This was a tiring weekend. Saturday was the day of the planning meeting for the annual SLAC and Fermilab Users’ trip to Washington D.C. I have a leadership role in the trip this year, and I got only about 10 hours of sleep between Thursday and Saturday. This trip is […]
Over the past year, the Vatican has demonstrated a remarkable inability to keep its message straight. In a way, this is a refreshing contrast to the current monomanical executive branch of the U.S.. It’s clear that when it comes to evolution and science, the Vatican is capable of expressing not […]
Back in October, when Jodi and I were studying for the November special election here in California, I stumbled across an unchallenged rule in this state’s education code. Section 44932, subdivision a, paragraph 10 of the California Education Code states that one of the important grounds upon which a teacher […]
As I recently mentioned [TAOMPH219], a rural public school in California tried to offer intelligent design in the proper context: an elective philosophy course. Unfortunately, the teacher who created the class decided to run it more like a Sunday school – and I mean a fundamentalist Christian Sunday school – […]
Minneapolis has a truly inspiring light rail system. It’s very plainly new, as all aspects of the light rail cars are still somewhat shiny and fresh. There is also only one route, spanning all the way from downtown Minneapolis to the Mall of America. It was on this light rail […]
Returning to SLAC after the winter break is *always* a stress-affirming experience. After several weeks of total research avoidance practices (TRAPs), I had the unenviable job of remembering what I’d been doing before the break. Thank goodness for logbooks! After a one-day “getting up to speed” period, I managed to […]
I’m still listening to it, but there appears to be a well-done “American Radioworks production exploring the origins and evolution of the Intelligent Design movement”:http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/inteldesign/index.html. Once thing that bugged me about the program was that it *did not start with the definition of science*. Without that, it’s impossible to later […]
Need a swanky life? Is your life lacking macho business donkey wrestling? You **could** “check out Solid Gold Rold’s e-licious website”:http://www.solidgoldrold.com/, or you could just download “hot tunes from Grushenka”:http://www.cooleysekula.net/home/music/, the formerly hardest working blues band in the greater Middlesex county area.
With Dover over, I have begin to feel somewhat relieved that the American legal system recognizes that the science class is where science can be taught, and that attempts to inject non-science or religious philosophy requirements into the class are illegal. There is a new case, is my current home […]
I’ve been letting the story of the South Korean stem cell research, conducted (now known to be frauduently), simmer in my mind since early December. Like many other scientists, likely young ones like myself, I at first recoiled in shock and horror at the revelations that were slowly peeling away […]
I made a great number of observations about our nation during this Christmas break, which I’ll distill and write about over the coming weeks. Having family and friends scattered across the nation (with the former thankfully concentrated in key geographic locations), and having to travel great distances just to be […]
Finally, an airport with a proper, open, free, wireless internet system. Bradley International Airport, in Windsor Locks, CT, is the first airport I’ve been to which does WIFI correctly. No $10/day access fee, no “day pass” crap – just simple, open, WIFI. Jodi and I are heading back to California […]