evolvingthoughts

Ars Technica has an interesting post on how scientists themselves view the tentative nature of science. In ordinary language, a tentative conclusion is not to be preferred (the old "evolution is just a theory" canard), but in science it is in fact a virtue. Science's conclusions are meant to be…

Those of you who live near San Francisco might be interested in this talk I'm giving at the Pizza Munch gathering at UC Berkeley in November. For November we've made arrangements to meet jointly with the Bay Area Biosystematists in Berkeley on Thursday, November 9. John Wilkins (Queensland) will…

I need some old files converted to RTF. You get a Special Award...

There's a reason why I haven't posted much lately. No, not the drinking, work. That stuff that gets me paid and occasionally moves forward, but alas, not this week. I just found out that I didn't get my grant. It took me the better part of a month and a half to prepare. All gone. Wasted. (Well, not…

A new organisation, following the lead of the National Center for Science Education in the United States, has been formed to monitor and lobby against the introduction of creationism and intelligent design in the United Kingdom. It's called the British Centre for Science Education, and its webite…

This is a really cool study. It's been known for some time that species of insects infected by the intracellular parasite Wolbachia are occasionally infertile with uninfected members of their own species, and hypothesised that this might cause speciation to occur. What nobody that I read, at any…

If you go here you will find downloadable podcasts of this conference: Second Queensland Biohumanities Conference, Philosophy of Ecology, held 29-30th June, 2006: Introduction by Prof. Paul Griffiths, and Mathematical Models in Ecology and Conservation Biology: Mark Colyvan The Agony of Community…

Well, put a collar on me and call me a bloodhound. It seems that dogs aren't wolves after all. Darren Naish, of Tetrapod Zoology, discusses a whole range of recent literature and the arguments for and against in a truly excellent post. The arguments against note the morphological and behavioural…

What with Islamists being called "Islamofascists" these days by, ironically, the right wing, it pays us to consider to what extent any modern political movement is fascist. Bear with me, because this is an essay about historical relations. Terms in history are used in one of two ways. Either you…

On the one hand, we have the father of a student killed at Columbine blaming evolution for moral decay. On the other the killer in the Amish shooting was a home schooled Christian with sexual abuse issues. On the gripping hand, America has more murders per head than Japan, Australia, and the other…

Repost from the old blog: One of the problems in having a philosophy related blog is that ideas are hard things to generate on demand, so often you need someone to raise the problems for you to think about. Being naturally (and preternaturally!) lazy, I don't go out looking for problems (of a…

Here is a working list of species concepts presently in play. I quote "Concepts" above because, for philosophical reasons, I think there is only one concept - "species", and all the rest are conceptions, or definitions, of that concept. I have christened this the Synapormorphic Concept of Species…

I can't think of anything right now, but these lyrics by the prophetic Roger Waters: The lunatic is in the hall. The lunatics are in my hall. The paper holds their folded faces to the floor And every day the paper boy brings more. And if the dam breaks open many years too soon And if there is no…

A French philosopher, and his family, have been threatened with death by Islamists for his criticising Islam as a religion of violence and hate, according to Agence France Presse. Details below the fold. TEACHER WHO ATTACKED ISLAM: "ALONE AND ABANDONED," RECEIVING DEATH THREATS, UNDER POLICE…

The Australian Attorney General, Phillip Ruddock, has said that he thinks the US was too hasty in rejecting torture (which it hasn't, really). And sleep deprivation isn't really torture anyway. Never mind that the North Koreans used sleep deprivation as torture in the Korean police action, and…

The Washington Post has an opinion editorial by Paul Hanle, the president of the Biotechnology Institute in Washington. I recently addressed a group of French engineering graduate students who were visiting Washington from the prestigious School of Mines in Paris. After encouraging them to teach…

I keep seeing all these carnivals that I don't find myself on. So here's a note for all those hardworking carnival coordinators looking for stuff. If you or a reader thinks something of mine is worthwhile (email me for a list of suggestions), just link to it. I don't do administrative stuff all…

Tarantulas produce silk from their feet: "Researchers have found for the first time that tarantulas can produce silk from their feet as well as their spinnerets, a discovery with profound implications for why spiders began to spin silk in the first place." I love these sorts of discoveries. Now we…

A new organisation, SEFORA (Scientists and Engineers for America), has been formed to counter the abuse and supression of science currently popular in American media and politics. They have drafted a "Bill of Rights" for scientists and engineers which includes: Federal policy shall be made using…

Just when I am convinced that liberal values are dead and democracy, real democracy, is doomed in the biggest English speaking nation, along comes a major network (NBC) commentary, that puts it all out there, in a manner that Murrow would have been proud of. The failure of Bush and his henchmen is…

Razib has a little post on cultural cladism, but I think he gets it quite wrong. He repeats the usual trope canard that culture isn't like biology in terms of its evolution. I think it is exactly like it, and that the "analogy" between cultural traditions and species is quite exact. All that…

New images of the Cydonia "face" show, as expected, that it's just another piece of Areology, not a monument left by aliens. But this will not stop the woowoos from claiming that this is evidence of long-gone alien monument building. In a classic case of pareidola, the same psychological process…

Via Shakespeare's Sister, this video shows who the real nerd is...

We may believe in some doctrine of evolution or some idea of progress and we may use this in our interpretation of the history of centuries; but what our history contributes is not evolution but rather the realization of how crooked and perverse the ways of progress are, with what wilfulness and…

'We'll bomb you to Stone Age, US told Pakistan' - World - Times Online. How interesting - one of the more democratic Islamic countries was told by the US deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, that the US would "bomb them back into the Stone Age" if they didn't cooperate in the war on terror…

I'm sick, my head hurts and I have a fever. That is why I did this, and why I got a lower score than anyone else who may compare themselves to me. Lynch made me do this. It' seems I'm a Modern, Cool Nerd, like that's news... Modern, Cool Nerd 78 % Nerd, 60% Geek, 43% Dork…

The Epoch Times is reporting the appearance of a snake with hindlegs in Shandong, China. Such reappearances of long-lost traits are called "atavisms", and in this case it appears this specimen has silenced genes that cause limb buds to stop growing and be resorbed. Quite a number of snakes form…

Grace, of Will and Grace refuses to swim in Australian waters for a miniseries she (sorry, Debra Messing, the actor) is filming here. She's freaking out because of how Irwin died. It's OK GraceDebra. You will ... probably ... survive the experience. Despite our having a multitude of poisonous…

The more I hear of the international and national response about Steve Irwin, the more my flabber is gasted. I mean, I came to a grudging respect for the guy when I went to Australia Zoo with my kids about three years ago, and saw the show and the zoo, and it not only didn't suck but was in fact…

Some of you may know I am a contributor to the Talkorigins.org Archive (hey, it's written down the page, to the left, OK? No it's not. It's written on my homepage. Oops). My contributions have been done over the better part of a decade, and obviously as I learn more, I have to revise them. I have…