Aww, what sad news. Casey Luskin is leaving the Discovery Institute. Hilariously, he declares victory as he fades away, and cites two instances that he claims have finally validated intelligent design creationism.
The first is that the ENCODE proved that the genome is nearly entirely functional, exactly as ID predicted and against the expectations of those Darwinists. Unfortunately for him, that is not the case, and the ENCODE propagandists relied entirely on a peculiar and narrow definition of function that did not match any kind of function the creationists might have imagined.
The second is — hang on to your hats — epigenetics. Didn’t I just post something about epigenetics? Why, yes I did. I also posted something somewhat lengthy about it. It seems to be a common misconception among creationists.
Interestingly, these were also two of the obsessions of another creationist, Perry Marshall. He didn’t understand those concepts, either.
I think it’s quite appropriate that Luskin should vanish in a puff of misconceptions and ignorance. It’s been his stock in trade all along, after all.
brucej says
Heh, love that picture…I’ve been battling a M. musculus outbreak, and at least one has learned how to clean the peanut butter bait off of two different kinds of mousetraps without setting them off.
I may have to go for active measures, and re-introduce some felines to the house, as the dog’s version of ‘playing with their prey’ appears to be ‘invite them over for a friendly game of gin rummy’ as we’ve witnessed them watching a mouse run across the living room without so much as a twitch.
Zeno says
Luskin has always been such a smarmy little creep. How will the DI ever find a replacement of his caliber? He didn’t say what “furthering his studies” will entail, but we can all agree that he has plenty of room for much-needed education. Unfortunately, he’s unlikely to head in a constructive direction. His devotion to non-science is too strong.
It was sadly amusing to see his comment that “we’d been hearing Darwin activists misrepresent ID arguments for years” when the DI’s entire effort has focused on the misrepresentation of evolution.
When we hear from him again, it won’t be pretty.
Lofty says
brucej, bacon. Stick a scrap of fresh bacon into your trap with the rind jammed firmly in the hooks, then fry the bacon with a match to take away the smell of human fingers. Even the most intelligent mouse can’t imagine life without a bacon treat.
chigau (違う) says
PZ
The creator of the top graphic deserves a citation.
microraptor says
Zeno @2:
Kent Hovind is looking for a job, isn’t he?
Marcus Ranum says
Let’s hope F. Scott Fitzgerald was right about second acts, in Luskin’s case.
Marcus Ranum says
at least one has learned how to clean the peanut butter bait off of two different kinds of mousetraps without setting them off
The live capture traps (they’re these green plastic things…) work pretty good. The trick is once you catch any given mouse, you’ve got to take ’em on a long ride and relocate them to someplace where rich people live – or you’ll wind up with a house full of mice that know the green plastic houses are bad places. They’re quite quick learners.
I have a 6 foot black rat snake who lives under the freezer chest in my basement. Basement Snake does a bang up job except that it slows down in the winter, and that’s when the mice come into the house looking for more comfy quarters. On the other hand, cats shed hair all over everything, instead of just dropping a neatly folded skin behind (Basement Snake has a friend, Server Snake, who appears to like the modest heat output from my cisco router…) It was kinda funny because one year I had a visitor who’s into snakes and I mentioned Basement Snake so of course we had to traipse down and look around. Then she sees the snake and says “let’s go back upstairs.” Uh, ok. Not interesting? “No, that one’s a copperhead not a black rat.” So now I’m not sure what kind of snake it is living under my freezer chest. But it’s still lower maintenance than a cat. In fact, it’d probably know what to do with a cat.
tacitus says
Luskin:
Even if we grant that these are legitimate “pro-ID” peer reviewed publications, anyone care to hazard a guess as to how many “pro-evolution” peer reviewed publications there have been in the last 10 years, worldwide? Thousands? Tens of thousands?
unclefrogy says
glue traps work pretty well but they do not make them big enough to catch a Luskin.
uncle frogy
PZ Myers says
Glue traps are a horrible slow death. The live traps are problematic, too: mice have such rapid metabolisms that they’ll starve to death overnight. We used to use them, and finding cold dead mice the next morning was not pleasant, especially for the mouse.
Now we use the snap traps. They’re brutal, but quick, and the animal doesn’t suffer much.
PZ Myers says
#8: We know exactly how many ID publications there have been: 72, from a list compiled by the Discovery Institute.
I once sat down and asked how long it took PubMed to accumulate more than 70 publications about evolutionary biology in their database. It was less than two weeks.
slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says
re 10:
my thoughts exactly. attempting to be merciful can go the wrong way.
Has anyone tried those ultrasonic repellent devices? To at least keep the rodents away from human residences?
I’ve seen adverts, but personal recommendation is a little more reliable (depending on the person recommending)
ugh random internetz text is hardly reliable, but WTH. any recommendations? word that the adverts are totally misleading, are also welcome.
rietpluim says
Gee, how many were imprisoned?
pacal says
Re: No. 10:
I used to have an article from a magazine called Cottage Life that described glue traps has the Spanish Inquisition for mice. I agree they are unnecessarily horrible.
Re No. 12:
Save your money, those Ultra Sonic devices are just good at extracting money from your wallet, the mice aren’t affected.
chris61 says
I agree that nothing in ENCODE supports ID. How could it when nothing in biology supports ID? But ‘narrow’ definition of function? It was my impression that you considered ENCODE’s definition too expansive.
I’ve never had any trouble with live traps as long as I’ve checked them twice a day.
tomh says
I’ve used them for gophers, buried in the yard, and they worked well.
JoeBuddha says
I’m reminded of Stewie’s “Victory is mine!”. Except, Stewie is a lot more intelligent…
DonDueed says
Word of warning: do not try to discourage mice by using mothballs. I made a huge mistake, scattering a boxfull in my attic. Turns out I’m super sensitive to naphthalene and nearly poisoned myself. Cost me thousands to have all the cellulose insulation removed and replaced.
Ichthyic says
what’s funny is how even their own interpretations of “functionality of the genome”, and “epigenetics” actually directly conflict, given the message they are promoting, yet none of the cretins lapping this shit strudel up ever even notice.
..about trapping mice:
we had the same problem, mice quickly learning how to avoid the traps. we tried different baits, repositioning traps, etc. battle went on for months!
then, all we did was add ONE MORE (new) trap along a heavily traversed area, and heavily clean another area they were moving in (bleach kitchen floor).
caught all of them in 2 days.
I think they have track memories they use to move around, and if you fuck with that, they need to “reset”. Then they are vulnerable again to traps.
Ichthyic says
I think he meant “narrow” in the sense that very few geneticists would agree with the definition chosen by ENCODE.
Ichthyic says
Luskin:
LOL
just can’t stop lying… even in his last missive.
Rich Woods says
@slithey tove #12:
Yes, but one or two proselytisers still manage to claw their way to my front door every Easter.
Ichthyic says
Casey says he’s going back to improve his education.
So the question then is…
Is he educating himself to alleviate ignorance, or in how to better manipulate already ignorant people?
my money is on the latter.