1. Humans nearly wiped out 70,000 years ago, study says

Comment #168667 by mikethebike on April 25, 2008 at 9:16 am

Right on cyris8400. Thought of that as soon as I saw this posted. You beat me to it.

I think catastrophic events like that of a super volcano are not considered enough in evolutionary studies. In fact, seems to me that the next steps in scientific "evolution" is for more interdisciplinary studies.

Although the process of "connecting the dots" between scientific disciplines has made considerable progress in recent decades, it seems to me that there are tremendous openings for generalists in the mold of the "Renaissance man" who specialize in cross-disciplinary studies. Question is will any educational or government institutions provide the support?

2. Resentment Over Darwin Evolves Into a Documentary

Comment #165338 by mikethebike on April 21, 2008 at 11:08 am

Well, maybe the NY Times doesn't like the movie, maybe we all think it's a piece of trash. BUT….look at the USER REVIEWS in the movie section on Yahoo.

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809995068/user

· Rated #9 this weekend at the box office.
· Average user rating grade of B
· Many, many user rants about how great the movie is.

Headlines for some of the reviews:
"blew my mind , and made me laugh. Amazing"
"Why are they so scared of this?"
"Very Important Movie to See"
"Big Science Should Be Scared"
"An Insightful, Articulate, Well-Delivered Movie"

Never have I seen such a big spread between critical reviews and User Reviews. Although the average rating is B, a quick perusal through the posted reviews shows a deep split: A's or F's. Are we Americans really that lacking in critical thinking skill? Or could it be that the Yahoo user ratings are the result of a deliberate campaign to "stuff the ballot box"?

3. The age of endarkenment

Comment #64788 by mikethebike on August 21, 2007 at 9:44 pm

Re: Comment #64318 by phil rimmer

Phil, what a great story! I'm just glad you didn't decide to found a religion, because I suspect you'd do just as well at it, and lord knows (pun intended) we don't need another wacko religion (or any of them for that matter).

I really like the "age of endarkenment" header on this article. It will become one of my favorites, I think.

4. God Bless Me, It's a Best-Seller!

Comment #64324 by mikethebike on August 19, 2007 at 3:07 pm

Regarding comment #64273 by Riley

Seems like a good argument to me. Simple, even. The religious claim that morality comes from the Bible. It doesn't. Perhaps you could explain why you think it's a bad argument and exactly how this would lead to "luring the whole debate toward irrelevance." Really, I would like to know.

5. Dissing Deism

Comment #62421 by mikethebike on August 9, 2007 at 4:55 pm

Funniest book of the year? Is it just me or do others think there's something kind of off center about this statement?

I've read the book twice now and I really enjoyed the excellent writing and "razor wit". But funniest book of the year? I didn't think so.

6. Fossils in Kenya Challenge Linear Evolution

Comment #62308 by mikethebike on August 9, 2007 at 8:32 am

Headlines here in the US about this really fuel the faith-heads, I think. From yahoo.com today (August 9), the headline reads, "Evolution Theory Challenged", when of course, this news does nothing of the sort.

My understanding is that this latest fossil evidence just complicates human ancestry. Instead of the poplular notion of humans evolving in a nice steady progression from knuckle-dragging brutes to modern homo spaiens, many side branches developed that don't fit this picture.

But my worry is that the holy rollers prevalent here in my home state of North Carolina will seize just the headline and say "told ya so, told ya so."