Vantrúarbíó

Allir að mæta!

SpaceShipOne lands after heart-stopping ride

Smart helmet for motorcyclists

Hvað er langt í að maður eignist svona?

Nú dámar mér!

Spennandi að sjá hvernig þetta fer...

Hald lagt á tölvur og gögn í tólf húsleitum

Deilir.is

Moto-grín

"The new Kawacricket; one poodle per mile."
motoplaner
The Chain Gang Forums

Koma Gúrglebúbbs

Og sjá, undur og stórmerki hafa gerst, Gúrglebúbb birtist Birgi Postula, fyrsta sanna dýrlingi trúar vorrar.

Gluggað inn í huga Chomskys

Hér er bloggið hans:

Turning the Tide

Mikið ofboðslega nýt ég þess að lesa texta eftir þennan mann, hjá honum fer ekki einn einasti bókstafur til spillis, hnitmiðaður og afar fróður.

Athyglivert í meira lagi

Þó ég sé örlítið skeptískur á þessa mælingu á óróleika í gegnum stafræna myndbandsupptökuvél þá er ég mjög hrifinn af sjálfri hugmyndinni.

Megi þetta virka.

Device to save hospitals billions

Free the West Memphis Three

Var að horfa á Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills og Paradise Lost 2 - Revelations.

1993 í Arkansas, þrír 8 ára drengir myrtir á óhugnalegan hátt, þrír svartklæddir rokkarar, 16-19 ára, bókstaflega krossfestir fyrir það... ekki eitt ótvírætt sönnunargagn. Ekkert nema fordómar og trúarnött í gangi, kryddað með slatta af hreinni heimsku og örugglega mörg hundruð tonnum af vítaverðri fáfræði.

Útkoman: Tveir í ævilöngu fangelsi og sá þriðji bíðandi eftir sprautunni.

Þetta réttarkerfi þeirra Bandaríkjamann virkar líkt og Lotus Notes, ógeðslega hægvirkt og útkoman oft á tíðum algjör steypa. Lotus Notes hefur samt ekki orðið neinum að bana ennþá, a.m.k. ekki svo ég viti til.

Kynnið ykkur málið:
Free the West Memphis Three

Framtíðin er í boði BMW

Breakthrough achievement in the field of zero emissions:

BMW Unveils World's Fastest Hydrogen-Powered Car

Words of wisdom

"Build a man a fire and you'll keep him warm for a day. Set a man on fire and you'll keep him warm for the rest of his life."

Willy Gonnason (Bevelhead)
The Chain Gang Forums

Gunnar goes comfortable

Einhverskonar þróun?

Space-tech At The Paralympics

Hér er fatlaður íþróttamaður að segja frá því að hann hafi bætt sig um 20 cm í langstökki vegna nýjustu þróunar í gervilimum. Ég hef svosem ekkert út á þetta að setja, nema það að ég sé fyrir mér ólympíuleika fatlaðra framtíðarinnar þar sem fólkið er orðið hálfgert aukaatriði, sá vinnur sem er með nýjustu og bestu gervilimina.

Brad "The Robot" Benjamin is brought to you by Toyota!

Who knows? :)

Nálarstunga að virka, eða hvað?

Acupuncture Reduces Nausea And Vomiting, Pain After Major Breast Surgery

Ok, í fyrsta lagi þá er ekki um klassíska nálarstungu að ræða, heldur er rafskautum komið fyrir á einhverjum sérstökum nálarstungu-punkti (P6) rétt fyrir neðan úlnlið og vægum rafpúlsum skotið í gegnum húðina. Af hverju kalla þeir þetta þá ekki eitthvað annað, eins og t.d. Electro-non-puncture eða eitthvað álíka, þetta er verulega vafasöm vinnubrögð að mínu mati.

Þetta er eins og einhver væri að reyna að rannsaka áhrif heilunarnudds með því að nota klassíkst nudd á "sömu staði" og eru notaðir í heilunarnuddi... vá hvað ég er að láta þetta fara mikið í taugarnar á mér :).

Næst vil ég sjá hvort nokkru skipti HVAR þetta rafskaut er sett... mér sýnist þeir hafa gleymt að skoða það... þvílíkir kjánar. Ég hef nefnilega lúmskan grun um að það skipti engu máli hvar þessu rafskauti væri komið fyrir í kringum þennan "P6" punkt, virknin yrði eflaust sú sama og þar með væru tengslin við þessa 5000 ára gömlu kínversku misvitneskju rofin, voila. Svo er spurning hvort þeir hafi náð að greina öll lyfleysuáhrifin sem verða venjulega við svona tilraunir, sjá hér.

Best að kvóta bara Einstein til að hressa sig aðeins við...

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

Albert Einstein (1874 - 1955)

Ef þú hefur gaman af "ókeypis" hágæða fræðsluefni

Þá finnurðu það hér (MVGroup.org)

Atóm húmor

One atom says to another, "I think I lost an electron."

The second atom says, "Are you sure?"

The first atom says, "Yes, I'm positive."


Tekið af /.

Scientific American Bonanza

Jæja, freistaðist loksins til að fá mér stafræna áskrift af Scientific American, eitt ár af tímaritinu ásamt ÖLLUM tölublöðum frá janúar 1993 á tæpa 40 dollara, mér finnst það nú bara nokkuð billegt :). Það sem gerði útslagið var að í einhverri einnar stjörnu umsögn um "The Selfish Gene" (sjá hér) var talað um grein sem birtist í febrúar 2000, sem átti að hafa rennt stoðum undir það að tré lífsins væri í raun vefur (topologically speaking)... þetta reyndist vera rétt nema hvað að þetta vef-ástand átti sér náttúrulega bara stað hjá einfrumungum í örófi alda, þar sem lárétt blöndun á erfðaefni gat orðið milli mismunandi tegunda, möguleikinn á þessu hjá fjölfrumungi er fyrst núna orðinn raunverulegur, með tilkomu mannsins og hans genaleikfimi :).

Þar hafiði það.

Og þó, sjá þessa færslu.

A chicken is simply an egg's way of creating another egg

The Selfish Gene

Ég tók eftir því að þessi bók fær að meðaltali 4 1/2 stjörnu af 5 mögulegum úr 155 umsögnum, ekki slæmt :)

One small step for man, one giant setback for mankind

Heil grein, já, HEIL GREIN sem reynir að færa rök fyrir Vitrænni Hönnun (Intelligent Design) hefur nú birtst í alvöru vísindariti (Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington) í USA (hvar annarstaðar ætti þetta svosem að gerast?), ætli þeir fari ekki af stað með einhvern massífan trúaráróður á þessum miklu tímamótum... strangtrúarmenn loksins komnir með riddara á taflborðið, haltan þó. Ég hef það á tilfinningunni að þessi grein fái ekki að standa lengi áður en varðhundar Darwins koma og rífa hana í sig, verst að það mun alveg örugglega fara algjörlega fram hjá þeim strangtrúuðu.

Meira um þetta hér:
Darwinists Squelching Intelligent Design Debate

/Darri
A proud Darwinian fundamentalist :)

Að þetta skuli virkilega vera issue í nútíma pólitík?

Dean ‘finds’ Jesus, hopes it’ll help his campaign

Kerry ‘finds’ Allah, hopes it’ll help his campaign... ég get rétt ímyndað mér fjaðrafokið :)

E.T. phones home

Jæja, hvaða nýju tegund af tifstjörnu skildu þeir núna vera búnir að uppgötva :).

SETI: First Contact?

Góð vísa er aldrei of oft kveðin

CSICOP: Seeing Dead People

Fyrir svangt fólk með ofvirkt vinstra heilahvel:

Cooking for Engineers

Ofurhetjur Efahyggjunnar - 5. Richard Dawkins (1941 - )

"I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world."

"The essence of life is statistical improbability on a colossal scale."

"We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further."

"Isn't it sad to go to your grave without ever wondering why you were born? Who, with such a thought, would not spring from bed, eager to resume discovering the world and rejoicing to be part of it?"

"Personally, I rather look forward to a computer program winning the world chess championship. Humanity needs a lesson in humility."

"Today the theory of evolution is about as much open to doubt as the theory that the earth goes round the sun."

"What has 'theology' ever said that is of the smallest use to anybody? When has 'theology' ever said anything that is demonstrably true and is not obvious? What makes you think that 'theology' is a subject at all?"

"It really comes down to parsimony, economy of explanation. It is possible that your car engine is driven by psychokinetic energy, but if it looks like a petrol engine, smells like a petrol engine and performs exactly as well as a petrol engine, the sensible working hypothesis is that it is a petrol engine."

"It's been suggested that if the supernaturalists really had the powers they claim, they'd win the lottery every week. I prefer to point out that they could also win a Nobel Prize for discovering fundamental physical forces hitherto unknown to science. Either way, why are they wasting their talents doing party turns on television?"

"But it is we that choose to divide animals up into discontinuous species. On the evolutionary view of life there must have been intermediates, even though, conveniently for our naming rituals, they are usually extinct"

"We should take astrology seriously. No, I don't mean we should believe in it. I am talking about fighting it seriously instead of humouring it as a piece of harmless fun."

"Note, accordingly, how little it means to say something like "Uranus moves into Aquarius". Aquarius is a miscellaneous set of stars all at different distances from us, which have no connection with each other except that they constitute a (meaningless) pattern when seen from a certain (not particularly special) place in the galaxy (here). A constellation is not an entity at all, not the kind of thing that Uranus, or anything else, can sensibly be said to 'move into'."

"Scientific truth is too beautiful to be sacrificed for the sake of light entertainment or money. Astrology is an aesthetic affront. It cheapens astronomy, like using Beethoven for commercial jingles."

"The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry."

"We admit that we are like apes, but we seldom realise that we are apes."

"The universe is a strange and wondrous place. The truth is quite odd enough to need no help from pseudoscientific charlatans."

"Religions do make claims about the universe--the same kinds of claims that scientists make, except they're usually false."

"Who will say with confidence that sexual abuse is more permanently damaging to children than threatening them with the eternal and unquenchable fires of hell?"

Richard Dawkins (1941 - )

news@nature.com: Bush vs. Kerry on Science

Hér er að finna ágæta úttekt Nature á kosningabaráttunni í USA þessa dagana, náttúrulega með áherslu á sýn þeirra félaga á vísindum.

Takið eftir því að í svörum hans Kerrys er orðunum "John Edwards and I" troðið inn frá og með spurningu nr. 6, veit ekki með ykkur en mér finnst þetta frekar skondið :).

Smá svona til að hressa ykkur við eftir að hafa lesið svörin hans Bush...

Ofurhetjur Efahyggjunnar - 4. Thomas Paine (1737 -1809)

"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace."

"Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man"

"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right."

"From such beginnings of governments, what could be expected, but a continual system of war and extortion?"

"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church."

"Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it."

"The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason."

"The Vatican is a dagger in the heart of Italy."

"The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion."

"'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death."

"We have it in our power to begin the world over again."

"When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon."

Thomas Paine (1737 -1809)

Ofurhetjur Efahyggjunnar - 3. Stephen Jay Gould (1941 - 2002)

"We pass through this world but once."

"Facts do not 'speak for themselves', they are read in the light of theory"

"Creationist critics often charge that evolution cannot be tested, and therefore cannot be viewed as a properly scientific subject at all. This claim is rhetorical nonsense."

"When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown."

"In science, 'fact' can only mean 'confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.' I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms."

"The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos."

"Look in the mirror, and don't be tempted to equate transient domination with either intrinsic superiority or prospects for extended survival."

"Nothing is more dangerous than a dogmatic worldview - nothing more constraining, more blinding to innovation, more destructive of openness to novelty."

Stephen Jay Gould (1941 - 2002)

Ofurhetjur Efahyggjunnar - 2. Carl Sagan (1934 - 1996)

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."

"All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value."

"I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science has the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one, of being true."

"It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English -- up to fifty words used in correct context -- no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese."

"A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism."

"Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy."

"Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works."

Carl Sagan (1934 - 1996)

Ofurhetjur Efahyggjunnar - 1. Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899)

"A fact never went into partnership with a miracle. Truth scorns the assistance of wonders. A fact will fit every other fact in the universe, and that is how you can tell whether it is or is not a fact. A lie will not fit anything except another lie."

"Courage without conscience is a wild beast."

"Happiness is not a reward - it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment - it is a result."

"Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so."

"If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow strictly the teachings of the New, he would be insane."

"If I owe Smith ten dollars and God forgives me, that doesn't pay Smith."

"In the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds."

"In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous."

"It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense."

"Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science."

"The Church has always been willing to swap off treasures in heaven for cash down."

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899)

The last word in file systems - ZFS

"As the world's first 128-bit file system, ZFS offers 16 billion billion times the capacity of 32- or 64-bit systems."

"Populating 128-bit file systems would exceed the quantum limits of
earth-based storage. You couldn't fill a 128-bit storage pool without
boiling the oceans."

Svona á þetta að vera :)

Darwin vissi hvað hann söng

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.

Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882)

Jákvæðar fréttir

Hér fyrir neðan er að finna megnið af þeim jákvæðu fréttum, sem ég las núna í hádeginu. Þó að ég sé óhjákvæmilega hlutdrægur í fréttavalinu finnst mér samt merkilegt að allar þessar fréttir skulu vera á sviði vísinda... mér tókst hreinlega ekki að finna neinar jákvæðar fréttir af öðrum toga... hvað er í gangi?

Wind Power Falls Under $0.01/kwh
Study finds heart benefit to drinking
WHO Eyes Progress in Providing AIDS Drugs
Scientists develop avian flu test
Child healthcare goals unveiled
Cannabis may help combat cancer
Hibiscus 'may reduce cholesterol'
Telescope snaps distant 'planet'
Genesis data 'retrieved intact'
Micropower 'could fuel UK homes'

Berserk

Magnað Manga:

Dr. Fun

Nokkrir góðir:
Legos...
52 pickup...
Environmentally-aware...
Tuesday...
Weiners...
Oh I saw this...
We replaced...

Váááááááááááááááááááááááá

Mótorhjóla-stunt-video, 24 meg en alveg þess virði (NB. utanlandsdownload)

Til eru fræ (NonLocal remix feat. Strympa)

Kominn tími til að einhver remixaði þessa snilld!

Söfnunarárátta í sinni tærustu mynd

Gláp, anyone?

Annals of improbable research

Kentucky Fried Cruelty

Þvílík meðferð á matvælum

KFC's House of Horror, þetta video nær næstum því Tomma og Jenna í hryllingi

GOD-IN-A-BOX©

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