Recursivity

Check out this letter in our local paper, the Waterloo Region Record.

It's got all the usual stupidities: "scientists have not been able to find even one provable fact to back up the theory of “goo-to-you” evolution" -- as if the letter writer spends all his spare time reading the evolutionary biology literature.

"Yes, we have evolution within kinds, as God programmed." -- the usual creationist invention of terms -- "kinds" - that no actual biologist uses. I suppose we can be grateful he didn't say "baramin".

"There were probably two dogs on Noah’s Ark" -- as if Noah's ark were an actual historical event.

"there is any evidence to show that any of them changed into a cat or a small horse or any other animal" -- as if dogs changing into cats or horses is a prediction of evolution.

"My definition of the word “theory” is “imagination.”" -- Well, he'd better get a better dictionary!

And this guy is a financial planner at a local "wealth management" company!

Back in 2003, I sent this guy a list of examples of speciation, but here he is again, 8 years later, repeating the same falsehoods.

Thankfully our residents with connected brain cells have already responded to this nonsense here and here.

Spotted on Queen Street in Kitchener, Ontario:

I like the unintentional coinage very much.

Homeoapathy: The selling of quack medical remedies while being unconcerned about their lack of effectiveness.

The CTV show Dan for Mayor is filmed in Kitchener, Ontario, where I normally live. (This year I'm on sabbatical at MIT.)

I don't find the show particularly funny, but I have a soft spot for it, because last fall they filmed on our street. In Season 1, Episode 2, you can see the interior of our house. If you're in Canada, you can watch it on the CTV web site, but elsewhere you can buy it from the Itunes store or brave Megavideo. Our house appears about the 9 minute mark. Here's a screenshot:



Oddly enough, where we're temporarily living, in Newton, MA, another TV show was filmed just around the corner: a pilot for a CBS show called "Quinn-tuplets".

Oh, yeah, I forgot to say - that's Carl Zehr, mayor of Kitchener, in the pic above. Too bad we weren't there.

For many years I have boycotted the local United Way because of their unwillingness to fund Planned Parenthood. My attempts to address the issue with the leaders of United Way KW were always met with evasion, and in some cases, misleading accounts of the reasons for their refusal. The real reason, of course, was that at Planned Parenthood one could learn about abortion as an option for an unwanted pregnancy (although the local Planned Parenthood does not actually do abortions). At the same time, the local United Way was happy to fund Birthright, an organization which refuses to refer women for abortions if that is their choice.

Now, I'm happy to say, the local United Way has seemingly seen the light. They gave a grant of $8,000 to PP for their "Women's Wellness" educational day and for a pilot project concerning Sudanese and Afghan women. Strangely enough, though, the United Way's list of funded agencies doesn't include Planned Parenthood. Maybe the local United Way still isn't willing to be forthright about their decisions.

I'm going to continue to boycott United Way until they fund Planned Parenthood and proudly say so on their website.

The downtown core of the small city where I live (Kitchener, Ontario) has seen many businesses fold in recent years. The city has attempted to revitalize the core in various ways, with mixed success.

Now Waterloo regional police have fined two mainstays of the core, Casablanca Books and the K-W Book Store, both on King Street. These are excellent used bookstores just 5 minutes away from where I live. And their "crime"? Opening for business on Monday, February 18, the new provincial holiday called "Family Day". Luckily, the police later dropped the charges, because the law has an exception for small bookstores.

If store owners want to open on a holiday, that's their business, and the government shouldn't meddle with it. This kind of nonsense is going to further drive businesses out of the core.