Jane Fonda Is Back

 
It's about time. Jane Fonda spoke at the Washington rally for peace yesterday. She said "I haven't spoken at an anti-war rally for 34 years. But silence is no longer an option." Jane is right. Silence is no longer an option. We need to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Many of us will remember when "Hanoi Jane" visited North Vietnam in 1972. Is it time for her to visit Iraq?

[Photo Credit: According to Wikipedia "This photograph was shot by a public affairs officer of the Peoples Republic of Vietnam, and released worldwide for distribution."]

Psychic Sylvia Browne Is Nothing but a Con Artist and a Fake

 
Anderson Cooper on CNN does something right. He exposes Sylvia Browne as a con artist. She told the parents of a missing boy that their son was dead but he turned up alive after four years. James Randi takes part in the debunking.

Now, if only we could get Larry King to admit that psychics are frauds ....

Free Love, the '60's, and Protein Synthesis

 
Most of us have seen this video of protein synthesis. It was made in 1971 (close enough to the '60's) at Stanford University and narrated by Paul Berg. This is a classic. Every student has to see it. (Much of the science is outdated but you don't watch it for the science.)

You have to wait until 5 minutes into the video to start seeing the student participation section on the outdoor field. This sort of thing was easy to organize back in 1971 but I can't imagine my students doing it today. Perhaps I'm wrong. Would any of you be interested in making an updated version?

All mimsey was the mRNA, and protein chain outgrabe ....

Thanks to Living the Scientific Life for finding it on YouTube.

Should We Pity America, or Hate It?

 
The Maher Arar case came to a close yesterday when the Canadian government agreed to a $10.5 million dollar settlement. The Prime Minister apologized for Canada's role in the sorry saga [`I wish I could buy my life back'].

In case you don't know, Arar is a Canadian citizen. He was arrested by the FBI in New York in 2002 on suspicion of terrorism and send to Syria to be tortured. He was released after almost a year and returned to Canada. Since then he has been cleared of all charges by a judicial inquiry.

The American government refuses to admit they made a mistake (a lawsuit is pending). Even more extraordinary, they refuse to remove Arar from their "no-fly" list in spite of the fact that the Canadian system has found him innocent. The FBI file has been reviewed by the Canadian government and there's nothing in there to warrant further suspicion.

All this is well known in Canada and Canadians are angry. Here's an excerpt from an article by Thomas Walkom on the font page of today's Toronto Star [U.S. security trumps freedom].

Ottawa's decision to compensate Canadian Maher Arar for its role in his unlawful imprisonment and torture contains a warning and a lesson.

The warning is that Canada and the U.S. are on fundamentally different paths when it comes to matters of terrorism and human rights. The lesson is that until Ottawa gets more aggressive with our friends in the war on terror, a Canadian passport won't mean much.

First the warning. The U.S. has chosen to subordinate the principles of individual freedom to what it sees as its security needs. It jails people indefinitely without charge, utilizes interrogation methods that the United Nations describes as torture, wages illegal wars and commits the very crimes against humanity it once helped to prosecute.

For America's friends, this is heartbreaking to watch.

Yes, it's heartbreaking and I feel sorry for my American friends who know what's going on (e.g., Ed Brayton). But enough is enough. The refusal to admit that they, like we, were wrong about Maher Arar does not deserve our pity. It's just plain stupid and wrong.

America seems to have lost its way after 9/11. Its leaders are willing to sacrifice basic human rights in order to imprison and torture people who they suspect of terrorist activities. Most of them are innocent but that doesn't seem to matter.

Furthermore, America has no respect for its friends. Canada's system of justice is just as good as America's—probably better. If we find Arar innocent then America should have the decency to respect our decision and remove him from their list of suspect terrorists.

Science blogger Bora Zivkovic

 
The Nature interview with Bora Zivkovic is out [here]. I want to take this opportunity to thank Bora and everyone else for organizing the 2007 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference. It was lots of fun, I'm looking forward to next year already.

Here's a photo that Bora took of me and my daughter Jane at dinner on Friday night (January 19th). That's Cathy Davies (The Lab Cat) on my right. Bora tells me [here] that we were right under the John Edwards campaign headquarters. I wish I known, I would have popped up to say "hello."

Praying before City Council Meetings

 
Following up on a previous posting [Reciting the Lord's Prayer at City Council] I note that the Durham city council (west of Toronto) voted on Wednesday to make prayers before the meeting "voluntary." There was an excellent news clip about this on CityTV and you can watch it here. I'm particularly impressed with Mayor Bob Shapherd of Uxbridge (a member of the council) who declared that he is a non-believer and doesn't want to be a hypocrite when he's forced to recite something he doesn't believe.

I'm embarrassed that there are Canadian politicians who are stupid enough to think that public recital of a Christian prayer is a good thing. I'm proud of those who challenged them.

My own city council in Mississauga also prays before meetings. I've written to my councillor, Katie Mahoney, but she hasn't replied.

[Hat Tip: Richard Dawkins]

Let's Help America: Make Florida the 11th Province

 
America is in trouble. I urge all Canadians to sign the petiton at Florida11 to make Florida the 11th province of Canada. We need to do our bit to prevent a repeat of the 2000 election crisis that got America in such trouble in the first place.

Lead in Lipstick Will Cause Cancer

 

Friday's Urban Legend: FALSE

There's an email message circulating that warns women against the dangers of lead in lipstick.

It's currently #9 on the 25 Hottest Urban Legends. (Incidently, the Barack Obama myth has moved up to #1; see Baracl Obama Is a Closet Muslim).

The message claims that lead causes cancer. This is not true. The message claims that lipstick contains lead. This is correct but the levels are way below those allowed by health rules in civilized countries [Easily Lead].

[Photo credit: Wikipedia, Creative Commons]

IDiots and the War

 
Yesterday Ed Brayton posted on DaveScot's silly notions about the war in Iraq [DaveScot's Ridiculous Arguments]. Ed goes into much more detail than I did on Wednesday [The IDiots Understand the War in Iraq]. The most interesting thing about Ed's posting is his description of the censorship imposed on the thread over at Uncommon Descent. If you go there you'll notice that the comments are closed. But they weren't closed yesterday. Find out from Ed what Mike Dunford did to force DaveScot to delete all comments.

And you wonder why we call them IDiots?

Toyota RAV4 Jousting

 
This is too cool. Anyone want to try it with me? I'll drive. We can challenge a team of IDiots.

Teaching Ethics in Science: Science v Technology (Part 2)

[Larry Moran: Part 1] [Janet Stemwedel: Part 1, Part 2]

The issue is whether we should be teaching "ethics" in science classes. The particular examples that we've mentioned are debating whether GM food is good or bad and discussing the consequences of the human genome project.

My concern is not so much whether these issues are topical or fun—they certainly are. I'm worried about the fact that they detract from my main purpose, which is to get students to appreciate science for it's own sake and not just because of some application it might have.

The Next Leader of the Free World?

 
The blogosphere is all abuzz with debate over who's going to be the next leader of the free world. I have a question. Who's the current one?


If I had a vote, I'd vote for the guy in the middle. Anyone who has a blog and supports universal health care coverage for all Americans can't be all that bad. Besides, he lives in Chapel Hill and that's a very nice place.

CODEPINK Women for Peace

 
 
Read Dariana's blog if you have two X chromosomes or want to support those who do.


[Hat Tip: Greg Laden]

I'm not a Darwinist, but I Ain't Signing

Bill Dembski continues to demonstrate his ignorance of evolution by ranting against Darwinism. In his latest posting [Dissenting from Darwin] he urges those of us who are skeptical about the exclusivity of Darwinian evolution to sign a petition.

Increasinginly I find that those with doctorates in the natural and engineering sciences are asking, “What can I do to help in the fight against Darwinism?” For some this will involve research bearing directly on Darwinian theory. But there is also another way to help. Many in the media and the public still do not know that there is scientific dissent from Darwinism. They have no idea that MANY scientists are skeptical of neo-Darwinian theory.

So one way you can help is to put your head on the chopping block and voice your skepticism of Darwinism (if you do, trust me, Darwin’s dogmatic defenders will try to chop off your head). This is why Discovery Institute created their statement “A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism.” It states: “We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.”

There's nothing wrong with the statement. I am skeptical of claims that natural selection accounts for all of the complexity of life. There are lots of other things going on during evolution.

But I will not sign this petition because Dembski and the IDiots will deliberately misinterpret my intentions. They have no idea what dissent from classical Darwinism really means. They have no idea that someone like me could (mostly) agree with the statement while, at the same time, referring to all Intelligent Design Creationists as IDiots. I suspect that some of those who signed the petition would feel the same way about Intelligent Design.

The list of dupes and IDiots is [here]. There are 686 names and two of them claim the University of Toronto as their affiliation. They are,

            Stephen J. Cheesman Ph.D. Geophysics
            Alfred G. Ratz Ph.D. Engineering Physics

Neither of them are listed in the phone directory and they have no affiliation with the university according to a search of the website. Chessman was involved in writing some software for an undergraduate lab back in 1992.

Eva Amsen's Cocktail Recipe

 
Eva Amsen is a graduate student in my department and a blogger (easternblot.net). She was at the 2007 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference last weekend and now she's written an article about it at Inkling Magazine [Science Bloggers Avoid the Spinach Dip Brush-Off].