It’s me again

I only mention this because it infuriates the wingnuts and religious ravers, but if you go to my university’s main web page you might see an article about me (I say “might” because only 4 are shown at a time, and which 4 is random). It’s awfully hard to get across to the critics, but the university supports me despite not necessarily endorsing my every opinion, and despite individuals in the administration feeling a little uncomfortable with some of my views, because there is this principle of academic freedom—it’s part of the job of an academic to make people uncomfortable. If you want vacuous pablum, that’s what the right-wing think tanks are for.

I don’t visit the main page much, so I wouldn’t have noticed this except that Larry Moran brought it to my attention. I should have made sure the photo accompanying the article had been properly credited, with something like “Photo courtesy of Larry the Camera Guy” across the bottom.

Franken in 2008

Go, Al! Franken will definitely be running for Coleman’s senate position in 2008. This is promising: the Republicans are already upset.

After seeing an account of Franken’s calls [to DFL leaders] on the Star Tribune website, Minnesota Republican Party Chairman Ron Carey issued a statement criticizing Franken’s “anger and slash-and-burn partisanship.”

That’s an excellent endorsement right there.

A new Circus of the Spineless, and a call for submissions for the next

As is traditional at the end of the month, a new Circus of the Spineless is up at The Voltage Gate. And the next Circus of the Spineless at the end of February will be…here! Start sending me good stuff on invertebrate organisms—remember, there are over 30 animal phyla, and all but one of them are fair game, and even that one contains non-vertebrate classes. Will we be able to get them all represented?

Whoa. John Edwards just got a big boost

He must be a smart guy: he just picked Amanda Marcotte to run the John Edwards blog. And since Amanda will be slightly distracted, she’s brought in five (it takes five people to take Amanda’s place?) new people to keep Pandagon humming…and one of them is Chris Clarke. Everything’s shuffling around! I’m getting confused! I think I’m willing to vote for Edwards so far, as long as Amanda keeps him in line and makes sure he doesn’t start pumping up the war talk or professing for creationism.

Hovind rots in jail while Barney Frank walks free

Don Boys is not happy that Kent Hovind has been sent to jail.

Kent’s enemies are painting him as a greedy tax resister when he has said repeatedly that he will pay all the taxes he owes. He could not get any response from the IRS nor did the judge, prosecutor, or anyone else inform him why his ministry was not exempt from taxes as are hundreds of thousands of similar organizations. Therefore, he spends ten years in the Big House. That’s where they send killers, traitors, rapists, child molesters, armed robbers, and other Very Bad Guys.

I think that what painted him as a greedy tax resister were his own words and actions, Don. He is a greedy tax resister. Oh, and paying back the taxes he owes doesn’t help; if a bank robber is caught, would you suggest letting him go free if he gives all the money back?

The real hysterics in Boys’ article, though, come when he starts listing all the people he thinks ought to be in jail instead of Hovind. Most of his outrage is directed at ‘perverts’ and feminists.

Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, an admitted pervert, confirmed that his Washington apartment had been used as a callboy headquarters by a male prostitute for a year and a half until late 1987. So, Barney’s lover-boy was using his apartment as a callboy ring to make a little money on the side. Barney did not go to jail, did not lose his seat in Congress. I’m not sure if he passed go and collected $200.00. Maybe his lover can tell us that. However, Kent Hovind sits in prison while Barney sits in Congress making laws that we are expected to obey.

What injustice! How can someone who bilks money out of people in the name of god be sent to jail, while people who do things with their genitals that Don Boys doesn’t like get to walk around free, thinking thoughts that agitate Don Boys?

Texas, you’ve lost the better part of your state

Molly Ivins has died.

I’m surprised at how this affects me. She was a wonderful woman, wise and funny, and this is a great loss to the nation. Whenever I’m tempted to just write off the whole state of Texas (thanks to a few of its rather prominent representatives), I just remind myself, “Molly Ivins,” and know that I’m being unfair.

Kevin Hayden has put together a sweet tribute to Molly Ivins. We’re all going to miss her.

The more ignorant you are, the easier it is to disprove evolution

Uh-oh. Evolution has just been refuted by a very sophisticated simulation. Try it; you’ll quickly discover how frustratingly boring evolution can be, and you’ll give up on it.

The ‘simulation’ is simple: put some random text in a box, click on a button, it randomly substitutes a random letter for some other letter, and whoa…you’ll notice that your excerpt from the libretto of Figaro hasn’t been transformed into the Gettysburg address. Therefore, evolution is false.

Seriously, it’s that bad, and the author actually does think he has accomplished something significant. It’s a simulation that requires the user to make multiple clicks per trial; by sheer clumsiness of the interface it reduces the number of trials that can be done. It ignores fitness functions, synonymy, ranges of functionality, multiple functions, etc., etc., etc., all in the name of slavishly and crudely mapping English to protein evolution, and doing it all with a program that looks like something a sixth grader would slap together. Oh, but it is so much better than Avida or Tierra.

Read through the writeup—it’s appalling how ignorant the fellow is of basic biology. This kid really needs to read the Evolution and Chance FAQ, the Evolution Proceeds by Random Chance FAQ, and Musgrave’s ripping apart of bogus abiogenesis calculations. It’s probably good enough to convince your standard issue clueless creationist, though.

(hat tip to Tobasco da Gama)