jlynch | September 21, 2006
The Eagle
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;Close to the sun in lonely lands,Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;He watches from his mountain walls,And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Picture is of a Pallas' Fish Eagle (Haliaeetus leucoryphus Pallas, 1771), a declining species native to Asia. Today marks the birthday in 1741 of Peter Simon Pallas, the German zoologist after whom the species is named.
For Grrlscientist
jlynch | September 21, 2006Elif Shafak, the Turkish novelist accused of "denigrating Turkish national identity" under Article 301 of Turkey's penal code, has been acquitted. Shafak, a professor at the University of Arizona, had faced charges for comments made by characters in her novel The Bastard Of Istanbul, specifically on the mass killings of Armenians in the final years of the Ottoman Empire in 1915. More details here.
jlynch | September 21, 2006
A number of my SciBlings has already covered the discover of the three-year old Australopithecus afarensis skeleton that has been dubbed "Little Lucy" (see, for example, PZ's post). I'm just going to point out the the specimen was discovered and described by individuals associated with Arizona State University's Institute of Human Origins, in particular Bill Kimbel with whom I have in the past worked with on temporal bone variation. Great stuff!
jlynch | September 20, 2006From Declan Butler in this week's Nature:
Lawyers defending six medical workers who risk execution by firing squad in Libya have called for the international scientific community to support a bid to prove the medics' innocence. The six are charged with deliberately infecting more than 400 children with HIV at the al-Fateh Hospital in Benghazi in 1998, so far causing the deaths of at least 40 of them.
On 28 August, when the prosecution was scheduled to close its case, the Libyan prosecutor called for the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to be sentenced to death. Attorneys from…
jlynch | September 19, 2006It's going to be one of those weeks, so I don't know how much I'm going to get to post. I do, however, want to share the editorial from this week's Nation (emphasis mine):
George W. Bush's decision to move Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and thirteen other "high value" Al Qaeda captives from secret CIA prisons to Guantánamo was treated by much of the press as an abrupt change of course. Big news! The President acknowledged CIA prisons that the public has known about for two years! Reality: The President--in the wake of the Supreme Court's Hamdan decision striking down his Administration's post-9/11…
jlynch | September 18, 2006
Hemiscyillum sp., recently discovered off the coast of Indonesia. This little puppy walks on its pectoral fins as do other epaulette sharks of the genus. For more on the find, see here. Apparently, epaulette sharks make good aquarium denizens.
jlynch | September 16, 2006
ASU beat a mediocre Colorado 21-3 to go 3-0 for the season so far. Defense worked well, and certainly has improved compared to last season, but the offense was, frankly, crap and Rudy Carpenter (QB) never really got his act together. It has been a long time since ASU has gone into a Q4 with only 14 points. As usual, turnovers and stupid penalties were a problem and we deserve to fall out of the rankings. Next week against Cal will be more painful that it should be unless the offense gets a clue.
jlynch | September 16, 2006From the Washington Post:
After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.
To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict…
jlynch | September 16, 2006
Arizona has unfortunately been a hot-bed for Young Earth Creationism (YEC). Some of the smaller church-affiliated schools here teach YEC, and there are a number of groups that run creationist tours to the Grand Canyon. Up north, the Creation Research Society maintains the Van Andel Creation Research Center north of Chino Valley. And in Phoenix, we have Walt Brown's Center for Scientific Creationism. For these alone, I'd have to apologize to the world on behalf on Arizona.
I recently stumbled across the Lost World Musuem which is apparently opening in Phoenix NY this Fall. The Musuem's…
jlynch | September 15, 2006Over at the Panda's Thumb, Nick highlights the following quote from Wiker and Witt's, A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature:
Strange though it may seem to neo-Darwinists, Darwin's assumption that the terms species and variety are merely given for convenience's sake is part of a larger materialist and reductionist program that undercuts the natural foundation of counting and distorts the natural origin of mathematics. To put it more bluntly, in assuming that "species" are not real, Darwinism and the larger reductionist program burn away the original ties…
jlynch | September 15, 2006
An Irish Airman Forsees His Death
I know that I shall meet my fate Somewhere among the clouds above; Those that I fight I do not hate, Those that I guard I do not love; My county is Kiltartan Cross, My countrymen Kiltartan's poor, No likely end could bring them loss Or leave them happier than before. Nor law, nor duty bade me fight, Nor public men, nor cheering crowds, A lonely impulse of delight Drove to this tumult in the clouds; I balanced all, brought all to mind, The years to come seemed waste of breath, A waste of breath the years behind In balance with this life, this death.
William…
jlynch | September 15, 2006One of the unexpected pleasures of blogging here at ScienceBlogs is that publishers send us books, hoping that we might offer some publicity. The problem with this is, for me at least, once the semester starts, I have little opportunity to read books that are not at least partially related to my teaching or research interests. So, in the interests to quid pro quo, here are a few of the books I recently received but I have as yet not had a chance to read or complete.
Micheal Chorost, Rebuilt: My Journey Back to the Hearing World [amaz]
James Lovelock, The Revenge of Gaia: Earth's Climate…
jlynch | September 15, 2006
Where in the world is this, and why have I posted this image today?
Answers later, but post your guesses.
Update: Yes, it is the Galapagos Islands (though South is "up"). On today in 1835, the HMS Beagle, carrying the young naturalist Charles Darwin, arrived at the islands. To quote Darwin:
The distribution of the tenants of this archipelago would not be nearly so wonderful, if, for instance, one island had a mocking-thrush, and a second island some other quite distinct genus, -- if one island had its genus of lizard, and a second island another distinct genus, or none whatever; -- or if…
jlynch | September 14, 2006Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA):
"In light of the rantings that went on for 30 minutes by two colleagues from the other side, I'd like to state for the record that America is not tired of fighting terrorism; America is tired of the wrongheaded and boneheaded leadership of the Republican party that has sent six and a half billion a month to Iraq while the front line was Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. That led this country to attack Saddam Hussein, when we were attacked by Osama bin Laden. Who captured a man who did not attack the country and let loose a man that did. Americans are tired of boneheaded…
jlynch | September 14, 2006Your life-jacket can be found under your seat, but please do not remove it now. In fact, do not bother to look for it at all. In the event of a landing on water, an unprecedented miracle will have occurred, because in the history of aviation the number of wide-bodied aircraft that have made successful landings on water is zero. This aircraft is equipped with inflatable slides that detach to form life rafts, not that it makes any difference. Please remove high-heeled shoes before using the slides. We might as well add that space helmets and anti-gravity belts should also be removed, since even…
jlynch | September 13, 2006Sort of busy today with teaching stuff, so in lieu of anything I have to say, here are some things to check out:
John Wilkins has a four part post on why creationists are what they are [1] [2] [3] [4]. He also takes on the Pope's latest expectoration on evolution.
RPM takes on PZ regarding evo devo here.
Tara outlines creationist mis-use of Semmelweis.
Bora tells the tale of his son and the Pledge of Allegiance
Nick discusses the drop in science funding since 2001 ... I wonder what happened then?
That should keep you amused for a while.
jlynch | September 12, 2006
A fisherman who speared a protected species of grouper while diving off Florida has been killed after the fish swam into a hole and entangled him in the line attached to the speargun. <
A 42-year-old Florida man, who has not been named, was free-diving in 7.6m/25' of water off the lower Florida Keys this weekend when he speared a Goliath grouper, Epinephalus itajara.
According to a report from Reuters, Detective Mark Coleman said that police divers had found the speared fish tightly wedged in a hole with the man's body entangled in the spear line: "It looks like the fish wrapped the…
jlynch | September 11, 2006Once again I find myself agreeing with Ed Brayton, in this case over PZ Myers' comments on Ken Miller. Frankly, some of the comments in the original thread at Pharyngula show a shrill insistancy that characterizes many real creationists. Atheism, it seems, coats the mind in a wonderful certitude, a belief that one's lack of belief is the Truth, that all religions are Evil, and that science has something to say about the metaphysical. I should know ... I was an atheist once. The problem is, there is no Truth, all religions are not Evil, and science should be by definition silent on…