Blog-IT-o ergo sum

	9/25/2004

ECW Insanity

Our kids and their teenage friends just got back from dinner at North Battleground's hottest new restaurant, East Coast Wings. (In the old Food Lion Center near Radio Shack across from Brassfield.)

They presented us with a half eaten chicken wing they said we had to try. They were passing it on from their friend who had to sign a waiver to get it. (I wonder if the lawyers had this scenario covered in the release.)

They excitely told us it was made to ECW Insanity level. The waitress claimed there is only one level hotter called something like "The Devil's Core," but they don't serve that one anymore since, "the first customer to try it had to be taken to the hospital."

Chance of death? Release waivers? Is this good food marketing or what?

I don't often bite into someone else's half eaten piece of food, but it was a man thing and I had to show I could survive a taste of insanity.

Hint: prep yourself with some lower level wings first and absoulutely resist the temptation to flood your mouth with water. Being at home I found the the option to rub a little backing soda around my inflammed mouth and lips helpful.

Maybe that guy really did get sent to the hospital.

9:10:18 PM

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Did eyes evolve?

How amazing that one cannot even suggest without facing derision that the THEORY of evolution might have a few holes in it.

For the masses, here is the approved response from the most politically correct source I can imagine. Convinced now?

Let me help out with a few technical points:

1) The phrase "according to one scientist's calculations," is never recognized as legitimate proof in any serious scientific discourse.

2) "Every change had to confer a survival advantage, no matter how slight." That's part of the doctrine of evolution which the writer of this piece felt needed to be firmly asserted lest he be accused of heresy. However, here is how this key tenant of evolutionary theory is addressed by other researchers in a recent National Geographic story where a computer model was used to predict evolutionary change:

"The twist is that some of the intermediate steps rather than always being steps up, or even sideways, were steps down. That is, some of the key mutations were harmful in the short term but survived the forces of natural selection and ultimately played a crucial role in the genetic development of a newly evolved complex function."

3) "Little by little, one improvement at a time, the system becomes more and more complex." This is the article of faith I have the most problem with. In engineering school, the real kooks are the ones who defy the Second LAW (not Theory) of Thermodynamics. These are the guys claiming they have built perpetual motion machines and the like. Simply stated the common version of the Second Law says, "left to themselves, all systems move towards more randomness." That is, it is impossible for random chance to create higher ordered or more complex systems.

If you are up on your physics, biology and statistics this is a solid open-minded, scientific review of the current situation. It is not as clear-cut as the zealots in the evolution debate would like everyone believe. Looks like I need to learn more about Hubert Yockey.

Bottom line:

So, hey, I'm not saying here the world was created in six twenty-four hour days, believe it or you're going straight to hell. I'm just saying there is room for serious discussion on whether evolutionists have nailed it.

5:17:42 PM

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