Friday, March 09, 2007

Postscript to "Silly science Saturday"

As a follow-up to my earlier post about the Fair Education Foundation and its argument concerning the "Kabbalistic" foundations of evolution, I strongly recommend this entry from Niles Eldredge's blog, in which Dr. Eldredge imagines a very amusing correspondence between himself and Darwin on this subject.

Update: While we're on the subject of state legislators meddling in scientific matters, there's this news from New Mexico. (Not for nothing do they call it the "Land of Enchantment".)

And yet more: Bad Astronomy gets their dig in at FEF's anti-Copernican campaign.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Does the spring training record matter?

The conventional wisdom seems to be, "Not much." But, here I am, just shy of a week into the Grapefruit League season, pondering the Mets' 2-4 record so far like a shaman inspecting a sheep's entrails. The team's official site puts on a brave face, duly noting "Perez solid in Mets' loss to Indians" (young Oliver having been shaky in the opener against Detroit).

In the comfort department, both wins so far have come at the expense of the defending MLB champs.

Update: Twiffer, with typical acuity, comments:

[I] think of spring training as a sound check. [I]f the band doesn't play brilliantly in the sound check, doesn't mean one will get a bad concert.

True enough; nevertheless, I reply: If, in the sound check, the band seems on the verge of replicating Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music, there's a much better than even chance that you're in for a very unpleasant time.

Anyway, the Mets improved their record to 3-4 by thrashing the Astros 7-2 this (March 6) afternoon, with Glavine pitching three scoreless innings. Five other pitchers, including Wagner, combined for six innings with no runs allowed, and the only two given up were by Adkins in the eighth. The Mets got ten hits, with the only homer coming in the ninth, by Gomez pinch-hitting for LoDuca.