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Stephen Green is a little bit angry with Governor Bobby Jindal (who majored in biology in college) and his support of the LSEA, the new Louisina bill allowing, in so many words, intelligent design to be taught in public school science classes:

Social sciences are, almost by definition, soft-skulled bullshit. So let the liberals teach it. Real science is supposed to mean something… and when it no longer does, then we’re all screwed.

So am I emotional on this issue? You bet your ass I am. And I’ll get emotional whether it’s a Kansas school board, or the legislature and governor of a state I’ve barely even visited.

In the churches, faith can and does sustain good people of every stripe — and in ways biology, physics, and math never could. But forcing our preachers to teach in the scientific method would ruin the religious experience. Just as surely, mixing faith and science would destroy those things science offers us.

And with that, I’ll step away from the pulpit for a while. I’d like to think that Governor Jindal would do likewise and get the hell out of our classrooms.

Read the whole thing, especially Green’s engagement with soft-skulled ignoramus hpb in the comments.

Now, the foundations of human knowledge, and science, are by no means sure things, and are open to reasoned, intelligent criticism^†. If you are going to teach criticism of modern scientific theories, as the bill states, you’d be much better off teaching applied epistemology^* than what the bill’s writers intend (hat tip).

Matters of faith have no place in our science classrooms.

^† And yeah, intelligent design ain’t it.

^* Ha, make sure to read their terms of service.

I was going to write a fluff piece on getting some SIGG water bottles, but then, as I often do, I did some research so I would know what I was talking about, and this isn’t going to be fluffy anymore.

So a few years ago, it was discovered that 95% of Americans^* have levels of a chemical called bisphenol-A (BPA for short) in their urine. BPA is an estrogenic chemical (i.e. mimics the hormone estrogen), and its structure and presence can “duplicate, block or exaggerate hormonal responses.” According to its critics, which are legion.

BPA is present in polycarbonate (as opposed to polyethylene or polypropylene) plastic cans and bottles—like the Nalgene sports bottles most people have no doubt owned once or twice in their lives—and has been found to have leached into the water or food contained within.

Now, there is some debate (mostly between plastics-industry sponsored studies and government-funded studies) about the relative harmfulness of having BPA in your system, but the news is quite alarming nevertheless. Government agencies at this point are not concerned enough about potential deleterious effects of ingesting BPA to have banned its use, so policing, if it happens, has to happen at an individual level.

I had only heard (or to be fair, absorbed) the barest minimum of facts about this when a colleague of mine was telling me why he had shown up to work one day with this gorgeous aluminum water bottle, and I asked him where he got it from. He focused more on the fact that no water bottle he’d ever had didn’t alter the flavor of the water inside if it was left overnight, and that only bottles like the non-reactive aluminum ones that SIGG, a Swiss company, made had your water still tasting good after a day or two. And, as I said, these particular bottles are powder coated in a huge variety of beautiful designs, so I wanted one, just because it would be pretty.

So I got a couple, a large one and a small one, and when I was in the store, I noticed that popular water bottle manufacturers like CamelBak and Nalgene are now making BPA-free bottles, no doubt in an effort to reach out to disgruntled consumers.

As for me, I’m going to keep my pretty SIGGs and get rid of my old Nalgene bottles, if only because the water does still taste good after it’s been in the bottle a while.

^* This is according to my single source article, which is admittedly a couple of years old. Prachee, I’m sure you’ll know more or be able to find more relevant scientific data, and be able to tell me if what I read is wrong or disingenuous.

Studies have shown that its active agent, triclosan, does not make antibacterial soap distinguishably more effective at killing bacteria than regular soap, and its presence in the water supply (it is not removed by water/sewage treatment facilities) is potentially harmful to those who ingest it. (Via InstaPundit)

Update 2008-05-13 12:54—I guess, according to the comments on that post, that there is no credible link between normal levels of dioxin (a chemical that may be produced when triclosan interacts with light and/or chlorine) ingestion and death. So what you should take away from all this is that if you’re spending extra money on your antibacterial soap, you’re not getting your money’s worth.

It has been conclusively proven that dark matter exists, which, needless to say, is a huge development in the field of astrophysics. The post very intelligibly explains the discovery, but astrophysics is so hardcore that I found it all on the outside edge of my understanding. Nevertheless, this is very exciting stuff! (Via Slashdot)

a 4.4 magnitude earthquake hit 5 miles west of Glen Ellen, CA, about 51 miles north of where I live in San Francisco. We happened to be sitting around our living room talking with a friend who had dropped in, when one of my roommates said, “Is that an earthquake?” We all said we didn’t think so, but 10 seconds later the whole room shook. The temblor was not strong enough to dislodge anything on the bookshelves, but it was disconcerting all the same. It felt much stronger than the only other earthquake I’ve experienced since moving here. Thus far, no damage or injuries have been reported.

he knew this already, but apparently they build everything better in Greece, even the mosquitoes:

ATHENS (AFP) – Cramped housing conditions and air pollution in Athens have given rise to a “super breed” of mosquito that is larger, faster and more adept at locating human prey, a Greek daily has reported.

Athens-based mosquitoes can detect humans at a distance of 25-30 metres (yards) and also distinguish colours, unlike their colour-blind counterparts elsewhere in the country that only smell blood at 15-20 metres, Ta Nea daily reported.

The “super mosquitoes” of the Greek capital also beat their wings up to 500 times a second — compared to 350 beats for other variations — and are larger by 0.3 microgrammes on average, the paper said, citing a study conducted by Aristotelio University in the northern city of Salonika.

(Via Slashdot)

Not good at all.

Migrating swans have spread a lethal strain of avian flu into several European nations in recent days, and experts predicted it was likely only a matter of time before the virus is carried across the continent by migrating birds.

Germany confirmed Wednesday that two dead swans found on the island of Ruegen in the Baltic Sea tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu. The virus originated in Asia and has jumped from birds to infect at least 165 humans worldwide, killing 91, according to the World Health Organization.

In the past week, dead swans that tested positive for the virus have also been reported in Austria, Italy, Greece, Slovenia and Bulgaria.

The virus has previously been detected in Romania, Croatia and Ukraine. And health officials in Poland, Denmark and Hungary announced Wednesday that they were checking dead swans to learn if the infection has spread to their countries as well.

Pretty scary stuff.

magnetic quantum cellular automata:

For the first time researchers have created a working prototype of a radical new chip design based on magnetism instead of electrical transistors.

As transistor-based microchips hit the limits of Moore’s Law, a group of electrical engineers at the University of Notre Dame has fabricated a chip that uses nanoscale magnetic “islands” to juggle the ones and zeroes of binary code.

Wolfgang Perod and his colleagues turned to the process of magnetic patterning (.pdf) to produce a new chip that uses arrays of separate magnetic domains. Each island maintains its own magnetic field.

Because the chip has no wires, its device density and processing power may eventually be much higher than transistor-based devices. And it won’t be nearly as power-hungry, which will translate to less heat emission and a cooler future for portable hardware like laptops.

Neat-o!

more about astrophysics. Check this out:

A Chinese astronomer from the University of St Andrews has fine-tuned Einstein’s groundbreaking theory of gravity, creating a ‘simple’ theory which could solve a dark mystery that has baffled astrophysicists for three-quarters of a century.

A new law for gravity, developed by Dr Hong Sheng Zhao and his Belgian collaborator Dr Benoit Famaey of the Free University of Brussels (ULB), aims to prove whether Einstein’s theory was in fact correct and whether the astronomical mystery of Dark Matter actually exists. Their research was published on February 10th in the US-based Astrophysical Journal Letters. Their formula suggests that gravity drops less sharply with distance as in Einstein, and changes subtly from solar systems to galaxies and to the universe.

Fascinating stuff. (Via Slashdot)