Did former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Treasury Secretary and Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson, and retired hedge fund-turned climate action advocate Tom Steyer–the three musketeers behind the just-published Risky Business report–ever see the 1983 movie Risky Business? Even if…
Recall, from part 1, that I’m discussing four scientists cited in a footnote in William Jennings Bryan’s In His Image (1922), evidently to support Bryan’s assertion, “If Darwin had described his doctrine as a guess instead of calling it an hypothesis, it would not have lived a year.”…
In the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to review and comment on what seems to be a very unusual if not unique venture—a “first book of evolution” designed for children in the toddler to preschool age range. This is Grandmother Fish (referred to NCSE by Phil Plait, the Bad…
Last week on Fossil Friday, I presented some not-so-tiny toes with some pretty big hints. I said that the fossil was found in what is now Utah, and it dates back to the Jurassic. There was a lot of debate in the comments section, including a discussion of dinosaur gang colors (I don't…
With Cosmos’ thirteenth episode, “Unafraid of the Dark,” Neil deGrasse Tyson brings to conclusion his extraordinary re-imagining of Carl Sagan’s groundbreaking series. Tyson’s brilliant presentations, rich in detail while always clear and comprehensible, have done a great service to the…
Joe Romm at ThinkProgress has a good post entitled, “Words Matter When Talking About Global Warming: The ‘Good Anthropocene’ Debate”. Taking a nod from Orwell, who more than any other writer demonstrated how language can be a weapon and a tool of social control, Romm explored how the euphemism…
This week on the Fossil Friday. I answer a special request from last week’s winner, Gerald Wilgus. Gerald thought we’ve had too many invertebrates lately, and maybe we should throw the vertebrate people a bone—no pun intended! So this week, I bring you some not-so-tiny toes! These…
There are probably better motivations for reading William Jennings Bryan’s In His Image (1922) than wanting to avoid unpacking boxes, but needs must when the devil drives. The book contains Bryan’s James Sprunt Lectures, delivered in 1921 at the Union Theological Seminary in Richmond,…
The British government recently clarified and extended its ban on teaching creationism in academies, according to a June 18, 2014, press release from the British Humanist Association, which congratulated the government "on its robust stand on this issue." Academies, including free schools…