One of my professors referred to Firefox as “Foxfire” today.
Guess whether or not she’s old.
Filed under: Humor | Tagged: Firefox | 3 Comments »
Ah, memories
Posted on August 31, 2011 by Michael
I’ve been reminded that it was a year ago I was walking in the shadows of Kilimanjaro. On this particular date, I was likely at Shira Camp 1, arriving just after nightfall (because time is more of a ballpark idea than a precise concept in Tanzania, evidently). The whole trip is something that means an awful lot to me and I’ll never forget it.
I’m going to make an effort to put up a picture from each day for the next week or so until I’ve matched each day last year until summit day.
Filed under: Hiking | Tagged: Kilimanjaro | Leave a comment »
Damn you, Irene
Posted on August 30, 2011 by Michael
So as I drive home, I come across detours and downed lines. I see trees leaning heavily on lines directly in front of homes which still have power. I continue and the lights a few hundred mere feet up the road still work. I go further and more trees on more lines in front of more homes with more power. Surely not all these people have generators. And then I get to my road. There are no downed trees (except the neighbor’s willow – to my personal disappointment – but that’s by the lake). The lines are all in fine condition. There is still a bit of debris on the road, but I think everyone is hoping it gets pushed into the potholes. By all visual accounts, there is no reason why there should be no power, especially considering all the power just up the road. Yet, here I sit, laptop transported to the Barnes & Noble cafe, so I can get back to the Internet for a spell. Most of my food has gone bad and the majority of the cookware is too dirty for cooking and impossible to clean without water (though we have utilized many gallons of lake water for the back of the toilet – necessities, you know). In short,
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Edison, Family Guy, Irene, Power | 5 Comments »
Thought of the day
Posted on August 29, 2011 by Michael
No textbook is worth $251.
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Textbooks, Thought of the day | 5 Comments »
Law versus theory
Posted on August 27, 2011 by Michael
PZ has a couple of posts going right now where he takes down some common creationist canards. One post absolutely wrecks Ann Coulter (who, incidentally, has some real kiddie rhetoric going on – it’s just awful), and the other takes on Bryan Fischer. Each post is excellent, but PZ skims over something I would like to address in the latter link. Here are some excerpts from Fischer’s writing:
First Law of Thermodynamics. This law (note: not a theory but a scientific law) teaches us that matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed…
Second Law of Thermodynamics. This law (note: not a theory but a law) teaches us that in every chemical or heat reaction, there is a loss of energy that never again is available for another heat reaction…
There are two kinds of people who have confusion over what a scientific law is versus what a scientific theory is. The first kind includes much of the general public. These people will have a basic misunderstanding, but they don’t tend to go about basing arguments upon it. The second kind, however, is an ugly little bunch. They include the likes of Fischer who also share the general lay public’s misunderstanding, but they then go about premising a bunch of bullshit on it.
A scientific theory and a scientific law are effectively the same thing. The latter term tends to be used more in physics than anywhere else, but that is a matter of history and convention more than anything. There is no magic property that makes the theory of gravity any different from the law of gravity. Both terms describe the same thing. We’re merely talking about banners and titles here, nothing of scientific value. Any person interested in science ought to learn this pretty quickly.
I recall sitting in an introductory biology course many a year ago when one student asked the professor the difference between a theory and a law. It is rare (though not absent) for “law” to be used in biology, so I’m not sure what spurred the question, but the professor answered it exactly right: There is no significant difference. I had a good deal of respect for the student at that moment. He was ignorant of something, so he got an answer. Creationists like Fischer, however, don’t do that. They understand the way we conventionally use terms and assume they can aptly apply that understanding to science. They cannot. They are wrong and scientifically irresponsible to do so.
But who’s willing to bet Fischer keeps pretending there is a difference even after being told there isn’t one? I am.
Filed under: Science | Tagged: Ann Coulter, Bryan Fischer, creationists, Law, pz myers, theory | 5 Comments »
Poe’s Law meme-ified
Posted on August 27, 2011 by Michael
Filed under: Humor | Tagged: Fry meme, Poe's Law | 6 Comments »
Irene could bring Internet outages
Posted on August 27, 2011 by Michael
As Hurricane Irene prepared to batter the East Coast of the United States, federal disaster officials warned that Internet outages caused by the storm could force people to interact with other people for the first time in years.
News of the possible interpersonal interactions created panic up and down the coast as residents braced themselves for the horror of awkward silences and unwanted eye contact.
FEMA officials are advising people to write down topics ahead of time, but I don’t know if that will be enough. We may need to look at some alternatives:
In a related story, the Rev. Pat Robertson said the best way to prepare for Hurricane Irene is not being gay.
Foolproof.
Filed under: Humor | Tagged: Hurricane Irene | 7 Comments »
lol poor people
Posted on August 26, 2011 by Michael
Poor people? lol, amirite?
America’s presumably anti-tax party wants to raise your taxes. Come January, the Republicans plan to raise the taxes of anyone who earns $50,000 a year by $1,000, and anyone who makes $100,000 by $2,000.
Their tax hike doesn’t apply to income from investments. It doesn’t apply to any wage income in excess of $106,800 a year. It’s the payroll tax that they want to raise — to 6.2 percent from 4.2 percent of your paycheck, a level established for one year in December’s budget deal at Democrats’ insistence. Unlike the capital gains tax, or the low tax rates for the rich included in the Bush tax cuts, or the carried interest tax for hedge fund operators (which is just 15 percent), the payroll tax chiefly hits the middle class and the working poor.
The hypocrisy is so obvious here, I really don’t feel the need to add more commentary than to say these Republicans are especially disgusting.
Filed under: News | Tagged: lol poor people | 41 Comments »
Heaven and hell
Posted on August 25, 2011 by Michael
The overt lack of empathy inherent in the Christian concept of heaven and hell has to be one of the most devilish ideas ever devised.
Most Christians believe there is a place of eternal happiness, and they call it heaven. With all their hearts they believe that is where they will be for eternity once they die. But they also believe in a place of eternal damnation: hell. It may not be a stereotypical, Dante’s Inferno sort of place, but it will bring unending unhappiness. Many people have gone there and many more will, according to Christians.
Now let’s think about this. Christians believe they will go to a place of glory that will give them eternal happiness. Yet they also believe that many people, including those they know and love, will go to just the opposite place. Any decent person would have to admit that the idea of loved ones being eternally damned and eternally unhappy would have an effect on his or her own happiness, even in heaven. But not Christians. They’ve already stipulated – at the very core of their beliefs – that they will be eternally happy. This seems to me to be nothing short of monumental selfishness.
To be okay with such an idea seems nothing less than wicked to me.
Filed under: Religions | Tagged: Heaven, Hell | 11 Comments »
For the Sake of Science 