Mike Dunford is a graduate student in the Department of Zoology at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, where he studies evolution. He's also a contributer to The Pandas Thumb. As is the case with everyone else here, his opinions are his own, and do not necessarily represent those of any organization he is affiliated with.
January 31, 2007
Revere, at Effect Measure, comments on a story that just appeared in Inside Higher Education. The article detals a completely outrageous attempt at dealing with unfavorable information: What set off the Pentagon was Bilmes' estimate for the current number of...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 11:05 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
There's an interesting op-ed on teaching evolution in today's edition of the International Herald Tribune. The opinion piece is written by Michael Balter, and suggests that, "The best way to teach the theory of evolution is to teach this contentious...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 2:27 PM • 89 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I always find it a bit amusing when someone who is exceptionally good at identifying (and mercilessly mocking) stupidity in certain circumstances turns out to be totally oblivious to his own stupidity. That's exactly the case when it comes to...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 12:27 AM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 30, 2007
Walter ReMine (an anti-evolutionist who ardently believes that "Haldane's Dilemma" is a real problem for evolution) recently updated the entry for "Haldane's Dilemma" at the CreationWiki. The update does not directly refer to my recent posts on the topic, but...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 11:36 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
An interesting comment about open access has been left over at Bora's place. The commenter is clearly not in favor of open access, and provides a number of reasons for her opposition. I'm going to break the comment into a...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 9:14 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Over the last couple of days, quite a number of articles have been posted here at Scienceblogs commenting on the for-profit academic publishing community's most recent efforts to fight mandatory open access to government science. The industry group representing the...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 4:04 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 29, 2007
In 1862, the British philosopher Herbert Spencer used the phrase "survival of the fittest" to describe Darwin's concept of natural selection. It's not a bad phrase, really, and it doesn't do a bad job of describing natural selection - the...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 8:33 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 28, 2007
I've got a strange feeling that this answer is going to be, by far, the most common one among the Sciencebloggers: What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm You're probably in the final stages of a Ph.D....
Posted by Mike Dunford at 1:16 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 27, 2007
Jim Lynch, in an apparent attempt to see if he could get my blood pressure to break new ground, just sent me a link to this discussion of Rush Limbaugh's latest bit of verbal flatulence. Rush appears to have some...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 6:59 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 26, 2007
Yesterday's post on evolutionary speed limits and Haldane's Dilemma has sparked some interesting discussion, and some of the comments have already started to move beyond the very simple scenario that I outlined. Next week, I'll post a couple of more...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 5:34 PM • 20 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 25, 2007
There's been a bit of talk about "Evolutionary Speed Limits" over at the Intelligent Design weblog Uncommon Descent. Most of the discussion involves "Haldane's Dilemma." This concept is rooted in an article written by the noted evolutionary geneticist J. B....
Posted by Mike Dunford at 4:35 PM • 21 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 23, 2007
Jake Young has a link up to a story about a family's recent misadventure on AirTran Airways. Apparently, they were removed from their flight because, after more than 15 minutes, their 3-year-old was still pitching a temper tantrum and refusing...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 3:46 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I made a fairly large error when I wrote my previous article on the health care "plan" that Bush will announce during the State of the Union Address later today. When I did my back-of-the-envelope calculations of the tax breaks...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 12:34 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In his State of the Union Address tonight, Bush will announce a new "plan" to address the need for more affordable health care insurance. After reading the White House "Fact Sheet" on the plan, a phrase quicky jumps to mind - "dead on arrival." That one is quickly joined by others - "smoking crack," "bloody stupid," "give me a break," and "what mentally defective chimpanzee came up with this one?"
Posted by Mike Dunford at 6:00 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 22, 2007
Earlier today, I noted that an unusual alliance consisting of representatives from both heavy industry and the environmental movement has released a report calling for mandatory action on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The list of participating industries is impressive, particularly...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 8:24 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The United States Climate Action Partnership has just released a report calling for mandatory greenhouse gas emission cap legislation and suggesting a specific set of mechanisms for achieving cuts in the near future. There are a number of noteworthy items in the report, but the most remarkable thing is who wrote this report.
Posted by Mike Dunford at 2:25 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 18, 2007
It looks like we here at Scienceblogs are not done talking about Dawkins and The God Delusion just yet. The latest skirmish, which I am about to plunge into, started with a post on Pharyngula, which was responded to at...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 11:24 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In a post earlier today, I discussed a case where an astroturf group is attempting to stir up popular objection to a clause in a bill before the Senate that mandates disclosure of this type of lobbying activity. In a...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 4:39 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Via Bora, I found a somewhat alarming article. Apparently, it's being claimed, the Lobbying reform law currently in the senate will require bloggers (among other people) to register and file quarterly reports with congress or face possible jail time, "the...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 2:03 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Over at the "ID is nothing but science, we really mean it" Uncommon Dissent blog, there's an interesting little biblical discussion going on right now. In this case, DaveScot's remarkable response to a comment on the After the Bar Closes...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 11:06 AM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Actually, there are two quotes today - one from fiction, and the other from the US Government. The first comes from that all-time classic movie, The Princess Bride: Vizzini: Inconceivable! Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 12:01 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 17, 2007
On January 12th, President Bush signed the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006. As he so often does, Bush attached a signing statement to the law, reserving the "right" to ignore certain parts of the law he...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 6:33 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 16, 2007
It is rare that I find myself at a loss for words. Anyone who knows me can tell you that. Right now, though, I'm having a very, very hard time coming up with family-friendly language that covers the way I...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 9:53 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 15, 2007
In this 60 Minutes interview, President Bush explained why he brought up mistakes that had been made in his recent speech to the nation asking fordecreeing that more troops be sent to Iraq: PELLEY: You mention mistakes having been made...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 5:45 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 12, 2007
When people hear the word Drosophila, the image that pops most readily to mind (for those who know what Drosophila are) almost certainly involves scientists working in the lab. There's good reason for that, of course. Lots of Drosophila are...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 8:18 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 10, 2007
Over the last few years, I've become an increasingly more reluctant supporter of this war. Initially, I am ashamed to admit, I really didn't think that the administration would use classified information to lie to the American public, and I...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 6:50 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, the universe runs on narrativium - the element that ensures that things follow the demands of the story. It's narrativium that mandates that the little old lady in the woods is a witch, narrativium that...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 8:15 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 9, 2007
Earlier today, I visited Westminister Abbey for the first time. It's an interesting place, and despite the fairly steep (10 pound) admissions charge, well worth the visit. It takes a while just to walk through, and on the way you...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 6:46 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 8, 2007
Mike the Mad Biologist has some thoughts about some things that Nancy Pelosi said on Face the Nation over the weekend. In particular, Mike is concerned about Pelosi's declaration that the Democrats support increasing the size of the military: Do...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 3:35 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Just in case either or my readers was wondering, the lack of posts recently has been due to travel - I'm writing this in the lounge in a hotel near Paddington Station, and won't be back to my usual haunts...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 2:57 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
