Sandwalk DNA Fingerprint

 


Here's the Sandwalk DNA fingerprint from web2dna.

[Hat Tip: ScienceRoll]

Not Banned in China

 


My blog is not (yet) banned in China! Test your own site at Great Firewall of China.

[Hat Tip: ScienceRoll]

Me and Steve

 
Here's a picture of me and Steve Steve in North Carolina. That Steve sure gets around. At times he seems to be in two or three places at once.

Now that I think of it, this Steve doesn't look the same as the one I met in San Francisco. You don't suppose there's two of them, do you?

Could it be that the Steve Creator has learned how to clone?

Lunar Eclipse

 
Looks like we're going to miss the total lunar eclipse because of the clouds. Oh well, they're not that rare so another will come along in a few months.

Lunar eclipses come in bunches with periods of drought in between. The last one was on October 28, 2004 so it seems like a long time has passed for those who have been waiting. The good news is that there will be two more in the next year.

When they occur, a lunar eclipse can be viewed by more than half the planet. One of the unusual things about this one is that it can be seen by people on every continent. That's just a question of timing.

Some newspaper reports are saying that lunar eclipses are "rare." I suppose it depends on your perspective. To me "rare" means once or twice in a lifetime so I wouldn't say that lunar eclipses are "rare." Total solar eclipses, on the other hand are rare for any individual place on the planet.

For more information on lunar eclipses see the Sky and Telescope website [March 3rd's Total Lunar Eclipse]. I'm including a copy of their diagram to show you how lunar eclipses work. Pay attention if you're a university student 'cause it may be on the University Exit Exam.

This What Happens to your Brain on Religion

 
See this man? His name is Nathan Bradfield. He is associated with Gateway Baptist Church in Montgomery Alabama.

That makes him an expert on evolution. He has a blog. He has posted an article called Hypocrisy of Evolution. He quotes many experts, like Ann Coulter. She is an IDiot. So is Nathan.

Kevin Beck says this is Easily the worst anti-evolution blogging any of us have seen. Maybe it is. Kevin invites you to pick a sentence, any sentence, and show why it's wrong. Not much of a challenge.


I didn't like this when it was an anti-drug commercial but it seems appropriate for what (some) religion can do to your brain.

Atheists and Agnostics

 
Here's a list of various countries with the percentage of atheists + agnostics. In most cases the total comes from the number who self-identify as people who do not believe in God. The number who feel comfortable labeling themselves as atheists is usually about 1/4 of the total.

The data is mostly from ...

Zuckerman, P. (2005) "Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns ", chapter in The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, ed. by Michael Martin, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK

Greeley, A. (2003) Religion in Europe at the End of the Second Millennium. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers

It is summarized on the Adherent Statistics website.

Australia Canada Czech Republic France Germany Israel Italy Netherlands Norway Poland Russia Saudi Arabia Spain Sweden United Kingdom United States

25% 19% 54% 48% 35% 37% 18% 43% 41% 8% 35% 0% 18% 46% 44% 4%

Norris and Inglehart (2004) Bibby (2002) Greeley (2003) Greeley (2003) Greeley (2003) Kedem (1995) Greeley (2003) Greeley (2003) Greeley (2003) Greeley (2003) Froese (2004) Zuckerman (2005) Greeley (2003) Greeley (2003) Zuckerman (2005) Encyclopedia Britannica

Sound the Alarm! Liechtenstein Invaded!

 
FOXNews reports on the invasion of Liechtenstein.

ZURICH, Switzerland — What began as a routine training exercise almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident after a company of Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighboring Liechtenstein.

According to Swiss daily Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers from the neutral country wandered more than a mile across an unmarked border into the tiny principality early Thursday before realizing their mistake and turning back.

A spokesman for the Swiss army confirmed the story, but said that there were unlikely to be any serious repercussions for the mistaken invasion.

"We've spoken to the authorities in Liechtenstein and it's not a problem," Daniel Reist told The Associated Press on Friday.

Officials in Liechtenstein also played down the incident.

Interior Ministry spokesman Markus Amman said nobody in Liechtenstein had even noticed the soldiers, who were carrying assault rifles but no ammunition. "It's not like they stormed over here with attack helicopters or something," he said.

Liechtenstein, which has about 34,000 inhabitants and is slightly smaller than Washington, D.C., does not have an army.

Read this carefully. Liechtenstein doesn't have an army. The border wasn't marked. The Swiss soldiers had assault rifles but no ammunition. Only in Europe .... that's what a lack of religion leads to.