Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Science, Bitches!

I’m no scientist, but here’s what scientists say. You can either put your faith in them, or in the magic genies that were invented thousands of years ago by, let’s face it, really ignorant people.

Some of this stuff is from comedians, but frankly, I also give significantly more credence to their insights than I do the magic genies.

And some others are my own information-based opinions. 

Also more credible than the idea that "a magic genie did it."


Enjoy...

 

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Hurricane Irene and Hurricane Sandy. Storms of the like that used to occur once every hundred years or so: two years in a row. Counting Isaac and Katrina, four out of seven years. Not to mention the 3,215 record-breaking high temperatures in the US alone this past June. Or the 330 consecutive months in which global temperatures exceeded the 20th-century average. And the rampant wildfires, the magnitude and frequency of which we have never before seen. And 50% of the counties in the entire US being declared Federal Disaster Drought Areas. Last spring, Saudi Arabia reported it rained in Mecca while the temperature remained 109° - making that the hottest rain in world history. And meteorologists reported that last spring was the warmest ever recorded in US history, exceeding the previous record by so much that it was the "largest temperature departure from average of any season on record." Kentucky farmers are reporting that corn isn’t growing nearly as well in the record heat, which threatens a spike in global food prices. A third of summer Arctic sea ice is gone and due to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide the oceans are 30% more acidic, destroying fragile habitats. The 1° increase in average global temperature means the atmosphere contains more water vapor (humidity) over the oceans since warm air holds more moisture than cold air. In direct effect, the atmosphere over the oceans is now 5% wetter, causing the more devastating storms we’ve been experiencing over the past decade or so. Consequently, the atmosphere over deserts has less water, increasing drought. Goodbye, Africa and Australia. Speaking of Australia, the temperatures there are now so hot, gasoline evaporates before you can pump it and they had to add new colors to the heat index chart.

Now, apparently, this is the new, man-created, standard climate pattern.

No, climate change didn’t create the circumstances that led to Sandy’s creation: a hurricane colliding with arctic air from the north and an early winter storm from the west is not anything special. What is special is the increased magnitude of this conglomeration; that is what climate change is doing.

And scientists have determined that of all the oil, coal and gas we know we have in reserves, there are five times more than the amount we can burn before Earth’s climate is destroyed beyond repair. Prepare for bigger Sandys in the future.

What's more ignorant - people who deny our influence on climate change or people who say this is because their version of God is mad at something? Either way, both say we can't/shouldn't try to do anything about it.

Fuckheads.


NASA, NASA, NASA, NOAA


“Germany is one of the only big countries that has actually tried hard to change its energy mix; on one sunny Saturday in late May, that northern-latitude nation generated nearly half its power from solar panels within its borders. That's a small miracle – and it demonstrates that we have the technology to solve our problems. But we lack the will. So far, Germany's the exception; the rule is ever more carbon.” – Bill McKibben, Rolling Stone: Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math 7/19/12

If I put down more quotes from McKibben that I thought were important, I would just end up transcribing his entire article. Please read it.




 


This now is our future. When do you think the next big storm will come?

Please check this out. It helps to lend perspective to the magnitude...


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Still unsure about the causes or cost of climate change? Whatever your opinion, check out this high school science teacher’s marker-board chart of possibilities. I bet you can’t dismantle his theory.

The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See

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What’s that you say, religion? There’s no evidence of evolution? WRONG AGAIN! Eat science, bitches!


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So, who here believes a god spoke not a word and went straight to his work, laid a finger aside of his nose and BAM! Earth! Sky! Goats! Trees! People! Cats! Dogs! Water! Fish! Mosquitoes! Malaria! Tuberculosis! Epilepsy! Autism! Chlamydia! Polio! Then, when he was finished, sprang to his sleigh, and drove out of sight. 

Forever.

Yeah, no.

Evolution, bitches!



Does anything seem similar about the life cycle beginnings of all these creatures? Something that maybe points to a common ancestry?

"By studying ontogeny (the development of embryos), scientists can learn about the evolutionary history of organisms. Ancestral characters are often, but not always, preserved in an organism’s development. For example, both chick and human embryos go through a stage where they have slits and arches in their necks that are identical to the gill slits and gill arches of fish. This observation supports the idea that chicks and humans share a common ancestor with fish. Thus, developmental characters, along with other lines of evidence, can be used for constructing phylogenies.” – I Fucking Love Science

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Totally Biased: Kamau Talks to Neil deGrasse Tyson

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Diet soda:
- Increases the risk of kidney failure
- Is linked to a 34% higher risk of metabolic syndrome: belly fat, high cholesterol, heart disease
- Increases the chance of obesity: artificial sweeteners disrupt body's natural ability to regulate calorie intake
- Cocktails mixed with diet soda get you drunker faster: sugar-free mixers allow alcohol to enter the bloodstream quicker
- Damages your cells: contains mold inhibitors, sodium benzoate & potassium benzoate, which cause severe damage to DNA - linked to asthma, hives & other allergic reactions. Sodium & potassium benzoate were classified as skin, eye and mucous membrane irritants by the Food Commission in the UK
- Has a pH of 3.2: very acidic (same goes for regular soda) & dissolves tooth enamel - 3 or more sodas a day causes greater tooth decay, more missing teeth & more fillings
- All soft drink cans are coated with bisphenol A, an endocrine disruptor: linked to heart disease, obesity, reproductive problems

Personal, unscientific analysis: Diet soda is worse for you than regular soda. Don't drink any soda, drink coffee instead.

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Special Investigation – Evolution

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No medicine exists that can cure fucking dumb.


Rachel puts it in perspective…

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And this knob ran for office unopposed. But it’s Georgia, so what do you expect?


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EVOLUTION

 

Reptiles, known as egg-layers, form their eggs then completes its embryological development outside the body of the mother. However, some species are not following this pattern. A lizard species, yellow-bellied three-toed skink, forms the egg and keeps it inside of the body until the baby lizard almost completes its embryological development. The level of this development inside the body changes depending on altitute and temperature. As altitude gets higher and temperature gets lower, these lizards almost give birth to live babies.

This change in birth style creates some problems and solutions to these problems. The main problem is about nourishment of the embryo. The egg shell gets thinner to make breathing for the embryo possible, which reduces the amount of calcium stored in the egg shell. Since the thin shell stores less calcium, baby lizards may have some health problems. James Stewart, a biologist, explains how lizards are evolving to solve this problem: "Now we can see that the uterus secretes calcium that becomes incorporated into the embryo—it's basically the early stages of the evolution of a placenta in reptiles."

-UÇ from Evolution Facebook Page


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That yellow-bellied three-toed skink article is scientific evidence of evolution. Now, let's have "Intelligent Design" artfully explained to us.

High Stakes Intelligent Designing

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Tim Minchin
 

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And while we’re on Tim Minchin (so to speak):

Tim Minchin's Storm
  
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Neil deGrasse Tyson, bitches!

Intelligent Design is Stupid: Neil deGrasse Tyson

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If a dumbass says to you, “Evolooshin ain’t real. We din’t e-volve frum no munkeez,” then inform the dumbass that he/she is correct. If humans evolved from monkeys, monkeys would no longer exist. , We do, however, have a common ancestor.

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Science is awesomesauce on an awesome sandwich.


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And how do you like your pancakes?

 

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Approximately 1% of static that appears on your television is caused by Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation that is left over from the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago.

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From I Fucking Love Science:

Out of all mammals, mole rats are the only ones never known to develop cancer. A new study has determined how blind mole rats can do this and it's hoped that these results will help usher in new treatments.

To look at how these rodents resist cancer, Vera Gorbunova (University of Rochester, New York) and her team took cell samples and forced them to multiply beyond what normally occurs in the animal. After around 15-20 divisions cells started dying. Examination of the cells revealed they had produced a protein known as Interferon beta which killed both abnormal cells and the cells surrounding them. Researchers determined that when cells multiplied past a particular point they released this "suicidal protein." So it seems blind mole rats do develop cancerous cells, but these cells destroy themselves.

Blind mole rats are not the only mole rats to evade cancer. Three years ago it was found that the naked mole rat has a specific gene that makes cancerous cells sensitive to overcrowding - when these cells reach a high density they stop dividing. Researchers had expected to find a similar mechanism in the blind mole rat, only to discover it had evolved its own anti-cancer system.

The next step is to find out what triggers this interferon-beta release. "The cells have some way of sensing when they are overproliferating, but we still don’t know precisely how they sense that,” Gorbunova says. “This is what we need to find out next, because it could provide some clue as to how we could activate the same process in human cells.”

Photo credit: Kudinov/ Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 3.0.




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'Terminator' arm is world's most advanced prosthetic limb

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See? It's not just me that does this...

 

Translation:
I may be wrong, but don’t let anyone know. That way, I can continue to spread lies and no one will be the wiser. For it is better to live in ignorance and believe in the magic of unsubstantiated mythology than to have your own ideas shaped by knowledge of factual information developed over years of research and refinement.

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Science, Music and Art, Bitches!




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Photons are generated at the core of the Sun. That energy takes approximately 200,000 years to reach the surface. Then, eight little minutes to reach Earth. We have daytime because of energy created 200,000 years and eight minutes ago.

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Stephen Colbert Interviews Neil deGrasse Tyson at Montclair Kimberley Academy - 2010-Jan-29

(skip to 6:15 for the start of the interview)


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Solar cells extending the battery life of your devices? I'd buy that for a dollar!


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What’s the big deal if we catch more fish than they are able to reproduce?

A big fuckin' deal.




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From I fucking love science:

This is what happens when sand gets struck by lightning!

Fulgurites are natural hollow glass tubes formed in quartzose sand, silica, or soil by lightning strikes (at 3,270 °F), which instantaneously melts silica on a conductive surface and fuses grains together over a period of around one second.

Photographed by Ken Smith.

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Neil deGrasse Tyson on Finding Krypton

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She's Alive... Beautiful... Finite... Hurting... Worth Dying for.

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In America, we are equipped because our culture has given us the tools to pursue this great quest. Yet, many still choose to ignore the tools they have and instead rely on wizardry.

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“Just once in a while let us exalt the importance of ideas and information.” – Edward R. Murrow

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Minute Physics: Does the Universe Have a Purpose? feat. Neil deGrasse Tyson

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Pale Blue Dot


Pale Blue Dot from ORDER on Vimeo.

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A personal observation regarding science vs. god.

Religious people like to pull out this old chestnut when arguing the existence of a magic creature: 'If there is no god, then where did everything come from in the first place?' To quote someone in a recent discussion,

“I ask an atheist, “Sooo… before the universe was there, what was taking up all that space? How exactly did everything pop up from a tiny particle?" they turn red in the face and get all frustrated when they can't explain it.”

This is a trap. Do not fall for it. This is an attempt to shift the burden of proof onto the skeptic. If you make the claim, “There is a god,” then the burden of proof lies with you to prove it. The burden is not on me to DISprove your claim. That’s not how it works.

Imagine if that’s how education functioned. A teacher claims something, then tells the students it is up to them to disprove what the teacher said. No. Just, no.

Also, if I cannot prove something, that doesn’t mean the automatic default answer is “magic.” If I cannot prove something, it simply means I do not know. Don’t let your fear of the unknown turn you to ignorance for an answer. That is not acceptable.

Here’s something I wrote a while ago and haven’t had a place to put it. Until now:

Science: A system that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of researchable and testable explanations. Science accepts that not everything is or can be known. Conclusions can change when previously unknown information is added to the system. Science produces knowledge and technology for the betterment of society.

Religion: A system of fantasies based on the imaginations of fearful, uneducated people from many thousands of years ago when they thought the world was flat. Religion demands that one being (or several, depending which version of the fantasy is taught) is responsible for all creation. It is unchangeable - except in extreme circumstances when the fear of losing followers becomes too great to ignore. Religion objects to knowledge, producing unthinking followers for the betterment of Religion.



Good day.


"If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn't value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?" - Sam Harris

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Garden of Your Mind . PBS . Mister Rogers "Remixed"




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