Not D. James Kennedy again …

Lots of people have been sending me email to let me know that Coral Ridge Ministry is airing a program linking Darwin to Hitler. In case you missed it, this show, Darwin’s Deadly Legacy, was first aired last year, and I reviewed it then, Wilkins eviscerated its premises, and even the Anti-Defamation League got in the act. It’s a horrible piece of dishonest dreck, and now I guess it’s going to be a yearly television event, like a demented evil version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

This has me thinking — the Christianists will re-air their lies and stinking garbage over and over again, but have you ever noticed that the great science programs, the ones that inspired many of us, seem to be allowed one appearance and then … nevermore. Why doesn’t PBS have a yearly rebroadcast of, say, Carl Sagan’s Cosmos or Jacob Bronowski’s Ascent of Man? Those were great programs; I’ve seen bits and pieces of both now and then, and I think they’ve also aged reasonably well.

But no, we can find that droning mackerel’s lies for Jesus on a regular basis, but the beautiful and honest science shows get to rot in storage somewhere, with occasional fragmentary bits appearing on youtube.

Don’t miss Hector Avalos’ contribution to the debate on the relative morality of atheists and Christians!

Carnivalia, and an open thread

I’m in the Middle Ages, where we don’t have computers, and it’s a real pain to have to hire a wizard to send these messages to the internet. You’ll have to talk amongst yourselves and peruse these fascinating carnivals without me.

The Tangled Bank

The next Tangled Bank will be at Balancing Life on Wednesday. Send those links in to me or [email protected]. The list of future hosts is also shrinking, so if you have a blog and think you’d be interested in hosting, volunteer!

Legal advice

Not for me, for someone else. I just sit quietly and listen, but I must say this “Rule 11 of the FRCP” sounds awfully interesting. I’m not sure exactly what it means, but there sure are a lot of smart lawyers lining up on my side; they probably know, don’t you think?

Save the babies!

I’ve heard of Hirschsprung’s Disease as an academically interesting instance of a developmental failure of nerve migration, but you really must read about the human cost of the disease — innocent little babies (and their parents) should never have to suffer this much. Chris Chatham is spreading the word about an expensive nutritional product, Omegaven, that has the potential to alleviate one symptom — liver failure due to the need for sustained IV feeding — and the idea is to encourage clinical testing so the treatment can be more widely used and supported by insurance companies. Let’s raise the profile of this work and try to get some media attention; reducing the need for infant liver transplants sounds like a worthy cause.

Plug, plug, plug

You may have noticed (how could you avoid it?) all the information about Seed’s new contest: if you’re commenting with a valid email address, you’re in the drawing. The prize is a 5-day trip to a great science city (there’s a poll to determine which one) — this is good, because even if some wacky creationist or HIV denialist or demented Republican wins, their reward will be some intense exposure to real science. I tell you, the brains behind this outfit are cunning and nefarious in their machinations. (If you are one of those deluded individuals who doesn’t want their illusions dashed, you can ask to be excused from the drawing. They’re cunning, but also nice.)

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While I’m alerting you to the largesse of our host, let me mention another good deal: subscribe to Seed magazine, and they’ll give you this utterly faboo Sb beaker/coffee mug. I picked one up while I was in NY, and they are great — I’m half-seriously thinking I ought to get 6 subscriptions myself so I can have a whole set in my house, especially since my Trophy Wife™ has been casting covetous glances at my mug. Imagine your mornings, reading Seed, sipping coffee from that lovely mug; you’ll be the perfect image of the upscale nerd, just like me.

Axis formation in spider embryos

Blogging on Peer-Reviewed Research

Some of you may have never seen an arthropod embryo (or any embryo, for that matter). You’re missing something: embryos are gorgeous and dynamic and just all around wonderful, so let’s correct that lack. Here are two photographs of an insect and a spider embryo. The one on the left is a grasshopper, Schistocerca nitens at about a third of the way through development; the one on the right is Achaearanea tepidariorum. Both are lying on their backs, or dorsal side, with their legs wiggling up towards you.

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There are differences in the photographic technique — one is an SEM, the other is a DAPI-stained fluorescence photograph — and the spider embryo has had yolk removed and been flattened (it’s usually curled backward to wrap around a ball of yolk), and you can probably see the expected difference in limb number, but the cool thing is that they look so much alike. The affinities in the body plans just leap out at you. (You may also notice that it doesn’t seem to resemble a certain other rendition of spider development).

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