I’m still working on restoring the blog after the shift to the new host, so bear with me. (Sorry for the blitz tonight.) Some of the old archives will be back up soon, hopefully before it’s 2008.

Anyway, two bits of news:

1. Blogroll is back up. Woo. Some new additions. It’s mostly “stuff in my Google Reader right now.”
2. I was thinking that, if I do start updating with more regularity (one of my New Year’s resolutions), I might start to talk about other things than inane politics, science, and feminism. Maybe I’ll talk about my writing. Maybe I’ll talk about media. Stay tuned!

Here’s a good rundown of the Mitchell Report and what it means. Roger Clemens is the big loser here, being the biggest name named. Andy Pettite is the biggest disappointment to me, assuming the allegations are true.

I wonder what it really means, though: will Baseball be better about policing its players when it comes to performance enhancing drugs? Should we be more vehement in our public outcry, to discourage boys from causing harm to themselves by using steroids? Will Baseball lose credibility in the wake of this scandal? Guess we’ll find out next season.

Eliot Spitzer’s approval ratings are way down, and this might be why: East Village Idiot presents the official guide to who’s getting screwed by the fare hike. The bottom line is that the only people not affected by the fare hike are tourists — the only people who pay for the occasional $2 ride. Even I, who commute to work by foot and only ride the subway occasionally now, am getting screwed because I buy the $2 rides in bulk, and the 20% discount, wherein you get an extra ride for every 5 you purchase, is being reduced.

Humans are evolving rapidly. Environmental change and population growth are mostly responsible for spurring on human change.

I’m kind of getting all of my blogging done in a big blob. Here’s a Gawker post from Monday about layoffs at the Chicago Reader that makes one point that I think is pretty important: newspapers and magazines across the land are laying off news teams in favor of doing more human-interest, feature-y stories, but the majority of readers still go to newspapers for, you know, hard news. So, file this under, “The media is totally fucked.”

Barbara Ehrenreich has an article in the Nation about the Disney Princesses. She argues that these Princesses serve the dual purpose of being “a sorry bunch of wusses” as role models AND they sexualize girls at a young age, since the girls emulate the busty airheads that most of the princesses are. Mulan is the obvious exception, but Mulan, as Ehrenreich points out, “like the other Princess of color, Pocahontas–she lacks full Princess status and does not warrant a line of tiaras and gowns.”

I essentially agree, although I’ll beg to differ about Belle, my personal favorite Disney heroine, who is less busty and, you know, reads books and goes after what she wants. Or else I’m projecting.

Quick links:

1. I love vintage advertising, but this is one of those things that makes me glad it’s not the 50s anymore: outrageously sexist advertising from yesteryear.

2. Tweety, Donald, Daisy, and Mickey Mouse have been called as witnesses in a for real court case in Italy. When asked for comment, Donald’s whole head turned red, and he hopped on one foot and waved his fist while making unintelligable sounds.

3. Harry Potter Daniel Randcliffe and his “other wand” are coming to Broadway.

4. Speaking of Broadway, sixty years ago Monday marked the very first time Marlon Brando shouted STELLA!!.

[Archives will be back up soon. In the meantime, some new content!]

Apparently “remaining neutral” means “you will do what we tell you to do.” Thus an educator in Texas is out of a job for allegedly not remaining neutral vis-a-vis sending an email about a lecture on evolution. Apparently, some board of ed members are getting itchy about evolution. Why teach science when you can teach a fake controversy, eh? Especially given that the state standard is:

“The student knows the theory of biological evolution,” the standards read, and is expected to “identify evidence of change in species using fossils, DNA sequences, anatomical similarities, physiological similarities and embryology,” as well as to “illustrate the results of natural selection in speciation, diversity, phylogeny, adaptation, behavior and extinction.”

Is there anything about creationism in the standard? Nope, but the standards are up for review, so it’s time to keep pace with the Great Leap Backwards, wherein we revisit science curricula from 1837.

The fired educator kind of says it best, thought:

“I don’t see how I took a position by F.Y.I.-ing on a lecture like I F.Y.I. on global warming or stem-cell research,” Ms. Comer said. “I send around all kinds of stuff, and I’m not accused of endorsing it.” But she said that as a career science educator, “I’m for good science,” and that when it came to teaching evolution, “I don’t think it’s any stretch of the imagination where I stand.”

Sing it with me: evolution = science. ID/creationism = not science. Got it? Got it. I hope this woman fights like hell.