jlynch | February 11, 2007The prefatory "Historical Sketch" to Darwin's Origin of Species has traditionally been taken as a later addition that sought to deflect claims by individuals such as mathematician Baden Powell that Darwin plagiarized his ideas. Now, a study by Curtis Johnson of Lewis and Clark College argues that Darwin's personal correspondence
shows that the sketch was actually written prior to the first printing of the book and had actually been begun as early as 1856. As Johnson notes, "Darwin was not reacting to hostile criticism" but why he eventually omitted the preface is a mystery.
Johnson's paper is…
jlynch | February 11, 2007
In a thrilling game in Croke Park, Ireland rallied back from a ten point deficit to take the lead, only to be denied victory by a late French try. France won 20-17, destroying the Grand Slam hopes of the Irish and preventing a first victory over France since 2003.
jlynch | February 11, 2007February 11th
1626 - Death of Pietro Cataldi, Italian mathematician
1650 - Death of René Descartes, French philosopher
1657 - Birth of Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, French scientist
1839 - Birth of Josiah Willard Gibbs, American physicist
1847 - Birth of Thomas Alva Edison, American inventor
1868 - Death of Léon Foucault, French astronomer
1898 - Birth of Leó Szilárd, Hungarian-born physicist
1908 - Birth of Vivian Ernest Fuchs, English geologist
1923 - Death of Wilhelm Killing, German mathematician
1973 - Death of Hans D Jensen, German physicist and Nobel Prize Laureate
1976 - Death…
jlynch | February 10, 2007John McCain seems to think it is Europe's fault that things aren't going well in Afghanistan. He believes that Europe should follow Washington's lead and put more forces and resources into the country. Spake McCain:
"Failure in Afghanistan risks a reversion to its pre-9/11 role as a sanctuary for al Qaeda terrorists with global reach, a defeat that would embolden Islamic extremists, and the rise of an unencumbered narcostate."
Yes indeed. But perhaps failure will be more due to the administration opening a second front in the "War on Terror" before Afghanistan was taken care of. It is a…
jlynch | February 10, 2007
What Famous Leader Are You?
And apparently, I'm Dr Doom as well ("Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity"). The possibilities are endless. (HT to GrrlScientist and Afarensis respectively)
jlynch | February 10, 2007February 10th
1785 - Birth of Claude-Louis Navier, French physicist
1846 - Birth of Ira Remsen, American chemist
1865 - Death of Heinrich Lenz, German physicist
1887 - Birth of John Franklin Enders, Nobel Prize Laureate
1891 - Death of Sofia Kovalevskaya, Russian mathematician
1902 - Birth of Walter Houser Brattain, Nobel Prize Laureate
1912 - Death of Joseph Lister, British surgeon
1923 - Death of Wilhelm Röntgen, German physicist and Nobel Prize Laureate
1996 - The supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov for the first time.
jlynch | February 9, 2007
I have fond memories of watching PBS's Mystery Masterpiece Theatre in the mid to late 90's ... i.e. when the shows they broadcast were actually interesting. Some of the best shows were those that formed the three miniseries, "House of Cards", "To Play the King" and "The Final Cut" all featuring Ian Richardson as the truly evil Sir Francis Urquhart (whose trademark riposte to any slur against others forms the title of this post). It is thus sad to note that Richardson died today at the age of 72.
jlynch | February 9, 2007
Long seeking it through others,
I was far from reaching it.
Now I go by myself;
I meet it everywhere.
It is just I myself,
And I am not itself.
Understanding this way,
I can be as I am.
Tung-Shan (806-869)
jlynch | February 9, 2007February 9th
1752 - Death of Fredric Hasselquist, Swedish naturalist
1775 - Birth of Farkas Bolyai, Hungarian mathematician
1880 - Brith of Lipót Fejér, Hungarian mathematician
1910 - Birth of Jacques Monod, French biochemist and Nobel laureate
1925 - Birth of Burkhard Heim, German physicist
1963 - Birth of Brian Greene, American physicist
1979 - Death of Dennis Gabor, Hungarian physicist, Nobel laureate
1994 - Death of Howard Martin Temin, American geneticist and Nobel laureate
jlynch | February 8, 2007Cardinal Cristoph Schönborn [fanboy site here] flew across the radar a few years back for a purile pro-ID op-ed in the New York Times that was egged-on by the Discovery Institute's Bruce Chapman,. Now Chapman - a relatively recent convert to Catholicism - is having a mini-orgasm about a lecture Schoenborn gave
in New York yesterday, one that was sponsored by the Homeland Foundation, a group that funds cultural and religious programs, many involving the Catholic Church. (As this page notes, some members of the Homeland Foundation's board are members of Opus Dei and some grants are given to…
jlynch | February 8, 2007February 8th
1677 - Birth of Jacques Cassini, French astronomer
1700 - Birth of Daniel Bernoulli, Dutch-born mathematician
1807 - Birth of Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, English naturalist
1834 - Birth of Dmitri Mendeleyev, Russian chemist
1856 - Death of Agostino Bassi, Italian entomologist
1907 - Death of Hendrik Willem Bakhuis Roozeboom, Dutch chemist
1957 - Death of John von Neumann, Hungarian-born mathematician and physicist
1975 - Death of Robert Robinson, British chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
jlynch | February 7, 2007The following post first appeared at my old blog on June 2nd 2005. I'm reposting it here, not just because PZ recently linked to it, but because it remains a relevant examination of the sorts of venues anti-evolutionists choose for their "scholarship".
Today, the DI proudly
announced that "[f]or the second time in nine months, an article explicitly applying intelligent design theory to scientific research has been published in an internationally respected biology journal -- despite Darwinists' claims that this never happens." This leads one to wonder about the status of Rivista within the…
jlynch | February 7, 2007February 7th
1736 - Death of Stephen Gray, English astronomer
1870 - Birth of Alfred Adler, Austrian psychologist
1877 - Birth of Godfrey Harold Hardy, English mathematician
1889 - Birth of Harry Nyquist, important contributor to information theory
1897 - Death of Galileo Ferraris, Italian physicist
1905 - Birth of Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist and Nobel Prize Laureate
jlynch | February 6, 2007PZ has been dealing with the idiocy that is Scott Adams of Dilbert "fame". (The last word is in scare quotes because, frankly, I don't find Dilbert funny. At all. Never have. Never will.) And what is worse, PZ's had to deal with the apparent apostles of Adams who seem to think that a cartoonist like Adams either has something important to say
on science (not the case) or is being humorous (yeah, right). In any case, someone called "Bronze Dog" has wonderfully parodied Adams stupidity.
The full strip is here.
Update: Dagnabbit. PZ had posted this already! Beaten by the squidmeister.
jlynch | February 6, 2007
This is Turkana boy (Homo ergaster), soon to go on display in Kenya's national museum. Bishop Boniface Adoyo, of Nairobi Pentecostal Church (NPC) and Christ is the Answer Ministries, claims:
"I did not evolve from Turkana Boy or anything like it. These sorts of silly views are killing our faith."
Someone should explain to Adoyo that the truth sometimes hurts. Speaking of "silly views," apparently, Adoyo believes the world was created 12,000 years ago, humans were created 6,000 years ago, and each biblical day was equivalent to 1,000 Earth years. I guess nothing in Adoyo's BA in design…
jlynch | February 6, 2007February 6th
1617 - Death of Prospero Alpini, Italian scientist
1695 - Birth of Nicolaus II Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician
1744 - Birth of Pierre-Joseph Desault, French anatomist and surgeon
1833 - Death of Pierre André Latreille, French entomologist
1913 - Birth of Mary Leakey, British anthropologist
1950 - Death of Georges Imbert, Alsatian chemist
1959 - Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments filed the first patent for an integrated circuit.
1991 - Death of Salvador Luria, Italian-born biologist and Nobel Prize Laureate
1998 - Death of Haroun Tazieff, French vulcanologist and geologist…
jlynch | February 5, 2007February 5th
1608 - Birth of Gaspar Schott, German mathematician
1790 - Death of William Cullen, Scottish physician and chemist
1795 - Birth of Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger, Austrian mineralogist
1914 - Birth of Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, Nobel Prize Laureate
1915 - Birth of Robert Hofstadter, Nobel Prize Laureate
1977 - Death of Oskar Klein, Swedish physicist
1992 - Death of Miguel Rolando Covian, Brazilian physiologist
jlynch | February 4, 2007Ireland kicked off its Six Nations Championship campaign with a 19-9 victory over Wales today in Cardiff. Next up are France (who shellacked Italy, 39 - 3).Since it is practically impossible to see any European rugby here in the US, I haven't a clue what transpired during either game.
On the other hand, media saturation regarding the Super Bowl is due to occur any second now. So as a service to my American readers who think that American football is a tough game, I give you these Rugby League hits - note the absence of pads and helmets and the fact that players stay on the field for the…