Monthly Archives: May 2009
The hammer of religious faith
To a man with a hammer, everything is a nail. But hammers actually have a purpose that is useful. They do things. Some religious belief is rather more like a man with an imaginary hammer. The outgoing and obviously not-to-be-missed … Continue reading
Filed under Ethics and Moral Philosophy, Politics, Religion
We have a domain name now
I have bitten the bullet and paid the monies, so now this blog is accessible under the following domain name: evolvingthoughts.net Be sure to tell your friends and readers!
Filed under Administrative
Links from around
AK’s Rambing Thoughts has a very extensive discussion of the origin of Eukaryotes. Ed Yong at Not Exactly Rocket Science discusses a couple of older papers (not that there’s anything wrong with that!) on altruism among chimpanzees. I would cavil … Continue reading
Filed under Biology, Evolution, Philosophy, Science, Systematics
Fame in Brazil
A paper of mine on microbial species concepts, which started life on ET1 and hence you’ll be able to find on this edition of the blog, has been quoted in Portuguese in a Brazilian magazine, Pesquisa FAPESP. Can fame and … Continue reading
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Filed under Biology, Philosophy, Species concept
The Church’s abuse of Irish children
That’s one country. How about all the others? I have heard so many stories…
Filed under Religion
Ten best species for the last year
It’s fun to read, but what it means I am not sure. A bunch of systematists have devised the Top 10 New Species list for 2008. It’s basically a way to promote the need for more conservation and systematics at … Continue reading
Filed under Ecology and Biodiversity, Humor, Systematics
Welcome to ET 3!
Welcome, dear reader, to the third incarnation of Evolving Thoughts! I leave Seed with a heavy heart, but I hasten to add I did not move because of anything Seed did, and I was very honoured to be with them, … Continue reading
Filed under Administrative
We will resume transmission as soon as we can
There’s some reorganising of my life and blogging going on. I’ll announce all the changes to links and stuff in a fortnight or less. Please excuse the dust and noise of the construction behind the plastic sheets.
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Filed under Administrative
No, it’s not an ancestor either (probably)
In addition to the “missing link” trope that is being dished out about the new primate fossil, is another one, more subtle and insidious: it’s the ancestor of all primates. How do they know that? Consider a biologically realistic scenario: … Continue reading
Filed under Evolution, History, Science, Species and systematics
