jlynch
Posts by this author
August 24, 2008
Pine marten, Martes martes L.
(source)
[Strictly speaking, #27 should be the Nilgiri marten, M. gwatkinsii, but I can't find any images.]
August 24, 2008
The Stoat
Walking in the warmest afternoon this year has yielded yet, through slopes of whin that made the shadows luminous, and filled the slow air with its fragrance, we went down a narrow track, stone-littered, under trees which with new leaf and opening bud contrived to…
August 23, 2008
Irish boxer Kenny Egan is in the light heavyweight final against Xiaoping Zhang as I type. Naturally, I can't see it live in this country ... instead I get to see a bunch of overpaid millionaires play basketball against Spain. Here's hoping the Spaniards win.
Best I can do is follow the fight…
August 23, 2008
Steve Matheson over at Quintessence of Dust has posted part IIb of his "Why I'm not a fan of Behe" series, this time covering Behe's abuse of genetics. I've referred to previous posts in this series here and here. Steve ends with:
In summary, I find Behe's handling of genetics in EoE to be…
August 23, 2008
Over the past day I have been running across folks in the progressive blogosphere grousing about Obama's choice of Joe Biden as his running mate. Biden apparently is a "hawk", too centrist, too pro-Israel, too ... well, you get the picture. But I'm wondering, what did these individuals expect? Who…
August 23, 2008
Your irony meter may just exploded on this one.
Predictably, the idiots (at this stage there really is no other word for them) over at Uncommon Descent have been removing comments that criticize Fuller's vacuous defense against Sarkhar, a philosopher whom philosophical-know-nothing Denyse O'Leary…
August 22, 2008
A few days back I noted Sahotra Sarkar's review of Steve Fuller's latest ejaculation. John Wilkins brings to my attention that Fuller has finally shown his true colors and joined the madhouse that is Uncommon Descent with a post attempting to deflect Sarkar's piece. It's amazing how individuals who…
August 22, 2008
I'm a little disappointed at Jim Lippard's recent post on "Obama resume-padding, a post which favorably quotes this Jerusalem Post blog.
Whatever about Obama's legislative record (and that is an argument for another day), the authors of this piece show that they know nothing about Law schools.…
August 21, 2008
With the recent tragic loss of over 150 lives in Madrid, the following strikes me ...
American Airlines deliberately flew two planes 58 times in December that it knew had broken parts and thus could be unsafe in certain situations. For this - and improper drug and alcohol testing - the FAA fined…
August 21, 2008
Yesterday marked the start of the Fall semester here, and by marked I mean saw the circle of hell that is a seven hour faculty retreat. Saturday morning brings the Fall Assembly for honors students and teaching then begins on Monday.
Two classes this semester - my regular honors seminar and a (…
August 17, 2008
Juan Cole on the world Bush made:
The problem with international law for a superpower is that it is a constraint on overweening ambition. Its virtue is that it constrains the aggressive ambitions of others. Bush gutted it because he thought the United States would not need it anytime soon. But…
August 17, 2008
Bornean clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi) ... now with mounted headlights.
See here for previous story on the species.
(click for larger version / image source)
August 17, 2008
Mike Price has a nice piece over at Smithsonian.com on how the rediscovery of Galilaeus Galilaeus His Life: In Five Books, by Thomas Salusbury, a biography of Galileo written just twenty years after his death is causing some to reinterpret the cause of Galileo's trial. In short, Salusbury proposed…
August 17, 2008
From here:
Dolores had no hobbies, made no contribution to society and rarely shared a kind word or deed in her life. I speak for the majority of her family when I say her presence will not be missed by many, very few tears will be shed and there will be no lamenting over her passing.
Her family…
August 15, 2008
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain attended an economic forum in Aspen Thursday where he chastised Congress for going on recess "while people are paying $3.75 a gallon for gas." (source)
This from a man that has missed 407 votes (63.8%) during the current Congress, including…
August 15, 2008
Via Chad, a list of 100 food items. You are supposed to bold the ones you have eaten (55) and strike-through those you'd never try (4).
1. Venison 2. Nettle tea 3. Huevos rancheros 4. Steak tartare 5. Crocodile 6. Black pudding 7. Cheese fondue 8. Carp 9. Borscht…
August 14, 2008
Like a desert flower waiting for rain, like a river-bank thirsting for the touch of pitchers, like the dawn longing for light; and like a house, like a house in ruins for want of a woman - the exhausted ones of our times need a moment to breathe, need a moment to…
August 13, 2008
I have a large digital music collection. Every file is correctly tagged and album art is both embedded in the file and available as a jpg in the album folder. All of that took about four straight days to do over the summer using MediaMonkey (which I now also use to sync my collection with my iPod…
August 12, 2008
Dear Reader,
We launched Seed and ScienceBlogs because we believe that science can change the world and science literacy is how we get there. In the pages of our magazine we've tried to capture the ideas and issues fueling this cultural shift. Online we've aimed to foster a lively and spirited…
August 11, 2008
In a follow-up to his post on Behe's conduct as a scientist (which I discuss here), Steve Matheson has now posted the second part of his critique, this time examining Behe's "scientific" arguments regarding malaria. There will be a part IIb in the future.
August 11, 2008
We've mentioned Steve Fuller before on this blog both when he was giving "expert" testimony in Kitzmiller and when he went and produced a book (Dissent Over Descent: Intelligent Design's Challenge to Darwinism) on his thoughts regarding intelligent design. Now, John Wilkins brings to our attention…
August 11, 2008
Tim @ Deltoid beat me to posting about the new (online at least) Naomi Oreskes talk in which she discusses the tactics of the Western Fuels Association (go here), so instead I'd like to take the opportunity to highlight a paper she and Zuoyue Wang contributed to the Isis Focus section on the value…
August 11, 2008
Amazing letter from Charles Darwin to Klara Pölzl, one that likely to change Darwin scholarship for the future. Written in 1881, a year before his death, Darwin could clearly see the vast implications of his life's work for Twentieth century thought. I'm going to have to take some time to digest…
August 10, 2008
Cokie Roberts in full concern troll mode:
I know his grandmother lives in Hawaii and I know Hawaii is a state, but it has the look of him going off to some sort of foreign, exotic place. He should be at Myrtle Beach and if he's going to take a vacation at this time. I just think this is not the…
August 10, 2008
Following last week's discussion of blogging within the history of science community, I've stumbled on a few more resources. In no particular order, here's everything I have so far.
Group or Organizational Blogs
History of Science in America
HSS Graduate and Early Career Caucus
Society for the…
August 9, 2008
Kevin Zelnio (of Deep Sea News and The Other 95%) has got himself a research job after a stressful search. Wander over and wish him well for his move to Duke University's Marine Lab.
August 9, 2008
I haven't posted poetry in nearly three months, so spurred on by the news that the noted Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish has died today following heart surgery, I think I need to start doing so again (at least semi-regularly). The AFP story notes that Darwish had survived two previous heart…