The Catholics! There is no end to their ability to amuse and inform.
From Catholic Apologetics International:
Galileo Was Wrong is a detailed and comprehensive treatment of the scientific evidence supporting Geocentrism, the academic belief that the Earth is immobile in the center of the universe. Garnering scientific information from physics, astrophysics, astronomy and other sciences, Galileo Was Wrong shows that the debate between Galileo and the Catholic Church was much more than a difference of opinion about the interpretation of Scripture.
Scientific evidence available to us within the last 100 years that was not available during Galileo's confrontation shows that the Church's position on the immobility of the Earth is not only scientifically supportable, but it is the most stable model of the universe and the one which best answers all the evidence we see in the cosmos.
Readers agree.
I honestly thought the last of the geocentric adherents died out a couple of hundred years ago, and I know the official position of the Vatican on this subject is heliocentric. Still... as a fully trained astrophysicist, I can't help but wonder what "discoveries" in the last 100 years would support geocentrism. Did someone discover the aether and not let me know*?
Maybe we should just "teach the controversy"!
Also, see this from the Biblical Astronomer, a proud son of Cleveland! It must be right, he has a Ph.D.
*I did take a stroll through this, the logic is irrefutable. Assuming the bible is literally true, then a heliocentric cosmology cannot explain the Sun standing still for Joshua and a variety of other biblical miracles, so it must be false. Quod erat faciendum!
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Alternative Fuel: Salt Water?
Extremely interesting:
We watched as they poured Morton's salt into a container, mixed it with water and then exposed the fluid to the Kanzius radio frequency device.An intense flame erupted over the test tube."In this case we weren't looking for energy," said John Kanzius. "We were looking for something that might do desalinization. And the more we tried desalinization, the more heat we produced until we got fire."
I'm guessing that the RF ionized the water, producing hydrogen and water vapor, which is the actual buring part. If I'm right, the burning would have to begin long before you see the flame becuase hydrogen flames are invisible. Once enough water vapor got mixed in, you'd see something.
It's still an open question if it's producing more energy than it requires though.
We watched as they poured Morton's salt into a container, mixed it with water and then exposed the fluid to the Kanzius radio frequency device.An intense flame erupted over the test tube."In this case we weren't looking for energy," said John Kanzius. "We were looking for something that might do desalinization. And the more we tried desalinization, the more heat we produced until we got fire."
I'm guessing that the RF ionized the water, producing hydrogen and water vapor, which is the actual buring part. If I'm right, the burning would have to begin long before you see the flame becuase hydrogen flames are invisible. Once enough water vapor got mixed in, you'd see something.
It's still an open question if it's producing more energy than it requires though.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Why Atheists Should Fear the Big Bang Theory
I have to admit, as an astronomer/atheist, I am more than a little curious about this:
Why Christianity explains what modern science tells us about the universe and our origins—that matter was created out of nothing, that light preceded the sun—better than atheism does
How Christianity created the framework for modern science, so that Christianity and science are not irreconcilable, but science and atheism might be
Why the alleged sins of Christianity—the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Galileo affair (“an atheist's fable”)—are vastly overblown
*Why atheist regimes are responsible for the greatest mass murders of history
*Why evolution does not threaten Christian belief, but actually supports the “argument from design”
Why atheists fear the Big Bang theory and the “anthropic principle” of the universe, which are keystones of modern astronomy and physics
How Christianity explains consciousness and free will, which atheists have to deny
Why ultimately you can't have Western civilization—and all we value from it—without the Christianity that gave it birth.Provocative, enlightening
This seems like the usual rhetorical ass-hattery from Dinesh D'Souza, a fellow who beleives that how you talk about science seems to him to be more important than science itself.
In this case, the least of his sins seem to be confusing the existance of god with the correctness of Christianity.
If science can't bat down a fool like this, we deserve to lose the public debate.
Why Christianity explains what modern science tells us about the universe and our origins—that matter was created out of nothing, that light preceded the sun—better than atheism does
How Christianity created the framework for modern science, so that Christianity and science are not irreconcilable, but science and atheism might be
Why the alleged sins of Christianity—the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Galileo affair (“an atheist's fable”)—are vastly overblown
*Why atheist regimes are responsible for the greatest mass murders of history
*Why evolution does not threaten Christian belief, but actually supports the “argument from design”
Why atheists fear the Big Bang theory and the “anthropic principle” of the universe, which are keystones of modern astronomy and physics
How Christianity explains consciousness and free will, which atheists have to deny
Why ultimately you can't have Western civilization—and all we value from it—without the Christianity that gave it birth.Provocative, enlightening
This seems like the usual rhetorical ass-hattery from Dinesh D'Souza, a fellow who beleives that how you talk about science seems to him to be more important than science itself.
In this case, the least of his sins seem to be confusing the existance of god with the correctness of Christianity.
If science can't bat down a fool like this, we deserve to lose the public debate.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
The Cake is a Lie
I finally got to the end of Portals which sports, among many redeeming features, the funniest AI since GIR. After you blow up the AI, the end credits roll to this song, which I loved (even more than Companion Cube). Apature Science(tm) is the name of the portal comapny and Black Mesa is their rival.
Also, at the end, there is cake.
I wonder if the AI is still alive, and working on a sequel...
Also, at the end, there is cake.
I wonder if the AI is still alive, and working on a sequel...
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Troll
I've done a bad thing. I've thrown a Molotov cocktail onto the grounds of the presidential palace in TJICistan.
I know I shouldn't, but I simply could not resist. Yes, I've somewhat compared apples and oranges, but it seems a little disingenuous to complain about minor government spending on a something you disagree with but use, and not complain about the colossal waste of money on something you like, but dont participate in.
Regardless, we should see some blood-pumping, heart-hammering rhetoric from the last libertarian enclave in Arlington.
viva revolution!
I know I shouldn't, but I simply could not resist. Yes, I've somewhat compared apples and oranges, but it seems a little disingenuous to complain about minor government spending on a something you disagree with but use, and not complain about the colossal waste of money on something you like, but dont participate in.
Regardless, we should see some blood-pumping, heart-hammering rhetoric from the last libertarian enclave in Arlington.
viva revolution!
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Perfect
Tom Tancredo has a new ad. It perfectly summerizes the GOP position, and I say More! More! More! Damn those crazy islamic tacos!
Wait, what?
Wait, what?
Creation Science Museum Review
First, imagine, if you will, a load of horseshit. And we’re not talking just your average load of horseshit; no, we’re talking colossal load of horsehit. An epic load of horseshit. The kind of load of horseshit that has accreted over decades and has developed its own sort of ecosystem, from the flyblown chunks at the perimeter, down into the heated and decomposing center, generating explosive levels of methane as bacteria feast merrily on vintage, liquified crap. This is a Herculean load of horseshit, friends, the likes of which has not been seen since the days of Augeas.
And you look at it and you say, “Wow, what a load of horseshit.”
Full Report here
And you look at it and you say, “Wow, what a load of horseshit.”
Full Report here
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Our Wonderful Earth
I remember the first science book I learned to read.
I was about 4 and was interested in what caused the seasons (I had a complicated theory involving the Earth rotating end-over-end which I began to suspect was wrong). This was about 1968, and my mother gave me her old grade school textbook, which I poured through day and night for weeks, carving a deep and lasting gouge in my consciousness.
Last night I was having dinner with some friends and one of them mentioned that he found an old book on Amazon he'd been looking for for years. It occured to me that I might be able to find this old book there, which would be cool. I remembered the title and I have a handful of pages memorized (I think) and I remember the distinctive green cover with a picture of the Earth on it. I figure since it was my mothers elementary school textbook, it was probably published 1948-1950. I could not remember the author.
So I typed "Our Wonderful Earth" into Amazon.
I got this. ACK!
No good.
I also got a bunch of other hits, but without cover shots.
One was from 1951, so I tried google.
Got it on the first hit!
$10.95 and 2 weeks delivery. :)
I was about 4 and was interested in what caused the seasons (I had a complicated theory involving the Earth rotating end-over-end which I began to suspect was wrong). This was about 1968, and my mother gave me her old grade school textbook, which I poured through day and night for weeks, carving a deep and lasting gouge in my consciousness.
Last night I was having dinner with some friends and one of them mentioned that he found an old book on Amazon he'd been looking for for years. It occured to me that I might be able to find this old book there, which would be cool. I remembered the title and I have a handful of pages memorized (I think) and I remember the distinctive green cover with a picture of the Earth on it. I figure since it was my mothers elementary school textbook, it was probably published 1948-1950. I could not remember the author.
So I typed "Our Wonderful Earth" into Amazon.
I got this. ACK!
No good.
I also got a bunch of other hits, but without cover shots.
One was from 1951, so I tried google.
Got it on the first hit!
$10.95 and 2 weeks delivery. :)
Scientific?
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Also, There are Dragons
My afterlife
UPDATE:I liked this so much, I gave $100 to Dresden Kodak. Because of the way my luck works, this ensures, forever and always, the comic will never update again.
UPDATE:I liked this so much, I gave $100 to Dresden Kodak. Because of the way my luck works, this ensures, forever and always, the comic will never update again.
Friday, November 09, 2007
Colossus
I'm kind of a jerk, and sometimes this has unexpected consequences.
I had a long web cast to set up this morning, with a lot of prep-work to do with the participants in the hour before the call. Due to timing issues, this meant getting into the office at 6:30am and opening the call about 90 minutes before the actual web cast. In our system, when anyone dials into a conference call, they have to give their name and they get announced when they come online. This is okay when the call has 4 or 5 people, but in an hour long call with 100 people, it can get very annoying. People come in and drop out during the whole thing, and every time their name gets announced into the channel and it interrupts the flow.
More on this in a minute.
Because I was the first one on and I knew that no one would hear my announcement, I said something silly to entertain the other folks in the room. The call opened, I was the first one in, no problem. I forgot about it.
There were some technical glitches getting the call set up, synchronized with the webcast and displaying the proper content, so I was very busy until we started the call. A number of folks joined, 70 or so, and we started a few minutes late. About 20 minutes in, the constant drop-ins, drop outs were annoying, so I wanted to silence them. There is a code to do this, but I couldn't remember if it was *6, *9 or *3. I asked, no one knew, but one guy thought it was *9. I thought it was something like this, so in the middle of a presentation I hit *9 on the master phone.
That was not the correct code.
Instead, in the middle of the presentation, it started listing *all* the people on the call. Starting with me. Using the recording I made hours earlier when I thought I was alone.
"THIS IS COLOSSUS! THIS IS THE VOICE OF WORLD CONTROL!!!" came blaring out of every phone on the call, at 75db. In my voice. In the middle of the EMEA Directors report.
This was followed by all the other names, and dozens of messages on IM from call participants runningthe full gamut from laughter to angry laughter.
2 mins later, the list ended.
Thankfully, my career did not.
Afterwards my manager asked me, "what did you learn from this?"
I replied, "that I could replay this accident to hilarious effect on someone else's call?"
"good man"
The line, btw, is from the Forbin Project
YouTube has the whole quote. It's more appropriate than I remembered.
I had a long web cast to set up this morning, with a lot of prep-work to do with the participants in the hour before the call. Due to timing issues, this meant getting into the office at 6:30am and opening the call about 90 minutes before the actual web cast. In our system, when anyone dials into a conference call, they have to give their name and they get announced when they come online. This is okay when the call has 4 or 5 people, but in an hour long call with 100 people, it can get very annoying. People come in and drop out during the whole thing, and every time their name gets announced into the channel and it interrupts the flow.
More on this in a minute.
Because I was the first one on and I knew that no one would hear my announcement, I said something silly to entertain the other folks in the room. The call opened, I was the first one in, no problem. I forgot about it.
There were some technical glitches getting the call set up, synchronized with the webcast and displaying the proper content, so I was very busy until we started the call. A number of folks joined, 70 or so, and we started a few minutes late. About 20 minutes in, the constant drop-ins, drop outs were annoying, so I wanted to silence them. There is a code to do this, but I couldn't remember if it was *6, *9 or *3. I asked, no one knew, but one guy thought it was *9. I thought it was something like this, so in the middle of a presentation I hit *9 on the master phone.
That was not the correct code.
Instead, in the middle of the presentation, it started listing *all* the people on the call. Starting with me. Using the recording I made hours earlier when I thought I was alone.
"THIS IS COLOSSUS! THIS IS THE VOICE OF WORLD CONTROL!!!" came blaring out of every phone on the call, at 75db. In my voice. In the middle of the EMEA Directors report.
This was followed by all the other names, and dozens of messages on IM from call participants runningthe full gamut from laughter to angry laughter.
2 mins later, the list ended.
Thankfully, my career did not.
Afterwards my manager asked me, "what did you learn from this?"
I replied, "that I could replay this accident to hilarious effect on someone else's call?"
"good man"
The line, btw, is from the Forbin Project
YouTube has the whole quote. It's more appropriate than I remembered.
Rocky, The Flying Squirrel
(via)
I definately want to try it, but I am a bit unnerved. The video doesn't show anyone actually landing and walking away....
Digging
Some people, when trapped at the bottom of a deep well, just can't help trying to dig their way out!
Wonkette provides:
New details have emerged in the generally scuzzy case of Florida legislator Bob Allen (R-McCain Campaign Co-Chairman) who was arrested after allegedly offering to both suck off some guy in a park bathroom and give the guy twenty bucks. Wonkette readers who are experts in such matters have argued that the whole thing sounds like entrapment, but today’s Orlando Sentinel offers a new excuse from Allen himself: He was just scared of a scary black guy, like anybody would be!
Closeted, racist and in over his head, I'm sure he feels he can still make a strong contribution to governing the country and ensuring the Permanent Republican Majority, or the Fourth Reich or whatever the Bushies call it these days....
Wonkette provides:
New details have emerged in the generally scuzzy case of Florida legislator Bob Allen (R-McCain Campaign Co-Chairman) who was arrested after allegedly offering to both suck off some guy in a park bathroom and give the guy twenty bucks. Wonkette readers who are experts in such matters have argued that the whole thing sounds like entrapment, but today’s Orlando Sentinel offers a new excuse from Allen himself: He was just scared of a scary black guy, like anybody would be!
Closeted, racist and in over his head, I'm sure he feels he can still make a strong contribution to governing the country and ensuring the Permanent Republican Majority, or the Fourth Reich or whatever the Bushies call it these days....
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
If We Take 4 Turning Points, Have we Gone in A Circle?
Joe Lieberman yesterday:
“I’m proud to say that the tide has turned in Iraq and we’re winning that war,” Lieberman said. “And if we don’t let down our troops, they’re going to bring home a victory that will protect us here at home from today’s threat — totalitarian terrorist Islamism that’s trying to take our liberty from us.”
and in the past:
– “Overall, I would say what I see here today is progress, significant progress from the last time I was here in December. And if you can see progress in war that means you’re headed in the right direction.” [5/30/07]
– “The last two weeks…may be seen as a turning point.” [12/17/05]
– “Does America have a good plan for doing this, a strategy for victory in Iraq? Yes we do.” [11/29/05]
– “We have to stay the course in Iraq now. … If we do that, we will…have won a victory in the war on terrorism.” [1/4/04]
The rest here
“I’m proud to say that the tide has turned in Iraq and we’re winning that war,” Lieberman said. “And if we don’t let down our troops, they’re going to bring home a victory that will protect us here at home from today’s threat — totalitarian terrorist Islamism that’s trying to take our liberty from us.”
and in the past:
– “Overall, I would say what I see here today is progress, significant progress from the last time I was here in December. And if you can see progress in war that means you’re headed in the right direction.” [5/30/07]
– “The last two weeks…may be seen as a turning point.” [12/17/05]
– “Does America have a good plan for doing this, a strategy for victory in Iraq? Yes we do.” [11/29/05]
– “We have to stay the course in Iraq now. … If we do that, we will…have won a victory in the war on terrorism.” [1/4/04]
The rest here
Here's a Shocker!
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Conversations With My Son
Me: Oh look, new research shows there's a genetic switch for sexuality. You could turn women into lesbians.
Geoff: Yes, it's called "Getting them drunk".
Geoff: Yes, it's called "Getting them drunk".
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