Who wants to argue with Gandalf? » « Department of cluelessness

Carnivalia, and an open thread

We have a few carnivals up today:

The Tangled Bank

Note also that the Tangled Bank will be appearing at Science and Politics next Wednesday. It’s time to start sending in links to Coturnix, me, or [email protected].

Who wants to argue with Gandalf? » « Department of cluelessness

Comments

  2. steve s says

    whatever happened to that email debate with that creationist you said you’d post?

  3. TheBrummell says

    MikeM: “The cans were recycled for 800 dollars, an estimated 70,000 cans: 24 beers a day for 8 years.”

    Did the former tenant move out, or die of liver failure? Even weak Coors Light will cause serious damage at that level.

    Reminds me of this unfortunate person:
    http://www.auctions-registration.com/ebay/
    Written by the son of the woman with OCD and an eBay accout.

  4. says

    Googling [“Robert D. Martin” hobbit]
    because Martin (Fields Inst.Chicago) is apparently still claiming that the Flores Hobbits are diseased Homo Sap.
    (given small skeletons 3000 years apart, their “disease” seems remarkably robust) got led to a creationist site (to which I will not provide a link) They apparently make money rafting people down the Grand Canyon while claiming the entire thing was built in a day.

    The Intelligent Design/Miraculous Interventionists/IDiots had this :

    Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week: In a detailed article in the journal Cell1 about ATP synthase, the “smallest rotary motor” that “works in both directions with high efficiency” and drives the synthesis of up to 40kg of ATP per day in a resting human, Yi Qin Yao, Wei Yang and Martin Karplus only mentioned evolution once. Here it is: “Interestingly the conformational changes in the beta subunits have been shown to correspond to their lowest frequency normal modes. This implies that the structure of the protein is designed by evolution such that the motions required for its function can take place with a low energy cost.” (Emphasis added). 1Yao et al., “A Structure-Based Model for the Synthesis and Hydrolysis of ATP by F1-ATPase,” Cell, Volume 123, Issue 2, 21 October 2005, Pages 195-205, doi:10.1016/j.cell.2005.10.001.

    Actually a neat quote!

    The Creationist site seems chiefly dedicated to obsessing over teleological language, which biologists frequently slip into, as a convenience, when they think that IDiots arent watching. Can we issue a one-time overall statement that apparently teleological phrases like “designed by evolution” are just convenient figures of speech. Actual biologists dont actually hold to telology. Frantic IDiots please calm down.

  5. says

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/15/AR2006051500875.html

    Follow this link. THen ask yourselves if their is not a bunch of nutty people running the medical field. The resistance to Plan B, the vociferous freak outs over the HPV vaccine, and now we consider all women of childbearing age to be in a pre-pregnancy state.

    Not so much.

    I will not rant here as I ranted on my own earlier, but suffice it to say, I am not happy.

    Women are NOT baby machines. I do not want to police women as to their pregnancy status during a shift at the local diner. Why the hell should I have to give up alcohol- (well I don’t drink so I guess that argument doesn’t work well) or ANYTHING on the theoretical possibility that maybe I am gonna pop out a button?

    And, since the right wing is so absolutely intent on abstinence, then what should they think as they go to the doctors and are treated as the rest of the sexually active generation.

    Ahhhh……..does this mean a pregnancy test before every xray? Or certain jobs denied to women because they might get pregnant? Or that oops pregnancies will be able to be tracked as to their outcome if one gets a mandated pee test?

    Rant is on now in my head. I love babies. I know what an oops is. I was fortunate that I had not done anything “wrong” before I found out I was gonna be a mommy. But why, at my advanced age should there even be a possibility that I have to check my pregnancy status unless I know for sure there is a reason too?

  6. pbosch says

    Ahhhh……..does this mean a pregnancy test before every xray? Or certain jobs denied to women because they might get pregnant? Or that oops pregnancies will be able to be tracked as to their outcome if one gets a mandated pee test?

    Though its not quite what youre saying, I do know of one pharmaceutical company that requires women to be on birthcontrol if they are working on “anti-cancer” drugs. I would assume this is the norm.

  8. quork says

    The good rabbi explains what it is like to be an atheist:

    The Indignity of Atheism

    Written by Rabbi Avi Shafran – Am Echad Resources
    …
    Atheism, in the end, is a belief system in its own right, one in which there can be no claim that a thieving, philandering, serial murdering cannibal is any less commendable a member of the species than a selfless, hard-working philanthropist. In fact, from an evolutionist perspective, the former may well have the advantage.
    .
    To a true atheist, there can be no more ultimate meaning to good and bad actions than to good or bad weather; no more import to right and wrong than to right and left. To be sure, rationales might be conceived for establishing societal norms, but social contracts are practical tools, not moral imperatives; they are, in the end, artificial. Only an acknowledgement of the Creator can impart true meaning to human life, placing it on a plane above that of mosquitoes.
    …
    What he forgets, though, is that the world has also seen unimaginable evil – perhaps its greatest share – from men who professed no belief in divinity at all, whose motivations were entirely secular in nature. Adolph Hitler was no believer in G-d.
    …