jlynch | March 28, 2007I don't have time to comment at the moment (perhaps over the weekend), but this looks interesting:
The big dinosaur extinction of 65 million years ago didn't produce a flurry of new species in the ancestry of modern mammals after all, says a huge study that challenges a long-standing theory.
Scientists who constructed a massive evolutionary family tree for mammals found no sign of such a burst of new species at that time among the ancestors of present-day animals...
Instead, they showed an initial burst between 100 million about 85 million years ago, with another between about 55 million and…
jlynch | March 27, 2007Births
1793 - Henry Schoolcraft, American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist
1892 - Corneille Heymans, Belgian physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate
1914 - Kenneth Richard Norris, Australian entomologist
1928 - Alexander Grothendieck, German mathematician
1930 - Jerome Isaac Friedman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1946 - Wubbo Ockels, Dutch physicist and astronaut
Deaths
1794 - Marquis de Condorcet, French mathematician, philosopher, and political scientist
1874 - Peter Andreas Hansen, Danish astronomer
1982 - William Giauque, Canadian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
jlynch | March 27, 2007Somewhat predictably, Dembski has posted this comment by Freeman Dyson:
My opinion is that most people believe in intelligent design as a reasonable explanation of the universe, and this belief is entirely compatible with science. So it is unwise for scientists to make a big fight against the idea of intelligent design. The fight should be only for the freedom of teachers to teach science as they see fit, independent of political or religious control. It should be a fight for intellectual freedom, not a fight for science against religion.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Teachers - at…
jlynch | March 26, 2007
Events
1969 - Mariner 7 is launched.
Births
1712 - Claude Bourgelat, French veterinary surgeon
1817 - Karl Wilhelm von Nägeli, Swiss biologist
1845 - Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1847 - Otto Wallach, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1847 - Otto Wallach, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1857 - Karl Pearson, English statistician
1897 - Douglas Hartree, English mathematical physicist
1942 - John E. Sulston, British chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Deaths
1850 - Wilhelm Beer, German astronomer
1910 - Alexander…
jlynch | March 25, 2007
Events
1958 - The United States Army launches Explorer III.
Births
1516 - Conrad Gessner, Swiss naturalist
1698 - Václav Prokop Diviš, Czech theologian and natural scientist
1859 - Adolf Hurwitz, German mathematician
1875 - Max Abraham, German physicist
1905 - Viktor Frankl, Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist
1911 - Bernard Katz, German-born biophysicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1913 - Paul ErdÅs, Hungarian mathematician
1916 - Christian B. Anfinsen, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1938 - Anthony James Leggett, American physicist, Nobel…
jlynch | March 25, 2007The Guardian is reporting that the Orang Utan "could be virtually extinct within five years after it was discovered that the animal's rainforest habitat is being destroyed even more rapidly than had been predicted."
The UN's environment programme report, 'The Last Stand of the Orang Utan: State of Emergency', says natural rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia are being cleared so rapidly that up to 98 per cent may be destroyed by 2022, and the lowland forest strongholds of orang utans much sooner, unless urgent action is taken. This is a full decade earlier than the previous report estimated…
jlynch | March 24, 2007
Events
1655 - Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christian Huygens.
1979 - The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch.
1992 - Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returns to Earth after a 10-month stay aboard the Mir space station.
Births
1539 - Christopher Clavius, German mathematician
1800 - Heinrich von Dechsen, German geologist
1863 - Simon Flexner, American pathologist
1884 - Georges Imbert, Alsatian chemist
1946 - Maurice Krafft, French vulcanologist
1952 - Antanas Mockus,…
jlynch | March 24, 2007Dembski seems to think Darwin was a racist when it came to the "careless, squalid, unaspiring" Irish. Pat Hayes points out Dembski's selective quotation of Darwin and John Wilkins applies the coup de grace. I hope these aren't the "research" methods that Dembski is teaching to his students at his little bible school.
jlynch | March 23, 2007Not surprising that this was released on Friday, Usual modus operandi for the administration.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales approved plans to fire several U.S. attorneys in an hourlong meeting last fall, according to documents released Friday that indicate he was more involved in the dismissals than he has claimed.
Last week, Gonzales said he "was not involved in any discussions about what was going on" in the firings of eight prosecutors that has since led to a political firestorm and calls for his ouster.
A Nov. 27 meeting, in which the attorney general and at least five top Justice…
jlynch | March 23, 2007
So what are these?
Events
1882 - Robert Koch announces the discovery of the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis (mycobacterium tuberculosis; seen above
in culture).
1965 - Ranger 9, equipped to convert its signals into a form suitable for showing on domestic television, brings images of the Moon into ordinary homes
Births
1490 - Georg Agricola, German scientist
1809 - Joseph Liouville, French mathematician
1820 - A. E. Becquerel, French physicist
1834 - John Wesley Powell, American explorer and environmentalist
1884 - Peter Debye, Dutch chemist, Nobel laureate
1893 - Walter Baade,…
jlynch | March 23, 2007
This is just a cool photo. Two Melangyna viridiceps mating in mid-air [via Wikipedia].
jlynch | March 22, 2007March 23rd
Births
1638 - Frederik Ruysch, Dutch physician and anatomist
1749 - Pierre Simon de Laplace, French mathematician and astronomer
1754 - Baron Jurij Vega, Slovenian mathematician, physicist, and artillery officer
1769 - William Smith, English cartographer (see above) and "Father of English Geology"
1881 - Hermann Staudinger, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1882 - Emmy Noether, German mathematician
1907 - Daniel Bovet, Swiss-born scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1912 - Wernher von Braun, German-born physicist and engineer
1933 - Philip…
jlynch | March 21, 2007Nearly ten years ago I started a book on Creationist misuse of intellectual history. I never finished it, which is probably for the best. The file is unfortunately MIA and all I have remaining was a section that I turned into a talk that I gave at ASU in 1999. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting the text of that talk. Enjoy and feel free to comment.
"Pithecophobes of the World, Unite!"Revisionist ’History’ and Creationist Rhetoric.
"This monkey mythology of Darwin is the cause of permissiveness, promiscuity, pills, prophylactics, perversions, pregnancies, abortions, pornography,…
jlynch | March 21, 2007Events
1960 - Arthur Leonard Schawlow & Charles Townes receive the first patent for a laser.
1997 - The comet Hale-Bopp has its closest approach to Earth.
Births
1868 - Robert Millikan, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1931 - Burton Richter, American physicist, Nobel laureate
Deaths
1772 - John Canton, English physicist
1840 - Ãtienne Bobillier, French mathematician
1924 - William Macewen, Scottish surgeon
jlynch | March 20, 2007Following on from earlier postings (here, here and here) what follows is the fourth and final part of the talk. Enjoy!
Creation History?
To emphasize my assertion of the danger of Creationism to nonscientific areas, it is worth noting that Creationist scholarship outside the sciences is equally as suspect as their science (as will be demonstrated in later chapters). If Creationists wish to write textbooks, they are likely to contain gross errors, sloppy scholarship and indeed blatant deception. I have already mentioned their treatment of Darwin, and the origins of Marxist thought. Morris'…
jlynch | March 20, 2007March 21st
Births
1768 - Joseph Fourier, French mathematician
1932 - Walter Gilbert, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1656 - James Ussher, Irish Anglican archbishop who claimed the universe was created in 4004 BCE
1762 - Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, French astronomer
1795 - Giovanni Arduino, Italian geologist
1980 - Peter Stoner, American mathematician, astronomer and Christian apologist
jlynch | March 20, 2007
This evening I watched probably one of the coolest live webcasts I've ever witnessed - the second test launch of SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket. Unfortunately, after stage separation, things went a little awry:
To recap, the Falcon 1 rocket blasted off at 0110 GMT (9:10 p.m. EDT) tonight on a demonstration test flight from Omelek Island in the central Pacific Ocean. The first stage engine, which had experienced an abort on the pad earlier tonight due to low chamber pressure readings, powered the rocket skyward for nearly three minutes. The spent stage then separated for a planned parachute-aided…
jlynch | March 20, 2007Mike hits one out of the park:
It took me a while to realize that the 'professional creationists' were not intellectually honest either. I am not referring to those who follow them, or those who are simply not very [knowledgeable] about evolution. .... Everyone can be misinformed, ignorant, or simply have not thought things through correctly. What I will not tolerate is willful ignorance. Creationist leaders and spokesmen are willfully ignorant. How many times do they have to be told what scientists mean by a theory? How many
times will they misstate the basics of evolutionary theory, such as…
jlynch | March 20, 2007
Iraq - 3/20/2003 to 3/20/2007
3218 US soldiers dead and 23,417 US soldiers wounded (source)
123 UK soldiers killed (source)
116 journalists killed (source)
~60,000 civilians killed (source)
Number of Al-Quaeda operatives responsible for 9/11 caught in Iraq: ?