by Matthew Cobb
@ProjectNightjar has just posted this picture of a Fiery-necked nightjar. You know the drill. I can’t help you because I have no idea.
Another hidden nightjar
January 9, 2014 • 3:34 am
Thursday: Hili dialogue (with bonus)
January 9, 2014 • 1:32 am
There is another visitor here, and she, like me, is fond of Hili and loves to photograph the cat. Poor Hili!
Hili: I’m terrified.A: Of what?Hili: I see another friend with a camera.
(Photo by Professor Ceiling Cat)
In Polish:
Hili: Jestem przerażona.Ja: Czym?
Hii: Widzę kolejną przyjaciółkę z aparatem fotograficznym.
(Foto: Prof. Ceiling Cat)
Andrzej explains further on his Facebook page:
“Sarah just arrived from England. Our guests are talking with the Editor-in-Chief.”
(The Editor-in-Chief, however, appears more interested in the toy mouse flying through the air.)
In Polish: “Właśnie z Anglii przyjechała Sarah, nasi goście rozmawiają z redaktor naczelną.”
Imagine No Religion 4
January 9, 2014 • 1:21 am
Be there or be square. I look forward to meeting a lot of new heathens, collecting more autographs for the now immensely valuable and artistically illuminated edition of WEIT (yes, it will be auctioned), and finally getting to see “The Unbelievers.”
And maybe Jerry DeWitt will ask for a “Darwin.”
Kamloops, B.C., May 16-18; details here.
Wednesday: Dobrzyn
January 8, 2014 • 2:15 pm
Someone asked yesterday about some of the handmade furniture they saw where I’m staying. It was made for Andrzej and Malgorzata by Jerzy Kenar, a Polish sculptor who lived in Sweden when they did. Coincidentally, Kenar now lives in Chicago and produces highly-regarded sculpture rather than furniture; you can see some of his work here. Here’s Kenar’s biography from Wikipedia:
Born on January 19, 1948 in the town of Iwonicz-Zdrój, he left Poland permanently in 1973 for Sweden. In 1979, he emigrated to the United States, where he opened the Wooden Gallery in Chicago in 1980. The gallery is currently a cultural hub for Chicago’s Polonia, hosting many exhibits, shows and meetings with many famous figures. His career soared in the mid-1990s with his commissions to decorate Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, which houses a number of his pieces, and the city’s Harold Washington Library. He has done work for a number of churches in the Chicago area, such as the interior design for St. Constance in Jefferson Park, wooden artwork for St. Kevin in South Deering, as well as the Millennium Doors for one of Chicago’s ‘Polish Cathedrals’, Holy Trinity Church. He is also a generous patron of Chicago’s art scene.
Here’s the bed in the master bedroom.
And here is a picture of Pia, Hili’s predecessor, on the bed roughly a decade ago. She was described in this photo as “looking like a cranky loaf of bread.”
Here is the dining table in what was my room. I have now moved out of my room to make space for another visitor, and have been installed in spacious digs upstairs. There I will get to commune with Hili’s bête noire—literally—the black tomcat Fitness.
A detail of the table:
Lunch this afternoon: assorted sausages and salads, as well as a special Polish smoked cheese, krolenski wedzony (literally, “smoked royal”), the cheese with the holes in it.
After her own noms, Hili mounted the coffee, tea and sugar canisters, a favorite perch since she was a kitten:
This morning the Queen crawled onto me and fell asleep on her back before I had a chance to brush my hair. Of course it’s a sin to disturb a sleeping cat, so, being unable to cut off my sleeve like Mohammad did with Muezza, Hili and I remained in that position.
(The one good thing about Islam is that it’s the only religion I know of whose prophet reputedly loved cats—and had one.)
Dinner was a scrumptious wild-and-domestic Polish/Swedish mushroom-and-leek soup made by Malgorzata. It was thick with fungus: the best mushroom soup I’ve ever had:
There are surprises in store involving Hili as editor, but I’ll leave those for another day.
What I missed in Chicago: the Big Polar Vortex
January 8, 2014 • 12:13 pm
Okay, here’s a joke that my dad told me when I was a kid:
“Jerry, have you ever heard about the kee-kee bird? It lives at the North Pole.”
“No, dad. Why do they call it that?”
“Because it sits up there on the ice and calls, “kee-kee-kee-kee-RIST it’s cold!”
I’ll be here all week folks, but it has been wicked cold in the eastern US these past few days. Chicago has been particularly brutal.
[Note: I’ve taken down the worldwide climate map from yesterday because, as one reader pointed out, the Fahrenheit and Centigrade equivalency scales were so off that I couldn’t discern the temperatures.]
Several readers sent me links to some HuffPo pictures of Chicago (where the temperature with windchill dipped to -40º, both C and F, this week), as well as photos from other sites. I can’t say I’m sorry I wasn’t there: it’s a balmy 10º C (50F) in Dobrzyn. On second thought, I wish I had been there—to take my own photos.
Ice in the lake! We don’t see this every year. Can’t you just see the cold from that plane?
How cold was it in the Midwest? Colder than on some parts of Mars! Yahoo News reports this:
The town of Embarrass, Minnesota, recorded the lowest temperature in the United States Tuesday at a frigid -37 Celsius (-35 Fahrenheit).
Then there was the wind chill: a calculation that represents how much colder it feels when the blinding gusts hit you in the face.
That dipped as low as -52 Celsius in Montana and was in the -40 to -50 Celsius range in parts of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
That’s cold enough to toss a cup of boiling water into the air and watch it turn into snow before it hits the ground.
The Mars Rover has been sending back daily temperature readings from its tour of the Red Planet ranging from -25 to -31 degrees Celsius (-13 and -24 degrees Fahrenheit).
“To be fair, though, Mars is still way colder,” the Smithsonian Institute wrote in a blog post. “The Curiosity rover is driving around in a crater at, roughly, the equivalent latitude of Venezuela.”
What happened? It was a “polar vortex,” as explained by CNN:
What is a polar vortex? What distinguishes it?
The polar vortex, as it sounds, is circulation of strong, upper-level winds that normally surround the northern pole in a counterclockwise direction — a polar low-pressure system. These winds tend to keep the bitter cold air locked in the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It is not a single storm. On occasion, this vortex can become distorted and dip much farther south than you would normally find it, allowing cold air to spill southward.
This is the Michigan Avenue Bridge, which I cross regularly. The Chicago River is throwing off steam in the bitter cold:
Two more photos (by Isaac Silver) from the Mother Nature Network:
An iceberg in Lake Michigan!
This is Chicago, not Antarctica, for crying out loud!
Finally, from Google Earth’s Twi**er feed, the shadows of the skyline on the frozen lake:
Virginia introduces first antiscience bill of the year
January 8, 2014 • 10:54 am
Below is House Bill 207, prefiled in the Virginia General Assembly on December 27, 2013 by delegate Richard Bell (a Republican, of course). It is now in the education committee, and I have no idea what its chances are.
It’s one of those innocuous-sounding “teach-the-controversy” bills that is aimed at allowing teachers to present the “weaknesses” of both evolution and anthropogenic climate change. Lest you doubt that, here’s what Bell told a Virginia newspaper, as reported by ClimateProgress:
Bell told the Hampton Roads Daily Press that the bill was intended to protect teachers who might otherwise be disciplined for how they responded to questions from students about topics like evolution. He noted that since the state does not require teaching of alternatives to the theory of evolution, “introducing them into instructional discussion would not seem appropriate.” In his 2011 re-election campaign, he boasted of the endorsement of noted climate-change-denier Ken Cuccinelli II (R).
Groups like the Discovery Institute and Heartland Institute have pushed schools nationally to adopt curricula that embraces skepticism of science. The former’s “Teach the Controversy” campaign has encouraged educators to include in their lectures the “non-scientific problems” creationists and intelligent-design proponents claim to have identified in the theory of evolution.
I’m not sure what Bell means with his “not appropriate” caveat about teaching creationism, but if that’s the way he feels, why this bill?
Note that parts A, B, and C create a situation in which creationism and climate denialism are to be treated “respectfully”, surely falling in the “differences of opinion about scientific issues” category. Well, neither evolution nor anthropogenic climate change are “differences of opinion.” They are scientific conclusions, and if teachers pretend that they’re merely “opinions,” they’re sorely misleading the students. The only way to respond “respectfully” to students who suggest creationism is to say, “With all due respect, both evolution and anthropogenic climate change are facts,” and then present the supporting data. If necessary, one can explain why the opposing opinions aren’t supported by science. But there should be no “respect” implying that creationism and climate-change denialism are credible views.
Section D is what kills me: it’s a weaselly way to pretend that creationism isn’t a religious doctrine. Asserting that the bill should not be construed as religious doesn’t make it so: it’s a distinction without a difference. It’s like sticking a label on a cat that says, “Nothing about this animal should be construed as promoting the idea that it’s a felid.”
Shame on you, Virginia. If they wanted teachers to simply teach accepted science, they wouldn’t need to pass bills like this.
HOUSE BILL NO. 207
Offered January 8, 2014 Prefiled December 27, 2013
A BILL to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section numbered 22.1-207.6, relating to instruction in science.
———-Patron– Bell, Richard P.———-Committee Referral Pending———-
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That the Code of Virginia is amended by adding a section numbered 22.1-207.6 as follows:
§ 22.1-207.6. Instruction in science.
A. The Board and each local school board, division superintendent, and school board employee shall create an environment in public elementary and secondary schools that encourages students to explore scientific questions, learn about scientific evidence, develop critical thinking skills, and respond appropriately and respectfully to differences of opinion about scientific controversies in science classes.
B. The Board and each local school board, division superintendent, and school board employee shall assist teachers to find effective ways to present scientific controversies in science classes.
C. Neither the Board nor any local school board, division superintendent, or school board employee shall prohibit any public elementary or secondary school teacher from helping students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in science classes.
D. Nothing in this section shall be construed to promote or discriminate against any religious or nonreligious doctrine, promote or discriminate against a particular set of religious beliefs or nonbeliefs, or promote or discriminate against religion or nonreligion.
2. That no later than August 1, 2014, the Board of Education shall notify each division superintendent of the provisions of this act. Each division superintendent shall notify all employees of the local school board of the provisions of this act by the first day of the 2014-2015 school year.
From Ricky Gervais’s Facebook page
January 8, 2014 • 8:07 am
Bill Nye talks about his upcoming debate with Ken Ham
January 8, 2014 • 7:40 am
A few days ago Bill “The Science Guy” Nye appeared on the Cable News Network discussing his upcoming debate (Feb. 4) with Ken Ham at Kentucky’s Creation Museum. The topic: “Is creation a viable model of origins?”
Here’s the clip from CNN:
Nye’s rationale, as given in this interview, is not to “win,” nor to change “this guy’s mind” (I love that he refuses to mention Ken Ham’s name), but to prevent children from adopting a “scientifically illiterate” view of biology. He adds he hopes to “influence people in the area”—presumably Kentucky.
If that’s the case, I reiterate that this debate is pointless and counterproductive. The audience is not going to comprise children, but (as Nye admits) mostly fundamentalist adults—Ham supporters. How, then, can this change the minds of the younger generation? And if the audience does consist of Ham supporters, how can Nye influence the thinking of Kentuckians? If Nye makes a good showing, which I hope but consider unlikely, then Ham may not release a video.
If Nye wants to further acceptance of evolution, he should just continue to write and talk about the issue on his own, and not debate creationists. By so doing, he gives them credibility simply by appearing beside them on the platform.
Further, even in this friendly interview Nye doesn’t respond well to the criticism that he’s not really an expert on evolution, nor does he seem especially eloquent.
I suspect that Ham, in a William Lane Craig-like way, is preparing furiously for this debate, and I pray* that Nye is doing likewise. That’s the only way he’ll survive.
Some readers have suggested that this debate is a very good thing, but I simply can’t agree. I suspect that such optimism stems from their respect for Nye’s accomplishment as a science presenter, and his demeanor as a nice guy. But Nye never had Ken Ham on his children’s show.
And I can’t shake the feeling that part of Nye’s motivation is to stay in the media spotlight. But doing it this way is a terrible mistake.
_______________
*I am praying metaphorically