tonysidaway's Xanga

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:04:47 GMT

Recent postings on Lambda Delta

September 6, 2008:

Pope didn't tell frog to hop it after all (newspapers had misrepresented a story involving a sculpture of a crucified frog)

September 7, 2008:

Just a theory (a cute cartoon about creationism)
Ice age predictions are premature (predictions based on sunspots are speculative)
Snake oil degrees abandoned (a British university has dropped a degree in homeopathic medicine)

September 8, 2008:

NASA chief Griffin blasts White House in leaked email (he's not happy about the plans for the shuttle)
BC appeal court approved "no go" zones around abortion clinies, rejects appeal by protestors (a failed attempt to challenge "no go" zones around clinics in Vancouver)
Victorian bill to decriminalize abortion (An Australian state reforms its abortion law)
Quirkology (Richard Wiseman's psychology fun website)

September 9, 2008:

headcrabs lol (famous troubleshooter spotted at CERN)
Gay agenda is winning (gay marriage is coming and there is nothing the fundies can do about it)
JK Rowling wins Harry Potter case, Steve Vander Ark to publish new book (big libel case victory for Harry Potter author)
Denied a passport on grounds of midwifery (some Americans of Mexican ancestry can't get passports)

September 10, 2008:

Zapatero set to deliver on promise to fix Spain's anomalous abortion laws (Spain moves a step further away from the Franco era)
What on earth are they up to at CERN? New York Times gives an exclusive clue (a misprint reveals what's really going on)
Exhibition: Francis Bacon retrospective, Tate Britain (a great British-Irish painter)
When Hot Dogs Attack! (a weird crime, nobody hurt)

September 12, 2008:

Teach magic at school (Richard Wiseman says it teaches social skills and confidence)
Cheap drug could prevent some recurrent miscarriages (prednisolone could prevent miscarriages--early days yet though)
The night they stole the internet (a big theft in Mayfair)
"Sex in confessionals" book angers religious kooks (Bill Donohue is angry. Again)
Brumby's abortion reform bill passes Victorian lower house (Australian bill passes a big hurdle)
Women boo McCain over Roe v. Wade (He thinks it's bad, they think he is.)

September 13, 2008:

Examining a creationist case against modern geology (a guy who still hasn't dragged himself into the twentieth century--let alone the twenty-first)
Examining a creationist argument on the fossil record (same guy, second of two posts by me)
Newspapers and blogs misrepresent Dennis Wheeler on climate change (Geographer angry because loads of climate change conspiracy theorists think he's their new best friend--it's all down to misreporting in newspapers)

Moved to Lambda Delta

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 18:06:36 GMT

Thanks to everybody at Xanga. I've enjoyed setting up a blog here and getting to know some good people in the community.

I've decided that Xanga probably won't suit me in the long term, so rather than leave it until later I've switched to the a WordPress blog that I've decided to call Lambda Delta. There is plenty of meaning in the name, but actually I won't pretend I didnt just choose two nice Greek letters more or less at random.

Lambda Delta: Tony Sidaway's science blog. Because we can handle the truth.

More RNC shenanigans in Twin Cities

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:36:08 GMT

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From the Associated Press, whose photographer Matt Rourke was arrested and held without charge earlier in the week:

Warehouse set to process convention arrests August 15, 2008
Police target protesters at GOP convention August 30, 2008
Anti-war protest may be hampered by arrests August 31, 2008
9 arrested at Xcel in antiwar march September 1, 2008
5 arrested in protests at GOP convention site September 2, 2008
GOP convention protest arrests tally nearly 300 September 3, 2008
Police hope to avoid more GOP convention violence September 4, 2008
Arrests mark last anti-war march of convention September 5, 2008

From the ACLU newsroom:

ACLU Calls For Investigation Into Raids And Mass Arrests At RNC September 2, 2008
Kentucky Photojournalists Released From Jail After Being Held For 36 Hours Without Charges September 3, 2008
At RNC, Arraignments Begin And Arrests Continue September 4, 2008
ACLU Sues St. Paul And Minneapolis For Release Of Educational Materials Seized During Raids September 4, 2008
ACLU Renews Its Call For Investigation Into Civil Liberties Violations At RNC September 4, 2008

Jon Stewart demolishes Republican pundits

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:11:38 GMT

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Pharyngula is carrying a hilarious exposee of Republican two-facedness on candidate selection issues. I can only agree with PZ Myers: Jon Stewart is brilliant.

Religious decline in United States following European pattern

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:45:11 GMT

I've moved to Lambda Delta. Please click here.

Recently I reported on the shift in American attitudes to involvement of churches in political and social affairs. A majority of American voters now oppose such involvement. This is mainly due to a shift in attitudes among conservatives towards church involvement in political affairs.

Religious belief is also undergoing a long term decline in America. Matt Cherry of the Institute for Humanist Studies reports his analysis of two major polls by Pew Research and Harris, concluding that America seems to be following the same trajectory as Western Europe, but forty years later.

Overall, the US looks a lot like Western Europe 30 or 40 years ago. At that time most Europeans still believed in a god, but younger generations were more atheist and agnostic than their elders. That trend has continued with religion steadily declining, generation by generation.

While a current snap shot of religious belief makes the two continents look very different, the long-term trend appears remarkably similar. Young people are growing up less religious and the most religious generations are dying out. At the same time, support for secular government and greater tolerance is rising with each new generation. Or to put it another way: the future looks bright for humanism.

In 1986, only 11 per cent of 18-25-year-olds reported their religious preferences as "no religion/atheist/agnostic". In 2006, that figure had increased to 20 per cent. Among over-25s, the proportion has risen more modestly from 8 per cent to 11 per cent.

These findings seem to be broadly in line with those of the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), a government survey carried out in 1990 and 2001. Between 1991 and 2001, the survey found that the number of those describing themselves as Christians (of any denomination) fell from 88.4 per cent to 81.1 per cent, those reporting adherence to the views of other, non-Christian, religions rose from 3.5 per cent to 5.2 per cent, but those reporting no religious views, atheism or agnosticism rose from 8 per cent to 15 per cent.

A portrait of Generation Next, Pew Research Center for People and the Press. Summary of findings.
American Religious Identification Survey data archive, Instititute for Secularism in Society and Culture, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut
American Religious Identification Survey data spreadsheet (XLS format), US Census Bureau
FT Harris poll

"What do we do now?", a review of "God on Trial"

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:22:34 GMT

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Be warned that I do not withhold plot details in my reviews.

God is in the dock in Auschwitz, accused of breaking his covenant with the Jews, in Frank Cottrell Boyce's play, a coproduction by Hat Trick Productions and WGBH Boston for BBC Scotland. God on Trial was broadcast on BBC2 on September 3rd, 2008. The prosecutor shows no mercy, and the legal arguments are about as sound as Boyce, a Catholic, and two Rabbis who acted as consultants could make them. I've already discussed Boyce's comments on how this play affected his faith in God in another article.
Click to read on

When faith kills, part 2: Ava Worthington, Oregon

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:55:48 GMT

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Yesterday I wrote about the tragic death of Kara Neumann, aged 11, in Weston, Wisconsin on Easter Sunday. Her parents had not taken her to see a doctor since the age of 3, because the bible told them that God will heal the sick if you pray. She died, not from evil spirits as her parents believed, but from diabetes, a treatable condition if it is diagnosed. Contrary to her parents' expectations even as her corpse lay on a hospital bed, she was not resurrected by the power of prayer. Because of "faith healing" exceptions to Wisconsin's child abuse and neglect statutes, Kara's parents cannot be charged with those crimes, so the state has taken the only other course open to them: they have been charged with second degree murder, a charge which is unlikely to stick. By the way, this happened on Easter Sunday 2008, not 1808. Those shocking exceptions, which explicitly place children in danger from ignorant and foolish parents, are still on the statute book in Wisconsin, and similar exceptions exist in most other states of the union.

I am astounded to find that the case of Kara Neumann is not an isolated one. Three weeks to the day before Kara died, 15-month-old Ava Worthington, of Oregon City, Oregon, died of bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection, all curable, because instead of consulting a doctor her parents prayed. There is a difference, however. In 1998 11-year-old Bo Philips in Oregon died from diabetes, the same condition that killed Kara, while his parents prayed over him. The Oregon state medical examiner said this was the third such case in a year in the same religious community. A local newspaper investigated the community and found some 78 cases of deaths of children, going back to the 1950s. The state medical examiner determined that some 25 had died because their parents had chosen prayer instead of medicine. The state did not prosecute because of "faith healing" exemptions like the ones still existing in Oregon.

In 1999 the Oregon state legislature closed those loopholes pertaining to the charges of murder, manslaughter and child abuse after the 20/20 documentary series gave the scandal national exposure. So now Ava Worthington's parents have been charged with manslaughter and there is a realistic chance that the trial, set for January, 2009, will secure a conviction.

Progress is being made, but it seems the cost of that progress is the deaths of children due to religiously-motivated neglect and abuse.

Tangled Bank #113

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:52:05 GMT

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Science wonks and wonkettes lusting for more of the hard stuff can head over to En Tequila Es Verdad for issue number 113 of the science blog carnival, Tangled Bank. I've got two items on there myself.

Men's marital behavior may be influenced by vasopressin receptor gene

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:39:45 GMT

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The peptide hormone arginine vasopressin (AVP) has long been associated with pair-bonding behavior in highly social animals such as the prairie vole. Present in many mammals, its primary function is to control water retention. When you're dehydrated it is released into the blood stream from the posterior pituitary, and induces the kidneys to conserve water. It also raises the blood pressure through vasoconstriction (narrowing of the blood vessels). Researchers have also found a variety of neural effects, the most interesting of which is its role in pair bonding.

One theory is that it is released during sexual behavior, and stimulates and sustains such behavior. It is also believed to make the male more aggressive towards other males. The distribution of vasopressin receptors seems to be different in pair-bonding species such as prairie voles and promiscuous species such as meadow voles, which supports the idea of a link.

As of now the role of vasopressin, if any, in human pair bonding is unknown and has not been established. A forthcoming paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by a team of Swedish genetic epidemiologists from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm may change that.

Hasse Walum, a postgraduate student at the Institute, examined the distribution of a gene that codes for the vasopressin receptor type 1a (AVPR1a) in the human brain, using data from the Swedish Twin Offspring Study led by Paul Lichtenstein. About 500 volunteer couples who had been together at least five years filled in questionnaires designed to measure the quality of their experience of monogamy. Walum reports that the study found a correlation between one variant, named allele 334, and marital conflict. Just 15% of men with no copies of allele 334, or one, had had a marital crisis in the past year, but more than twice that many men with two copies of allele 334, 34%, reported such a crisis. Two of every five men have either one or two copies of allele 334.

In 2005, Larry Young of Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, reported in Science that a variant of the gene correlated with the quality of pair-bonding in male pairie voles. He cautiously welcomes the Swedish finding, but says he is "skeptical until this can be replicated."

'Bonding Gene' Could Help Men Stay Married -CBC, 2 September, 2008
Study Links Gene Variant In Men To Marital Discord -Washington Post, 2 September, 2008

UPDATE: Adding new links.

Is fidelity in our genes? -Scientific American article and podcast, 2 September, 2008
Study: men with genetic variant struggle with commitment -Ars Technica, 2 September, 2008
Swedes help find genetic link to men's relationship problems -The Local, Sweden's News in English, 2 September, 2008

UPDATE: This has now been published by PNAS on the web

Genetic variation in the vasopressin receptor 1a gene (AVPR1A) associates with pair-bonding behavior in humans

When faith kills

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 02:35:05 GMT

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"It's like Jonestown in slow motion" -Shawn Francis Peters

Eleven-year-old Madeline Neumann, "Kara" to her parents, was very ill, but her parents, Dale and Leilani, didn't take her to see a doctor. In fact, Kara had not seen a doctor since she was three years old. Dale believed that her illness was a test of faith, and Leilani believed that Kara was under spiritual attack. So they prayed. They read the bible and believed what it said when it said healing comes from God. Kara died, in her home in Weston, Wisconsin, last Easter Sunday.

Her body was taken to the Emergency Room at St Clare's hospital in Weston, where Medical Examiner John Larson asked them about funeral arrangements.

We won't need one," was the reply. "She will be alive tomorrow."

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