Monthly Archives: August 2008
Is “Darwinism” a term only used by creationists?
| August 29, 2008 | Posted by Dave S. under Intelligent Design |
Well, either the people behind the trade journal Genome Research are creationists or the term is used by everyone else too. Genomics and Darwinism Genome Research is now accepting submissions for a special issue, entitled Genomics and Darwinism, devoted to comparative and evolutionary genomics, including primary research reporting novel insights in large-scale quantitative and population… more
Nerve gene “origin” in sponges =>Frontloading?
| August 29, 2008 | Posted by DLH under Intelligent Design |
h/t to fBast: “Ooooh, stop the presses! New thread, somebody? See: Origin of Nerves traced to Sponges, it seems that sponges don’t have nerve cells, but they know how to grow ‘em. This smacks very loudly of front-loading.” ———————————– Abstract: “We are pretty confident it was after the sponges split from trunk of the tree… more
Human evolution: But who had decided that the Neanderthals were dumb in the first place?
| August 29, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
“New Evidence Debunks ‘Stupid’ Neanderthal Myth” chirps the ScienceDaily release: Research by UK and American scientists has struck another blow to the theory that Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) became extinct because they were less intelligent than our ancestors (Homo sapiens). The research team has shown that early stone tool technologies developed by our species, Homo sapiens,… more
The most sophisticated flying device
| August 28, 2008 | Posted by DLH under Intelligent Design |
Michael Dickinson reports on “a marvelous machine”: ——————- Flies In Danger Escape With Safety Dance ” . . .Dickinson used superslow-motion video cameras to study how a fly avoids getting swatted.. . .Dickinson says a fly will typically jump off the surface and then begin to fly away from the swatter. But the high-speed cameras… more
Cognitive Dissonance: Save the Bats or Save the Planet?
| August 28, 2008 | Posted by Dave S. under Global Warming, Humor, Off Topic |
A tough choice for teh environmentalist whackos if I ever saw one. Wind Turbines Give Bats the “Bends,” Study Finds Brian Handwerk for National Geographic News August 25, 2008 Wind turbines can kill bats without touching them by causing a bends-like condition due to rapidly dropping air pressure, new research suggests. Scientists aren’t sure why,… more
The Production of Variations – a Case Study in Spiders
| August 28, 2008 | Posted by johnnyb under Intelligent Design |
Last week I posted about issues with the production of variation that Darwinists often overlook. So then, the question becomes, what is the mechanism for variation production? In a recent book, called Eight-Legged Marvels: Beauty and Design in the World of Spiders, Chad Arment invites us to examine that very question. In the introduction, Arment… more
Quote of the Day
| August 27, 2008 | Posted by Barry Arrington under Intelligent Design |
“The beliefs which we have the most warrant for, have no safeguard to rest on, but a standing invitation to the whole world to prove them unfounded.” John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (New York: Burt, n.d.), pp. 38-39. more
Preach it, brother! A regular shower of blessings from Saint Charles Darwin
| August 26, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Hiram Caton, the retired Aussie political science prof who enjoys sending up the currently raging Darwin cult, writes to say that he has now drunk deep from the “clear-thinking oasis” available at Richard Dawkins’s site. And he sends back this message to the peoples who still sit in darkness and have not yet seen the… more
Antony Flew Reviews Dawkins’ “The God Delusion”
| August 25, 2008 | Posted by Dave S. under Intelligent Design |
Professor Antony Flew writes: The God Delusion by the atheist writer Richard Dawkins, is remarkable in the first place for having achieved some sort of record by selling over a million copies. But what is much more remarkable than that economic achievement is that the contents – or rather lack of contents – of this… more
Micro RNAs and Design inference.
| August 24, 2008 | Posted by idnet.com.au under Intelligent Design |
http://www.nature.com/nrm/journal/v9/n9/pdf/nrm2472.pdf “MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are known to regulate gene expression at the level of translation, but how does this affect what proteins are produced? Two recent papers have shown that individual miRNAs can affect the expression of hundreds of proteins. One known as miR-223 seems to function as a rheostat to finely adjust protein output. Another… more
Response to Gabriel
| August 24, 2008 | Posted by Dave S. under Intelligent Design |
I made the following response in the commentary on another thread. Because some people thought it deserved to become an article in its own right… here it is. Also with an apology to Jonathan Wells for calling him a “Moonie”. I had no idea it was considered by many to be derogatory. I thought it… more
Humor: Google Trends
| August 24, 2008 | Posted by Dave S. under Eyes Rolling, Humor |
Ever wonder what Science Bloggers do when they’re not science blogging? Wonder no longer. http://trends.google.com/websites?q=scienceblogs.com&geo=all&date=all&sort=0 Top Five Things Science Blog Readers Search For: 1. scotch tape mosquito bites 2. kate beckinsale 3. sponge bob 4. bruce lee 5. britney spears Interesting (if you’re a 12 year old). Top Five Blogs Science Blog Readers Also Visit… more
If the Darwinists are right and Fuller is wrong, we cannot hope to understand nature
| August 23, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Darwinism |
In the post below, where U Warwick sociologist Steve Fuller replies to the attempted hatchet job by third-rate Darwin hack Sahotra Sarkar, I think this point made by Fuller is especially critical: The overarching sense of scientific progress and its concomitant faith in greater explanatory unity and increased predictive control of nature over time: All… more
In the Face of an Aspiring Baboon
| August 22, 2008 | Posted by Steve Fuller under Atheism, Biology, Courts, Creationism, Culture, Darwinism, Education, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Legal, Philosophy, Religion, Science, theistic evolution |
In the Face of an Aspiring Baboon: A Response to Sahotra Sarkar’s Review of Science vs. Religion? Introduction Some will wonder why I expend such great effort in responding to Sahotra Sarkar’s negative review of my Science vs. Religion? I offer four reasons: (1) The review was published in the leading on-line philosophy reviews journal… more
AAAS Response to Expelled
| August 22, 2008 | Posted by Dave S. under Intelligent Design |
I see all these scientists and science teachers in this video proclaiming they see “God’s Hand” in the universe all day long then in the same breath they say design detection is bogus. So what exactly do they “see” that convinces them that God’s hand is all over the place? Obviously it isn’t rational evidence… more
Expelled’s sampling a song can be fair use
| August 22, 2008 | Posted by DLH under Intelligent Design |
Expelled wins the next legal step. ———————————– Sampling a song can be fair use, rules US court OUT-LAW News, 21/08/2008 The producers of a film defending the anti-evolutionary theories of Intelligent Design probably did not infringe copyright when they used a sample of John Lennon’s song Imagine in the film, a New York court has… more
Ken Miller on the Dennis Prager Show
| August 22, 2008 | Posted by GilDodgen under Biology, Intelligent Design, Science |
For those with a penchant for masochism, check out Ken Miller on the Dennis Prager show discussing his book about how ID is threatening America’s soul. (The Miller segment begins at 11 minutes.) As usual, Ken completely misrepresents ID and ID theorists, and argues that the ID movement threatens to destroy science in America. Miller… more
Retroviral promoters in the human genome
| August 22, 2008 | Posted by Dave S. under Intelligent Design |
The paper whose abstract lies below the fold has been cited as supportive of intelligent design here by my friend Casey Luskin of the Discovery Institute . I’m afraid I disagree with Casey’s analysis but I don’t have access to the full paper and would welcome review of my take on it from someone with… more
Why We Should Not Try to Fathom the Hearts of Policy Makers
| August 22, 2008 | Posted by Barry Arrington under Intelligent Design |
I’ve been thinking today about the ACLU’s favorite former liquor control board member (i.e., Judge Jones) and his decision in the Dover case. In my post today I want to focus on only one of Jones’ many errors – his reliance on the subjective motives of the Dover school board members in striking down the… more
Universal Genome in the Origin of Metazoa
| August 21, 2008 | Posted by Dave S. under Intelligent Design |
I blogged on this almost a year ago here: Front loading passes peer review in Cell Cycle Cell Cycle has a policy of making articles availabe without subscription after one year passes from initial publication. It’s been just over a year. The full paper is at: http://www.landesbioscience.com/journals/cc/article/shermanCC6-15.pdf more