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 Saturday, May 14, 2005
The Skeptics' Circle VIII
The
Eighth Edition
of the
Skeptics' Circle
has been posted at
Pharyngula
. As I had
hoped
, it is a veritable feast of skeptical blogging, a great antidote to the credulity that permeates the blogosphere. Heck, it's more than a feast, it's a multi-course gourmet banquet, the biggest and most extensive edition yet. PZ even includes a couple of entries the arguments in which he himself is--shall we say?--skeptical about. However, in the spirit of unflinching skepticism, he presents them anyway, confident that the reader will be able to evaluate for him or herself whether they meet adequate standards of skepticism and reason.
Go and learn why intelligent design is neither intelligent nor design and why irrational beliefs are leading to a resurgence of previously eradicated diseases, among other things....
It's probably going to take me through the weekend to check out all the great skeptical blogging there.
These are always fun to read. 1:40:27 PM 
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I have been to all of these cities. Seems pretty close, although Boston would be much lower down on my list.
American Cities That Best Fit You:
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70% Honolulu |
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60% Los Angeles |
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55% San Francisco | |
55% Seattle |
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50% Boston |
1:35:47 PM
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Speaking of quotes, how about these from President Eisenhower, rapidly becoming my favorite quote mine for Republicans.:
Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 11/8/54 1:18:51 PM
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Charles Mackay. "Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one." [Quotes of the Day]
B. F. Skinner. "The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do." [Quotes of the Day]
Franklin P. Jones. "Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again." [Quotes of the Day]
Larry Hardiman. "The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'." [Quotes of the Day]
Joseph Heller. "Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them." [Quotes of the Day]
Oscar Wilde. "Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered. I myself would say that it had merely been detected." [Quotes of the Day]
George Bernard Shaw. "Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history." [Quotes of the Day]
Some excellent and timely quotes. Use these as needed. 12:53:26 PM
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You have to check out the reDiscovery Institute, a wonderful parody of Intelligent Design wacko theories. It is so good that I beleive that some doofus brain people will see it as real. Being a biochemist, I was particularly interested in their discussion of protein folding called 'Prove It!' It takes the idiot arguments about the low probabilities of amino acids coming together to form a protein to absurd extremes.
As it details, a 100 amino acid protein can adopt over 2.7 x 1095 diferent conformations. It would take over 20 billion years for it to fold into the proper formation. Since small proteins do fold quite rapidly, it must be due to an invisible Intelligent Designer.
They even have an experiment, to show that an ID is involved:
Experiment. Prove the existence of God, Father of Jesus Christ our Savior the
Intelligent Designer in your own kitchen.
Experimental Procedure
(keep a lab notebook, write down your observations, wear safety goggles, work with a partner)
1) Order a sample of BPTI (small cheap pure protein, from Sigma-Aldrich).
2) Add PBTI to salty water (not too salty).
3) Heat BPTI solution to 90°C (this denatures the BPTI, best not to boil).
4) Allow your BPTI solution to cool slowly to room temperature (this is
where the Intelligent Designer might step in to fold the PBTI).
5) Bring BPTI solution to local chemistry department and request a Circular Dichroism Spectrum (tell them Dr. Mazur sent you).
If CD shows native state (it will), you have proven the existence of an Intelligent Designer.
They also have a really nice Periodic Table for the poor students in Kansas that will have to put up with this. 12:19:37 PM
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