Well, if we go by Britt Peterson’s survey article, “Darwin to the Rescue”, in Chronicle Free, even its supporters don’t totally disagree, despite all the huffery: Gottschall points out that much of his writing has been published in scientific journals. He admits, however, that under the name of Literary Darwinism “there’s also a lot of […]
Month: July 2008
Bill Maher — Dawkins for the Unwashed Masses
Check out his forthcoming documentary RELIGULOUS (click here for the trailer).
“She’s Got No Brain” by Jim Rogers
To listen to this song in mp3, click here. SHE’S GOT NO BRAIN By Jim Rogers Little machines that go Integrated just so Blueprint incognito What makes it grow Put together so fine Personalities shine Words of poetry rhyme How can you know What a wonder it is It’s a silly thing to think we’re […]
Did the eyespots of butterflies and moths evolve to deter predators?
For two hundred years, scientists have believed that the eyespots of butterflies and moths evolved to look like large eyes in order to frighten off predators. A bird might think that the bright eyespots are the eyes of a concealed cat, for example. It sounds logical, but there is a hidden assumption: We are assuming […]
A Simple Gene Origination Calculation
In this month’s Nature Genetics, there is an article by Zhou, et. al., dealing with the generation of new genes in Drosophila melanogaster—the fruit fly. While only having access to the abstract, I nonetheless was struck by one of their findings: the rate of new functional gene generation. As finding number 6 in the abstract, […]
Loennig and Becker on the origin of carnivorous plants
Although I have posted on this article before, I don’t think Wolf-Ekkehard Loennig and Heinz-Albert Becker’s Nature Encyclopedia of Life Sciences article on carnivorous plants has received the attention it merits. The section on the origin of carnivorous plants (pp 5-6) discusses not only the spectacular examples of irreducible complexity that can be seen in […]
Yes, it’s true! The ID Taliban brought about Baylor Prez Lilley’s downfall …
Apparently, some fans of the ruins of neo-Darwinism think that President John Lilley’s departure from Baylor relates to intelligent design. So Rack Jite: Though matters of tenure and logo design (believe it or not) are reported as the reasons, it was about no such thing. Rather it is the revenge of Baptist fundamentalists over encroaching […]
ID award recipient not named for own protection …
I notice that at Overwhelming Evidence, Sam Chen announces that a student sympathetic to intelligent design has received the Cassey Luskin Graduate Award, but The recipient of the 2008 Casey Luskin Graduate Award will remain anonymous for the protection of the recipient…. It’s interesting to reflect on that in view of the many legacy media […]
Baylor President Lilley Fired
This just in from Christianity Today. Lilley, you will recall, expelled Robert Marks’s Evolutionary Informatics Lab from Baylor (for that story, go here). July 24, 2008 9:57AM President of Baylor University Fired John Lilley had angered alumni, faculty, and others with tenure decisions. Ted Olsen Baylor University’s board of regents has fired president John Lilley, […]
Darwinism: Imagining the unimaginable, and cutting through the terminology fog
First, imagining the unimaginable American-born Warwick U sociologist Steve Fuller writes to share the news that his book was Book of the Week in Times Higher, where Keith Ward tries to give a reasonable though plodding account of what he is writing about: … , Fuller argues that there is no reason to call ID […]
Introduction: A journalist tries to understand a jealous god – materialist science
After reading American journalist Pam Winnick’s A Jealous God (Nelson, 2005), I informed her that I wish I had written it. Winnick and I both started writing a book on the intelligent design controversy at about the same time. My By Design or by Chance? is a closeup look; Winnick used the ID controversy as […]
Monotropa uniflora
This is off topic. Specifically botany and mycology. I thought some readers might find it of interest. I’m vacationing for the summer up north, it’s been wet and warm, perfect for mushrooms so this morning my daughter and I went walking through some woods and fields looking for mushrooms. I really wanted to get a […]
PZ Myers and Abbie Smith – An Hour of No Cursing!
PZ Myers and Abbie Smith have an hour-long video conference here. A few surprising things, not the least of which is neither of them thought to bolster their points with the cussing that characterizes their blogs. Anyhow, the first 15 minutes they talk about epigenetics, the Altenberg 16 conference, Susan Mazur, and try to downplay […]
No Smoking Hot Spot
I’ve been saying for a long time that the computer climate model predictions don’t match up to actual observations. The global warming hysterics have been in denial trying to find faults with the observations instead of admitting the plain truth that the models are flawed. Here’s an article by an Australian climate researcher that tells […]
Michael Shermer Misrepresents Intelligent Design in Canadian Newspaper
In the July 9 edition of The Ottawa Citizen, Michael Shermer published an attack on aspects of Intelligent Design. The article, with comments from readers, can be found at: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/views/story.html?id=711a0b47-29d5-426d-a273-a270817b000e&p=1 Shermer’s attack was brought on by a comment of Rabbi Reuven Bulka, published in the Citizen on July 7. Bulka had written: “By the way, […]