Cedric was the poster boy for Devil Facial Tumor Disease, a transmissible cancer spread through bites to the face. He also did a lot to change our view of tazzies, turning them into the cutie pies we all know and love.
Now You Know
ASK DR. BOLI. « Dr. Boli’s Celebrated Magazine..
The question this time deals with human reproduction. As is true of all too many popular write-ups on the subject certain details get glossed over, but overall the essay is remarkable of just how wrong-headed it is. Which makes sense, since it is a satire of know-nothing know-it-all essays you may have read before. As Glenn Reynolds would say, “Heh.”
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Righthaven Does it Again
Notice: S&L Is Being Sued By Righthaven | Sweetness & Light.
If you’ve got any money to spare Steven Gilbert could use your help. Spreading word of this to the wider blogosphere is also a good thing.
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This One Thing is Not Like the Others.
Rummaging for a Final Theory: Scientific American.
The problem with the thinking behind this article, indeed in the thinking behind the Standard Model, is that it misses one salient fact revealed by Einstein’s General Relativity. Namely, that gravity is not a force like the classical three. One thing General Relativity points out is that mass curves space-time. In effect, gravity is the name we give to the interaction between an object and space-time, with the object following the curve of space-time where and when it does curve.
Now electromagnetism, the strong force, and the weak force also arise from the curvature of space-time, but how space-time is curved differs in the last three cases. Space-time curvature in the case of gravity is more gradual, shallower for all intents and purposes. The curvature in the case of electromagnetism is a short range thing, and exhibits a discontinuity not seen in gravity. The picture you may have seen of gravity wells doing a sudden drop off near a black hole more accurately describes the shape of the curvature where electromagnetism is concerned. While the slope of gravity increases the closer to a center of mass, it is a steady and gradual increase.
I wish I could explain it better, all I can hope is that the gist of what I’m saying is getting across. The main point of this posting is, we are not going to make any real progress on a theory of everything until we recognize what General Relativity is telling us and accept that gravity is not a force as electromagnetism, the strong force, and the weak force are, and that gravity cannot be treated as a classical force.
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Cover Your Ass
Shades of “Gray Literature”: How Much IPCC Reform Is Needed?: Scientific American.
The story is about mistakes the IPCC has committed. Mistakes global warming skeptics have taken advantage of in their eagerness to prove the proposition the Earth’s climate is warming up is wrong. A tactic used by creationists in their attempts to prove the Theory of Evolution wrong by the way.
People make errors, but that does not mean they are necessarily wrong on a subject. Whatever errors the IPCC has committed, the science behind the climate warming scenario is strong and supported by data. The fact there are local exceptions to the over all scenario means nothing. The fact some models don’t match actual events says more about the assumptions behind the models than about the data.
I’m not expert on climate change, but I do know that changes have occurred, and changes continue to occur. The fact that the IPCC report contradicted itself concerning Himalayan glaciers speaks more to a mistake in copy editing than it does the validity of global warming. The fact there is more precipitation in the middle of Antarctica actually supports global warming, insofar as it has become warm enough overall in the center of the continent to support an increase in snow fall. For there was a time when it was just too cold to snow much at all.
Science, for all the mythologizing, is a messy business with missteps and mistakes. It takes time and a lot of false steps to work out what is what. Physics is going through a kerfuffle regarding gravity and the three classical forces, while the heliocentric Solar System had its problems back in the day. Even after a century of research and study scientists are still haggling over the mechanisms behind evolution. Science is the mosh pit of inquiry, giving many a denier ample ammunition for disbelief based on ignorance and fanaticism.
But it is through vigorous debate and hard work that propositions, proposals, and hypotheses get worked out. Without the often belligerent disagreement theories would not get the exercise they need and be flabby things easily disproved. Honest debate is how we get good science.
The impression I get from the climate change deniers is that they hate the idea the Earth’s climate is changing because its so damn inconvenient. It means a change in how things are done, how lives are lived. The climate warms up it means changes in agriculture, transportation, even demographics. As coastal land floods it means people are going to have to move and entire cities are going to have to be rebuilt. In the long run it means mass migrations as people abandon homes and move to where new opportunities await. Just think of the changes Canada and Russia are going to go through as they warm up and the Arctic Ocean becomes open water.
More changes are coming and all the protestations and complaining the skeptics engage in isn’t going to change a damn thing. All the mistakes the IPCC has made isn’t going to change a thing. The evidence points to a changing world climate and we either adapt or we fail.
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It’s Always Something
Pox Swap: 30 Years After the End of Smallpox, Monkeypox Cases Are on the Rise: Scientific American.
Just when you thought it was safe, a relative of Smallpox rears it’s ugly head. Ten percent of sufferers die, and from the looks of things it’s a good possibility survivors suffer disfiguring scarring. Even worse, there’s always the possibility the disease could become more deadly and more disfiguring. This means another plague waiting in the wings to make its way through an unprepared population. And another vaccine for certain parties to get all hot and bothered about. Be aware and make sure your doctor knows about this as well, for with current methods of international travel what appears to be limited to Africa could easily show up in America.
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For Your Consideration
Zombie » Ideological War Spells Doom for America’s Schoolkids.
This is part one of a five part series on education in America, and how extremists on both sides are degrading the enterprise. Part two is also up, and part three should be following tomorrow.
The point of the essays is that education is being debased in support of one cause or another. True believers say their view of subjects is the only valid one, and that it is good to engage in propaganda rather than presenting an honest look at the subject. Whether the cause be creationism or political correctness, radical conservative and radical liberal alike are acting to make life more difficult for our school children now and in the future.
Reagan said famously that extremism in pursuit of the good is no vice. People forget that extremism is also used in pursuit of the wrong. When that is the case it is a vice, a sin of commission against the good and the true. Any tool can be used for evil as well as good, and in the goal of making sure that only allowed subjects taught in the allowed way is as much a crime as theft.
What both sides are doing is robbing our children of the chance to learn about the world they live in. Whatever the subject is the extremist’s goal is fraudulent on the face of it and it is about time people stood up against the strident and belligerent and told them where to get off. It means making an effort, an arduous effort, but in the long run it will be will worth it.
Learn what the local extremists are doing in your community and speak out against it. Support honest science, honest arts and humanities. Condemn lies and frauds wherever they may appear and work to remove the extremists from your local school board. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.
Above all, don’t get discouraged. The frauds will work hard to discourage you and get you disgusted with the system. You get disgusted and quit they will win and your children will suffer for it. Just remember, if the extremists had anything going for their positions, they wouldn’t need to drive people out of the debate with lies.
This is a war for the future of the country and for the future of our children. Be prepared for a long and bitter war and know that the ultimate victory against ignorance and tyranny will be well worth it.
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What He Said
Glenn Beck – Current Events & Politics – Glenn Beck’s 8/28 Restoring Honor Keynote Speech.
It could have been better said, it could have been more concisely said, but I doubt he could have been more heart felt. The message is really a simple one, that our future is up to us. We cannot rely on others do do for us what we need to do for ourselves. We are responsible for our own fate, no one else. We have the tools, if only we have the will.
Time and time again we are told by those who think they know better that we are hopeless, hapless souls. We are taught again and again that we must look to others to care for us, to mind us as if we are nothing more than small children. Our days of childhood are past and we are adults now. We are responsible for our own behavior, for our own future. We bear responsibility for what we do for ourselves and for those who cannot be responsible for themselves. It is time we took up the burden of self responsibility and acted like the adults we are.
I do not agree that it is only by turning to God that we can turn ourselves and our nation around, I say that even the agnostic and the atheist has a role to play. But whoever joins in this great enterprise, for whatever reason, joins for the same reason, the same purpose, to empower humanity and to endow his fellow man with dignity and the rights that belong to all.
The right to speak his mind. The right to have a say in how he is governed. The right to follow God as he conceives the Deity to be, or to follow his own dictates on his own terms. The right to be what he decides to be, without fear of those who would condemn his choice.
It is time to take up the cause of liberty once again, to speak out on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves. To act on behalf of those who cannot act for themselves. To fight for the right of all to speak, to worship, to live as they chose, without fear that someone will deny them that right.
That is the message I got from Glenn Beck in that video. He could have been more organized in his speech, more to the point, but the message he gave got through, at least to this soul. Whether it does to you is up to you and your understanding. As for me, I shall continue to speak out on behalf of human dignity and human rights. I will continue to oppose hatred and bigotry to the best of my ability. I will speak plainly and honestly, ever mindful that I can no more speak for you than a cat can pass up chasing a dancing dot of light.
Let there be a new birth of freedom, and let it grow beyond this nation to all the nations of the world. Let the light of liberty shine for all, the great and the small, the near and the far. Let us all take up the torch and carry it as best we can, and may we all remember the ultimate goal, that never shall government of the people, by the people, and for the people perish from this Earth.
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Neat Stuff
Stuff we linked to on Twitter last week | Highly Allochthonous.
Whether it’s geology or astronomy (or something else scientific) there’s a bunch of stuff here to get engaged in and by. Have fun.
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Goodbye Katherine
For those of you who keep track of such things, here is why I removed Katherine “Aberwyn” Kerr from my LJ friends list; I can’t trust her.
I learned that Aberwyn is a shallow minded bigot who hates Glenn Beck. Not just disagrees with him, but out right hates him because of what she’s heard about him and what she thinks he stands for.
Now I disagree with Beck on a number of things, but I’m not about to attribute all sorts of crimes to him because of that. I try to take people as they are, and to make my disagreements known in a mature fashion. I cannot call Aberwyn’s accusations mature behavior. On the contrary, I find them childish and ill becoming an adult human being. Kerr has shown me that she cannot be trusted to behave as an adult, so I will not have any dealings with her.
And goodbye to Jeff of Protein Wisdom as well, for Jeff has also shown that he is unwilling to behave like an adult, having puerile little tizzies over how Glenn Beck presented his case. Jeff G says he can’t accept the message because of how it was presented. I say that is infantile and I say the hell with it.
My beef with both of them, and with David Brin of Contrary Brin, is that they are loath to engage in adult discourse, and to listen to people who disagree with them. That is the impression they have left me with, and why I will not approach them for any reason or with any arguments in support of my views. They don’t want to hear them, so why go so far as to make an effort? If the opposition doesn’t want to listen, what good does it do to speak to them?
So that’s why I won’t be reading Katherine Kerr, David Brin, or Jeff Goldstein any longer, they don’t listen and they exhibit a troubling bigotry towards people who disagree with them. I have enough troubles without ruining my day trying to persuade people who consider me a pustulent mass.
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