Picky Female Frogs Drive Evolution

Picky Female Frogs Drive Evolution of New Species in Less Than 8,000 Years
(UC Berkeley News)

The yet-to-be-named species arose after two isolated populations of the green-eyed tree frog reestablished contact less than 8,000 years ago and found that their hybrid offspring were less viable. To avoid hybridizing with the wrong frogs and ensure healthy offspring, one group of females preferentially chose mates from their own lineage. Over several thousand years, this behavior created a reproductively isolated population—essentially a new species—that is unable to mate with either of the original frog populations.

Things were purportedly easier (and faster) when these amphibians could turn into bipedal mammals on contact with human saliva, but that’s just another fanciful, discredited tale of divine intervention.

Biology Teachers: As Low As Lab Rats?

Biology Teachers: As Low As Lab Rats?
(Kansas City Star)

In the magazine’s third annual take on the 10 worst jobs in science, those trying to teach evolution in Kansas classrooms come in at No. 3 on the list, topped only by “human lab rat” test subjects dosed with pesticides and manure inspectors.

The Brontosaurus

The Brontosaurus
Monty Python’s flying creationism.
William Saletan (Slate)

Can ID make testable predictions? Not really. If we posit that a given biological system was designed, Rothschild asks, what can we infer about the designer’s abilities? Just “that the designer had the ability to make the design that is under consideration,” says Behe. “Beyond that, we would be extrapolating beyond the evidence.” Does Behe not understand that extrapolating beyond initial evidence is exactly the job of a hypothesis? Does he not grasp the meaninglessness of saying a designer designed things that were designed?

No more meaningless than saying natural selection selected things that were selected? Not so fast.

Related: A review of Michael Behe’s Darwin’s Black Box by the only practicing empiricist in the design/evolution playoff and the leading theorist of evolutions on the internets.

Moral Courage

Moral Courage
Stephen Metcalf (Slate)

By the rules of our language game, however, the motives of people who distrust (or, frankly, revile) The Bell Curve are instantly suspect, while the motives of people who spend their entire professional lives trying to prove black people are dumber than white people escape all scrutiny. Said researchers often refer to themselves as “race realists,” and, in addition to the Orwellian moniker, they have mastered a host of rhetorical maneuvers meant to clear themselves of the charge of out-and-out racism: They carefully insist that East Asians are smarter even than whites; that estimating any individual’s intelligence by noting his race is impossible; and above all, that the data are the data no matter where they lead, even if into the frenzy of a politically correct backlash.

Earlier: The Inequality Taboo

Exposed: TV’s bogus ‘psychics’

Exposed: TV’s bogus ‘psychics’
(Mail on Sunday)

When The Mail on Sunday put a series of scenarios to Psychic Interactive that were all entirely made up, its psychics were happy to give elaborate responses to each one.

There must be some real pranksters in the spirit world.

Education, Weight Seen To Affect Women's Sex Life

Education, Weight Seen To Affect Women's Sex Life
(Globe and Mail)

Contrary to the researchers’ expectations, university-educated women are more apt to have low sex drives—48 per cent compared to 31 per cent among high-school graduates. They are also less likely to have orgasms during intercourse.

“It may well be that highly educated women are different from less-educated women in many respects. Maybe they have higher standards … higher expectations and legitimately lower evaluations. They may be living much busier, much more stressful lives,” said William Fisher, a professor of psychology and obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Western Ontario who is a co-author of the paper.

He’s just projecting.

God Save the Heretic

God Save the Heretic
(Times Online)

The difficulty, at least for the scientifically educated but spiritually malnourished, is not the idea of religion itself, meaning some system of ritualized worship that helps us to make sense, if only symbolically, of the human, natural and supernatural worlds. The difficulty is rather that all the religions on offer are so patently preposterous, if not downright unpleasant.

This piece, unlike an earlier one, doesn’t leave out Hindus or Buddhists.

To Shoot or Not to Shoot

To Shoot or Not to Shoot
(Arab News)

The textbook used in the ninth grade, for example, says that photography is a form of idolatry. On page 100, it states, “Depicting living creatures, animal or human, whether life-size or on paper or walls is prohibited because it imitates God’s creation.”

[…]

Mohammed Al-Ghannam, an Islamic teacher in an intermediate school, said: “In our school we don’t allow students to draw a whole living creature. They normally draw landscapes of natural scenery without any bird or animal. For example, if one wants to draw a falcon, he draws only the body without the head. Alternatively, he could draw a line between the body and the neck. Drawing a complete bird is not permissible in Islam.”

If You’re a Christian, Muslim or Jew—You are Wrong

If You’re a Christian, Muslim or Jew—You are Wrong
Cenk Uygur (The Huffington Post)

Jesus was a lunatic. God is not coming to your rescue. He hasn’t come to anyone’s rescue in thousands of years, including Jesus. Mohammed was a power hungry, scam artist and ruthless conqueror. Moses and Abraham were figments of the imagination of some long dead rabbi. He would probably laugh his ass off at all of you who still believe the fairytales he made up thousands of years ago. He probably wouldn’t even believe it if you told him.

That must have felt good. For Uygur.
This elucidates something I’ve been hinting at for long—them Hindus are right.

Metrosexual Man Bows to Red-Blooded Übersexuals

Metrosexual Man Bows to Red-Blooded Übersexuals
(The Observer)

Now, however, maleness has hit back, she says. While metrosexuals were obsessed with self-image and lifestyle, the übersexual is politically aware and passionate about real world causes. The metrosexual has women who are his best friends, while the übersexual respects women but retains men as his closest confidants. The metrosexual grooms his hair: the übersexual grooms his mind. The metrosexual reads Vogue and Cosmo, the übersexual the Economist and the New Yorker.

Talk about bad folksonomy.

Seer Defies Own Death Prediction

Seer Defies Own Death Prediction
(BBC News)

Punjilal, a 75-year-old resident of a village in India’s Madhya Pradesh state had said he would die between 1500 and 1700 local time on Thursday.

Journalists, doctors and TV channels joined thousands of curious locals outside the temple he was sitting in.

But the time came and passed and the fortune teller survived. He now says he will live till he is 90.

What a brave man! I’m shifting allegiance from the elephant god to the monkey god.

Are Jews Smarter?

Are Jews Smarter?
(New York Metro)

Freud and Marx, Einstein and Bohr, Mendelssohn and Mahler. The brothers Gershwin. The brothers Marx. Woody Allen. Bob Dylan. Franz Kafka. Claude Lévi-Strauss. Bobby Fischer. Jews may take tremendous pride in their aristocracy, but we fetishize it at our own peril; to suggest that we’re chosen, rather than that we make our own choices, curdles quickly into a useful argument for anti-Semites who’d love to claim that the objects of their derision are immutable vermin. It can’t be an accident that the most aggressive debunkers of Jewish essentialism, including the participants in this story, are generally Jews themselves. The arguments come in handy when the ugly stuff is trotted out, too.

Turned On

Turned On
A revolution in the field of evolution?
H. Allen Orr (The New Yorker)

In the evo-devo view, animals still adapt to their environments by Darwin’s natural selection, but adaptation involves a different kind of genetic change from what biologists used to assume. As a result, evolutionists may need to abandon what Carroll calls their “protein-centric perspective” and look instead to the poorly understood noncoding DNA that sits between genes.

Earlier …

How Homer Became Omar

How Homer Became Omar
(The Guardian)

The Simpsons have changed their name to Shamsoon. Bart, the skateboarding, gum-chewing delinquent has become Badr. Homer, his slobbish dad, has become Omar and has given up Duff beer and pork sausages, at least for the duration of Ramadan.

Related: D’oh! Arabized Simpsons Aren’t Getting Many Laughs

I wonder if we’ll ever get to see the Arabized Chick Tracts.

Astrology is Scientific Theory, Courtroom Told

Astrology is Scientific Theory, Courtroom Told
(New Scientist)

Rothschild suggested that Behe’s definition was so loose that astrology would come under this definition as well. He also pointed out that Behe’s definition of theory was almost identical to the NAS’s definition of a hypothesis. Behe agreed with both assertions.

The exchange prompted laughter from the court, which was packed with local members of the public and the school board.

Resolving Darwin’s Dilemma

Resolving Darwin’s Dilemma
(OnPoint Radio)

But now, a bold and bright new theory, proposed by two Evolutionary Biologists, might have yanked the curtain off of biological complexity. This theory accounts for the appearance of the bat’s wing, the human arm, and yes, the eye. And it reveals with elegant simplicity the core processes that have been at work for the last 3 billion years engineering the world as we know it.

[Listen] (RealAudio) With a cameo by Eugenie Scott.
“Facilitated variation” falls under Evo-Devo, I think.

All God, All the Time

All God, All the Time
(Boston Globe)

But there is another strain in the Biblical tradition that insists on the radical otherness of God, an otherness so complete that even the use of the word “God” as a name for this Other One is forbidden. According to this understanding, God is God precisely in escaping and transcending comprehension by human beings. This can seem to mean that God is simply unknowable. If so, humans are better off not bothering about it. Atheism, agnosticism, or childish anthropomorphism—all the same.

Why Do We Believe In God?

Why Do We Believe In God?
(The Guardian)

Bouchard has consistently found in many of his studies that intrinsic religiosity—which seems to incorporate a notion of spirituality—is much more likely to be inherited. Extrinsic religiosity tends to be a product of a person’s environment and direct parental influence. Bouchard also found that tendencies towards fundamentalism were also rather more likely to be inherited.

What do you mean we, white man?

Meet the Life Hackers

Meet the Life Hackers
(New York Times)

On the bigger screen, people completed the tasks at least 10 percent more quickly—and some as much as 44 percent more quickly. They were also more likely to remember the seven-digit number, which showed that the multitasking was clearly less taxing on their brains. Some of the volunteers were so enthralled with the huge screen that they begged to take it home. In two decades of research, Czerwinski had never seen a single tweak to a computer system so significantly improve a user’s productivity. The clearer your screen, she found, the calmer your mind.

Maybe what Paul needs is a bigger monitor and a better email filter, but why do I envy his current setup?

So what do you have to do to find happiness?

So what do you have to do to find happiness?
(Times Online)

Although most people rate themselves as happy, there is a wealth of evidence to show that negative thinking is deeply ingrained in the human psyche. Experiments show that we remember failures more vividly than successes. We dwell on what went badly, not what went well. When life runs smoothly, we’re on autopilot—we’re only in a state of true consciousness when we notice the stone in our shoe.

For me, happiness is a warm pun. There, I’m happy.

Earlier: The Mathematics of Love

Prehensile Tales

Prehensile Tales
(Metroactive Arts)

Caramia © Robert Cooper, 2002

Bob Cooper, a man with an average name who is anything but average, shares the interest in this issue. A North Bay painter, Cooper specializes in realistic, haunting and noble portraits of the great apes: Pongo pygmaeus, Gorilla gorilla, Pan troglodytes. We know them as orangutans, gorillas and chimps. Seated in the spare, industrial San Rafael space where his paintings recently exhibited, Cooper says, “The bonobos remind me most of early humans.”

Non-Abductees Anonymous

Non-Abductees Anonymous
(Atom Films)

Everyone needs a little support now and then … even those who aren’t “chosen.”

Watch the video.

Blogging Predicted by 19th Century Russian Prince

Blogging Predicted by 19th Century Russian Prince
(MosNews.com)

“Houses are connected by means of magnetic telegraphs that allow people who live far from each other to communicate,” Odoevsky wrote.

Even more interestingly, Odoevsky suggested every household would publish a kind of daily journal or newsletter and distribute it among selected acquaintances, a habit which Russian bloggers immediately recognized as blogging.

That’s not blogging, that’s plain annoying. Though totally off in chronology (he imagined the year 4338), he described it as science fiction, not necromancy.

Intelligent Design 101

Intelligent Design 101: Short on Science, Long on Snake Oil
(The Minnesota Daily)

While you’re at PubMed, try searching for “bacterial flagella secretion.” One of the resulting papers, by SI Aizawa (2001), reports that some nasty bacteria possess a molecular pump, called a type III secretion system, or TTSS, that injects toxins across cell membranes.

Much to Dr. Behe’s distress, the TTSS is a subset of the bacterial flagellum. That’s right, a part of the supposedly irreducible bacterial “outboard motor” has a biological function!

Who woulda thunk?

Woman Sought In Psychic Scam

Woman Sought In Psychic Scam
(Potomac News)

The woman offers to purify a person’s body or soul as well as provide financial health. She asks that her victims give her large sums of money and then disappears before rendering any services, police said.

Anybody who has given money to this woman shouldn’t be so certain their soul hasn’t been purified or their financial health won’t improve. Isn’t “psychic scam” a delightful tautology?

New “Hobbit” Bones Bolster Separate Species Claim

New “Hobbit” Bones Bolster Separate Species Claim
(New Scientist)

Some skeptics have claimed that LB1 was simply a modern human with a condition called microencephaly—an abnormally small brain. But the new finds all came from individuals with the same size bodies as LB1, only about a meter tall. This supports the idea that Homo floresiensis is indeed a species in its own right.

Fire Destroys ‘Wallace And Gromit’ Warehouse

Fire Destroys ‘Wallace And Gromit’ Warehouse
(CNN)

Wallace and Gromit’s creator, Nick Park, said the earthquake in South Asia helped put the loss into perspective.

“Even though it is a precious and nostalgic collection and valuable to the company, in light of other tragedies, today isn’t a big deal,” he said.

Too bad. Make sure at least your DVD stays scratch-free and flame-aloof.

Administrivia: Blogger is back up, but Flickr remains photo-less.

Must Have Accessories for the Trendy Road Jihadist

A cell phone that points to Mecca

Psychedelic prayer mats

Ala. Church Youth Swallow Live Goldfish

Ala. Church Youth Swallow Live Goldfish
(Boston Globe)

“Through this ministry, kids are surrendering their lives to Jesus and developing a deeper relationship with Jesus,” Martin said. “The method of the ministry that we use to bring people is going to change, but the message is going to stay consistent.”

In teaching the lesson about fear, participants in last week’s round were asked to pull a number—between one and three—from a bowl that would indicate how many live Comet goldfish would be swallowed.

As always, and I repeat myself here, this is all old hat for the Indians. Fear? Pshaw! It’s holistic medicine, baby!

Scary Living for India’s Ghost Man

Scary Living for India’s Ghost Man
(Yahoo! News)

Because of his poor health and stick-like physique, he added, neighbors had said he was “born to play a ghost.”

He took to the idea and his reputation began to spread through the myriad islands that make up the Sunderbans.

This guy’s for real, unlike the old chain mail.

Duped and Clueless: How Easily We Fool Ourselves

Duped and Clueless: How Easily We Fool Ourselves
(LiveScience)

Surprisingly, not only were a large number of the volunteers oblivious to the switch when ultimately allowed to take a longer look at their choice, they were actually able to gave detailed explanations for why they preferred the face that, indeed, they had actually rejected.

The phenomenon that keeps marriage brokers in business.

Dolphins Learn Music

Dolphins Learn Music
(Discovery Channel News)

“The dolphin was reinforced for producing a specific rhythm to a specific object,” said Harley. “For example, when we presented him with a ‘Batman’ doll, he received a fish for producing a specific rhythm—in this case, a short sound and then a long one.”

She added, “If you recall the original ‘Batman’ TV series musical intro you’ll probably remember the way they sang ‘Bat-maaaaaaaan.’”

“Holy solmizating cetaceans, Batman!”

The Da Vinci Glow

The Da Vinci Glow
(Red Nova)

Little-known to most, one of Leonardo’s finest works is not a painting or an invention, but rather something from astronomy: He solved the ancient riddle of Earthshine.

The Straight Dope on Evolution

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

If man is descended from monkeys and apes, why do we still have monkeys and apes?

Did all humans descend from the same ancestor?

Did humans descend from “aquatic apes”?

Why do we have five digits on each limb?

How do evolutionists explain the Big Bang, the fact that we haven’t seen animals evolve, etc.?

Do creationists accept microevolution but not macroevolution?

Does the theory of evolution fly in the face of the facts?

What did cows evolve from?

How do we know the cockroach is 250 million years old?

Why has no animal species ever evolved wheels?

Catholic Church No Longer Swears By Truth of the Bible

Catholic Church No Longer Swears By Truth of the Bible
(Times Online)

The Bible is true in passages relating to human salvation, they say, but continue: “We should not expect total accuracy from the Bible in other, secular matters.”

Really? Then the Catholic Church should get ready to face opposition from an unexpected quarter. Take that, you wishy-washy bishops!

How a Zebra Lost its Stripes

How a Zebra Lost its Stripes: Rapid Evolution of the Quagga
(Yale University)

“The rapid evolution of coat color in the quagga could be explained by disrupted gene flow because of geographical isolation, an adaptive response to a drier habitat, or a combination of both of the two forces,” said Caccone.

Or maybe the fashion-conscious quaggas decided brown was the new pink.

Fists Fly over Living God’s Crown

Fists Fly over Living God’s Crown
(The Guardian)

In Tibetan Buddhism, as one karmapa passes away another is reincarnated. Since 1110, the karmapa has been reborn in an unbroken string. His lineage is three centuries older than that of the Dalai Lama. The trouble is there are two claimants to being the 17th karmapa—Ogyen Trinley and Thaye Dorje—each supported by important lamas, or priests, from the Kagyu lineage. The majority of the lamas, the Dalai Lama, and Tibetans inside and outside Tibet have supported Ogyen Trinley. Even Beijing supported his claim as the 17th karmapa, although he fled Tibet in 1999.

How do you confirm pedigree? Is there an acid test for the soul involving sneezing onto a prayer-strip and watching color turn? You would think Buddhism would be unfettered by paltry concerns over wealth and power. Think again. Or maybe it’s the regressive evil capitalistic vibes sent out by Richard Gere, Steven Seagal and their ilk. Buddhism Under Siege by Primal Fear. Don’t laugh; that’s as good a supposition as reincarnation.

p.s. Why do I keep reading the majority candidate’s name as a chemical formula?

Pathways to God

Pathways to God
(Science Musings)

But supernaturalism retains its hold on the human imagination. God’s hand is sought in those things we don’t yet fully understand: the big bang, the origin of life, the Cambrian Explosion, and so on. This the God of the gaps. The God of “intelligent design.”

Well, fine. But gaps have a way of being filled. I would hate to think that my faith in God depended on scientists never figuring out exactly how the blood-clotting protein cascade evolved, or how the flagellum of a bacterium evolved, to mention just two of the so-called “irreducibly complex” aspects of life offered as evidence for intelligent design.

I discovered Chet Raymo quite recently—just three weeks back—but that didn’t stop me from going through his entire Musings archive and relishing it. It’s better than a book (it’s got links, yo!), and is reminiscent of good science writing from the likes of Sagan and Dawkins, achieving an eloquent balance of wisdom and wonder. Highly recommended. Note to self: Must. Get. Book.

Administrivia: I can’t reply to comments on my own blog, nor can I edit the template to add an email address. Oh, well.

Return of the Time Lord

Return of the Time Lord
(Guardian)

Where non-mathematicians find his 11 dimensions hard to conceptualize, so Hawking seems to struggle with the concept of talking about himself in any register outside the factual. His shortest answers are the ones to those questions about feeling. I ask if he thinks it very dumb and sentimental of people to bang on about how his “genius” is related, or even enabled, by his disability, and what he thinks, with reference to The Simpsons, of the part it plays in his cult status. He replies: “The Simpsons appearances were great fun. But I don’t take them too seriously. I think The Simpsons have treated my disability responsibly.”

Wise Man

Wise Man
Freeman J. Dyson (New York Review of Books)

Scientists who become icons must not only be geniuses but also performers, playing to the crowd and enjoying public acclaim. Einstein and Feynman both grumbled about the newspaper and radio reporters who invaded their privacy, but both gave the reporters what the public wanted, sharp and witty remarks that would make good headlines. Hawking in his unique way also enjoys the public adulation that his triumph over physical obstacles has earned for him. I will never forget the joyful morning in Tokyo when Hawking went on a tour of the streets in his wheelchair and the Japanese crowds streamed after him, stretching out their hands to touch his chair. Einstein, Hawking, and Feynman shared an ability to break through the barriers that separated them from ordinary people. The public responded to them because they were regular guys, jokers as well as geniuses.

Book review of Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: The Letters of Richard P. Feynman.

Manfred Davidmann on Evolution and ‘Intelligent Design’

Manfred Davidmann on Evolution and ‘Intelligent Design’ (Creationism) Debate in U.S. Court
(PR Newswire)

There is no conflict or contradiction between what is recorded in Genesis and what we know about evolution of human beings. Genesis states clearly how Hominoids, then Homo erectus, then Homo sapiens evolved, and their corresponding changes of behavior, feeling and thinking.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” (Gen. 1:27, KJV)

“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Gen. 2:7, KJV)

Hominoids begat Homo erectus begat Homo sapiens. It’s all very clear. Can’t you see?

New Book Explains Age-Old Mystery of Geometrical Illusions

New Book Explains Age-Old Mystery of Geometrical Illusions
(Duke University)

This sort of analysis, made by measuring a large set of geometrical images with a device called a laser range scanner, showed that the brain is not a calculating engine, cranking out stimulus features, but a “statistical engine” wired by evolution and a person’s experience to make the best statistical guess about objects in a visual scene, based on how successful those guesses have been in the past.

“So, vision is not about extracting features from a scene; it’s about extracting statistics in the sense of relating the image on your retina to the visually guided behavior that’s worked in the past,” said Purves. “This framework for thinking about vision explains quantitatively—sometimes in amazing detail—what we end up seeing.”

Even in China, Feng Shui Disharmony

Even in China, Feng Shui Disharmony
(Los Angeles Times)

“This is really ridiculous,” scoffed Chen Zhihua, an architect and professor at prestigious Qinghua University in Beijing. “It’s a fake science…. It only makes money for some swindlers.”

Ge Jianxiong, an eminent geography professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, likened feng shui to dregs that have floated up to the surface.

”This shouldn’t be happening,” he said.

Indeed. By the way, the adorable darlings blocked Blogger and most of Flickr. Again. This comes to the whirled wide web via a client. To quote Mr. Jianxiong, this shouldn’t be happening.

That Famous Equation and You

That Famous Equation and You
(New York Times)

The standard illustrations of Einstein’s equation—bombs and power stations—have perpetuated a belief that E = mc² has a special association with nuclear reactions and is thus removed from ordinary activity.

This isn’t true. When you drive your car, E = mc² is at work. As the engine burns gasoline to produce energy in the form of motion, it does so by converting some of the gasoline’s mass into energy, in accord with Einstein’s formula. When you use your MP3 player, E = mc² is at work. As the player drains the battery to produce energy in the form of sound waves, it does so by converting some of the battery’s mass into energy, as dictated by Einstein’s formula. As you read this text, E = mc² is at work. The processes in the eye and brain, underlying perception and thought, rely on chemical reactions that interchange mass and energy, once again in accord with Einstein’s formula.