I've been away from this blog, and blogging in general, for a while with grant deadlines and end of semester issues for the past some weeks, but am beginning to catch up again as the holiday break is about to begin. This place looks much nicer since the last time I wrote here - thank you Martin for really sprucing up the joint! I look forward to exploring the new features, and to contributing a bit more often. For now, while taking a break from grading (or is it marking for folks in the UK?) exams and term papers, I want to share something I played a small part in the making of, something you might find useful if you encounter creationism much in your daily lives.

A debate between creationist Ray Comfort and YouTube personality thunderf00t. Comfort comes across a bit clueless at times, but I really like this conversational style of debate - it works much better on video than traditional moderated debates with an audience.

After extensive research, and contact with numerous insiders on both sides of The Atlantic, I can reveal exclusively on layscience.net the real reason that the film Creation failed to secure U.S. distribution. Jeremy Thomas, the film's producer whined that:

"The film has no distributor in America. It has got a deal everywhere else in the world but in the US, and it's because of what the film is about. People have been saying this is the best film they've seen all year, yet nobody in the US has picked it up."

The Natural History Unit, and Sir David Attenborough in particular have a reputation for producing world class programs about life on Earth. Today, with "Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor: The Link", about the Darwinius masillae fossil nicknamed "Ida" they let themselves down spectacularly.