Photograph by Dave ThomasHomo nivarius -- evolution of the snowman.
26 Comments
Wheels · 4 January 2010
Pssh! Look at those GAPS between the three forms!
lamuella · 4 January 2010
eerily similar to some of the images from the manga Pluto by Urasawa.
Henry J · 4 January 2010
But will they survive global warming?
fnxtr · 4 January 2010
Our neighbours built a snowman holding a sign that read "Will work for freezer space."
Our snow is all gone now. Daily highs around 6C. If you have to live in Canada in the winter, this is the place.
John Kwok · 4 January 2010
Just examples of morphological stasis IMHO, don't you think:
Wheels said:
Pssh! Look at those GAPS between the three forms!
Matt G · 4 January 2010
I predict extinction within 6 months. Clearly NOT intelligently designed!
ofro · 4 January 2010
Matt G said:
I predict extinction within 6 months. Clearly NOT intelligently designed!
Whoa! Melting is an intelligently designed response to a rise of the ambient temperature above a certain threshold.
Matt G · 5 January 2010
ofro said:
Matt G said:
I predict extinction within 6 months. Clearly NOT intelligently designed!
Whoa! Melting is an intelligently designed response to a rise of the ambient temperature above a certain threshold.
Melting makes propagation of the species rather difficult, wouldn't you say? Fortunately, a genetically distinct species will arise by spontaneous generation next year, resurrected like a beautiful phoenix (or some other town in Arizona).
Rubbish. If they can't reliably predict the weather next week, how can they say that the hemisphere will be warmer in 6 months? Besides, just a few months ago all those know-it-all scientists were predicting hemispherical cooling.
Mark my words, the myth of hemispherical climate change will fall soon...
The three specimens in the foreground are just tiny ones. Check out the mega nivarius looming outside the frame at the upper left.
Cheers, Dave
ppb · 5 January 2010
But they're all still snowmen. That's just microevolution. ID wins!
Kevin B · 5 January 2010
ppb said:
But they're all still snowmen. That's just microevolution. ID wins!
I blame Raymond Briggs (and Aled Jones)
Matt G · 5 January 2010
Dave Thomas said:
The three specimens in the foreground are just tiny ones. Check out the mega nivarius looming outside the frame at the upper left.
Cheers, Dave
Island dwarfing?
Mike Elzinga · 5 January 2010
Hey; I just noticed. Is that little guy in the middle holding up the big guy at gun point?
Robert Byers · 6 January 2010
Looks created to me and the surrounding porch. These are not intermediate stages but types existing at the same time. The thing itself will go extinct but the picture (read fossil) will remain. Just make the right interpretation.
stevaroni · 6 January 2010
Clearly, the 2nd law of thermodynamics is at play. You can clearly see how the the high-entropy state in the background is encroaching on the supposedly "evolving" nivarius (although nobody actually saw that happen, now did they?). Anyhow, entropy will soon have it's way.
fnxtr · 6 January 2010
"Looks created to me and the surrounding porch."
.... and we're more likely to have a productive conversation with the surrounding porch.
Kevin B · 6 January 2010
fnxtr said:
"Looks created to me and the surrounding porch."
.... and we're more likely to have a productive conversation with the surrounding porch.
I doubt that Robert realised that there was a substantive point there. There are good grounds for presuming that the snowmen were "manufactured", rather than having "grown", because there is no evidence that there is a "replication engine" within the snowmen themselves. Instead there must be some external agency that, at least in part, made the snowmen.
There's a similar point in Meyer's passage about "1960s computers" that Arthur Hunt quoted on his blog post. The computer, on its own, is not self-replicating; it is merely a by-product of human DNA reproducing itself. Meyer's whole argument about all the possible combinations of circuit elements that wouldn't comprise a functional computer is just some much wasted ink; the selection is being done by a self-replicating human, who is looking for a configuration that suits his purpose. Meyer is making the usual error of thinking of the computer hardware on its own. Ironically, it was in the 1960s that it became painfully apparent that it was necessary to think in terms of a computer system; the hardware, the software and the environment around it, including the people.
Incidentally, while passing through the "self-replication" issue, Sir Tim Berners-Lee is a "second generation" computer pioneer. The list of 1950s computer applications and their developers here http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/CCS/res/res36.htm names both his parents....
eric · 6 January 2010
Matt G said:
I predict extinction within 6 months.
You extinctist! The evidence clearly indicates seasonal migration to New Zealand. Snowmen are like arctic terns. Only in reverse, and with quantum teleportation instead of wings. At least, that's my theory and I'm sticking to it.
Matt G said:
I predict extinction within 6 months.
You extinctist! The evidence clearly indicates seasonal migration to New Zealand. Snowmen are like arctic terns. Only in reverse, and with quantum teleportation instead of wings. At least, that's my theory and I'm sticking to it.
No no no! Snowbirds migrate south every winter, laying the eggs we perceive as that white stuff falling from the sky. Occasionally, purely by chance, of course, those eggs pile up in heaps that have the mere appearance of design. But soon they'll hatch out into iceworms.
fnxtr · 6 January 2010
The Snowbirds actually practice right near here every April, before they tour the air shows. :-)
SWT · 8 January 2010
If snowmen evolved, why are there still snowballs?
Henry J · 8 January 2010
why are there still snowballs?
Maybe it's an arms race?
henry · 11 January 2010
The side effects of climategate.
themuckypaw · 16 January 2010
God clearly states in the bible that on the 8th day, when he rested, he made it snow and that he then CREATED snow men. You can't fool us with your snowman-darwinism theories. ;OP
scince nut · 16 January 2010
Talk about obstacles to a complete fossil record...sheesh!
26 Comments
Wheels · 4 January 2010
Pssh! Look at those GAPS between the three forms!
lamuella · 4 January 2010
eerily similar to some of the images from the manga Pluto by Urasawa.
Henry J · 4 January 2010
But will they survive global warming?
fnxtr · 4 January 2010
Our neighbours built a snowman holding a sign that read "Will work for freezer space."
Our snow is all gone now. Daily highs around 6C. If you have to live in Canada in the winter, this is the place.
John Kwok · 4 January 2010
Matt G · 4 January 2010
I predict extinction within 6 months. Clearly NOT intelligently designed!
ofro · 4 January 2010
Matt G · 5 January 2010
John Mark Ockerbloom · 5 January 2010
"I predict extinction within 6 months."
Rubbish. If they can't reliably predict the weather next week, how can they say that the hemisphere will be warmer in 6 months? Besides, just a few months ago all those know-it-all scientists were predicting hemispherical cooling.
Mark my words, the myth of hemispherical climate change will fall soon...
Dave Thomas · 5 January 2010
The three specimens in the foreground are just tiny ones. Check out the mega nivarius looming outside the frame at the upper left.
Cheers, Dave
ppb · 5 January 2010
But they're all still snowmen. That's just microevolution. ID wins!
Kevin B · 5 January 2010
Matt G · 5 January 2010
Mike Elzinga · 5 January 2010
Hey; I just noticed. Is that little guy in the middle holding up the big guy at gun point?
Robert Byers · 6 January 2010
Looks created to me and the surrounding porch.
These are not intermediate stages but types existing at the same time. The thing itself will go extinct but the picture (read fossil) will remain. Just make the right interpretation.
stevaroni · 6 January 2010
Clearly, the 2nd law of thermodynamics is at play. You can clearly see how the the high-entropy state in the background is encroaching on the supposedly "evolving" nivarius (although nobody actually saw that happen, now did they?). Anyhow, entropy will soon have it's way.
fnxtr · 6 January 2010
"Looks created to me and the surrounding porch."
.... and we're more likely to have a productive conversation with the surrounding porch.
Kevin B · 6 January 2010
eric · 6 January 2010
RBH · 6 January 2010
fnxtr · 6 January 2010
The Snowbirds actually practice right near here every April, before they tour the air shows. :-)
SWT · 8 January 2010
If snowmen evolved, why are there still snowballs?
Henry J · 8 January 2010
henry · 11 January 2010
The side effects of climategate.
themuckypaw · 16 January 2010
God clearly states in the bible that on the 8th day, when he rested, he made it snow and that he then CREATED snow men. You can't fool us with your snowman-darwinism theories. ;OP
scince nut · 16 January 2010
Talk about obstacles to a complete fossil record...sheesh!
(...or should I say sluuush?)