To the point

Workout notes My last workout as a 47 year old: 1800 swim (3:22 200 segment; yeah, that sucks), 3 mile easy walk.

Social notes: Nice letter on the Iraq war from a National Guardsman in the Peoria Journal Star:

I am a sergeant in the National Guard. I went to Iraq in 2004. It makes me sick to my stomach how the Republican Party and people like Rush “Pain Killer” Limbaugh try to make excuses for the Iraq War.

This country needs to worry about what is going on over here. Look at our jobs that are leaving because of greedy corporations. I am also a union worker, and we are struggling to put food on the table. With gas prices and health care, that is a joke,

I did my job in Iraq and I will do it again real soon, I’m sure. I would like to personally invite all the GOP talk-radio scum to join me on a convoy in the streets of the Middle East and see if they still think George W. Bush is as smart as they claim he is.

I love my country and my brothers and sisters who fight next to me in this oil-driven, money-infested war. You Republicans are blind and don’t have a heart, only a wallet. Your run is over, GOP.

I am sure that we will still have some open convoy seats available for you.

John Feagin

Speaking of the Iraq war, I went to a town hall meeting last night and picked up a yard sign. No, our Congressman (Ray LaHood) didn’t show up. After seeing what happened at another such meeting I can see why!,

as you may know, congresswoman jan schakowsky (il-09) attended a town hall meeting tonight on behalf of americans against the escalation in iraq in northbrook, illinois to report on her august 2007 trip to iraq. what was interesting about this specific town hall meeting was that it was held outside of schakowsky’s district in the neighboring congressional district of mark kirk.

the meeting — reflecting the intense desire of voters in the tenth to talk about the war — was packed. but it seems that not all the fireworks were inside. while about 300 people were inside, about the same number could not enter the hall because of fire department restrictions. congressional candidate jay footlik was outside, accompanied by his campaign manager.

volunteers and supporters of dan seals surrounded footlik and gave him a rousing reception. footlik is trying to move back to illinois having been gone for almost two decades. dan seals, meanwhile, has generated significant grass and netroots support, so it was no surprise that they would surround and shout down footlik.
bored now :: New Footlik chant: Beltway! Beltway!
one seals supporter asked footlik’s manager where footlik voted last year (footlik has maintained his voter registration at his mother’s house in the 9th congressional district since he left home to go to college). but the real fireworks exploded when footlik’s manager tried to argue about it. BELTWAY! BELTWAY! went the chant. BELTWAY! BELTWAY! in response to footlik’s negligible ties to the tenth. BELTWAY! BELTWAY! for another beltway candidate trying to parachute into an illinois district.

Ours was tame by comparison; about 100 or so showed up.

Update Read the comments; someone pointed out that the author of the article I quoted wasn’t actually AT the meeting. I can say that I was at the Peoria meeting and that it was relatively tame.

Why I don’t support the death penalty No, these aren’t death penalty cases, (they are rape cases), but they show just how fallible a jury trial is:

Inmate freed after 23 years of being wrongfully imprisoned.

Inmate freed after being wrongfully imprisoned for seven years.

Inmate freed after being wrongfully imprisoned for 14 years.

Evolution Peppered moth study has been updated and backed up.

Yes, it is really true that moths evolve a design that helps them blend in with their environment.

Every biology textbook on evolution included the example of the black and peppered forms of the moth, Biston betularia. The relative numbers of these two forms were supposed to be affected by predatory birds being able to pick off selectively either the black or peppered variety, depending on whether they rested on polluted or unpolluted trees.

It became the most widely cited example of Darwinian natural selection and how it affected the balance between two competing genes controlling the coloration of an organism. Then the doubts began to emerge.

Critics suggested that the key experiments on the peppered moth in the 1950s were flawed. Some went as far as to suggest the research was fraudulent, with the implication that the school textbooks were feeding children a lie.

Creationists smelt blood. The story of the peppered moth became a story of how Darwinism itself was flawed – with its best known example being based on fiddled data.

Now a Cambridge professor has repeated the key predation experiments with the peppered moth, only this time he has taken into account the criticisms and apparent flaws in the original research conducted 50 years ago. Michael Majerus, a professor of genetics at Cambridge University, has spent the past seven years collecting data from a series of experiments he has carried out in his own rambling back garden. It has involved him getting up each day before dawn and then spending several hours looking out of his study window armed with a telescope and notepad.

He wanted a definitive test of the idea that selective predation by birds really was responsible for the differences in the chances of survival among black and peppered varieties of B. betularia. His garden outside Cambridge is in an unpolluted area so in this setting it should be the typical or peppered variety of the moth that has a better chance of survival than that of the black or carbonaria form; it is unlikely to be seen by birds against the mottled background of the lichen-covered trees.

In a seminal description of his results to a scientific conference this week in Sweden, Professor Majerus gave a resounding vote of confidence in the peppered month story. He found unequivocal evidence that birds were indeed responsible for the lower numbers of the black carbonaria forms of the moth. It was a complete vindication of the peppered month story, he told the meeting.

Oh don’t worry; this won’t convince the creationists. But this should be convincing to those who really don’t follow the issue closely.