jlynch | February 13, 2006As promised yesterday here [PDF, 1.2M] is the text of a talk I gave in 2002 to celebrate Darwin Day.
jlynch | February 12, 2006Assassin spiders - 2mm long arachnids with elongated jaws (and necks) that were once globally distributed but are now only found in Australia, South Africa and Madagascar. In the latter, nine new species have been recently found by California Academy of Sciences researchers, Charles Griswold and Hannah Wood. Check this out ...
Wow. Darwin would have loved that!
jlynch | February 12, 2006From the Autobiography:
Therefore my success as a man of science, whatever this may have amounted to, has been determined, as far as I can judge, by complex and diversified mental qualities and conditions. Of these, the most important have been - the love of science - unbounded patience in long reflecting over any subject - industry in observing and collecting facts - and a fair share of invention as well as of common sense. With such moderate abilities as I possess, it is truly surprising that I should have influenced to a considerable extent the belief of scientific men on some…
jlynch | February 12, 2006I have just been notified that the Spring edition of the Virginia Quarterly Review will feature articles on evolution and ID by Niles Eldredge, Michael Ruse, Thomas Eisner, Robert M. Sapolsky and David Quammen. To celebrate Darwin Day, the Review has put Eldredge's essay online.
jlynch | February 12, 2006 One of the more "enlightened" aspects of politics here in Arizona are voter initatives, wherein the public gets to petition to put stuff on the ballot. In the windup for the November elections, the streets are already crawling with petitioners wanting to get the necessary quota of signatures to get their particular fixation on the ballot.
This year, we have the Protect Marriage Arizona ammendment to the state constitution which is actually being spearheded by the Center for Arizona Policy, a right-wing, conservative Christian group that also (in 2004) supported teaching ID in AZ schools. As…
jlynch | February 12, 2006 I was going to post the text of a talk ("The Myths of Darwinism") that I gave to the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix in February 2002. But I can't find a scanned copy. I should be able to post it tomorrow, though. So, in place of that, I give you ...
"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved."
jlynch | February 11, 2006Went and bought some new fish for my tank today - a sun catfish (Horabagrus brachysoma) and a lace catfish (Synodontis sp.). I admit to having a certain liking for catfish species. These two will join my peppered corys (Corydoras paleatus) and common plec (Hypostomus punctatus) at the bottom of the tank, while the top and mid-layers have a mixture of danios, guppies and swordtails. I think I need a bigger tank :)
jlynch | February 9, 2006As PZ notes, George Deutsch has finally come out from under his rock. Avowedly uncontrite for lying in his vita he has the following to say:
Mr. Deutsch said he resigned of his own volition because he was unhappy with the negative publicity he and NASA were receiving in the news media. "I was just sick of it," he said. "I was being smeared. My integrity and credibility was being questioned. And as a human being, as a human being, I just could not take it anymore." (source)
Kid. You had - and have - zero credibility when talking about science. Leave it to the pros, 'mkay? And while you are at…
jlynch | February 7, 2006So Deutsch has resigned. Best summation comes from Jim Hansen: "He's only a bit player. The problem is much broader and much deeper and it goes across agencies. That's what I'm really concerned about."
jlynch | February 7, 2006It gets better. Apparently George "It's a theory" Deutsch did not graduate from Texas A&M after all and withdrew from there in June '04 without a degree. Apparently, the qualifications to become a Presidential appointee (and thus official censor) to NASA are, umm, nil. More importantly, it appears that he claimed to have a degree (if the New York Times article is to be believed). So, not only does he have no experience in science, and got his job as a political kickback, but he may have lied about his qualifications.
Hat tip to John Kotinek for passing me on the link.
jlynch | February 6, 2006Janet has an interesting piece on her career change (from chemistry to philosophy) and this has prompted me to think a little about the path my career has taken since I began as an undergraduate twenty-one years ago (!).
Get an undergraduate degree in zoology with a minor in biochemistry. By sophomore year be sure that you are going to obtain the PhD, work on mammalian evolution, and get a teaching job somewhere in Ireland.
Begin a PhD project on the genetics of hybridization among deer species. Abandon it after six months because, let's face it, running gels is boring. Develop a project on…
jlynch | February 6, 2006Last week's classes on Descartes went well (as usual). This week is a little more challenging ... Newton's Principia. The reading is tough but enlightening - Newton's preface, definitions, axioms (laws of motion), the first 13 propositions of Book III, and the General Scholium. Plenty here to keep us amused, with a combination of science and design argument (the Scholium). It will be interesting to see how it goes.
On a related note, Colin Purrington has some suggestions for celebrating Heliocentrism Day (remember, kids, it's JUST a THEORY) on February 17th. And there is cake involved!…
jlynch | February 5, 2006The IDists have continually argued that they are being oppressed by some sort of Darwinist hegemony. One such case is that of Caroline Crocker, a biochemist who was released from a position as a visiting professor* by George Mason University and now claims that her academic freedom (to teach ID) was infringed. PZ highlights an account in the Washington Post and neatly skewers her claims, showing her to be an appallingly ignorant mouthpiece for DI talking points. In Fall 05, Crocker taught general biology at North Virginia Community College. This spring, she does not seem to be teaching there…
jlynch | February 5, 2006George Deutsch wrote for the Texas A&M Batallion while in college. Over at World O'Crap we see the sorts for defenses of the administration that no doubt got George his position at NASA. For example:
The ties between al-Qaida and Iraq are clear. So clear, in fact, that there is so much circumstantial evidence linking Iraq and al-Qaida that it would be hard for an informed person not to at least suspect Saddam's regime of having a hand in the attacks
Apparently, Deutsch sees the concept of "informed" somewhat differently to most people.
As Chris points out, Deutsch may want to clean up…
jlynch | February 4, 2006Feb 5: Welcome Farkers! Feel free to look around.
My co-scienceblogger, Chris Mooney, has extensively documented Republican interference in science in his excellent The Republican War on Science [amaz]. George Deutsch, a presidential appointee as public affairs officer at NASA, seems to think that such political involvement in scientific matters is desirable. For example:
[Deutsch] rejected a request from a producer at National Public Radio to interview Dr. [James E.] Hansen, said Leslie McCarthy, a public affairs officer responsible for the Goddard Institute. Citing handwritten notes taken…
jlynch | February 4, 2006There always has been tension between advocates of Young Earth Creationism (such as Ken Ham and Henry Morris) and the ID movement. While the former believe that ID supporters should actively support Biblical principles, the latter refuse to disassociate themselves from a young earth position as that would negate the "big tent" strategy perfected by Phil Johnson. Witness, for example, what Johnson says about YEC:
My approach with the young-earthers is to say, 'I'm not
asking you to give up your point of view.' In fact I'm not even saying
what my opinion is with it. I don't take any position on…
jlynch | February 3, 2006ID's martyr complex is alive and well. Witness ...
By proclaiming it illegal to "disparage or denigrate" neo-Darwinism, Judge Jones adopted the principle of the Inquisition, and in so doing rendered both himself and that state-enforced theory ridiculous. Taking a longer view, I think Dover will come eventually to be be seen as a moral victory, in the same way that Galileoâs condemnation is now viewed as a moral victory.
There is only one thing to say to Judge Jones - eppure, si muove!
Galileo they ain't! As my students noticed last week, Galileo had observations, experiments, and…
jlynch | February 2, 2006
This is Paedocrypsis, a cyprinid fish that is less than one centimeter in length. PZ has blogged on it here in the past. Unfortunately, as PZ now notes, it looks like the species has gone extinct only weeks afier being formally described.
What little we know about the species is contained in Kotellat et al. (in press) "Paedocypris, a new genus of Southeast Asian cyprinid fish with a remarkable sexual dimorphism, comprises the world's smallest vertebrate" Proceedings of the Royal Society of London: Biological Sciences DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2005.3419. The abstract reads:
Paedocypris is a new genus…
jlynch | February 1, 2006 Some quick blasts as it's mid-week, I'm busy, and probably wont do much blogging until the weekend.
Last night Bush said: "[W]e need to encourage children to take more math and science and to make sure those courses are rigorous enough to compete with other nations." Rigorous ... as in "I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought. Youâre asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes"? Chris comments here.
Over at Uncommon Descent, Dave Springer loses it and probably gets bitch-slapped by Dembski. Details here…
jlynch | January 29, 2006South Carolina is currently undergoing a dalliance with ID. WIS10, a TV station in Columbia, ran an interview with the SC Governor, Mark Sanford. Here is a choice portion wherein Sanford demonstrates that science classes were wasted on him:
Q: What do you think about the idea of teaching alternatives to Darwin's Theory of Evolution in public schools; for instance Intelligent Design.
MS: I have no problem with it.
Q: Do you think it should be done that way? Rather than just teaching Evolution?
MS: Well I think that it's just, and science is more and more documenting this, is that there are…