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."
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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.
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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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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.”
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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.
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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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