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Cosmos - the antidote for ID?
In an Evolution News & Views...In case you had any uncertainty about the upcoming 13-part Cosmos series, a revival of the Carl Sagan franchise, executive producer Seth MacFarlane has Darwin skeptics and alternatives to Darwinian evolution very much in his crosshairs. This is a major and costly project, though Fox won't say how costly - so it's flattering in a way. In an interview in the Los Angeles Times, MacFarlane says:
We've had a resurgence of creationism and intelligent design quote-unquote theory. There's been a real vacuum when it comes to science education. The nice thing about this show is that I think that it does what the original "Cosmos" did and presents it in such a flashy, entertaining way that, as Carl Sagan put it in 1980, even people who have no interest in science will watch just because it's a spectacle. People who watched the original "Cosmos" will sit down and watch with their kids.
Categories: Anti-Science News
Gordon's Diary
Post by steve_h
Dear Diary,
just spent another hectic day monitoring the viral Dr Torley thread. I just can't believe it, every time I check it's gone up by at least one. Bydand!
Dear Diary,
just spent another hectic day monitoring the viral Dr Torley thread. I just can't believe it, every time I check it's gone up by at least one. Bydand!
Categories: AE Public BB
Uncommonly Dense Thread 5
Post by Glen Davidson
Headline at UD:
Quote Researchers: Dishonesty can mean greater creativity
Funny, the IDiots seem to be about as uncreative as anyone can be.
No tradeoffs, there, they just go for the worst possible fate, uncreative dishonesty.*
Glen Davidson
*Not saying that they're consciously lying, but at UD we've mostly got people who are deeply dishonest with evidence and with themselves.
Headline at UD:
Quote Researchers: Dishonesty can mean greater creativity
Funny, the IDiots seem to be about as uncreative as anyone can be.
No tradeoffs, there, they just go for the worst possible fate, uncreative dishonesty.*
Glen Davidson
*Not saying that they're consciously lying, but at UD we've mostly got people who are deeply dishonest with evidence and with themselves.
Categories: AE Public BB
Wildlife
Post by DaveH
An old photo, but always worth showing for the sake of the comedy potential of the name...
Great tits
Just posted to draw attention to the amazing bit of research about these guys' evolutionary arms race with the pied flycatcher. Carl Zimmer has a summary here . Information Parasites? Who knew? (Except for IDC-ists, obviously....)
An old photo, but always worth showing for the sake of the comedy potential of the name...
Great tits
Just posted to draw attention to the amazing bit of research about these guys' evolutionary arms race with the pied flycatcher. Carl Zimmer has a summary here . Information Parasites? Who knew? (Except for IDC-ists, obviously....)
Categories: AE Public BB
A Separate Thread for Gary Gaulin
Post by k.e..
Quote (GaryGaulin @ Mar. 09 2014,06:31) Quote (Woodbine @ Mar. 08 2014,21:25) Quote (GaryGaulin @ Mar. 08 2014,01:26)I just gave a couple more examples of how I influence science, on a daily basis, by being where the science action is at.
Burger King?
See. With all the clown makeup, you can't even tell who or what they really are.
No one but you Gary would put clowns, burgers and science in the same sentance. If only it was funny. Sad lonely clown GiGo asks scientists if they want fries with his offal burnt offering & mistakes cream pie throwers for his friends.
Quote (GaryGaulin @ Mar. 09 2014,06:31) Quote (Woodbine @ Mar. 08 2014,21:25) Quote (GaryGaulin @ Mar. 08 2014,01:26)I just gave a couple more examples of how I influence science, on a daily basis, by being where the science action is at.
Burger King?
See. With all the clown makeup, you can't even tell who or what they really are.
No one but you Gary would put clowns, burgers and science in the same sentance. If only it was funny. Sad lonely clown GiGo asks scientists if they want fries with his offal burnt offering & mistakes cream pie throwers for his friends.
Categories: AE Public BB
A Separate Thread for Gary Gaulin
Post by NoName
Quote (GaryGaulin @ Mar. 08 2014,22:31) Quote (Woodbine @ Mar. 08 2014,21:25) Quote (GaryGaulin @ Mar. 08 2014,01:26)I just gave a couple more examples of how I influence science, on a daily basis, by being where the science action is at.
Burger King?
See. With all the clown makeup, you can't even tell who or what they really are.
Well, that's what happens when you smear makeup all over your eyes and start bragging about the improvement of your vision.
Oh, you weren't being self-referential?
Quote (GaryGaulin @ Mar. 08 2014,22:31) Quote (Woodbine @ Mar. 08 2014,21:25) Quote (GaryGaulin @ Mar. 08 2014,01:26)I just gave a couple more examples of how I influence science, on a daily basis, by being where the science action is at.
Burger King?
See. With all the clown makeup, you can't even tell who or what they really are.
Well, that's what happens when you smear makeup all over your eyes and start bragging about the improvement of your vision.
Oh, you weren't being self-referential?
Categories: AE Public BB
Uncommonly Dense Thread 5
Post by Soapy Sam
KF! Fresh KF! Get yer KF 'ere!
Quote F/N, FYI — FTR: Any serious commenter intending to be fair would have checked out that NM falsely accused me of deceit in an earlier thread several weeks ago [at roughly Christmas time], as in: “Gish Gallop” . . . as Rational Wiki defines, a very serious accusation of public deceit (and as a rule a patently false accusation, starting with the late Mr Gish himself, who could not have won the vast majority of 3 – 400 debates if he had been doing what he was caricatured as doing by hard core evolutionary materialist ideologues in order to dismiss what he was saying and showing by smearing the messenger, i.e. accuse without good warrant of wholesale “quote mining,” which is itself an informal — and in our experience here at UD, usually false — accusation of deceitful out of context quotation . . . note the in extenso cites I had to give to correct that insinuation and later accusation, regarding especially Gould’s career-long position as a world class expert on what the fossil record actually substantiates and contains).
Pause for breath. That's Sentence 1 over. Aaaaand ...
Quote That is the context in which I informed him that absent amends for that, he was not welcome and would be removed as a slanderous heckler, cf. 299 above where I pointed this out to F, and 39 on here, where I summarised what happened to JG . . . with links to the scene of the crime. NM chose to double down, and I took disciplinary action for cause. F’s cleverly misleading half-truth on in the same thread, speaks volumes, sadly revealing volumes. Onlookers, THIS is the COMMON level of behaviour by too many objectors to design thought, and if these unscrupulous hecklers are allowed free reign in UD’s threads, there would be a fever swamp race to the gutter. I do this for the record, not to feed the troll who will predictably continue twisting the matter into pretzels. KF
KF! Fresh KF! Get yer KF 'ere!
Quote F/N, FYI — FTR: Any serious commenter intending to be fair would have checked out that NM falsely accused me of deceit in an earlier thread several weeks ago [at roughly Christmas time], as in: “Gish Gallop” . . . as Rational Wiki defines, a very serious accusation of public deceit (and as a rule a patently false accusation, starting with the late Mr Gish himself, who could not have won the vast majority of 3 – 400 debates if he had been doing what he was caricatured as doing by hard core evolutionary materialist ideologues in order to dismiss what he was saying and showing by smearing the messenger, i.e. accuse without good warrant of wholesale “quote mining,” which is itself an informal — and in our experience here at UD, usually false — accusation of deceitful out of context quotation . . . note the in extenso cites I had to give to correct that insinuation and later accusation, regarding especially Gould’s career-long position as a world class expert on what the fossil record actually substantiates and contains).
Pause for breath. That's Sentence 1 over. Aaaaand ...
Quote That is the context in which I informed him that absent amends for that, he was not welcome and would be removed as a slanderous heckler, cf. 299 above where I pointed this out to F, and 39 on here, where I summarised what happened to JG . . . with links to the scene of the crime. NM chose to double down, and I took disciplinary action for cause. F’s cleverly misleading half-truth on in the same thread, speaks volumes, sadly revealing volumes. Onlookers, THIS is the COMMON level of behaviour by too many objectors to design thought, and if these unscrupulous hecklers are allowed free reign in UD’s threads, there would be a fever swamp race to the gutter. I do this for the record, not to feed the troll who will predictably continue twisting the matter into pretzels. KF
Categories: AE Public BB
Uncommonly Dense Thread 5
Post by Quack
Quote (OgreMkV @ Mar. 08 2014,19:44) Quote (olegt @ Mar. 08 2014,08:53)Kairosfocus has a unique ability to complexify simple things. Here is [URL=http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/a-world-famous-chemist-tells-the-truth-theres-no-scientist-alive-today-who-understands-mac
roevolution/#comment-492278]a little GEM[/URL]:
Quote F/N: The best way to understand a coin is as a physical approximation to a two-sided die. KF
Actually, he's wrong about that too.
A coin is a THREE sided system with an uneven distribution when flipped. But most people don't get it.
Fixed link: a little GEM (I like to fix things.)
Quote (OgreMkV @ Mar. 08 2014,19:44) Quote (olegt @ Mar. 08 2014,08:53)Kairosfocus has a unique ability to complexify simple things. Here is [URL=http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/a-world-famous-chemist-tells-the-truth-theres-no-scientist-alive-today-who-understands-mac
roevolution/#comment-492278]a little GEM[/URL]:
Quote F/N: The best way to understand a coin is as a physical approximation to a two-sided die. KF
Actually, he's wrong about that too.
A coin is a THREE sided system with an uneven distribution when flipped. But most people don't get it.
Fixed link: a little GEM (I like to fix things.)
Categories: AE Public BB
Wildlife
Post by timothya
See the forest in the trees - patterns from Sydney's botanic gardens
See the forest in the trees - patterns from Sydney's botanic gardens
Categories: AE Public BB
Wildlife
Post by timothya
Juvenile New Holland Honeyeater (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae) Tumut, New South Wales
Juvenile New Holland Honeyeater (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae) Tumut, New South Wales
Categories: AE Public BB
Uncommonly Dense Thread 5
Post by CeilingCat
Soapy Sam: Quote I prefer to think of a die as something you get when you glue 6 coins together and fill in the gaps with corners.
I prefer to think of "die" as something you get when you go whoring after Jesus and neglect the local Volcano God.
Soapy Sam: Quote I prefer to think of a die as something you get when you glue 6 coins together and fill in the gaps with corners.
I prefer to think of "die" as something you get when you go whoring after Jesus and neglect the local Volcano God.
Categories: AE Public BB
Uncommonly Dense Thread 5
Post by CeilingCat
Quote (DiEb @ Mar. 08 2014,16:11)I put an comment into their moderation queue:
Quote Quote ‘PPS: The surge, of course, also documents that Sci News has credibly had significant impact.’
Call me skeptic: there are other articles here at Uncommon Descent which have been linked to by "Scientific News", like New Age medic Deepak Chopra responds to Darwin’s man Jerry Coyne in The New Republic. Warning: Messy and To recognize design is to recognize products of a like-minded process, identifying the real probability in question, Part I. They didn't go viral - at least they didn't make the list of most popular articles.
On the other hand, reddit is well known to be able to generate quite an impact.
From the "New Age medic..." thread above: Quote Actually, if you look into it, you will soon discover that people like Coyne and his wikitroll buddies simply insist, beyond the reach of evidence, that telepathy is false. Not so, it exists as a low level effect greater than chance but not nearly enough to justify the claims of typical psychics (seeThe Spiritual Brain). So now Dense is defending telepathy - at a suitably low level so it can't be detected without Jesus.
Quote (DiEb @ Mar. 08 2014,16:11)I put an comment into their moderation queue:
Quote Quote ‘PPS: The surge, of course, also documents that Sci News has credibly had significant impact.’
Call me skeptic: there are other articles here at Uncommon Descent which have been linked to by "Scientific News", like New Age medic Deepak Chopra responds to Darwin’s man Jerry Coyne in The New Republic. Warning: Messy and To recognize design is to recognize products of a like-minded process, identifying the real probability in question, Part I. They didn't go viral - at least they didn't make the list of most popular articles.
On the other hand, reddit is well known to be able to generate quite an impact.
From the "New Age medic..." thread above: Quote Actually, if you look into it, you will soon discover that people like Coyne and his wikitroll buddies simply insist, beyond the reach of evidence, that telepathy is false. Not so, it exists as a low level effect greater than chance but not nearly enough to justify the claims of typical psychics (seeThe Spiritual Brain). So now Dense is defending telepathy - at a suitably low level so it can't be detected without Jesus.
Categories: AE Public BB
The Skeptical Zone
Post by socle
Now this is comical. Gregory, talking down to Joe Felsenstein:
Now this is comical. Gregory, talking down to Joe Felsenstein:
Categories: AE Public BB
Uncommonly Dense Thread 5
Post by Richardthughes
KF yearns to descend to the Joe G level of 'pathetic'"
Quote 299
kairosfocusMarch 6, 2014 at 6:20 pm
PS: To correct a distortion, the recently Dr Matzke (some time back, I was corrected going the other way, for addressing as Dr, I just learned of his promotion) slandered me a couple of months ago then popped up in a thread yesterday as if nothing happened. I instructed him he was on strike 2 and needed to make amends. He doubled down, and just as I warned, I deleted posts he made beyond that point, to call him to order. He and his ilk know that all he needs to do to return to threads I own is to simply make amends for a toxic false accusation. This, he obviously cannot bring himself to do. Unless and until he makes such amends, I will treat him as a disruptive heckler and will do the online equivalent of calling security to have him removed from premises he has worn out his welcome at through uncivil conduct. That is what Franklin and others are trying to label as censorship in order to smear me for standing up for civil conduct in the teeth of slander, and it shows the fundamental incivility and arrogant rudeness of such. Since Franklin knows or should know better than the smear he just tried to spread, that too is a second order slander. Franklin has just revealed himself as a heckler and enabler of heckling for the world to see.
Thanks Big Brother! Its easier if you decide what's right and wrong for me before I even have to read it!
KF yearns to descend to the Joe G level of 'pathetic'"
Quote 299
kairosfocusMarch 6, 2014 at 6:20 pm
PS: To correct a distortion, the recently Dr Matzke (some time back, I was corrected going the other way, for addressing as Dr, I just learned of his promotion) slandered me a couple of months ago then popped up in a thread yesterday as if nothing happened. I instructed him he was on strike 2 and needed to make amends. He doubled down, and just as I warned, I deleted posts he made beyond that point, to call him to order. He and his ilk know that all he needs to do to return to threads I own is to simply make amends for a toxic false accusation. This, he obviously cannot bring himself to do. Unless and until he makes such amends, I will treat him as a disruptive heckler and will do the online equivalent of calling security to have him removed from premises he has worn out his welcome at through uncivil conduct. That is what Franklin and others are trying to label as censorship in order to smear me for standing up for civil conduct in the teeth of slander, and it shows the fundamental incivility and arrogant rudeness of such. Since Franklin knows or should know better than the smear he just tried to spread, that too is a second order slander. Franklin has just revealed himself as a heckler and enabler of heckling for the world to see.
Thanks Big Brother! Its easier if you decide what's right and wrong for me before I even have to read it!
Categories: AE Public BB
A Separate Thread for Gary Gaulin
Post by GaryGaulin
Quote (didymos @ Mar. 06 2014,05:27) Quote (GaryGaulin @ Mar. 06 2014,02:42) Quote (didymos @ Mar. 06 2014,02:48) Quote (GaryGaulin @ Mar. 06 2014,00:20)I'm very seriously here because science requires me to publicly kick your ass, in your own damn game.
SCIENCE DEMANDS IT!
(BTW, you done fucked that up too, Gary)
This time, the side you're representing does not get to declare their own victory.
I'm not declaring victory, you dimwit. I'm declaring your incompetence at public ass-kickery.
In this case, it's not the head-game kind of ass kicking, where as you can see from the replies to this thread already has a line of volunteers willing to have their asses kicked that way, it's from what quietly goes on everywhere else. Which is why I have to get back to work on the new ID Lab, where we've got thrills and shocks, even supersonic fighting cocks (when design is rudely changed to appear like one then that's clicked into Turbo mode for going 1000 or so mph).
Quote (didymos @ Mar. 06 2014,05:27) Quote (GaryGaulin @ Mar. 06 2014,02:42) Quote (didymos @ Mar. 06 2014,02:48) Quote (GaryGaulin @ Mar. 06 2014,00:20)I'm very seriously here because science requires me to publicly kick your ass, in your own damn game.
SCIENCE DEMANDS IT!
(BTW, you done fucked that up too, Gary)
This time, the side you're representing does not get to declare their own victory.
I'm not declaring victory, you dimwit. I'm declaring your incompetence at public ass-kickery.
In this case, it's not the head-game kind of ass kicking, where as you can see from the replies to this thread already has a line of volunteers willing to have their asses kicked that way, it's from what quietly goes on everywhere else. Which is why I have to get back to work on the new ID Lab, where we've got thrills and shocks, even supersonic fighting cocks (when design is rudely changed to appear like one then that's clicked into Turbo mode for going 1000 or so mph).
Categories: AE Public BB
Uncommonly Dense Thread 5
Post by Richardthughes
Quote Franklin:
you just tried an ad hominem atmosphere-poisoning distractor to polarise and divert discussion instead of dealing with a key matter on its merits.
You full well know that I gave a specific offer to host such an essay in toto, here at UD, and that it could freely be hosted elsewhere in parallel (I suggested TSZ).
No censorship or manipulation of such a post would be feasible under such circumstances, so you are making a deliberate misrepresentation in the teeth of what you know or should know.
It is also the case in describing showing hecklers and slanderers the door until they can find a civil tongue in their heads, as censorship.
Shame on you.
But then, this sort of diversion, twisting about, poisoning the atmosphere and making of threats is unfortunately all too common in the circles of toxic critics UD has had to deal with.
For instance, should I take your behaviour just now as willful enabling of the sort of behaviour where some attempted to identify and publicly name my uninvolved wife and minor children? Or, those who tried to reveal my residential address under similar circumstances?
I would suggest to you and ilk that leaving such information up and entertaining the sort of thug who does that IS enabling, and “freedom of expression” has limits of civility long before we come to libel and slander issues because there are ill willed, maladjusted bullies and crazies like that out there.
KF
tl:dr - Censorship is okay when KF does it.
Quote Franklin:
you just tried an ad hominem atmosphere-poisoning distractor to polarise and divert discussion instead of dealing with a key matter on its merits.
You full well know that I gave a specific offer to host such an essay in toto, here at UD, and that it could freely be hosted elsewhere in parallel (I suggested TSZ).
No censorship or manipulation of such a post would be feasible under such circumstances, so you are making a deliberate misrepresentation in the teeth of what you know or should know.
It is also the case in describing showing hecklers and slanderers the door until they can find a civil tongue in their heads, as censorship.
Shame on you.
But then, this sort of diversion, twisting about, poisoning the atmosphere and making of threats is unfortunately all too common in the circles of toxic critics UD has had to deal with.
For instance, should I take your behaviour just now as willful enabling of the sort of behaviour where some attempted to identify and publicly name my uninvolved wife and minor children? Or, those who tried to reveal my residential address under similar circumstances?
I would suggest to you and ilk that leaving such information up and entertaining the sort of thug who does that IS enabling, and “freedom of expression” has limits of civility long before we come to libel and slander issues because there are ill willed, maladjusted bullies and crazies like that out there.
KF
tl:dr - Censorship is okay when KF does it.
Categories: AE Public BB
Uncommonly Dense Thread 5
Post by Richardthughes
And know KF has just had another BIGNUM / 747 Junkyard / NOMATH blurt. Still no CSI calcs, KF? Sad, and very telling.
And know KF has just had another BIGNUM / 747 Junkyard / NOMATH blurt. Still no CSI calcs, KF? Sad, and very telling.
Categories: AE Public BB
Uncommonly Dense: The BlogCzar Years. Er, Months.
Post by JohnW
Quote (Soapy Sam @ Mar. 06 2014,14:31) Quote As for NM’s failure to acknowledge that a double headed coin landing H is not attributable to chance, that is a case of reduction to absurdity on his part.
Huh? This is listed as part of the justification for obliterating NM's words. What if it had a picture of a duck on it? How do its markings influence a spun disk's final position?
Jesus could have turned the head into a picture of a duck if he wanted, but chose not to. Therefore not chance.
Quote (Soapy Sam @ Mar. 06 2014,14:31) Quote As for NM’s failure to acknowledge that a double headed coin landing H is not attributable to chance, that is a case of reduction to absurdity on his part.
Huh? This is listed as part of the justification for obliterating NM's words. What if it had a picture of a duck on it? How do its markings influence a spun disk's final position?
Jesus could have turned the head into a picture of a duck if he wanted, but chose not to. Therefore not chance.
Categories: AE Public BB
Uncommonly Dense Thread 5
Post by Ptaylor
Quote (Richardthughes @ Mar. 07 2014,10:49)I WUV YOU FRANKLIN:
Quote yes, it does speak volumes that the environment here is not conducive to uncensored/unmodified responses. IOW, no one trust you…just look at your (Kf) recent censoring of Dr. Matzke.s responses and your subsequent modification of one of his posts….yes, Kf, it does speak volumes. It also speaks volumes that you refuse to engage those you wish to engage in a forum where they (and you) are free to make uncensored points/opinions.
You are either against censorship or you are not. Apparently, given your actions and your requests that others be censored elsewhere puts you in the “yes I approve of censorship’ category.
And note the emphasis of Dr. in the original
Quote (Richardthughes @ Mar. 07 2014,10:49)I WUV YOU FRANKLIN:
Quote yes, it does speak volumes that the environment here is not conducive to uncensored/unmodified responses. IOW, no one trust you…just look at your (Kf) recent censoring of Dr. Matzke.s responses and your subsequent modification of one of his posts….yes, Kf, it does speak volumes. It also speaks volumes that you refuse to engage those you wish to engage in a forum where they (and you) are free to make uncensored points/opinions.
You are either against censorship or you are not. Apparently, given your actions and your requests that others be censored elsewhere puts you in the “yes I approve of censorship’ category.
And note the emphasis of Dr. in the original
Categories: AE Public BB
