Top google hit a secret Intelligent Design website?

[Loriciferan Universe]

http://www.discoverlife.org/

This website claims to display phylogenies, but instead displays taxonomic rankings under that title. It also refers to species as "kinds".
http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?search=Geryoniidae

What concerns me is that it's a top Google hit, and the organization is submitting NSF grants. There is no Wiki page about the website or it's founder group: Polistes Foundation

I'm concerned that the group is pitching scientific data with an undisclosed bias...

Does anyone know anything?

 

[Marduk]

info
http://www.whois.net/whois/discoverlife.org
affiliated with the University of Georgia
looks legit to me

 

[Emet]

info
http://www.whois.net/whois/discoverlife.org
affiliated with the University of Georgia
looks legit to me

Agreed.

The Polistes Foundation

Our mission is to assemble and share knowledge about nature
in order to improve education, health, agriculture, economic development,
and conservation throughout the world.

Web-based identification guides for common North American butterflies, moths, caterpillars, wildflowers, and invasive species

http://www.discoverlife.org/pa/or/polistes/pr/2002nbii.html

(The UGA mascot is another subject entirely)

 

[Drachasor]

I don't think they mean "kinds" in a technical way. You can pick one "kind" and then go to a menu where the options are also listed as "kinds."

 

[Marduk]

I don't think they mean "kinds" in a technical way. You can pick one "kind" and then go to a menu where the options are also listed as "kinds."

"Kinds" is one of those buzz words frequently used by creotards where they should be saying "species", however to acknowledge species of the same type of animal is to admit that evolution has a point.
I expect thats the only suspicious thing about this website

 

[Emet]

Here's the C.V. of the founder:

John Pickering
Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia
(...)
Research

My goal is to understand changes in the diversity, abundance, distribution and dispersal of all living things across local to global scales. Clearly, I cannot accomplish this alone. Hence, the advent of Discover Life (www.discoverlife.org) -- a website with the technology to enable an army of scientists, students and volunteers to work together, study biodiversity and share information on a grand scale. For over a decade my almost single-minded passion has been to build this interactive encyclopedia. Currently it and its partner databases provide information on over 1.2 million species. This website has had over 765 million hits. In October, 2010, it served 21.7 million pages and images to 300,000 IP addresses. Its online tools include a global mapper (www.discoverlife.org/map) that enables users to compare the distribution of 250,000 species across geographic scales.

http://www.discoverlife.org/who/CV/Pickering,_John.html

 

[Wowbagger]

Use of the term "IDnature guides" alarmed me, at first. But, oddly, I think they are using it as an abbreviation of identification, not "Intelligent Design".

There doesn't seem to be any actual claims of an Intelligent Designer in the materials I've perused on that site. Just a lot of confusing terminology.

 

[Drachasor]

"Kinds" is one of those buzz words frequently used by creotards where they should be saying "species", however to acknowledge species of the same type of animal is to admit that evolution has a point.
I expect thats the only suspicious thing about this website

I know how kinds is used by creationists. The website uses the word in a way that doesn't jive with that.

 

[Marduk]

I know how kinds is used by creationists. The website uses the word in a way that doesn't jive with that.

Tell that to the OP

 

[Loriciferan Universe]

Ok ok, you guys may be right. Smells suspect to me, maybe it's one too many ID interactions where I've been educated to the fact that evolution *can* happen within *kinds*, but not on a macro-scale :-/ So any time I see that word in replace of species my ears perk. I still stand by my point that their "phylogenies"-- which is supposed to be a evolutionary tree, isn't represented as such. But maybe it's just an oversite on their part.... I'll cool it, for now

 

[Emet]

I e-mailed Dr. Pickering to let him know about this thread. I just received this reply from the Outreach Coordinator, who asked me to post this:

My name is Nancy Lowe, and I am Outreach Coordinator for Discover Life. I can assure you that Discover Life is NOT a website for "intelligent design."

1. The reason we use the word "kinds" rather than "species" is to be user-friendly and approachable. It is our goal that everyone finds our website useful, from first graders to land managers, schoolteachers to PhD taxonomists and ecologists. Even though we provide sophisticated content, we try to present it using non-intimidating language. We avoid jargon and aim for the simplest language possible. Thus, "hairs" instead of "trichomes," "horse-shoe shaped" instead of "hippocrepiform," and "kinds" instead of "species."

2. The "ID" in IDnature guides stands for identification. You will note that when you click on the link for IDnature guides, the heading for the IDnature guides page says "Discover Life -- Identification guides and checklists of plants and animals."

3. We include evolutionary content on our site. From our home page, if you click on All Living Things then click on the Tree of Life, it will take you to this page:
http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20m?tree=Life&flags=all:

4.The website is a project of John Pickering, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist whose CV can be found here:
http://www.discoverlife.org/who/CV/Pickering,_John.html

I hope this clears things up.

 

[Wowbagger]

That does clear things up. But, it's amazing how we can have such knee-jerk reactions to such words as "kinds" and "ID".

 

[Emet]

UGA is located in Athens, GA. I lived in GA when the CCC* created a ruckus in Cobb County, GA.

I wonder how many tax dollars were wasted buying, placing, then scraping off the silly stickers.







*Creationist Cuckoo Club

 

[Loriciferan Universe]

Thanks Emet for your followup! Really good to hear. Although I'm surprised they think "kinds" is more approachable than "species". I think people generally know what a species is, and it doesn't have the same double meaning as "kinds" does with intelligent design. But if they do decide to change it, at least it'll be a simple search and replace, not quite like Cobb County O_O

 

[biomorph]

Thanks Emet for your followup! Really good to hear. Although I'm surprised they think "kinds" is more approachable than "species".

I think it is, to those who use that word to just mean "different".

However if the reader can't bone up on what the word "species" means (lol), then there's not much hope for 'em learning perhaps more difficult words...is there?

I sort of also carry the opinion that language in this way can appear to erect glass ceilings on learning, as in association of some words with something difficult or uncomfortable, and perhaps trying......

Also this is part of the ID crowds damaging effect on education, that any interpretation of their use of the word "kinds" has to be guarded against, and the commonly used term "kinds" meaning "differerent things" has to be avoided.......

Is there a real glass ceiling? I think its likely there is some that would shy at that, but that wouldn't spare them from the latin (lol) on the same page...

Anyhow, using more defined terms such as "species" could easily be backed up by a shortish, non-technically worded approximate definition of its use on the site... simple really, and "entry level".............

I think people generally know what a species is, and it doesn't have the same double meaning as "kinds" does with intelligent design.

possibly so...

 

[Emet]

Thanks Emet for your followup! Really good to hear. Although I'm surprised they think "kinds" is more approachable than "species". I think people generally know what a species is, and it doesn't have the same double meaning as "kinds" does with intelligent design. But if they do decide to change it, at least it'll be a simple search and replace, not quite like Cobb County O_O

No problem. I'm not an educator, and know nothing about teaching very young children. First graders are 6-7 years old. We also don't know what teachers are instructing their students in the classrooms after using the site.

I think it is, to those who use that word to just mean "different".

However if the reader can't bone up on what the word "species" means (lol), then there's not much hope for 'em learning perhaps more difficult words...is there?

I sort of also carry the opinion that language in this way can appear to erect glass ceilings on learning, as in association of some words with something difficult or uncomfortable, and perhaps trying......

Also this is part of the ID crowds damaging effect on education, that any interpretation of their use of the word "kinds" has to be guarded against, and the commonly used term "kinds" meaning "differerent things" has to be avoided.......

Is there a real glass ceiling? I think its likely there is some that would shy at that, but that wouldn't spare them from the latin (lol) on the same page...

Anyhow, using more defined terms such as "species" could easily be backed up by a shortish, non-technically worded approximate definition of its use on the site... simple really, and "entry level".............

possibly so...

Well, I see your point, but again, we are talking about a multi-purpose web page. I suspect a lot of thought went into the design of the site-- that's my best guess, anyways, FWIW. Could the site be improved? I honestly don't know, but you can always contact them.


Contact information:

link

Contact

If you have suggestions or wish to participate in our endeavor, please contact John Pickering.

linky

Contact information

Outreach and educational activities
Nancy Lowe -- email: nancy@discoverlife.org -- telephone: USA-404-272-4526
Albums, general questions, and information
Jill Talmadge -- email: dl@discoverlife.org -- telephone: USA-706-248-9287
Mailing adddress
John Pickering
517 Biological Science Building
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602-2602, USA

I heard back from the outreach coordinator less than 24 hours after sending my e-mail.

 

[TubbaBlubba]

There doesn't seem to be any actual claims of an Intelligent Designer in the materials I've perused on that site.

Did you mean "the materials I've read very thoroughly" or is this the classic "peruse = glance over" mistake?


(heil grammar)

 

[The Shrike]

Never ceased to be amazed at the density of scientists regarding communications to "the public." How could they not know that "ID" carries double meaning? "Species" is a much more commonly encountered word than jargon like "trichomes." Ugh. Do we really want to create a highly interactive encyclopedia to the diversity of life in which we assume that the users of the site are not sophisticated enough to deal with the term "species?"