Within an hour, if all goes well, the domain http://www.leavethelightson.info/ should point to the brand-new site. The Blogger posts will remain at http://ginkgo100.blogspot.com. If there is a particular post you would like to see transferred to the new site, please let me know! Some of the best posts have already been moved over.

The RSS feed may do strange things until the transfer is complete. Please have patience with the technical issues. And if you are using a feed reader or e-mail subscription, make sure you click through and check out the new site! Contact me if you would like to contribute as a writer. Also please let me know about bugs, suggestions, problems, etc. Thank you to my wonderful readers!

I just started a Twitter account for this site, LTLOtweets. Unfortunately, the username "leavethelightson" was one character too long. I'll use this account for updates on new posts and site news. Also, my personal Twitter account is ginkgo100.

I'm mulling over a move from Blogger to my own site. I know what content-management system I'll use (and it's not Wordpress), have hosting already, and really just have to bite the bullet and start setting it up. I'd like to make this a science-and-faith site, not just a science-and-faith blog. The new site will probably have separate feeds for different topics (like science, Catholicism, health), a combined feed if you want all the posts in one place, and ... a forum! I might be looking for new writers or guest posters, too. I am open to feedback about what changes you might like to see here.

This Sunday is Pentecost, the day the terrified and confused apostles were sent out from the second-floor room where they hid after Christ ascended into heaven. The Bible records that the Holy Spirit provided "tongues of fire" that let them be understood to speakers of all languages. Kind of makes Pentecostal "speaking in tongues" (untranslatable tongues, that is) pale by comparison. Wear red to church!

Father Alberto Cutie is not cute. After being caught fooling around with a woman on a public beach, he was put on leave by Archbishop of Miami John C. Favalora. That was scarcely three weeks ago, and now he has already decided to convert to Episcopalianism so he can "be with the woman he loves." (Also, as he did not say in the statement, so he can break his vows without being chastised.) Presumably, he chose his new faith so he can still be a priest, since as a Catholic, he can be married or be a priest, but not both. What kind of priestly formation did Fr. Cutie go through, that he finds switching faiths as easy as buying a new car or repainting a house? Three weeks?

The acting director of the National Institutes of Health is Dr. Raynard Kington, but some (unfortunately not very current) rumors hint that Dr. Francis Collins is a "top contender" for the permanent spot. Dr. Collins is the former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute and author of The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. H/T to Rebecca Taylor of Mary Meets Dolly.

My "Animals and Catholics" series will continue. Really. It's just been a distracting month, what with National Anxiety and Depression Awareness Week and everything else. Stay tuned.

Tropical depressions are forming in the Gulf of Mexico. Last year, there was a bumper crop of named storms after two lean years, though not as many as in 2005. Let us pray that this year resembles more 2006 and 2007. After all, if another storm hits southeast Texas, this blog will suffer. I had a very hard time posting last year when the power went out!

Kari Byron is pregnant. You don't know who Kari Byron is? Then you lose geek points! She's the red-headed chick on Mythbusters. The growing belly is growing obvious on the show, and she's been sitting out on the bungee jumping and skydiving. I'm just waiting for her to bust the myth that what you crave during pregnancy will tell you whether it's a boy or a girl. (I thought they had a chromosome for that.)

I have started a new blog, my first experiment with Wordpress: Photo Mine. It's a collection of the most interesting, beautiful, and odd — in a word, remarkable — images I find on the web. And they are all free images, so you can reuse them on your own projects. Check it out!

This is not a meme-oriented blog by any means, but Brian Steele, author of the excellent new blog The Secret of Newton, tagged me, so what can I do? I'll follow this with a post with some content.

1. I grew up the oldest of eight kids, all with the same biological parents, no multiples. Unlike most new mothers today, I was comfortable around babies before I ever had kids of my own.

2. Speaking of kids of my own, I have two: a preschooler and a one-year-old. Both are boys. We adopted the older one and the younger one is biological.

3. I have worn many hats, including animal control officer, parrot trainer, and professional aquarium biologist. Now my only hats are mother (and that's a big hat) and writer.

4. I have read several books in the Harry Potter series — in Spanish. It was slow going and required frequent use of a Spanish-English dictionary, but I improved my Spanish immensely.

5. My only pets are three cats, one of whom regularly channels Satan, but in the past I have had a Pueblan milk snake, an Indian Ringneck Parakeet, a Yellow-Collared Macaw, a lovebird, a bunch of parakeets, an anole lizard, a couple of hermit crabs, and assorted freshwater fish.

6. I helped build this at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. I was going to be a vertebrate paleontologist — until I did my senior project and realized that looking at hundreds of tiny teeth through a microscope was not up my alley, after all.

It seems I am now supposed post the rules (rules?) and tag six bloggers. I am uneasy about the tagging. I don't want to pressure anybody, and besides, I am not sure everyone I would tag is a regular reader here. So how about this: If you have a blog, consider yourself tagged, if you would like to be. Let me know if you take me up and I'll link to you.

Tag Rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they were tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

I started this blog about a year ago, thought it took a few months to find my focus on science and faith. These are the top posts for the year, according to Google Analytics, comments I received, and my own highly biased opinion. Thank you to all my readers for making this blog a pleasure to write for!

Catholic faith and philosophy

Why we practice penance (February 6)
Arguments to avoid (June 16)
Top three questions about the Eucharist you never asked (July 24)

Science and health

Depression and anxiety myths (May 7)
The science behind renewable petroleum (June 26)
Bad formula: Problems with infant food (September 25)
Gardasil, poison, and vaccine reactions (November 12)

Ethics and the intersection of science and faith

Feminism pro life (February 15)
ADD/ADHD religion: Prayer for the distractible (May 25)
Scientific American interviews Diana Degette (August 6)
Science and the question of when life begins (August 28)

A lighter note

Online psychics! Fabulous or fraud? (May 16)
Awards for World Youth Day protesters (August 1)
Top five conspiracies... of SCIENCE! (August 4)
A parade of bad nativities (December 23)

The winner of the first Leave the lights on caption contest is:


"So you see, because I'm more important to the ecosystem, that's why the government had to bail ME out."

Congratulations to Rev. Eric Brown! Since he does not use Entrecard, he wins the dubious distinction of displaying this banner wherever he chooses (his blog, his desktop, his toilet seat, etc.*)



*I do apologize to any readers offended, as some are in Britain, by my use of a Latin abbreviation. This is a Catholic blog, and we like Latin here.

We like the occasional Friday contest around here. Today is a caption contest. This cartoon is from the New Yorke, and the caption is cute, but I'm sure my readers can do better than that!

There is a real prize available this time, too! The winner will get 100 Entrecard credits. Or you can have the lovely Leave the lights on contest-winner banner, if you don't use Entrecard. But if you have a blog, you really should look into Entrecard — especially now that you have the opportunity to get started with 100 free credits. (See the widget on the sidebar to find out how it works.) Deadline is next Friday, November 14.

I created a Wordle "word cloud" for Leave the lights on (click to enlarge):



This tells me I write a lot more about science than about the Catholic faith or the intersection of the two. Is that what you like, dear readers? Or would you rather more religiously oriented content? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

My house is in the direct track predicted for at least one computer model of Hurricane Ike. Yikes. We are not evacuating. I will be reporting on the storm on my other blog, Road to Black. You can subscribe to that blog here.

Posts on Leave the lights on take for granted certain things, such as the truth of the Catholic faith and the value of science for investigating nature. As I read other blogs on science, on faith, and on both, I see clearly that my positions are not universal. Indeed, if they were, there would be little use in many of the posts of this blog.

This is the first of a series of position statements for Leave the lights on. This statement is on the theory of evolution.

Evolution

This blog takes the position, controversial among people of faith, that evolution is both a historical fact and the best theoretical model to explain the observations of biology.

When I earned my B.S. in Zoology, I unofficially specialized in paleontology and evolution. Ironically, this interest was born of my faith and a desire to know how to refute evolution. Instead, I learned not only of the overwhelming evidence behind the theory, including predictions that have been shown to be true, but the subtle intricacies that derive from a few simple statements. As a theory, it is truly a thing of beauty.

In particular, I was enthralled with the discovery that evolution is compatible with the Catholic faith. While this is a theme I would like to explore further some day, for now let it suffice to say that I believe that God imbued two individuals, who we call Adam and Eve, with immortal souls, and that they were the ancestors of all human beings. I believe in the Fall, in original sin, and in the special place of humans among (and above) the animals.

Also, I try to eschew the term "Darwinism." "Evolution" or "theory of evolution" suffice just fine. Calling it "Darwinism" suggests there may be an alternate theory of evolution, which I reject. Besides, the modern theory of evolution may have begun with Darwin, but it has been developed quite heavily since then.

Intelligent Design

My position is that Intelligent Design is not science because it does not explain the natural world — rather, it posits that the natural world cannot be fully explained; and because it makes no specific predictions, though compatible "theories" such as genomic front-loading may do so. I think ID gives people of faith a bad name in the science community.

Young-Earth Creationism

In consideration of what has been observed in geology, biology, and other disciplines, young-earth creationism is a noxious theory that makes God out to be a liar, since it requires God to have placed abundant evidence for evolution and an old earth in creation.

I wrote a guest post on DNA computers over at the tech blog Live Crunch. DNA computers aren't computers programmed to interpret DNA. They are computers made of DNA. If that sounds intriguing, head on over for this bulletin style post. For more detail, see an overview, a short history, and an explanation of how it all works.

I've started a new blog for sharing all the useful, nifty, informative, and entertaining miscellany of the web that I feel like sharing. Be sure to stop by Ginkgo100's Picks from the Web some time.

Leave the lights on now has its own domain name, www.leavethelightson.info. The old blogspot address should continue to work, but I have heard that others have had trouble when switching to their own domain name, so you might want to update any links or bookmarks you have.

In other news, I have made some changes to the advertising on this site. I did away with Google Adsense because it was displaying ads I don't agree with — for instance, ads for Law of Attraction nonsense. I switched (both here and on The Road to Black) to PepperjamADS. This program lets me choose by hand every single ad that appears on the site. It takes a little more time, but I think it's important to keep contradictory messages away. If you see any ads you think are objectionable, please leave me a message so I can remove them from the rotation.

I also found several cool new sponsors — check out the banner at the top right corner of the page. Displaying ads makes it possible for me to devote time to producing new content for you. Let me know if you have any comments about the type of advertising you see. After all, the whole point of this blog is to produce content you want to read, and I don't want anything to interfere with that.

You can make sure you never miss a post without even having to visit the site by subscribing for free here. To have all new posts instantly e-mailed to you, enter your e-mail address in the box at the top right corner of the page. Your e-mail is always kept completely private, is never added to any list, and is never shared with anyone. In fact, I don't even have access to it; Feedburner does it all automagically.

I tried being in denial over it, but the fact is unmistakable. Blogger somehow at my blog rolls. All three. So I must rebuild them from scratch, with a little help from Bloglines — and hopefully, from my friends (that's you, dear reader). Know of any nifty blogs on science, faith, or both? (Sf too!) Leave a comment here. And I cordially and openly invite you to nominate your own blog.

It wasn't April 1. But it wasn't July 7, 2007, either.

None of my readers called me out on this post. I thought that story sounded familiar — as if it happened... like... a year ago!

But would I have made that mistake if I had performed a good luck charm first?

Some of you may be new readers from Sci Fi Catholic or Ask Sister Mary Martha. Others may be coming in from Google or somewhere else. I want to say "Welcome!" to all of you.

This blog is written in hopes of helping to shed light (hence the title) on science and the Catholic faith. We discuss serious issues here, but also whimsical ideas and fun things like trivia. Check out the sidebar for some of the series that have shown up as well as for the most popular posts. You can read more about this blog and its author, (Ms.) Ginkgo100, here.

"Leave the lights on" is updated several times each week. If you would like to keep up with future posts, you can subscribe here using your favorite reader, or enter your e-mail address in the top left corner of the page. E-mail addresses, of course, are not stored on this site and are never used for any purpose other than to send you new posts.

Please feel free to leave a comment introducing yourself. You can link to your blog or website so we can get to know you better. Again, welcome, and I am looking forward to getting to know you!

Here is a chance for "Leave the lights on" readers to influence the future of this blog!

If this blog were registered under its own domain name, which one would be best? Give your answer in a poll on the sidebar to the right. (Click through if you are viewing this post in a reader.) If you think there's a better choice that is not yet registered, leave it in a comment to this post.

Thanks for your feedback!

If you sort through this blog's archives, you may notice a pattern in the subject matter: it starts out broad, then gradually narrows to the current focus, science and religion. I think the organic but long process of finding a niche has come to an end. Leave the lights on has found its place.

But there are still a lot of really great posts in the archives — or at least, posts I really like. And there are subjects not directly related to faith or science that I would like to write about from time to time. Meanwhile, I have been toying for a while with an idea for a new blog about my halting efforts to reach personal financial freedom.

So The Road to Black is born. The name comes from the path to having a balance sheet in the black rather than in the red. It is also the new home of all my other writing, from the several series I've written about reality TV to sharing (and seeking) household tips. Many old posts have been moved there. While all links still work and the text is still here, you can now only comment on these old posts on The Road to Black.

Subscribe to both blogs! Or pick the one you would rather read. Feedburner can accomodate you:

• Leave the lights on feed
• The Road to Black feed
  

I have expanded out of Blogger's default templates. Credit for this look belongs to eBlog Templates. Notice the web traffic widget on the right, which shows where recent visitors have come from.

I am taking suggestions for additions to my blog roll. If you know of a great blog about faith, science, media, or ethics, do let me know.

How do you like the new look? Is it easy to read and navigate? Do you like the new appearance of the comments? How about the colors? Leave feedback below!

Coming soon: Continuation of the Right to Health Care series. Don't miss a post in this series -- subscribe using your favorite reader, or sign up to receive new posts by e-mail (above right).




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