gregladen | July 13, 2011Siblings of those diagnosed with autism are more than 20 times as likely as members of the general population to also have autism. Some of these siblings also show evidence of autism-like but less marked cognitive and social communication problems. This suggests that autism has either an environmental cause typically found in all siblings during development or childhood or a strong heritable component, but there is not a known genetic link or a well established biological marker. A biological marker other than observed behavioral deficits would be a neurological phenotype such as might be…
gregladen | July 13, 2011Before you vote for this woman, make sure you are prepared to die in the nuclear holocaust. Because she is.
gregladen | July 11, 2011How much does politics affect teaching evolution? How is the "fairness" argument exploited to undermine evolution education? Genie Scott explores these and other antievolution strategies in a recent speech before the Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Where: Scottsdale, AZ. When: 4/17/2011
gregladen | July 11, 2011I woke up this morning and the world was slightly different than it was the night before. Well, it probably always is a little different each day, but there are certain times when you notice this. I'm not talking about the bits of siding, roofing, and trees scattered about the landscape because of the very severe thunderstorm we had last night, although I suppose this is indirectly related.
If you are not a Minnesotan this will take some explanation:
Don Shelby newscaster, was the Walter Cronkite of the Twin Cities. Stately in appearance, white-haired (since birth, presumably), deep…
gregladen | July 10, 2011The Fukushima Update #30 has been translated into German. So if German is your preferred language, you can go read it here. Thanks Frank Braun for the translation.
gregladen | July 9, 2011Perhaps the most interesting single thing on the table in today's update is the revelation that at least one of Fukushima's reactors suffered sufficient damage from the earthquake that hit the region ... prior to the tsunami ... to have likely gone out of control or melted down. This is hard to assess because the tsunami caused so much additional damage as to obscure earlier damage, and because cleanup efforts are not proper forensic methods to reconstruct what happened there, and because we can assume at this point that the untrustworthy TEPCO will cover up whatever it can, and it is in…
gregladen | July 8, 2011Humans appear to have a reasonable amount of diversity in their sexual orientations, in what is often referred to as "gender" and in adult behavior generally. When convenient, people will point to "genes" as the "cause" of any particular subset of th is diversity (or all of it). When convenient, people will point to "culture" as the "cause" of ... whatever. The "real" story is more complicated, less clear, and very interesting. And, starting now, I promise to stop using so many "scare" quotes.
Prior to birth there are a number of factors than can influence things like gender or sexuality…
gregladen | July 8, 2011A big todo was made a while back about the possibility of life based on arsenic. In science fiction we often see worlds created in which life is based on one strange thing or another. But years ago, Darwin found a place were life was based on the Booby. And the Noddy. Let's not forget the Noddy.
Click here to read about the booby and the noddy based ecosystem.
gregladen | July 7, 2011Behaviors are not caused by genes. There is not a gene that causes you to be good, or to be bad, or to be smart, or good at accounting, or to like bananas. There are, however, drives. "Drives" is a nicely vague term that we can all understand the meaning of. Thirst and hunger are drives we can all relate to. In fact, these drives are so basic, consistent and powerful that almost everyone has them, we share almost exact experiences in relation to them, and they can drive (as drives are wont to do) us to do extreme things when they are not met for long periods of time. While eating…
gregladen | July 7, 2011In this visually dazzling talk, Jonathan Drori shows the extraordinary ways flowering plants -- over a quarter million species -- have evolved to attract insects to spread their pollen: growing 'landing-strips' to guide the insects in, shining in ultraviolet, building elaborate traps, and even mimicking other insects in heat.
gregladen | July 6, 2011In case you have not heard we are having an internet-wide discussion of ... well, just click on all of the links below and read everything then you'll know. I've included all the current links that I know of. If I've left something out, please put it in the comments and I'll add it.
Meanwhile a group of survivors of sexual assault spearheaded by Stephanie Zvan and Bug Girl have put together a Letter to Richard Dawkins. You are welcome to sign on to the letter if appropriate.
The following links are in chronological order by day (but probably mixed up within day).
06-20 About…
gregladen | July 5, 2011Yesssss!!!!! .... This is what you have been preparing for all this time.
You know the classics ...
"Evolutionists do it with increasing complexity"
and
"Honk! If you understand punctuated equilibria"
These are the National Center for Science Education Bumper Stickers so far. The NCSE is not replacing them, but they would like to augment them. And you can help.
Just think up a bumper sticker and click here to send it as an email to the NCSE.
There are some rules. But who cares about roolz!!! Just come up with a great bumper sticker and suffer whatever consequences arise as a result of…
gregladen | July 5, 2011Darwin developed his theory of evolution from a famously simple tree of life drawing. How has the study of evolution and the inter-connectedness of species changed with modern DNA technology? How has exploring genetic relationships shaped how we now view ourselves and how might that be expressed in art?
Lynn Fellman is a multiple media artist and designer who works with scientists to communicate their research. Her work focuses on evolution and the human genome. From research to sketches to completed digital art, she'll explain how her process engages the people in the DNA portraits in…
gregladen | July 5, 2011Scientific American has launched a new blog network.
Here is a post by Bora Zivkovic announcing the network, and here is the press release.
Today Scientific American launched a new blog network which unites editorial, independent and group blogs under the magazine's banner. The community of 60 bloggers provides authoritative information and insights about science and technology, and their roles in global affairs. The blog network, overseen by Blog Editor Bora Zivkovic, who serves as moderator for the community, encourages discussion and facilitates the exchange of ideas with both the…
gregladen | July 4, 2011Recently, Richard Dawkins said (full quote below) that a woman should not be concerned about her own safety if she finds herself in an elevator (under some sort of threat, presumably), because it is trivially easy to get out of an elevator if you are under attack. I'm sure Richard is a very smart guy and maybe he's right, but there is evidence to the contrary that women can just leave the scene if they are uninterested in being raped or groped.
For example:
Police are looking for a man they say sexually assaulted a woman in Manhattan about two weeks ago.
A surveillance photo of the…
gregladen | July 3, 2011And thus, structurally, Richard Dawkins, or his distant cousin Richard D. Poe (I am still not sure) has shut down the argument that the Elevator Guy acted inappropriately when he asked Rebecca Watson over for a cuppa joe at four O'clock in the AM, in an elevator, while she was on her way to bed.
Imma let you read all about it by following the threads upstream, but in the meantime I want to point out the fallacy at work here. It's called the Watch the Monkey strategy, and I've written about it before. I even drew a cute little picture of a monkey to illustrate the point. This comes from a…
gregladen | July 2, 2011Charles Darwin did a lot of work with birds. Darwin was a consumer of information, constantly attempting experiments, interviewing locals, making observations, and so on. For this reason, his writing about birds provides not only interesting information about birds, but also insight into his methods and thought process. I'm writing a weekly blog post about this, and the current exemplar of Darin and his "other" birds is about the Andean Condor.
Read more.
gregladen | July 2, 2011Rebecca Watson did the right thing when she spoke about McGrew's response too her (Watson's) response to the Elevator Guy, and Barbara Drescher's response to all of that is amazing. If you don't know what I'm talking about here, it might be best to move on. Otherwise, here's my two cents (and there are exactly two) about this Matryoshka Moment.
You may recall this post about "Naming Names at the CFI Student Leadership Conference" by Rebecca Watson. Here's the story in a nutshell. First, some guy known as "The Elevator Guy" hit, rather lamely it seems, on Rebecca in a way that one could…
gregladen | July 2, 2011Good morning.
I'm afraid to go to the SkepchiCON party tonight because I might get into a conversation with someone and since it will be loud, and we will have to shout to be heard, we will be shouting at each other.
At the "evolution from the experts" panel, I want to spend more time talking about what Evolution Is rather than what happened in the news over the last year, but I'm afraid that will bore the audience.
Despite my deep commitment to the study of evolution and defense of evolution-related teaching in schools, I'm starting to realize that global climate change is more…