Washington Syndrome: Gaining Acceptance for Atheism

Washington Syndrome: Gaining Acceptance for Atheism

(note to self, check out the links in this blog)

Ten years ago, I'm not sure there was anywhere that your average Christian American was exposed to openly atheistic viewpoints. These days, I'm constantly amazed how many prominent bloggers profess their atheism on a daily basis. On the list, with the help of The Raving Atheist: Daily Kos, Washington Monthly, The Volokh Conspiracy (Jim Lindgren), Pharyngula, Daily Pundit, onegoodmove, Matthew Yglesias, Vodkapundit, and of course many others, including me.

Pharyngula: God hates squid

Pharyngula: God hates squid

...here's something bizarre: creationists (at least the ones at Answers in Genesis) have defined life…and it excludes squid!

So, animals that contain hemoglobin (vertebrates) and therefore have red blood can be considered "living" and animals that contain hemocyanin, or other proteins (invertebrates) and therefore have blue (pink/violet or brown) blood can be considered "nonliving". This is further supported by Scripture ...

What I'd really love to see now, though, is the rhetorical squirming they'd go through when it's pointed out that human embryos do not develop red blood cells until about the 5^th week of development, and therefore the early embryo, by their own definition, is not living. Heh.

Center for Atheism - Home Page

Center for Atheism - Home Page

Salt Lake Tribune - Salt Lake Tribune Home Page

Salt Lake Tribune - Salt Lake Tribune Home Page:

"After 23 years as Emery County clerk, Bruce Funk will decide this morning whether he will resign because he cannot endorse an election on Utah's new voting machines.
'In no way could I feel comfortable with these machines,' Funk said Monday. 'I don't want to be part of something that put into question the results that come out of Emery County.'
Earlier Monday, state Elections Director Michael Cragun and other state officials and engineers from Diebold Elections Systems met behind closed doors with the Emery County Commission. Their goal was to address Funk's concerns about some of the machines' computer memory that made him suspect they were not new or that something already had been loaded into their memories.
Funk invited in representatives of Black Box Voting, a Washington state-based nonprofit voter rights group, to inspect the machines earlier this month. Black Box has yet to issue a final report on the machines that are slated to replace Utah's punch card system of voting at a cost of $27 million. "

Fast Company | Management, Leadership and Career Advice for Business Executives

Fast Company | Management, Leadership and Career Advice for Business Executives

Microsoft muscles in on OpenDocument group - Software - News - ZDNet Asia

Microsoft muscles in on OpenDocument group - Software - News - ZDNet Asia:

"Microsoft has joined a committee that has a key role in the ratification of OpenDocument as an international standard, leading to accusations that it intends to sabotage the process. Redmond, however, denied these accusations on Friday, claiming that it only plans to involve itself in the ratification of its own standard."

MobuzzTV daily vlog: Fast Flying Jello Cities

MobuzzTV daily vlog: Fast Flying Jello Cities

gomanga.com » webmanga aoi » Aoi House

gomanga.com » webmanga aoi » Aoi House

New Scientist SPACE - News - Three cosmic enigmas, one audacious answer

New Scientist SPACE - News - Three cosmic enigmas, one audacious answer
09 March 2006
Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition
Zeeya Merali

Chapline and Laughlin found some answers in an unrelated phenomenon: the bizarre behaviour of superconducting crystals as they go through something called "quantum critical phase transition" (New Scientist, 28 January, p 40). During this transition, the spin of the electrons in the crystals is predicted to fluctuate wildly, but this prediction is not borne out by observation. Instead, the fluctuations appear to slow down, and even become still, as if time itself has slowed down. "That was when we had our epiphany," Chapline says. He and Laughlin realised that if a quantum critical phase transition happened on the surface of a star, it would slow down time and the surface would behave just like a black hole's event horizon.

SPACE.com -- Red Planet Arrival: NASA's MRO Spacecraft Enters Mars Orbit

SPACE.com -- Red Planet Arrival: NASA's MRO Spacecraft Enters Mars Orbit

Red Planet Arrival: NASA's MRO Spacecraft Enters Mars Orbit
By Tariq Malik and
Leonard David
posted: 10 March 2006
7:23 p.m. ET

The Kennewick Man's history emerges

The Kennewick Man's history emerges

In 1996 the skull of the 9,000-year-old Kennewick Man was found along a river near Kennewick, Wash., but only now is light being shed on the remains
He was not Caucasian, but most likely Polynesian or Ainu.

The examination of the remains has, so far, overturned some long-held beliefs about the colonization of North America, Time said, with a picture emerging that suggests a much more complex and older migration -- including people from Europe, Australia and Africa -- pre-dating the Asian ancestors of American Indians.

Mathematicians solve old problem that may have new applications

Mathematicians solve old problem that may have new applications

Images: The top image is a traditional helicoid. The bottom one has a hole in it that would become a handle if the shape were completely untwisted into a flat surface. (Courtesy of Indiana University)

A twisted soap bubble with a handle? If you find that hard to visualize, it's understandable. Experts had thought for more than 200 years that such a structure was not even mathematically possible. But no longer.

Scientists find brain function most important to maths ability

Scientists find brain function most important to maths ability

Scientists at the University College London have discovered the area of the brain linked to dyscalculia, a maths learning disability. The finding shows that there is a separate part of the brain used for counting that is essential for diagnosis and an understanding of why many people struggle with maths.

Study humans are still evolving

Study humans are still evolving

Even as controversy continues over the theory of evolution, scientists say they've found the strongest evidence yet that humans are still evolving.
University of Chicago researchers say they've found approximately 700 regions of the human genome where genes appear to have been reshaped by natural selection within the past 5,000 to 15,000 years, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
The finding also adds substantially to the evidence that human evolution did not grind to a halt in the distant past, as is assumed by many social scientists, the newspaper noted.

"There is ample evidence that selection has been a major driving point in our evolution during the last 10,000 years, and there is no reason to suppose that it has stopped," said Jonathan Pritchard, a population geneticist at the University of Chicago who headed the study.

Difference between humans and apes A matter of expression

Difference between humans and apes A matter of expression

Why are humans and apes so different if their genomes are so similar? Less than four percent of the chimpanzee's genetic code is different from our own, a tally so tiny that some speculate the distinction between primates may lie in just a handful of key genes -- perhaps as few as 50 out of 20,000 or so in the human genome.

Evolution exhibit in Chicago challenges creationists

Evolution exhibit in Chicago challenges creationists

A Dicynodont synapsid

The cute cartoon characters that eat each other in a new educational video about natural selection seem benign enough, but they are part of a growing battle in the United States over the theory of evolution.
On Friday, Chicago's renowned Field Museum will become the latest institution to combat creationism with a new permanent exhibit detailing the process of evolution.

At a preview of the exhibit earlier this week, the Field's president said museums need to lead the defense of evolution because they don't face the same level of "intimidation" as schools.

A life-size reconstruction of the famous fossil of Lucy, one of the earliest members of our human family.

John McCarter also warned that the United States is in danger of losing its position as a technological leader because efforts to add the religiously-based theory of intelligent design to school curriculums is undermining the culture of scientific inquiry.

Though Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is accepted as fact among scientists, most Americans think otherwise.

Family Photos

Family Photos

EU regulators warns Microsoft still not complying with antitrust ruling

EU regulators warns Microsoft still not complying with antitrust ruling

EU regulators issued a fresh warning to Microsoft that the US software giant was still failing to comply with their 2004 antitrust ruling.

Early human ancestors walked on the wild side

Early human ancestors walked on the wild side

Still, even if it only evolved once, the new research suggests there was a lot of tinkering within subsequent lineages.

"Think of the robust australopithecines as having developed a variation on the theme of bipedalism," Schwartz said. "Undoubtedly, it was not as efficient as the way we walk today, but it might have conferred some other evolutionary advantages."

Just what those advantages might have been remains a big unknown, Schwartz said, but finding out is the next big step for his research.

"Scientists have long been fascinated with robust australopithecines because they were so distinctive from the neck up," Schwartz said. "Now we have evidence that they were interesting from the knee down as well."

'Kelp highway' may have helped peopling of the Americas

'Kelp highway' may have helped peopling of the Americas

MRO Hits Its Mark :: Astrobiology Magazine :: Search for Life in the Universe

MRO Hits Its Mark :: Astrobiology Magazine :: Search for Life in the Universe

MRO Hits Its Markby Leslie Mullen

Cheers erupted at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory when the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter sent a signal back to Earth, right on schedule. This signal told scientists in the control room that the spacecraft had survived its perilous journey to enter martian orbit.

The Post and Courier | Charleston.net | News | Charleston, SC

The Post and Courier | Charleston.net | News | Charleston, SC

By CHRIS DIXON

The Post and Courier

COLUMBIA - His voice cracking with emotion, state Rep. Robert Walker left no doubt about his position on the adoption of new state biology teaching standards on the subject of evolution.

"Back when the Constitution was established, the Bible was our textbook," the Landrum Republican said. "Somehow the Bible has become a point where it's no longer any good, and that concerns me - it tears my heart apart."

Science

Science

SCIENCE NEWS March 10, 2006 Laotian Rodent Proves Living Fossil

	Image: COURTESY OF MARK A. KLINGER

When wandering through a hunter's market in Laos, Robert Timmins of the Wildlife Conservation Society happened upon a previously unknown rodent. Called kha-nyou by locals--or rock rat--the long-whiskered and furry-tailed rodent was reputed to favor certain limestone terrain. Western scientists named it Laonastes aenigmamus or stone-dwelling enigmatic mouse--partially because a live specimen has never been collected--and thought the rock rat represented a new family of mammals. But new research reported in today's Science proves that Laonastes actually represents a fossil come to life.

something positive: archive

something positive: archive

BentUser - DRM Hell

BentUser - DRM Hell

CompUSA® eRebates

CompUSA® eRebates

VM Rootkits: The Next Big Threat?

VM Rootkits: The Next Big Threat?

Joslin researchers reveal mechanisms behind a class of oral agents used to treat type 2 diabetes

Joslin researchers reveal mechanisms behind a class of oral agents used to treat type 2 diabetes

Joslin researchers reveal mechanisms behind a class of oral agents used to treat type 2 diabetes

BOSTON – Thiazolidinediones (TZD's) are drugs commonly prescribed to
patients with type 2 diabetes, the most common form of diabetes.
Current U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved agents are known as
Actos (pioglitazone) and Avandia (rosiglitazone). These oral agents
improve blood glucose levels in people with diabetes by improving
insulin action in the body. While it is known that these drugs work
primarily by binding to a receptor in the nucleus of cells called
Peroxisome Proliferator Activated Receptor-gamma (PPARg), all of the
molecular signaling events important for the drugs to work are not
completely understood.

Performancing for Firefox

Just installed Performancing for Firefox, trying it out to see if it works.

State of the art Spaceyards, a collection of custom shipsets for Space Empires IV

State of the art Spaceyards, a collection of custom shipsets for Space Empires IV