thoughts on science, history, and teaching
John M. Lynch is an Honors Faculty Fellow at Barrett the Honors College at Arizona State University. He's also affiliated with ASU's Center for Biology & Society. When he's not an historian of anti-evolutionism, he's an evolutionary morphologist. Much to his surprise, in 2007 he was named the Arizona Professor of the Year. No doubt his students were surprised as well.
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November 30, 2006
Category: Politics
USA Today is reporting that Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport will next month begin trials of backscatter x-ray screening. And how are the TSA ensuring that "naked" pictures of passengers wont appear online? At airports, they will be programmed to...
Posted by John Lynch at 10:22 PM • 5 Comments
Category: Mammals
I like this photo for some reason - seven-day-old stump-tailed or bear macaque (Macaca arctoides). Follow the link for pictures of adults and details of this endangered species. Credit: AP-Photo....
Posted by John Lynch at 8:23 PM • 6 Comments
November 29, 2006
Category: Anti-evolution • Intelligent Design • Politics
As part of the Panda's Thumb series debunking Jonathan Wells' latest dreck (The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design), Tim Sandefur, himself a self-avowed conservative libertarian Republican, argues that Wells' work offers "no helpful contribution" to any debate...
Posted by John Lynch at 8:12 PM • 9 Comments
November 28, 2006
Category: Irish Rugby
With the ASU football season winding down, it is time to turn to other things. So why not rugby? The Irish team are favorites for the coming Six Nations Championship, after winning the Triple Crown last year, and a...
Posted by John Lynch at 4:48 PM • 11 Comments
Posted by John Lynch at 10:42 AM • 1 Comments
November 27, 2006
Category: The Life Academic
I've managed to finish my grading. Yipee! What this means is that the semester is finally beginning to wind down. Sure, there will be some grading left to do, but it will be relatively less onerous. Three classes left to teach,...
Posted by John Lynch at 11:09 PM • 0 Comments
November 26, 2006
Category: The Life Academic
No posting today (or perhaps even tomorrow) as I'm tucked away in my lair grading. In any case, Mike Dunford made the only point I was going to make....
Posted by John Lynch at 4:04 PM • 0 Comments
November 25, 2006
Category: Maroon and Gold
It's the last regular season game for ASU - the Territorial Cup game against the University of Arizona Wildcats. At the beginning of the season, I don't think anyone would have predicted that ASU would have a 3-5 PAC-10 record...
Posted by John Lynch at 7:50 PM • 1 Comments
Category: Politics
As of today, November 25th, US involvement in Iraq has lasted longer than US involvement in World War II - 1348 days. The "War on Terror" has been longer. And what do we have to show for it?...
Posted by John Lynch at 12:05 AM • 1 Comments
November 24, 2006
Category: Politics
PZ drew our attention to the Southern Poverty Law Center's roundup of hate groups nationwide. As a public service announcement, I note that Arizona has fifteen hate groups which seems like a bloody high number to me: five Neo-Nazi groups, one...
Posted by John Lynch at 7:39 PM • 1 Comments
Category: Anti-evolution
Someone in all this brouhaha (I can't remember whom and can't find the comment online) claimed that only creationists use the phrase "Darwinian Fundamentalist". The phrase actually originated with Stephen Jay Gould (New York Review of Books, June 12 1997)...
Posted by John Lynch at 2:32 PM • 6 Comments
Category: Anti-evolution
There is a flamefest going on at the moment regarding atheism, agnosticism and creationism and it strikes me that many of us are missing the wood for the trees. I hope most of us can agree on the following: It has...
Posted by John Lynch at 9:38 AM • 8 Comments
Category: Politics
Under Bush, the US has taken upon itself to bring democracy to other countries. However, as the Economist Intelligence Unit's index of democracy [pdf] shows, the US ranks fairly badly as a democracy itself, coming in 17th worldwide. Evaluated based...
Posted by John Lynch at 12:16 AM • 8 Comments
Category: Fish
I'm sure that this Thanksgiving many of us are gorged on turkey. As a respite, I give you the above ... a European record wels catfish, Silurus glanis, all 8 foot and 226lbs of it....
Posted by John Lynch at 12:01 AM • 1 Comments
November 23, 2006
Category: Anti-evolution • Science Education
Larry Moran seems to think that I belong to the "Neville Chamberlain 'apeasement' [sic] school" of evolutionists. So what does one need to believe to be part of this school? Moran, having spent long hours talking with me on these issues,...
Posted by John Lynch at 10:38 PM • 17 Comments
