About Blueollie
(click to go to whitehouse.gov)
Abundibot at the Daily Kos has published a guide to Whitehouse.gov.
President Obama’s address to the National Academy of Science.
How well is President Obama doing at keeping his campaign promises? Here is an even handed running assessment.
Government is Good: a source of much is good about government.
This is my online diary. My facebook stuff is here.
Note: there is an interesting facebook application called Visible Vote by which you can record your opinions on various bills and see how your opinions compare to the votes made by your Senators and Representative.
I use this blog for the following purposes:
- To keep track of my training. I train for ultramarathons (I usually walk these) and sometimes do running races, bicycle rides and open water swims for variety. My best ultra accomplishment was walking 101 miles in 24 hours in 2004. There was a time when I could run a sub 40 minute 10K (did that once), but that was another lifetime ago; these a days 24 minutes for a 5K would be more like it. I also have an off and on interest in yoga.
- From time to time, I post what I am thinking about mathematically
- I often post links to science articles, especially articles about cosmology and evolution.
- I am very sympathetic to the “new atheist” movement, though some might consider me to be an agnostic. I reject any notion of a deity that interferes with physical events, but remain agnostic to the idea that there might be something “grand and wonderful” (Dawkins’ phrase) outside of our current spacetime continuum.
- I am a liberal Democrat who thinks that the current social atmosphere is tilted way too far toward the interests of big business, and I reject the idea that a “free market” cures all ills, though pure socialism doesn’t work either. I am also a believer in the freedom of speech, including speech that I might not like. Also, I’ve been involved (to a moderate degree) with political campaigns, ranging from City Council races up to Presidential races. I back Barack Obama enthusiastically. As far as John McCain: I admire his courage and military service but he simply doesn’t have the ability to grasp the nuances of world affairs; he simply isn’t up to the job.
- Since being targeted by neo-nazis, I’ve started to identify with the anti-racist and the anti-fa movements.
- I like to post photos of trips and vacations.
- I sometimes blog about boxing matches and football games.
- I like women in spandex.
- This is where the old blog blueollie migrated to. My old posts can be found here.
Who links to me?
My Liberal Identity:
Ollie is a Reality-Based Intellectualist, also known as the liberal elite. You are a proud member of what’s known as the reality-based community, where science, reason, and non-Jesus-based thought reign supreme.
Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com
The above refers to me; the below refers to Barbara (my wife)
Barbara's Liberal Identity:
Barbara is a Peace Patroller, also known as an anti-war liberal or neo-hippie. She believes in putting an end to American imperial conquest, stopping wars that have already been lost, and supporting our troops by bringing them home.
Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com
Note about my blogroll: there are many types of blogs here; they range from humor, science, religion, politcs and endurance sports. -
Recent Comments
blueollie on 4 January 2010 Dr. Andy on 4 January 2010 blueollie on Big Shoulders 5K Swim: “… Carol Adams on Big Shoulders 5K Swim: “… blueollie on 2 January 09 Football not… -
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First I want to thank you for the great obama clips.. I love your commentary and link dump.
Secondly, I want to point out the after checking in on your blog daily for about a week I am starting to get bogged down by the constant atheism-evolution-science bits. I am a scientist, moreover my undergrad was in computer science and the history and philosophy of science. For all your raving that Evolution is Science, Darwin violated scientific method…. If I recall my Roger Bacon correctly science is making causal inference regarding the unobservable correlation of A to B based on the observable correlation of X to Y. Darwin himself dismisses the observable correlation with “don’t look to the fossil record” and “don’t look to the the geological record” sections in Origin of Species. No scientist today would get the pass that Darwin got in 1859.
Today we can now argue that DNA is providing the observable from X to Y, and in fact I am a believer in evolution. However, I would argue that your resistance to the idea of god is just as doctrinal as any Christian denomination. I have not met one person yet that dislikes Christians for being Christian. I have however met plenty of people who did not like Christians because the proselytize to aggressively. Finally, Evolution does not explain the spark of life that started the whole process….. just as a literal translation of the bible is a bit simple for something that is clearly a metaphorical document.
I love aspects of your blog but some aspects appear you are just trying to prove to yourself God does not exist.
Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit
dafew
Hi. Thanks for checking in.
No, it isn’t. I think of it this way: suppose I think that my car works as the result of pixies, but these are small, invisible pixies. Someone else says: “that’s nonsense”. Are both “positions equally doctrinal?” Of course not; it is up to the person who believes in pixies to provide evidence.
To me: atheism says not that “There is no god” but rather: “I see no convincing evidence for a god”.
So, there is no need to prove that “god doesn’t exist”; any proving has to go in the other direction. I am spending some time challenging the notion that “god exists” is some logical default notion; it isn’t.
Personally, I don’t care what individuals believe, but I will speak out when folks start wanting to run our community/state/nation as though some deity is going to somehow intervene in physical events.
Of course you are right about evolution being silent on the first spark, but organic chemistry does have things to say about self-replicating molecules and the conditions that might produce them.
As far as Darwin, it was my understanding that he wanted to develop this theory completely independently from the other sciences and then see if his ideas would fit in; in “machine learning” this is akin to letting the algorithm run on a “training set” first. OOS was setting forth a conjecture.
In a way it was a good thing too, because Lord Kelvins’ heat loss calculation would have posited an age of the earth that was too short for Darwin’s theory to work (as radioactivity was unknown at that time).