Stranger Fruit » John Lynch

The time has come …

John Lynch — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:00:00 +0000

(I was originally going to hold off posting this until May 31st, but there seems little point)

I’ve been blogging here at Scienceblogs since January 2006, nearly three and a half years. During that time I have made many good friends – both fellow bloggers and readers – and have enjoyed the support of Seed Media Group. The time has, however, come for me to move on. The reasons are numerous but are also not really worth recounting here.

I do intend to continue blogging and will be found at http://jmlynch.wordpress.com at least for the short term. Hopefully some of you will follow me there.

Thank you for everything.

Some bad news before I go …

John Lynch — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:32:32 +0000

From a report released by BIO: The Biotechnology Industry Organization:

On average, only 28% of the high school students taking the ACT , which is a national standardized test for college admission , reached a score indicating college readiness for biology and no state reached even 50%.
Only 52% of 12th graders are at or above a basic level of achievement in the sciences, and for 8th graders only 57% are at a basic level of achievement.
Average scores for 12th graders in the sciences have actually declined from 1996 to 2005 and shown no improvement for 8th graders both on overall and the life science component.
A significant gap exists in science achievement for low-income middle-school students, although the gap is slowly narrowing.

Good news before I go …

John Lynch — Fri, 15 May 2009 21:30:02 +0000

NCSE has announced that two remaining anti-evolution bills have died in committee: Alabama & Missouri.

To recap the year:

Mississippi – dead in committee
Oklahoma – dead in committee
Iowa – dead in committee
New Mexico – dead in committee
Florida – dead in committee
Alabama – dead in committee
Missouri – dead in committee
Texas – in committee

The boys over at the Discovery Institute must be a little down this evening. With a record like that, they are the Detroit Lions of anti-evolutionism.

Things to do, places to see …

John Lynch — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:00:20 +0000

Finished grading today, so the Spring semester is finally over. I’m out of here for a few weeks. See you sometime in June.

Simplify

John Lynch — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:01:26 +0000

So I’m trying to simplify things in real life as I think I am suffering from information overload (among other things).

First task was to clean up my Facebook friends. From here on, it’s family, colleagues and (usually graduate) students. Folks I know only in virtual space are likely to have gotten bumped. Sorry if you were one of those – truly, no offense was intended. I’m willing to follow folks on Twitter though, so feel free to join that way. Just follow me and I’ll reciprocate. There’s also Friendfeed.

Second task will be to prioritize regarding blogging. That will involve some thinking and no resolution will be likely for a while.

2000th Post

John Lynch — Sun, 10 May 2009 23:34:57 +0000

Turns out that yesterday I posted my 2000th post here at Scienceblogs without even noticing it. Heh!

Francis Beckwith, Creationism and ID

John Lynch — Sun, 10 May 2009 22:27:45 +0000

Back in December 2006 I referred to Francis Beckwith as an ID supporter. This resulted in he informing me that he “has never been much of fan [of] design arguments, ever [and that his] interest in the debate focuses on the jurisprudential questions involving the First Amendment and what could be permissibly taught in public schools under that amendment.” At that time I retracted and removed any reference to Beckwith as a supporter. More recently, Beckwith has objected to others referring to him as a creationist and an ID supporter. Tim Sandefur has replied, and now Barbara Forrest has offered her reply. You be the judge, but I am now sufficiently convinced of Beckwith’s support for ID to retract my original retraction.

On flying elephants

John Lynch — Sun, 10 May 2009 16:00:53 +0000

PZ has the tale of Larry, Moe, Curly, and Eagletosh. Worth a read.

Teaching Evolution One Icon At A Time

John Lynch — Sun, 10 May 2009 00:06:41 +0000

I spent this morning at a workshop for K-12 biology teachers. The workshop was organized by the School of Life Sciences here at ASU and gave some 20 students to interact with faculty regarding teaching evolution. My presentation was titled “Teaching Evolution One Icon At A Time” and aimed to educate the teachers regarding the Discovery Institute’s “teach the strengths and weaknesses of evolution” approach post-Kitzmiller. Slides are below:

Friday Felid #19

John Lynch — Fri, 08 May 2009 06:57:50 +0000

Margay, Leopardus wiedii Schinz 1821

(source)