jlynch | March 9, 2009Joe Cain and Michael Ruse have edited a volume, Descended from Darwin: Insights into American Evolutionary Studies 1925-1950, that has been published by the American Philosophical Society. Thanks to a grant from the APS, the complete volume is available for free at Cain's website. Some really interesting papers from a bunch of folks I know well. As Cain notes:
This volume began at a conference, held 22â23 October 2004 at the American Philosophical Society Library, Philadelphia. The main focus was on evolutionary studies in America before, during, and after the famous âevolutionary synthesisâ…
jlynch | March 8, 2009
John Coltrane, with Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Jimmy Cobb on drums, performing "On Green Dolphin Street".
jlynch | March 8, 2009The Koolade over at ARN is particularly strong today. Robert Deyes speaks of "biologist Casey Luskin". Seriously. At best, Luskin was a geologist MS in earth sciences before becoming a lawyer. He has one (second-author) paper:
Lisa Tauxe, Casey Luskin, Peter Selkin, Phillip Gans, and Andy Calvert, “Paleomagnetic results from the Snake River Plain: Contribution to the time-averaged field global database,” Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems (G3), 5(8) (August, 2004).
Creationist credentialing once again, I fear.
Equally as problematic is Deyes' claim:
We learn many a lesson from Conan Doyle's…
jlynch | March 7, 2009A few days back I asked my loyal readers for their opinions on the Macbook Pro (thanks to all who commented). In the end, I went with the Macbook and have been spending the afternoon adjusting to things. Everything is going well so far.
The purchase at the local Apple Store went without a hitch (and thankfully without someone selling me stuff I didn't need). However when I got home the machine wouldn't boot. I guessed that it was because of bad RAM (I upgraded) and a trip back to the store proved that to be the case.
Weirdly, the staff at the store kept asking me whether this was my first…
jlynch | March 6, 2009
This makes me want to go see the movie:
Very strong humanist, socialist, antinomian worldview major heroic characters deny God final winner in the battle of superheroes believes that killing people in the interests of peace is a worthwhile endeavor, a belief shared by most major Communist leaders of the 20th Century and the character who believes in good and evil has to be removed permanently for standing in the way of progress, plus very strong anti-Americanism includes mocking Republicans, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, and Pat Buchanan and portraying the American hero as very cruel and…
jlynch | March 6, 2009
This is Toby, a red panda at Houston Zoo. This article lead to this comment:
Don't be fooled. The Red Panda's "cuteness" is simply a reflection of the human tendency to anthropomorphize animals. In reality, the Red Panda is a vicious omnivore, willing to eat (or try to eat) anything it can put into its mouth. Packs of Red Pandas have been know to strip live elk calves to nothing but bone in mere minutes. These predators are primarily nocturnal, and a Red Panda roused from sleep during daylight hours will attack anything that moves, ripping and shredding interlopers with razor-sharp teeth…
jlynch | March 6, 2009It is nice to know that things are working so smoothly over in Oklahoma that Representative Todd Thomsen has the free time to propose a resolution (HR 1015)
opposing the invitation to Richard Dawkins to speak on campus; encouraging the University of Oklahoma to engage in a certain discussion of certain scientific theories; and directing distribution.
Abbie, Josh and PZ all chime in on this piece of irony; Remember HB 320? The bill about academic freedom? Apparently Thomsen does not and feels that OU should represent the views of the majority in OK.
As it turns out, the original version (HR…
jlynch | March 6, 2009This being the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth - and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his masterwork - many folks seem to have the goal of reading Origin for the first time. Generally speaking the first edition of 1859 (or the second of 1860) is taken as the best edition to begin with - in later editions Darwin muddies his ideas in response to critics and it becomes increasingly difficult to clearly delineate what “Darwinism” entails.
David Quammen has produced a very nice edition of Origin that relies on the first edition for its text but supplements it with extracts from The…
jlynch | March 5, 2009Apparently 65% of Britons have lied about reading certain books in an effort to impress others. The top ten books not read but claimed to have been read were:
1984 - George Orwell (42 percent)
War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (31)
Ulysses - James Joyce (25)
The Bible (24)
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (16)
A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking (15)
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie (14)
In Remembrance of Things Past - Marcel Proust (9)
Dreams from My Father - Barack Obama (6)
The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins (6)
Iâm willing to admit to having read Orwell, Joyce (but…
jlynch | March 2, 2009So I set up a Twitter account but donât really know what it is useful for (if anything). Feel free to follow if you want. More importantly, comment here and let me know what Twitter is useful for.
jlynch | March 2, 2009
Last week I reported that AZ Game and Fish had recently captured, collared and released a jaguar for the first time. At that time, folks were speculating whether the specimen was “Macho B,” a male that had been seen in the area a number of times over the past 13 years. This turns out to be the case.
This evening the Arizona Republic is reporting that “Macho B” was found to be immobile in the field today and upon transport to the Phoenix Zoo was diagnosed with “severe and unrecoverable kidney failure.” He was therefore euthanized.
It is now believed that the 16 year old male was the oldest…
jlynch | February 28, 2009
Apparently Alvin Plantinga and Daniel Dennett debated a week ago at a meeting of the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association. An anonymous individual live-blogged it somewhat hyperbolically (“The tension between the titans fills the room”) but the account is worth a read, even if it is clear that the blogger is biased towards Plantinga. Apparently Plantinga attempted to defend Behe and Dennett slapped him around for that.
Short anonymous blogger: Dennett was snarky, nasty and didn’t take Plantinga seriously.
That’s the sort of thing that would get PZ’s blood boiling!…
jlynch | February 27, 2009Iâm a little put out that Turkish anti-evolutionist Harun Yahya has never seen fit to send me a copy of his Atlas of Creation while other folks here at ASU have received one. I thought I was a bigger fish than that! How does Yahya think Iâm going to fairly represent his magnum opus when I lecture on Turkish opposition to evolution? Yeah, I know itâs online in e-copy but thumping a copy down on the desk would surely impress my students as to the weight of evidence supporting Yahyaâs assertions.
In any case, check-out this post on the Harunian omission.
jlynch | February 27, 2009NCSE is reporting that SB 2396 has been proposed in Florida. It will require "thorough presentation and critical analysis of the scientific theory of evolution." The bill is sponsored by Stephen R. Wise (R-District 5). Amazing how many of these bills are being sponsored by Republicans. Youâd think theyâd have more important things to worry about.
Itâs a bit of a strange bill. The preamble calls for the "thorough presentation and critical analysis of the scientific theory of evolution and certain governmental, legal and civic-related principles" while the body calls for teachers to âteach…
jlynch | February 25, 2009
Zooborns asks us to ponder the question: âWhatâs cuter than a fennec fox?â As if there can be any reply. More photos over at Zooborns.
jlynch | February 23, 2009There’s a petition and statement going around regarding HF 183 for Iowa academics to sign. The text reads:
We, the undersigned members of institutions of higher learning in Iowa, urge our legislators to reject passage of "The Evolution Academic Freedom Act" (HF 183) introduced by Rod Roberts (R-Carroll). The language of this bill comes primarily from the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, which has conducted lobbying efforts and political activism against the teaching of evolution since 1994.
Evolution is as established a scientific theory as any other theory in science. It is misleading to…