Maybe the worst thing about creationism isn’t that it’s absurdly ugly but simply that it is false.
Filed under: Creationism | Tagged: Thought of the day, Worst thing about creationism | Leave a comment »
Leave of absence
Posted on July 18, 2009 by Michael
I will be driving up to Baxter State Park today to hike the 100-Mile Wilderness. This is the most remote section of the Appalachian Trail, so I’m pretty excited.
What this means is that I will be gone for about a week. I’ll return the night of the 25th at the earliest, more like during the 26th, and if it’s slow-going, then on the 27th. Anything beyond that will be unexpected.
In lieu of my ability to post each day, I’ve scheduled a series of posts for each day. Hopefully things will go swimmingly. In fact, to make sure they do, this post is my first test as it is actually Wednesday night right now and I’ve scheduled this for 8:00a.m. Saturday morning. Let’s hope you’re reading this.
In short, I won’t be actively posting or responding to any comments. Instead, I’ll be enjoying the beauty that is the Maine woods, as wrought by the slow processes of a godless Nature.
Filed under: Administrative | Tagged: 100-Mile Wilderness, Appalachian Trail, AT, Baxter State Park, Hiking, Maine | Leave a comment »
Old eggs, daphnia, and evolution
Posted on July 17, 2009 by Michael
When predation is high, crustaceans and other water loving egg lay-ers are not hatched much. What often happens is that they will remain dormant until later in the year when the predators are much less active. This offers a great research opportunity into evolution.
By hatching these eggs, Hairston and others can compare time-suspended hatchlings with their more contemporary counterparts to better understand how a species may have evolved…
What happens is that some of these eggs can remain unhatched for years and years, not just seasons. This is the case with daphnia. These are normally seasonal crustaceans, but researchers have specimens which are upwards of 40 years old. They use these to compare the change which has happened to this species over time. 
In the 1960’s, the lake from which these daphnia were taken had non-toxic levels of algae. But in the 1970’s, pollution had caused the algae to raise to a deadly imbalance. Currently, daphnia still reside in the lake, but researchers have found they are markedly different from the eggs they hatched. The older version of the species was unable to survive in the lake, poisoned by the overwhelming cyanobacteria. Clearly, the newer species had adapted to their new environment throughout the 70’s and subsequent decades.
Filed under: Evidence, Evolution | Tagged: algae, Cornell, Cyanobacteria, Daphnia, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Ecologist Brings Century-old Eggs To Life To Study Evolution, Evolution, natural selection, Nelson Hairston Jr, Resurrection Ecology, zooplankton | 9 Comments »
Abusing science
Posted on July 15, 2009 by Michael
Conservapedia is back to abusing science. This is from their “news” section.
The study, which was published on July 14, 2009 in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Geoscience, found CO2 was not to blame for a major ancient global warming period and instead found “unknown processes accounted for much of warming in the ancient hot spell.” The press release for the study was headlined: “Global warming: Our best guess is likely wrong.”
“In a nutshell, theoretical models cannot explain what we observe in the geological record,” said oceanographer Gerald Dickens, a co-author of the study and professor of Earth science at Rice University. “There appears to be something fundamentally wrong with the way temperature and carbon are linked in climate models.”
The mistake Conservapedia made is so readily linking to the abstract.
We conclude that in addition to direct CO2 forcing, other processes and/or feedbacks that are hitherto unknown must have caused a substantial portion of the warming during the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum. Once these processes have been identified, their potential effect on future climate change needs to be taken into account.
While the idiots over at Dumbopedia (good one, right?) are claiming that this study PROVES!!! that global warming is not man-made (thus implying that any polluting business practice is a-okay), the study is saying no such thing. This is referencing a period of warming where CO2 alone does not account for all the warming. That isn’t to say that the rise in CO2 can be dismissed during that time – nor is it saying anything about our time. It’d be like saying natural selection doesn’t account for all the change in evolution, therefore evolution is false. CO2 still was a huge factor by which warming was initiated (upwards of 38 degrees F). Today it remains a huge factor.
Let’s just say it. Conservatives are not concerned about science. They care about allowing businesses to practice as they please. That’s it.
Filed under: Science | Tagged: Carbon Dioxide, Carbon dioxide forcing alone insufficient to explain Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum warming, CO2, CO2 Forcing, conservapedia, Gerald R. Dickens, Global Warming, James C. Zachos, Nature Geoscience, Richard E. Zeebe | 1 Comment »
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Posted on July 15, 2009 by Michael
I am currently in my fourth and a half listening of the audio version of Bill Bryson’s “A Short History of Nearly Everything“. It’s about 6 years old, but I’ve only recently been introduced to it. I’ve been severely missing out.
This is an overwhelmingly encompassing account of, well, nearly everything. Bryson goes through, with engrossing detail, the history of science. He begins with, naturally, the Big Bang and much of physics. From there he jumps to just about every topic (in an order I cannot recall), from chemistry to biology to geology to mathematics to astronomy. He gives a set of Britannica Encyclopedias’ account of so many scientists, what they were thinking, why they were thinking it, and why they were right or wrong or on the right track or distracted or petty or prideful or anything of which I would never think to ask or consider. This is the best science book I have ever heard or read, and it isn’t even specific like, say, The Selfish Gene (which was also excellent).
One of the best things about this audio book is Bryson’s voice. It’s soothing. It’s also not boring. As much as I love The Science Channel and all the science shows I can find, I have come to the conclusion that I can only watch these if I’m wide awake. It isn’t that the topics are boring. The presentation is usually just very monotone. (One notable exception is the Discovery Channel’s Walking With Cavemen narrated by Alec Baldwin.) Bryson’s book suffers from no such calamity.
Get this book, preferably the audio version (though I’m sure the text version is equally fantastic).
Filed under: Science | Tagged: A Short History of Nearly Everything, Alec Baldwin, Audio books, Bill Bryson, Science, Walking With Cavemen | 1 Comment »
More Rosenhouse
Posted on July 13, 2009 by Michael
I have had intense discussions with people about obscure points of the Buffyverse, but I don’t expect anyone who is not a Buffy fan to regard such discussions as interesting or important. The trouble is that many of the participants in this session made Christian theology sound like much the same thing. They had various personal reasons for accepting Christianity, but at no point provided any basis for their beliefs that could be recognized as evidence by those outside the community. Theology came off seeming like an in-house discussion among those who share a particular set of premises. Which would be fine if they forthrightly admitted that’s what theology is. The trouble comes when they act as if theology is actually giving us knowledge or understanding of something, or that it is a branch of human inquiry that deserves a place at the table alongside science. Give me some reason to think that Christian theology has any more basis in reality than does Buffy studies, and then I will start taking it seriously.
Filed under: Creationism | Tagged: Jason Rosenhouse, theology | 1 Comment »
Rosenhouse
Posted on July 13, 2009 by Michael
Very frustrating, but entirely typical for creationists. They have a single intuition, that functional systems do not evolve gradually by undirected processes. Virtually all of their scientific arguments are based on attaching poorly understood jargon to that intuition. They have no real understanding even of what the questions are, much less what to do to find answers.
Filed under: Creationism | Tagged: creation museum, Creationism, Jason Rosenhouse | Leave a comment »
Absurd
Posted on July 11, 2009 by Michael
Here’s a video of FOX Noise trying to embarrass a proponent of recycled toilet paper.
Fair and balanced? Really? This moron reporter was attempting to mock her interviewee throughout the entire segment. This is completely typical of the level of quality that FOX Noise has to offer.
Filed under: News | Tagged: FOX News, Fox Noise, Greenpeace, Rolf Skar, Tissue paper | 8 Comments »
The same evidence
Posted on July 11, 2009 by Michael
We all have the same evidence in front of us. We just have different interpretations.
For instance, most scientists believe we think with our brains. But that’s merely one circumstantial interpretation. We can never know if we really think with our brains. Why not another organ?
I submit that we actually think with our kidneys. These amazing little machines are, at their core, a microcosm of humanity. We humans are always striving to become better and better people. We want to get rid of the parts of ourselves that are no good and better manage and improve the parts of ourselves which are beneficial. Kidneys do exactly this.
Our kidneys help to filter our blood, improving its quality and use. They also are key in getting rid of a lot of our waste – namely urine.
Humans are always thinking of how to gain in quality and discard internal waste. Our kidneys have long known just how to do this. It makes sense that our ability to think would be intricately linked to an organ which displays the very same attributes we constantly seek in our lives.
Right?
Filed under: Creationism | Tagged: Brain, Creationism, Interpretations, Kidneys, Parody, Same evidence | 3 Comments »
More bats
Posted on July 9, 2009 by Michael
So, in honor of this story (which I don’t think is over – we have little idea of where these things are originating)…
Another attack last night. I hear them in the ceiling.
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Bats, C'mon, Fatal Frame, Really? | Leave a comment »
For the Sake of Science 
