Zachriel's Blog

Teabaggers & Race-baiting

2010-08-18T09:41:00.002-05:00

No one can control all the comments on their blog, but when Zachriel pointed out race-baiting at Gateway Pundit, they deleted Zachriel's comments, and not the race-baiting. Here's just a small sample on the one thread about Obama.

He must be talking about the imaginary father he made up to replace the one who abandoned him and the other one who pimped him out.

Like 85% of the black men in this country….he really doesn’t know; however, my money is on Redd Foxx of Sanford and Son…

Now Bill Ayers will have to write another book about his dad… “Black Skin, Purple Heart”

Isn’t it interesting how BO only seems to acknowledge the white side of his family when it will gain him political points? Oh, except for his “typical white” grandmother.

There are serious rumors that Stanley Dunham fathered Obama with his real mother being a black prostitute in Honolulu

Of course, none of the Gateway Pundits acknowledge the race-baiting, but accuse anyone who points it out of being race-baiters themselves.

Meanwhile, the thread was about Obama saying his father served in WWII, when he obviously meant his grandfather, Stanley Dunham, who volunteered to serve in WWII, the grandfather who raised him from the time Obama was ten years old.

Stanley Armour Dunham

NAACP delegates passed a resolution to condemn extremist elements within the Tea Party, calling on Tea Party leaders to repudiate those in their ranks who use racist language in their signs and speeches.

I can’t believe Dembski chose Word Mutagenation!!

2007-10-21T08:37:00.003-05:00

Take a look at William Dembski’s latest draft manuscript, ~~Active Information in Evolutionary Search~~ The Information Cost of No Free Lunch.

Dembski: Proponents of intelligent design have argued that the NFLT shows that Darwinian evolution cannot generate the information required for biological complexity from scratch but instead merely reshuffles existing information.

The NFLT (No Free Lunch Theorem, Wolpert and Macready 1997) doesn’t suggest that Darwinian Evolution can't generate information in the sense of searching a fitness landscape. Rather, it merely states that it may or may not be the best conceivable algorithm for finding fitness.

Dembski: Making such assumptions about underlying search structures is not only common but also vital to the success of optimizing searchers (...).

Such assumptions, however, are useless when searching to find a sequence of, say, 7 letters from a 26-letter alphabet to form a word that will pass successfully through a spell checker… With no metric to determine nearness, the search landscape for such searches is binary—either success or failure. There are no sloped hills to climb.

I can’t believe Dembski chose Word Mutagenation!! He couldn't be more wrong.

It’s been three years since I published Word Mutagenation on the web, the result of a year-long thread on the newsgroup Talk Origins with Intelligent Design advocate, Sean Pitman. I suppose it’s time to dust off the old Letter Mutator and take another look.

Turns out we don’t have to make any assumptions about the search space of words. For instance, we could start with the single-letter word “O”, a replicating population representing a veritable Pond of O’s flowing down to the Sea of Beneficence.

In the beginning was the Word.

We then mutate words in our Sea. We might change a random letter, add a random letter, delete a random letter, or randomly recombine words in the Sea. Something like this:

o
i
bi
be
or
to
no
not

If a mutant sequence is not a valid word, that is, if it fails the spell-checker rule that Dembski established above, then it is ruthlessly eliminated with no issue. If it is a valid word, it enters the population as a new strain. (We might optionally limit our Pond of Words to just a certain number of the longest words.) So, what do we expect?

Quick calculation:
10-letter words in dictionary ~10^4
10-letter sequences possible ~10^14
Ratio of valid 10-letter words to possible sequences ~10^10

A random search would take ~10^10 or several billion mutations. An evolutionary search algorithm takes only ~10^5 mutations or about a hundred thousand times faster—consistently. There is nothing about the structure of words in Word Mutagenation. It works in the simplest of fashions; random mutation and spell-check, over and over again.

The structure is found in the words themselves. Turns out that language itself has evolved and evidence of that history is found in the words we use.

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves.

Blogging Debussy

2007-02-26T18:25:00.000-05:00

This piano piece by Debussy is a delight and reminds us of a day not so long past when life was full of sun and color.

Arabesque

(MP3, right-click then Save As, ~5 MB)

Claude Debussy, who lived at the turn of the 20th century, innovated many new sounds, including the novel uses of sevenths, ninths and suspended chords. These new sounds opened the door for the emergence of jazz.

Gasp! Bill O'Reilly lied to Oprah!!

2006-11-30T22:02:00.000-05:00

Oprah had Bill O'Reilly on to promote his version of the culture war. O'Reilly often makes misstatements of fact on his cable news show. Nothing new about that. But now O'Reilly's lied to Oprah — on her own show. That is going too far!

Oprah is presenting a Town Hall style of show. Man #2 is a member of the audience.

Man #2: And, you know, I watched your show where you lumped Bob Woodward in with the anti-Bush media, Woodward who wrote a book that portrayed Bush as a strong leader. Now he writes a book that shows that his view, and the view of the sources he had, which no one has disputed the veracity of his sources, that Bush has lost his way. So now all of a sudden he's anti-Bush. You know, what's...
Mr. O'REILLY: I didn't say he was anti--I told--you should read the book.
Man #2: You lumped him in with the anti-Bush media, that's what you said.
Mr. O'REILLY: Absolutely not.
Man #2: The anti-Bush media including Bob Woodward in your interview with the president.

Anyway, from Foxnews, O'REILLY expounding to the President during the interview:

Mr. O'REILLY: There's one other reason they've turned against the war in Iraq. The anti-Bush press pounds day in and day out - in the newspapers, on the network news, in books like Bob Woodward's - that you don't know what you're doing there, that you have no strategy and don't listen to dissent.

Most of us, given the opportunity to interview the President of the United States, would remember every word, even every stutter of such an encounter. It is hard to believe that O'Reilly would not remember something so specific.

An important aspect of the encounter is that Man #2 has no way within the confines of the forum to rebut O'Reilly's flat denial. It leaves the truthful Man #2 gasping for air, maybe even wondering if he is the one who misremembered. O'Reilly then proceeds to accuse Man #2 of "hiding behind freedom" and of being a "Fox hater". Alas, this happens everyday on the O'Reilly factor.

Just for fun, Bill O'Reilly misremembers about his use of personal attacks, from Media Matters.

Update: O'Reilly Fibs about John Edwards

(Thanks to Talking Points Memo.)

2006-07-30T16:47:00.000-05:00

Informed comment from 1976. Or is it from 2006?

"Despite the enthusiasm and goodwill, despite the good intentions, the American advisory program was a lamentable disaster that contributed largely to the eventual debacle in Vietnam. It was worse: it was a gigantic con trick foisted on American public opinion. Not so much by those in the field as by those who never walked the field of battle, but strode the corridors of power in Washington, those to whom the Vietnam war started as a kind of theoretical dream of how to combat the spread of Communism, but gradually twisted and writhed into a hellish nightmare." — Nguyen Cao Ky, Former Prime Minister of South Vietnam and ardent anti-Communist, from How We Lost the Vietnam War.

(more quotes in comments)

Uncommon Dissent

2006-06-28T19:08:00.000-05:00

An interesting event occurred at William Dembski's blog, Uncommon Descent. I was banned! (Dembski is supposedly one of the leading Intelligent Design "theoreticians".)

The moderator of Uncommon Descent is DaveScot (who claims a genius IQ). He made a series of misstatements (see comments). He apparently highly resents being corrected. He likes to ridicule people who disagree with him — no matter how valid and reasonable their criticism might be. (I try to abide by these rules when commenting on blogs.)

I checked the moderation policy, and yes indeed, "ID-critics" are not welcome. Apparently, Intelligent Design doesn't hold up well under close examination. DaveScot would even inject pointed questions into my comments, then 'neglect' to post the response.

I found the situation rather amusing, but it wasn't of any major concern because most of the posts on Uncommon Descent lack substance and are unlikely to convince any general readers, and because DaveScot's behavior clearly undermined whatever influence he might have had.

Or in the words of DaveScot, "What’s the matter [church burnin’ ebola] boys, cat got your tongues?" I suppose I didn't measure up to the level of discourse required.

Addendum: Apparently DaveScot has been banned from Panda's Thumb for threatening to hack the site and for using another person's nym. That might explain his bitterness.

La Nostra Bambina

2006-05-31T05:59:00.000-05:00

But Mona Lisa must have had the highway blues.You can tell by the way she smiles. — Dylan

Mona Lisa, La Gioconda, La Nostra Bambina giocando Nascondere-e-Cercare, in Bits:
http://www.zachriel.com/monalisa/

"The Ol' Auction Block"

2006-04-30T14:28:00.000-05:00

Most everyone has heard of that sorry chapter of American history known as slavery. Millions of people, men, women and children, climbed small wooden stairs to stand on stone blocks to be appraised for value by the patrons of auction houses. The physical existence of such an auction block helps one appreciate that actual families were sold apart from upon these blocks.

This artifact was recognized by amateur historian, Fred Hinson of Virginia, USA. He led a successful effort to have the stone commemorated.

The "Ol' Auction Block" in Luray, Virginia.

Update: And yes, Hinson was opposed by those who claimed a historical association with the Confederacy.

Thank God It's Wife of Wóden Day!!!

2006-03-31T07:37:00.000-05:00

Fríge (Frigga) , "foremost among the goddesses," the wife of Wóden (Odin), queen of the Æsir, and goddess of the sky. Her sons were Balder, the beloved god; Bragi, god of poetry and wisdom; and Thor, god of thunder. She was one of the Aesir, the principal warrior gods who lived in Asgard.

Friday was named after her.

Wóden (Odin)

Come home, little Physarum!

2006-02-25T11:04:00.000-05:00

I used to have a pet slime mold, but it ran away.

I still remember each morning being greeted by my pet slime mold (well, not really greeted because it didn't have a mouth). I can still see its visage (well, not really visage, but sometimes if you squinted you could make out the image of the Madonna, or other times it looked more like a cheese sandwich). In the evenings, it would be gone, but it would always be there the next morning, playing hide-and-seek among the sunflowers, the dawn light glistening off my slimy friend's velvety skin (well, not really skin, but more like congealed ooze).

I had sought my little plasmoidal friend's advice on the Phrasenator Project—and it was always willing to listen (well, I'm sure it would have listened if it had ears). I should have given it credit for helping with the software: the code did sort of resemble the amorphous structure of a slime mold.

I considered a leash, but thought it would be wrong to chain a wild slime mold (plus there was the issue of not having a neck). In any case, I miss our frolicking in the flowers (well, not really frolicking), and our long leisurely walks (well, it didn't really walk because it didn't have legs, but it did move, albeit very very slowly).

If you love something, let it go. Set it free. If it comes back, it is yours. If it doesn't, it never was.

Alas! Farewell, my little Myxomycetes.

Rhett Butler: Cad, Lecher, Pimp

2006-01-15T11:30:00.000-05:00

Everyone knows the love story of Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind, the Pulitzer Prize Winning novel by Margaret Mitchell. But who is that "other woman", Belle Watling?

The movie tends to water-down some of the less savory aspects of the story — and Gone with the Wind is certainly not *about* adultery — ; yet “rape, drunkenness, moral dissipation and adultery” (the usual description) are clearly emblematic of a disfuncational relationship and of society generally.

Some have actually asserted that a Rhett Butler would go to a whorehouse after an argument with his wife for the conversation alone. Here are a few such arguments from the original novel by Margaret Mitchell. This conversation indicates that Rhett doesn't consider Scarlett his wife (so it really isn't cheating).

“And as for you being my wife-you haven’t been much of a wife since Bonnie came, have you? You’ve been a poor investment, Scarlett. Belle’s been a better one.”

“Investment? You mean you gave her-?”

“ ‘Set her up in business’ is the correct term, I believe. Belle’s a smart woman. I wanted to see her get ahead and all she needed was money to start a house of her own. You ought to know what miracles a woman can perform when she has a bit of cash. Look at yourself.”

“You compare me-”

“Well, you are both hard-headed business women and both successful. Belle’s got the edge on you, of course, because she’s a kind-hearted, good-natured soul-”

“Will you get out of this room?”

So we see that Rhett not only has a relationship with Belle, but actually funds her operations. No wonder she has such a nice whorehouse. As Mitchell narrates,

Belle Watling was the most notorious of the madams... This house was something that the matrons of Atlanta whispered about furtively and ministers preached against in guarded terms as a cesspool of iniquity, a hissing and a reproach. Everyone knew that a woman of Belle’s type couldn’t have made enough money by herself to set up such a luxurious establishment. She had to have a backer and a rich one at that. And Rhett Butler had never had the decency to conceal his relations with her, so it was obvious that he and no other must be that backer.

And the clincher,

If he went to Belle Watling’s house at all, he went by night and by stealth as did more respectable townsmen, instead of leaving his horse hitched in front of her door in the afternoons as an advertisement of his presence within.

This is the Mitchell's view of Southern culture. The seedy side exists, but everyone pretends it doesn't.

(More in comments.)

Random Walkers

2005-12-17T22:22:00.000-05:00

Mr Pudey: Well sir, I have a silly walk and I'd like to obtain a Government grant to help me develop it.

Just another silly bit of Jovian computer code... RANDOM WALKERS is an iterative search algorithm known as the "drunkard's walk". Not a particularly efficient method, but claimed to be relevant for a Talk.Origins discussion concerning biological evolution and neutral drift.

Mollie is a Cat

2005-12-11T20:12:00.000-05:00

Cat blogging! Mollie in her Sunday best.

Mollie is a cat.
Mollie is not a bat,
Nor is she a hat,
'Cause Mollie is a cat.

Humans are animals

2005-11-01T18:20:00.000-05:00

Let's not quibble over details. Humans are clearly animals.

Note that humans are members of the Animal Kingdom, that is, like sponges, they ingest food for energy and for protein, the building blocks of their structure. In addition, they have an alimentary canal, where food passes from one end, the mouth, to the other, just like earthworms. They are also vertebrates, that is, like fish, they have a bony spine which protects a nerve cord, and a head at one end which has an array of sense organs. They have four limbs like frogs and iguanas. They are mammals, so like mice, they nurse their young with a proteinous secretion produced by special glands. They are placentals, and bear their young live.

Indeed, humans ARE animals, specifically mammals. They ingest, digest, defecate, copulate, nurse. They love and they hate. They are prideful and compassionate. They have hair, eyes, three ear-bones and two gonads. They are composed of blood and bones, livers and brains, synapses and cell-membranes. These are all features of life found in many other animals.

Clogging (Commenting on Blogs)

2005-10-22T07:51:00.000-05:00

Several people have asked why I bother to comment on so-called "conservative" blogs, such as Polipundit, many of whom make a claim to conservatism, but are, instead, decidedly right-wing.

Well, when I come across a clearly false assertion that has not been refuted by others, I am often compelled to post a direct reply to that specific assertion. Just because a blog is clearly right-wing; many others, called lurkers, may read the posts without comment. Some may be young, or just unknowing. As such, I believe it is important to respond to false assertions, especially on high-traffic sites that purport to have influence.

I have a few personal rules-of-thumb that have served me well. (And when I have ignored my own rules-of-thumb, I have often witnessed the consequences.)

The truth always matters.
Winning an argument is not the goal.

Listen to others.
Respect others.
Admit error.
Admit fallibility.
Retract or clarify as required.

Find common ground where possible.
Be sure of your facts; research *before* posting.
Support your assertions with appropriate cites.

Stay on-topic.
Ad hominem is always off-topic.
Ignore off-topic comments.
Post only when you have something new to add to the discussion.

I believe it is important to preserve conservative philosophy from right-wing and reactionary movements. Conservatives believe that traditional values and institutions are the bulwark of society, and so they are. But right-wing movements, claiming the mantle of conservatism, will often destroy even long-standing institutions in order to bring back some mythical good-old-days, that never really existed.

Pharyngula

2005-09-12T13:03:00.000-05:00

For more evidence on the Theory of Evolution, check out Deep homologies in the pharyngeal arches at Pharyngula.

What the heck is a pharyngula? "a particular stage in the development of the vertebrate embryo ... an evolutionarily conserved period when vertebrate embryos of all species are most similar to one another, and has a repeated series of pharyngeal arches. These are characteristic chordate tissues that form a 'basket' of cartilage and associated tissues in the throat; they contribute to jaws and facial structures, ear bones, gill arches, etc."

These images really tell the story. The embronic cells which become gills in fish, become glands in humans, both depending on the gene Gcm-2.

Okabe and Graham tell all in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Next: The Jawbone of an Ass....

Novosibirsk — A Symphonic Interlude

2005-09-10T22:09:00.000-05:00

A Symphonic Interlude

Novosibirsk is the capital of Siberia and the geographic center of Russia. This beautiful scene of bridges crossing the Ob River inspired this foray into symphonic music.

Some very useful music software (called Performance Modeling) is created by my friends at Ntonyx located in Novosibirsk, Russia.

Novosibirsk

(MP3, 2 minutes 47 seconds, 2.6 MB)

Finally, I have a symphony orchestra at my fingertips!

Talk.Origins

2005-09-05T13:31:00.000-05:00

I have had a number of discussions concerning the creation/evolution controversy — often on blogs. However, most blogs do not offer the bandwidth or the multi-threading necessary for detailed scientific discussions. Due to these limitations, I often refer people to the Usenet newsgroup Talk.Origins *.

"Talk.Origins * is a Usenet newsgroup devoted to the discussion and debate of biological and physical origins. Most discussions in the newsgroup center on the creation/evolution controversy, but other topics of discussion include the origin of life, geology, biology, catastrophism, cosmology and theology."

The Talk.Origins Archives offers a variety of articles and essays providing mainstream scientific answers to many frequently asked questions (FAQ). The Talk.Origins Archives have won numerous awards and mentions.

( * Note: If you do not have a newsgroup reader, you can access Talk.Origins through Google Groups. Or, many email programs can be configured for newsgroup.)

Forearmed with knowledge

2005-09-04T09:24:00.000-05:00

In the 19th Century, a new pseudo-science emerged to join the likes of alchemy and astrology. Called Phrenology, it claimed to be able to judge the aptitudes and characteristics of people by noting the bumps on their head, which presumably would give clues to the structure of the brain within the skull. The most important of these Phrenologists was a man named Fowler.

From the Skeptical Inquirer:

Forearmed with a knowledge both of phrenology and the tricks of con artists, the famous author Mark Twain performed a simple single-blind reliability test. In 1872 or 1873, he visited Fowler's London office and paid for a reading using a pseudonym.
"he found a cavity, in one place; a cavity where a bump would have been in anyone else's skull. That cavity, he said was all alone, all by itself, occupying a solitude, and had no opposing bump, however slight in elevation, to modify and ameliorate its perfect completeness and isolation. He startled me by saying that that cavity represented the total absence of the sense of humor!"
Twain returned to Fowler three months later and sat for a second reading, this time identifying himself. On this occasion, the reading differed greatly: "Once more he made a striking discovery-the cavity was gone, and in its place was a Mount Everest-figuratively speaking-31,000 feet high, the loftiest bump of humor he had ever encountered in his life-long experience!"

Twain has been cited for his single-blind reliability test in the scientific literature. Here are a few other cites to Twain's scientific results from Google Scholar.

It is the ability to make reliable predictions that is the hallmark of science. I would also note that you don't have to have a PhD to practice the scientific method. Twain was doing science, and his only qualification was his ability to see the con.

Mr. Bill for head of FEMA

2005-09-03T07:30:00.000-05:00

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." — George Bush.

"Ohh Nooo!!!" — Mr. Bill.

Please watch the Video of Mr. Bill's public service announcement. I say, Mr. Bill for director of FEMA. He has the foresight, and the experience with disaster, that is requisite for the job.

UPDATE

Someone started a petition to put Mr. Bill in charge of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). With your help, we can make this a reality! Please sign this petition.

Mr. Bill for director of FEMA. He can't be any worse.

Project Steve

2005-08-30T06:40:00.000-05:00

Project Steve "is a tongue-in-cheek parody of a long-standing creationist tradition of amassing lists of 'scientists who doubt evolution' or 'scientists who dissent from Darwinism'… Project Steve mocks this practice with a bit of humor, and because 'Steves' are only about 1% of scientists, it incidentally makes the point that tens of thousands of scientists support evolution. And it honors the late Stephen Jay Gould, NCSE supporter and friend."

Testimonials:
I must have had the worst love life in the whole field of leech systematics, but now that I'm an NCSE Steve my social life has really taken off! — Steve

Before I became an NCSE Steve, opportunities just never seemed to come my way. But now my department chair holds the door open for me, and brings me coffee! — Stephanie

Steve here. I have been waiting my entire scientific career for just such an opportunity...a chance to STAND OUT...a chance to SHINE...a chance to SHAMELESSLY CAPITALIZE WORDS THROUGHOUT MY SENTENCES!!!...AND TO USE EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!...WITHOUT REASON!!!! — Steve

Stephen Hawking is #300 on the Steve list. I'm waiting for the list of Zachriels who support science education. I'll definitely sign up for that one!

Martian Dust Devils

2005-08-29T19:58:00.000-05:00

You can find more images of Martian dust devils on NASA's Rover Mission website.

"Ah, Martian summer! Finally, the days are long, just like on dear old Earth. And daytime highs rocket all the way up to a balmy 20°C (68°F) from the summer nighttime low of -90°C (-130°F), meaning you and your fellow astronauts can warm up your machinery earlier to get a good start on mining operations."

— from Science@NASA

Evolution Defined

2005-08-20T19:46:00.000-05:00

"Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution." — Theodosius Dobzhansky

Darwin's original Theory of Evolution has been constantly refined in the light of new knowledge. That's how science works! However, the basic concepts of variation, natural selection and common descent are very strongly explanative concerning the millions of data points across multiple fields of study, including biology, paleontology, chemistry, and even geology.

---
Evolution is the observed change in allele frequencies in populations over time. The Theory of Evolution explains the mechanisms of evolution, including mutation, variation, natural selection, sexual selection, genetic drift, speciation, hybridization, contingency, common descent, etc. The primary areas of evidence are as follows:

* The nested hierarchy of extant life.
* The nested hierarchy in time of extinct life.
* The nested hierarchy of embryonic development.
* The nested hierarchy of biochemistry.
* The nested hierarchy of biogeography.
* The discovery that heredity is chemistry (Watson & Crick, 1953).
* Observation of genetic mutation.
* Observation of natural and artificial selection and their effects.
* Observation of genetic drift and fixation.
* Observation of speciation in the wild and in the lab.
* Observation of hybridization in the wild and in the lab.
* The recently discovered nested hierarchy of genomes (including endogenous retroviruses and pseudo-genes).
* Direct manipulation of the genomes.

NATIONAL ACADEMY of SCIENCES: "The theory of evolution has become the central unifying concept of biology and is a critical component of many related scientific disciplines. In contrast, the claims of creation science lack empirical support and cannot be meaningfully tested."

Rope-a-Dope

2005-08-16T20:58:00.000-05:00

In the Rumble in the Jungle, one of the greatest moments in all of sports history, held under a pale African moon, Mohammad Ali boxed George Foreman using a tactic Ali termed "Rope-a-Dope". Ali's plan was to lay on the ropes and provoke his younger and stronger opponent into depleting all his punches. It's a punishing strategy, and can leave the defending boxer permanently injured.

In Iraq, the American strategy appears to one of outlasting the enemy in a war of attrition, in the hopes that the enemy gives up or runs out of ammunition.

George Bush has apparently embarked on a policy of "Rope-a-Dope" with car bombers.

Principle of Superposition

2005-08-15T19:53:00.000-05:00

From geology, the Principle of Superposition, briefly, that a stratum (a sedimentary rock layer in a tectonically undisturbed sequence) is younger than the one beneath it and older than the one above it. This allows the relative ordering by time of fossils found in the strata.

New biological forms appear at different times in the fossil record.
New forms are preceded by similar forms.
New features are modifications of features existing in a preceding form.

This creates a nested hierarchy, a diversification of forms from common ancestors.

From this, we can make predictions about intermediate forms. For instance, Darwin predicted that there would be found fossils of organisms that had shared features of both humans and other apes. Many species and examples of such intermediate forms have been found, and have been found in the appropriate strata, e.g. Australopithecus afarensis has been found in strata dated at about 3¼ million years.

But, even then, the fossil evidence is not the best evidence in support of the Theory of Evolution. The best evidence is in recently discovered genetic data.

Beauty is Truth

2005-08-11T19:47:00.000-05:00

When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'

There are many valid statements that are not scientific, such as those often found in philosophy or the arts. Here are a few:

Beauty is truth.
Murder is wrong.
There is no (perfect) justice.
Elwood P. Dowd has a friend named Harvey.
Living in freedom is better than living in chains.
A Streetcar Named Desire is tragic.
We hold these truths to be self-evident.
My soul is purg’d from grudging hate.
A kiss is just a kiss.

Claims that God knows when even the sparrow falls are not scientific claims and are not subject to validation by the scientific method.

They are matters of faith.

The Scientific Method

2005-08-10T19:42:00.000-05:00

The scientific method: hypothesis, prediction, observation, validation, repeat. The scientific method is a recursive system of matching theory with observation.

A hypothesis is a tentatively held conjecture for the purposes of developing predictions of empirical observations. Workable scientific hypotheses have historically come from almost any source, including deep-thought or vast experience in a field of study, but also from a hunch, a dream (Kekulé), serendipity, an inspiration, from fanciful thought-experiments (Einstein), a lucky guess, or even while playing cards (Mendeleev). However any such scientific hypothesis must be reasonably consistent with known observations and make scientific predictions of future observations. Most hypotheses are naturally derived as extensions of existing theories.

In other words, the hypothesis is just one step in the scientific method. It must then be confirmed through observation. The more successful the hypothesis is at predicting various observations, the more confident we are in its validity. But all scientific findings are considered tentative and subject to revision upon new information.

——

Most of science is composed of non-intuitive conclusions. If the facts were obvious or just common sense, we wouldn't need the scientific method to make these determinations. The Earth is billions of years old. The Solar System is vast, but just a speck in the Milky Way Galaxy, which itself is just a speck in the Cosmos. Most "interesting" atoms were forged in the bellies of huge exploding stars called supernova.

Eppur si muove!

Many aspects of science can be easily confirmed. We can repeat the experiments of Galileo, build a telescope and see the phases of Venus. Like Faraday, we can make an electric motor to demonstrate the relationship between electricity and magnetism. We can make a microscope, just as Leeuwenhoek did, and rediscover tiny animalcules swimming in a single drop of water. We can see the spectrum of the Sun by using a prism, just as Newton did. Or we can take a hike, examine the geologic column, and verify the maps of geologists, such as those of William Smith — perhaps even finding a few common fossils.

It is the repeatability of scientific observations that allows us to have confidence in our conclusions.

True Poetry

2005-07-31T07:08:00.000-05:00

The poetry of Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense

Many people don't appreciate the depth of Rumsfeld's verse, the profound irony of his words. This is one of the true classics of 21st century political propaganda. It deserves a special place of honor.

The Unknown
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.

What makes this a work of art?

The sing-song meter, the short lines, and the confident repetition of words, creates a sense of reckless self-assuredness, and evokes the simplistic understanding of the poetic speaker. Brilliant!

But beyond the mere technical virtuosity of the verse, we must attempt to understand the poetic speaker as he considers the list of unknowns. The list appears to be exhaustive and complete. Yet, the poetic speaker "forgot" one essential unknown:

But what of what we know
that simply isn't true?

Ah, the missing line. The "forgotten unknown". And now we can see the true pathetic ignorance of the poetic speaker and why the poem is of special mention in the annals of poetic propaganda. By having claimed to have listed all possibilities, but leaving out the source of his own witlessness, he ignores the source of his inevitable tragedy — his foreordained and inescapable doom. The poetic speaker has clued us in to how the play will end.

Acta est fabula, plaudite!
The play is over, applaud!

You can find more of this important artist's works here:
http://slate.msn.com/id/2081042/

Liberation

2005-07-30T16:46:00.000-05:00

The moment the statue of Saddam came down, it should have been apparent to any objective observer that the Americans were in deep trouble.

Compare photographs of the liberation of Paris with the liberation of Baghdad.

This is the liberation of Paris:

This is the "liberation" of Baghdad, as U.S. Military PSYOPS staged the toppling of Saddam's statue for the benefit of American TV cameras.

Just to round out the story, here's Rumsfeld meeting with Saddam in 1983 as the United States provided military assistance, including WMD, to support Saddam's illegal invasion of Iran:

Shaking Hands with Saddam Hussein: The U.S. Tilts toward Iraq, 1980-1984.

Liberal v. Conservative

2005-07-23T09:39:00.001-05:00

"Conservatives" tend to believe that traditional values and institutions are the bulwark of society, that too fast of change can result in unintended consequences or even anarchy. Rational conservatives believe in change and reform, of course, but believe the change must be gradual and moderated. Conservatives tend to look to the past for inspiration, cultural stratifications being a consequence of natural order.

"Liberals" tend to believe that traditional values and institutions can impede progress, that too slow of change can result in cultural stagnation or even disintegration. Rational liberals believe in the preservation of traditional values and institutions, of course, but believe they must be pushed to adapt to modern times. Liberals tend to look to the future for inspiration, the progress of history being seen as a march towards a more egalitarian society.

Right-wing “reactionaries", such as fascists, believe in absolute inequality, and want to overthrow corrupt modern institutions and return to a mythological and heroic past.

Left-wing “radicals", such as communists, believe in absolute equality, and want to overthrow corrupt ancient institutions and bring forth a mythological and glorious future.

The history of Western Civilization since the Renaissance, and more recently the entire world, has tended towards greater social equality and enhanced individual liberty.

The religious power of the Church to define matters of conscience was shattered by the Protestant Reformation, transferring power from Rome to the people generally, and to the individual specifically.

The political power of the aristocracy was overthrown by war, such as by the American and French Revolutions, through reforms placing constitutional limitations on the royalty, with the rise of parliaments and legislatures, and through modern civil rights movements.

The economic power of corporations and trusts were limited by the rise of labor unions, and through collective political action, such as America's New Deal.

Since the scourges of the World Wars, the rise of an international order has put tentative limitations on unfettered national power and inequality.

"Conservatism" has deep etymological roots in Latin:

Definition of "Conservatism": disposition in politics to preserve what is established b : a political philosophy based on tradition and social stability, stressing established institutions, and preferring gradual development to abrupt change.

Etymology of "conserve": c.1380, from O.Fr. conserver, from L. conservare “to keep, preserve,” from com- intens. prefix + servare “keep watch, maintain”.

"Liberalism" also has deep etymological roots in Latin:

Definition of "Liberalism":a political philosophy based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of the human race, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for the protection of political and civil liberties.

Etymology of "liberal": c.1375, from O.Fr. liberal "befitting free men, noble, generous ," from L. liberalis "noble, generous," lit. "pertaining to a free man," from liber "free".

A word from our sponsor

2005-06-25T18:29:00.000-05:00

Moods in Music

All music written, performed and copyrighted by Lee Croteau
c. 1995-2005

Formerly

Lee's Music Doodles

Formerly

Boogie Woogie Beethoven

Timberville Woodwinds

The Poetry of Genetic Algorithms

2005-06-25T18:22:00.000-05:00

Mutagenation
Zachriel's Word Mutation Experiment

Phrasenation
Zachriel's Phrase Evolution Experiment

Nested Hierarchy

2005-06-25T18:14:00.000-05:00

Nested Hierarchy

Not just a similarity,
but a family resemblance!

Civilization III

2005-06-25T18:01:00.000-05:00

CivIII Strategy Tips

CivIII Games

Hello!

2005-06-18T20:50:00.000-05:00

Zachriel.com