"evolution" is one of my google alerts. Along with "The Evolution of Special Effects" and "The Evolution of Tom Cruise" I see scientific articles/blogs on evolution along with blog posters taking pot shots at evolutionary theory.
One that I took note of was a Jewish Blog called Chabad, which had a short piece on evolution followed by various people agreeing or disagreeing with the original blog entry.
In my mind, the article had nothing to do with evolution and the facts of the theory, but of how morally speaking, believing in God is better than believing in evolution.
I don't actually know if this is true or not. I have no idea (in general, I think truth is superior to delusion). The thing is, does that have anything to do with whether evolution is correct or not? The big, bright, shiny word that springs to mind is "irrelevant".
What if believing the laws of motion allowed you to launch missiles into third world countries? Oh wait! It does! We shouldn't believe in them! My reaction in a posted comment said pretty much that. What does the morality of the question have to do with evolution?
The funniest thing about the blog is that as I tried to post corrections to people's misconceptions, the moderator seemed to get annoyed with me and started disallowing my posts. That was after quoting me incorrectly and then removing the comment when I corrected him.
I guess with a moderated blog, you can allow and disallow whomever you like and colour the responses in a certain light. As obvious as that is, I hadn't considered it before and thought that moderation was more about filtering out bad language and abusive comments.
I have rarely worried about evolution dissenters before, after all, what does scientific illiteracy really matter? These people still use computers, cell phones and cars, all of which were produced through the same science that produced evolution. No one seems to notice that and by posting on line, they are nearly self refuting.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Kiwiwriters returns!
Far less mysteriously than it disappeared, Kiwiwriters is back up and running, albeit with old data.
If you've joined the site since September, please create a new log-in account. I just realized that this is perfect if you were unhappy with your original username. Now's the chance to fix it!
And, if you haven't thought about any writing for the new year, may I suggest the 20k Novella challenge we are offering for January?
If you've joined the site since September, please create a new log-in account. I just realized that this is perfect if you were unhappy with your original username. Now's the chance to fix it!
And, if you haven't thought about any writing for the new year, may I suggest the 20k Novella challenge we are offering for January?
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Kiwiwriters disaster!
Well, for the last week or so, Kiwiwriters has been completely down and out. Go to the link and nothing - just an error.
Now, since getting in touch with the hosting company, we realize that it's even worse than we thought. Not only is the current page no longer working because of a hardware problem on their main server, the backups are also corrupt.
The latest full backup that we have is from September! That's over THREE months old!
So, blog posts, discussion boards, news items, challenges, membership data etc.. etc... are all gone.
This entry is just to let you know, if you are a recent member, you will have to re-join kiwiwriters, since your username and passwords are all missing.
Sorry guys.
Now, since getting in touch with the hosting company, we realize that it's even worse than we thought. Not only is the current page no longer working because of a hardware problem on their main server, the backups are also corrupt.
The latest full backup that we have is from September! That's over THREE months old!
So, blog posts, discussion boards, news items, challenges, membership data etc.. etc... are all gone.
This entry is just to let you know, if you are a recent member, you will have to re-join kiwiwriters, since your username and passwords are all missing.
Sorry guys.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
testing google maps
I'm helping someone to put a google map point on their blog.
So, I will test it here first!
Una is doing a yoga class at the Massey Memorial near Miramar on Sunday, Nov 29th.
It is at this exact location:
View Larger Map
That's it.
So, I will test it here first!
Una is doing a yoga class at the Massey Memorial near Miramar on Sunday, Nov 29th.
It is at this exact location:
View Larger Map
That's it.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Oh the news! Where to start?! Nano, Twitter and a sci-fi reading challenge
NANOWRIMO
Firstly, it is Nanowrimo yet again, and here I am writing another novel (this will be my 7th - I've finished all of my Nanowrimos and SocNocs so far).
I've gone sci-fi again. This time, the story is set about 80 years in the future. The main character is Paul, a physical trainer. In the future where most people spend all of their time "inside", i.e. plugged into a virtual world, physical trainers take over people's bodies, exercising the limp and atrophied muscles that lay around while their owners are plugged in, which is most of the time.
Paul is a bit of a Luddite and spends as much of his time as possible "outside", living his life in the "real world" except where his job requires.
Paul is thrown for a loop when he lets someone take over one of his clients for a few minutes and the client ends up dead. He is then pulled into a civil war he never knew was happening where some people who spend their time "outside" are trying to bring down the network, which they feel is gradually leaching people of their humanity.
So far, I'm 1 day and 2300 words in. I'm quite excited about what I see as a good idea.
Funny story, I had a part of my whole novel idea (the "physical trainer" part) through October - it's an idea that's been sitting around in my brain for a few years, but I've never used it before. Then, I go to bed on October 31st, thinking about the story. While I sleep, my subconscious chews on it and when I wake up to write around 7:15 on Sunday morning, another story idea I had buried in my brain came up to merge with the first and I'm pleased with where it's going.
The 2nd idea , also a few years old is about someone living "outside" of the network when most of the world is plugged in. The outside is now a museum, where buses run and the infrastructure is maintained via high-tech trickery, but almost no one lives in the real world. It started with a scene where someone goes out to look around, day after day, week after week and is alone every day. One day, on a bus driving through empty streets, out of the blue, he meets another person who is doing the same thing as he is. This idea just seemed to gel with the first, so I've merged them together.
TWITTER
To change the subject - I've started to twitter. My username is traviscottreau (appropriately enough - I tried to put a dot in the middle to match my gmail account, but it wouldn't let me). I figured that I would use it to report my nano stats and keep in contact with other Nanoers.
SCI-FI CHALLENGE
And finally, a science-fiction reading challenge. I am a member of Shelfari, an on-line book club that I quite enjoy and while browsing on that site, I found a science-fiction reading challenge in one of the groups. There are 40 categories of books that you have to read in the next year. With a few double ups allowed (no triple ups allowed), it comes out to a minimum of 35 books that have to be read in the next year. I am keeping track of my progress on a google docs spreadsheet that I've made public for viewing. I'm quite excited about this, since I have a few sci-fi books at home that I haven't read and have been procrastinating about - why not add a challenge to get through them and announce it on my blog?
If anyone sees a category that I haven't filled in, but have a suggestion for, I'm more than happy to listen. I'll keep some progress on here and probably on twitter I imagine.
I am starting with "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley, which counts as my "young adult" category in the challenge.
Firstly, it is Nanowrimo yet again, and here I am writing another novel (this will be my 7th - I've finished all of my Nanowrimos and SocNocs so far).
I've gone sci-fi again. This time, the story is set about 80 years in the future. The main character is Paul, a physical trainer. In the future where most people spend all of their time "inside", i.e. plugged into a virtual world, physical trainers take over people's bodies, exercising the limp and atrophied muscles that lay around while their owners are plugged in, which is most of the time.
Paul is a bit of a Luddite and spends as much of his time as possible "outside", living his life in the "real world" except where his job requires.
Paul is thrown for a loop when he lets someone take over one of his clients for a few minutes and the client ends up dead. He is then pulled into a civil war he never knew was happening where some people who spend their time "outside" are trying to bring down the network, which they feel is gradually leaching people of their humanity.
So far, I'm 1 day and 2300 words in. I'm quite excited about what I see as a good idea.
Funny story, I had a part of my whole novel idea (the "physical trainer" part) through October - it's an idea that's been sitting around in my brain for a few years, but I've never used it before. Then, I go to bed on October 31st, thinking about the story. While I sleep, my subconscious chews on it and when I wake up to write around 7:15 on Sunday morning, another story idea I had buried in my brain came up to merge with the first and I'm pleased with where it's going.
The 2nd idea , also a few years old is about someone living "outside" of the network when most of the world is plugged in. The outside is now a museum, where buses run and the infrastructure is maintained via high-tech trickery, but almost no one lives in the real world. It started with a scene where someone goes out to look around, day after day, week after week and is alone every day. One day, on a bus driving through empty streets, out of the blue, he meets another person who is doing the same thing as he is. This idea just seemed to gel with the first, so I've merged them together.
To change the subject - I've started to twitter. My username is traviscottreau (appropriately enough - I tried to put a dot in the middle to match my gmail account, but it wouldn't let me). I figured that I would use it to report my nano stats and keep in contact with other Nanoers.
SCI-FI CHALLENGE
And finally, a science-fiction reading challenge. I am a member of Shelfari, an on-line book club that I quite enjoy and while browsing on that site, I found a science-fiction reading challenge in one of the groups. There are 40 categories of books that you have to read in the next year. With a few double ups allowed (no triple ups allowed), it comes out to a minimum of 35 books that have to be read in the next year. I am keeping track of my progress on a google docs spreadsheet that I've made public for viewing. I'm quite excited about this, since I have a few sci-fi books at home that I haven't read and have been procrastinating about - why not add a challenge to get through them and announce it on my blog?
If anyone sees a category that I haven't filled in, but have a suggestion for, I'm more than happy to listen. I'll keep some progress on here and probably on twitter I imagine.
I am starting with "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley, which counts as my "young adult" category in the challenge.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
To poll or ot to poll...
From the mouth of the discovery institute comes "The More They Know Darwin, The Less They Want Darwin-Only Indoctrination" where they say that polls show that the more a country knows about the Theory of Evolution, the more they want to teach "alternatives" like Intelligent Design or Creationism.
Hmmm... I can't think of anything LESS relevant to the entire topic of evolution and education. Since when do we go out polling the population to see what should be taught in science classes? Imagine a physics professor in front of a group of university students saying, "Hey kids, instead of teaching the intended String Theory class, I'm going to give you how atoms are controlled by little fairies kept in bottles on the moon. The US population has decided that it should have equal weight."
Seriously - it is completely irrelevant.
Ken Miller was dead on when he said "If I had to give a prize for the best idea that anyone in the antievolution movement has ever had, I'd award it to whomever came up with the term 'Intelligent Design'."
The term itself is all anyone usually knows about it. After that, all the BS and sciency sounding jargon is enough to fool most people. What's the alternative to 'intelligent design'? Something un-intelligent and non-designed I guess.
Some things cheese me off. The Discovery Institute is one of them. They are a bunch of scientific minded individuals, who are smart enough to know better, but practice spinning lies to the population in hopes that they will convince some people to believe their BS. I doubt there are more than one or two in their think-tank who actually believe what they are saying. Certainly not Michael Behe or William Dembski, both of whom are complete and utter liars who aren't just misguided morons, but know enough to realize that what they are saying just isn't true.
You'd think that Behe would go away after having his books completely trashed by intelligent five year olds with a passing knowledge of evolution, or that Dembski would finally man up and produce some math that other people could actually see. Dembski's promise of an equation that can tell the difference between designed and non-designed items (genetics, mountains, sculptures?) has been in the works for 10+ years and is still just a no-show. Strangely enough - there are people who still take him seriously.
Scientifically speaking, intelligent design and creationism are the same as astrology and voodoo for what they add to an understanding of the complexities of life. The world would be a better place if they didn't exist.
Hmmm... I can't think of anything LESS relevant to the entire topic of evolution and education. Since when do we go out polling the population to see what should be taught in science classes? Imagine a physics professor in front of a group of university students saying, "Hey kids, instead of teaching the intended String Theory class, I'm going to give you how atoms are controlled by little fairies kept in bottles on the moon. The US population has decided that it should have equal weight."
Seriously - it is completely irrelevant.
Ken Miller was dead on when he said "If I had to give a prize for the best idea that anyone in the antievolution movement has ever had, I'd award it to whomever came up with the term 'Intelligent Design'."
The term itself is all anyone usually knows about it. After that, all the BS and sciency sounding jargon is enough to fool most people. What's the alternative to 'intelligent design'? Something un-intelligent and non-designed I guess.
Some things cheese me off. The Discovery Institute is one of them. They are a bunch of scientific minded individuals, who are smart enough to know better, but practice spinning lies to the population in hopes that they will convince some people to believe their BS. I doubt there are more than one or two in their think-tank who actually believe what they are saying. Certainly not Michael Behe or William Dembski, both of whom are complete and utter liars who aren't just misguided morons, but know enough to realize that what they are saying just isn't true.
You'd think that Behe would go away after having his books completely trashed by intelligent five year olds with a passing knowledge of evolution, or that Dembski would finally man up and produce some math that other people could actually see. Dembski's promise of an equation that can tell the difference between designed and non-designed items (genetics, mountains, sculptures?) has been in the works for 10+ years and is still just a no-show. Strangely enough - there are people who still take him seriously.
Scientifically speaking, intelligent design and creationism are the same as astrology and voodoo for what they add to an understanding of the complexities of life. The world would be a better place if they didn't exist.
Monday, August 31, 2009
New Zealand News
I love New Zealand. I moved here eight years ago and it was one of the best decisions of my life.
However, TV news is pretty bad . Two things that get me:
1. A half hour news program has 10-15 minutes of sports coverage. Rugby is the hot topic, even high school rugby gets in-depth coverage. Cricket is a close second.
2. If there is any sports related news, some scandal or even a high school rugby fight, it is presented not as sports new, but as regular news, eating into the ACTUAL regular news.
It is almost like the producers and writers are little kids who can't help but talk about the stuff they love, happily putting aside more important news, like shootings or catastrophes.
The only positive that I can say is that it is better than US news, which pretty much dumbs down information to the point where it's actually taking information away when you watch it.
However, TV news is pretty bad . Two things that get me:
1. A half hour news program has 10-15 minutes of sports coverage. Rugby is the hot topic, even high school rugby gets in-depth coverage. Cricket is a close second.
2. If there is any sports related news, some scandal or even a high school rugby fight, it is presented not as sports new, but as regular news, eating into the ACTUAL regular news.
It is almost like the producers and writers are little kids who can't help but talk about the stuff they love, happily putting aside more important news, like shootings or catastrophes.
The only positive that I can say is that it is better than US news, which pretty much dumbs down information to the point where it's actually taking information away when you watch it.
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