05.31.08
Posted in Evolution at 4:32 pm by nemo
‘The Voyage of the Beagle’ shows us a young man intoxicated with the tropics and careless of the risks
By STEVE JONES
May 31, 2008; Page W12
Next year is Darwin year: the bicentennial of the great man’s birth and the 150th anniversary of “The Origin of Species.” The book is not the easiest of reads, but it is less of a trudge than Charles Darwin’s four volumes on barnacles or his 15 works on topics as distinct as climbing plants and the formation of mold by earthworms. They tell, in plain and sometimes pedestrian prose, the tale of a life of observation and experiment that founded modern biology.
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Posted in Evolution at 4:21 pm by nemo
What is a species?
If somebody asked me to write a short essay giving an overview of my favourite topic, the nature of species, I doubt that I could. I can write a long essay on it (in fact, several) but it would be excruciatingly hard to write a short one. For that, we need a real writer. Carl Zimmer is the guy. He has an essay on species in the current edition of Scientific American. And despite quoting some obscure Australian philosopher, it is a good summary of the issues. How he manages to get up on a topic like that amazes me. It took me a good five years. Read the rest of this post at my blog here.
I would be wary of passing judgment on such a complicated subject, but it is my impression that the standard for defining species is misleading: that is, the boundary is relatively fluid in many cases, while it is a thoroughly complex barrier in others. This leads to the application of the misleading generalizations based on natural selection, which might lead to pseudo-speciation in many instances, but not to full speciation in more complex cases.
It is certainly not the case that natural selection led to human speciation: something far more complex is involved, and the study of the eonic effect, and human history shows us a glimpse of what that something is.
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Posted in Science & Religion at 1:35 pm by nemo
Richard Dawkins comes to call
A crusading atheist and author of The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins is Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. He is a Fellow of CSI (The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, formerly CSICOP) and a strong supporter of James Randi. His earlier books were on evolutionary biology, the best known being The Selfish Gene. In 2007, he visited Rupert to interview him for his TV series Enemies of Reason:
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Posted in Evolution at 1:31 pm by nemo
Don Lajoie, The Windsor Star
God versus science. That most ancient of debates has been raging in academic circles, popular culture and in the media with increasing ferocity since the fundamentalist religion-inspired attacks of 9-11.
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Posted in Booknotes, Evolution at 1:29 pm by nemo
Don’t write off religion just yet
JOHN GRAY
May 31, 2008
THE DEVIL’S DELUSION
Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions
By David Berlinski
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Posted in Tibet at 1:20 pm by nemo
Consumers Have The Power
THE history of China’s oppression of it’s own population is well known.
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Posted in you've got mail at 12:55 pm by nemo
The Worst is Yet to Come
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
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Posted in you've got mail at 12:52 pm by nemo
Friday 05.30.08
Headlines…
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Posted in you've got mail at 12:51 pm by nemo
Girls are becoming as good as boys at mathematics, and are still
better at reading
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11449804
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Posted in you've got mail at 12:50 pm by nemo
In a study published today in Public Library of Science ONE, Danish
scientists describe the retrieval of genetic material from ten Viking
skeletons found in an ancient burial site near the city of Odense. The
remains date to 1000 AD, the twilight of Viking civilization.
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/05/researchers-rec.html
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Posted in you've got mail at 12:50 pm by nemo
If evolution is so powerful, why did the human brain end up so flawed,
asks psychologist Gary Marcus
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14022-interview-why-our-brains-are-so-clumsy.html
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Posted in you've got mail at 12:49 pm by nemo
A German folk saying that means “every child costs the mother one
tooth” may hold a lot of truth, research published on Thursday indicates.
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN2933974620080529
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Posted in you've got mail at 12:47 pm by nemo
Read this or George W Bush will be president the rest of your life
by William Blum
www.killinghope.org (May 01 2008)
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Posted in you've got mail at 12:46 pm by nemo
From R-G
Oil price surge hits US growth outlook
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Posted in you've got mail at 12:44 pm by nemo
From R-G
May 31, 2008.
The bubble of all US bubbles
By Max Fraad Wolff
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JE31Dj03.html
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Posted in you've got mail at 12:40 pm by nemo
From R-G
Democrats talk guns, energy and federal land use
Exclusive: Obama, Clinton Make Closing Arguments as Montana Primary Looms
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Posted in you've got mail at 12:35 pm by nemo
From R-G
Bolivia’s ‘Bad Births’ Sit on Political Sidelines
Run Date: 01/15/08
By Jean Friedman-Rudovsky
WeNews correspondent
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Posted in you've got mail at 12:33 pm by nemo
From R-G
Mercenary NGOs meet in Washington
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2008/mayo/juev29/USAID.html
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05.30.08
Posted in Booknotes, Evolution at 2:37 pm by nemo
Survival of the letter shows that Darwin’s honesty is without doubt
May 30 2008 by Elaine Morgan, Western Mail
That’s a very poor argument: Darwin’s deceptive behavior and the destruction of various other letters is documented fact.
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Posted in Evolution at 2:34 pm by nemo
Intelligent Design Film Boosts Academic Freedom Bills, Advocates Say
By Kevin Mooney
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
May 29, 2008
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Posted in global warming at 2:31 pm by nemo
King’s ransom?
Hay festival 2008: The government’s former chief scientific adviser had a stark message on climate change, but with humour
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Posted in global warming at 2:28 pm by nemo
OSLO – Skewed datafrom ships measuring sea temperatures after World War Two might explain an apparent abrupt world cooling in 1945 that had been a mystery in a century of global warming, scientists said on Wednesday.
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Posted in global warming at 2:27 pm by nemo
Act on climate change, top scientists warn US
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles and James Randerson The Guardian, Friday May 30 2008 Article historyA group of 1,700 leading scientists called on the US government yesterday to take the lead in fighting global warming. Citing the “unprecedented and unanticipated” effects of global warming, the scientists, including six Nobel prizewinners, presented a letter calling for an immediate reduction in US carbon emissions.
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Posted in Science at 2:24 pm by nemo
Why finding fossils on Mars would be extremely bad news for humanity
May 25, 2008
THE IDEA OF life on Mars has been with us for nearly 300 years, ever since early astronomers saw what they believed to be polar icecaps through their primitive telescopes. If NASA’s Phoenix lander successfully touches down on Mars this afternoon, it will become part of a long experiment to determine whether the planet was ever habitable, and whether it contains any traces of life, extinct or still active.
more stories like thisDiscovering traces of life on Mars would be of tremendous scientific significance: The first time that any signs of extraterrestrial life had ever been detected. Many people would also find it heartening to learn that we’re not entirely alone in this vast, cold cosmos.
They shouldn’t. If they were wise, they’d hope that our probes discover nothing. It would be great news to find that Mars is a completely sterile planet.
On the other hand, if we discovered traces of some simple extinct life form – a bacterium, some algae – it would be bad news. If we found fossils of something even more advanced, like a trilobite or even the skeleton of a small mammal, it would be horrible news. The more complex the life we found, the more depressing. Scientifically interesting, yes, but dire news for the future of the human race.
Why? To understand the real meaning of such a discovery is to realize just what it means that the universe has been so silent for so long – why we have been listening for other civilizations for decades and yet have heard nothing.
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Posted in Booknotes, global warming at 2:21 pm by nemo
From H-Net
Roger S. Gottlieb. A Greener Faith: Religious Environmentalism and Our Planet’s Future. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. x + 288 pp. Notes, index. $29.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-19-517648-3.
Reviewed by: Megan Jones, Department of History, University of Delaware.
Published by: H-Environment (January, 2008)
In Religion Is the Preservation of the World
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Posted in Booknotes, global warming, you've got mail at 1:58 pm by nemo
1001 Ways You Can Save the Planet: Practical Ideas to Heal and Change the World (Paperback — Compact Size)
Joanna Yarrow
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Posted in you've got mail at 1:57 pm by nemo
SOCIALISM 2008
A weekend of revolutionary politics, debate and entertainment
June 19-22 | Chicago | Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare
http://www.socialismconference.org
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Posted in you've got mail at 1:56 pm by nemo
http://www.unite.org.nz/?q=node/367
UNITE Union of Workers
New Zealand should take up the cause of the Palestinians
John Minto Read the rest of this entry »
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