I’ve been buried this semester teaching at Gordon. Loving every minute of it and I’ve learned a lot. But, I’m beat. As a result, the activity on the blog could be summarized by the audio of crickets chirping on the main page.  Wait… there’s got to be a way I can do that. There, done (but you have to click it).

So, as I clean out my Google reader, this surely isn’t a weekly links update. Let’s just call it a survey. Several of these are from 3 Quarks Daily. Can’t recommend that blog enough. In all kinds of random order:

  • 1000 Awesome Things #149. Cheesy theme songs from 1990s sitcoms. Although any list like that needs this, even if that sitcom spanned the 80s and 90s.
  • A theoretical physicist answers the question: What is unity?
  • Naturalism and investigating the unnatural. A wonderful and thought provoking post.
  • This is mind-blowing. Or should I say mind-translating?
  • From EChurch blog’s quote of the day… “Scientific knowledge is accumulating at lightning speed and we are in need of Christians who understand it and put it into the light of Christian ethics, morality, and a clearly articulated view of the God who loves us and cares for us more than we can imagine. This is the community we are trying to build here at BioLogos. Unfortunately, instead of being the much-needed salt and light in the scientific world and broader culture, too many Christians have removed themselves from the discussion. Too many have hunkered down, hiding their wonderful light under a bushel, when our culture needs them to help put the rapidly accumulating information into a Christ-centered context.” -> Alright, BioLogos, make sure you stick to that, because it seems like it’s all about convincing Creationists that evolution is viable. And unfortunately it’s not clear that it’s working, in spite of your well-deserved and thoughtful efforts.
  • Speaking of Stuart over at EChurch, What would I change about the Church? Me..
  • For my students… DNA methylation is more dynamic than we previously thought. Molecular biology = regulation and it’s more complex than we often imagine. Also, those pesky and lively P elements.
  • This is old, but I just came across it. Dennis Venema provides answers to “ask an evolutionary creationist.” I absolutely agree with every answer. Spot on, Dennis, spot on. And Rachel has a good thinkg going with this “ask a…” series. Head over to her blog for other interviews.
  • Wanna live forever? Become a noun.
  • Karl Giberson has certainly been productive. And this book looks good.
  • Surely, you’ve read about the neutrinos speed of light story. xkcd has its own take.
  • Inorganic life forms? Sweeeeet. Oops, I mean metaaaallic.
  • The contagious ambition of George Church.
  • Darrel Falk gives us a geneticist’s journey over at Biologos.
  • I’m going with my gut. More than a “feeling?” Yes, I resisted linking to Boston here.
  • The evolution of cooperation.
  • I guess I don’t understand why the fact that we can measure a brain activity that correlates with a decision before we can measure our outer awareness of that decision means that free will is junk. Free will does not equal “the detection of activity”! Yes, I am still scientist. Hey look, others are with me…
  • David Sloan Wilson takes Jerry Coyne to task on group and cultural selection.
  • Evolution made us crave sugar more? No, really?! Get up and see the sarcasm in my eyes…
  • Maverick Philosopher says Mind is not Brain. Even though I may want to agree with his logic, I can’t. And that’s not a slam on him.
  • Great, great science. But unfortunate model. Yuck and sad. “Bad” nature.
  • Undeception reminds us of that “other” church. No, they can’t be write on Adam and Eve, can they?
  • To be human is to be quantum? Count me as in.
  • A brief history of the brain. Long and somewhat speculative, but dig the pictures.
  • Last, but not least, I will end every links update, however often it occurs, with a link to a TED talk or three. I am giving extra credit in my freshman Bio I course for watching them and have used a couple in it and other courses. Here’s a handful to consider.