jlynch | December 20, 2006Bora and Janet have done it, so why not. Basic idea is to reproduce the first sentence of the first post over the past year.
I've noted before that a significant number of lawyers not only to deny evolution but also appear to think that their training as a lawyer enables them to adjudicate scientific "controversies" (real or percieved).
Some quick blasts as it's mid-week, I'm busy, and probably wont do much blogging until the weekend.
Still busy here.
I seem to have annoyed someone by the moniker of 'dlamming', apparently a graduate student who is interested in yeast.
This more or less…
jlynch | December 20, 2006John West of the Discovery Institute has presented his version of the year in ID. In summary:
A year after Dover, Darwinists seem increasingly disillusioned as well as shrill, the central part of Judge Jones' "brilliant" decision has been found to be riddled with errors and copied nearly verbatim from the ACLU, a research lab has been launched for scientists to pursue intelligent design-inspired scientific research, and states and localities are continuing to adopt public policies to encourage students to study the scientific evidence for and against Darwin's theory. At the same time, the…
jlynch | December 19, 2006
A malformed embryonic or neonate choristoderan reptile from the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of northeastern China is described. The tiny skeleton exhibits two heads and two necks, with bifurcation at the level of the pectoral girdle. In a fossil, this is the first occurrence of the malformation known as axial bifurcation, which is well known in living reptiles.
Buffetaut et al. (2006) "A two-headed reptile from the Cretaceous of China" Biology Letters Early Online (DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2006.0580)
jlynch | December 19, 2006From EurekaAlert:
Approximately 6 percent of human and chimp genes are unique to those species, report scientists from Indiana University Bloomington and three other institutions. The new estimate, reported in the inaugural issue of Public Library of Science ONE (Dec. 2006), takes into account something other measures of genetic difference do not -- the genes that aren't there.
That isn't to say the commonly reported 1.5 percent nucleotide-by-nucleotide difference between humans and chimps is wrong, said IUB computational biologist Matthew Hahn, who led the research. IUB postdoctoral…
jlynch | December 19, 2006
I spent last night reading the updated version of Ron Numbers' classic work The Creationists. While the majority of the text has not changed from the 1992 edition, Numbers has added two new chapters - one on Intelligent Design and another on the spread of creationism outside the US.
For those that have not encountered The Creationists before, it is - without doubt - the historical examination of creationism in America. Numbers traces the roots of modern anti-evolutionism to Seventh Day Adventism, and over sixteen chapters (in the first edition) traces the interactions between young and old…
jlynch | December 19, 2006What a year it has been for the Discovery Institute and the Intelligent Design movement! Below the fold, I detail the advances that ID has made in the short time since Judge Jones delivered his ruling in Kitzmiller v. Dover.
January
Dembski:
Just as a tree that has been "rimmed" (i.e., had its bark completely cut through on all sides) is effectively dead even if it retains its leaves and appears alive, so Darwinism has met its match with the movement initiated by Phillip Johnson. Expect Darwinism's death throes, like Judge Jones's decision, to continue for some time. But don't mistake death…
jlynch | December 19, 2006Ed's got a bunch of stories up this afternoon dealing with ID:
The Cobb Country sticker case has been settled and the country will not order the placement of "any stickers, labels, stamps, inscriptions, or other warnings or disclaimers bearing language substantially similar to that used on the sticker that is the subject of this action." [Update: Press release from Americans United]
A computer analysis of Judge Jones' decision shows that he incorporated only 48% of the findings of fact that the plaintiffs proposed that he incorporate. As Ed notes, "[t]he fact that Judge Jones incorporated…
jlynch | December 19, 2006Horrible news out of Libya - the Tripoli/Benghazi Six were today sentenced to death despite scientific evidence of their innocence. Orac, Bora, PZ, Abel, and Revere all join in denouncing this miscarriage of justice. You can read more at on their blogs.
jlynch | December 18, 2006
... because none of us are going anywhere.
Everyone else has mentioned it, but I was busy finishing grading. Now thats out of the way, here are my fellow SciBlings in all their, ahem, glory. I'm in the top right-hand corner looking very redheaded. Here is the big version for those of you who want to experience us in full ScienceBlog-o-Vision. Don't get too close to the gorilla though ... he bites.
jlynch | December 18, 2006Professor Emeritus Peter Irons (Political Science, UC San Diego):
"It seems to me the height of hypocrisy for the Discovery Institute to accuse Judge Jones of copying 90 percent of one section of his opinion (just 16 percent of its total length) from the proposed findings of fact by the plaintiff's lawyers, when the DI itself tried to palm off as 'original' work a law review article [submitted to Montana Law Review] that was copied 95 percent from the authors' own book {Traipsing Into Evolution]. Concealing this fact from the law review editors, until
I discovered and documented this effort…
jlynch | December 17, 2006The votes are in and congratulations are due to Orac over at Respectful Insolence (Best Medical/Health Issues Blog) and PZ at Pharyngula (Best Science Blog) for winning their respective categories.
And Daily Kos beat out LGF for Best Blog Overall. Hah!
jlynch | December 17, 2006I have a student currently working on conservative reactions to the Kitzmiller v. Dover ruling. As part of the preparations, I'm having him read Larry Arnhart's Darwinian Conservatism [amaz] and John West's response, Darwin's Conservatives [amaz]. Over at his blog, Arnhart has made the following trenchant observation that I felt was worth sharing:
I claim that intelligent design is mostly a negative argument from ignorance with little positive content. That is to say, the proponents of ID attack Darwinian science for not satisying the highest standards of proof, and then they conclude that if…
jlynch | December 16, 2006
Well, I laughed.
Not so sure that the final copy will feature the line, but what the heck.
(source)
jlynch | December 16, 2006Via Steve Reuland:
Of the 383 pieces of legislation that were signed into law during the two-year 109th Congress, more than one-quarter dealt with naming or renaming federal buildings and structures -- primarily post offices -- after various Americans.
jlynch | December 16, 2006The AP is reporting a further clampdown by the Bush administration on governmental science - in this case, within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). New rules require screening of all facts and interpretations by agency scientists:
The new requirements state that the USGS's communications office must be "alerted about information products containing high-visibility topics or topics of a policy-sensitive nature.''
The agency's director, Mark Myers, and its communications office also must be told -- prior to any submission for publication -- "of findings or data that may be especially…
jlynch | December 16, 2006
We are assembling our eldritch army and will prevail
[Click for dancing goodness]
jlynch | December 16, 2006A few days back I posted a picture of the recent shuttle launch. Here's another view:
This is a four minute time exposure of the exhaust plume along Discovery's path against the background of the starry sky. As APOD notes:
At the upper left, the end of the drifting plume is punctuated by Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka in a vertical line, the belt stars of Orion. To the right of the belt stars, the pinkish jewel in Orion's sword is not a star at all, but the great Orion Nebula. Still farther to the right, at the foot of the hunter, lies Rigel, the brightest star in view. Rigel is a hot…