All the cool kids are doing it

By "cool kids", of course, I mean "British science bloggers" and by "doing it" I mean "writing to their MPs about Tripe in Science". I am, of course, stretching these definitions to an extent similar to my trousers after five pies at Thanksgiving - but that's nothing compared to creationists calling themselves "Truth in Science".

I wrote:

Dear My MP,

I'm a constituent of yours and a genetics researcher at Thighmarcester University. My last job was in the Southern US, where many of our incoming undergraduates had been disadvantaged by inaccurate, religiously biased science teaching.

For this reason I am particularly concerned about recent news stories reporting the teaching of creationism in British schools (such as is encouraged by the ironically-named religious pressure group "Truth in Science").

I would be interested to know your views on this and whether you would be prepared to sign EDM 2708: "That this House shares the concerns of the British Centre for Science Education that the literature being sent to every school in the United Kingdom by the creationist religious group Truth in Science is full of scientific mistakes and fails to disclose the group's creationist beliefs and objectives; and urges all schools to treat this literature with extreme caution."

Yours sincerely,

Dr Laetitia Prism

I'll keep you posted.

Choccing

This recipe and accompanying fuzzy photo have been kicking around waiting to be posted for a while. Note our tasteful charity-shop crockery. Anyway, remember the artisan chocolates in brownie form? These are the same idea, but with the somewhat less poncey Terry's Chocolate Orange.

Whole Orange Brownies
1 small orange
250g butter
150g dark (semisweet) chocolate
50g cocoa powder
4 eggs
450g sugar
100g plain (all-purpose) flour


First, put the orange, whole and unpeeled, in a saucepan of water and boil it for an hour. Pour away the cooking water and let the softened orange cool.
Then preheat the oven to 170 C, and grease a 20cm square tin.
Cut the boiled orange in half and gouge the pips out with a knife (it doesn't matter if you miss a few). Using a blender, VZHVZHVZH the orange halves, sugar and eggs into a pulpy yellow goo.
Separately, melt the butter, chocolate and cocoa together into a sloppy brown goo.
Stir goos together, sift the flour over and fold in.
Pour the mixture into the tin and bake it for about 25 minutes, until it's cooked on top but still squidgy inside.
Serve warm or cooled, with cream or ice-cream.

Shocking

George Bush has appointed anti-contraception, anti-science, abstinence-only freak Eric Keroack to be in charge of family planning funding in the US. Keroack thinks, if "think" is the right word to be using here, that extramarital sex causes brain damage, and uses all kinds of pseudophysiological gobbledegook to give an air of scientific authority to the fundie notion that Woman is like unto a piece of blu-tak that goes gritty and useless if you stick it too many times.

Of course, Bush appoints unqualified people to important jobs for religious or personal reasons all the time. That's not the shocking bit. The shocking bit is that it is apparently possible for Dr Keroack to get a responsible, grown-up job despite writing Powerpoint presentations like this one (pdf).

Note, please, that he wrote that with help from two other people.

I'm ill in bed

so have taken the opportunity to upgrade the blog and add categories (and now, hopefully, links to them). The current classification might be somewhat snot-addled, but it's better than nowt.

Did you know that the mice in Bagpuss sing We will mend it to the tune of Sumer is icumen in, a 13th century song about farting goats? I only noticed yesterday, despite having known one song for several years and the other longer than I can remember.
Edited for clarity

Spurred by comments at YoungFemaleScientist

Not What I Should Have Been Writing

I saw a chap very self-consciously carrying a bag today, so this popped into my head. To the tune of "My Guy".

Nothing you could say could make me throw away my manbag!
Nothing you could shout could make me go without my manbag!
I'm clinging to my bag everywhere, every minute
but the things that are in it are not effem-in-ate
So there's no need to posit
That I'm in the closet with my bag.

No girly stuff is ever good enough for my bag
No brush or comb will ever find a home in in my bag
It's all full up with macho thingies,
Like chainsaws, nails and rubber dinghies
So I'm never scared
Of being ill-prepared with my bag.

I'm equipped for any incident, I'm up to the task
I've got a rope ladder and a chemical mask
A thermos flask, some paraffin
Three pit bulls and a bottle of gin!

I've a signal flare and another spare in my bag
I've a parachute and some hobnailed boots in my bag
The fabric may be under stress,
But I might one day need formal dress
So there's a white bow tie
Beneath the big pork pie in my bag.

No manicure set has got a chance to get in my bag
There's a false moustache and a wad of cash in my bag
No handkerchief to blow my nose
because a real man don't need one of those
There's not a danger zone
I couldn't face alone with my bag.

There's not a twist of fate
I don't anticipate with my bag.
No matter what you say,
you'll never take away my manbag.