Buffalo Boy's Blog
Giving You More Than Just My Two Cents
Recently in Science Category
O'Reilly Has Lost Any Credibility
I love this clip, Bill O'Reilly had David Silverman who is president of American Atheists who have been placing billboards stating that religion is a myth. Save yourself the time and just go straight to 1:51 of this clip where Bill O'Reilly tries to use the tides to make a case for God:Nevermind the debate over atheism vs. religion, everyone who has read this blog and read my posts on religion knows where I stand and either you are with me or you believe otherwise, thats all good and well, but O'Reilly lost this debate....Silverman should have stopped O'Reilly and asked him if he ever heard of the moon!!!!!! Everyday in the paper if you live along any significant body of water in the world you will find a section in the weather about the tides.....what causes the tides? THE MOON, they predict the tides and are completely accurate based on the moon.
O'Reilly should have lost any and all credibility after this segment, of course he won't and there was probably a bunch of FOX News brainwashed viewers going "Yeah man God makes the tides"....if you honestly believe that...then you need help. Lots of help.
Category: Science | Television | religion
Finally, Science Prevails
Federal funding for embryonic stem cell research is back and the Obama administration comes through early on its promise that science will prevail.
For eight long years, George W. Bush and his religious beliefs wrongly interfered with research on embryonic stem cells and prevented any progress from being made on potentially curing or at the very least improving the lives of spinal cord patients and who knows how many other people with other diagnoses that could benefit from stem cells.
Barack Obama signed an executive order overturning George W.'s ban on federal money going to stem cell research projects and that is good news.
For the religious whacks out there, Id rather save the person I know and love with a spinal cord injury than the already aborted and frozen embryo. Experiments have already been done in rats that have shown that after severing a rats spinal cord, they could inject with stem cells and the rat will regain lower extremity use after the introduction of stem cells.
That is science worth pursuing.
Atom Smasher a Good Thing?
This atom smasher sounds great on the surface and the scientists who are working on it are giving it glowing reviews about how much it could tell us but realistically, is it a good thing? Look, Im all for science. Science explains a lot of things from evolution to medicine, biology to zoology, and ultimately I think science explains away religion and creationism, but there are certain things like cloning, controlling the weather with rockets and chemicals and atom smashers made to tell us about the beginning of the universe that maybe should be left untouched. I understand what they want to do, but hopefully their quest for knowledge isn't blinding the potential negatives. They are not going to turn it on full blast for a few months to a year but when they do there is concern that this thing could trigger a black hole on Earth, that doesn't sound good. Now the negatives that are brought up are probably Y2K in nature, they will probably be hyped up and turn out to be nothing really, but if they are right, I think a lot of us would be wising Y2K were true instead. The article got me thinking of a Jeff Goldblum exchange in Jurassic Park:Category: Science
What A Dick
The EPA is an agency that is supposed to have been created by the federal government to protect human health, the air we breath, water, and the land on which we live. It began operations December 2nd, 1970. And it was doing a damn good job until 8 years ago when the Bush administration took office.
The latest report that will no doubt lend its hand to the horrendous enironmental legacy that this administration is leaving behind is the report out now that Dick Cheney's (from now on Im just going to call him Dick, if the shoe fits, wear it right?) office purposefully tried to and was successful in altering EPA testimony that would have shown adverse health effect to humans from CO2 and resultant global warming as per the Clean Air Act.
Isn't knowing that grounds for punishing this man with prison time? This is our air, our water, our land and they are preventing the EPA from protecting US, U.S.A. citizens from pollutants. From warning us of dangers to our health.
Its sad that there are people out there who are so brainwashed by this administration that they won't even recognize this as serious. This administration is more concerned about coorporate welfare than its own citizens and the environment in which we live.
These men at the top of this administration are as evil as the look on Dick's face up above. They are criminals and have used the White House as their own little lawless, coorporate backed, playground. 6 Months, 10 days till they are gone.
Category: Global Warming | News | Politics | Science | environment
Defending Ethanol
Brazil is set to defend its position and use of ethanol stating that if done right, ethanol can sustain energy needs. At a UN summit on food security, with all respect to South America and specifically Brazil, why is it that it is not the US doing the talking at this summit and teaching the world about its successful energy independence.
I think its sad. Even if not the US, why not Japan, China, Russia, or Canada? Some industrialized country should be taking the lead on this. But instead we bitch and argue over a treaty about how best to solve global warming and ignore high fuel prices. Instead we bitch about fuel prices and ignore the solutions.
We can all learn a thing or two from Brazil and the sooner we do, the better. I hope that our leaders in this country are listening. They certainly don't listen to us. Instead their ideas include drilling for more oil, which really, is what got us to this energy conundrum in the first place. Its time for our elected officials to step it up and promote this issue. There are times when the government has to force choices upon us for the good of the people and this is one of those times.
The problem is, as long as our president's last name is Bush or is a republican, we will continue with the same energy policies we have right now.
Category: News | Science | environment
Add Nigeria To The Forward Thinkers
Yes thats right, the African country of Nigeria is thinking as well, sorghum is going to be their pet project that they plan to have up and running by 2012.
They can harvest it 2-3 times per year and use only the stalks that are rich in sugar and it makes more ethanol per hectacre than sugar cane that the Brazilians use. It also has no effect on food prices.
Im not saying the US go and start growing sorghum but geez, for being supposedly the smartest, most powerful country in the world why can't we figure something out?
While we are talking about praying at the pump, removing gas taxes that obviously aren't doing anything because I honestly thought that those taxes were supposed to go towards exploration and development of fuel sources (or at least some of them were), these countries are making us look stupid and as our economy goes down the toilet, Nigeria and Brazil will be energy independent and prospering......
Food Shortages Hitting Home
Sam's Club is calling for limits on how much rice customers can buy due to food shortages. This is rice, not corn, who people are expecting to be the culprit due to bio fuels. Rice, its a staple in most peoples diets around the world.
It is also Sam's Club here in the USA, the richest country in the world that is starting to see a little of what is plaguing the rest of the world.
I hate to keep sounding down when I write about world issues like this and global warming and other environmental issues, but has anyone seen this stuff and actually started to think that maybe, just maybe we have hit a tipping point in terms of world population and what the earth can sustain?
We are at 6 billion right now give or take a few million. Realistically, its more if you take into consideration all the animals in captivity, family pets and wild animals that need to feed themselves. You do have to take them all into consideration because like it or not, humans are apart of the global ecology and its balance.
From oil to food and other raw materials, we are starting to see that maybe, we are starting to outstrip what this planet can sustain.
Category: News | Science | environment
How Scary Is This
A 13 year old boy corrected NASA. NASA had the Apophis asteroid at a 450,000:1 shot at hitting earth on April 13th 2029. Those are not the odds
The boy actually figured that the odds are 450:1 and after double checking the boy, NASA confirmed his calculations. Apophis will pass within 35,000 KM of earth, sounds like a lot, however, there are 40,000 satellites orbiting earth.
If it hits one of the satellites, he calculated that it will through the asteroid off course and on its next driveby in 2036, it would hit earth.
I just hope I get to retire and travel a little before it hits.
Prayers Do Not Replace Medical Science
Madeline Neumann of Weston, Wisconson was only 11 years old and with proper care for her diabetes would have lived a normal life. Instead her parents decided to ignore scientifc fact and medical care to pray for her health. Great choice. What did the prayers do? They killed her.
Her parents should be put on trial and serve jail time. This is a case of neglect and quite possibly murder. It should also be a case in point that maybe, just maybe there is no God. If there was, don't you think he would have answered these prayers? I wonder how much the parents believe in religion now?
This article helps prove that empirical and scientific evidence be it medical or any other field or profession that involves making informed decisions should always trump faith. The parents should have known better.
I realize these parents are in the minority religious nut jobs of the world but it is a dangerous and growing population of this country that thinks the way they do.
The daughter in this case, hadn't seen a doctor since 3 years old, she was 11 when she died. Faith can kill if put in the wrong place. The parents believe they did nothing wrong, well, look it up folks, because when you go to trial the jury will convict you of something called neglect and realistically, it should be murder. The parents, despite their intentions belong in jail and that my friends can not be argued.
Category: News | Science | healthcare | religion
330 Miles Per Gallon?!?!
According to this article I read on How Stuff Works the Aptera gets an incredible 330 miles to the gallon. It is being developed by a small company of 15 individuals who are trying to design the most fuel efficient car. They have a few kinks to work out but once they do this baby could be mass marketed.
At a reasonable price, who wouldn't sign up for that? I know I would. Even with my current little rice burning Toyota Corolla I feel a pinch at current prices with fill ups now routinely costing me around $40. I fill up about once a week. Add that up over a year and im spending about $13 more per fill up than I was last year at this time. Thats over $600 more per year Im spending.
Now take this Aptera deal. With how much I drive, I had an oil change around December 14th. I am just now approaching 2900 miles. Based on an 11.5 gallon tank at 330 miles per gallon, I would get approximately 3795 miles per tank. I would have to change my oil before I ran out of gas.
Most of us would buy into that. There are those who say they would buy only Chevy or Ford or whatever car company they have been loyal to, but If someone told you that gas prices were as high as they are now and you have the option to fill your 11 gallon tank up 4 times a year, Im in. The makers of this say it was for their concern for the environment. Even if you have no concerns about the environment and don't believe in global warming, most of us have concerns about our wallet which would be good enough reason to look into this option.
