jlynch | September 17, 2008"I feel like [Obama] is an elitist" says a blue-collar single mom who supported Hillary Clinton and has now decided to support McCain.
Just joking!
The statement was made by Lynn Forester de Rothschild, CEO of EL Rothschild and wife of international banker Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, whom happens to live in New York and London.
Elitist ... I think that word doesn't mean what she thinks it means.
jlynch | September 16, 2008Catholic News Service reports:
Speakers invited to attend a Vatican-sponsored congress on the evolution debate will not include proponents of creationism and intelligent design, organizers said.
The Pontifical Council for Culture, Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University and the University of Notre Dame in Indiana are organizing an international conference in Rome March 3-7 as one of a series of events marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's "The Origin of Species."
Jesuit Father Marc Leclerc, a philosophy professor at the Gregorian, told Catholic News Service Sept…
jlynch | September 9, 2008Following on from the last food meme, Janet gives us 100 vegetarian dishes to try. As there is nothing vegetarian I won't try, I'l just bold those I have tried and pass this along. As usual, comments are welcome.
1. Real macaroni and cheese, made from scratch and baked 2. Tabouleh 3. Freshly baked bread, straight from the oven 4. Fresh figs 5. Fresh pomegranate 6. Indian dal of any sort 7. Imam bayildi 8. Pressed spiced Chinese tofu 9. Freshly made hummus 10. Tahini 11. Kimchi 12. Miso 13. Falafel 14. Potato and pea filled samosas 15.…
jlynch | September 8, 2008Want to win a trip for two to New York? Airfare with four nights in a four star hotel? Behind the scenes tours of science sites? And dinner with your favorite ScienceBlogger (who shall remain nameless)? Of course you do. Details are here, but all you need to do is leave a comment using a valid email address - you can even do it in the comments to this post. So go on, you've nothing to lose.
jlynch | September 7, 2008Yes, it's Sarah Palin. And it has nothing to do with creationism. Read more here.
jlynch | September 7, 2008Back in 2006 I briefly discussed sociologist Rodney Stark's book, The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success (Random, 2005). Now over at Evolving Thoughts, John provides a guest post by Thony Christie that discusses Stark's claims about the history of science.
jlynch | September 7, 2008
Male Flame Skimmer, Libella saturata (source)
We had one of these sit on an agave in our back yard for about three hours yesterday afternoon. Beautiful looking creatures.
Last seven days were busy here. New classes to prepare and other stuff left little time for blogging and suchlike. Don't know if things are going to improve next week.
ASU's football season has started with two wins against NAU and Stanford leading to a #15 ranking. Last night's 41-17 win over Stanford was satisfying. Up next is UNLV before the big home game against #2 Georgia. And things don't get easier after that -…
jlynch | August 31, 2008Cindy McCain on Palin's experience:
And, also, remember, Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia. So it's not as if she doesn't understand what's at stake here.
Seriously.
jlynch | August 30, 2008Sheril has just announced that Barak Obama has answered fourteen questions posed by the Science Debate 2008 team. I haven't had a chance to read his responses yet, so wander on over yourself to see what he has to say.
jlynch | August 29, 2008We had quite the storm here in the Valley on Thursday. Wind gusts up to 100 mph. Lots of rain. And more than 1,500 lightning strikes in a single hour.
Round about 7pm we could see the lightning to the east of us here in Tempe and it was still going on around 2am. It was the most amazing lightning I've seen in years. Storm cell after cell swept through the Valley. Power lines and trees fell, and nearly 80,000 homes lost power. An $8.4M athletic facility at the University was demolished with a month of opening. Sky Harbor airport closed two runways.
I found myself in a bar which not only lost…
jlynch | August 29, 2008On August 10th, Karl Rove had the following to say about Tim Kaine who he wrongly assumed was to be Obama's choice for VP:
With all due respect again to Governor Kaine, he's been a governor for three years, he's been able but undistinguished. I don't think people could really name a big, important thing that he's done. He was mayor of the 105th largest city in America. And again, with all due respect to Richmond, Virginia, it's smaller than Chula Vista, California; Aurora, Colorado; Mesa or Gilbert, Arizona; north Las Vegas or Henderson, Nevada. It's not a big town. So if he were to pick…
jlynch | August 29, 2008The more I think about Obama's speech last night, the more I like it. As for Sarah Palin, I have little to add to what my stablemates have to say. That is all.
jlynch | August 26, 2008Via Cocktail Party Physics, a list of popular science books. Rules are simple: Bold those you've read in full, asterisk those you intend to read, add any additional popular science books you think belong on the list (I'll try and do that next weekend, class prep allowing), and link back to Jennifer (who has never read Origin, horror!). Here we go:
Micrographia, Robert Hooke
The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin - oh, so many times
Never at Rest, Richard Westfall
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, Richard Feynman
Tesla: Man Out of Time, Margaret Cheney
The Devil's Doctor, Philip Ball
The…