So very true... Dan Brown's writing is scarily bad. As Geoffrey K. Pullum wrote:

"Brown's writing is not just bad; it is staggeringly, clumsily, thoughtlessly, almost ingeniously bad. In some passages scarcely a word or phrase seems to have been carefully selected or compared with alternatives. I slogged through 454 pages of this syntactic swill, and it never gets much better. Why did I keep reading? Because London Heathrow is a long way from San Francisco International, and airline magazines are thin, and two-month-old Hollywood drivel on a small screen hanging two seats in front of my row did not appeal, that's why. And why did I keep the book instead of dropping it into a Heathrow trash bin? Because it seemed to me to be such a fund of lessons in how not to write."

His full reviews of Brown are great:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000844.html

The thumbnail image for this video has been updated - thumbnail added by saber2x.

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

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

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

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

Okay, up front: I'm a vision scientist. I've also read Behe's arguments re: the irreducible complexity of vision. It's odd the way the introduction to this video characterizes his argument. Everything it says regarding the evolution of vision is correct. It is so accepted in fact that Behe even lays it out in his paper. He openly admits how easy it is to get from the eyespots on a mollusk to the human eye. He lays out all the steps, and explains how advantages are conferred at each stage, and thus how it is conceivable that such a thing could have evolved.

Behe, as a biochemist, was most concerned with how it is one gets to the simple eyespot in the first place. The biochemical machinery required for phototransduction is extraordinarily complicated. Many of the substances involved are in fact toxic to cells, and special mechanisms are needed to safely quarantine them. The process relies on extremely complicated proteins, for instance opsin barrels precisely tuned in order to create the appropriate energy barriers to 11-cis retinal isomerization. There are a multitude of other chemicals involved, which I won't go into, but frankly most are required for phototransduction as we know it.

Now, I agree, Behe is guilty of other logical problems, for instance poverty of imagination != QED, but he is well aware of the evolution of the gross anatomical aspects of the human eye. His critique of the blind watchmaker centered on the biochemistry of the eye, and it would be better if the video did as well. Instead, by writing him off as a "pseudoscientific" fraud, or similar ad hominem attacks, they are guilty of equivalent logical fallacies, and should be given equivalent respect. The guy is actually a scientist, with publications in journals such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Journal of Molecular Biology, and the Journal of Biophysiology, on topics like DNA and protein structure. Frankly, unless there is a CV somewhere I can see for these qualia-soup people, Behe has them trumped on credentials, so they might avoid the ad hominem, and critique the substance of the actual arguments put forth.

A slight correction: according to this article listed on her blog, she began losing her hearing at around 18. She waited 10 years before this opportunity to get the implant.

Regardless, it must've felt like being reunited with an old friend, long thought dead. Very moving.

>> ^therealblankman:
>> ^ForgedReality:
Guys, in their defense, horse mint does actually look somewhat like marijuana plants. The ones they show in this video are not horse mint.

No, horsemint looks nothing like marijuana, it looks like horsemint.
http://www.ci.loveland.co.us/wp/xeriscape/Photos/horsemint_july.jpg
Moving on...


A quick Google image search turns up nothing that looks even vaguely like marijuana.

>> ^ForgedReality:

Guys, in their defense, horse mint does actually look somewhat like marijuana plants. The ones they show in this video are not horse mint.


No, horsemint looks nothing like marijuana, it looks like horsemint.

http://www.ci.loveland.co.us/wp/xeriscape/Photos/horsemint_july.jpg

Moving on...

Maybe I'm a "bigot" but at least I'm saying the truth. The truth that many Americans are too butthurt to utter. You can ad hominem me all you like but deep in your heart you know I'm right. Also, can't argue with facts baby. As I told you, I'm speaking from my experience and I'm not judging that which I have not encountered. (inb4 series of downvotes from people who are not from CIS)

"Wow... how scientific of you.

I wonder what people would generalize about your bigoted ways."

afaik, emergency rooms 'do' have to treat illegal immigrants for free, with the state or hospital typically footing the bill

anyway, i'm not a tax lawyer, etc, but i did a little digging and found this... which i guess is a bit troubling... the gist of which is that it appears possible that a 'loophole' in hr3200 could have illegal immigrants included because of a difference in definitions between the ins and the irs

"The controversy over immigrants and taxes generally centers on illegal immigrants. Reliable numbers are hard to find, but researchers generally agree that 50 to 60 percent of illegal immigrants nationwide work for employers who withhold income taxes and Social Security and Medicare payments from their paychecks. The authors of the Urban Institute study assumed 55 percent do. To get jobs, many of those immigrants use false Social Security numbers. That means they pay into the Social Security system for benefits they will never receive and pay income taxes without ever filing a return to determine whether they have overpaid."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/04/AR2006060400965.html

"H.R. 3200 includes an individual mandate to have health insurance, with tax penalties for
noncompliance. Individuals who do not maintain acceptable health insurance coverage for
themselves and their children would be required to pay an additional tax. Some individuals,
including nonresident aliens, would be exempt from the individual mandate. “Nonresident alien”
is a term under tax but not immigration law. For federal tax purposes, alien individuals are
classified as resident or nonresident aliens. In general, an individual is a nonresident alien unless
he or she meets the qualifications under a residency test. Thus, legal permanent residents, and
noncitizens and unauthorized aliens who qualify as resident aliens (i.e., meet the substantial
presence test), would be required under H.R. 3200 to have health insurance."

http://www.cis.org/articles/2009/CRS_Report_on_HR3200.pdf

"You will be considered a U.S. resident for tax purposes if you meet the substantial presence test for the calendar year. To meet this test, you must be physically present in the United States on at least:
31 days during the current year, and
183 days during the 3-year period that includes the current year and the 2 years immediately before that, counting:
All the days you were present in the current year, and
1/3 of the days you were present in the first year before the current year, and
1/6 of the days you were present in the second year before the current year."

so, would an immigrant who has illegally spent 181 days in 2009, 3 days in 2008, and 6 days in 2007 in the us be considered a resident alien, and thus covered by hr3200? or could he just spend 183 days in the us illegally during the past year to be covered?

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=96352,00.html

anyway, food for thought... and not a tacit excuse for wilson's lack of decorum

Interesting how all the witness flight paths differ. And, coincidentally, they all show a flight path that starts "directly over their own heads" and continues in a straight line to the impact zone. Doesn't sound at all suspicious to me that all witnesses interviewed claim the plane flew directly over their heads.

Now, the conflicting eye witness reports are used as evidence against the digitally recorded data and the physical evidence of downed light poles? And what about the damn surveillance video SHOWING THE PLANE APPROACHING THE BUILDING IMMEDIATELY BEFORE THE EXPLOSION? Hmm...

In my opinion, people have unrealistic expectations form watching too many CIS/Forensic Detective shows. Truthfully, we do not have the ability to predict every physical interaction and result from a collission of that magnatude. Any number of physcial reactions could have taken place to account for the aftermath as it was observed in the days and weeks following the collision. Certainly amateur attempts to produce data the supports preconceived ideas is to be handled with some skepticism.

Personally, I find the conspiracy theories concerning this event pretty insulting. But I suppose once Buzz Aldrin started punching people it wasn't fun anymore to make up moon landing conspiracies.

I have emailed this police department to encourage some action. Here are the details in case anyone else wants to follow it up and remind them that we do care about people...

Region 11
Carlos Mestas 559/585-4731 559/585-4710 Hanford Police Department
Term 3-11 425 N. Irwin Street
Hanford, CA 93230
Email: cmestas@ci.hanford.ca.us

Je n'ai jamais apprécié de ne pas Izzard.