Michael Jackson Doesn’t Know When To Give Up…Even In Death

At the risk of allowing the Micheal Jackson over-coverage to go on even a split-second longer, new reports of the first Michael Jackson video game in nearly 20 years are just ripe for a few snide remarks at the late performer’s expense. Is it pushing the envelope to ask if this new game will make use of the upcoming Wii vitality sensor?

The Clean Energy Debate: Hydro Out

To continue the discussion with our exteemed commenters about the problem with electric cars, where is the power going to come from?

Hydro, as I said, is out.  There may be dams going into Quebec, but it won’t be long before the eco-nuts spread their tentacles out in la belle province.

News in BC is not only are dams horrific for the environment (at least the construction of them), but even when we don’t flood entire valleys, and try to minimize disruption to spawning and river life, it’s all simply wrong.

Sitting here in Vancouver, where the eco-nuts protest every time anything nuclear is mentioned, and bad press floods the newspapers every time anything proposed by BC Hydro or any private company threatens to be built where a tree must be felled, that doesn’t leave us with a lot of options.

The Academy Wants The Cheques, But Where Are The Balances?

Despite far more popular and respected faculties in engineering and arts, the science faculty of my alma mater presumed that some of the reputation from the other parts of campus entitled it to act like the Harvard of the north. This didn’t affect me so much as science was only a minor for me, but the stories of friends having a tenured professor so bad that the governing council had to step in after the term was over and ban him from ever teaching core classes again, or departments within the faculty coming to the defence of lecturers who were borderline sexual harassment cases just waiting to happen still stick with me to this day. It is all really sad as many friends who would’ve been good in science and had a great desire to stick in the field left the faculty for other areas of study as a way to cope with the disastrous way in which the science faculty conducted its affairs.

The recollection of this reality came about this week as I read about some of the ongoing whining that the “science community” (aka the Canadian university academy) has been doing since the 2009 budget was introduced in January — particularly a bold but well-needed rebuke of the “beggars in lab coats” as Bliss’ original column calls our academy friends in Thursday’s edition of the National Post. I couldn’t help, as I read the article, in recalling the culture of entitlement and the stern desire by the above-mentioned faculty to vigorously defend the status quo, no matter how inappropriate it was.

Look, for any of us who have been to university recently and were paying attention, it’s nothing new that science faculty have a sense of entitlement that rivals even the collective workforce of France. One observation among the many my friends and I made back in the day is that the university culture that has come about over the past 1000 years is a loadstone that needs to be removed from our society’s neck; university-level education is important, but we don’t need academically-overqualified, but practicality-underqualified talking heads teaching much of what is taught in an undergraduate science program. The time has long since past since the romantic notion that professors can convey their wisdom unto the open vessels of their students, giving them a deep and well-rounded perspective on the ways of the world. The realities of the 20th century insured that we now use concrete measuring tools (we call them “exams”) to test the specific curriculum that departments now insist are taught whenever they approve a new course. A university education isn’t what it was back in 1156!

More to the point, if we don’t need the PhDs around except to personally mentor the few who go onto get Masters degrees or their own doctorates, shouldn’t these folks be finding their own funding and facilities like the rest of us? It’s nice to say that not all science is going to lead to a marketable advancement of our lives, and I don’t disagree with that, but if you decide to pursue years in the theoretical field of exobiology why, as Prof. Bliss argues, should a society that is struggling to keep its workforce employed be bankrolling your hobby? These are valid pursuits, don’t get me wrong, but the question comes down to where the funding should come from. Good science isn’t cheap but it is innovative — isn’t it counter-intuitive to force the minds who drive the field into a position of perpetual financial entitlement?

Ron Paul on the Swine Flu “Crisis”

I’ve been monitoring the swine flu since the first few reports trickled out of Mexico and while I don’t nessesarly agree that flu shots are more harmful than good (which Ron Paul alludes to in the video below), I think Congressmen Paul makes a good point about the role of “big government” in protecting our lives.

[Via Danielle Bean]

Interesting Theories On Life Over At UBC

Mark Peters reported yesterday on the ongoing witch hunt against evoskeptics as it relates to BC MP James Lunney (C, Nanaimo-Alberni), linking to an article in a local daily. This time, the media brought out Sarah Otto, “a University of B.C. zoologist and evolution expert”, to attack the non-conformer but Otto seems to have an interesting reason for why she believes neo-Darwinism is essential to biology,

For example, they can’t make sense of why the flu virus changes and the way they do change. They can’t make sense of why, if you look at the genome of certain organisms, they are similar.

Now, we shouldn’t get too nit-picky here over details, but if a IDer or creationist was quoted making the above statement, they would likely be raked over the coals for being ignorant to the fact that every first year biology class teaches (usually in the first class) that a virus is not universally accepted as a life form for failing to meet life’s seven characteristics.

At least we should admire Otto’s attempt to specifically explain how all biology would fall apart if evolution were ever abandoned (something her colleagues go to great lengths to avoid), but if viruses represent the best argument to put forward, evolution is in even more trouble than previously thought.

Defending A Free Marketplace For Ideas

Gary Goodyear has recanted his sin against the state secularism which rules our land, but not before leaving a bit of a stir: Kay, Christian Conservative, AGWN, and ChuckerCanuck all add insightful and intelligent considerations on today’s events. I will only add to the second link by reminding Warren Kinsella that one day, just like five years ago, he will have to look his kids in the eye and tell him that he did as Christ would’ve done, and it’d be easier to say that bit honestly!

On a broader note, today reminds us again that there is a fanatical attempt by those whose pocket books, reputations and egos depend on a steady flow of government grease to kill any public skepticism of their little gravy train. I hope that libertarians in Canada, like Jonathan Kay, are particularly concerned with just how today’s news cycle was conducted and respond accordingly. Yes, as evoskeptics get their act together and develop a great presence on the scene, it’s getting harder to be dismissive and oppressive over the minority side of this issue but, as all classical liberals know, competition — especially within academic circles — only stands to benefit all parties in the end and the rights of individuals to hold views contrary to the politically correct status quo deserves our utmost support. This is merely private health care, educational choice, or nixing section 13 to a different group of activists, and we at least owe a bit of consistency after today!

A Muslim and A Delusional Mammal Walk Into A Bar…

…and ouch!, is this one ever going to hurt once it gets up to full speed! Courtesy of Damian P., a link to Atheism’s revered high priest Richard Dawkins lashing out at moral relativism? My, how the times have changed. If Dawkins said such words even twenty years ago, he’d certainly be firmly labeled as a paleocon who was trying to impose his values upon the rest of society.

Admittedly, I don’t think much of the Muslims who are hell-bent (literally) to keep me from treating my sister as an equal, bacon cheeseburgers, or writing what I actually think on this blog, but in this case, I’m more than happy to sit back and watch the fireworks. Who knows, maybe it’ll make the Darwinists honest and if so, kudos to the Muslims if they pull it off. Maybe we’ll even get the added bonus of seeing a science classroom that is free of antiquated, irrelevant pseudo-science finally (150 years antiquated this year from what I’m told!).

After all, the monkey-worshiping crowd doesn’t want anything to do with a dirty creationist like me anyway, so I’ll just step out for a bit and let you and your Middle Eastern friend there have it out…survival of the fittest as they say! You’ve certainly earned it Richard! Just don’t say that nobody warned you that cutting those Christian ties wasn’t hazardous to your health… As for me, I’ll be out in the parking lot to take you to the hospital when this is all over! What a nice guy, eh?

Beware the Wrath of Global Warming – Perpetual Food Crisis!

Heed the advice of the omnipotent scientist – your children’s children will go to bed hungry because global warming will lead to “massive and simultaneous crop failures in many regions.”

The world faces a “perpetual food crisis” because global warming will likely lead to massive and simultaneous crop failures in many regions, possible as early as the period from 2040 to 2060, says a new study.

The finding, appearing in Friday’s edition of the journal Science, is based on climate models that suggest the worst heat waves of the past in a region, such as the deadly one in France in 2003 that killed at least 30,000, are likely to become their new normal summer time temperatures in the future.

Unless of course it doesn’t happen exactly the way these scientists speculate… in which case these types of hypothetical “food crisis” scenarios will be quickly forgotten and replaced with new über scary scenarios like “global robot uprising” or “brain chip meltdown.”

Scary stuff indeed.

Geoengineering the Climate – the Dangerous Game We Shouldn’t Play

Whether or not you believe global warming is man made or whether you even believe man has the ability to “control” climate, I think most reasonable people would agree that any attempt to artificially modify the climate to fit a “ideal” global temperature model is a bad idea:

The plan would involve highly controversial proposals to lower global temperatures artificially through daringly ambitious schemes that either reduce sunlight levels by man-made means or take CO2 out of the air. This “geoengineering” approach – including schemes such as fertilising the oceans with iron to stimulate algal blooms – would have been dismissed as a distraction a few years ago but is now being seen by the majority of scientists we surveyed as a viable emergency backup plan that could save the planet from the worst effects of climate change, at least until deep cuts are made in CO2 emissions.

The Hackers of the Left: Out of Hand?

First Sarah Palin’s email is hacked.  I’ll bet those hackers were horribly disappointed they didn’t find any dirty laundry they could air in that invasion of privacy.  Of course, instead of focusing on how low some people have sunk to find dirt on perhaps the most significant challenge Obama’s campaign has faced, the topics of choice are “Should Governors be using yahoo emails?” and “What was she trying to hide by not using her ‘official email’?”

Now some more hackers have spoofed Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s governmental email to send out false and slanderous emails.

The media insists calling these incidents the work of “pranksters”, but is anyone noticing a pattern here?

When is the left going to come out and acknowledge they have supporters who are out of hand and are causing discredit to their brand of politics?

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