The C18 rediscovery/ re-invention of concrete . . . it had apparently been made by the Romans, Greeks and Egyptians [–> earlier, the Nabataeans] (and many natural, volcanic or sedimentary rocks are concrete-like) . . . opened up a world of new building possibilities; especially, when it is reinforced by steel. As, we can see Read More…
Uncommon Descent Contest
Uncommon Descent Contest: What should we call the reviewer of a book on evolution who seems to be shouting Amen! fifty times? — judged
Here. Years ago, we pioneered the term noviewer, to describe people who review books without reading them. Now a friend has written to ask for a contest to come up with term to describe the reviewer who is the author’s public relations specialist. For example, the book is called Darwin was right and the reviewer Read More…
Uncommon Descent Contest: What should we call the reviewer of a book on evolution who seems to be shouting Amen! fifty times?
Prize: A hardback copy of J. Scott Turner’s Purpose and Desire: What Makes Something Alive and Why Modern Darwinism Has Failed to Explain It Recently, a friend linked us to the fact that Amazon had deleted 900 reviews of US 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s new book, What Happened: Books get reviewed badly, and people Read More…
Contest: If humans originated as a chimp-pig hybrid (recent claim) — Judged
Therefore, to properly name this hybrid, we’d need to come up with a portmanteau that combines the first part of the male parent’s name (pig) and the second part of the female parent’s name (chimp), so …
Contest: If humans originated as a chimp-pig hybrid (recent claim) …
… what should we call our earliest piggychimp ancestor?
Uncommon Descent contest: Contest offered for mendacity in journalism. But what about science journalism?
Do readers know of examples of actual fraud in science writing since 2000? Or reality avoidance so egregious that …
Uncommon Descent Contest: Give Darwinist Jerry Coyne’s atheist crusade/jihad a name – judged
It was fun. So many clever entries, so little time away from the grind …
Uncommon Descent Contest: Give Darwinist Jerry Coyne’s atheist crusade/jihad a name
We need a new Coynage. What should we call Coyne’s battle for incivility toward – and distortion of facts about – traditional religion?
Uncommon Descent contest List the five books that most helped ID – judged
Here’s the contest: “Uncommon Descent contest: List the five books that helped ID most – written by non-ID researchers.” It riffs off an earlier contest: “List the ten most significant ID books of the last 25 years,” judged here. Briefly: Lots of books whose authors are looking for any solution other than ID have actually helped Read More…
Student essay contest: What difference does intelligent design make to science?
Thanks to a kind donor, we can sponsor an essay contest this summer. We’ve all heard what the effect would be of accepting design as a cause in nature alongside of law and chance: Science hurtles back to the dark ages, fascism wipes out democracy, Armageddon arrives, and – worst of all – people who Read More…
Uncommon Descent Contest: Why do people refuse to read books they are attacking? First award – judged
The contest is here. The question was, for a free copy of The Nature of Nature , why would a scientist or scholar actually volunteer to trash books unread? It seems to happen frequently to books arguing for design in nature. And the winner is CannuckianYankee at 20 for To inform the public on what Read More…
Impress your friends with a piece of Mars – contest judged
Sorry for judging delay. The contest, you’ll recall, riffed off New Scientist’s offer of a Mars rock: Tell New Scientist what the first person to set foot on Mars should say. The winner gets a copy of The Nature of Nature , where Guillermo Gonzalez discusses the constraints of the galactic habitable zone. (Note: That Read More…
Uncommon Descent Contest: Is there any progress in the study of human evolution? – judged
Here’s the intro to the contest, riffing off the bewildering soap opera of claims about the relationship between modern humans and Neanderthals, followed by the question, for a free copy of The Nature of Nature , tell us: Do you think we understand the human-Neanderthal relationship better than we did twenty-five years ago? In what Read More…
Look, you can win a Mars rock. Why risk slambo for trying to sell a Moon rock?
Yup. In other news: “Woman is detained in NASA moon rock sting,”according to MSNBC (5/20/2011): Tried to sell treasure for $1.7 million in Southern California, authorities say It is illegal to sell moon rocks, which are considered national treasures.
Uncommon Descent Contest: Is there any progress in the study of human evolution?
[Contest now judged. here. “Impress your friends with a piece of Mars is open until Saturday, May 28, 2011. The “Why do people refuse to read books they are attacking?” contest is open till Saturday June 4.] In this version of the very long-running human evolution soap opera (Ewen Callaway, Nature News, 9 May 2011), Read More…