Storing books in libraries

I love libraries. And I love librarians. They are the most knowledgeable and helpful of people as a class. They seem to get a real kick out of finding stuff for you.

Libraries have the problem of what to do about the increasing numbers of books and journals that they own. This problem is particularly acute for university libraries that do not, as a rule, throw old books and journals away or sell them because they are resources for research that a faculty member or student may need at some point, however rarely. In my own research, I have been very grateful to my university library because it has rare books on obscure topics published over a century ago that I suspect that are almost never checked out. And yet, there they are, just waiting for me.
[Read more…]

Jimmy Kimmel’s excellent Oscar monologue

As usual, I did not watch the Academy Awards ceremony last night. I was glad to read today that Frances McDormand won the Best Actress award for her performance in Three Billboard Outside Ebbing, Missouri along with Sam Rockwell for Best Supporting Actor. I had praised that film and McDormand’s performance before in my review of the film. The host Jimmy Kimmel gave an excellent opening monologue that was both funny and pointed and gave a shout out to the students at Parkland and their March for Our Lives rallies on March 24, although another unknown group has claimed the Mall in Washington DC for that day to film a ‘talent show’..

Here it is.

[Read more…]

Charting the travails of the skeptic movement

Amanda Marcotte uses the current discussion swirling around allegations of predatory sexual behavior by noted physicist and skeptic Lawrence Krauss to chart the recent history of the skeptic movement. She describes and how it initially gave hope to unbelievers of all stripes, especially women, that they had found a welcoming home but that the less than unequivocal backing of some of the organizations (the Center for Inquiry emerges as a major problem though it seems like it is belatedly trying to make amends) for the right of women to be free from a hostile environment has led to a great deal of disillusionment. The angry reception that Rebecca Watson received for her gentle hint about how women would like to be treated at secular events marked the nadir.
[Read more…]

The statewide teacher’s strike in West Virginia

There is important political news in West Virginia where the entire public school system has been shut down for over a week by a statewide teacher’s strike protesting poor pay, soaring health insurance costs, plus poor working conditions. But the media has been paying scant attention to this major story. While part of the blame can be placed on the White House soap opera/circus that has soaked up much of the attention, that is not the only reason. The major media in the US are corporate capitalist enterprises and thus instinctively anti-union. They thus do not want to give oxygen to the trade union movement by highlighting that kind of collective action. If the strike receives major favorable coverage, then that might pressure the state legislators into doing something and the strikers might win their demands. The newspapers and their corporate allies fear strengthening the union movement.
[Read more…]

Whale evolution through deep time

The evolution of mammals that live in the sea (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) are of particular interest because they went from ocean to land and then back to the ocean again. There are many depictions of the first stage but fewer of the second. This animation by artist Jordan Collver shows the second stage of the evolution of the sperm whale, from the amphibious Pakicetus to its present form.
[Read more…]

Only the stock market matters for the oligarchy

I was listening to a news report this morning on a special election for congress in southwest Pennsylvania to be held on March 13 to replace a Republican congressman Tim Murphy who had been forced to resign in disgrace due to (what else?) a sex scandal. The district is heavily Republican but the party is nervous that that the current turmoil in the White House might put that seat in danger and they are pulling out all the stops. The Republican candidate was giving a speech and his main pitch was how well the stock market was doing since Trump was elected. That, for him, meant that everything was just peachy in the country, whatever else might be going on.
[Read more…]

The abomination of the death penalty

Liliana Segura writes about the botched attempt last week by the state of Alabama at executing Doyle Lee Hamm, who had been on death row since 1987. What resulted was nothing less than torture as the state rushed to execute him before the midnight deadline for the execution warrant expired, all the while trying to hide what happened from his lawyer, his brother, and an outside anesthetist.
[Read more…]

The brutal suppression of the Indian uprising

British imperialism is usually portrayed in the English media by English-speakers who are broadly sympathetic to Britain and thus see its colonial practices through rose-tinted glasses. It is portrayed as a somewhat benevolent empire, at least when compared to how the Belgians treated their colonies. The British built roads, railways, schools, and created administrative structures. All these were to enable more efficient looting of the colonies’ resources but they did constitute a legacy of sorts that they left behind. While they did commit acts of brutality, these tend to be downplayed.
[Read more…]

The utterly corrupt Trump administration

There was a brief flurry of excitement when it looked like Donald Trump was going against the NRA and the gun lobby and proposing restrictions limiting the easy availability of guns. I did not share that excitement because I felt it was only a matter of time before Trump reversed himself and went back into the arms of the lobby and his gun nut supporters. And sure enough, that reversal happened the very next day, after a meeting with a top NRA official.
[Read more…]

Theological spin on scientific discoveries

After posting earlier today about the detection of when the cosmic dawn (i.e., the appearance of the first stars) occurred, I started thinking about how religious people would react to news like this, especially those religions that have anthropocentric views of the universe, like the Abrahamic religions that have the Genesis story as their foundational myths
[Read more…]