Scientific Knowledge

Jerry Coyne laments the lack of it here.

Here is the source article:

Things like this

and this

doesn’t help.

Humor, Boxing and Searching….

Humor
Gas really is high; you get charged for even holding the pump out, even if you aren’t pumping anything! (via Fail Blog)

Boxing: Vitali Klitschko vs. Odlanier Solis
Here is the whole fight:

Don’t blink.

Fans are screaming bloody murder:

But, as it turned out Saturday night in Germany, Solis was exposed in a one round, one punch Ko by Vitali, aka “Dr. Ironfist.” A right hand floored the chubby Cubano and when he got off the floor, he acted as though his legs were wobbly.

Maybe his pins were shaky or maybe Solis wanted no more incoming fire from VK. Vitali himself seemed to be the angriest person in the arena in Cologne, where 19,000 paying fans turned up, at the three minute duration of this mismatch.

Here’s acerbic Kevin Mitchell (Guardian), from ringside:

“Solis and Klitschko clearly are beasts from different parts of the forest.

“Klitschko, although half a foot taller and nearly 10 years older than the challenger, weighed in less than three pounds heavier than him, testimony to his discipline and Solis’s lack of it – although he whipped himself into decent shape for this fight to get down to 246.9, the lightest of his career.

“It was Solis’s 10th and possibly last contest in Germany. He was nearly a stone lighter than his last outing in December, when he laboured to beat the 40-year-old Ray Austin on disqualification in the 10th round of a quite farcical eliminator for this title shot.

“The 30-year-old Cuban has lunched on some poor fare since his professional debut in Hamburg in 2007, a year after he defected. Six fights ago, in October, 2008, he was fed Chauncy Welliver, a 27-year-old native American Indian, heritage he left at the door when he described himself as “The Fat Dorky White Guy”. Paunchy Chauncy lasted nine of the 12 rounds, yet, astoundingly, was the reserve candidate for Wladimir Klitschko when the WBO and IBF champion was negotiating with Dereck Chisora – and Solis was being nudged up the ratings.

“If further evidence is needed of the parlous state of heavyweight boxing, I can’t help you. It is nights such as this that do not just give the business a bad name but make dedicated fans wonder why they bother.”

Yes, Solis does have some knee damage:

The 30-year-old Cuban was taken to hospital, where a scan revealed tears to his anterior cruciate ligament and external meniscus, as well as cartilage damage in his right knee.

The crowd in Cologne was disappointed by the 179-second bout. The fans booed and whistled for several minutes after it ended.

Klitschko said he’s “sorry for the spectators. I don’t fight for me, I fight for them.”

The 39-year-old Ukrainian had delivered a right to Solis’ left temple, when the Cuban wobbled back and fell on his back before clutching his knee.

It was Solis’ first defeat in 18 pro fights. Klitschko improved to 42-2.

I don’t know what to make of it; yes, I know all too well that knees can go. But Solis clearly was not in shape for this fight.

Searching
Frankly, I hope that she has to look for a good long while before finding what she is looking for:

20 March 2011

14 mile walk; slow (3:38); I did the above course plus a 3 mile out and back. The last uphill bit (2.6 miles?) took 38:57. Yeah, I was slow, but at first I was really worried that this was only 13 miles; then I realized that I added a Springdale loop. It was breezy to windy and I started right after the rain ended.

Posts

Japan
Here is a stirring video of some personal rescues in Japan.

Nuclear technology and “economic locks”: sometimes a technology can get locked in economically even though there might be some technically better alternatives out there. Note that the US Navy went with the light water reactor design due to size.

Evolution: Punctuated Equilibria (via Sandwalk, where Professor Moran is responding to comments)

Economics Paul Krugman says that Elizabeth Warren is right; so the Obama administration ought not to distance itself from her. Though he picked her to set up the new Consumer Protection agency Republicans are attacking her. But so what? When have the Republicans been right about anything?

Religion and Science
New atheists are like the tea-party?

Because, of course, the New Atheists are philosophically unsophisticated:

Perhaps it is just a turf war, but I don’t think philosophy is something to be ignored or done after a day’s work in the lab over a few beers in the faculty club. I think if you want to show that science and religion are inherently in contradiction, then you should show why people like Kuhn (and indeed Foucault) are wrong about the nature of science. That I think is morally wrong, namely taking positions with major political and social implications, without doing your serious homework. Just mentioning Galileo’s troubles with the Church or Thomas Henry Huxley’s debate with the Bishop of Oxford is no true substitute for hard thinking.

No, we don’t have to show that Kuhn and Foucault are wrong about the nature of science. All we have to show—and have shown—is that religion and science use different and incompatible ways to “understand” the universe, and that the religious way isn’t really a way of understanding at all. All we have to show is that there is only one science, which is practiced by researchers of all creeds and nationalities, but that there are elebenty gazillion religions, all of which disagree about their “truths.” All we have to show is that religious “truths”, like resurrection and parthenogenetic humans, violate scientific ones. All we have to show is that we know a lot more about physics and biology than we did 200 years ago, but don’t know a jot and tittle more about the nature of supposed gods. And all we have to show is that faith is considered a virtue in religion, but a vice in science. We’ve already shown these forms of incompatibility. QED.

Right on, Jerry Coyne! My guess is that people like this want their “word salad gods” to be taking seriously. There is really no need. What these people don’t understand is that we need only consider gods that interact with the universe.

And yes, there are religious scientists. But that does NOT mean that science and religion are compatible; after all, there are clergy that are pedophiles, and I don’t see pedophilia being compatible with religion either. Yes, I think that the shot taken at Francis Collins is unfair; he is a top notch scientist who happens to hold some strange beliefs.