A new group of atheists has arisen in society. Called the new atheists, they are not content to keep their views to themselves.
From the November 2010 (November already?) issue of Awake, the magazine of the door-to-door Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Via Pharyngula
Physicists seem to have a liking for using the word “God” as a metaphor for the forces of nature. I’ve often found religious people quoting Einstein’s “God does not play dice” approvingly, unaware that it was metaphor. Hawking’s “Mind of God” is another good example.
Hawing is in the news again after saying that there is no need for God in explaining the Universe. I’ma bit surprised it’s getting so much attention. Hawking hasn’t really changed his tune, and it’s not really a new argument.
Here’s Sean Carroll explaining things quite well:
The rather picturesque yellow-bellied three-toed skink
National Geographic reports:
Evolution has been caught in the act, according to scientists who are decoding how a species of Australian lizard is abandoning egg-laying in favor of live birth.
Along the warm coastal lowlands of New South Wales (map), the yellow-bellied three-toed skink lays eggs to reproduce. But individuals of the same species living in the state’s higher, colder mountains are almost all giving birth to live young.
Here’s a photo of a Tomahawk missile test from 1986:
Head over to Bad Astronomy for an explanation of why it’s iinteresting.
Two Falmouth teens made the job easy for local police officers setting up a stakeout in a community park last week, according to police.
Two officers had just arrived at Walton Park on Aug. 19 and parked a “bait car” with some valuables inside hoping to catch a crook and reduce the number of burglaries and other crimes reported there this summer, according to Falmouth Police Lt. John Kilbride.
But, according to Kilbride, an 18-year-old man instead broke into the surveillance van and took a bottle of water, apparently not noticing the officer in back behind a curtain. The second officer was out of sight near the bank of the Presumpscot River.
Then the alleged water thief and a friend stood next to the van, in front of a one-way glass window, and prepared to smoke some marijuana with a pipe made from a carrot. One teen even told the other that using the carrot would make it harder for police to bust them, Kilbride said.
“They found our surveillance van more attracting,” Kilbride said. “We literally just set it up and I got the call, ‘You’re not going to believe this.’ “
The crooks, if these failures warrant the title, won 3rd place on Countdown’s nightly Worst Person in the World segment, which is where I first saw it. A quick google found the story at the Portland Press Herald, where you can read more about this daring duo.
Every now and again a program crashes in Windows. A dialog box pops up on the screen inviting you to submit information about the crash to Microsoft to let them try to make Windows more reslient. Sometimes I think twice, but usually let the data get sent off. Of course, if I was writing viruses or other malware, I’m sure it would occur to me that sending such data may sort of help Microsoft a bit more than I wished. Apparently a lot of aspirign virus writers don’t think about that:
When the hacker’s system crashes in Windows, as with all typical Windows crashes, Heckman said the user would be prompted to send the error details — including the malicious code — to Microsoft. The funny thing is that many say yes, according to Heckman.
“People have sent us their virus code when they’re trying to develop their virus and they keep crashing their systems,” Heckman said. “It’s amazing how much stuff we get.”
Source: ZDNet.com.au
I missed it. I checked my email tonight, saw an email from KitchenSlut, and noticed the word “Lutec”. Something about the Cairns Post… I then saw that the URL he was pointing out to me had 2010 in it, not 2001. “No smegging¹ way”, I thought, “the Cairns Post couldn’t be that stupid”. I was wrong. The Lutec Free Energy machine is back on the pages of the Cairns Post.
Lutec popped up in the Cairns Post back in 2001, claiming that they had invented a device that could produce more energy than it consumed – a free energy machine that they said they would soon start selling to the public. They just needed some “investors” to help them finish it off. The Cairns Post provided the cranks with a podium to shovel their story out, and “investors” gave Lutec the money they sought. Predictably, no product appeared, and the story vanished for years. Now it’s back, and it hasn’t changed. The “inventors” are again promising the device will be available in a couple of years.
This is very simple… If the Lutec machine can put out more energy than it consumes from the grid, they can simply feed a bit of its output into its input and provide a limitless supply of free energy. Once started,the machine should run forever even when unplugged from its power source. How about getting Lutec to authorise Ergon Electricity to release all their electricity billing information. I’m guessing their office still runs up a bill. This despite the fact that, if their claims were true, they should be supplying the grid with huge amounts of energy. They’re not.
“Free energy” machines have a tendency to be whack-a-mole operations, surfacing intermittently to suck up more money from gullible “investors” falling for the perpetual promise of a commercial release “real soon now”. The big day never comes, and the “inventors” disappear for a while to live off the money of their dupes. Some of the “inventors” are sincerely deluded, others are just straight out con-artists. I don’t know which category the Lutec guys fall into.
Then there’s the Cairns Post, which needs to learn that a “local angle” does not make a story credible or even newsworthy. This isn’t the first time reporter Daniel Bateman has been sucked in by a local crank – not long ago he also gave a podium to Henry “if evolution is true, why don’t crocodiles have mobile phones” Gobus. The decision by him and his editor to draw attention to Lutec is more troubling due to the money involved. In 2001 the Cairns Post helped the Lutec company get money from gullible “investors”, and now they’re helping again. It’s extremely irresponsible journalism, and one wonders where the line between being a newspaper and being a willing accomplice lies.
I also have to wonder how long it will be until we see Bateman reporting about fossils in inter-dimensional portals in people’s wall paint or killer triggerfish. Perhaps an interview with Billy Mango?
For information on Lutec, see Ratbags’s coverage of the 2001 kerfuffle. Nothing seems to have changed, including the Cairns Post’s willingness to promote bullshit.
1: Yes, I really do use the BBC family friendly non-swear word smeg from Red Dwarf.
The Chessington Sea Life Centre have a statue of a mermaid in one of their exhibits. For a while the staff didn’t notice the amount of time some male visitors were spending appreciating the work of art. Now, however, it has struck them that the sculptor was rather generous in the proportions of the mermaids breast. They thought about their options… Breast reduction? Remove the statue? Just leave it the way it is? No…
No guy ever ogles breasts in a bikini, do they?
Or perhaps it’s just a publicity stunt.
(Source)
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