Posts Made By: jess tauber

Yeah- we need more gods- like Kali, and Moloch, and all those interesting Native American deities that appealed to 'bleeding hearts', if you will..., or Loki. The list is huge, I'd suppose.

I don't think these have disappeared completely- they've simply been demoted. Now they are angels and devils. Maybe that's why the devils rebelled. The pay wasn't great in the first place- you'd think God would have anticipated that new wonderful workplace strategem- promotion with more responsibility, but no extra pay or benefits.

Wonder what an angel's resume would look like. OTOH where else is he going to go to try to get work....

Jess Tauber

C'mon, Rod, who you gonna believe, some stoopid independent group of engineers and watchdogs, or the White House, which has been proven to be honest and transparent in all its dealings for the past 7 years?

Some say the President and his faith-based set think the end is nigh anyhow, what does it matter if they help Armageddon come to fruition- wouldn't You-Know-Who stop them if they were wrong? Don't expect the Dems to do anything.

Its gonna be real interesting to see how the Russians and the Chinese play this. Who was it that looked Putin square in the eye?

Hmmm- lets attack Teheran, then the oil gets cut off, and our oversees markets get cut off, Taiwan gets invaded. The dollar plunges (oops, that's already happening...). Americans get shot at in the streets everywhere.

But hey, King George's loyalists remain at a steady 30% or so right to the dead end- lemmings all.

Good thing I have dual citizenship. Probably getting close to when I'll have to switch documents. Good luck to the rest of you. Stay in touch....

Jess Tauber

I have one of these OTA's myself, so I'll be interested in the answers. I can't get focus with some of my ep's because of the height of the focuser. Maybe replacing it with something riding a little lower? That might be easier than moving the mirror.

Jess Tauber

Well the show ended here in NJ about a half hour ago. All told the producers acquitted themselves well, under the circumstances of the ID people largely not wanting to talk with them. They made one notable historical error with regard to saying that the science of genetics only came in with the discovery of DNA. Er, maybe I'm a little fuzzy here in the ol' noggin but if I remember modern genetics was born in the early years of the 20th century by Morgan and friends studying fruit flies, long before anyone had an inkling the role DNA played. In fact, again if I remember correctly, at the time there was some debate about whether proteins themselves were the genetic material, the argument being that with 21 different amino acids they had the combinational complexity that DNA didn't have, with only four bases.

Much to Morgan's credit, these modern researchers gave due credit to Mendel, who had died years before the true import of his discoveries was realized.

I didn't know about the hypodermic needle adaptation of the bacterial flagellum. Neat-O! Wonder what other little gizmos hail from the same underlying composition.

I can see some bright boy or girl in the future designing nanomachines based on these things. Let's see- an engine, a weapon. Sounds like the beginnings of a defense system.

The discovery of human chromosome 2's telomeric ligature was also pretty neat. Not so neat was a relatively sloppy presentation of the crossopterygian fish- some of those DID have flat heads, so the comparison could have been better.

Not mentioned, though it should have been, was more recent knowledge about how large scale restructurings of DNA, regulatory sequences/junk DNA, introns, and all that, allow for the saltations that ID'ers think can't happen. Hopeful monsters. We did know this in time for the trial, but I guess the experts figured they'd win without needlessly complicating what the judge had to absorb, a large load already.

Heck, a small handful of genes that evolved in the precambrian can actually turn the body plan inside out, or upside down, or back to front. I wonder what Michael Behe would look like with his spinal column on the outside, and his aorta in your face.

Jess Tauber

Lets talk turkey about the Medieval warming period- this was caused almost entirely by the burning of millions of cantankerous elderly women with land as witches. As soon as this practice petered out we get the Little Ice Age almost immediately.

Today we use fossil fuel- back then it was fossil babes. Burn about as good as a stack of Doritos.

Jess Tauber

Perhaps people prefer the self-designated 'fair and balanced' reporting as found on Fox News?

Given that global-warming deniers or downplayers often have other corresponding beliefs (political, economic, social), and those positions tend not to be swayable on 'balance' or 'compromise' grounds, why be so surprised when the 'other' side does the same thing, finally, out of exasperation. You see the same thing with denial of evolution- new evidence comes in, gets ignored, distorted, or denied. See no evil, hear no evil (apparently speak no evil got left out of the mix). Eventually people are going to come at you with a mallet.

At least with the artificial 'controversy' over evolution nobody is going to be severely impacted or killed (one hopes the Nazis were an aberration). But stakes are a little higher with global 'climate change'. Opinions become policy- as in the CBS documentary. When opinions trump science, the consequences will be enormous.

The deniers are confident in their righteousness- the scientists in their data and its interpretation. Clearly one side is wrong- deniers think the SCIENCE is an OPINION too. Look how they bandy about the popular notion of 'theory' as if it were identical with the scientific use of the term.

But here's the thing- the scientists get to define their own definitions, not outsiders. Deniers don't get that. But that doesn't absolve them of responsibility if they get it wrong.

What recompense are global warming deniers going to make? Their opinions trumped science in policy-making decisions. I'd say there are probably some VERY big lawsuits on the way, and perhaps a little war or two on the side.

Jess Tauber

Watch out for Jarts- arthropod-like creatures that believe that God intended only their kind to live in the universe. Their jihad against multiple realities makes the current geopolitical mess seem like 2 year olds playing in a sandbox.

Yikes!

Jess Tauber

Michael Crichton's 'Prey', with grey-goo nanotech monsters that eat you alive as they replace your tissues, intelligent tornadoes that roam the landscape. Dunno about bacteria plus tech composition, but I think at some point in the next 100 years there will be a really nasty accident involving more complex nanotech than we have now. Maybe something more like the Stargate 'replicators', but who can say.

Jess Tauber

Ya might as well get used to it- sans a miracle warming its gonna be. You might as well have some fun.

Personally I'm kinda looking forward to being able to own my own banana plantation- here in NEW JERSEY. But I might have to move inland (sob)

Daylight come and me wanna go home.....

Jess Tauber

I think this will give you an idea of how the Bush family feels about such things:

http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/ghwbush.htm

The shrub probably doesn't fall far from the tree.

Jess Tauber