I'd like to do a bit here on language. Primarily on how we have seen it distorted over the last few decades. According to George Lakoff and Geoff Nunberg, the Right has seized the rhetorical high-ground and driven Liberals into defensive postures by altering or subverting the meanings of certain…
Duped from Ethics Gradient.
They’ve started advertising the DVD version of that infernal, mendacious, highly offensive, wilfully ignorant and misleading waste of megabytes known as Expelled. Bay of Fundie has scratched the surface of their advertising and revealed some new information.
Now, given that this is the DVD release of Expelled, it makes me wonder what kind of special features they’ll include. Of course no one can know for sure, but I have something of a wish list:
– a complete timeline of all the steps taken & communication entered into to secure the participation of such people as Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers, including a full explanation for the stark deviation from the premise of the original film: it was originally presented to Myers & Dawkins as a documentary named “Crossroads”, detailing the intersection of religion & science, which it clearly did not turn out to be, either by name or nature
– full, uncut, unedited interviews with the above-named
– a full explanation from the film’s producers of PZ Myer’s own expulsion from a screening of Expelled by security staff before he’d entered the theatre, despite the fact that he’d registered to attend under his own name and hadn’t attempted any kind of subterfuge, as was alleged early on by the producers (as well as an explanation of how Richard Dawkins, arguably more recognisable than PZ Myers, was allowed to enter unmolested)
– behind-the-scenes segments showing such things as exactly who comprised the audience in …
Can one gene make a difference? Absolutely. One case in point is Tay-Sachs Disease, a physical condition where the central nervous system begins to degenerate in a four to six month old child who, until the onset of the disease, appeared normal. Individuals with Tay-Sachs disease have two copies of a genetic mutation, one copy inherited from each parent. In a carrier of Tay-Sachs, only one gene is different when compared to non-carriers. That’s how important one gene can be. When we’re talking about complex behaviors, though, can the “cause” really boil down to one gene? It’s unlikely.
I recently had the opportunity to attend several sessions of the “Future Directions in Genetic Studies” workshop at Washington University in St. Louis. On Friday, I attended a lively seminar led by Gar Allen, who teaches biology at Washington University. His talk was entitled “What’s Wrong with ‘The Gene for . . .’? Problems with Human Behavior Genetics and How to Combat Them.”
Allen opened his talk by asserting that claims about the genetic basis for complex human behaviors and traits are “notoriously difficult to investigate and replicate.” There is a long and troubled history of claims that genes are the cause of various conditions. For instance, in 1969, Arthur Jensen became the center of a storm when he wrote that Caucasians were more intelligent than African-Americans, suggesting that there was a genetic basis for this difference. Jensen’s position has been heavily criticized by numerous scientists on numerous …
Chimpanzees aren't the only spectacularly intelligent animal species. Sometimes human beings act intelligently! Yes, humans are animals, as difficult as this is to believe for many people. In this TED video, Joshua Klein reminds us about the intelligence of yet another species: crows. Using their intelligence, crows continue to flourish…
Many people still bristle at the idea that chimpanzees can have "cultures." The evidence is accumulating, however, as documented in "Almost Human," an article found in the April, 2008 edition of National Geographic. The article was written by Mary Roach, with incredible photos by Franz Lanting. In 2007, an Iowa…