Category Archives: General Science

Chupacabra!

They’ve found one.

Well, not really. It’s a hairless raccoon. As she notes, dogs don’t eat with their hands. And the guy who thinks that coons don’t growl apparently doesn’t have much experience with them. We saw one on the island in Fort Lauderdale a few years ago, at night, with a big crowd of viewers of the holiday boat parade. It was a spooky-looking creature.

Cosmos

Chad Orzell has some problems with the reboot. So do I and while it’s not his main concern, he puts his finger on it:

The bit where he called out young-Earth creationism for the impoverished scale of its vision was cute, too, though I’m not sure it was all that necessary or useful (in that the people who believe that won’t be watching, and wouldn’t be convinced), but then the show has clearly established a pattern of throwing red meat to the anti-religious from time to time.

Yes, if by “from time to time” he means every episode so far. I’m not traditionally religious, but I find it gratuitous and off putting. The writers and Tyson seem to get some sort of righteous satisfaction from putting a rhetorical thumb in the eyes of believers. It does not advance science, or their own secular religious cause.