Open Science Thread

There are good posts and there are great posts in the science blogosphere. But every now and then there is a piece that rocks me back on my heels. This one linked below, about the unmistakable developmental and bio-molecular evidence that placental mammals, including humans, descend from egg laying predecessors, is just such an item. And would you be shocked to know that the results, summarized in this diagram, fit like a glove with the fossil record?

PZ Myers -- Browsing through the genome is like strolling through a run-down neighborhood. Houses that are still occupied will be maintained and kept up. Houses that have been recently abandoned might have an overgrown lawn and broken windows. ... Rather than counting broken windows, in genes we count the accumulation of stop codons

And in related news, Myers was expelled from the creationist propaganda movie Expelled and told he had to leave the premises of not just the AMC Theatre, but the so aptly misnamed Mall of America.

• Via Uncertain Principles, the Swift Sat captures brightest ever Gamma Ray Burst
on film.
• Mark Bowen, author of Censoring Science, and James Hansen are interviewed here on the subject of global warming and bipartisan meddling in science policy.
• Kossack David Brin, himself a gifted sci-fi writer, notes the passing of legendary futurist Arthur C Clarke, creator of Childhood's End, Tales from the White Hart, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Rama, and so many other wonderful journeys of the imagination.

Open Thread for Night Owls & Early Birds

At The New York Times, Ian Urbina writes:

It was hailed as Internet for the masses when Philadelphia officials announced plans in 2005 to erect the largest municipal Wi-Fi grid in the country, stretching wireless access over 135 square miles with the hope of bringing free or low-cost service to all residents, especially the poor.

Municipal officials in Chicago, Houston, San Francisco and 10 other major cities, as well as dozens of smaller towns, quickly said they would match Philadelphia’s plans.

But the excited momentum has sputtered to a standstill, tripped up by unrealistic ambitions and technological glitches. The conclusion that such ventures would not be profitable led to sudden withdrawals by service providers like EarthLink, the Internet company that had effectively cornered the market on the efforts by the larger cities.

Now, community organizations worry about their prospects for helping poor neighborhoods get online.

In Tempe, Ariz., and Portland, Ore., for example, hundreds of subscribers have found themselves suddenly without service as providers have cut their losses and either abandoned their networks or stopped expanding capacity.

Days since Mission Accomplished: 1788

The Overnight News Digest is posted.

Open Thread and Diary Rescue

This evening's Rescue Rangers are taylormattd, PaintyKat, Avila, dadanation, shayera, Grog, and joyful, with vcmvo2 as editor.

I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world, not only for its strength, but for its civilization as well. And I look forward to a world which will be safe not only for democracy and diversity, but also for personal distinction. ~JFK~10/26/63~

The diaries up for rescue tonight are:

• First-time diarist redcreek highlights the efforts of Mississippi Governor Barbour's effort to drain the Pascagoula and Leaf Rivers in the name of drilling for oil in Water for Oil. This chilling companion diary by Asinus Asinum Fricat fleshes out global efforts to stave off the looming world-wide water crisis in Water News, Sans Obama. (dadanation)
• Naturegal urges action to stop Bush's Fish and Wildlife Service from permitting the Doyon corporation to drill for oil and gas in an undeveloped wilderness: Protect Yukon Flats Wildlife Refuge. (taylormattd)
• ClimateLurker provides this easy to follow primer that offers a complete analysis of recent temperature fluctuations in Global Warming, the Winter Wiggle, and Short-term Climate Variation. (grog)

• tribe34 has some news from Canada about Guantanamo in The Supreme Court (of Canada) agrees to rule on Gitmo's legality. (shayera)
• The struggles of working class Irish-Americans against British imperialism are eloquently described by markin in an essay on liberation and ethnic heritage, March 17th or Easter, 1916. (Avila)

• YatPundit describes how many classic, old New Orleans restaurants, formerly located in the West End on Lake Pontchartrain, were unable to obtain insurance and rebuild after the 1998 Hurricane Georges, and he wonders about the fate of those homes and establishments destroyed by Katrina, in New Orleans: Good Friday and Insurance Companies. (taylormattd)
• quaoar brings us another sterling example of the institutional insanity of the government's efforts to rebuild the devastated Gulf Coast, in FEMA puts a price tag on the truth - $209,099, while Crashing Vor gives a human face to the day-to-day reality of how people in the area are trying to get their lives back in Welcome Home Neighbor (NOLA). (dadanation)

• joetalarico tells us that The 21st Century Welfare Queens now wear a big Corporate Smile as they ease the wallets out of the taxpayer's pockets. (joyful)
• Gemina13 lovingly cares for her mother in spite of the added burdens caused by the deficiencies of Medicare I'm So Tired, I Can't Step Running. (PaintyKat)

Please promote your own favorite diaries in this Open Thread.

::

Sports Open Thread

Ice dance is not my favorite discipline of figure skating, but this year features a lot more dancing and a lot less posing than some years I can remember - even the French teams are actually dancing for a change.

Meanwhile, I'm told there's some basketball on. :-P

How's your team/pair doing? Are the refs/judges completely blowing it or what?