Same-sex marriage has been legal in Ontario since June 2003. It gradually spread to other provinces as provincial courts declared that laws prohibiting same-sex marriage were unconstitutional. By June 2005, same-sex marriage was legalized in eight provinces and one territory.
The House of Commons passed The Civil Marriage Act (Bill C-38) on June 28, 2005 by a vote of 158-133. This law made same-sex marriage legal in all of Canada. (Alberta had been the major holdout against same-sex marriage.)
Recently, the new Conservative government of Stephen Harper put a motion to re-open the debate on same-sex marriage. The motion was voted on today and the result is ....
defeat for Harper. MP's voted 175-123 to not re-open the debate. The law stands and same-sex marriage is still legal.
Canada remains on the same side of this issue as most other civilized countries.
Why hasn't America legalized same-sex marriage? Is it because of religion? Is it because the American constitution, and the concept of human rights, is different than all other constitutions?
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Don't Mess with Professors!!!
This guy is my hero! One of these days I'm gonna do the same thing when a student talks on the phone in class.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Stephen Lewis on AIDS
Tonight on "The Nature of Things with David Suzuki" the entire show was devoted to Stephen Lewis and his tireless battle against AIDS in Africa. Visit the Stephen Lewis Foundation Website for more information on this extraordinary man.
You must watch his final address from the XVI International Conference on AIDS in Toronto, August 2006. Lewis will be leaving his position as UN Special Envoy at the end of December. Let us hope we haven't heard the last of him.
You must watch his final address from the XVI International Conference on AIDS in Toronto, August 2006. Lewis will be leaving his position as UN Special Envoy at the end of December. Let us hope we haven't heard the last of him.
Two Kooks in a Pod
Casey Luskin, the chief IDiot over at Discovery Institute has posted an addendum to his inept article on junk DNA [Follow-up on Junk-DNA]. Luskin has discovered the junkdna.com website of Andras Pellionisz. Those two deserve each other.
Nobel Laureates: Hans Fischer
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1930."for his researches into the constitution of haemin and chlorophyll and especially for his synthesis of haemin"
Hans Fischer (1881-1945) determined the structure of "haemin," the prosthetic group in hemoglobin. We now refer to this molecule as heme. (Hemoglobin consists of a protein, globin, and a bound cofactor, heme.) The technical name for heme is Fe(II)-protoporphyrin IX (see figure below). In hemoglobin, oxygen is bound to the central iron atom.
Fischer worked out the structure of the porphyrin rings, a considerable feat in those days. He also discovered that the structure of chlorophyll was similar to that of heme.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Charles Darwin Is Coming to Toronto
The Darwin Exhibit is coming to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) from March 8 - August 4, 2008! I can hardly wait. Let's have a Howlerfest in July 2008. Save the date.
Creationist Engineer Demonstrates the Meaning of IDiot
Check out 'Looney' - another creationist engineer with all the answers from Scott Page on All-Too-Common Dissent.
On talk.origins there's something called the "Salem Hypothesis" which states that when a creationist claims to understand science they are much more likely to be an engineer than a real scientist.
On talk.origins there's something called the "Salem Hypothesis" which states that when a creationist claims to understand science they are much more likely to be an engineer than a real scientist.
Excited Molecules
One of our students just gave a seminar on molecular dynamics simulations. She's attempting to model an important biochemical process as part of her thesis project. She showed us the image above from a website on Molecular Dynamics Simulations and I thought I'd share it with the rest of you. It shows the three basic ways in which chemical bonds can vary; they can stretch, they can rotate, and the bond angle can change.
Walk the Sandwalk!
The American Natural History Museum has prepared a short video that lets you Take a Short Video Tour of the Sandwalk. You can walk the path that Darwin walked. If you can't go there in person, this is the next best thing.
Thanks to Colin Purrington for letting me know about this. It was part of the Darwin Exhibit.
If you've walked the Sandwalk, send me a photo. That's PZ Myers on the left.
Thanks to Colin Purrington for letting me know about this. It was part of the Darwin Exhibit.
If you've walked the Sandwalk, send me a photo. That's PZ Myers on the left.
Physarum
The University of British Columbia (UBC) Botanical Garden publishes a Botany Photo of the Day. Today's photo is Physarum cinareum, a slime mould. Slime molds are important protists—single-cell eukaryotes. A related species Physarum polycephalum is studied in several labs and we are anxiously awaiting the results of the Physarum polycephalum Genome Project.
Back in the 1970's, Physarum was a leading candidate for the protist model organism but it fell out of favor 'cause it was too hard to work with. It's still studied in some labs because of its unusual RNA editing. Unlike all other species, Physarum can edit RNA by inserting new nucleotides and by substituting nucleotides.
Back in the 1970's, Physarum was a leading candidate for the protist model organism but it fell out of favor 'cause it was too hard to work with. It's still studied in some labs because of its unusual RNA editing. Unlike all other species, Physarum can edit RNA by inserting new nucleotides and by substituting nucleotides.
Monday, December 04, 2006
See the IDiots Gloat
Dave Scott and Uncommon Descent have "discovered" that the homepage of TalkOrigins Archive has links to porn sites [Talkorigins.org Delisted by Google for Porn Links On Home Page]. It sure didn't take them very long did it?
Naturally, being IDiots, they attribute this to some sort of evil evolutionist conspiracy in spite of the fact that the real explanation has been widely disseminated. Read the comments. Dave Scott openly wonders whether the site was really hacked. Shame on him.
Naturally, being IDiots, they attribute this to some sort of evil evolutionist conspiracy in spite of the fact that the real explanation has been widely disseminated. Read the comments. Dave Scott openly wonders whether the site was really hacked. Shame on him.
Teaching and New Technology
"Academic Matters" is a journal of higher education published by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA). The Winter 2006 issue contains several articles on a subject that's dear to my heart—the role of new technolgy in university teaching.I'm old enough to remember when television was going to revolutionize university teaching. Back in the 1960's all new lecture theaters were constructed with multiple TV sets dangling from the ceiling. The new technology was going to change lectures forever. No longer would Professors be standing at the front of the lecture room. Instead, they would prepare their lectures in a TV studio and students would watch them on the small screen. Only the best Professors from all over the world would be giving the introductory lectures in biology and physics.
When I arrived at the University of Toronto in 1978 there was a huge TV studio on the main floor of this building. Two years later it was gone. What happened?
Computers were the new technology. By the end of the 1980's we were teaching students how to access remote databases and how to communicate by email. We set up our first course newsgroup in 1989. A few years later (1995) we created class websites and by 2000 everyone was using powerpoint. Today there are entire courses given electronically (e-learning) and podcasts are all the rage in some circles.
Does any of this improve education? I doubt it. There are still Professors who write on the blackboard and don't know the first thing about Dreamweaver (ugh!) or XML. There's no evidence that students in their class are suffering.
This is the issue that's explored in the latest edition of Academic Matters.
But when all is said and done, how much has information and communications technology changed university life? What has been its effect on faculty and students? Has it made a meaningful difference in the quality and quantity of learning that takes place on campuses?Heather Kanuka is a Professor at Athabaska University, a school that has specialized in e-learning. She cautions that there is little empirical data to support the grandiose claims of e-learning [Has e-learning delivered on its promise?]. There's no evidence that it is as effective as standard lectures, and there's no evidence that it is even cost-effective. Peter Sawchuck (University of Toronto) cautions us to keep e-learning in its proper place [Curbing our enthusiasm: the underbelly of educational technology.
There are three other articles. They all express skepticism about the claims of the new technology. None of the articles are written by Luddites who don't know how to use the new technology and that's what make them so interesting.
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