Moment of Science

Stem Cell Slant

2007-04-12T06:41:00.000-07:00

James Taranto is projecting in the Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal today. He accuses The Times of London of slanting it's coverage of a recent breakthrough in stem cell therapy. Taranto:Diabetics using stem-cell therapy have been able to stop taking insulin injections for the first time, after their bodies started to produce the hormone naturally again," the Times of London reports. That's

Looking into the Eye of a Monster

2006-11-09T18:34:00.000-08:00

NASA Sees into the Eye of a Monster Storm on Saturn 11.09.06 NASA's Cassini spacecraft has seen something never before seen on another planet -- a hurricane-like storm at Saturn's south pole with a well-developed eye, ringed by towering clouds. The "hurricane" spans a dark area inside a thick, brighter ring of clouds. It is approximately 8,000

Woo Hoo!

2006-11-07T22:54:00.000-08:00

Claire McCaskill's pulling ahead and she's bringing amendment 2 along with her! Candidate Party Votes % of Votes Talent, Jim REP 842,251 47.7% % Yes Votes Graph McCaskill, Claire DEM 867,683 49.1% % Yes Votes Graph Ballot Issue Name Votes % Of Votes Constitutional Amendment No. 2 - 2006 Precincts Reporting 3075 of 3734 Stem Cell Initiative Yes 856,509

What Would Jesus Do About Michael J. Fox?

2006-10-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

What would Jesus do about Michael J. Fox’s endorsment of Claire McCaskill for Senate against Jim Talent in Missouri? Apparently he’d produce a commercial opposing stem cell research with some overpaid prima donnas and a second-rate actress. Here’s Jim Caviezel, star of the Christian BDSM movie that was all the rage a few years back, “The Passion of the Christ”. Jesus Caviezel, or Jim

Violence Breaks Out in the Republican War on Science!

2006-10-23T21:28:00.000-07:00

Today the long-simmering Republican War on Science boiled over into open violence on the Texas-Mexico border. Armed with Russian made AK-47 assault rifles, 9 millimeter pistols (with hollowpoint bullets), and .45 caliber pistols Republican candidate for Oklahoma State Superintendent of Schools, Bill Crozier, and several unidentified men launched an assault on a Calculus textbook, an Earth

Helping Out the Slow Kid in Class

2006-10-05T14:55:00.000-07:00

Whenever you take a class, at some point it becomes painfully obvious that one of the other students just doesn't get it. They appear not to read the assignments, they don't take notes in class, their questions are hostile and often illustrate various aspects of their ignorance, in short he just can't keep up with the material. Unfortunately, my good buddy Hank Barnes appears to be one of these

"...Being a Christian is No Excuse For Being Stupid."

2006-09-29T06:32:00.000-07:00

As Right Wing extremist James Dobson and his minions from Focus on the Family criss-cross the country holding rallies and using the pulpit as a tool to service their political agenda of restricting reproductive rights, preventing equal rights for homosexuals, and bringing religion into the science classroom, a surprisingly candid interview with former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey

We Must be Doing Something Right!!

2006-09-24T16:18:00.000-07:00

Take a look at this! We are now listed on New AIDS Review’s list of “Sites/Pages (Misleading)”We share this illustrious honor with a number of crackpot sites I’ve never heard of:Aetiology NIH Division of AIDS National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease Fact Sheet The National Academy of Sciences Nature Science The New York Times and others.I notice Mark Chu-Carroll, the Golden God of

Deep Space Climate Observatory Update

2006-09-19T14:08:00.000-07:00

Seed magazine provides an update on the status of the Deep Space Climate Observatory, a satellite designed to precisely measure the earth's albedo for use in monitoring and making predictions about global warming. We talked about the Deep Space Climate Observatory here in January. Seed's Mitchell Anderson makes a convincing case that politics and the desire to maintain a semblance of uncertainty

Got Cicada Killers? Science in the backyard.

2006-09-10T14:32:00.000-07:00

While digging up the weed bed in my backyard, that in previous years has been a vegetable garden, I happened to unearth a large fresh cicada with no earth on it nor any sign of dehydration. Though the nymphs of cicadas do live underground they emerge from the earth and climb a tree to molt and become adults. A quick look around confirmed that cicadas had recently been molting in my

I'm sorry Dean, was that a yes

2006-09-07T13:18:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry Dean, was that a yes to both questions? Dean Esmay asks how many Nobel Prize winners and National Academy members we have here at Moment of Science. Well let me see here... besides myself, and Timothy, and Roy, we got... well, I guess that makes zero. This is just another example of Dean's refusal to apply either logic or reason to his thiniking on HIV/AIDS. How many Nobel Prize

An Urgent Message to Jesus' General

2006-09-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

Dear General, I was overjoyed to learn that you share my love and respect for spermatozoan Americans! However, I must take issue with your plan to institute a blastocyst-American draft. As you know, both spermatozoan-Americans and blastocyst-Americans are patriotic freedom-loving folk. Though they’re willing to serve their country in times of need, they will not respond kindly to the sort of

Is Dean Esmay Dishonest? or Just Ignorant?

2006-09-01T11:46:00.000-07:00

Here he is repeating a lie told by Hank Barnes: Lancet Studyby DeanThe Lancet just published a massive study of over 20,000 AIDS patients and determined that anti-retroviral drugs do not increase the lifespan of AIDS patients. They increase leukocyte counts and reduce "viral load," but do not save lives. HAART is a failure, in other words.Well now. Isn't that mysterious?The original lie

Casey Luskin Advances Agenda of Ignorance by Misappropriating Scientific Terms

2006-08-31T14:57:00.000-07:00

Casey Luskin, of the contemptibly dishonest Discovery Institute, is bashing Jerry Coyne for saying: “After lecturing this spring to the Alaska Bar Association on the debate over intelligent design and evolution, I was approached at the podium by a young lawyer. The tight-lipped smile, close-cropped hair and maniacal gleam in his eyes told me that he was probably a creationist out for blood. I

Let Them Eat Jesus

2006-08-26T07:48:00.000-07:00

National Council of Churches comes under fire from anti-Christian bigots. Recently the 45 million person National Council of Churches has come under fire from a group called “Concerned Women for America” (CWFA) for encouraging its member Churches to support and actively work toward eradicating global poverty by fulfilling the United Nations Millenium Development Goals: Goal 1. Eradicate Extreme

Last "Rational" Reason for Opposing Embryonic Stem Cell Research is Gone

2006-08-23T11:58:00.000-07:00

Anti-science opponents persist in objecting to research. The last possible "rational" reason for opposing the funding of embryonic stem cell research has been removed. Newsweek reports that Advanced Cell Technology of California has published a paper in Nature's advanced online edition stating that their scientists have used a single cell extracted from a human embryo to produce embryonic stem

The Party of Sperm Worshippers

2006-08-15T16:32:00.000-07:00

The Party of Sperm Worshippers!THE REPUBLICANS, THE TWO-BIT WHORES AT THE CORNER, ANN COULTER, AND THE DISREGARD FOR SAFE SEX ****COVER ILLUSTRATION REDACTED DUE TO BLOGGER’S RESTRICTIONS ON POSTING PORNOGRAPHIC IMAGES. SEE TERMS OF SERVICE.**** “The Reverend Timothy Tidwell, armed only with truth and logic, takes on George W. Bush, Ann Coulter, and that wanker Ramesh Ponnuru --and he’s the

A Review of Ramesh Ponnuru's Party of Death

2006-08-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

The Democrats the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life (After President Bush’s veto of the Stem Cell Research bill I found myself wondering: What the heck are these people thinking? After reading “Party of Death” I have my answer. They aren’t thinking much, and they sure don’t know much about biology.)”A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little

They Shall Take Up Serpents

2006-08-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

"And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." or not. On Monday morning (Minister John-ed.) O'Kain was riding his bike through a wooded area near the camp's health center

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

2006-08-10T19:40:00.000-07:00

(Click for music) Raindrops in toilets and hemp skirts on hippies Bright solar panels and shareholders’ yippees Recycled newspapers tied up with strings These are a few of my favorite things Renewable fuels and turbines that spin in the wind Caps on emissions and treaties we cannot rescind Full spectrum sunlight from skylights in ceilings These are a few of my favorite things Cars emitting

The 40th Edition of the Skeptic's Circle

2006-08-03T21:50:00.000-07:00

is up at Daylight Atheism. Some great selections: The 2% Company on the absurdity that is homeopathy. Oracs Friday dose of Woo: Mere Regularity is Not Enough. And Eor's got a live wire in Giant UFO Built Yowie Pyramids of Bullshitan excerpt: "Dian spontaneously accesses past life knowledge as a Master Sound Healer in the Court of Akhenaton in Egypt and combines it with vibrational knowledge

Figures

2006-08-03T08:09:00.000-07:00

These Figures are intended to accompany this post. (A blogger bug prevented their posting contiguous with the text.) Figure 1. Fig. 1. (a) Quarterly mortality rates and percentage of total patient-days receiving HAART among patients who ever had a CD4 cell count < style=""> Over 90% of HAART regimens were PI based. (b) Quarterly incidence rates of common

"Skepticism" Run Amok, an Appropriate Level of Skepticism in Evaluating HIV/AIDS Causation

2006-08-02T17:32:00.000-07:00

(This is a response from the virologist/epidemiologist who contributed this article.) Thanks to both readers that have made it so far. First: Michael is right. You can feel the rage dripping from his comments and are similar to those eloquently and bravely stated by my hero, the late Jonathan Mann, AIDS is one of the most important events in history, surpassing the Black Plague in its death toll

Why are Climate Scientists Soooo Clueless?

2006-07-27T22:25:00.000-07:00

While conducting a reconnaissance mission in The Republican War on Science, I came across this diary at Redstate.com, a Conservative Republican group blog. It’s basically a DailyKos.com for Conservative Republicans. Clueless Scientists Remain Clueless Now, naturally that piqued my interest so I took a look at the diary. It begins with a quotation from this article on LiveScience.com:Scientist:

Intelligent Design?...

2006-07-26T16:51:00.000-07:00

Or drugs? (long video clip) It's rumored that one of my professors from undergrad figures prominently in this, er... educational film that shows that learning molecular biology can be fun! Without being incredibly geeky. Well,... maybe it just shows that learning molecular biology can be funny. Update Thanks to Turtles all the Way Down at Metafilter for the link. The only blog