Thought of the day

Posted on February 22, 2011 by Michael

I find it absolutely appropriate that Yahoo! News places its Supreme Court section under Politics.

Filed under: Misc | Tagged: , | Leave a comment »

Confessions, corrections, and the iPhone

Posted on February 22, 2011 by Michael

Ashley F. Miller, blogger extraordinaire, writes for a site called Social Axcess. In one of her recent articles she talked about the iPhone app the Catholic Church has recently created for information about confessing. She notes a few key things:

  • The Church has had a lot of recent problems
  • The Church is usually behind the times
  • This is a good move for the Church

None of these things are too crazy, offensive, or out-there. What’s more, they’re all true. The Church has had that whole boy-raping scandal. I think that’s been a problem. It has less and less (positive) interest in it by the day. This isn’t a problem in my view, but from the Church’s perspective I’m sure it is. And it has to constantly defend itself against New Atheists and all its other critics; it hasn’t been doing so hot in that department. And I’m just talking about the first bullet point.

But, Michael, you say, this is the Internet! Shouldn’t someone attack Ashley’s post from an irrational perspective?! Why, I suppose you’re right. Today’s lucky contestant is Luke Vinci.

In correction to Ashley Millers blog post regarding Confession via iPhone…

Let’s stop right there and be sure to note the word correction. Okay, continue.

While the Church has had its share of scandal in the past few years; I must counter that the “new atheist” movement is nothing new to secular assaults on the Church.

I’m flagging this for two reasons. First, the misuse of the semi-colon is egregious. Second, when did anyone say the New Atheist movement was new? And “assaults”? Methinks someone has a rather grandiose persecution complex for his church.

Through all the Church has consistently become stronger out of strife. And that can be represented in the 1 billion Catholics across the world.

So, um, what does this correct? I don’t recall reading that the Church couldn’t recover from its boy-raping. And I don’t see how a large number has any relevance whatsoever. Maybe it’s that whole desire to be grandiose thing again.

The Catholic Church is the fastest growing religion in communist China, is seeing a boom in conversion/membership in San Diego County among many other places around the world and while there are places were the Church is struggling to grow such as old Europe the Church is continually extending Her arms as the Universal Christian faith.

Ah, I see it now. Ashley said the Church is struggling so Vinci is pointing out where it isn’t struggling. Too bad that still doesn’t discount the fact that it’s struggling. Ya know, mostly because of the boy-rape.

In regards to the statement that the Church is behind the times or that the app is “trying to keep it real”; the Church has been slow to just jump at the whims of what public opinion says.

So the fact that the Nazis were bad was merely a whim of public opinion? That condoms save lives is but a fleeting fad of fancy?

This is a fact and the Church moves slow but deliberate in all decisions. All of those decisions are made within the confines of Faith and Reason.

Uh-huh. Sort of like when the Church reasoned that Galileo should be murdered if he didn’t tell the lies the Church wanted to hear. Or maybe when it reasoned that covering up boy-rape was better than exposing all the rapists it harbored. Total use of Reason (capital “R”).

The Church is a guiding institution and Her slow response has served Her well for over 2000 years.

Just not gays, Jews, minorities, Northern Ireland, the victims of the Inquisition, or women. Oh, and all the raped boys.

Ashley Miller should take note that the confession app is not an app that takes the place of confession.

Since Ashley never said the app was to replace confession, it seems Vinci needs to bust out his dictionary and look up the word “correction”. I think he may want to study it for a few hours.

The app that is the first to have an imprimatur from Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne in Indiana is a guide to help Catholics in their Christian tradition discern what sins they have committed.

I like Ashley’s response on this one:

I can’t imagine belonging to an organization that has so many silly rules that I need assistance in figuring out if I’ve broken them or not.

Filed under: Atheism/Humanism, Religions | Tagged: , , , , | 2 Comments »

Thought of the day

Posted on February 21, 2011 by Michael

Other than the words that somehow help people find FTSOS while looking for fetish porn, the following are the creepiest terms that have landed anyone here:

charles koch “home address”

That phrase was used by two people, at that.

Filed under: Misc | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

Happy birthday, Kurt Cobain

Posted on February 20, 2011 by Michael

I’ve been wanting an excuse to put some music up here lately. Kurt Cobain, were he not long dead, would be 44 today.

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“Is natural selection random?”

Posted on February 20, 2011 by Michael

One of the most common series of search terms that gets people to FTSOS is the title of this post. Most people end up clicking my article on why natural selection is not random; I’m not a huge fan of that piece. It was originally written for a local weekly paper (which changed ownership as I finished), not a blog. What’s more, it is very far from being succinct. I want to rectify that issue in this post.

So is natural selection random? No. Why not? The answer is simple: Natural selection is the pressure placed on a population and the change that happens in response to that pressure. Whereas the exact pressure is in part random in regards to any given population, exactly how a population responds follows some basic rules. Now, the reason I say the pressure is only random “in part” is because first and foremost I’m referring to changes in the environment that happen without regard to life. The rising of a mountain range is one example. But at the same time, other changes that might occur are in response to the direction of a population. For instance, it often pays to be the biggest and baddest member of a species for males, but instead of responding by becoming all the bigger and badder, some members might just become tricky. Some octopi, for example, will trick guardian males into believing they are just another female, gaining them access to the real female. This pressure isn’t entirely random since it is a response to the evolutionary state of a population. That is, becoming tricky is a response to being big and bad, and becoming big and bad was not itself random. But why? Well, I’m glad you asked:

Selection is a biased reaction to a given environment. This is specifically with regard to life: those that are able to exploit their environment best (and I really just mean ‘well enough’) are the ones that are going to survive. If it was all just random, then we would see no bias: We wouldn’t see a species trend in one way or another, beneficial genes would hardly ever become common, and we would never be able to make predictions. But what we see are trends and an increase in beneficial genes (and the elimination of deleterious genes) and we make predictions all the time. It is because of biased genetic reactions in populations that we call natural selection non-random.

I wouldn’t mind going on and on, but I said I want to make this succinct, so I will end with just one final but important point: The non-biased genetic reactions that happen because of natural selection must be measured across a population and through generations. If a creationist someone starts talking about natural selection being random and pointing out individual responses to the environment, then we might not be talking about the same evolutionary mechanism anymore. Everything that happens within evolution is happening to populations. Individuals do not evolve. So natural selection is the differential survival of individuals (or genes, depending on your perspective), but it is measured through time and within the context of a population.

Filed under: Evolution | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Christopher Maloney wants to appear on FTSOS

Posted on February 20, 2011 by Michael

That’s the only reasonable conclusion. After all, I have explicitly told him if shuts up, slinks away, only hurts people in silence, then I won’t be forced to post about him. But not only can he not do any of these things, he has to even make sure he directly references me.

Christopher Maloney, Naturopathic Doctor said…
Dear Wendy Pollack,

Terribly sorry to see that you’ve been Pharyngulaed by the esteemed PZ Myers (made himself famous by destroying the Catholic host) and his zombie horde.

Having had them attack me, I can say with complete sincerity that they haven’t an open mind among them.

One local follower had the gall to compare his own sightseeing tour of Tanzania with your humanitarian work, as if he contributed anything to anyone while he was there.

Keep up the great work!

At least he used the qualifier “naturopathic” so as not to fool anyone into thinking he was actually useful for doing anything medically meaningful.

But let’s get to the bulk of the post. Maloney is writing to Wendy Pollack, a quack who is bringing woo to Tanzania. As with most woo artists, she wants to hide from criticism. Maloney did the same thing by sending PZ a cease and desist notice. (That notice becomes all the more hilarious given that Maloney is the one that keeps talking about PZ; the quack brings it on himself.) It isn’t surprising that one outed quack would feel bad for a fellow outed quack. And at this point, I can’t say the continued lying is surprising either. Notice where Maloney says the local follower (that’s me!) compared Pollack’s “humanitarian” efforts to sightseeing. Here is what I actually said:

The area [Pollack] will specifically be visiting is the Kilimanjaro region. I’ve been all through it. It’s composed of rampant poverty. The medical “facilities” consist of small shacks of basic medicine, most of which can be found in the first half of aisle 14 at your local Rite-Aid. I made sure to purchase evacuation insurance before departing because I wasn’t about to find my way into a Tanzanian hospital if anything happened; I never needed it, but seeing that part of the country only confirmed that I had made a good purchase.

I didn’t compare Pollack’s “humanitarian” efforts to the sightseeing I did. The amazing group and amazing guides and amazing porters I had were far too good for me to compare to trash like her.

No, the point is obvious: Tanzania is desperately poor and desperately needs medical help. Real medical help. I doubt Pollack has any idea just how bad it is there. Hell, until I live in squalor and abject poverty and see members of my family die at age 50, there is no way I can really grasp the situation. But to tease the Tanzanian people with woo? To taunt them with pure fucking quackery? I fully grasp what an awful, awful person it takes to do something like that.

Anyway. Let me say it again because honestly – honestly, honestly – I hate making these posts: If Maloney ever wants to regain his web presence so that he may once again better give people fake medicine, he has to stop practically contacting me. Don’t give me a reason to post.

Update: I almost forgot. PZ’s fame comes from his flowing beard, not the cracker incident.

Filed under: Pure bullshit | Tagged: , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

How many planets are in our galaxy?

Posted on February 20, 2011 by Michael

The answer is 50 billion. But I find the number in the Goldilocks zone far more interesting.

At least 500 million of those planets are in the not-too-hot, not-too-cold zone where life could exist. The numbers were extrapolated from the early results of NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler telescope.

Hey look, every Facebook user could have one Goldilocks planet all his or her own.

These numbers could change drastically, but don’t expect to ever see any minuscule estimate by any measure. We have billions of stars in the Milky Way alone; we can predict the number of planets should reasonably be in the billions just by that fact. And if we venture our minds outside our little corner of the Universe, we realize there are more stars than grains of sand on Earth. The total number of planets in the Universe is undoubtedly in the trillions. And I’m probably being conservative. Earth is likely to be mind-blowingly mundane.

Filed under: Astronomy/Cosmology/Physics | Tagged: , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Thought of the day

Posted on February 19, 2011 by Michael

Verbing weirds language.

~Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes

Filed under: Misc | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

Facebook gets with the times

Posted on February 19, 2011 by Michael

I know, I know. You wouldn’t think Facebook, of all companies, would ever be behind the times. But up until Thursday it was.

Jay Lassiter is no longer “in a relationship.”

Let’s clarify that: Lassiter, a media adviser for political campaigns who lives in Cherry Hill, N.J., is still with his partner of nearly eight years, Greg Lehmkuho. But since Thursday, when Facebook expanded its romantic-status options, Lassiter’s profile there echoes his relationship’s legal status: “Domestic partnership.”

It may not be a life-altering change. After all, you can call yourself anything you want on a social network. And Facebook is merely that.

But, Lassiter notes: “I’m no different from all those other Facebook users whose identity is tied up with their Facebook pages, for better or for worse.”

And so, he says: “It’s high time. It’s an affirming gesture. It’s sort of one tiny step for gays, but a giant leap for gay rights.”

Facebook’s addition of civil unions and domestic partnerships to the list of relationships its users can pick from came after talks with gay rights organizations, including GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

I just wish everyone could stop referring to organizations as being for “gay rights” and other such nonsense. I realize it’s a conveniently short phrase, but there is no such thing as “gay rights”. Or “black rights”. Or “white rights”. Or “straight rights”. There are civil rights for everyone. When one group is denied them, we’re all denied them. After all, how can I possibly have a “right” to marriage if my state and the federal government refuses to recognize that same right for another group? As it stands, most states only have marital privileges.

Anyway. I’m glad Facebook has caught up with the reality of a huge number of human lives. Maybe the rest of the world can do the same.

Filed under: Rights | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a comment »

A chance to see the aurora borealis?

Posted on February 18, 2011 by Michael

I wish I could be more specific, but the media is sucking on this one. The sun recently had a big solar flare. When those hit Earth’s magnetic field, they tend to look awesome. The further North or South you are, provided the flare is at the correct angle, the cooler it is. Maybe you can see one tonight. Maybe.

I’ve found articles that say the U.S. would have been seeing it a few days ago and Northern Europe is going to get a show. Others say it was last night or tonight. Still others take pains to note all the mayhem and destruction that could happen because FEAR FEAR FEAR! The best I can figure, go outside tonight and look up. It can’t hurt. Maybe you’ll see some pretty colors.

Also, as a note of interest, solar flares often get cited by global warming denialists as one reason for some of Earth’s more recent temperature fluctuation. This perplexes me. The Sun has 11 year cycles where it goes from kicking some ass to just being a cute little puppy. To put it scientifically. The past decade has seen it be unusually quiet. As a result, we might expect temperatures to be, um, well, this is crazy, so brace yourself…lower. But we don’t see that. We just keep breaking records. Besides that, the biggest convey of change in Earth’s temperature is water. We have these things called oceans, you see, and because water has a high specific heat capacity, it takes some time to warm it up or cool it down. Solar flares wouldn’t have a significant impact. The denialists need to find a new way to abuse science, methinks.

Anyway. Go outside tonight. Look up. It might be prettier than usual.

Filed under: Astronomy/Cosmology/Physics, News | Tagged: , , , | Leave a comment »

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