Monthly Archives: March 2009
A philosopher reviews a biologist on evolution
Anthony Grayling, who does a really interesting review column in the Barnes and Noble Review, entitled “A Thinking Read”, has a piece on Jerry Coyne’s book Why Evolution is True. This saves me having to read it and review it … Continue reading
Filed under Book, Evolution, Species and systematics
Why didn’t I think of that?
Kate Devitt is so much better a teacher than I am (and she’s smarter, better educated and more attractive a person, but let’s deal with just one of my insecurities at a time, hey?). I wish I had thought to … Continue reading
Filed under Education
Science Communication and the Business Model
There are a lot of folk who think they have a handle on how to communicate science to the general public, and a lot of folk, mostly scientists, who think nobody else does. But I was reading Carl Zimmer’s twittering … Continue reading
Filed under Education, Evolution, Journalism, Media, Politics, Sermon, Social evolution, Truisms
On civil disagreement
I am rather old fashioned, which is unsurprising since most of what I read dates from before the invention of the transistor. But I think that one can disagree with someone else without needing to call him an idiot: This … Continue reading
Blumenbach on the unity of the human species, and on species
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach is often criticised for his racial classification and supposed racism, but in this work, published in 1775, he not only argues for the unity of the human species, but in other passages for their general equality of … Continue reading
Filed under Evolution, History, Race and politics, Species and systematics
Yet Another Philosophy of Science Blog…
But this one’s going to be huge. The Sydney Centre for the Foundations of Science has a new group blog. [How do I know? I set it up.] It will act as a clearing house for events and ideas at … Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Virus-like particles a wasp’s way of making more wasps
If I may interrupt the politics for a bit with a sciencey note, I strongly recommend reading this blog post at Small Things Considered (the go-to site for all things microbial and smaller): parasitoid wasps insert viral-like particles, or VLPs, … Continue reading
Filed under Ecology and Biodiversity, Evolution
Dembski can’t weasel out of this one
Ian Musgrave has a brilliant post showing that Dembski’s revisiting of the old creationist canard that Dawkins’ 1984 Weasel program, designed to show that random variation and selective retention can “evolve” a target phrase, in this case Shakespeare’s “Methinks it … Continue reading
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Filed under Creationism and Intelligent Design, Evolution, Humor
Internet censorship in Australia ramps up
I’m posting this on my American blog because the Australian government, through the Australian Communications and Media Authority is fining people on Australian sites who give the links below the fold $11,000/day. Pretty well everything I feared about censorship by … Continue reading
Filed under Censorship, Politics, Religion, Social evolution
Anyone in Amsterdam?
I have a six hour layover at the airport in the morning of 20 April… or I can just work on my talk.
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Filed under Administrative
