Monday, June 16, 2008 . 6/16/2008
HOLY SHIT.I'm one of the five people who won the Set Ben Straight contest!!! I completely didn't expect that as so many of those looked better than mine!
AAAAA I'M SO HAPPY!
This is the email:
Dear Ms. -name-,
Congratulations! You were among the five entrants to the Set Ben Straight contest to be randomly selected to receive a year's subscription to Reports of the NCSE and a book from NCSE's shelves. The five books that we have the most copies of at the moment are:
Mark Isaak's The Counter-Creationism Handbook
Eugenie C. Scott's Evolution vs. Creationism
The AAAS's The Evolution Dialogues: Science, Christianity, and the Quest for Understanding
David Quammen's The Reluctant Mr. Darwin
Edward Humes's Monkey Girl
Let me know which of those sounds most appealing, and I'll send it along. (If by chance you have all of them, or don't want any of those, let me know, and I'll see what else we have on the shelf.) And thanks again for entering. We're quite pleased with the effect of, and the response to, the Expelled Exposed website, and we value your contribution -- even if it took us a while to post it and to select our winners!
Congratulations! You were among the five entrants to the Set Ben Straight contest to be randomly selected to receive a year's subscription to Reports of the NCSE and a book from NCSE's shelves. The five books that we have the most copies of at the moment are:
Mark Isaak's The Counter-Creationism Handbook
Eugenie C. Scott's Evolution vs. Creationism
The AAAS's The Evolution Dialogues: Science, Christianity, and the Quest for Understanding
David Quammen's The Reluctant Mr. Darwin
Edward Humes's Monkey Girl
Let me know which of those sounds most appealing, and I'll send it along. (If by chance you have all of them, or don't want any of those, let me know, and I'll see what else we have on the shelf.) And thanks again for entering. We're quite pleased with the effect of, and the response to, the Expelled Exposed website, and we value your contribution -- even if it took us a while to post it and to select our winners!
I chose Mark Isaak's The Counter-Creationism Handbook although I wish I could have all of them!
edit: Aww, three of the other winners chose that book and they don't have anymore. Oh well, I can just order it on Amazon. But my second choice would've been Edward Humes's Monkey Girl so that's what I picked now. 2 Comments - Post/view comments
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 . 4/29/2008
I entered the Set Ben Straight contest sometime last week (it ended yesterday), not expecting my refutation to even get published. But it did, albeit not the whole thing. This is the full version to a claim I chose for anyone who's interested:The first thing I thought of when I read this was your science teacher calling out "Stein... Stein..."
Because really, Ben, if you would have attended your science classes more often you would've known better and wouldn't have gotten expelled! So let's review:
Abiogenisis tries to explain where life originated. Evolution doesn't even try to answer where life came from or where physics came from, as these are completely different fields!
Elementary, my dear Stein!
All evolution does is provide an explanation as to how life on earth came to be so various, and the fact that you don't understand how the cell got so complex, or how it can repair itself, doesn't make evolution any less valid. Do some research, man! If you don't know something, make it a goal to find out!
And if it was simply a matter of freedom of speech, I or anyone else could waltz into medical school, say that witchcraft is a valid alternative, and demand it be taught that way. But it isn't like that, and in fact, the very grounds of medicine relies on biology which in turn relies on evolution! Isn't that amazing?
So get your tush back in class, because learning is fun, damnit, and assuming a divine being did everything is the lazy way out and I know you can do better than this!
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Because really, Ben, if you would have attended your science classes more often you would've known better and wouldn't have gotten expelled! So let's review:
Abiogenisis tries to explain where life originated. Evolution doesn't even try to answer where life came from or where physics came from, as these are completely different fields!
Elementary, my dear Stein!
All evolution does is provide an explanation as to how life on earth came to be so various, and the fact that you don't understand how the cell got so complex, or how it can repair itself, doesn't make evolution any less valid. Do some research, man! If you don't know something, make it a goal to find out!
And if it was simply a matter of freedom of speech, I or anyone else could waltz into medical school, say that witchcraft is a valid alternative, and demand it be taught that way. But it isn't like that, and in fact, the very grounds of medicine relies on biology which in turn relies on evolution! Isn't that amazing?
So get your tush back in class, because learning is fun, damnit, and assuming a divine being did everything is the lazy way out and I know you can do better than this!
Sunday, April 13, 2008 . 4/13/2008
This is scary. If you can get through the whole article without getting really, really pissed off, I applaud you. The whole thing is like a train-wreck.Religion does not belong in public schools. AT ALL. School is not a place to push your pathetic little agenda, that is what church is for. Actually, I'm going to go as far as to say religion doesn't belong in any school whatsoever. Children do not know any better, and by the time they reach college they won't learn much if it's religious in nature. It won't prepare you for anything except a career in fucking up everything.
Labels: Denialism, Evolution, Religion, Stupid
0 Comments - Post/view commentsTuesday, February 19, 2008 . 2/19/2008
I don't usually report personal stuff about me but.. this is pretty big. I have this sort of "second ankle" on both my feet, like a bony bump just below my ankles. When I went to get a physical the nurse said it could be an enlargement of a bone there but she didn't know for sure. So since my parents work at a hospital I'm going to be going with them to work next Tuesday to get it checked out, and if possible I'd like to have them removed. The thought of surgery though is scary.. I'd have to use crutches or be in a wheelchair and be crippled for a couple weeks or months or something.Yeah I'm a freak.
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Huge Frog Was Eating Machine
With an armored head and a mammoth 16-inch body, it wasn't quite the frog prince. Scientists have discovered the remains of what might have been the largest and fattest frog ever to have lived on Earth.
A team of researchers unearthed the fossilized frog in Madagascar. Dating from about 65 million to 70 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period, the frog is 3.5 inches longer than the largest living frog, the goliath frog of West Africa.
The scientists named the creature Beelzebufo ampinga, or "devil frog," because its incredible size, frightening appearance and predatory nature made them call it "the frog from hell," said Stony Brook University paleontologist David Krause, who led the team that discovered it.
Fierce predators
"They are just these big round blobs, basically all mouth and stomach," Krause told LiveScience. "They were sit-and-wait, ambush predators."
They didn't have very long legs, so they probably didn't hop around much. It was more likely they would let prey come to them. The scientists think they feasted on smaller frogs, lizards and mice.
"When you consider its size, I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that it could have consumed some hatchling dinosaurs," Krause said. The largest living frog on Madagascar today, at just over 4 inches long, "would have been a nice hors d'oeuvre for Beelzebufo."
The discovery will be reported on-line this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Read more..
With an armored head and a mammoth 16-inch body, it wasn't quite the frog prince. Scientists have discovered the remains of what might have been the largest and fattest frog ever to have lived on Earth.
A team of researchers unearthed the fossilized frog in Madagascar. Dating from about 65 million to 70 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period, the frog is 3.5 inches longer than the largest living frog, the goliath frog of West Africa.
The scientists named the creature Beelzebufo ampinga, or "devil frog," because its incredible size, frightening appearance and predatory nature made them call it "the frog from hell," said Stony Brook University paleontologist David Krause, who led the team that discovered it.
Fierce predators
"They are just these big round blobs, basically all mouth and stomach," Krause told LiveScience. "They were sit-and-wait, ambush predators."
They didn't have very long legs, so they probably didn't hop around much. It was more likely they would let prey come to them. The scientists think they feasted on smaller frogs, lizards and mice.
"When you consider its size, I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that it could have consumed some hatchling dinosaurs," Krause said. The largest living frog on Madagascar today, at just over 4 inches long, "would have been a nice hors d'oeuvre for Beelzebufo."
The discovery will be reported on-line this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Read more..
I love biology. From the giant crocodiles of the past to Tiktaalik, it never fails to be interesting to me.
Labels: Biology, Evolution, News, Personal
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