You know how much i like science. I'm a bio geek. So i really take offense when IDiots (can't spell idiot without ID) decide to strawman well working theories like evolution. Hence why i am in total awe at people who manage to make videos like these:
This parodies one of the common failed arguments against evolution, the so-called microevolution not macroevolution argument.
In a strike against Paley, the same person made a vid where a clock is evolved. It is in silica, of course, and you have to imbue to the clock certain characteristics that organic molecules normally have. But watch it for yourself:
Back to studying for me. Should be easy. I'm in such a good mood cuz these videos just made my day.
Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Atheist nightmares
In a splendid show of unreasoning, someone has made the case, concerning god, with a banana. Yes folks, this is the famous Argument From Banana. I assure you this is not parody or satire. The folks in there are serious.
Someone please tell the guy miming fruity fellatio that the bananas we eat are domesticated ones that reproduce asexually: they grow like potatoes, with the old plant growing a new one at its roots. Farmers then pick the ones with potential and grow them. In short, bananas are what they are today because they have been under human selection. Bananas in the wild come under all shapes and sizes, and a lot of them are so chocked with seeds that you can't bite a mouth-full without choking.
In an effort to one-up this ridiculous exercise of proving deities through foodstuff, someone presented the Argument From Peanut Butter, with courtroomy background music. No, really, i kid you not.
Assuming new life does spontaneously appear in peanut butter, how would he expect it to look like? a 3 footed bug with jaws and an ugly face? In the event that new life can occur in peanut butter, it would be more like a chemical that can somehow catalyze its own reaction, thus making more of itself, using resources that are already present within the jar. At the most he will notice is a bubble of mushy stuff in the middle of his peanut butter.
But go ahead and watch it anyway. I had some good laughs out of this one. I hope you will too.
Someone please tell the guy miming fruity fellatio that the bananas we eat are domesticated ones that reproduce asexually: they grow like potatoes, with the old plant growing a new one at its roots. Farmers then pick the ones with potential and grow them. In short, bananas are what they are today because they have been under human selection. Bananas in the wild come under all shapes and sizes, and a lot of them are so chocked with seeds that you can't bite a mouth-full without choking.
In an effort to one-up this ridiculous exercise of proving deities through foodstuff, someone presented the Argument From Peanut Butter, with courtroomy background music. No, really, i kid you not.
Assuming new life does spontaneously appear in peanut butter, how would he expect it to look like? a 3 footed bug with jaws and an ugly face? In the event that new life can occur in peanut butter, it would be more like a chemical that can somehow catalyze its own reaction, thus making more of itself, using resources that are already present within the jar. At the most he will notice is a bubble of mushy stuff in the middle of his peanut butter.
But go ahead and watch it anyway. I had some good laughs out of this one. I hope you will too.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Book Tagged
A week or so ago, I've been made a victim of a cunning ego blog scam job, and is now forced to perpetuate a meme. The perpetrator is someone who will be my housemate for the next few months! De Horror!
Perhaps some preamble is necessary here. About roughly a week ago, i was innocently surfing online when Alycia popped in with a message on MSN. In a calculatively cunning move, she asked me if she could link my site to hers. Now, as any blogger would know, someone asking for a blog link is a major stroke to the ego, man. So i replied in kind, and linked hers to mine. And did what any other curious web-farer would do. To begin reading. Within 2 posts of reading, i came across this.
OK, so i fell for her tagging. But, i blithely countered her crafty trick with the all time human vice: Sloth. I had moved in, but i haven't unpacked yet (even after a week), so i had no books whatsoever within reach! The sound of Laziness laying the Smacketh Down on Tagging Trick sounded so sweet to my slothful little ears. However, a week later, i have unpacked. And in the interest of books and memes, i've decided to perpetuate this thing. So after wasting 3 paragraphs, i now present to you:
1) Grab the closest book to you.
"The Double Helix, by James D. Watson"
2)Open to page 123, go down to the 4th sentence.
3) Post the text of the following 3 sentences on your blog.
"This supertube permitted me to take pictures twenty times faster than with conventional equipment. Within a week i more than doubled the number of my TMV photographs. Custom then locked the doors of the Cavendish at 10:00pm. Though the porter had a flat next to the gate, no one disturbed him after the closing hour."
The book is written by James D Watson, the co-founder of the structure of the DNA molecule, his partner of whom which is Francis Crick. With the discovery of the structure, came a flurry of research into how DNA works. This book is a personal account on what went on in the discovery, all the set backs and triumphs. Above all, this book is valuable in revealing to the readers the humanity that occurs in scientific ventures. Real world obstacles, code of conduct between scientists, spats between colleagues, insecurities and doubts, as well as the good bits, all has their share of the spotlight in this discovery. Watson's account colours up the landscape that was drab and grey facts.
Now, the tagging. I will tag the people whom i think would read very interesting books. Just so i would have some back up material to read when i get bored. Without further ado, i thereby tag:
1) Gneake (you knew that was coming, didn't you?)
2) Jiko
3) Jingo
4) YoungYew
Perhaps some preamble is necessary here. About roughly a week ago, i was innocently surfing online when Alycia popped in with a message on MSN. In a calculatively cunning move, she asked me if she could link my site to hers. Now, as any blogger would know, someone asking for a blog link is a major stroke to the ego, man. So i replied in kind, and linked hers to mine. And did what any other curious web-farer would do. To begin reading. Within 2 posts of reading, i came across this.
OK, so i fell for her tagging. But, i blithely countered her crafty trick with the all time human vice: Sloth. I had moved in, but i haven't unpacked yet (even after a week), so i had no books whatsoever within reach! The sound of Laziness laying the Smacketh Down on Tagging Trick sounded so sweet to my slothful little ears. However, a week later, i have unpacked. And in the interest of books and memes, i've decided to perpetuate this thing. So after wasting 3 paragraphs, i now present to you:
1) Grab the closest book to you.
"The Double Helix, by James D. Watson"
2)Open to page 123, go down to the 4th sentence.
3) Post the text of the following 3 sentences on your blog.
"This supertube permitted me to take pictures twenty times faster than with conventional equipment. Within a week i more than doubled the number of my TMV photographs. Custom then locked the doors of the Cavendish at 10:00pm. Though the porter had a flat next to the gate, no one disturbed him after the closing hour."
The book is written by James D Watson, the co-founder of the structure of the DNA molecule, his partner of whom which is Francis Crick. With the discovery of the structure, came a flurry of research into how DNA works. This book is a personal account on what went on in the discovery, all the set backs and triumphs. Above all, this book is valuable in revealing to the readers the humanity that occurs in scientific ventures. Real world obstacles, code of conduct between scientists, spats between colleagues, insecurities and doubts, as well as the good bits, all has their share of the spotlight in this discovery. Watson's account colours up the landscape that was drab and grey facts.
Now, the tagging. I will tag the people whom i think would read very interesting books. Just so i would have some back up material to read when i get bored. Without further ado, i thereby tag:
1) Gneake (you knew that was coming, didn't you?)
2) Jiko
3) Jingo
4) YoungYew
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Making Dinosaurs
I found this video clip that just completely blew me away.
The people shown in this video are actually making the critters for "Walking with Dinosaurs", used in a stageshow. I'm no dinosaur enthusiast, but i still felt a thrill up my spine when i saw the scene when a couple of technicians were positioning that armor plated armadillo dinosaur. I've always loved one of those as kid.
Seeing those people beside a life sized model threw me back into a surreal moment where everything suddenly becomes completely abstract yet a couple more times more real than reality itself. For a moment there my mind was in the dual state of knowing thats a model dinosaur handled by technicians and somehow thinking thats a freaking dinosaur, man! look at the size of that thing! whoooh!. Cognitive dissonance? hrh.
The people shown in this video are actually making the critters for "Walking with Dinosaurs", used in a stageshow. I'm no dinosaur enthusiast, but i still felt a thrill up my spine when i saw the scene when a couple of technicians were positioning that armor plated armadillo dinosaur. I've always loved one of those as kid.
Seeing those people beside a life sized model threw me back into a surreal moment where everything suddenly becomes completely abstract yet a couple more times more real than reality itself. For a moment there my mind was in the dual state of knowing thats a model dinosaur handled by technicians and somehow thinking thats a freaking dinosaur, man! look at the size of that thing! whoooh!. Cognitive dissonance? hrh.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
An Outrage
If you are ever going to visit the grand canyon around this time, and if you visit them and wonder about the age of the grand canyon, well, don't ask the guide there. They can't tell you.
Guides at the grand canyon can't tell you that the age of the grand canyon is tens of millions years old, for fear of offending creationists (read: The Bush admin and various US loonies), who believe that the world is 6011 years old (for them, the universe was created on 4004 BC, in the afternoon).
As if that is not loony enough, a list of books were slated to be sold at the grand canyon, and only 1 out of 23 has been approved. And this book curiously states that the grand canyon was created when Noah's flood happened.
If you want a thorough refutation on the basic idea of a global flood, read here.
For specifically the Grand Canyon, read here. I hope this entry succeeds in informing whoever reads it. What we need the least now is more ignorance.
What a crummy piece of news for the beginning of a new year.
[Update]: This article has been outed as a spread of disinformation, so please disregard it. You can read the thing here.
Guides at the grand canyon can't tell you that the age of the grand canyon is tens of millions years old, for fear of offending creationists (read: The Bush admin and various US loonies), who believe that the world is 6011 years old (for them, the universe was created on 4004 BC, in the afternoon).
As if that is not loony enough, a list of books were slated to be sold at the grand canyon, and only 1 out of 23 has been approved. And this book curiously states that the grand canyon was created when Noah's flood happened.
If you want a thorough refutation on the basic idea of a global flood, read here.
For specifically the Grand Canyon, read here. I hope this entry succeeds in informing whoever reads it. What we need the least now is more ignorance.
What a crummy piece of news for the beginning of a new year.
[Update]: This article has been outed as a spread of disinformation, so please disregard it. You can read the thing here.
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