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.
March 31, 2008
Category: Anti-Evolutionism
Last week, SUNY Stony Brook neurosurgeon and anti-evolution mouthpiece Michael Egnor decided to keep driving on with his "you don't need to understand Darwinian evolution to understand antibiotic resistance" crusade. His post is - predictably enough - a mass...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 2:44 PM • 57 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 30, 2008
One of several reasons that my posting frequency has been low lately is that my internet connection has been miserable. As in dial-up speed miserable. As in so slow that the online tools that measure connection speed have been...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 9:45 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 25, 2008
Category: The Homefront
It's been just over 5 years since the start of the Iraq war, and we've just passed another of those morbid little milestones that get so much attention in the press. This particular milestone has a nice round number...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 6:15 AM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 21, 2008
Category: Accidental
PZ Myers got expelled from the line to see the movie Expelled tonight, apparently for the crime of actually being PZ Myers. That's definitely ironic, and possibly hypocritical. His family and his guest were allowed to go in and...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 2:19 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 20, 2008
Category: Picture Posts
There's an island visible in the picture below. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to identify the island, it's location, it's relationship to science, and (for extra credit) its relationship to American pop culture. The answer...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 2:05 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Flaming Small-Minded Stupidity
I'm not Zuska, but I suddenly find that I've got an almost uncontrollable urge to puke on someone's shoes. There's a new breaking story out about Hillary Clinton, junior senator from New York, and Democratic Presidential candidate. It's so...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 11:23 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 18, 2008
Category: Picture Posts
In Saturday's photo quiz, I posted a very cropped version of a picture, and asked people to identify the item that's in there. This was simultaneously one of the most and least successful photo quizzes I've posted so far....
Posted by Mike Dunford at 11:20 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 15, 2008
Category: Picture Posts
This photo quiz is a bit different from the others I've done so far. Instead of giving you a full picture, I'm going to put up a piece of the image and a hint. Your mission (should you choose...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 1:45 AM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 13, 2008
Category: Anti-Evolutionism
Dr. Michael Egnor, of SUNY Stony Brook and the Discovery Institute, doesn't think that evolution is relevant to trying to figure out how to combat the spread of antibiotic resistance. The interesting areas of research, he believes, lie in...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 3:12 PM • 20 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 12, 2008
Category: Moral Flexibility
Someone once pointed out that when a dog pisses on a fire hydrant, it's not committing an act of vandalism. It's just being a dog. It's possible to use that analogy to excuse a creationist who takes a quote...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 3:47 PM • 58 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 10, 2008
Category: Doing Science
Last Tuesday, I posted another one of my picture quizzes, asking what a particular device is, and what it's used for. Jonathan was the first to get the correct answer - it's a Niskin bottle. A Niskin bottle is...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 1:20 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 9, 2008
The President devoted yesterday's radio address to explaining why he vetoed the Intelligence bill Congress sent him. He concluded the address with the following gem: We have no higher responsibility than stopping terrorist attacks. And this is no time...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 12:08 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 7, 2008
Category: Anti-Evolutionism
Everybody's favorite creationist neurosurgeon is back. Today, Michael Egnor brought forth yet another remarkably inept attempt to find a way to justify egnoring the relationship between natural selection and antibiotic resistance. This time, he's apparently decided that there's no...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 12:44 PM • 104 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 6, 2008
Category: Public Perception of Science
There's a widespread consensus that we could, should, and must do a better job of talking to the general public. On this issue, the consensus is wrong.
Posted by Mike Dunford at 2:34 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Religion in Schools
First, the Discovery Institute didn't seem to know about the anti-evolution bill introduced in Florida last week. Now, they don't seem to actually understand what the bill does. Both of these things are quite strange, considering that the Discovery...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 1:37 AM • 19 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 5, 2008
Category: Public Perception of Science
For the next few weeks, I'm going to be busier than normal - I'm picking up a few bucks by working for a friend who has a beverage concession at the Houston Rodeo. I'm mentioning this in part because...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 12:23 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 4, 2008
Category: Picture Posts
Here's another picture quiz for you. The picture below was taken in February of 2005, just off the coast in Oahu. Can you identify the piece of equipment that the two people in the picture are using, and do...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 9:17 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 3, 2008
Category: Biology
In Friday's picture quiz, I posted a picture that I took that contained two Hawaiian Monk seals (Monachus schauinslandi), and asked you to take a guess at what percent of the total population of the species appears in the...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 12:35 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Anti-Evolutionism
The bill in question provides "academic freedom" only to K-12th grade teachers and students who want to question evolution. It provides absolutely no protections for anyone who wants to question whether or not energy really does equal mass multiplied by the square of the speed of light. It gives no safe harbor to those who disbelieve the relationship between the pressure and volume of a gas. And if you dare to suggest that the mathematical establishment is dogmatically indoctrinating their unsubstantiated belief that the square of the length of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares of the remaining two sides, you're not going to get any help from the Florida legislature.
Posted by Mike Dunford at 12:14 AM • 29 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 2, 2008
Category: Public Perception of Science
In a post over at the Nature Network, Henry Gee notes that over the last twenty years, he's seen "an increase in ... a siege mentality among scientists". He's probably right. When there's a horde of angry, armed people...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 6:01 PM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 1, 2008
Category: Elections
By now, there's a good chance that you've read something or another about the whole "Is John McCain a "Natural Born" Citizen" thing - it's caught quite a lot of attention over the last few days. It's certainly caught mine - not because I'm concerned about the question of whether military brats born overseas can be president, but because so many people are acting like complete idiots.
Posted by Mike Dunford at 11:28 AM • 25 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
