Seeing God in electrons?
Posted: Thursday, June 14, 2007 4:58 PM by Will Femia
"The majority of Republicans in the United States do not believe the theory of evolution is true and do not believe that humans evolved over millions of years from less advanced forms of life." When you read through the poll it's a little more nuanced - or maybe I'm just in denial. I'm choosing to believe that some of the people who are responding that they don't believe in evolution are simply open to the possibility that God had a hand in creation and aren't buying into the whole Creationist Museum story. I've been avoiding links to the mockery of the new Creationist Museum because it has a "fish in a barrel" feeling of cruelty. Of course, some argue that the real cruelty is what's being done to children forced to learn this perspective.
Now, I don't mean to draw parallels where there aren't any but something else that's been (back) in circulation online lately is this Dr Quantum - Double Slit Experiment video in which we're told that a particle (electron) duplicates itself and acts like a wave unless it thinks we're watching it, in which case it acts like particle. If I was a creationist this would not be a winning argument for faith in science.
Speaking of arguing with science, Kilimanjaro as "poster child" - Apparently the disappearing glaciers on Kilimanjaro have an explanation other than global warming according to a report that agrees that global warming exists but has some issues with blaming it for the snow on Kilimanjaro. The blog entry makes a good point about symbols versus the causes and/or science they represent.
Speaking of the big thaw, Photos show skeleton sticking out of iceberg - "Marine scientists in Canada and abroad are puzzled by bizarre photographs that appear to show the skeleton of a large mammal jutting out of an iceberg that recently drifted past Newfoundland's east coast." I love articles that blur the line between "don't know because to know you need to do tests" and "don't know because they've never seen anything like this before so clearly it's a monster or alien, perhaps part of a colony thawing from the polar caps as we speak to eventually enslave us all."
Still, in a way, speaking of science and subjectivity, Wikigroaning is when you compare the Wikipedia coverage of a useful popular entry with the depth of coverage of a nerdy obscure entry. See the examples, you'll get it. Good with tabbed browsing for quick comparisons.
Speaking of information for and by the people, remember Mahalo.com? It's a new search engine where the results are written by humans. Through a new feature called Greenhouse you can contribute results you've written yourself. "At the Greenhouse, people like you can build search results, and if the results are really good we'll buy them from you for $10 to $15 each!"
Does this make Hillary look good or bad? I think bad. She couldn't do this without a script?
Does it tell us anything that the photographer who took one of the weeping Paris photos is also the guy who took one of the most iconic images from Vietnam?
Awesomest steampunk computer ever. See also steampunk LCD.
Speaking of technology design, is it sexist to frame "smaller and easier to use" design as being for women? I admit it never really occurred to me but this guy makes a good argument.
Download MySpace songs as mp3s.
The point of Trulia Hindsight is to see how communities grow or just change over time. Some are a little more obvious than others. In some cases I find that zooming out is more interesting.
Here's a pretty powerful message that fits well with the missing watch video or that one from a while back with the card trick.
Here's one to use as a slide in your blogs versus mainstream media journalism slide show presentation: Confederate Yankee gathers enough information to refute a newspaper report of Iran involving itself in fighting in Iraq.
Flight of the Conchords premieres on June 17 on HBO but you can watch the first episode on their site for free now.
"It is no secret that the U.S. military has used the ocean as trashcan for munitions in the past."
You have one day left to bid on Bob Barker's microphone.
Attention, Web Surfers: The Following Film Trailer May Be Racy or Graphic - We look at a lot of movie trailers on this blog so it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. The article includes examples. To watch the Red-tag trailer of SuperBad it rejected my use of the name Your Mama but accepted Joe Smith even though the other info was the same (and also false).
The I am Legend trailer (green)
The Wall Street Journal has a series of interesting graphs of presidential popularity (There's a "public" in the URL so I think you don't need a password for this.)
The top 100 hotties according to lesbians instead of "lads" and their mags. Obviously The L Word is very influential. The biggest difference is either the inclusion of more older women or the fact that I recognize more of the women on this list than I do on something like Maxim's list. There's a new pin-up industry of hottie girls who aren't famous for anything other than their beauty or are famous for stuff like reality shows. Lad mag readers know those girls but I don't and apparently neither do lesbians.
A lie detection test I never heard of before: "Can the suspect tell his story backwards? If not, he's lying."
"What's the bigger threat: illegal aliens, or invasive species?"
I've been to the Crestock stock photography site before to see the Today's Best/Worst Image blog but a few times recently I've seen links to their annual photo contest. The first round was "the meaning of life" the second round was sexiness and the third one, still being judged is speed.
For whatever else you might think of this photo of Bush it does appear to be further proof that his watch wasn't stolen.
You may recall the Patriot Guard Riders rallying at military funerals to block out the activities of the Westboro Baptist Church hate cult. Now I see another group called the American Freedom Riders rallying on behalf of anti-illegal-immigration activists. I know bikers have always done charity rides and stuff like that, but this is starting to feel more political. Since I've got two examples, I officially declare a trend.
Speaking of two equaling a trend, check out the similarity of Everyscape to the Photosynth demo we looked at last week. I'm not sure this gets its own trend name though. I'm inclined to think it's part of "geoweb."
A guy sets up his car to run on vegetable oil but ends up getting dinged by the government for nonpayment of "motor fuel taxes." It sounds mostly like a case of the law not keeping up with the times but it does make me think about how much money the government makes from gas taxes.
Award winning home design requires no heating, cooling equipment - No mention of whether he'll get stuck having to pay a "housing fuel tax."
Rome reborn - Computer generated images of Rome as it was based on Rome as it is.
The Power of Yes: A Simple Way to Get More Out of Life - This is a pretty long blog entry on self improvement but I was impressed with myself for guessing what the headline was about so I'm adding it to today's links. I participated in some improv comedy in college and the main lesson I still remember to this day is "yes, and." When another actor presents you with a line, if you say, "No," you take all the energy and momentum away. But if you say, "Yes, and..." you carry the energy and you get to move it along. The interpretation in this blog entry is more like positive vs. negative thinking but if you're interesting in self-help this blogger's found a novel approach for inspiration.
When I tended bar long ago we had a mountain of a man as the weekend bouncer. We also had the tiniest pipsqueak of a girl as the hostess. Their difference was exacerbated by the fact that he wasn't very pretty and she was. I used to joke that a visitor from another planet wouldn't guess they were of the same species. Anyway, I was reminded of that when I saw the pictures of the Spice Girl with her trainer.
Massive list of tips on things to do with bored kids. Also interesting to see the auto-link feature. I've never seen that before.
The ten best things about Total Recall (the movie) - I absolutely love this movie and didn't realize anyone else did. I don't disagree with these necessarily, but the part where the guy unscrews his hand and unfolds that crazy mutant hand should be on there. Number 6 needs to mention the line that is the reason I never say "two weeks" clearly (or once). Number 10 needs to mention the "Get you ahss to Mahrs" line.
The Online Education Database is a collection of links to educational materials, lectures, classes and seminars. Because it's a collection of links there's no telling when you may hit a dead link and there's no consistency in what media players are used but still, this is a real treasure trove. Talk about alternatives to summer TV!
"Michael [Moore] wants YouTube members to share your Healthcare Horror Stories and tell us about an experience you had with your healthcare insurance company."
