jlynch
Posts by this author
I don't have time to comment at the moment (perhaps over the weekend), but this looks interesting:
The big dinosaur extinction of 65 million years ago didn't produce a flurry of new species in the ancestry of modern mammals after all, says a huge study that challenges a long-standing theory.…
Births
1793 - Henry Schoolcraft, American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist
1892 - Corneille Heymans, Belgian physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate
1914 - Kenneth Richard Norris, Australian entomologist
1928 - Alexander Grothendieck, German mathematician
1930 - Jerome Isaac Friedman, American…
Somewhat predictably, Dembski has posted this comment by Freeman Dyson:
My opinion is that most people believe in intelligent design as a reasonable explanation of the universe, and this belief is entirely compatible with science. So it is unwise for scientists to make a big fight against the idea…
Events
1969 - Mariner 7 is launched.
Births
1712 - Claude Bourgelat, French veterinary surgeon
1817 - Karl Wilhelm von Nägeli, Swiss biologist
1845 - Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1847 - Otto Wallach, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1847 - Otto…
Events
1958 - The United States Army launches Explorer III.
Births
1516 - Conrad Gessner, Swiss naturalist
1698 - Václav Prokop Diviš, Czech theologian and natural scientist
1859 - Adolf Hurwitz, German mathematician
1875 - Max Abraham, German physicist
1905 - Viktor Frankl, Austrian…
The Guardian is reporting that the Orang Utan "could be virtually extinct within five years after it was discovered that the animal's rainforest habitat is being destroyed even more rapidly than had been predicted."
The UN's environment programme report, 'The Last Stand of the Orang Utan: State of…
Events
1655 - Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christian Huygens.
1979 - The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch.
1992 - Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returns to Earth after a 10-…
Dembski seems to think Darwin was a racist when it came to the "careless, squalid, unaspiring" Irish. Pat Hayes points out Dembski's selective quotation of Darwin and John Wilkins applies the coup de grace. I hope these aren't the "research" methods that Dembski is teaching to his students at his…
Not surprising that this was released on Friday, Usual modus operandi for the administration.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales approved plans to fire several U.S. attorneys in an hourlong meeting last fall, according to documents released Friday that indicate he was more involved in the…
So what are these?
Events
1882 - Robert Koch announces the discovery of the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis (mycobacterium tuberculosis; seen above
in culture).
1965 - Ranger 9, equipped to convert its signals into a form suitable for showing on domestic television, brings images of the…
March 23rd
Births
1638 - Frederik Ruysch, Dutch physician and anatomist
1749 - Pierre Simon de Laplace, French mathematician and astronomer
1754 - Baron Jurij Vega, Slovenian mathematician, physicist, and artillery officer
1769 - William Smith, English cartographer (see above) and "Father of…
Nearly ten years ago I started a book on Creationist misuse of intellectual history. I never finished it, which is probably for the best. The file is unfortunately MIA and all I have remaining was a section that I turned into a talk that I gave at ASU in 1999. Over the next few days, I’ll be…
Events
1960 - Arthur Leonard Schawlow & Charles Townes receive the first patent for a laser.
1997 - The comet Hale-Bopp has its closest approach to Earth.
Births
1868 - Robert Millikan, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1931 - Burton Richter, American physicist, Nobel laureate
Deaths…
Following on from earlier postings (here, here and here) what follows is the fourth and final part of the talk. Enjoy!
Creation History?
To emphasize my assertion of the danger of Creationism to nonscientific areas, it is worth noting that Creationist scholarship outside the sciences is equally as…
March 21st
Births
1768 - Joseph Fourier, French mathematician
1932 - Walter Gilbert, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1656 - James Ussher, Irish Anglican archbishop who claimed the universe was created in 4004 BCE
1762 - Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, French astronomer
1795 - Giovanni…
This evening I watched probably one of the coolest live webcasts I've ever witnessed - the second test launch of SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket. Unfortunately, after stage separation, things went a little awry:
To recap, the Falcon 1 rocket blasted off at 0110 GMT (9:10 p.m. EDT) tonight on a…
Mike hits one out of the park:
It took me a while to realize that the 'professional creationists' were not intellectually honest either. I am not referring to those who follow them, or those who are simply not very [knowledgeable] about evolution. .... Everyone can be misinformed, ignorant, or…
Iraq - 3/20/2003 to 3/20/2007
3218 US soldiers dead and 23,417 US soldiers wounded (source)
123 UK soldiers killed (source)
116 journalists killed (source)
~60,000 civilians killed (source)
Number of Al-Quaeda operatives responsible for 9/11 caught in Iraq: ?
Following on from parts one and two, here is the penultimate portion of the talk.
The Binaries of Creationism and The Long War
To many Creationists, Darwin "merely revived ancient paganism, clothed in apparently sophisticated modern apparel, but underneath there was still the same old pantheistic…
The third-seeded Lady Sun Devils worked past a terrible start, and rallied from a 14-point deficit in the final 11 minutes to beat Louisville 67-58 on Monday night to reach the Sweet Sixteen for the second time in three years. Which is more than the men have been able to do.
March 20th
Events
1916 - Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity.
1987 - The Food and Drug Administration approves anti-AIDS drug AZT.
Births
1735 - Torbern Bergman, Swedish chemist
1879 - Maud Menten, Canadian biochemist
1895 - Fredric Wertham, German-born psychologist
1904 -…
Following on from yesterday's section, Here's the second installment.
Creationism, Cultural Politics and Clashing Ideologies.
If this were solely an issue of scientific observations or the veracity of hypotheses, it is doubtful that the Creation/Evolution debate would inflame such passions. While…
March 19th
Events
1915 - Pluto is photographed for the first time but was not recognized as a planet
Births
1684 - Jean Astruc, French physician and scholar
1865 - William Morton Wheeler, American entomologist, myrmecologist, pioneer in ethology
1883 - Walter Haworth, British chemist, Nobel Prize…
Over at the Discovery Institute's Media Complaints Division, Casey Luskin makes much of a piece by Peter Williams decrying the use by paleontologist Richard Fortey of the phrase "IDiots". Williams exclaims:
"While Darwinists provided their own name, this childishly rude title does not allow the…
I don't really get cricket. Growing up in Ireland, it was always seen as a British game and the Irish national squad was a bit of a joke. Barring a 1969 win over perennial powerhouse, the West Indies, nothing of note every really happened. Things are now, however, apparently getting interesting. In…
March 18th
Events
1906 - Traian Vuia flew a self-propelled heavier-than-air aircraft which took off without any external means
1909 - Einar Dessau uses a short-wave radio transmitter becoming the first radio broadcaster.
1965 - Aleksei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes,…
Nearly ten years ago I started a book on Creationist misuse of intellectual history. I never finished it, which is probably for the best. The file is unfortunately MIA and all I have remaining was a section that I turned into a talk that I gave at ASU in 1999. Over the next few days, I'll be…