The future is here

“Graphic equalizer T-shirts” respond to music in the environment of the wearer. The T-shirts have a flexible “picture” of a colour organ. Usually each column represents a different frequency range and segments light up depending on the intensity of sound at that frequency.

ERV: DI Fellows EXPELLED for plagiarism

S. A. Smith at Endogenous Retrovirus notes that the Discovery Institute hijacked a science video from Harvard University and re-dubbed it to support a creationist point of view:

This isn’t a case of naive copyright infringement on Dembski’s part, i.e. “Hey! I found this cool video on YouTube, let’s use it!” Though Dembski is pictured here, others have reported multiple DI ‘fellows’ presenting this manipulated animation. The Discovery Institute does not have a license to use this animation, so they downloaded it illegally.Maybe they think it is ‘okay’ to use it anyway, because they stripped off Harvard/XVIVOs copyright and credits.

Maybe they think it is ‘okay’ because they gave the animation a new title (’Inner life of a cell’ became ‘The cell as an automated city’) and an extraordinarily unprofessional new narration (alternate alternate title—’Big Gay Al takes a tour of a cell!’). Harvard/XVIVOs narration, all of the science, is whisked away and replaced with a ’surrealistic lilliputian realm’- ‘robots’, ‘manufacturing’, ‘circuitry’, ‘nano motors’, ‘UPS labels’. Maybe they think it is ‘okay’ because they turned all of Harvard’s science into ‘MAGIC!’
Hmm. From my point of view, as a virologist and former teaching assistant, this isnt just copyright infringement. This is theft and plagiarism.

I hope that Harvard and XVIVO are not going to stand for the misuse of their work. It brings a new meaning to “teach the controversy.” Even if all the Disco Inst. can do is PR, they could at least create their own videos.

Tyson and Behe on Point of Inquiry

From the Point of Inquiry Web site, you can download MP3-format audio files of both these interviews and others.

• D. J. Grothe interviews Neil deGrasse Tyson, a respected Natural History Museum scientist and author, on Point of Inquiry.
• D. J. Grothe interviews Michael Behe, a Discovery Institute scientist and author, on Point of Inquiry.