Month: July 2013

An Excellent Point About Uniformitarianism

Dana Hunter4 Comments

One of the lectures I listened to during costume making madness last year is Dr. Eugenie Scott’s “What Would Darwin Say to Today’s Creationists?” One of the things I like about Dr. Scott is that she doesn’t just stop at evolution when it comes to fighting religious nonsense pawned off on the public as “science” – she’s also aware of Flood geology and takes time to debunk it, too. And she knew Darwin started his career in science as a geologist. Also, if you head to round the 25 minute mark in that video, you’ll get an excellent description of what uniformitarianism is – and isn’t.

Most of us know the basics of uniformitarianism: processes we see acting today acted in the past, and explain what we see in the geologic record. It includes the concept of gradual change over time (which is one of those things that got Darwin thinking along the path that led him to evolution). But Dr. Scott makes an excellent point that states more clearly than any other source I’ve heard why Flood geologists and other creationists are so very wrong when they point to events like the eruption of Mount St. Helens and the spectacular erosion seen in its aftermath, and claim this as proof that the Earth’s geology was created in catastrophe instead of forming gradually over time: Continue reading “An Excellent Point About Uniformitarianism” →

An Excellent Point About Uniformitarianism
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ZOMFG, Geokittehs and Rosetta Stones in the NYT!

Dana Hunter3 Comments

You guys, something totally beyond belief happened Tuesday – Geokittehs got written up in the New York Times!

Moi with our very first mention in the NYT!
Moi with our very first mention in the NYT!

I wish they’d mentioned Evelyn by name – she’s the one who does all the work – but it was nice to see the author, Jennifer Kingson, spend most of her blurb talking about the actual Geokittehs site rather than focusing on that one Geokittehs post I did on Rosetta Stones. (You know – the one I forgot to mention here, so if you missed it, here tis!).

This has been an astounding day, and I wish I’d thought to have the camera handy when I told B his kittehs had got their names in the Times. Priceless!

Thank you again, Evelyn, for all the heart and soul and love you put into Geokittehs, and keeping it alive when I’m distracted elsewhere. And thank you, my darlings, for the kittehs and egging us on. I’m glad that something fun (and “mildly educational!”) ended up featured in the major national newspaper – but it never would’ve happened without you. Gracias!

 

Misha helpfully indicates where you can find our blurb.
Misha helpfully indicates where you can find our blurb.
ZOMFG, Geokittehs and Rosetta Stones in the NYT!

19

Dana Hunter5 Comments

Sometimes, the news from my old home state is horrible.

Yarnell, Arizona is a tiny little community along the Highway 89 corridor. It’s got less than a thousand people. It’s in dry country, just a little north of Phoenix, near Prescott. There’s been a drought, and record heat, and it’s the dry-lightning season, when everything’s ready to go up at a spark, and the clouds give bolts with no rain. This is the time of year when Arizona residents bite their lips and look worriedly at the wilderness, hoping against hope they won’t see the thin column of smoke that speaks of a conflagration to come.

Lightning struck. The winds picked up. And that dry chaparral around Yarnell went up like someone had doused it with gasoline and lit a match. Continue reading “19” →

19

Ding Dong the Wicked DOMA’s Dead!

Dana Hunter2 Comments

Now seems like a good time to let my LGBTQ friends know that they can call upon me should they need a writer’s services in crafting wedding-related stationery items. Despite the fact that our Supreme Court is full of conservative shitheels like Scalia who like to stomp all over important rights, most of DOMA is dead. Prop 8 is pretty much perished. The non-bigoted portions of the wedding industrial complex are screaming for joy, while the Jesus-cries-angry-tears-at-gay-weddings crowd is wailing and gnashing their teeth. Same-sex couples, those who may become such couples, and those who support them in their quest for equal rights are cheering. Sweet sounds all.

Marriage = Love. Image courtesy Fibonacci Blue via Flickr.
Marriage = Love. Image courtesy Fibonacci Blue via Flickr.

It’s over. The religious right has lost. There will be a few scattered skirmishes in places where bigoted assclowns good Christians outnumber kind people, but I’m betting on a full defeat of the anti-equality forces within my lifetime. Probably before I’m eligible for AARP membership. And that ain’t that many years away.

About bleeding time same-sex marriage rights were recognized. Long past time, actually, and there are still far too many states that still refuse same-sex couples the right to marry. Let’s get crack-a-lackin on this marriage equality thing. There’s absolutely no reason why consenting adults of the same sex shouldn’t get married, aside from bullshit religious ones. Fuck religion. None of these delusional anti-equality shitlords have a hotline to God (or Allah). Until Jesus shows up in person on daytime talk shows saying Daddy don’t want no gays getting hitched, I’m gonna say that any ratfuckers saying that God hates gay weddings are functionally full of shit and should be shuffled off into a corner to rant to themselves. The rest of us have cake to eat and rice to throw.

The Supreme Court didn’t go far enough, but they opened the door to the clerk’s office. Up to us to ensure all of our same-sex couples get to walk through it.

Happy weddings!

Ding Dong the Wicked DOMA’s Dead!