jlynch
Posts by this author
March 5, 2009
Apparently 65% of Britons have lied about reading certain books in an effort to impress others. The top ten books not read but claimed to have been read were:
1984 - George Orwell (42 percent)
War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (31)
Ulysses - James Joyce (25)
The Bible (24)
Madame Bovary - Gustave…
March 2, 2009
So I set up a Twitter account but donât really know what it is useful for (if anything). Feel free to follow if you want. More importantly, comment here and let me know what Twitter is useful for.
March 2, 2009
Last week I reported that AZ Game and Fish had recently captured, collared and released a jaguar for the first time. At that time, folks were speculating whether the specimen was “Macho B,” a male that had been seen in the area a number of times over the past 13 years. This turns out to be the…
February 28, 2009
Apparently Alvin Plantinga and Daniel Dennett debated a week ago at a meeting of the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association. An anonymous individual live-blogged it somewhat hyperbolically (“The tension between the titans fills the room”) but the account is worth a read, even…
February 27, 2009
Iâm a little put out that Turkish anti-evolutionist Harun Yahya has never seen fit to send me a copy of his Atlas of Creation while other folks here at ASU have received one. I thought I was a bigger fish than that! How does Yahya think Iâm going to fairly represent his magnum opus when I lecture…
February 27, 2009
NCSE is reporting that SB 2396 has been proposed in Florida. It will require "thorough presentation and critical analysis of the scientific theory of evolution." The bill is sponsored by Stephen R. Wise (R-District 5). Amazing how many of these bills are being sponsored by Republicans. Youâd think…
February 25, 2009
Zooborns asks us to ponder the question: âWhatâs cuter than a fennec fox?â As if there can be any reply. More photos over at Zooborns.
February 23, 2009
There’s a petition and statement going around regarding HF 183 for Iowa academics to sign. The text reads:
We, the undersigned members of institutions of higher learning in Iowa, urge our legislators to reject passage of "The Evolution Academic Freedom Act" (HF 183) introduced by Rod Roberts (R-…
February 22, 2009
Creationists have long used credentials to make their case for them. Demsbki has posted a link to a SSRN (i.e. grey literature) paper by Edward Sisson (who is an architect and lawyer) in which he “relates lessons learned not only about evolution, molecular biology, and ‘intelligent design,’ but…
February 21, 2009
I've written before about efforts to study jaguar (Panthera onca) populations here in the desert southwest and Mexico, most recently to note that the Bush administration had declined to formulate a recovery plan for the species in the Southwest. The following is therefore encouraging for those of…
February 20, 2009
I gave two talks yesterday. The first was at a luncheon for ASUâs chapter of Sigma Xi. A small crowd of largely retired scientists and engineers heard me give the same talk I gave in Norman last week. Naturally, given the comparative size of the audience (400+ versus 16) the dynamic was different…
February 20, 2009
Looks like I had a better day than Abbie. I only had to give two talks whereas she had to listen to John West and Casey Luskin. Hopefully sheâll post more details but for the moment we know that West pontificated that âDarwin was Wrongâ and Luskin tried to justify the cdesign proponentists snafu…
February 19, 2009
So I’m contemplating getting a Macbook Pro and thus leaving my current main machine (an XP laptop which I have been very happy with, by the way). I’m specifically looking at the 17 inch model, particularly because of the eight hour battery life. Any readers out there have any experience with the…
February 18, 2009
On the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, William Dembski, research professor of philosophy at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, challenged Darwin's famed theory of evolution during a seminary chapel service.
A fixation with Darwin and a sermon in a chapel. Nothing more to add.
<source…
February 17, 2009
No sooner than Oklahoma’s SB 320 gets axed than we find out about another “academic freedom”/”strengths and weaknesses” bill. This time it’s Missouri HB 656 introduced on Feb 10th. As NCSE reports, Robert Wayne Cooper (R-District 155), the chief sponsor, has a history of wasting time…
February 16, 2009
Some folks have been asking to see the slides from my talk last week at OU. They're a little opaque without my commentary, but here they are:
I'll be giving a very similar talk at ASU on Friday for Sigma Xi.
February 16, 2009
I had received the news that Oklahoma SB 320 died in committee whilst at the Will Rogers airport heading home. I tried to post some details using my phone but that clearly didn't work. In the comments section Vic provides the details.
This means the state of the nation currently is:
Mississippi -…
February 14, 2009
Saturday was the last full day of the OSLEP course and we had the students thinking about religious and other reactions to Darwinâs ideas; three hours on St George Jackson Mivart, Alfred Russel Wallace, Ernst Haeckel, and Charles Kingsley, followed by another three hours on American anti-…
February 13, 2009
More here. My gut feeling is that an improvement in general science education in this country could swing many of the âno opinionâ folks towards evolution.
February 13, 2009
Not a bad article in the Norman Transcript which is apparently a fairly conservative paper. It will be interesting to see what happens in the comment thread over the next few hours.
February 12, 2009
Abbie (of ERV fame) and I after my talk at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Natural History Museum. It went well, I think. About 350 folks in the audience and the local NPR and PBS stations will apparently be offering audio and video at some stage. No questions from creationists (surprisingly) and, while…
February 12, 2009
You probably already know that today is the bicentennial of Darwinâs birthday. What you may not know is that Iâm giving a talk tonight (7pm) at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Natural History Museum on âWas there a Darwinian Revolution?â It is the open address for the University of Oklahomaâs âDarwin 2009â…
February 10, 2009
Iâm in Oklahoma at the moment (more anon perhaps) but was dismayed, to put it mildly, to see the following announcement come from ASUâs Provost:
The funding lost in the recently revised FY09 state budget has forced Arizona State University to cap enrollment and to close applications to next yearâs…
February 7, 2009
Letâs look at what the Republicans in the Senate are currently fighting against in the stimulus bill:
$40 billion in aid to state governments for education and other programs; money that economists say is a relatively efficient way to pump up the economy by preventing layoffs, cuts in services or…
February 6, 2009
No sooner that I posted the current status of anti-evolution legislation that Glenn Branch posted on a new “academic freedom” bill in Alabama. HB 300 is sponsored by Republican (seeing a trend here?) David Grimes and has been sent to committee. Unsurprisingly, it’s the same old DI boilerplate that…
February 6, 2009
The NCSE is reporting that the Mississippi Disclaimer Bill has died in committee, leaving Alabama as the only state with a disclaimer on biology textbooks. Apparently the bill’s sponsor, Gary Chism (R-Distinct 37) is considering “drafting another bill next year supporting the teaching of the…