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Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
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| Address URL | http://scienceblogs.com/tfk/ Registered: 31-Mar-2008 |
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 Send to email | How pleasant to know Mr. Crowther in Culture Wars |  By Thoughts
el 08-Apr-2008 | How pleasant to know Mr. [Crowther]
Who has written such volumes of stuff
Some think him ill-tempered and queer
But a few think him pleasant enough. I can't say I know who those would be, though Mr. Lear would undoubtedly have been worth knowing.
Mr. Crowther, flack for the Disco. Inst., is not nearly as funny as Edward Lear, alas. In his latest semiliterate scrawling at the Disco. blog, he mangles a paper about directed evolution of RNA enzymes. Actually, given that papers are hard to read, Crowther decided to mangle a press release about the paper. After mistaking the story for a comedy script, Crowther admits: "I couldn't write a funnier script if I tried." Sensing that he may have made a category error, Crowther then projects the mistake on the scientists, writing, "Sadly, these guys just don't get the joke."
After misunderstanding and mischaracterizing the research Crowther harps on the authors' use of the term "predetermined," and concludes:
The authors sum it all up very nicely.This beautifully illustrates what about evolution is random and what is not.
Which it does, if Crowther would have quoted the rest of the press release:
This beautifully illustrates what about evolution is random and what is not. While the end point is predicted by the selection pressure—i.e., the decreasing concentration of ingredients determines that enzymes will evolve to cope with decreased concentration—the actual mutations that allow this are completely random and cannot be predicted at the outset—i.e., if you bought an “evolution machine” and ran the same experiment, your end product would be an enzyme that could cope with low concentrations too, but the mutations that it acquired to do this might be different.
Crowther seems to believe that any human involvement at all makes the entire system non-random. But the authors' point is to distinguish between the random mutations which accrete in their RNA strands, and the directed process which selects useful mutations and discards the harmful ones. It doesn't matter whether that selection is performed by a machine built by scientists, or if it is performed by a pigeon-breeder, by the mating decisions made by individuals in a population, or by a flood drowning some individuals and not others. None of those selections are random, but the origins of variability in the population are random.
The paper makes this distinction very nicely, and Crowther would be more pleasant to spend time with if he'd think more about what he reads, and less about how to be ill-tempered and queer. Read the comments on this post...
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 | Thoughts From Kansas |  Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| How pleasant to know Mr. Crowther | | How pleasant to know Mr. [Crowther]
Who has written such volumes of stuff
Some think him ill-tempered and queer
But a few think him pleasant enough.I can't say I know who those would be, though Mr. Lear would undoubtedly have been worth knowing.
Mr. Crowther, flack for the Disco. Inst., is not nearly as funny as Edward Lear, alas. In his latest semiliterate scrawling [..] Read complete article | | Published 08-Apr-2008 by Thoughts in Culture Wars
Read 11 times. More hits in   |
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Is the Disco. Inst. agreeing that ID is religion? | | Disco. vocalist Rob Crowther wonders What Part of "shall not be construed to promote any religious doctrine" do his opponents not understand? Writing about SB 733, a creationist bill winging its way to Governor Bobby "The Exorcist II" Jindal, Crowther points out that:
Section 1D of the bill clearly states that it "shall not be construed to promote any religious doctrine, prom [..] Read complete article | | Published 17-Jun-2008 by Thoughts in Creationism
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Busy, busy, busy | | Tomorrow, NCSE is putting out a comprehensive response to the crockumentary called "Expelled: No Intelligence..." We're putting the finishing touches on now, despite the browbeating of Rob Crowther and Denyse O'Leary.
There will be more to say anon. I may even address "bittergate," a leading contender for "stupidest controversy ever" award. But hey, the election's not over yet! [..] Read complete article | | Published 14-Apr-2008 by Thoughts in Creationism
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| Kotaku`s The Gamers Guide | Blogger | XBOX 360 Gamers Weblog
Gossip, news and leaks for obsessive gamers Kotaku As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, pred |
| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Disco. Inst. builds Guillermo Gonzalez a telescope | | Disco. Inst. flack Rob Crowther is crowing about a grant they gave to Guillermo Gonzalez. Gonzalez was the Iowa State University astronomer who got tied in with the ID creationists at Disco. and with the old-earth creationists at Reasons To Believe, then was denied tenure when his publication rate dropped precipitously. Disco. responded to the tenure denial by insisting simultaneously that Go [..] Read complete article | | Published 08-Jul-2008 by Thoughts in Creationism
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| Kotaku`s The Gamers Guide | Blogger | XBOX 360 Gamers Weblog
Gossip, news and leaks for obsessive gamers Kotaku As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, pred |
| Weekly Wii Update: Homestar Parodier [Wii Downloadables] | | Well this is certainly a pleasant change of pace after several weeks of relative crap with a side order of Beer Pong. Not only does the Wii get the first episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People on WiiWare (1,000 Points) this week, we also get the formerly Japan-only Star Parodier fo [..] Read complete article | | Published 11-Aug-2008 by Mike Fahey in Wii Downloadables News Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People vc update Wii wiiware
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| Sony drops new PSP firmware | | Looking to add a little bit more functionality to your Playstation Portable device? Today is your lucky day. Sony has just released firmware version 3.95 for the PSP. The new OS version provides several enhancements that should allow for a more pleasant remote gameplay experience. Chief amongst the changes include the ability to customize button [...] [..] Read complete article | | Published 08-Apr-2008 by Joshua Karp in News
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| Kotaku`s The Gamers Guide | Blogger | XBOX 360 Gamers Weblog
Gossip, news and leaks for obsessive gamers Kotaku As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, pred |
| Nerdblog | Blogger | Provides news about hardware, software, notebooks, laptops, PCs, Mac, PDAs
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| Review: Sony Ericsson W380i | | It’s not an amazing music device but a very pleasant little handset.
Join CNET Asia’s community
Get your tech questions answered, meet other gadget lovers, start your own blog and be heard!
http://asia.cnet.com [..] Read complete article | | Published 12-May-2008 by Nerdblog in General
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| Kotaku`s The Gamers Guide | Blogger | XBOX 360 Gamers Weblog
Gossip, news and leaks for obsessive gamers Kotaku As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, pred |
| Guitar Hero III Revisits Its Muse [Downloadable Content] | | Muse's "Knights of Cydonia" was one of those pleasant surprises for me in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. As someone who only turns on the radio to hear people arguing about politics, games like GH III are sadly my main source for discovering new music, and the [..] Read complete article | | Published 02-May-2008 by Mike Fahey in Activisiondownloadable contentguitar hero iiiMuseMusicNewsPS3Xbox 360
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| Kotaku`s The Gamers Guide | Blogger | XBOX 360 Gamers Weblog
Gossip, news and leaks for obsessive gamers Kotaku As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, pred |
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Favored sons and daughters float into Viacom/CBS mogul Sumner Redstone's life like sunshine after rain. Unfortunately, after a pleasant year or two, they usually get thrown righ [..] 
