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Latest Challenges to the Teaching of Evolution

 
 
farmerman
 
  1  
Reply Sun 20 Feb, 2011 10:17 am
@wandeljw,
Well, Im kicking water here cause I really wasnt impressed with the article that wandel posted this AM. It was amazing to me that the papaer even printed it. He left so much dangling without any in depth information.

Anyway, Im having fun over on the thread with the "fossil" brain.
spendius
 
  1  
Reply Sun 20 Feb, 2011 10:29 am
@wandeljw,
Quote:
Biology teachers are of special significance because many high school students take biology but no other science classes.


There you are. Biology's easy you see. Until you get into the chemistry and physics of cells and the effects of emotions on them. But that won't be in the curriclum I shouldn't think.

Simply rote learn catalogues of long names and you "major" and your "major" is not in the same league as a physics, chemistry or mathematics major. And unintelligent people can do rote learning if they come from pushy middle-class backgrounds. Or at least enough to be given a pass by those authorities which are scared to fail more than a few.

In Asia they probably don't do evolution at all in schools because they are looking to fish the whole pool for those few who can understand real science who are congenitally at odds with rote learning.

So from a scientific point of view--the analysis of pure dynamic space--it is the promotion of the simple pseudo-science of evolution that is cowardly and masking the cowardice behind the "majors" to distract from the fact that they are there for the taking from educational establishments which employ teachers who don't do real science either but simply dictate screeds from Darwin and give out passes for being able to regurgitate them in exams.

And one can hardly talk down to people quite so efficiently as to opine--

Quote:
As I do the arithmetic, that means an astounding 72 percent of our teachers don't teach the organizing principle at the base of modern biological science.


after already having written that 28% do. That's how easy the writer's arthmetic is. "As I do the arithmetic" eh--Ye Gods. "As I fill up another two lines to get the editor's quota done" is more like it. And Kirsten wants to give us lessons on science and cowardice. Bloody hell!!!
High Seas
 
  1  
Reply Sun 20 Feb, 2011 10:45 am
@spendius,
spendius wrote:
...Biology's easy you see.
Simply rote learn catalogues of long names ...

Did you mean botany? Don't plants evolve? Biology is a very, very, hot topic right now as sexual reproduction has been pushed back millions of years:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=dawn-of-the-deed
Quote:
....in 2005 my team and I were out hunting for fish fossils in the tall, grassy paddocks of Gogo Station, a vast cattle ranch located in the heart of northwestern Australia... But some 375 million years ago, during the Late Devonian period, a shallow sea covered the area and Gogo was home to an enormous tropical reef that teemed with marine life, including a plethora of primitive fishes...

spendius
 
  1  
Reply Sun 20 Feb, 2011 10:47 am
@edgarblythe,
Quote:
When a topic becomes all lonus/spendius all the time I eventually have to tune out.


You can't tune out fast enough for me ed. It's about time the debating table got rid of all the clutter like you, fm, ros, wande, ci and any others who agree with their sexually induced posturing so that more scientific approaches might be tried.

The basic problem, it seems to me, is the presence in the educational system of the out-of-date nonsense of the School Boards. Education in a scientific society should be run by highly qualified bureaucrats appointed by elected officials and not by somebody who just walks in off the street and who knows how to make a big noise out of some simple mantras about only science being taught in science classes when such an idea is ridiculous and goes against the grain of the role of the teaching profession and renders pointless all considerations in recruiting teachers of anything but the science which would then require peer-reviewing by scientifics exclusively.

Biology, at these levels, is used to make people who have no science in them look scientific. Read what real scientists were doing when Darwin was beachcombing, scrabbling about in the muck and taking notes. What, where and when rather than how and why.
spendius
 
  1  
Reply Sun 20 Feb, 2011 10:57 am
@High Seas,
Quote:
....in 2005 my team and I were out hunting for fish fossils in the tall, grassy paddocks of Gogo Station, a vast cattle ranch located in the heart of northwestern Australia... But some 375 million years ago, during the Late Devonian period, a shallow sea covered the area and Gogo was home to an enormous tropical reef that teemed with marine life, including a plethora of primitive fishes...


Is anybody going to question that HS? Might it simply be a bit of fanciful composition. That it is rubbish fanciful composition is of no importance.

The key words are "my team".

Did Scientific American actually print that? Their spike must be rusty.

Does quoting from their hallowed pages make you feel scientific HS and qualified to preach on the education of 50 million kids? Whoooooooeeeee!
High Seas
 
  1  
Reply Sun 20 Feb, 2011 11:00 am
@spendius,
spendius wrote:

.. It's about time the debating table got rid of all the clutter like .... and any others who agree with their sexually induced posturing ..

You don't know how funny this statement on "sexually induced posturing" (sic) is until you read about sex among the Devonian Australian fishes Smile
reasoning logic
 
  1  
Reply Sun 20 Feb, 2011 11:08 am
@spendius,
Do you think that it may have been a more recent time that those fossils ended up there? OR do you think that it could have been when Jonah was in the belly of the wale? Maybe it could have been even further back in time when Noah was on his voyage?
0 Replies
 
spendius
 
  1  
Reply Sun 20 Feb, 2011 12:23 pm
@farmerman,
Quote:
I love disagreement, it fills the topic with many views. However, when the entire communication is an obvious cry for attention and the writing style is disjointed and full of run ons ,and its gone on unchanged for 5 years, well. I see no reason to believe that an individual will "grow up", SO "ignore" is a great feature. Beating ones head against a wall expecting a different outcome each time may be what Australians respect, but in my neck of the woods, we know that hitchin a dray horse to a sulky is gonna give you a bad ride.


Same old blather. Variation No 69. I think fm is trying to persuade himself. A sure sign of insecurity according to the psychologists. He certainly won't persuade anybody with any nonce that he is doing anything else but inventing excuses to avoid answering my points. He seems to think that other readers here who notice him avoiding answering my points, and it's impossible not to notice it, will think it is because he hasn't read my posts on purpose and that it is justifiable on the grounds he lays out. Which, of course, it isn't.

He is once again assuming viewers are stupid and that his definitions of writing styles and the other guff he mentions are the wisdom of the oracle.

Why I should be singled out as crying for attention when all I do is what everybody else on A2K does or in any discussion is baffling to me.

One does have to wonder why he keeps going on about it.
0 Replies
 
spendius
 
  1  
Reply Sun 20 Feb, 2011 12:25 pm
@farmerman,
Quote:
Anyway, Im having fun over on the thread with the "fossil" brain.


Obviously. The company of the like-minded is cosy and comforting. The Fossil Brain Club.
spendius
 
  2  
Reply Sun 20 Feb, 2011 12:44 pm
@High Seas,
Quote:
Most fishes are egg-layers, but many bear living young. Live-bearing fishes may be ovoviviparous, in which the eggs essentially simply hatch within the female, or viviparous, in which the unborn young are supplied nourishment through the mother's tissues. In some ovoviviparous fishes the embryo develops in the egg while the egg is still within its follicular covering within the ovary, and ovulation (or release of the egg) and birth occur at the same time. In other ovoviviparous forms the eggs are released from the protective follicles into the cavity of the hollow ovary, where development continues. In some viviparous fishes the walls of the egg follicle are in intimate contact with the embryo, supplying it with nourishment. In the viviparous sharks, a part of the oviduct, or egg channel, is developed into a uterus, where the modified yolk sacs of the young are closely joined to pockets within the uterus.

In live-bearing fishes and in some egg-layers, fertilization occurs internally, and methods have been evolved for introducing the sperm into the female's body. In sharks the pelvic fins of the male are modified into intromittent organs called myxoptergia, and in the male topminnows the anal fin is modified into a similar-functioning intromittent organ called the gonopodium.

At least three modes of reproduction--heterosexual, hermaphroditic, and parthenogenetic--are found in fishes. In the most common form, heterosexual reproduction, there are separate male and female parents, but even here there is considerable variation. In some live-bearing fishes, the female is able to store sperm for up to 8 or even 10 months, and this sperm is used to fertilize new batches of eggs as they develop. In some cases, a female may carry sperm from several males at once.

In hermaphroditic reproduction, a single fish is both male and female, produces both eggs and sperm (either at the same time or at different times), and mates with other similar hermaphroditic fishes. External self-fertilization occurs in one hermaphroditic fish, which sheds egg and sperm simultaneously. In another, internal self-fertilization may occur. In certain fishes there is a time sequence of hermaphroditism, young fishes reversing their sex as they grow older.

In parthenogenetic reproduction, unfertilized eggs develop into embryos. This is known to exist in at least one fish species, Poecilia formosa, of the Amazon River; however, even though development proceeds without fertilization in some of these females, mating with a male is still required to stimulate egg development.

Parental care also shows great diversity. Some fishes, like the Atlantic herring, form huge schools of males and females and freely shed their eggs and sperm (milt), and then abandon the eggs. Other fishes build nests and care for both the eggs and newly hatched young. Others have evolved methods of carrying the eggs with them, commonly in their mouths, but also in gill cavities or in special pouches on the body.


One might suppose that the taxpayer funded researcher of the Aussie Devonian found something similar. With the help of "his team". Were there any young female research assistants on hand for when cracking open nodules got tiresome and they retired to the tents.

Ionus
 
  1  
Reply Sun 20 Feb, 2011 05:52 pm
@spendius,
Quote:
How many times has fm accused me of being "drunk" when he merely disagrees.
Yes spendi, but when they ignore, insult and sneer at others it is fair. It is unfair when it is done to them.
spendius
 
  1  
Reply Sun 20 Feb, 2011 05:58 pm
@Ionus,
Yes but they are seeking to determine the education of 50 million kids which is not a laughing matter which it would be otherwise.

And most of them, as far as I can gather, support the protesters in the Middle-east and we have seen thousands of them on their kness facing Mecca.

Can you imagine these fuckers running things Io?
0 Replies
 
farmerman
 
  1  
Reply Sun 20 Feb, 2011 05:58 pm
@Ionus,
Quote:
How many times has fm accused me of being "drunk" when he merely disagrees.
Poor baby. Ive never led with an insult. Spendi has had the most disagreeable self centered personality pof anyone Ive had the displeasure of dealing with on this board. Hes unable to compose a clear thought unless its about insulting the previous poster . This is probably 95% of the time.
spendius
 
  1  
Reply Sun 20 Feb, 2011 06:05 pm
@farmerman,
Yeah well--the previous poster on this thread is usually in dire need of being insulted.
0 Replies
 
farmerman
 
  1  
Reply Sun 20 Feb, 2011 06:09 pm
@farmerman,
Oh yeh, notice how it ALWAYS has to come back to spendi wanting to be the center of attraction reather than the subject. I could very well live a great A2K existence without him but apparently he likes to insult me about every 5th post in a manner that he wants the world to assume that he even knows of what he speaks in science tpoics.
Yet , since Ive ignored him, I never hve responded in kind nor have I counter insultede. He just has very strange needs and you are just feeding them Ionus. If you wish to act like he makes sense, then it must be some English sense of "gangbamgery" when one person alone cant seem to deal with my posts.

My life is serene without the existence of spendi. He offers nothing except insult to anyone who wont lick his ass. You, fortunately like the taste I guess.
cicerone imposter
 
  1  
Reply Sun 20 Feb, 2011 06:13 pm
@farmerman,
farmerman, You really do have that backwards; spendi is a joke, and most pe0ple see him as the pub character that he is. Nobody takes spendi seriously most of the time. It's sort of like entertainment at the pub. That's the reason why most people challenge him. He might get a pat on the back a few times, but those are rare events.
spendius
 
  1  
Reply Sun 20 Feb, 2011 06:19 pm
@farmerman,
I don't insult elected State govenors though.

Is it true I only insult fm about (sic) every 5th post. I'm slacking.

He has very little opposition on here and he accuses that of seeking attention. If anybody took any notice of shite like that then Kremlin walls would loom into view.
Ionus
 
  1  
Reply Sun 20 Feb, 2011 06:21 pm
@reasoning logic,
Quote:
you also seem to be painting with a broad brush in my opinion!
I dont know how they manage to use a broad brush but I cant.....

Quote:
totally egalitarian socio-economic life style
I hear a lot of rubbish about life in a tribal society. The truth is different to that portrayed. When they have a celebration, they dont just rush in to get the best bits first. There is a pecking order. The organiser distributes the food, and people are placed in their order of importance to the organiser. If you dont like your mother in law then she is down the end of the line and gets the arsehole and hoofs. You couldnt get a more structured society. It prevents fights amongst those thinking they are equal.

Many westerners think of it as lovely, with harmony and peace......children die at a great rate, any violence is dealt with by greater violence, poor weather means death in large numbers......Everyone knows everything about everyone else, there is no privacy.

There is no totally egalitarian life style any where.
Ionus
 
  1  
Reply Sun 20 Feb, 2011 06:23 pm
@plainoldme,
Quote:
I see the AMerican right as unable to "tolerate anyone not like themselves."
I see the left as using the exact tools they condemn to make others more like themselves. We are not elitest or racist but if you disagree with us we will isolate you .
spendius
 
  2  
Reply Sun 20 Feb, 2011 06:25 pm
@spendius,
And I think that fm is A2K's most abject attention seeker. He's a one man "am I looking good today or what?" merchant of the most toe-curling type magnitude.

I knew all about the bozo when he went to disrupt a religious meeting and got the bum's rush for his trouble.
0 Replies
 
 

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