Matthew Wayne Selznick

I was all set to get righteous about Bush and his ridiculous, malinformed, politicized position on embryonic stem cell research, but this guy did it well enough.

Poebtry?

Anyway, this from Quinn Norton:

“Radio is that bit of the electromagnetic spectrum that sits between brain waves and daylight.”

I could spend a few minutes riffing on that, but I think I’d rather ask: how does that make you feel?

(The article, and the possibility presented therein, is pretty nifty, too.)

Boo-ya! The “missing link” between fish and land dwelling animals has been discovered 600 miles from the North Pole!

Here is a link to the New York Times article; here’s one for Nature, and here’s one for the University of Chicago — any of those can explain it more greater detail, but essentially: gills, fins, scales like a fish, shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints capable of supporting weight on land, a neck, and interlocking ribs (found in most animals with lungs) like an amphibian.

It’s called Tiktaalik roseae. Tiktaalik is Inuktikuk for “large, shallow water fish.” Since the fossils — ranging from four to nine feet in length — were discovered in Nunavut territory, the Elders Council of the Nunavut had the honor of naming the beastie.

So… we have a transitional form between dinosaurs and birds, Archaeopteryx. And we have a land-dwelling ancestor of the whale, Pakicetus, and now, Tiktaalik. Time to eat yer hats, creationists!

Also: A new oviraptor species, Hagryphus giganteus, was announced by the University of Utah. This puppy was about seven feet tall, feathered, and birdlike. You can’t have enough new dinosaurs, truly.

Thanks to Cydniey for pointing out this article on the ongoing Dover, PA trial.

Hmm… Monty Python’s Flying Spaghetti Monster, anyone? Makes me hungry… for science!

Not sure how many of of you are aware of the Kansas School Board and their decision to hold a hearing on whether to allow Intelligent Design to be taught in public schools in that state.

Even George W. Bush has said, “I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought. You’re asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes.”

So, a physics graduate in his mid-twenties has followed that to it’s logical conclusion. If it’s important that people be exposed to different ideas in public school, then Bobby Henderson thinks it’s critical that the Kansas School board also consider the viable belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster.

In a brilliant open letter, Henderson points out that belief in the Flying Spaghetti Monster is just as verifiable as belief in any other Intelligent Designer. Since Flying Spaghetti Monsterism (FSM) is as well-suppported by evidence and argument as Intelligent Design, it should also be taught in the Kansas public school system.

Henderson is committed to pursuing the issue with legal action against the Kansas School Board if they do not agree to teach FSM along with ID and Evolution in their schools. It’s got to be all alternatives to Evolution, or none.

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. And funny as all get out, which makes FSM an even more powerful protest of the deterioration of rational thought in this country.

In a related development: The the tradition of the great James Randi, Xeni Jardin has gathered a posse of bloggers willing to pay up to one million dollars to the first person who can produce empirical evidence which proves that Jesus is not the son of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Check out the latest FSM news, and be sure to spread the word!