The force that through...

Late Fall Fennel

2011-11-23T19:38:00.001-08:00

Fennel 2, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

Now that the Swallowtail Caterpillars are gone, the Fennel in my garden is doing better than it did all summer.

Behind the rail yard

2011-11-01T19:24:00.001-07:00

Behind the rail yard, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I am not sure if this is part of JCCC's extensive public art collection or what. If so why is it hidden behind the rail yard where no one will see it? Of course maybe that's the point.

Mantid Head

2011-10-29T19:57:00.001-07:00

Mantid Head, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Head of a female mantid. She was on my driveway so before I put her in some shrubs to lay her eggs I brought out my canon with my 100mm macro lens and my three extension tubes (66mm worth) to get this shot. Good thing my hands were steady since I only had 3-4mm DOF at best.

Here a link to the same mantid taken with my cell phone: www.flickr.com/photos/pdecell/6293406806/in/photostream

Reverse superposition

2011-10-23T21:11:00.001-07:00

Reverse superposition, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
The principle of superposition is the common sense notion that in geological strata the oldest rocks are generally the lowest strata. Of course the way trees grow from the cambium out, in the bark the oldest layers are on the top.

Stained Glass Sumac

2011-10-23T15:46:00.001-07:00

Stained glass sumac 2, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

Partially skeletonized sumac leaves. I think of all the fall leaf colors I like sumac the best. especially when light is transmitted through the leaf.

Via Flickr:
Edited in Picnik to get rid of the blue cast on the upper portion of the original.

I remember amber

2011-10-17T20:39:00.001-07:00

I remember amber, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

I have this robot insect and a piece of amber. The rest is obvious. The amber by the way has the remains of termites embedded in it. The person who sold the piece to me said they were ants which I think would have been more exciting, perhaps because I know more about ants than termites. But it is still exciting to realize that complex social behaviors date to the Cretaceous period 145 million years ago.

Man in the tree

2011-10-15T15:54:00.001-07:00

Man in the tree, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

Ginkgo

2011-10-15T10:44:00.001-07:00

Ginkgo1, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

These are leaves from a Ginkgo tree (Ginkgo biloba) on my campus. This plant is sometimes thought of as a living fossil since they belong to a very ancient group of plants, the phylum(divsion) Ginkgophytes. These plants go back to about 270 million years ago in the fossil record.

In fact this species was thought to be extinct. This site http://kwanten.home.xs4all.nl/fossils.htm
has lots of good Ginkgo fossil pictures.

Ginkgo makes a great landscape tree especially in urban areas. But one thing I don't like about this tree is that it doesn't seem to get visited by many insects-makes sense since it is not native to this part of the world.

Consider though that I am an entomologist so I am always a bit disappointed when a plant doesn't have at least some insect visitors. Something is missing.

Why Ginkgo doesn't seem to get visited by insects isn't clear to me. Maybe the insects that had co-evolved with Ginkgo were wiped out when the species almost went extinct, or maybe it really does have some adaptation that deters insects. There are a few insects recorded in the United States as visitors, but the list is very short even when compared with other introduced species. See for example this list of tree pests from New York City where Ginkgos are commonly used: http://www.grownyc.org/files/citylot/Diseases_and_Insects.pdf.

Curiously insect resistance or maybe insect non interest seems to be characteristic of a related group of plants-the cycads which are also considered to be living fossils, though I have not looked at this issue closely.

Mums

2011-10-10T19:23:00.001-07:00

mums, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

This was a bad summer for my mums. The heat really stunted my plants but I did get some nice intense colors...just not very many flowers. I took this with my phone since yours truly left the house with camera but minus the SD memory card. Well as they say the best camera for the job is the one you have with you.

The Next Best Thing

2011-10-08T20:38:00.000-07:00

I needed a new phone. OK maybe wanted is more accurate but the fact is my trusty Droid Eris was showing her age. Many of the apps weren't able to be updated, the phone was choking trying to keep up with my contacts lists and the phone was slow- reliable but slow.

So I spent about 2 months looking at phones-Verizon phones that is since that is the network that our family uses (Sorry Sprint). So I was reading the reviews and also spending a number of Saturdays at the local Verizon store comparing phones-asking arcane questions and just in general driving the sales people crazy. I hung out on the forums reading about the joys of owning- or all too often it seems the frustrations of owning- this phone or that phone. And I began reading about upcoming phones. I gave up paying a lot of attention to that when I read one post in a prominent tech blog about a rumored phone for which the blog seemed to have all kinds of technical details. If the phone is rumored, I thought, why the heck are you publishing these specs? What is the point? Well it turns out lots of people seem to enjoy looking for the NEXT BIG THING in phones. That plus probably a bit of subtle information placement and misdirection by manufacturers to build up anticipation seems to drive most of the digital slathering one sees on phone related blogs.

Well one of the Next Big Things was this Motorola phone called the Bionic and since it was coming out on September 8, I decided to wait and look at it when it came out. The other phones being considered were the HTC Thunderbolt, Motorola D3, Droid Incredible 2, Samsung Charge and of course the iPhone 4. As you can guess I am not a partisan of one operating system or another. But there are some things I wanted. First (or so I thought) was a physical keyboard. My Eris was lots of fun but typing on the little screen was not quite my idea of fun. I did it because I would rather text than talk any day. I wanted a decent phone camera. I found with my previous phones that I really get a lot of use out of my cell phone's camera as an adjunct to my SLR or as in today when I went out with my SLR bereft of its SD card.

Cell phones represent engineering compromises and that is true for cell phone purchasers. So here is how the phones seemed to stack up. The iPhone? Real nice; in fact I bought one for my wife and I use Macs at work. But I found the display a bit too small for my taste. Plus and this may seem heresy, the display was a bit stark for my taste. Besides I like Android's flexibility. But it probably had the best camera of the bunch. The Incredible 2 had a good camera, nice display, and I am used to HTC sense; same goes for the Thunderbolt which also runs on Verizon's fast LTE network and guess who still has an unlimited data plan. Next the D3. I really wanted to like the D3. I had never liked the other Droids with physical keyboards but the D3 has a wonderful keyboard. The D3 does not run on Verizon's fast network but that in itself was not a deal breaker since in Lawrence we don't have LTE let. But where I teach we are just inside the extended LTE range-that means maybe you can get it. The D3's issue is the camera which renders shots way too blue. I know this is correctable to a degree but the images I saw often looked way too blue to be easily correctable. Now this brings me to the Samsung Charge and the Bionic-the most expensive phones of the lot. The Charge has a wonderfully detailed OLED display with great contrast-big screen the iPhone display on steroids. But-of course there is a but-I did not like the feel of the phone-it felt cheap and plasticy and I did not like the little physical keys at the bottom. Also the display struck me as being over saturated. So that left the bionic. Expensive as is the Charge-really an unknown. Do I really want to get a phone that is just coming out. Hmmm and $299 for a phone?

So I put it through its paces as best as I could. No physical keyboard-so I matched it up against the D3 and discovered that I could type faster on the Bionic's screen than I could on the D3's physical keyboard. The D3 was cheaper $199 as opposed to $299 but that camera really bugged me. The Bionic's display is a bit bigger and brighter and it runs on the LTE network so as Verizon extends service this way I will hopefully get some benefit. Plus bigger storage capacity gave the Bionic the edge. What made me hesitate was the camera-color rendition seemed fine but it was obvious that the auto focus was sluggish and there didn't seem to be a way to turn it off. But the display is stunning-excellent color fidelity without over saturation- to me a winner. The phone is big but it just felt solid and the screen is really responsive and the UI which is suspiciously like Motorola's stock android skin that must not be named-had lots of fun visuals that made HTC sense seem, well boring, even if the weather widget makes it rain and lightening in my Eris.

When I called the sales person over, I could hear that sigh of relief-no arcane questions-I'll take the Bionic and oh by the way do you have the Otterbox Defender? I am a firm believer in protecting my phones. What about accessories- a media dock or the Webtop adapter for your HD TV? Nope just the Otterbox, oh yes, and a car charger. By the time I was done though I was almost $400 poorer and had joined the ranks of Early Adapters NOT my usual position. I am technologically comfortable but normally wait a bit and let every one else have the ulcers of putting up with glitches in new devices. Remember antenna gate?

By the next day it became apparent that people had serious issues with the phone. The first issue was with the diplay-Motorola uses a pentile display which has an extra white pixel that makes the display brighter to the eye without using more power-at least that is my understanding of what this display does. I may enjoy technology and be trained as a scientist but an engineer I am not. I had heard about this controversy and had carefully compared the display to the competition and decided that the display is fine in a side by side comparisons. Not perfect but very nice. There is a sort of diagonal grid work what one commenter on the Android forums called a half tone effect. Yup I saw it-but to me it was only obvious when I looked for it. Besides, in a perverse sense it actually made the display visually interesting. Last time I checked the world -you know that area outside the computer screen-is a many textured place. But to this day one month after the phone's introduction there are whole threads telling Motorola never to use a pentile display again!

So this is the first cost of being an early adapter. Not that there are issues and bugs- there are. The cost is that people get obsessed with what they see as imperfections in a device that really represents design compromises required to get a working phone. And well if you don't see what 's wrong with the display you must be a dolt. The next big issue is audio-some users began to report a high pitched whine that at least by some reports was quite loud when the user did certain things with their phone. Nope my phone was and is fine, makes sounds at all the appropriate spots though after a couple of days reading the discussions about this issue I began to get paranoid at every stray sound-maybe my phone has caught the whine because some arcane grounding issue or interference from flying saucers or electric eels. Or maybe my hearing is just bad so I even tested my hearing threshold- just under 13,000 Hertz- above which any sounds get lost in my own rarefied high frequency tinnitus. Some discussants even insisted that all Bionics had this issue those few of us who claimed not to have this whine were deluded and just not listening. One forum participant polled readers if they did or did not have this whine and 95% said yes and 5% including poor deluded me said no. Now personally I think some phones did and do have a serious audio issue-but I think that that 95% represents a load of self selection. If the problem were really widespread then the issue would be a big one mentioned in the Verizon reviews of this phone. It is not. So either Verizon is pulling negative comments off their site or the audio issues are much less ubiquitous than one might think by reading some forums.

Is the Bionic perfect? Certainly not. First in my mind is the camera-or to be more precise the user interface Motorola provides. I have less control over the camera settings than I have with my Droid Eris. Now that said, since I am a photographer I know that stock settings are not the way to go and if you must you figure out a way of working around the limitations of your equipment. Besides specialize in macro shots which require lots of patience so I am predisposed to put up with cameras that aren't ideal. So I took the settings I had and experimented. Then bough several third party camera apps from the market and worked the camera with those and showed along with a few other people that the camera is fine (for a small camera) and that with a little work you can get some nice creative shots. The sensor is small-representing another compromise the engineers had to make. This is not a point and shoot let along a single lens reflex-but since I always have my phone with me I can get some really spontaneous shots-again working the limitations of the camera.

Of course there are software issues. One that had me tearing my hair out was that one of my camera apps was supposed to save pictures to the phone's external SD memory card. And the software indeed saves the photos to a camera folder inside a folder called like mnt/SDcard/dcim/ . Sounds promising right? And it even matches the instructions given by the camera app manufacturer. Well it became clear that the app was saving photos to the phones internal memory. Fortunately it is easy to move files to the external memory but it is an extra step. So I wrote the app developer who merely repeated the instructions in the documentation which I had already tried. So back to the forums where I found a post discussing the fact that the Bionic calls the external SD card - mnt/SDcard-ext/. Ha ha so back to the software which fortunately allows me to save an alternate storage spot, I found the right file in the external SD card and everything is fine. Apparently Motorola's naming convention relates to the type of memory Android uses-SD memory and so there is SD memory wired into the machine as while as the removable SD card. Problem solved, but of course it doesn't satisfy some people who scream at Motorola that they need to fix this. Maybe they do I don't know. Or maybe app developers need to be aware of these issues because other phone builders seem to adopting different names for internal vs external memory.

Other issues keep cropping up to such as how come my social networks stopped syncing with the phone the other day (solved) or how come I cannot share photos from my gallery directly to my Flickr account (not solved but there is a work around) but I get a little emotional reward when I figure something out or am surprised over some image that reminds me that its not really what our technology can do which is important but what we do with our technology. I suppose it is just a phone-but it is really more than that that. After all a recent article (http://articles.cnn.com/2011-05-19/tech/apple.religion_1_apple-store-apple-employees-brains?_s=PM:TECH) suggests that Apple products can incite almost a religious experience.

Now I am NOT suggesting that our technology can replace religion but these new phones are very physical-think about touch screens and the feeling of pinching in and pinching out to contract or expand an image. Typing directly on the screen or doodling with our fingers on the screen gives a physicality to using these devices that was missing before with keyboards and even mice. These devices (phone is so 20th century) be they iPhones or iPADS or Bionics or the NEXT BEST THING allow us to do so much so easily that for some of us it is easy to get overly caught up in debates about the merits of our respective phones or magnify what really are relatively minor flaws that hopefully will be fixed in the next update. I like to see these devices as tools for good but it seems that there is a danger that they will trap us into a desire for technological perfection where we forget that these devices are tools represent different sorts of compromises and thus keep searching for that NEXT BEST THING.

Oh and my old Droid Eris? She sits by my computer in case she is needed as a phone or an extra Wi-Fi device. Call me anthropomorphic but the Eris is still useful like a hand tool superseded by a newer electric tool only this is the 21 first century where the pace of obsolescence is such that today's NEXT BEST THING becomes just another old thing to be thrown away.

New iMac

2011-10-07T17:32:00.001-07:00

New iMac, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

New iMac

Impatiens

2011-10-06T19:31:00.001-07:00

Impatiens, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

This image was taken using Camera FX zoom on the Bionic in macro mode.

Stars down low

2011-10-01T23:43:00.001-07:00

Today the cloudless sky

Was an eye spilling forth.

Yellow flowers,

Stars on the down low.

Stars down low

2011-10-01T23:16:00.001-07:00

Stars down low, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

Judging from my Flickr Stream it was clear across the Country and yellow flowers were blooming everywhere.

Fall Woods

2011-09-25T14:00:00.001-07:00

Fall Woods, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

Another Droid Bionic shot. This one using HDR Camera with B + W color setting. I really like the delicate effects I can get with this program. It does require patience and I haven't yet figured out the best settings to use in different conndtions.

Berries 2

2011-09-25T13:56:00.001-07:00

Berries 2, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

This is an unedited macro taken with my Droid Bionic. The camera is wonderful but the stock interface is a bit pokey. Fortunately I shoot lots of macros so I am pretty patient when it comes to shooting so I am not bothered by the pokey focus.

Kansas City Japan Festival 2011 at JCCC

2011-09-24T21:55:00.001-07:00

Kansas City Japan Festival 2011 at JCCC, a set on Flickr.

Shots from this year's Japan Festival at JCCC.

By itself

2011-09-22T21:33:00.001-07:00

By itself, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

A petunia glowing
sidewalk's edge
keeps it alone

Together

2011-09-07T11:12:00.001-07:00

Together, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

Got these wasps on golden rod this weekend. I have seen these around but this is the first clear shot them mating that I have been able to get. They will stay coupled for quite some time and fly from flower to flower while mating. Originally I thought these were Ichneumonids but are Sphecids. Tip O' the Antennae to James Trager for correcting this.
11/23/2011
Update! Got an ID from Bugguide as Eremnophila aureonotata. What is it about having a name that is so important for us? Granted the comunication function, but there is that sense of the name giving us control over something or at least a sense of control. But people do confuse naming with explaining.

Goldfinch on yellow cone flower

2011-08-09T09:40:00.001-07:00

Goldfinch on yellow cone flower, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

Goldfinches have been picking through the heads of my yellow cone flower the last few days. Hard to get good closeups so these are cropped and filtered through Photoshop Elements sharpen tools

Water Lily at Baker Wetland

2011-08-02T12:35:00.001-07:00

Water Lily at Baker Wetland, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

It was a perhaps 108F in the shade. About an hour and a half was about all I could stand. Most of the critters had a lot more sense than me.

Argiope aurantia

2011-07-30T19:27:00.001-07:00

Argiope aurantia, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

This female is was hanging around at the Nature Center near my home.

G+ One Week Out

2011-07-24T21:54:00.000-07:00

G+ or Google+ is supposed to be Google's answer to Facebook. I have been using G+ for a little over a week now and so far it is a mixed bag. The good is that I can set up different circles for people I know in different contexts. This set of slides you can scroll through explains the concept quite well.

You can set up what ever circles you want and that way separate people you know say from work from those you know at the local bar....of course maybe these are the same people. That way each group gets only those posts that you think they might enjoy. It's really cool.

You can also follow people you don't know, celebrities for instance, no need to friend them. In fact there is no friend button. You can also control whether or not your posts can be shared outside your circle. Another cool feature is that you can set up a video "Hangout" for your friends and you can have a video chat with up to 10 friends simultaneously. Set up is easy- though I have not felt the hankering to actually start a "Hangout". Besides I don't have enough people in my circles to wait around for visitors. But I can see this as a good way to hold virtual office hours for students.

Google is still at the beginning of this experiment and that has led to no little controversy about Google's profile requirements. Google requires you to use your real name when setting up profiles. In fact Google has allegedly been suspending accounts if the name even sounds fake. If you want, you can also on a separate line provide other names you go by. As you might expect, privacy advocates have been upset at Google-there are after all legitimate needs for pseudonymous profiles safety being one.

Here is a good concise discussion of the issue. What astounds me is the blindness of Google executives to the whole issue. Former CEO Eric Schmidt is alleged to have said: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." Of course the fallacy here is that there are plenty of things that either you don't want everyone to know - example medical issues-. Then there are things that you might want everyone to know but not be able to trace the revelation back to you-whistle blower for instance.

At least some people in Google do understand the issue as evidenced by this post in Google's Public Policy Blog. The message seems to be that yes you can be what you want to be but don't expect to be able to use all of Google's products using a pseudonym. This is a tough balancing act for Google as it strives to integrate and rebrand it's diverse products.

Reposted from my Science Blog, Dangerous Ideas.

Black Swallowtail Larva 3

2011-07-16T19:05:00.001-07:00

Black swallowtail larva 3, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

Because you can never have too many black swallowtail larva pictures...

Black swallowtail larva

2011-07-15T10:21:00.001-07:00

Black swallowtail larva, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

This is the first time I have gotten black swallow tails to hatch in my garden. These are on fennel.

According to this site they also use Rue as a food plant which I didn't know.
www.glorious-butterfly.com/black-swallowtail-caterpillar....

One bad thing that these larvae do on fennel is that they don't just eat the leaves. They also bite into the stem and the stem turns yellow and wilts. You can see where this one has been biting into the stem.

Stone wort

2011-07-14T22:21:00.001-07:00

IMG_1223, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

This wonderful plant was at the Boise Botanical Garden at the end of May when I was in Idaho visiting my sister.

Even humble

2011-06-24T22:40:00.001-07:00

Even humble, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

The humblest flowers have their moment in the light even if no one is watching.

Little Green Spider

2011-06-24T21:04:00.001-07:00

These spiders are fairly common in the woods here in Kansas but it's hard to get a good shot of them. The length of the spider is around 1/4 inch.

Pieces of Flower

2011-04-19T20:23:00.001-07:00

In lab today we saw creatures
From two of the three domains-
Identified cocci and bacilli,
Paramecium and Amoeba swimming
or streaming under cover glass.

Then the plants-mosses green,
With diploid sex brown and erect;
Fern's hidden gametophytes
Androgynous creatures dwarfed
By cozy sitting room fronds.

Finally we consider the lillies-
Pink and spotted petals,
Orange pollen shed from anthers,
Little orange creatures slithering tubes
Down the style for sperm swim to the eggs.

Linnaeus glimpsed the flower's
Blindness to our conceits
Though his colleagues spun around
In their shrouds, screamed:
"No proper plant does this!"

Lab over, petals and sepals and ovaries
Are wings pulled from flies-
Pieces of flowers diced and swept away-
All the bone white facts collected,
Objectives checked for the next quiz.

We return to our cages and sit,
Peeling our soft triploid carpels,
Blind in our shrouds.

Science From Multiple World Views?

2011-04-05T13:16:00.000-07:00

Recently I stumbled upon a small publisher of home school materials called Gravitas Publications. This publisher's main product is called Real Science 4 Kids by Dr. Rebecca Keller. I have no expertise in home school curricula, and from what I have seen some aspects of her approach seem sensible.

What bothers me is her claim that science can be taught from the point of view of multiple world views in a strictly neutral sort of way.

She writes:

"Yes! Real science doesn’t choose sides. So when teaching science, it’s important that the lessons let kids explore all sides. Otherwise, choosing one side can get in the way of understanding the real science. Darwinism, creationism, intelligent design theory, and all the other “isms” are simply paradigms (or “lenses”) through which science is viewed. The “-isms” are philosophies based on perceptions for how science is interpreted. Students need to learn how “-isms” play a role in science."

Ok, science doesn't choose sides in that is ideologically neutral- there is no conservative science, or Christian science, or Buddhist science. There ideally is just science. And she is right- our world view does affect how we interpret science. But is science really neutral in terms of the world view it admits?

Personally I think not. For example I don't see much support in science for the notion that the Universe or the Earth is say 10,000 years old or that the goal of a liquid is to seek its lowest level, or that magic is real. At the very least science since it is empirical forces scientific explanations and tests of scientific ideas to be mechanistic and transparent.

At any rate, check out Dr. Keller's video discussing the issue of multiple world views and see what you think:

Itsy Bitsy Spider

2011-04-02T13:27:00.000-07:00

Caught this little jumping spider on a daffodil today. I am just a sucker for these spiders.

Late Night Visitor

2011-03-25T19:46:00.000-07:00

I think this cutie-well I think it's cute- was probably feeding on left over seeds spilled from our bird feeder.

Cats and Birds....

2011-03-25T10:06:00.000-07:00

There is an interesting article in the science section of the New York Times about the effects of domestic cats on bird populations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/21/science/21birds.html

As the headline suggests, domestic cats are a major threat to bird populations. The article suggests that over 500 million birds are killed by cats each year in the United States-half by feral cats and half by house pets. The article also makes an interesting point that people get all upset about bird deaths due to wind turbines and yet seem to be much less upset about bird deaths due to cats. Wind turbines by the way can apparently be situated to minimize bird deaths.

We accept predation as somehow natural but forget that the domestic cat is not native to North America and so is really an invasive species-so they are more like those big constrictor snakes that people have let loose in the everglades. Now if only we could train cats to attack non native birds such as starlings or English sparrows but I don't think that is going to happen.

Just by chance, my indoor only cat Carl caught and killed a chickadee that had gotten on to our screened in back porch yesterday. He had caught one other chickadee during the winter but he just held it in his mouth very gently and I managed to rescue the bird. This time he clearly figured out that the next step in hunting after catching the bird is to kill it.

I hope he never figures out the eating stage.

More Ann Coulter Science

2011-03-19T16:02:00.000-07:00

Ann Coulter whose previous forays into science have included such insightful critiques of evolution as the giant raccoon passing gas analysis of evolutionary theory has struck again. Apparently she has decided that we need not worry about radiation from Japan.

She bases her argument on a controversial idea called hormesis. The basic idea of hormesis is that certain environmental pollutants be they PCBs or ionizing radiation are harmful until you get to low dosages which mysteriously become beneficial. Proponents of this idea point to studies from a wide range of organisms that suggest that the phenomenon may indeed exist. But to argue as Coulter seems to that this means that government radiation safety levels are somehow useless seems to me to be the height of stupidity.

A bit of Coulter's reasoning can be seen in this quote from her article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucac/20110317/cm_ucac/aglowingreportonradiation

"I guess good radiation stories are not as exciting as news anchors warning of mutant humans and scary nuclear power plants -- news anchors who, by the way, have injected small amounts of poison into their foreheads to stave off wrinkles. Which is to say: The general theory that small amounts of toxins can be healthy is widely accepted --except in the case of radiation.

Every day Americans pop multivitamins containing trace amount of zinc, magnesium, selenium, copper, manganese, chromium, molybdenum, nickel, boron -- all poisons."

So would she then argue that more is better? In the radiation case it may well be that DNA repair mechanisms are activated by low levels of radiation but that is precisely in response to the harmful effects of DNA, not because the radiation is beneficial.

A good critique of Coulter's ideas is at PZ Myer's blog: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/03/will_radiation_hormesis_protec.php

Coulter by the way, is an alumna of Cornell University which goes to show that you can show a person to how to think but you can't make them think.

A New Word.

2011-01-08T13:01:00.000-08:00

Picked up a new word today courtesy of an article in Scientific American on Freeman Dyson. The word is "bunkrapt." The neologism coined by Peter Medawar in the 1980's means, to according to the article, to be "infatuated with bunk." So I guess it is from bunk + rapture. I can't wait to use this on my favorite intelligent design hipster or anti-vaccine fanatic.

The article's author John Horgan notes referring to what he sees as some of the wacky beliefs of Freeman Dyson that:

"The gleeful rebel Dyson, it seems to me, embodies our bunkrapt era, when the delineation between knowledge and pseudo-knowledge is becoming increasingly blurred; genuine authorities are mistaken for hucksters and vice versa; and we all believe whatever damn thing we want to believe."

Oops that's not right!

2011-01-03T15:00:00.000-08:00

In my distant past I was a research assistant working with a scientist who had a whole bunch of pair wise correlations between variables in a very large data set. The researcher found some interesting correlations between some of these variables and complained that the statistician involved with the research said that the correlations were not significant even though looked at in isolation they were significant. I had to agree with the statistician and fortunately was able to convince my boss that the statistician was indeed correct here. My reasoning was basically by analogy-if you flip 100 coins you expect to find on average 50 heads and 50 tails and your results should vary around that by chance. Further, every once in a while, you expect to find say 20 heads and 50 tails just by chance and you would not get excited about that. In the same way if you have a slew of uncorrelated variables by chance you can get some significant correlations.

Scientists love statistically "significant" results but this last year a very interesting article titled "The Truth Wears Off" appeared in the New Yorker looking at a disturbingly common pattern in science, called the decline effect. Often, especially with complex phenomena initial experimental results are highly significant , but then with replication the results either are not so pronounced or disappear entirely. The results cannot be replicated. The article's author Jonah Lehrer gives a wide range of examples from both basic and applied science and lists a number of reasons why this phenomenon happens.

Some of the reasons discussed are bias toward positive results, include regression toward the mean, and publication bias, none of which by themselves explain what is going on. The most likely culprit seems to be selective reporting and this has actually itself been tested by a biologist by the name of Richard Palmer. Lehrer says the following about Palmer's investigation:

"Palmer’s most convincing evidence relies on a statistical tool known as a funnel graph. When a large number of studies have been done on a single subject, the data should follow a pattern: studies with a large sample size should all cluster around a common value—the true result—whereas those with a smaller sample size should exhibit a random scattering, since they’re subject to greater sampling error. This pattern gives the graph its name, since the distribution resembles a funnel....after Palmer plotted every study of fluctuating asymmetry, he noticed that the distribution of results with smaller sample sizes wasn’t random at all but instead skewed heavily toward positive results."

Palmer's results suggest that reporting bias is everywhere in science and Palmer concludes that:

“We cannot escape the troubling conclusion that some—perhaps many—cherished generalities are at best exaggerated in their biological significance and at worst a collective illusion nurtured by strong a-priori beliefs often repeated.”

The article gives a range of disturbing examples from a wide range of disciplines and gloomily concludes that:

"Such anomalies demonstrate the slipperiness of empiricism. Although many scientific ideas generate conflicting results and suffer from falling effect sizes, they continue to get cited in the textbooks and drive standard medical practice. Why? Because these ideas seem true. Because they make sense. Because we can’t bear to let them go. And this is why the decline effect is so troubling. Not because it reveals the human fallibility of science, in which data are tweaked and beliefs shape perceptions."

So what's to be done? From my perspective there are several things, some of which are discussed int he article. First of all scientists have to avoid what the article terms significance chasing-getting excited about seemingly significant correlations as my old boss did. Related to that, scientists need to be sure that they are indeed using appropriately conservative tests, that is tests that minimize the chance that an incorrect hypothesis will be accepted. Data needs to be open and available for scrutiny and experimental controls carefully laid out. When I teach, one one thing I tell my students is that the hypothesis and the experimental design has to be worked out in advance of testing the hypothesis including the sample sizes.

Maybe we forget- and don't properly train our students to remember- that a hypothesis is just that - it is a guess, perhaps informed by theory but it is still a guess and non significant results are still meaningful. Of course it would help if funding agencies by they governmental or private would remember that as well!

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/12/13/101213fa_fact_lehrer

Half Full or Half Empty?

2010-12-22T22:25:00.000-08:00

There is a new Gallup poll surveying American's belief in evolution. The bad news is that 40% of Americans believe that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years. The good news is that the percentage of people who believe this has fallen to its lowest level since the first such survey in 1982. Also the pace of decline seems more rapid since the year 2000.

Check out the survey at http://www.gallup.com/poll/21814/evolution-creationism-intelligent-design.aspx

Religious Discrimination or Mere Whining?

2010-12-18T18:38:00.000-08:00

An astronomer is suing the University of Kentucky alleging that he was refused a position because of his religious beliefs. Martin Gaskell was supposedly the top candidate for a new observatory position but didn't get it. Dr. Gaskell is an evangelical who has written and lectured on science and his faith. Apparently this got people nervous that his religious beliefs might influence his science.

This statement in particular from an essay Dr. Gaskell wrote seems to have caught people's attention:

"The main controversy has been between people at the two extremes (young earth creationists and humanistic evolutionists). “Creationists” attack the science of “evolutionists”. I believe that this sort of attack is very bad both scientifically and theologically. The “scientific” explanations offered by “creationists” are mostly very poor science and I believe this sort of thing actually hinders some (many?) scientists becoming Christians. It is true that there are significant scientific problems in evolutionary theory (a good thing or else many biologists and geologists would be out of a job) and that these problems are bigger than is usually made out in introductory geology/biology courses, but the real problem with humanistic evolution is in the unwarranted atheistic assumptions and extrapolations. It is the latter that “creationists” should really be attacking (many books do, in fact, attack these unwarranted assumptions and extrapolations)."

However on the surface I am not sure his views are that much different from theistic evolutionists such as Ken Miller. But looking more closely I am bothered by his inclusion in a positive light of groups like "Leadership U" which try to push ... "Intelligent Design".

Also as noted here his attorney refers to Gaskell as an "openly Christian man". Seems like a clever appeal for sympathy in spirit of diversity promoting acceptance of GLBT people. If so this strategy is not going to garner much support from me. I have seen attempts to use this strategy by whiny conservatives whose only motivation is to use the rhetoric of diversity to silence discussion of diversity.

Ah for the good old days!

2010-11-16T13:27:00.000-08:00

...when convictions were convictions and martyrs were martyrs. Apparently William Dembski, has had to recant some of his moderate views on creation. In his latest book, End Of Christianity, he had the temerity to admit that he believes that scientists ARE right-the Universe really IS around 14 billion years old and that "the Flood" was NOT world wide. I guess that didn't set well with his overlords (I mean bosses) at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. According to Michael Zimmerman writing in the Huffington Post, Dembski was called on the carpet for his writings. Since the inquisition is long gone, presumably his bosses used less drastic means than hot pokers or racks to get him to recant. Maybe they water boarded him- I don't know.

At any rate Dembski has at least partly recanted claiming that his statement about the flood NOT being universal was based on incomplete reflection:

"Before I write on this topic ( the Flood) again, I have much exegetical,
historical, and theological work to do. In any case, not only Genesis 6–9 but also
Jesus in Matthew 24 and Peter in Second Peter seem clearly to teach that the
Flood was universal. As a biblical inerrantist, I believe that what the Bible teaches
is true and bow to the text, including its teaching about the Flood and its
universality."

quoted in:

http://www.baptisttheology.org/documents/AReplytoTomNettlesReviewofDembskisTheEndofChristianity.pdf

Intelligent design advocates have long claimed that their beliefs about intelligent design are NOT Biblically motivated but I wonder how we are to take an advocate of intelligent design placing the Bible above empirical data.

To be fair, Dembski does not entirely recant but argues:

"My book The End of Christianity is a work of speculative theology. It
assumes that the earth and universe are old and, given that assumption, attempts
to answer how the Fall of humanity could be responsible for natural evil, such as
animal suffering. Since, on the assumption of an old earth, animal suffering
precedes the arrival of humans, the challenge is to explain how the effect (natural
evil) can temporally precede the cause (human sin and the Fall). My solution is to
argue that just as the effects of salvation at the Cross of Christ reach both forward
in time (saving contemporary Christians) and backward (saving the Old
Testament saints), so the effects of the Fall reach forward in time as well as
backward. What makes my argument work is the ability of God to arrange events
at one time to anticipate events at a later time."

OK so Dembski argues that the Fall was an actual event whose affects rippled both into the present and also into the past. So I guess all those veggie eating dinosaurs in the Creation Science museum mysteriously got transformed into evil T. rexes.

Speculative theology indeed!

Oh rats!

2010-09-25T09:15:00.000-07:00

Intersections, my blogroll is gone. So if you are looking for blog links I am not being antisocial it's just that Google ate my blog links. When the heck did that happen and how?

Jupiter and Uranus

2010-09-25T08:42:00.000-07:00

The 23rd of September was the harvest moon, which was pretty spectacular but I was more interested in the close approach of Jupiter and Uranus being easy to spot. Here is my first attempt to get a picture of Jupiter...and as an added bonus, Uranus. Click through to my Flickr site to see the notes.

I don't have a tracker-just my Canon rebel and my not so hot 300mm telephoto lens, so the trick is to get a long enough exposure to render the planets and Jupiter's 3 visible moons and not get any streaking from the Earth's rotation. Also the moon was just off picture at the top.

Thursday night was rainy but last night and early this morning I went out again and got this shot:

The moon was much further in the sky from Jupiter so I didn't have to do any post processing to this image. Also the moon's are much sharper.

Of course I didn't ignore our moon but full moons don't make good shots if you are interested in lunar detail-but I did have fun taking pictures of the wonderful shadows cast by our moon on the 23rd.

Note there was enough light to get color from the plants and pots.

At the base of Saunder's Mount

2010-08-28T18:21:00.001-07:00

At the base of Saunder's Mount
Originally uploaded by pdecell

The sky was so blue it was holding hands with the trees.

Hanging around

2010-08-24T19:42:00.001-07:00

Hanging
Originally uploaded by pdecell

Saw this wonderful mantid at Prairie Park this afternoon. Just hanging out reminding me it's time to check up on climate change.

First off in California we have a voter initiative called Proposition 23 which attempts to roll back California's ambitious goals in the area of reducing dependence on fossil fuels. Who are main backers funding this proposition? If you guessed oil companies..you would be right according to this source:

http://www.dailydemocrat.com/rss/ci_15837869?source=rss

By the way remember that Western Kansas representative that said global warming will be good for plant growth? Makes sense since more carbon dioxide leads to more photosynthesis, right? Well not so fast according to research reported on NASA's web site:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=45380&src=imgrss

Apparently between 2000-2009 over all net plant growth world wide has been negative. Gains in plant growth in some areas are offset by losses due to drought in other areas. So like so many things in our grand uncontrolled experiment on enriching the atmosphere with extra carbon dioxide the outcome is a bit murky.

Speaking of murky, seemingly subtle changes in ocean characteristics may have big effects. A couple of interesting papers point out how the ocean's color and murkiness may relate to ocean temperatures and indirectly the severity of hurricanes. In a study reported in Science (http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/08/sea-murkiness-affects-hurricanes.html), scientists fortuitously found that areas of the ocean with less phytoplankton in surface waters seem to have fewer hurricane type storms. This is believed to be because phytoplankton absorb light and raise the temperature of the surface waters which in turn affects the development of tropical storms. In the absence of phytoplankton light can penetrate deeper into the ocean so the surface waters don't heat up so much.

Now there may be a complex tie in with climate change. Another study discussed in Scientific American (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=phytoplankton-population)looking at long term trends in phytoplankton abundance using a long term global data set suggests that phytoplankton abundance has declined by 40% since 1950. The scientists suspect that the decline is linked to warmer ocean temperatures because warmer surface temps reduce the exchange of water between the surface layers where the phytoplankton grows and cooler nutrient rich layers. To me this seems plausible since exactly this type of "stratification" is extremely well documented in the scientific literature.

The disturbing thing about this apparent reduction in phytoplankton abundance is that much of the oxygen in our atmosphere is produced by phytoplankton and phytoplankton are the base of oceanic food chains.
There is an interesting blog entry on the Accuweather web site (http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/climatechange/story/34446/global-temperature-trends-with-1.asp) looking at global temperature trends and decrying cherry picking of data by all sides in the climate change debate. Lots of graphs so you can judge for yourself.

By the way, Accuweather presents an analysis of the data for July 2010 in terms of how that fits in with long term climate trends: http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/climatechange/story/35467/observed-temperatures-from-jul-2.asp. The conclusions seems to be that July 2010 was the fifth warmest on record. To me this suggests that the much anticipated cooling trend has not been happening. Other researchers (http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2010july/) are reporting that the first 6 months of 2010 are the warmest on record.

The NASA report says:

"The 12-month running mean of global temperature achieved a record high level during the past few months. Because the current La Niña will continue at least several months, and likely strengthen somewhat, the 12-month running mean temperature is expected to decline during the second half of 2010."

Note that they draw this conclusion from the 12 month running mean which includes the last five months of 2006 along with the first seven months of 2010. But again no suggestion of a long term cooling trend.

By the way, remember climate gate? Well the scientists involved have been basically cleared of any wrong doing by a British panel as explained in this article (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/08/science/earth/08climate.html?_r=2&src=mv) from the NY Times.

There were some problems noted by the panel that cleared the scientists.

Quoting from the Times article:

"But the panel also rebuked the scientists for several aspects of their behavior, especially their reluctance to release computer files supporting their scientific work. And it declared that a chart they produced in 1999 about past climate was “misleading.”

Personally I think there are some major issues that need to be addressed about the management and access to large data sets of all sorts, not just those related to climate change but that's a whole other topic!

cross posted from http://www2.ljworld.com/weblogs/dangerous-ideas/2010/aug/22/just-hanging-around-and-c/

Syrphid

2010-08-17T20:31:00.001-07:00

Syrphid 2
Originally uploaded by pdecell

Got this wonderful syrphid at the Ernie Miller Nature Center in Olathe KS. on Saturday. Click on the picture to see larger images.

Transgenderism and Catholicism

2010-08-08T14:42:00.006-07:00

There has been an interesting thread on my local transgender support group's discussion board about Catholicism and how someone who is transgender or transsexual can support a Church that is not at all friendly to transgender folk. This whole thing started because on of the group's other members (call her C) has recently gone back to the Church and has been sharing some of the Church's events, for instance a recent fiesta on the support group's list.

The list owner, B is a dear friend of mine and she raised a number of standard objection's to the Church's position about transgender and more specifically transsexuals. She wrote in response to a post by C:

"If you believe the Vatican is right, then you're between the rock of TS inner identity, and the hard place of a church that would, if they knew you to be TS, consider you to be a grotesque, mutant, sinner. That can't be a good feeling."

And B cited a grotesque analysis of the Church's position by a Father Saunders discussed here:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/transsexu15.htm

Father Sauders drawing on Church documents and the Catechism concludes that sexual reassignment surgery is:

"... a radical and grotesque mutilation of the body....To destroy organs purposefully that are healthy and functioning, and to try to create imitation organs which will never have the genuineness and functioning of authentic organs is gross and lacks charity. Such surgery which purposefully destroys the bodily integrity of the person must be condemned."

Pretty heavy stuff and B rightfully wonders if this doesn't leave C in a really hard place between her faith and her desire for SRS. Fair question but C has been quiet about it. Maybe she's just decided to let sleeping dogs and bad theology lie, but being Catholic and really interested in these sorts of issues because of my own gender issues I had to step in it so to speak.

My initial response was to point out that the Church's position is a bit more complex than that and does allow some wiggle room for transgender folk. In particular I noted:

"The most recent Church documents-Fr, Saunders and even the Pope are merely giving their personal opinions not official Church teaching. The Church actually studied the issue of transsexualism and released a
document to instruct the Bishops back in 2000.

A report about the document is on Lynn Conway's site..scroll down a bit to find
it.

http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/CatholicTSDecision.html

The document is certainly not friendly to TS people but interestingly has the
following according to the report:

-- An analysis of the moral licitness of "sex-change" operations. It
concludes that the procedure could be morally acceptable in certain
extreme cases if a medical probability exists that it will "cure" the
patient's internal turmoil.

-- A recommendation of psychiatric treatment and spiritual counseling
for transsexual priests. It suggests they can continue to exercise
their ministry privately if it does not cause scandal.

So the issue is not so clear cut as one might think even though the Church is
relying on faulty information about transsexuals and transgender people.

...

"Am I happy with the general attitude toward transgender folk in the Church? Of
course not and I don't have any illusions about the sorts of hurt than can
happen to transgender Catholics who are outed. But the Church is a lot more than
the silly old men who are running it today and their lame justifications for
certain outmoded Church doctrines and practices."

Well I guess B isn't happy with my nuanced response since she has since written:

"I'm not Catholic. After reading this article, which would say I'm too unstable to marry ANYONE, and that they can tell if I have/had a "transsexual disposition" now or in the past, prior to marriage, well, I'm not a happy camper.

...

"No offense meant, to Catholic members, dears. I'm not upset with you. Just a theology which throws the first and second stone at me."

Obviously I have struck a nerve here- Be that as it may, the issue she implies does remain-how can a transgender person be Catholic? Here is my quick response to B slightly edited to protect the innocent:

"B:

Of course no offense taken and what you say deserves a much longer response than
is possible here. Now I can't speak for the other Catholics here, just myself,
but you are not saying anything that I haven't wrestled with and other
progressive Catholics regardless of their gender identity don't wrestle with at
various levels. And this is perhaps particularly true with the current pope
whose election was met with groans from many of my friends.

The short answer is to why I persist as Catholic has to do with the central
institution of the Church which is NOT the Pope but rather the sacrament of
communion, and the Church's rituals and sacred traditions all point to the
central tenet of the Incarnation and Resurrection. The emotional impact of the
Church's rituals and liturgy are hard to explain intellectually, especially to
those more familiar with my generally empirical stance.

J (another member) is right the Catholic Church is frustratingly slow to change; also the
Church really really has not absorbed the theological implications of modern
science and our understanding of human evolution. But of course this is not
unique to my Church!

I have a lot more I could say, but will probably defer that to a post on my
academic blog since it will allow me to pick up a thread of discussion which has
lain fallow for several years.

As always your friend!

P "

Oh so now I have to put together a more detailed response...but here are some of my other writings related to the Catholic Church:

http://theforcethat.blogspot.com/2008/12/just-in-time-for-christmas.html

http://theforcethat.blogspot.com/2007/06/more-on-stem-cell-ethics.html

http://theforcethat.blogspot.com/2007/04/catholics-and-evolutionfrom-economist.html

http://theforcethat.blogspot.com/2007/03/lenten-message-theology-of-worm.html

http://theforcethat.blogspot.com/2005/11/tyranny-of-dichotomous-mind.html

Garlic: Repells Difficult People

2010-07-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

12 Spot Skimmer

2010-07-01T13:27:00.000-07:00

This summer has been a great dragonfly season in my yard. Today I went out to get some shots and this wonderful 12 spot skimmer nicely cooperated and kept returning to its perch in my garden, letting me get pretty close before leaving. Click on the image to go to my Flickr stream for a larger view.

There are are also widow skimmers in my yard. I had forgotten just how much sexual dimorphism there can be in dragonflies.

First the male with a greyish bloom and the same sort of grey in the wings as the 12 spot:

Next the female. Note she has no grey bloom at all.

I always think of my mom when I think of dragonflies. She had this this notion the the big green darners around our house would sting and she told me to watch out for them.

These big green dragonflies are commonly called darners or darning needles. One day I found out why when I manged to catch one in my hand. The insect twisted its abdomen around and poked repeatedly at my hand. It started me but I hung on to the insect, the mystery of my mother's fear and the name resolved.

Alas, no darners in my yard.

Dogbane Saucrobotys

2010-06-27T13:12:00.001-07:00

Found these lovelies on dog bane in my backyard yesterday. They make silken shelters by pulling leaves together and were really doing a number on the plants. Bug Guide shows these as the dog bane Saucrobotys moth.

See http://bugguide.net/node/view/5411/bgpage

and for the adult:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/339331/bgimage

Summer!

2010-06-21T09:30:00.001-07:00

Dead Fish Monthly

2010-06-19T08:47:00.001-07:00

magazine
Originally uploaded by Mikey Swales...fish related tales

This is a fake magazine cover...I think but it was posted to a real Flickr group called Dead Fish which features pictures of, well, dead fish.

I actually like the flickr group. Fish skeletons are quite attractive as one of my colleagues can attest. In fact she turned me on to Flickr's Dead Fish group when I was looking for a place to post this picture of a dead fish.

Fishing spider ( Dolomedes)

2010-06-10T23:04:00.001-07:00

Fishing spider ( Dolomedes)
Originally uploaded by pdecell

Got this beauty at Baker Wetlands in Lawrence. And I almost fell in the water as I leaned over the edge of the board walk in the wetlands to get the shot.

Practical pantheism?

2010-02-10T10:44:00.000-08:00

The movie Avatar must really be a great movie because it has struck so many nerves on the left and the right. My favorite (and I use that word advisedly) take is from the loony right by Phil Kline Kansas's former attorney general. I am not going to dissect his whole scree which you can read here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2415427/posts?page=64

Kline predictably thinks it is pro-environmental propaganda, for he writes:

"The natives are one with their native planet, including their mother-god Eywa. Eywa is the planet, and the natives reach oneness by entwining fibers from their bodies with the fibers of the planet. This representative sexual union allows them to hear their departed ancestors and gain rhythm with the planet — a séance orgy so to speak. All life on the planet is one, with one spirit and one energy."

Notice how nicely he works in the evil SEX into his rhetoric.

Later on we get the evil bugaboo of evolution:

"Such a prayer represents atheistic Hollywood's dilemma. The only way to reconcile a godless Darwinistic worldview with a deeply spiritual American culture is to convert environmentalism into religion. For what greater purpose for man than to save mother earth, or Pandora? And thus, our purpose in a purposeless world."

And he says that that culture of the Pandorans is Pantheistic. Well that is true I suppose but if Kline would take off his blinders a bit he would see that it is really a practical pantheism. After all, on Pandora evolution (sorry Phil that is the way the world works) has led to a system where the Pandorans can little plug into each other and indeed that is necessary for their survival. So it's not some really some sort of mystical new age Pantheism, but quite practical.

Now we don't have the same explicit connections to our environment that the Pandorans have but we are interconnected much more and need the rest of the biosphere a lot more than Kline seems to care about. At simplest level we are not even a single organism but a community of roughly 100 trillion human cells and 10 times that many bacterial cells that are symbiotic with us. And I don't think that includes the mitochondria which were believed derived from free living bacteria. And examples of how we are interconnected can be multiplied repeatedly at other levels of biological organization.

So Kline and company may scream but maybe we need a good dose of practical pantheism.

Anticipation

2009-12-28T07:14:00.001-08:00

poised for fish
the reflection still
like nothing else

Angel on High

2009-12-18T06:40:00.000-08:00

A snootful of e-mails

2009-11-23T12:58:00.000-08:00

The climate noosphere is in an uproar about a bunch of e-mails there were hacked from a global climate site. The e-mails are allegedly from prominent climate scientists and date from the late 1990's. According to this article in the NY Times at least some of the e-mails don't show climate scientists in a very favorable light. For instance one e-mail talks about using a statistical trick, another e-mail calls global warming skeptics "idiots".

Of course skeptics are chortling over what they see as proof that global warming is a hoax and that climate scientists are trying to hide stuff, while the climate scientists involved in the e-mail exchanges seem to view the exchanges as normal give and take between scientists.

I have actually looked at some of the e-mails and quite frankly a lot of it really does look like the kind of give and take that people taking a particular position might have. Somehow I doubt that a similar hack of climate skeptic e-mails would be any different.

It is clear that the scientists involved are aware of the skeptics and how skeptics might react if certain data sets are not properly explained:

"Otherwise, the skeptics have an field day casting
doubt on our ability to understand the factors that influence these estimates
and, thus, can undermine faith in the paleoestimates. I don't think that
doubt is scientifically justified, and I'd hate to be the one to have
to give it fodder!"

Well at any rate, I think this is typical scientific e-mail give and take in a highly politicized arena (been there myself) and I don't think that global warming skeptics should make too much of this stuff. Besides if they are crying foul because some one who disagrees with them in a private e-mail refers to them as idiots then maybe they ought to get thicker skins.

Don't take my word for it. You too can sleuth evil climate scientists e-mail by going to the following site and enter your favorite search term!

http://www.anelegantchaos.org/cru/index.php

Of course I would love to have an equivalent set of e-mails between global warming skeptics - maybe working for a large oil company or perhaps a certain large business group that will go unnamed -and I just bet a little judicious browsing would yield lots of choice quotes. But of course hacking e-mails is wrong, a minor point seems to have been lost in this whole tea pot tempest.

For full disclosure, I have used the word idiot at least 27 times in my e-mail career, all of them of course quite justified.

Why do peope repeat falsehoods?

2009-11-20T09:13:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I saw a claim that if theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking were in Britain with its socialized medicine he would have been dead by now. I blew it off as another stupid comment but apparently this comment has gotten repeated all over the web. The problem of course is the it is not true as Larry Krauss reminds us in this article in Scientific American:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=war-is-peace

So why do people repeat that sort of tripe?

Krauss asks

"What makes people so susceptible to nonsense in public discourse? Is it because we do such a miserable job in schools teaching what science is all about—that it is not a collection of facts or stories but a process for weeding out nonsense to get closer to the underlying beautiful reality of nature? Perhaps not."

My thought is that whether we are dealing with health care, global warming or various sorts of social issues, we get an emotional high from thinking we are going to win, pull the wool over our opponent's head. Or maybe repetition of simple nostrums and unexamined falsehoods provides us with a sense of security when dealing with the unknown. Maybe such behavior was at one point adaptive maintaining some sort of group cohesion.

Krauss phrases his arguments with examples from the right, but I don't think people of any ideology are immune to this. As I commented in a post to one of my readers it is if we are stuck in a strange attractor or the sort of cycling that a person's brain might get into when they are depressed and can't get out.

As Krauss so ably observes, quoting apparently from an earlier Krauss commentary:

“The increasingly blatant nature of the nonsense uttered with impunity in public discourse is chilling. Our democratic society is imperiled as much by this as any other single threat, regardless of whether the origins of the nonsense are religious fanaticism, simple ignorance or personal gain.”

Halloween 2009

2009-11-02T09:49:00.000-08:00

This Halloween we decided to go to a party once we disposed of all the trick or treaters (heh heh heh) and we decided to pay homage to our favorite Disney villainesses.

So here is the lovely Maleficent:

I bet I can make her smile...

and the ever lovely Cruella De Vil:

Don't you like my puppies?

Coalescence

2009-11-02T09:39:00.000-08:00

Even everyday happenings are full of surprises when seen on a different scale of length or time or both and this video of falling water drops coalescing with the surface of water shows this very nicely. There are two effects going on here surface tension and more surprisingly to me a thin film of air. Enjoy!

Tip of the antennae to Sarah S for the find.

Lunatic articles travel in packs

2009-10-30T09:46:00.000-07:00

Here are two articles that could have been in the Onion but are meant to be serious.

First we have "The Danger of Celebrating Halloween".
http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/prophetic-insight/23723-the-danger-of-celebrating-halloween

This was posted on the CBN web site but was removed so I guess it was even too loony for Pat Robertson. My favorite part?

"During this period demons are assigned against those who participate in the rituals and festivities. These demons are automatically drawn to the fetishes that open doors for them to come into the lives of human beings. For example, most of the candy sold during this season has been dedicated and prayed over by witches."

Next we have this wonderful gem and title pretty much sums the article up:

"The Golden Girls: How One TV Show Turned A Generation Of American Boys Into Homosexuals"

http://christwire.org/2009/10/the-golden-girls-how-one-tv-show-turned-a-generation-of-american-boys-into-homosexuals/

My favorite part of this article:

"The 1980s was an epoch of President Reagan’s manly wisdom and the terrifying threat of Cold War annihilation. America had sobered up from the flashy lights of 1970s disco. We were skipping all night cocaine and sex parties to focus on our careers. Spiritual leaders like Jerry Falwell were telling us that Christianity was in the majority again. On the other side, there was a subculture of homosexuality creeping up on our youths. It gave them an excuse to wear tight jeans and to sneak off to public parks for quick releases with hairy men of different ethnicities."

For the record I was not a fan and am not a fan of Golden Girls.

Tip of the Antennae to an anonymous blogger friend with whiskers for calling my attention to the first article.

File these under humor(I think).

Hedge Apple

2009-10-28T08:28:00.000-07:00

Hedge Apple

And darkness falls as happens each year when the planets
Turn their eyes from the sun and clouds lid the earth
Wind whip drives the rains raw, what leaves are left
Excoriated by its sharp tongue

And darkness falls even when the sun bleeds
Through the dawn’s fog and slowly melts the frost
Geese honk fading in the air as if no one is around
To hear them in the orange light

And darkness falls even in mid-day through the branches
Now stilled and fires banked smolder in your buds
I feel in vain amongst the thorns on your rough trunk
Until I feel the littlest promise of light
For me to cling

Click Fox Off?

2009-10-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

I am no fan of FOX News but I think MoveOn.org's latest campaign to get Democratic Party leaders to stay off that network maybe counter productive. MoveOn.org's e-mail to its members including yours truly says in part:

"All year, FOX has worked 24/7 to block President Obama's agenda—repeating lies about "death panels," promoting Tea Party protests, and whipping up fake political scandals.1

Now, President Obama is fighting back. The White House communications director said FOX is a "wing of the Republican Party...let's not pretend they're a news network."2 To draw attention to its biased coverage, President Obama will not appear on FOX for the rest of this year.3

It's about time Democrats stood up to FOX! Can you sign this petition asking Democrats to support President Obama's stance by staying off FOX as long as he does? "

Sometimes a boycott can be effective but this one seems likely to promote more FOX network distortions and maybe further unmoore FOX and its supporters from reality. I suggest a two pronged approach if people really feel the urge to boycott FOX. First get MORE Democrats on FOX news and make sure that they are schooled in how to defuse FOX commentator rhetorical tricks.

Second Democrats should boycott FOX and let their cable companies know what they think about FOX. Viewers are after all is what FOX needs to survive. Democrats might also consider avoiding other FOX assets such as Myspace. Here is a list for instance internet assets:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_Corporation#Internet

The MoveOne.org petition link is at http://www.civic.moveon.org/foxobama/

I know, herding liberals and Democrats is like herding cats, but using the channel changer, and your mouse to Click FOX off is probably the best thing to do here. Liberals and moderates are a big enough group that clicking FOX off ought to be a more effective mass strategy.

In amber light

2009-10-18T19:04:00.001-07:00

In amber light
Originally uploaded by pdecell

My kind of fall leaf shot. From Mary's Lake in Lawrence Kansas. Th ant is Camponotus and is presumably collecting honey dew from the aphids.

Thorns

2009-09-27T21:15:00.001-07:00

thorns
Originally uploaded by pdecell

Fall sneaks up
in a robe of thorns
the herald of winter
playing her windy bones.

A lesson from my plants

2009-09-12T10:55:00.001-07:00

Here are three plants from my collection:

Plant number 1

Plant number 2

and finally...

Plant number 3

Which are cacti?

A little more information. At least one is a cactus.

The first plant grows in warm semi arid regions in South America. Some members of this group of plants get to be mid sized trees but most are shrubby.

The second plant has reduced leaves that function as thorns and it is found in deserts in the SW United States and Mexico.

The third plant lives in the jungles of Southern Mexico and into Central America.

All three plants have very similar looking and distinctive complex flowers, all organized in the same basic way.

So which are cacti? How do you know?

Orchid at Sunset

2009-09-06T21:34:00.001-07:00

orchid at sunset
Originally uploaded by pdecell

You always have to be ready whenever a good picture strikes. I was prepping some steaks to grill and caught the red light of sunset reflecting from some common Dendrobium in bloom. So I dashed upstairs to get my camera to film the luscious colors before the light could fade.

Yet another odd plant

2009-09-05T11:30:00.000-07:00

Readers of my blog know I love odd plants. So here is my latest:

This is Cissus and I am thinking C. quadrangularis. Got this wonderful plant today at the Lawrence farmer's market. Has these great segmented stems. The plant is in the grape family and apparently has medicinal properties.

This article from Lipid World (Julius Oben , Dieudonne Kuate , Gabriel Agbor , Claudia Momo and Xavio Talla, Lipids in Health and Disease 2006, 5:24doi:10.1186/1476-511X-5-24 )claims:

"Cissus quadrangularis, for example, is used by common folk in India to hasten the fracture healing process. In Cameroon, the whole plant is used in oral re-hydration, while in Africa and Asia the leaf, stem, and root extracts are utilized in the management of various ailments. Phytochemical analyses of Cissus quadrangularis reveal a high content of ascorbic acid, carotene, phytosterol substances and calcium, and there have also been reports of the presence of β-sitosterol, δ-amyrin and δ-amyrone . All these components have potentially different metabolic and physiologic effects. "

The article further concludes that extracts of this plant are effective for weight loss and metabolic syndrome in a randomized double blind placebo experiment. Now don't all go rushing out to buy extracts from this plant because the long term effects of the extract are not known.

Also from reading the materials and methods it really isn't clear whether the effects were do to this plant or other materials in the extract:

"The Cissus quadrangularis formula, Cylaris™, contains a Cissus quadrangularis extract (supplied by Gateway Health Alliances, Inc, Fairfield, California, USA), standardized to contain a minimum of 2.5% phytosterols and a minimum of 15% soluble plant fiber. The formula also consists of a soy albumin extract (supplied by Gateway Health Alliances, Inc, Fairfield, California, ... All active and placebo capsules were manufactured and bottled by Protein Research, Inc."

No where does the article state what was in the placebo beyond that the placebo capsule was identical in shape color and appearance. So maybe the experiment needs a little tighter control to be convincing.

Gender identity forum in Lawrence

2009-08-29T13:03:00.000-07:00

Lawrence is currently considering adding gender identity to its nondiscrimination ordinance and today the City's human rights commission held a public forum to discuss the issue.

I went as part of a group of people representing different aspects of the transgender spectrum. Most of the people there were supporters adding of gender identity. The committee seemed focused at first about protecting people that were going to transition or had transitioned.

But I and others pointed out the issue is a bit more complex than that. For instance, there are people such as myself who don't fit the gender binary. Are we not to be protected against loss of job? Not to be protected against discrimination in housing?

The sticky wicket in at least one of the commission members minds seemed to be the issue of locker rooms, gyms and bathrooms. What if a man goes in to the woman's bathroom? Well first of all. if some one is transitioned entirely, likely you wouldn't spot them unless you have some thing about carefully scrutinizing the other people in the rest room or locker room. Even some one as myself-strongly transgendered but not planning on transitioning would probably be hard to spot, well OK in a rest room- and we certainly wouldn't go into an all woman's facility; the genitals don't match.

Not only that-quite frankly where ever possible I look either for unisex bathrooms or places with single stalls and a locking door, but on occasion I have gone into a crowded woman's room if absolutely have to. Go in, do my thing sitting down like a genetic woman, wash hands, check hair and leave.

One of the speakers at the forum was a lesbian whom I suppose might be construed as mannish or at least androgyne in appearance. She related how she was harassed by a woman in the women's rooms for being in the wrong rest room. Well I know, having done it accidentally, you don't go into a men's room dressed en femme because there is a fantasy about umm making it with a transgendered or transsexual person and this one man was not going to take no for an answer. I was concerned enough that I had a male friend in the group I was with, walk me to my car when I was ready to leave just in case.

So when it comes to rest rooms creeps are creeps even if they are in the "right" rest room.

As for showers and places where there is nudity involved, those are sex segregated places, and a transgendered person in the middle of transitioning or some one such as myself who's not transitioning can be excluded pretty easily I would think.

One speaker brought up work place issues and the example of a construction worker whose transitioning complaining because she can't wear high heels to do some sort of construction job. Well it is already settled law that workplaces have the right to enforce work related equipment rules. Another speaker felt that it might be difficult to pass a law that is precise enough to be enforceable, and granted courts do throw out laws because of vagueness to the point of unenforceability but it seems there you are trying to prohibit something (Like loud parties).

Here is a relevant counter example. There are a number of definitions of religion-and yet we don't say well that's too vague to enforce. Who would you exclude? Atheists? Granted some on the religious right might want to do that but in our society we define these classes of protected people in the broadest way possible.

I hope seeing a broad spectrum of transgendered people gave the committee a little bit more to go on. They hope to have a recommendation ready by November and a forum related to that before taking something to the City Commission. That is probably where the real opposition will emerge and all kinds of red herrings and bizarre hypotheticals will just pop from the sky.

Link to LJWORLD article.

Other links from The Force:

http://theforcethat.blogspot.com/2009/03/proposal-in-lawrence.html

Now It's Showers!

Sex in Humans: It's a delicate balance

Secrets of Bug Person Exposed!

The Tyranny of the Dichotomous Mind

Oh Good Grief!

2009-08-13T06:27:00.000-07:00

Just when I think anti-evolutionists can't get any sillier some politician comes along to demonstrate that I am wrong. Seems that a mayoral candidate in Tulsa feels the zoo doesn't properly honor Christianity and needs an exhibit on the first book of Genesis.

"Today we are announcing that God will be glorified in this city. He shall not be shunned. Upon our election, we hereby commit to honoring Him in all ways that He has been dishonored," said Anna Falling.

OK...check it out for yourself at:
http://www.newson6.com/global/story.asp?s=10888260

Another curious inversion

2009-08-10T13:26:00.000-07:00

The latest tactic of the far right is apparently to try to use the rhetoric of inclusion against any one they would normally want to oppress. The latest example is an attempt to force public libraries to stock books about and by members of the so called ex gay movement

There is a report here from lgbt news:

http://lgbtnewsblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/new-tactic-from-burning-books-to.html

My favorite quote from this report is from a member of a group called PFOX (parents and friends of ex gays) who reportedly said:

"Apparently, the West Bend Community Memorial Library is not interested in diversity," said a PFOX person claimed. "We urge Michael Tyree, the library's director, to be inclusive of the ex-gay community and accept our donation of ex-gay books. According to its own policy, the Library has a 'professional responsibility to be inclusive, not exclusive, in developing collections.'"

Oh right, like these people are really interested in diversity. These are after all the same people who oppose basic civil rights for LGBT people at every turn. Why am I not impressed with their argument?

By the way this group bandies about a new term: heterophobia which they claim is on the rise!

See...http://pfox.org/HETEROSEXUALS_VICTIMIZED_BY_HOMOSEXUALS.html

What do these idiots think we are, stupid? OK, don't answer that.

At the garden store

2009-08-01T21:17:00.001-07:00

orchid6
Originally uploaded by pdecell

Our local garden store got a shipment of orchids. Unfortunately the shipment consisted of hybrids such as this one that really haven't grown well for me. But I love the patterns.

An important transgender victory...

2009-07-01T21:31:00.000-07:00

See this article about Diane Schroer who was refused a job at the library of congress when she revealed her desire to transition from male to female.

http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/transgender/40092prs20090701.html

The Bush administration had argued that transgendered are not protected by existing discrimination laws. The federal court ruled that they are and IMHO their reasoning could have far reaching implications for transgender rights issues. According to the ACLU article the court argued in the following way:

“Imagine that an employee is fired because she converts from Christianity to Judaism. Imagine too that her employer testified that he harbors no bias toward either Christians or Jews but only ‘converts.’ That would be a clear case of discrimination ‘because of religion.’ No court would take seriously the notion that ‘converts’ are not covered by the statute.” The court also ruled that the library was guilty of sex stereotyping against Schroer because of its view that she failed to live up to traditional notions of what is male or female."

The Obama administration has refused to appeal the decision of the court.

If other courts follow this reasoning, then the need for explicit anti discrimination laws covering GLBT people could become moot. But I am skeptical that other courts will follow this reasoning. Were this case to reach the Supreme Court, I would be really surprised if the Supremes bought this argument.

Gasp!

2009-06-08T20:07:00.000-07:00

Now that Sonia Sotomayor's papers have been released, conservatives have been ransacking them for juicy incriminating tidbits. For example,David Brody over at the Christian Broadcasting Network has uncovered a letter she cosigned in condemning the ransacking of a dorm room of two gay activists back in 1976.

The letter says in part:

"No matter how much one may disagree with the Gay Alliance or the policies they are advocating, no matter how repugnant one may find homosexuality, the manner of expressing this opposition should be intellectual. At this university we are dedicated to persuasion by reason, not by brute force"

Conservative Brody felt his CBN readers should read this letter. He's right especially since academic freedom has co-opted by conservative Christian groups who feel "oppressed" when they think their rights are being trampled on. But I suspect his conservative readers will cluck and see the letter as confirmation of Sotomayor's radical leftist leaning and not see the hypocrisy in their own position!

A tip of the antennae to GayNewsBlog for calling Brody's discovery to our attention.

The Onion Strikes Again!

2009-06-02T20:01:00.000-07:00

Conservatives Warn Quick Sex Change Only Barrier Between Gays, Marriage

Conservatives try the reverse racism ploy again...

2009-05-27T18:37:00.000-07:00

I really should write more about conservative rhetorical tricks because they are the current masters. Take their offensive about Judge Sotomayor where conservative bloggers and pundits have been virally quoting this line from one of Judge Sotomayor's speeches:

"First, as Professor Martha Minnow has noted, there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

Now on the surface it sounds like some of those insufferable comments that people on the left used to make in the late 60's when they would romanticize people of color but the problem is that the comment is taken completely out of context-sort of like what's done by the left and right with the Bible.

And as so often the case, the whole point of the narrative is missed and often close by in the narrative a key paragraph is missed, either intentionally or because of some sort of filtering going on in the reader's brain. Here for example is the very next paragraph of the the Judge's speech:

"Let us not forget that wise men like Oliver Wendell Holmes and Justice Cardozo voted on cases which upheld both sex and race discrimination in our society. Until 1972, no Supreme Court case ever upheld the claim of a woman in a gender discrimination case. I, like Professor Carter, believe that we should not be so myopic as to believe that others of different experiences or backgrounds are incapable of understanding the values and needs of people from a different group. Many are so capable. As Judge Cedarbaum pointed out to me, nine white men on the Supreme Court in the past have done so on many occasions and on many issues including Brown."

Clearly she is talking about something else entirely than racism, something closer to an appreciation of diversity than FOX's news commentators and Newt Gingrich care to recognize.

Here is the complete speech.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/us/politics/15judge.text.html

Maybe conservatives ought to read the whole thing rather than look for little snippits. They might even find something to like about the judge. But hey maybe they have gotten so hooked on phonics that they have forgotten that reading rquires more than pronouncing the words.

Diversity Conservative Style

2009-05-26T06:31:00.000-07:00

Some conservative religious groups complain about the alleged "oppression" of their point of view in secular universities. Well it seems they don't mind suppressing view points on their campuses that don't match their own. First we had the flap about Notre Dame giving Obama an honorary degree and now we have a flap over campus Democratic club at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University.

Seems that the University's Student Democratic Club cannot be recognised any more by the school because of the Democratic party's alleged support of positions antithetical to the religious teachings endorsed by the private University.

Reverend Falwell is quoted here as saying:

“They are good, Christian kids who sit with me at ball games. I just hope they find a pro-life family organization to affiliate with so they can be endorsed by Liberty again.“

An e-mail to the leaders of the University's Democratic club allegedly explaining the reasoning for the ban says:

“The Democratic Party platform is contrary to the mission of Liberty University and to Christian doctrine (supports abortion, federal funding of abortion, advocates repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, promotes the “LGBT” agenda, hate crimes, which include sexual orientation and gender identity, socialism, etc.)”

As a private school, the University may well be within its rights to do this, but it strikes me as a bit extreme. After all Democrats are hardly uniform about the above issues, and the student leaders claim to have views in line with the University's. Plus this is a bad strategy on the part of the University-after all if Falwell wants to change the Democratic party and insure representation of conservative religious tenets, then what better way to do so than to promote conservative Democrats.

Susan Stanton lands a job!

2009-05-13T21:45:00.000-07:00

Susan Stanton who lost her job as Largo FL. City manager when her plans to transition from male to female were leaked, has been hired as City Manager of Lake Worth Fla by a 4 to 1 vote.

According to this article in the Palm Beach Post:

"The national discussion that followed Stanton's firing led the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council to persuade West Palm Beach, Tequesta, Lake Worth and Palm Beach County to add provisions to their codes that prevent discrimination based on gender identity."

I would love to think that in 10 or 15 years the whole controversy about Stanton in Largo will seem as both mean spirited and curiously quaint.

Autism

2009-04-18T16:05:00.000-07:00

The autistic community has been getting more active trying to dispel stereotypes about autism. For instance here is a new public service announcement put out by a group called No Myths:

http://www.nomyths.org/60windows.html

Also recommended is http://www.autisticadvocacy.org/.

Oh Really?

2009-03-18T14:17:00.001-07:00

Well it is either Loonie Toons time or time for another school board race in Lawrence Kansas. If you really want quality schools then check out Michael Riley and consider carefully what he says:
"

Those beliefs lead him to maintain that parents should have a primary say in the public school system before the teachers, district, state and federal government.

“I think when I say decentralized, I feel that our primary responsibility is to the parents and then up from there,” Riley said."

Sounds good until you really think about it. After education involves more than just the parents.

And consider this tidbit:

"He says he does know some issues are on the minds of parents and Lawrence residents.

“Sex education and science standards have come up repeatedly,” Riley said. “These are issues that they’re concerned about and they’re concerned to know what school board members feel about these things.” " Oh oh.

Really he must hang out with a different crowd than I do.

He might really be OK, after all his kids did go to public school. But really do you want some of the parents you've met to be the ones that have primary say about running of local schools? Does my stake in the school system stop because my kids are grown and married? Doesn't business have a say here as well?

Come on Mr. Riley. Get real.

Check out the Journal World forums where yours truly has been accused of:

"Pdecell: Way to come out and bluntly tell us that public education is State indoctrination 100%. I'm sure we all want to line up for your brand of brainwashing for each and every one of our children. As a parent, I want you to keep your taxpayer opinions out of my child's easily manipulated mind."

Notice the nice scary rhetorical touches-"state indoctrination", "manipulated mind" oh yes and "brainwashing". Kind of reminds me of an old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon.

Some people...

2009-03-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

...watch for the first robin of Spring. What do I watch for? Obviously, the first...

Proposal in Lawrence

2009-03-11T08:55:00.001-07:00

The Lawrence City Commission has been asked by the Douglas County Chapter of the Kansas Equality Coalition to amend its non discrimination ordinance to include gender identity. Right now the request has been forwarded to the city's human rights commission for study. So we shall see. Watch for the typical fear mongering from the AFA and other opponents of any one who doesn't fit into simple little boxes.

A copy of the proposal is here.

Lawrence Journal World Coverage is here.

Happy Birthday Mr. Darwin!

2009-02-11T08:41:00.001-08:00

We love birthdays and anniversaries , especially ones that end in zero. This year there are two such numbers related to Charles Darwin-200 years since his birth and 150 years since publication of Origin of Species. Of course there is all sorts of commentary and there should be. After all Darwin's way of looking at the world really did revolutionize biology and society as a whole.

What was it really that Darwin did that was so great? After all he wasn't the first person to speculate that evolution happens, or even to propose how it might happen. Maybe he was just the right person at the right time to be remembered. But I think there is more. Perhaps the best way to answer the question from my perspective is to briefly contrast Charles Darwin with Jean Louis Agassiz. Agassiz was one of the most popular scientists of the 19th century, especially in biology, Harvard Professor, did lots of important work on fossils and glaciation. Yet he never accepted evolution.

I encountered Agassiz in Edward Lurie's biography, Louis Agassiz: A Life in Science. Lurie observed, as I recall, that Agassiz was a proponent of the notion that the geological features of the Earth were molded mainly by a series of catastrophic events and that that the distribution of species could be best explained by a series of creation events. As new data about geology and the distribution of species came out-Agassiz would simply postulate a new catastrophe or a new creation event. So the data are explained.

Darwin was different. Not only did he synthesize masses of data to support his ideas, but he confronted the weaknesses in his ideas head on. After all, Darwin knew that contradictions between observation and theory are not to be feared but provide new opportunities to learn by empirical means what makes the universe work. Agassiz was an accomplished scientist as well and probably understood this idea as well. The difference is that Agassiz did not understand the universality of the principle that contradictions provide new opportunities in all spheres of science, and, I argue, life as well.

So happy birthday Mr. Darwin and here's to biologists today who see contradiction as something not to be feared, or glossed over with rhetorical tricks, but as opportunity for understanding.

Winter Beauty

2009-01-18T19:49:00.001-08:00

Except for a couple of Dendrobium and a few paltry crown of thorns this Gymnocalycium is about the only thing blooming in my house right now. Normally a not very exciting bloom but when the light hit it just right the other day I had to get some shots.

Even the most ordinary can be beautiful in the right light.

Save the Sea Kittens?

2009-01-12T11:46:00.001-08:00

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals(PETA) has a new campaign, this time against fishing complete with a splashy new web site designed to hook unsuspecting visitors. The site claims that:

"People don't seem to like fish. They're slithery and slimy, and they have eyes on either side of their pointy little heads—which is weird, to say the least. Plus, the small ones nibble at your feet when you're swimming, and the big ones—well, the big ones will bite your face off if Jaws is anything to go by. "

Hence the make over. The site has places for "Sea Kitten stories" , petitions urging the US Fish and Wildlife Service to stop promoting fishing, oh and if you want you can even buy a Sea Kitten Hoodie-imagine the fashion statement that would make at school or in the neighborhood! Another page makes the PETA case a little bit more directly noting quite properly that fish are quite smart, capable sophisticated sensory and cognitive feats and therefore (their leap of logic not mine) ought to not be subject to the cruelty of fishing.

Now the notion that animals are cognitively aware at least of the present does give some moral weight to the notion that we ought to minimize human caused animal suffering and that animals ought to be respected for what they are, but really PETA's effort is a blatant attempt to exploit the healthy sense of empathy that most people have about animals rather than encouraging people to see animals (including ourselves) in a balanced way.

Also Leopold in one of his Sand County Almanac essays argued that in order for people to understand the value of conservation and "The Land Ethic", they have to have an emotional connection to the land. I agree but I don't think that this misplaced empathy is what he had in mind.

By the way, there is a very interesting essay on the Ethics of Eating Animals in Michael Pollan's recent book, Omnivore's Dilemma which tackles animal rights in a more balanced way. Pollan concludes that:

"To give up eating animals is to give up on these places(nota bene: where animals live) as human habitat , unless of course we are willing to make complete our dependence on a highly industrialized food chain."

Now that is a good omnivore attitude!

I recommend Pollan's book as a corrective to anyone who might otherwise be susceptible to the simplistc arguments that PETA foists an all us kitten lovers.

Full disclosure: I have 2 Kittens; well they used to be Kittens. One of them has eaten fish the other one wouldn't have the first notion what to do with a fish. I have been fishing, in fact for catfish. And yes this omnivore did eat them.

Welcome to the Holidays in My World

2009-01-01T15:12:00.000-08:00

My wife would not let me put my dinosaurs in her Christmas village. But she didn't say anything about large predatory insects.

Just in Time for Christmas...

2008-12-23T07:42:00.000-08:00

The Pope has released another in a series of misguided statements about gender and sexual orientation, this time attacking gender theory.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7796663.stm

See also:
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=14067&size=A

It isn't at all clear to me what the Pope means by gender theory. If he means that gender is entirely a social construct a la post modernism then he is quite correct from my biological perspective. But I think he means to reenforce the standard gender binary.He says for instance:

"It is not "out-of-date metaphysics" to "speak of human nature as 'man' or woman'"

Well, yes it is outdated metaphysics because his statement is based on the assumption that there is some sort of metaphysical essence that distinguishes us from other animals and that this essence is somehow reflected in the gender binary. What is sad is that the Pope has lots of good things to say on many levels about the dignity of people-including in this address- but saying good things but based on faulty medival premises ultimately does more harm than good.

That said, the Pope is rightfully concerned about human nature and its manipulation: He notes (quoted from Asia Times) that:

“We should re-read the encyclical Humanae Vitae starting from such a perspective. In it Pope Paul VI’s intention was to defend love against a utilitarian view of sexuality, the future against the exclusive claim of the present, and man’s nature against its manipulation.”

and here he is a on target just as he is generally on target when it comes to issues of human dignity. But it seems he clings to outmoded typological thinking because it provides clear rules whose descendent, by the way, is the 1960's slogan "If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem". We are moral animals, and moral animals capable of looking beyond the short term-taking an ethical progression outward from ourselves and immediate familiy to all of creation and taking it forwards in time to contemplate what we want our species to become.

Just because the Pope's essentialist assumption is flawed doesn't make his concerns any less valid-but again some of his conclusions, drawn from wrong premises (that creation implies an essential nature) can lead to great harm, something I really don't think he really intends inspite of his bullheadness about gender and sexual identity.

I really don't think he means for me to feel less than human because I don't fit his notions of male and female very well. He probably thinks a bit like Rick Warren who said well gee I have gay friends, I have been to gay people's houses. The essentalist stance leads to a debasing of human dignity, there very things that the Pope and Warren claim to be defending.

See naked mole rats here!

2008-12-06T21:22:00.001-08:00

See naked mole rats here!
Originally uploaded by pdecell

...at Disney's Animal Kingdom over Thanksgiving. Nice exhibit except they really don't explain why these mammals are so interesting. What makes them so interesting is that they are the most like social insects of any mammal. See...

www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/614.shtml

Of course maybe the Disney folks would have to then explain why social insects are so important in the tropics in terms of the functioning of tropical ecosystems and how social insect biomass dwarfs that of the charismatic animals they have in Animal KIngdom.

Then they would have to explain why it is that you have to really hunt to even see an ant at any of the theme parks.

A Conservative Contradiction

2008-11-21T18:10:00.000-08:00

According to Think Progress, Mike Huckabee and other conservatives has come up with an intriguing argument against gay marriage. It seems that Gays haven't suffered enough! Huckabee is quoted as claiming that he is all for gay rights but gay marriage would redefine an institution.

Here's the exchange between Huckabee and Joy Behar ABC's show "The View"

"People who are homosexuals should have every right in terms of their civil rights, to be employed, to do anything they want. But that’s not really the issue. I know you talked about it and I think you got into it a little bit early on. But when we’re talking about a redefinition of an institution, that’s different than individual civil rights.
BEHAR: Well, segregation was an institution, too, in a way. It was right there on the books.

HUCKABEE: But here is the difference. Bull Connor was hosing people down in the streets of Alabama. John Lewis got his skull cracked on the Selma bridge."

Watch it here:

Now the argument does make an odd sort of sense until you remember that these very conservatives are the ones who have exploited Southern White fears about race, support states rights as opposed to civil rights, and basically have dragged their feet on every major piece of civil rights legislation. Remember the Equal Rights Amendment?

Besides, some people deserve more civil rights because they have suffered more? That doesn't sound to me like a good conservative position. But, hey, what do I know? I'm a liberal.

Imagine those uppity gays...

2008-11-16T12:14:00.000-08:00

Just who do they think they are...wanting the same rights as everyone else.

Wanda pretty much sums up my feelings.

I think what has people confused is that there is 'marriage' as contract and 'marriage' as a sacramental union. The two are not the same. So let the state deal with marriage as contract open to all and those who want the sacramental union (Holy Matrimony) look to their churches. Hmmm that's the way it is supposed to work now and as the courts are beginning to realize, it doesn't for part of our population.

A Great Time for Genetics

2008-11-11T11:26:00.000-08:00

This is a great time to be involved in genetics because there is so much change happening in all areas of genetics from real basic stuff such as the nature of the gene to how genes figure into evolution.

There is a great series of articles in the New York Times science section that you ought to look at to get some sense of the excitement today in genetics.

The first article by Carl Zimmer looks at the genome, all the DNA found in our chromosomes. The article focuses not so much on the classical protein coding genes that every one thinks about the rather the 99% of the DNA in our cells, that is not well understood. The article also delves in to what do we mean by a gene any way? The concept started with Mendel who not knowing about DNA called genes factors. During most of the 20th century we taught that genes code for proteins but now we understand that genes are a lot weirder than the cut and dry protein coding segments of DNA we thought they were.

The next article by Andrew Pollack looks at RNA and the many roles of this molecule in genetics. We used to think that there were three types of RNA, ribosomal, transcript and messenger but now we understand that there are other types of RNA that are involved in the regulation of genes and their expression. Some of these RNA’s may revolutionize the way we treat certain diseases.

The next article in the series by Benedict Carey looks at new hypothesis about mental illness which says that certain types of mental illness might result in the conflict of genes from a person’s parents.

The notion that genes may be in conflict with one another may seem odd, but here is an example. We know that there are genetic elements that make extra copies of themselves in the genome or bias the results of meiosis so that more of them get passed on to the offspring even at the expense of the fitness of the individual organism. It turns out that in response to these sorts of “selfish elements”, other genes suppress the activity of the “selfish genes” . Gene conflict also plays out in the male parent’s vs the female parent’s genes during development and the article discusses an interesting example of that.

The notion of gene conflict in an evolutionary sense is well established for certain type of genes but if this idea is true it would mean that certain types of mental illness are not so much due to what genes you have but which genes “win” the gene conflict and are expressed.

These articles may seem quite different but they all have a couple of common threads. First of all they illustrate the dynamic nature of science and how scientists rather than wanting to defend simplistic views of science are constantly challenging established science as new empirical evidence becomes available. Second these articles each in their own way get at the limitations of basic concepts and levels of analysis used in science. In the first article, the gene concept, which started out with a gene as an indivisible factor like a bead on a string, has morphed into a series of somewhat different concepts to the point where you can’t always tell where one gene begins and another end.

The second article lays waste to the idea that everything in the cell is controlled somehow by the DNA working with proteins. RNA’s also are involved in determining which genes are expressed and which are not. So here our original understanding of RNA again has been altered due to some very interesting discoveries, some of which were quite accidental.

The 3rd article takes the role of genes in mental illness and for that matter lots of other situations a step beyond what genes are present as being important, but to a view point that within an individual genes may be in “conflict”, so our notions of genotype (typically defined as the specific combination of genes an individual has) turn out to be way too simplified. Not only that the notion of gene conflict introduces a whole shadow world with in an individual organism so that the individual become like a house divided…divided by an evolutionary conflict between the organism’s own genes.

So check these articles out and let me know what you think.

Grokking the Election Results

2008-11-07T09:57:00.000-08:00

I am somewhat of a political junkie and I stayed up way too late Tuesday and into Wednesday morning. What really kept me up was not the speeches, which were great but the New York Times online. The NYTimes has a great interative map feature where you can look not only state by state, but also county by county as to which candidate Obama or McCain won. You can also see whether or not the county became more or less Democratic or Republican and zoom out to get a sense of what happened nationwide.

The map is at http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/map.html.

For instance, here is the Kansas results for 2008. Not very interesting since Kansas is typically a red state. The two main blue counties were Douglas home to the University of Kansas (and yours truly) and Wyanodotte County where Kansas City Kansas is. The third county that Obama carried-Crawford is very rural but home to Pittsburgh State University.

But you can get a sense of what happened this election compared to 2004 when you look at the change in voting pattern between 2004-2008.

The blue regions on this map are counties that have gone more Democratic in 2008 compared to 2004. So even in many heavily Repubican regions of the state Democrats improved their margins compared to 2004. This suggests either that Obama's strategy of running a nationwide campaign was over all what he needed to win or that the country's economic condition really turned people off to the Republicans. By the way the Republican margin statewide was 56% 41% for the Republicans this year compared to 62-46 in 2004.

Let's step back and look at the whole nation in terms of county results.

Here blue represents those counties that went Democratic, red those counties that went Republican. Clearly Obama and the Democrats did really well in the traditional urban areas. In fact Obama and the Democrats swept New England so completely that there are no Republicans in the House any where in the whole New England region. That is quite a change from the days when New England was a center for the moderate wing of the Republican party.

Looking at the change map, we see a very interesting pattern:

The deeper the blue the more Democratic the county became since 2004. Notice that country as a whole became more Democratic except for parts of the South East- loosely within what we might call Appalachia. These are probably the least racially diverse areas in the country. At least when I was in Georgia, some some of these counties had no or few non-white families.

But you can say the same for lots of other areas in the country as well...for instance Idaho and Utah, and yet those areas also tended to go more Democratic.

I know some commentators have argued that there are long term demographic trends coming into play; perhaps the populations in these areas are older- the young people that Obama tended to attract may have left these areas. But younger people have also left Western Kansas as well so I don't think that can be the whole explanation for what I call the Appalachian effect.

Now some commentators (often the same ones talking about demograpics) are talking about the coming dominance of the Democratic party. I say not so fast. First of all we have been through this before. For example, the 1964 election was the first election that I engaged in even though I was 13. Since my parents were Republican I supported Goldwater. And after he got trounced by Johnson, the press was full of articles writing the Republican Party off.

Also look at this county by county map from 2000:

It is really only different from the 2008 map in small details. The conclusion I draw is that our country is still deeply divided politically. That should give both parties pause.

Also if you look at the change map between 2008 the 1992 election when Bill Clinton won, the county map suggests that most counties have become more Republican than they were in in 1992! Granted this may be to an aging and less racially diverse population in these counties. The Democrats are really going to have to deliver in order to win over the country as a whole. Do they really want to leave 9/10ths of the land area in this country red?

The Republicans are going to have to figure out how to recast their message and maybe go through some realignment to gain back lost ground in the middle of the political spectrum. Does it make sense for them to play to their base and ignore the middle? Do they really want the country to be so divided geographically? Granted, rural states do have proportionally more clout than urban states and that allowed the election of President Bush, but unless they come to the middle they will be struck with an ever shrinking base as demographic trends toward racial and ethnic diversity become even more pronounced.

The Republicans will have do some soul searching and figure out how to get their message to the middle. Barry Goldwater said something to the effect that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice and I think some conservatives today interpret liberty in a very odd sense way out of whack with what Goldwater really meant. Extremism after all does not win elections in this country whether from the left or the right.

Oh No! Karl Rove and I Agree????

2008-11-04T10:23:00.000-08:00

Well at least on that Obama is heading for a landslide. We both came up with the prediction for the electoral college and which states each candidate is going to win.

338 Obama and 200 McCain.

See this report from CNN about Rove:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/11/04/rove-predicts-obama-landslide/

Of course we both used the same highly sophisticated stochastic jack knife enriched estimating procedures on huge arrays of linked Apple iPods to arrive at our projections.

Rove would probably also agree with me here when I say:

"Vote! Vote early and often..unless your voting for the other guy. Then only vote once.

Mendel's Garden Is Up Again!

2008-11-04T10:16:00.000-08:00

Check out the latest edition at Evolgen!

http://scienceblogs.com/evolgen/2008/11/mendels_garden_25.php

The Ultimate Weapon Against War...

2008-11-01T12:35:00.000-07:00

Watch...

This shouldn't come up, but it has.

2008-10-29T10:20:00.000-07:00

You would think that today in America a person's sexual orientation wouldn't be an issue in an election any more than whether or not a person is married, single or divorced. But in one Kansas Board of Education race apparently partisans have not gotten the message. Seems that Kathy Martin and her supporters are trying to make an issue of the fact that her opponent, Christopher Renner is openly gay.

According to this article in the Hutchinson News Online, Martin's supporters argue that this is a valid issue, as voters have the right to know everything about a candidate. Carolyn Simms, a Martin supporter says

"...that voters should also be given all the information possible about the candidates they'll be choosing from."

Really, now. Maybe I should hire a private detective to see what juicy non election related things are in Mrs. Martin's background. Of course I really don't have to do that since Mrs. Martin has embarrassed herself enough as one of the gang of six that spent thousands of dollars on sham evolution hearings a couple of years ago and was a supporter of a completely unqualified Board of Education Commissioner who ended up resigning.

So hello Mrs. Martin! This is the 21st century. We don't fight about whether the Earth is only 6,000 years old or so anymore and we don't care about a person's sexual orientation as a job issue. How laughable this would seem except that there are still folks out there who are blissfully unaware that time has moved on. Mrs. Martin you are so 19th century!

Funny things people search for...

2008-10-20T21:47:00.000-07:00

A recent visitor to this blog, stumbled here looking for "poster assignment to teach asexual reproduction". Personally I have no desire to learn how to reproduce asexually. But hey that's just me. As for the searcher he or she got this link:

http://theforcethat.blogspot.com/2006/08/poetry-thursday_30.html

I don't think that is what he or she wanted-but maybe.

Sumac Lit From Behind

2008-10-20T05:53:00.000-07:00

Even if sumac were red in the Spring
It would not be as beautiful as now
Where the deer sleep in their forms.

Obama...

2008-10-19T11:12:00.000-07:00

Colin Powell says why the best:

"...And I come to the conclusion that because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities — and you have to take that into account — as well as his substance — he has both style and substance, he has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president."

Watch the video:

Sometimes it's all about "marketing"

2008-10-15T08:24:00.000-07:00

I am no fan of fights as any one who knows me understands. But I must confess to watching Fight Club on TV. Jurassic Fight Club on the History Channel that is. If you are not in the loop Jurassic fight club pits big predators from the past against each other using fossil evidence to create what the creators think are plausible scenarios, say between a giant megashark and an early whale-OK so the program strays a bit from the Jurassic.

Some of the scenarios are a bit implausible and anthropomorphic (There isn't a fancy word to describe the attribution of the thought process of 25 year old males who wear grimy backwards baseball caps into fancy restaurant to other organisms) but the program gives a really nice introduction to how scientists make inferences from the fossil record and the tools they use.

So I recommend this series if you are curious about just what scientists can learn from the fossil record-it turns out to be much more than you might think. For instance it is quite possible to match up teeth marks with teeth much like human forensic experts match knife blades to cuts in flesh or bone and I just hate to bust the bubble of any young earth creationist types the evidence does NOT suggest that T. rex was ever a vegetarian.

The fight approach to organism interactions and evolution goes back at least to the 19th century to Darwin and the early evolutionists who viewed evolution and natural selection often in terms of competition-much of this was probably as much due to Darwin's early adherents as much to Darwin. Be that as it may, the metaphor still holds sway in the popular psyche even if scientists have a much more sophisticated understanding of how evolution operates including the ability of evolution to lead to cooperative behavior and even the moral sense displayed by humans in some of our finer moments.

At any rate I was reminded of the marketing aspect of all this by a headline on the BBC website today that screams out:

Two of the UK's worst aquatic invasive species are set to meet.

Scientists believe that the ranges of the plague-carrying non-native crayfish and the fierce Chinese mitten crab are beginning to overlap.

Well of course I had to check this out..plague carrying crayfish and fierce Chinese mitten crab. Wow! And the article even has a picture of both the beasties in fight mode and a video about these alien thugs preparing to meet. While the plague of course is not the Black Plague but rather a disease that infects native crayfish in Britain, the BBC coverage does correctly highlight the threat posed by these two species. And the question about what will happen when these non native species to Britain meet is an important one. So I guess that I can't really fault the hype involved in getting people to read about science.

Hey it even worked for me and I don't even own a baseball cap, grimy or not.

The Crayfish mitten crab video complete with menacing music is here:

Fox News is Whining again...

2008-10-08T19:08:00.000-07:00

The folks over at Fox News are carrying on about a supposed injustice done to Sara Palin by Newsweek Magazine. Seems that the latest cover shows a close up of the Governor's face. Exposure on the Cover of Time or Newsweek is usually considered to be a good thing. But the commentators over at Fox report that the photo is unflattering allegedly because it was not touched up. See Cover Girl.

Of course the Republican News Network..I mean Fox ought to know all about retouching photos. According to Media Matters, Fox has done a little retouching of it's own on several of it's opponents with very unflattering results. Well as Fox might say: "you decide":

Actual and Fox Retouched photos from Media Matters:

Somehow I don't think this is the type of touch up job Fox had in mind for Governor Palin.

A caterpillar...

2008-09-04T17:31:00.000-07:00

Maybe it is nature's way of making another Chrysalis...

See http://theforcethat.blogspot.com/2008/08/be-careful-what-you-wish-for.html