Long time...

Yes, its been a long time since I posted something. Not really sure why. Been busy but not really that busy. Not much new going on long term.

The only new things are a conference (assuming I don't keel over from yet another infection I have before the end of next week) im going to and my reading Richard Dawkins new book "The Greatest Show on Earth". Ill talk more about the AAI conference after I got (again, assuming I haven't died by then or am unable to go, which is a slight annoyance cause it would be the second conference that I might not get as much enjoyment out of it had I been completely healthy).

The book lays out evidence for evolution. Most of his other books, as he confesses, in general assume you accept evolution and then from that point, follow his book on either how it comes about (Mount Improbable) or how genes propogate (and memes, a word Dawkins coined though most do not know where the name comes from, The Selfish Gene). Im not going to recap the book, as I recommend everyone read it. I am unsure (as I have not read that many books on evolution outside of school, and my High School I don't recall them really even mentioning evolution hardly at all) as to how good the book is compared to others, but it was a good book. Ill lay out the issues I have with the book first, as they are shorter.

First, there are points (and he even in one chapter admits that if its late at night, you might want to wait to read a section) that are somewhat dry and get very much into the science of it. While I like to see some of this, it can be hard to follow and I think might turn some people off (as this section is in the first half of the book). However, it was worth sticking it out and its not too bad.

The other is, and he generally admits this so its not a problem in the book as it is the problem that people are stupid, the ones that need to be smacked for being stupid are not going to pay attention to the evidence he lays out in the book. He dedicates an appendix to what he terms as history-deniers which I think is an apt description, especially after reading the book. 40% of the US believe that the earth is less than 10,000 years old and that obviously, evolution is not fact. He labels those the history deniers. Out of I think 33 countries, Turkey is the only one worse than the US. Most of Europe, especially Iceland and Denmark areas are at the top of the list. Don't really have a point here other than that just floors me (as it does Dawkins, who relents that hes "pathetically consoled" by the fact that 19% of Britain think that the earth orbits the sun once a day rather than year.)

They are minor issues and don't cause any issues with someone with a brain that thinks for itself. Again, not wanting to spend a huge amount of time I won't recap everything however there were a couple of interesting things. One, Cheetahs are awesome. I knew they were fast but never really knew how fast or how fast they could get going. Cheetahs have been clocked as high as 70 mph though more typically around 60mph. Even more incredible is they can get that speed in around 3 seconds, which makes them on par of acceleration with a porsche. Two, theres a flower that has evolved in such a way that when a small bee that needs the nectar type stuff for a scent that it uses (its more complicated than that, but work with me for brevity) it finds itself trapped by the flower with only one way to get out. That way causes it to hold the bee while it deposits the pollen on it as well as knocking off any pollen it already had off. Then it lets the bee go on its way. Similar, theres a specific type of flower that in order for something to get its nectar, it has to have an unusually long tongue. A specific moth has that tongue, therefore allowing that flower to target the thing that bests gets its nectar from to go to the same type of flower. The third (last but only cause this is getting to long as most of my posts do) a flightless bird called a Kakapo in New Zealand has no wings. Apparently Douglas Adams (a friend of Dawkins when he was alive) commented once that "Sadly not only has the kakapo forgotten how to fly, but it has forgotten that it has forgotten how to fly. Apparenly a seriously worried kakapo will sometimes run up a tree and jump out of it, whereupon it flies like a brick and lands in a graceless heap on the ground". While that sucks, that cracks me up and reminds me of the Kiwi which will always remind me of this video I saw long ago http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdUUx5FdySs.

Point is, go get the book. And ill try to post more often.