Week wasn't so bad

My last week (when I g/f was out of town) wasn't so bad. I didn't do anything wild or have nights later than 10:30pm, but I did hang out with a variety of my friends successively. On Weds, Dave came over and hung out at my place for awhile. Thurs, I had a relaxing dinner and coffee shop stop with Chi. Fri, Jenn and her friend met up with me and former co-workers of theirs at a British pub. Sat, I spent doing my laundry ALL DAY and NIGHT. Sun, Miriam cooked dinner for me and we watched Collatoral (eh). Her 5 year old daughter gave me an adorable birthday card with a picture of me and hearts, and a cutout loose bow tie. I haven't worn a bow tie since I was 8, I think. hehe Chi and I talked about a bunch of stuff over dinner on Monday.
Then, finally on Tues, my g/f was back in town. FINALLY! I missed her. :p I'll be able to see almost everyone again this weekend for my belated b/d gathering. It's shaping up to be a diverse and fun crowd!

Hunger

I guess I’m not meant to eat breakfast this morning. First, I head to a donut shop close by my home, on my way to work. They are out of milk. I really can’t eat a donut without milk, so I’m like thanks but sorry. Then I stop at a quicky-mart up the road. No donuts or milk. Alright, so I’ll just get pop tarts from the vending machine at work. Well, I get to work, go to the lunch room. The dang vendor it busy loading the vending machine, and he’s taking forever! Arg. ::hungry::

Intelligent Design

“When are people going wake up and realize that [evolution] is trash science,” said Pat Robertson today, 3/7/05.

It’s funny that fundamentalist put so much effort into trashing the Theory of Evolution. In the past, the only alternative that has been offered is the first two chapters of Genesis. Of course, the first two chapters of Genesis have two completely separate and contradictory creation myths. Fundamentalist try to pretend it’s one story, but is a sticky point that is often used to catch them in their lies (that is, taking only parts of the bible completely literally and ignoring or explaining away sections that contradict their beliefs).

So, Intelligent Design is invited. Intelligent Design attempts to prove that a creator must be the explanation for life on Earth, and its diversity, without making direct reference to the bible or a god. Intelligent Design promoters have come up with all kinds of trick formulae, mental exercises, and baseless assumptions in the effort to build up a body of support for their ideas. However, the biggest point that makes Intelligent Design nearly useless is that its promoters don’t use the scientific method to falsify hypotheses. It is not enough to say that one has evidence for a hypothesis. One must also try to find evidence that contradicts their hypothesis. Absolutely no one that is out promoting Intelligent Design has done that.

In my opinion, the people promoting Intelligent Design don’t care whether or not they are speaking truth. They are spurred on by money, taking advantage of the ignorant masses seeking a remedy to the contradiction between the bible and reality. Basically, Intelligent Design promoters are snake-oil-salesmen, pushing a do-nothing product on unsuspecting people.

In science, it is usually healthy to have opposing views battling out the facts until the truth is discovered. The 20th Century’s great example of this battle was between Big Bang Theory and Steady State Theory. Of course, the Big Bang Theory evidential won the day, but not before Steady State Theory studies had an impact on our understanding of the Universe. Steady State supporters made several important discoveries. Ultimately these discoveries ended up providing further proof for the Big Bang Theory, but without opposing views driving research, it may have taken much longer to understand our visible Universe.

Here’s my challenge to Intelligent Design promoters. Stop selling snail-oil and start taking science seriously. Only then is it possible that their contributions will play and important role in our understanding of the origin of species. Until that unlikely day, there is no practical use for Intelligent Design. Using the scientific method to study nature as it is (and not just how we want it to be) provides endless insights and benefits to everyone. The Theory of Evolution is practical science that is playing a role in making new discoveries. Intelligent Design provides no insights or benefits into anything because it ends the search for further discovery.

**Update 9/23/2013: I stand justified of my opinion according to this recent article: Discovery Institute is a con-profit scam.**

G/F outta town

Well, my g/f is out of town for a week.
___
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Opinion on handling of Koko the talking gorilla

I’ve been saying this for awhile; in my opinion Dr. Francine Patterson (a.k.a, Penny) of the Gorilla Foundation isn’t the right person to be running the talking gorilla project. She seems to have made clear lapses in judgment regarding Koko, the talking gorilla.

It seems that she is too emotionally attached to her subject. To maintain an objective study, she should either allow someone else to run the project or she should have relied on professionals to train and communicate with Koko from the beginning. What has happened instead is that it appears that she raised and keeps Koko as her own child. There is no way her “study” can be objective under that scenario.

She started the project as a grad student, long before she had any exposure to gorilla culture or how to handle them long term in a professional manner. It seems, from the foundation’s own promotional video, that her ignorance of gorillas has led her to make several mistakes and faulty assumptions, particularly in the area of mating practices. Gorilla culture and mating practices are much different from humans. Gorilla families consist of one dominant male and several females. Yet, Penny continues to pursue a mate for Koko based on human culture by providing male gorillas for Koko that simply aren’t compatible. In my opinion, her method of choosing Koko’s most recent mate equates to a 40-year-old couch potato flipping channels and picking Lindsay Lohan, and then having Lindsay delivered to his door. This suggests a greater problem, that of Penny projecting human characteristics onto Koko. Again, this appears to be caused by her closeness to the subject.

If Koko was simply a gorilla, kept as a loved and nurtured pet, there may have been no scientific issues. But Penny seems to promote Koko as if she is running a legitimate scientific study, maintaining a foundation of members who support her efforts. In my opinion, she is basically scamming these people (and any supporters) into paying and supporting for her own personal pet.

Additionally, it is possible that by being so close to Koko within this scenario, she has actually caused psychological harm to Koko. The recent lawsuits against Penny point to this possibility. Gorilla Foundation is being sued by former female employees for allegedly being forced by Penny to bare their breasts to Koko to gratify Koko’s supposed “nipple fetish”. Is it normal for either wild or captive gorillas to be fixated on human female nipples‽ More importantly, what does this say about Penny’s and Koko’s state of mind‽

Suggested Solutions

1. Penny should immediately step down from any decision making positions within the Gorilla Foundation.
2. New protocols for how to handle Koko and any future talking gorillas need to be established and enforced by an impartial board of professionals from a broad range of disciplines.
3. A serious effort to make an objective study of talking gorillas needs to be undertaken in place of the current project of the Gorilla Foundation. This means establishing a control group of non-talking gorillas. This also means establishing reasonable mating programs based on the needs of the gorillas, perhaps even maintaining separate groups of talking gorillas. Finally, this means that blind testing is required to verify claims.

I believe that under the correct circumstances, gorillas may prove to be more intelligent than even current work with Koko suggests. One benefit of the Gorilla Foundation is that we have discovered that animals (or at least great apes) have the potential for emotional attachment and reasoned thought. However, I think that the Gorilla Foundation’s current state prevents any possibility for definitive and conclusive studies on these matters, and it may be causing damage to the subject at the core of their project, polluting their results even further.

Movies this Year I wanna see (as of right now)

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith [May]
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy [April]
Batman Begins [June]
Million Dollar Baby
Kingdom of Heaven [May]
War of the Worlds [June]
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory [July]
Sin City [April]
Pink Panther [Sept]
The Aviator
A Scanner Darkly [Sept]
Fantastic Four [July]

I've recently seen Hitch. It's counts as a chick-flick, but it's actually pretty damn entertaining for us guys too. If anything, I've learned a few dance moves from the movie ::doin the q-tip:: lol