jrosenhouse | October 6, 2006Mixed 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 in droves.
At an unusual series of leadership meetings in 44 cities this fall, more than 6,000 pastors are hearing dire forecasts from some of the biggest names in the conservative evangelical movement.
Their alarm has been stoked by a highly suspect claim that if current trends continue, only 4…
jrosenhouse | October 5, 2006The 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 the sort of position Topalov loves, and he managed to pounce on some inaccurate moves by Kramnik.
In the diagrammed position, white can't avoid mate. Black has just played 52. ... Rb2-f2. White gets mated after 53. Kg1 Rxg2+ 54. Kf1 Rf2+ 55. Ke1 Nd3+ 56. Kd1 Rd2 mate. Other moves for white…
jrosenhouse | October 4, 2006Only 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 to secure the draw.
Alas, the Topalov camp has now explicitly charged Kramnik with cheating. The claim is based on a comparison of Kramnik's moves to those selected by the well-known computer chess playing program Fritz. You can find the charges laid out here. The Chess Ninja explains why this is…
jrosenhouse | October 3, 2006Jennifer 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 Blumenthal, are landing in bookstores. Both, to varying degrees, suffer from a distorting case of Bush-phobia.
Of Lapham specifically she writes:
People who are serious about politics don't just preen. They report, explain, explore contradictions, struggle with ideas, maybe even propose suggestions. If…
jrosenhouse | October 2, 2006Check 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 them publicly? For several good reasons:
The most important is that the Darwinist establishment would like nothing better than to “out” research programs before they are finished. The idea is to shut down damaging evidence as early as possible. Strangle the infant in the crib. Demand answers now to…
jrosenhouse | October 2, 2006Well, 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 with his usual tough defense.
Kramnik's forfeit in game five stands, so officially the score is now 3.5-2.5. The match is now half over, and Topalov still has an uphill climb if he is going to tie or win.
When the match started I was planning to write a whole post at this point about how this…
jrosenhouse | September 29, 2006That'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 his title under the auspices of FIDE. (That's pronounced FEE-day, incidentally, and stands for Federation Internationale des Echecs.) FIDE officially stripped him of the title for his trouble, leading to a boxing-like situation where there were multiple world champions.
When the appointed time…
jrosenhouse | September 28, 2006Michael 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 John Haught's God After Darwin in Skeptic magazine. I'm usually a big fan of his writing. But in this case I'm afraid he is way off base. In fact, I have a nagging fear that he wrote this tongue-in-cheek, and that by writing a serious reply I am basically falling for a joke. Nonetheless, I will…
jrosenhouse | September 28, 2006Have 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 expressed by Smolin and Woit appear to be in the minority among physicists generally. From reading this article you would have no idea why that is.
For example, the article includes paragraphs like this:
The usual excuse offered for sticking with what increasingly looks like a failed program is that…
jrosenhouse | September 27, 2006The 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 Kramnik's favor. Thursday is a rest day; the match resumes on Friday.
jrosenhouse | September 27, 2006Over at the utlra-right-wing website World Net Daily, Jonathan Wells has posted a characteristically ignorant and dishonest essay entitled “Why Darwinism is Doomed.” Yawn. P. Z. Myers takes care of business with this smackdown. Worth reading both for the joy of seeing Wells' rhetorically dismembered, and for the clear description of some recent research into the evolution of the human brain. Ed Brayton also piles on.
Incidentally, I 've been staring at the computer screen for a while trying to devise a new topic for my series of CSICOP essays. Alas, it seems that ID has been so utterly…
jrosenhouse | September 26, 2006Veselin Topalov finally managed to get on the board in the third game of his match with Vladimir Kramnik. On the black side of another Catalan Topalov made a draw in 38 moves. This was no grandmaster draw, however. Topalov fought hard as always to generate chances, and at one point might have pressed too hard. Kramnik had chances to play for win, but the variations were difficult to analyze and Kramnik predictably went for the safe draw. Up two points, there's no reason for him to take chances.
Three exciting, hard-fought games so far. If Topalov can win with white in game four I think…
jrosenhouse | September 25, 2006Two games down in the big World Chess Championship and two wins for Kramnik. But that doesn't tell the whole story.
Game One saw the quiet Catalan Defense from Kramnik, an ultra-solid opening fitting Kramnik's style. He obtained a small advantage out of the opening but Topalov was never in serious danger. Near the first time control Topalov had an opportunity to force a draw, and that was when things got weird.
By this time Topalov had a slightly more active position than Kramnik, and, in keeping with his style, decided to go for broke. But Kramnik defended well and Topalov was unable to…
jrosenhouse | September 22, 2006Omigod, omigod, omigod! Ask me how excited I am. Go ahead, ask me.
Answer: Very excited. Why? Because the match for the World Chess Championship begins tomorrow, as you would know if our miserable press corps would get around to covering something important for a change.
The defending champion is Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, who won the title by defeating the seemingly invincible Gary Kasparov in 2000. At his best Kramnik is unbeatable, but he has been plagued by health problems over the last few years that have hurt his results. He even left competitive play for close to a year. But…
jrosenhouse | September 21, 2006In Tuesday's post I commented that Christopher Hitchens is always reliable when writing about religion. As if to prove my point, the new issue of Free Inquiry turned up in my mailbox that night. It features an essay by Hitchens addressing the looming schism in the Anglican Church on the subject of allowing openly gay priests. Sadly, the article does not seem to be available online, so I have taken the liberty of transcribing its conclusion below the fold. Enjoy!
Not having space to go on about all that - much as I would like to - I merely point out that the same dilemma results in…
jrosenhouse | September 20, 2006The Washington Post reports the latest fossil hominid discovered in Africa:
Fossil hunters have unearthed the fossil skeleton of a baby who died 3.3 million years ago, marking the first time scientists have discovered the nearly complete remains of a child of an ancient human ancestor.
The child, a girl who was about 3-years-old when she perished in what may have been a flash flood, provides an unprecedented window into human evolution, in part because she belongs to the same species as “Lucy,” one of the most famous hominid specimens in paleontology, experts said.
Here's another…
jrosenhouse | September 19, 2006Lee Alan Dugatkin's new book The Altruism Equation: Seven Scientists Search for the Origins of Goodness was sitting on my doorstep a few days ago (too big to fit in the mailbox). Dugatkin is a biologist at the University of Louisville. That evening I sat down to read the first chapter, and ended up polishing off half the book. It's quite an engaging read.
Dugatkin recounts the history of various attempts to solve the problem of altruism in evolutionary biology. In this context “altruism” should be viewed as a technical term referring to behavior that benefits others but incurs some…
jrosenhouse | September 19, 2006When Christopher Hitchens writes about religion, he is always reliable. Over at Slate he offers his thoughts on the Pope's recent dust-up with the Muslim community:
Attempting to revive his moribund church on a visit to Germany, where the Roman congregations are increasingly sparse, Joseph Ratzinger (as I shall always think of him) has managed to do a moderate amount of harm--and absolutely no good--to the very tense and distraught discussion now in progress between Europe and Islam. I strongly recommend that you read the full text of his lecture at the University of Regensburg last Tuesday…
jrosenhouse | September 18, 2006According to this brief from The Washington Post, Al Gore will be publishing a book next year entitled The Assault on Reason:
That is when Gore is scheduled to publish his next book. With no fanfare, he signed a few weeks ago with Penguin Press to write “The Assault on Reason.”
As described by editor Scott Moyers, the book is a meditation on how “the public arena has grown more hostile to reason,” and how solving problems such as global warming is impeded by a political culture with a pervasive “unwillingness to let facts drive decisions.”
While that may sound abstract, both the subject…
jrosenhouse | September 15, 2006In an incomprehensible display of poor editorial judgment, Slate recently published this unusually bad article on the merits of string theory, by Gregg Easterbrook.
It's a familiar name to connoisseurs of bad science writing. Easterbrook has previously come out in favor of teaching ID in schools as a legitimate theory in opposition to evolution, for example. The present essay is just a series of slurs and groundless attacks against physicists, tied together with clear evidence that he hasn't the faintest idea what he is talking about.
Since this essay is written in the creationist mode, it…