Vandals strike both Democrats and Republicans in Minneapolis – Among their targets was Michele Bachmann, best known for her recent statements calling for a new McCarthyism. And yes, the vandals citing a Bible verse. Gotta love that old time religion.
If McCain actually had my vote, he’d now have lost it – He has publicly stated that he supports “vaccine choice,” aka legalized parental negligence.
Opie is voting Obama AND SO IS THE FONZ!!! – And of course, as we all know, The Fonz is a friend of Randi’s. I have proof:
CREATIONIST NEWS:
Remember that North Kentucky University mock trial between Evolution and Creationism that PZ Myers suspected was a just another excuse to preach creationism in school? Well it turns out it he was pretty much right.
New Creationism – This phrase is being used to describe the growing trend among creationists as part of the infamous Wedge Strategy to deny materialist neuroscience in favor of cartesian dualism, the notion that the mind is a different substance from the brain. And here is another take on this issue.
Bill Dembski at Baylor – Apparently he went with the classic I-have-to-see-every-single-step-to-accept-Evolution gambit. Ugh! Here’s a detailed summary of what went down.
Bill Donohue of The Catholic League responding to a joke in Family Guy – The aforementioned joke was about priests molesting children. The whole thing is here, but here’s a highlight:
While it is true that most of the molesters in the Catholic clergy have been gay, most gay priests are not molesters.
What?! And this is the guy who’s expressed more outrage over things like a joke on an animated sitcom and the desecration of a cracker than the actual molestation that goes on in his church.
Speaking of the stupid cracker, teaching communion to kids (does this sound like a bedtime story to anyone else?):
It’s that time of year again – That time when the Religious Right pushes all of a sudden decides to rant about an imaginary “War on Christmas” and that no other issue on the entire planet is more important than trying to bully stores who are trying to be inclusive by using generic slogans like “Happy Holidays” into rejecting all other holidays but Christmas, an imaginary holiday celebrating consumerism at its worst that wasn’t even a major holiday until the 19th century and which is actually forbidden in The Bible.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month abused by the usual quacks – Breast Cancer myths exposed.
Scotch Tape X-Rays – Apparently ordinary household scotch tape can in a vacuum be used to emit X-rays. This is totally something MacGyver could have used.
AND NOW FOR A MOMENT OF SCIENCE:
Dr. Kirsten Sanford’s latest episode of The Science Word
Biologists Find Gene Behind ‘Plant Sex Mystery’ – “Scientists already knew that flowering plants, unlike animals require not one, but two sperm cells for successful fertilisation.
The mystery of this ‘double fertilization’ process was how each single pollen grain could produce ‘twin’ sperm cells. One to join with the egg cell to produce the embryo, and the other to join with a second cell in the ovary to produce the endosperm, a nutrient-rich tissue, inside the seed.”
Could A Vaccine Treat Many Bacterial Diseases? – “Doctors have always hoped that scientists might one day create a vaccination that would treat a broad spectrum of maladies. They could only imagine that there might be one vaccine that would protect against, say, 2,500 strains of Salmonella. And what if that same vaccine could help protect the elderly?
UCSB scientists Douglas Heithoff and Michael Mahan –– along with University of Utah scientists Elena Enioutina, Diana Bareyan, and Raymond Daynes –– believe their recent research suggests that might be possible in the not-too-distant future. In a paper to be published in the November edition of the journal Infection and Immunity, the researchers detail the path to creating a vaccine that confers protection against multiple strains of bacteria.”
Skepacabra 