Administrative
evolvingthoughts | February 5, 2007
I'm not adhering to the Just Science week, because
1. I'm not a scientist
2. This blog is for whatever happens to pass through my frontal lobes at the moment, and
3. It's altogether too much hard work. So there.
Anyone want to discuss intelligent design of creationist antivaccination?
evolvingthoughts | January 31, 2007
Can't talk. Eating. Paper. Grant application. Start of School Year for Son. Eating...
Reading this:
"Making Sense of Evolution: The Conceptual Foundations of Evolutionary Biology" (Massimo Pigliucci, Jonathan Kaplan)
and this:
"Darwinian Reductionism: Or, How to Stop Worrying and Love Molecular Biology" (Alex Rosenberg)
Do likewise...
evolvingthoughts | January 24, 2007
Tetrapod Zoology, which has been one of my favourite blogs for some time now, has finally moved into Da House! It will get fine tuned, as things go on, I'm sure, but the look and feel are secondary to the wonderful content. Go find out about blood-eating birds.
jrosenhouse | January 23, 2007Be sure to go say hi to the newest member of the all-encompassing Science Blogs combine. ScienceToLife is written by Karen Ventii, a graduate student in biochemistry at Emory University. Looks like she's especially interested in health related stories. Good stuff!
pharyngula | January 17, 2007I've hinted before that I've been puttering away at a book, and the latest hint is that there is a possibility of some very serious interest in it—no promises yet, merely the whisper of potential, but still…this could be a big step. At the same time, that potential comes with things like serious pressure and deadlines of some urgency and a great deal of work thumping down on my head abruptly. I'm also, of course, plunging into a new term, and the first few weeks (and the last few weeks!) are always the most work, so I'm facing a traumatic time-crunch. And there's a new Seed column due in a…
evolvingthoughts | January 4, 2007Well, I got another paper revised and out the door a couple of hours ago (it started life as a series of blog posts on microbial species here), so I am feeling almost lightheaded. But I have one other paper to revise and a grant application to write, and a conference on evidence based medicine to go to, all in the next fortnight, so all in all, I'm not exactly spare with time right now. So serious blogging (= defending agnosticism against the atheist hordes) will be a bit light for a while now. I was thinking of doing one on clades, to introduce folk to phylogenetics. Eventually.
The grant…
pharyngula | January 1, 2007At the daughter's insistence, I've updated the link to the Pharyngula chat room on the left sidebar to http://www.zirc.org/chat/, or if you'd prefer to use a real live IRC client, you can get to it via #pharyngula on irc.zirc.org. I'm not there too often, but Skatje is—don't distract her too much, she's supposed to be tidying up her room.
pharyngula | December 19, 2006We've been warned that there will be some server improvements made this evening, for the next few hours. You should still be able to see everything, but there may be commenting glitches while the upgrade is going on. Have no fear, we're supposed to bounce back smoother and faster tomorrow.
jrosenhouse | December 18, 2006A while back we Science Bloggers were asked to provide personal photographs to Seed CentCom. This is what they did with them. I'm the strikingly handsome fellow directly behind Shelley's owl. Go have a look!
jrosenhouse | December 11, 2006The all encompassing Science Blogs Combine has gobbled up two more members. Go say hello to Orli over at Neruontic and to the group over at Integrity of Science. As if I didn't have enough to read!
jrosenhouse | December 11, 2006According to the Site Meter, I've received over 13,000 hits today. I assume that means some large fish in the blog pond has linked to me. So, thanks for the link! Anyone want to fess up?
evolvingthoughts | December 8, 2006
Those who know me, or try to proselytise me with petitions or for political party support, know that I am a moral vacuum. At least, that's what I say when they try ("Sorry, I'm a moral vacuum". It gets great reactions). I like to talk about facts and practices, but not to prescribe or proscribe. I have my own moral code, but you won't get me trying to convince you of it.
But sometimes moral claims are too strong to ignore. A couple of these popped up lately on the Science Blogs, and I thought I'd shirk my duty by linking to the morally better informed and formed.
One is, of course, the…
evolvingthoughts | November 30, 2006In case anyone thought that I had given into existential despair or had a major infarct or something, the answer is yes, I did, on both counts. Or, in other words, I moved house. It took five days, and I still don't have broadband back. And now I have something like a month's backlog, after the trip to the States and the move, so posting will continue to be light. Sorry.
In the meantime, I want to ask you all - what is evidence in biology? I am going to a conference in January, and I'm keen to see what you think counts for or against a biological hypothesis, particularly historical ones. It…
evolvingthoughts | November 25, 2006Ignore what's below the fold, unless you are one of those who just can't not look...
I'll check back in a few days to see how this looks...
pharyngula | November 19, 2006When a commenter says she is a 14 year old girl who is a home-schooled genius, thinks Evolution, Genetics and Astral Projection are neat-o, peppers her comments with grammatical and spelling errors and "giggles", says she wishes a sexy man would give her a massage, claims that her hobbies include body painting — nude body painting — and posts links to photos purportedly of herself engaging in that hobby…shouldn't there be little alarm bells going off in your heads? Actually, maybe big bells, a giant cathedral carillon, sirens going whoop-whoop-whoop, and flares going up? I know, sometimes it'…
jrosenhouse | November 15, 2006I will be travelling for the next ten days or so. First up is the big Math Symposium at Western Kentucky University, this Friday. I will be delivering two scintallating, edge-of-your seats barn-burners, both aimed at undergraduates. One will be on primes in arithmetic progressions, the other will be on using Bayes' Theorem to illustrate the differences between the Monty Hall problem and the game show Deal or No Deal. Fun!
Then it's off to Illinois for a conference on Extremal Combinatorics. I'm not speaking at that one, but I will have a chance to see some of the big names in my subject…
pharyngula | November 6, 2006We seem to have some fresh meat new creationists coming by. It's been a while since we had such an opportunity—they seem to run away so quickly—so I'm going to remind everyone of the 3 comment rule. Please give people a chance to explain themselves before you decide to pound on them, OK? Abuse is a few doors down the hall, this is supposed to be Argument.
Along those same lines, we have a few persistent trolls who keep coming back. I kill them as I see them (these are a few so far gone that they don't get disemvowelled, just junked), but please don't engage them. I'm going to start trashing…
evolvingthoughts | November 5, 2006Here I am in Vancouver, which is a lovely place despite the rain, and while I'm overloading my cortex with philosophy of biology, we hit a landmark here. 100,000 unique visitors! And nobody to share the champagne with, if I had any champagne...
Tomorrow I go to Seattle for three days of recuperation, if mine host, Josh Hayes, sci.bio.evolution moderator and all round good guy, doesn't exhaust me by making me walk up mountains and stuff. Then to Berkeley, where I'll tell some serious folk why they have been wrong about essentialism in biology for fifty years, and if I survive that, back home…
evolvingthoughts | October 30, 2006So, I'm packing for the PSA/HSS conference in Vancouver, where I will be drinkingworking with other philosophers and historians, and meeting the Sciblings. Then to Seattle, where I will be shown the sights by Josh Hayes and others. Thence to San Francisco where I get to give a talk and be demolished by experts.
Professor Steve Steve will be accompanying me on this trip, having just left Chris Nedin's hospitality, so if I get access to the Infernet at a price less than the cost of my mortgage, I'll post pics. But other than that, the blogging will be light on for the next couple of weeks. I…
jrosenhouse | October 23, 2006There's a big pile of bloggable items sitting on my desk, but they will have to wait. I will be moving in to my new house tomorrow! Very exciting.
We are also hosting an undergraduate mathematics research conference here at JMU this weekend, and I am organizing one of the sessions.
Which is my way of breaking the bad news that blogging will be sporadic at best for the remainder of the week. Sorry about that.