The Digital Pack-Rat, Vol. 10

While the ScienceBlogs are cooling their heels, I'll do a little housekeeping, and tidy up some of the comments from elsewhere. First, a reaction to a pro-Paliban website. The question at hand was--can this website possibly be for real?

Once upon a late December, If correctly I remember,
Waiting for the year's last ember soon to stop its cheery glow
Clicking through my browser's pages, while outside the winter rages,
Hoping that the words of sages from the screen would somehow flow
Though the internet's where words of wisdom rarely ever flow;
Odds are better it's a Poe.

But the horrors I envision, with each click and each decision,
As my brain endures collision with both web-page and bordeaux
Have my frontal lobe infected, which I thought had been protected
When Obama was elected, not Wasilla's queen of snow;
I had hoped we'd seen the last of her, and sent her back to snow,
It must surely be a Poe.

etc.

And my last comment of the old year, or maybe my first comment of the new year, I forget.

Around the world, the stroke of midnight seems to cause a riot.
In Cuttlehouse, this year at least, it passes all too quiet.
The Cuttlekids are off with friends, the Cuttlespouse online,
And me? I'm mostly lost in thought (a wee bit lost in wine).
Remembering the year gone by, my best in years (by far!),
And wishing you... the best of years... where e're it is you are.


Kent Hovind, with not much better to do while behind bars, continues to publish his "dialogs with God".

A dialog with god or dog
Is oftenest a monologue

The Great State of Oklahoma is attempting to officially dumb down science. Following a suggestion by George Orwell, their new anti-evolution bill is the "Scientific Education and Academic Freedom Act".

What Senator would ever choose
To stand opposed to Freedom?
Don't worry that the kids might lose
Their smarts--they'll never need'em!

Why, ignorance, in politics
Becomes a badge of honor!
The truth is, to these Senate pricks,
A designated goner.

Their ignorance, a point of pride--
A fundamental tenet--
Leaves students only qualified
For Oklahoma Senate.

A bit of a musing on why it is that so many people believe that humans have reached the point where evolution no longer applies to us.

There really is no mystery
In how these people think;
When all recorded history
Is evolution's *blink*;
If, from a movie, say we will
Remove a single frame--
The picture there is standing still
And must remain the same.
Our children look... about like us
They don't seem "more evolved"--
And so, case closed, no muss, no fuss;
The problem is resolved.
Of course, they're wrong, as I and you
Both know; the truth is this--
That Man has a myopic view,
And ignorance is bliss.


PeeZee? PeeZed?

There once was a man named PZ
Whose minions were easily led--
By the thousands, for him,
They would bow to his whim
Until pollsters were all filled with dread!

In a frankly bizarre ad campaign, a major burger chain will send you a coupon for a free burger for every ten friends you delete from your Facebook friends list.

Think of all your friends, deleted,
Just for burgers, barely meated,

Friendship--just like that, so fickle,
Just so you can hold your pickle

Your former friends, they are the ones
Who put the meat between your buns

If you'd trade friends for meat and mustard
I, for one... am just disgustard.

(And now this silly writing ends--
I'm off to sell my facebook friends.)