jlynch | April 21, 2006I'm glad it's Friday - it's been a busy week. It was the penultimate week of classes, so there were loose ends to tie-up. My three thesis students defended (and passed). I had planning meetings regarding the next year or two of my teaching and scholarship, and also talked about Hume to the oldest continuous bookclub in the Valley.
Not bad, but I didn't blog! I have a weekend of grading, but can expect to make some posts.
As GrrlScientists notes, it is National Poetry Month, so I might as well share one of my favorite poems.
An Irish Airman Forsees His DeathW.B. Yeats, 1919.
I know that I…
jlynch | April 18, 2006Despite being a reserved leader, I have my sheep-like qualities. One of which is, like most sheep, I am talentless when it comes to Photoshop, Gimp and the like. As my Sb sibs have all done this to some degree, I though I might give this a shot ... the Stranger Fruit banner competition. All very simple: design a 576 x 70 masthead that doesn't feature hot pink and gain my eternal gratitude, the knowledge that you prevented me looking like a complete amateur compared to my sibs, and mad props from me.
jlynch | April 16, 2006The Week in Review section of the New York Times had a piece on evangelicals in this country in which it details the tension between tradiationalist, centrists and modernists (available online here). The article appears to be prompted by the latest Pew Forum National Survey of Religion and Politcs.
In brief, 26.3% of Americans are evangelicals who can be broken down into traditionalists (12.6%), centrists (10.8%) and modernists (2.9%). Predictably, the traditionalists are Republican (70%), oppose evolution (93%), believe in Armageddon (77%), support "traditional marriage" exclusively (89%),…
jlynch | April 16, 2006An op-ed in the Orlando Centenial takes umbrage at the suggestion of Business for Diplomatic Action Inc., in their "World Citizens Guide", that Americans travelling abroad should not talk too much about American pride. They respond:
To be American is to be bold and outspoken. And that bravado is no small part of the American urge to help other nations suffering famine, disease and disaster.
Let's look at the actual advice given by the Guide:
Be Proud, not arrogant: People around the world are fascinated by the U.S. and the lives we Americans live. They admire our openness, our optimism, our…
jlynch | April 15, 2006Since GrrlScientist made me:
Apparently, I'm not a sheep after all. Actually, the results are strangely accurate.
jlynch | April 14, 2006OK, somehow, I've managed to screw up my templates so that comments no longer appear. Hold tight. I'll get the Seed gurus to bale me out.
[un-fubared. --admin]
jlynch | April 14, 2006News from Louisville is that the YEC geologist, Kurt Wise, has taken Dembski's position at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary as director of its Center for Theology and Science. Wise is currently at Bryan College (Dayton, Tn). Predictably a SBTS representative hews to the party line:
"With the addition of Kurt Wise, we are recognizing that creation is a ground zero theological crisis point right now in American culture and even in our churches ... We need to train Southern Baptist pastors to equip young people to engage Darwinism from elementary school on. We also need to train…
jlynch | April 12, 2006
I haven't catfish blogged in a while, so this is worthwhile. Another article in today's Nature is of interest. In this one, the authors describe the ability of the eel catfish, Channallabes apus to forage onland. Importantly, they note that the species' "capacity to bend its head down towards the ground while feeding seems to be an essential feature that may have enabled fish to make the transition from an aquatic to a terrestrial mode" and go on to point out that the species and others such as Ichthyostega, the recently described Tiktaalik, and terrestrially feeding Periophthalminae (…
jlynch | April 12, 2006From UC Berkeley:
New fossils discovered in the Afar desert of eastern Ethiopia are a missing link between our ape-man ancestors some 3.5 million years ago and more primitive hominids a million years older, according to an international team led by the University of California, Berkeley, and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
The fossils are from the most primitive species of Australopithecus, known as A. anamensis, and date from about 4.1 million years ago, said Tim White, a UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology and one of the team's leaders. The hominid Australopithecus…
jlynch | April 11, 2006I've been more that a little quiet the past ten days. It's nearing the end of the semester here at ASU (only 3 weeks to go), and I have been furiously working with my honors thesis students to get their manuscripts ready for defense. But they are out the door now and will be defended next week. Two are on ID (an examination of media coverage of Kitzmiller v. Dover and an examination of the "teach the controversy" claims of the DI) and the other is on the application of evolutionary theory to the law.
In addition, we're still mid-hire, so that's sucking up sometime.
And I have a deadline to…
jlynch | April 11, 2006Cornell Biology Department to offer course on intelligent design. Two-month schedule starts with lecture on "Great Breakthroughs in Intelligent Design Research," followed by 59.5 days of lunch. Comments here.
jlynch | April 10, 2006A just-published paper in PLoS Biology has thrown some light on the relationship between placental mammals. The authors used retroposed elements, and by scanning more than 160,000 chromosomal loci and selecting from only phylogenetically informative retroposons, they recovered 28 clear, independent monophyly markers that they feel conclusively verify the earliest divergences in placental mammalian evolution.
Below the fold, I provide a copy of their derived phylogeny, but a few things are worth noting:
Eutheria are divided into Xenarthra, Afrotheria & Boreotheria, with the Xenarthra -…
jlynch | April 10, 2006One of the annoying things about being on the (relatively) west coast is that those to the east usually get first dibs on anything that appears. So, while PZ has posted this already, I'm going to go ahead and do it anyways.
It's been a busy week or two here, and will be getting busier. I have three honors theses to shepherd as well as the usual teaching and service responsibilities.
jlynch | April 9, 2006On June 1st 2005, Bill Dembski started as director of the Center for Science and Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. On April 9th 2006, it was announced that he was leaving the position to "work closer to his home in Waco, Texas, where he has maintained a residence while commuting to Louisville to teach." But never fear, Dembski will become research professor of philosophy at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, where there are no pesky mathematicians, scientists or (by the looks of it) philosophers to get in the way. Anyone want to bet how long Dembski…
jlynch | April 8, 2006Since GrrlScientists asked:
You Belong in Dublin
Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions.
You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town.
What European City Do You Belong In?
And the irony is, of course, that Dublin is where I escaped from in 1994.
And changing one answer gives me:
You Belong in Paris
You enjoy all that life has to offer, and you can appreciate the fine tastes and sites of Paris.
You're the perfect person to wander the streets of Paris aimlessly, enjoying…
jlynch | April 6, 2006"Scooter" Libby was told by Cheney that Bush "specifically had authorized" him to "disclose certain information" from the classified National Intelligence Estimate to Judith Miller (source). Will the Democrats finally develop a backbone and go after the administration? Don't hold your breath.
jlynch | April 5, 2006Longtime readers may remember the April Fool's prank played on me by some students last year, wherein I got "pinked" and "badgered". The culprits were never apprehended.
This year, I returned from class to find my office "possified," that is wallpapered with
(see below the fold for one corner of the room). Fear not, gentle reader, the culprits will be eventually brought to justice .... at least after my daughter and I finish the cupcakes that are, apparently, traditional on these occasions.
jlynch | April 3, 2006Access Research Network (ARN) maintain a blog related to "ID-related" literature. The site has amassed a total of nine posts since October 2004, thus proving that the ID perspective can prompt a veritable torrent of papers. Their latest posting is, believe it or not, a notice of Well's Rivista paper from a year ago. Yup, those IDers sure keep up with their own literature. The notice, by the way, contains a link to a PDF of the paper if you haven't seen it before. Below the fold I give some reactions to the piece and Wells' research.
In the past, I have made the claim in public talks that ID…
jlynch | April 2, 2006On Wednesday, at two minutes and three seconds after one in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06. Celebrate as you see fit. With cowbell. More cowbell.
HT to Burt H.