brainstorms

Tuesday August 01, 2006

secondary addiction parts II and III

james downard's thorough dissection [actually more like shredding] of recent antievolutionist blather continues: secondary addiction part II and secondary addiction part III.

fascinating reading.

Wednesday July 26, 2006

poverty of information theory

mark chu-carroll's interesting note on dembski's poverty of information theory.

Wednesday July 19, 2006

a zen koan

the apprentice clodpool, in a rebellious mood, approached wen and spake thusly:

master, what is the difference between a humanistic, monastic system of belief in which wisdom is sought by means of an apparently nonsensical system of questions and answers, and a lot of mystic gibberish made up on the spur of the moment?

wen considered this for some time and at last said: 'a fish!'

and clodpool went away, satisfied.

[terry pratchett, thief of time]

Thursday July 13, 2006

gone sailing, photographing...

away on vacation in some corner of egean and mediterranean... my blog will be less active, except for some notes, quotes, haiku, misc.

ı hear jee5 too complex. phew. i cannot wait to read the report when i get back. [no doubt soon thereafter i will want to switch to a boring scheme wannabe for all my work...]

Tuesday July 04, 2006

sixty-seven national academies of science on evolution

interacademy panel's statement on the teaching of evolution

We, the undersigned Academies of Sciences, have learned that in various parts of the world, within science courses taught in certain public systems of education, scientific evidence, data, and testable theories about the origins and evolution of life on Earth are being concealed, denied, or confused with theories not testable by science. We urge decision makers, teachers, and parents to educate all children about the methods and discoveries of science and to foster an understanding of the science of nature. Knowledge of the natural world in which they live empowers people to meet human needs and protect the planet.

1. Albanian Academy of Sciences 2. National Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences, Argentina 3. Australian Academy of Science 4. Austrian Academy of Sciences 5. Bangladesh Academy of Sciences 6. The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium 7. Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina 8. Brazilian Academy of Sciences 9. Bulgarian Academy of Sciences 10. RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada 11. Academia Chilena de Ciencias 12. Chinese Academy of Sciences 13. Academia Sinica, China, Taiwan 14. Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences 15. Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences 16. Cuban Academy of Sciences 17. Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic 18. Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters 19. Academy of Scientific Research and Technology, Egypt 20. Acad?mie des Sciences, France 21. Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities 22. The Academy of Athens, Greece 23. Hungarian Academy of Sciences 24. Indian National Science Academy 25. Indonesian Academy of Sciences 26. Academy of Sciences of the Islamic Republic of Iran 27. Royal Irish Academy 28. Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities 29. Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Italy 30. Science Council of Japan 31. Kenya National Academy of Sciences 32. National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic 33. Latvian Academy of Sciences 34. Lithuanian Academy of Sciences 35. Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts 36. Academia Mexicana de Ciencias 37. Mongolian Academy of Sciences 38. Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco 39. The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences 40. Academy Council of the Royal Society of New Zealand 41. Nigerian Academy of Sciences 42. Pakistan Academy of Sciences 43. Palestine Academy for Science and Technology 44. Academia Nacional de Ciencias del Peru 45. National Academy of Science and Technology, The Philippines 46. Polish Academy of Sciences 47. Acad?mie des Sciences et Techniques du S?n?gal 48. Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts 49. Singapore National Academy of Sciences 50. Slovak Academy of Sciences 51. Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts 52. Academy of Science of South Africa 53. Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences of Spain 54. National Academy of Sciences, Sri Lanka 55. Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 56. Council of the Swiss Scientific Academies 57. Academy of Sciences, Republic of Tajikistan 58. The Caribbean Academy of Sciences 59. Turkish Academy of Sciences 60. The Uganda National Academy of Sciences 61. The Royal Society, UK 62. US National Academy of Sciences 63. Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences 64. Academia de Ciencias F?sicas, Matem?ticas y Naturales de Venezuela 65. Zimbabwe Academy of Sciences 66. African Academy of Sciences 67. The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) 68. The Executive Board of the International Council for Science (ICSU)

Thursday June 08, 2006

elements of style: unix as literature

just came across thomas scoville's 1998 piece elements of style: unix as literature through a friend's email.

The common thread was wordsmithing; a suspiciously high proportion of my UNIX colleagues had already developed, in some prior career, a comfort and fluency with text and printed words. They were adept readers and writers, and UNIX played handily to those strengths. UNIX was, in some sense, literature to them. Suddenly the overrepresentation of polyglots, liberal-arts types, and voracious readers in the UNIX community didn't seem so mysterious [...]

[musical selection: tbd]

Tuesday June 06, 2006

what is wrong with ruse?

michael ruse, that lucyle t. werkmeister professor of philosophy, thinks the best kind of philosophical engagement is the exposure of private exchanges in an unintelligible crank's website. evolutionblog has the story with interesting commentary.

[for the record, i happen to have ruse's early and interesting taking darwin seriously which i will keep. evidently two decades can be hard on a philosopher's brain; his relatively recent pulp [and yellowing] effort darwin and design is in the junk pile.]

Tuesday May 02, 2006

chainmail [images]

closeup image selections from a friend's chain-mail jewellery work.

images were made with a nikon d70 using one of my favorite lenses, the unique micro-nikkor 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6d ed. [the only true macro zoom lens ever produced; those who are pining after the new 105mm vr micro should either get the earlier 105 micro, or pick up one of these. given good technique, 70-180 is a true gem. thom's spot-on review]

Sunday February 19, 2006

leon in winter

what makes a good review? balance, clarity, consistency, understanding, respect for the material and the author, and an ability to keep acidic ad-hominem impulses under control [sometimes known as professionalism] come to mind. alas, this is evidently hard work for difficult and possibly annoying material. today's NYT review [requires login] of dennett's breaking the spell by leon wieseltier is an undergrad-textbook example of how not to review a book. deeply disappointing.

[updated NYT link. thanks geoff!]

[there has been a number of awful reviews of this book and i expect more; here awful describes the overall quality of the review workmanship. these could have been written for some other book i am now reading; my response would be the same. enough with these insulting, bubble-gum and razor-wire "reviews".]

Thursday February 09, 2006

origin of bright (n)

in critical essays, misattributions show laziness, sloppiness, and undermine the critical effort.

there has now been a number of lightweight reviews of dennett's breaking the spell, where the reviewers did not know where the term bright [noun] came from, could not be bothered to look it up [say, in wikipedia], and have attributed it to dennett. [he wrote a supportive essay about it. others have too...]

the term bright was coined by Paul Geisert and Mynga Futrell.

related link: the-brights.net

[yes i am.]

Saturday February 04, 2006

breaking the spell

dennett's new book breaking the spell arrived this friday, and is forcing me to push aside a large pile of other books being read, skimmed, or waiting their turn for one or the other. also arrived: the first seriously amateurish dis-missive, the unbearable brightness of being right by rupert sheldrake [see eg. morphic resonance] in globe and mail's book reviews. [a strange and amusing title was wasted by the wet noodle review; sheldrake is too bothered by the new term chosen to describe us nonbelievers]

back to reading.

musical recommendation in between chapters: joe henderson, inner urge, blue note, rvg edition. especially el barrio is rarely matched in its lyrical power. [miles davis's solea from sketches of spain comes to mind]

Thursday February 02, 2006

today's fun [links]

waterfall 2006 conference
charlie's memo to spammer
mark fiore's flamey mcgassy

Thursday December 29, 2005

dover (ID unconstitutionality) decision summary [csicop]

jason rosenhouse's nice summary of judge jones's 139 page ruling: why is it unconstitutional to teach intelligent design [the actual ruling in pdf is here]

[jason's evolutionblog]

Wednesday November 02, 2005

star wars as a postmodern art film

what now, november fools day? aidan wasley's slate article on star wars as postmodern art makes me wonder.

Star Wars is really just one big elephantine postmodern art film.
...
As an audience, we grapple with not just the intricate clockwork of a complex and interwoven narrative, but, in postmodern fashion, with the fundamental mechanics of storytelling itself.

hmm, i am not sure which one is a bigger grapple; the entire star wars saga, or the intricate clockwork of a complex and interwoven argument in this article.

[for some reason, i am reminded of that robin williams sketch about easter, and bunnies passing eggs]

Tuesday September 20, 2005

american astronomical society statement on the teaching of evolution

directly picked up from the aas site [aas resolution]

Adopted 20 September 2005

The American Astronomical Society supports teaching evolution in our nation’s K-12 science classes. Evolution is a valid scientific theory for the origin of species that has been repeatedly tested and verified through observation, formulation of testable statements to explain those observations, and controlled experiments or additional observations to find out whether these ideas are right or wrong. A scientific theory is not speculation or a guess -- scientific theories are unifying concepts that explain the physical universe.

Astronomical observations show that the Universe is many billions of years old (see the AAS publication, An Ancient Universe), that nuclear reactions in stars have produced the chemical elements over time, and recent observations show that gravity has led to the formation of many planets in our Galaxy. The early history of the solar system is being explored by astronomical observation and by direct visits to solar system objects. Fossils, radiological measurements, and changes in DNA trace the growth of the tree of life on Earth. The theory of evolution, like the theories of gravity, plate tectonics, and Big Bang cosmology, explains, unifies, and predicts natural phenomena. Scientific theories provide a proven framework for improving our understanding of the world.

In recent years, advocates of “Intelligent Design,” have proposed teaching “Intelligent Design” as a valid alternative theory for the history of life. Although scientists have vigorous discussions on interpretations for some aspects of evolution, there is widespread agreement on the power of natural selection to shape the emergence of new species. Even if there were no such agreement, “Intelligent Design” fails to meet the basic definition of a scientific idea: its proponents do not present testable hypotheses and do not provide evidence for their views that can be verified or duplicated by subsequent researchers.

Since “Intelligent Design” is not science, it does not belong in the science curriculum of the nation’s primary and secondary schools.

The AAS supports the positions taken by the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Science Teachers’ Association, the American Geophysical Union, the American Chemical Society, and the American Association of Physics Teachers on the teaching of evolution. The AAS also supports the National Science Education Standards: they emphasize the importance of scientific methods as well as articulating well-established scientific theories.

music: vangelis, mythodea, sony 2001.