// Latest

See All
Shiloh Jolie Pitt The Contradictions between the Creationist Movements May 4, 2009 9:25 AM Source: Scientific American magazine The Contradictions between the Creationist Movements A skeptic engages three types of creationists who claim science supports their beliefs, yet they contradict one another By Michael Shermer April 28, 2009 During the tsunami of bicentennial celebrations of Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday in February, I visited the fringes of evolutionary skepticism to better understand how one of science’s grandest theories could still be doubted. Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm in Bristol, England, is run by a kindly gentleman named Anthony Bush, who insisted that I not confuse him with those “loony American creationists” who think that Earth is only 6,000 years old. “How old do you think it is?” I queried. “Oh, I’ve worked it out to be around 100,000 years old, with Adam and Eve at around 21,000 years old.” (At an order of magnitude difference that makes Mr. Bush only five zeros shy of reality.) What about, I pressed on, all the geologic evidence for a much older Earth? All those strata of, say, sandstone—loose sand compressed into solid rock over immense periods? Those strata are laid down every season, like tree rings, Bush explained. Interesting analogy, given that we can see trees growing from year to year, but where can we find sand being annually compressed into stone? At the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., I learned that Earth was created in 4004 B.C., about the same time that the Mesopotamians invented beer (“That’s on the secular timeline,” I was told). Dioramas feature children frolicking among vege­tarian dinosaurs, including a Tyrannosaurus rex and Utahraptor, whose daggerlike teeth and claws, it was noted, were used for cracking open coconuts before the Fall. But then the snake tempted Eve, who in turn charmed Adam into tasting the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil—after which dinosaurs became meat eaters, humans became sinners and Noah gathered the animals into the Ark (also rendered in­ a dioramic drama complete with screaming left-behinders on soon-to-be swamped rocks). My tour ended with an interview with Georgia Purdom, an accommodating and bright woman (Ph.D. in molecular genetics from Ohio State University) who explained that the worldview you hold (biblical versus secular) determines how you interpret the data. I countered by pointing out that Francis Collins, former head of the Human Genome Project, is a born-again evangelical Christian who fully accepts evolution. In his book The Language of God (Free Press, 2007), Collins describes ancient repetitive elements (AREs) in DNA that arise from “jumping genes” that copy and insert themselves in other locations in the genome, usually without any function. When you align sections of human and mouse genomes, the AREs are in the same location. “Unless one is willing to take the position that God has placed these decapitated AREs in these precise positions to confuse and mislead us,” he asserts, “the conclusion of a common ancestor for humans and mice is virtually inescapable.” Collins is wrong, Purdom stated, because “he does not accept the biblical history in Genesis, so he’s beginning with his ideas about what happened in the past rather than what God said happened in the past, so he’s interpreting that data in light of that starting point.” Shoehorning science into scripture was also painfully on display at the University of North Florida, where I debated founder and chief biblical cosmologist of Reasons to Believe Hugh Ross, an Old Earth Creationist who thinks that the biblical authors describe the expanding universe in such passages as Job 9:8, where God “stretched out the heavens,” and Isaiah 40:22, where God “stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.” The key word in Hebrew is natah, which means “spread out,” like a blanket or a tent, and is a metaphor for the dome or canopy of the sky and fixed stars that formed the basis of the cosmology of the ancient Hebrews, derived from the earlier Babylonian cosmology during the Jewish captivity in Mesopotamia. In my opinion, Ross employs the hindsight bias when he digs through the scriptures in search of passages that vaguely resemble current scientific findings. Had cosmologists discovered that we live in a closed universe that will eventually collapse, then it seems to me that Job 9:7 would work well by confirming that God “commandeth the sun, and it riseth not; and sealeth up the stars.” Seek and ye shall find. This story was originally published with the the title "Creationism in 3-D"
royalgirl53 join Shi's Technology group Mar 16, 2009 11:15 AM I love science, biology, anatomy, etc. I probably would have been a scientist or doctor , but I was REALLY bad at math,good at physics and chemistry. Algebra did me in. So I became a sociologist and eventually a social worker (ick). I have posted scientific info and have virtually been ignored. I blogged about God's particles, link with breast cancer and underarm deodorant. I love Quantum physics..........! So, Shi, I am glad you have this site, maybe I will have some positive exchange and inquiries on my scientific posts. Thanks, Shi
Shiloh Jolie Pitt Lost "Sleeping Beauty" Mummy Formula Found Jan 27, 2009 8:32 AM From: National Geographic News January 26, 2009--She's one of the world's best-preserved bodies: Rosalia Lombardo, a two-year-old Sicilian girl who died of pneumonia in 1920. "Sleeping Beauty," as she's known, appears to be merely dozing beneath the glass front of her coffin in the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, Italy. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! Now an Italian biological anthropologist, Dario Piombino-Mascali of the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Bolzano, has discovered the secret formula that preserved Rosalia's body so well. (Piombino-Mascali is funded by the National Geographic Society's Expeditions Council. National Geographic News is owned by the National Geographic Society.) Piombino-Mascali tracked down living relatives of Alfredo Salafia, a Sicilian taxidermist and embalmer who died in 1933. A search of Salafia's papers revealed a handwritten memoir in which he recorded the chemicals he injected into Rosalia's body: formalin, zinc salts, alcohol, salicylic acid, and glycerin. Formalin, now widely used by embalmers, is a mixture of formaldehyde and water that kills bacteria. Salafia was one of the first to use this for embalming bodies. Alcohol, along with the arid conditions in the catacombs, would have dried Rosalia's body and allowed it to mummify. Glycerin would have kept her body from drying out too much, and salicylic acid would have prevented the growth of fungi. But it was the zinc salts, according to Melissa Johnson Williams, executive director of the American Society of Embalmers, that were most responsible for Rosalia's amazing state of preservation. Zinc, which is no longer used by embalmers in the United States, petrified Rosalia's body. "[Zinc] gave her rigidity," Williams said. "You could take her out of the casket prop her up, and she would stand by herself." Piombino-Mascali calls the self-taught Salafia an artist: "He elevated embalming to its highest level." Learn more about Rosalia in National Geographic magazine's Sicily Crypts and on the National Geographic Channel documentary "Italy's Mystery Mummies." —Karen Lange Photograph by Vincent J. Musi
Shiloh Jolie Pitt Do you have copyrighted material on your iPod or laptop and are going on a trip? May 30, 2008 5:48 PM SOURCE: Popular Science Online May 30, 2008 BORDER SECURITY TO BECOME COPYRIGHT POLICE? A proposed trade agreement could authorize border agents to search the contents of laptops and iPods for copyrighted material By Matt Ransford As if the security in airports and controls at border crossings weren't slow and intrusive enough, governments around the world are quietly passing laws to allow them to search the contents of your laptop and other electronic devices, like iPods and cellphones. A United States court last month gave border agents carte blanche to hold a laptop for days and even copy its entire contents. The UK government has given its agents authority to search computers at its borders for pornography. But in what may be the most baffling and cumbersome move of all, the US, Canada, UK, and other EU nations are working behind closed doors on a new trade agreement which could turn border agents into the copyright police. A four-page draft document [PDF] proposing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) was leaked to the press this week which show plans for the creation of an international copyright regulator with its enforcement arm as each nation's border patrols. Guards and security personnel would be authorized to search electronic devices for any content that "infringes" on copyright laws, whether the copies are from legally purchased CDs or DVDs or not, and decide on the spot which content is infringing. The officials would be given authority to take action without any formalized complaint from the rights holders and without a lawyer present on behalf of the accused. The draft allows for the confiscation or destruction of any device the agents deem suspect. The ACTA specifically calls for the coalition to operate outside the WTO and UN by forming its own governing body overseen by member nations. While the document is still in draft form, there is little reason to believe the actual agreement won't follow the draft's recommendations. Without public scrutiny or comment, the member states will have no impetus for transparency.
Shiloh Jolie Pitt LOST and the Large Hadron Collider May 29, 2008 2:21 PM SOURCE: Popular Mechanics - May 24, 2008 " DEBUNKING LOST'S SCIENCE: Hollywood Sci-Fi Behind the Scenes As our favorite TV show returns from writer’s strike purgatory, its creators reveal just how much research goes into the making of Lost’s high-tech mythology—and let slip a few secrets about the island’s future. By Erin McCarthy Executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse tell PM they've been following the development of the Large Hadron Collider (right) as they lay out Lost's time-travel plot for the rest of this season. Could one of the Dharma Initiative's stations (left) create a mini black hole into the future? (Still Courtesy of ABC) At its geeky core, Lost is a show about science and faith—and it's undeniable that this season, science is taking center stage. As the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 try to unravel the island's mysteries in an effort to get off of it, they are thwarted again and again by temporal distortion, electromagnetic energy and time travel of the mind—not to mention a really cranky smoke monster that may or may not have a basis in science. [...] But the creators did let slip that the rest of this season will revolve around some very real—and very big—physics: the Large Hadron Collider, the much delayed European particle accelerator that could reveal information about the Higgs boson and dark energy. Some physicists believe the LHC will produce mini black holes, which might actually be able to open a one-way portal to another universe—a gateway that can only be kept open by a force of energy as strong as Jupiter ... or an electromagnet inside a desert island. Michio Kaku, author of Physics of the Impossible, thinks the Lost creators are using cutting-edge science to lay the groundwork for a transversible wormhole to another point in space and time—a trip foreshadowed in an off-season video about the so-called Orchid station, which Lindelhof and Cuse promised would be a key to the next few episodes. "They're amping up the energy to the point where space and time begin to tear, and the fabric begins to rip," Kaku tells PM. "When the fabric of space and time begin to rip, things that we consider impossible become possible again." Even new technology, though, has its limits. And the Lost team had no problem modifying some next-gen touchscreen satellite phones to its needs in showing off its beyond-iPhone power, beginning late last season. "We didn't really want to put ourselves in a position where we were married to everything that exists technologically," Cuse says. "We decided that our satellite phone would be a very modern, high-tech version." Plus, Lindelof adds, they're dealing with the personal property of a bad guy who can plant a fake plane crash in a submarine trench too deep for recovery. One thing's for certain: Lost is the first mainstream TV show since Mr. Wizard to make science cool again. Across thousands of Web sites devoted to Lost, obsessive viewers analyze screen captures, debate theories of living in purgatory and play online games in trying to answer the ultimate science question: What is this damn island? Andy Page, webmaster of Lost fan site DarkUFO, says his site normally receives 800,000 hits the day after a new episode, and has had over 50 million hits in two years. "It started as a simple blog listing all the outstanding mysteries of the show and snowballed from there," he says, insisting that The X-Files has nothing on Lost when it comes to myth hunting. "It kind of boggles our minds, actually," Cuse says. "We never imagined that people would get wrapped up in the intricacies of it to the degree that they have. We really just set out to make a show that we thought was kind of cool and entertaining." Mission accomplished. " Click HERE for a bunch of more Live Links regarding the show, show trivia, and additional info.

// Posts

See All
The Contradictions between the Creationist Movements join Shi's Technology group Lost "Sleeping Beauty" Mummy Formula Found Do you have copyrighted material on your iPod or laptop and are going on a trip?

// Bookmarks

See All
Appendix Isn't Useless at All: It's a Safe House for Bacteria

// Top People

See All
Shiloh Jolie Pitt Beth1122 royalgirl53

// Group Info

28 Members
Started Jun 1, 2007
Type Open

"The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence. Science is simply common sense at its best -- that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic." Thomas Huxley