jlynch | March 11, 2006Boy, I thought I was getting some traffic yesterday when PZ linked to me. Today, DarkSyde over at Daily Kos linked to the hairy lobsters and the hits keep a-comin'. Welcome one and all !
jlynch | March 10, 2006Berlinski's latest expectoration in his interview with himself:
You talk very often of, and I quote, "the serious sciences." I take it you mean to exclude biology altogether. Is that your view? ...
DB: To a certain extent. My real view is that there is only one science, and that is mathematics, and that the physical sciences are really forms of experimental mathematics.
Wow.
jlynch | March 10, 2006Over at Rationally Speaking, Massimo Pigulicci hits the nail on the head as far as I'm concerned regarding nuclear weapons:
I am baffled by the fact that nobody seems to notice the obvious flaw in the US, Russian and European effort to stop Iran's path toward nuclear weaponry: we have them, why not them?
Because they are not a democracy, you might say. I have news for you: neither is Pakistan, but they have nukes, and yet this apparently isn't keeping Bush up at night. Well, but Iran is a "rogue state." What the hell does that mean, anyway? Is a rogue state a state whose policies we don't…
jlynch | March 10, 2006I can't possible compete with RPM's "Double Entendre Friday" (heh, heh, he said "penetrance"), but here they are, your Friday Random Ten:
Sad Professor / REM / MTV Unplugged
Babylon Sisters / Steely Dan / Gaucho
Free Fallin' / Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers / Greatest Hits
I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend / The Ramones / Ramones Mania
Police State In The Usa / Anti-Flag / Die For The Government
Salty Dog / Cat Power / The Covers Record
Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart / Nick Cave / Kicking Against the Pricks
Working on a Building / Cowboy Junkies / The Trinity Sessions
Shellshock / New Order…
jlynch | March 9, 2006This looks interesting. As I haven't seen the paper yet, I wont comment.
The vast differences between humans and chimpanzees are due more to changes in gene regulation than differences in individual genes themselves, according to a report in Nature. Using novel gene-array technology to measure the extent of gene expression in thousands of genes simultaneously, scientists provide powerful new evidence for a 30-year-old theory that might explain how only a few genetic changes could produce the wide anatomic and behavioral differences between the two.
Further details are below the fold.
Update:…
jlynch | March 8, 2006
I used to work on Eurasian badgers, Meles meles, a fascinating mustelid carnivore that is relatively easy to observe in the wild. My work was in cranial morphometrics - measuring skulls and detecting differences - and I was more interested in variation in sexual dimorphism than anything else (though I wrote two papers on the possible menas by which the species colonized Ireland). The following press release by the University of Chicago Press caught my eye.
In a fascinating new study forthcoming from The Quarterly Review of Biology, biologists from the University of Oxford explore a rare…
jlynch | March 7, 2006French biologists have apparently discovered a new species of lobster, Kiwi hirsuta at a depth of 7,540 feet, 900 miles south of Easter Island. Thing is, it's blind ... and has limbs covered with "sinuous, hair-like strands" (source).
jlynch | March 7, 2006I will be on the east coast for a brief period next week.
On Thursday March 16th, I will be giving a public talk ("Darwin, Design, and Democracy") at Colby College, Maine. The venue is the Olin Science Center, the kick-off is 7:00pm, and I'm being sponsored by Colby's Science, Technology & Society program (link).
Any readers in the area are more than welcome to come along and say "hi".
Apparently, it will be cold.
jlynch | March 6, 2006"One could certainly ascertain that if you're in a barn and in a secluded area with a lamb and you're behind her and your pants are down by your ankles, then an unnatural sex act is probably occurring." That's an understatement.
(I know, I know. I shouldn't have posted this. But, come on ... I'm baaaaaaad)
jlynch | March 6, 2006In a previous post I noted the governor of South Carolina's inane comments on evolution which he characterized as "[t]he idea of their being a, you know, a little mud hole and two mosquitoes get together and the next thing you know you have a human being". Well, not to be outdone, his counterpart in Kentucky, Ernie Fletcher (BS Engineering, MD) has gone one step further in demonstrating that an education doesn't stop one from spouting nonsense. Writing to the Kentucky Academy of Science - who sent him this statement, after he supported ID in his State of the Commonwelth address - Fletcher…
jlynch | March 6, 2006Creationism is, it appears, a profitable business. Jim Lippard has a nice piece on Answers in Genesis, Ken Ham's young earth organization. Seems that in 2004, AiG had a total revenue of $10,423,222. Ham himself had a salary of $121,764, with $6,887 in benefits and $63,808 in expenses. Similarly, the Institute for Creation Research had a revenue of $4,341,000 and claims to have spent $2,382,920 on "research in the field of biblical creation". John Morris, as president, made $74,915.
Indeed, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, both Ham and Morris are doing very nicely compared to…
jlynch | March 6, 2006Max Blumenthal has an interesting piece in last week's Nation discussing Robert "Robby" George, a Princeton professor of jurisprudence, and his James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. Of interest is that the Program is supported by many of the conservative foundations that fund the Discovery Institute and that George himself is a darling within conservative Catholic circles.
That aside, the following in particular caught my eye:
"The only way I made it is that there were honorable liberals prepared to support me," George told me. "But today, the hegemonic point of view is…
jlynch | March 6, 2006A while back I mentioned Dan Ely, the University of Akron physiologist who seems to be unsure about the age of the earth. According to Red State Rabble, three of his departmental colleagues have written to the Kansas BoE to fix two of Ely's "misrepresentations". Their first correction ultimately attacks the modus operandi of the Discovery Institute in supporting the likes of Ely, Philip Skell, and other know-nothings.
Dr. Ely implies in his testimony that he has background in evolutionary biology, and that his current research is related to evolutionary biology. Both of these notions are…
jlynch | March 6, 2006A few weeks ago, I noted that I had bought a lace catfish Syonodontis nigrita for my aquarium. The little guy doesn't come out often, preferring the evenings, but he sure is a nice looking fish. Somewhat strangely, he likes to spend time inverted among the plants, wedging himself down near the roots. It took me a while to realize that he wasn't dead! Below is a picture of a lace catfish [click for larger version].
So, my interest was peeked when I noticed that two researchers at Cornell recently described a new species of Syonodontid, Synodontis acanthoperca from Gabon. What's interesting…
jlynch | March 5, 2006As I'm still mid-grading, I still don't have time for any real posting. So, in lieu, I give to these two videos which are flying around the internet.
Natalie Portman goes gangsta on Saturday Night Live (YouTube)
The Simpsons opening credits redone with flesh people (YouTube)
That's all for the moment folks.
jlynch | March 4, 2006This is a little wierd. I took that "What space crew would you best fit in?" quiz that some other Sbers have been posting on, and like PZ, afarensis, and Chris, I came out with Serenity (Firefly): You like to live your own way and don't enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you should do different. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you.
I wish I knew what that stuff about the Reavers meant. I've never seen Firefly.
Orac is the only one so far who ended up with a different crew. Should we rename this Serenityblogs?
jlynch | March 3, 2006I used to do a Friday Random Ten over at my old blog, but haven't in a while. And then I find that PZ ran one today, and he featured "Strange Fruit" by Billy Holiday. I take that as a cosmic hint (is it design? who cares), so here's my Friday Random Ten:
I'm Bound For The Promised Land / Johnny Cash / Unearthed Vol 4 My Mother's Hymn Book
The Ascent of Man / R.E.M. / Around the Sun
Verde Mar / Chambao / Flamenco Chill
The Spoken Wheel / Flogging Molly / Within a Mile of Home
Soon All Will Know / Wynton Marsalis / Ken Burns Jazz
The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll / Bob Dylan / Bootleg Series…
jlynch | March 3, 2006Over at Majikthise, a blog (on analytical philosophy and liberal politics) that I have just noticed, Lindsay has the following to say:
Being raised by academic hippies is like being raised by wolves--you can rejoin human society, but you can never integrate seamlessly.
That's probably true for being raised by academics in general. My daughter is, I fear, doomed.
Read the rest of Lindsay's post which includes this gem:
My uncle, the philosopher, used to be a heavy smoker. One day when I was about six, I said, no doubt irritatingly,
"If I were you, I wouldn't smoke."
He answered, "If you were…
jlynch | March 2, 2006Since I am busy, I thought I'd post this oldie from April of last year. The book in question, now titled "Darwin's Nemesis: Phillip Johnson and the Intelligent Design Movement" will, according to Dembski, ship soon. I will offer a real review when I can.
Over at his website, Bill Dembski had published the front matter [pdf] for A Man For This Season: The Phillip Johnson Celebration Volume to be published by InterVarsity Press in 2006, and edited by Dembski and Jed Macosko. The volume is a festscrift for PEJ that stems from the celebration that was held at the opening of the Intelligent…
jlynch | March 2, 2006Still busy here. Grading and stuff, so it will probably be a few more days before I can blog on matters scientific. Took a break off last night to go see the legendary Buddy Guy play in Mesa. Take it from me, this is one blues guitarist you need to see before you die. Excellent show .... probably all told the best show I've ever been to.