FlaSoxxJim

QUOTE(ChiSoxyGirl @ Jun 7, 2005 -> 10:01 AM) Happy Happy! You've turned the luckiest age of them all!!!! Enjoy! 69??? Happy B-day Gashwound!

Complete tangent: Last night my Sox game broadcast on Extra Innings was the Rockies FSN broadcast. In the 9th inning with the popout to Iguchi the broadcasters referred to the Shingo/Tad tandem as a 'perfect Pacific Rim Play,' But for the life of me at first I swore they said 'perfect Pacific Rim Job.' My wife thought I was nuts because it had me laughing so hard.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jun 7, 2005 -> 07:34 AM) Some friends and I are thinking of setting up a comedic style commuter blog for people who ride the South Shore train into Chicago. I wanted to show them a couple different blogs, but I only have the link to the CTA one. I seem to remember that there was a pretty excellent one for New York City, and if anyone has a link and/or a name, that would be awesome. Thanks in advance I dunno if this is what you're talking about, but Soxy and a couple others I think have posted quips from the Overheard in NY site.

Ouch!

QUOTE(JUGGERNAUT @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 11:06 PM) Maybe all of you evolutionists need to take a few courses in genetics, quantum physics, & computer science because they are ALL relative to ID. I've taken formal coursework in genetics and molecular bio, organic chemistry and biochem, and I've TA'd a couple of those in the past as well. Exactly how many honest-to-goodness evolutionary biology courses have you taken? We're going to continue to differ on urgency of quantum physics coursework as prerequisite to an understanding of biological systems, but I agree that a diverse science and technology background is always useful. Now, while admire your ability to move with such effortless fluidity between the realms of sceince, pseudoscience, and science fiction – apparently without your even being aware of it – I'm going to remain grounded in the realm of the scientifically testable. You have the top-down/bottom-up argument precisely backwards. Darwin's insights, epiphanies, eureka moments etc. led to a bottom-up formation of his hypotheses, certainly. (Now if you want to argue a place for the hand of a divine agent, confine it to bestowing those moments of crystal clarity on the Darwins and Einsteins and Rosalind Franklins of the scientific world and I couldn't muster much of an opposig argument). But the actual evolutionarry process is entirely top-down, proceeding always with the materials at hand, within the operant environments of the day to exploit those niches of existence that can be exploited, and always with some hedge-betting strategies to leverage the chances of population survival in the face of environmntal change. [As an aside, new and esteemed coleague Balta limited his well-written response to the deck-shuffling aspects of the process when addressinng probability questions. The other necesary ingredient – implicit in Balta's remarks on relative fitness, is the solidly deterministic nature of the environment as a filter, weeding out some phenotypes and allowing others to persist. In a nutshell, near infinite capacity for variation + the environmental filtters in play at any given place and time = bidiversity.] Intelligent Design, on the other hand, can't be seen as anything but a bottom-up strategy if there are any teleological elements (ie, humans as a preordained, directed outcome of a divine agent's process) in one's formulation of the concept. If your formulation of ID is limited to an ex machina version of a divine agent, who flicked the cosmic switch/shot the cosmic marble/farted the cosmic fart and then let things proceed on their own, then there is no conflict because again science can only work with the testable universe in place once the supposed divine agent has set it in motion. It's the whole idea that there is some manner of plan that comes into conflict with evolutionary thinking, and that again says nothing about the existence of a divine agent per se. Invoking an intelligent designer as an absolute necessity when faced with the diversity astoundingly organized nature of complex living systems is laziness passed off as critical thinking. The Greeks and Romans had lots of gods making the world hum along – growing their crops, driving sun-chariots across the sky, invoking the seasons with annual retreats to the netherworld, etc., and it obviated the need for looking for any real explanations for these natural phenomena. But organization can arise in an unconsciously directed manner. Not spontaneously, but through the accumulation of gradual, incremental change. The highly organized sorting of boulders, cobbles, pebbles and sand on high energy beaches is of course one of the textbook examples (albeit oversimplified compared to living systems). To see that kind of organization, you'd sure thin someone consciously directed that process. But of course, mechanical sorting through wave action (the operant environmental filter in this instance) took a randomized jumble of particle sizes and over time bestowed order upon them.

I know nothing of any of this. But if you're planning a trip to 'Nawlins, you'd better go now.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 06:15 PM) Like you haven't sang "Brandy, you're a fine girl, what a gooooooood wife you would be" at full volume. Soxy, climb right back on that pedestal with your guilty pleasure. OK, guilty secret: I do love that song. It's a nautical thing I guess.

I don't know where all the rage against secularists as being de facto anti-religion comes from. Everything in its place. For trhe umpteenth time, evolution is not out to prove/disprove the existence of a divine agent. That falls entirely outside the scope of science because it is by its nature untestable. Now, if scientists are so accomodating as to keep their noses out of religion, why the hell can't the God Squad stop pretending to be scientists?

I saw this, and it's incredibly cool. Animals that use tools kick ass. Of course, sometimes things can go too far...

I absolutely, whole-heartedly believe it. So do 99% of the biologists out there. To separate evolution by means of natural selection from the genetics side of the story as you are trying to do here is to ignore the last 80+ years of advancement of the field. It doesn't hold up when bozos like Phillip Johnson try to do it, when fundamentalist religiosos do it, or when people alarmed at our striking relatedness to the rest of organic existence (you are right on that score) try to do it. As far as the mathematics, evolution – completely blind, non-directed, and imperceptably slow – is the field of inquiry that does get it right by leveraging the numbers. 4+ billion years of almost but not quite perfect DNA replication being carried out in trillions upon trillions of little living laboratories is the ultimate in replication. And please explain how "Intelligent design has nothing to do with creationism" if the upshot of the "science" as you say is that all the perceived order of organic existence "strongly suggests a central creator"? It's just more wordgames by the creationist camp trying to get their useless flat earther foot in the door of the classrooms. Our high school students alread suck at science compared to much of the world. Don't do them any further injustice by validating creationist crap no matter how it is dressed up.

QUOTE(ChiSoxyGirl @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 05:23 PM) Confession: I really like Mariah Carey's two new songs..... What was that loud crash?!? Oh, look, it was Soxy falling off the pedestal I had put her on. Mariah Carey?? How Could You...?!?

QUOTE(JUGGERNAUT @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 04:59 PM) American's don't like bold faced liars who refuse to see or admit the truth when it's so obvious to everyone else. Then why did we put one back in the Oval Office for four more years?

It's never exactcly said that she's dying of a broken heart: MEDICAL DROID: Medically, she is completely healthy. For reasons we can't explain, we are losing her. OBI-WAN: She's dying? MEDICAL DROID: We don't know why. She has lost the will to live. We need to operate quickly if we are to save the babies. BAIL ORGANA: Babies??!! MEDICAL DROID: She's carrying twins. YODA: Save them, we must. They are our last hope. --- Damn, they should have left this scene in place: QUI -GON: (V.O.) Patience. You will have time. I did not. When I became one with the Force I made a great discovery. With my training, you will be able to merge with the Force at will. Your physical self will fade away, but you will still retain your consciousness. You will become more powerful than any Sith. YODA: Eternal consciousness. QUI-GON: (V.O.) The ability to defy oblivion can be achieved, but only for oneself. It was accomplished by a Shaman of the Whills. It is a state acquired through compassion, not greed. YODA: . . . to become one with the Force, and influence still have . . . A power greater than all, it is. QUI-GON: (V.O.) You will learn to let go of everything. No attachment, no thought of self. No physical self. YODA: A great Jedi Master, you have become, Qui-Gon Jinn. Your apprentice I gratefully become. YODA thinks about this for a minute, then BAIL ORGANA enters the room and breaks his meditation....

QUOTE(Controlled Chaos @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 11:59 AM) I never said that...but if you're gonna publish an article criticizing a country then you should let that country see the article. America, I give you "Dream On America," by Andrew Moravcsik. An excellent piece for the handful of citizens with an attention span, btw.

and... A HERRING!!! Have a good one!

Kip I agree with a lot of your sentiments, but as far as the CG I'm not going to swell on it. TThis was the direction Lucas said he was going and he did it. Last week I got to see it again but this time in a DLP theater and there is a collossal difference in how the CG comes of with a digital projection. I don't think I've ever seen a modern film look so crisp and so good. I saw Clones in both trditional and DLP theaters as well, and then the digital was actually quite jarring and i didn't like it as much. I don't know if the state of the art has advanced that much in 3 years or if we're just getting used to the look of digital in the HG/CG/plasma world we live in. On your Dooku comment, I think they got it right. Anakin IS a hell of a lot more powerful than the last time they met, and it showed in the short work he made of Tyranus. Plus he's got the rage over Dooku taking his hand the last time. Finally, the scene was essential because striking down the apprentice and taking his place at the side of the Sith Lord is about as tight a Star Wars continuity theme gets – harkening back to Jedi with the Emperor telling Luke to kill Vader and take his place, and even back to Empire with Vader suggesting the Emperor's time was past and it should be he and Luke ruling the Galaxy. Without being too heavy-handed about it, Episode 1 did a good job of formalizing this Sith rule that we had already seen glimpses of – always in two they cone..., but was this he (Darth Maul) the master or the apprentice?... etc .

Let's Go Go Go White Sox We're with you all the way You're always in there fighting and you do your best We're glad to have you out here in the Middle West We're gonna' root root root root White Sox And cheer you on to Victory When we're in the stands you'll hear those rafters ring All through the season you can hear us sing Let's Go Go Go White Sox Chicago's proud of you! White Sox! White Sox!! Go Go White Sox!!!

Give your ID card to the border guard your alias says your Captain Jean-Luc Piccard of the United Federation of Planets but he won't speak English anyway

She's got a ticket to ride, She's got a ticket to ride, She's got a ticket to ride, But she don't care.

I'm usually the one tthat derails topics, but what the heck, I'll try to gget this one bacl on track... I appreciate that the politicization of science can and does turn students off, and that vocal anti-evolutionary points of view play a part on that. But it's long past tiring to see it all couched in terms of "evolution debate." For biologists, there is no debate over the soundness of evolution as a field of inquiry, or over the validity of the evidence in support of neo-Darwinian theory. I couldn't in a thousand years fully understand how astronomers discern the presence of distant space objects by summing the gravitational shadows of other nearby objects. But if I get in the newspapers or on TV and tell everybody I don't believe in any of the science going on there, and basically saying 500 years of progress in the field is hogwash, it doesn't make it a meaningful debate. It makes me an idiot for speaking out of place about something I don't understand. Yet, non-biologists – ministers, school board busybodies, students and parents expressing their moral outrage, etc. – can voice any sort of asinine anti-evolutionary stance and amazingly it garners attention. The quote from one of the teachers in that piece that evolution is "the one unified theory that can explain everything from antibiotic resistance to pesticide resistance over time,” is a good one. It echoes the much more famous piece of writing by Theodosius Dobzhansky more than 30 years ago that "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." The American Biology Teacher article that famous Dobzhansky line comes from is well worth reading if you have never seen it. It points out that not even 40 years ago there were world leaders that were still flat earthers, deciding that Copernican views of the solar system were unscientific and even heretical, despite a few centuries of scientific findings (not to mention a human space program) indicating that little old Earth isn't the center of anything. The anti-evolution crowd, with incisive arguments like, "I didn't come from no Gawd damn monkey!" – those are the new flat earthers. Stop paying any attention to them and the "great evolution debate" will go away.

QUOTE(techgeekxp @ Jun 2, 2005 -> 07:21 PM) I trust that people won't use the internet... I hope people aren't that evil I'm Google-free so far, or else i woulda' got that friggin' Colonel Sanders question.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jun 2, 2005 -> 06:49 PM) Yes Scalia, not Souder. Thank you. Well then, what a gawddamn minute... I thought you meant he was going huntin' with this lovable pooch. Now I have to rethink things...

QUOTE(Be Good @ Jun 2, 2005 -> 06:34 PM) Jim your awesome, just used my create cd program and it worked easily. Thanks, you saved me a lot of time So, did you take pictures of your screen or did you go the easy route?

Call up each of your digital images one at a time, then take pictures of your computer screen with a regular film camera, then take the film to be developed. Simple, see? Seriously, whatever disc burning software you have should allow either drag/drop or browse folder navigation to let you place your contents on the disc to be burned.