jlynch | April 9, 2008I don’t usually highlight my e-mail spam, but this was so priceless, I just had to. So much wrong here:
Guinness is running its "Online Lottery" out of a PO box in Killorglin. I’ve seen Killorglin. It’s best known for a goat being annually named King of Ireland. Seriously.
And apparently now the payment representative is working out of the UK (+44) with a Hotmail account. Who have thunk it?
And the general manager of the notification department is a Reverend. As in priest.
These people aren’t even trying anymore. Full text below the fold.
Guinness Online Lottery. Diageo Ireland P.O. Box…
jlynch | April 9, 2008
Via Phil Plait, this uber-cool false-color image of Phobos produced by HiRISE at the University of Arizona.
jlynch | April 9, 2008
Regular readers will remember law professor Peter Irons for his epic legal takedown of Stuart Pivar. Well he’s gone and done it again and this time he has been involved with a letter from XVIVO correctly accusing Premise Media (makers of Expelled!) of copyright infringement. Here’s the gist:
We have obtained promotional material for the "Expelled" film, presented on a DVD, that clearly shows in the "cell segment" the virtually identical depiction of material from the "Inner Life" video. We particularly refer to the segment of the "Expelled" film purporting to show the "walking" models of…
jlynch | April 8, 2008
Cheeta turns 76 today, continuing his run as the oldest living non-human primate. You can donate to the CHEETA sanctuary (which also cares for other ex-movie primates) here.
jlynch | April 7, 2008Yes, it is that time of the year again, Paul Nelson Day. PZ suggests we should all make it a point to ask people "How do you know that?" today, and the ones who actually can explain themselves competently will be complimented by being told that they're no Paul Nelson. A further tradition is that you can invent a new concept (such as "ontogenic depth") and promise to explain it later. The wonderful thing is that "later" never appears to come. So, what concept do you want to invent today?
jlynch | April 6, 2008Over at Skepchick, Rebecca is highlighting Something Awful’s Photoshop Phriday with a wonderful faux cover for Unscientific American. Wander over to her to see it. This one made me snort:
There are plenty more here including The Old Republic.
jlynch | April 3, 2008
Seeing the Ox
Oriole in the branch chirps and chirps,
Sun warm, breeze through the willows.
There is the ox, cornered, alone.
That head, those horns! Who could paint them?
K’uo-an (trans. Stanley Lombardo)
[image source]
jlynch | April 3, 2008Apparently 81% of respondents to a recent NYT/CBS survey feel "things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track" for this country - up from 69% last year and 35% in 2003. Only 4% said the country is better off than five years ago (what the hell are these nimrods smoking?).
According to The Times, only 21 percent of respondents said the overall economy was in good condition, the lowest number since late 1992, when the recession that began in the summer of 1990 had already been over for more than a year.
Of course, Poppy Bush was in charge then. It’s worth remembering what Bush jr…
jlynch | April 3, 2008
Remember the e-mail I received stating that tonight’s Expelled screening in Tempe was canceled? The e-mail simply stated:
The Tempe, AZ Screening has been canceled.
Well, Ken McKnight called the theater today two or so hours before the screening. Ken says:
I just called the Arizona Mills Harkins theater and said that I had heard that the private screening of Expelled had been moved from 7:00 to 6:00 (I didn’t mention that I had been emailed that the showing was canceled). The person I spoke to confirmed that the movie is showing today at 6:00. Clearly the promoters are somehow screening the…
jlynch | April 2, 2008Received an e-mail this morning notifying me (and five others) that the Tempe screening has been canceled. Interesting thing is that the original mailing I received had a further 15 names on it. In addition, "boughtbythecross," "homeschoolma," and "covenant-dad" were not CCed on the e-mail I received today. Interesting.
Some thoughts ... either (1) the screening is going ahead and myself and five others are being lied to about it being canceled, or (2) the screening is canceled. The former would be easy to check, I'd imagine but I wont be able to get down to Arizona Mills that evening, while…
jlynch | April 1, 2008A new journal, titled Evolutionary Applications, has just appeared and the 2008 contents will be available online for free.
Evolution now permeates essentially all aspects of biology, and evolutionary concepts and methods are being applied to problems of considerable practical importance. For example, concepts in evolutionary biology guide research to reduce drug resistance of pathogens and parasites, to discover ways of ensuring the long term genetic health of endangered species and some crop foods, to improve the understanding of the ultimate causes of medical diseases, and to predict the…
jlynch | March 31, 2008The ICR’s Christine Dao has a review of Expelled online where she states:
According to From Darwin to Hitler author Richard Weikart, Hitler saw World War II as a Darwinian struggle for existence, and he justified the practice of eugenics by saying that mankind had "transgressed the law of natural selection" by allowing inferior beings to survive and propagate (Mein Kampf, 1925).
Here’s the problem. Dao makes it look like Hitler used the phrase "transgressed the law of natural selection" in Mein Kampf. Problem is, he didn’t. The only mention of "natural selection" in the work is:
By reason of…
jlynch | March 31, 2008The basic incompetence of the Expelled producers continues. This morning I received an e-mail telling me that the scheduled screening (7pm on April 3rd) as been re-scheduled for 6pm on that date. Where the incompetence of these boyos comes in is that they cc’ed a bunch of people on the message and I thus have contact information for attendees - folks with e-mails like "boughtbythecross," "homeschoolma," and "covenant-dad."
As it happens I can’t attend the showing ... wont be missing much.
jlynch | March 30, 2008I don’t watch NBA basketball. I don’t watch NCAA basketball. I used to play basketball in high school and played club basketball in college (Ireland doesn’t have the same college scene as here). The reason why I don’t watch is something Chad has hit upon when talking about Davidson’s run for the "final four":
Basketball isn’t just about amazing physical feats-- it’s about knowledge and planning and execution, and a team that plays the game well can hang with (and sometimes beat) vastly superior individual athletes. That’s more impressive to me than any acrobatic highlight-reel dunk.…
jlynch | March 30, 2008This made me laugh if only because I used to row back in Ireland:
In Ireland, it is not uncommon for university rowing teams to cancel practice because there is a swan in the river. Rowing teams tend to be composed of men who are built like very large trees. Trees that bench-press Volvos. These men are terrified of swans, probably due to a grizzled old rowing coach, always looking on from the shore, a bill-shaped scar where his left eye used to be.
FWIW, I can’t bench press a Volvo. Never could.
jlynch | March 29, 2008Matt Nisbet has coughed up yet another post on PZ and framing. It begins:
You don’t have to be a social scientist to recognize that the distribution of opinion among people who comment at Scienceblogs is very different from the perspective found among the wider science community and even among leaders in the atheist movement.
As I pointed out:
This is a little data-free, now isn’t it? No information on views "among the wider science community" and a link to a single comment by D.J. Grothe (who may or may nor be a leader "in the atheist movement"). As I said before, the issue here is not…
jlynch | March 29, 2008
If you have problems with heights, this may not be the job for you. (via BackReaction)