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The Respectful Empiricist
The Maryland, Human Values Network was where I would have hosted a discussion on "Adaptation" in late January if it had not snowed so much. I would have delivered it in February had I not opted for a visit to New Hampshire at the same time. Well, here is the paper that would have served as the basis for that discussion.
America which sped to the top of science education 50+ years ago as a result of the Eisenhower administration's desire, is fading fast. Irving Epstein of Brandeis University, describes one solution to this problem that is worth bearing in mind.
Here is a list of famous scientists who had obituaries in 2009.
The Scientist.Com describes a summary of scientific events that occurred in 2009; the highlights of the year so to speak. They hone in on evidence of scientific fraud which is important and needs to be brought to our attention. I wish they had made more of a point of the number of women who earned that noble Nobel in science fields. An aside to the cranks...they only discussed science Nobel's.
So we have a First Amendment tailored largely by Jefferson and Madison 250 years ago. It is not cloudy or unclear and yet people and the Federal Government elude it with alacrity. In a recent Vanity Fair article, Christopher Hitchens looks into fundamentalist assertions about our military and how we tax payers get to support it.
I promise I'll read your email.
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Here is a quick one about our most recent winter storm replete with photos.
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Here is a plug for one of the web newsletters I read every day. The Scientist had a blog on Friday regarding America's waning scientific authority in the international community. I think about that and other related ideas too. |
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The Downey Woodpecker is pretty common in Maryland and I see them in my yard all year. The above link takes you to a page that gives a lot of detail about them including their sounds. |
I think I have finally learned my lesson regarding posting those little home page images. This month's post is for the versatile, Science Blogs .I like to look at it about once a week to see what discussions are going on. It's way more interesting than Face Book. |
I start the year off with another good food history by Mark Kurlansky. This one is about the Federal Writer's Project collection of food traditions.
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Here are about one quarter of the peppers that I dried this past fall. This morning they got ground into powder. |
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Guaranteeing health coverage doesn’t incentivize anybody to get meningitis.-Roger Cohen
"I think the world's always a better place if people are filled with understanding." -Richard Dawkins
" Things that nobody believes cannot be proven too often.”
"Science doesn’t work because we’re all nice. Newton may have been an ass, but the theory of gravity still works."
GAVIN A. SCHMIDT, a NASA climatologist