kairosfocus

. . . here (at 194) in his amazing engineering thread as he responds to Dionisio: >>Dionisio: Thank you for summarizing that interesting discussion. I will summarize it even more. 1) Nobody knows how morphogenesis is controlled and guided. 2) Moran is no exception to that. 3) “Experts” are no exception to that. 4) However, according to Moran (and, unfortunately, he is probably quite right): “experts do not see a need to encode body plans and brain in our genome” 5) You and I, and probably some more sensible people, do see that need. 6) So, it seems, the problem is not about what we know, but about what we see as a need. Now, I notice that Moran says: Read More ›

. . . on just what it is that we are killing in the womb: >>“Why are you giving me robotic responses? I’m asking you a human question, and I hope you’ll favor me with a human answer?” That was Tucker Carlson on his primetime Fox News show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” interviewing Planned Parenthood Executive Vice President Dawn Laguens Monday night. Carlson was looking for the answer to a simple question – the most basic, yet profound, question of the entire abortion debate: What exactly is the little “something” with a beating heart, residing in a mother’s womb, that is destroyed during an abortion? Is it a human being, a clump of tissue or something else? . . . . Read More ›

. . . (of the concept, functionally specific, complex organisation and associated information, FSCO/I) Sometimes, a longstanding objector here at UD — such as RVB8 — inadvertently reveals just how weak the objections to the design inference are by persistently clinging to long since cogently answered objections. This phenomenon of ideology triumphing over evident reality is worth highlighting as a headlined post illustrating darwinist rhetorical stratagems and habits. Here is RVB8 in a comment in the current Steve Fuller thread: RVB8, 36: >> for ID or Creationism, I can get the information direct from the creators of the terminology. Dembski for Specified Complexity, Kairos for his invention of FSCO/I, and Behe for Irreducible Complexity.>> For a long time, he and Read More ›

. . . being a peaceful witness (on the 44th annual occasion) against the ongoing global holocaust of the unborn; which has to date credibly mounted up to 800+ millions in 40+ years, and — per Guttmacher-UN numbers — is mounting up at one million more per WEEK: And, ever, I hear the grim words once written upon a wall by a ghostly hand in the presence of a wicked king: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN. For, a wicked and perverse generation is being weighed in the balances and found severely wanting. Let us save ourselves from a wicked, perverse generation and let us stand in peaceful witness, calling to repentance and reformation. Notice, the questions and the evasive responses, where Read More ›

One of the ugliest agit prop, street theatre tactics now being commonly used is the accusation: fascist, in effect, outlaw beyond the pale of civil protection. It is therefore appropriate to pause and seek clarification on what fascism really is about. But first, let us draw attention to a disturbing historical parallel to what we saw on the streets of Berkeley only a few days past; headlining a comment in the still live agit-prop thread: Let’s roll the tape: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thQ-npCxGMQ So, we would be well advised to take pause then ask some pointed questions as to who is showing real fascist tendencies through their pattern of actions. I think we would all be well advised to cool down the temperature Read More ›

. . . being, an example of an actual, genuine grassroots-based movement of conscience and reformation in a civilisation giving itself over to ruinous marches of folly driven by toxic agit prop. (It also follows up from the recent post on the three marches, here; and the updated live streaming of the march, here.) Thanks are due to one of the UD family, who I will call X, as given the cyber stalking and on the ground stalking and fringe of dangerous creeps who lurk in the shadows surrounding UD, that is a regrettable necessity. Let me add, a video contrast of two marches just one week apart: X, you know yourself, and heartfelt thanks go to you for giving Read More ›

. . . and similar manipulative spin and mob-ocracy games masquerading as truth, news, knowledge/education, etc now clearly needs to be confronted — if we are to think straight and act soundly in good time to avoid going over the cliff as a civilisation: The Parable of Plato’s Cave (and the linked idea of the Overton Window): vid: . . . has much to teach us in a media-dominated age where manipulators keep trying to push/pull our window of acceptability through deceit, poison, accusation, polarising and more. Especially if we ask ourselves: how does the shadow show come to be, and how is a community so manipulated that it loses contact with objective reality? Acts 27 gives us a picture Read More ›

Video: Again, food for thought on intersections of science, cosmology, philosophy, the idea of God and Theology. END

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Sspt5Bdmug Let us watch and ponder. END

Today is the 44th annual March for Life, which is being live-streamed in several locations. Let us host it here, for UD (following up from a discussion of three marches in Washington DC, here)  . . . this stream will go “live” later this morning. I note due to heightened security concerns, Airport type screening will be used for those seeking to march — the contrast with the last two marches in the same city is telling: [UPDATE — post-march video, this is an historic event] MRC two minute summary showing the crowds, civility and messages that are not in the major media: ADDED, HT BA77: The flow of the march — US VP Mike Pence’s speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvJPqxdEPkI EWTN full Read More ›

The Inauguration of Mr Trump as US President has led to a telling contrast of three marches: The media have given splash coverage to the second march, and had to at least report on the first. Tellingly, predictably, the third — an annual march in defense of life — will receive little coverage, and that will be overwhelmingly hostile. (Notice this street level video of the second march — and no I am not endorsing Mr Jones et al or agreeing with much of what he says. But, his interaction documents the mindset of the marchers all too tellingly. Forgive the coarse slang reference in the video’s title, it is a measure of where our civilisation has reached — yes, Read More ›

In the when it comes thread, an exchange has developed with GD, and I think it helpful to headline an argument at comment 49: __________ >>I [KF] found an elementary introduction to statistical entropy very helpful, from the Russian authors Yavorsky and Pinski, in their Physics, vol I [1974]: as we consider a simple model of diffusion, let us think of ten white and ten black balls in two rows in a container. [Inserted image, red used for convenience, rather than white:] There is of course but one way in which there are ten whites in the top row; the balls of any one colour being for our purposes identical. But on shuffling, there are 63,504 ways to arrange five Read More ›

. . . that is, the design inference vs. the broader scientific investigation of a world of life and cosmos that are infused with complex, functionally specific information and complex, functional organisation? In the Turing test thread, just now, I raised this issue in responding to GP and SA . . . and I think this is worth headlining: ______________________ >>Perhaps, it is time to look at ID in a micro sense and a macro/general sense — a fashion that is now 100+ years old in the sciences, with Relativity as the leader (as is proper and fitting). The micro theory of ID is focussed on the design inference and its empirical/analytical warrant. This is the core, when can we Read More ›

Our Physicist and Computer Scientist from Russia — and each element of that balance is very relevant — is back, with more.  MOAR, in fact. This time, he tackles the “terror-fitted depths” of thermodynamics and biosemiotics. (NB: Those needing a backgrounder may find an old UD post here and a more recent one here, helpful.) More rich food for thought for the science-hungry masses, red hot off the press: _________________ >>On the Second Law of Thermodynamics in the context of the origin of life Rudolf Clausius (1822-1888) This note was motivated by my discussions with Russian interlocutors. One of UD readers here has asked me to produce a summary of those discussions, which I am happy to do now. I Read More ›

A few days back, I headlined a clip from Crick’s letter to his son Michael, March 19, 1953: The main text is accessible here (with page scans). Sans diagrams: >>My Dear Michael, Jim Watson and I have probably made a most important discovery. We have built a model for the structure of des-oxy-ribose-nucleic-acid (read it carefully) called D.N.A. for short. You may remember that the genes of the chromosomes — which carry the hereditary factors — are made up of protein and D.N.A. Our structure is very beautiful. D.N.A. can be thought of roughly as a very long chain with flat bits sticking out. The flat bits are called the “bases”. […] Now we have two of these chains winding Read More ›