Open Thread: What's on Your Minds?

What is your opinion of the Bronx Zoo? I grew up on Long Island, so I visited it while on field trips in school. My daughter loves animals (does volunteer work, etc.) and I am trying to talk her into a trip to NYC and to entice her a told her we could make a side trip there (Dad wants to go to a Mets game).

The Bronx zoo is nice and all, but I prefer the Houston Zoo... Partly because it's couple thousand miles closer. :P

i've visited the bronx zoo three times since i've moved to NYC. whenever i go to the bronx zoo, i am surprised at how .. broken-down it is. i mean, the animals look fine and all, but the infrastructure is clearly old and worn out, especially compared to the woodland park zoo (seattle) and other west coast zoos that i've become very familiar with over the years.

Funny you should mention the the Houston Zoo, Ry, because I live in Galveston county and my daughter is a member. I guess the infrastructure at the Bronx Zoo is getting old, it was the late 1960's, I think, when I was there last. She would be more concerned with the variety and condition of the animals.

Some of you might enjoy the live-blogging of a Channel 4 programme about Darwin, which starts in just under an hour, by the Beagle project. Last week's live blog was quite entertaining.

Do you know about ZooKeys? It's an open-access taxonomy journal that I just found out about.

Speaking of obfuscatory writing (the original post's comic), journals (#6), and the Southeast Texas region (#2,#4):

1) I've been getting very interested in digging up copies of old or otherwise unusual journal articles. One of the ones I've really wanted a copy of is Daniel Oppenheimer's "Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: problems with using long words needlessly" (winner of the 2006 IgNobel Prize in Literature). I'm thrilled to report that just moments ago I discovered that this can be downloaded directly from Dr. Oppenheimer's site...

2)I need to visit the Houston zoo one of these days. Not to mention Texas A&M, where I'm hoping to do graduate school one of these days. Anybody got any opinions of the Microbiology, Food Science, and "Biotechnology" (M.Biot.) graduate degree programs there?

Oh, yes, and I'd be even more thrilled if anyone out there can find me a copy of another article I've been seeking:

Greenberg LA: "The definition of an intoxicating beverage." Q J Stud Alcohol. 1955 Jun;16(2):316-25

Which evidently "proves" that it is not possible for a normal human being to become intoxicated on beer...

I'm listening to I Libertine at the moment, excellent book well read, available free from Uvula Audio.

Suprising history behind the book and its fictional author.

Then have to choose another either to read or listen to, so many to choose from as well as planning to see the camel racing.

Amazing how many great books are available free.

...
You mean we can just talk about . . .whatever..??

Oh I could never do that...

...tom...

I guess I could ask why the comment editor does not work with 'correct' HTML tags but will work with 'sloppy' HTML tags. So unlike the rest of the web/net...
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Hello. Occasional reader, here. Thanks for the invitation to say what's up.

Something has been eating me of late. For some time, now, I've been reading up on the theory of evolution and physics (quantum mechanics, the LHC, etc.). I find these subjects endlessly fascinating and utterly engaging. Although I do not have a degree in biology or physics or mathematics, I do all right with comprehending the things I read.

The more I have learned, the more I have wanted to learn. But I have also begun to feel really alienated from my peers (in the broadest sense). I read the news, I read a fair number of blogs, and I am acutely aware that there is currently something of a culture war in the offing. And now I know that I am very nearly surrounded by people who think I am on the wrong side of things because I accept and support evolution, think the LHC's experiments are going to be tremendously important, think that the work being done on and around Mars is useful and even necessary, and... I'm an atheist on top of that.

I feel alienated and alone. I don't think that I should, or that it's a reasonable outcome, but I don't seem to have the means to make it better for myself. As time passes, I am becoming far more the empiricist and materialist (if not a dialectical materialist--though I have my days), and people around me--some of whom I love--are simply not interested in things like evolution, science, physics, space exploration, etc. I am having to meet most people more than halfway, and the constant effort is tiring me out.

I can't help my interests, the things that really motivate me to get out of bed in the morning, and I don't think I should "tone down" my enthusiasm for education, for promoting science, for opposing ID/creationism where it encroaches on the public education of children. But that's what I have to do in order to get by.

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Thanks for reading. Your thoughts/observations/encouragement are appreciated.

To stay on the topic of animals and evolution and such: I find it truly amazing that there are people that live in a Western country actually rejecting evolution. In Europe I'm roughly estimating that maybe 5% aren't very comfortable with the idea of evolution. But it's the only biological theory children are taught in school. I grew up with it, for me it's the only possibility.

You may feel that conservative Christians can be quite annoying when they deny your evidence and hang on to something less logical. However, at least you have a discussion. Europe is really boring concerning that particular subject.

Do you ever just find yourself stunned by the ignorance? Or even more amazed at the arguments that the creationists have concocted to argue with every point? I am in Grad school to become a teacher and thought discussing biology with a neighbor who is a High School Biology teacher would be worthwhile - until the topic of evolution came up. I was so dumbfounded by his stance that I couldn't even argue intelligently with him. He seemed to think he had all sorts of evidence to prove intelligent design and disprove Darwin. And he teaches his point of view in a suburban Chicago High School. We aren't talking Kansas here, people! All the more reason to get certified at the High School level and maybe avert some of the damage!

Yeah, Jan, I go to a Christian school (they are more common in Australia, and I'm not the only agnostic.) Although it can sometimes be 'fun' (as in killing time in PE class) and I spend too much time browsing on the Internet about creationist arguments.

The 'Evolution is only a theory' one gets on my nerve-these people don't have the patience to learn (even if it only takes five minutes) about how the scientific method works.

Pfft, they wouldn't trust an immoral atheist anyway :|.

"And he teaches his point of view in a suburban Chicago High School. We aren't talking Kansas here, people! "

Stunning, absolutely stunning... Like I said, it isn't even a discussion in Europe. Even our Christians have accepted evolution to some extent. They are quite compatible, science and religion, as long as you accept the Bible as helpful stories instead of 'the truth'. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the chronological order of evolution is somewhat similar to that in Genesis, right? Big bang (first there was nothing), day and night, water and earth, plants, animals, humans. Logical order, but not in 7 days. Or am I missing something?

How is the subject of genetics taught in the US? It's quite impossible to learn about dominant genes and such and denying evolution at the same time.

thanks for letting us know about the darwin project bob. if you give me a day or so lead time, i'll announce it on my blog.

i've never heard of zookeys, but it looks very interesting. how'd you find out about it, John?

Epicanis -- i always love getting papers i've been trying to read. sometimes, my readers find them for me!

Moody834 -- yes, i do feel alone a lot of the time, but it is difficult to know for sure if this feeling is due to being an adult (let's face it: adults are really very boring conversationalists), if it's due to most people's overt religiosity or to their conservative politics (seattle has FAR MORE political liberals and atheists than NYC ever had), or if it's because i am single and female or if it's because i am unemployed or because i have bipolar disorder. probably all of these things keep me alone. but i've been told that people rarely make friends after they leave college, that "friends are for kids" (or at least making new friends is a kid thing). but you aren't the first person i've ever met who has talked about feeling alone, and i think this is a real problem for those of us who work in careers that require a frequent relocations; we are never in one place long enough to make new friends.

i wish i knew what to say but i am alone nearly all the time, too. nearly anything i might say would sound trite or silly, but i do spend a lot of time reading and writing -- close to 20 hours per day, every day (unless i am taking care of people's animals while they vacation). but being alone is not easy. but i sometimes wonder if people who are religious are simply using religion as a way to avoid being alone, to keep from realizing that the human condition is loneliness ..

Cecile and Jan -- yes, i do find myself stunned by people's ignorance and by how many reject evolution outright. i am often stunned into silence by people's ignorance, as a matter of fact. they don't even know what the evidence is for evolution, yet they reject it without any thought at all. worse, they reject evolution in favor of religion -- without ever having read and studied the bible! WTF?? i have never been able to really comprehend the comical belief that there is a magical superbeing who drops in once in a great while to break all the rules of science just to prove .. well, i don't know what.

my own education might not be reflective of what is typical today, but i learned about genetics (punnett squares, etc), when i was a kid, but when teaching in the local university -- not naming any names -- i found myself astonished at my students' lack of basic scientific knowledge. it makes it really difficult to teach when you realize you that you cannot teach the concepts they are supposed to learn without teaching them the concepts that underlie them. it's almost like teaching a kid how to read a novel when they still don't know how to read at all.

There should be another Beagle Project live blogging next Monday. I think at least one of them will be at the meeting in London, no doubt hoping they'll also meet Mr. Darwin, as well as the more famous Prof. Steve.

that's a really nice site, bob. i especially like the banner. is that all yours, or a collaboration between you and a few others?

It's nothing to do with me - I'm just pimping for them.