jlynch | November 25, 2006 It's the last regular season game for ASU - the Territorial Cup game against the University of Arizona Wildcats. At the beginning of the season, I don't think anyone would have predicted that ASU would have a 3-5 PAC-10 record and U of A (4-4) would have beaten three ranked opponents in a row entering into this game.
Both teams have a 6-5 record overall and the winner gets a (possible) bowl game. U of A hasn't been in a bowl games since 1998; ASU has been in five since then. An ASU win would send the team to the Emerald Bowl on December 27th.
Best case scenario for coach Dirk Koetter is…
jlynch | November 24, 2006
As of today, November 25th, US involvement in Iraq has lasted longer than US involvement in World War II - 1348 days. The "War on Terror" has been longer. And what do we have to show for it?
jlynch | November 24, 2006PZ drew our attention to the Southern Poverty Law Center's roundup of hate groups nationwide. As a public service announcement, I note that Arizona has fifteen hate groups which seems like a bloody high number to me: five Neo-Nazi groups, one Christian Identity group, two Black Separatist groups, two racist skinhead groups, one KKK group, and four "others". My own city, Tempe, is home to a unit of the National Vanguard,
an organization of racially-conscious Whites who seek to maintain the cultural and biological qualities of our race, and ensure that they exist forever to be handed down to…
jlynch | November 24, 2006Someone in all this brouhaha (I can't remember whom and can't find the comment online) claimed that only creationists use the phrase "Darwinian Fundamentalist". The phrase actually originated with Stephen Jay Gould (New York Review of Books, June 12 1997) for the "conviction that natural selection regulates everything of any importance in evolution, and that adaptation emerges as a universal result and ultimate test of selection's ubiquity." He cites Maynard-Smith, Dawkins and Dennett as being "ultra-Darwinists" and thus Darwinian fundamentalists. In fact, Dennett (speaking in March 2006)…
jlynch | November 24, 2006There is a flamefest going on at the moment regarding atheism, agnosticism and creationism and it strikes me that many of us are missing the wood for the trees. I hope most of us can agree on the following:
It has been claimed that there are two broad groups within the pro-science movement: those that see the issue in terms of science versus anti-science within the classroom and those that see that issue as being part of a larger cultural battle between science (identified with "rationalism") and religion (identified with "superstition"). Clearly, this broad-stroke characterization is a…
jlynch | November 23, 2006Under Bush, the US has taken upon itself to bring democracy to other countries. However, as the Economist Intelligence Unit's index of democracy [pdf] shows, the US ranks fairly badly as a democracy itself, coming in 17th worldwide. Evaluated based on electoral process & pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties, the top fifteen are:
Sweden
Iceland
Netherlands
Norway
Denmark
Finland
Luxembourg
Australia
Canada
Switzerland
Ireland
New Zealand
Germany
Austria
Malta
The other major partner in the "war on terror", the UK, is…
jlynch | November 23, 2006
I'm sure that this Thanksgiving many of us are gorged on turkey. As a respite, I give you the above ... a European record wels catfish, Silurus glanis, all 8 foot and 226lbs of it.
jlynch | November 23, 2006Larry Moran seems to think that I belong to the "Neville Chamberlain 'apeasement' [sic] school" of evolutionists. So what does one need to believe to be part of this school? Moran, having spent long hours talking with me on these issues, and knowing me so well, can enlighten us. In short, one must believe the following:
These are scientists who are willing to compromise science in order to form an alliance with some religious groups who oppose Christian fundamentalism. Do you believe in miracles? That's okay, it's part of science. Do you believe that God guides evolution in order to produce…
jlynch | November 22, 2006I've been involved in the creation/evolution battle - for such it is - since 1998. Over the years, I have talked to many groups - students, concerned citizens, scientists, lawyers - on this issue and have often been asked to recommend a book that would offer the non-scientist advice as how to deal with attempts to dilute academically sound science standards. In the past I have recommended books like Pennock's Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics and Young & Edis' Why Intelligent Design Fails. Both of these works, excellent though they are, are probably scientifically and…
jlynch | November 22, 2006
This illustration of a rather jovial looking Bradypus tridactylus (three-toed sloth) comes from Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber's Die Saugthiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen ['Mammals Illustrated after Nature with Descriptions', 1774, Vol I II & III].
(HT to BibliOdyssey)
jlynch | November 22, 2006David H. Price writes:
In San Jose, on Saturday evening, November 18, 2006, the rank and file members of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) attending the Association's business meeting approved resolutions condemning the occupation of Iraq and the use of torture. ...
The first resolution condemns the American occupation of Iraq; calls for an immediate withdrawal of troops, the payment of reparations, and it asks that all individuals committing war crimes against Iraqis be prosecuted. This statement passed with little debate or dissent.
The second resolution condemns not only the…
jlynch | November 22, 2006The U.N. is reporting that 3,709 Iraqi civilians were killed in October and the AP notes that this toll, the highest monthly so far, "is sure to be eclipsed when November's dead are counted." October also saw the death of 106 US soldiers, two from the UK and two others. 767 US soldiers were wounded.
jlynch | November 22, 2006Others have noticed that John Horgan has presented his own personal list of the ten "worst science books." Many of his choices aren't science books per se and he obviously ignores his own excerable The End of Science which was, frankly, drivel that brought much joy to postmodernist critics during the "Science Wars" of the 1990's. He's also, in my opinion, unfair to E.O. Wilson ... but that is an argument for another day.
Horgan does, however, get Gould's Rocks of Ages correct when he describes it as "Gould at his pompous, verbose worst. He managed somehow both to pander and condescend to…
jlynch | November 20, 2006Friend Fruit asks:
Has any of those people [Ed mentioned], Dawkins, Myers, et. al. advocated the elimination of religion and religious believers by stoning, disembowlment, burning at the stake, or other forms of auto de fe?
I do agree that perhaps Ed's original phrasing is a little inflammatory and should perhaps have read "religion itself, in any form, is to be attacked and destroyed." However, that doesn't alter Ed's essential point. Those of us who have been working to fight anti-evolutionism have all seen this schism occur in various groups - a schism between moderates (whom people like…
jlynch | November 20, 2006Ed Brayton writes something that I have suspected for some time now:
To be honest, I'm rapidly becoming convinced that there are two very different groups involved in fighting against the ID public relations campaign to distort science education. The distinction between the two groups is that one is fighting to prevent ID creationism from weakening science education while the other is fighting, at least in their minds, to eliminate all religious belief of any kind, even those perspectives that have no quarrel with evolution specifically or science in general, from society.
I am firmly a…
jlynch | November 20, 2006From here. The top ten are:
1. and 2. The Voyage of the Beagle (1845) and The Origin of Species (1859) by Charles Darwin [tie]
3. Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) by Isaac Newton (1687)
4. Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems by Galileo Galilei (1632)
5. De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres) by Nicolaus Copernicus (1543)
6. Physica (Physics) by Aristotle (circa 330 B.C.)
7. De Humani Corporis Fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body) by Andreas Vesalius (1543)
8. Relativity: The…
jlynch | November 19, 2006
We bought one of these for my daughter yesterday - a Venus Fly Trap, Dionaea muscipula. Of course, the one we bought doesn't look as good, probably due to mishandling by the retailer. I hadn't realized that Dionaea only naturally grows in southern North Carolina and our big problem is finding a place that will give the plant six or so hours of sunlight without frying it in the Arizona heat. I may have to make a terrarium.
The species was discovered by Arthur Dobbs, Governor of North Carolina between 1754 and 1765, who called it "the great wonder of the vegetable kingdom." Over a hundred…
jlynch | November 19, 2006Bob Henderson is an 80 year old retired electrical engineer who thinks "Albert Einstein was a dunce." So convinced is he of this that he has written a third book on the subject: Einstein and The-Emperor's-New-Clothes Syndrome: The Exposé of a Charlatan. Notes the AZ Republic:
Henderson was, and is, qualified to be asking these questions because his work was science. He says he graduated second in his class from the University of Arizona in 1950 with a degree in electrical engineering. He then worked for RCA in New Jersey before returning home to work at Motorola. Some of his work was in the…