It's been awhile, but I finally finished a piece I've been working on for a few months now. Actually, it turned out to be 2 pieces and may eventually wind up as four.
This one is done, and is in a different mode than I usually use. More "artsy" but I really like it.
Seattle One
This one is a late draft, but not yet complete. It's what I imagine *should* happen every time I see the space needle.
Seattle Two
Constructive criticism is alway welcome.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Friday, September 01, 2006
No Really, I Thought this Was a Joke
They are kidding, right?
Welcome to the ``Flat Daddy" and ``Flat Mommy" phenomenon, in which life-size cutouts of deployed service members are given by the Maine National Guard to spouses, children, and relatives back home.
The Flat Daddies ride in cars, sit at the dinner table, visit the dentist, and even are brought to confession, according to their significant others on the home front.
``I prop him up in a chair, or sometimes put him on the couch and cover him up with a blanket," said Kay Judkins of Caribou, whose husband, Jim, is a minesweeper mechanic in Afghanistan. ``The cat will curl up on the blanket, and it looks kind of weird. I've tricked several people by that. They think he's home again."
So they think what? Human children are like baby birds? That they can't tell the difference? This seems shallow, stupid and little mean.
And what happens when the parent comes home? It could freak the kids out! It could break down their sense of reality!
Besides, it will make Wire Mommy very angry.
Welcome to the ``Flat Daddy" and ``Flat Mommy" phenomenon, in which life-size cutouts of deployed service members are given by the Maine National Guard to spouses, children, and relatives back home.
The Flat Daddies ride in cars, sit at the dinner table, visit the dentist, and even are brought to confession, according to their significant others on the home front.
``I prop him up in a chair, or sometimes put him on the couch and cover him up with a blanket," said Kay Judkins of Caribou, whose husband, Jim, is a minesweeper mechanic in Afghanistan. ``The cat will curl up on the blanket, and it looks kind of weird. I've tricked several people by that. They think he's home again."
So they think what? Human children are like baby birds? That they can't tell the difference? This seems shallow, stupid and little mean.
And what happens when the parent comes home? It could freak the kids out! It could break down their sense of reality!
Besides, it will make Wire Mommy very angry.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
More Pluto
I keep getting email about Pluto and planets. Let me clear this up. As an example, lets compare 3 objects against the IAU criteria and see how they classify: The International Space Station, Earth and Pluto
1) does it orbit the Sun?
ISS: orbits NASA funding source
Earth: Orbits Sun
Pluto: Orbits Sun most of the time, stops by Neptune for chinese take-out every now and then
2) Does it clear it's neighborhood of debies?
ISS: Cans and newspapers in yard, rusted '76 firebird in driveway
Earth: Has large Moon, many satellites, Counter-Earth on opposite side of Sun but otherwise free of debris
Pluto: Neptune constantly sweeping up Pluto poop and storing in sanitary bag
3) Does it have sufficient mass to overcome rigid body forces and become sphereical?
ISS: Good god, lets hope not! There are people in there!
Earth: Round, firm, fully-packed
Pluto: Round but with limited parking
4) Would Galactus eat it?
ISS: No, ISS would get caught under front bridgework and under crowns
Earth: Packed with donut-stuffed americans and germans! Yum!
Pluto: Yes, but it's 30K above absolute zero and would stick to his tounge like a popscile from a cold freezer. Not so good.
Conclusion: ISS: Not a planet, Earth: Planet, Pluto: frozen taste treat for world-devouring cosmic force.
1) does it orbit the Sun?
ISS: orbits NASA funding source
Earth: Orbits Sun
Pluto: Orbits Sun most of the time, stops by Neptune for chinese take-out every now and then
2) Does it clear it's neighborhood of debies?
ISS: Cans and newspapers in yard, rusted '76 firebird in driveway
Earth: Has large Moon, many satellites, Counter-Earth on opposite side of Sun but otherwise free of debris
Pluto: Neptune constantly sweeping up Pluto poop and storing in sanitary bag
3) Does it have sufficient mass to overcome rigid body forces and become sphereical?
ISS: Good god, lets hope not! There are people in there!
Earth: Round, firm, fully-packed
Pluto: Round but with limited parking
4) Would Galactus eat it?
ISS: No, ISS would get caught under front bridgework and under crowns
Earth: Packed with donut-stuffed americans and germans! Yum!
Pluto: Yes, but it's 30K above absolute zero and would stick to his tounge like a popscile from a cold freezer. Not so good.
Conclusion: ISS: Not a planet, Earth: Planet, Pluto: frozen taste treat for world-devouring cosmic force.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
“…My kidney belongs to Christ. It will never be Pagan.”
Amazing.
“TUPELO — Aleta Smith, who donated her kidney to a 20-year-old college student last year, wants it back now that the student has changed religions.Smith, a self-described “on-fire Christian,” gave her kidney to Hannah Felks, a Lutheran and regular Christian camp counselor, last year after seeing Felks on the local news.“She was going to die unless she got a kidney,” Smith says, sitting on the porch at her home. “They portrayed her as this nice Christian girl who works with kids. I saw it as a great opportunity to help a sister in the Lord.”The surgery grabbed headlines and Smith was lauded for her selflessness. But shortly after the surgery, Felks embarked on a “spiritual journey” to try out other religions, and settled on a blend of Pagan and Hindu beliefs.“I wanted to get away from the belief system I was raised in and find the truth for myself,” she says. She took a semester off to travel the world visiting spiritualists on three continents.Smith was aghast when she heard of the conversion, and she quickly wrote a letter asking Felks to re-convert to Christianity or return the organ, saying it was donated under false pretenses.“I feel helpless,” she says. “Part of my body, my DNA, is stuck inside a person who’s going to hell.”Smith suffers nightmares of her former organ filtering “strange Asian teas, pig blood and witch doctor brews in Africa,” she says. She wonders if the Lord really wanted her to donate the kidney, or if she acted on a “triple-espresso high” she had that morning. She is also concerned that when her body is resurrected, it might be incomplete.Felks frets that Smith is an “Indian giver,” and says religious affiliation was never an issue.“The kidney’s working fine,” Felks said by phone from Thailand. “I feel bad for Aleta. She did something wonderful for me, but that doesn’t mean she gets to control my life.”In the meantime, Smith has alerted several dozen prayer chains, and her women’s Bible study group is praying 12 hours a day for the re-conversion of Felks — and Smith’s former kidney.“I’m all for spiritual curiosity,” she says, “but you’ve got to settle these things beforehand…”
As with most Christian religions, it all about control. I also find it interesting that the person in question can happily and without dissonance believe her actions were either inspired "by God" or by a "triple espresso". In neither case does she believe her actions are her own.
(via)
“TUPELO — Aleta Smith, who donated her kidney to a 20-year-old college student last year, wants it back now that the student has changed religions.Smith, a self-described “on-fire Christian,” gave her kidney to Hannah Felks, a Lutheran and regular Christian camp counselor, last year after seeing Felks on the local news.“She was going to die unless she got a kidney,” Smith says, sitting on the porch at her home. “They portrayed her as this nice Christian girl who works with kids. I saw it as a great opportunity to help a sister in the Lord.”The surgery grabbed headlines and Smith was lauded for her selflessness. But shortly after the surgery, Felks embarked on a “spiritual journey” to try out other religions, and settled on a blend of Pagan and Hindu beliefs.“I wanted to get away from the belief system I was raised in and find the truth for myself,” she says. She took a semester off to travel the world visiting spiritualists on three continents.Smith was aghast when she heard of the conversion, and she quickly wrote a letter asking Felks to re-convert to Christianity or return the organ, saying it was donated under false pretenses.“I feel helpless,” she says. “Part of my body, my DNA, is stuck inside a person who’s going to hell.”Smith suffers nightmares of her former organ filtering “strange Asian teas, pig blood and witch doctor brews in Africa,” she says. She wonders if the Lord really wanted her to donate the kidney, or if she acted on a “triple-espresso high” she had that morning. She is also concerned that when her body is resurrected, it might be incomplete.Felks frets that Smith is an “Indian giver,” and says religious affiliation was never an issue.“The kidney’s working fine,” Felks said by phone from Thailand. “I feel bad for Aleta. She did something wonderful for me, but that doesn’t mean she gets to control my life.”In the meantime, Smith has alerted several dozen prayer chains, and her women’s Bible study group is praying 12 hours a day for the re-conversion of Felks — and Smith’s former kidney.“I’m all for spiritual curiosity,” she says, “but you’ve got to settle these things beforehand…”
As with most Christian religions, it all about control. I also find it interesting that the person in question can happily and without dissonance believe her actions were either inspired "by God" or by a "triple espresso". In neither case does she believe her actions are her own.
(via)
Monday, August 28, 2006
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Square Orbits
Why do some galaxies have barred centers?
Because the stars at the center are in an orbit which closely approximates a square. It a not-all-that-uncommon solution to the restricted three body problem.
Edit: I started to do some drawing for how this works but, of course, the web knows all. Here is a treatment done much better than mine of some of the complicated shapes an orbit can assume in the 3-body problem. One bar producing solution is the Ice Cream Spoon orbit
Unfortunately, the orbits themselves aren't all that stable. What you see in a galatic bar is a statisitical sample of a large number of stars, most of which spend some of their time in a bar-like orbit, but none permanently so.
The best analogy in every day life for square orbits is the Tilt-A-Whirl. There is a central point point around which the arms orbit, and a second point further out around which the cars rotate.
If the central rotation were o
ff, but the roation of the cars was on, you'd just spin in circles. Add it the central roation though, and you get a little circle, swinging around the end of a great big circle. The result is a pattern that, for large parts of the motion, is a nearly straight line followed by corners of high curvature (and high g-forces!). The pattern of this motion strongly resembles the orbits of galactic bar stars.
Which, all in all, is pretty cool. And, these kinds of orbits are not limited to squares. In general almost any polyhedreon can be simulated with the right set of masses and forces, although orbital stability in the general case is not assured.
Because the stars at the center are in an orbit which closely approximates a square. It a not-all-that-uncommon solution to the restricted three body problem.
Edit: I started to do some drawing for how this works but, of course, the web knows all. Here is a treatment done much better than mine of some of the complicated shapes an orbit can assume in the 3-body problem. One bar producing solution is the Ice Cream Spoon orbit
Unfortunately, the orbits themselves aren't all that stable. What you see in a galatic bar is a statisitical sample of a large number of stars, most of which spend some of their time in a bar-like orbit, but none permanently so.
The best analogy in every day life for square orbits is the Tilt-A-Whirl. There is a central point point around which the arms orbit, and a second point further out around which the cars rotate.
If the central rotation were o
ff, but the roation of the cars was on, you'd just spin in circles. Add it the central roation though, and you get a little circle, swinging around the end of a great big circle. The result is a pattern that, for large parts of the motion, is a nearly straight line followed by corners of high curvature (and high g-forces!). The pattern of this motion strongly resembles the orbits of galactic bar stars.Which, all in all, is pretty cool. And, these kinds of orbits are not limited to squares. In general almost any polyhedreon can be simulated with the right set of masses and forces, although orbital stability in the general case is not assured.
Except Yours Of Course
From the viewpoint of the outsider, every religion looks pretty silly or awful:
A little heavy handed. I dont see this as persuasive so much as in the category of "feeling good about a decision you have already made, not adding anything new, and making fun of the people you disagree with"
This must be what it feels like for those people who read Instapundit. Except with more words.
(Heh! Watch the whole thing)
A little heavy handed. I dont see this as persuasive so much as in the category of "feeling good about a decision you have already made, not adding anything new, and making fun of the people you disagree with"
This must be what it feels like for those people who read Instapundit. Except with more words.
(Heh! Watch the whole thing)
Pluto
I'd find it hard to care any less than I already do that Pluto got moved to "dwarf Planet" status. It's had the same impact on my life as say, finding out that owners of Walt Disney's Cryotube have switched from regular liquid nitrogen coolant to decaf.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
What kind of Training? Army Training, Sir!
I have avoided posting this, in part because I thought I might be able to change things, and in part because I wanted to avoid dealing with it.
Geoff has finally managed to cajole his way into the Army. He is canceling his co-op work and starting ROTC next semester, joining for 2 more years after he graduates in June 2008. Short of poisoning him and causing him to have a massive asthma attack, there is little I can do to change this course of events.
I’m happy for him in that he’s found a way to do what he wants to do in a way which will make him happy. I am… somewhat less than thrilled that he’s risking his life in a war started for the sole purpose of expanding presidential authority, but it’s his choice.
My advice to him was this, “Negotiate your position up front. Tell them you’ll join but you want to come in as a Major. Now, in the back of your head, be prepared to take Captain or something. Do they still have Sergeant Major?”
“Dad…They..”
“I’m just saying! It much harder to negotiate after you’ve signed a contract. Do the work up front. You wont regret it it”
“No Dad. I will be a second Lieutenant. That’s how it works”
“Screw that! That how it works for other folks. Negotiate now!”
“No. It’s non-negotiable”
“Really?”
“Yes”
“Oh. Then we’ll go with plan B. I’ll get the paper work started”
“No! What’s plan B? What paper work? No! No!”
“You can’t say ‘No’ before you hear the plan!”
“I can with your plans Dad”
“I’m not sacrificing my only son to presidential power-grabs…”
“Fine! Fine! Not again with this! What’s your plan?”
“It’s simple! We’re going to change your name!”
“No!”
“ You’ll like it, it’s very clever!”
“No!”
“Very clever…!!”
”Change it to what?”
“Colonel Powers”
“I told you I can’t be a Colonel! I’ll be a lieutenant.”
“Yes!, but yout first name will be Colonel! They will call you Lieutenant Colonel Powers! Then later, Major Colonel Powers, then Colonel Colonel…”
“Dad! No!”
"Why not? That one guy chnages his name to Optimus Prime for Christ's sake!"
"... you have a valid point but ..."
“Oh! Wait! Forget that! I have a better idea! We’ll change it to General Relativity! That works even better!”
We debated this pros and cons’ of this a while longer. The name change will not be occurring immediately, but I am still hopeful.
Geoff has finally managed to cajole his way into the Army. He is canceling his co-op work and starting ROTC next semester, joining for 2 more years after he graduates in June 2008. Short of poisoning him and causing him to have a massive asthma attack, there is little I can do to change this course of events.
I’m happy for him in that he’s found a way to do what he wants to do in a way which will make him happy. I am… somewhat less than thrilled that he’s risking his life in a war started for the sole purpose of expanding presidential authority, but it’s his choice.
My advice to him was this, “Negotiate your position up front. Tell them you’ll join but you want to come in as a Major. Now, in the back of your head, be prepared to take Captain or something. Do they still have Sergeant Major?”
“Dad…They..”
“I’m just saying! It much harder to negotiate after you’ve signed a contract. Do the work up front. You wont regret it it”
“No Dad. I will be a second Lieutenant. That’s how it works”
“Screw that! That how it works for other folks. Negotiate now!”
“No. It’s non-negotiable”
“Really?”
“Yes”
“Oh. Then we’ll go with plan B. I’ll get the paper work started”
“No! What’s plan B? What paper work? No! No!”
“You can’t say ‘No’ before you hear the plan!”
“I can with your plans Dad”
“I’m not sacrificing my only son to presidential power-grabs…”
“Fine! Fine! Not again with this! What’s your plan?”
“It’s simple! We’re going to change your name!”
“No!”
“ You’ll like it, it’s very clever!”
“No!”
“Very clever…!!”
“Colonel Powers”
“I told you I can’t be a Colonel! I’ll be a lieutenant.”
“Yes!, but yout first name will be Colonel! They will call you Lieutenant Colonel Powers! Then later, Major Colonel Powers, then Colonel Colonel…”
“Dad! No!”
"Why not? That one guy chnages his name to Optimus Prime for Christ's sake!"
"... you have a valid point but ..."
“Oh! Wait! Forget that! I have a better idea! We’ll change it to General Relativity! That works even better!”
We debated this pros and cons’ of this a while longer. The name change will not be occurring immediately, but I am still hopeful.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Rolling My Own
My current computer is almost 4 years old (which nearly 106 in human years!). Moore’s Law seems to have broken down, so there hasn’t been the usual pressure to buy a new machine. My current server is a 3GHz Powerspec box with a lot of trimmings, 1GB mem, 600GB storage, Nvidia 7300 graphics card etc. Not bad at all by current standards, but not the powerhouse it was in 2003. Given the processor speeds are “supposed” to double every 18 months, I expected to be at 10-12 Ghz now. Instead processor speeds are still hovering between 3-5Ghz for single core systems. There are many reasons for this, but from a physics point of view, I suspect the pseudo-optic limit has finally reared it’s head and quashed further progress . The limit occurs when the frequency of electronic signals (usually in the 10s of GHz) implies a wavelength which starts to be of scale with electronics themselves, i.e. the point where things are fast enough that you need to switch from wires to wavesguides.
Intel came out with their new Duo technology which effectively skirts the issue by adding a multiple processors linked together through a high speed bus. This has a number of architectural advantages for multiapplication systems, although 2 3Ghz chips put together is not the same performance as a single 6Ghz chip. There are volumes of reasons for this, but the new technology is pretty good.
In my usual way, I designed up a state of the art system with new process, lots of memory plenty of disk space, a top-of-the-line graphics card etc.
Net cost for the system (via Dell, Gateway and HP) ~$5000
My reaction: “hmm… that’s kind of higher than I wanted to pay”
Geoff’s reaction, “No way! You’re out of your fucking mind! I *need* that money!”
So I challenged Geoff to come up with a spec that met all my criteria for less.
And… he did!
The catch: I have to assemble it myself. From scratch.
Now I haven’t actually done this since …. 1998. A while.
Can I? Probably? Should I? Definitely!
Cost of Geoff’s spec (with 2 day shipping) ~$2500
So, I am going to build a PC sometime in the next few weeks.
Spec below: I’m looking for comments or (god forbid) mistakes of commission/omission
Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128017
Processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115002
Processor Cooling:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186134
Memory:
2x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146118
Power:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817163109
Harddrives:
3x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144423
Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133138
Video Card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143066
Sound Card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102190
DVD:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152058
Intel came out with their new Duo technology which effectively skirts the issue by adding a multiple processors linked together through a high speed bus. This has a number of architectural advantages for multiapplication systems, although 2 3Ghz chips put together is not the same performance as a single 6Ghz chip. There are volumes of reasons for this, but the new technology is pretty good.
In my usual way, I designed up a state of the art system with new process, lots of memory plenty of disk space, a top-of-the-line graphics card etc.
Net cost for the system (via Dell, Gateway and HP) ~$5000
My reaction: “hmm… that’s kind of higher than I wanted to pay”
Geoff’s reaction, “No way! You’re out of your fucking mind! I *need* that money!”
So I challenged Geoff to come up with a spec that met all my criteria for less.
And… he did!
The catch: I have to assemble it myself. From scratch.
Now I haven’t actually done this since …. 1998. A while.
Can I? Probably? Should I? Definitely!
Cost of Geoff’s spec (with 2 day shipping) ~$2500
So, I am going to build a PC sometime in the next few weeks.
Spec below: I’m looking for comments or (god forbid) mistakes of commission/omission
Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128017
Processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115002
Processor Cooling:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186134
Memory:
2x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146118
Power:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817163109
Harddrives:
3x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144423
Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133138
Video Card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143066
Sound Card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102190
DVD:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152058
Monday, August 21, 2006
The Armor of God
This is eventually going to cost you or your children (or more likely Blue Cross/Blue Shield) quite a bit at $100/hour as they explain to the therapist, "yeah, my parents dressed me up in felt armor every night to make me feel better. Why do you ask Doc? Do you think that has anything to do with me being a Furry?"
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
The Law of Unintended Consequences
Lemma 2) Every action will have some effect you were not expecting.
Warning: political post
The Lieberman debacle, which in my mind was a pretty transparent attempt by Lieberman to put himself ahead of his party and keep his perqs, seems to have had an unintended consequence: Other candidate are beginning to say, "to hell with a party affiliation, I don't need one to run"
Today's example come from Mr. Tom DeLay's Houston district.
At least three GOPers have thrown their hats in the ring, and the local Republican leadership is scheduled to meet Thursday to make the call. One, perceived frontrunner David Wallace -- also mayor of DeLay's (former?) hometown of Sugar Land -- says he's running no matter what party says.
This is, in my mind, an untrammeled Good Thing. The two parties have tried everything imaginable short of a constitutional amendment to entrench themselves as the only way to power. And they have had tremendous success. This has led to more than a century of kleptocratic bad government. I'd really like to see more candidates eschew party and run as independents. Who know? It might lead to better policy and a saner nation.
Naaahhhhh.....
Warning: political post
The Lieberman debacle, which in my mind was a pretty transparent attempt by Lieberman to put himself ahead of his party and keep his perqs, seems to have had an unintended consequence: Other candidate are beginning to say, "to hell with a party affiliation, I don't need one to run"
Today's example come from Mr. Tom DeLay's Houston district.
At least three GOPers have thrown their hats in the ring, and the local Republican leadership is scheduled to meet Thursday to make the call. One, perceived frontrunner David Wallace -- also mayor of DeLay's (former?) hometown of Sugar Land -- says he's running no matter what party says.
This is, in my mind, an untrammeled Good Thing. The two parties have tried everything imaginable short of a constitutional amendment to entrench themselves as the only way to power. And they have had tremendous success. This has led to more than a century of kleptocratic bad government. I'd really like to see more candidates eschew party and run as independents. Who know? It might lead to better policy and a saner nation.
Naaahhhhh.....
Monday, August 14, 2006
Saturday, August 12, 2006
The David Stone
Here's an interesting idea for keeping the Earth as an "Asteroid Impact-Free Zone" , keep a sizable stone in orbit and then swing it around to hit an incoming object.
Such an asteroid could then be moved as needed to absorb the impact of any collision that would otherwise hit the Earth. The work of Didier Massonnet and Benoît Meyssignac (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, France), the paper argues that an asteroid between 20 and 40 meters in diameter, which the two nickname ‘David’s stone,’ could destroy a much larger incoming object under proper targeting conditions. The problem becomes finding the right asteroid.
...
Another benefit is that with the installation of proper equipment, a nearby asteroid could be exploited to produce propellants for manned exploratory missions. Producing fuel like liquid oxygen in such a location would dramatically alter the lifting requirements for long-range flights and could be practical even factoring in travel requirements to retrieve the fuel.
Very cool. I leave it to the communists and libertarians to tell us how to set up utopian governments on such objects.
Such an asteroid could then be moved as needed to absorb the impact of any collision that would otherwise hit the Earth. The work of Didier Massonnet and Benoît Meyssignac (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, France), the paper argues that an asteroid between 20 and 40 meters in diameter, which the two nickname ‘David’s stone,’ could destroy a much larger incoming object under proper targeting conditions. The problem becomes finding the right asteroid.
...
Another benefit is that with the installation of proper equipment, a nearby asteroid could be exploited to produce propellants for manned exploratory missions. Producing fuel like liquid oxygen in such a location would dramatically alter the lifting requirements for long-range flights and could be practical even factoring in travel requirements to retrieve the fuel.
Very cool. I leave it to the communists and libertarians to tell us how to set up utopian governments on such objects.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Second to Last
Yes, the United States is second to last in public acceptance of the theory of evolution. OTOH the graph doesn't show african nations, so I am sure we are not seond to last in the whole wide world. PZ Myers has the full story.The total effect of fundamentalist religious beliefs on attitude toward evolution (using a standardized metric) was nearly twice as much in the United States as in the nine European countries (path coefficients of -0.42 and -0.24, respectively), which indicates that individuals who hold a strong belief in a personal God and who pray frequently were significantly less likely to view evolution as probably or definitely true than adults with less conservative religious views.
...
Second, the evolution issue has been politicized and incorporated into the current partisan division in the United States in a manner never seen in Europe or Japan. In the second half of the 20th century, the conservative wing of the Republican Party has adopted creationism as a part of a platform designed to consolidate their support in southern and Midwestern states—the "red" states. In the 1990s, the state Republican platforms in seven states included explicit demands for the teaching of "creation science". There is no major political party in Europe or Japan that uses opposition to evolution as a part of its political platform.
Are Americans really this dumb? Do they really just beleive whatever they are told at church?? I have had more confidence in my fellow americans until now, but this kind of data is pretty depresing.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Son, Can You Honestly Deny This?
Son,
I imagine you read the headline and said some form of "Good God! What's he done now!". In fact, I'd be willing to bet good money that you didn't want to read this post at all, much less this far into it. Congratulations on your courage and fortitude. I know it could not have been easy. It would have been simpler to ignore this whole post and get on with your life...
Well, simpler perhaps, but not easier. You would have been curious as to what I had done. Dreading perhaps the humiliation that could spring upon you unawares as you became a reluctant internet celebrity, or worse, having to explain to the Mormons on a bright Tuesday morning that while yes they are very nice, no you are not interested in finding out more about the Lord (as promised to them in that nice latter your father sent), and yes, he really does have some kind of brain problem about to be solved by you, your friend Remington Model 600 Magnum and the second amendment. Or perhaps it was simple curiosity to see just what the old man thinks normal adult behavior looks like these days. Certainly that discussion he had with the judge was illuminating if not, ultimately, productive.
Well, enough about that, you know how I go on. Now to the heart, as they say, of the matter.
Son, can you, in all honesty say to me that you've never done this???
Can you?
I thought not.
Ignore Me!
I imagine you read the headline and said some form of "Good God! What's he done now!". In fact, I'd be willing to bet good money that you didn't want to read this post at all, much less this far into it. Congratulations on your courage and fortitude. I know it could not have been easy. It would have been simpler to ignore this whole post and get on with your life...
Well, simpler perhaps, but not easier. You would have been curious as to what I had done. Dreading perhaps the humiliation that could spring upon you unawares as you became a reluctant internet celebrity, or worse, having to explain to the Mormons on a bright Tuesday morning that while yes they are very nice, no you are not interested in finding out more about the Lord (as promised to them in that nice latter your father sent), and yes, he really does have some kind of brain problem about to be solved by you, your friend Remington Model 600 Magnum and the second amendment. Or perhaps it was simple curiosity to see just what the old man thinks normal adult behavior looks like these days. Certainly that discussion he had with the judge was illuminating if not, ultimately, productive.
Well, enough about that, you know how I go on. Now to the heart, as they say, of the matter.
Son, can you, in all honesty say to me that you've never done this???
Can you?
I thought not.
Ignore Me!
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