This is the Nature Network and therefore Terribly Extremely Very Serious foothold for Nature Senior Editor Henry Gee. If you want fun and games, visit http://cromercrox.blogspot.com/
Here, belatedly, is a post about our free-to-download handy-cut-out-and-keep document 15 Evolutionary Gems, our set of examples of evolution in action as culled from your favourite journal of record that isn’t Noah Gray’s reading matter of choice.
Download it; take it; print it; disseminate it; hug it; lick it; cherish it; love it; scatter it on an uncomprehending world. Just don’t bogart it.
We’ve already had enquiries about translating it into Turkish.
Here are some reactions. First, from a parade of well-wishers.
HWMNBN, via Pharyngula. You can tell a balanced pharyngulite by the fact that the drool emanates equally from both sides of the mouth; the Atheism Omphalsocope; Hoxful Monsters ; Free Republic, with pithy comments; the National Center for Science Education; our friend Karen James at the Beagle Project; WIRED science, which has lovely pictures even though they can’t count beyond 12; Darwin Central; Bug Girl; Greg Laden’s Blog; Answers In Genesis BUSTED; Stranger Fruit; Alliance for Science; Ecological Society of America; Evolution Resources at the National Academies – this lists the Nature document at the head of a whole load of other useful links; Atheism Newsbeet – gosh, I didn’t know atheists looked so attractive. There must be something in this godlessness malarkey after all.
Finally in this pseudorandom selection, from the Oklahoma Science Teachers Association – good for OSTA! This is precisely the market for which we’re aiming, he said, trying desperately not to close this sentence with a preposition. Bunnies. That should work.
And here is a
cheerful
but hardly
non-exhaustive
assortment of blog posts and discussion fora advertising and discussing
our darwinian samizdat.
And now, from … ahem … other people
Here’s Theology Online – some of the comments are pitiful. Check this one – ‘Your research and observations do not jive with my reconcieved notions’, from someone who’s motto is ‘God Loves Me More Than He Loves You’ and who describes his location as ’God’s United States of America, which even though our smartest people don’t love Jesus, all of us dumb people do, and that makes the USA the best!!!‘. I’m rather hoping that this is a wind-up, but I forgot – creationists don’t ‘do’ irony. Or humour.
And here’s Answers In Genesis, traducing it, misunderestimating it, failing to understand it, and being very selective in its arguments. So no change there, then. And here’s CreationSafaris – you’ll have to scroll down a bit. Sorry. Not to be outdone, here’s Christian Forums with its feet firmly planted in mid-air. Just see the trolls come out of the woodwork. Check your skirting boards, Jesus Freaks, there’ll be some bloody big holes in it. Dragging their knuckles along behind, here are the Reasonable Kansans – cripes, I’d hate to meet any Unreasonable Kansans. It’s the shoes, Dorothy, the shoes.
Shoes. Yesterday
The best one must be Slaughter Of The Dissidents (well, Lawdy, hush mah mouth!) which describes our effort as
Now, must go have lunch. Mrs Gee has made me what promises to be a splendid non-kosher BLT sandwich.
Finally, someone being very rude about Nature
Last updated: Monday, 02 Feb 2009 - 13:17 UTC
© 2009 Nature Publishing Group
Are you trying to usurp Bora from his role as chief blog indicist1?
Your “Reasonable Kansan” is well known in laughing-at-creationists circles. She once accused PZed’s daughter of bestiality, after mis-reading a post. you can imagine how well that went down.
1 “indexer” just sounds too American.
Are you trying to usurp Bora from his role as chief blog indicist
Good word, ‘indicist’. Nice, woody word. Croquet hoops. But seriously, these link-rih posts take ages. That one took most of a snowbound morning, and I kind of promised colleagues I’d do it, so it was useful time spent before Mrs Gee’s BLT.
She once accused PZed’s daughter of bestiality, after mis-reading a post.
= giggle =
You mean like those proles of Portsmouth who assaulted paediatricians under the impression that they were paedophiles? But hey, love me, love my dog.
According to those comments at that nice blog you so kindly link to uner “finally” (don’t you care about my blood pressure?!), some of the “gems” articles seem not to be set to free access. This is a technical mistake – have you asked the web people to sort that?
Is it really the case that merely registering for Science gets you their entire archive free, apart from the current year, do you think? That’s what those nice ladies and gentlemen at your “finally” link say.
I note that the booklet describes itself as “a succinct briefing”. Is it just me or does that have a ring of tautology to it?
@ Maxine: don’t shoot me, I’m only
the messengerwrote (most of) the thing. The task nearly drove me mad.@ Brian: we evolutionists like things long-winded. The Origin was only meant to be a stop-gap, a brief ‘abstract’ of the much heftier work Darwin had been planning.
Regarding the final commenter, I notice he/she neglected to point out that it costs nearly $160 to become a member of AAAS. If you didn’t know that you might be forgiven for assuming that Science offers free content to all out of the kindness of its heart.
I have little patience for the whole ‘everything has to be free’ argument. What planet are these people on? Have they not heard that it actually takes money to run a journal? And that you might actually need a business model to stay afloat?
Thus endeth the rant.
About the Science archives
“Science, January 1997 to present
“How to access: The full text of Science issues since January 1997 is available online to AAAS members, to users at subscribing institutions, and on a pay-per-article basis. After one year, the full text of the research content in this part of the collection is available online without cost for individuals who register for access.”
“The research content”. So not front matter, then. Hardly surprising.
Yes, and as you say, Jenny, you have to pay about as as much to be a AAAS member as you do for the Nature subscription.
A personal sub to Nature gets you online access to everything going back to 1997, which is when the journal began publishing its entire content online each week.
Of course, almost all people who want to read Nature or Science are in an institution with site access, so it does not cost them personally anything for either publication.
I have an interest, as I work for Nature, but I find this “all must be free” argument ill-thought-out, also. But, let’s not go there in this thread, there is enough of it about, elsewhere ;-)
@ Jenny – I completely agree (but you knew I’d say that).
Whatever might go on at AAAS, our 15 Evolutionary Gems is free, and should be downloadable as a pdf by anyone who wants it.
The entire archive of Nature is also available, right back to 1869, to subscribers and site-licence holders, and on a pay-per-view basis.
@ Maxine -only just saw your comment above: our respective comments seem to disagree with one another. Please would you clarify about archive acess for our hordes of eager readers?
Henry – the confusion might be caused by the fact the link further down the comments from you to the gems does work, but (for a non-subscriber) the one in your original post doesn’t work.
Thanks for clearing that one up, Brian.
I was already all Darwinned out before I saw this post!
And we still have his birthday next week (completely overshadowing my own in the same week) and the whole 2009 Darwin year ahead!
Er …. happy birthday, Eva. I must say, you look really great for 200.
Henry, any chance you’d update the Gems link earlier in the article – you might lose people who are interested to try downloading something free, only to discover the link’s busted, before they make it through the comments to the working link.
It’s all about the evangelizationalism, doncha know? And I are all for spreading the
sticky messGood News.Well, we’re obvisouly not born in the same year. I’d be three days older than him if that were the case. It’s just the same week – in different years.
@ Mike: the link is fixificationalerated. It should be OK now.
@ Eva: many thanks for for putting me right on that one.
thanks for the link to my post on 15 evol gems @ hoxfulmonsters ………..quite a few people are coming from your post but unfortunately the link you provided is not correct and thats y they are landing on error page …………..if possible could you please correct it with the one ………..www.hoxfulmonsters.com/2009/01/15-evolutionary-gems-classic-examples-of-evolution/
Thanks
Nagraj.
As someone who’s been accosted by said creationists, I say thank you for a wonderfully well written article. In my experience if you can’t describe in detail the evolution of the ankle joint on a barn owl on the spot, evolution in its entirety is disproved. Maddeningly frustrating, but I’ve since learnt you should never attack a fixed position, and so I don’t even bother.
@ Nagraj – thanks for pointing that out. I’ve replaced the link, and it should work now.
@ Meagan: keep saying all those nice things. You know, like what you just said. Does me the world of good on a cold morning. And I agree, there are some people one can never reach, so it’s pointless to try.
Thanks Henry!
You’re most welcome.
Henry – fantastic post and a good example to all of us. If only I could be inspired to re-explain and spread the word on anything I’ve written initially for the scientific community. I utterly agree with Meagan from a similar experience. I used to dive headlong into such frays and try to rebut all such arguments, thinking that reason would win out over ignorance. But I also used to think that setting up pen pals between kids in Jerusalem and the Gaza strip would resolve those problems as well, or that raising money on the March for Peace was going to stop Reagan from provoking a nuclear war. I’ve gotten to the point that I’m just about ready to imbue the next generation with what remains of my left-wing do-good values and sit down and watch them do the same over the next quarter century. Good on you for giving them some nourishment for their fight, though.
The Oklahomans do have a lovely turn of phrase:
The answer is left as an exercise to the reader.
It can get him by the sea at the very least. I presume it’s because he just crawled out of the waves.
@ Scott – I missed that. Being as I am a monster of vanity and arrogance (sit down, Grant) I welcome any reference to my person, however derogatory, as publicity. I think I’ll copy that and put it in my email signoff. Anyway, it was the Kansans, not the Oklahomans. The Oklahomans are much more civilized. And reasonable. Soon be living in a Brand New State.
@ Heather: one can lead a Gee to water, but it’s usually his dog that does the gambolling-in-the-waves part.
I have just heard from our technical guys – who confirm that all 15 of the evolutionary gems are definitely free to access online. Henry, I just sent you an email with the details, but now I remember you are offline from Nature email for the day, so letting you know this way.
Anyone dare go and tell those people who were moaning about it (Henry’s link)? Not me, bit of a lion’s den.
Henry – just saw your note about the archive. The online archive is available back to 1997 for personal subscribers, as I mentioned.
All the rest of the Nature archive is from scanned print issues (as there was not a website then – if you subscribed you got a printed annual subject and author index).
The older archive (before 1940) is obtainable only via a site licence or per individual article.
I am not sure whether the 1950-1996 archive is available as a personal subscription as well as a site licence, but the NPG catalogue will reveal the information, I hope.
@ Scott – I missed that. Being as I am a monster of vanity and arrogance (sit down, Grant) I welcome any reference to my person, however derogatory, as publicity. I think I’ll copy that and put it in my email signoff. Anyway, it was the Kansans, not the Oklahomans. The Oklahomans are much more civilized. And reasonable. Soon be living in a Brand New State.
Ah, my head was so full of the lyricism of from slimy sea to Henry Gee I got my States mixed up. Apologies to the Oklahomans. It’s a Scandal! It’s a Outrage! as the Oklahomans may sing.
@ Maxine: thanks for that.
@ As well they might. Poor Gee
is Deadlooks like he’s asleep. It’s a shame that he won’t keep. But it’s summer and we’re running outta ice.