul of the Endangered Species Act to allow federal agencies to decide whether protected species would be imperiled by agency projects, eliminating the independent scientific reviews that have been required for more than three decades.
[…] Under current law, agencies must subject any plans that potentially affect endangered animals and plants to an independent review by the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service. Under the proposed new rules, dam and highway construction and other federal projects could proceed without delay if the agency in charge decides they would not harm vulnerable species.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks that this is as stupid as
letting the defendant at a trial decide whether he’s guilty or not, so
I won’t belabor that point.
But even with the best intentions on everyone’s part, this is still a
stupid idea.
There’s a joke about an old engineer called out of retirement to help
fix a machine at the factory where he used to work. After poking
around, he puts a chalk mark on the part to be replaced, and submits a
bill for $30,000, itemized as follows: “Chalk mark: $0.50. Knowing
where to put the chalk mark: $29,999.50”.
The EPA is in the best position to tell where environmental chalk marks should
go. It’s what they do. That’s why they have environmental experts. The
department of transportation may be great at planning and building
roads, but they can’t be expected to accurately predict how their work
affects the environment, any more than the EPA can be expected to
design and build an efficient highway system.
The Skeptic Society (Michael
Shermer’s organization) is conducting a
survey
to test the general public’s understanding of evolution.
It appears to be legitimate (see
here
and
here).
Yes, it’s an online survey, so insert disclaimers about selection
bias, etc., but presumably they know that. So whether you think
evolution is true or not, whether you think you understand it or not,
consider
completing it.
One of the cooler, and more counter-intuitive, bits of statistics I
know of concerns the question: “If your doctor performs a 95% reliable
test on you, and it says you have a disease, how worried should you
be?” (Spoiler alert: not as much as you think.)
From the Post:
China announced late last month that it would permit protests during the Olympics in specially designated zones, as long as demonstrators first secured permits. […]
[Human rights groups] say the “protest pens” being set in Beijing parks are part of China’s Potemkin-village-like display for the Summer Games, which open Friday.
Gee, I wonder where the Chinese might’ve come up with that idea.
Crackergate (yes, if you’re tired of hearing about it, you can stop
reading now) seems to have exposed an unbelievable amount of
wackaloonery.