100th episode of the Imaginary Friends Show Podcast is up!

I finally got together with the Imaginary Friends Show podcast guys, Jake Farr-Wharton and Gregg Savage, and took part in destroying the 100th episode with crass atheist and non-atheist related humour.

So if you’ve a spare 60 or so minutes to kill and honestly have nothing going on, what better way to waste an hour of your life than listening to the 100th ep!

Here it is! Stream it online or download it.

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Indonesia: A Moderate Islamic Country?

So I thought I’d write up a little piece about my experiences as an unashamedly open atheist in Indonesia to give anyone who reads this stuff an idea of what religion was like there. Here’s the first instalment.

Indonesia: A Moderate Islamic Country?

I jumped off the plane in Java expecting the worst. I’d heard something like 90% of Indonesians were muslim, and the rest were some other form of religion. I’d read and blogged about the treatment of an Indonesian atheist who posted a few Facebook statuses that upset his town and he was subsequently bashed and had his business place smashed up. So right from the start as I walked into the international terminal I was getting ready to shut my mouth for the coming month.

As I lined up at immigration I suddenly became aware of, and somewhat surprised at, the number of middle eastern muslims in the queue with us. Young men in their 20s and 30s were all hanging out chatting loudly whilst next to each of them stood their lesser half, donning the dark black burka from head to toe with barely a 2cm slit for their eyes.

I was with two others, Jane and Bill, who were from the museum and scientists like myself out here for fieldwork. Jane bumped into one of the younger men waiting in line as the queue moved forward. He turned and looked her up and down, and left his gaze on her chest as he grinned salaciously. Creeped the hell out of her, as it did Bill and I. As this happened another middle eastern man walked up to where we were standing in line and bent down under all the ropes as one of the immigration officers became vacant. Several Italian men at the front of the line became enraged, and one of them started shouting at him in english asking why he did that. The middle eastern man pretty much just brushed it off and said “It’s ok, I’ve been here before”. Man these guys were just oozing with self-entitlement and chauvinism!

Eventually we made our way through immigration and into the baggage collection area. I got my first real glimpse at a room full of Indonesian people. There were many women in the head veils, and men wearing their islamic caps, however there were also quite a few men and women not wearing any religious garment. We picked up our luggage and left the airport whilst getting quite a few stares from people, as ‘bules’ (pronounced ‘buley’, meaning Westerner or white person) weren’t that common in this country I quickly found out.

We were picked up by an Indonesian man who worked at the museum in Bogor, with which we were collaborating on this project (all research has to be done in collaboration with Indonesian scientists nowadays or it’s impossible to do fieldwork there). We crammed into his car and some of the first things I noticed were the arabic writing on islamic decorations in the car. I prepared myself for a long, awkward, silent trip to the hotel, but was incredibly surprised, and had to stop myself from giggling, as the man turned the radio on and out came blasting the latest album from the Indonesian Idol winner. Not the sort of music I picked for an islamic man (turns out Indonesians are obsessed with the worst kind of pop-music, and especially love Karaoke). This guy seemed already, and my first impressions of him were that he was a really nice, boisterous, eccentric, kung-fu Panda in appearance (seriously he had this look down pat), and happy man. Not the sort of adjectives I had expected to be throwing his way, but it was a nice surprise. The call to prayer sounded as we were driving, and kept getting softer then louder as we passed by the numerous mosques along the highway. I asked the man what does he do with regards to praying if he’s driving. He told me he never really bothered with it. I was shocked yet again…!

My first few weeks had me meeting some of the nicest people I’ve ever met, at least as a tourist in a foreign country. Everyone in the street wanted to say hello to you, wanted to speak to you, wanted to know your name and where you were going (never worked out why that was such an important question for them? “Hello Mister! Where you going?”). Within the first day I was approached by two groups of Indonesian girls, all wearing hijabs, who wanted photos with me and/or wanted to practice english with me. I was so surprised these girls were even acknowledging my presence, from previous experiences with islamic girls in Melbourne, Australia, let alone them looking me in the eye, smiling, laughing, wanting to speak to me. And pretty quickly it became obvious that this would be a repeated pattern all throughout our travels in Java and Sulawesi. No matter where you went, everyone smiled, everyone acknowledged you and pretty much treated you like a close mate, although sometimes too close…

Looking awkward during the first of 100s of photos I was asked to be in with locals

It had me questioning my previously staunch anti-islam beliefs. How could such nice, friendly, open people, despite being islamic, be so bad? They seemed like any other average person from Australia, just often wearing an islamic cap or hijab. I’d expected it to be like walking off the plane into Yemen or Iran when I’d gotten to Indonesia, after learning it was the country with the most muslims in it in the world. Maybe I was wrong, maybe these guys weren’t that bad…?

For the first week or so I felt somewhat ashamed that I had had such a negative preconceived idea of these people, solely based on religious grounds, prior to coming to this country. I had wanted to dislike anyone, thing or idea even remotely related to the religion of islam prior to coming here, but it felt like perhaps these guys weren’t as bad as the muslims of the middle east. I had always thought there was no such thing as a moderate muslim. That to be islamic meant you wanted death to all unbelievers, and for islam to spread and take over the world. But could I have been wrong? Could there be ‘moderate islamic’ country after all? Could it be Indonesia?

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Snapped a shot of the Transit of Venus!

I couldn’t help myself. I ran home this morning and grabbed my small Cannon 12.1 mega pixel camera and sat down out the front of the museum to take some shots. Had to wait for the clouds to come over the sun slightly as to block out a lot of the brightness and it worked!! Shitty photo I know, but taken by yours truly! Might try again if I’m around in another 100+ years to see the next pair of transits.

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A few people I’ve met in the past 2 years

Meeting Richard Dawkins at the first Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne, Australia, 2010.

I met Tim Flannery after the Think Inc. conference in Melbourne, Australia, in late 2011. Great guy, he was pretty interested in my Masters project, and I got to chat to him about it as well as his work in PNG for half an hour or so.

I hung around and eventually got to have a brief chat with Neil deGrass Tyson after he was finished flirting with all the girls there who kept asking him stupid questions about the Moon… I think he may have been somewhat inebriated. I remember making a dick of myself when I made a joke that neither Neil nor the rest of the people standing around understood. Good times!

I also met Michael Shermer that same afternoon at Think Inc., he was a nice guy, but wouldn’t stop talking about cycling with another guy who was apparently really into it. Funnily enough he invited anyone interested to come cycling with him down the Mornington Peninsula (right side of Port Philip Bay, Melbourne) the following day.

I was lucky to catch a few moments with Dan Dennett following a lecture he gave at The University of Melbourne late 2011.

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My Masters of Science project in photos

I finished my Masters of Science (MSc) at the University of Melbourne at the end of last year, and thankfully scored first class as did many of my good masters maties! I was looking at the goanna species Varanus varius and more specifically at the species phylogeography (wide-scale, historic gene flow), and its population / landscape genetics (small-scale, contemporary gene flow).

Brief findings:

• Historic gene flow – mtDNA analysis of ND4 showed the presence of 3 clades within the species, separated by montane biogeographic barriers (Great Dividing Range (GDR) and Mcpherson Range), and possibly the Burdekin Gap in northern Qld (dry habitat barrier). Although I’m just finishing up some final lab work and analysis to reveal whether its the Burdekin Gap or a pattern of isolation by distance that has split the clades in this area.
• Contemporary gene flow – Microsatellite analysis indicated male sex-biased dispersal was present within the species (males move further than females), no significant genetic structure over the 600kms^2 that I sampled indicating the species is incredibly dispersive (can move large distances), and that there was a more recent area of contact between two clades at the Hunter Valley, NSW.
• Evidence from both these markers and their analyses also indicated that the species was more historically restricted to the north coast of Australia in QLD, and when the climate become more favourable (warmer/wetter) in the south they expanded southwards.
• I also found evidence that the species had used the Murray-Darling river system and its surrounding forest as dispersive corridors to spread west inland and south from QLD. (Amazingly, some individuals from the GDR in Qld were more closely related to individuals from near Adelaide and northern Victoria (2000kms west/southwest) than they were to individuals 50kms to their east in Qld. It’s thought that flooding events will have also facilitated the spread of individuals down these river systems.

Anyway, I thought I’d share some of the photos taken during my 2 year MSc project. So bring on the photos! I’ll chuck my 2 cents in on top of each photo. By the way sorry for the poor quality of the photos, a lot were taken on my iPhone.

So this is the beasty I was studying and chasing around in the field on several field trips throughout 2009, ’10 and ’11, Varanus varius aka Tree Goanna or Lace Monitor. They were often found running along the sides of roads as it is easy terrain for them to walk on, or running around camping and picnic grounds.

I went on 3 field trips out to East Gippsland and Wilson’s Promontory, Victoria, Australia, where my supervisor had already been trapping for 2 or 3 years and had other MSc students doing their research on other creatures. I also went on a 2 week long field trip starting in Brisbane, Qld and drove down the east coast of Australia through NSW and into Victoria to try and fill sample gaps where museums had not collected genetic samples previously. I did pretty well, but often saw many more than I caught each day… Damn goannas were incredibly fast and quick to run up tries and evade us weirdos running around with dog noose polls.

Here are a few photos of the places and habitat I was trapping/catching these guys in.

The first 3 photos are from Wilson’s Promontory

The rest of the photos are from various locations along the coast in NSW.

At the time of the field trip down the east coast many areas of Qld and NSW were suffering those severe floods. The below are photos taken at Nymboida Pub, NSW.

This was the scene behind the pub, usually a small creek.

These were the 2m long aluminium traps I used to capture the goannas. They were a simple trap that just had a trap door held up by a pin that was attached to a wire running to the other end of the trap and inside it was tied to some chicken. When the goanna pulled on it the door shut and it was trapped. I also hung future baits from a tree nearby to fester up and send the smell off into the surrounding bush to attract them. Unfortunately they’d also attract things like wasps, one time in Wilson’s Prom a bag had 100s of European wasps all over it and in it eating the chicken… bastards!

Sand pads were also left outside the traps to see if goannas had come to check the location out but hadn’t triggered the trap. I also set up camera traps outside the aluminium traps at Wilson’s Prom (left side of the below photo tied to the tree).

This was a boy I caught near Newcastle, NSW. Once caught I duct taped their mouths and legs together to prevent the goannas hurting us or themselves while I measured them, weighed them and took blood samples from them for the genetic work.

Another big boy being measured out in East Gippsland.

I’d also take measurements of the head size, this one below has just had its snout taped and is about to be measured.

I’d use a syringe to take a blood sample from each individuals caudal vein/artery in their tail situated just below their spine. It took a while to get used to it but eventually I could do it within a few seconds.

Lizards would also be weighed. Although they are a sexually dimorphic species you couldn’t tell the females from the males if they were below 4kgs. Males were the only sex that grew past 4kgs, sometimes reaching up to 12kgs if they lived near a tip or camp site where food was abundant. This one below is on the smaller side so could have been either a male or a female.

Occasionally they’d be kind enough to hock up their last meal in the aluminium traps. The photo below is from the individual caught at Newcastle (pictured above). That camping spot had literally millions of cicadas pretty much screaming their calls constantly, so it was no surprise when this guy’s stomach turned out to be full of them, and a bit of fur from a possum.

These two photos below are of an individual from East Gippsland that had somehow managed to eat a juvenile echidna, spikes and all, and then been able to vomit them up?! That cannot have been pleasant at all…

While in Newcastle on the field trip we also hooked up with some of my supervisors scientist friends who were working on the biomechanics of varanids’ skulls and their bite force. They’d set up about 5-6 digital cameras in a semicircle around the individual to get a 3D image of its head, and then test its bite force using a pressure sensor. However, the one below wasn’t too interested in biting down as I suspect it was tired and had had enough.

See those bloody claws?! They use them for climbing trees, and most probably to tear at and hold carcasses they find while pulling flesh off them with their jaws. Here’re some closeups of the claws… epic talons! I was scratched quite a few times.

I often had to go to some extreme lengths, or heights rather, to capture some of these sneakily evasive goannas. They’d often climb straight up the tree at the first sight of a human and into the very thin branches at the top of it.

You probably can’t see it but there were actually 2 big males in the tree in the below photo. My mate and field assistant, who also was a freak rock climber, would happily tear up their trees bare hand with the noose pole to get the samples and data I needed! To attract these guys below we had by chance come across a dead wallaby and pulled it away from the road and under this tree where we tied it so it couldn’t be moved. When we showed up though there were 3 of them, one bailed before we were out of the care and the other two went straight up the tree. We got them both though muahahaha!

When letting them go I’d place them on a nearby tree so their claws were otherwise occupied with a grip and wouldn’t scratch me once I cut the tape. Then while holding the body against the tree with its freed limbs grabbing the tree trunk I’d take the tape on their snouts off. Often they wouldn’t move an inch and would just sit there pretending to be dead while you walked off.

Here are some more photos of the goannas we saw, and sometimes caught, on the road trip down the coast.

My supervisor and his son with one of the largest goannas caught in East Gippsland.

Some other herps I got to see on my trips. Feel free to tell me what the species are if you know them as I haven’t bothered to look these guys up yet.

A friendly little venomous surprise was waiting for me under a leaf in a pit fall trap bucket one morning, wasn’t keen to get him out by hand…

However, this guy below I was brave enough to pick up and have a better look at.

And non-herps. These are what I’ve always known as ‘spit-fires’ because if you touch them they spray some nasty chemical on you that burns like hell. Happened to me once as a child in the playground at school, since then I’ve never been done!

Eastern Grey Kangaroos at Wilson’s Prom.

THE END!

If for some reason you’d be interested in reading my thesis I’m more than willing to email it out just send me your email

Pete

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Podcast: The Evolution of Homosexuality

Here’s the latest podcast episode from The Imaginary Friends Show where Jake and I answer a listener’s question regarding the evolution of homosexuality.

Thanks to the listener, David, who wrote in to ask “why doesn’t natural selection explain homosexuality?” We answered your question, we answered the heck out of it. Then we answered it some more. Enjoy.

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The Imaginary Friends Show – Ep 77 I can’t believe he’s not fatter!

Here’s the latest podcast episode of The Imaginary Friends Show that I appeared on. I sit down with Gregg and Jake and speak about the soul, intelligence, e-people, space and the future of humanity.

Episode 77 – I can’t believe he’s not fatter!

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PhD project chosen!

So I got to choose my PhD project today, well at least somewhat. It’s nailed down a little more than it was a week ago. I had pretty much any Australian rodent species to choose from, and could look at anything from phylogenetics and phylogeography, to other areas of genomics (i.e. chromosomal rearrangements) and next generation sequencing (NGS) techniques.

I had a long hard think about what I wanted to achieve from my project, did I want to repeat what I’d done for my Masters of Science (MSc) and specialise in that specific area, or move onto new areas to get a broader skill set from? To me it was an easy choice, I wanted to leave the MSc behind and move onto other areas and improve my skill set.

I’ve decided to work on a genus of Australian rodents of which I’m sure most of you will know the name of, Rattus, aka rats! Now for a bit of background, Australia actually has at least 65 different species of rodents here, including the Old “Endemic” and New “Endemic” groups. Endemic meaning they’re only found here in Australia, with Old referring to an old wave of colonisation from South East Asia ~4-million-years-ago (MYA) and New referring to a later wave of colonisation ~1MYA. The genus Rattus makes up the New Endemics, with all other remaining Australian rodents making up the Old Endemics. Both these groups fall into the family Muridae, and from my limited knowledge obtained so far on this subject it has sequentially colonised Australia via South East Asia via Asia, with many endemic species also found in Africa and Europe, and introduced species found effectively everywhere now (i.e. Rattus rattus, the Black rat).

Anyway, I’ve chosen to work on the New “Endemics”, the genus Rattus here found throughout the Australian continent, which includes Papua New Guinea (together Australia and Papua New Guinea make up the landmass known as technically as Sahul). So my project will involve:

1. Piecing together a phylogeny of the New “Endemics” using either nuclear and mitochondrial sequencing, and maybe using NGS as well. So this will allow me to resolve how each species within the Rattus genus is related to one another, which are close, which are distant, which species actually comprise a species complex (i.e. multiple species grouped into a single species). I will also be able to move out from this and add other Rattus species from throughout South East Asia and hopefully piece together their path of colonisation from Asia through South East Asia and into Sahul. I’ll be doing field work in Sulawesi in Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea!

2. I’ll be examining the phylogeography of each species as well. That involves the sequencing of multiple individuals covering each species distribution and examining genetic relationships between them to elucidate any genetic breaks caused by biogeographic barriers. So in layman’s terms, how has each species evolved to fill out its current range? Has it been blocked by physical barriers like rivers or mountain ranges, or habitats barriers like dense rain forest or arid deserts?

3. I’ll be focusing in on examining the evolutionary genetics of two species in particular. Rattus villosissimus (the Long-haired rat) and Rattus fuscipes (the Bush rat). Rattus villosissimus is interesting to me, and captured my attention right from the start, because it normally exists in 2 or 3 disjunct populations in northern central Australia. In times of flooding, and subsequent productivity for its food source of native grass species, it goes through a huge population expansion rapidly erupting into billions of individuals that end up expanding the range to cover most of the Northern Territory and some of Queensland and Western Australia. After the flooding ends and the arid environment returns back to normal the species suffers a huge crash in numbers with the population retracting its range back to the disjunct pockets of perhaps only a few 1000 individuals. Because this has happened periodically following seasons of flooding, and because rats exhibit chromosomal rearrangements, this species might be going through periodic linear speciation or diversification. That is, that its genome is changing drastically due to these chromosomal rearrangements, and maybe in part due to genetic drift. Crazy huh? And Rattus fuscipes because it has a really cool distributions covering the coastal outline of Australia, inhabiting its mesic (wet forest) environments. It’s expected that this species colonised the mainland when a land bridge joined Papua New Guinea to Australia and then rapidly expanded along the coastline in a clockwise fashion throughout its current range. So it’ll be interesting to see what’s going on there too.

I’m sure, too, that many of you will have squirmed as soon as I mentioned rats! However, these guys are amazingly beautiful animals, and I’m dying to get out into the field and get my hands on a few of them soon! I’ll leave you with a few pictures.

Rattus villosissimus

Rattus fuscipes

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Live Show Report

The live Imaginary Friends Show podcast went really well! Cheers to everyone who came. For those who didn’t I’ll chuck up a few photos on here and on FB when Jake throws them up. Hopefully Think Inc. will be good fun tomorrow. Early start at 830am woooo

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Book outline, what’s required of authors, and deadline

Atheism Without The Grey Hairs

A Younger Generation’s Rise to Atheism

  Dear all young non-theists! I am Pete Darwin and I’m an avid secular humanist atheist and have been all my life. I’m currently completing a Masters of Science at the University of Melbourne in the area of evolutionary genetics and zoology.

Anyway, I am working at putting together a book of essays regarding the younger generations’ rise to atheism.

  The idea for this book was brought about when I decided I wanted to tell my story about how I became an atheist, as well as share a bit about my personal life with religion and numerous fundi family members. It’s been a bumpy and interesting ride to say the least. However, while reflecting on my own history with religion and atheism I knew there must be numerous other interesting, amazing, scary, and even heartbreaking stories out there that should also be told.

The majority of what one reads, views or hears about atheism comes from an older generation. They are the authors of books, speakers at conferences and hosts on documentaries, and they do an amazing job at it too. However, I think the voice of the younger generations of atheists and their experiences and stories would be a great addition to the scientific, skeptical and non-theistic realm!

  I want to provide a book that younger generations of theists, non-theists and agnostics alike can read, more easily digest, and hopefully connect with on a deeper level. I want to show what kind of person your average atheist is, and present an argument to show that the gap between atheists and theists is much narrower than assumed. To show that we atheists just have a different take on life that is based on scientific evidence and fact. Atheists are the least trusted minority according to US polls, when things couldn’t be further from the truth.

  So I think it’s incredibly important to create a book that illustrates who and what the average atheist is like, as well as why, when and how they became an atheist.

  I hope the book gives theist readers a better understanding of atheism and atheists in general, and not to fear or hate them as all too many do today. I hope it reassures and strengthens other atheists who read it, and that it gets fence sitter agnostics into the right paddock. I also hope that people in the process of losing their religion, or even those who just starting to question things, with something to connect with and provide a little support and guidance.

What is required of essay authors?

• To write 2000-5000 words
• Firstly, on their rise to atheism (the when, where, why, how), and any other interesting personal stories with religion or supernatural belief.
• Secondly, on the role atheism plays in your life.
• Thirdly, on at least one thing that brought them to atheism or solidifies there position there.

  For the third section I’d like to cover as many areas as possible, which reinforce one’s stance as an atheist or a sceptic (if it’s about supernatural beliefs like astrology/homeopathy/psychics, etc).

• Examples: any area of science: evolution, archaeology, geology, history and inaccuracies in the bible, philosophy, issues with morality, Christ mythicism,

  So one would introduce that topic and then explain how it is in direct contrast with theism or supernatural beliefs and affirms their atheism. With any personal stories relating to the topic added in if one chooses.

  It doesn’t have to be that exact formula, but the main idea is to have a personal story about how one became an atheist and why one remains an atheist with reference to a specific reason/topic. People are welcome to add in anything extra, and go outside of the word limit if they need.

  I will be getting in contact with a number of renowned atheists to be involved with this book, and will hopefully have space for 15-20 essays from average Joe young atheists of all shapes and sizes. I have to just quickly mention that all essays may be edited or asked for editing to be made, and that there’s no assurance that all essays will be published in the book. The best 15-20 will be chosen. Anyway, thanks for your time and keep fighting the good fight my friends!

  I might also add, the cut off age will be 40. So anyone 40 years old or younger is able to write for this book (sorry anyone 41+ years old, I had to put the line somewhere). I’m yet to work out organise a publisher and issues surrounded proceedings from the book, but hope to have this sorted in the coming few weeks. Stay tuned. Cheers for your time guys!

Deadline for submissions

  Quite a few people have been asking me about a deadline for getting their essay in for the book. There’s no real rush currently as I’m finishing up my MSc project from now until November, so I might put the deadline around the end of January of 2012. So let’s say Jan 31st for now, and if things change as I’m sure they will we can reassess things.

  So for anyone writing an essay currently, or hoping to write one in the future, feel free to send them to me at petedarwin@gmail.com anytime from now until January. However, I may not be able to read it and offer feed back instantly, but I promise to reply to all submissions as soon as I am able.

Please share this information around with anyone you may think would be interested in writing an essay.

Pete

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