I find the following bit of video to be very interesting. The letter itself, which they read at the beginning, is instructive of why many people are creationists or otherwise anti-science. They are afraid to go to hell. The idea that a person will go to hell for believing in science is something you have to be taught. The people who teach this should … well, they can go to hell, as far as I’m concerned. Continue reading New Evidence that the Bible is Wrong on Evolution
Monthly Archives: November 2012
What is the best digital PHS camera?
After a couple of months of testing, the results are in. Continue reading What is the best digital PHS camera?
How to be a better birder
There are several things you need to do to be a better birder. Some of these things can be handled by just tossing money after the problem. Better binoculars, more books, that sort of thing. If you use those tools well they will improve your abilities as a birder. But the most important thing you can do is probably to Continue reading How to be a better birder
Latest Bigfoot News
Robin Lynne of DNA Diagnostics has put out a press release indicating that
…A team of scientists can verify that their 5-year long DNA study, currently under peer-review, confirms the existence of a novel hominin hybrid species, commonly called “Bigfoot” or “Sasquatch,” living in North America. Researchers’ extensive DNA sequencing suggests that the legendary Sasquatch is a human relative that arose approximately 15,000 years ago as a hybrid cross of modern Homo sapiens with an unknown primate species.
The study, it is said, will report on 20 whole mitochondrial genomes and 3 whole nuclear genomes taken from “purported Sasquatch samples.” My efforts to ascertain from DNA Diagnostics exactly from where and in what manner these samples were obtained were not fruitful, but it is said that a colleague of Robin Lynne, Melba S. Ketchum, has property on which it is claimed
…that there are up to 10 Bigfoots living … she feeds them a variety of foods including Blueberry muffins, which they are particularly fond of.
So, that’s where the samples must be from.
According to the DNA study, the hybrid known as Bigfoot is the result of interbreeding between males of a non-human hominid and female humans. This is interesting because the only other anthropological information of which I’m aware regarding the mating patterns of Bigfoot suggest that the elusive hairy forest dweller is hypergynous in the other direction. Here, I refer to the case of the Almas known as Zana, a Central Asian bigfoot who lived in the village of T’khina in Abkhazia, Republic of Georgia, who joined a human family (first as a captive, then later as a domestic servant) who bred with a human male named Edgi Genaba, and who gave birth to human children who seemed, well, mainly human. (Important note: Many of Zana’s children are said to have died in infancy, suggesting a certain degree of incompatibility between the two species.)
As we await confirmation of the reported DNA results, let us keep an eye on Bigfoot’s blog for his opinion. He blogs under the pseudonym “Sasquatch” at Teen Skepchick.
Update: Palaeoanthropologist Lee Berger has offered, on twitter, a substantial award for convincing evidence of the DNA of Bigfoot:
UPDATE: There is now an interview with my old friend Todd Disotell on The Bigfoot Show about this find.
UPDATE: Skeptisquatch has issued THIS STATEMENT.
UPDATE: Film at 11!
We eagerly await the results!
Photo of Bigfoot by Flickr User gabegross
For more information on Bigfoot and his relationship to the Origin of the Skeptics Movement, you should read my novella, Sungudogo. Click here to learn more about Sungudogo.
Why Do Men Hunt and Women Shop?
The title of this post is, of course, a parody of the sociobiological, or in modern parlance, the “evolutionary psychology” argument linking behaviors that evolved in our species during the long slog known as The Pleistocene with today’s behavior in the modern predator-free food-rich world. And, it is a very sound argument. If, by “sound” you mean “sounds good unless you listen really hard.”
I list this argument among the falsehoods that I write about, but really, this is a category of argument with numerous little sub-arguments, and one about which I could write as many blog posts as I have fingers and toes, which means, at least twenty. (Apparently there was some pentaldactylsim in my ancestry, and I must admit that I’ll never really know what they cut off when I was born, if anything.)
Before going into this discussion I think it is wise, if against my nature, to tell you what the outcome will be: There is not a good argument to be found in the realm of behavioral biology for why American Women shop while their husbands sit on the bench in the mall outside the women’s fashion store fantasizing about a larger TV on which to watch the game. At the same time, there is a good argument to be made that men and women should have different hard wired behavioral proclivities, if there are any hard wired behavioral proclivities in our species. And, I’m afraid, the validity from an individual’s perspective of the various arguments that men and women are genetically programmed to be different (in ways that make biological sense) is normally determined by the background and politics of the observer and not the science. I am trained in behavioral biology, I was taught by the leading sociobiologists, I’ve carried out research in this area, and I was even present, somewhat admiringly, at the very birth of Evolutionary Psychology, in Room 14A in the Peabody Museum at Harvard, in the 1980s. So, if anyone is going to be a supporter of evolutionary psychology, it’s me.
But I’m not. Let me ‘splain….
Continue reading Why Do Men Hunt and Women Shop?
Try standing at the edge of knowledge for a while. You’ll like it.
Alternate titles for this post:
“It turns out, it is a little like a priesthood.”
“Join us. Join us. Join us. Braaainzzzzz”
“Imma gonna let you finish, but first I think you need to get your Wellies
…
Continue reading Try standing at the edge of knowledge for a while. You’ll like it.
Update Your Southern African Bird Guide Collection
When traveling and working in South Africa, I’ve always used Newman’s guide to the birds of Southern Africa, and more recently, I found the Sasol guide to be helpful as well. (I discuss both briefly here.) Now, I’ve got on my desk a copy of Princeton’s Birds of Southern Africa: Fourth Edition
All three books cover about the same species, as far as I can tell (just under 1,000) and have a similar range of illustration and information. They all have overview graphics that help narrow down the species, and other helpful information.
There are things I like about the new Sinclair book that you might appreciate as well. First, the range maps are more detailed and updated, and probably the most accurate of any in a current field guide. Sasol has helpful inflight graphics arranged to group several similar species together, but Sinclair has the in flight images in the same place as the other images of each species. That might make Sasol better for the novice who needs to narrow down “hawk thingie” to a more fine detail, while Sinclair would be more useful to the pro. (Sorry, I’m not making the comparison to Newman right now because I can’t lay my hands on my volume right now. Might have left it at Lynne’s house. In Pretoria.)
Obviously, you need more than one field guide, especially if you are traveling with more than one person. (Always bring different guides, not copies of the same, where possible!) and at the moment I’d suggest the new Birds of Southern Africa: Fourth Edition
Understanding Sex Differences in Humans: What do we learn from nature?
Nature is a potential source of guidance for our behavior, morals, ethics, and other more mundane decisions such as how to build an airplane and what to eat for breakfast. When it comes to airplanes, you’d better be a servant to the rules of nature or the airplane will go splat. When it comes to breakfast, it has been shown that knowing about our evolutionary history can at times be a more efficacious guide to good nutrition than the research employed by the FDA, but you can live without this approach. Nature works when it comes to behavior too, but there are consequences. You probably would not like the consequences.
The question at hand is this: Should men and women be given fundamentally different rights? Would it be OK if men and women had different pay for the same job, or different access to jobs? Would it be OK if men and women were treated differently by the law in a way that accounted for the behavioral differences between them that arise from their biology which, in turn, may be partly a function of their evolutionary history? Should men and women have different status because of their gender? Similar questions can be extended to people that are biologically different in other ways, such as by age, gender orientation, physical handicap or, should it be proven a valid categorization, race. But for now, let’s stick with the basic adult male vs. female difference.
Continue reading Understanding Sex Differences in Humans: What do we learn from nature?
Feederwatch: A course in art focusing on birds
Here is the website, here is the Facebook page, and here is the writeup:
Feeder Sketch is an 8 week free one line casual course. You can come and go as you please. No requirements, and any level of participation is welcome (from just seeing what it is, to drawing 2 times a week for and hour).
Join us if you are just learning to draw or are an illustration superstar. A novice birder – or someone who can identify a bird by just a few little chirps. Everyone is welcome!
If you just want a weekly reminder about the group, you can hit maybe here, and stay updated.
Who are “we”?
We are staff and educators from the Science Museum of Minnesota and the Museum of Life and Science in North Carolina. Some of us draw for fun, while others have no art background whatsoever. None of us are bird experts. We will be “learning to look, and looking to learn” together.What is it exactly?
This free, eight-week online program accommodates a range of birders and sketchers, from novice to expert, focusing especially on the novice sketcher. We’ll host observational and drawing activities each week online on the FeederWatch Forum, share our work with each other, and enjoy conversations about learning how to draw (again) as an adult and also learning to draw birds in particular.Timing:
The official FeederWatch season runs from November 10, 2012 through April 5, 2013. We will facilitate the accompanying FeederSketch program from November 26, 2012 through January 20, 2013. We encourage you to participate in both—sign up to count birds and submit your data to the Project FeederWatch program for the whole season, as well as sketch along with us for the eight-week FeederSketch companion program.Questions or need help registering?
Email us at feedersketch@smm.org.
Skeptics: How do you know what to "believe"?
It is not possible for anyone to understand every policy-important aspect of scientific knowledge at the level of detail necessary to accept that knowledge as valid, or to defend it against the evil anti-science denialists. So what is a skeptic to do?
Continue reading Skeptics: How do you know what to "believe"?
Scratch: A kids programming environment that is easy and works!
Super Scratch Programming Adventure!: Learn to Program By Making Cool Games
The upper left box allows you to chose categories of property and methods sets, such as motion, looks, sensing, etc. The list-like thingie below this are those sets of properties and methods. You pick a sprite (in this case, the orange cat) and then you stick together items from these lists to get behavior and stuff. The white screen with the cat on it is where the drama is all played out. Here is the editing environment for the sprites:
In this example, I’v set up the orange cat to proceed to the center of the stage, then make a series of turns and moves, with various waiting times between them. I made the cat dance. that was with zero training and not having looked at the book yet.
Once you look at the book you can do much much more! Scratch comes with numerous examples, some of which are a little silly or poorly executed, but all of which illustrate important programing techniques. The version of Pong that comes in the example set is as good as any a beginning programmer might create, and involves only this code:
If you have a kid who plays around with a computer and can read even a little, GET THIS. You’ll have fun, and when you are done playing with it, you can let your kid use it to learn how to program.
My baby was designed by god just like a banana
When my baby nurses from his mom, he can see her face and bond with her because he was designed to do so by god. Like how a banana is designed by god to fit comfortably in the hand for eating, or maybe just carrying around.
What am I talking about?
Continue reading My baby was designed by god just like a banana
Empowering the individual does not equal ensmartening the individual
Imagine the following scenario. Two guys are walking down the street, in different cities. Guy A has two PhDs, one in quantum physics with a focus on dimensionality dynamics, the other in astrophysics with a focus on relativistic aspects of gravity and black holes. She has published dozens of peer reviewed papers on both topics and is a brilliant mathematician. Guy B never took a physics class but yesterday he finished reading large parts of The Elegant Universe. Suddenly, at the same moment, they each have an idea (they do not have the same idea … they have different ideas) about how to unify quantum level and cosmic level dynamics.
Continue reading Empowering the individual does not equal ensmartening the individual
Science denial: a guide for scientists
Scientist could probably do a better job at understanding, and addressing, science denial. I know this is true. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard a scientist say something like “All you have to do is, bla bla bla” or “What I do is bla bla bla” in relation to science denialists, or addressing this issue in classrooms, etc. I’d have dozens of nickels. Yet the problem of science denialism continues. It is possible that we don’t know what we are doing.
Joshua Rosenau knows something about science denialism, as a scientist, scienceblogs.com blogger, and staff member at the National Center for Science Education. And, he’s written a paper in Trends in Microbiology on this very topic. From the summary:
Evolution, climate change, and vaccination: in these cases and more, scientists, policymakers, and educators are confronted by organized campaigns to spread doubt, denial, and rejection of the scientific community’s consensus on central scientific principles. To overcome these threats, scientists not only need to spread scientific knowledge, but must also address the social drivers of science denial.
Sounds interesting. Want to read it? You can. Just click here for the PDF!
You might also want to check out this recent post by Josh about the current state of climate science vis-a-vis policy in Washington.
Is Python The New Basic? ("Python For Kids")
My first computer language was PL/1, but soon after I learned, among other languages, Basic, and I really liked Basic and I still do. Basic is linear, and I think in linear constructs when I do any kind of computer program. This is probably, in part, because user interfaces are the last thing I want to deal with. I want a series of numbers to be treated in a certain way, or a set of formulas to generate a database. The most non-linear I tend to get is multidimensional arrays, and that’s still linear.
Python is potentially, and in practice, very different, and is essentially used as an object-oriented language. Yet at the same time it can be used in any other way, to reproduce pretty much any sort of programming paradigm. People thought of Basic as not very readable, but in fact, it was in its more advanced form if you programmed right. Python is said to enforce readability, if by readability we mean enforced indentation. People are still free to ruin readability in a number of other ways. But most importantly, Python holds a very important feature in common with Basic: It is interpreted. In other words, at any point in time while you are writing your Python program, you can “run” it and see how it is going.
The biggest difference between a language like Basic even at its high water mark some years ago, and Python is that Phython has plenty of modules for use do do all sorts of cool things. I’m not sure if the Python library is the biggest and vastest and most amazingest of all, but it probably is. So, if you are going to pick a programming language with paradigmatic flexibility, reasonable readability, and a powerful and diverse library of functionality, the Python is probably the way to go.
And therefore, you should teach it to your children. And this is where Python for Kids: A Playful Introduction to Programming
Officially…
Python for Kids is a lighthearted introduction to the Python programming language, full of fun examples and color illustrations. Jason Briggs begins with the basics of how to install Python and write simple commands. In bite-sized chapters, he explains essential programming concepts. And by the end of the book, kids have built simple games and created cool drawings with Python’s graphics library, Turtle. Each chapter closes with offbeat exercises that challenge the reader to put their newly acquired knowledge to the test.
The first thing that you need to know is this: If your computer has any sort of development environment set up on it, the instructions for installing Python provided in this book may be problematic or at least slightly difficult. I recommend using this book an an installation that is virtualized or simply a different computer than you otherwise develop on, not just so that your kid does not accidentally delete, or worse, alter and publish, your pet projects. Part of the process of modern programming, after all, is learning about the development environment.
There are a handful of good “learn to program in python” books out there and this one is similar; it is hard to know at which point someone using the book will pass from “Oh, I see, that’s easy” to “Huh?” which usually occurs a chapter or two after the person stopped paying attention to details. Python for Kids: A Playful Introduction to Programming
Python for Kids
ADDDED: Have a look at this post on teaching your kid math using programming, via Python.