So the Fuckin Millipede Just Ate a Mammal?

indeed.

Don't Miss It...FOX News Special (Updated)

How did this press release come about?

AP INCORRECTLY CLAIMS SCIENTISTS PRAISE GORE’S MOVIE
The June 27, 2006 Associated Press (AP) article titled
Scientists OK Gore's Movie for Accuracy" by Seth Borenstein raises some serious questions about AP's bias and methodology.
AP chose to ignore the scores of scientists who have harshly criticized the science presented in former Vice President Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth."
[...]
- US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Work

Call my cynical, but this reminds me too much of the pro-business "government" Earth Day site (that focuses on Environmentalism as the big evil in it all). Theoretically, I'm all for the s keeping an eye on media truth, but is this really what's happening here?

Update: Okay. This is nauseating. Apparently the EPW is divided into Minority and Majority pages, with separate press releases. This is NOT science speaking from this organization. It's the agenda of the Republican Party. I call your attention to this hilarious headline on the Majority (Republican) Press page:

05/18/2006 - DON’T MISS IT…FOX NEWS SPECIAL, Global Warming: The Debate Continues

Are you fucking kidding? Call me biased, but the Minority Press page seems a bit more responsible.

Update 2: Hey, whaddya know? ThinkProgress has more on this Press Release.

Morning Chuckle

Right. Got it.

Good Lord Above

Connie Chung and husband Maury Povich had a talk show for the last few months. It sucked royally, and apparently Connie sang a goodbye song the other day. This is totally worth your 2 minutes.

PZ, Coulter Naturalist

PZ took the plunge and has beeen reading Coulter's book. He recently posted a challlenge:

I will suggest instead that if anyone reading this thinks some particular paragraph anywhere in chapters 8-11 is at all competent or accurate in its description of science, send it to me. I couldn't find one. That's where the obligation lies: show me one supportable claim in Coulter's farrago of lies and misleading statements and out-of-context quotes, and we'll discuss it.

A few days later, and hundreds of Coulter-fan emails later, he has issued a clarification of what is "not an appropriate reply":

Cackling that Coulter must be right because she's got "liberal panties in a twist" is not cogent.

Telling me that the "WHOLE BOOK PROVES LIBERALS ARE THE PROBLEM WITH AMERICA" is not cogent.

Promising to pray for me, or assuring me that I will burn in hell, is not cogent.

Explicit details about how Ann Coulter is sexier than "fat harry hippie jew girls" is not cogent.

He's a brave man, and he takes it with scientific detachment and a professional intuition to categorize his experiences.

And what a great word cogent is! If American science education survives , let's put PZ on a coin or something.

Old Bodegas Never Die

COME WATCH ALL THE WORLD CUP GAMES HERE!, originally uploaded by ameliabee.

This used to be THE 24-hour bodega in Fort Greene. Some friends and I almost got shot there one night by a kid with a very short fuse yelling to everyone around him that "I'm Not Playin!!!"

I've only been in FG for ~8 years, so I can't claim to be much of an old timer, but even I knew that something died when this place closed (2 years back?). They were always nice to me during the year that this was my 6-pack store, and it was airy enough that it didn't stink like cat piss as much as some others. I once asked if my beer would ever be free, and they said it would be on my birthday. 6 months later I walked out with a free 6 pack of Brooklyn India Pale ale.

It's so sad to watch it sitting and rotting - although perhaps it would have been more crushing to see this immediately turn into yet another French restaurant or housewares store or gourmet market. In a way, its ghost now sits and scowls at all the miserable shit that goes on in FG these days.

Well, I'm sure its days are numbered. But for now, this is a beautiful picture. Lord knows what the World Cup scene was in there.

Tailess Whip Scorpion

tailess whip scorpion 1, originally uploaded by jleberly_jebs.

To start the week, it's one of my very favorite chelicerate. This one's pretty tiny, but, as I mentioned last fall, the tailess whip scorpion did have a starring scene in the latest Harry Potter movie...

Fresh Scorpion Kebab

Fresh Scorpion Kebab, originally uploaded by www.nataliebehring.com.

I know I post a lot of these scorpions-to-eat, but I just dig the yellow color in this one...

Can't Hurt

I always enjoy a good restating of the logic of evolution, because it's just so darned beautiful and simple. PZ Meyers, in a post about shithead Coulter's latest yapping, lays out a lovely summary:

If heritable variation exists, (which, of course, it does)

if excess reproduction occurs, (also obviously true, or we'd be up to our ears in mice)

if variants differ in their likelihood of survival and reproduction, (a little trickier, but still fairly obvious)

then the relative frequencies of the variants must change.

Go ahead and read the whole post. PZ is a real treasure for education.

I'm A Dwagon!

Doesn't this just sound like something a child would do?

Mr. Bush flew out of Andrews Air Force Base shortly after 9 p.m., bounding onto the plane by shouting to reporters 'POTUS is on board!' according to a pool report. POTUS is the abbreviation for 'President of the United States.'

wolf spider

wolf spider, originally uploaded by okprairiemom.

Lovely!

More Inconvenience

Roger Ebert on An Inconvenient Truth:

In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to.

Please Don't Go

In secret moments, I say to myself...I don't care what happens in the world. Just please, Lord, let The Editors continue to fight for Freedom and Democracy and a Pony.