When it's winter and you've got the common cold, do you reach for the vitamin C tablets and drink orange juice? I do. I was under the impression that vitamin C is something that helps the body out. So while I'm sucking down excess vitamin tablets and drinking juice straight from the bottle, it turns out that it wasn't doing anything.
So there you have it, I was wrong. I fell for a sham treatment and didn't even think twice about it. After all, it made me feel better so I had no reason to assume that it didn't actually work. It's things like this that remind me to stop and research things before I act. How hard is it to spend 5 minutes googling anyway?
So thank you SGU, I've learned something today and hopefully it's going to lead to more investigative behaviour in the future.
Thursday, 3 December 2009
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
Explaining Evolutionary Complexity In The Form of Haiku
The basic principle
Complexity that
Aids the survival of genes
Is passed to offspring
A mechanism
Gene duplication
Increases the size of the
Genetic code's length
The genes for smelling
Are dupes of a single gene
Aiding survival
No free lunch
An environment
Where there's an unused resource
Can be exploited
To digest nylon
The bacteria evolved
Gaining a free lunch
Irreducible Complexity
An I.C. system
Means there is no going back
Such systems evolve
A mutation that
Was merely advantageous
Can become vital
What does complexity mean anyway?
Is it more complex
To be born with a tail?
This needs explaining
Complexity that
Aids the survival of genes
Is passed to offspring
A mechanism
Gene duplication
Increases the size of the
Genetic code's length
The genes for smelling
Are dupes of a single gene
Aiding survival
No free lunch
An environment
Where there's an unused resource
Can be exploited
To digest nylon
The bacteria evolved
Gaining a free lunch
Irreducible Complexity
An I.C. system
Means there is no going back
Such systems evolve
A mutation that
Was merely advantageous
Can become vital
What does complexity mean anyway?
Is it more complex
To be born with a tail?
This needs explaining
The Unlocking Of An ACTUAL Conspiracy
I was wrong, pure and simple. Here I was decrying the AGW deniers for their conspiracy-like ravings against anthropogenic climate change. That tens of thousands of scientists were all working together to promote a radical leftist agenda by silencing deniers, deleting contradicting data, colluding together and putting up a non-existent threat in order to serve their political agenda. I used to laugh at those creationist-like devotees of what looked like one big appeal to consequences...
That was until Climategate.
Unlike all other gates; watergate, crackergate, utegate, or the rusty squeaking gate at grandma's house, this gate was real... and it's implications startling! They were right, there was a conspiracy. The leaked emails prove everything that has ever been said about those ideologues in the IPCC and that evangelical arsehole Al Gore. And worst of all I knew it.
I knew it and I let my credulity get the better of me. My inner sceptic was saying "noooooooo" in a Cartmanesque fade to oblivion, but I didn't listen. I trusted science. pfft, I'm not doing that again. For a long time now they've been telling us that we are nothing but glorified monkeys, that we are just matter, and that we really don't matter because matter is just energy condensed. No more of that! Now that the tree ring data and temperature data don't overlap, we can't trust anything any more.
Yet I've brought this on myself before. I remember when I used to believe that man walked on the moon. I truly believed it. But one man had the courage to say something about it, and that conspirator Buzz Aldrin just punched him in the face! If he had nothing to hide, he would have produced the moon cheese that NASA would have found had they really gone to the moon.
And there was that whole period where I attributed alien abductions to hallucinations and false memories - culture infesting the consciousness and causing the sense of patternicity we all share to interpret strange experiences as out of this world. I even attributed my own experiences of sleep paralysis to natural causes. But then why do government reports of UFOs have so much blacked out? What are they trying to protect? I'm fearful for the human / alien hybrid invasion of 2012.
But back to the issue at hand. This is just the tip of the iceberg, which by the way did NOT break from a warming Arctic. There is now evidence of direct conspiracy to stop the free market. Why can't a mining company pollute the streams if it gets us a fuel source? The environmental implications of pollution are overstated, and in any case to reduce toxic pollutants is going to cost jobs. Just as happened a few decades ago, and what did the laws to regulate pollutants do? It destroyed the economy and brought society to its knees. And for what? So those damn evolutionists could show natural selection on the peppered moth.
I'm thankful for those hackers who targeted private email of a few climate scientists, because there was always that gut feeling of guilt when I left my computer on when I wasn't using it, or that I spent too long in the shower. Now I don't need to worry at all. It's all a hoax, it's all a charade, and those emails are the smoking gun that show the level of deception and fraud perpetrated by the IPCC.
But as I write this, I feel my scepticism of my scepticism resurging. Maybe I'm making mountains out of molehills (how else do mountains form except for giant moles?) and that there's not enough in there to completely discount human-induced climate change. It could just be those emails show something minor, it could be that those emails fall within the bounds of the scientific process, and that the evidence still points to us having some effect on the environment.
But then I think to myself, what is more likely. That there are tens of thousands of climate scientists in on a conspiracy. That those who have spent the time and effort to study the climate, to see how human activity affects the environment and what factors there are in how our weather system works. Those who have measured the environment at different times, trying to find patterns, work out cycles, seeing what that will do to sea levels and rain over agricultural areas. That all these people are just faking the data to push a political agenda. Or that there really is grounds to consider that human activity is having some effect on the environment.
Really it should be obvious. As Bush jr. said: "Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
That was until Climategate.
Unlike all other gates; watergate, crackergate, utegate, or the rusty squeaking gate at grandma's house, this gate was real... and it's implications startling! They were right, there was a conspiracy. The leaked emails prove everything that has ever been said about those ideologues in the IPCC and that evangelical arsehole Al Gore. And worst of all I knew it.
I knew it and I let my credulity get the better of me. My inner sceptic was saying "noooooooo" in a Cartmanesque fade to oblivion, but I didn't listen. I trusted science. pfft, I'm not doing that again. For a long time now they've been telling us that we are nothing but glorified monkeys, that we are just matter, and that we really don't matter because matter is just energy condensed. No more of that! Now that the tree ring data and temperature data don't overlap, we can't trust anything any more.
Yet I've brought this on myself before. I remember when I used to believe that man walked on the moon. I truly believed it. But one man had the courage to say something about it, and that conspirator Buzz Aldrin just punched him in the face! If he had nothing to hide, he would have produced the moon cheese that NASA would have found had they really gone to the moon.
And there was that whole period where I attributed alien abductions to hallucinations and false memories - culture infesting the consciousness and causing the sense of patternicity we all share to interpret strange experiences as out of this world. I even attributed my own experiences of sleep paralysis to natural causes. But then why do government reports of UFOs have so much blacked out? What are they trying to protect? I'm fearful for the human / alien hybrid invasion of 2012.
But back to the issue at hand. This is just the tip of the iceberg, which by the way did NOT break from a warming Arctic. There is now evidence of direct conspiracy to stop the free market. Why can't a mining company pollute the streams if it gets us a fuel source? The environmental implications of pollution are overstated, and in any case to reduce toxic pollutants is going to cost jobs. Just as happened a few decades ago, and what did the laws to regulate pollutants do? It destroyed the economy and brought society to its knees. And for what? So those damn evolutionists could show natural selection on the peppered moth.
I'm thankful for those hackers who targeted private email of a few climate scientists, because there was always that gut feeling of guilt when I left my computer on when I wasn't using it, or that I spent too long in the shower. Now I don't need to worry at all. It's all a hoax, it's all a charade, and those emails are the smoking gun that show the level of deception and fraud perpetrated by the IPCC.
But as I write this, I feel my scepticism of my scepticism resurging. Maybe I'm making mountains out of molehills (how else do mountains form except for giant moles?) and that there's not enough in there to completely discount human-induced climate change. It could just be those emails show something minor, it could be that those emails fall within the bounds of the scientific process, and that the evidence still points to us having some effect on the environment.
But then I think to myself, what is more likely. That there are tens of thousands of climate scientists in on a conspiracy. That those who have spent the time and effort to study the climate, to see how human activity affects the environment and what factors there are in how our weather system works. Those who have measured the environment at different times, trying to find patterns, work out cycles, seeing what that will do to sea levels and rain over agricultural areas. That all these people are just faking the data to push a political agenda. Or that there really is grounds to consider that human activity is having some effect on the environment.
Really it should be obvious. As Bush jr. said: "Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
Also In Today's News...
Ethics sans religion
More than anything, I think my atheism was pushed by the complete lack of substance in religious class. While in all other classes I was learning something useful, or at the very least playing sport, there was selling Christianity as true and faith in a virtue. In history we learnt about Greek mythology and explored their culture including literature, and even that had more substance than scripture.
And given religion's supposed link to morality, it was amazing the lack of value teaching their was. Now that perhaps is because I was given a very liberal theological "education". Why should we be good to each other? How to we go about resolving an ethical dilemma? What does it mean to be good? None of that, just that we're all sinners and we need Jesus to be forgiven by God.
I welcome this news, because it is not replacing scripture with a non-religious alternative. It's giving children something useful, a way to think through what would otherwise be value judgements. Hopefully this is the start of a general public shift away from the thinking that morality and religion are tightly coupled.
Ethics classes will soon be taught in New South Wales primary schools as a secular alternative to scripture classes.Praise the lord! Finally, something useful during that period of time. Scripture lessons were such a waste of time, it wasn't much more than trying than masked proselytism, trying to sell the validity of Christianity and more concerned with pushing articles of faith. Tales of the importance to God in ones life, concern for the afterlife, and historical Jesus = biblical Jesus because there are more copies of the bible than any other historical document.
Religious groups have argued against a change to the government's policy which prevents children who do not go to scripture classes from having other formal tuition during that time.
But the Premier Nathan Rees has announced that the government will now allow a trial of an ethics course in 10 primary schools over two terms next year.
"This will provide students with an opportunity to examine ethics that underline their own values and reflect the choices that they make in everyday life and that is a good thing," he said.
Mr Rees says the course will deal with issues like fairness, bullying, as well as lying and telling the truth.
Dr Simon Longstaff from the St James Ethics Centre says it is a big win for parents who have been pushing for the classes for years.
"It's a wonderful achievement for parents they started the ball rolling almost seven years ago when they raised the concern about those children whose parents made a conscientious decision not being able to do something meaningful," he said.
"It's wonderful to see what they've asked for being recognised by the government and given a chance to be tried."
Schools that are interested in being involved in the trial are being asked to nominate themselves.
More than anything, I think my atheism was pushed by the complete lack of substance in religious class. While in all other classes I was learning something useful, or at the very least playing sport, there was selling Christianity as true and faith in a virtue. In history we learnt about Greek mythology and explored their culture including literature, and even that had more substance than scripture.
And given religion's supposed link to morality, it was amazing the lack of value teaching their was. Now that perhaps is because I was given a very liberal theological "education". Why should we be good to each other? How to we go about resolving an ethical dilemma? What does it mean to be good? None of that, just that we're all sinners and we need Jesus to be forgiven by God.
I welcome this news, because it is not replacing scripture with a non-religious alternative. It's giving children something useful, a way to think through what would otherwise be value judgements. Hopefully this is the start of a general public shift away from the thinking that morality and religion are tightly coupled.
In Today's News...
Mass ritual sacrifice
I can't help but think back to the burning of witches in the middle ages. For if young women really were witches then the behaviour would make sense. It's killing those who would otherwise cause harm. But if witches really were a construct of the mind, all they did was kill thousands of innocent women.
Just as here, if the Hindu gods really need blood sacrifice in order to protect individuals and help maintain life, then this makes sense. Otherwise it's just the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of animals.
Up to one million Hindu devotees have gathered in a village in Nepal to witness the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of animals in a mass sacrifice that has drawn widespread criticism.I know, I know, cultural relativity and all that. While it might seem barbaric to us, it's only because we can't understand the vengeful nature of Hindu deities. Now if only they worked out a deal involving chopping off the tips of their penises instead, well the tips of infant penises - then they could at least claim that the practice can stop AIDS or something.
Worshippers travelled long distances, many coming from neighbouring India, to attend the two-day Gadhimai festival, which honours the Hindu goddess of power and takes place once every five years in southern Nepal.
A huge cry of "Long Live Gadhimai!" went up after the village temple's head priest launched the event with the ritual sacrifice of two rats, two pigeons, a rooster, a lamb and a pig.
The crowd then rushed to a nearby field where 250 sword-wielding butchers began the mass slaughter of around 20,000 buffalo, brought by devotees to be sacrificed near the holy temple.
"This is a very special day for Hindu devotees," head priest Mangal Chaudhary Tharu said as the festival began.
"All the people who came here to worship Gadhimai have been waiting a long time for this day. I am very proud to be part of this event," added Mr Tharu, the fourth generation of his family to serve as a priest at the temple.
A reporter at the scene said up to a million devotees were crammed into the area for the festival. Many were from India, where some states have banned animal slaughter for religious purposes.
Chanchal Shah, a 55-year-old farmer from the northern Indian state of Bihar, travelled to Bariyapur by tractor with dozens of relatives to sacrifice a buffalo in thanks for the birth of his grandson.
"We have come to celebrate the birth of my daughter's son," Mr Shah said.
"She got married two years ago and I had promised I would sacrifice an animal after she had her first child. I know that sacrificing is a bad idea, but I am scared the goddess will be angry if I do not keep my promise."
'Cruel' sacrificeI'm lost for words. It seems that at least one Hindu deity invades the vagina of those who are fertile and chooses which sperm gets to fertilise the egg. Appeals to the supernatural seem so appealing until their relationship with the natural world is thought upon...
Animal rights activists, who have waged a vocal campaign to have the festival stopped, say they believe their message that sacrifice is cruel is beginning to be heard in deeply conservative, majority-Hindu Nepal.
Their cause is supported by the well-known Indian animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi and by the French film star turned campaigner Brigitte Bardot, who this month wrote to Nepal's president urging him to ban the practice.
But the government has refused to put a stop to what it says is a centuries-old religious tradition.
Mahesh Yadav, a Nepalese farmer who arrived with a black goat tethered to the back of his bicycle, said he wanted to thank Gadhimai for giving him a son.
"I had seven daughters in a row so I promised the goddess I would sacrifice a goat if she gave me a son," he said.
"Eight years ago the goddess listened and my son was born."
The buffalo slaughter took place in a field surrounded by a three-metre wall, and will be followed by the ritual sacrifice of around 300,000 goats, sheep and birds.
Many festival-goers scaled the wall to get a better view of the killings, carried out by volunteers.
Armed police were deployed around the temple grounds, but the event passed off mainly peacefully.
I can't help but think back to the burning of witches in the middle ages. For if young women really were witches then the behaviour would make sense. It's killing those who would otherwise cause harm. But if witches really were a construct of the mind, all they did was kill thousands of innocent women.
Just as here, if the Hindu gods really need blood sacrifice in order to protect individuals and help maintain life, then this makes sense. Otherwise it's just the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of animals.
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