October 23, 2006
As an amusing follow-up to Friday's post, have a look at this lengthy op-ed from McGill University physicist Jim Cline, in The Ottawa Citizen. Here's an excerpt:
Why is it that string theory has become such a favoured paradigm? Have theoretical physicists deluded themselves? Have they been…
October 20, 2006
As several other SB'ers have already noted, physicist Brian Greene offers this defense of string theory in today's New York Times. He concludes:
I have worked on string theory for more than 20 years because I believe it provides the most powerful framework for constructing the long-sought unified…
October 19, 2006
On October 2, Nature published this news brief about a claim of a solution to the Navier-Stokes equations:
A buzz is building that one of mathematics' greatest unsolved problems may have fallen.
Blogs and online discussion groups are spreading news of a paper posted to an online preprint server on…
October 19, 2006
An amusing item from CNN:
Kids who are turned off by math often say they don't enjoy it, they aren't good at it and they see little point in it. Who knew that could be a formula for success?
The nations with the best scores have the least happy, least confident math students, says a study by the…
October 18, 2006
Check out this photograph. It's Bush meeting with a truly odious collection of sycophants and lickspittles: Sean Hannity, Michael Medved, Neal Boortz, Laura Ingraham, and Michael Gallagher. Gallagher is the only one of the bunch with whom I'm unfamiliar, but his inclusion in this photograph tells…
October 18, 2006
David Kuo, author of the new book Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction, appeared on the MSNBC show Hardball last night. It was a strange interview.
I've not yet read Kuo's book, but his main point seems to be that the Bush administration simply uses evangelical voters as a ready…
October 18, 2006
Just move the little horsey to all of the unpainted squares. But don't be too impressed if you clear the early levels with little difficulty. It gets hard in a hurry. So far I haven't managed to get past level 11. My wrist is too sore right now to try again!
October 17, 2006
It's a been a while since I checked in with Dembski and Co. over at Uncommon Descent. But this entry caught my eye.
In it, Dembski reproduces eight criteria indicative of groupthink. He writes, “Read the following and ask yourself which side in the ID vs. Darwinism debate exhibits the groupthink…
October 16, 2006
We continue now with our discussion of Brian Boyd's article, “Getting it All Wrong,” from the Autumn 2006 issue of The American Scholar. Click here for Part One.
We have already seen Boyd's characterization of modern literary criticism as resting on two pillars: Anti-foundationalism and difference…
October 13, 2006
In other news, I closed on my first house today. Very cool!
October 13, 2006
Vladimir Kramnik won the four game, rapid chess, tie-break match this morning. It was a real nail-biter of an event! Game one was a blunder-filled draw. Kramnik won game two in his usual style, grinding Topalov down in a difficult, technical endgame. Topalov struck back with a win in game three…
October 12, 2006
Well, regulation play has run out in the big chess match. Game Twelve was another interesting affair, but it ultimately petered out to a draw. Officially the score is tied at six points each. In chess matches of this sort, the custom is that in the case of a tie the players split the prize money…
October 12, 2006
From the time George W. Bush first appeared on the national scene there has been one big question: Does he actually believe all the Evangelical Christian rhetoric he uses, or is he just playing religious voters for fools. As reported last night by Keith Olbermann, it's the latter:
OLBERMANN:…
October 11, 2006
The Autumn 2006 issue of The American Scholar features a lengthy article entitled, “Getting it All Wrong: Biolculture Critiques Cultural Critique. It's author is Brian Boyd, a professor of English at The University of Auckland in New Zealand.
The premise of the article is that English professors…
October 10, 2006
Skeptic Magazine publisher Michael Shermer will be in Oakton, Virginia this Thursday, October 12, to discuss his new book Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design. The talk is being cohosted by The Alliance for Science and the National Capitol Area Skeptics. Regrettably, I will be…
October 10, 2006
Game Eleven of the big chess match ended in a draw after a long, difficult endgame. Kramnik, playing black, stuck to his beloved Slav Defense despite the catastrophe in game nine. Topalov again tried a new idea, but Kramnik defended well and entered an endgame where he had only a very slight…
October 10, 2006
Benjamin over at The World's Fair and Chad over at Uncertain Principles have already blogged this, but neither acheves the proper level of indignation in my opinion.
In this post from September 15, I discussed an astonishingly poor discussion of string theory, written by Gregg Easterbrook and…
October 8, 2006
And to think that just a few days ago it seemed like this match would end abruptly because of an insane dispute over visits to the bathroom.
Topalov scored back-to-back victories in games eight and nine to take a one point lead in the match. Kramnik was back on ihs heels, and some among the…
October 7, 2006
A dramatic turn of events in the big chess match. Topalov won game nine in convincing fashion, his second win in a row. Topalov now has a one point lead in the match (including the point he got when Kramnik forfeited game five). Three games remain, and Kramnik will have white in two of them.…
October 6, 2006
From Tuesday's New York Times:
They are eerie sensations, more common than one might think: A man describes feeling a shadowy figure standing behind him, then turning around to find no one there. A woman feels herself leaving her body and floating in space, looking down on her corporeal self.…
October 6, 2006
Mixed messages from this article in today's New York Times.
From early in the article:
Despite their packed megachurches, their political clout and their increasing visibility on the national stage, evangelical Christian leaders are warning one another that their teenagers are abandoning the faith…
October 5, 2006
The final position makes a pretty picture:
Topalov, playing black, whipped out a novelty in the well-trodden Meran Variation of the Semi-Slav. He managed to produce an objectively equal but materially imbalanced endgame where he had two knights against Kramnik's rook and pawn. This is just…
October 4, 2006
Only have time for a quick post today, so let me just mention that Game Seven of the big chess match ended in a draw in 60 moves. Topalov once again had white, and once again failed to get anywhere against Kramnik's Slav Defense. In fact, towards the end it was Topalov who had to play carefully…
October 3, 2006
Jennifer Senior has this essay, reviewing new anti-Bush books by Lewis Lapham and Sidney Blumenthal, in a recent issue of The York Times Book Review. Her verdict?
Now, just in time for the midterm elections, the collected columns of two passionate Bush critics, Lewis H. Lapham and Sidney…
October 2, 2006
Check out the Dsicovery Institute's Bruce Chapman explaining away the complete inability of ID to produce anything of scientific importance:
I keep getting asked about the scientific research projects underway that relate to Darwinism and intelligent design. So why aren't we talking more about…
October 2, 2006
Well, the big chess match has resumed. There are still unresolved issues, but I don't have the patience to wade through them. The bottom line is that game six was this morning, and it was a fairly uneventful draw. Topalov got his customary advantage with the white pieces, and Kramnik responded…
September 29, 2006
That's the headline in The New York Times. I'm not kidding.
Game five of the big reunification match for the World Chess Championship was supposed to be today. This was the match that was going to restore harmony to the chess world, after the big split in 1993 when Gary Kasparov refused to defend…
September 28, 2006
Michael Shermer answers yes in his latest column for Scientific American. He conveniently organizes his arguments in a series of bullet points, and we will consider that momentarily.
Shermer gave me my big break in the evolution biz by publishing my reviews of Ken Miler's Finding Drawin's God and…
September 28, 2006
Have a look at this article from the current New Yorker. It focuses on the recent anti-string theory books from Lee Smolin and Peter Woit. The article provides a decent summary of Smolin's and Woit's views, but it is seriously marred by the lack of any contrary views of the matter. The views…
September 27, 2006
The big chess match continues apace. Topalov pressed hard with the white pieces in game four. He developed some advantage but was never really close to winning. Kramnik's tough-as-nails defense did not permit any breakthroughs, and Topalov had to settle for a draw. The score is now 3-1 in…
