jlynch | January 13, 2008Events
1610 - Galileo Galilei discovers Callisto, 4th moon of Jupiter.
Births
1861 - Max Nonne, German neurologist
1864 - Wilhelm Wien, German physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
1927 - Sydney Brenner, South African biologist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1796 - John H. D. Anderson, Scottish scientist and inventor
1906 - Alexander Popov, Russian physicist
1924 - Georg Hermann Quincke, German physicist
1934 - Paul Ulrich Villard, French physicist
jlynch | January 12, 2008
Just following Razib, Jake, Josh, Bora and Greg (though the latter cheated, trust me).
No surprises here, but your mileage may vary.
jlynch | January 11, 2008Events
1808 - The organizational meeting that led to the creation of the Wernerian Natural History Society is held.
2005 - Deep Impact (space mission) launches from Cape Canaveral on a Delta 2 rocket.
Births
1792 - Johan August Arfwedson, Swedish chemist
1797 - Gideon Brecher, Austrian physician
1899 - Paul Hermann Müller, Swiss chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
1905 - James Bennett Griffin, American archaeologist
Deaths
1732 - John Horsley, British archaeologist
1997 - Charles B. Huggins, Canadian-born cancer researcher and Nobel Prize laureate
2003 - Dean Amadon, American…
jlynch | January 11, 2008I was on the TSA’s no-fly list up until six months back. Apparently "John Lynch" was a suspected terrorist - if so, he probably was in the Irish Republican Army in the 1980’s and thus receiving funding from a good number of patriotic Americans on the east coast during that time.
It meant I could not check-in online or for that matter using the computer terminals at the airport. Instead I had to get in line and wait while the attendant phoned some unknown entity who - often after ten minutes - decided that I was fit to fly the friendly skies. No doubt you all felt safer because of it.
There…
jlynch | January 10, 2008Alexander Cockburn has finally walked off the cliff once and for all. As if is anthropogenic warming denialism wasn’t enough. Now - in last weeks Nation - he has described the lunatic Ron Paul as "my favorite" and "a candidate leftists can and should support". Any last shred of respect I had for Cockburn has finally left the building.
It’s worth (re)quoting George Monbiot:
I have followed Alexander Cockburn’s writing for many years and I have admired it. His has been an important and persuasive voice on many progressive issues. But I can no longer trust it. I realise that he is blinded by a…
jlynch | January 10, 2008Cornelius Hunter expectorates:
In the life sciences one’s alternatives are to be a Darwinist or to be a Darwinist. Passing grades, letters of recommendation, graduate school admission, doctorate exams, faculty hiring, and tenure promotion all require adherence to the theory of evolution. The lists are long of otherwise qualified candidates who could not take that next career step because they did not conform to the Darwinian paradigm.
Long lists? Evidence please!
Hunter is not a Darwinist. Was he denied his PhD in biophysics?
Meyer, Wells, Behe, Marcus Ross, Kurt Wise? The signatories of the…
jlynch | January 10, 2008Continuing from Monday’s mustelid ...
River-MatesI’ll be an otter, and I’ll let you swim
A mate beside me; we will venture down
A deep, dark river, when the sky above
Is shut of the sun; spoilers are we,
Thick-coated; no dog’s tooth can bite at our veins,
With eyes and ears of poachers; deep-earthed ones
Turned hunters; let him slip past
The little vole; my teeth are on an edge
For the King-fish of the River!
I hold him up
The glittering salmon that smells of the sea;
I hold him high and whistle!
Now we go
Back to our earths; we will tear and eat
Sea-smelling salmon; you will tell the…
jlynch | January 10, 2008Events
1787 - William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.
1922 - First use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient.
Births
1788 - William Thomas Brande, English chemist
1800 - Anyos Jedlik, Hungarian physicist
1842 - William James, American psychologist and philosopher
1845 - Albert Victor Bäcklund, Swedish physicist
1906 - Albert Hofmann, Swiss chemist
1924 - Roger Guillemin, French neuroendocrinologist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1882 - Theodor Schwann, German physiologist
1968 - Isidor Isaac Rabi, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
1991…
jlynch | January 9, 2008I wouldn’t have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes, but ASU beat Arizona 64-59 in overtime. That after being behind by 12 points and seven at the half. That after scoring only six points (and shooting 15%) in the first ten minutes. To put this in perspective, Arizona had won 24 of the last 25 meetings and is ranked #25 in the ESPN/USA Today poll.
ASU go 13-2 (3-0 in conference play) and get their ninth straight win, taking the lead in the Pac-10. Arizona fall to 10-5 (1-2).
What makes this even more enjoyable was that throughout the football season, Wildcat fans were continually…
jlynch | January 9, 2008
Births
1573 - Simon Marius, German astronomer
1638 - Nicolas Steno, Danish geologist
1729 - Lazzaro Spallanzani, Italian biologist
1890 - Grigory Landsberg, Russian physicist
1916 - Sune Bergström, Swedish biochemist and Nobel Prize laureate
1936 - Robert Woodrow Wilson, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1778 - Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist
1949 - Erich von Drygalski, German geographer, geophysicist, and polar scientist
1951 - Yoshio Nishina, Japanese physicist
1997 - Alexander R. Todd, Baron Todd, Scottish chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
jlynch | January 9, 2008Just discovered that the Arizona Natural History Museum (in Mesa) will be featuring the "Feathered Dinosaurs and the Origin of Flight" exhibit come March 1st. Sweet!
Some photos of a previous installation in San Diego are here (pdf) and just for giggles, here’s a review of the Royal Ontario Museum installation by Answers in Genesis.
Have any readers seen the exhibit?
jlynch | January 9, 2008Over at the Pandas Thumb, "ThisIsPerfection" accuses me of using an argument from authority when I posted the composition of the 300 signatories of the DI’s "Dissent from Darwinism" list. I beg to differ. It is the DI itself that is engaging in such an argument. Witness:
More than 700 Ph.D. scientists have adopted a statement expressing skepticism of the core mechanism of modern Darwinian theory and urging a careful examination of the evidence (dissentfromdarwin.org). Those scientists include members of the national academy of sciences in several countries, as well as professors at Princeton…
jlynch | January 8, 2008
Births
1823 - Johannes Friedrich August von Esmarch, German surgeon
1868 - S. P. L. Sørensen, Danish chemist
1879 - John Broadus Watson, American psychologist
1922 - Har Gobind Khorana, Indian physiologist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1757 - Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, French scientist
1848 - Caroline Herschel, German-born astronomer
1911 - Edvard Rusjan, Slovene flight pioneer
1918 - Ãmile Reynaud, French scientist
1998 - Kenichi Fukui, Japanese chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
jlynch | January 8, 2008
Progressive Boink has a nice rundown of 25 great Calvin & Hobbes strips, including my favorite commentary on hunting. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry. Check it out.
jlynch | January 7, 2008Most readers are probably aware of the Discovery Institute’s "Dissent from Darwinism" statement which now has 700 signatories willing to claim
"We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged."
I have noted in the past that this statement does not, of course, imply that the signatories deny evolution and common descent and that it is almost certain that "random mutation and natural selection" cannot account for all aspects of the diversity…
jlynch | January 7, 2008The final AP Poll standings have been released and unsurprisingly, LSU finds itself in the #1 slot, followed by Georgia, USC, Missouri, and Ohio State. ASU find themselves at 16 and two other Pac-10 teams are ranked (Oregon @ 23 and Oregon State @ 25). Predictably, Hawai’i slid to #19 and Illinois to #20.
Next season will be interesting for ASU. USC are likely to be strong and we play them and Cal back-to-back in California. We also have a non-conference game against Georgia. Yikes!
jlynch | January 7, 2008Births
1823 - Alfred Russel Wallace, British naturalist and biologist
1891 - Walther Bothe, German physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
1902 - Carl Rogers, American psychologist
1903 - Igor Kurchatov, Russian physicist
1942 - Stephen Hawking, English theoretical physicist
Deaths
1642 - Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer and scientist
1980 - John Mauchly, American physicist
1997 - Melvin Calvin, American chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
2002 - Alexander Prochorow, Russian physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
jlynch | January 7, 2008A study in Heath Affairs ranks the US worst among 19 industrialized nations in preventable deaths in 2002-’03. Rankings are:
France (64.8 preventable deaths per 100,000 people)
Japan (71.2)
Australia (71.3)
Spain
Italy
Canada
Norway
Netherlands
Sweden
Greece
Austria
Germany
Finland
New Zealand
Denmark
Britain
Ireland
Portugal
United States (109.7)
The authors note that the problem with the US is not the health care system itself, but access to the system, with 47 million people (of ~300 million) lacking health insurance.
Interestingly, the US dropped five slots since 1998, and while…
jlynch | January 7, 2008I’m not a college hoops fan, but this is surely a sign of something. While neither team is ranked in the AP Top 25, Arizona State got more votes (53) that the University of Arizona (26). ASU are 12-2 (2-0 in the Pac10) and face Arizona on Wednesday.
jlynch | January 7, 2008There are fifty-five species of Mustelid in 24 genera. Each Monday for the next year, I will presenting you with a photo of one of the members of this fascinating Carnivore family.
Oriental Small-clawed Otter, Aonyx cinerea Illiger 1815.
Click for big version. Bonus image below the fold.