Let us begin with this definition of "quote mining" from Wikipedia: The practice of quoting out of context, sometimes referred to as "contextomy" or "quote mining", is a logical fallacy and a type of false attribution in which a passage is removed from its surrounding matter in such a way as to distort its intended meaning.

Thank you, shinyblurry, for your cut&paste, thought-free, research-absent, quote mining wall of nonsense. The only part you got right is that you should google each and every one of these quotes to find out the context, something you actually didn't do.

>> ^shinyblurry:

Even the late Stephen Jay Gould, Professor of Geology and Paleontology at Harvard University and the leading spokesman for evolutionary theory prior to his recent death, confessed "the extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology..."


This Steven J. Gould quote is discussed in talk.origin's Quote Mine Project. Gould was a proponent of Punctuated Equilibria, which proposes a "jerky, or episodic, rather than a smoothly gradual, pace of change" in evolution. The quotes that are taken out of context are arguing that the fossil record does not indicate a gradual change over time as Darwin suggested. The specifc quote above is discussed in section #3.2 of Part 3. Far from an argument against evolution, Gould was arguing for a specific refinement of the theory.

More to the point, your own quote says "extreme rarity", contradicting your primary claim that transitional fossils do not exist.

>> ^shinyblurry:

Dr. Colin Patterson, Senior Paleontologist at the British Museum and editor of a prestigious scientific journal... ...I fully agree with your comments on the lack of direct illustration of evolutionary transitions in my book... ...there is not one such fossil for which one could make a watertight argument.


Dr. Patterson is discussed on a page dedicated to this quote in the Quote Mine Project. This page touches on the nature of scientific skepticism. As Dr. Patterson goes on to say, "... Fossils may tell us many things, but one thing they can never disclose is whether they were ancestors of anything else." This is the nature of pure science. We can say that a piece of evidence "indicates" or "suggests" something, but there is nothing that may be held up as "proof" unless it is testable. As a man of principle, Dr. Patterson would not indicate one species evolving into another simply because there is no way to be absolutely sure that one fossil is the direct descendant of another. We can describe the similarities and differences, showing how one might have traits of an earlier fossil and different traits similar to a later fossil, but that is not absolute proof.

Incidentally, this is probably where the main thrust of the creationist argument eventually lands. At this level of specificity, there is no known way of proving one fossil's relation to another. DNA does not survive the fossilization process, so we can only make generalizations about how fossils are related through physical appearance. This will be where the creationist claims "faith" is required. Of course, you might also say that if I had a picture of a potted plant on a shelf, and another picture of the potted plant broken on the floor, it would require "faith" to claim that the plant fell off the shelf, because I did not have video proof. The creationist argument would be that the plant broken on the ground was created that way by God.



>> ^shinyblurry:
David B. Kitts. PhD (Zoology) ... Despite the bright promise that paleontology provides a means of "seeing" evolution, it has presented some nasty difficulties for evolutionists, the most notorious of which is the presence of "gaps" in the fossil record. Evolution requires intermediate forms between species and paleontology does not provide them...


This quote is from 1974. Think maybe some of those gaps might have gotten smaller since then? Doesn't really matter, because the scientist in question goes on to explicitly state that this does not disprove evolution. He then discusses hypotheses which might explain his perceived gaps, such as Punctuated Equilibrium. A brief mention of this quote is found in the Quote Mine Project at Quote #54.


>> ^shinyblurry:

N. Heribert Nilsson, a famous botanist, evolutionist and professor at Lund University in Sweden, continues:
My attempts to demonstrate evolution by an experiment carried on for more than 40 years have completely failed… The fossil material is now so complete that it has been possible to construct new classes, and the lack of transitional series cannot be explained as being due to scarcity of material. The deficiencies are real, they will never be filled.


First of all, Nilsson is only famous to creationists. To scientists, he's a bit of a wack-job. But that neither proves nor disproves his findings, it only goes to show that creationsists will frequently embellish a scientist's reputation if it will increase the size of the straw man argument. His writings would naturally include his opinions on the weaknesses of what was evolutionary theory at the time (1953!) in order to make his own hypothesis more appealing. He came up with Emication, which is panned as fantasy by the scientific critics. Perfect fodder for the creationists.


>> ^shinyblurry:

Even the popular press is catching on. This is from an article in Newsweek magazine:
The missing link between man and apes, whose absence has comforted religious fundamentalists since the days of Darwin, is merely the most glamorous of a whole hierarchy of phantom creatures … The more scientists have searched for the transitional forms that lie between species, the more they have been frustrated.

The popular press. Newsweek Magazine. 1980!!! What year are you living in, shiny???


>> ^shinyblurry:
Wake up people..your belief in evolution is purely metaphysical and requires faith. I suppose if you don't think about it too hard it makes sense. It's the same thing with abiogenesis..pure metaphysics.
Now, after over 120 years of the most extensive and painstaking geological exploration of every continent and ocean bottom, the picture is infinitely more vivid and complete than it was in 1859. Formations have been discovered containing hundreds of billions of fossils and our museums are filled with over 100 million fossils of 250,000 different species.
The availability of this profusion of hard scientific data should permit objective investigators to determine if Darwin was on the right track. What is the picture which the fossils have given us?… The gaps between major groups of organisms have been growing even wider and more undeniable. They can no longer be ignored or rationalized away with appeals to imperfection of the fossil record. 2


Well, now you're just quoting some anonymous creationist. Any evidence whatsoever that the gaps between major groups are growing wider? No? Can't find anything to cut and paste in reply to that question?

>> ^shinyblurry:
You've been had..be intellectually honest enough to admit it and seek out the truth. Science does not support evolution.


I wonder, shiny, if in your "intellectually honest search for the truth" if you ever left the creationist circle jerk? Your quotes are nothing but out of context and out of date.

These things made me want to hurl when I first found out about them thanks to Jon Benet Ramsay's wacked out mother.

Well done?!? This guy is wacked both as a "Christian" and now as an "Atheist". I listened to the personal experience video (#8) where he talks about the inner voice of God. Just listen to this video and ask yourself if this guy is sane or not. I know many Bible believing Christians and they do not think the way this guy does (or rather did). If anti-religious people use these videos as a basis against religion then prepared to be ridiculed.

>> ^campionidelmondo:

So you're all upvoting this video ... ironically?? Sorry bareboards2, but I'm gonna downvote this, because you're essentially spreading this guy's hate.


I'm up voting to bring more attention to it. I'm not worried about people being influenced by this guy, he's nutty enough that I'd much rather his ravings be better known. For anyone that wants to side with him, I say bring it on. I'm comfortable standing with a better informed majority aware of how vile and evil he and those following him are.

I agree. I almost didn't upvote it myself, for the same reason. I just posted for informational purposes. Even though it grants him a larger audience.


>> ^Sagemind:

Edit: thanks for posting but I can't up-vote his bigotry!
Cheers!

The thumbnail image for this video has been updated - thumbnail added by lucky760.

My dreams are usually black and white, and people don't have faces, yet I just somehow know who they are. When I'm sick, or about to get sick, I dream in color, and have wacked out and very memorable dreams.

I question the judgement of all the people involved in deciding to do this photo shoot of a 17 y/o in one the most public places in the world and while she is wearing those tiny shorts.

In defense of the lady who confronted Joey; It seems to me that she did not just randomly confront him for filming the girl. I think that she is her mother or grandmother and she looked over his shoulder and saw him zooming in on her crotch. He was also walking back and forth trying to get a good angle on the girl. I would be pissed off also, but I think it was still a very bad idea to have that girl (child) out on a street in NYC flashing her crotch.

I have a friend that has been good friends with Joey since high school. I'm gonna get him to ask him why in the hell he was filming her ass to begin with. He is flaming gay. I would assume that since he is part of the whole Howard Stern Wack Pack, that he was probably trying to stir up crap to bring attention to himself so he could have something to talk about on the radio show or maybe trying to get footage for the show.

Oh, fucking put a sock in it BF.

Jaywalking in the US contributes to almost 5,000 deaths per year. And well over 7,000 serious injuries. Cops have to directly deal with this shit. Maybe you personally don't like the law (as well as every other law ever, unless Ron Paul says it's ok) but most people don't want to run over some kid who runs across the street unexpectedly.

A friend of mine killed three girls who ran across the street, drunk, at night, out of nowhere. Do you think he just loves living with this imagery for the rest of his life? Fucking hell man, that is just so wacked out. And to think this has anything to do with being black, or poor, or white cops abusing their power is so out of the ballpark you're playing the wrong game.

That is why we have these fucking laws.

And BF: Yes, I live in an incredibly gang-ridden neighborhood, with the Aves, Latin Kings and Dogtown killing eachother every weekend. Last weekend there were four homicides within six blocks of my house. When I lived in Detroit in the late 80's, I was in the extreme thick of it, and it was the fucking murder capital of the country. Maybe that doesn't sound like much to you, but why don't you fucking move over here for a week and see how your pasty-white valley ass deals with it.

Please, have some fucking perspective for once.

DO NOT listen to people like this guy. He knows absolutely fuckall about this, and is making false connections, uses political innuendo and wacked data every step of the way.

THEOILDRUM.COM is the primary source of knowledge here. Not some douchebag radio talk show host.

I will debunk a few of his points, but the rest of them are just as wrong.


1 - skipped safety test = TRUE.
However, MMS were Bush crew. He's trying to push this on Obama, but to go through every contract, every test, every government contract and every employee in every arm of the government is an unbelievably mountainous task. Our gov fucked up big time. But this is due to Bush/Cheney's gutting of government oversight and regulation, and hiring cronies or completely unqualified lackeys for incredibly important positions. Not some unspecified nefarious Obama reasoning.

2- Halliburton's "Seal" = MOSTLY FALSE
(this guy calls it a "seal", which shows he doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about)
Halliburton followed/s ******* *********'s specifications and instructions. From all accounts, Halliburton warned ******* *********several times of the risks involved in the cement plug and cmt centering devices in the BOP. ******* *********overruled them every time.

"Halliburton, the cementing contractor, advised ******* *********to install numerous devices to make sure the pipe was centered in the well before pumping cement, according to Halliburton documents, provided to congressional investigators and seen by the Journal. Otherwise, the cement might develop small channels that gas could squeeze through.

In an April 18 report to ******* *********Halliburton warned that if ******* *********didn’t use more centering devices, the well would likely have “a SEVERE gas flow problem.” Still, ******* *********decided to install fewer of the devices than Halliburton recommended—six instead of 21"

3- Dispersants with the "blessing" of EPA = FALSE
The EPA has told ******* *********time and time again to stop using the dispersant "Corexic" altogether and to use SeatBrat 4, which dissolves into an organic compound in just four days. There is no truth that Corexic is illegal in the UK. The truth is exactly opposite of what this guy claims.

4- ******* *********= Corexic Disperant = FALSE
The company who makes Corexic is a consortium that includes Blackstone, Apollo and Goldman Sachs. They are called Nalco. 2 out of 14 Directors of Nalco were also Directors for ******* ********* They were NOT "the executives".

5- ******* *********didn't release video = TRUE
But, contrary to what he says, Sec Ken Salazar demanded video be released, and we've now had some three weeks of live video footage from at least 6 different cameras.

6- ******* *********refused to let scientists measure leak = TRUE
But, contrary to what he says, we now know the leak is NOT 20x greater than ******* *********'s figure.



Basically, this guy doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about. He's using one-sourced claims backed by "IF this story is true", making way false connections, and from what I can gather, basically lying out of his ass to be at the top of the Fear Monger class.

Yes, this is an unbelievably horrible moment in our history as a species, but listening to people like this with absolutely zero background in any of the industries related fields, and with no empirical facts whatsoever, is exactly the opposite of who anyone should be listening to.


Again THEOILDRUM.COM is the primary resource for all oil spill knowledge. Shut the rest of these people off. Listen to what the experts, scientists, engineers and technicians have to say.

Lyrics:

Hey everybody, did the news get around
About a guy named Butcher Pete
Oh, Pete just flew into this town
And he's choppin' up all the women's meat

[Chorus]
He's hackin' and wackin' and smackin'
He's hackin' and wackin' and smackin'
He's hackin' and wackin' and smackin'
He just hacks, wacks, choppin' that meat

Butcher Pete's got a long sharp knife
He starts choppin' and don't know when to stop
All you fellows gotta watch your wifes
'Cause Pete don't care who's meat he chops

Ever since Peter flew into town
He's been havin' a ball
Just cuttin' and choppin' for miles around
Single women, married women, old maids and all

Wakes up in the morning, half past five
Chops from sunrise to sunset
I don't see how he stays alive
Meat's gonna be the death of ole Pete, yeah

The police put Pete in jail
Yes, he finally met his faith
But when they came to pay his bail
They found him choppin' up his cell mate

That Butcher Pete is a crazy man
Tries to chop down the wind and the rain
Just hacks on anything he can get
Say, turn this record over, you ain't heard nothing yet
---

Bye choggie, *promote

A real man doesn't need a gun, he wacks interlopers with his mighty gonad.
>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:

>> ^gwiz665:
I am comforted by this.
>> ^kronosposeidon:
For the record, I don't own a gun. For what it's worth.


Comforted by the size of his member?

Japanese anime is RARLY (Rawly?) off the wall and strange. I can't really remember any in rescent memory (im an avid fansub watcher). It's their TV showes that are wacked out bonkers!

He's such a great role-model. Glad so many wack-jobs look up to him.

I think this game should be recommended for epilepsy testing.
If you can play that without getting a fit then you do not have epilepsy.

And I have to concur with Zyrxil... I mean what's up with not getting a perfect run. That is just wack.