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Friday, May 13, 2011

65




Today is Friday the 13th. It's also my birthday! I was born in 1946. Do the math.

I have no plans to retire 'cause I'm having too much fun.


91 comments :

burntloafer said...

Congratulations! Thanks for the good work, glad you are not going anywhere.

John Farrell said...

Best wishes for a happy birthday, Larry. I hope the fun continues!

Bryan said...

Congrads! Its m brothers b-day today as well; although he's a ways off from retirement...

Leslie Jane Moran said...

You have no plans to retire because I cut a deal with the University...otherwise they had to find you a broom closet to stay in for the next 5 years!

Happy Birthday, you're the best!

Don Cates said...

Happy Birthday,
Did you remember to make your OAS application?

James F. McGrath said...

Happy birthday! Glad Blogger decided to restore service in honor of this occasion!

Larry Moran said...

Don Cates asks,

Did you remember to make your OAS application?

Funny you should mention that. The procedures for getting Old Age Security (OAS) and Canada Pension (CP) are so complex it almost takes an advanced university education to apply successfully.

I still don't have the complete documentation for OAS. I was out of the country from September 1968 to June 1978 and the government of Canada needs certified proof that I left when I said I did and arrived back (permanently) in June 1978.

I have no idea how I going to get that documentation. The information hotline is telling me that I have to get "proof of entry" from Canada immigration.

Anonymous said...

Congrats Larry. I cannot imagine myself retiring either. Science and academia are a lot of fun indeed.

Augray said...

Happy Birthday!

Anonymous said...

"I have no plans to retire 'cause I'm having too much fun."

Will that be the case when you're burnin' in hell? (Just kiddin', of course. Well, hopefully)

TwoYaks said...

Happy Birthday, Larry! Many more!

bassel said...

Happy Birthday Prof.Moran!

smurph said...

happy birthday Larry!

EricJuve said...

Happy Birthday and may you continue till......

Matt Penfold said...

Happy Birthday Larry.

Atheistoclast said...

The baby boom generation of scientists will be remembered for getting us nowhere.

It is people like me, in their late 20s, who hold the key to the future.

Graham Martin-Royle said...

happy birthday

heretic said...

a very happy b-day to you sir-and MANY, MANY more!!! =)
- a true fan

Satcomguy said...

Happy Birthday, Larry! May it be the start of another great year for you!

Davoid said...

Best wishes for many more birthdays Larry.

-DU-

Satcomguy said...

Happy Birthday, Larry! May it be the start of a wonderful year for you!

Unknown said...

Well, Happy Birthday! :)

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday young man. Enjoy reading your material.

Tom Rhoads said...

Happy birthday.

Susan Benfold said...

Happy Birthday to you!! Hope you have a lovely day.

Michael said...

Well I'm glad you're still alive. Humanity is short on people who aren't stupid. So Happy Birthday and stay alive damn it. :)

Bill Dyas said...

Happy birthday Larry - and many more. I really enjoy your postings.
William Dyas MBE
Lyons, Colorado.

Jerry Coyne said...

Happy Birthday!

Jerry

Ray Freeman-Lynde said...

Happy 65th!

Kevin said...

Happy Birthday!

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday.

PZ Myers sent me here and I've decided to hang around for a while - I like the look of your blog.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday!

Bob said...

All the best, Larry. Live long and prosper...

tominwv said...

A heartfelt happy birthday, Larry, eventhough PZ told me to do it and I'm a slave to authority figures.

bornagain77 said...

Happy Birthday Larry

Susannah Anderson said...

Happy birthday!

"Proof of entry": I returned in '77. When the time came, I searched through all my old papers until I found a form about the stuff I was bringing back into Canada. That was enough for OAS.

It took ages for them to process it, though.

AJ Milne said...

Do the math...

(Muttering...) Lessee... carry the two...

Ah, man, this calculator* prolly doesn't have that many digits, thing is...

Oh. Wait. No worries.

Fortunately, it does scientific notation.

Happy birthday.

(*/Yes, being a spoiled young whippersnapper, who was born in an age** when we all had calculators in school, regrettably, I can now do no math without one.)

(**/Y'know... after the Cambrian explosion.)

GenghisFaun said...

Happy birthday! Do we get cake?

N2SE said...

Happy Birthday! Mine was the 9th, and I'm a ripe old 24!

Bora Zivkovic said...

Happy birthday!

jayne said...

HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY "A Very Happy Birthday with love from Pooh."

Greg Laden said...

I can't do the math on that one, my calculator is broken!!!!

Happy birthday anyway.

Chuck said...

Happy Birthday, I was born 5 days earlier on the 8th ( nine months after the atom bombs on Japan - I think my dad who was in the airforce at the time, was a happy camper !! ) Chuck

Troy Britain said...

Happy Birthday Larry!

Jolo said...

Happy birthday eh?

Unknown said...

Very humble accomplishment. Shoot higher!

GaryU said...

Happy birthday!

... I was told there would be no math

Karen said...

Happy birthday, Larry! In more solvent times, the California State University system had a plan whereby a professor could ease into the emeritus stage by teaching only one semester and getting salary/pension to cover an entire year, for five years.

One of my favorite professors took advantage of that plan. Cal did his five years, was hired back to teach one semester a year for another two years, and has since thrown his efforts into research. He's pushing 80, bounds into the office every morning and throws himself into his work, and slinks away in the early evening for a workout before dinner. He's never got less than three papers and at least one grant proposal in process.

I wish you, at age 80, as much energy and ambition as my friend Cal.

David Denning said...

Congratulations Larry. May your Gold Card save you heaps of money and may your amazing golden writing continue to enrich our lives for a long time. Thanks for all your efforts toward a more rational world based on better science understanding.

- from a fellow Gold Card holder who beat you to this honoured position by 20 days.

John S. Wilkins said...

Larry, are you only 9 years my senior? Why do I feel like a freshman whoever we argue? Have a great birthday. When do you transmute into Emeritus?

gowri said...

Happy Bday :)

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday! It's mine as well (1969).

Ed Darrell said...

Happy birthday to a guy who leads such a fine life that he has lots of friends, even many he's never met.

Many happy returns, too.

Anonymous said...

Hey, Happy Birthday Larry!

Lots of revs around the Sun, and you're by no means finished yet!

I am glad.

I get to read more good stuff from Larry Moran, one of my long-time favorites!

A toast raised to you sir!

Anonymous said...

Hey, Happy Birthday Larry!

Lots of revs around the Sun, and you're by no means finished yet!

I am glad.

I get to read more good stuff from Larry Moran, one of my long-time favorites!

A toast raised to you sir!

Melanie Dawn said...

Happy Birthday! Did you conquer the math problem?

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Larry!

From the minority that is NOT red necked Alberta.

:)

Cheers!

Rewarp said...

Happy Birthday!

I really enjoyed the Jonathan Wells book review you wrote. Learnt a whole lot from it.

Josephine said...

Happy Birthday! c:

Thony C. said...

I don't do birthdays but I hope you had a nice day anyway

DLC said...

Many happy returns on the day, Larry.

shellska said...

Happy (belated!) Milestone Birthday, Larry! You're an inspiration; I hope our paths cross again. Christine Shellska

Edo Bosnar said...

Happy birthday - and I really do enjoy your blog although I don't think I've ever left a comment before...

stevev said...

Happy Birthday Youngster!

Mike Haubrich said...

Sorry it's a day late, Larry, but I hope you have enjoyed your birthday this year.

Rick said...

You are an inspiration to all, Larry. Happy belated Birthday!

Anonymous said...

Live Long and Prosper. Happy Birthday Larry. your blog is the BEST!!
Denis Castaing

Ritchie Annand said...

"Will you still need me; will you
still feed me, a year after your previous promise ended?"

Happy Birthday, Larry!

Unknown said...

Happy belated birthday sir :)

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday, Dr. Moran.

shonny said...

All the best from a fellow '46er!

waldteufel said...

I was born the same year, and like you, I'm having too much fun doing science to retire!

So, Happy Birthday!

Dinosaur Kale and Collard Greens said...

Happy Birthday Larry! To many more!

Anonymous said...

happy birthday Larry!
patrick et christine

Leif B. Nielsen said...

Happy birthday!
Thank you for many interesting blogposts. May you continue on the sandwalk for many years!

Stephanie said...

Happy Birthday!!!! Enjoy your day.

ergaster said...

Happy Birthday Larry, and don't hurt yourself celebrating! :)

Deb

Anonymous said...

Larry will be forgotten in the mists of time, as will we all. Sorry to crash the party. But then... why should I be sorry?

Larry Moran said...

John Wilkins asks,

Larry, are you only 9 years my senior? Why do I feel like a freshman whoever we argue?

Funny, I feel the same way about you!

When do you transmute into Emeritus?

Becoming an Emeritus Professor at my university requires two things.

1. You have to retire.
2. The chair of the department has to approve because not all retirees become Emeritus Professors.

I'm not planning to retire anytime soon. And even if I was, there's no guarantee that my current chair would recommend me.

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday and best wishes. Keep up the great work.

Jane said...

Happy Birthday from Barcelona!

shellska said...

Happy belated birthday, Larry!

John A. Davison said...

Darwinians traditionally have refused to test their propositions. They have always misunderstood natural selection which, while very real, prevents organic change, exactly as Leo Berg claimed in 1922 -

"The struggle for existence and natural selection are not progressive agencies, but being, on the contrary, conservative, preserve the standard."
Nomogenesis, page 406

We accept this position as being in compliance with the testimony of the fossil record and the experimental laboratory. Accordingly, we reject the entire Darwinian model in favor of an hypothesis which proposes that the ascending series which the fossil record so clearly exhibits must have been planned by an unknown number of planners. We further believe that creative evolution is no longer in operation without a new Genus in two million years and a not a demonstrated new true species in historical times. Like ontogeny which also proceeds on the basis of information already present in the egg, phylogeny must have had a similar cause. Referring to ontogeny and phylogeny, each a part of the continuum which any evolutionary hypothesis must recognize, Berg offered this judgement -

"Neither in the one nor in the other is their room for chance."
Nomogenesis, page 134

We accept Berg as we accept William Bateson, Henry Fairfield Osborn and Reginals C. Punnett who had all reached the same position before him.

"It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it to be true."
Bertrand Russell

So much for the Darwinian paradigm. That it still survives, brands it the most persistent failed proposal in the history of science, the only conceivable position acceptable to the congenital atheist mindset.

jadavison.wordpress.com

John A. Davison said...

Come on Larry Moran.

Show that you are a man and respond to our assault on everything you hold dear. Do you really think you can go on indefinitely pretending that you have no critics? That has been the Darwinian way ever since St. George Mivart exposed natural selection as impotent in Darwin's own day. If you don't have the guts to respond, then do what Dawkins, Myers, Elsberry, Dembski etc, etc, have already done and banish me. You are pathetic.

Happy Birthday!

jadavison.wordpress.com

John Burrell said...

I've heard it said that retirement is a luxury that only the young can afford.

John A.Davison said...

Since Larry allows me to hold forth here, I will take that opportunity to present our thesis in terms that allow others to draw their own conclusions concerning the validity of the Darwinian model.

The fundamental problem resides in the inability of the Darwinian mindset to recognize that natural selection has alwasy been anti-evolutionary exactly as Leo Berg recognized long ago -

"The struggle for existence and natural selection are not progressive agencies, but being, on the contrary, conservative, maintain the standard."
Nomogenesis, page 406

We agree with Berg's assessment and reject every aspect of the Darwinian model in favor of a guided, purposeful organic evolution in which chance played at best a trivial role.

"Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority."
Thomas Henry Huxley

jadavison.wordpress.com

John A. Davison said...

Larry

I left a message for you on my weblog -

http://jadavison.wordpress.com/2008/01/23/why-banishment/comment-page-21/#comment-3420

#832 and preceding. R.S.V.P. if you have the stomach for it.

John A. Davison said...

Larry Moran

Have you no pride at all? Don't you realize that many of the greatest scientists since Darwin have all rejected natural selection as having nothing whatsoever to do with evolution. By ignoring me you are ignoring all of them as well. 90% of my evolutionary science stems directly from such giants as Richard B. Goldschmidt, Otto Schindewolf, Pierre Grasse, Leo Berg, William Bateson and Robert Broom, each an acknowledged expert in his field and not one a religious or atheist fanatic. By allowing these names to appear on your weblog without recognition you are defining yourself as an intellectual bigot. Your willingness to present yourself in such a fashion can only be interpreted as self destructive.

jadavison.wordpress.com

John A. Davison said...

Larry,

From my weblog:

836. John A. Davison - May 27, 2011 [Edit]

I never thought I would live to see how pathetic Darwinian dogma really is. Unable to respond, Moran imagines that by allowing us to hold forth, he is winning the intellectual conflict which has always plagued evolutionary science. What is equally remarkable is the absence of anyone else supporting our position. Could it be that Moran does not allow anyone else to speak? So far no one has. Nothing surprises me any more as the Darwinista continue to demonstrate their insecurity by every devious means imaginable, denigration, ridicule, banishment and now with Larry Moran practicing the most revealing of all tactics, stony silence, the ultimate insult which has characterized the way in which the Darwinians have traditionally dealt with their critics. We continue not to exist as Moran has made crystalline by his cowardly stance here on his birthday thread. Happy Birthday Larry. You are a Prince among men.

“Silence, the most perfect expression of scorn.”
George Bernard Shaw

It is hard to believe isn’t it?

Not all. It is a matter of record.

I love it so!

John A.Davison said...

From my weblog:

837. John A. Davison - May 28, 2011 [Edit]
http://tao.invisionzone.com/index.php?s=ebb40ea17984dddb2a5357b1448eec2d&showtopic=269

As all can plainly see, we have a real, tangible, proven ally in Terry Trainor. I wish there more more.

“The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.”
Samuel Johnson

jadavison.wordpress.com

John A.Davison said...

From my weblog:

27. John A. Davison - May 31, 2011 [Edit]
http://www.ashgate.com/pdf/leaflets/International_Library_of_Essays_on_Evolutionary_Thought_series.pdf

The above link will give one a pretty good idea of what we are up against.

The description starts off by describing evolution as a theory. Evolution took place in the past. There is nothing theoretical about the reality of organic evolution. Furthermore, there is no theory of evolution because there as yet is no verified hypothesis explaining how it took (past tense) place. The whole series of five volumes is pure Darwinian wool gathering written by Darwinians for consumption by Darwinians. It does serve however to explain why our science remains acceptable.

We continue not to exist. For a potent antidote to this nonsense, buy my book, read our essays on evolution and draw your own conclusions.

“I have found you an argument but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.”
Samuel Johnson

That only you can do.