The force is strong with this one

As evidenced by my last post I've been thinking about evolution and religion recently. The question has been raised, can one reconcile religious belief with science? And I've come to the conclusion that at least I can't. If you are the strictest definition of a religious person, you hold content of your religious text to be true. What science proposes as the history of the universe, including all interactions on our own planet, is really at odds with religious texts. Can you really believe in evolution and believe in the bible or the koran or anything else at the same time? I personally can't.

I was telling lila that I don't think I believe in anything religious and that I think I'm an atheist. But then I decided that isn't really true, I believe in science. And one of the central tenants to all science is the first law of thermodynamics. Energy is conserved. Also, for something to exist it has to have some energy. Check out this debate. So one might say that energy flows throughout everything, binding everything together in one universal manner? Sound familiar? I'm not an atheist, I'm a jedi.

Creationism makes you dumb

Watching a pbs video on evolution and it is striking. As an educated science type, you loose sight of the fact there are actually a lot of people out there who don't believe in evolution. To which I say: Are you out of your mind?

I recall an old doonesbury cartoon in which a doctor tells a patient they have cancer, an ever changing evolving disease. He then asks the patient what type of treatment they want, the creationist treatment or the evolution treatment. The guy asks the difference and the doctors says well in the evolution treatment we give you drugs and chemo, the whole nine yards. In the creationist treatment we pat you on the back, give you some penicillin and send you on your way. The patient, a creationist, asks to hear more about the evolution based treatment.

Recently in a wired magazine, I read an article from the international congress on science, in which they were discussing doing away with the word "theory" and replacing it with the word "law" as its basically the same thing anyways.

A lot of misunderstanding of science derives from a lack of understanding of normal words in a science context. While ignorance is unfortunate, what's even worse are the people who do understand what the words mean and take advantage of it.

And to top it off, this idiotic debate makes us the laughing stock of the rest of world. Health care, education, and now science ed. I hate this country.

What to Eat on thanksgiving

OR


Truthfully I really don't like thanksgiving food. Turkey is ok, with barbeque sauce but everything else is not want I want to be eating. I'm always hoping that the thanksgiving dinner will fail and we'll have to go out to a Chinese Restaurant since they'll be the only ones open. I guess I'm not too american but thats just the way it is. You try eating salt free, fat free, skin free turkey and bad kugel for thanksgiving your whole life. You'd want Chinese food too.

Bowdoin from Birth

Last night, Lila and I went out to dinner with my family and some other non-family but very close family members. In total there were four bowdoin grads, and adam who we figure is going to get in (college application process is kind of like the NY Lotto, hey you never know). We ended up singing Beneath the Pines (my favorite).

Also in other news, I, who normally surf the web and play computer games got a perfect score on my writing & literacy midterm. I'm the Fred of my TC class. Except I don't play Casey at the Bat and Requiems at the same time and throw stuff at people. It'd be hard to throw stuff at myself.

Fanfare please

Happy to announce that Lila and I became engaged on sunday right before the 4pm sea lion feeding at the central park zoo



We are both very happy. We have not set a date yet, but don't worry we will.

A Public Apology

Ok. When I didn't hang out too much with our friends, no one blacked my face out of a photo. Eric, I'm sorry you couldn't come to homecoming. You're a great friend, a great scheduler, and I'm sure you'll be a great lawyer.

I tried to come up with a good republican joke but I couldn't think of one that wouldn't make what I wrote above less meaningful. This is the closest you're going to get to getting a hug.

Results are in

Despite having the opportunity to hook up with jonelle, drink lots, have a good time, and escape the stigma of being a republican, Eric Penley did not come to homecoming.



Perhaps we should all have a moment of silence in memory of his passing the dark side.

Fact: Jon is really good at changing his oil

No, its the opposite!

It'd be true if being really good at changing oil included: dripping it all over your face, loosing washers, not tightening bolts enough, losing said bolt on the highway, draining all your oil at 65mph and making your car smoke. And trashing the engine.

At least friendly tow truck drivers, tom, dave, and a cave man were all ready and willing to help.

Actually I feel bad for Jon. But nobody tell him.

Thank you for dynamite

Apparently Al Gore is the favorite for a nobel prize this year. Check it out here.

The quality of teaching

So a classmate of mine recently observed a bio lesson. During this lesson the teacher told the students that two animals of different species could not mate and reproduce. A student raised his hand and asked, what about the platypus? Doesn't it come from the reproduction of the duck and the beaver? To which the teacher replied, "Oh well, thats an exception."

I don't think I'm going to make a joke about it because although it is funny, it isn't.

Bling Bling

Get a grill or get this, the nerd's version of a grill.

Lawsuit Against Apple

So I don't know if you've heard but there as a lawsuit out there against Apple, Steve Jobs, and AT&T related to the iphone price drop. Check it out here.

This is way funnier though, It was a response I found trolling the comments from the linked article.

Originally Posted by dh87
Last week at Whole Foods, I paid $2.29/lb for apples. This week apples were only $1.69. I am suing Whole Food for $1 million dollars, which is a conservative estimate of my actual, emotional, and spiritual damage. As the eponym of the product in question, I may sue Apple as well.

Fred, do you have any take on this? Does the chick have a case? Can I sue eric penley for not coming to homecoming? I can't even describe the emotional damage.

Virtual Insanity

Today's adventure:

Got caught for copyright infringement!

Upon returning to my computer, after going to work this morning, I discovered that I could no longer get online. I had a "self assigned ip address." Thats what a computer does when the service provider revokes their IP address for some reason.

Well I went to find out the reason and it turns out that I got caught by the lawyers from HBO for downloading Entourage. This is approximately how the conversation with the head of computing went:

Me - Hi, you need to see me about copyright infringement?
Him - (looking up from playing second life) Yeah, we got contacted by some lawyers
Me - well I guess I shouldn't have been downloading things.
Him - You understand the implications?
Me - yes, I'm sorry.
Him - its ok, just don't do it again.
Me - ok, I won't.
Him - you seem pretty tech savvy, do you want a job?
Me - thanks, but no thanks. I've already got one.
Him - ok, great to meet you.
Me - thanks for helping me out.

Anyone get the irony? Offered a job b/c I was breaking the law?
To quote Jamiroquai, "its a crazy mixed up world, we're living in"

Day Trading Worse than Away Message Checking

Recently, I've started paying a lot more attention to the stock market. I mean, I want my money to be working for me, right? Well E*Trade is a lot worse than either World of Warcraft, or watching youtube, or checking away messages or any of that stuff. I mean thats your money either growing or not growing. Watching it is mezmerizing.

But I've found something even better than fooling around with your own money. Try trading on the PPX, Popular Science's virtual exchange. There you can buy "future stocks" that predict things like: "Will the FDA clear deep-brain stimulation as a treatment for clinical depression by September 30, 2008?" That's the current IPO, on a the market at $50.00/share. There are a number of other "stocks" available, probably around 100, and they all have different prices, reflective of peoples opinions on how accurate the statements are. And you get to start with $250,000 so there are plenty of options.

Another example, I own 230 shares of this: Flying Car by 2025 - Will a flying car become commercially available by 2025?


Seems like a good thing for people who are at work who'd rather be fooling around online. Avery.

How Many Days Until Homecoming?

No Reservations

So watching the Travel Channel Show, "No Reservations" recently on my ipod I learned a cool fact. Chef, Anthony Bourdain is from New Jersey. Specifically Leonia, NJ. Who else is from Leonia? Its up to you to find out.



The Leonia Volunteer Ambulance Corps. insignia

Click here for more Leonia info

Not Funny but Cute

Some may have heard. Lila and I have adopted kittens. Their names are scarlet and chowder. You might be under the impression that they are named after scarlet begonias and a classic maine soup but they aren't. They came with those names. Thats why we adopted them. And they're cute.

Triple Cheeseburger model for the five paragraph essay

The buns represent the introduction and conclusion. The three meat patties represent the three body paragraphs of the essay, while the cheese, lettuce, majo, and other toppings represent the writing flourishes like vocabulary, sentence structure, and verbiage. This model has obvious limitations. Students might think that the introduction and conclusion should be indistinguishable (since they are both buns). While they are somewhat similar, there are clear differences. Next, toppings are stacked one on another in a burger, but in a paper, vocabulary and sentence structure are part of the meat (i.e., not stacked on the meat). Finally, and perhaps too obviously, burgers are eaten while essays are read. One could say both are examples of consuming, but essays not dissolve in the stomach acid, but rather digest in the brain of the reader.

This paragraph was submitted as part of a homework assignment by a classmate of mine. He gave me permission publish it on my blog

Republican Penley: The Evidence builds

An unnamed source today reported to me that in fact the 25 page paper due wednesday (eric's excuse not to come to homecoming) is in fact a 10 page memo due friday. This raises two key points.

1. Thats not that much work and really eric has no excuse to not be at homecoming.

2. He committed perjury (he may not have known he was under oath when we were chatting but he was) when he LIED to me making his workload sound larger and more pressing. Naturally, I'm lumping him together with the other lying republicans, Cheney, Rove, Bush, whoever you want.

So in the name of all that is good, Eric, come back to the light. We don't want you to be a republican. We want you to go to homecoming.

Penley to join GOP Imminent

Its been on all our minds recently... When will Eric Penley show his true colors and admit to being a republican? The evidence for it is as follows:

He's moved to a red state and is taking classes. This map is from the 2004 presidential election. Virginia is clearly red.



Secondly, he says he's not going to homecoming. From a conversation with him earlier today:
1. "yeah, so I'd love to make it to homecoming but I don't think I can"

2. "one reason I really can't come is that I have a 25-page paper due the following week"

3. "part of what makes me pretty good at stuff is that I make responsible decisions in times like this, and don't fuck myself over at a critical time in the semester"

Finnally, when asked if he was a republican, he said no, but then told me that he was surrounded by conservative racists.

Only time will tell.