tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-113904442011-04-21T16:51:27.924-10:00The Questionable Authority has moved. The old posts can still be found here; for the new stuff, go to <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/authority/">http://scienceblogs.com/authority/</a>Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.comBlogger2541100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1149875811548877752006-06-09T07:49:00.000-10:002006-06-09T07:56:51.826-10:00

Well, it's moving day here at The Questionable Authority. I've been picked up as part of the newest group of bloggers to move over to scienceblogs.com. I've been working on the new site for a few days now, and I've actually got several posts up over there. You can find the new blog at: http://scienceblogs.com/authority/The posts that are already here will stay here, but I probably won't be

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1149755355103073242006-06-07T22:26:00.000-10:002006-06-07T22:29:15.136-10:00

It's just been reported that the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq has been killed by an American air strike. I hope it's true, but even if it is I don't know how much good it will do. We've lopped another head off the beast, but there are plenty more where that one came from.

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1149545279282046622006-06-05T07:06:00.000-10:002006-06-05T12:07:59.463-10:00

A couple of days ago, I posted a link to a Rolling Stone article written by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. In that article, RFK Jr presented what he considered to be evidence that the Ohio presidential vote suffered from widespread fraud, and that Kerry was robbed of the presidency as a direct result. In the comments for that thread, Jason presented a link to an article at salon.com that rebutted the

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1149289920260642852006-06-02T13:10:00.000-10:002006-06-02T13:12:00.323-10:00

Go read this article. And remember it in November.

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1149275871251110222006-06-02T08:37:00.000-10:002006-06-02T09:17:52.063-10:00

With the recent online publication of National Review's list of the top 50 Conservative Rock Songs, I decided to see if I could force a conservative worldview onto this weeks list of the ten songs randomly selected by my iPod.1: Pave Paradise Lilith Fair Live VersionThis song has compelling lyrics ("Took all the trees, put 'em in a tree museum/charged the people a dollar and a half just to see

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1149223242044168052006-06-01T18:01:00.000-10:002006-06-01T18:40:42.240-10:00

I've had a day or so to recover from yesterday's revelation that I have to get Endangered Species Research Permits to cover the possibility that I might take some of the newly-listed endangered Hawaiian Drosophila along with the ones that I'm after. The paperwork is definitely going to be a royal pain in the ass. That's absolutely certain. Because I am conducting scientific research, I need a

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1149128210155676672006-05-31T16:06:00.000-10:002006-05-31T16:16:50.236-10:00

New York City just lost a big chunk of federal homeland security money. According to the New York Times, this was at least in part because the federal government didn't like the way that the money was being spent, but an assessment of risk was also part of the equation. I'm not in a position right now to assess how the money was spent, but as a former New Yorker I was somewhat shocked by part of

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1149109208161779402006-05-31T10:28:00.000-10:002006-05-31T11:00:08.226-10:00

...for the following sounds:ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH! F---! F---! F---! No!*thud* *thud* *thud* *thud*Thank you.The preceeding sounds have been brought to you courtesy of a graduate student who has just discovered that the possibility that his study might result in the capture of insects newly-listed as endangered species almost certainly means that federal scientific permits will be required before

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1149041768400367612006-05-30T16:01:00.000-10:002006-05-30T16:16:08.453-10:00

First, they came for your library and bookstore records.And Congress said, "Damn Straight. Anyone reading both the Koran and The Anarchists' Cookbook is clearly a terrorist, and needs to be shipped off to Gitmo." Then they came to listen in on your overseas phone calls. And Congress said, "Great idea. We need to know if that cab driver in New York is badmouthing the president to his parents back

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1148990578622542602006-05-29T20:04:00.000-10:002006-05-30T15:08:41.430-10:00

In a previous post, I presented an example of one of the questions that evolutionary biologists face. In this example, I described three populations of closely related insects, presented a few details about their distribution, and gave the results for some laboratory-based breeding studies that were conducted with these populations some years back. I then asked people to guess how many species

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1148854538082242262006-05-28T12:15:00.000-10:002006-05-30T10:15:41.916-10:00

One of the questions asked in the comments of the previous post in this series is quite pointed, and very much on topic for this discussion, so I'm going to take a minute or two to answer it. I'll give the answer to the example in another post, that will shortly follow this one. Karl asked: So why are you asking that question? How is "species" defined. Does it really have a definition? Does it

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1148851077811127432006-05-28T09:31:00.000-10:002006-05-28T11:17:57.993-10:00

It seems that the National Cemetery Administration (part of the VA) is having some difficulties comprehending both the spirit and letter of the Constitution. The widow of an Afghanistan casualty wants to have an emblem representing his religion placed on his government-provided memorial. The VA is currently refusing. The problem is simple - they will only place approved religious emblems on the

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1148694618558280352006-05-26T11:30:00.000-10:002006-05-26T15:50:18.696-10:00

I've got a little question to keep people busy over the long weekend. There are three populations of an organism. The populations are physically separated from each other as a result of geographical factors. Geographically, they are arranged in a more or less linear fashion. The geographic details are as follows: Population A is the northwestern population. Population B lies to the southeast, and

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1148586566167237372006-05-25T08:48:00.000-10:002006-05-25T09:49:26.226-10:00

Over at Uncommon Descent, DaveScot seems to have forgotten that the theme of the blog is Intelligent Design, and gone off on an anti-ACLU rampage. So far today, he's managed to post three items assaulting ACLU positions. One isn't really worth mentioning - it's just a link to "stoptheaclu.com." That site is mostly focused, at least right now, on promoting efforts that are currently underway in

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1148452993533732512006-05-23T18:44:00.000-10:002006-05-23T20:43:13.796-10:00

Over at Uncommon Descent, Bill Dembski says that he has purchased the domain name "pro-science.com"Is it just me, or is that just a little bit like Henry VIII buying pro-marriage.com? OJ Simpson buying WhoKilledNicole.com? King Herod buying BethlehemDayCare.com...

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1148327054545765752006-05-22T08:57:00.000-10:002006-05-22T09:44:14.766-10:00

Over at Uncommon Descent, Dembski lackey DaveScot is plumbing new depths of dishonest, slimy behavior. The attempt is nothing new for him, of course, but this time he may actually have managed to tap previously unreachable depths. Here's what happened: A friend of DaveScot's sent him an email claiming that the ACLU is about to go after the government because they don't like to see soldiers or

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1147727052352513502006-05-15T10:23:00.000-10:002006-05-15T11:04:12.686-10:00

In a little less than four hours, the president is scheduled to address the nation. The subject of the address is immigration, and it has been widely reported that Mr. Bush will announce that he is sending the National Guard to help secure the border with Mexico. The president will undoubtedly give a number of reasons for this in the address (I predict that we will hear about 9-11 once or twice

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1147555343767552692006-05-13T10:56:00.000-10:002006-05-13T11:22:23.806-10:00

Over at Uncommon Descent, DaveScot is once again angry with Kevin Padian. This time, it is because Padian dared to suggest that the only thing separating suicide bombers from the murders of abortion doctors is that one commits suicide and the other doesn't. DaveScot apparently thinks that murdering someone because of your religious views is somehow more acceptable, or at least less heinous, if

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1147473326215769592006-05-12T12:24:00.000-10:002006-05-12T12:35:26.246-10:00

Via Stochastic (Seed Magazine's in-house blog), we find that those dedicated purveyors of all things Intelligent Design over at Telic Thoughts have decided to compare the volume for the Google searches of "Intelligent Design" and "Darwinism". They're all happy about the results and the trend, but they forgot one thing: most (sane) people don't usually refer to evolution as "Darwinism." For a more

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1147392577098152032006-05-11T13:30:00.000-10:002006-05-11T14:09:37.236-10:00

Back when I was in high school, I was an intern in the branch of the New York City Mayor's Office that handles telephone complaints. It was an interesting job, and I learned a lot. A great deal of this education was provided by a Hasidic Jew named Isaac, who worked at the desk right in front of me. He was a master at the fine art of subtly penetrating the obtuse workings of the city bureaucracy.

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1147337121623542652006-05-10T16:38:00.000-10:002006-05-10T22:45:21.760-10:00

The State of Hawaii is one of the smaller states in the Union. According to Wikipedia, we're 43rd out of 50 in size, 42nd in population, and, at 3000km from the nearest continent, we're as isloated as you can get. We may be small and out of the way, but there's a lot that we have. We've got a great climate - we're the only state that's entirely in the tropics. Being in the middle of the ocean

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1147191227497396832006-05-09T06:11:00.000-10:002006-05-09T06:13:47.560-10:00

Sorry for the recent lack of updates here. I was sick as a dog for a good chunk of last week, and have family in town. It's also the end of the semester, so grades are coming due and I still have a load of grading to do. Updates will probably remain a bit sporadic for the next day or two, but should get back to normal after that.Oh, and there may be some changes to the blog in the next week or

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1146598048592687982006-05-02T08:44:00.000-10:002006-05-02T09:27:29.190-10:00

There's an interesting letter in this week's Nature (subscription required). The author of the letter, Michal Jasienski, compared the frequency of use for the words "surprising" and "unexpected" in the scientific literature to their use in other academic literature and in standard English. He found that the two words both appear in scientific writing much, much more commonly than they do

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1146274494031577352006-04-28T15:17:00.000-10:002006-04-28T15:34:54.066-10:00

I was seriously considering writing a serious post today. Howard Kurtz has an interesting post about blogs over at the WaPo site, which fed into some thinking I've been doing about the subject. That's going to have to wait a day or two, though. My fellow graduate students have honored me by making me one of the four department grad representatives for the next year (put another way, there was a

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1146257977742187932006-04-28T10:53:00.000-10:002006-04-28T10:59:37.746-10:00

Waist Deep in The Big MuddyPete Seeger, 1967It was back in nineteen forty-two,I was a member of a good platoon.We were on maneuvers in-a Loozianna,One night by the light of the moon.The captain told us to ford a river,That's how it all begun.We were -- knee deep in the Big Muddy,But the big fool said to push on.The Sergeant said, "Sir, are you sure,This is the best way back to the base?""Sergeant

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1146244027255136172006-04-27T19:31:00.000-10:002006-04-28T10:58:21.803-10:00

The latest editions of my three favorite blog carnivals are now available. If you've got the time, take a look at them (and if you don't, what are you doing reading this, anyway).The 11th Edition of the Carnival of the Liberals is now available at And Doctor Biobrain's Response Is... While you're there, be sure to take a look at today's post. The 64th Carnival of Education is available over at

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1146179820336409612006-04-27T13:08:00.000-10:002006-04-27T13:17:00.376-10:00

My daughter has been having some homework and study habit issues lately that have lead to some stress for her. She hasn't been doing her spelling homework, and she has been doing poorly on spelling tests. This issue came to a head a couple of days ago, when I received a note from her teacher alerting me to the problem. The daughter and I had a bit of a long talk about this yesterday (punishment

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1146078909729174922006-04-26T07:35:00.000-10:002006-04-26T09:15:10.056-10:00

I've got to admit it - when someone told me that Bruce Springsteen was going to be releasing a whole album of Pete Seeger covers, my first response was to yawn. I like the stuff he's done with the East Street Band, but I've never been much of a fan of his solo efforts. I really didn't know what to expect from this one, but it definitely wasn't much. I suppose I figured it would probably be

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1145991974108456792006-04-25T08:54:00.000-10:002006-04-25T09:06:14.146-10:00

President Bush's has been having problems in the polls for a while now, and his numbers just keep dropping. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll just released puts his approval numbers at under a third (32% +/-3). That's probably not the number that has him feeling the most pain right now, though. That honor most likely goes to the pitiful 33% approval number from last week's FOX News poll. If things get

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1145680814544665292006-04-21T18:21:00.000-10:002006-04-21T18:40:14.590-10:00

Today, there was an Earth Day fair on campus. I had a little time during lunch, and wandered on through. Strangely, I found myself becoming more and more annoyed as I moved through the displays. It took me a while to figure out exactly why. It was the lack of topicality of some of the displays. Before I go on, I want to make it clear that most of the displays were both relevant and interesting. A

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1145647866841868232006-04-21T08:43:00.000-10:002006-04-21T09:31:06.963-10:00

My own department here at the University of Hawaii might not make the top ten graduate school lists, but there are still plenty of good reasons to go here. One of them is our Friday afternoon Pau Hana. Getting together out on our building's lanai for beers, pupus, and conversation gives us something to look forward to at the end of the week. This week, my iPod seems to be looking forward to Beers

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1145571300972764252006-04-20T11:54:00.000-10:002006-04-20T12:15:01.006-10:00

It's that time of the year again - the military needs more money if they are going to keep fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. This time, the pricetag is in the vicinity of 100 billion dollars. $100,000,000,000 is a lot higher than any of the previous emergency bills, in large part because the administration had been doing its best to hide the true costs of the war by putting off equipment repairs.

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1145466322223290552006-04-19T06:41:00.000-10:002006-04-19T07:05:22.346-10:00

According to the Washington Post, a very interesting television add is being run in the Ohio 6th. The commercial is an attack add, calling candidate Bob Carr, "too far left to work with Republicans in Washington," and characterizing him as a, "liberal Democrat." The add is paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee. OK, so far there's nothing surprising about this, right? After

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1145438173803326252006-04-18T21:33:00.000-10:002006-04-18T23:16:13.970-10:00

How involved in politics should scientists be? What factors are important when it comes to making that decision? For some of us, the answer to that comes fairly easily. One or two of us managed to evade the stereotype of the scientist-of-the-future, and caught the involvement bug because we were popular enough to win a role in student government early in our lives. A few of us were caught in a

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1145430091158252312006-04-18T09:23:00.000-10:002006-04-18T21:01:31.300-10:00

Right about now, at the tail end of a long and painful homework assignment, I have a strong urge to take my population genetics textbook and give the next person who tries to tell me that there's no math in evolution a good whack upside the head. And any time that a single individual represents more than half of an organism's great-great-grandmothers, you should be allowed to just list "too high"

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1145346850728045632006-04-17T21:17:00.000-10:002006-04-17T21:54:10.756-10:00

Sally Jacobsen, the Northern Kentucky University professor who decided that her emotions should dictate what speech is allowable on campus, has been removed from her teaching duties and will retire at the end of the semester. Interestingly, however, she is apparently still refusing to confirm or deny whether or not she was personally involved in destroying the display. The entire incident was an

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1145208282115969502006-04-16T06:36:00.000-10:002006-04-16T07:24:42.260-10:00

It occurs to me that Bill O'Reilly and other members of the paranoid right have managed to totally miss the boat when it comes to figuring out who is responsible for the whole overblown "War on Christian Holidays" thing. They've focused their venom against the ACLU and anyone else who wants the religious message kept out of any governmental acknowledgment of the holiday. The people who just want

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1145147904693227952006-04-15T14:30:00.000-10:002006-04-15T14:38:24.726-10:00

The current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Peter Pace, had some interesting things to say in defense of Rumsfeld recently:"As far as Pete Pace is concerned, this country is exceptionally well-served by the man standing on my left," General Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon. "Nobody, nobody works harder than he does to take care of the P.F.C.'s and

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1145067571161800302006-04-14T15:09:00.000-10:002006-04-15T07:55:50.543-10:00

Here's a quick lesson in how freedom of expression works:Everyone get's to make their opinions known. That means everyone. Including people who have views that you don't like. Your right to freedom of speech does not include the right to keep other people from expressing their opinions. A professor of Literature and Language has demonstrated a criminal lack of understanding in this regard - and I

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1145060946982735112006-04-14T09:29:00.000-10:002006-04-14T14:29:17.410-10:00

In recent years, the costs associated with genetic studies have dropped dramatically. That isn't much of a surprise. When the two main tools used in modern genetic studies, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and DNA sequencing, were first developed, they were extrordinarily labor intensive. Initially, PCR required the scientist to spend hours and hours moving the samples from one water bath to

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1144872594949920952006-04-12T09:25:00.000-10:002006-04-12T10:09:55.033-10:00

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune has an article that does a really good job at illustrating the pitfalls involved when it comes to using faith-based programs to provide social services. Apparently, a conservative Lutheran church that was receiving money from their local county to provide hot lunches and other services to disabled and vulnerable adults turned away a potential client because

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1144869834509753212006-04-12T09:16:00.000-10:002006-04-12T09:23:54.673-10:00

The latest issues of three good blog carnivals are up online, and all are worth looking at. Tangled Bank #51 is available over at Discovering Biology in a Digital World.The Magic School Bus hosts the 62nd edition of the Carnival of Education. The 10th Carnival of the Liberals is up over at Pharyngula. There are more than enough really good posts linked here to blow the hell out of productivity

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1144817145639537442006-04-11T17:43:00.000-10:002006-04-12T03:44:47.423-10:00

In the latest misaimed blast from the Whine and Cheese Division of the Discovery Institute, Michael Francisco expresses shock and dismay at the idea that people would actually claim that Intelligent Design and creationism are the same thing:Finally, during the debate over [Kentucky Governor] Fletcher’s school board nominees, one House member argued they should "send a message that we are not a

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1144811425191479472006-04-11T17:02:00.000-10:002006-04-11T17:10:25.236-10:00

Catshark found and posted this picture the other day. The statue wound up where it was as the result of the Great San Francisco Earthquake, but the final position of the statue is just slightly ironic.The subject of the statue is Louis Agassiz, a noted 19th century biologist and geologist. And creationist.

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1144797329474085492006-04-11T12:35:00.000-10:002006-04-11T13:15:32.226-10:00

The election season is starting to heat up. Scandals rock DC on what seems like a daily basis. The public is split, at least according to the polls, on many major issues. We are heading toward a political (and probably historical) crossroad. Now is the time for people to stand up for what they believe, and to help move the country in the right direction. But where do I stand? Sometimes I have a

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1144727674450695452006-04-10T16:49:00.000-10:002006-04-10T17:54:34.500-10:00

PZ Myers weighed in yesterday with his opinions on the recent news articles about our delusional executive branch planning possible attacks on Iran. My own take is slightly different. PZ, as I understand it, is opposed to attacking Iran. The reasons that he provides are definitely sound: When I say I don't want war in the Middle East, that includes pre-emptive strikes that would kill huge numbers

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1144706447253129452006-04-10T11:31:00.000-10:002006-04-10T12:00:47.303-10:00

Here's the latest update in the continuing saga of UT Professor Eric Pianka, and the articles from the Seguin Gazette-Enterprise.I got up early this morning, and made several phone calls to try and get to the bottom of why all mention of Pianka had been expunged from the paper. Bottom line: big misunderstanding, and the articles are now back online. It had absolutely nothing to do with the paper

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1144482156909489522006-04-07T21:27:00.000-10:002006-04-07T21:42:36.946-10:00

Today's nearly-hysterical attempt at redefinition comes to us from the Ministry of Truth White House Press Office:The President believes the leaking of classified information is a very serious matter. And I think that's why it's important to draw a distinction here. Declassifying information and providing it to the public, when it is in the public interest, is one thing. But leaking classified

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1144480137193412632006-04-07T20:01:00.000-10:002006-04-07T21:08:57.256-10:00

A number of people commenting on my last article noticed and highlighted the disappearance of stories related to the Pianka affair from the website of the Seguin Gazette-Enterprise. Dave Thomas picked up the story, and posted it on The Pandas' Thumb. I'm going to provide a bit more detail on the scope of the paper's dishonest and despicable conduct, along with the text of an email that I've sent

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1144391806673189172006-04-06T12:45:00.000-10:002006-04-07T18:03:31.140-10:00

-----**Update- 7 April 06, 18:00 HST -**All of the Sequin Gazette-Enterprise articles linked to in this article are no longer available through those links, and I am currently unable to find them as live links elsewhere on their site. I will be emailing the paper for comment shortly, and will attempt to contact them by phone for an explanation if that does not work. -----It's been several days

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1144311127433384772006-04-05T17:34:00.000-10:002006-04-05T22:12:07.693-10:00

I have a confession to make. (Yes, another one.) I want to be PZ Myers when I grow up and finish my PhD. Well, a sort of watered down version of him anyway. I'm not so sure about the whole agressively godless thing. And I can almost certainly do without the cephalopod fetish. Ok. So I don't really want to be PZ. I just want his job. Or one a lot like it. I like doing research. I enjoy new

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1144212037857204252006-04-04T17:23:00.000-10:002006-04-04T18:40:38.053-10:00

I have a confession to make.From time to time, in my own home and out of view of my children, I yield to temptation and read something written by Tom Clancy. It's wrong, I know, but it's hard to resist. The man's politics might have started to the right of John Birch Society (and drifted rightward over time), and his the mindset of his characters is overly righteous and simplistic, but his

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1143838701916159502006-03-31T10:53:00.000-10:002006-03-31T10:58:22.020-10:00

This is a plant that is known locally as "Spanish Bayonet." These are your pants after you fall into some.Any questions?

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1143788422358490442006-03-30T19:09:00.000-10:002006-03-30T21:00:22.486-10:00

Some of our more self-righteous congresscritters have been making to have the president sign an executive order guaranteeing evangelical Christian military chaplains the right to pray in Jesus' name. To their credit, the organization that represents the majority of military chaplains has come out against this move.Here's the bottom line:Military chaplains pray in two different types of

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1143339791699128902006-03-25T15:26:00.000-10:002006-03-25T16:23:11.820-10:00

Preparation is absolutely essential to doing good fieldwork. Some of the preparation includes obvious tasks like figuring out where you are going to go, why you are going there, and how you are going to spend your time when you get there. Figuring out how you are getting there is usually a good idea, too, as is making sure that you have any and all paperwork that you will need. That's often a bit

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1143316669898033582006-03-25T09:46:00.000-10:002006-03-25T09:57:49.946-10:00

I've been trapped in the lab for the last few months, but that's about to change. I'm heading out into the field tomorrow morning, on a short trip to the Death Valley, California area. The fieldwork I'm going to be doing isn't really related to my own research, but I'll take what I can get. Actually, it will be nice, because I'm going to be getting back to my roots. Back when I was first getting

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1143226764179298572006-03-24T08:46:00.000-10:002006-03-24T08:59:24.236-10:00

The Friday Random Ten is a blog meme of uncertain origins that's been around for years. I keep meaning to do one, and every week (until now) I forget. Directions: Fire up the iPod, set to shuffle songs, hit play. List the first ten songs that come up. Don't cheat. This week, my iPod seems to be a bit more random than usual. 1: Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington It Don't Mean A Thing if it

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1143097525762231422006-03-22T20:38:00.000-10:002006-03-22T21:05:25.800-10:00

Somewhere around two this morning, I had to get up to take care of one of a father's most important duties: monster patrol. I've done it before, but this time was different. For starters, it was both kids who woke me up. Usually it's just one. Second, the monster was hiding somewhere different. Usually, it's under the bed or in one of the bedroom closets. This time, for some strange reason, it

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1143012361530965602006-03-21T19:00:00.000-10:002006-03-21T21:26:01.653-10:00

As Ben Franklin left Independence Hall during the final day of deliberations during the Constitutional Convention, a woman is reported to have stopped him and asked:“Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”Franklin responded:"A Republic, if you can keep it."If we can keep it. There's the rub. Somehow, it seems like that just keeps getting harder to do. The problem here, as in way

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1142975448523723822006-03-21T10:45:00.000-10:002006-03-21T11:10:48.566-10:00

It would seem that our vice-president's grasp on reality is about as good as his marksmanship. On Sunday, he did Face the Nation. During the interview, the following exchange took place:SCHIEFFER: Mr. Vice President, all along the government has been very optimistic. You remain optimistic. But I remember when you were saying we'd be greeted as liberators, you played down the insurgency 10 months

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1142558746388866712006-03-15T12:18:00.000-10:002006-03-16T15:25:46.506-10:00

One of the better posts mentioned in yesterday's Tangled Bank can be found over at Adventures in Science and Ethics. In that article, Janet provides a clear and detailed explanation of the limits of scientific expertise. As she reminds us, scientists are not near-omniscient beings, endowed with some sort of infailable ability to assess ideas across all the fields of scientific research.

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1142459255094068322006-03-15T11:44:00.000-10:002006-03-15T11:47:35.140-10:00

Tangled Bank #49 is now available over at Living the Scientific Life. Tangled Bank is almost always very good, and this one is better than most. It's laid out better than most, and there are a number of extrordinarily good submissions.

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1142398165665915322006-03-14T12:22:00.000-10:002006-03-14T18:49:25.860-10:00

Yet again, the Democrats in congress are doing their best to dodge an issue. What a bloody shock. This time, the issue is Senator Russell Feingold's recent motion to censure the president for operating an illegal wiretapping program. The Republicans, secure in their knowledge that their majority is sufficient (at the moment) to defeat any such motion, called for an immediate vote on the motion.

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1142018186474059832006-03-10T09:11:00.000-10:002006-03-10T09:16:26.506-10:00

There's nothing like two or three nights of checking the base calls from the sequencer by eye for sucking the will to live (and all other motivation) clean out of your system. I'll be done in another day or two - for these two loci. In the mean time, I'd like to wish a belated happy birthday to PZ. (Your dried squid is in the mail.) If you're looking for something else to read right now, go take

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1141701751298581492006-03-06T08:38:00.000-10:002006-03-06T17:22:52.743-10:00

A while back I put up a couple of posts about an invasive gall wasp that's threatening a species of tree unique to Hawaii. In the first of those posts, I made a few predictions, based on my understanding of ecology and evolution, on how researchers might be able to control the gall wasp infestation:Ultimately, however, it may be impossible to save the Wiliwili without some sort of biological

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1141279281018568782006-03-01T18:14:00.000-10:002006-03-01T20:01:21.080-10:00

I was originally planning to hold off on starting a series of posts on the genetics of evolution until next week, but John Wilkins recently found a myth that's just too good to ignore. According to this legend, a World Health Organization study conducted a few years ago revealed that the natural blonde is scheduled to become extinct by the year 2202. The reason given for the imminent demise of

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1141168520097335202006-02-28T12:28:00.000-10:002006-02-28T13:15:20.193-10:00

"Don't worry, they're going into medicine."-Grad student in my lab, looking at the lab reports I was grading.I just finished grading this week's batch of lab reports for the 400-level animal physiology class I'm TAing. I'd like to share a few of the better little oopsies committed by the students this time:"the heart recovery rat""has been use din the past""as needed overtime""The student with

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1141077838764901032006-02-27T11:46:00.000-10:002006-02-27T12:03:58.800-10:00

[A] curious aspect of the theory of evolution is that everybody thinks he understands it.-Jacques MonodI enjoy my job. I love getting out into the field to do research. I love studying populations of organisms. I think that the questions that I look at are interesting, and that a lot of the answers are pretty cool.The problem is that it's hard to explain to people exactly what it is that I do. In

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1140891840049417812006-02-24T10:32:00.000-10:002006-02-25T08:24:00.136-10:00

I've been handed a heavy schedule of spring cleaning for this weekend, so I probably won't have a lot of time available to update this between now and Monday. On Monday, I'll be kicking off a new series of posts on how scientists study evolution.

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1140646410533014322006-02-22T11:00:00.000-10:002006-02-22T12:13:30.583-10:00

As many of you have already heard, the Discovery Institute has released its list of scientists who "Dissent from Darwinism." The New York Times decided to look a bit beyond the DI press release, and actually took a look at some of the signers and their motives. Other bloggers, including PZ Myers and Josh Rosenau, have already looked at the NYT article and the list itself. I'm not going to attempt

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1140641987781738702006-02-22T10:58:00.000-10:002006-02-22T10:59:47.840-10:00

It's been a long weekend for me, and I haven't had much of a chance to blog - as both the people who look at this regularly know. Things have calmed down a bit now, so I should be getting back into the swing of things real soon now.

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1140206955506441142006-02-17T09:07:00.000-10:002006-02-17T10:09:15.846-10:00

PZ Myers already trashed this incredibly, painfully, dangerously, arrogantly stupid op-ed that appeared in the usually intelligent WaPo. PZ, as always, does a good job of informing this idiot that he is a stinky brown object floating around in the gene pool. Ordinarily, I wouldn't waste much time trying to add to what Myers wrote, but in this case I think there's something that he missed - and

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1140162034107831422006-02-15T20:20:00.000-10:002006-02-16T21:40:34.143-10:00

I spend a lot of time on this blog writing about evolution, and about Intelligent Design, and about why one is bad and the other good. This time, I'm going to try to do something a little different, and discuss one of the many lines of evidence for evolution: the similarities that we see when we compare DNA sequences from different animals. The example that I'm going to use is hemoglobin from

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1139875167028751952006-02-13T13:45:00.000-10:002006-02-13T13:59:27.066-10:00

It looks like the media got a bit pissed at Scott McClellan during the press briefing today. Why? Because they weren't promptly informed that the Vice President accidentally shot his hunting partner. Useless whining schmucks. They have been routinely mushroomed by this administration over the past five years on a virtually limitless range of subjects. They have very rarely demonstrated anger

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1139809440907094922006-02-12T19:30:00.000-10:002006-02-12T19:44:00.956-10:00

oops.

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1139782812802802452006-02-12T10:58:00.000-10:002006-02-12T12:20:12.846-10:00

Today is the 197th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. In honor of this, I've tried to pull together a mini-blog carnival of posts related to Darwin and evolution. The Darwin Day website has a list of events from around the world that were (or are being) held today in celebration of Darwin's birthday. Scanning the list, it looks like most of these are scientific lectures about evolution

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1139546827693671222006-02-09T15:33:00.000-10:002006-02-09T18:47:07.693-10:00

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, NASA finally got around to firing the two-bit political hack that had been trying to make sure that their scientists published only those results that fit his restricted worldview. Today, the New York Times has his side of the story. It's an interesting read. Apparently, he left because he was tired of being smeared by the media. The whole didn't actually

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1139478456132346542006-02-08T21:43:00.000-10:002006-02-08T23:47:36.370-10:00

As many of you know, I'm a graduate student in a zoology department. When I tell kids that, most of them think I'm studying to become a zookeeper. They also usually think that's something pretty cool. When I explain that I'm really studying to be a scientist who studies how animals change, it usually turns out to be a letdown. For some reason, kids are usually happier thinking that I might get

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1139383157867971722006-02-07T20:53:00.000-10:002006-02-07T21:19:17.910-10:00

A large number of bloggers this week have been all over the situation at NASA public affairs, where at least one presidential appointee has been attempting to silence any scientist that wants to report on things - like global warming - that don't fit well with the president's unreality-based worldview. (See my post earlier this week for links to some of the commentary.) Blogger Nick Anthis

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1139380755764402962006-02-07T19:20:00.000-10:002006-02-07T20:39:15.966-10:00

I had more fun than usual today - instead of doing labwork and going to class, I cut school and volunteered as a judge for the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools annual science fair. For those of you not familiar with our school system out here, HAIS covers the private schools on the island. Most are religious, but there are also a couple of private schools that don't seem to be

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1139285869763917412006-02-06T16:21:00.000-10:002006-02-06T18:17:49.816-10:00

The White House has released the President's 2007 budget request, and there's not a lot of surprises there. Lots of projects are on the chopping block, defense and homeland security spending are up, the deficit is huge, the moron still wants to make his tax cuts permanent, and he wants the bill for that to mostly come out of programs that benefit the poor. Shocker, huh. I'll probably blog some

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1139211521564197112006-02-05T19:09:00.000-10:002006-02-05T21:38:54.920-10:00

I've read a few posts over the last few days, written by bloggers I usually enjoy reading, on the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad issue. Wilkins comes closest to my own views, but none of the posts really manages to capture what I think is the essence of the issue.This is both a simple issue and a complex one, all at the same time. PZ is right about some of the complexities involved. There are

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1139119287451080582006-02-04T19:27:00.000-10:002006-02-05T09:03:13.803-10:00

Work and a Blogger issue have kept me offline for the last day or two, and lots of other people have weighed in on the latest Bush administration attack on science, but I still wanted to throw in my .02. The Bush administration apparently gave some political idiot with no experience or background in science a job as a public affairs hack at NASA headquarters. From this position, idiot-boy has

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1138819696571380392006-02-01T08:46:00.000-10:002006-02-01T08:48:16.626-10:00

Tangled Bank 46 is now available at the new Adventures in Science and Ethics digs. Enjoy.

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1138773661635313212006-01-31T19:57:00.000-10:002006-01-31T20:01:08.173-10:00

Wesley Elsberry, over at The Austringer, posted a link to a cool little test of reflexes. I blew about ten minutes on it, and found that it was difficult to make it past five seconds. Interestingly, though, I also found that if I could make it past the first five seconds, I would almost always survive for longer than 15 seconds. (Best time: a little over 22 sec).

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1138747794208730182006-01-31T08:41:00.000-10:002006-01-31T12:49:54.346-10:00

There's an invitation, over at Radio Open Source, for bloggers to write their own version (BOTU) of the State of the Union address. It's a last minute kind of thing, so we get a few minutes or a couple of hours to pound out our attempts at something that the White House spends months at. With that in mind, here's my take:==Today, more than at any other time since the Civil War, America stands

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1138682377739703062006-01-30T18:35:00.000-10:002006-01-30T18:39:37.770-10:00

PZ Myers has posted two different installments of Circus of the Spineless over at Pharyngula. The first features some of our favorite invertebrate animals. The second features some of our least favorite invertebrate humans. Enjoy.

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1138595870671299252006-01-29T17:14:00.000-10:002006-02-01T00:11:22.663-10:00

There's nothing in the world like being a biologist on a beautiful Sunday in Hawaii. One of the other grad students in the lab, Lindsay, is doing her dissertation work on the Laysan Albatross, and offered to show the rest of us her field site at Kaena Point. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, Kaena Point is the northwestern tip of Oahu. A fair amount of the tip of the island is a

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1138395251105517792006-01-27T09:39:00.000-10:002006-01-27T10:54:11.190-10:00

The Discovery Institute, over at their Media Complaints Division Blog, has posted yet another article castigating Judge Jones for ruling that Intelligent Design is unscientific. This one, by a second-year law student, takes more or less the same tone as the others:In this detailed analysis, I will take a close look at Judge Jones reasoning, and evaluate the potential legal basis for determining

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com57tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1138351988144694572006-01-26T17:45:00.001-10:002006-01-26T23:03:14.610-10:00

In the comments section of my most recent post on the Discovery Institute's publication track record, Spike made the following suggestion:Here is the only scientific paper that one can link from the Discovery Institute’s list of “Peer-Reviewed, Peer-Edited, and other Scientific Publications Supporting the Theory of Intelligent Design (Annotated)” http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.ph…

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1138264669384264252006-01-25T19:53:00.000-10:002006-01-25T22:48:58.523-10:00

Let's say that you are someone who is interested in science, knows a bit about it, but aren't an expert. You might be someone who reads a lot of popular science books, or who watches a lot of science programs on tv. You might read a lot of science fiction. It's even possible that you are a science fiction author.You have heard a bit about the whole intelligent design thing, but you may not have

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com96tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1138178668415786442006-01-24T22:22:00.000-10:002006-01-24T22:44:28.453-10:00

I'm trying to get back into the habit of posting something every day, so, without further ado...something.Seriously, I'm working on a couple of actual science posts. I was hoping to get one of them up today, but circumstances conspired against it. I got tied up with a car repair, then got home to find my dog missing. He was eventually located in the custody of the Humane Society, but that kind of

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1138085532270954182006-01-23T20:19:00.000-10:002006-01-23T20:52:12.310-10:00

It would seem that I've picked a pretty bad time to take a few days away from the blog. I come back from the happy land of Amotivation to find that someone nominated me for Best New Blog over at the Koufax Awards. I'm flattered by the nomination, but I won't be voting for me. I haven't decided who I will vote for yet, but there are quite a few blogs on the list that are much better than this one.

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1137739832593208272006-01-19T19:30:00.000-10:002006-01-19T20:50:32.736-10:00

The H5N1 strain of influenza, also known as "avian influenza" or "bird flu," has been in the news a lot, so I'm assuming that anyone likely to read this knows more or less what it is. If you don't, there's a five-part series over on the old Aetiology site that covers things in depth (1,2,3,4,5). As new cases of this disease are identified, samples of the virus are being shipped to labs and

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1137650195416180462006-01-18T18:41:00.000-10:002006-01-18T19:56:35.530-10:00

Apparently not content with merely trumpeting their discontent with news articles as they are released, the Discovery Institute's Media Complaints Division has launched a preemptive whine at the New York Times. Apparently, a reporter from the Times contacted them looking for comment on a recent pro-evolution piece in L'Osservatore Romano. The Discovery Institute, it would appear, is concerned

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1137533283036850952006-01-17T10:46:00.000-10:002006-01-17T11:28:03.160-10:00

My parents are currently visiting Honolulu, and last night my wife and I treated them to a luau. The tourist luaus don't really resemble the kinds of celebrations that locals throw, of course, but an "authentic" tourist luau, complete with Tahitian Hula and a Samoan Fire-knife dancer, should be a part of anyone's visit to Hawaii. This particular luau took place at the Hale Koa hotel in Waikiki.

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1137437394643584972006-01-16T08:39:00.000-10:002006-01-16T08:49:54.673-10:00

A News @ nature.com article discusses a study just published in Behaviour and Information Technology. It would appear that people can form snap judgements on websites given a view that is as short as 50 milliseconds. I guess finding a good template is more important than I thought.

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1137022165177700952006-01-11T11:07:00.000-10:002006-01-11T13:29:25.286-10:00

Someone just emailed me a copy of an interesting press release. Some time back, a particular mutation known as CCR5delta32 was identified as conferring greatly increased resistance to HIV in individuals who had two copies of that particular gene (in geek terms, those are individuals homozygous for that particular allele). According to the press release, a group of researchers have discovered that

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1137009139615384372006-01-11T06:58:00.000-10:002006-01-11T09:52:19.686-10:00

...apparently, yesterday's post about Casey Luskin's attempt to have his cake and eat it too may have actually been illegal. The only question is whether or not this blog qualifies as "anonymous." I don't use my name here, but I do over on Panda's Thumb.

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11390444.post-1136957131502584732006-01-10T18:17:00.000-10:002006-01-10T19:25:31.530-10:00

It didn't take long for the Discovery Institute to try to call "Darwinists" intolerant for attempting to keep religious advocacy out of the schools. Casey Luskin discusses, over at the Discovery Institute's Media Complaints Division, the lawsuit that Americans United for the Separation of Church and State just filed against a California school. (Ed Brayton discusses this suit in depth over at

Mike Dunfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01510784510555073197noreply@blogger.com13