Anti-evolution
jlynch | April 26, 2008Below the fold because it’s a 250k image. But it’s worth it.
Via eclectech - I can’t wait to use it in a presentation.
jlynch | April 21, 2008So maybe I'm missing something but ... Expelled took in $3 million over the weekend. With over 1000 theaters and three days, that comes to ~$1000 per theater per day. At approximately $5 a ticket, that means we're looking at roughly 200 people seeing the movie per day per theater. Maybe 50 people tops per showing. Doesn't seem like enough to have theaters retain the movie into next weekend.
Opines Dembski:
Expelled's impact will be felt immediately. But its long-term impact will be even greater. The film opens with documentary footage of the Berlin Wall going up and closes with it coming…
jlynch | April 18, 2008Some quickies ...
The University of Oklaholma has announced its year-long Darwin 2009 celebration: This View of Life. Apparently it is being launched on February 12th with a public lecture by some guy called Lynch. Yeah, that Lynch. More of that later, no doubt.
Set Ben Straight and win stuff. See here.
Ed Brayton revisits the Sternberg affair for E-skeptic.
The Pandas Thumb has been continually blogging reviews of Expelled as they roll in. Wander on over to witness the carnage (includes a bonus ’D’ grade from BeliefNet).
Jim Lippard has revisited his predictions for Expelled’s opening…
jlynch | April 17, 2008Today is the day when it will all come crashing down around us evil Darwinists. Expelled has been, uh, expelled from whence it came. Yes, the prophet Benjamin will speak and the scales will be lifted from the eyes of the public. Verily I say unto thee, repent now.
jlynch | April 17, 2008From MartinC:
Is this stuff real science?Or is it just fantasy,That belongs in a place likeBob Jones University?Just close your eyes,Don’t think, just accept IDI’m a game show host,I don’t know biology,But this sleazy bunch, told me so,It could be lies, how would I know?So long as the check clears, it doesn’t really matter to me,To me.
Anyone? I just filmed a sham,Put some lies into your head,Libelled Darwin, coz’ he’s dead,Honor, you know I once had some,But now I’ve gone and blown it all away-Anyone? ooooohhhhhWas it mean to tell those lies?You’d learn more science by watching Rocky Horror…
jlynch | April 16, 2008 I’ve been sitting on this for an hour because, frankly, I can’t stop laughing quietly to myself. As Andrea over at the Thumb notes, the producers of Expelled are now in trouble with Yoko Ono for using Lennon’s "Imagine" without permission. Seriously. I’m not making this up. First it was plagiarism from, not one, but two sources, now it’s ripping off the Lennon estate. These guys are going to need to hire some damned good lawyers.
jlynch | April 16, 2008 So I’m all a-flutter with anticipation for the opening of Expelled - two days to go to the big day on which Darwinism will finally fall. To prepare, I checked Yahoo Movies for the screening times in my area. What’s this? Only two cinemas are brave enough to show it? The AMC Mesa Grand and the AMC Arizona Center. Strange. I wonder why Harkins (the big-dog in Arizona theaters and host for the infamous Tempe screening) has not picked up such a cultural tsunami? And look at this! Both AMC theaters have only one screening scheduled for Friday (a.k.a The Big Day). At 10:30am. Wow, that’s sure to…
jlynch | April 15, 2008 One more shot across the bows before I go back to more serious work. Expelled producers claim that:
A variety of papers, micrographs, illustrations and animations with depictions of the cellular transport system of kinesin were used and are freely available on the internet. We invite you to learn more about this incredible little transport engine through the following links:
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2003/december10/kinesinproof-1210.htmlhttp://www.stanford.edu/group/blocklab/kinesin.htmlhttp://www7.nationalacademies.org/bpa/reports_bmm.htmlhttp://www.umich.edu/news/MT/04/Fall04/…
jlynch | April 13, 2008A few days back I took on Denyse O’Leary’s "science journalism by press release" modus operandi. Now, T. Ryan Gregory has taken on the same press release while dispelling the "early branching equals primitive" fallacy that underlies O’Leary’s claims. Wander on over and have a read.
jlynch | April 12, 2008 One of the central themes within Expelled is the equation of Darwinism with Nazism. We are treated to a somber Ben Stein visiting the death camps. Without Darwin they wouldn’t have existed goes the simplistic viewpoint. Yet, before we criticize Stein and the producers of the movie, we must acknowledge that there are scientists - biologists even - who harbor(ed) anti-Semitic views. Witness the following:
By their own will, [Jews] prefer to live a separate life, in apartheid from the surrounding communities. They form their own communes (kahals), they govern themselves by their own rules and…
jlynch | April 11, 2008 David Bolinsky of XVIVIO has posted an open letter regarding the copyright infringement by Expelled. Interestingly, Mike Edmondson who was the animator for the movie has been scrubbed from the Expelled website and Dembksi has hinted that the producers had squirreled away money for copyright lawsuits. Sayeth Dembski:
I’ve gotten to know the producers quite well. As far as I can tell, they made sure to budget for lawsuits. Also, I know for a fact that they have one of the best intellectual property attorneys in the business. I expect that the producers made their video close enough to the…
jlynch | April 10, 2008Predictably, Denyse O’Leary is getting all excited about a paper in this week’s Nature that finds Ctenophora (comb jellies) to be the first multicellular branch off the Tree of Life, a divergence that precedes that of the relatively simpler sponges. Apparently only accessing a LiveScience article, O’Leary breathlessly declares:
All this shock and awe comes from not taking the Avalon explosion and the Cambrian explosion of life forms seriously for what they can tell us about the real history of life, rather than the Darwinian fantasy.
Problem is, if one reads the original article, one gets a…
jlynch | April 10, 2008
Chris Heard on Mark Mathis’ admission that Christian scientists were excluded from Expelled because they "would have confused the film unnecessarily":
Mathis as much as says that because he personally cannot reconcile Christian belief with evolutionary biology, prominent Christian scientists ... who do affirm both at once don’t deserve attention. Remember, please, that this comes from the associate producer of a film whose entire thesis is that well-meaning religious scientists are being persecuted or ostracized --"expelled"-- for wanting to talk about God! Yet prominent Christian…
jlynch | April 9, 2008
More Expelled dishonesty. Michael Shermer wondered why the movie opens with a packed house of Pepperdine students listening to Stein:
The biology professors at Pepperdine assure me that their mostly Christian students fully accept the theory of evolution. So who were these people embracing Stein’s screed against science? Extras. According to Lee Kats, associate provost for research and chair of natural science at Pepperdine, "the production company paid for the use of the facility just as all other companies do that film on our campus" but that "the company was nervous that they would not…
jlynch | April 9, 2008
Regular readers will remember law professor Peter Irons for his epic legal takedown of Stuart Pivar. Well he’s gone and done it again and this time he has been involved with a letter from XVIVO correctly accusing Premise Media (makers of Expelled!) of copyright infringement. Here’s the gist:
We have obtained promotional material for the "Expelled" film, presented on a DVD, that clearly shows in the "cell segment" the virtually identical depiction of material from the "Inner Life" video. We particularly refer to the segment of the "Expelled" film purporting to show the "walking" models of…
jlynch | April 7, 2008Yes, it is that time of the year again, Paul Nelson Day. PZ suggests we should all make it a point to ask people "How do you know that?" today, and the ones who actually can explain themselves competently will be complimented by being told that they're no Paul Nelson. A further tradition is that you can invent a new concept (such as "ontogenic depth") and promise to explain it later. The wonderful thing is that "later" never appears to come. So, what concept do you want to invent today?
jlynch | April 3, 2008
Remember the e-mail I received stating that tonight’s Expelled screening in Tempe was canceled? The e-mail simply stated:
The Tempe, AZ Screening has been canceled.
Well, Ken McKnight called the theater today two or so hours before the screening. Ken says:
I just called the Arizona Mills Harkins theater and said that I had heard that the private screening of Expelled had been moved from 7:00 to 6:00 (I didn’t mention that I had been emailed that the showing was canceled). The person I spoke to confirmed that the movie is showing today at 6:00. Clearly the promoters are somehow screening the…
jlynch | March 31, 2008The basic incompetence of the Expelled producers continues. This morning I received an e-mail telling me that the scheduled screening (7pm on April 3rd) as been re-scheduled for 6pm on that date. Where the incompetence of these boyos comes in is that they cc’ed a bunch of people on the message and I thus have contact information for attendees - folks with e-mails like "boughtbythecross," "homeschoolma," and "covenant-dad."
As it happens I can’t attend the showing ... wont be missing much.