Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
I made it to Aspen, and have nice photos of the lovely speakers’ soirée last night (to follow). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili evinces some knowledge of Dutch history. G*d knows where she acquired that!
Hili: Erasmus had the most interesting ideas while out riding horseback.
A: Why do you say this?
Hili: I’m also inspired by Nature.
Hili: Erazm miał najciekawsze pomysły jadąc konno.
Ja: Dlaczego to mówisz?
Hili: Mnie też natura inspiruje.
by Grania
This is an accidental Master Class in how to win at Twitter. As Dire Straits said “That’s the way you do it“.
This is a real news story from Germany that Boing Boing decided to be funny about and swap around the words in the headline, for reasons of extra clickitude. (That’s a word. Now.)
So then this happened.
If you are still staring at this post with a furrowed brow and blank expression, or maybe an frustrated expression, it’s all full of Terminator references. Hasta la vista, baby.
by Grania
We’ve had an update from Jerry!
He’s reached Aspen, having traveled from Holdrege, Nebraska to Colorado Springs until finally reaching Aspen today. He’ll update us in more detail later on himself.
In the mean time, here are some photos from the road (click on the photos to enlarge, do the procedure twice to get the photos by themselves):
Here’s a shot of the great Continental Divide, Independence Pass:
A view of Sawsatch Range:
And someone you might recognise about to tackle the Continental Divide.
by Grania Spingies
There are a whole lot of reasons why people deny truths, and most of them don’t do it out of malice or contempt for humanity. In many cases they truly believe that they are doing the right thing. It is fairly self-evident that many of the anti-vaccine brigade do this because they truly believe they are saving their children from the harm of a callous conspiracy between the CDC, Big Pharma and your local GP. Ignorance may not be an excuse, but it is their reason.
It is pretty hard to win over hearts and minds on these issues, but the best that the pro science-based medicine side can do is to keep on refuting the worst myths and distortions.
But it really doesn’t help when someone with a disproportionate ratio of influence to actual facts gets up on their high horse and spouts forth.
In text form:
California Gov says yes to poisoning more children with mercury and aluminum in manditory vaccines. This corporate fascist must be stopped. They say mercury in fish is dangerous but forcing all of our children to be injected with mercury in thimerosol is no risk. Make sense? I am not anti-vaccine. I am anti-thimerosal, anti-mercury. They have taken some of the mercury laden thimerosal out of vaccines. NOT ALL! The CDC can’t solve a problem they helped start. It’s too risky to admit they have been wrong about mercury/thimerasol. They are corrupt.
Oy.
His swipe at the CDC was no doubt in response to people informing him that thimerosal is no longer used in most vaccines any more, and especially not children’s vaccines even though studies have shown to have no evidence of harm at the dosage that was typically used.
The CDC addresses this issue fairly clearly here, and has several papers on the subject available to download and read here. True Believers™ don’t read papers, of course, because they are all a part of the corrupt fascist conspiracy. But people who are genuinely undecided might. This is what the CDC actually says on the subject.
Thimerosal is a mercury-containing preservative used in some vaccines and other products since the 1930’s. There is no convincing evidence of harm caused by the low doses of thimerosal in vaccines, except for minor reactions like redness and swelling at the injection site. However, in July 1999, the Public Health Service agencies, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and vaccine manufacturers agreed that thimerosal should be reduced or eliminated in vaccines as a precautionary measure.
Since 2001, with the exception of some influenza (flu) vaccines, thimerosal is not used as a preservative in routinely recommended childhood vaccines.
The line of “I am not anti-vaccine, only anti-poison” is a favorite refrain amongst the anti-vax advocates in recent years, but Dave Gorski over at Science Based Medicine has taken this claim apart with his usual attention to minute detail. The dangers of failing to vaccinate children is also comprehensively covered here: https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/category/vaccines/.
If you see the Carrey rant circulating on your social media platform of choice, maybe help out by adding a useful link to an evidence-based source.
By Grania
Much as one would like to think that the new cartoon up at Jesus & Mo is satire that is all made up, or at least exaggerates reality even just a little bit for comic effect; this kind of conversation is all too evident on social media everywhere, and you’ve probably seen several examples of it yourself.
I’ll be looking at the push-back to legalization of same-sex marriage in the next few days, but in the mean time enjoy. Share everywhere you see any whinging and whining.
We have only one reader’s photos today, and of course that reader is Stephen Barnard, whom I’ll be visiting shortly after July 4. His notes are indented:
This is one of the Northern Harrier “chicks” [Circus cyaneus] from a nest across the creek from my house. It looks pretty much grown up and ready to fly.
I haven’t been doing much photography lately because the fishing has turned on.
It’s a tough life in Idaho!
I also found three pictures of turkey vultures (Cathartes aura) that Stephen sent on May 1:
And two American goldfinches (Carduelis tristis):
Good morning everybody, Grania here again.
There are plenty of wheelings and dealing going on in the bipedal humanoid world today, but it’s a little disturbing when your four-footed companions appear to be watching the stock markets. Do they know something we don’t?
Cyrus: Do you know what the current value of gold bullion is?
Hili: No, I don’t, but the price of coal went down.
In Polish:
Cyrus: Wiesz jaki jest dziś kurs złota?
Hili: Nie wiem, ale ceny węgla poszły w dół.
And as a lagniappe, Leon came to visit. Hili is not At Home to visitors of the felid persuasion but the amiable Cyrus is, and it appears that there is some plotting and planning going on.
Leon: Cyrus, I came with a mission of peace. Let’s talk.
No, this cottontail’s name is not “Spot.” A juvenile rabbit was sitting on the trail at the Garden of the Gods (a fantastic series of rock formations in Colorado Springs), and then hopped into the bushes after I photographed it (below). Can you spot it?
This is an easy one!
And here is before hightailing it off. Cute, eh?
