In another sign that the housing bubble is near an end, Tom Barrack is selling off his U.S. real estate holdings.

Via Wiley Wiggins’ blog, here’s a Belgian anti-war PSA in which the Smurf village gets bombed. Historical Comments Einzige (2006-12-09): They had it coming.

Dispatches from the Culture Wars points out a video available from Google’s experimental video search, that features Kirk Cameron of “Growing Pains” arguing against atheism and evolution. The most entertaining argument in the video is the argument that the banana was clearly intelligently designed. Troy Britain quotes a more extensive list of banana features (several of which are used in this video): The banana—the atheist’s nightmare. Note that the banana: 1. Is shaped for human hand ...

In the Dover trial, Behe was questioned at some length about what was demonstrated in the paper he co-authored with David Snoke, “Simulating Evolution by Gene Duplication of Protein Feature that Requires Multiple Amino Acid Residues,” which the Discovery Institute lists as a peer-reviewed journal article supporting intelligent design. At the Dispatches from the Culture Wars blog, Ed Brayton quotes a long section from Behe’s cross-examination about this paper about what it actually demonstrates. It has been represented as demonstrating that a particular kind of irreducibly complex system cannot evolve. What it actually shows is something rather different. As Ed puts it: Yet what does he admit under oath that his own study actually says? It says that IF you assume a population of bacteria on the entire earth that is 7 orders of magnitude less than the number of bacteria in a single ton of soil…and IF you assume that it undergoes only point mutations…and IF you rule out recombination, transposition, insertion/deletion, frame shift mutations and all of the other documented sources of mutation and genetic variation…and IF you assume that none of the intermediate steps would serve any function that might help them be preserved…THEN it would take 20,000 years (or 1/195,000th of the time bacteria have been on the earth) for a new complex trait requiring multiple interacting mutations - the very definition of an irreducibly complex system according to Behe - to develop and be fixed in a population. In other words, even under the most absurd and other-worldly assumptions to make it as hard as possible, even while ruling out the most powerful sources of genetic variation, an irreducibly complex new trait requiring multiple unselected mutations can evolve within 20,000 years. And if you use more realistic population figures, in considerably less time than that. It sounds to me like this is a heck of an argument against irreducible complexity, not for it.The full exchange quoted at Dispatches is worth reading, and more commentary can be found at The Panda’s Thumb, where John Timmer points out that Based on the math presented there [in Behe & Snoke], it appears that this sort of mutation combination could arise about 10^14 times a year, or something like 100 trillion times a year.

Speaking of old science fiction movies, there’s a cool toy available from the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog, if you have a spare $50K. Historical Comments Einzige (2006-12-09): Why not save up and get two so that you can wear one as a costume at Halloween?

American Express has filed a lawsuit against Savvis CEO Robert A. McCormick for his failure to pay a $241,000 credit card bill full of charges from the strip club Scores in October 2003, where he was present with “at least three other men." I remember hearing stories of similar activity by sales executives at Genuity before the dot-com bust (no pun intended). Savvis’ deputy general counsel says that he disputed the charges with AmEx and that they believe he was the victim of fraud by Scores. This is apparently the third such lawsuit from AmEx involving disputed Scores bills (the other two were for $28,000 and $129,000). Scores spokesman Lonnie Hanover says that high rollers who visit the “super elite President’s Club” at Scores often spend thousands of dollars on single bottles of champagne and give strippers tips as large as $10,000. Sounds like a clip joint to me.

I just had to weigh in on the Maggie Gallagher post at Volokh. She’s a wacko. Lippard (2006-12-09): It appears that she needs to read Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice To All Creation.

A Nigerian actor/musician/comedian has made a song and music video about 419 scams. The chorus is “Oyinbo man, I go chop your dollar, I take your money and disappear, 419 is just a game, you are the loser, I am the winner." As this site complains (along with the next link), the video does nothing to raise confidence in Nigeria. The song is popular in Cameroon, and is apparently based on a tract authored by Nkem Owoh. UPDATE (December 10, 2009): Nkem Owoh was recently kidnapped while driving down the highway in eastern Nigeria, and the original ransom was 15 million naira ($99,000), but allegedly reduced to 1.4 million naira and his car. (Source: “Go for the locals," The Economist, November 28-December 4, 2009, p. 56.) ...

This exchange occurred during Behe’s cross examination: Q But you actually were a critical reviewer of Pandas, correct; that’s what it says in the acknowledgments page of the book? A that’s what it lists there, but that does not mean that I critically reviewed the whole book and commented on it in detail, yes. Q What did you review and comment on, Professor Behe? A I reviewed the literature concerning blood clotting, and worked with the editor on the section that became the blood clotting system. So I was principally responsible for that section. ...

Watch as a pink dot moves around a circle of pink dots, then becomes a green dot and the other pink dots disappear… Historical Comments Einzige (2006-12-09): Oh yeah, there's an intelligent designer, all right!