Let's not give England all our attention today
— look at France!

post from Pharyngula on 29 April 2010 11:43:39 AM. © Pharyngula

This story about the desperation of the French priesthood to recruit new victims has some interesting statistics.

There are around 24,000 priests in France today, down from 42,000 in 1975. The number of Catholics entering the diocese has declined as well, from 116 ordainments in 1999 to 89 in 2009.
…
While 64 percent of the French population, or 41.6 million of the country's 65 million inhabitants, identifies itself as Catholic, only a little more than 2 million attend church each week, said Jacques Carton, a representative from the Bishops Conference in France.

How desperate are they? Most of the story is about how they're putting up posters and advertising on Facebook to convince young men to give up sex and commit their lives to sitting in churches and prancing through rituals. Yeah, that'll work. Why not go all the way and put personals on Craigslist? That would at least sucker a lot of people into contacting them, because they'd all assume it must be something really perverse.

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Imhoteps a little ticked

post from Bad Astronomy on 29 April 2010 11:42:02 AM. © Bad Astronomy

On April 22, 2010, a sandstorm swept across the western Sahara desert. NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this frightening event:Yegads. Click to ensandinate. This is a closeup of a much larger panorama at the border of Namibia and Burkina Faso. The[...]

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Melting icebergs boost sea-level rise

post from New Scientist - Environment on 29 April 2010 11:13:00 AM. © New Scientist - Environment

Ice cubes don't increase the water level in your cup, so why are melting icebergs raising the oceans?

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cle0Cdn188410Emelting0Eicebergs0Eboost0Esealevel0Erise0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fenvironment/story01.htm

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Wait! Maybe Britain needs to keep Lord Justice
Laws

post from Pharyngula on 29 April 2010 11:09:28 AM. © Pharyngula

I suggested in jest that maybe we should put England's sensible Lord Justice Laws on our Supreme Court, but maybe they still need rationalists over there. The Guardian has been using a stellar pro-science panel (Goldacre and Singh, to name two members) to quiz representatives of various political parties on their science stance. They just interviewed the United Kingdom Independence Party, whose representative was…Viscount Monckton of Brenchley. You have got to be kidding; that man is a raving loon. So the UKIP rejects the science of global warming, but advocates for homeopathy.

My favorite part, though, was their position on stem cell research.

Wherever stem cells can be obtained by means other than the killing of very small children, it is ethical only to obtain the stem cells by means that do not involve the loss of little lives. On this basis, there is no reason why Britain should not play a leading part in stem cell research.

That's completely batty. Why, how can science proceed if we are not free to charge into schoolyards, butchering little tykes so we can harvest a few grams of cells from their guts? The summary of their science policy is damning.

Ukip is the only significant party to support homeopathy, and the only party apart from the BNP still in denial over climate change. The appointment of Viscount Monckton as a science spokesman adds to the air of a party of old British eccentrics.
Woeful.

The one sad bit of this lunatic party is that Pat Condell supports them. Say it ain't so, Pat — how can anyone defend a party run by refugees from the looney bin?

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CR4 Admin Blog Intro

post from CR4 - Recent Blog Entries on 29 April 2010 11:00:00 AM. © CR4 - Recent Blog Entries

Welcome to the CR4 Admin Blog! This blog will be a place for CR4's administrators to share news, tutorials, and tips with CR4 users. As many of you know, a new moderation team began reviewing the site's posts and comments on 3/19/10. (The moderators still use the CR4 Site FAQ as guidelines.

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Today's Mystery Bird for you to Identify

post from Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted) on 29 April 2010 10:59:18 AM. © Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)

tags: birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz

[Mystery bird] photographed at Bolivar Peninsula, Galveston County, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]

Image: Joseph Kennedy, 8 April 2010 [larger view].

Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.

Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.

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Mystery Bird: Brown Pelican, Pelecanus
occidentalis

post from Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted) on 29 April 2010 10:59:18 AM. © Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)

tags: Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz

~~[Mystery bird]~~ Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis, photographed at Bolivar Peninsula, Galveston County, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]

Image: Joseph Kennedy, 8 April 2010 [larger view].

Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.

Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.

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Don't we have an opening on the Supreme Court

I think Lord Justice Laws would be an excellent choice, even if he is British. He recently handed down a decision in the case of a therapist who refused to treat same-sex couples that was simply beautiful.

Lord Justice Laws said legislation for the protection of views held purely on religious grounds cannot be justified.
He said it was irrational and "also divisive, capricious and arbitrary".

Also: cool name for a judge.

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Who's being naive Yet more from J. Curry

One last look at Judith Curry, before I shut down the Island of Doubt and launch my new blog tomorrow. I, and many other climateers, remain fascinated by what she has to say, largely because we've never seen a respected climatologist be so publicly critical of her peers and so tolerant of the pseudoskeptics, but also because what she's talking about goes straight to the heart of the battle.

The latest volley comes in the form a comment at Keith Kloor's Collide-a-scape blog:

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Religious thuggery

post from Machines Like Us - Science at the speed of thought on 29 April 2010 10:22:30 AM. © Machines Like Us - Science at the speed of thought

I have written repeatedly about the absurd levels of sensitivity of some religious people, who immediately get up in arms if they feel their religion is being mocked in even the mildest way. A catalogue of religious absurdities would range from the farcical to the tragic and even criminal. Most of the time, the protests merely make religious people look silly, but sometimes things get ugly and even deadly.

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