Ahhh, Religion.

Yesterday, Morning Edition had a piece on sexual abuse victims making progress in using the Vatican. The duality of the Religion and Nation State of the catholic church has provided cover for the Pontiff and his lackeys, but its seems there may be an opening. Recently, an Oregon federal court and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Ohio said they are open to hearing arguments, based on the exception to the sovereign state immunity, called the "tortious act" exception. If the plaintiffs can show that U.S. bishops are officials of the Vatican, and that they harmed children by failing to report sex abuse, then there is a chance of getting to trial. Seems open and shut to me.

Meanwhile back at the Vatican...Gay people are going to bring the world to an end. Jesus.

NEWTS!

Newts (baby ones I think, man I am a terrible biologist) appeared at our home to this evening. As I was pulling into the garage, I noticed the first one on the downspout, then noticed the second one in the driveway. I am still trying to figure out what type of newt they are (terrible biologist). After snapping a couple of pictures, I herded the one in the driveway into the planter so he wouldn't get run over. Guess with all the rain be have been having, I'll need to be on newt patrol when moving the cars.

*************************************UPDATE*************************************

So, I did some research and I think it our visitors are Arboreal Salamanders (Aneides lugubris). I used this web page for the identification. This picture, along with the range, habitat description led me to my conclusion. If anyone thinks otherwise, I am interested in your opinion!

Foot in baby's brain

This post is graphic, but interesting. Doctors in Colorado removed a developing leg, hand, and intestine from a baby's brain. The news story is here and a big graphic picture here. The good news is the baby seems to be recovering well from the surgery. Although I don't agree with him completely, PZ Meyers had thoughts similar to mine on the matter:

Something struck me when I saw the photograph of this particular surgery. Here it is, a photo of a fetal foot flopping out of a bloody baby's brain (don't click if you're squeamish). As I'm sure you've noticed, anti-choice people love to parade about with gory photos of aborted fetuses, and they love to dwell on little details like a recognizable hand or face. This picture is exactly like those, yet realize this: there was no human being behind those little baby toes. The existence of these fragments of non-sentient tissue endangered the life of a child, and there was no question that they needed to be extracted.

This is also how we should view abortion. It's ugly and messy, and there's something disquietingly resonant of humanity in the pieces of the embryo or fetus, but we shouldn't be fooled. Those are beautifully patterned collections of differentiated cells, but there is no person there.

Now it is unknown if these organs were a growth from the baby that was born born or another fetus developing inside the baby that was born, but it provides interesting grist for really interesting scientific and ethical thought. I would ask PZ, "when is there a 'person' there?" I don't have the answer, but I definitely think it is interesting to think what makes us human (not that I think that makes us as a species 'special', just different). I am confident there will not be a definitive answer in my life time, if ever.

Depoliticize Prayer

Steven Waldman, co-founder of Beliefnet, was on Talk of the Nation yesterday and on Forum today. Both days Waldman suggested that the choice of Warren to deliver the invocation was an attempt to depoliticize prayer (because Obama, a liberal, was reaching out Warren, a conservative) Well, bullshit. There is one way to depoliticize prayer, keep it separate from politics. There should be no invocation at the inauguration. Separate church and state. That said, Warren has said bigoted things about the LGBT community. While I find his comments repugnant, I don't think that should disqualify him out right, I just think it is completely ironic in light of the Reverend Wright kerfuffle (Obama should have him give the invocation). I think this is strictly a political move and a savvy one at that, but time will tell.

Roy Zimmerman

Danny sent this video from Roy Zimmerman, I have seen other stuff from Roy, but I hadn't seen this particular one. If you aren't familiar with Roy Zimmerman, you should check him out. He is pretty funny and has a pleasing left perspective. He has songs gay marriage, evolution and other politcal issues.

Merry Christmas

As I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago, the Bush administration is sprinting to the finish, trying institute their policies in the final days. Stay vigilant, write to your senators and congressional representatives!

Master and Slave

I am constantly impressed with nature's ability to put humans in their place (that is, we are not as special as we think we are). The source of this amazement is frequently ants. Anyone not impressed by ants, just hasn't done enough research. One feature of ant society that is completely fascinating is ant slavery. That's right, ants enslave other ants. The nature of the enslavement varies, but in general it involves either killing the queen and hijacking the nest or kidnapping pupae. In the genus Polyergus, commonly called Legionnaire ants, workers are incapable of carrying out even rudimentary brood care, care for their queen, or even acquiring food. Polyergus species subsist solely as a ruling caste, maintaining a worker force by capturing ants of the closely related species in massive colony-to-colony raids and have evolved to efficiently capture slaves.

Photo Credit: Alex Wild

Photo Credit: Alex Wild

As the stolen brood matures, the captured ants imprint on their captors' colony and perform the usual labor of foraging, brood care, and nest maintenance as they would for their own colonies. Polyergus ants are obligate parasites that cannot survive without the labor of the ants they enslave. Below the red slave-raiding Polyergus species is shown living with black/silvery slave ants, Formica argentea.

Photo Credit: Alex Wild

So, do slaves ever fight back? Commonly, the queen and workers of the raided Formica colony evacuate to nearby vegetation to wait out the raid, but there is documentation of some species trying to fight off raiders. There is also evidence that post-enslavement resistance has also evolved. In studies conducted by Susanne Foitzik of Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, slave nursemaids killed some 80 percent of their captors' young queens and some 60 percent of the young workers. Nature loves an arms race.