Well its not often I come out with more news in a week. Some of you may have noticed that the James Randi links I have in my last news piece have been blocked. This is due to the account being suspended by Youtube. Now I'm not going to jump on any bandwagons, however, I am puzzled on why Youtube has done this. A certain part of me thinks that this could be a mistake of youtube, being overzealous in its usage of DMCA's. However, if you wish to complain about the issue, please go to this link:
Fossil Fly found with hook attached. Adnan Oktar vindicated.
The paleontological world was in shock today as a rare fossil fly was found to have a hook sticking out of its behind. The fossil, found preserved in amber, confirms the hypothesis made by Muslim creationist, Harun Yayha, also known as Adnan Oktar.
Adun Oktar was noted for producing a spectacular book called “The Atlas of Creation”, which stated that species have never changed and instead went extinct. This idea was ridiculed throughout the scientific community, especially as the book contained photographs of what appeared to be fish lures for fly fishing. However, this new find has confounded palaeo-entomologists across the globe.
“This is extraordinary! It turns everything on its head” says Dr Bee-keeper of the Unseen University “All this time we’ve jokingly dismissed Harun Yayha for the apparently fake photographs he had and yet we find this! The text books have to be re-written.”
Evolutionists were also throwing up their hands with dismay as well.The evidence of the fly disproves the Evolutionary notion of there being “no rabbits in the Cambrian”, i.e., species are found at distinct periods of time with no modern species being found where they should not be. With the fossil Caddis Fly being found outside its period of history, this pours doubt on this notion.
Well another week has been and gone and so far I must thank the people that have visited the blog. It is gratifying to know people are enjoying the articles. As a result, I have decided to post two articles a week, instead of the one. Hopefully this should keep people entertained.
This week I posted an article on homeopathy. If anyone is interested, there is a great video of James Randi, a magician and sceptic who shows how illogical Homeopathy is (see links). This inspired the use of the Homeopathy article and combining it with the DHMO spoof shows how ignorant people are of chemistry. Thank you to Gavin Schofield, a close friend of mine, who showed me James Randi’s humorous and enlightening video.
The second article deals with the amusing tale of Adnan Oktar who stole photographs from a fly fishing website. For more details see the references.
As this is the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth along with the 150th anniversary of Origins of Species, the past few months has resulted in some great programmes on Evolution. During this week I have downloaded 4 programmes from the BBC iPlayer about Darwin and Evolution. The 3rd instalments of Jimmy Doherty and Andrew Marr, “What Darwin didn’t know” and “Our World: Darwin’s footsteps”.
So far, during this year, I have seen this amazing response in promoting understanding of evolution. I would love to have recorded properly, Jimmy Doherty’s three programmes as they would be ideal for school teaching. The programmes make me realise how truly amazing this world is, with how things behave as they do, explained by a scientist who never gave up asking questions, wanting to know more and inspiring millions in their work. In a way this makes me pity those who do not accept this scientific knowledge as it might damage their belief in their deity. For those creationists that do not push this agenda, trying to censor this theory, I sincerely beg you to please read some books on Evolution. For Christians, I recommend the work of Kenneth Miller, a Roman Catholic Evolutionary Biologist who has written many books on the subject. I would say that I have read the Bible, I have understood it and I think there are some lessons to be taken away from it. But please, do me a favour and just learn where Darwin was coming from and why. I don’t ask you to accept it, just to understand it.
For those that do push the issue, such as Creation Scientists from Answers in Genesis and the Discovery Institute, I will continue to ridicule and attempt to humiliate you in this blog. Every claim you make against Evolution I will attempt to satirise for your lies, deceit and censorship. Figures such as Ken Ham, VenomFangX and Adnan Oktar are clearly criminals who are so scared of people thinking independently that they have to try and bribe, scare, lie, blackmail them in every unethical way to get what they want.
To be honest, religion isn’t the problem here. Its moronic fundamentalist stupidity.
NB I have just checked James Randi's youtube account and found that the account has been suspended. I will update as I find more information about it, but currently its a big mystery.....
http://www.richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=613864#p613864- One of the posters from this site actually wrote a letter to the person who Adnan Oktar stole the photographs from. May need to be registered on the site.
Saturday, 28 March 2009
Journal of Imaginary Sciences Vol 4 (2009),
Homeopathy banned as high levels of dangerous chemicals found in drugs.
The homeopathic drug industry collapsed today as high levels of a dangerous drug were detected in their products.
A recent review of the preparation processes found that the industry regularly used this dangerous chemical to dilute their medicines. The homeopathic industry expressed their shock when they learned of the dangerous properties of the chemical, dihydrogen monoxide.
“We had no idea about the dangerous properties of this chemical” said the spokesman for Homeopaths Against Regular Medicine (HARM). “We believed it was completely safe and we were shocked to find out that we were using it to dilute the medicine not once or twice, but at least 20 times. As a result, we’re ruined, the regular practitioners of medicine have won….”
Dihydrogen Monoxide is known to be extremely deadly indeed. Scientists have already noted its presence in acid rain and the contribution it makes to global warming. In a solid form, it is known to cause severe burns and induce radical changes in the landscape. It is a corrosive substance, causing the accelerated oxidisation of many metals too. Besides this, it has been found to cause electrical faults and decreased efficiency in car brakes. It is also noted that only 2 inches of the chemical is required to kill a person.
Dihydrogen Monoxide has been noted for being a dangerous chemical for at least 20 years. In 1994, the webpage www.dhmo.org was created to attempt to inform the public on the dangers of this chemical.
Due to the dependence of the homeopathic industry on this chemical it has led to the industry being warned that it must withdraw the products with the chemical. As this has involved all of their products, this has resulted in the collapse of their industry. As the homeopathic industry grinds to a halt, it looks like regular medicine is now the only regular product in pharmacies.
Hello and welcome to the News section. In this particular bit of the blog, I discuss the weekly news in relation to its value on science and the pseudo-sciences as well as discussing briefly the satire I’ve wrote for the week.
As this is the first week, I have included the two original pieces which prompted me to start this blog. The first piece is the Endothermic Candle, which was based upon an experiment I did on my Chemistry Enhancement Course. It illustrates how experiments can be manipulated by pseudo-scientists to create their own results, whilst the Petition delves into the money making aspects of pseudo-science and plagiarises a comment Bill Hicks once made on the Republicans, noting that as they were voted out of office in America, “along died half my fucking act”. I sincerely believe that the only use for pseudo science in this world is simply to keep the exceptional comedians such as Bill Hicks, in business. The fact that the pseudo-sciences make so much money due to the gullibility of people (another topic which will be highlighted next week), is something that truly sickens me as Creation Scientists, astrologers and homeopaths (to name but a few) play upon our fears and hopes for their own monetary gains.
Moving onto the news, I watched Andrew Marr’s second episode of “Darwin’s Dangerous Idea” and the more light-hearted, “Jimmy Doherty in Darwin’s Garden” this week. Andrew Marr was indeed intelligent and articulate, highlighting the abuses of Darwin’s theory as well as the modern political ramifications for it, however, I felt uneasy at the lack of distance between the theory proposed by Darwin and the sinister proposals made by the Social Darwinists. A quick perusal of literature on the internet about Hitler reveals an entry on the “Hitler was a Creationist” note by SkepticWiki. We can see clearly from this that the Nazis, whilst following a corrupted version of Herbert Spencer’s famous meme, were not following what Darwin had stated. Marr’s commentary hardly dwelled upon this and I feel that Creationists and Intelligent Design followers may take aspects of this programme to form strawmen attacks on Evolution. However, this could be myself worrying over a point which was not on the agenda of the programme makers, who seemed to be more concerned highlighting the political ramifications than evaluating the flaws within the political thinking. However, when it came to the modern political discussions, Marr did an excellent job of relating Evolution to pressing issues such as Dr Lan’s proposal concerning intelligence (which was dismissed by the scientist present in the programme). However, the whole programme still leaves me uneasy, wondering whether Andrew Marr is supporting the scientific theory or against it or simply trying to give a “balanced viewpoint”.
When it comes to Jimmy Doherty’s programme, I was eagerly awaiting his recreations of Darwin’s experiments. Doherty, whilst presenting as intellectual a figure as Marr, certainly provided a great simple programme on the experiments of Darwin. Last week I truly enjoyed the programme, wishing I had some way to record it onto DVD in order to save the programme for teaching science as the experiments would have been great to carry out with kids in a science club. I particularly enjoyed the emphasis on scientific method, often an overlooked part in science education and one I hope becomes more dominant as science teaching progresses. I particularly agree with James Trefil (Trefil, J. 1996) that scientific literacy is needed more than the minutiae. Ordinary people won’t remember the minutiae and it does not assist them particularly in their lives. However, learning how scientists do things in the way they do is a vital part of understanding science and may help dismiss the pseudo-sciences.
After watching Doherty in the second programme I was not disappointed. The programme sticks to science and provides a ground level which is perfect for teachers when teaching Evolution in schools. The experiments are possible to achieve in Science clubs and there is even one that fails to work, which is great considering it shows that sometimes, scientists get things wrong and that science is about reducing these errors to get closer to the truth. The only qualm I have about the programme is the structure, some things that Jimmy Doherty discusses don’t actually appear on the programme which seems slightly sloppy. Despite this, I truly enjoyed this programme and can’t wait for next week.
Sometimes, real life is just too extraordinary to be satirised. One such example is the mess that Conservapedia got itself into over the work of Professor Richard Lenski.
For those who are unaware of this organisation, Conservapedia is the brainchild of Andrew Schafly, a Christian creationist lawyer who set up his own online encyclopedia after complaining that Wikipedia was too "left-winged" and "Evolutionist biased", as well as censoring his objections. He then set up the for-mentioned website which was designed to be a Christian right winged and American based. In June 2008, New Scientist published an article by Professor Richard Lenski which documented the 20 years of evolution and mutation in a strain of E.coli to start utilizing citrates, something that it was previously unable to do. As this was clear evidence of well-recorded evolution occurring in the lab, Schafly decided to demand the data that Lenski produced. Now rather than actually describing the rest myself, I’ll let the two opponents do the talking. RationalWiki, has the full, unaltered version and I am using the letters from there as Conservapedia has a history of known censorship, especially in this affair.
Whilst I would love to post these things here, I am aware that people might be put off by the blocks of text, however amusing this may be to people like myself.
For those interested, the links to the New Scientist article is here:
We can clearly see that evolution does occur and furthermore this is the clumsy and often ridiculed attempt to try and decredit it. Unfortunately for Schafly, he has now let himself be known as an insufferable sophist which seems to be the case for most out-spoken creationists in institutes such as Conservapedia.
We, the Journal of Imaginary Sciences, are campaigning for the protection of the scientific practices carried out by Astrologists, Creation Scientists Homeopaths, Psychics and other disciplines involved in the supernatural.
It has come to our attention that many individuals such as James Randi, Richard Dawkins, PZ Myers and Eugenie Scott have tried to suppress these ideas with the introduction of hard scientific evidence and cold logic. Despite the fevered media campaign to “Teach the Controversy” with lectures, posters, talk shows and even the film: Expelled, there still remains a rabid body of dispassionate scientists who refuse to allow us these beliefs to be preached in classes. They claim that this is not “science” and that these subjects are nonsensical, even going so far to call the people con-artists and frauds.
We at the Journal of Imaginary Sciences are campaigning along with Facts Are Killing ESP (FAKE), Creationists Opposing Natural Selection (CONS), IDers Informing Our Teachers on Science (IDIOTS) and Homeopaths Against Regular Medicine (HARM) to advocate the protection of these businesses against real science. Due to the popularity of the scientific theory, Evolution, recently brought about by the celebration of Darwin’s 200th birthday (and the 150th anniversary of Origins of Species), the earnings of these institutes have dropped. Combined with the current recession, the organisations involved in these practices are feeling that they are unable to continue their opulent spending. We are asking you to send donations in to us so that they may continue to be a drain on our resources, churning out their propaganda and assuring us that God is indeed pleased with these actions.
We would also like to state that many prominent comedians have also requested to this Journal to continue with this campaign as these institutes are enabling them to support themselves in their jobs. These have included the prominent comedian Bill Hicks, whose materials, I am assured, have featured these sorts of organisations before.
Thank you for taking time to read these petition and please send any donations to the address provided on the envelope.
Yours Sincerely Mr Bob Doubt
Editor of the Journal of Imaginary Sciences.
Journal of Imaginary Sciences Vol 1 (2009)
The Endothermic Candle
Sam C. Carter. BSc, MBuSh
Department of Bogus Science, The Unseen University, Duncomedy, BO08 1ES
Abstract
An experiment in measuring the Enthalpy of a candle reveals that fire can be an endothermic reaction. This pours doubt on the claim of flames being an exothermic reaction only.
Introduction
In order to test this hypothesis, a candle was placed under a beaker of water. A thermometer was placed in this beaker and linked to a data logger to record the temperature change on a laptop using the program LogIT. The candle was then lighted and the time against temperature was recorded for several minutes.
Results
Humans have been using fire for centuries as a method of keeping warm due to the supposed exothermic properties of combustion. Combustion is seen as an exothermic reaction as the making of the new bonds results in energy being given out as a flame. However, since flames are generally seen as an exothermic product, no one has thought to test this claim.
Candles can be seen to be endothermic as shadows grow longer when we use them for light. Dr I. Amalooney predicted that this was due to the possibility of the candle?s structure making up anti-energy bonds, absorbing energy from its surroundings. Unfortunately, the general scientific community has discounted these ideas as ravings from a madman since they were written on toilet paper and produced in the International Journal of Creation Science. Unfortunately, this has led people to discount the possibility and incorporate combustion into the scientific dogma of Energetics.
Method
The results from the LogIT graph clearly show a decrease in temperature, demonstrating the ability for the candle to draw the heat from the water and surroundings. Bob Doubt (BBuSh) recorded a significant lowering of light levels in the laboratory as well as a significant weight gain on the Boll Ocks scales.
Conclusion
The candle showed clear endothermic properties, taking heat in from the surrounding sources. This clearly shows the levels of genius that I am able to achieve in the Bogus Sciences. As an encore I shall be proving next week that Gravity does not exist and instead Intelligent Falling is present...
Evaluation (written by Dr A. Skeptic)
Unfortunately S.C.Carter's results were the result of too much use of the hallucinogenic substances him and B.Doubt kept using in the lab. The results were skewed by a previous reaction which warmed up the beaker before the candle was used, which was of insufficient heat to warm up the beaker as it was too far away. For the safety of the public, the two ?scientists? in question have safely been removed from public life.
Hello and welcome to the Journal of Imaginary Sciences. This blog is dedicated to satirising the claims of pseudo-science institutes such as Homeopathy, Creationism, Intelligent Design, Psychics, Astrology and all those little things people use to con those with a limited understanding of the scientific method.
I have spent a few years discussing Creationism on the internet as well as studying (both for a degree and for pleasure) Evolution and the scientific method. Currently I am training to become a chemistry teacher and with this, my fascination for what constitutes as ?good science? has arisen again. In my articles I hope to outline the straw men that these pseudo-scientists create in order to exploit the hopes and fears of ordinary people.
I would like to iterate that this blog is solely about the pseudo-sciences. Whilst I would enjoy people emailing me with stories they wish to contribute to this blog, I will not accept anything that constitutes as simple attacks on religion, unless it concerns itself with pseudo-sciences, for example, Creationist claims from organisations such as Answers In Genesis. I would rather concentrate on making these claims appear ridiculous in order to defuse arguments against ?good science? than attacking religions. It is not the purpose of this blog and it demeans those religious people such as Kenneth Miller who have spent time denouncing the works of pseudo-scientists.
As this is the first week, I am displaying two articles of my own, The Endothermic Candle and the Petition of Pseudo-Scientists. With these I am posting this introduction, another article on Lenski?s Letter to Conservapedia and the news from this week. Each week I will post one of my own articles (along with any contributions from others that are suitable) and a post on the news. Unfortunately, I do not have the time nor energy to do more as I have to do other things, such as my course.
I would like to thank my friends as well for encouraging me to make this blog. I would also like to thank especially my tutor, Jim Wilson who gave me the ideas for the first article and suggested how to improve it. I hope everyone enjoys this and it makes you realise the world really is an incredibly silly place.
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