Lehigh biology disowns Behe (sort of) I always wondered what the Lehigh University biology department thought of its star intelligent design tout, Michael Behe. Now I know. From Pharyngula.

It boils down to this quote:

While we respect Prof. Behe's right to express his views, they are his alone and are in no way endorsed by the department. It is our collective position that intelligent design has no basis in science, has not been tested experimentally, and should not be regarded as scientific.

  ¶ 10:51 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Hurricane Katrina, Lake Erie and stupid fishermen I like watching the boaters at Long Beach Conservation Area. They have many problems and it ends up being an entertaining show. There is no proper ramp, the water is shallow, and the bottom is soft, so many people drive their vehicles out too far and eventually get stuck.

Now, I think everybody in this area knew Hurricane Katrina was going to come Tuesday night, rain a lot, then leave. (How could you not know?) Everybody, apparently, except a group of fishermen from the park.

They decided to put their boat in around 4:30, just when the first sprinkles were beginning. OK, I can understand getting a little fishing in after work.

They stayed out a little too long. When they came in around 9, in the dark and rain, they got stuck putting it on the trailer. I’m pretty sure it took them an hour, in the now pouring rain, to get their boat in, with help from other park residents who were soaked, and probably very unamused to be helping these idiots.

Update: Port Colborne was the big winner in Katrina downfall for Niagara Region, receiving 102 mm of rain. That's the closest town to Long Beach.  ¶ 10:37 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Swoon 109 - August 29, 2005 Lawrence - Spark (Kompakt)
Balil - 3/4 Heart (Warp)
Ellen Allien - She Is With Me (bpitchcontrol)
Mossyrock - Pissjug (Nice+smooth)
Royksopp - Sombre Detune (Wall of Sound)
Boy Robot - Live in Vanilla (City Centre Offices)
Solazul - Lovely Inside (Nice+smooth)
Empirion - Narcotic Influence (exp)
The Weathermen - Daytime TV (4mg)
Liquid Liquid - Bellhead (DFA)
Andrea Parker - Invasion (Quatermass)
Hexes & Ohs - The Horse's Myth
TTC - Ebisu Rendez-vous (Big Dada)
The Free Design - Umbrellas (Light in the Attic)
Jamie Lidell - A Little Bit More (Warp)
Four Tet - You Were There With Me (Domino)
Goldfrapp - Felt Mountain
Bola - Sirasancerre (Skam)
B. Fleischmann - 02/00 (Morr)
Hanne Hukkelberg - Ease (Leaf)
Koushik - Younger than Today
Hangedup - How We Keep Time (Constellation)
Esthero - Dragonfly's Outro (Reprise)  ¶ 10:11 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Robert Moog dies I can't believe I forgot to mention this on my show last night, but Robert Moog, inventor of many popular synths, has died. His first synth, the Moog, was big and expensive, but the MiniMoog was a true revolution in modern music.  ¶ 10:17 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Swoon 108 - August 22, 2005 The Future Sound of London - Cascade (Virgin)
Aphex Twin - Cow Cud Is A Twin (Warp)
Susumu Yokota - The Dying Black Swan (Lo)
Some Water and Sun - Blossom (Hefty)
Richard Devine - Timach (Sublight)
Boy Robot - Sweet Honeybees of Infinity (City Centre Offices)
The London Apartments - Oh What a Day in Autumn
Slowdive - J's Heaven (Creation)
Death in Vegas - Heil Xanax
Tights - Whitethroat Babies (Drip Audio)
Jamie Lidell - What Is It This Time? (Warp)
The Free Design - I Found Love (Styrofoam and Sarah Shannon mix) (Light in the Attic)
Lyn Collins feat the JB's - Think (About It) (Tommy Boy)
Ellen Allien - Down (Bpitchcontrol)
Mossyrock - I Want to Eat Your Mouth (Nice+smooth)
Peter Schumann - RIC (Traum)
X-asp - T minus 30 (Rephlex)
Virgo Four - Take Me Higher (Soul Jazz)
Caribou - Boreal Forest Opper (Domino)
Uncle de la Cruz - Daze (4mg)
Amon Tobin - Theme From Battery (Ninja Tune)
Pub - Summer (Arovane mix 1) (Vertical Form)  ¶ 9:00 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  John Bahcall dies John Bahcall, a leader in the field of astrophysics and neutrino science has died. I’m very sad to hear of his passing. He was obviously a very smart man, and a strong guiding force in the direction of neutrino detection experiments.

I saw him speak once or twice and he always seemed like a true gentleman.

As Mark Trodden mentioned, it will always be a little surprising he didn’t win part of the 2002 Nobel Prize. (It can only go to three people.) It took decades for him to be proved right, but he was right!

Good obituaries from Physics Today and the New York Times.  ¶ 9:56 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  The Onion takes on intelligent design The thing is, "intelligent falling" makes as much as sense "intelligent design". Found via Chris Mooney.   ¶ 11:35 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Swoon 107 - August 15, 2005 - Spotlight on Air Liquide Air Liquide - Tinitus (Harvest)
Air Liquide - Synsonic (sm:)e)
Air Liquide - Stroboplastics (Harvest)
Air Liquide - Geigerzaehler (Harvest)
Air Liquide - Thx is On (Rising High)
Air Liquide - Combat Zone Part One (Blue)
Air Liquide - Tanz Der Lemmings II (Blue)
Air Liquide - Increased Difficulty of Concentration (sm:)e)
Air Liquide - Interactive Warlords (sm:)e)
Air Liquide - mp3 (sm:)e)
Air Liquide - Liquid Men With Liquid Hearts (sm:)e)

Air Liquide's website seems to be down. For more information on them try discogs.com.

Ellen Allien - Cloudy City (bpitchcontrol)
X-asp - Terra Ferma 2 (Rephlex)
Max Mohr - Old Song (Kompakt)
Death in Vegas - Reigen (True North)
Boy Robot - Bass and Booze (City Centre Offices)
Telepopmusik - Brighton Beach (EMI)  ¶ 10:17 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Another anti-intelligent design post It's worth noting that Robert Kirshner, president of the American Astronomical Society, Fred Spilhaus, the American Geophysical Union and others have all issued statements calling President Bush a bonehead for saying intelligent design should be taught alongside evolution.

Best line from the AAS statement:

It doesn’t help to mix in religious ideas like "intelligent design" with the job of understanding what the world is and how it works. It’s hard enough to keep straight how Newton’s Laws work in the Solar System or to understand the mechanisms of human heredity without adding in this confusing and non-scientific agenda.

Best line from the AGU statement:

"Ideas that are based on faith, including intelligent design,' operate in a different sphere and should not be confused with science. Outside the sphere of their laboratories and science classrooms, scientists and students alike may believe what they choose about the origins of life, but inside that sphere, they are bound by the scientific method," AGU President Fred Spilhaus said.

Check out the large list of blogs (liberal and conservative) that support evolution at pharyngula.org

  ¶ 2:58 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Who would you rather observe with?
I am back from Starfest. Very good weather this year. I searched Technorati for weblog mentions of starfest. So, who would you rather observe with? Starstruck or ZebraGirl? A friend took the picture above.  ¶ 9:25 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Swoon 106 - August 8, 2005 Jamie Lidell - When I Come Back Around (Warp)
Esthero - Beautiful Lie (Reprise)
Royksopp - Triumphant (Wall of Sound)
Daft Punk - Make Love (Virgin)
Bootsauce - Let's Eat Out (Vertigo)
Some Water and Sun - Some Water and Sun
Boy Robot - Magic Toys for Girls and Boys (City Center Offices)
Richard Devine - Timach (Sublight)
Black Dog Productions - Jauqq (Warp)
Susumu Yokota - Long Long Silk Bridge (Lo)
Death in Vegas - Anita Berber
Hanne Hukkelberg - Cast Anchor (Leaf)
Hearts of Space - Breathe Out (Rising High)
Art of Trance - Haagen Daaz (Platipus)
X-Asp - Magic Strings (Rephlex)
Meat Katie - Devil In Me (Kingsize)
Medway vs. Pete Gawtry - La Fin Du Monde (Mike Hiratzka mix)
Quivver - Space Manoeuvres Part 3 (Boz Boz)
Terry Grant - I'll Kill You (John Debo mix) (Bedrock)  ¶ 9:05 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  My article in Nightsky magazine I have an article about astronomy and backyard observing in the latest issue of Nightsky magazine. It's about the occultation of Antares by the moon, which I observed back in March and wrote about briefly.

Nightsky doesn't publish online, so I am putting in the first two paragraphs to entice you into buying it.

Antares is the orange-red heart of the constellation Scorpius and one of the brightest stars in the sky. I always associate it with warm summer evenings, so it was unusual and even a bit strange for me to want to see it before dawn last March 3rd with the temperature below freezing. But I had a very good reason. I wasn’t about to miss the rare chance to watch the Moon cover it up and to see it reappear an hour later.

Astronomers call an event like this an occultation. It’s simply one body passing in front of another, blocking the latter from view. That can include everything from small asteroids blotting out distant stars to the grand spectacle of the Moon covering the Sun during a total solar eclipse.

As I found that frosty March morning, it’s not hard to watch a bright star disappear behind the Moon....

  ¶ 3:50 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Swoon 105 - August 1, 2005 Boy Robot - Invaders of Vanity Clubland (City Centre Offices)
Ellen Allien - Your Body is My Body (Bpitchcontrol)
Phuture - Phuture Jacks (Soul Jazz)
Jesse Somfay - The Days of My Youth Ended with Broken Bottles (Traum)
Black Dog Productions - Olivine (Warp)
Arovane - Tascel_7 (DIN)
Richard Devine - Sigstop (Sublight)
Mouse on Mars - Spaceship (Thrill Jockey)
Jamie Lidell - The City (Warp)
Four Tet - A Joy (Domino)
Caribou - Subotnick (Domino)
Herbaliser - Gadget Funk (Ninja Tune)
Jaga Jazzist - (Ninja Tune)
Susumu Yokota - Song of the Sleeping Forest (Lo)
Bjork - Submarine (Atlantic)
Autechre - Pro Radii (Warp)
Orb - Kompania (Grooved Ware mix) (Sanctuary)
Tetreault/Oshihide - Lyon No. 3
Kraftwerk - The Man-Machine (EMI)
Akumu - Isolate (Spider)  ¶ 8:48 AM 0 Comments Links to this post