Most popular Sandwalk posts of 2018

Blogging was light last year because I was busy with other things and because the popularity of blogs is declining rapidly. The most popular post, based on the number of views, garnered only 9229 views, which is more than the most popular post of 2017 but only half as much as the most popular post of 2016. The post with the most comments (53) has almost 10X fewer comments than posts from a few years ago but that's partly because more people are commenting on Facebook and because I'm restricting blog comments in various ways.

Most popular Sandwalk posts of 2017

I was looking at some of my posts from the past few years and wondered which ones were the most popular. I had previously identified the most popular post of 2016 but not the most popular ones from 2017 so here they are.

The one with the most views (7481) is a link to a video by Michio Kaku who tells us that humans have stopped evolving [Another physicist teaches us about evolution].

The one with the most comments (259) is a post about my attempts to teach a creationist about glycolysis and evolution [Trying to educate a creationist (Otangelo Grasso)].

The post that I'm most proud of is: Historical evolution is determined by chance events

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The most popular Sandwalk post of 2016

My most popular post last year was: An Intelligent Design Creationist disputes the evolution of citrate utilization in the LTEE ... Lenski responds. It had almost 20,000 views and 227 comments.

The article discussed a paper by Intelligent Design Creationist Scott Minnich who criticized Richard Lenski's ongoing evolution experiment on the grounds that no new information had been created in the evolution of ability to use citrate.

Best blog post in the past year

3 Quarks Daily is running their annual contest to pick the best blog posts in the past year. The finalists will be picked by popular vote and the winner will be selected from the finalists by Nick Lane. You can review the rules at: Nick Lane to Judge 6th Annual 3QD Science Prize.

The formal description of the prize is "6th annual prize for the best blog and online-only writing in the category of science." This is important because although the rules refer to "blog posts" and "blog entries" it's clear that most of the nominees are more like online poplar science articles than typical blog posts.

Here's a list of the current nominees ...

Jerry Coyne doubles down on his criticism of how evolution is taught in Ontario schools

A few weeks ago, Jerry Coyne got his knickers in a knot because the Ontario school curriculum didn't specifically prescribe the teaching of evolution in the way that he would like [Ontario schools require teaching evolution—except human evolution].

I replied to that post, quoting the Ontario curriculum and pointing out that it was pretty damn good when it comes to evolution [Teaching evolution in Ontario Schools]. The curriculum concentrates on fundamental principles of evolution as they apply to all species. It does not cover any details of the history of life per se. It doesn't specifically mention the evolution of whales, or birds, or any other lineage. It doesn't say which examples have to be included in the classroom instruction. It refers frequently to the fact that humans are not different than any other animals when it comes to biology.

Jerry take this to mean that detailed descriptions of human evolution are specifically excluded and he now claims that this is due to government policy [Ontario school officials respond—or rather, fail to respond—to queries about why they don’t require teaching human evolution].

Patrick Ross, and the end of a very long road.

My friend, Robert Day, (Canadian Cynic) was subjected to a vicious and protracted serial defamation by Patrick Ross. Wanna know what happened?

Read: Patrick Ross, and the end of a very long road..

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Most popular Sandwalk post in 2014

Lot's of people are publishing year-end summaries of their blog activity. It got me to wondering which of my posts was the most popular in 2014.

The result was a surprise ...

August 18, 2014: John Wilkins discusses the "Demarcation Problem"

One of the most fascinating things about philosophy is the fact that philosophers still can't agree on the major issues even after debating them for hundreds of years. For example, they still can't, as a discipline, agree on whether there are good arguments for the existence of gods. Many universities have theologians who masquerade as philosophers and publish in philosophy journals....

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How to survive in the blogosphere

Later on today I'm giving a talk at Western University (London, Ontario, Canada)¹ The subject is blogging.

I realized while preparing my talk that there were lots of things I didn't know for sure so here are some questions that you may be able to help with.

Most popular biology blogs

I don't know for sure which biology blogs are the most popular. I'm pretty sure that Pharyngula is still on top with respect to the number of views per day and I'm pretty sure that Why Evolution Is True is in the top ten but what about others? Do any of you know?

Best biology blogs

The best blogs aren't necessarily the most popular. I have my own opinion about the best blogs but my fear is that I've missed some blogs that I should be reading. What do you think? What are the best biology blogs?

Why do you read and comment?

I've talked to a lot of bloggers so I'm pretty sure I have a good idea about why we write blogs. But I realized that I was much less sure about why people read blogs and why people comment on blogs. What do you get out of reading blogs and why do you post comments? Do you think all scientists and science students should read the science blogs? (I don't.)

Have blogs changed anything?

Have blogs had much of an impact on science? I can think of a few examples such as the Arsenic Affair and the ENCODE Publicity Hype Fiasco where bloggers had an impact but I'm not sure these are significant in the log run. Is blogging just another kind of social interaction that really doesn't change the way science is done?

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1. Formerly the University of Western Ontario. The talk is in the North Campus Building room 114 at 11:30 am.

The problem of anonymity on the internet

There's a little kerfluffle in the blogosphere because an anonymous blogger has been outed. Michael Eisen posted an interesting comment of the episode and I want to add my 2 cents to something he says at: On anonymity in science and on Twitter. Here's the part I want to address ...

A lot of people who I interact with on Twitter, and whose blogs I read, have chosen to tweet and write under pseudonyms. This puzzled me at first, but I have come to realize that there are a LOT of good reasons for people to mask their real identities online.

Anonymity allows people to express their opinions and relate their experiences without everything they say becoming part of their personal permanent record. It affords people who are marginalized or in tenuous positions a way to exist online without fear of retribution. Pseudonyms help create a world where ideas matter more than credentials. And they provide some kind of buffer between people – especially women – and the nastier sides of the internet.

The myriad and diverse pseudonymous voices out there make the internet a richer and more interesting place. Maybe it’s weird, but I consider many of these people whom I’ve never met and whose real identities I don’t know to be my friends.

Here's the problem. I agree with everything that Michael says but there's still something about hiding behind a pseudonym that makes me uneasy. I much prefer dealing with people who use their real names. I grew up believing that it was admirable to stand up and be accountable for your beliefs and opinions no matter what the consequences.

Yes, I'm well aware of the fact that it's a lot easier for a tenured professor to say this than for someone who is in a much more vulnerable position. Michael Eisen also knows this—read his post. That's part of the problem. We understand that the "consequences" of speaking out against authority can be quite severe and we both understand that there's value in hearing from certain anonymous voices.

I guess where I differ from Michael Eisen is that right now I don't think I follow any blogger whose identity isn't known to me. It may be true in theory that ideas matter more than identity but, in reality, there just aren't very many examples. On the other hand, there are lots of examples where people use anonymity to say things they would never say in public even if their identity was concealed.

Does the upside of anonymity make up for the downside? That's the real question. I don't know the answer but I'm leaning toward "no."

I'd like to live in a society where you could never be punished for anything you say or believe. It makes me uneasy to live in a society that accepts the idea that you will be punished for your opinion and sets up ways of permitting people to say whatever they want without having to face any consequences. It seems like that's a way of giving up on the fight for freedom of expression and legitimizing the idea of systemic intolerance.

I try to get my students to speak up during class and express their views and opinions. I think it's an essential component of learning how to think critically. I try and get them to write essays where they defend a controversial idea, even if it's unpopular. I don't think it's a good idea if it becomes the accepted norm that you can only do this if you can be assured that nobody will find out who you are.

(I know most of the people who comment on Sandwalk but there are some who use pseudonyms. There's a good correlation between people who comment anonymously and those whose ideas don't deserve respect. There's also a powerful correlation between those who use their real names and those ideas are worth listening to even if they disagree with mine.

That's doesn't mean you shouldn't comment using a pseudonym. Just be aware of the company you're keeping.)

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Bill Farrell and Louis C on the Sandwalk

Here's a photo of Bill Farrell ("Doc Bill") and Louis C on the Sandwalk.

They join a distinguished list of people whose visit to the Sandwalk has been recorded here.

Larry Moran
PZ Myers
John Wilkins
Ryan Gregory
The God Delusion
Cody
John Hawks
Michael Barton
Seanna Watson
Steve Watson
Michael Richards
Jeffrey Shallit
Chris DiCarlo
Bill Farrell and Louis C

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Tweeting a Conference

Imagine that you are speaking at a conference. You spent a long time preparing your talk and you have wonderful slides to illustrate your most important points. Imagine that half your audience doesn't seem to be paying attention. Their heads are down and they seem to be messaging on their smart phones or tablets. How do you feel about that?

Now imagine that there's a second screen behind you. One of them shows your wonderful slides but the other shows a continuous stream of tweets about your talk. That's the situation that PZ Myers encountered at a recent meeting [Good ideas and bad ideas]. PZ thinks this is a good idea, he says ...

One particularly interesting technological development was that there were two screens at the front of the room: one big one for the presenter to use, and a smaller one on which a twitter wall was displayed — all the silent conversations using the “#skeptech” hashtag were continuously displayed, which meant there was a constant flow of commentary from the audience sharing the stage with the speaker. It was rather cool — I’d like to see more of it at more conferences. It certainly made that hashtag explode with content.

I think that's a very, very, bad idea. I'm not sure that I would agree to be a speaker if I knew that the audience was going to pay more attention to their own tweets than to anything I was saying.

I wonder if PZ will incorporate this technology into his course lectures?

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Goodbye John Witton

I'm rather proud of the fact that few people have been banned from this blog. That's why it's worth a special post when someone gets banned.

John Witton can no longer post comments on Sandwalk. He has proven that he is a liar when he backed out of his offer to pay $1000 to anyone who would answer his questions [John Witton Will Pay You $1000 to Answer One of His Questions].

More importantly, he continues to spam the comments sections of several posts. Nothing that he says is relevant to the topic and many of his recent comments are delusional.

Goodbye John Witton.

He joins a special group of people who have been banned from Sandwalk: Joe (Joseph) Bozorgmehr (Atheistoclast), David Roemer, and Douglas Dobney. The fastest and easiest way to get banned is to try and intimidate me (or any other blogger) by writing nasty letters to our employers and/or bosses. That's how David Roemer, and Douglas Dobney got banned. Equally efficient is to post lots of comments attacking my integrity and accusing me of all sorts of vile (untrue) things (Atheistoclast). Witton took the slow route to being banned.

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Five Million Pageviews!!!

This is just a little blog. It's taken me more than six years to reach five million pageviews. The big guns get that many every month.

Nevertheless, it's a significant milestone. Please help me to celebrate by reading the top five Sandwalk posts since November, 2006. Four of them are science posts! Only the non-science post generated a significant number of comments and that's because so many people tried—and failed—to meet my challenge ....

I challenge all theists and all their accommodationist friends to post their very best 21st century, sophisticated (or not), arguments for the existence of God. They can put them in the comments section of this posting, or on any of the other atheist blogs, or on their own blogs and websites. Just send me the link.

February 26, 2007
The Genetics of Eye Color

May 11, 2007
Regulating Glycogen Metabolism

June 30, 2010
Smart Crocodile Eaters?

September 25, 2012
A Challenge to Theists and their Accommodationist Supporters

August 1, 2011
Carnival of Evolution #38

There are three other posts that are inching their way up toward the top five ...

December 15, 2012
Ann Gauger Describes the Intelligent Design Creationist Version of Population Genetics

May 22, 2011
Junk & Jonathan: Part 4—Chapter 1

February 23, 2007
Genetics of ABO Blood Types

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How to Get Banned on Sandwalk

I try really hard not to ban anyone from commenting on Sandwalk but there are some things I will not tolerate.

Someone named David Roemer recently tested the limits of my patience, and failed. He is now banned.

Here's what happened. I received an email message from David Roemer about a comment of his that did not appear on Sandwalk. I don't know why it didn't appear. I don't remember seeing it.

Shortly after receiving the email message I received a copy of a message David Roemer sent to the chair of my department. Here's the beginning ...

Dear Dr. XXX,

Prof. Moran, I believe, didn't approve of the following comment I made on his Sandwalk blog. He has every right to do so, but he has a moral duty not to coverup the misinformation contained in the AJP article I mention in my censored comment:

Natural selection only explains the adaptation of species to the environment. Not enough is known about the innovations natural selection acts upon to understand how mammals evolved from bacteria in only 3.5 billion years (common descent). The only theory that attempts to explain common descent is ID, but there is no evidence for ID.

IDiots try to make their theory look better by comparing it with natural selection. Atheists go along with this scam because they don’t want to admit that ID is a better theory than natural selection in some sense.

A corollary of the limitations of natural selection is that the second law of thermodynamics doesn’t apply to evolution, just as it doesn’t apply to the evolution of stars. Nevertheless, there is scientific literature about whether evolution violates the second law. Authors on the “does not” side argue that heat energy from the sun accounts for the increase in order (decrease in entropy). Heat, of course, tends to increase disorder.

This nonsense reached an extreme level in an article published by the American Journal of Physics (Entropy and evolution, Nov. 2008). This article actually calculates the entropy of the biosphere using the Boltzmann constant and an estimate of the thermodynamic probability of life. I’m trying to get the AJP to retract this absurd article.

I'm copying David Novak because he is on the Institute Board of First Things, which is refusing to publish my attached essay explaining why the AJP article is absurd. Both Novak and Moran are helping the AJP lie about evolution and thermodynamics.

My chair will be amused by this sort of thing. There's nothing he could do about it even if he wanted to.

This is one of the criteria for banning. Anyone who tries to get someone fired or reprimanded by going over their head to their employer will be banned. Anyone who harasses the family and friends of someone they disagree with will be banned. There are no exceptions.

I've also banned John Kwok for doing the same thing in an attempt to silence Jim Shapiro.

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Newsgroups, Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+

Blogging is fun. I love it when a serious discussion breaks out in the comments. Sometimes I love it even when the discussion is not serious.

Back in the olden days I used to love the newsgroups, especially talk.origins but I don't read it much any more. (Don't worry, I won't shut off the talk.origins server.)

Lately I've been spending more time on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ to see if there's anything there worth reading. It seems to be a mixed bag. The ratio of interesting vs non-interesting stuff seems to be a problem.

Perhaps that's just because I'm not following the right people?

Let me know if you find something worthwhile. My Twitter account is @larryon sandwalk, you can reach me on Facebook at Laurence A. Moran, and on Google+ I'm Laurence A. "Larry" Moran.

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This Is too Weird

Check out the meowbified version of Sandwalk at http://cat.sandwalk.blogspot.com.meowbify.com/.

The evil deed was performed at Meowbify. Try it on Pharyngula.

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[Hat Tip: PZ Myers]

Jeffrey Shallit on the Sandwalk

Jeffry Shallit of Recursivity is in London, England where he recently took a train from Victoria Station to Bromley South, then a bus to Downe, and a rather dangerous walk up a narrow hedge-lined road to Down House [Larry Moran Would Approve ].

He joins a distinguished list of people whose visit to the Sandwalk has been recorded here.

Larry Moran
PZ Myers
John Wilkins
Ryan Gregory
The God Delusion
Cody
John Hawks
Michael Barton
Seanna Watson
Steve Watson
Michael Richards
Jeffrey Shallit
Chris DiCarlo
Bill Farrell and Louis C
Cody

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A History of Science Blogging

Blogs have been around for more than a decade but it's still not clear what purpose they serve (if any). We still don't know how to distinguish a science blog from other types of blogs—perhaps it's foolish to try.

Bora Zivkovic of A blog Around the Clock has written a short history of science blogging [Science Blogs – definition, and a history]. It's well worth reading since Bora has been active for a long time and he's very well connected to the science blogging community.

Here's how he describes the category that applies to Sandwalk.

The earliest science bloggers were those who started out doing something else online – updating their websites frequently, or participating in Usenet groups – then moving their stuff to blogging software once it became available in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

As much of the early online activity focused on countering anti-science claims, e.g., the groups battling against Creationism on Usenet, it is not surprising that many of the early science bloggers came out of this fora and were hardly distinguishable in form, topics and style from political bloggers. They brought a degree of Usenet style into their blogs as well: combative and critical of various anti-science forces in the society.

In my case the usenet groups were talk.origins and sci.bio.evolution. Both of those groups are hosted on a server in my office; talk.origins is still very active but sci.bio.evolution isn't.

PZ Myers is the most famous talk.origins veteran. He's the one who convinced me to start a blog back in 2006 when I realized that blogs had many advantages over usenet, especially images. I don't know how many other talk.origins veterans have a blog. Can you help me out? Here's a partial list. (Some of these blogs are not science blogs.)

PZ Myers: Pharyngula
John Wilkins: Evolving Thoughts
Jeffrey Shallit: Recursivity
Jim Lippard: The Lippard Blog
various people: Panda's Thumb
John (catshark) Pieret: Thoughts in a Haystack
Troy Britain: Playing Chess with Pigeons

I know there are many more but I just can't remember them right now.

The other thing that Bora points out is that many science bloggers were connected to each other in different ways. Often we had met in person—this is certainly true of the talk.origins veterans. The early blogs were characterized by in jokes and incestuous cross links.

This has now disappeared as a whole new generation of science bloggers have entered the blogosphere, although there's still a certain amount of personal contact (see Evolution and Poutine and Beaver Tails.) I don't know if this is important or not. Blogger cliques can be a good thing and a bad thing.

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Richard Harter 1935 - 2012

I just heard from Dave Greig that Richard Harter died over a month ago [Richard Harter 1935 - 2012]. He was a long time contributor to talk.origins having been there since it was called net.origins in the early 1980s. Richard was a staunch defender of science and evolution and a vocal opponent of stupidity (aka creationism). Here's how he describes the phenomenon that is talk.origns [Evolution, Creationism, and Crackpots].

I discovered the usenet news groups circa 1983. In those days there was no big 8 hierarchy; everything was net.this and net.that. One of the hot groups was net.origins, now talk.origins, the designated dumping grounds for creationism/evolution flame fests.

Some usenet newsgroups are models of decorum, where specialists in sundry topics urbanely discuss their specialties. Some are havens of nattering wherein recipes and small talk are exchanged. Such newsgroups represent usenet at its best as a civilized expression of the electronic personal free press. How boring.

There are newsgroups which are open cockpits wherein all and sundry engage in electonic eye-gouging, leaving bodies scattered about the floor, bodies which miraculously arise to gouge and rabbit punch in return. Much more entertaining. Unfortunately such entertainments pall after a while. The same things are said by the same people endlessly. When one flamer departs he or she is replaced by a clone, another mindless dweeb screaming invective into the electronic night air. There is no content, merely an exchange of prejudices and emotion.

The talk.origins group is, to my taste, a happy combination of meat and sauce. To be sure there are no end of flames. However there is much content also. It all has to do with the subject matter. Talk.origins is supposed to be the arena where creationism and evolution are debated. That happens. However it is a happy hunting grounds for cranks and crackpots who come to be told that they are idiots. They revel in it for, finally, someone is listening to them.

The nifty thing about talk.origins is that you can get a real education by reading the group -- the crackpots are not only told that they are idiots, people cite chapter and verse to show where they are in error. Biologists, archaeologists, paleontologists, and the like post there. There is also a good deal of offbeat humor. For your delectation I have prepared a potpourri of essays and materials drawn from talk.origins.

Richard was born in South Dakota and he moved back there in 2000. He never stopped reminding us that South Dakota actually exists and people actually live there. He died of complications from myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) [Why couldn't I have something simple, like pneumonia].

There's lots more where that came from. Check out Richard Harter's World while it's still active. I especially like his detailed analysis of one of the most difficult problems in all of science: The Seat Stays Up. His summary of everything related to Piltdown Man is a classic.¹

The motto on his web page is appropriate ...

I don't worry about dying.
It's not going to happen in my lifetime.

UPDATE: talk.origins remembers Richard Harter

UPDATE: I'm told that Richard's website will be preserved at Richard Harter's World.

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1. I hope someone copies it before it disappears.

Visiting John Hawks

I'm in Madison Wisconsin. What in the world does one do In Madison? Well, there's the State Legislature (beautiful), the free zoo, and a boat ride on the lake.

But all those pale in comparison to the main attraction ... visiting John Hawks of John Hawks Weblog. I found him in a lab full of bones at the at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

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