I became acquainted with an Englishman who was going to visit his estate … more than a hundred miles [north] of Cape Frio. As I was quite unused to travelling, I gladly accepted his kind offer of allowing me to accompany him.
And so was the case with a number of Darwin’s excursions into the bush. Continue reading Darwin and the Voyage: 04 ~ Darwin Gets his Wellies Wet
Robots in the Netherlands who can’t find jobs elsewhere will be put to work pumping gas. Continue reading Robot Unemployment Crisis Solved with Make-Work Program
The scientists have created the embryo in the labScientists believe they have made a potential breakthrough in the treatment of serious disease by creating a human embryo with three separate parents.
British artist Alison Jackson talks about her provocative explorations of celebrity culture. By making photographs that seem to show our favorite celebs (Diana, Elton John) doing what we really, secretly, want to see them doing, she’s questioning our shared desire to get personal with celebrity culture. Funny and sometimes shocking, Jackson’s work contains some graphic images.
Continue reading Alison Jackson: A surprising look at celebrity
The Bloggers for Peer-Reviewed Research Reporting Administration has made a decision in what has come to be known as t”The Luskin situation: A summary, analysis and decision.” I believe they made the right decision, but for the wrong reasons. I respect and admire (and participate in) their efforts, but I think they are being nice. This is no time to be nice. Continue reading Luskin and the Discovery Institute Do Not Deserve the Respect They’ve been Afforded
South Carolina people know true conservatism when they see it.You don’t like people outside the state telling you how you ought to raise your kids, you don’t like people from outside the state telling you what to do with the flag … In fact, if somebody came down to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we’d tell’em where to put the pole.
Continue reading Huckabee: You can take our racist flag and shove it
… as Obama landslides (if I may verb that noun) Minnesota on Super Tuesday. Amanda and I went to the caucus last night, and stayed around for the vote count. We were in charge of making sure none of the voting slips dropped to the ground in the crowded classroom at the local High School.The people who run the caucus reported that they had never seen so many people come to the event.Oh, and we’re delegates. We’ll be taking this to the next level, next month. So if you are running for something, you’d better be nice to us!
The nefarious Discovery Institute, the Creation Science think tank, is often secretive about its activities. It has not been entirely clear that they have been involved in the recent fight in Florida over the use of the word “evolution” and the teaching of mainstream, scientifically informed evolutionary biology, in public schools. Going with the interpretation of The Gradebook, the Discover Institute … Continue reading The Discovery Institute Has Been Mucking Around in Florida
Robin Chase rose to fame by founding Zipcar, the world’s biggest car-sharing business, but that was one of her smaller ideas. In this presentation she travels much farther, contemplating road-pricing schemes that will shake up our driving habits and a no-fee mesh network as sprawling as the United States Interstate highway system. But how could you build a free wireless system that vast and pervasive? Chase finds the answer in a few short lines from The Graduate. And it has nothing to do with plastic.
Continue reading Robin Chase: Getting cars off the road and data into the skies
Blog Carnival is an easy way to submit your wonderful post to a blog carnival. As the name implies. Berry Go Round is a new carnival about plants.I think what you need to do now should be quite clear.
Natural Selection is the key creative force in evolution. Natural selection, together with specific histories of populations (species) and adaptations, is responsible for the design of organisms. Most people have some idea of what Natural Selection is. However, it is easy to make conceptual errors when thinking about this important force of nature. One way to improve how we think about a concept like this is to carefully exam its formal definition. Continue reading The Three Necessary and Sufficient Conditions of Natural Selection