Ever Vigilant

Another Post as to why we need to constantly be on guard.

      Gov. Bobby Jindal signed into law the “Science Education Act” in 2008

      ...And now, not shockingly, the LFF has already started to use it to chip away at evolution and sound science                   standards by claiming the state’s biology textbooks give too much credibility to Darwin’s theory.


We the people need to stay on guard at all times we need to keep this kind of nonsense in check. There will always be someone to take advantage of any opportunity to slip in some kind of nonsense. Once it is in, it is almost impossible to get back out.

Read the full article here.

Making of a Scientist

On our daily drive home form school my daughter usually has several questions about every conceivable topic, yesterday was no different. Being on a quest to blow her first bubble, and armed with a piece of Double Bubble bubble  gum, and knowing she has to chew out all of the sugar first, she asks me how much sugar is in gum, and how can you tell. 


My mind turns to Archimedes and the legend that he discovered displacement theory. Though to test our troubling gum question we would not be able to use displacement as a measuring tool, we could use a scale and measure the weight difference and get pretty close.


After returning home, chores, homework, and the table set for dinner. We began our experiment.

                     We would need;
            
                      a piece of un-chewed bubblegum
                      a scale
                      sugar
                      notepad




Step 1;  Weigh gum and record weight
Step 2;  Chew gum till no longer any sugar left in gum
Step 3;  Weigh gum and record weight
Step 4;  Check record difference in weight
Step 5;  Add sugar to scale until weighs as much as difference
Step 6;  Measure by volume how much sugar.
Step 7;  Record data
Step 8;  Publish and wait for nobel prize!


This was good fun and took only about fifteen minutes. Heres the data


The un-chewed gum weighed in at about 6 grams. 
After chewing the gum didn't even register a gram. Weight of gum after chewing less than a gram.
Total sugar in a piece of Double Bubble bubblegum approximately 6 grams of sugar or about a table spoon.


Doing an experiment with your daughter priceless!

Why We Need to Stay vigilant.

A couple of post a go I brought up the topic of why we need to be vocal and get our views on science and the world. A recent article in the The Crimson White, the student newspaper of the The University of Alabama, shows how deep the lack of scientific reason goes.


The two columns call for the teaching of biblical creationism along side evolution. They use the same tired arguments and reasons, it's popular, evolution has too many flaws and quote mining from real scientists trying to make it appear that there is a controversy or flaw in the science.




The first column Deals with "Why" the collage should be teaching creation;


...it should be presented as just that: a theory, and the same should be true of evolution.


This statement shows that column for what it is nothing more than a long argument from ignorance. The misuse of the word theory. "it's only a theory", "I have a theory" shows us he doesn't, as many people don't, understand how the word is used in science.


The word theory in science is used to mean, how a system works. If you crack open an manuel on a large peace of equipment, say a printing press or plastic mold injection machine you can find a section in the book called "theory of operation". Does this mean the people of who designed and built the equipment do not understand how it runs? No, it is a description on how it runs. This is what is meant by theory in evolution.


The line that sums up the level of discourse in the first column comes at the end


Ben Friedman is a sophomore majoring in social entrepreneurship.

Where the Evidence Leads; An Apology for Science and Reason

This month we have a visit form Eli of Chariots of Iron;

We Have some good fun and discuses the validity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ a popular figure in modern Christianity. Being more of a biblical scholar topic not heavy on the science I don't have as  much to offer, that doesn't stop me from talking any way. So go and down load it today and listen away!

WtEL

Blue Shift Toooo Cool

Captured from Unreasonable Faith

Creationism, Young Earth and Politics

Does anyone really take fundamentalist claims seriously? Really? Why is it important? What should we do about it?

Christine O'Donnell is a perfect reason why this is important.

So is Sarah Palin 

Why is this important.

Whooping cough and an epidemic resurgence of diseases that are preventiable with vacines.

Thanks to a campaign of don't trust your local scientist, people like Jenny McCarthy have convinced millions of people to not get vaccinated. Now children are dyeing of a preventible disease.

Thanks to tireless hard work by millians of us and a constant challenge to the Discovery Institute, they are now on the ropes and resorting to "it's all that atheist Hitler's fault" attacks.

What can we do?

Join your local skeptics group, add your voice to the few and make them many.
See an article, a news show, or  adds that portray false facts, leads to false conclusions or is just an out right lie, Write, blog or just be vocal. We all need to raise our voice and be heard.

A perfect example;

Discussing details of recent WTEL podcast

On the follow up from WETL, lets look at some of the claims made about Mutations.


Claims from the creation camp on modern evolution;



1.    Mutations only remove information rather than add information.

2.    Mutations are always negative and would never make the recipient of said mutation more likely to procreate.

3.    Mutations are too rare to have any real impact upon a species. 

6.    No single mutation could possibly give a species any discernible advantage. 

One simple example, Milk. Those of us who are able to drink milk can thank a mutation for this. The cultures who raise herding animals developed the mutation that allows us to digest milk. Since the majority of people in the northern hemisphere have this ability this simple example shows us how a mutation can be beneficial.








Lets compare this mutation with the claims above.


                    1. Mutations only remove information rather than add information
                    False. The information added is the ability to process Lactase.


                    2.Mutations are always negative and would never make the recipient of said mutation more likely to procreate.
                   False.The mutation is positive giving the species the  ability to consume a new food group, which can give the species food and water during times when there is low food sources, say winter time for example.
                    
                    3.Mutations are too rare to have any real impact upon a species.
                    False.The majority of humans have this mutation, the largest numbers are in the northern hemisphere. Yet it was only one mutation.


                    6.No single mutation could possibly give a species any discernible advantage.
                    False. What is the advantage of a mutation like the ability to metabolize milk after our first few years? A renewable food source, calcium, protean as well as a food source that we are able to turn into a storable food. Say cheese just for one example.


When dealing with false claims it is important for us to take apart each and every claim and show how they can be false and misleading.

Was Hitler converted by Darwin, Is Evolution Wrong; same tired old nonsense.

Marshal and I bring you another "Where the Evidence Leads"podcast.




This Month we interview Don Exodus from YouTube, about David Klinghoffer and the article in the  "Huff" Huffington Post, about , of course, Darwin and Hitler and how Hitler was a quire boy until he read Origin of Species. I contend that the Huff is a online rag and Marshal contends that it's not, don't tell him I think he probably is right I rarely ever read it. We go on to discuss another website and more tired old arguments against evolution. marshal boiled down the long list to just a few we discuss them on the show and I will take them apart one at a time in future posts.

1.    Mutations only remove information rather than add information.

2.    Mutations are always negative and would never make the recipient of

said mutation more likely to procreate.

3.    Mutations are too rare to have any real impact upon a species.

4.    Most organs and biological features are far to complex to be the

result of random mutations. (Irreducible complicity).

5.    The Cambrian Explosion itself disproves the notion that life

evolves slowly. In the span of 20 million years we witnessed the

development of most complex life forms; where prior all life as simple

single celled life.

6.    No single mutation could possibly give a species any discernible

advantage.

7.    Punctuated equilibrium has been demonstrated to be impossible.

8.    DNA or RNA could never randomly come into existence. Life could

never have formed without a designer. (note: not related to evolution a

common tactic)

9.    The second law of thermo dynamics means that life is impossible.

(my note: Obviously not true because were it life would be impossible

on earth whether creationism or evolution were true).

10.    The sun is not enough to overcome entropy. “Raw energy from the

sun, if not for the ability of living things to convert it to useful

energy such as sugars, proteins etc. would be a destroyer of life.  In

many of the scenarios of primitive life the UV radiation is looked as

the driver of the mutations need for evolution, but it conversely

would destroy the organism as well if not protected.  In fact the

mutation rate being very slow and the energy being very fast the

destruction would be very many times faster than the creation. Raw

energy from the sun, cannot create the specified complexity needed for

life.  It can only cause complexity to be lost in mutations.  In the

labs scientists use sophisticated equipment to polymerize proteins in

the right way.  If sunlight were to enter this process it would

destroy the proteins.” ( from http://www.evanwiggs.com) (note: sounds

like his conclusions are mere assertions to me).

11.    The Big Bang is false. (note: not related to evolution).

12.    “The fossil record does not show an increasing complexity.

Evolutionist Dan McShea of the University of Michigan had approached

this question in a detailed study of the backbones of creatures that

evolutionists believe represent ancestor – descendant pairs. He wanted

to see if the ‘descendant’ was more complex than the ‘ancestor’ on the

average for each case.  What he found was no trend at all.  Other

scientists studied the shells of ammonoids, a spiral shelled creature,

to see if apparently related types got more complex higher in the rock

strata and found there was absolutely no trend.  Creationists would

expect this result of these studies.  McShea said: “Everybody knows

that organisms get more complex as they evolve.  The only trouble with

what everyone knows is that there is no evidence it’s true”

(http://www.evanwiggs.com/) (note: this argument contradicts the claims

about the Cambrian Explosion about the rate at which life simple to

complex.)

13.    Where are the transitional fossils?

14.    The theories regaurding Bird evolution are fabrications.

•    Archaeopteryx, which has been shown as a fully formed bird has been

dated as evolving before many of the dinosaurs with allegedly

primitive feathers.

•    The Archaeoraptor hoax from China in 1999 caused a cloud of “faked

fossil’ that hangs over everything coming out of China. (note: a

single incident of fraud completely discredits all subsequent claims?

Wonder if he would apply this same standard to Christianity?)

•    Scale cells could never have evolved into feather cells.

Design, what does it mean to be designed.

We all know what it means to be designed don't we?

Marshal, from Agnostic Salvation Hour, and I just finished another podcast for, Where the Evidence Leads. In this podcast we discuss the book, A Lawyers Case for God. One of the arguments the author uses is when you see design you recognize it, and uses this argument for proof that the universe shows signs of being designed and thusly created by a designer, namely god.

So how do we determine if something has been designed?
In the poorly written A Lawyer's Case for a God. In this book the argument goes something like this, If you spied a robot lying in the sand you would know it was designed. Then the writer implies the universe shows signs of design so therefor it is designed and that means a designer. The Intelligent Design or ID for short, uses the same poor logic with life on earth.

So how would we know the robot is designed. I mean it seams obvious if you just look at it. Ok, so it does look like something made. What exactly makes it look that way. Well it's made of materials that we recognize as man made, metal, plastic and glass. Next we see it is held together by manufactured fasteners, such as screws, nuts and bolts. What else do we notice? Most every one who makes something from crafts to cars, puts there mark on it. Paintings get signed, buildings have a cornerstones, almost everything will have a mark on it. So we look for a manufactures mark, an icon, symbol or just the made by sticker. Yet there is more evidence, when something is made we can trace it back to the manufacturer, often we can find where, when and even who made the item. Now we know with out a doubt it was made by some one and there for it has a creator or designer.

When we "see" that an item is designed we go off of more information than just the look of the item. Why is this important? We often see things in nature that is seemingly designed. In the American rain-forests, in some areas, the ground does not have very good soil. In these places seeds grow out of decaying plants better than in the ground. This has led to explorers believing the forests were planted. They would see old trees in a straight line or row. This defied explanations until further investigation reveled the answer. When a tree dies and falls, seeds grow from the dead tree. As years go by the old tree rots and falls away leaving behind a straight row of trees. From simple observation the trees looked planted, or designed like a garden. On closer examination the condition as to what causes the appearance, show up. If it had been a garden or planed forest there would be other signs such as left over items like broken forgotten tools. Possibly we would find evidence that the ground was landscaped, like the mound builders. There would be other evidence to be found, to support the supposition that it was designed.

This logic by analogy is often used when the I.D. group make claims like "DNA is a code" and if it is a code then it is designed. This is nothing more than pseudoscience by analogy.

Lets take the false statement apart. "DNA is a code" the actual quote should be DNA is like a code, in that it has some traits that behave like a code. DNA is not a code it is a molecule. The analogy is to help others understand what is going on so we use examples that resemble what we are talking about. So saying that DNA is a code and all other codes have a creator then DNA is created or designed.


Another example we can use is a painting. We know a painting when we see one right? Sure it has some kind of canvas often a would frame, nails to hold the frame together, staples to hold the canvas on the frame plus there will almost always be a signature. What about other paintings or pictures in nature as the one I've shown here... not only does it show a mans face but the model was listening to an ipod. LOL

Mr Diety

nuff said

Everyone Clap for Hand Fish

Hand fish are an extremely rare and unusual fish, using there fins as hands to move around.
Examples like this show how the diversity of life is evidence for the evolution,
Unfortunately we are still bombarded with poor logic and sometimes just plain ignorance when it comes to the natural world.

This looks like somthing from a fifties era horror movie.

Synthetic Life or Assembly

Synthetic Life or is it assembly?

I defiantly see it as assembly. What has essentially happened is from a not so good movie (albiet a better real life story) Tucker and his car. when they first built it they used off the shelf car parts with a new body and used the car to help get funding to build a whole new car.

Now this only works as an analogy. What really was really done was that pieces of dna were assembly and then used to replace the dna in an already functional cell. That is where it gets really amazing, the cell worked.

So now we have a brand new kind of life. What really is fascinating is this is just the first step. Soon there will be Wholly new life forms and quite possibly made from different building blocks.

So what could this seemingly Frankenstein concept really do for us to help. One we can use this type of technology to make viruses that cure cancer, as well as a host of other diseases. How about an organism that breaks down CO2 faster better, and can be used to filter coal burning power plants. Instead of changing an organism's existing dna we now may be able to completely build it from the ground up.

For more info see links below.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/7751164/We-need-a-real-debate-about-Synthia.html
http://www.etcgroup.org/en/node/631
http://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&safe=off&q=craig+venter+synthetic+life&aq=1z&aqi=g-z3g-c1g6&aql=&oq=Craig+Venter&gs_rfai=
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/01/synthetic_genome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHIocNOHd7A&feature=related

Science Still Rules in Missouri

Recently the was another very sneaky bill set up to allow creation nonsense in Missouri class rooms
House Bill 1651.  House Bill 1651 died before being assigned to a committee. Three cheers for MO!

Cover of Nature

Marrellomorph Arthropod, as shown on the cover of Nature, the premier weekly science news magazine. 
Soft bodied fossils are the rarest of fossils and this on fills in a thirty million year gap, previously thought to have died of at the end of the Cambrian era.
This fossil was found in southeastern Morocco at the Fezouata Formations.

More on the National Day of Prayer

A Clear concise rebuttal

National Day of Prayer: still we fumble forward.

I get emails;
The emails have, over time dwindled with the mighty help of Snopes. Yet I still have a few die hards telling me our President is really a Muslim, A certain senator is demanding a bigger plane, so on and so on. Sometimes politely sometimes not so politely I inform the sender and all CC, that the contents of there email is mistaken.
 Now comes the onslaught of "National Day of Prayer", and the recent court ruling against it. All I can think of is an echo chamber and the words "sunday sunday sunday".


There's the email of the Senator praying on the steps of Congress, can you say Matthew 6: 5-6?


Then there's the email telling me "our country has never gone with out a "National Day of Prayer", Sorry it was started in the 50's to help fend off the godless Communists.


The latest quoting President Reagan, (full disclosure I liked Reagan allot) the email goes on to tell a false history of the National Day of Prayer.


So what do all of these emails have in common, start theme to Jeperdy? Alix, what is prayer?
My question is what does science say about prayer? Change game show to "The $64,000 Question"


Lets look at the latest study of prayer funded by the very questionable Templeton Foundation.  Here is an excellent article on the study. This study took a common type of heart surgery, and did a blind study on what happen to those who were prayed for and those who were not. For an idea on how blind study works try my post on Scotch. 
The results showed there was no difference in post surgery complications in either the group who were prayed for and didn't know it and the group who were not prayed for and didn't know they were prayed for. The group who was prayed for and knew they were prayed for had an increase in post op complications. Prayer didn't seam to work, in a positive way.


Conclusions? Being prayed for behind the curtain doesn't seam to do any thing, however expectations of being prayed for seemed to decrease the amount of help. So prayer, like esp, divining rods, and holy water only seam to work "Post Hoc".


How about a National Day of No Prayer, and lets see if we are better off.

Great Video on Why Science Rules!

Question Two: Drop

If you throw a ball level with the ground and drop a ball from the same hight which will hit the ground first?

Well of course the dropped ball. It travels the least distance. Right? Not really.
lets look at what is going on. Get in your car have some one else drive. Now sit still and drop the ball. Next  head down a straight road at a good speed. Repeat the drop it. What happened? It took about the same time didn't it? The first test the relative speed of the car was zero, then the speed was say fifty mph. You can do this in your head if you want. They both "fell" at the same speed whether or not the car was moving.

So what is going on here? People equate time with distance. This is only natural as it takes time to move a distance. Objects fall in time at the same rate as all other objects regardless of weight or size. So when an object falls it is pulled down at the same rate wether or not it is moving laterally with the ground or not. So when you toss an object level with the ground it will fall at the same rate as an object dropped. This principle is what allows us to have satellites in orbit.

A beautiful experiment to prove this point was done on Mythbuster's, where they shoot a bullet and drop a bullet.

Max

Question One

Does Heat Rise or Fall?

If you put your hand above a candle then beside it that should answer it. So heat rises, right?
No, Hot air rises for he same reason ice and ships float, as well as lids pop off in microwaves.

Displacement. This is where an material like air is heated the molecules gain energy and vibrate more. The result is they begin to take up more room. Essentially making them less dense. Being less dense they rise above the denser matter and "float" up. As water freezes, becomes a crystal, the molecular alignment causes the "ice" to become less dense, takes up less room. Hence floats.

Fires in zero or very low gravity, extinguish themselves since the hotter air does not rise and the oxygen is not replaced due to lack of convection.

Hubble turns twenty and doesn't even act like a teenager

Wow has it been Twenty years already. The Hubble has done for science's image more than any other scientific instrament out there. When talk of letting the Hubble go by the wayside and die in orbit my heart sank. and then the fantastic rescue mission, the most complicated repair mission in space yet.

For me the greatest discovery of Hubble has to be when we pointed the lens to the darkest place in the Sky. The images we received of millions of galaxies sent shivers down my spine.

Here's a link to some great pictures.

Re-Writing several of my former post.

Sorry about the Hiatus, we had a death in the family. For the next few post I will be on the back burner and rewriting a few of my old post, trying to make them "more better". lol. Anyone who is a regular, thanks for the patients being patient.

New Podcast Coming...Next Week.

This Podcast Marshal and I Interviewed Peter Sinclair from YouTube. His channel is GreenMan6610.


We covered some basic misconceptions and only scratched the surface of global warming. 


Look for the podcast Agnostic Salvation Hour, WTEL3 ( where the evidence leads ) next week on PodOmatic and iTunes.

Science City, more City than Science

Spring time, equals spring break and some time off work for myself and to spend time with the family. Our first adventure sends us to Union Station in KC MO, to the much advertised Science City. On Monday they offered a five dollar day, our fears of overcrowding were quickly dismissed and there was plenty of room at all the exhibits.We were able to take our time and see and do all the that there was to do, as well as take a snack break at the expensive candy shop next to the souvenir store, before closing.

Science city was great fun for our daughter, the water maze at the city park and the sewer pipe slide were the two favs, though she really did like arresting me at the crime lab! As most kids will, she ran from spot to spot, we as adults felt compelled to make her stop and read about the exhibits, as parents are wont to do.

This was more of a children's museum than an actual science museum and to our pleasant surprise we found many items from the defunct KCK children's museum in use here. Over all, the museum was heavy on the City and light on the science. Several of the exhibits didn't work and there were many maintenance issues. From what I understand, Union Station and Science City run in the red. This has allot to do with our communities not supporting our museums as well as they are supported in other major cities.



Keep your eyes open, the museum seams to be housing what can only be a ufo.

$40,000 Dollar Dowsing Rod

Just about everyone who follows mainstream news knows about the fake bomb detectors.

So there's not much more I can cover, but heres a quick over view what it is and what dowsing is.

Dowsing is the ubiquitous method of finding water under ground. You simply find a long Y shaped stick, hold it under some pressure and let the ideomotor effect take over. Dowsing rods come in all kinds of configurations. The now famous ADE-651 is a great example. These are being sold by a company out of Britain and the  BBC has a great story on it.

So what really is there to talk about? Often I am told that superstitious beliefs are harmless why don't I just let people have there beliefs and leave them alone. Or I'm just a crotchety old bastard that likes to argue. Well I'm not crotchety but I do like to debate certain subjects especially the intricacies of science. I also love to check up on the facts of a subject.

Not to long ago there was a email zipping around about the new coins and how thy were leaving of "In God We Trust". This fate was about the worse thing to happen to America ever "at no time in our history have we ever not been under the umbrella of God and removing this is going to end his all mighty protection" it went on and on. Well not being one to leave a false statement alone, I quickly wrote a quick history on the motto "In God We Trust" and included a jpeg of several bills with out the in question motto.

I also pointed out how the coin issue was merely a stamping error and if you had any of these coins to hang on to them they might be valuable. I then hit "reply all" since no one deletes all the headers on fwd emails this amounted to my Server showing their guide lines on spamming to me. I received many replies my favorite showing up on this sunshine with flowers and bunnies as the background and the words "GET A LIFE" in 24 point text.

Though this seams to be a long and twisted way to make my point, which is people want to believe in silly ass shit, even after being confronted with real evidence. Take for example the "birthers" who believe our President was not born in Hawaii (on that email I received a reply that money can get you anything). These silly beliefs set up a mental condition that allows normal rationally smart people to accept silly and now deadly beliefs in nothing more than a piece of plastic and an antenna. This has cost lives. Anti-vaxers cost lives. People do die from the flu, people do die from the measles and chickenpox, and now people do die from dowsing rods??????????????WTF