Seahorses, I Love 'Em (& other Links of Interest)

[Mashmakhan]

Mashmakhan:

Non-news: Sorry, but Science Is Not a Belief System.

"In science, we accept or reject based on evidence that can be independently verified; we don't believe."

So the initial process of obtaining information is different. I'm aware that science requires an actual testing stage to reveal whether we should regard something as fact or not, but what about theories and hypotheses? Basically anything that explains something to you, whether it has been 'proven' by you or someone else, is a belief. It can be first-hand knowledge, second-hand knowledge, or hypothetical, but as long as it gives you an answer to a question, it's a belief. If someone who was devoutly religious and believed primarily what their religion told them, would you expect them to believe the existence of atoms? Or galaxies? If they can't see it or feel it in person, that 'fact' won't answer the types of questions their religion will. Should we insist upon them that, just because it makes perfect sense to us, it should make perfect sense to them?

Personally, I think what is at fault here is what we think the meaning of "belief" should be, and that we shouldn't think of it as something that is not true. But then, this is just an oppinion.

[bi]

Mashmakhan:

You've got it backwards. The initial process of formulating a hypothesis is the same; it's what you do with the hypothesis afterwards that makes the difference. Given a theory, say about the age of the universe, do you examine the hypothesis for falsifiability, and then put it through various tests to see if it's true? Or do you treat the hypothesis as cold, hard fact, with no testing whatsoever? Or do you just leave the belief as a belief?

When Kay said, "I believe in a God of some kind, in some sort of higher being. Personally I find it very comforting", he expressed an unfalsifiable, unverifiable belief, and left it at that. It's not wrong to say what he did (after all, he acknowledged that his belief was a belief, not a law), but it's certainly not scientific either.

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I am not sure what the focus of the thread is, but if it has anything to do with its (present) title, it's not trivial any more (for me).

Are you saying a 50-foot Michael Jackson robot is trivial? For shame!

No, seriously, I completely agree with you that it's a very exciting development. (And thanks for linking that article.) If it happens to get this thread moved into NotA I'm all for it! *bats eyelashes at moderators*

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He may be the worst President to date, but on the upside, none of his predecessors in the Oval Office could hope to match his gift for embarrasment comedy.

(OTOH, a sober reminder.)

[simon.clarkstone]

(OTOH, a sober reminder.)

* Sound of alignment meter going from Neutral to Chaotic. *

I get unjustifiably pissed-off when people (correctly or incorrectly) go on about how America is turning into a totalitarian state. (Not at the people who do so.)

I'm British. What the heck am I supposed to do about it? I am already planning to vote for a nice liberal party in my own country. I will find it damn hard to feel guilty if in 10 years time the USA is the new Nazi Germany and everyone says that we should have done something about it in 2007, since there was absolutely sweet Fanny Arbuckle I could have done about it.

Useful suggestions welcome. Useless suggestions can {dec-to-hex 61613}.

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I'm British. What the heck am I supposed to do about it?

Directly, there isn't much the rest of us can do, apart from voting against parties in our own countries that are looking to enable the policies undergirding the authoritarian turn in the States. However, that's not an insignificant sort of act*, and in discussing the reasons for advocating such an act, Wolf is right that the f-word should definitely be on the table in a serious way. Since the outcome of America's current political trajectory will plainly have global implications in a way that isn't true of most other countries, I'd contend that fatalism on the topic isn't an affordable luxury.

(* The extent to which the world appears to acquiesce in an administration's actions does, I would argue, influence its political fortunes on the home front.)

[bi]

ils:

Oh no, that's an extended Nazi comparison! Argh!!!!!!!!

But it'll probably be an uphill battle, given that lots of people have gone off into the Bizarro No-Fact-World and are now happily jerking off to the possibility of an apocalyptic war between the Free World and the Forces of Islamo-Fascist-Feminist-Enviro-Pinko Idiotarianism. There's even a "warporn" genre of fiction, pioneered (it seems) by Orson Scott Card.

Edit: (And it seems now that the true divide isn't between pro-life and pro-choice, or anti-gay and pro-gay, or whatever... the really important divide is between those who support each and every one of the arbitrary executive actions of Our Father Above (Bush), and those who don't. The opposite of "Idiotarianism" isn't "Conservatism" or "Libertarianism", but (for lack of a better term) "Bush-movementarianism".)

Edit #2: "The Los Angeles Times has learned that similar [PowerPoint] presentations were made by other White House staff members, including Rove, to other Cabinet agencies. During such presentations, employees said they got a not-so-subtle message about helping endangered Republicans."

Edit #3: Emanuel says, GOP's Motto Is "Ask What Your Government Can Do For Our Party".

[gsandi]

No, seriously, I completely agree with you that it's a very exciting development. (And thanks for linking that article.) If it happens to get this thread moved into NotA I'm all for it! *bats eyelashes at moderators*

And here I live next door to the team (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Mayor) who discovered the first extraterrestrial planet (as well as the one one you are writing about), and have had no contact with them.

I should join an amateur astronomy association or something like that, just so that I can have some contact with these people. There are few things as exciting as the search for earth-like (and possibly life-bearing) planets.

[Raphael]

I am not sure what the focus of the thread is, but if it has anything to do with its (present) title, it's not trivial any more (for me).

In case you don't know it yet: This thread was originally called something like "Funny and Interesting Links", but after a while, ils started to rename it from time to time after whatever link he found most interesting at the time. Since it's a collection of many different links, it doesn't really have a focus.

No, seriously, I completely agree with you that it's a very exciting development. (And thanks for linking that article.) If it happens to get this thread moved into NotA I'm all for it! *bats eyelashes at moderators*

You could simply have asked- I thought about moving it before, but then I thought that it's probably updated often enough to be save from pruning anyway.

You don't mind it if I turn your eyelash-batting over down?

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You don't mind it if I turn your eyelash-batting over down?

I don't think my eyelashes are quite full enough to pull it off, anyway...

[Risla]

Dog owners 'fleeced' in poodle scam.

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Real-life Kryptonite discovered in Serbia, not Siberia. Cripes.

Random hilarity from the inimitable Jay Pinkerton.

Bill Moyers' excellent Buying the War special, kicking off his new Journal show. A look at how the mainstream American press was compromised in the runup to the invasion of Iraq.

(BONUS LINK: Mufasa lays the smackdown. FURTHER BONUS LINK: The Elephant Eaters of the Savuti, a pride of lions in Botswana that's learned to hunt elephants.)

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bi: That Rahm Emmanuel speech is something else. Very unexpected.

[Risla]

Oy, Ils! Siberia =/= Serbia. xD

[Raphael]

I wouldn't have thought that American Football players' brains could be so interesting.

You may be interested in this attempt by the British Military to predict the near future, wich will most likely be downloaded to your computer if you use the right combination of mouse clicks.

[frumpwallow]

i dont know about you all, but this stuff really interests me:
Archaeologists are uncovering a huge prehistoric "lost country" hidden below the North Sea.

[Mael_Duin]

[]

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You may be interested in this attempt by the British Military to predict the near future, wich will most likely be downloaded to your computer if you use the right combination of mouse clicks.

Neat. I'm about a third of the way through, and there's a lot of standard globalist boilerplate (and some possible hints about what future management-culture fads might look like, cf. "Combinatronics") but also some pretty interesting speculation. Least convincing so far when they talk about what will be needed to cope with "failed states" or "failed cities," as though the British military has shown the slightest signs of knowing.

Here's a strange one: the Raelians claim to be able to restore excised clitorises.

[bi]

ils: I came across Clitoraid before, and I'll say what I said back then: nothing screams "legit" more than a dodgy testimony which says nothing about the surgical procedure's efficacy.

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nothing screams "legit" more than a dodgy testimony which says nothing about the surgical procedure's efficacy.

Exactly.

Philip Michael Thomas would like to tell you about the most incredible experience of his acting career. Then, he'd like to mack you.

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Why was the latest Calvin Klein ad campaign banned? Maybe because it looks like lost footage from a serial killer's private archives.

[bi]

Oh, I forgot to mention: the poodle scam must be the most hilarious scam ever.

[Risla]

Oh, I forgot to mention: the poodle scam must be the most hilarious scam ever.

Isn't it though?
xD

I read the article and cracked up.

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Unfortunately the sheep story is an urban legend. (Urban Japan may be a truly weird place, but not so weird that they don't know what sheep look like.)

News: China's chief censor sacked after book ban row.

[frumpwallow]

Why was the latest Calvin Klein ad campaign banned? Maybe because it looks like lost footage from a serial killer's private archives.

i feel like im an accomplice to something, having watched that. seriously creepy.