December 1997 Notebook Entries

Notebook entry, Dec. 28, 1997

A newswire reports that the National Association of Biology Teachers has changed the wording of its position statements to reflect a major policy shift in their views on evolution.  The crucial words "unsupervised" and "impersonal" have been eliminated from the opening statement about "The diversity of life on Earth," giving biology teachers more leverage in teaching evolution and leaving room for the possibility of higher intelligence.  This places the association fairly close to Evolution's Voyage stance on evolution.  I put a link from my web page to theirs.

Notebook entry, Dec. 15, 97

I updated the Apple essay to reflect the Business Week cover story about Intel gearing up to provide microchips for the inexpensive computer market.  This is a big deal.  It has implications of major proportions to the internet in the future.

Work is going well with the DSM-IV gender separation and group mind analysis.  Most interesting.  It appears to be following my speculations.

I started the new book by Stephen Pinker, How the Mind Works. The work appears to be well connected in high places, as it had a review in the New Yorker, and Time magazines.  I may have to put off reading the book until after Jan. 98 to give it the close analysis and respect it deserves.

Notebook entry, December 12, 1997

I started to write a Christmas/Holiday greeting for my colleagues on the electronic bulletin board of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, but got so wraped up into the muse that I decided to put it up with its own page.  I also thought that the tone of the musing was a bit to strong to be placed in the public arena and would be better served on my own web site where I enjoy the freedom of being able to say what I want.  It is my house and I am free to express myself at will and if anyone is listening it is because they were curious and invited themselves in.

The new muse is titled: An Evolutionary Christmas Tale: Musing about DNA and Ebenezer Scrooge© and is at: http://www.evoyage.com/Christmas.htm

Notebook entry, December 4, 1997

Began work on the Hollywood Part Two essay today.  Subject deals with the origin of celebrities and the fascination with the morbid.  I finished the first sweep on the DSM-IV.  Will begin to put my findings on paper soon.