! ! ! !

Now, here's a polished submission to our local paper's opinion pages:
Now, here's a polished submission to our local paper's opinion pages:

'Now under way'

Friday, Apr. 03, 2009

Comrades, good news from the D.C. front: Our fearless leader, Barack the Magnificent ("I am the state!") Obama, the Anointed One, reigns supreme and the glorious workers' revolution is now under way.

Comrades, listen! Progress comes through class struggle and conflict! It is a new day of societal utopianism. The Ministry of Propaganda assures us that the worker's paradise is now upon us! Workers unite! Our time is now! Collectivism is good! The re-education camps are now ready!

The individual is only a tool of the state! Property is theft! Capitalism is bad! Your wages and monies will be benevolently expropriated for the "good of others" -- "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

All peons are equal but those who rule are more equal than others!

T.C. Morgan

Fresno

Well, TC, it seems to me that your letter lacks sufficient exclamation marks.

Try the following: Listen! I have the Truth! I may be the last Christian! Strict! Constructionist! Free! Market! Pro! Life! Conservative! Gibbering! Irony! Challenged! Wackaloon! Left! Standing!

Any questions?

NO, Question marks are for liberals! Exclamation! Point!
Now, here's a polished submission to our local paper's opinion pages:

LORD OF THE ANTS

On Friday I showed my classes parts of a Nova documentary on one of my scientific heroes, Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson. This documentary was just released in DVD a few weeks ago after airing on PBS last year. There is a web site supporting this episode, available here.

Students who wish to see the entire documentary can view it online for free at Hulu.com, here. I've also embedded it, above.

Wilson's interests touch on some of the important themes we've been covering in this course the last few weeks, including the following important State Standards:

ECOLOGY (6) Stability in an ecosystem is a balance between competing effects. As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:

a. biodiversity is the sum total of different kinds of organisms, and is affected by alterations of habitats.

b. how to analyze changes in an ecosystem resulting from changes in climate, human activity, introduction of non-native species, or changes in population size.

c. how fluctuations in population size in an ecosystem are determined by the relative rates of birth, immigration, emigration, and death.

e. a vital part of an ecosystem is the stability of its producers and decomposers.



I encourage my students to learn more about Wilson's work, and the work of other scientists who are working to preserve natural ecosystems.

WHERE'S THE MEDIA?

It's unbelievable, in fact criminal how bad science reporting is these days. The story of the century so far is detailed here by Blake Stacey, how an experiment gone awry on the plains of Illinois could very well undo the investment of billions of taxpayer dollars in basic science. Really, I can't even say any more about it now. It's just too upsetting, and there seems to be very little in the mainstream press about this at the moment. I'll write more as more becomes available.

BIZARRE COMMENT

Here's something creepy, a bit of spam that's utterly new to me.

Most spam is a nuisance: opportunities to by shares in some alleged Nigerian's inheritance, links to (doubtlessly illegal) pharmaceuticals to prop up my (ahem) manhood, chain letters that we are urged to pass on for good luck and the like. They are a curious mixture of breathless copy, obvious fraud and self-delusion.

But this one is new to me: it's, like, a long list of 'conspirators with Zionism', left anonymously in the comments of a previous post on my blog. Don't read unless you enjoy the crazy. I'm just formally posting about it to draw attention to the fact that I don't endorse anything in the comment.