Talk.Origins Jargon
Wesley R. Elsberry
Talk.Origins Jargon
Wesley R. Elsberry
[Compiled by: Wesley R. Elsberry]
Styled after the Jargon file of Eric S. Raymond and Guy Luc Steele, and also after "The Devil's Dictionary" by Ambrose Bierce, but without the polish and verve seen in those two documents.
This is a beta-test HTML version of Wesley R. Elsberry's talk.origins/Evolution Echo Jargon File and Biographica. The cross-references in the original text version of the files have been automatically converted into HTML hyperlinks. The process of conversion checks for dangling links, but there may be some links left dangling or pointing to the wrong place. If you think you've found a link error (other than the known dangling links for Herbert Spencer and Dmitri Kousnetsov), please send mail to Peter Lamb (prl@csis.dit.csiro.au).
Some of the things that I think might improve the HTML file are:
<A NAME="...">...</A>
to a single location in the file (impossible? HTML
expert opinion sought). See the entries in the
Biographica to see what I mean.
Although it is the eventual intention that other documents can make references to definitions in the Jargon file, it is probably not advisable to do so until the issues of how best to divide the file up are resolved.
From here you can get to the main sections of the Jargon File:
Purpose: This file is intended to be an informal glossary of terms and phrases often encountered in discussions found on the Usenet talk.origins newsgroup and the FidoNet Evolution Echo. My personal outlook indicates that much of the debate stems from persons not understanding the relevant definitions of terms used in converse.To give folks an indication of what the others might be thinking, most words or phrases listed here will have at least two definitions. The approximation to denotation will be listed first, and the approximation to the commonly encountered connotation second or later. I will try to mark denotations and connotations where it may not be obvious as to which is which, along with the group responsible for so defining or misappropriating the term.
If a FAQ is associated with the topic, that will be indicated by a [FAQ] (FAQ Available) at the start of the entry.
If an entry is one upon which I am particularly shaky, it will be flagged with a "*". While I will gratefully accept and acknowledge additions and corrections for any entry, I will be especially appreciative of those who can give me more detail on asterisked items. Since I am firmly in the science camp, I expect the following glossary to be of more use/consonance to those who are similarly minded. If anyone can explain an entry from the TAE/SciCre viewpoint that promotes understanding and goodwill without being misleading, I'll be happy to add or amend entries to suit.
If an entry is one that is currently in development, it will be marked with a leading "?". The reader may encounter two entries for the same word or phrase, both marked with "?". This indicates a situation where I haven't decided on which to prefer and keep.
While the debate over secondary education consequences in the USA is very serious, participants should be able to appreciate humor and remember that all the other participants are human as well (at least, no known Loebner Prize contenders frequent either t.o. or the Evolution Echo). A basic enjoyment of keen debate should be at least a secondary motivation for participation in these discussions, so one should be prepared to follow a paraphrase of a common aphorism:
One should not attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity, AND one should not attribute to stupidity what can be explained by ignorance.
This, then, is intended to be a useful guide for the newcomer to the origins debate, and a semi-humorous diversion for the veteran trooper. Not all (intended to be) humorous entries are marked with emoticons. Without further pontification, here is the stuff.
The Glossary -- the jargon of the origins debate
Futuyma, Douglas J. 1979. Evolutionary Biology. Sinauer Associates.
Suzuki, Griffiths, Miller and Lewontin. 1989. An Introduction to Genetic Analysis, 4th Edition.
Brinkman, Matt Colby, Chris Cox, Ken Fargher, Rob Harter, Richard Isaak, Mark Jefferys, William H. Kettenring, Thomas Lippard, James Morlan, Joe Otto, Jeff Peters, Andy Scharle, Tom Scott, Alan Stassen, Chris Vickers, Brett J. Vonroeschlaub, W. Kurt Watson, Bradley S. Watson, Stephen Wiener, Matthew P.My thanks to Jeff Otto for the Suzuki reference and excerpts.
%{
#include
#include
%}
%%
\n":".*":" { return 1; }
\n { return 2; }
. { return 3; }
%%
/*
This program must be run through flex or lex, then the resulting lex.yy.c
or lexyy.c file must be compiled using cc or gcc. Name the resulting
executable 'jargonx'.
*/
/* string to uppercase */
void strup(char *s) {
short int ii;
for (ii = 0; ii argc) {
fprintf(stderr,"Usage: jargonx word
Queued
List of suggested new entries, feel free to submit denotations and connotations
for these
Clade
Intellectual honesty
Rassenkreis
Transformed cladist
Resources
Matt Brinkman maintains a list of FAQs for talk.origins. Contact him at
brinkman@edseq1.llnl.gov.
Andy Peters maintains the talk.origins Welcome FAQ. Contact him at
adpeters@sunflower.bio.indiana.edu.
FAQs may be obtained by anonymous ftp to ics.uci.edu :
/pub/origins. (IP address 128.195.1.1), or through email.
Send a letter to "bvickers=origins@ics.uci.edu" containing the world
"help" in the text.
FAQs may be obtained by direct dialup to Central Neural System BBS at
409-737-5222, and downloading from the SCI file section.
A subset of FAQs is available via email from me. Drop an email note
to me at welsberr@orca.tamu.edu for the list, which includes most of
the Chris Stassen dating FAQs and some others that are not yet in the
ftp site.
Perpetrator
Contributions, corrections, etc. can be sent to
Wesley R. Elsberry, welsberr@orca.tamu.edu, 4160 Pirates' Beach
wesley.elsberry@f385.n386.z1.fidonet.org Galveston, TX 77554
Flames may be sent to /dev/null.
If you don't, I will.
"A work of art is never finished, only abandoned." -- (name that source)
Biographica, version 0.52, 941026
A summary of dramatis personae of the online biology/creationism debate.
Compiled by Wesley R. Elsberry
The following text gives a brief description ('terse' might be more
accurate) of various and sundry names that one encounters in online
discussion of biological topics and abiogenesis where these cross with
religiously motivated anti-science partisans. Some of the people
mentioned are participants, others would not be caught dead or
otherwise near a computer keyboard, and others are mentioned because of
historical interest (i.e., if they were near a computer keyboard, they
would still be dead).
The descriptions are intended to allow the new participant to get some
picture of the associations others have with a particular name without
having to waste bandwidth in asking, "Who is this Stephen Jay Gould
fellow, anyway?"
General notes
Names appear between colons. The software listed in the Jargon File
will also work to extract entries from Biographica. The date field
is enclosed in square brackets. A question mark at the start indicates
that the compiler doesn't know/hasn't looked up/hasn't been informed of
the date of birth of the person named in the name field. A question
mark at the end indicates that the compiler is pretty sure that the
person named is, indeed, dead, but didn't have at hand the year of
death. No question mark and no date at the end means that the person
named is probably still alive at the date of the version's compilation.
Primary categories of association come next. Persons will be
identified as to either their most recent profession or their stance on
the creation/evolution debate, or both.
Further information
concerning the named person follows. This is intended to include basic
items of interest to people involved in the creation/evolution online
discussions, but may exclude otherwise important biographical data.
The training and educational background of online discussion
participants is considered of interest.
Contributions
If you wish to contribute a description to Biographica, format the
complete entry as current entries are formatted. Send the resulting
text via email to welsberr@orca.tamu.edu with a subject line that
includes "Biography Update". Items sent unformatted or without the
indicated subject line will not necessarily even be noticed, much less
included in future versions of Biographica. This file has proved to be
more work than I had thought possible, and it isn't anywhere near
complete yet. Your help and consideration in making changes easier to
make will make it possible for me to go through more revisions faster,
which should make the final product that much more useful.
Template
:Name: [Year-of-birth - (Year-of-death)] Profession(s) and/or position
on creation/evolution debate. If an online participant, which forum or
fora, past education or training, associations such as CWACK or U. of
E. faculty. Authorship of FAQs or publications relevant to the online
debate. Any memorable contribution or involvement in controversy which
garners current references.
Who's who in the online origins debate
Biographica Appendices
Contributors
Ken Cox
Bill Jefferys
Thomas Kettenring
James J. Lippard
Steven Price
Tero Sand
Tom Scharle
Richard Trott
Matthew P. Wiener
Requested Biographies
Version History
Version 0.52 notes
Thanks to other contributors (list at end of file) for helping to
correct my errors. I've made a pass through the Vickers site file
list, and hope that I've accurately stated associations between authors
and files. "Author" referencing files can mean a single author, or a co
-author.
Version 0.51 notes
Many thanks to James Lippard and Tero Sand, who provided early reviews
and additional information for the file. Most of the date fields
are filled only with question marks. This initial version seeks to get
some platform for further contribution out into the open. I assume
that many people offended by my poor scholarship in not knowing the
birth and death years of various and sundry entries will write to let
me know what they are. Many of the same people will no doubt expand
upon entries of their favorite famous/infamous notable persons. Fine,
I like it that way.
I have tried to give some commentary on all
names of people associated with a TAE or SciCre stance. I have not done so
for most other names of online participants in this list. If your name
appears without a description, and you resent the oversight, please
send your own autobiographical description for inclusion in future
versions of Biographica.
Future versions will have numbered
descriptions, where the first entry under a name of an online
participant will be an autobiographical account, edited for consistency
of format. Secondary and further entries will be biographical
information from the compiler or other contributors.
A relatively
easy set of additions which I nevertheless have not yet made is to use
the t.o. FAQ filelist to fill out entries of contributors.
Plea
Please make corrections by extracting the offending entry, correcting
it, and emailing the corrected complete entry to welsberr@orca.tamu.edu with a
subject line of "Biography Update".
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