Thiotimoline

There's been a lot of talk recently about scieintific misinformaton on the internet. I started reminiscing about what things were like when I was growing up. I remember when I learned about DNA and when I first heard about black holes.

Then I remembered how excited I was when I first heard about the properties of thiotimoline from a well-known biochemist (Asimov, 1948). I can't say for sure that this tilted me toward choosing a career in biochemistry but it certainly played a role.

Some of you may not be familiar with thiotimoline. Here's the most important characteristic of this amazing molecule as reported in the original paper.

Jonathan Wells (1942 - 2024)

Johnathan Wells died recently. He was a well-known Intelligent Design Creationist and that's why Evolution News (sic) is eulogizing him by posting multiple tributes and excerpts from his books and essays.

I think it's only fair to post links to my efforts to demonstrate the serious flaws in his arguments. I'm particularly proud of the series of articles I wrote when he published his book The Myth of Junk DNA. I went through every chapter and analyzed his arguments against junk DNA. It won't surprise anyone to learn that I found those arguments lacking in substance and in some cases I discovered that Wells had misrepresented the science.

Here are my posts.

• Jonathan, Moonies, and Junk DNA
• Junk & Jonathan: Part I—Getting the History Correct
• Junk & Jonathan: Part 2— What Did Biologists Really Say About Junk DNA?
• Junk & Jonathan: Part 3—The Preface
• Junk & Jonathan: Part 4—Chapter 1
• Junk & Jonathan: Part 5—Chapter 2
• Junk & Jonathan: Part 6—Chapter 3
• Junk & Jonathan: Part 7—Chapter 4
• Junk & Jonathan: Part 8—Chapter 5
• Junk & Jonathan: Part 9—Chapter 6
• Junk & Jonathan: Part 10—Chapter 7
• Junk & Jonathan: Part 11—Chapter 8
• Junk & Jonathan: Part 12—Chapter 9
• Junk & Jonathan: Part 13—Chapter 10

Jonathan Wells never responded directly to my criticism but he did respond to a comment that Paul McBride made on one of his blog posts. Paul asked him why he didn't respond to my post and here's what Wells said,

Oh, one last thing: “paulmc” referred to an online review of my book by University of Toronto professor Larry Moran—a review that “paulmc” called both extensive and thorough. Well, saturation bombing is extensive and thorough, too. Although “paulmc” admitted to not having read more than the Preface to The Myth of Junk DNA, I have read Mr. Moran’s review, which is so driven by confused thinking and malicious misrepresentations of my work—not to mention personal insults—that addressing it would be like trying to reason with a lynch mob.

This is typical of the attitude of most Intelligent Design Creationists. They are happy to publish lengthy books denegrating science and scientists but couldn't be bothered responding to criticism.

Here's are some other post of mine where I demonstrate the flawed thinking of Jonathan Wells.

• Jonathan Wells talks about junk DNA
• Jonathan Wells illustrates zombie science by revisiting junk DNA
• Brace yourselves, a new "Icons" is coming
• Jonathan Wells proves that life must have been created by gods
• Answering ten questions from the IDiots
• John Mattick vs. Jonathan Wells
• Some Questions for IDiots
• American Loons: #409 Jonathan Wells and #411 John West
• A Dishonest Intelligent Design Proponent?
• We Called Out IDiot Jonathan Wells, and He Folded
• Jonathan Wells Sends His Regrets
• Watch Jonathan Wells Screw Up
• Jonathan Wells Talks About Sequence Conservation
• Ohmygod! These photographs are faked!
• Fossil Horses and Directed Evolution
• Peppered Moths and the Confused IDiots
• Jonathan Wells reviews the Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard and Wieschaus Experiment

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Tim Minchin's "Storm," the animated movie, and another no-so-good Minchin cartoon

I've mentioned this before but it bears repeating. If you haven't listened to "Storm" then you are in for a treat because now you can listen AND watch. If you've heard it before, then hear it again. The message never gets old.


A word of caution. Minchin may be very good at recognizing pseudoscience and quacks but he can be a bit gullible when listening to scientists. He was completely take in by the ENCODE hype back in 2012. This cartoon is also narrated by Tim Minchin but it's not so good.

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The best TED talk ever

I'm not a fan of TED talks. Comedian Will Stephen has figured them out and he gives a perfect example of everything that's wrong with a TED talk. Watch "How to sound smart in your TEDx Talk."

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Jesus and Mo

Jesus and Mo, August 26, 2015

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I never expected this!

David Klinghoffer writes at Evolution News & Views (sic): In The New Yorker, Tom Wolfe Compares Persecution of Intelligent Design Advocates to the "Spanish Inquisition".

Interviewed by The New Yorker earlier this year, the great novelist and journalist Tom Wolfe acknowledged that he's writing a book about evolution -- actually, "a history of the theory of evolution from the nineteenth century to the present." No indication of what his overall thesis might be, but he "invokes the Spanish Inquisition when discussing how academics have cast out proponents of intelligent design for 'not believing in evolution the right way.'"

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The President and Vice-President arrive in Boston

There's a shuttle bus that runs between my hotel in Boston and the convention center where Experimental Biology takes place. I went down to the hotel lobby this morning to catch the shuttle bus. The first clue that something was amiss was the four policemen in their yellow jackets sitting in the lounge. Their big bikes were parked just outside. The second clue was a larger than normal number of people waiting for cabs and shuttle buses.

All of a sudden, the cops left and so did all the taxis and shuttles without any passengers. That was also a clue.

The hotel informed us that there would be no shuttles to the conference center this morning, no shuttles to the airport, and no taxis because the President of the United States and the Vice-President were arriving.¹ This requires shutting down I90 for several hours.

I decided to eat breakfast in the restaurant and wait out the disruption. (There wasn't anything interesting going on at the meeting this morning anyway.) I watched the motorcade go by on the Interstate. There were about a dozen cars lit up like Christmas trees, including an ambulance with lights flashing. Most of the lights were blue but there was a pretty mixture of yellow, red, orange, and green.

Judging by the number of angry people in the lobby, I can understand why the President and Vice-President need so much protection.

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1. They are attending the opening of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute.

Get a job as a dissertation writer

Jerry Coyne has found a posting for a job in Toronto [see Dissertations for sale!]. You can see the original at: Dissertation Writers wanted for Work from Home Position. It's suitable for retired professors and post-docs who can't get any other job.

We are a medium sized, cloud-based consultancy headquartered in New York, but with consultants spread across the globe, from Asia to South America. We primarily handle Academic Consulting for Doctorate level clients, and we currently have several job openings in the Academic Research department.

Job responsibilities:
Your main responsibility will be to assist our clients in conducting the research needed needed to complete their theses, dissertations, or journal articles, and then writing drafts for portions of those documents, such as a Literature Review, Introduction or Discussion chapters.

The job will involve communicating with clients by email and by phone to understand their specific needs, provide suggestions on how to improve their research, and finally write a draft of the document itself. It will also involve engaging in ongoing discussions with clients after the first draft, and revising/rewriting the document to our clients' satisfaction.

*This is strictly a work-from-home position*, and any applicant should view this as a strong incentive.

Please note that this is a *full-time position*.

Requirements:
- Applicants must possess a meticulous nature and an extremely high attention to detail.
- A very positive and upbeat attitude (particularly as relates to phone calls and email communication with clients).
- Native English speakers only.
- A 4-year college degree is an absolute must, preferably from a well-known university.
- Ghostwriting or Technical Writing experience is desired, but not a must.
- Tutoring and/or research experience is also a bonus.

Compensation:
Compensation for the successful applicant is very generous. As we expect very few applicants to have directly applicable work experience in this field, there will be an extensive training program before the candidate is taken on in a more permanent capacity. Training will be paid, at USD 4,000/month, and is projected to last 3-4 months. Following successful training, pay will be USD 85,000 - USD 100,000/year.

I've chaired quite a few Ph.D. exams for humanities students and I reckon I could bang out a pretty good thesis in a few months.

As for journal articles, the ENCODE Consortium could hire me for $8000 per month.

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Harrison Ford vs Ian McKellen

It's hilarious even when you know it's photoshopped.

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The function of IDiots

There aren't very many big questions left to answer. Most ot the great debates have been settled and we're now in a mopping up situation.

One of the few remaining questions concerns the function of IDiots. The Intelligent Design Creationist Movement has been a spectacular failure. The Wedge Document is a joke. They've failed to get creationism into American schools. People are abandoning Christianity. Their books have all been trashed by critics.

One wonders why they're still around. They must be thinking the same thing because David Klinghoffer has put up a recent post on this very issue [You're Welcome: Darwinists Should Thank Us for Quality Control, Fact-Checking]. It turns out that the function of IDiots is to keep real scientists honest by finding flaws in their reasoning and errors of fact.

Casey [Luskin] points out that in any marketplace—whether vendors are promoting consumer products or ideas about evolution—competition improves the products and the service. The absence of competition almost always results in shoddy products and poor consumer service, as anyone who has visited a socialist country can tell you. Darwin advocates should be thanking us.

Of course the flipside to all this is that for every orthodox evolutionist who is made more judicious and truthful in what he argues, there's probably another who prevaricates about the meaning of scientific data, because "What will the creationists say?"

Still, on the whole, they and everyone else who cares about getting at the truth in science ought to be glad we're here.

Who knew?

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Tim Hortons is seduced by the dark side

I'm not a fan of dark coffee but this is a cute commercial video.

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Jesus and Mo on Wednesday

This one is from five years ago, reposted today at eggs2.

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Jesus and Mo Wednesday

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The importance of RNA-Seq and next generation

I want to draw your attention to: Genomics researchers astonished to learn microarrays still exist. I especially like this comment from the author (jovialscientist) ...

In recent years, RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) has been favoured over microarrays. This new technology, using next-generation sequencing, is slightly more accurate, and nations have recently declared war over which is the best aligner to use.

In a recent poll, 98% of researchers answered "next-generation sequencing" to every single question – even their name, age and job title. The new science of "sequence first, think later" has been coined "nextgenomics".

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New friends in New York

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Valley girl talk

Last summer we took a short drive through the San Fernando Valley on our way from Thousand Oaks to Griffith Park. I happened to mention "valley talk" ("uptalk") but none of us could do a good job of talking like a teenage girl from the valley.

That's a shame because now it looks like Valley girl speak is, like, on the rise! I believe it. Not only have I heard girls speak like this on the university campus here in Toronto but I've even heard this language in Ottawa and that's about as far away from California as you can get.

I hope my granddaughter and grandson don't grow up speaking like this. They live in Los Angeles.


Moon Unit Zappa Valley Girl by mrjyn

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Little Richie Dawkins

One thing that draws me to the ID movement is that it has the polite and understated ethic that science is supposed to have -- but does not have when the subject is evolution.

Stephen A. BatzerHere's a video that was posted today on Uncommon Descent by Salvador Cordova. Before watching it, read my post on: Why are Darwinists do uncivil?. It links to an IDiot post by Stephen A. Batzer where he complains about "Darwinists" being uncivil.

Here's one of the points that Batzer makes ...

Thought leaders in the Darwinian movement, such as Dawkins, Prothero, Shermer and so on, inculcate and advocate incivility by their own example. Look at the way biologist James Shapiro and philosopher Jerry Fodor have been treated. It's ugly.

The video was produced by Mike Booth. Decide for yourself if the evolution side of the debate behaves like the IDiots. (Apologies to Richard Dawkins for propagating this nonsense but people need to see the depths to which the Intelligent Design Community can sink.)


UPDATE: Denyse O'Leary has responded to this post [Huh? Actually, we thought Little Richie (Dawkins) was a special creation, just for us…]. She says, "Moran thinks it originated in the ID community. Unclear why because it’s really not about our usual questions and concerns." Actually I don't know anything about Mike Booth or whether he is a support of Intelligent Design Creationism. I looked, but I couldn't find anything. What I do know is that IDiots like Denyse O'Leary post the obnoxious video on their websites. O'Learly also says this about the video, "It’s also not a lot nastier than the old showman himself." I think I'll let intelligent people decide for themselves who is nastier. I'm glad that Denyse O'Leary at least acknowledges that the video she posted was nasty.

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Unchained Melody by The Rightous Brothers

Is it true that the music of the Baby Boomers is a whole lot better than the music of Generation-X or the Millennials (Generation-Y)? Of course it's true. Those whippernappers couldn't touch the best music of the 1960s.

Here's a song that makes my top ten list, although I will admit that it's only #374 on 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. I'm pretty sure this must be a mistake. Rolling Stone also seems to have made a mistake with #9.


(For some strange reason, my son and daughter don't seem to appreciate the music of my generation. I don't know where I went wrong.)

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Oops!

This is the view from the window just outside my office on the fifth floor.

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Jesus and Mo

See Jesus and Mo: Sept. 18, 2013

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