Likelihood
mikethemadbiologist | April 12, 2008Steven Novella at NeuroLogica Blog has a great post explaining why ID can't meet the criterion of falsification. How does one conclusively disprove the existence of the Great Vorlon?
I would add two points. First, a good trick that intelligent design creationists play is that they subtly make their 'hypothesis' (such as it is) the null hypothesis. That means evolution by natural processes must always make the affirmative case, or overturn intelligent design creationism. Because ID creationism is so well established. Or something. I call bullshit.
Second, it always interests me how, when…
mikethemadbiologist | September 5, 2007125 taxa. This analysis is never going to end (stupid GTR models):
I'm getting annoyed....
Update: It took five days to run this thing. And, yes, that was after using ModelTest.
By the way, if you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's a post (without technical jargon) on likelihood and phylogenetics to introduce you to the basics.
mikethemadbiologist | September 3, 2006Over at Pandagon, Pam's aunt had her ancestry traced using mitochondrial DNA ('mtDNA'). The results given to her aunt were that she is:51% Sub-Saharan Africa (she didn't get any information as to country)
37% European (we have known ancestry in Ireland and England)
12% Native American (likely a NY or Connecticut tribe; we thought Shinnecock, but have not been able to confirm)
How is it even possible to conclude that one is 'percent-anything' based on a mtDNA haplotype? Is there something about the test that I'm missing here?
One really can't say that an mtDNA haplotype is 50% X and 50% Y,…
mikethemadbiologist | June 26, 2006While I'm away, I'll leave you with this introduction to likelihood theory (originally published Nov. 22, 2005).
In the Washington Post last week, Charles Krauthammer boldly opposed the Tin Foil Helmet wing of the Republican Party by calling intelligent design a "fraud." The best part of his column was when he pointed out that, just like biology, chemistry and physics are also godless:The school board thinks it is indicting evolution by branding it an "unguided process" with no "discernible direction or goal." This is as ridiculous as indicting Newtonian mechanics for positing an "unguided…