Dave S.

As record breaking cold sweeps the U.S. this Easter weekend, plunging temperatures 20 degrees below average for early April, nary a mention of global warming can be found in the news. Talk about putting a cold damper on Friday’s release of the 2007 IPCC report on so-called global warming, the timing couldn’t have been better. Is someone trying to tell us something by making it snow in southern Texas in April just as the IPCC report is released? You can bet your bottom dollar that if the temperature in the U.S. was 20 degrees ABOVE normal we’d be hearing plenty from the global warming alarmists but they are mysteriously silent now. I can’t find a single major news source carried Read More ›

The Church of Darwin now has a new sect: The Church of Carbon Sin. Same members but scripture based on a newer, hipper, more alarming scientific hoax.

HT to Birdblog for this article from the Wall Street Journal. Increasingly, when the scientific merits are lacking, judicial fiat is called into play.

Climate of Opinion
Holman W. Jenkins Jr.
April 4, 2007; Page A14

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Thanks everyone for helping make another new record high for Uncommon Descent traffic in the month of March. The graph is a little misleading as March had 10% greater number of days than February. Daily average number of visits (which eliminates the differences in number of days per month) rose from 6430 to 6896, up 7%. April is shaping up to be far faster growth and indeed the last week of March was more active than the first weeks. I believe we can credit this to the addition of the voting icons at the bottom of each article, particularly Reddit (the last one on the right). So if you see an article you especially enjoy please vote it up by Read More ›

Molecular Mechanisms of Antibacterial Multidrug Resistance Cell Magazine 22 March 2007 Michael N. Alekshun and Stuart B. Levy Schering-Plough Research Institute, 2015 Galloping Hill Road, Kenilworth, NJ 07033, USA Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance, Department of Molecular Biology & Microbiology and Department of Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02111, USA Available online 22 March 2007 My emphasis. Treatment of infections is compromised worldwide by the emergence of bacteria that are resistant to multiple antibiotics. Although classically attributed to chromosomal mutations, resistance is most commonly associated with extrachromosomal elements acquired from other bacteria in the environment. These include different types of mobile DNA segments, such as plasmids, transposons, and integrons. However, intrinsic mechanisms not commonly specified Read More ›

Government must deal with greenhouse gases: US Supreme Court When the science isn’t convincing then have it declared true by judical fiat. This is the new modus operandi for the science establishment. First Dover and Intelligent Design now the nation and Global Warming. The judiciary is out of control and the science establishment is now a Political Action Committee that relies on government to enforce its findings when the facts won’t support their case. What a fine mess.

LOOK OVER THE DESCRIPTIONS OF THE FOLLOWING TWO HOUSES AND SEE IF YOU CAN TELL WHICH BELONGS TO AN ENVIRONMENTALIST.

HOUSE # 1:

A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not in a northern or Midwestern “snow belt,” either. It’s in the South.

HOUSE # 2:

Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every “green” feature current home construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.

For the surprising answer Read More ›

These are excerpts from the cover story of the March 26, 2007 issue of Chemical and Engineering Times dealing with the origin of life. Read the whole article at the link provided. Revolutions In Chemistry Priestley Medalist George M. Whitesides’ address The Cell and the Nature of Life. I believe that understanding the cell is ultimately a question of chemistry and that chemists are, in principle, best qualified to solve it. The cell is a bag­a bag containing smaller bags and helpfully organizing spaghetti – ­filled with a Jell-O of reacting chemicals and somehow able to replicate itself. Yes, it is important to know the individual reactions that make the cell what it is, but the bigger problem is understanding Read More ›

Someone I correspond with sent me this. It’s a good example of how the design inference has been employed for practical matters. On the subject of stacked stones in the wilderness, here is a little story that may be interesting. In my legal practice my most prominent pro bono case was to seek the first-ever posthumous Presidential pardon, for the first-ever black graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point — Lt. Henry Ossian Flipper, class of 1877. He was court-martialled in a racially-motivated prosecution in 1881 and dismissed from the Army. (Pres. Clinton issued the pardon in 1999). After leaving the Army Lt. Flipper became a special agent for the U.S. Department of Justice, as part of a Read More ›

My daughter who works at Dell sent me this. I thought it might be appreciated by all who’ve witnessed the deluge of Mac vs. PC television adverts.

Veering From Evolution Fired teacher explains his presentation By Christopher Stollar / The Bulletin Published: March 25. 2007 5:00AM PST On Wednesday, March 14, eight days into a new job teaching biology at Sisters High School, Kris Helphinstine showed a class of freshman and sophomore students pictures of naked corpses, a Nazi swastika and Charles Darwin in a PowerPoint presentation. “What do these pictures have in common?” the 27-year-old part-time teacher asked the 30 students. They listened as Helphinstine gave a roughly hourlong presentation, explaining how the Third Reich perverted evolution and eugenics to slaughter Jews and Gypsies in death camps to protect the “superior race.” Read the rest of the article at the link above. Watch the KTVZ NewsChannel Read More ›

A recent disagreement about the critical importance of gut flora to animal health led me to look for research into germ-free animals. GF animals have been available for research for about 50 years and initially they lived very short lives. The decrease in longevity was eventually traced to lack of critical enzymes in their diet. In order to remain GF their food was sterilized at high temperatures (essentially autoclaved) which caused the needed enzymes to break down. Once their dietary requirements were established an unexpected result emerged – GF animals live twice as long as controls receiving the same complete diet but not housed in sterile conditions. Germ Free Animals Germ-free animals were obtained by cesarean section and maintained in Read More ›

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