#40914: — 09/21  at  01:42 PM
Reporting in from the Great White North. I'm a graduate student at McGill University, and enjoy the blog immensely. My research project involves studying the population dynamics of transposable elements, so I like hearing about all the evo-devo stuff so I can keep up with my friends down at the museum. Keep it up!

#40915: Garrett — 09/21  at  01:43 PM
Longtime lurker here... I'm an anthropology undergrad at the University of Utah. I stumbled across your site some time ago (from where I can't remember) and I've been addicted ever since. Your blog is among my favorites. As for what you are "supposed to write" (or not), I don't think you need to change anything. Keep up the good work.

#40916: — 09/21  at  01:44 PM
Greetings! I'm pretty much a lurker, but I've made a couple comments. Since I'm a very part-time college student and not involved in science any deeper than a fascination and hobby, I don't really feel qualified to comment most of the time. I like this blog and check it a few times a day because it's frequently amusing and, hey, I usually learn something.

#40917: — 09/21  at  01:44 PM
Just want to add my appreciation. I'm a long time sceptic lurker who appreciates the work you are doing through your blog. UTI and Pharyngula educate me and keep my perspective straight.

Thanks!

#40919: — 09/21  at  01:48 PM
Hi, PZ. I'm a recent UW-bio grad and have been lurking here for a few weeks. I'm also easily the high score on Dembski's panda game.

Keep up the good work!

#40920: Neoteny — 09/21  at  01:50 PM
Lurking is an understatement... I've been stalking your blog for the last month or so, checking multiple times a day and trying to read all the old posts. I've been meaning to comment, but generally you cover the topics adequately enough on your own. Anything I have to add is moot. I'm a biology major in Columbus, Ga (creation central) and I plan to pursue genetics of some sort in grad school. I like to square off against all the creationists I work with, not to debunk their beliefs or theories, just to try to make them think every once in a while. We talk about everything from evolution to politics. They generally just piss me off (a girl once told me she thinks an attack like the one on the twin towers was justified in God's eye). Anyway, I use your arguments and enjoy your discussions of religion and stupidity to no end. Keep up the good work.

#40921: Joey — 09/21  at  01:51 PM
Hi. I'm a grad student in political theory. I love reading this blog and have ever since I heard about it (from a link I think) maybe 9 mos ago or a little more. This is the only comment I've written.

Defending the Enlightenment is important, and I like that part of the blog a lot. But I think my favorite part is when you take unusual bio papers, esp. evolutionary bio, and tell us about them.

#40922: — 09/21  at  01:53 PM
Hi PZ! I don't comment that often so I guess I qualify as a lurker. I am not as eloquent as others who post. I LOVE your site. I came across it while looking up exploding frogs. (remember that?!?) One thing I really like about your site is being able to find books and other learning materials so I can teach my child what she should be learning in school.

Thanks!

#40923: — 09/21  at  01:53 PM
PZ: I'm a lawyer (redeemed, I hope, by having done a BSc first) who uses the time I'm not gainfully employed to read military history and science and play wargames (not paintball, and not FPS). I stumbled across pharyngula.org a few days ago in hunting up ammo for creationist bashing in my backyard (web version) and have been hooked since.

As to what you should write, you're doing spectacularly well as it is, so 'stay the course' - even that stopped clock is right now and again. There is an enormous amount of exciting biology material here, as well as excellent humour at the expense of creationists and right wing loons. That anyone would cling to the blinkered thinking that keeps creationists from experiencing the wonder of discovery that is laid out for folk here astounds me no matter how often I run into such folk.

That despite being a believing Catholic who has no trouble reconciling God and evolution/naturalism in science, taking a Gouldian view.

#40925: — 09/21  at  01:55 PM
i probably count as a lurker (3 or 4 comments in a year). i've been reading your blog for ~ 1 year.
me:
Postdoc in condensed matter physics. i am very concerned by the attempts to take down science and replace it with midevil philosophy as an attempt to get at evolutionary bio (frankly every scientist should be).

i read your blog because it gives me insights to biology (a field i would study if my skillset overlapped with it), you call out the creationist/anti-science hacks, you give insights to being a professor (a career i aspire to), and the comments teach me a lot.

i comment rarely because more often than not someone else says what i wanted to in a more consice and instructive way. And i tend to babbly when i get the chance (see what i mean?)

So i say ust keep up the good work. And i'll keep my place creepily watching from next to the punch bowl.

#40926: — 09/21  at  01:55 PM
Hi. I'm a high school biology teacher in a rural community. I just ticked off several parents at back to school night by explaining how tightly evolution is integrated within my curriculum. It made the principal wince, but the Superintendent was happy - his son is in my class.

#40927: — 09/21  at  01:56 PM
People who have better grammar and all-around style than me are posting that they're lurkers because they have nothing of value to add...
I guess I probably SHOULD be a lurker.

#40928: — 09/21  at  01:56 PM
I had never even read a blog until I found a reference to yours in Newsweek's "blogs to watch" about a month or so ago. Now I am hooked, which is good for my knowledge base - I actually found two very useful references on your site that I had not previously encountered. So while popping on and off your site a few times a day is not speeding my dissertation along, I have already been paid back in knowledge what I have spent in time. Plus now I see what (science) blogs are all about . . .

Oh, I am a 36 year old finishing Ph.D. student, studying development and evolution of the vertebrate skeleton - using zebrafish in a comparative context. My name is, shockingly, Trish, and I have been known to argue that ctenophores are cooler than fish. Not that fish aren't pretty darn cool.

#40929: Larry — 09/21  at  01:58 PM
I read your blog regularly and think my last post would
amuse a Biologist.

Here is an interesting reductio ad absurdum I thought of while reading a Bio-chemistry book yesterday:

I once read, in an Ecology book, of a species of fish where the female of the species had to mate with a male
of another species before it could be receptive to a male of its own species.

In an evolutionary world the explanation would be: At some time in the past this strategy enhanced the success of individuals in this species and the practice has survived.

In an Intelligent Design world the explanation would be:
The 11th Commandment: Woman, lie ye with thy neighbor and return receptive to your husbands seed.

#40930: Jeff — 09/21  at  01:59 PM
I've rarely posted, but read every day (multiple times a day, actually).

My only comments would be a) keep up the great work, I enjoy both the facts AND the outrage! and b) did you receive the donation I PayPal'ed a while back? I am kind of suspicious about online payments anyway, and having not heard anything I wasn't sure it came through.

Oh, and I am a scientific featherweight, having graduated with a double major in English and Art. I am currently a graphic designer, and my sole claim to fame is having made the HeroMachine super-hero generator for kids (and adults who, like me, refused to grow up).

Jeff Hebert

#40931: — 09/21  at  02:00 PM
Hi, I'm another of the lurkers. Great job, keep it up

#40932: — 09/21  at  02:05 PM
Hey, lurker from Eindhoven, The Netherlands here. I found out about your blog at the IIDB forums and have been lurking here for about a year now.

#40933: — 09/21  at  02:05 PM
I'm a geologist who has always had an interest in biology/paleontology. Obviously I am not fond of fundamentalists, since mine is one of the professions they habitually attack and distort. I've never commented because I can never think of anything sufficiently erudite to say!

#40934: — 09/21  at  02:07 PM
Ya got me! I'm not so much a lurker as simply lazy. I started out at talk origins (By the way, Mark Chu-Carroll may be a neighbor, but he isn't a relative, as far as I know. I do know he knows his thermodynamics. Keep it up, PZ! Not everyone has to be polite. In fact, outrage is a reasonable response to the crap that we have to put up with. Bob

#40935: — 09/21  at  02:08 PM
Another anthropology undergrad here. I come for the smackdowns and stay for the pie.

#40936: Jim — 09/21  at  02:11 PM
Yeah, another lurker. I'm a non-scientist (a writer, artist, and rare book conservator) who has a good layman's understanding of most science (biology the weakest, though...) Very much appreciate your efforts to combat the prideful stupidity of creationists, the ignorance of the media types, and the growing influence of religion on politics. These are issues important to us all, whether or not we're in the sciences, because only rational enlightenment can offer us hope. More info about me (and my artistic project to 'Paint the Moon' several years ago) on my websites.

Keep fighting the good fight!


Jim

#40939: — 09/21  at  02:14 PM
Hi, I'm a marketing consultant, no real biology background (though my husband has a BA in biology and is in the medical field). I found your site during Schiavo discussions and have lurked ever since. I love your posts on ID vs evolution, and appreciate your passionate (and spot-on) defense of fact-based science. OK, back to the shadows!

#40940: folderol — 09/21  at  02:15 PM
I'm an almost-daily lurker, college teacher and dressage horse trainer. I've never posted here, although I did e-mail a question to PZ which he kindly answered.

Last winter I met a couple who were rabid young earthers. I hadn't known, before then, that there were actually adult people who honestly thought the earth was only 5,000 years old. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I hurried to the Internet to research. I was relieved to find all sorts of reality-based sites, including Pharyngula, which is at the top of my list of must-reads.

#40941: — 09/21  at  02:15 PM
I think I found the site somehow via Randi's site or the Skeptics Dictionary, and check it out most every day. Very educational, especially on top of my whopping one high school class in biology, and I do enjoy the smack-downs of the creationist/ID clowns with those annoying facts of yours.

Also, and I'm not sure if this is a good thing, I do now think of PZ whenever I see references to squid, octopi, or Cthulhu. Especially if they're also dressed in pirate regalia...

#40942: — 09/21  at  02:15 PM
Hiya. I read Pharyngula every day. I've got your RSS feed in my list in Akregator. I found you after subscribing for a while to the DebunkCreation yahoo group.