Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
…and this is a pharyngula stage embryo.
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One of the more ironic aspects in the current upsurge in creationism is that is coincides almost exactly with the first major activity in evolutionary theory in nearly fifty years. (1982 jm) Evolution itself has been attracting a great deal of attention from a wide assortment of biologists, and current healthy controversy in which evolutionary biology is now embroiled has spilled over into the media even without the added cachet of creationist attacks. Superficially, it looks as if we know less now about how evolution works than we did, say, even ten years ago. This is because, as recently at a decade ago, there was something approaching unanimity in the evolutionary ranks. Today, though chaos is too strong a word, there is definitely dissent in the ranks. Few biologists agree as completely and complacently as they did a short time ago. Creationists have seen this and are quick to react. Their basic conclusion is that evolutionary biologists can't even agree among themselves, so who would want their dangerous and ill-supported notions taught as "fact" in public schools?
What this charge amounts to, of course, is that evolutionary biologists— geneticists, developmental biologists, systemasists, and paleontologists stand guilty… of doing science. On the contrary, research in evolutionary biology today is actually a textbook case of how it is that science is supposed to operate….
The Monkey Business, Niles Eldredge, 1982, p. 52
My heart-warming tale of self-affirmation
Patterning the nervous system with Bmp
Transcription factors and morphogens
Polar lobes and trefoil embryos in the Precambrian
Development, medicine, and evolution of the neck and shoulder
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Category: Weblogs
Posted on: July 7, 2006 5:19 PM, by PZ Myers
We've received word that there have been some behind-the-scenes improvements in spam filtering, and I've gotten enough complaints about that annoying typekey thingie, that I've gotten rid of it. This is provisional, and I'm hoping I don't get a flood of spam now, but try it—commenting should be easier.
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If I like what I see, I'll receive 5 more issues (6 in all) for just $14.95. That's 50% off the cover price! If I'm not completely satisfied, I'll simply write "cancel" on the invoice and owe nothing. The free issue is mine to keep.
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Comments
Woo-hoo! C'mon boys, door's open!
(sounds of random gunfire, whooping, and general mayhem)
Posted by: Carlie | July 7, 2006 5:34 PM
And you had to do this the day I finally gave in and signed up for that annoying typekey thingie, didn't you?
*sigh*
Posted by: MartinM | July 7, 2006 5:38 PM
Yay!
Posted by: j | July 7, 2006 5:41 PM
Hello Mister PZ Myers! I have a fantastic business proposition for you. For only the cost of one hundred thousand American dollars, you can help me rescue my large estate, which is held in trust for want of funds. Of course this could be very lucrative for you...
Ha, just kidding. Commenting seems to be working fine, which is just as well, because that "keep me signed in for 2 weeks" button on Typekey never worked for me.
Posted by: The Disgruntled Chemist | July 7, 2006 5:44 PM
test.
Posted by: DarkSyde | July 7, 2006 5:49 PM
Thanks. I was getting pretty frustrated today trying repeatedly to post. Typekey had been fine for the last few weeks but today was, um, special.
Posted by: thwaite | July 7, 2006 5:58 PM
Huzzah! I did sign up with typekey when you first instituted the system, but found it cumbersome to the point where I simply stopped commenting entirely. I'm quite glad to see the system changed.
Posted by: Diego | July 7, 2006 6:04 PM
Didn't have a problem before--now, I just got a "server not found" message. Interesting.
Posted by: Kristine | July 7, 2006 6:05 PM
I had to remove some cookies before the non-Typekey comment box showed up.
With luck, the Typekey login will stay gone, it was a bit annoying. ("Keep me logged in for two weeks" my arse.)
Addendum: if I hit Preview, and then try Preview or Post from the preview screen, I get a 404 error. Anyone else get this?
Posted by: Davis | July 7, 2006 6:06 PM
That's nice. I may get back into the habit of commenting again. I don't know if this is a good thing from your perspective.
Posted by: chuko | July 7, 2006 6:10 PM
What Diego said.
Posted by: Tlazolteotl | July 7, 2006 6:19 PM
Woohoo! Finally I don't have to register! I love the site. My only complaint is how often I have to come here to keep up with you. Slow down man! No one can think at that speed!
Posted by: DFX | July 7, 2006 6:25 PM
Well, that's certainly much, much easier.
Posted by: grendelkhan | July 7, 2006 6:31 PM
Great. All day I've been unable to comment on ScienceBlogs because of some kind of typekey-related problem. Scienceblogs has been, so far, the most frustratingly defective site I've ever visited on the internet, w/r/t those kinds of problems.
Posted by: steve s | July 7, 2006 6:31 PM
I generally favor registering systems, they really do work, but Scienceblogs has been uniquely incompetent about it.
Posted by: steve s | July 7, 2006 6:32 PM
test
Posted by: llewelly | July 7, 2006 6:37 PM
It almost works. I get 'Not Found' if I try to preview my comment.
Posted by: llewelly | July 7, 2006 6:39 PM
Until I nuked my TypeKey cookie, the name/address boxes were appearing, then *disappearing*, replaced by the Sign-in link -- which led to "registration failed". Now, of course, it seems to be working.
Posted by: David Harmon | July 7, 2006 6:54 PM
I think the problem with "keep me logged in" may be when people comment from different computers. I noticed that I can sign in and then comment as long as I'm on my laptop at work, and then I go home and have to sign in again. What this means is that the login system is designed so that the same account cannot be logged in from multiple computers. Since this would require extra code in almost any case I can visualize, I assume someone deliberately designed it this way.
...I assume "someone" to be the same moron who's responsible for Livejournal's tendency to cause fatal display driver errors on my desktop. Where do they find these people, and how much XP can I get for destroying the source?
Posted by: Azkyroth | July 7, 2006 6:55 PM
From Media Matters
http://mediamatters.org/items/200607070010
However, contrary to Coulter's claim, science has observed links between reptiles and mammals through an existing succession of transitional fossils. Skeletal features are used to distinguish between reptilian fossils and mammalian fossils.
And let's not forget that reptiles, like us mammals, share many of the same GENES with relatively simple organisms like yeast, with whom we all share a common ancestor.
Coulter is a disgusting liar, just like all creationism promoting pricks.
Liberals and science advocates need to learn not to hesitate from drawing the obvious conclusion. The ID peddlers claim it is all about the "evidence" but when the "evidence" shows that they must be willfully lying when they recite the same broken scripts, then suddenly they aren't interested in evidence anymore. Then it's about their "religious beliefs" and how they are being persecuted simply for their failure to be "convinced," BOO HOO HOO HOO!!!!!!
Just earlier today I saw a Cornell professor happily play the creationist's "we're so civilized" game. Check out this link:
http://evolutionanddesign.blogsome.com/2006/07/07/why-we-fight/#comments
All this bullshit "civility" just plays right into the creationist hands and Professor McNeill is simply too naive or too involved with his creationist students to figure it out.
When someone's entire agenda is to smear you and your profession with lies, and then you set "ground rules" in place which prohibit people from publically recognizing that one side is reciting lies, then you have just screwed yourself in the ass with the fossilized jaw of an alligator.
Why would anyone do that????
Posted by: Walter Concrete | July 7, 2006 7:16 PM
Ding, ding, the typekey is dead! lol
Seriously, I am sure I have seen "less" well designed systems which drove me more nuts, but I can't think of what they where at the moment.
Posted by: Kagehi | July 7, 2006 7:22 PM
Like Coulter and her forked tongue weren't proof enough...
Posted by: Azkyroth | July 7, 2006 7:35 PM
Hi PZ-
You are approved for a $123,000 Mortgage for about $506/ Month.
Posted by: George | July 7, 2006 7:51 PM
I spam you :-)
Posted by: Randy Charles Morin | July 7, 2006 7:52 PM
Yay, TypeKey gone.
Problem being, that over at Dispatches, Brayton said it was in the process of being implemented all over ScienceBlogs. So my bottle of beer says it's gonna come back.
OTOH, why not use the word verification scheme Blogger uses. That's one of the few things that actually work over there. The bots have yet to figure out how to guess those piccies.
- JS
Posted by: JS | July 7, 2006 8:11 PM
After clearing the cookies, it appears I can post here again.
Posted by: coturnix | July 7, 2006 8:14 PM
I never had any problems with TypeKey. However, the word recognition system for some reason won't acknowledge my computer -- no matter how many times I type the correct words, I can't post.
I'm sure this will motivate you to implement word recognition systems post-haste.
Posted by: Caledonian | July 7, 2006 8:43 PM
May all beings be filled with joy and peace.
May all beings everywhere,
The strong and the weak,
The great and the small,
The mean and the powerful,
The short and the long,
the subtle and the gross:
May all beings everywhere,
Seen and unseen,
Dwelling far off or nearby,
Being or waiting to become:
May all be filled with lasting joy.
Let no one deceive another,
Let no one anywhere despise another,
Let no one out of anger or resentment
Wish suffering on anyone at all.
Just as a mother with her own life
Protects her child, her only child, from harm,
So within yourself let grow
A boundless love for all creatures.
Posted by: charlie wagner | July 7, 2006 9:05 PM
i got this:
Precondition Failed
The precondition on the request for the URL /cgi-bin/MT/mt-comments.cgi evaluated to false.
Posted by: garth | July 7, 2006 9:06 PM
Dear Prof. Myers,
You don't, by any chance, happen to have any journal entries on the phylogeny of placoderms or cephalaspids, do you?
Posted by: Stanton | July 7, 2006 9:06 PM
test...
Posted by: Steve LaBonne | July 7, 2006 9:16 PM
Hey, I enjoy reading, happy to throw in a purposeless comment.
Posted by: Shan | July 7, 2006 9:51 PM
Oh, thank goodness. I didn't comment here often, but for the past week or so, I've been unable to make the typekey thingie work at all. And the preview doesn't work for me either, but I don't care.
Just so you know, I don't have anything to say. I'm just happy to be able to say it ;)
Posted by: Gentlewoman | July 7, 2006 10:51 PM
Stanton: "Search this blog" is your friend (sometimes):
Searched for "placoderms"
No pages were found containing "placoderms".
Searched for "cephalaspids"
No pages were found containing "cephalaspids".
Wikipedia did better:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placoderms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalaspidomorphi
Posted by: thwaite | July 7, 2006 11:11 PM
FYI:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/callahan/callahan157.html
on why scientists often get it wrong about religion.
Posted by: Arun | July 8, 2006 12:09 AM
Of course, hitting "Preview" then "Post" gives a 404. You might want to look into fixing that.
Posted by: grendelkhan | July 8, 2006 12:26 AM
Hmmm, I can post here but not to the "Bye bye, RA" thread...
Posted by: Ian H Spedding | July 8, 2006 12:58 AM
Testing. One, two, three, testing...
Hey! It works!
Posted by: Tim | July 8, 2006 2:02 AM
Arun, tha argument is a strawman. Atheists aren't ignorant of the cultural and social aspects of religious practice. Also, scientsts aren't all atheists.
Posted by: dcb | July 8, 2006 4:17 AM
What annoyed me the most about TypeKey is that it would force me to log in every single time no matter how many times I told windows to save the password (or checked the "keep me signed in for two weeks" box). So many clicks and waiting! Maybe this cable connection has spoilt me. :(
Good one, disgruntled chemist.
Posted by: Inoculated Mind | July 8, 2006 5:00 AM
Sign in for two weeks my hairy arse. Freedom to comment returns!
Posted by: Samnell | July 8, 2006 5:13 AM
Yeaaaa! I never liked the typepad thingy. I love cephalopods, especially for lunch! thank you
Posted by: sleepyinsaudi | July 8, 2006 8:06 AM
Posted by: Steve LaBonne | July 8, 2006 8:39 AM
It's great to have the old comments system back online :)
Posted by: DrFrank | July 8, 2006 9:01 AM
Azkyroth: A website crashes your video driver?? How the hell is that possible?
And good to see that things are back ...
Posted by: Keith Douglas | July 8, 2006 9:51 AM
Sweet. Got to love the return of commenting. That typekey was just nasty.
Posted by: LJ | July 8, 2006 9:55 AM
Steve LaBonne wrote:
Speaking as a pro-thread-lifer, I believe a thread should have the right to continue without termination...
Posted by: Ian H Spedding | July 8, 2006 11:02 AM
Thank you, that TypeKey thing was truly annoying.
Posted by: Brock Tice | July 8, 2006 12:49 PM
Thanks for getting rid of typekey
Posted by: ts | July 8, 2006 1:13 PM
Huzzah! Huzzah!
Posted by: NelC | July 8, 2006 9:41 PM
I just had the pleasure of a day with my sisters and their kids. When my 20-month old neice was asked what her favorite animal at the zoo was, she answered "Octopus!"
Posted by: David Harmon | July 8, 2006 9:52 PM
They did a new series of spoofs on that Kinkade painter guy over at Something Awful. This page has the one you'll probably like best (search for "giant sea creatures"):
Link to SA
I wanted to post this when it was new, but the Typekey thing prevented me. I was too lazy to register.
Posted by: Pekka | July 9, 2006 9:22 AM
They have a better spam filter now? Does that mean tha annoying Jason spambotwon't be posting any more?
I am thankful for the changes, I couldn't manage to post under those restrictions.
Posted by: quork | July 9, 2006 5:25 PM
testing
Posted by: Heather | May 14, 2008 7:19 PM