They just keep popping up all over the place…is there a tally somewhere? We should calculate how much of Darwin's genome is still floating about in the gene pool. Anyway, this several-times-great granddaughter of Darwin is Emma Darwin, and she writes well and of interesting things.
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Dr. Myers is still awake at these ungodly hours?!?
Years of academic training I think...
The late night posts were written earlier and scheduled to to pop in at these times. It allows different readers around the world to have a fresh topic come up when they are active. For example, there are a lot of readers in Oz.
Yes, we Munchkins and residents of Emerald City need the opportunity to claim "First post" before you guys wake up and hog the post.
And here I thought college students stayed up late. :P
I'll have to check it out in the morning.
Yeah, it's good that sometimes we Antipodeans can get in on a thread before the post tally reaches triple figures and we have to spend hours catching up before we can make an informed comment.
There's a few Northwestern Night Owls around at these times, as well. Heck, it's not even tomorrow, yet.
and we have to spend hours catching up before we can make an informed comment. Speak for yourself. I think informed comment is far inferior to just letting rip with inanity.
Brian English -
Inanity? I think that belongs on the RD.net forums, not a distinguished blog like Pharyngula ;-)
Just past midnight here on the West Coast.
I'm glad the Darwin family seems to be going strong.
There sure are. Though this place is a ghost town when it's evening here so I can't interact as much as I would like.
SPAM ALERT
aooogah! aooogah!
PZ, spam incoming at one o'clock (well, 1.20am to be precise)
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/09/i_am_a_very_naughty_boy.php#…
Fortunatly, todays liberals won't have a plague of descendants.
Don't lool now, but those liberals are aborting their kids at an alarming rate, while conservatives are having larger and larger families.
To all you liberals who eliminated your kids, or have small families, I recommend THE DARWIN AWARD WITH OAK LEAVES AND CLUSTERS!
Actually, Emma has got only 2-3 % of directly-inherited Darwin genome. Well, that's amount to 60 Mbp. Of course a lot of Charles' sequences may have also present through indirect heritance... but of course part of this sequences are also share by any human being or, event, in any living being.
Out of curiosity, why do you wish to emulate roaches so much?
I admit you do a great job -- both intellectually and numerically; however I don't see why you enjoy it so much.
Re: One of Eight Conservative Kids
Abortions aside, conservatives probably tend to have more kids due to their ridiculous war on birth control & sex education. This maximizes their ability to bring the downfall of mankind, both through their disproportional contribution to overpopulation and the multiplication of their numbers who can directly enact their supidity (luckily they've also mastered the art of indoctrination so defecting shouldn't be an issue).
ONe of Eight....
"don't lool now.."
Too many kids around for Mom to teach you to spell properly? Or is looling one of bullshit things like speaking in tongues?
A major factor affecting family sizes is that better-educated people tend to delay childbirth until they are more financially prepared, so as to provide a safer life with more opportunities for their children.
This is nothing for conservatives to be proud of.
Isn't it a sign of true acheivement when, well after your death, your ideas touch many more people than your genes do? Darwin's ratio of "idea carriers" over "gene carriers" must be very high...
Having said that, I actually did get curious, and will probably pick up a book of Emma's soon!
Hm,my population genetics is a bit rusty,but I would have thought after 6 generations there would be 1.5% or so of Darwins directly inherited genes left,unless the Darwins were naughty and kept it in the family at some point....
I like the late posts for us antipodeans too,gives us a chance to feature prominently once in a while,rather than being relegated to post number 378 !
Hey Janine The Lone Drinker,
come over,lets share a few...:-)
unless the Darwins were naughty and kept it in the family at some point - clinteas
Charles married his first cousin, so he'd have had more genetically in common with his children than most parents.
Nick G,
What is i with cousins I wonder that makes them so attractive...:-) LOL
My favourite is still the "Social Climbers" Darwin who realised his ambition to stage a formal dinner party on the top of a mountain in South America, 7 kilometers above sea-level.
ONe of Eight Conservative Kids, your entire conclusion is based on the premise that political ideology is somehow inherited and unchangeable. It isn't. My grandfather is quite conservative, and yet all four of his children ended up somewhat liberal.
Political ideology also changes with time, life circumstances, new information, and so on. My mother was raised conservative Catholic, drifted away from that more and more through her 20s, 30s, and 40s, and has become a little more conservative in certain areas now that she is in her 50s.
In short, you're an idiot.
So is the part where we mention that the conservative Muslims are outbreeding the Catholics, Protestants, and pretty much all the xian flavors by a 'healthy' margin?
Sleep well, mister one of eight borg.
if I am not mistaken wasn't young ms. darwins last novel extensively peer reviwed in that most american of peer-reviwed journals-People Magazine? (the peer reviewing being done in the supermarket checkout line when the person in front of you already took the last "enquirer").
My dear One of Eight. . . .
If you are so inclined, look up K and r reproductive strategies.
Also take note of the fact that both strategies work equally well, but that humans possess a constellation of traits, including long lifespan, complex social structures, extreme helplessness in infancy, etc, that favor the utility of the K strategy.
Note also that in the course of human history, the more affluent and successful the social group or class, the more likely they are to trend towards the K.
One notable exception to this trend are the big poobahs, the tiny, tiny minority at the very top, whose male members, in some societies, went to the r with gusto.
If you want to know more about Emma Darwin and her view of the Darwin legacy, you need look no further than this Rough Guide to Evolution blog entry:
http://roughguidetoevolution.blogspot.com/2008/09/darwins-descendants-l…