Steve Ersinghaus

I’ve played through the first episode of SiN Episodes entitled Emergence, dowloaded via steam, and have a few things to say. One of the draws of the game is this
Face off against ruthless enemies, like jetpack soldiers and mutants that evolve as you fight them. Witness enemies that adapt to your actions and truly work [...]

Richard Blaubb writes
I’m new to the whole hyperspace thing, but how can I weigh it down with a monkey wrench or other bodge that can remind me I got stuff to do? I hear the Benedictine monks keep a skull on their tables for the same kinda reason.
This post on books generated some interesting comment [...]

Leonard Susskind on the “landscape” and Anthropics. Again, much as in the last post, very much worth a listen.

I’m reading yet another history of twentieth century science and will be moving on to Krauss in the next phase. While there’s a little more on real collaboration, such as that between Einstein and the mathematician Marcel Grossman, and clearer linkages between Einstein and later developments in physics and detector technology, the narrative seems common. [...]

The Eagle Forum’s Constitution Watch (I believe written by Virginia Armstrong Ph.D) writes this as a Fact vs. Fiction clarification for us dummies
Fact v. Fiction #2: Evolutionists claim that their battle against creation-science is primarily a “scientific” issue, not a constitutional question. But our treasured U. S. Constitution is written by persons and for persons. [...]

Standard 3 under Life Science of the new Kansas science standards goes like the following block. Those familiar with the writing of institutional academic standards will recognize the outcomes language. Read it this way:
The student:
understands biological evolution, descent with modification, is a scientific explanation for the history of the diversification of organisms from [...]

Via Panda’s Thumb here are links to NCSE podcasts commenting on testimony by Dr. Robert Pennock in Kitzmiller et al v. Dover Area School District.

This sounds like an interesting group of discussions. Karine Chemla’s “Mathematical Problems as Narratives: Perspectives from Ancient China” sounds particularly interesting.
Via Peter Woit.

I’m with the ones who have a sense of humor
In conclusion, thank you for taking the time to hear our views and beliefs. I hope I was able to convey the importance of teaching this theory to your students. We will of course be able to train the teachers in this alternate theory. I am [...]

Via 3 Quarks Daily, a link to the First Annual Art of Science Competition at Princeton. Very cool.
My favorite is Darsh Ranjan’s Unknown Species found here. Perception mathematics. Why do we perceive and then translate a thing as beautiful?

I’ve added Bad Astronomy to the link list under science. The joke is it isn’t bad.

Carl Zimmer on The Mutiny Down Below
Judging from fossils and studies on DNA, the common ancestor of humans, chimpanzees, and bonobos lived roughly six million years ago. Hominids inherited the genome of that ancestor, and over time it evolved into the human genome. A major force driving that change was natural selection: a mutant gene [...]

From a recent House Committee on Science report

Chairman Inglis added that he was concerned about proposed funding reductions in NSF’s educational activities. “I wonder about the cuts in math and science education, and indications that some NSF activities may be ‘migrating’ to the Department of Education. The NSF has a passion for excellence, while the [...]

From Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

WASHINGTON, D.C.–Global warming conversations have shifted from whether climate is changing to how we will deal with the inevitable consequences. And the price you pay will depend on where you live and how well you prepare, suggests one of the most detailed studies to date on global warming and its likely [...]

From Carl Zimmer

The more scientists study the eye, the more they recognize that Darwin was right. This is not to say that they know everything about how the eye evolved. Evolutionary biology is not an automatic answer machine that can instantly tell you every detail about how eyes–or any other organ–evolved. Instead, scientists study eyes [...]