December 6, 2006
Remember the ISCID? That's the International Society for Complexity, Information and Design. From their website:
he International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design (ISCID) is a cross-disciplinary professional society that investigates complex systems apart from external…
December 5, 2006
Vladimir Kramnik lost the sixth game of his match against the computer prgoram Deep Fritz today. He thereby lost the match by a score of 4-2.
The finla game saw the super sharp Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian Defense. This was in stark contrast to the careful positional play of the earlier…
December 5, 2006
Here's Bill O'Reilly pretending to be outraged by Jim Webb's lack of respect for the presidency (see yesterday's post for the details):
Now that was rude on Webb's part. The president, knowing Webb's anti-war sentiments, went out of his way to engage the senator-elect about his son. That was a…
December 5, 2006
I'm a big government kind of guy, but this is insane:
The New York City Board of Health voted today to ban artificial trans fats in the city's eateries, establishing more rigorous limits than any other American city on an ingredient considered by doctors and nutritionists to increase the risk of…
December 4, 2006
I was more than a little surprised when Jim Webb defeated incumbent George Allen in the recent Virginia Senate election. I voted for him happily, but didn't rate his chances very high. My confidence in him has only soared in light of recent events. Here's George Will:
Wednesday's Washington…
December 4, 2006
Larry Moran has replied to my previous post criticizing his treatment of Ken Miller's views on science and religion. I'll let him have the last word, except for the quick comment that I still think he's misinterpreting Miller's intent. Certainly Miller believes that God is active in the world and…
December 1, 2006
Timothy Noah of Slate has noted the same phenomenon I commented upon in yesterday's post. Namely, that many former war supporters now want to blame the Iraqis for the chaos in their country. Here's Noah nailing Charles Krauthammer:
In the Dec. 1 Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer writes that…
November 30, 2006
Here's Bill O'Reilly expressing the latest bit of wisdom from the American Right:
The problem in Iraq is not American. The problem is the Iraqis themselves. They're not fighting for their freedom in a way that puts the bad keys on the defensive.
There is only so much the USA can do. If the Iraqi…
November 29, 2006
Vladimir Kramnik will receive a lengthy section in any book devoted to history's greatest chess players. He's been a top grandmaster for close to twnety years. He defeated the seemingly invincible Gary Kasparov in a straight-up match. He has successfully defended his title twice, both times…
November 29, 2006
That last post notwithstanding, I do think Larry Moran deserves criticism for one thing. He has been very unfair to Ken Milller.
For example, in this post Moran writes:
The Neville Chamberlain Atheists object when Behe talks about intelligent design but mum's the word when Ken Miller talks about…
November 29, 2006
Okay, I'm back. Did I miss anything?
Other than the giant kerfuffle between Larry Moran and P.Z. Myers on the one hand and Ed Brayton and Pat Hayes et al, on the other, that is.
Things started with this post, from Moran, on the subject of a recent lecture by philosopher Robert Pennock at UCSD.…
November 15, 2006
I will be travelling for the next ten days or so. First up is the big Math Symposium at Western Kentucky University, this Friday. I will be delivering two scintallating, edge-of-your seats barn-burners, both aimed at undergraduates. One will be on primes in arithmetic progressions, the other…
November 15, 2006
John Wilkins has offered this reply to my criticism of his earlier essay on the subject of agnosticism. Well worth reading, even though I sitll think he's wrong. He seems to think that in order to be justified in asserting “X does not exist” you must be able to prove that X, indeed, does not…
November 13, 2006
For the final installment of my Dawkins series, let's have a look at what my SciBling, John Wilkins has to say. In this post, Wilkins takes issue with Dawkins' discussion of agnosticism. Dawkins believes that agnosticism is unjustified fence-sitting. Wilkins thinks Dawkins is wrong.
I'm with…
November 10, 2006
I'm not in the mood for a long blog entry today, so allow me simply to echo Orac's thoughts on the debut of the trailer for Spider-Man 3. It does, indeed, appear that it will rock.
The feature villain this time around is Sandman. I always liked him in the comic books. As I recall, he shows up…
November 9, 2006
Philosopher Thomas Nagel reviewed Dawkins' book for The New Republic. Sadly, the review does not seem to be freely available online.
Nagel begins with the standard talking points about Dawkins working outside his field of expertise and about how contemptuous he is of religion. After a few hundred…
November 8, 2006
One of the main themes coming from the punditocracy in the wake of yesterday's election is that the Democrats are making a mistake if they think anyone likes them. This was strictly an anti-Bish result, apparently. If Demcrats start following those lunatic lefty impulses they're prone too, they'…
November 8, 2006
Some initial reactions to the election results:
Last night's Democratic landslide is complete, 100%, unambiguous good news. P.Z. manages to see the cloud rather than the silver lining. Not me. Even the fact that I was grading papers during much of yesterday evening could not get the smile off…
November 7, 2006
From TAPPED:
Our own Alec Oveis, who sadly left the Prospect few months ago, calls in from Connecticut, where he's volunteering on behalf of Chris Murphy (one of Tom's “Dropkick Murphys” positioned to defeat GOP incumbents this year). He reports that voter fury over robocalls is amazing and…
November 6, 2006
I'll return to my Dawkins series later in the week. But after all our exertions recently trying to resolve the mysteries of the universe, I find myself in the mood for a straight math post. So, inspired by some comments from this post, let's talk about perfect numbers.
A number is said to be…
November 3, 2006
My new essay for CISCOP's Creation and ID Watch site is now up. This time: Who Designed the Designer? There's a reason it's a classic!
November 3, 2006
Speaking of grotesque misrepresentations of people's words, a few thoughts about the Kerry flap.
Here is what Kerry said to students at Pasadena City College:
You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do…
November 3, 2006
I have two more installments planned for my Dawkins series, but I think I will hold them over to next week. Instead we really must pause to consider the latest example of mind-boggling ID sleaziness.
The story begins with Tim McGrew, a philosopher at Western Michigan University. In the comments…
November 2, 2006
Next up is Gregg Easterbrook's review of Dawkins. Overall the review was a pleasant surprise. Given Easterbrook's track record, I would have expected a barely coherent anti-Dawkins tirade. Actually the review is pretty thoughtful, and I agree with some of what he has to say.
But I also have a…
November 1, 2006
Jim Holt wrote the review of The God Delusion for The New York Times. He is described as a regular contributor to the New Yorker and the The New York Times Magazine, and is apparently working on a book on the puzzle of existence. The review has a few good points to make, but mostly misses the…
October 31, 2006
Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Marilynne Robinson wrote this lengthy review of The God Delusion for Harpers Magazine. She was unimpressed.
The review weighs in at 4599 words, but you'll find yourself almost a thousand words in before hitting anything substantive about Dawkins' book. Prior to…
October 30, 2006
Physicist Lawrence Krauss wrote Nature's review of The God Delusion. The review itself is mixed: strong praise for parts of the book, exasperated criticism for others. But the following two paragraphs are what caught my eye:
Dawkins the preacher is less seductive. And make no mistake: this book…
October 30, 2006
The reviews of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion are coming in, and they are mostly negative. That was predictable. Everyone knows, after all, that Dawkins is just one of those fanatical, frothing at the mouth atheists, who doesn't understand that religion is a beautiful and complex thing,…
October 27, 2006
My cute little house looked a lot better before my meager possessions were strewn aimlessly across every flat surface. It didn't help that this was an unusually busy week at work. I did, however, manage to catch this spot-on essay from Michael Kinsley, at Slate. He writes:
Here in Washington,…
October 23, 2006
There's a big pile of bloggable items sitting on my desk, but they will have to wait. I will be moving in to my new house tomorrow! Very exciting.
We are also hosting an undergraduate mathematics research conference here at JMU this weekend, and I am organizing one of the sessions.
Which is my…
