Postby Technomancer » Mon Sep 28, 2009 11:04 am
Neat! Atavisms like this do crop up from time to time both in snakes and other creatures, although I don't think I've ever seen one quite so well developed. Assuming the report is genuine, it will be interesting to see if there is a traceable cause, and whether that has any impact on why only one limb grew instead of the pair.
The scientific method," Thomas Henry Huxley once wrote, "is nothing but the normal working of the human mind." That is to say, when the mind is working; that is to say further, when it is engaged in corrrecting its mistakes. Taking this point of view, we may conclude that science is not physics, biology, or chemistry—is not even a "subject"—but a moral imperative drawn from a larger narrative whose purpose is to give perspective, balance, and humility to learning.
Neil Postman
(The End of Education)
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge
Isaac Aasimov