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Noted evolutionary biologist Maynard Smith dies
Contra Costa Times ^ | 24 April 2004 | Rosie Mestel

Posted on 04/24/2004 9:06:52 AM PDT by PatrickHenry

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A good biologist, but like so many in academia, not very good when it comes to politics.
1 posted on 04/24/2004 9:06:52 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
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To: VadeRetro; jennyp; Junior; longshadow; RadioAstronomer; Physicist; LogicWings; Doctor Stochastic; ..
PING. [This list is for the evolution side of evolution threads, and some other science topics like cosmology. Long-time list members get all pings, but can request evo-only status. New additions will be evo-only, but can request all pings. FReepmail me to be added or dropped. Specify all pings or you'll get evo-pings only.]
2 posted on 04/24/2004 9:07:50 AM PDT by PatrickHenry (Scientific theories should be developed to explain the data, rather than the dogma.)
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To: PatrickHenry
He noticed that his schoolmasters spoke with special contempt of another former Etonian, the famous biologist J.B.S. Haldane, whom they reviled as an atheist, divorcee and socialist.

And now it's 'tother way around.

Ah, what I wouldn't give to pass away quietly at the age of 84 in my high-backed chair surrounded by my books. Hm. Better get myself a high-backed chair.

3 posted on 04/24/2004 9:12:23 AM PDT by prion
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To: PatrickHenry
How long before some creationist intimates that now the good doctor knows the errors of his ways?
4 posted on 04/24/2004 9:15:31 AM PDT by Junior (Remember, you are unique, just like everyone else.)
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To: AdmSmith; spetznaz
poNg
5 posted on 04/24/2004 9:15:38 AM PDT by nuconvert ("America will never be intimidated by thugs and assassins." ...( Azadi baraye Iran)
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To: PatrickHenry
The solution remains a mystery.

That means that we at Darwin Central can make it up as we go along, right? Unlike creaationists, who are stuck forever with the absolute truth, all 2000 versions of it.

6 posted on 04/24/2004 9:16:40 AM PDT by js1138 (In a minute there is time, for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. J Forbes Kerry)
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To: PatrickHenry
Another Evolutionist gets to meet the Creator...Hmm what will they talk about?

"Maynard Smith deeply wanted to understand why there are males around -- why on Earth do you need males? Why didn't you just have a population of females?

Maynard...Its because the "Outtie" goes into the "innie".
and we get another one made in His image.

Maynard, you spent your whole life trying to figure that out?....And they made you a college professor?
no wonder you were a Commie and a Liberal.!! You "Evolved"
downward. Its the 2nd Law of Entrophy..Stupid people become
Commies and Liberals, and then become dumber, and more Liberal, and more stupid...etc. etc. etc.
7 posted on 04/24/2004 9:21:48 AM PDT by LtKerst (Lt Kerst)
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To: Junior
Six minutes, seventeen seconds.
8 posted on 04/24/2004 9:24:08 AM PDT by js1138 (In a minute there is time, for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. J Forbes Kerry)
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To: Junior; Dataman
How long before some creationist intimates that now the good doctor knows the errors of his ways?

Why project? You brought it up at post 4. Must have been a "Word of Knowledge". Heh...

9 posted on 04/24/2004 9:27:44 AM PDT by Thinkin' Gal
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To: PatrickHenry
John Maynard Smith, one of the most influential evolutionary biologists of the latter part of the 20th century

... and now a creationist.

10 posted on 04/24/2004 9:30:41 AM PDT by JHL
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To: PatrickHenry
"Maynard Smith deeply wanted to understand why there are males around -- why on Earth do you need males? Why didn't you just have a population of females?" said Paul Harvey, head of the department of zoology at the University of Oxford. "He gave us all the logical tools for exploring what the answers might be."

Possibly a lesbian preop/transsexual evolutionist?
11 posted on 04/24/2004 9:32:04 AM PDT by microgood
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To: PatrickHenry
Stockbrokers, don't raise your sons to be Commies... (Howard Dean, Maynard Smith...).

His problem with the Communist Party was timing: he must have tried to enlist during the period the Hitler-Stalin Pact was still in force, before June 22, 1941. After that, the Party would have been supportive.

12 posted on 04/24/2004 9:34:47 AM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: PatrickHenry
You had to know that a thread combining sex, politics, religion and evolution would head straight for the toilet.
13 posted on 04/24/2004 9:34:48 AM PDT by js1138 (In a minute there is time, for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. J Forbes Kerry)
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To: LtKerst
I think you're onto something here -- Let's call it the Second Law of Thermoeducation. It shall assert that, due to entropy, all education will in time devolve into universal stupidity and no further thought will be possible.
14 posted on 04/24/2004 9:35:14 AM PDT by T'wit (There's no evidence "Bush lied." But I can PROVE Bill Clinton told the truth -- once.)
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To: JHL
Or it might be beneficial to mix up genes, via sex, to keep a species genetically varied and able to respond to changes in the world.

Bingo - our ability to mutate allows for responding to external events and allows survival of the fittest and reporiduction of those who carry the genetic variant.

I really wish the evolutionists would stick to natural selection instead of the word evolution as it riles those who like to come a runnin and a thumpin.

15 posted on 04/24/2004 9:37:28 AM PDT by corkoman (Logged in - have you?)
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To: corkoman
oops - reproduction
16 posted on 04/24/2004 9:38:25 AM PDT by corkoman (Logged in - have you?)
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Comment #17 Removed by Moderator

To: PatrickHenry
A very nice book is The Major Transitions in Evolution
John Maynard Smith and Eörs Szathmáry
Oxford University Press 1995
http://dannyreviews.com/h/Major_Transitions.html

here is a link to his office
http://www.biols.susx.ac.uk/faculty/biology/maynard.htm
18 posted on 04/24/2004 9:41:42 AM PDT by AdmSmith
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To: corkoman
I really wish the evolutionists would stick to natural selection instead of the word evolution as it riles those who like to come a runnin and a thumpin.

But evolution is the irreducible fact of nature, the observed phenomenon that "natural selection" purports to explain. If natural selection should be disproven, the fact of evolution--the change of lifeforms over time--will remain. And after all, it's the "natural selection" part that is controversial.

19 posted on 04/24/2004 9:46:41 AM PDT by Physicist
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To: js1138
You had to know that a thread combining sex, politics, religion and evolution would head straight for the toilet.

If only I could have worked in a Civil War angle ...

20 posted on 04/24/2004 10:11:38 AM PDT by PatrickHenry (Scientific theories should be developed to explain the data, rather than the dogma.)
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