Memes are my level of ability to focus right now:

( Dear Santa: Naughty or Nice? )

( Hello, Hat! Sort me? What do you mean you don't know? )

Wow, that one was a surprise....

( And the year in review: 2005 )

Beyond these, not much new to report. My sleep problems are such that I am debating drugs. I have benedryl lying about somewhere, and that always knocks me out. Oh, for those of you not following my every trial and tribulation, last week was all about the waking up obscenely early before work and not being able to sleep until just when my alarm went off. Over the weekend and on through last night, it's been not being able to sleep deeply at all. I haven't really changed my routine much--on weekend nights, I went to bed much the same time as weeknights, drank same amounts of caffeine, etc--because I'm trying to change small things and see how it affects me.

I wore different pajamas to bed and used my sleep mask, but I didn't really fall into deep and snuggly sleep until I burrowed a bit under my knit blanket, so I think I will try switching my comforter in and my quilt out and getting the longer blanket on my bed. And less caffeine couldn't hurt...

Things that are of great comfort to me:

The first two are related. The third is not.

1) I love the Science Times for how it uncompromisingly presents science with evolution. And there's this fly-guy who just captures so much of how awkward the other side is, it pleases me greatly. Oh, the experiment he did to artificially evolve flies to have longer life spans is dead fascinating, don't get me wrong, but his remarks on Dubya are priceless, and worth sharing here for any too lazy to read the article entirely:

Recently, I was watching President Bush speak on the potential bird flu epidemic. Pandemic bird flu is exactly a question of evolutionary biology because grave danger will come only if the virus evolves into a form that can spread from human to human.

Of course, Bush couldn't use the word evolution. There were a few key points where I was waiting for him to use the word. Nope! The virus would "develop" the ability to move from human to human. He couldn't use the word evolve because that's a dangerous word.

::purrs:: When the ID-minded have to finagle and finesse language in the face of practical crises, light shines through the holes in their 'argument'.

2) Intelligent Design Might Be Meeting Its Maker Aside from the snazzy title, this cheered me like nothing else. It seems that not even religious or religion-affiliated institutions of higher learning are finding ID competitive with evolution. Some sparkling gems from this article:

The Templeton Foundation, a major supporter of projects seeking to reconcile science and religion, says that after providing a few grants for conferences and courses to debate intelligent design, they asked proponents to submit proposals for actual research.

"They never came in," said Charles L. Harper Jr., senior vice president at the Templeton Foundation, who said that while he was skeptical from the beginning, other foundation officials were initially intrigued and later grew disillusioned.

aaaaand thennnnnnn

Derek Davis, director of the J. M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies at Baylor, said: "I teach at the largest Baptist university in the world. I'm a religious person. And my basic perspective is intelligent design doesn't belong in science class."

Mr. Davis noted that the advocates of intelligent design claim they are not talking about God or religion. "But they are, and everybody knows they are," Mr. Davis said. "I just think we ought to quit playing games. It's a religious worldview that's being advanced."

But wait! There's a shot from the lone gunman at the OK Corral, John G. West, senior fellow at the Discovery Institute (aka ID Crackpot central):

...the skepticism and outright antagonism are evidence that the scientific "fundamentalists" are threatened by its arguments.

"This is natural anytime you have a new controversial idea," Mr. West said. "The first stage is people ignore you. Then, when they can't ignore you, comes the hysteria. Then the idea that was so radical becomes accepted. I'd say we're in the hysteria phase."

Oh no! Evolution is doomed! ID is a RADICAL NEW IDEA that's gonna shake up evolution-town like Elvis or the Beatles shook up the 50s and 60s! Blah blah blah, skip ahead to the blockbuster ending:

The 'Institute' thinks that the Dover, PA trial doesn't matter because 'it "politicized" what should be a scientific issue.
(never mind that Major General Stupid up there is a political and not real scientist by trade)

Aaaaaaand the final nail in the coffin:

"The future of intelligent design, as far as I'm concerned, has very little to do with the outcome of the Dover case," Mr. West said. "The future of intelligent design is tied up with academic endeavors. It rises or falls on the science."

Ahhhhhhhhh. Couldn't have said it better myself, sir.


oh, and #3 thing that makes me happy today? I have Sky High waiting for me at home. I did really want to see that in theaters. Should be loads of fun

Firefly recs

Inspired by alizzy's find, I'd like to pass on some other recs for Firefly/Serenity fanfics that I've found (most are off of ff_fanfic, and you could find them there, but I am saving you the trouble of going through the archive; plus, hey, quick access to my favorite stuff for me--score!). Obviously, they're going to reflect my character preferences, so yeah, expect that; some are repeated, too, but now they're all in one place!


pre-, during, post-Firefly/pre-Serenity, AU stories:
Aphelion by Layton Colt - Simon and Mal being tortured by the blue-handed d00ds. I like this writer's style, sue me.

A Quiet Game by runaway scrape - Wash and Simon playing chess--not as boring at it sounds, plus, I adore Wash in this.

Embracing a Life of Crime by Macha - Wash is enlisted to help Zoe break Mal out of jail. The moustache's days are numbered... (really brilliant Wash characterization, and perfect 'getting' of his character and Zoe's, apart and together)

Mythologies by deepredbelle - She knows what she did :); poetic reconstituted memories, changing in the telling, and I do a woeful job recounting, so just go read


Serenity and aftermath stories:( May contain spoilers in the short summaries for the fics, so be warned! )