John A. Davison has started a new blog. You may recall his previous blog, or the one before that. His technique is to post one article, invite comments, and when he gets tired of them, move on...not to a new article, a new blog. His first got 881 comments (many of them consisting of Davis wondering where everyone was, or arguing with DaveScot); this is the only article there.
I have my own blog now, only because I have been banned from just about all the others. Since I am computer illiterate, don't expect very much from me. I welcome any comments about my published papers including my unpublished "An Evolutionary Manifesto: A New Hypothesis For Organic Change." I will tend to ignore any denigrations either of myself or my distinguished sources. I will also not take seriously comments from anonymous posters although I will respond provided they are civil.
That's it, demonstrating that at least he was honest in saying he was computer illiterate. The second got 651 comments, again more of the same, and here's all the content on it:
The original Prescribed Evolution blog got pretty cluttered so I am starting a new one. Hopefully I will be able to better manage this one than the original.
Whoops, no, he wasn't any better at it. So now he has moved on, and the current one has 7 comments, on an article that says just this:
I have abandoned both of my earlier blogs, leaving their contents as living testimony to the nature and tactics of my adversaries. Since I am now convinced that creative evolution is no longer in progress I have chosen the above title. I quite busy right now posting at other forums, chiefly Uncommon Descent and ISCID's " brainstorms" so I will spend little time here but I welcome any constructive criticism of my several papers and my evolutionary views in general.
A testimony to the tactics of his adversaries? Be still, O My Precious Irony Meter. Let's let this new blog die a sad, lonely death, OK?
I will say that Davison is certainly the parfait creationist—completely vacuous and so damn righteous in his ignorance.
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Apparently the "tactics of his adversaries" include 600 or so commenters who talk to themselves and, strangely enough, sign off as JAD.
I'm wondering how PZ thinks to accomplish the goal of diminishing traffic to JAD by mentioning it at all on this forum?
Do you think, PZ, that asking folks NOT to go there will have the effect you think it will?
I'll bet you any amount of cash that the mere fact that you even mentioned JAD's "blog" will drive more traffic to it than anything you actually said here would reduce it.
such is the nature of an auto wreck on a frequented stretch of road.
Davison is simply insane. He's not an Ider, he's not really a creationist, he simply went round the bend in the mid 80's and never recovered.
He actually did have some decent publications in Science a long time ago.
now he's simply a crank. In fact the crankiest, according to crank.net (check the evolution section).
Did you know he actually tried to run for Governor of Vermont once?
I agree with the sentiment that he should simply be forgotten, but I do wonder about the method used of posting a note about him on the most popular science blog in order to suggest such.
*shrug*
I'm sure JAD is ecstatic you took notice of him at all.
It is entertaining to proke and prod the old wrinkly clown occasionally, especially in the presence of DaveScot, who also frequents JAD's blog.
What's the word I'm looking for?
hmmmm...
Dumbass!
Yep that's the one.
I think it's just sad. 881 comments and over 800 of them by himself. It's like an image of a lonely old man living in no mans land just sitting around sending postcards to himself for entertainment.
I will say that Davison is certainly the parfait creationist--completely vacuous and so damn righteous in his ignorance.
As opposed of course, to the cephalopophilic Myers, as the perfect example of the materialist, so completely pigheaded and arrogant in his barren, reductionist philosophizing.
PZ, you've got to do something to attract better-quality trolls. This "hoody" guy may be the most boring one yet. zzzzz
I think we have to wait for two more posts from hoody before we can call shenanigans, though.
I have my broom ready!
Why bother, it's just hoody.
Those blogs are painful. To steal a catch phrase from some other blogger ... The stupid! It burns!
PZ, you've got to do something to attract better-quality trolls. This "hoody" guy may be the most boring one yet. zzzzz
Is Jason still persona non grata (troll non grata?)? Maybe he could be unbanned for special occasions? He was a pretty good grade troll.
PZ could do special unban and bait-a-troll days - say for the publication of the new Sam Harris book in September or the Dawkins book in October.
The stupid! It burns!
oh my, I do hope whoever said that won't mind if I borrow it as well.
mimicry=flattery, etc.
This fellow is just sad. How about observing a decent silence here and being more discriminating about who you attack?
Nah, real trolls are so unreliable. I say that we write a script that pulls logical fallacies from TalkOrigins, and code in some random ad hominem attacks. Then we can all pretend it's a real person and verbally bash them until we feel better. The way I see it, there are several reasons for such an approach.
1. Most of the trolls here wouldn't pass a Turing Test.
2. Better spelling.
3. Consistency.
The only drawback, as far as I can tell, is that Creationist illogical is a better source of entropy that /dev/random could ever be, so our automated troll could never come up with a gem like PYGMIES+DWARFS.
I'm sorry. I'm a bad person. I know this man is not quite all there, but when I read the excerpts, I laughed out loud.
Does this poor man think there is only a finite amount of Blog at any one url, and when you have used it up, you must move on? Can't someone help him? I mean, if he wants to blog, can't someone show him how to use the software? Doesn't he have any friends?
It would be an act of charity for someone to help him out here. Blogging is a harmless pastime (usually) and lots of crazy people do it. I don't see why this man's technical imbecility should bar him from doing the same.
Heliologue, if you want, I can be that troll. I'm pretty good at concocting bullshit theories and then defending them.
Alternatively, try luring Bobby Henderson in. He has an entire bookful of superficially-plausible crap theories, so he can probably produce a couple more for the sake of his fans.
Doesn't he have any friends?
if you spend time watching him "discuss" things with people, you would not be surprised at the answer "no".
Dembski, et. al, take turns misusing his PEH to make random points, and then banning him from posting at UD.
Davison is a kook, but the three stooges of UD (Dembski, O'leary, and Springer), are positively evil.
the funny thing is how it is evidence of Davison's mental state that he keeps coming back whenever they lift the ban, stop insulting him for a day, and let him prounounce his PEH for the hundreth time, just so they can make some ridiculous nonsensical point. Then when he gets belligerent, they just ban him again till the next time.
very, very sad, all the way around.
Yeah, well I kind of like infighting among creationists. It's kind of like watching small children at a day care, but more entertaining since I have scruples about watching kids beat the crap out of each other, and those don't get in the way here. Besides that, the more time they spend shouting at each other from atop their soapboxes, the less time I have to spend dealing with them.
Which reminds me: Hoody, you should stop by UD and let Dembski know how awesome you think it is that he's trying to put God back into science. He'll be very happy to hear it.
The cherry on top of the sundae of Davison's incompetence is that not only has he not figured out that the comments section is not the best place for articles[1]; not only has he not figured out that he can start a new article if the comments section on the previous one becomes unmanageable; but he also hasn't noticed that blogspot.com allows a user to have more than one weblog. The user profile link for each of his three weblogs points to three different accounts.
If an 80-year-old retiree in England can figure out how to use Youtube, then surely someone smart enough to overthrow 150 years of evolutionary thought can figure out what everyone's been screaming at him from day one.
[1] Okay, maybe he has figured it out -- I know he's had it pointed out to him -- but is just being gratuitously contrarian.
Not only has he created three blogs now with only one post each, he also has created a separate Blogger account and user profile for each one.
Keep in mind that JAD is an illustrious educator:
"...on reading the writings of John A. Davison I have learned that the role of sexual reproduction is to prevent evolution."
Name of author omitted to protect the innocent
DaveScot?
If sexual reproduction is supposed to prevent evolution, doesn't it mean that sex is a good thing that should be celebrated?
You know, Alon, if you say that to a creationist, they'll probably explode like those evil computers in Star Trek always did when confronted with something like that.
Evil Computer: "I am CREADAX. I am law. Sex is bad, and against the will of the Programmer."
Kirk (Spaz Acting): "Does... CREADAX believe that... sex... prevents... evolution?"
Evil Computer: "CREADAX is programmed to believe that."
Kirk (Spaz Acting): "...and... CREADAX believes that... evolution is... bad?"
Evil Computer: "CREADAX is programmed to believe that."
Spock: "Then logic dictates that you are compelled to accept that what stops evolution is a good."
Evil Computer: "Sex... good... bad... not logical... error... error.."
(Evil Computer explodes)
Kirk (Turns to natives): "You.... don't need... this machine, you can... think for yourselves."
Harlan Ellison, eat your heart out.
You made me guffaw uproariously with that one, Heliologue.
Isn't a parfait a type of pastry?
You don't say... *reaches for a fork* ^.^
DaveScot?
If sexual reproduction is supposed to prevent evolution, doesn't it mean that sex is a good thing that should be celebrated?
it means that regardless.
er,
YAY SEX!
Woot!
Back to JAD, he's the only person I've ever encountered online who quotes himself in his signature...
As the saying goes, Davison abandoned his car 'cause the ashtrays got full again.
Am I the only one here who thinks that Hoody sounds like a pompous 14-year-old who's always pissed off at his mom?
Not just computer illiterate, if this sentence is anything to go by.
Oh, PZ, I can't believe you used the word parfait. Don't you know that French is unpatriotic?
"Since I am computer illiterate, don't expect very much from me."
Translated "I don't know how to read and follow directions, so don't expect very much from me." Or "I shouldn't have to learn how to work with computers, they should just do what I want but I am too important to bother with the details."
In the age of Macs and Windows I get disgusted with people that claim to be computer illiterate. I could sympathize back in the day, when you actually needed to know a computer language in order to use one. But nowadays, it is much easier cause you don't need to program anymore.
I think that people that claim computer illiteracy are just plain lazy. So, no, I just don't expect much from John Davidson.
Parfait means "perfect" in French. In the US is generally refers to some kind of ice cream concoction.
John A. Davison, performance artist nonpareil.
Dr. Myers, do you (or anyone else here) know of a critique of Dr. Davison's "manifesto"?
http://www.uvm.edu/~jdavison/davison-manifesto.html
Davison just got banned from UD again:
http://udoj.blogspot.com/2006/08/jad-office-pool-winners.html#full
Does the University of Vermont know about this loon?
Is he on the payroll?
He's retired from UVM, but not emeritus. Apparently he left under a bit of a cloud.
Too late:
"I will shorty cancel this blog completely as I have a paper to write and I dpn't have time to screw with you anonymous morons.
So0 het your hald assed licks in while you can and enjoy ypur momemt in the sun. You all make me sick."
10:01 AM
Good lord, are his meds preventing him from checking his spelling? Or is this a result of him getting off his meds?
He's retired from UVM, but not emeritus. Apparently he left under a bit of a cloud.
Yes - think Kenyon/Crocker-style antics.
Not to mention that he did not appear to have received any funding nor done any research between 1976 and his retirement in 2000 (it may have been 1999).
As for any criticisms of his 'manifesto' question from earlier, I think a better question would be Where is his actual evidence supporting his claims? Davison has discussed it at a couple of boards, namely the EvC board. Well, let me make that more accurate - he declared that he wouild take all comers on any subject related to his papers, and when challenged/shown how his claims were lacking, went on his usual now-familiar diatribes.
He relies on what amounts to hero-worship (Berg/Grasse/Schindewolf believed this, and I agree with them) and that tried and true anti-Darwin antic of distorting publications to fit one's needs.
It is not really worth it.
Most recently, Davison was - for reasons I cannot understand - invited to come back to EvC after being banned for his behavior 2 or 3 times.
See how it went this time around:
http://www.evcforum.net/cgi-bin/dm.cgi?action=msg&f=37&t=2&m=1
Especially interesitng is the last page - he reveals his usual obsession with folks like PZ. Wes Elsberry, and, why little old me...
He also reveals his utter ignorance of many of the things he pontificates about.
Par for the crankery course, I suppose.
I will say that Davison is certainly the parfait creationist--
It occurs to me, I think the word you want there is 'compleat'.
Again, can anyone steer me to a review/critique of Dr. Davison's "manifesto"? As for he being a kook and a crank and otherwise being eccentric, I think that beside the point, dismissing him for bad science, I can understand, but where is the proof that his science is bad? So far I've only heard about eccentric behavior, but that I kind of like, especially in a scientist. As for his one topic blogs, at first that gave me a good laugh, perhaps my post on his 3rd blog addled him, but after a bit of reflection, for an old fellow like the good doctor, it makes perfect sense, and when you consider it, also logical, for he only wants to discuss one topic, and wants dialogue on that one topic, so the comment section allows for just that. Of course younger folks have a bit of difficulty with the concept of spending one's time on one topic, with Pharyngula a good example, half a dozen, or a dozen topics tossed out daily. Maybe the old man is simply MacGyvering the system.
the reason that there is no "official" review of JAD's PEH is simply that if you read the very first page of it, it becomes readily obvious to anyone with the slightest bit of rational thought that it simply doesn't even warrant a response.
It's just frontloading with a static god.
If you really can't see the ridiculousness of it after reading the first few paragraphs, you don't need a specific refutation, you need professional mental health care.
now, would you kindly stop attempting to troll the thread?
"While it is true that the existence of a Creator, while
a logical necessity"
That's news to me.
Looks like he's decided to give up with this blog too. Check out his final comments.
Wow! What a loser.
Oh, JAD. I recall one time he went on about how when left alone, domesticated animals revert to their ancestral condition.
So I asked why then do Australian feral pigs look more like peccaries, which also live in arid conditions, than like the European wild boar..
He told me Australia doesn't count.
Well, isn't Australia where England dumped all of the criminal pigs? Naturally they break John's laws in this, too.
I called the name of John's next blog.