51. Voyager 2 probe reaches solar system boundary

Comment #100334 by The Schuermannator on December 18, 2007 at 1:59 pm

quill said:
The space shuttles may be clumsy and unreliable, but decommissioning them to be replaced by the disposable, Apollo-esque Orion capsules still feels like a step backward. In my opinion, we should be designing better shuttles, not falling back on those antiquated machines.
-------------------------------------------------

Consider that those capsules used in the Apollo program took us to the moon whereas the shuttle was designed to simply orbit. Going back to using proven technology with big rockets isn't a step backward because the Constellation program will also be taking us (humans) to Mars.

Designing a better shuttle may one day be in the works, but it's intended for an entirely different reason than the old Saturn V's. The Shuttle's purpose was to have the ability to conduct experiments in zero G AND carry heavy payloads into orbit at the same time. Not to mention provide transit to and from future space stations.

52. Functional Neuroimaging of Belief, Disbelief, and Uncertainty

Comment #97691 by The Schuermannator on December 12, 2007 at 2:18 pm

I found an even more beautiful rose here: @};--

All this talk about cleavage and boners and I'm gonna need a (_______((__________________() ~ ~ ~

53. Tropical fish can live for months out of water

Comment #88269 by The Schuermannator on November 15, 2007 at 4:33 pm

When their habitat dries up, they live on the land in logs, said Scott Taylor, a researcher at the Brevard County Environmentally Endangered Lands Program in central Florida.

Yay Brevard County baby! The world DOES know we exist! (outside of the space program)

So uhh, when do we start growing gills?

54. Malaysia firm's 'Muslim car' plan

Comment #87662 by The Schuermannator on November 12, 2007 at 6:20 pm

And I guess a car designed for atheists would mean we'd be walking where we wanted to go?


Matt

55. Evolution to be taught in SA schools

Comment #82988 by The Schuermannator on October 28, 2007 at 12:47 pm

Logicel:

It's hard to grasp the idea that anyone living in this country would think that's how the procedure is performed. I'm no medical major at all, and have very little knowledge of how an actual abortion is performed. But, at the same time as a fairly rational guy, I would never imagine abortion as a sword being pushed through my uterus.

Would it be fair to say that in this day and age anyone who'd have such a misconception of abortion would also be unfit for being a mother in the first place? Perhaps that would go along with trying to train religious teachers in SA to teach evolution. And, is it fair to say that miseducation is much worse than the lack of education?

56. Evolution to be taught in SA schools

Comment #82965 by The Schuermannator on October 28, 2007 at 11:18 am

Stupid Teacher says:

"I am disappointed about the fact that evolution attacks God's creation. It also mixes Genesis with idol worshippers of Babylon, which were never there when God created planet Earth."

Another Stupid Teacher says:

"I am disappointed about the fact that stellar evolution attacks God's creation. It also mixes Genesis with a heliocentric worldview, which is not how it was when God created planet Earth."

57. Report on Hindu god Ram withdrawn

Comment #78995 by The Schuermannator on October 15, 2007 at 6:16 pm

I just get a kick out of how some opponents claim it's simply impossible for it to be natural geological phenomenon...

...but having been built by a mythical god and an army of monkeys is a much more plausible explanation.

WOW.

58. Crisis of faith in first secular school

Comment #72869 by The Schuermannator on September 23, 2007 at 9:39 am

Spinoza -

Thank you for the clarification. I know practically no French at all. Had I been able to pick out the word "gravite" from the question myself my reasoning would conclude a word resembling gravity would better relate to revolution than rotation. Many celestial objects do not rotate and all of course exert gravity, but it takes gravity for something to be caught revolving (in orbit) around another celestial object.

59. Crisis of faith in first secular school

Comment #72860 by The Schuermannator on September 23, 2007 at 9:10 am

bluebird - Much thanks. I'm already a huge APOD enthusiast... They give us a direct link to their site on our work computers at KSC, so we can technically gaze at space pics on company time! =D

Thanks for the compliment too, as the original photograph I can claim credit for. In my short 2.5 years there I've got quite a collection of shuttle pics. Let me know if you'd be interested in seeing 'em.

~Matt

60. Crisis of faith in first secular school

Comment #72839 by The Schuermannator on September 23, 2007 at 7:10 am

Ok, I'm hijacking this post back to the stupid basic astronomy question from the show...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMFsuBlkoIQ&mode=related&search=

The question asks, "What rotates around the earth, the Moon, the Sun, Venus, or Mars?"

Now of course... the answer is the Moon. But the question itself is scientifically inaccurate. Technically, the moon does NOT rotate around the earth. It rotates around its own axis. However, it does REVOLVE around the earth. These facts I learned in 8th grade. So since we're talking about scientific literacy I just thought I'd point this out. Technically, the answer should be the earth rotates around the earth, not anything else.

Anyways, Neil deGrasse Tyson would have my back on this one. He can't stand inaccurate astronomy.

61. Scientists' Good News: Earth May Survive Sun's Demise in 5 Billion Years

Comment #70639 by The Schuermannator on September 16, 2007 at 12:20 pm

I've always imagined that a "scientific heaven" is possible if we can survive long enough to reach it. I feel that what we fear most as humans is the loss of consciousness...

Just imagine a highly "evolved" species able to encapsulate their conscience beyond something that of a machine. I like to imagine the ultimate existence as a beam of light zipping from star to star and galaxy to galaxy exploring, so long as I avoid getting nailed by a black hole!

62. Interview with Richard Dawkins and John Cornwell

Comment #68268 by The Schuermannator on September 6, 2007 at 3:10 pm

Too awesome - I hope they used "Cornwall" on purpose to mock the twit who posted last week about him.

63. Anger at Malaysia 'Jesus cartoon'

Comment #65977 by The Schuermannator on August 27, 2007 at 4:33 pm

Now, would Jesus be a Marlboro Man?


Or would he smoke... Camels???

At least I amuse myself. =)

64. Anger over 'blasphemous' balls

Comment #65966 by The Schuermannator on August 27, 2007 at 3:49 pm

Apparently, Allah is not a sports fan.

65. Hebrew Charter School Spurs Dispute in Florida

Comment #65964 by The Schuermannator on August 27, 2007 at 3:41 pm

kcjerith says "...letting the private sector take over would more than likely mean a massive improvement in test scores (and actual knowledge)..."

And what about the lower class families who can't afford to send their children to a private school? There's a reason why most kids I know that come from private schools are snippy and snotty. Their parents are rich and spoil their children to death. Remember, private sector is in it to make money. So the fate of the next generation's education would rest solely on whether or not their parents could afford sending them to private school. Furthermore, you're seriously going to make the judgment that the entire United States public education system sucks? Where's your evidence of that, dude?

66. A hole lot of nothing found by astronomers

Comment #65682 by The Schuermannator on August 25, 2007 at 2:29 pm

8. Comment #65509 by Kakashi_monkey on August 24, 2007 at 2:04 pm

That's really wierd, such a huge void! I can't imagine what could cause it. It definitely isn't a huge cluster of back holes, or there would be matter being pulled in and lots of x-rays would come from the edges of the void. It seems like one of those things we can accept as true, but can't possibly explain right now, like the beginnings of the universe with the big bang and "what came before?"



I'm not claiming to be a black hole expert, but I AM enrolling at UF in Jan as an astronomy major... I would like to argue that it's fairly possible that a huge cluster of blackholes that have existed long enough may have already pulled in all local matter. If I recall correctly, black holes' gravitational forces work relatively close range compared with other stellar bodies, otherwise wouldn't our solar system be quickly spiraling in towards the galactic core (super-massive black hole) of the Milky Way? Or perhaps we already are, and at an extremely slow rate.

Maybe the void is Heaven's septic tank, and they finally just came and emptied it for the first time since the Big Bang??

67. In Google Earth, a Service for Scanning the Heavens

Comment #65678 by The Schuermannator on August 25, 2007 at 2:06 pm

9. Comment #64920 by BAEOZ on August 22, 2007 at 11:34 am

Wow, if you look just south of the centaur there seems to be some cross structure in the stars....That proves it. God placed crux australis so that we would know he is the divine creator and jebus our saviour. Google is the way of salvation....And god must love us southerners more than you northerners...


Great comment! But just out of curiosity, how many of you guys have read Death by Black Hole? I prefer to call the Southern Cross the Southern Box. a cross in the sky kinda needs a 5th point for the two bars to intersect.

68. Our Lives, Controlled From Some Guy's Couch

Comment #63769 by The Schuermannator on August 15, 2007 at 7:18 pm

Well guys and gals...

All I can say is that if we ARE existing as a computer simulation, let's just hope it's a Mac!

w00t w00t!

69. Genetic Engineers Who Don't Just Tinker

Comment #54717 by The Schuermannator on July 8, 2007 at 5:14 pm

Kakashi_monkey said:
Wow, that's wierd. Synthetically growing cells? Bioengineering sounds like nothing compared to that. But I don't think making petrol from cells is a good idea. We need to use greener fuels such as hydrogen fuel cells and solar power to save our Earth!

I say:

While it is very true that we need to find greener fuels for mass consumption, these guys' jobs isn't to find those solutions. Likewise, you can't expect a bioengineer to help find The Unified Theory of the universe... (or multiverse for all I know) I don't feel it's very fair to retard advances in one field of study to appease another...

70. Scientists Urge a Search for Life Not as We Know It

Comment #54531 by The Schuermannator on July 7, 2007 at 4:40 pm

Morro-

You are assuming the chances of the space industry's chances of finding life elsewhere is very small. I invite you to watch a few episodes of NOVA and The Universe, and other various shows featuring astrobiology segments. You may be surprised!

71. When is a bishop like a suicide bomber?

Comment #53974 by The Schuermannator on July 4, 2007 at 2:06 pm

PaulEmecz:

Surely if our creator was omnipotent/omniscient, it would have created the speed of light a little faster. From a cosmic universal (god-like) perspective, the speed of light is incredibly slow. An omniscient god knows that humans will eventually figure out that light travels through vacuum at approx. 186,000 mi/sec, or 300,000 km/sec. Since "God" KNEW what units of measurement humans would be using during the time of its discovery, if its purpose was to amaze us, surely "God" would have used a less arbitrary number for us to define light. A "light-year" sounds so contrived. If "God" really wanted to amaze us with it's omnipotence, it'd have made light with an infinite velocity with an initial velocity of infinity.

If "God" truly made this universe for us to marvel and wonder at, then why did it force us to create all kinds of machines and equipment to register what's really out there. For example, why not create humans with eyes that can sense at least the majority of the electromagnetic spectrum? It took thousands of years of intellectual development to create the telescope, and even longer to understand the nature of light which to this day is not fully understood. It doesn't seem very fair to earlier humans who lacked the technology to experience the universe as we do now.


So Paul, if you're trying to convey your belief of a non-omniscient/omnipotent god, then I must give your beliefs some merit.

I still stand to reason that while a non-omniscient/omnipotent god is more reasonable to believe than an all powerful and all knowing god, there is still yet no more reason to believe in one over the other. Just as there is no reason to believe in the Invisible Pink Unicorn, or the Celestial Teapot (much luv, Shuggy!) or even the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

72. Giuliani To Regent University: 'The Amount Of Influence You Have Is Really, Really Terrific'

Comment #53243 by The Schuermannator on June 30, 2007 at 9:17 am

With a hungry polar bear.

73. Row over religion's role in US jails

Comment #52966 by The Schuermannator on June 28, 2007 at 7:38 pm

PaulEmecz writes:
Take this example. A scientist believes that one race makes a negative contribution to the evolution of the human species. Natural selection will take time. He decides to give nature a helping hand and attaches some genetic coding to a virus, killing off that race of people in one swift move. Could an atheist say he SHOULD NOT have done that? What possible grounds might an atheist have for such a statement?

Now clearly, an atheist can say that he or she would not have done that, or that doing so may have caused a great deal of distress, but have they any grounds for arguing that causing a great deal of distress is morally wrong?

The logical answer is no.



My response:
To say the scientist "believes" sounds quite wrong. While it is possible, it is quite improbable that any one race (genetically speaking) could be ultimately detrimental to the human species. But if it were true, the evidence would be overwhelming to confirm such a thing. Remember, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Any credibly scientist brilliant enough to make such a discovery would also be brilliant enough to understand eradicating an entire race is also not a positive contribution to our global gene pool: The scientist would probably kill himself first!

Not all atheists are created equally. There are many atheists who haven't the slightest clue on how to treat others morally. All atheists have in common is the non-belief in a god. Atheism is not a religion. I say that because it seems you really want to cluster all atheists into a bubble having their own set of moral beliefs. Another poster responded to you by stating that we are a work in progress, that we're still looking to make things better. Science shares the same goal. As an atheist I don't claim to have absolutes in regards to moral codes and ethics, but with integrity I claim that I do a pretty darn good job of treating people fairly.

The answer to your last question could possibly be no, but what is the logic you follow to reach such an abrupt conclusion? Are you concluding that in order to have moral grounds to stand on one MUST hold beliefs in the supernatural? If that is the case, you are not a logical thinker in the least.

74. Scientists Find Earliest Sign of Cultivated Crops in Americas

Comment #52956 by The Schuermannator on June 28, 2007 at 5:32 pm

Truly amazing MUST mean then that an all powerful Creator was involved.. haha, uhh.... NOT

75. Supreme Court nixes suit over faith-based plan

Comment #51934 by The Schuermannator on June 25, 2007 at 3:11 pm

I've always had this idea of a new US Civil War that'll take place in the years to come fought between scientists on one side and the religious right on the other. The more I read about issues like this article, the more I feel that it could one day be a reality.

76. Executive Actions to Promote Religion Ruled Beyond Court Scrutiny

Comment #51925 by The Schuermannator on June 25, 2007 at 2:54 pm

Reading this just made me extremely nauseous.

77. 'Purity' ring case in High Court

Comment #51418 by The Schuermannator on June 22, 2007 at 7:09 pm

It's a good thing Jesus wasn't Mexican... Can you imagine a classroom of 20-30 kids with 10-gallon hats on because it's the cornerstone symbol of expressing Christian faith!?

p.s. - This is not meant to discriminate against any ethnic culture. It's just an example!

78. In the know

Comment #50310 by The Schuermannator on June 16, 2007 at 4:07 pm

kindofblu:

I was going to respond to this topic with Ann's retort to that whiney turd from Beyond Belief however you beat me to the punch. I can honestly say I think I had a tear fall listening to her speak about the scientific endeavour and how comfortable scientists are with having so few certainties.

79. Scientists divided over alliance with religion

Comment #46062 by The Schuermannator on May 30, 2007 at 5:26 am

I just Google'd the Raelians website out of curiosity... I have to say, the website looks great, I'm convinced! *rolls eyes*

80. Study shows primitive fish had genetic wiring for limbs

Comment #45121 by The Schuermannator on May 26, 2007 at 12:44 pm

It's almost hard to believe in evolution ONLY because it is vastly more amazing than any story of Creation.