Open Thread: idle amusement edition

The Designer's holy book is filled with more lies than James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces." The Designer certainly has some splainin' to do. I'd to see Him on the couch bein' grilled by Oprah.

The ORIGINAL Illustrated Catalog of ACME Products....

How cool!!! Thanks for posting and thanks to people who have spent entirely too much time watching cartoons to create such a web site.

I recommend listening to a few of the (Fake) President's (Pseudo) Weekly Radio Addresses at www.weeklyradioaddress.com

Trust me, after listening to a few of the audio links, you will realize that the comedian that maintains this site is no great fan of W. Takehome: the site has gut-splitting hilarity fit for a perfect Saturday morning!

Something my mother sent me this morning: the Embryonic Popple. I saw it and immediately thought that PZ might appreciate it.

Holy cow! The "Intelligent Design Society of Kansas" FAQ is hilarious! The predator head on god's body finally explains why my wisdom teeth had to be yanked out many years ago (intellignt my foot!).....

Top Five Things Science is Wrong About

1. Neo-darwinism. The notion that mutation, selection, drift and gene duplication are the mechanisms of evolution.

2. Global warming. While there is some evidence that global warming is occurring, there is scant evidence that human activity of any kind is the cause, or that there is any way for us to control it.

3. The Big Bang. The notion that the universe came into existence in a single event some ten or twenty billion years ago from a single, infinitely dense and hot pointlike ball of light, smaller than the smallest atom.

4. Nature vs. Nurture. The notion that children are "blank slates" at birth and that they will be molded by the environment in which they are reared. The role of genetics in personality, disease, longevity, intelligence and creativity has long been underestimated or deliberately ignored.

5. Diet and heart disease. The current campaign to convince every American to change his or her diet and, in many cases, to initiate drug "therapy" for life is based on fabrications, erroneous interpretations and/or gross exaggerations of findings and, very importantly, the ignoring of massive amounts of unsupportive data.

Read more at:
charliewagner.com slash hoax dot htm

Muslim barbarians have set the Danish Embassy on fire

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10705393/

Charlie, you're a bigger retard than I imagined.

Sigh.. Charlie and his IDiocy Factory is back... Lets hope he eats lots of McDonald's hamburgers and has one of those impossible food-based heart attacks...

Charlie Wagner

1. Neo-darwinism. The notion that mutation, selection, drift and gene duplication are the mechanisms of evolution.

So you admit evolution happens, but deny that mutation, selection, drift, and duplication (which is a mutation) are its mechanisms. How bizarre. I thought creationists usually deny the former but concede the latter...?

2. Global warming. While there is some evidence that global warming is occurring, there is scant evidence that human activity of any kind is the cause, or that there is any way for us to control it.

I'll fix that for you, free of charge: there is OVERWHELMING evidence that global warming is occuring, there is INCREASING evidence that human activity is the cause.

You owe me one.

3. The Big Bang. The notion that the universe came into existence in a single event some ten or twenty billion years ago from a single, infinitely dense and hot pointlike ball of light, smaller than the smallest atom.

Ha! Ha!

4. Nature vs. Nurture. The notion that children are "blank slates" at birth and that they will be molded by the environment in which they are reared. The role of genetics in personality, disease, longevity, intelligence and creativity has long been underestimated or deliberately ignored.

Find me one credible scientist to completely ignores the role of genetics in development. Go on. I dare you.

5. Diet and heart disease. The current campaign to convince every American to change his or her diet and, in many cases, to initiate drug "therapy" for life is based on fabrications, erroneous interpretations and/or gross exaggerations of findings and, very importantly, the ignoring of massive amounts of unsupportive data.

Whatever makes you feel better as you peel and eat a stick of butter like a banana.

Kagehi wrote:

"Lets hope he eats lots of McDonald's hamburgers and has one of those impossible food-based heart attacks..."

Thanks for the good wishes. Your hopes have been realized. In Feb 2005 I suffered from flash pulmonary edema caused by cardiac ischemia that nearly killed me. After an angiogram, it was determined that I had major blockages in several coronary arteries and underwent a triple bypass in March 2005. In August 2005 I suffered from renal-vascular hypertension, caused by blocked renal arteries. A stent was inserted to open one of these arteries so that I could avoid dyalysis.
There is no evidence that too much animal fat and cholesterol in the diet promotes atherosclerosis or heart attacks. For instance, more than twenty studies have shown that people who have had a heart attack haven't eaten more fat of any kind than other people, and degree of atherosclerosis at autopsy is unrelated with the diet.

http://www.ravnskov.nu/weblit.htm#050

PZ, where were you in the fall of 1987, when I was conceived? Note these two posts' comment threads.

Sure could have used those cards for xmas and the squidhead is absolutely brilliant. All the links were great (except Charlie's, that is just boring).

Hey Cahrlies, sorry about your ill health. Aren't ya glad that the understanding of evolution and the similarities in structures between different species of animal, like human and pig, let reasearchers find a way to save your life?

UCLA Scientists See and Analyze 650-Million-Year-Old Fossils Inside Rocks in Three Dimensions

UCLA paleobiologist J. William Schopf and colleagues have produced 3-D images of ancient fossils � 650 million to 850 million years old � preserved in rocks, an achievement that has never been done before.
...

Don't pick on Charlie - this is the idle amusement thread, after all - he just wanted to contribute some funnies.

Alon! You're gonna break P.Z.'s heart. Haven't we figured out that either Will or Chris Clarke is your father, not P.Z.?

By the way, I've been screwing with my style sheet and plugins this afternoon, so I'm sorry if anybody tried to unlock the secret of Alon's parentage and encountered an error message. I'm done now.

Lixivium wrote:

"'ll fix that for you, free of charge: there is OVERWHELMING evidence that global warming is occuring, there is INCREASING evidence that human activity is the cause."

Yes, about 6/10 of one degree over the last 100 years. Since we've only been analyzing data for a short while, we don't know if this is a permanent trend or a simple oscillation that occurs naturally over the centuries. There were very warm periods and very cold periods in the past, so one is hard pressed to weigh its significance.
It is even more difficult to determine the cause of these changes. Cooler periods seem to correlate with decreased solar activity and warmer periods have occurred when there were few industrial pollutants to blame.
I suspect that these are naturally occurring oscillations unrelated to human activity and that there is little anyone can do to mitigate them.
Besides, many people (like my kids in New York) are very happy with the mild winter, heating oil being $2.69 a gallon. Who is to say that a warmer earth may not be more beneficial in the long run than a cooler one?

Who is to say that a warmer earth may not be more beneficial in the long run than a cooler one?

All of us in the southeastern U.S. who would rather not get dengue fever. Those in Europe who would rather not get malaria. All of the major cities in low-lying coastal areas who would rather not drown. All of us animals who need food to survive, who understand that food crops and animals can't adapt in the face of rapid, human influenced climate change.

The San Francisco Chronicle ran a series on this recently.

Jamie wrote:

"All of us in the southeastern U.S. who would rather not get dengue fever. Those in Europe who would rather not get malaria. All of the major cities in low-lying coastal areas who would rather not drown. All of us animals who need food to survive, who understand that food crops and animals can't adapt in the face of rapid, human influenced climate change."

Dengue fever and malaria are caused by mosquitoes but unfortunately, DDT (which has never harmed a human being) has been banned because of totally unsupported claims by "environmentalists", that it is toxic.
As for the poor souls living in low-lying coastal areas, I have this suggestion: move to higher ground!
As for food, the opening up of new farmland (like happened in Greenland during a warm spell) will lead to increased food production, not a decrease. This could prove to be extremely beneficial to the world's hungry. In addition, changes in climate may well mitigate the disasterous effects of drought in many poor countries.
While the changes that might occur with a warmer world climate might require some adjustments, it is NOT a foregone conclusion that these changes would in any way be disasterous.
As for the polar bears, that's the way it's supposed to work, isn't it? Species compete and the best suited to the prevailing conditions are favored, the ones that can't adapt die out. It's been going on for thousands of years.

Alon! You're gonna break P.Z.'s heart. Haven't we figured out that either Will or Chris Clarke is your father, not P.Z.?

No, you haven't, mostly because PZ wasn't aware of the thread to step in and claim ancestry. Or was it because I violated my promise not to tell Mary about it? Inquiring midns want to know, PZ.

KELVIN IS LORD!

Only The One, True Lord KELVIN Can Conserve You From Entropy!

http://zapatopi.net/lordkelvin.html

I don't know if you've seen it but Pharyngula is mentioned along with some other blogs in Tim O'Brien's Star Tribune article.

Shhh Charlie! Us "environmentalists" fabricated that DDT thing to hide our real goal of Global Socialist Revolution. Upon discovering that the prols were too drunk and stupid to "move to higher ground," as you say (see: NOLA), we had to switch to plan B: the global warming scare. What we're really after is a good deal on some beachfront property, so we figgers if we scare everbuddy out of NYC, Scooby-Doo style, we can snatch up the land at a shit of a bargain. Further, we've created a new economic sector so we can rake in the big bucks "doing" "environmental" "science." We figger it worked real good for the "English" majors, why not "us?"

Oh, and it hasn't "been going on for thousands of years." Try a few billion.

Jamie wrote:

"Shhh Charlie! Us "environmentalists" fabricated that DDT thing to hide our real goal of Global Socialist Revolution."

The banning of DDT was not a proud moment for science.

http://www.junkscience.com/ddtfaq.htm

Okay, so it follows from Dobshansky's declaration that nothing in biology makes sense without evolution - no evolution denier makes sense about biology b/c they deny evolution. Really, Charlie, it's you and an ironically named website versus Cornell's Lab of Ornithology, eleventeen bazillion hits on Google Scholar, and 50ish years of research.

Apologies for feeding this incessant, annoying troll, ya'll. I should have known better than to provoke responses from someone who clearly hates birds and polar bears.

Gooda article. Maybe, in this country, it really is all about separation of church and state.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/03/AR20060…

Re: Unusual cards -
oh my, that coelacanth girl is kinda hot . . .

Charlie, You got it backwards. Junk Science dot com being registered was not a proud moment for science. Steven Milloy is a joke of a science commentator.

Inoculated Mind wrote:

"Charlie, You got it backwards. Junk Science dot com being registered was not a proud moment for science. Steven Milloy is a joke of a science commentator."

The biggest moron in the world can say that 2+2 = 4 and be perfectly correct. The fact that he may be a moron does not negate the truthfulness of this particular claim. It is a logical fallacy to judge the truthfulness of a claim by the credibility of the claimant. An Ad Hominem is a general category of fallacies in which a claim or argument is rejected on the basis of some irrelevant fact about the author of or the person presenting the claim or argument. Typically, this fallacy involves two steps. First, an attack against the character of person making the claim, her circumstances, or her actions is made (or the character, circumstances, or actions of the person reporting the claim). Second, this attack is taken to be evidence against the claim or argument the person in question is making (or presenting). This type of "argument" has the following form:

1. Person A makes claim X.
2. Person B makes an attack on person A.
3. Therefore A's claim is false.

The reason why an Ad Hominem (of any kind) is a fallacy is that the character, circumstances, or actions of a person do not (in most cases) have a bearing on the truth or falsity of the claim being made (or the quality of the argument being made).

At any rate, the article was not written by Milloy:

"The information presented here has been largely drawn from materials compiled by J. Gordon Edwards, professor of entomology at San Jose State University. Dr. Edwards testified at the 1971-1972 EPA hearings on DDT. Some research and all editing/formatting was done by Steven J. Milloy, publisher of junkscience.com."

A little advice to people who haven't been here for long: the best way to deal with Charlie Wagner is to ignore him. Past open threads became head-banging fests with Charlie when and only when people responded to him. Please don't feed the trolls, especially the one who's been proven to shut up when ignored.

Alon Levy wrote:

"Please don't feed the trolls, especially the one who's been proven to shut up when ignored."

What could it possibly matter to you what I post and who I respond to? It harms you in no way and you're free to ignore me if you so choose. As I've explained before, this is Paul's blog and I'm here because he apparently *wants* me here. I've told him on several occasions that if he so requests, I will no longer post here.
That having been said, you apparently don't know anything about me or my motivation. I respond mostly to what Paul writes and I respond to those who choose to engage me with meaningful or respectful comments. I would hope that people would find some of the things I say interesting and if necessary, challenge them on the content. That would go a long way towards an intelligent and worthwhile conversation, which is what we're here for, is it not?
I never respond to people who launch personal, ad hominem or disrespectful comments. I have no interest in upsetting anyone nor do I take delight in it, which is the modus operandi of a true "troll".

No, I don't want you here. Please do not interpret mere tolerance as appreciation.

You don't overdo the spamming, most people just roll their eyes and skim over your posts, so you aren't excessively disruptive. I don't kick people out for just expressing ideas I disagree with or find stupid, and that's all you can conclude from my forbearance.

Paul wrote:

"I don't kick people out for just expressing ideas I disagree with or find stupid, and that's all you can conclude from my forbearance."

And don't think for a moment that I don't appreciate that. ;-)

"Let no one anywhere despise another,
Let no one out of anger or resentment
Wish suffering on anyone at all.
Just as a mother with her own life
Protects her child, her only child, from harm,
So within yourself let grow
A boundless love for all creatures."

I wonder if your disdain for religion extends to Buddhism?

Hmm. Just remembered this:

http://www.livescience.com/environment/060119_dark_china.html

Basically, in China they are getting "less" sunlight, but the temperature across the country is rising more than any other part of the globe. Reason for both - Smog.

Oh, and another fun fact, all indications from, your know - actual research, seems to indicate that more global temperature increases will produce more storms, but less water for irrigation and drinking. Oops!!

And for your info Charlie, while there are some conflicting bits of information that indicate that genetics and what other things you eat "with" red meat determine what effect it has, this simply means the situation is more complex than previous thought, not that some idiot that eats nothing but red meat won't die at 40-50 from heart disease. If you continue to ignore medical advice, in favor of some genetic freak some place saying, "I ate it every day, and so did my parents and grandparents, and we never had a problem!", or the latest crackpot all meat diet, etc., then I have no sympathy for you at all.

Oh, btw PZ. You might want to recheck Card's comments on the thread you meantioned before, and Brin's site too. Card made a partial retractions. Partial because he is an "old" ID type, that ironically rejects the religious attribution, in favor of the pre-DI version, sort of like in Brin's uplift stories. He has also apparently covered the reasoning behind the nature of some of his characters sufficiently, from what others have said, to nix the idea that he is necessarilly a homophobe either. Brin has also cleared up his position on the subject too. Seems he also missed the point about how the original vague concept had been hijacked. In any case, this seems to be one of those times where we may have unintentially shot at allies.

Not that some like one guy names Rob Perkins is likely to change his mind much, given he thinks you, "need to put down Dawkins for a while", or something to that effect. A comment on your quotation side bar, not only just your usual confrontational tone.