From an NY times article by Kirk Johnson.

In a defeat for critics of Darwin, the Utah House of Representatives on Monday voted down a bill intended to challenge the theory of evolution in high school science classes.

First of all: yay! The Dover case has legs. The IDiots will have to regroup as they did after “creation science” was struck down in the 80’s. But second: the critics of Darwin? Yet another implied equation of the theory of natural selection with Darwin. This should read: the critics of science, or the critics of reason.

These small rhetorical points have a cumulative effect on how science is perceived and understood. Not long ago, I stuck my neck out on the Cosmic Variance site, saying we (scientists) should have a means to call out these misrepresentations (even little ones) and hold journalists accountable for their words. I was ignored. But the question remains in my mind of what even could be done? I don’t think Letters to the Editor would be effective. What else is there?

Perhaps I’ll write a simple, polite note to the author of the piece pointing out the error.

I’ve decided to write down which songs come up on shuffle play as I work on my plasma code tonight:

Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal
Charles Kuralt - The Greenwich Village Poets
The Ramones - Psycho Therapy
They Might Be Giants - Instanbul
Pixes - Havilina
Rage Against the Machine - Year of the Boomerang
The Clash - Brand New Cadillac
Rush - Fly by Night
Kenny Clark - Op-Bop Sh-Bam
Cab Calloway - Downhearted Blues
Glenn Gould - something from the Goldberg Variations
Ray Charles - Late in the Evening Blues
Isaac Hayes - Theme from Shaft

I was very dissapointed to discover Isaac Hayes is a scientologist (via a recent Onion interview). They can have Tom & John… but Isaac? No way. I think I’ll stop there.

This must be the most innocuous context I can think of, but it is something that bothers me intensely. From an article in the local rag about a beloved restaurant closing:

Holman is disappointed to see Pino’s close, but, “Everything has a reason for happening,” he said.

This is a sentiment I see everywhere. This is declaring you are a waste of oxygen. So passive, so unconcerned with the repercussions of actions and events, so disinterested in intentional action, too lazy to give causation a moment’s thought, the world just happens to you because it’s all part of God’s plan. The pathetic fallacy on a universal scale. This phrase sends a shiver down my spine. It is the non-thought of a zombie.

This coming from a staunch determinist who thinks the universe, past and future, just is. But there’s no reason for it. You don’t resign consciousness to your Hamiltonian (and if I’m right, whether you do or not is already determined, anyway). It is not a reason to abandon cognition, but motivation to anticipate the twists of our world-lines.

Some time ago JD was compiling a list of the greatest scientific discoveries. Number one on the list (I think best attributed to Isaac Newton): the world is cogible.

I have taken a long, intentional hiatus from writing in this space. In the past few months, whenever tempted to jot down something I had read, the thought of composing an entry just seemed like work. This leads to the sort of sloppy writing that had infested my journal recently, which runs counter to the whole point of keeping one. So, i decided to lay off until I had a genuine impulse to write.

The discovery of a few excellent science blogs, most notably Cosmic Variance, has gotten me more interested in the form again. At the same time, I am tempted to leave it to those who are much better at it then I am.

However, I am determined to do something about the public image and understanding of science in this country. This is not going to happen through my personality. The written word is my only avenue of hope. The primary purpose of this journal has always been a means to practice. Though I have never fished for readers, the mere possibility of it being read is supposed to encourage my best effort. This has not always worked.

The next obvious step is to link it directly from my home page. There has been very little actually linking this journal to my name. It just seems dangerous to do so pre-tenure. Perhaps I should establish a professional blog, rather than this personal one. A team-blog of some sort would be the best way to do this. I don’t have the time, nor admittedly, the passion to keep one up myself. In any case, I should be making more use of this space again. Especially with a facsimile of the first edition of The Origin of Species in the mail.

“Nevertheless, a world in which it is wrong to murder an individual civilian and right to drop a thousand tons of high explosive on a residential area does sometimes make me wonder whether this earth of ours is not a looney-bin made use of by some other planet.” -Orwell, As I Please 3 (1943)

“In philosophy, or religion, or ethics, or politics, two and two might make five, but when one was designing a gun or an airplane they had to make four.” -Orwell, 1984