Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called Transitions:The Evolution of Life His previous blog can be found here.
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"Loyalty to petrified opinion never broke a chain or freed a human soul..." Mark Twain
"Ideology is a poor substitute for rational thought..." Afarensis
"It isn't faith that makes good science...it's curiosity" Prof. Jacob Barnhardt, The Day the Earth Stood Still
"This man wishes to be accorded the same privilege as a sponge. He wishes to think!" Clarence Darrow, Inherit the Wind
"...I become fearful when I see people substituting fear for reason..." Klaatu, The Day the Earth Stood Still
"I want you to grab life by its little bunny ears and get in its face..." The Simpsons
"This is between me and the vegetable..." Seymour Krelborn, The Little Shop of Horrors
"There are bad laws and cruel laws and the people who enforce them are both bad and cruel..." Thea, Isle of the Dead
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." Jean- Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation
"But the limit of tolerance for these human foibles is obtained when the proponent of a questionable scientific doctrine endeavors to maintain it against all possible odds by misrepresentation, misinformation and suppression of contradictory data, and by insinuating unfairness in opponents of his views." Franz Weidenreich, Morphology of Solo Man
"Man stands alone in the universe, a unique product of a long, unconcious, impersonal material process with unique understanding and potentialities. These he owes to no one but himself, and it is to himself that he is responsible. He is not the creature of uncontrollable and undeterminable forces, but his own master. He can and must decide and manage his own destiny." George Gaylord Simpson, Life of the Past
Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the phd,
he's smarter than you he's got a science degree!
Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the phd,
he's smarter than you he's got a science degree! Unknown
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you. Frederich Nietzsche
Dear Joel, I noticed a post on your blog discussing the UNESCO newsletter A world of Science, in particular I noticed this bit: True to the Darwinian story, they do not neglect to mention our supposed foremother Lucy. The most...
The producers of Expelled have come up with brilliant masterpiece of framing strategy. You see, they have included an anti-Semite in their film. As you may or may not know, the movie is a vicious slander piece that tries to...
Scott Hatfield needs your help. Apparently, one of the peddlers of the Paluxy River dino-man trackway hoax will be speaking at a high school in Fresno. It would be great fun if some folks with experience in the fields of...
In a recent post I wrote about how Ben Stein was giving a preview of Expelled to the Missouri Legislature. Most of the write ups framed the issue around House Bill 1315 - the Emily Brooker Higher Education Sunshine Act...
There have been a wide variety of responses to the PZ incident. Quite a large number of us a busy laughing at the irony of it. There has been some criticism, for example see here, here, here, here, and here....
Via Greg Laden comes this video of PZ and Richard Dawkins discussing Expelled. Several interesting points stand out. I'll be back after the video......
If you are looking for a great way to celebrate Darwin Day, why not sign this petition. You will have the joy of knowing that you are a candle in the dark! You can also donate to the cause....
I'm sure you all remember the infamous prediction thread at UD. The one where Dembski said: I have my own list of answers, but I'd like to hear those of this group. As far as I know, Dembski has never...
Really, it seems like every time I turn around some creationist or another is trying to argue that Australopithecus afarensis is not a transitional fossil because there are some osteological indicators of knuckle walking in their wrist. Safarti is a...
Over at UD Pav has totally misunderstood a paper by the Grants on the Evolution of Character Displacement in Darwin's Finches. Having just reviewed a book by the Grants I was looking forward to ripping into some creationist mumbo jumbo....
Over at Uncommon Descent Dembski asks commenters for successful ID predictions. Apparently, some, unnamed, TV shows are thinking of interviewing Dembski or Wells concerning the Design of Life but want successful ID predictions first. Dembski, of course, is making wuss...
I am currently in the process of reading the "new" textbook The Design of Life and have found a couple of really silly claims/statements that are just too silly to pass over in silence. Especially because The High-Preistess reviews one...