Nonsense
oracknows | April 13, 2015Dr. David Katz is undoubtedly a heavy hitter in the brave new world of "integrative medicine," a specialty that seeks to "integrate" pseudoscience with science, nonsense, with sense, and quackery with real medicine. In fairness, that's not the way physicians like Dr. Katz see it. Rather, they see it as "integrating" the "best of both worlds" to the benefit of patients. However, as we've documented extensively here, on our personal blogs, and even in the biomedical literature (plug, plug), what "integrative" medicine means in practice is indeed what I characterized, the infiltration of woo…
laelaps | November 30, 2009
Eden, from The World Before the Deluge.
At least I know that, if I fail at everything else in life, I could write a book claiming to reconcile science and Christianity. People love them. No matter how many times the same old talking points are trotted out there always seems to be room for one more volume on the subject. And even if readers do not entirely agree with the content of such books many are still comforted by their existence. Among the "Things Christians Like" is to see scientists saying that hard evidence from nature supports Christian beliefs.
I do not say this to belittle the…
laelaps | November 11, 2009
The "Dinosauroid", the human-like product of a thought experiment about what the descendants of the dinosaur Troodon would look like today if the theropod had survived the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, is back. This time it has been invoked as an "I'm just sayin'..." defense by Richard Dawkins in a discussion about what life might be like on other planets. The article itself is here, but be sure to check out Darren's excellent take-down.
My own thoughts on the Dinosauroid will be featured in the conclusion of my forthcoming book Written in Stone.
laelaps | November 5, 2009
Almost every time I get into a discussion about woolly mammoths with someone the conversation eventually steers towards the topic of cloning a mammoth. "Wouldn't it be fascinating?", they often say. And with a little extra genetic engineering, many of my friends hope, maybe someone could create a breed of domesticated mini-mammoths that would definitely be in the running for the title of "Cutest Pet Ever" (at least until they left a mess on the carpet).
The possibility of housebroken mammoths, or at least mammoths in public zoos, seemed within reach in the spring of 1984. It was at that time…
laelaps | September 18, 2009
Contrary to their herbivorous habits in the wild, the elephants that appear in the long-running animated show The Simpsons are often carnivorous. In almost every episode featuring an elephant the pachyderm puts another animal in its mouth (i.e. Bart's pet elephant "Stampy") if it does not actually consume it. An exception is the Asian elephant in the episode in which Kwik-E-Mart shopkeeper Apu gets married, "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons."
Fortunately for the wedding guests, the Asian elephant Apu rides in on does not attempt to eat anyone. Instead the elephant is terrified by a mouse it…
laelaps | August 12, 2009
True to my word I have been reading John Olson's creationism-infused novel Fossil Hunter. I am at approximately the halfway point, but I can't say I have been enjoying it very much (though it is much better than Frank Peretti's Monster). This is not so much because of the book's creationist themes, which have yet to fully manifest themselves, but because I do not care for Olson's writing style.
Olson is not very good when it comes to description. It takes a lot of effort to imagine where his characters are and what their surroundings look like during any given scene. Even worse, though, are…
laelaps | August 4, 2009Today Greg Laden mentioned a paleontology-based creationist novel that was bundled in with the Expelled marketing campaign called Fossil Hunter. Some of you may recall that I mentioned the book about a year ago but never got around to reading it/posting about it. Since I went to all the trouble of getting a used copy from an independent bookstore (so the money would go to the bookstore, not the people behind the book), though, I figure I might as well make good on my promise to review it. It couldn't be any worse than Monster, right?
laelaps | June 27, 2009
The theme from the animated (1986) Transformers film.
I had promised myself that I would not blog about Transformers 2. I knew it was going to be awful, but against my better judgment I went anyway. (Given that MST3K was one of my favorite shows, I figured I could at least have some fun riffing on it.) Now that I have seen it, though, I must break my promise.
Military fetishism, incomprehensible action sequences, sexism, racism, and gaping plot holes pervade big budget summer action movies (i.e. anything by Michael Bay, Roland Emmerich, &c.), but there was one scene in particular that…
laelaps | May 18, 2009
The skull of Arsinoitherium, from A preliminary note on Arsinoitherium zitteli.
As spectacular as the extinct Eocene mammal Arsinoitherium was, many scientists were not all that interested in it. Its size and weapons were certainly impressive, but it appeared to sit on a difficult-to-define side branch of mammalian evolution. This made it a less attractive subject of study than some of its close relatives among the paenungulata, the elephants, whose evolutionary history could be traced in greater detail. As H.R. Knipe wrote in his Evolution in the Past, Arsinoitherium just seemed to be…
laelaps | May 14, 2009
A close-up of the rare, terrifying Montauk Monster, otherwise known as a raccoon. From Wikipedia.
Skeletons can be funny things. If you take a familiar animal like a horse, strip it of its flesh, and put the bones on display many people may have some trouble identifying what sort of animal it was. Skeletons can be even more unfamiliar when they are draped in the putrid and tattered remains of the soft parts of the animal, and it is no surprise that rotting carcasses of common animals are often said to be monsters.
Such was the case with the 'Montauk Monster', otherwise known as a raccoon (…
laelaps | April 30, 2009
If you want to aggravate an intelligent design advocate all you have to do is point out the obvious. Everybody knows that intelligent design is just warmed-over creationism, but some creationists love trying to create a false dichotomy between the two in an attempt to appear more respectable. Creationism starts with the Bible, they say, while intelligent design starts with science. Nevermind that the most vocal advocates of intelligent design are evangelical Christians or some other flavor of theist. There's no connection there at all! Seriously! It's not like some of the most prominent…
laelaps | April 12, 2009Ah, Easter. The holiday when many people ask "Wait, bunnies don't lay eggs. What gives?" Not everyone is a fan of the Easter Bunny, though. In Australia rabbits are a major pest and some have attempted to raise awareness of a local, endangered marsupial called the bilby by offering it as an alternative Easter mascot.
A greater bilby (Macrotis lagotis).
Personally, I think another Australian mammal is a better fit as an Easter mascot. The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is a monotreme, or one of the few mammals in the world that lays eggs. I would much prefer an Easter platypus to an…
laelaps | March 13, 2009I am no fan of the "March of Progress", but I know it isn't going anywhere. It is too readily recognizable as an evolutionary image for its use to be discontinued. That is why I wasn't surprised to see it in a new commercial for Extra spearmint gum. What I was surprised by, however, was that the creators of the commercial think that sloths figured in our evolution somewhere between tarsiers and chimpanzees;
[facepalm]
Creationists don't like the commercial either, but for entirely different reasons. This chap, for instance, is so fervent in his belief in creationism that he feels deeply…
laelaps | February 17, 2009
There are times when it becomes abundantly apparent that I have been spending far too much time on the computer.
Yesterday afternoon I was preparing a "cheat sheet" for my statistics exam (don't fret; we were allowed one page of notes to bring to the test). I decided to write it up with a pencil rather than type it, and about 3/4 of the way through I thought "I'm thirsty, I think I will get a drink. I had better hit 'save' to preserve my work."
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
laelaps | January 6, 2009I knew it would happen someday; someone has found one of my photographs, captioned it, and posted it to icanhascheezburger.com. I stumbled across it while flipping through the "Upcoming" section.
see more crazy cat pics
I took that photo in August of 2006 at the Animal Kingdom Pet Store & Zoo (it's about as crummy as it sounds). For anyone interested in captioning more pictures, I think some of my recent sea lion pictures are good candidates (like this one, or this one). Just don't say you "dunno source."
laelaps | December 21, 2008My wife and I have our own little Christmas tradition; every year I read Terry Pratchett's The Hogfather aloud in the week leading up to the holiday. I had mixed feelings about the film adaptation, but I did enjoy this particular scene (which I coincidentally just got to today in the book);
laelaps | November 26, 2008I only just noticed that Janet tagged me with the 5 Things meme. Here we go...
5 Things I Was Doing 10 Years Ago:
Absolutely despising high school
Taekwondo (2nd degree black belt)
Being an emo kid before I even knew what that was
Learning how to drive
Playing DOOM
5 Things On My To-Do List Today:
Work an 8-hour day
Brave the grocery store with Mrs. Laelaps
Tidy up the sections of the human evolution chapter about "Ramapithecus," Miocene apes, Louis Leakey, W.E. le Gros Clark's study of australopithecines, etc.
Start reading The Lions of Tsavo
Find more papers about chimpanzee infanticide…