Humanity: Good News, Bad News

[KebreI]

I'm not a huge fan of C4C. Its nice for a few, but over all it hurts more. Because of it it makes it nearly impossible to buy an old used car, so your choice it narrowed down to the newer vehicles. All of which are several times more expensive even with the money given from the C4C. As well as this being done for environmental reasons it bullcrap, The amount of fuel save by up grading is will only have the most minimal effect. If you also take in to consideration that this will promote driving more so, as well as all "Clunkers" are being scraped it my even be more harmful in the end.

[Truthordeal]

Plaxico Burress of the New York Giants is sentenced to two years in prison: http://www.examiner.com/x-680-New-York-Giants-Examiner~y2009m8d20-Plaxico-Burress-pleads-guilty-will-serve-two-year-jail-sentence

Last year, Burress ended up shooting himself in the leg after carrying a loaded gun into a New York City night club.

Not to beat a dead dog(bad taste?) here, but why is it that Burress is getting the same sentence as Michael Vick, the man who killed dogs for fun and profit? I'm not gonna go get buckets of paint and join PETA here, but I'm calling bullshit on the entire thing.

[ZeaLitY]

Good News

"‘Air shower’ set to cut water use by 30 per cent"

http://www.csiro.au/news/ShowerHead.html

Bad News

http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=243

When asked what they would do if scientists were to disprove a particular religious belief, nearly two-thirds (64%) of people say they would continue to hold to what their religion teaches rather than accept the contrary scientific finding, according to the results of an October 2006 Time magazine poll.

Nearly two-thirds of people are fucking retarded.

Sick News

reddit is now definitely censoring the atheist subreddit by excluding them from the default subreddits and main page article appearances:

http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/

Times are tough when advertisers get antsy about irreligion, eh?

[ZaichikArky]

I live in a fairly liberal place, and I always find it rather shocking that so many people in my country feel so strongly about their religious devotion. I found it very unbelievable at that one statistic that was found. Something like 80 or was it *90* percent of people in the US are religious. Is that really true? I know that statistics can have a huge margin of error. No one I know is religious, and no one I have ever talked to feels very devoted to their religion. I never want to leave the east or west coast. Seems like the rest of the country is more into god than those two regions. And by east coast, I mean the states that are not a part of the south. I wouldn't mind living in Virginia, possibly. But anything further south is off limits for me. Southern Florida is more liberal and has a different feel to it, however. The one isolated pocket of the deep south :p.

Edit: I guess I shouldn't say that no one I have ever talked to feels devoted. There is one exception that I can recall and that's Mormons. There are a ton of them in my area and there is a Mormon church right next to my HS and a bunch of Mormons went to my HS. I liked all of them and they were very nice and even those boys on the bikes knocking on my door to tell me about Mormonism didn't annoy me too much.

[Lord J Esq]

I found it very unbelievable at that one statistic that was found. Something like 80 or was it *90* percent of people in the US are religious. Is that really true? I know that statistics can have a huge margin of error. No one I know is religious, and no one I have ever talked to feels very devoted to their religion.

Due to cultural pressures, it is true that the vast majority (about 85 percent) of Americans consider themselves religious or spiritual. In practice, however, many of those who claim to be religious are not actively involved in the observance of their religion. They just can't bring themselves to identify as nonreligious. I'm afraid I don't remember the exact statistics, but in general it's only another 20 to 30 percent of the population--meaning that a majority of Americans are, indeed, religious.

I never want to leave the east or west coast. Seems like the rest of the country is more into god than those two regions.

Yeah. It's a completely different world.

ZeaLitY, I love that air shower nozzle. I want to try it!

[Uboa]

When asked what they would do if scientists were to disprove a particular religious belief, nearly two-thirds (64%) of people say they would continue to hold to what their religion teaches rather than accept the contrary scientific finding, according to the results of an October 2006 Time magazine poll.

Nearly two-thirds of people are fucking retarded.

What bothers me more about this is likelihood that, given the fact that these people won't consider changing their beliefs in the light of scientific discovery, they probably also won't question their beliefs based on any merit they afford their own experience of the world around them.  That is, if their experience does offer a challenge to their beliefs, which at many points it will, or at least it should in this day and age.

Of course, in the breadbasket this still may not be the case.  Living outside a small town in the middle of nowhere is interesting in that I'm reminded on an almost daily basis of just how insular this lifestyle can be.

(I also want one of those air shower things.  I have a severe water usage guilt complex.)

[Thought]

Meh, a third of the american population also (supposedly) believes in UFOs, ghosts, and government conspiracies. Seems like right off the top we can write off a third of Americans. Assuming a perfect overlap, that only leaves a third of other-wise potentially reasonable Americans who'd reject science if it contradicted an important (or perceived as important) religious belief. Assuming perfect overlap in this group with those noted by lord J, that could reduce this number down to 10% or less.

That is a lot of assumption, of course. Anywho

Good News: An efficient, personal water filtration device designed for use after natural disasters and in underdeveloped regions

Nigh Unbelievable New: Ayatollah of Iran actually saying that the U.S. and the U.K. are NOT to blame for political unrest

Bed News: Okay, maybe not "news," but Chavez is a loon. He's threatening to cut ties with Columbia because Columbia allowing Americans on its own soil is totally a declaration of war. American Football in the country has thus been renamed Bolivarian Football.

[V_Translanka]

Bad News

http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=243

When asked what they would do if scientists were to disprove a particular religious belief, nearly two-thirds (64%) of people say they would continue to hold to what their religion teaches rather than accept the contrary scientific finding, according to the results of an October 2006 Time magazine poll.

Nearly two-thirds of people are fucking retarded.

What? That's news, now? I think not (IRONICALLY!).

[Katie Skyye]

"...although life has evolved, these changes were guided by a supreme being."

That's my take; it's called "theistic evolutionism," I believe. Science and religion--any religion, though specifically Christianity) should not be mutually exclusive, but co-dependent...science proves how beautiful and complex a world God created--Christianity's physical aspect--and the Bible is the story of GOD and JESUS--the spiritual aspect of Christianity. That's what I think, anyway. Most CHRISTIANS tend to forget that their religion revolves around accepting Jesus CHRIST as their savior. It doesn't matter what your views on Creation or sexuality are; it doesn't matter if you're a drunkard or a teetotaler...as long as, at some point in life, you sincerely asked Jesus to be Lord of your life, you're saved--so Jesus actually says, in the Bible. But Christians tend to forget that...and it's quite depressing how much intolerance and voluntary ignorance there is within the church.

It's rather odious to be associated with them, really, considering all the crap they pull.

[Thought]

"...although life has evolved, these changes were guided by a supreme being."

That's my take; it's called "theistic evolutionism," I believe.

Myyeehh, that sounds more like Intelligent Design to me, but Theistic Evolution isn't a unified belief system either.

Are you familiar with the BioLogos foundation? They've got some good stuff on TE, if one is so interested:

...BioLogos states that “once life arose, the process of evolution and natural selection permitted the development of biological diversity and complexity," and “humans are part of this process.” Moreover, “once evolution got under way, no special supernatural intervention was required.

BioLogos being a term that Dr. Francis Collins (head of the NIH, woo) coined to essentially mean theistic evolution.

[Katie Skyye]

Myyeehh, that sounds more like Intelligent Design to me, but Theistic Evolution isn't a unified belief system either.

Ah, I always took intelligent design to mean "GOD SAID 7 DAYS POOF LIFE APPEARED!" If it means something dissimilar to that, it's my fault for not doing the research.

[ZeaLitY]

Good News

IBM takes a picture of atomic bonds:

http://gizmodo.com/5346964/ibm-takes-first-3d-image-of-molecule-atomic-bonds-using-crazy+powerful-microscope

Bad News

17-year old in Washington state gets appendicitis. Christian parents forgo medical treatment in lieu of olive oil. Kid dies. Can the insane parents be tried for negligence? No, because somehow, this fucking law exists in Washington state:

Washington's law specifies that a person treated through faith healing "by a duly accredited Christian Science practitioner in lieu of medical care is not considered deprived of medically necessary health care or abandoned." Other religions are not mentioned.

And now, someone has died.

F-U-C-K RELIGION

[ZombieBucky]

'christian science' should be something more like 'jumbo shrimp' or 'oxy moron'. mr z, you should totally pronounce yourself as a jewish faith healer and travel to washington state and say that you should have the right to practice your faith healing techniques. if they deny it to you you should say that its religious persecutioin, and have them either overturn that law or at least let other faith healings continue. yes, hteyre stupid. but why just christian?
thats discriminatory!

[Thought]

Ugh, I'm getting all veklempt. Talk amongst yourself. I'll give you a topic: "Christian Science" is neither Christian nor science. Discuss.

Woah, sorry, I seem to have been channeling Linda Richman there for a moment.

[Shee]

BAD NEWS

Ok ok ok...I never woulda come across this had I not begun raising chickens as pets.  But it was grosser than I imagined.  Footage of a hatchery in Iowa...I always knew that the males were worthless (makes sense) and were either made into feed or grown as meaties.  I knew that "made into feed" meant killing them, but I didn't think it was like this!  And this doesn't even get into battery hens, who never see daylight or touch ground while living with rats and shitpiles (literally) or broiler meat chicks.

http://www.mercyforanimals.org/hatchery/

I know I gave animal rights groups a tiny bashing with the Vick thing, but when it hits close to home, it hits close to home I suppose.  The only thing that bugged me was the whole vegan message at the end.  I could show deforestation vids and say eat only meat, right?  Ok, maybe a lame comparison but it just didn't fit to me.  It's about the running of the hatcheries and the treatment of those chickens, not what you eat.


GOOD NEWS
Meaningful College Football starts tomorrow.  Not massive I know but I needed something and was a lil tapped from the chicken rantings, which are not my common grounds.