As a Mea Culpa for my Recent Case of Blog Apnea: How about a little oral tradition…

Update: boy – I find I am just a day late and a dollar short.  See the New Scientist for the video.  (h/t Sullivan)
Turns out that there may well be an evolutionary advantage to fellatio.
At least if you are a fruit bat.
“Nothing human (or mammallian?) is alien to me.” (Per Terence, via, in my case, [...]

Live Blogging President Obama’s Energy Address At MIT

Star studded crowd.  Gov. Patrick, Sen. Kerry, and local congressman Mike Capuano are here.
12:45:  Obama takes the podium.  Wild applause.  This is Obama country.
First words:  Thank you MIT!
In joke:  ”I’ll be here a while.  I understand a bunch of engineering students have put my motorcade on top of Building Ten.
Reference image:

12:49:  Politician shout outs are [...]

The Stupid, It Burns…Crunchy Con takes on Cosmology Edition

I usually lie back and enjoy Roy Edoroso’s  Rod Dreher takedowns.  There are too many massive fails out there to write everytime something stupid this way comes.  Besides, Roy practically owns Mr. Crunchy at this point;  it is as if the Crunchster’s only reason for being is not, as he imagines, to serve as an [...]

Andrew Sullivan Fouls (Another) One Off — and Then Grotesquely Strikes Out: God, Evil, and Auschwitz edition, part two

Way, way back in blog years (aka, about two weeks ago), I posted the first of a three parter on Andrew Sullivan’s follies as he attempted to waffle his way around the theodicy problem.  That’s how to harmonize belief in an omnipotent and omniscient loving God with the existence of evil in the world, preferably with a [...]

It’s not that McArdle can’t read…it’s that she can’t (won’t) think: part three

This is the third part of a ridiculously oversized tome on one example of what I see as a systematic failure on the right to engage science in any meaningful way. [Part one is here; part two, here]

In part two, I noted that serial offender Megan McArdle was trying to defend a claim about how [...]

For Good Times in Cambridge and in Princeton: More Newton and the Counterfeiter Goodness This Week

Just in case you had nothing to do with your copious spare time and wanted to hear something about Isaac Newton’s little known career as a cop and a death penalty prosecutor (detailed in that book, Newton and the Counterfeiter…(Amazon, Powells, Barnes and Noble,Indiebound and  across the pond at Amazon.co.uk, Waterstones, Blackwells, Borders,John Smith & Son)…that [...]

Quote (and Clip) of the Day: Wynton Marsalis speaks…

“Our current lack of respect for swing can be likened to the current state of our democracy.  Balance is required to maintain something as delicate as democracy, a subtle understanding of how your power can be magnified through joining with and sharing the power of another person.  When that is no longer understood, it becomes [...]

Getting Ready To Atone — So Here’s a Completely Snark/Aggro Free Amazing Vid. to Enjoy

Got to the film maker via Sully’s paean to a Burning Man video. But this one is better: Also Sprach…, Brazil, and coral. What more could you desire?
Truly, time lapse artist/film maker Ben Wiggins has done an amazing job — enjoy:

more about “Getting Ready To Atone — So Here’s a…“, [...]

More Newton and the Counterfeiter action: BBC and Guardian edition.

I’ve been almost completely remiss in continuing both my diary of Newton and the Counterfeiter,(Amazon, Powells, Barnes and Noble,Indiebound and  across the pond at Amazon.co.uk, Waterstones, Blackwells, Borders,John Smith & Son). and in keeping up to date with the recent flood of reviews.  There is a lot I want to talk about those reviews — [...]

My Note to President Obama in response to an email eliciting support for the ongoing health care intiative:

I received an OFA email just a little while ago telling me of all the hard work being done on health care, for which I thank you, Mr. President, and those of your exceptional staff.  But I have to say that I do have a line in the sand:  insurance companies are not part of [...]