Warming 'very likely' human-made

While flipping channels, I noticed that a Republic Congressman from the Denial Machine was on Larry King last night, but wasn't rebuked.

Today, the BBC says [Global] Warming 'very likely' human-made.

Python vs. Alligator

It sounds like a crazy Sci-Fi Channel B-movie. CNN has an interesting article about pythons invading the Florida Everglades. The middle of the article has the stories about pythons attacking alligators.

Interesting Articles

A few interesting articles:

• Google's unknown artist has huge following [CNN] via Slashdot


• This cabbie needs no map [Toronto Star] via Funkaoshi


• Tut's gem hints at space impact [BBC]

Running With The Bulls

Man partially paralyzed at bull festival [CNN]

Running with the bulls in Pamplona would be a crazy rush. But I don't think I'm crazy enough.

What Came First - The Chicken Or The Egg?

CNN claims that Chicken and egg debate unscrambled:

Now a team made up of a geneticist, philosopher and chicken farmer claim to have found an answer. It was the egg.

Put simply, the reason is down to the fact that genetic material does not change during an animal's life.

Therefore the first bird that evolved into what we would call a chicken, probably in prehistoric times, must have first existed as an embryo inside an egg.

This is a very compelling argument. However, I'm not sure that I can agree with it.

The Natural History Museum in London has a marvelous exhibit on Darwin and Natural Selection. (There is an online section about Evolution, but it is much briefer than the actual exhibit). In particular, it has a discussion about how new species are created. In species X, individuals will differ genetically due to the various possible combinations in genes that are possible, and these variences and combinations will expand over time due to mutations in the genes (whose utility and survivability are determined by environmental factors). Eventually, a subset Y of individuals of X, will only mate (reproduce) with other members of Y, and not the rest X, possibly due to factors such as geographic isolation. Consequently, this subset Y will (can) diverge more and more (genetically) with the rest of X as time goes by and more mutations occur. Eventually, individuals from Y will no longer mate with members from X (even if the other factors, such as the geographic isolation are removed). i.e. The members of Y now see themselves as different from the rest of X (due to their genetic differences with X that have grown over time). Hence, Y is now a distinct species from X. So for chickens to be different from the pre-chicken birds (PCB) from pre-history you need a bird to decide that it is not a PCB, but is instead a chicken. Thus, the chicken came before the egg.

If that was too confusing, try this argument: Suppose the egg came first and begot the first chicken (as suggested by the CNN article). This chicken is the first chicken. So how is she going to reproduce and make more chickens? The Mrs. Chicken needs a Mr. Chicken to make some baby chickens. But how is Mrs. Chicken going to do this if she's the first (and, likely, only) chicken? (She was created by random genetic mutations. So in all likelihood she is the only chicken). The answer is that she won't be able to reproduce! So there will be no baby chickens and, consequently, no chicken species. Hence, Mrs. Chicken will be the one and only chicken ever. She will have died off long ago in pre-history and no will have ever heard of chickens. Therefore, the egg cannot have come first. Per Sherlock Holmes, It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth., it now follows that the chicken preceeded the egg.

War and Politics

When I lived in Ottawa in 2002, I remember Parliament and the other government buildings lowering their flags to half-mast when Canadian soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. Stephen Harper, the new Prime Minister, reversed government policy to not lower the flag. Moreover, the media was been banned from covering the repatriation ceremony at CFB Trenton today.

"It is not about photo-ops and media coverage," Harper told the House of Commons.

"It is about what is in the best interests of the families."

The unprecedented shutdown of a military airfield Tuesday for the arrival of four dead soldiers has drawn fire from all sides - including some military families touched by tragedy in Afghanistan.

The father of the late Sgt. Marcel Leger said the public participation in his son's homecoming in 2002 was something he will cherish forever.

"It was a Canadian thing. It was something we wanted to show all Canadians - what the cost of their liberty is," Richard Leger said.

"It's still heartwarming to (remember) the people's faces. People were lined up on the 401, in 2002, all the way from Trenton to Toronto.

"They wanted to be there. They had to be there. I was told that often. . . and those are the things I carry with me all my life."

The father of one of the fallen soldiers being repatriated Tuesday is criticizing the government over another controversial decision - to stop lowering the flags on Parliament Hill to half mast when a soldier is killed in combat.

On April 7, Lincoln Dinning wrote a letter to Harper asking him to reconsider the flag decision. The matter took a tragically personal turn two weeks later when Dinning's son, Cpl. Matthew Dinning, was killed in the line of duty.

The grandmother of Pte. Richard Green, who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan four year ago, also wants to see flags lowered.
[Canada.com: MPs, soldiers' families criticize Tory media ban on return of dead ]

Both decisions are drawing lots of criticism. Moreover, they draw parallels to Bush.

In the United States, the Bush administration has been criticized for banning images of the arrival of flag-draped coffins containing the remains of soldiers killed in Iraq.

White House officials imposed the ban out of worry that such photographs would lower public support for the military campaign.
[CBC: Harper on defensive over media ban on return of dead soldiers]

You'd think that emulating Bush would be a bad idea, e.g. Bush's approval ratings slide to new low [CNN], The Generals Revolt [CBS], and The Worst President in History? [Rolling Stone].

Be worried, be very worried

CNN has finally noticed:

Be worried, be very worried:
The climate is crashing, and global warming is to blame

No one can say exactly what it looks like when a planet takes ill, but it probably looks a lot like Earth.

Never mind what you've heard about global warming as a slow-motion emergency that would take decades to play out. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the crisis is upon us.

From heat waves to storms to floods to fires to massive glacial melts, the global climate seems to be crashing around us

...

I wonder when Fox News will do the same.

Assorted Links

superfluous is a cool word.

Lazy Monday - A parody of the SNL Lazy Sunday (i.e. Narnia) rap video that's worth watching.

Segway creator unveils his next act - Providing electricity and clean water to villages in the Developing World. That's a cool idea.

Calculating Dogs - Apparently dogs can perform Calculus.

Netflix

CNN has an interesting article, Netflix's best customers penalized which states that Netflix uses a "throttling" scheme so that customers who rent movies at a high-frequency (e.g. 18 per month) get slower service and they are less likely to receive popular movies. This is done because each movie costs Netflix money (e.g. 78 cents in postage), but the customer pays a flat monthly rate for "unlimited" movies. As a matter of principle this sounds wrong, so I can see why people are upset. Personally, I've never had any issues with Netflix and think they are one of the best things since sliced bread.

I watched Matchstick Men last night. It's a drama starring Nicholas Cage as an obsessive-compulsive con artist who finds out that he has a teenage daughter that he's never met. It was pretty good and is the kind of movie that I like, but I also felt that the movie was a little slow to develop (especially at the start). Hence, I'll judge it at 3 stars.

Not Honest and Trustworthy

Does President Bush lie to the public or do his senior officials lie to the public behind his back?

Bush says We do not torture [1], but In an important clarification of
President George W. Bush's earlier statement, [US national security adviser
Stephen Hadley] refused to unequivocally rule out the use of torture [2] and White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan was browbeaten by the press because he was unable to explain why the White House is asking for an exemption to torture from the Senate if the US does not torture people. [3] He couldn't even answer whether or not the White House asked exemption. (Even though it is widely known. [4])

I think it's the former. Bush should just come clean and admit that they torture people and also imprison innocent people [5]. After all, the US is reversing 790 years of human rights (habeas corpus) [6] , so it's not like their prisoners can do anything. ;-) And, I'm sure, that coming clean would help lift Bush's record-low poll ratings, where a majority of Americans rate him as not honest and trustworthy [7].