I spent last Thursday and Friday at the Unchallengeable Orthodoxies conference hosted by the ASU Sandra Day O'Connor Law School in conjunction with the University of Cambridge. Lots of interesting discussion on academic freedom, scientific practice and suchlike. I presented a 20 minute case study on why I felt that evolution was not an unchallengeable orthodoxy and why creationist claims about being stifled or expelled do not hold up when examined in light of scientific practice and the history of science. It's a talk that I'm working up into a longer version to be presented at the American…
I've been using my Macbook for two week now and am very comfortable with it. While I'd never become a rabid Apple fanboi, this comment by Microsoft's Steve Ballmer strikes me a simply assinine: "Apple gained about one point, but now I think the tide has really turned back the other direction. The economy is helpful. Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment -- same piece of hardware -- paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that's a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be." Um. No. Sure the logo is nice, but I'm willing to pay the $500 (an…
The DI-inspired "Academic Freedom/Strengths & Weaknesses" bill that was in committee in New Mexico has failed to get a hearing before close of session and has thus expired. Dave Thomas has more over at PT. The state of play for 2009 must be depressing for the DI Mississippi - dead in committee Oklahoma - dead in committee Iowa - dead in committee New Mexico - dead in committee Alabama - in committee Missouri - in committee Florida - in committee Texas - in committee As a strategy this is clearly not working.
Colocolo, Leopardus colocolo Molina 1782 The next felid up should have been L. braccatus Cope 1889. Unfortunately I have was unable to find a good picture of the species. In any case, until recently, it was held to be a subspecies of the colocolo. The Colocolo is a small cat, only weighing 3 to 7 kg on average. It is near threatened according to the IUCN.
As some here know, I have a daughter. If some idiot (like, for example, Laura Ingraham) made a comment about her, I'd stand up for her. That's what fathers do - especially if that comment had something to do about your daughter's body. Apparently this is not the case with John McCain. Quoting ThinkProgress: Today, in his âTwitterviewâ with ABCâs George Stephanopoulos, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) shied away from condemning Ingrahamâs gratuitous attacks on his daughter. Stephanopoulos asked McCain, âWhat do you think of Meghanâs feud with Coulter and Ingraham?â McCain first said, âIâm proud of my…
John Wilkins has informed me that Marjorie Grene, the noted historian and philosopher of biology, died of cancer yesterday. I was just using her wonderful The Philosophy of Biology: An Episodic History yesterday while preparing a class.
See here for methodology and larger version.
HT to APOD.
Tom Waits - You Can Never Hold Back Spring
The peanut gallery over at Uncommon Descent seems to be uncommonly interested in beating the Darwinism/Racism meme to death (see here, for example, for my comment on one such post and here and here for Barry Arrington's latest ejaculations on the matter; the latter features this historically inaccurate gem: "Darwin was a firmly committed Racist."). Dave Springer saw fit to post a piece on "Racism Sans Darwin" which quickly disappeared down the memory hole and got him banned by Arrington for not toeing the party line regarding Darwin being the Uber Racist. Hilariously, Arrington writes: The…
Texas House Bill 4224 (introduced yesterday) attempts to introduce "strengths and weaknesses" language, despite opposition from scientists and educators. More over at NCSE.
Mike Dunford has linked to a CAP poll for measuring political ideology. What can I say, I'm procrastinating, so I answered the questions and scored 344 out of 400. That makes me a god-damned baby-eating liberal pinko scumbag "extremely progressive." Below is the mean score by group: I have yet to read the CAP report on American political opinion but here's a link none-the-less.
HT to James McGrath
Over at PT, Hector Avalos is reporting that the deadline has passed for the DI-inspired "Evolution Academic Freedom Act” (HF 183) to move out of committee in Iowa. This one is now officially dead. Thus the scorecard so far looks like: Mississippi - dead in committee Oklahoma - dead in committee Iowa - dead in committee New Mexico - in committee Alabama - in committee Missouri - in committee Florida - in committee Texas - at state board This brings the tally for 2009 to three dead out of eight. Frankly I can't imagine the DI is terribly happy about this.
Eurasian wildcat, Felis sylvestris Schreber 1777
Jim Cramer (of CNBC "Mad Money") doesn't come off too well when he chats with Stewart. See here (video) and here. Short version: the financial news industry is guilty of sins of commission in all of this. As Stewart says, "it's not a fucking game".
Next week there is a big conference here at ASU - hosted in conjunction with University of Cambridge - examining the concept of "Unchallengeable Orthodoxy in Academia and Science." The general purpose of the conference is: To critically examine the precept that American and British universities and the scientific communities in these countries are, and should be places, in which people are free to "think the unthinkable, discuss the unmentionable, and challenge the unchallengeable." (Quoting 1975 Statement of Yale Committee on Freedom of Expression). Specifically, the conference will…
The following is shamelessly lifted from Jim Lippard's blog: On March 28, SkeptiCamp Phoenix 2009 will take place at Arizona State University in Tempe. Participants include Mike Stackpole of the Phoenix Skeptics on "Practical Techniques for Street Skepticism," John Lynch on "Academic Freedom and Intelligent Design," and Tony Barnhart on "Methods of the Pseudo-Psychic." The event is sponsored by the Skeptics Society/Skeptic magazine, the Center for Skeptical Inquiry/Skeptical Inquirer magazine, and by the James Randi Educational Foundation. It will be the fifth SkeptiCamp, after two in…
Over at Uncommon Descent (no link provided due to censorship of comments), Denyse O'Leary is urging "Darwinists" to "divorce" The Descent of Man because not to do so is to support "Darwin's racism" and to thus support racism today. I'm wondering if O'Leary actually ever read Descent and followed Darwin's logic. I know, I know, it's a big book, and Denyse may not have the attention span to handle all that fuddy-duddy Victorian prose but she needs to do so before yammering on. Then she may want to read some of the historical literature on the subject. She claims to be a journalist, so I'm…
It's Day 5 of my transition to using OS X and all is well. Once I got used to the different ways of doing things, things have been running remarkably smoothly. The trackpad on the Macbook has taken a bit of getting used to, but I now find myself pawing impotently at the pad on my Dell when I need to use it. Go figure. I don't think I'll be going back to a non-Apple product. Some things I like: Software installation & deletion is a breeze. Sleep mode - being able to put the machine in a sleeve for a few hours, carry it around, and reawaken it in a flash without it overheating is a dream.…