…and this is a 
I have sad news to report. John A. Davison has gone insane. No, I know, he's been nuts for a long, long time, but I was just purging the ol' trashed mail folder today and discovered that he has been writing to me two or three times a day, usually just by dumping his latest comment on his poor dead blog, which mainly consists of him talking to himself about how everyone is ignoring him, and isn't joining his crusade against Richard Dawkins, Wesley Elsberry, and PZ Myers, and how we're all terrified of JA Davison and Darwinism is going to disappear any day now to be replaced by his theory.
As I skimmed through a sampling of the 106 tirades he has sent to me this summer, I felt sorry for the poor old guy. There he is, sitting in Vermont, shaking his fist at his imaginary enemies who don't even notice his existence until they find his missives clogging up the spam trap. He's the most quixotic kook I've ever encountered.
So here you go, pathetic old man. A little sop to your ego. If you'd like, you could imagine me seething with rage and fear, pressing the button to dispatch my team of ninjas to take you out once and for all…but they all refuse, trembling with trepidation at getting JAD cooties, and citing the importance of guarding the copy of the Origin of Species in my house. I tried to send the cyborg zombie squid, but they all mentioned that Vermont is land-locked. So you've foiled me for now, Davison, but mark my words, someday…someday my minions will play on your lawn.
Dear Pee Zee,
gary hitch Thank you for your support but this is not the place to give it. Nobody pays any attention to this weblog. I get an average of 20 hits per day. The place to go after these degenerates is on their own turf, Pharyngula, After The Bar Closes, Panda's Thumb and Uncommon Descent, all venues from which this scientist is banished. I refuse to assume aliases, use suberfuge or any other device to penetrate their cowardly defenses. The only way these egomaniacal tyrants will be defeated is by a mass uprising generated by real intellectuals like yourself who have properly identified them as the danger to our society they have become.
I read their blogs and see no support for my science anywhere. Like my sources I too do not exist. We have never been allowed to exist. There is also no place for a personal God in science and the Christian right is just as guilty as the Atheist left. My name is not mentioned at any of these weblogs because the heads of those weblogs are terrified of the message that I and my sourcse have alway delivered: there is absolutely nothing in the Darwinian model that ever had anything whatsoever to do with any aspect of the ascending creative sequence that the fossil record so obviously displays.
In an earlier response I asked you to demonstrate that you have challenged our adversaries. Have you done so? Where can I find your challenges? It is nice to have another supporter but that doesn't feed the bulldog. What is needed is a confrontation in which the enemy is forced to confront their adversaries in a public forum, something that they are loathe to do because they know they will lose. I have done everything in my power to achieve this result and I have failed. If there really are those who agree with me, where are they to be found? I can't find them. One thing is certain. If and when they speak they must use their real names if they expect to be taken seriously by either freind or foe. Everyone knows who this investigator's primary enemies are. They are Clinton Richard Dawkins, Paul Zachary Myers and Wesley Royce Elsberry along with their thousands of dedicated followers. Now where are those who will lend their real names to mine and demand that this conflict be resolved.
I now propose that a public confrontation be arranged between those who subscribe to the Darwinian model and those who reject that model in favor of a guided phylogeny in which chance has played a trivial role.
I present this in the form of a petition which requires that those in favor of this resolution signify their approval by submitting to me via my private mail their full name and a description such that their identity is properly revealed to be that of a real person. Which side they represent is of no consequence.
I will present those names right here. Now we will see who really wants this crisis resolved by the only means it ever will be resolved, by real people with real names, people who have real convictions that they are willing to stand by with the time honored tradition that "a man is as good as his word."
nosivadaj@msn.com
I will list those names as they appear here.
John A. Davison, Professor Emeritus of Biology, University of Vermont. Mailing address: L4 Grandview Drive, South Burlington, VT 05403
Dear Professor Dawkins,
The above petition, message #260, has yet to produce a single signature. Not a soul has offered to support my suggestion that the Meyers/Elsberry/Dawkins Darwinian Triumvirate should face this critic in a public confrontation. I find such apathy appalling. It reveals an evolutionary community completely cowed by the atheist "Darwinista." Refusing to join with me in a most reasonable request offers a tangible explanation why Darwin's infantile dream persists. That reason in a word is APATHY.
We are dealing with a brutal intellectual tyranny whose primary goal is to remove God from every aspect of Western Civilization.
Thomas Jefferson understood the role of silence when confronted with danger -
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."
Those who remain silent support the enemy. Darwinian mysticism has gained far more than a foothold. It has come to dominate even our institutions of higher learning as I and others know from personal experience. That dominance will continue to grow unchecked until such time as an enlightened citizenry realizes what is happening to it and acts. I have offered such an opportunity in the form of the above petition. While, personally, I am bitterly disappointed, I am not surprised. All great civilizations have ultimately failed and ours is no exception.
Sincerely,
John A. Davison, Professor Emeritus of Biology, University of Vermont. Mailing address: L4 Grandview Drive, South Burlington, VT 05403
And then I pushed the delete key and they all disappeared.
If he starts increasing the frequency of his email now, I might report back…in December. He'll need a Christmas present, after all.
Comments
Posted by: PZ Myers
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August 9, 2010 10:40 AM
Oh, yes, he does address me as Professor Dawkins sometimes. There is no cc. All the mail is addressed to me and me alone.
Posted by: Ewan R
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August 9, 2010 10:42 AM
That doesn't feed the bulldog?
I'm convinced by this statement alone. Where does one go to sign the petition?
Posted by: Bernard Bumner
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August 9, 2010 10:45 AM
Sad, paranoid, desperate ramblings.
I have a lot of sympathy for someone who lives with such appalling fear and loathing. Sickness is not a pretty thing to witness.
Posted by: subbie
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August 9, 2010 10:46 AM
I only became aware of Davison a couple of years ago. Has he always been doolally, or was there ever a time when he displayed signs of sanity?
Posted by: https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawmqD_mcUIrSfOTlK3iGVsnEDcZmI43srbI
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August 9, 2010 10:46 AM
Has senile dementia been ruled out? A brain clogged with Alzheimer's plaques?
Stroke? TIAs?
Heavy metal poisoning?
This seems to be diagnostic -- of what, I'm not sure; the differential eludes me.
Posted by: Rorschach
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August 9, 2010 10:46 AM
I suggested to you in Copenhagen what to do in this case....Posting his ramblings is not it tho !
Posted by: Nerd of Redhead, OM
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August 9, 2010 10:54 AM
All I can say to those ramblings, is cue the theme to the twilight zone...
Posted by: Walton, Marquis of Carabas
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August 9, 2010 10:56 AM
Poor guy. While I'm not qualified to make such a diagnosis, is it possible that he could be suffering from some type of dementia?
In any case, I feel sorry for him. He's clearly not in full possession of his faculties, and I don't think it's fair to laugh.
Posted by: RickK
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August 9, 2010 10:57 AM
I came across this guy in a blog somewhere, and he spent a lot of time criticizing anyone who wouldn't use their real name.
But JADavison has a long and disturbing track record of trying to mess with the personal lives of people he debates in blogs. He has a lot of time on his hands, and he's crazy.
He's the reason people stay anonymous.
Posted by: The Otter God
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August 9, 2010 11:01 AM
I'm impressed. He's at least going to more effort that Mooney does to ensure that he knows whom he's talking with.
Posted by: skeptical_hippo
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August 9, 2010 11:02 AM
Was this person truly a biology professor at the University of Vermont? If so, that doesn't speak well for hiring practices at the school.
Posted by: cicely (Inadvertent Phytocidal Maniac)
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August 9, 2010 11:02 AM
I want a cyborg zombie squid....
Posted by: Aquaria
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August 9, 2010 11:04 AM
It's too bad my stepfather probably retired from UV before this guy got there. I'd be interested to know how soon his colleagues realized JAD was bugfuck insane.
Posted by: cicely (Inadvertent Phytocidal Maniac)
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August 9, 2010 11:04 AM
He's a "Professor Emeritus"; is it possible that he didn't go doolally until after retirement?
Posted by: Alice Bluegown
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August 9, 2010 11:07 AM
Ah, JAD - still crazy after all these years (with apologies to Paul Simon)
We love it so!
Maybe a job for the Cyber Pistol?
Posted by: AJ Milne OM
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August 9, 2010 11:07 AM
106? 106!?
One. Hundred. And. Six?
(Blinks...)
CVI?
(/...0x6a?...)
Posted by: --PatF in Madison
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August 9, 2010 11:09 AM
Vermont isn't quite that landlocked. Here's what you do. Dump the squid into Lake Superior and have them swim through the Great Lakes into the St. Lawrence. From there, they can pick up a waterway that will take them down into Lake Champlain where they can come ashore at Burlington. With a little luck they can thumb a ride down to South Burlington to complete their dastardly mission.
"Release the Cyborg Zombie Squid!"
Posted by: Zeno
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August 9, 2010 11:09 AM
Trolls are a curious and benighted breed. The severely addled Dennis Markuze, who apparently has enough time on his hands to favor my tiny blog with over 500 deranged comments in just the past year, is another case in point. (You'd think that would be difficult to do with his head so far up his ass, but somehow he manages.) The current preamble to his ever-lengthening screed is
THE RUBBER DUCKY OF PSEUDOSCIENCE III - PZ MYERS
It makes about as much sense as anything else in his incontinent drivel.
Examples like Davison and Markuze suggest that we still have a long way to go in providing adequate mental health care for the profoundly deranged.
Posted by: Brian, Defender of Tone Trolls
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August 9, 2010 11:13 AM
Oh dear.
Oh dearie me.
He's terrifying alright, but not for the reasons he thinks.
Posted by: Carlie of the lacy, gently wafting adjectives
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August 9, 2010 11:13 AM
I love it so?
Posted by: beeblebrox28#2b746
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August 9, 2010 11:15 AM
You should forward those to the people in charge of hiring at the University of Vermont. Sad that they have a kook like that in their ranks.
Posted by: KG
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August 9, 2010 11:24 AM
H A DavisonI see. A brutal intellectual tyranny. But an apathetic one. They're the worst kind.
Walton,
It doesn't look like dementia to me: his vocabulary is extensive, and at sentence level, it's coherent. More likely a personality disorder, I'd say.
Posted by: NoYourGod
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August 9, 2010 11:24 AM
When you hit delete, did his emails go to email heaven?
Posted by: Brian, Defender of Tone Trolls
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August 9, 2010 11:25 AM
I've had a look around his home page. Among other things, I found a lengthy complaint about how he has been treated by the leadership of the university; it covers the period 1991 - 2000.
http://www.uvm.edu/~jdavison/uvm-antidarwinian.html
Apparently his courses have been cancelled, he hasn't had a salary increase since the early 1990's and no one in leadership - and there have been several appointments in the period - will talk to him.
He's an unhappy fellow, or at least he was in 2000. Things may have gone downhill since then.
Posted by: hyperdeath
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August 9, 2010 11:26 AM
Whatever happened to the "VMartin" fellow who used to suck up to him?
Was he just a sockpuppet, or is he a real person (as suggested by his separate entry in PZ's dungeon)?
Posted by: elronxenu
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August 9, 2010 11:29 AM
"remove God from every aspect of Western Civilization"?
Sounds good to me. God can come back when he/she/it proves that it exists. It could be a long time ...
Posted by: Sastra
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August 9, 2010 11:31 AM
I'm not sure whether you're being cruel, or being kind.
Although this guy obviously has a few screws loose, I wouldn't be so quick to judge him as technically mentally ill. There's a large, deep gray zone between normal and clinically insane, and it's labeled "eccentric." The people who fall in are known as "cranks."
Cranks walk among us -- and they often pass for normal enough when it comes to the ordinary wear and tear of living. They cope pretty well; they don't destroy their lives; they're not schizophrenic. They're the uncle who thinks the moon landings were faked; they're the neighbor who disproves Einstein on the computer; they're the friend who swears that she's got a telepathic connection with her poodle. If you can get them off the subject you might never know they were a crank.
Of course, part of what makes them a crank in the first place is that it's pretty hard to get them off the subject that they're a crank on.
Davison has a bee in his bonnet. He's nuts, but not necessarily crazy crazy. Even with all the emails, it could still qualify as just a really annoying habit somebody ought to break Uncle John of one of these days. Too much time on the computer is not necessarily OCD. Could be bad case of SIWOTI.
Posted by: PZ Myers
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August 9, 2010 11:41 AM
Oh, man, Dennis M*rk*ze -- I've managed to prune him out of the blog fairly effectively, but he still duns me with email. I get 20-30 ranty repetitive email messages from DM every day, and he still regularly forwards his garbage to every faculty member at UMM.
Note that he's from Montreal, and JAD is from Vermont, not far away. Maybe they should get together and shout at each other.
Posted by: MrFire
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August 9, 2010 11:43 AM
:(
He is Jor-El!
*TvTropes alert*
Posted by: Bernard Bumner
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August 9, 2010 11:45 AM
A man ranting could be misguided, self-righteous, passionate, but a man ranting at an empty room is more likely to be crazy crazy.
How long do you spend sending hate-letters to the void, before you realise that the void doesn't care?
106 missives is crazy crazy simply by virtue of number.
Posted by: David Marjanović
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August 9, 2010 11:46 AM
And then I read on.
<headshake> X-)
While I am at it, who is Elsberry? Why does JAD expect to be cited when he doesn't publish in the first place (a manifesto [!!!] on the Internet doesn't count)? And why the fuck does he claim there's an "ascending sequence" in the fossil record when the fucking sauropods are fucking extinct!?!?!
Or after tenure, har har.
They must have a lot of cyborg implants then. For, presumably, some reason, there are no freshwater cephalopods and never have been*.
* How do we know? Because otherwise they'd have flooded the world's freshwater (pardon the pun) in the Carboniferous, and a lot of vertebrate evolution would doubtless never have happened.
Unless JAD speaks Slovak and can at will make distinctly nonnative, consistent errors in his English (errors that fit Slovak as well as several other languages), he's not VMartin.
:-)
Posted by: johnlil#0a224
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August 9, 2010 11:46 AM
There are clearly elements of grandiosity and paranoia there, although not enough (as far as I know - I'm not a shrink) to diagnose something.
But I agree it's not Alzheimer's. I've seen that, and his sentences are too coherent.
He may just be one of those guys who got tenure who shouldn't have. We've all known a few. Apparently the only way they could get rid of him was to cancel his classes. I'm sure he was humiliated. I kind of feel sorry for him. The University of Vermont must cringe every time he writes anything.
Posted by: NewEnglandBob
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August 9, 2010 11:47 AM
I had some personal correspondence with Davison a while back. He truly is a nut case.
Posted by: legistech
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August 9, 2010 11:47 AM
He can't think of any other reason a person might not want to give their private mail to a ranting stranger on the internet who is, by his own admission, ignored everywhere? And when his plan is to post the names publically?
I don't think he's crazy, but he is delusional.
Posted by: wÒÓ†
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August 9, 2010 11:59 AM
John A. Davison is a misunderstood genius and his semimeiotic hypothesis will prove all of you Darwintardz WRONG!
HOW ELSE DO YOU EXPLAIN PYGMIES AND DWARFS?
Posted by: BioGILF
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August 9, 2010 12:02 PM
Paul Zachary--such a nice name! Sounds like JAD needs to give up maple syrup and Ben & Jerry's. The sugar coma must be giving him these untenable hallucinations
Posted by: Shplane, some shit in french
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August 9, 2010 12:09 PM
PZ Myers: Master of the Darwinian Triumvirate.
Awesome.
Posted by: Legion
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August 9, 2010 12:11 PM
So sad. Somebody should send him a puppy for Christmas.
signed, Legion.
Our "real" name, honestly.
Posted by: Glen Davidson
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August 9, 2010 12:13 PM
Poor poor John. Didn't Rivista get him all of the exposure he needed?
The funny thing about ID, including John's sad little manifesto, is that it has never had anything to recommend it, since not having an explanation is what it's actually all about. Yet the PR campaign has forced people to notice, and to point out the glaring defects. Mainly in Behe's, Dembski's, and (to a lesser extent) Meyer's plodding apologetics, but John's has been considered as well.
Of course UD has been "privileged" to look at what John proffers, yet there's no meaningful difference between any ID, so why bother with John's version? Most of the creationists remain YECs anyhow, and aren't interested in "directed evolution" or whatever's being presented, and they just love evolution being bashed.
Scientific irrelevance is sorely persecuted by being ignored as irrelevance.
Oh, and if this is true,
it's a more recent development, because he's certainly used socks to get back onto Panda's Thumb.
Glen Davidson
Posted by: loocas
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August 9, 2010 12:15 PM
Maybe he should get a betta or a cactus to talk to.
His demanding to bring his ideas into a debate with scientists sounds to me like jumping into the ocean and demanding to a lobster that he be allowed to breath underwater.
Posted by: Stephen_P
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August 9, 2010 12:16 PM
It's worth checking his CV for a bit of perspective.
- He got his first degree in 1950, so is now probably now 80+. I wonder how many people here will still be in full command of their faculties when they reach that age?
- He seems to have been a reasonably normal minor researcher up until he was hired by the University of Vermont in 1967.
- He then seems to have been a very unproductive researcher until the mid-70's, and went off the rails in the decade after that.
Posted by: Aquaria
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August 9, 2010 12:18 PM
What is needed is a confrontation in which the enemy is forced to confront their adversaries in a public forum, something that they are loathe to do because they know they will lose.
There is a public forum. It's called the peer-review process.
That a professor of biology refuses to accept that = bugfuck insane.
Posted by: Brownian, Most Vicious & Petty of Pharyngulites
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August 9, 2010 12:19 PM
Too true, Sastra. A friend of mine was at a wedding the other day and stepped outside the hall for some fresh air when he was approached by another guest. The fellow was affable, pleasant, and well-spoken. My friend had no idea anything was amiss until the mysterious stranger brought up telepathy; he's not in contact with his poodle, but he is linked with Sarah McLachlan (she was incorporeally sitting next to him in an empty seat throughout the ceremony, apparently. He was given the power of telepathy by Jesus and is now a prophet for his church, he told my friend, ending with a conspiratorial whisper: "but you already knew that, because you're one too!" I similarly had a neighbour who was generally harmless if not a bit paranoid until he let slip that he was married to Lisa Marie Presley (though I'm supposed to keep that under my hat—she doesn't like the attention. What is it with female singer-songwriters that attracts this sort of kook?). I was honestly perplexed by this for a while (was he kidding? Was she slumming?) until I started noticing discrepancies in his story whenever he told it. On another occasion he let slip that he was John Lennon's secret half-brother, and he'd just finished recording a track with Sir Paul McCartney over the phone when I stopped by to say hello. That's when I learned not to ask questions.
Another friend of mine who works in a homeless shelter was telling me this isn't uncommon. People like this can have full-on delusions, though you'd never know they had it unless they bring up the subject.
Of course, all of this makes little ol' neurotic me wonder what my delusion is. I'll have to watch more carefully to see which subject I rant about (of the many) that causes my friends and family to clear their throats uncomfortably and stare at their shoes.
With respect to JAD, what strikes me most is his loneliness and desperation, the latter perhaps over the fact that he seems semi-aware that the reality of his delusion doesn't quite jibe with the rest of reality. "I read their blogs and see no support for my science anywhere. Like my sources I too do not exist.", "Not a soul has offered to support my suggestion", "If there really are those who agree with me, where are they to be found? I can't find them." Maybe I'm wrong, but my neighbour displayed the same sort of irritated sadness whenever questioned about his secret marriage to Lisa Marie. It seemed obvious to both of us that he was just making up shit off the top of his head to explain why they didn't live together, how they met, etc. and would get grumpy if pressed too hard on the details.
Posted by: https://me.yahoo.com/hairychris444#96384
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August 9, 2010 12:23 PM
@Sastra
As I remember hearing - from somewhere, possibly Blackadder of all things - the only difference between an eccentric and a madman is the money!
Posted by: sheik.djibouti.al.nayt
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August 9, 2010 12:24 PM
One other odd thing about JAD---he's not an AGW denier, unlike many in the ID crowd.
Posted by: Pareidolius
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August 9, 2010 12:28 PM
Feeding the Bulldog (an its many possible variants) must join Goats on Fire on the wall in the Krazy Krank Hall of Fame.
I just can't wait to use it today . . . "Gee Stan, I know you've worked on that presentation all night but it just isn't feeding my bulldog at all.
Posted by: sasqwatch
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August 9, 2010 12:33 PM
Sounds like what happens when pointing out the philosophical inconsistencies of a religiot.
Posted by: colluvial
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August 9, 2010 12:38 PM
Landlocked, you say!!
Lake Champlain connects to the Atlantic Ocean and was the site of many naval battles during the War of 1812. Fewer of those kind of things these days, though.
While real squids might not find fresh water any less intimidating than dry land, a cyborg zombie squid might appreciate a Vermont vacation.
Posted by: Anubis Bloodsin the third
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August 9, 2010 12:38 PM
Really....'CLINTON'...I had no idea.
Posted by: Brownian, Most Vicious & Petty of Pharyngulites
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August 9, 2010 12:42 PM
Yes. Thankfully, I never heard "You know, you dogmatic alisamariepresleyists are just as bad as religious fundamentalists!" from him.
Posted by: SteveM
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August 9, 2010 12:43 PM
A senior friend of ours is convinced that her cockatoo is channeling the spirit of Oskar Werner (Fahrenheit 451, Ship of Fools, Jules and Jim, etc.). But that seems to be the only thing really kooky about her.
Posted by: BilBy
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August 9, 2010 12:57 PM
I am on the editorial board of a zoology journal, a quite well-respected one, and eventually, in desperation, the editorial assistant sent me a submission to deal with from an author who simply would not take kind and firm rebuttals. It was an anti-evolution, creationist rant that was relatively easy to gut and spatchcock ready for the braai, but was interesting in that each paragraph followed the same pattern: relatively normal (if wrong) start - evolutionary point, counter point, descent into screaming spittley rage. Para break. Resume. After two pages of this, I liked to imagine the author having to have a whimpering lie down between rants, then gathering his/her strength, and then starting again after a restorative suck at the whisky bottle. There is something in the style of JAD's screed that makes me wonder if I was lucky enough to have had one of his recycled blog posts to deal with.
Posted by: Silič O'Nopolitanopoulos, Färschdbischuf Beesknees aus Ulm und Klein Elguth, Elector Pharynguline.
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August 9, 2010 1:10 PM
Did anyone ever find out what happened to that other poor soul (a proper scientist as I recall it), who seemed to go schizophrenic in the middle of his conference poster? I seem to recall he left some depressing replies on the thread in question.
(No, not Fleury. He's just nuts.)
Posted by: Ray Moscow
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August 9, 2010 1:13 PM
PZ, you are a kind fellow after all. You've just increased traffic at his web site at least 1000-fold. I just went to have a look myself.
This won't make him less crazy, but at least he won't be so lonely.
Posted by: Sastra
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August 9, 2010 1:16 PM
Brownian, OM #43 wrote:
Hm. Maybe I'm wrong, but your examples of "cranks" sound to me more like examples of psychotics, and don't really seem to fit into my point. Mentally ill people can often function well at most times -- but I still wouldn't put them in the same category as cranks. I see a perhaps small but crucial difference between someone who believes they have a psychic attachment to their pets -- and can often "just tell" when their doggy wants a walk -- and someone who literally thinks they can communicate with Sarah McLaughlin, or were once married to Lisa Marie Presley. As you say, there is a significant disconnect with reality in those last two examples: they are full-blown delusions. For one thing, they are far too specific, and far too easily falsified.
I think there's another category which contains what might be termed garden-variety delusional thinking. Consider all the people who regularly pray to God, and just as regularly get answers. And yet, there's a line they're not crossing. God only seems to tell them things that a wise parent, minister, or counselor might also tell them. Or that they might tell themselves, if they were being honest with themselves.
I have a Mormon friend who was once married to a schizophrenic. In the LDS church, all men are priests, and all men get guidance from God. She confessed to me once that it was very hard for her to tell when "Bob" was really getting messages from God, and when he was simply off his meds. He would suddenly say things like "God is telling me we have to leave this park, and drive across the state to have our picnic in another park" and my poor friend would have to pack up the food and children and comply ... just in case it was a genuine revelation. They would end up eating in the dark.
My point, I guess, is that, though cautious, she was really pretty sure the revelation from God wasn't. "Bob" was literally crazy, and even a faith-soaked Mormon who "knows" that God speaks to His priests and prophets could catch on to it. The people in her church also had little problem telling ordinary Mormon mystical bullshit apart from genuine psychosis. I think that's interesting.
Posted by: darvolution proponentsist
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August 9, 2010 1:22 PM
David Marjanović@31
A quite respectable fellow who, among other things, is a (the?) founder of antievolution.org. If you haven't been, it's a great forum to visit. Most of the activity is in the After The Bar Closes section which John "I love it so" Davidson whined about in the email. AtBC is tied to Panda's Thumb as their forum area.
Be sure to see the "Uncommonly Dense" threads documenting the intellectually dishonest antics of the Uncommon Descent website. It's a thrill a minute complete with posts that magically disappear into the aether and silent "banninations" that conveniently, to onlookers, make it appear as though the "darwinist" has fled the thread. The DI, Luskin, and other anti-evo players get coverage as well.
Posted by: Glen Davidson
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August 9, 2010 1:23 PM
Nothing like subjecting some poor hapless dolt who might mistake John as some kind of scientist to his "what have you done for me lately?" screed.
I love it so.
Drive every last person away, John. Why have even 20 hits per day?
How do you like them strawberries? With cream and sugar?
Glen Davidson
Posted by: Midwifetoad
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August 9, 2010 1:27 PM
Doesn't seem likely, but perhaps he's discovered the mysteries of bcc.
Posted by: Silič O'Nopolitanopoulos, Färschdbischuf Beesknees aus Ulm und Klein Elguth, Elector Pharynguline.
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August 9, 2010 1:28 PM
Speaking of descending into incoherent babbling ...Posted by: Disturbingly Openminded
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August 9, 2010 1:33 PM
"…someday my minions will play on your lawn."
I did once step on the lawn of someone in the White Mountains in neighboring New Hampshire. If the guy had had a shotgun handy, he might have shot me. He was apoplectic. I apologized and backed away very slowly. He was so angry that I was afraid -- truly afraid -- to ask what the big deal was. I can only surmise that lawns are very hard to grow in that part of New England.
So be careful, PZ.
Posted by: Joffan
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August 9, 2010 1:36 PM
How dare Davison frustrate the cyborg zombie squid squad by isolating himself from saltwater! It's just playing dirty!
On an unrelated note, anyone want to buy a beach villa?
Posted by: Pastor Farm
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August 9, 2010 1:38 PM
It upsets me that his initials spell out JAD as Jad Abumrad is one of my favorite radio hosts.
Posted by: SkullVodka
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August 9, 2010 1:43 PM
The University of Vermont should be very, very embarrassed. I'm embarrassed for them.
Posted by: Gregory Greenwood
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August 9, 2010 1:47 PM
No, no, no. These emails are all improperly signed. The signature should read;
"John A. Davison, USA Word-Salad Champion, University of Vermont. Mailing address: L4 Grandview Drive, South Burlington, VT 05403."
I had no idea that being ignored by people who are annoyed by your nonsensical babbling amounted to 'brutality'. Barflys and dinner boors everywhere; stand up for you human rights! Demand that everyone sit up and pay minute attention to your Grampa Simpson-esque ramblings! The suffering you experience when you are ignored is obviously exactly the same as the pain endured by those who are tortured and murdered by oppressive, totalitarian governments! Water boarding? Pah! 'Tis nothing when set against the indescribable agony of not being listened to! The utter desolation of not being taken seriously! The torment of being treated like the babbling nincompoop that you manifestly are!
You heard it here first, folks! A scientific theory that has mountains of evidential support is mere 'mysticism'. Whereas, obviously, mindless adherence to unevidenced Bronze Age mythology is the height of reason...
Not 'opponents' or 'dissenting voices' notice, but 'enemies'. Methinks Davison is taking this entire business somewhat personally...
Someone clearly doesn't know what 'enlightened' means.
This is an inevitable aspect of the cycle of civilisation, an inescapable fact of a universe ruled by entropy. It is also a fact that cannot be circumvented no matter how much you make entreaties to an imaginary magic man in the sky.
Shiny, shiny mirror...
Actually, I do not care which particular flavour of delusion is favoured by a given theist, just so long as no effort is made to use that delusion to try to control the lives of other people or propogate an anti-intellectual, pseudo-scientific view of the universe as fact. Unfortunately, few indeed are the believers who are able to keep their beliefs private and their noses out of others people's business, especially when it comes to the bedroom...
No, the reason is that people see you for the delusional, fundamentalist moron that you are. Newsflash, friend. It is not the Dark Ages anymore. Millions of people have already moved on from your preferred superstition. Get over it, or be left behind with the other anachronisms.
Posted by: Brownian, Most Vicious & Petty of Pharyngulites
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August 9, 2010 1:59 PM
@Sastra,
Ah, I think I see the distinction you're making. Thanks for the clarification.
I think that's interesting as well. It seems with most mainstream theists, religion is only done right when it's half-assed. It's cool if God talks to you, but only if he does so in vague feelings of assurance and well-being, rather than with an actual voice. Similarly, though Jesus explicity says multiple times that a follower with sufficient faith can move mountains, most Christians would consider it a criminal act to pray for your child's recovery from a life-threatening condition rather than seeking secular, medical help.
Christ: according to his followers, he's one of the smartest and wisest humans to ever have lived, and yet even they agree his advice, if followed literally, should land you in jail.
Now, that's some PR.
Posted by: JeffreyD
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August 9, 2010 2:00 PM
Well, all of this is interesting, but what does john k*ok think about all of this? Why has john k not signed this petition. Has JK defriended or befriended him on facebook? WWKD (what would k*ok do)?
(And why do I have an urge to go buy a Leica camera body?)
Posted by: BilBy
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August 9, 2010 2:09 PM
Sorry Sili @#59 - came over all S. African there. Braai = barbecue, spatchcock = a chicken flattened out like roadkill (delicious delicious roadkill)to grill it quicker
Posted by: David Marjanović
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August 9, 2010 2:10 PM
Hi, wÒÓ†! Welcome back!!! <jumping up and down, waving frantically>
Thanks. Unfortunately I don't have time for Panda's Thumb or antievolution.org except for rare occasional visits, and Pharyngula tells me all I need to know about Uncommonly Dense, so I don't need to give them any traffic. :-)
Posted by: Alice Bluegown
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August 9, 2010 2:14 PM
So who is Gary Hitch, and when is he coming over here to "feed the bulldog"?
[this is assuming he's not one of AtBC's deep cover sockpuppets - those guys are the Anonymous of evolutionary biology]
Posted by: Erulóra (formerly KOPD)
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August 9, 2010 2:17 PM
Oh, I'm pretty sure it's okay if he talks to you in an actual voice. But if that voice is coming from your toaster, you're obviously nuts.Posted by: grudgedk
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August 9, 2010 2:28 PM
The first sign of watching too much Fox News is incorrectly attributing more or less famous quotes to the founding fathers of the USA. The quote is actually one of the many translations of the narrative from Communist filmmaker Sergei Bondarchuk's movie adaptation of "War & Peace". The reason so many English variants exist, is because it was originally spoken in Russian.So congratulations on projecting the words of a Communist propagandist onto Thomas Jefferson. I'd love to sign your little petition to see your "science" publicly mocked, however since you can't even correctly do a wikiquote search on Thomas Jefferson, I doubt your "scientific theory" is any more compelling.
You really should pay a little more attention to what the likes of PZ Myers and Dawkins are saying, because as Jefferson once (actually) wrote: "Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself. She seldom has received much aid from the power of great men to whom she is rarely known & seldom welcome. She has no need of force to procure entrance into the minds of men. Error indeed has often prevailed by the assistance of power or force. Truth is the proper & sufficient antagonist to error."
How long do you spend praying to the void, before you realize the void doesn't care? Sadly evidence suggests entire life times...Posted by: Brownian, Most Vicious & Petty of Pharyngulites
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August 9, 2010 2:32 PM
Amazing! My microwave told me the exact same thing!
Posted by: PBackus
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August 9, 2010 2:33 PM
Instead of cyborg zombie squid, perhaps a cylon moose would work. It's only one state away.
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/08/08/cylon-moose-guards-h.html
Posted by: Cory Meyer
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August 9, 2010 2:35 PM
Mr. Davison ran for governor of Vermont in 2000. I guess he's still upset about the loss.
Posted by: blf
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August 9, 2010 2:40 PM
Professor Davidson is a prime example of what happens when the Reptilian replication process goes haywire. The subject was identified in a pre-screening programme as an individual who would likely propose or effectively advocate a possible paradigm shift. This is risky to the Reptilian's project, so it was decided to replace him with a harmless replicant.
The subject was therefore transported up to a mothership and underwent the usual procedure. The replicant seemed of adequate quality and so was returned to the target planet. This left the usual problem of disposing what was left of the subject.
The subsequent investigation found that proper procedures of the time were followed, and the subject's messy organic remains teleported into the system's star. Observations of the increasingly bizarre alleged replicant on the target planet, plus the total lack of telemetry from the implanted monitors, made clear what had actually happened: It is the subject's still-animate remains which are on the target planet, and the replicant was teleported into the Sun. Precisely how the mistake happened has never been revealed, but changes to the procedure and a few leaks lead most observers to believe a cockroach sneaked into the braincase at a critical moment.
The subject's actions on the target planet do appear to be at about a cockroach's level of comprehension.
Posted by: Brianblackberry
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August 9, 2010 3:05 PM
Wait.. This guy is a retired professor from the University of Vermont? That can't be right...
Posted by: Sven DiMilo
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August 9, 2010 3:22 PM
It's heartwarming to see generation after generation of Pharyngulistas discover JAD. He is a legend of the internets, and has been for many years.
Yes, he was once a fair-to-middling comparative physiologist. No, he is not officially Emeritus; he has bestowed that title upon himself. Yes, he is a crank to crankily beat all other crankity biology cranks. A unique piece o work at which we mere mortals can only stare with slackjawed awe.
Posted by: Moggie
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August 9, 2010 3:28 PM
If "feeding the bulldog" isn't a euphemism for some preverted sex act, it should be.
Posted by: Pareidolius
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August 9, 2010 3:38 PM
The more I think about it, the more I think this deserves some T-shirt art . . .
Posted by: Erulóra (formerly KOPD)
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August 9, 2010 3:41 PM
I like the idea. Taking suggestions now!Posted by: Infectious
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August 9, 2010 3:44 PM
Dembski thinks the ol' professor is the bee's knees
http://www.uncommondescent.com/evolution/john-a-davisons-new-blog/
Posted by: ladyh42
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August 9, 2010 3:45 PM
I just have to say that The Otter God at #10 wins an Internet :)
Posted by: rcneufeld
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August 9, 2010 3:48 PM
Referring to you as 'Dawkins' is odd, but who on Heaven and Earth is 'Pee Zee'?
Clearly he has confused Pee Zed with some other chap. Poor guy.
Posted by: Anubis Bloodsin the third
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August 9, 2010 4:02 PM
#81
Ahh!... yea but, no but, yea but...Dembski thinks a lot of things, and not much has actually panned out for the dude...if anything!
Posted by: Uzziel
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August 9, 2010 4:04 PM
I just read his 'manifesto' at http://www.uvm.edu/~jdavison/uvm-antidarwinian.html and I really pity Professor Davison. His writing reads like Charles Kinbote's in Nabokov's novel Pale Fire.
I genuinely feel sorry for him.
Posted by: 'Tis Himself, Quel Dommage
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August 9, 2010 4:12 PM
I read Professor Davidson's screed. Rarely have I read something so pathetic. It translates into "won't someone please pay attention to me?"
Posted by: SteveM
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August 9, 2010 4:23 PM
re 83:
Whatever JAD's other issues, you do realize that Americans pronounce the letter "Z" as "zee", not "zed"?
Posted by: Robert H
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August 9, 2010 4:25 PM
grudgedk @71
The common presentation of your quotation is Edmund Burke's "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." but "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, and unpaid sacrifice in a contemptible struggle" is apparently what Burke actually said in 1770. Your quote is an obvious paraphrase, regardless of whom it was attributed.
I used to have the first quote in my classroom-amazing how often it was a good teaching tool for analysis of historical and current events.
I wonder if you actually have seen Bondarchuk's War and Peace, or read the book for that matter. I don't mean to appear rude or snippy but neither was meant as a work of propaganda. The movie was brilliant, and remains one of the highest regarded films of all time. I remain in awe of it 40 some years after seeing it.
In the end, don't rely on others' misinformation. Use your intellect and do your own work.
Posted by: SteveM
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August 9, 2010 4:28 PM
Maybe JAD is using the magic of "bcc" when he address you as Dr. Dawkins, but this is less excusable:
You would think that after all this time and obsession he would at least get that right.
Posted by: blf
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August 9, 2010 4:32 PM
Easily fixed with a lump hammer.
Posted by: TheCalmOne
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August 9, 2010 4:37 PM
I love the way he spells his name backwards to get his email address, like some kind of Boy Scout secret code.
Posted by: toddcaton
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August 9, 2010 4:38 PM
Refudiate suberfuge!
Posted by: Hypatia's Daughter
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August 9, 2010 4:48 PM
#77 Sven DiMilo
Which is SOP for the kooky CreoId crowd. Fake titles; or titles from fake institutions. Like Napoleon crowning himself Emporer or the medals on the chest of a banana republic dictator.....Posted by: --PatF in Madison
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August 9, 2010 5:01 PM
Always remember that "emeritus" comes from the Latin.
"e" meaning "out"
"meritus" meaning "ought to be"
Freely translated, of course.
Posted by: MJP
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August 9, 2010 5:04 PM
I'm American, and I say "zed." Once you learn about the difference, you realize that "zee" sounds retarded.
Posted by: Kieranfoy, Faerie Godfather of Death, GMKSC, OED
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August 9, 2010 5:06 PM
Oh, come on. That's obviously when one parter rubs his or her bits with a juicy, dripping steak, and the other partner... well, the usual, but very messily.
Yeah, imma pervert.
Posted by: khan
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August 9, 2010 5:16 PM
I recall hearing that phrase more than 40 years ago. IIRC it was Jonathan Winters.
Posted by: Mattir-ritated
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August 9, 2010 5:23 PM
I haven't read through this whole thread yet, but holy crap, Davison has a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota? Wow. PZ, the woo-funding you complain about makes more sense now.
Posted by: Vicki, Chief Assistant to the Assistant Chief
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August 9, 2010 5:25 PM
MJP--
Be careful using "zed" when talking to Americans. There's a z in my name, and at one point, I spelled it aloud using "zed" instead of "zee as in zebra." The person duly wrote down ...z-e-d... instead of just z.
Despite being an American, I will use "zed" if I'm talking to someone I know or guess is from a Commonwealth country, because it usually reduces confusion. But not always.
But why am I giving practical advice to people who describe accent differences as sounding "retarded"?
Posted by: jason.freund4
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August 9, 2010 5:26 PM
Too funny. Self appointed emeritus status ;-)
Here is the University of Vermont Biology faculty page: http://www.uvm.edu/~biology/?Page=faculty/faculty.php&SM=facultysubmenu.html
Posted by: Arancaytar
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August 9, 2010 5:35 PM
Be very, very afraid, PZ; he knows your first name and is not afraid to use it! Clearly a man to be reckoned with.
Posted by: Brownian, Most Vicious & Petty of Pharyngulites
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August 9, 2010 5:38 PM
Ooh, I just got a visual that I am keeping to myself.
Posted by: Erulóra (formerly KOPD)
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August 9, 2010 5:47 PM
So is it just Z that's pronounced differently outside the US? Or does the alphabet song start "a bed said dead"?
Posted by: Cyber_Phoenix
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August 9, 2010 5:49 PM
This reminds me of a good rule of thumb I read somewhere:
"Never engage in debates with stupid people. They'll drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience."
Posted by: rcaseybouch
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August 9, 2010 5:51 PM
lol..."suberfuge"...
Posted by: Draken
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August 9, 2010 5:59 PM
I read somewhere that Davison went bonkers after some personal tragedy more than 20 years ago, but I can't find the link anymore.
In that case, it's a bit tragical.
Posted by: skeptical_hippo
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August 9, 2010 6:02 PM
But then the alphabet song doesn't rhyme... ;)
Posted by: BilBy
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August 9, 2010 6:10 PM
Zed vs Zee - the difference is useful! JayZee is a singer; JayZed is the South African president, Jacob Zuma's, nickname.
Posted by: MadScientist
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August 9, 2010 6:15 PM
I couldn't even read his garbage - the stupid is painful! When will something from Rupe Sheldrake be posted? Hahahahaha.
The kooks have so much in common; M. Gardner wrote about how they have this persecution complex and how they rant about how stupid the contemporary scientists are and how the "orthodox science" is about to crumble and give way to their brilliant theory of everything - and yet everything they write is just paranoid and mindless shit.
Posted by: https://me.yahoo.com/a/SaqGVG0xvJEQVwURVamS3DTCdvov0BLhXK1jOsYPPJQ-#b4893
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August 9, 2010 6:16 PM
More, PZ, More! Your minions demand to see more!
Pretty please?
MikeM
Posted by: sLUCIDITy
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August 9, 2010 6:21 PM
Speaking of cranks...Has anyone seen Kw*k around recently. My favourite of all time.
Hmmm, I might go looking for him actually. He must have a whole warehouse full of cameras by now.
Posted by: Brownian, Most Vicious & Petty of Pharyngulites
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August 9, 2010 6:23 PM
It depends where you are outside the US. As far as I know, Canadians are the only people who start the alphabet and end every sentence with the same letter: eh.
Posted by: SteveM
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August 9, 2010 6:27 PM
Then please, explain. All I know is that the europeans pronounce it "zed" and we unitedstatesians say "zee". I assumed the British "zed" was from the French and America dropped the "d" when we dropped the "u" from "colour". But if there is a difference other than just regional convention, I'd appreciate knowing.
Posted by: Robert H
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August 9, 2010 6:32 PM
Brownian, OM @102
That's very selfish of you.
Posted by: Sal Bro
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August 9, 2010 6:58 PM
Out of curiosity, can someone please esplain me the semi-meiotic theory that Davison is obsessed with? My vague understanding is that he's proposing that evolution took place when critters only asexually reproduced via semi-meiosis, but that we no longer evolve since we've moved onto sexual reproduction aided by full-blown meiosis.
It just makes me wonder if he thinks that animals/plants/bacteria that still use asexual reproduction are susceptible to evolution. (I don't wonder enough to want to engage him, though.)
Posted by: theshortearedowl
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August 9, 2010 7:33 PM
It is possible I will be banned for doing this, but here we go:
http://hkusua.hku.hk/~cdbeling/Semi-Meiosis.pdf
Posted by: orandat
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August 9, 2010 7:40 PM
I tried that suberfuge stuff once. It sucked. I asked for my money back.
Posted by: theshortearedowl
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August 9, 2010 8:08 PM
I am attempting to work through Professor Davison's groundbreaking paper of 1984, Semi-Meiosis as an Evolutionary Mechanism, J. theor. Biol. 111 pp.725-735. As far as I can tell, he is fascinated by the possibility that sexual reproduction has had independent origins in vertebrates, due to both embryological and chromosomal evidence!!! Wow. Unfortunately, I just keep banging my poor little grad student brain up against pronouncements I can't quite make sense of, such as:
"Implicit in Darwin's theory is the assumption that sexual reproduction is the mechanism producing the differences that natural selection acts upon to produce the ultimately large differences we see in the living world. Attractive as the idea is, it has yet to be demonstrated that any creature reproducing by obligatory sexual means is capable of evolution beyond the generic level."
And:
"The translocation or inversion of a chromosome segment is an all-or-none event, an occurrence which incompatible with the Darwinian notion of gradualism. The semi-meiotic mechanism, moreover, remains compatible with the apparent absence of intermediate forms in the fossil record, and in fact suggests that such intermediate forms may not have existed, a view shared both by Goldschmidt (1940), and the paleontologist Schindewolf (1936)."
This makes it hard to concentrate on the rest. Maybe I will try again at some point. But I think others have already; there seems to be a reply and counter reply in the same journal.
Posted by: Coleslaw
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August 9, 2010 8:23 PM
I'm jealous. He gets 20 hits a day? I am lucky if I get 20 hits a month. Of course, there's a reason for that - my blog is not particularly good and it would be hard to come up with 20 people a day who had nothing better to do than read it, but then, how does John Davison find his 20 bored souls? At least my blog posts do not diverge from terrestrial reality. Or maybe that's the problem.
Posted by: rprcvl
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August 9, 2010 8:25 PM
SteveM,
The "zed" is older and dates back to the Greek "zeta' via the French. People in the American colonies started using "zee" around 1670.
Anybody who claims that an accent difference like that makes one sound "retarded" is likely a self important ass as well as knowing as little about Linguistics as Ken Ham does about biology.
Posted by: echidna
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August 9, 2010 8:25 PM
From Wikipedia:
Posted by: FossilFishy
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August 9, 2010 8:37 PM
As a Canadian living in Australia I get a lot of good-natured guff about being indistinguishable from an American. Pointing out that I Use zed instead of zee is one of my defenses. Sure it's a minor difference but you try sharing a border with the world's largest cultural powerhouse and you'll be grasping at straws too. :)
Posted by: Steven Dunlap
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August 9, 2010 8:51 PM
A few results from some quick research:
1.) He was a professor at University of Vermont. He still has some of his screeds up on his personal web pages on U of V's server. I compared the domain name to the one for the University. You can read his CV here. It looks like he spent most of his early career studying metabolism. I have confirmed on Digital Dissertations that he did indeed receive a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1955. It's also listed in his CV:
BODY WEIGHT, CELL SURFACE AND METABOLIC RATE IN ANURAN AMPHIBIA by DAVISON, JOHN AMERPOHL, Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1955 , 54 pages;
2.) He was an angry paranoid crank long before his Emeritus status. You can read the whole sad story for yourself. It's very sad. It reads like they tried to ease him out but he did not go quietly.
He "published" his first anti-Darwin screed when he was in his 50s. What brain maladies present at that age? Maybe he always thought himself the genius but waited until he had tenure before "going public" with his "revolutionary ideas?" His CV does not show him sticking around anywhere long enough to have acquired tenure at his previous employers. Did he try out his phylogeny thingy out on colleagues at the schools where he worked before then found himself out on his ass so fast his socks flew off? That might account for the persecution complex. Hard to say, this is all speculation on my part. Anyone know anything else?
Posted by: BoxNDox
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August 9, 2010 9:39 PM
We are indeed surrounded by cranks. We encounter them all the time, often without knowing it.
Recently this point was made to me in an amusing way by a friend, who reminded me of some history I had entirely forgotten.
Back in the late 80s and early 90s, our small company needed a lot of disk drives but didn't have a lot of money to spend. Enter Yosi, a guy with a discount computer hardware business. You could get high quality SCSI disks from Yosi at very low prices, and we bought a lot of them from him.
Yosi also sold hardware to another company with offices nearby: Daylight Chemical Information Systems. He eventually became the CEO of that company.
It transpired that both our company and Daylight made the Inc 500 list one year. I vaguely recall talking with Yosi and meeting his wife at the awards dinner.
So what does all this have to do with cranks? Well, it turns out that Yosi's full name is Yosef Taitz. And his wife's name is Orly Taitz.
Posted by: llewelly
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August 9, 2010 9:40 PM
PZ:
You haven't already tried forwarding M*rk*ze's emails to JAD and JAD's emails to M*rk*ze?
Posted by: llewelly
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August 9, 2010 9:50 PM
BoxNDox | August 9, 2010 9:39 PM:
This story reminds me of the day I discovered I was working for a nephew of "Papa Doc" François Duvalier. Yeah, this too was a computer business, why do you ask?
Posted by: FossilFishy
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August 9, 2010 10:01 PM
I want to live in a world where my daughter will never be limited in her choices by her genitalia.
I don't live in that world yet.
I want to live in a world where gender differences, or the lack thereof, in cognition are demonstrated with evidence.
We're getting there, but I don't yet live in that world either. And, as has been pointed out above over and over, I may never see that world because of the difficulty in factoring out cultural influences.
I was going to say, that until that second world comes to pass no one gets to limit my daughter because of unproven possibilities. But do you know what? Even if these supposed gender differences were to be demonstrated you still don't get to limit my daughter. What happens then is that we use that knowledge to build systems to overcome those biological limitations.
But never mind that, for now, anyone using speculation to justify gender inequality can FUCK OFF! (and yes that last is said with an unhealthy amount rage)
Posted by: triskelethecat
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August 9, 2010 10:03 PM
Hey wÒÓ†!!! So nice to see you back. I've missed the boobies. Any new ones?
Posted by: Troy Britain
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August 9, 2010 10:07 PM
I don't suppose it matters to this person that Wesley Elsberry is not in fact an atheist (unless he has changed his position very recently)? [/rhetorical question]
Posted by: FossilFishy
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August 9, 2010 10:08 PM
Shit. Wrong tab. Sorry.
Posted by: joeyess
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August 9, 2010 10:17 PM
This looks more like a pathetic attempt at amassing an email list than it does a challenge to debate.
Is this guy planning on running for office? If so, I suggest he relocate to Oklahoma or some such place where they don't suffer such fools so easily. In Vermont? He doesn't stand a chance.
Posted by: iamjustme
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August 9, 2010 10:21 PM
<singing>
A B C D, E F Gee
H I J K, L M N O Pee
Q R S, T U Vee
W X, Y and Zee
</singing>
'nuff said.
Posted by: joeyess
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August 9, 2010 10:21 PM
allow me to amend my post above:......
Posted by: Glen Davidson
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August 9, 2010 11:02 PM
Conservapedia:
Yeah, um, good luck with a citation that can back up the claims that he's a "biologist at the University of Vermont" and that he's been banned because the forums don't want to debate facts.
Anyone seen that old turd debate facts, rather than merely write hateful attacks against anyone who did discuss the facts?
Well, I think most here know the answer.
What I'm wondering is if his most recent blog, this time actually having several posts under which endless self-pitying comments were written by JAD and a few mindless sycophants, is down for good. I couldn't get to it, and I'm pretty sure that I did get through to it in the past. Some sort of French server.
Glen Davidson
Posted by: Aliasalpha
|
August 9, 2010 11:09 PM
It's so sad to see another innocent person afflicted b y Jack Thompson Syndrome, we must find a cure
Posted by: FossilFishy
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August 9, 2010 11:11 PM
iamjustme
Excellent, a new logical fallacy: the argument from rhyme! :)
Posted by: Frank b
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August 9, 2010 11:24 PM
Fossilfishy's misplaced comment reminds me of the Gubmint Bean Soup comment a while back. LOL Good times.
Posted by: sasqwatch
|
August 9, 2010 11:27 PM
And another... the argument from bad drink choices in yuppy bars (pubs).
Bartender... bring me a Zedma, over lime.
Posted by: Mattir-ritated
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August 9, 2010 11:29 PM
@iamjustme #132
What do you have against Ged, Ped, Ved, and Zed? Really now, what a limited view of the alphabet song...
Posted by: iamjustme
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August 9, 2010 11:29 PM
FossilFishy - argument from song thank you very much!
Posted by: iamjustme
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August 9, 2010 11:41 PM
@Mattir - well, that would still make "Pee Zed" wrong.
<singing>
Now I know my A B Ceds
Won't you come
and sing with mesing with Pee Zed?</singing>
Posted by: McCthulhu is taking ∞ to eat all the pi
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August 10, 2010 12:52 AM
Has he really gone into some sort of clinical version of dementia, either chemical or trauma-based, or has he fallen victim to that case of a life of hysterical, religious-based hand-wringing that causes paranoia and whatever other kinds of symptoms the delusional can conjure up. Until he's seen a shrink, I'll withhold my sympathies. Considering 106 emails could be considered harrassment, I would think a legal case could be made to have a mandatory assessment required as a precursor to a restraining order.
Posted by: flyonthewall
|
August 10, 2010 1:02 AM
A B C D, E F Gee
H I J K, L M N O Pee
Q R S, T U Vee
W X, Y, ZED
see how it delimites the alphabet nicely indicating that's the end. there's no more letters. ZED! is the last one.
:-)
Posted by: blf
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August 10, 2010 1:08 AM
Applies lump hammer several times…
Srry about the letter after N, the aim was a bit ff.
Dn't need that hrrible letter anyways.
Posted by: monado
|
August 10, 2010 2:04 AM
PZ has given us Canadians permission to call him
"P Zed" if we please. The only thing wrong with "Zed" as a pronunciation is the automatic snappy name fail for U.S. products or companies: E-Zed money lending? E-Zed Pest Removal? E-Zed Kleen?
Speaking of pest removal, PZ, you could probably as your IT department to put crazy DM on an IP blacklist or spam filter.
As an antidote to all this, I visited the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta today. In addition to an evolutionary perspective throughout, it has a small but lovely gallery explaining Darwinian natural selection, its principles, and its importance. There was also a replica of Darwin's notebook with his famous branching diagram of speciation. Pictures on Flickr next month, probably, if not sooner.
Posted by: RobertL
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August 10, 2010 2:13 AM
Mock JAD all you want (go ahead...I'll wait) but he has contributed the term "Darwinista".
I'll be happy to consider myself one of the Darwinista.
Does that mean that my enemies will now be armed illegally by the US government?
Posted by: SphericalBunny
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August 10, 2010 2:32 AM
Meh, people here are too fussy about about spelling + grammar - it's pretty obvious that Davison's tag was supposed to read 'Professor Amiritus? of Biology'.
Posted by: circleh
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August 10, 2010 3:34 AM
Don't waste your pity on that useless loon. As far as I'm concerned, he is fit only to be thrown into a tank full of sharks or piranhas. Not that I'd actually do that (even bloodthirsty fish deserve better respect than to have Davison for a meal), but I'd sooner do that than have a meal with him. He and David Mabus both belong in psycho wards.
Dale Husband
Posted by: rcneufeld
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August 10, 2010 3:37 AM
Re #87
I also realise Americans refer to certain carbonated beverages as "beer" despite its failure to reach minimum standards.
Dropping the 'u' from colour, the 'ed' from Zed, and alcohol from beverages...being American shouldn't mean one has dropped all standards surely. Are you certain?
Posted by: iamjustme
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August 10, 2010 4:03 AM
Mate, if your beer is carbonated you are doing something seriously wrong.
Posted by: Anubis Bloodsin the third
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August 10, 2010 4:42 AM
JAD should be voted to the board of the Dishonourable Institute.
They need such talent there!
Posted by: KG
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August 10, 2010 5:31 AM
- Robert L.I'd say they probably already are! As has been discussed on this blog, the US military has been heavily infiltrated by theocratic creationist loons, to very high command levels; and it's arguable that many of the US forces' weapons - notably nuclear bombs, phosphorus weapons, poisonous defoliants - are illegal under international law.
Posted by: Kliwon
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August 10, 2010 6:06 AM
#112
No they aren't, Brownian. That's how we spot northern Queenslanders here in Australia. The funny thing is, they don't realise that they are doing it.
Posted by: MarkW
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August 10, 2010 6:28 AM
A handy nonsense-rhyme to remember the alphabet backwards. Useful for winning bar-bets.
Said why, ex double your fee!
Your tee is our cue pee.
Oh, en, em, hell! Kay jay!
I hate gee,
If he deceive bee ay.
USAians can start the first line "See why"
Posted by: Alice Bluegown
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August 10, 2010 7:11 AM
Just noticed that JAD's petition has now garnered a whopping THREE sockpuppets - er, I mean, signatories. Way to go, John!
Posted by: Moggie
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August 10, 2010 7:18 AM
#154:
Children shouldn't be making bar bets. Adults should be sufficiently familiar with the alphabet that they don't need a mnemonic to remember it backwards. Seriously, why would you need this?
Posted by: MarkW
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August 10, 2010 8:00 AM
Pardon me for breathing.
Posted by: Moggie
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August 10, 2010 8:20 AM
Admittedly, I don't get so drunk in bars that I forget the alphabet. YMMV.
Posted by: MarkW
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August 10, 2010 8:26 AM
Everyone I've ever challenged to recite the alphabet backwards can't do it. And that includes sober people.
And apologies for the snark in #157.
Posted by: Moggie
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August 10, 2010 8:41 AM
Seems odd to me: I can recite it backwards nearly as quickly as I'd normally recite it forwards, and it would never have occurred to me that there's anything exceptional about that. But I'm a programmer, which perhaps demands a slightly unusual relationship with language. It would be interesting to know whether other programmers have the same ability.
Ha, if I were upset by that level of snark, I wouldn't hang out at Pharyngula!
Posted by: rejistania
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August 10, 2010 8:57 AM
JAD wrote:
Wow... even my blog which has nothing but words in a language no one but I speak and opinions about recreational language construction gets more hits. Today, I got 20 hits in just about 12 hours...
Posted by: Alice Bluegown
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August 10, 2010 9:34 AM
* directs baleful, envious glances at rejistania *
Posted by: MarkW
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August 10, 2010 9:40 AM
Moggie: What can I say? It's the impression I get from other people. However, I'm aware that my impression != data.
*shrugs*
Never mind.
Posted by: rejistania
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August 10, 2010 9:44 AM
Well, you use Flash and Word... so I can understand that people won't return. *evil grin*
Seriously, the site looks very... beta...
Posted by: Alice Bluegown
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August 10, 2010 10:31 AM
Heh. I prefer to think of it as 'minimalist', but I take your point. It does what it's supposed to do...
Posted by: rejistania
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August 10, 2010 10:41 AM
No, not minimalist, beta. Minimalist would mean that it is not well designed but does what it is supposed to do. This in contrast looks like someone spent kilohours on design and minutes on functionality and usability.
Posted by: Silič O'Nopolitanopoulos, Färschdbischuf Beesknees aus Ulm und Klein Elguth, Elector Pharynguline.
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August 10, 2010 10:43 AM
Careful now! You don't want Jerry Coyne banning you, do you?Posted by: Silič O'Nopolitanopoulos, Färschdbischuf Beesknees aus Ulm und Klein Elguth, Elector Pharynguline.
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August 10, 2010 10:53 AM
::visits Alice::
Posted by: grudgedk
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August 10, 2010 10:57 AM
Robert H @88
I know it's often misattributed to Edmund Blake, and I know what Blake actually wrote. It is not an obvious paraphrase, because the two sentences don't even mean the same thing. Bondarchuk's idea is that doing anything is better than doing nothing, while the gist of what Burke is saying is more along the lines of "If you don't act in unison, you may as well not act at all". Thus Blake did not consider "not doing nothing" as sufficient to prevent the triumph of evil.
I did see the movie, although I have not read the book. I didn't say either where meant as a work of propaganda (least of all the book, which pre-dates the Russian Revolution by more than half a century).
In the version I watched the "All that is necessary..." quote, was word for word, the exact English narration. I agree the movie was an excellent piece of cinema, and acknowledge that it seems like he went out of his way to remain true to the source material, and thus not a propaganda movie (in the same sense of "Hunt for Red October" for instance). However Bondarchuk was a member of the Communist Party, and the point I was trying to make was that I was amused that someone would so grossly incorrectly misattribute a quote to one of the founding fathers of the USA to a communist film maker.
It would be like someone attributing "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun" to Dick Cheney or the late Charlton Heston, which while plausible, would still be absolutely hilarious. And wrong.
Posted by: monado
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August 10, 2010 12:20 PM
The University of Vermont, on the plus side, has Bernd Heinrich, who has written some interesting popular books, such as The Mind of the Raven and Racing the Antelope, a.k.a. Why We Run. The front cover of my copy of the latter is decorated with a prehistoric rock painting showing humans racing, with the winner throwing up his arms in a gesture of triumph.
Posted by: monado
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August 10, 2010 12:53 PM
According to Winston Churchill, "A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject". Sounds like a good definition of a crank.
Posted by: SteveM
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August 10, 2010 1:28 PM
I waasn't making any value judgement about which pronounciation is right or wrong, just that it is the convention.
re 169:
This is fascinating. There is a site dedicated to tracking down this "quote"
What is interesting is that Bondarchuk's War and Peace was released in 1968 also. So which preceeded which?
Posted by: David Utidjian
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August 10, 2010 4:25 PM
PZ, Do you still get email from Kw*k?