Is this book dead yet?

David Colquhoun reviews Unscientific America, and pans it on an interesting point:

I think Mooney and Kirshenbaum have it all wrong.  They favour corporate communications, which are written by people outside science and which easily become mere PR machines for individuals and institutions.   Such blogs are rarely popular and at their worst they threaten the honesty of science.  More and more individual scientists have found that they can write their own blog.  It costs next to nothing and you can say what you think.  A few clicks and the world can read what you have to say.   Forget corporate communications.  Just do it yourself.  It’s fun.  And think of the money you’d save for doing science if the PR people were just fired.

I don’t know if it’s quite ‘corporate speak’ they want, but they do seem to want to put gatekeepers in place, and filter the voice of science to remove any rough edges.

Godless Spaniard loses job…for criticizing the Catholic Church

I don’t speak Spanish, so I’m going to have to rely on the summary that was sent to me. Perhaps some of our bilingual readers can pull out a few details?

  1. Javier Armentia, Spanish astrophysicist and director of the Pamplona planetarium, is hired by the radio station COPE (property of the Catholic Church) as a popularizer of science.

  2. A Catholic website announces (google translation) that Armentia is an atheist and doesn’t have kind words for the church.

  3. Armentia is promptly fired after less than a week. Commenters in the same Catholic site congratulate (google translation) COPE and wonder how the hell he was hired in the first place.

It sounds like Catholic Spain isn’t quite ready for an uncompromising atheist.

The bat-eating tits of Hungary

They must be devolving into dinosaurs (no, not really)! Great tits normally live on a diet of seeds and insects, but when those resources are scarce, they’ll fly into caves and kill and eat bats. They don’t do it unless they’re really hungry — they prefer bugs and bacon, as do we all — so the interesting thing about is that these birds can push the boundary of what is expected of their species.

Follow the link, it has a short movie of a tit picking up a bat carcass and flying off to a branch to tear at it. Appetizing!

The Global Darwinist Dictatorship Must Apologize to the Entire World!

I’ve been promoted. I’m now a member of a ruling cabal that forms a world dictatorship. BWAHAHAHAHAAHAAHAHAAHAHAAAA!

At least, that is, according to this email I just got.

Darwinism is under official protection in 95% of the countries of the world. People are forced to believe this false theory imposed on them as an official ideology.

THE GLOBAL DARWINIST DICTATORSHIP MUST APOLOGIZE TO THE ENTIRE WORLD,

  • for presenting innumerable frauds to the scientific world for 150 years,
  • for imposing Darwinism as the official ideology,
  • for trying to keep Darwinism alive by means of official protection,
  • for putting pressure on and removing pro-Creation scientists from their posts,
  • for putting anti-democratic pressure on Creationists all over the world through the press and other means…

To read further:

http://tr1.harunyahya.com/Detail/T/EDCRFV/productId/9546/THE_GLOBAL_DARWINIST_DICTATORSHIP_MUST_APOLOGIZE_TO_THE_ENTIRE_WORLD!

A Statement to Darwinists

THE DARWINIST DICTATORSHIP SHOULD APOLOGIZE:

  • For banning and burning anti-Darwinist books,
  • For refusing to permit any contrary opinions,
  • For removing scientists holding opposing ideas from their posts,
  • For forcing students to give answers in favor of the theory in university exams,
  • For deceiving the world with countless hoax fossils,
  • For concealing Cambrian period fossils for 70 years and for still hiding every new fossil discovery since they constitute evidence for Creation,
  • For concealing the impossibility of even a single protein coming into being by chance,
  • For portraying only hoax skulls as evidence of the so-called evolution of man,
    For so long imposing the lie that mutations cause evolution,
  • And for deceiving all of humanity, admitting a biased lie and nonsense, and violating the human rights of all mankind by disseminating that nonsense.

Darwinist publications constantly talk about freedom of expression and democracy. But they support the banning by the Council of Europe of the Atlas of Creation (http://www.atlasofcreation.com/), which is full of scientific evidence and has caused such a wide response across the world, and do all in their power to bring it about. Yet they oppose the banning by court decision of Richard Dawkins’ insult-filled book and articles. This is nothing more than dishonesty.

To read further:

http://tr1.harunyahya.com/Detail/T/EDCRFV/productId/9653/A_STATEMENT_TO_DARWINISTS

To follow the Darwinist propaganda:

http://www.darwinism-watch.com/

I had no idea that we had so much power. I sure wish I could use it to be able to afford a housekeeping staff for my mansion, and to buy my mansion, and to give me enough money to get a mansion (I’m on sabbatical, which means half-pay, you know) instead of using my immense powers to force students to answer biology exams. Seems kind of a waste of a dictatorship.

Anyway, it’s just noise from a member of the Adnan Oktar cult. The New Humanist has a good bio on Oktar, or Harun Yahya as he calls himself. He’s a crazy, cunning con artist who has enriched himself by peddling nonsense to the gullible.

By the way…NO APOLOGIES.

True confessions of a creationist

A little while ago, we had a report of creationist graduating from Harvard and going on to use his degree for evangelism. How sweet, I know…but surely he wouldn’t admit to simply getting his degree for window dressing, would he?

Why, yes he would! he’s very proud of the purity of his creationist heritage and pulling off the acquisition of a Ph.D. from Harvard.

He went straight to Harvard Medical School, which he said “sounded like it would be useful for credentials and evangelism.”

“I’m a second generation creationist, you might say,” he said. He explained how he saw that “salvation was inherent in creation science” and that it could be used as a tool for evangelism, another passion of his.

With a promising and lucrative career in medical research open before him, Jeanson said he underwent a career shift at Harvard. “I asked myself, ‘How can I use and abuse my training to influence eternity, rather than for temporary gain?'” He considered mission work or attending seminary. He decided, instead, to seek employment at ICR, rather than continuing his research in Boston.

Harvard, you’ve been used.

Public Enemy #5

Focus on the Family has just come out with their list of the “five media Leftists who distort Americans’ views of the Bush and Obama presidencies”. Ooooh. Guess who is on the list?

Paul Krugman, Nobel prize-winner, is #1. #2 is the editor of Newsweek, Jon Meacham; #3 is Ezra Klein. #4 is my favorite, Janeane Garofalo; I ♥ Janeane, and any list with her on it must be a collection of winners.

#5? ME! I even got the longest write-up of the bunch…they had to work hard to catalog all of my crimes. Maybe there’s hope I can climb higher next year.

The runners-up — you know, all the people I beat out — are interesting, too: Bill Maher, Keith Olbermann, Joy Behar, Joshua Micah Marshall, David Fenton, and Jeffrey Toobin. Better luck next time, people!

Say, is there an awards ceremony? Can I invite Janeane as my platonic date (I’d still be going home with my wife, don’t worry)? Or at least sit next to her?

It’s scarcely worth it to pharyngulate a Scandinavian poll

A group of prominent Swedes have come out with a manifesto decrying the influence of religion in the world — which is great, but I do wonder why every time I read about famous Swedes, at least one of them has to be a former member of ABBA. It’s a fine statement that promotes humanism as the only valid source of morality.

Anyway, a Danish newspaper ran a poll asking if its readers agree. Here it is:

Tolv fremtrædende svenskere blæser i manifest til kamp mod religioner, som de mener fylder alt for meget i samfundet. Er du enig? (Twelve prominent Swedes fan of manifesto to fight against religions that they feel fills too much of society. Do you agree?)

Ja (Yes)
90%

Nej (No)
9%

Ved ikke (Don’t know)
2%

I feel so superfluous. Sure, go ahead, contribute to the landslide. It would be very pleasant to live in Denmark, except that their complicated language always fills me with confusion.