Archive for the ‘Science’ Category:
Scientific Whaling
I have a feeling of shock and disgust when I see pictures and film of the Japanese on their scientific whaling expeditions it, for me it was just my gut reaction saying that it just doesn’t make any sense, but since I’m a rational person I think that there are more plausible reasons why they don’t seem to be able to amply justify what they are doing. Since it is a scientific program a good measurement of its usefulness would be the quality of the output of papers that they are producing.
I’ll just summarise it here:
- In the 18 years that JARPA 1 has been running, it has produced 55 papers can be remotely classified as credible
- 14 of those 55 paper are relevant to scientific whaling
- 4 out of the 14 papers require the hunting and killing of whales to produce results
- How many whales were killed in 18 years: 6800
- Whales per credible scientific paper produced: 1700
Intelligent Design
For those that don’t know schools in Kansas, America will now be required to teach this:
Science teachers will now be required to instruct their students that evolutionary theory is not proven, and will have to add that life is in fact so complex, it could not have arisen without the involvement of some external agent, or higher power.
In my own humble opinion I firmly believe that religion has no place in science, the two are at complete polar opposites, not to say that religion has no place in society it does, just not science.
This is probably one of the craziest things that I have heard, why you may ask, well for anyone with half a brain will realise that “Intelligent Design” is just the creationism theory repacked, they just don’t mention God, but it’s fairly easy to see through the vail. If you look up any definition of the theory you will notice that they clearly make this agent as ambiguous as possible as not to incite the fact that they are pointing towards a higher being.
Intelligent Design supporters may say that the evolution theory is not complete but at least science doesn’t pass the buck and say “we don’t know how to explain this so will will just chalk it up to a higher being, because it’s just too complex” no science says “the theory isn’t complete but it’s the best fit and has the best explanation, until we find another one which we are always working on”
Any self respecting scientist knows, and I agree with them, that the evolution theory, along with natural selection, is the most comprehensive explanation of how life on this planet has reached its present stage, until a time comes when another theory backed by tangible evidence and repeatable experiments the evolution theory is the strongest explanation that we have.
And George Bush seems to be part of it as well probably pushing his evangelistic ideals again
Kansas Science Standards
Evolution In Court
It’s a good thing that they board that decided to teach this nonsense good voted off.
This is certainly something that I hope never happens anywhere where I live.
I know that what I have said sounds like a complete rant, but it just made me angry.
An I assure you that i’m not bible basher either, I’m one of those people who makes it to Church every week but I also base my world around scientific theories and explinations, because tangibility is the best way to prove something, not blind faith.
Random
A Comparison of Solaris, Linux, and FreeBSD Kernels
A good read if you are interested in that sort of thing.
It looks like the MI6 have opened their first website here if you interested there are also career opportunities available. I think that I might check that out when I finish.
These two articles:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/north-pole-opens-for-business-as-ice-melts
/2005/10/14/1128796706691.html and http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/10/science/10arctic.html
both represent, well what i think, the wrong way to think about a very serious situation.
There is no mention of that effect that the melting ice will effect our weather patterns and ecosystem of every thing on earth. The world economy won’t be the only things changing.
For those that don’t understand how the oceans can regulate our weather patterens and what the slightest change in water temperature can do to the global climate go and watch The Day after Tomorrow or go here and read this to understand what i’m talking about.
Toyota has created a new kind of shrub I think that this in an intrestingly bold move on their part. Lets just hope it sells.
Top Science Photos
After looking at the photo’s of the Giant Squid and the Python vs. Alligator (Clearly a draw) I also found this link to the top Photos in science.
I was particulary scared of the Cancer one.
Cancer
Giant Squid
At 9:15am local time on September 30 2004, squids as we know them changed forever.
At that moment, 900 metres down in the Stygian gloom, an eight-metre specimen lunged at the lower bait bag, succeeding only in getting itself impaled on the hook.
For the next four hours, the squid tried to get itself off the hook as the camera snapped away every 30 seconds, gaining not only unprecedented pictures but also precious information about how the squid is able to propel itself.
After a monstrous battle, the squid eventually freed itself but left behind a giant tentacle on the hook.
When the severed limb was brought up to the surface, its huge suckers were still able to grip the boat deck and any fingers that touched them.
taken from here
Completely stunning, I’ve always seen doco’s about whales and how they have injuries with suppoed giant squids, but they could never be accurately measured because the ones that washed up on shore were often supposed adosolent versions of their parents.
But what could be even more impressive is the photo’s from here (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/09/0927_050927_giant_squid.html)
As completely excited I am about this, I’m also afraid that they will now be hunted considering that they might have found a way to attract them and the scientists have found a migration path that they follow.
I just hope that they don’t fall under the being-collected(hunted)-for-scientific-purposes category.
Well time will only tell.