Can Math Prove God Doesn't Exist?

From Suburban Messiah:

There is pretty convincing mathematical evidence that God isn't all-knowing. Does this affect God's existence or shake the faith of believers?

Giant Magnetic Ropes Discovered Connecting Earth to the Sun

This is just like it sounds. In studying substorms that cause varying durations of the aurora borealis (the Northern Lights), a team of scientists discovered evidence of "giant magnetic ropes linking the Earth's atmosphere to the Sun and channeling solar energy to create the spectacular northern and southern lights shows."

Situated approximately 40,000 miles above the earth, these "ropes," which are described to be intertwined much like a hemp rope, comprise a width the size of the earth itself.

I don't pretend to know how to conceptualize this, or what it means as a discovery. My main response to the news was "neato." However, this article does a much better job of explaining the scientific side of this phenomenon. Let us know what you think, or what this might mean. I'm just laying it out there.

To boot, here's some more info on the aurora.

Is Ethanol a Viable Alternative Fuel?

In June of 2006, the answer would have been a resounding yes; ethanol was selling for as much as $5 a gallon at that time. Now, we're not so sure. Ethanol is highly subsidized, offerring oil refineries alone over 50 cents per gallon when mixed with gasoline. But serious environmental concerns have arisen, including fears of air pollution caused by producing ethanol, along with speculation that ethanol production is contributing to the rising cost of food.

Fuel Cells, anyone?

"The Choking Game" and other disturbing images

As I was watching "Football Night in America" on NBC last night, a commercial for tomorrow’s Today Show came on (side note: I've always loved the "Tomorrow, on Today" commercials; the unintended wordplay just cracks me up).

Anyhow, the top story planned to cover “The Choking Game,” a way in which young kids are asphyxiating each other in order to get high. My first instinct was to dismiss it after I got hosed by Jenkem, the not-real drug made from sewage gas. However, it turns out that The Choking Game is not a hoax, as this original report from Today in August 2005 reports, and to top that off, as this Q&A from ABC News around the same time shows, this practice is relatively horrifying.

In short, many children have died or been seriously injured from choking each other in order to get a quick high, which seems preposterous to me — I mean, whatever happened to whippits? There are plenty of good ol' fashioned inhalants around the house (markers, glue, etc.) that kids can get their hands on; why are they resorting to hurting each other?


Though the articles above are very quick to quell the idea that this is in any way sexual — similar to the way adults asphyxiate each other during sex — Freud might disagree. I'm not saying this is the case, but it might show early signs of masochism.

However, I'm not a psychoanalyst, no matter how much I may want to be, and my chosen path is simply to identify things as they are. In this context, my question is:

Should we be encouraging our kids to smoke pot and drink?

Of course not, but at the same time, demonizing these much, much safer drugs very well could be leading to people resorting to this kind of activity. Though this may or may not be true, I think The Choking Game simply proves that trying to get high is a natural human inclination (please agree or disagree at will). Would it be better, no matter what our kids are doing, just to teach them responsibility with regards to getting high? Clearly, having a sip of whiskey with their friends out back of the house is nowhere near so dangerous as momentarily killing themselves.

On that note, Happy Post-Holiday Monday!!

Robo-Roaches

The New York Times is reporting that tiny robots-masquerading-as-cockroaches (achieved by covering the robots with roach sex hormones) were able to lead real cockroaches to act against their instincts. From the article:

"They set up a cockroach arena one yard in diameter. Two six-inch-wide plastic discs were suspended over it, providing the dark shelters that cockroaches prefer to congregate in. But one disc was darker and a more likely cockroach hangout.

When 16 cockroaches were placed in the arena, they naturally gravitated toward the darker disc, following what the researchers believe is an internal calculation of the amount of light and the number of other roaches, finding comfort in company."

When the researchers placed the robo-roaches into the arena, they were able to lead the real roaches to congregate under the lighter shelter a majority of the time. The researchers hope to apply their findings to higher order animals, and also learn how swarms of robots might be able to be more efficient decision-makers.

An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything - UPDATE

Following up on this story from last week, Chris Lee at Ars Technica has read A. Garrett Lisi's paper, and he's not buying.

According to Lee, Lisi has a problem with units at the very beginning of the paper; it seems possible that this unit problem may prevent the proper prediction of Lisi's expected particles. Even if the unit problem is solvable, the calculations required to determine the characteristics of the expected particles will be "extraordinarily difficult."

And Lee's not the only one. A post on AT's forum cites the virtues of the Standard Model, and explains the dangers of attempting to go beyond it.

These commenters also mention a few other things, including their displeasure with the way this paper was released to the general public rather than kept within the scientific community, and discomfort with the language chosen by Lisi in describing his conclusions. Further peer review is certainly coming, but at the moment, the outlook is not bright.

God makes it rain, has a little chuckle

In response to Sonny Perdue's call to pray for rain, God sent some precipitous storms toward the Southeast, providing up to an inch in some places.

As Yahoo! News reports, though, some of these storms were quite severe, damaging property and injuring several in Tennessee. Looks like God's having a little ironic moment to himself, but in the long run, we can use all the rain we can get.

An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything

The physics world is on its ear this week, following the news that a PhD. physicist who is outside the academic establishment has published a simple, elegant Unified Theory of Everything.

Of course, many great discoveries have come from scientists outside the establishment. In the words of Pete Venkman: "Einstein did his best work as a patent clerk." The Unified Theory of Everything was Einstein's dream; it was what he worked towards until his death in 1955.

The paper is available as a PDF here, and I can't claim to understand what he wrote. But after reading what people have said about it, here's what I've got so far: Lisi used a geometric mathematical pattern made up of 248 interconnected points, called E8, to map out the relation between all 228 known particles and 20 predicted particles. Work is underway to determine the predicted characteristics of the 20 predicted new particles. The Large Hadron Collider may be able to test for these particles as soon as it comes online next year.

If this thing holds up, it could be the biggest discovery in particle physics since Relativity; a Unified Theory of Everything based on 1 dimension of time and 3 dimensions of space could fundamentally alter the way that we understand the Universe, much as relativity changed the way we understand gravity.

Does having sex at a younger age contribute to delinquency?

According to a new University of Virginia study, results are actually to the contrary.

Under the pretense that having sex at a young age led to subversive behavior, "abstinence education" made its way into our schools, providing yet another reason why ignoring issues probably doesn't make them better. For example, I wonder if in these original studies finding that teen sex did lead to "negative" actions took into account the fact that some of these children (who were not taught about safe sex but only not to have it) had kids of their own, and then to clothe and feed them, had to resort to illegal or "delinquent" activities to do so.

I can't say for sure, but all I know is that this Washington Post article refers to "all other things being equal" in the original studies. Personally, I'm not sure all other things can be equal, because many factors contribute to a person's behavior. Responsible young adults can engage in responsible sex, but it would probably help if they were taught to do so.

The new UVA study focused on identical twins, who, for all other practical purposes, would have "all other things equal." In the end, these results are not terribly conclusive either; however, that doesn't preclude the fact that we should teach our children about safe sex instead of avoiding the situation all together.

The Seemingly Never-Ending Battle Between Science and Creationism

Following major political and legal defeats (see here, here, and here) around the country, creationism (i.e., intelligent design) is making a small comeback (doesn't it always). Salon has an article on the new approach of the intelligent design crowd. From the article:

"We want to teach more about evolution," says Discovery Institute's Casey Luskin, "not less." The "more" they want to teach, of course, is what they see as evolution's shortcomings, leaving an ecological niche that will then be filled by intelligent design."

I find it interesting that the intelligent design movement continues to adapt as the political and legal systems shut down each attempt to teach it in lieu (or alongside) of actual science. Its almost as if they are practicing a science of their own. Well, except that they refuse to acknowledge the work of others that has produced overwhelming evidence against their claims.

Cyclone Sidr heads into Bay of Bengal

Apparently one of the most destructive places on Earth for a cyclone (better known as a hurricane to us Western Hemisphere-ites) to develop is in the Bay of Bengal, located on the east side of India and to the south of Bangladesh. In past years, phenomenal death tolls have risen from massively devastating storms. Fortunately, cyclones that form in the Bay usually do not gain enough steam to cause much land damage, so storms like the Bhola Cyclone (linked above) are relatively infrequent.

Unfortunately, Cyclone Sidr already has formed out in the ocean and is barreling at Category 3 or 4 strength toward the coast. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if this comes to fruition, be prepared to hear of another disheartening international tragedy, this one not caused by religious dissention or political disarray.


POSTSCRIPT: I don't mean to lighten this grim news inappropriately, but I do have a question: The subhead to the site on which I found this post refers to itself as "the consumer's guide to the green revolution." Does that seem counterintuitive to anyone else?

Does praying for rain equal an admission of incompetency?

Yesterday, Greg posted a story about a city in Tennessee that has completely run out of water, and in that piece, made brief mention of Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue's call to pray for rain.

Granted, I think the people who find comfort in prayer should pray for rain; however, the American Humanist Association, like many others I'm sure, justifiably is pretty irritated by this request.

From the article: "Humanists see Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue's call for a rain prayer to be a divisive distraction from the work of government." I think this is pretty cut and dry. While I would agree the water situation has gotten to the point that an act of God will be the only way it can be mediated, is a mandate for prayer an admission of the capitol's failure as a governmental entity?

My argument with this situation is not regarding the prayer itself. Clearly, we're fucked as far as our water supply goes, regardless of its causes (massive drought, poor government planning, lack of individual conservation, the list goes on). I also understand that prayer is an important part of life for many Georgians, and I won't go so far as the bitter humanists and say it doesn't work; the fact is that I don't know if it works or not, so why not try?

Yet, the message implied from this action is that God created this disaster and only He can get us out of it, which from a governmental (and individual) standpoint misdirects responsibility from our own negligence.

Today's Agriculture Story: Giant Balls of Frozen Flies to Save North Carolina Produce

Seriously.

The problem: Mexican Fruit Flies have been found in produce in North Carolina. This destructive pest can destroy massive amounts of crops; they lay eggs in various types of fruit, which is eaten by the larvae and causes the fruit to rot.

The solution: Breed millions of male fruit flies, and sterilize them with radiation. Then freeze the flies, to put the to sleep. Take a huge ball of froze, sterile flies and drop them from an airplane into agricultural land. Since fruit flies only mate once, and mating with sterile male flies means that no offspring are produced, this is an extraordinarily effective way to limit the damage of these pests.

Science is awesome.

Lots of News and nothing to say

Along many different lines, here are a few links to chew on for the next couple hours:

- Australian Rules Football may be coming to a city near you. Where its global marketing might succeed where the NFL's has not.

- Is the U.S. behind on developing its technology for this series of tubes we call the internets?

- Atlanta Airport steps into the water conservation effort. Though I hate saying "better late than never," because this should have happened long ago, it's better late than never.

- Slate's take on the deplorable state of Sports Illustrated. Lots of thought-provoking insight into current sports media.

The Water Issue: Still an Issue

The weather here is absolutely gorgeous. I enjoy it a little cold, so this morning when I strapped on my socks, shoes, sweatshirt and stocking hat to walk to school, I was invigorated. On top of that there's nothing to fear, because the high will be in the mid-60s.

This trend looks to carry forth for the next 10 days, at least, which will be gloriously pleasant, but hopefully not so pleasant that we forget about the issue at hand: even when it's not hot, a drought is just as devastating.

Here's an article from last week denoting the myriad problems on the horizon pending we actually run out of water. It’s nice that we had some rain last week, but, we have to remember that this is a recurring and consistent problem, which will not go away even if we have consistent rain through the winter. I’m not sure if I’ve had the chance to go off on the city of Atlanta and state of Georgia's "planning," but I will again: it’s pretty damn ridiculous that a city with no zoning restrictions at all and relatively nice (read: warm) weather didn’t see 4 million people coming, especially after the first 2 million moved in.

Really, though, what happens when actually run out of water? Easy! We pump water from other states?

That seems a dubious solution. Not only will that create more strain on other water supplies, effectively dispersing the problem instead of solving it, as this article discusses, we're not the only one's feeling the heat from this.

I’m not usually a fatalist, but I’m pretty sure we’re fucked. And I can’t say that I’m holier than thou; I’m having plenty of trouble remembering to conserve water due to my usual habits. Though I never thought myself specifically wasteful, I now notice EVERY time I leave water running, which is more often than I'd like.

In that way, we’re certainly responsible, and though we’ve been raised to feel like we should trust our government officials to inform us when something goes awry — in this case, like completely running out of water — I can't use that as an excuse. Yeah, I’m pissed — I wish someone would have mentioned it, because even if I personally had been conserving water my entire life, the rest of society functions in the manner above, trusting its government. (and I do think we should be able to)

Maybe this is the inevitable decline of America-at-large’s honeymoon phase with capitalism. When other people don’t have money or resources, it’s difficult to notice when you do. No matter how much money you have, you’ll notice when there’s no water.

Although, when those people notice they don’t have water, they’ll just take their money somewhere else, and Atlanta, for one, will have blown all that money it spent on development in the past few years, basically spiraling it into economic demise.

This reminds me of that Futurama episode, when (from Wikipedia): “Atlanta moved offshore [to the Atlantic Ocean] in an effort to boost tourism and become a bigger Delta hub. The city overdeveloped and its excess weight caused it to sink to the bottom. Everyone that stayed with the city evolved into merpeople, with the assistance of leaking caffeine from Atlanta's Coca-Cola plant.”

Hey, at least we’d have water, then.

Slate is its own ombudsman

In my Slate Extravaganza last week, I posted an article written by an economist regarding "what Al Gore doesn't understand about climate change."

This week, Slate's Joseph Romm explains, in response to Steven Landsburg's article on Gore, what economists neglect when discussing this issue. (and probably many others as well)

I'm not sure where I fall on either of these positions, maybe to the left, right, somewhere in the middle, or at some random outlying point (probably the latter). However, I do respect Slate for publishing articles counterintuitive to what they previously have posted. This is nothing new for them, but just another reason they have some of the best reading on the web.

Philosophy and Science meet for a cup of tea

So, a bunch of scholars across various fields of science and philosophy weighed in on their thoughts about the purpose of existence. I know this isn't so exciting to everyone as it is to me; however, if you have some time, flipping through a couple of these is wildly intriguing.

Will Exercise Really Make You Thinner?

New York Magazine asks that question and delves into the muddled world of exercise science. From the article:

"The dietary guidelines of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for instance, now recommend that we engage in up to 60 minutes daily of “moderate to vigorous intensity” physical activity just to maintain weight—that is, keep us from fattening further. Considering the ubiquity of the message, the hold it has on our lives, and the elegant simplicity of the notion—burn calories, lose weight—wouldn’t it be nice to believe it were true? The catch is that science suggests it’s not, and so the answer to all of the above quiz questions is “no.”"

I am always amazed at how little we actually know about the human body and how it works. As the article discusses, we have been taught for our entire lives that people get fat because they are lazy and eat too much, but the science behind these claims is apparently murky.

Update: So. Cal. wildfire situation

To spread some good news, the Southern California wildfires are under some measure of control. I know the authorities are trying to be optimistic, but I hope saying that "the worst is behind us" is not jumping ahead of themselves, especially since this is the first relief that's been shown.

However, if asshole arsonists continue to contribute to the situation, then this may go on much longer than expected.

In the end, though, if God is punishing the Californians for their sinful ways, then who knows what will happen. But, since that's not the case, The Pasty Quail sends its best wishes in hopes that this disaster will be mitigated and alleviated quickly.

POSTSCRIPT: While we're in a HowStuffWorks mood (in an effort to break my dependence on Wikipedia), here's their article on wildfires.

HEBBARD POST-POSTSCRIPT: Fox News is reporting that Al Qaeda is behind the wildfires. No, seriously. Raw Story has a confusing article about.

Naked Sleepwalkers: The Silent Killer

Yes, that's right. Travelodge alone has recorded (why do they record these things?) at least 400 cases of naked sleepwalking in the past year (in 310 hotels!), and now are training employees on how to handle the situations.


It seems that, at least from the examples the article gives, the sleepwalkers are mostly harmless. But the trend is still pretty intriguing. I mean, I know it's 310 different places, but more than one a day is a lot. I didn't know so many people had sleepwalking issues. Learn something every day.

HowStuffWorks weighs in here on sleepwalking and other sleep disorders if you're interested.