1. Hitchens' flat world

Comment #41404 by pastafarian82 on May 16, 2007 at 5:00 am

Philip1978

"Ever since De Souza wrote that disgusting article about the Virginia College attacks I really don't see how he can criticise Hitchens in any way, shape or form"

That was a different De Souza. Dinesh De Souza wrote that article about VTech, not Raymond De Souza.

2. Interview with Christopher Hitchens

Comment #38499 by pastafarian82 on May 8, 2007 at 11:39 am

Carnitine-

Hitchens here says exactly what he's always said. He was, and is still for the Iraq war. He did and still does think it was/is a good idea, and he vocally supports the war and it's goals. He is firmly, in his own words, with the Bush administration. He is not the "pro-safety" type of person you speak of, he honestly believes in the Iraq war, despite anything that has happened since his inception. This stance has, oddly, earned him many friends in the Neo-Conservative crowd.

3. U.N. Draft Cites Humans in Recent Climate Shifts

Comment #29879 by pastafarian82 on April 5, 2007 at 9:56 am

Comment #29876 by Seti on April 5, 2007 at 9:46 am

(9.43 am on 23rd October 4023BCE, I think?)


They claim it was pm, not am actually.

But anyway, Global Warming is actually a useful analogy for the paradigm of Fundamentalist religions denying scientific concensus. No one is going to be affected by this report, those who say Global Warming is comming will scream louder(Which means what, a new slide show?) and those who deny it will discount it as usual. Global Warming, despite being supported internationally by the majority of scientists, is a "Controversy." "The jury is still out," they say when the actual jury has deliberated, delivered the verdict and run for the hills because they realize that a shit storm's a commin. This is yet another sad, sad example of the anti-science culture that has developed when it is inconvient to dogmatic belief.

4. Dawkins says religion is 'like sucking a dummy'

Comment #28462 by pastafarian82 on March 29, 2007 at 9:13 am

Quite impressive. Break down:

Before: 44% for, 36% against, 19.5% don't know

After: 57% for, 37% against, 4.8% don't know

Well done Richard et al.

5. How Many Scientists?

Comment #28122 by pastafarian82 on March 28, 2007 at 4:54 am

Ah, finally a Friedman article that is not a raging contradiction of scientific observance and fact. Not to take anything away from Friedman for this, good on him. I suppose even a blind man can hit the target if he shoots enough bullets.

6. Germany Cites Koran in Rejecting Divorce

Comment #27132 by pastafarian82 on March 23, 2007 at 8:43 am

Comment #27108 by Deimos on March 23, 2007 at 6:57 am

"If the Qur'an is made into law, then there will be child marriages between old men and 6 year girls i.e. pre-Grund Schule maidchen. They will have sex when she is 9 years old. This is what Muhammad did, the Muslims say Muhammad is their role model. This is the law adopted in the Islamic Republic of Iran."

Good FSM is this actually practiced? I know religion has made people do some odd things over the years, but that's the most horrible thing I've heard since....well ever. I've got to research this, even religion can't be this sadistic. Do you have a cite for me to read up on it? If this is true I'll be open to reconsidering my stance against toppeling the regime in Iran.

7. Does God answer prayer? ASU research says 'yes'

Comment #26045 by pastafarian82 on March 16, 2007 at 8:10 am

TedWak

Firstly, I question that this article even deserves the word "Study" because there was no real evidence gathered. This "study" was a compilation of other experiments, thats it. It doesn't take into account numerous factors, and it's methadology ("meta-analysis") is extremely questionable. Read through the comments, people have posted that there is a question whether such a method even makes sense to use, much less use poorly as this "study" seems to. He doesn't allow for the fact that studies that show no corrilation between prayer and healing (i.e. zero, 0) and those that show some small percentage of a positive result (.1, .01, .34 whatever) when added together and "meta-analyzed" are most assuredly going to average out to a net positive. In effect his results are worthless, because he doesn't analyze the studies themselves, only does a little numbers work. Read through his "study", it's google-able. It's not even bad science, it's just non-science, or even better non-sense!

To quote one study, such as the Benson study, no matter how well vested it is, is not science either, but that doesn't mean that everyone here is not spot-on in questioning the conclusions and methods of this "study." The truth is, these "results" should be thrown out based merely on the fact that there is nothing even remotely redeemable in his methods, nor i might add, any analysis that uses "meta-analysis" that is not vested and one that considers the veracity of the information and conclusions included.

8. Cold is hot in evolution -- Researchers debunk belief species evolve faster in tropics

Comment #26025 by pastafarian82 on March 16, 2007 at 6:55 am

Riley

"I wonder what happens in an ecosystem where the climate is tropical but the number of organisms occupying it has become saturated. It seems to me that you'd have both the opportunity for a large range of species possibilities (because of the climate) combined with intense competition. That should produce the greatest rate of speciation, right?"

You've got to take into account that the majority of tropical climates are either geographically limited (islands) or are climatelogically desolate (the sahara comes to mind). The majority of island and other tropical climates have a limited natural food supply, so one could argue that these fragile ecosystems are or are almost organistically saturated. Many of the species in these locations are predators, thus helping to keep the vegetarian species in check, so as to not cause a food shortage and ecological havoc. One would expect a tenous static relationship to develop in such an envoirnment, not a dynamic one we see with more extreme climates such as our (i'm in North America) temperate zones. That was way too quick and dirty, and it overlooks alot, but the long and short is that no, i don't think i see (though nothing is impossible with evolution) much chance of a tropical ecosystem producing greater ammounts of speciation than they already have.

9. Cold is hot in evolution -- Researchers debunk belief species evolve faster in tropics

Comment #26011 by pastafarian82 on March 16, 2007 at 4:58 am

Comment #26009 by DavidMcC on March 16, 2007 at 4:51 am

"I don't see that a region containing more species than another should be taken as anything more than an indication of that region containing more terrain-related ecological niches than the other, mainly through plants"

But this is the beauty of science. A hypothesis was advanced for an observed phenomena and was tested. The opposite proved true, so the hypothesis is abandoned and we are all better for the experience. Yet again the Scientific Method and reasonable discourse triumphs over ignorance.

10. Interview with Steven Pinker

Comment #26008 by pastafarian82 on March 16, 2007 at 4:50 am

As always, Colbert's satiric lambasting of non reasoning 24hour news culture is spot on. He gives me hope for my country yet, and at the same time depresses the living hell out of me.

Haven't heard from Prof. Pinker in a while, good to hear what he's up to.

11. Does God answer prayer? ASU research says 'yes'

Comment #25861 by pastafarian82 on March 15, 2007 at 1:40 pm

Forgive me for my ignorance...but what did he even really do? He took 17 studies done by other people, added em together and took an average? How in the world does this to lead empirical results? Granted your numbers are higher, but one would expect percentages to be higher in flawed studies. He's a Social Worker for Bob's sake! He's not even a Scientist!

12. The Certainty Bias

Comment #23242 by pastafarian82 on February 27, 2007 at 5:29 am

Tom Day:

Here's a Link for a good Philosophical analysis and breakdown of Swinburne's "Probability Calculus," such that it is. Prepare to be underwhelmed...

http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=1329

He flat out assumes that God is as likely as not to appear in the flesh (1/2 or .5 probabilty).