#56631: — 01/06  at  11:18 AM
http://home.bluemarble.net/~heartcom/inthebeginning.html

I'm hoping that this is bad science, are there any rebukes to this tale?

#56648: Skip Huffman — 01/06  at  12:17 PM
You better get a good server, cause we are coming!

#56659: Heliologue — 01/06  at  12:44 PM
[flamebait]
Is the new server going to be an x86-64 server running Linux instead of this Mac nonsense?
[/flamebait]

#56665: — 01/06  at  01:21 PM
So if the right-wing version of this problem is an Instalanche, what do we call this- Kostration?

#56670: Skip Huffman — 01/06  at  01:32 PM
Well I have always heard the general term of <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slashdotted> Slash Dot Effect</a>.

#56675: Heliologue — 01/06  at  01:42 PM
People like to self-aggrandize (Digg Effect, Instalanche, etc), but the phenomenon is and always will be a "/. effect", as it was the first and still the most deadly melter of server.

#56679: — 01/06  at  01:54 PM
jack

Its fiction ... and really old fiction at that. Even most of the Creationists (AIG for example) have admitted that the moon dust argument shouldn't be used.

Check out http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/moon-dust.html

#56688: Mike Nilsen — 01/06  at  02:17 PM
Nah, PZ's waiting for a shiny, new Quad Mactel. Actually, he probably should get an octuple processor box: the new Mac Cephalopod.

#56692: — 01/06  at  02:33 PM
Yep-- I just blew the entire morning reading those Koslandistan comments, but couldn't manage an edgewise word over there. A fine and bracing Friday smackdown it was, PZ!
Thanks again for the bio-cosmic encouragement in these depressingly neo-militant-goatherding times.

#56699: Arun — 01/06  at  03:09 PM
PZ Myers:

I thought this might be of interest to you:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/murphy/murphy101.html

Regards,
-Arun

#56708: — 01/06  at  04:01 PM
<#56631: jack — 01/06 at 11:18 AM
http://home.bluemarble.net/~heartcom/inthebeginning.html

I'm hoping that this is bad science, are there any rebukes to this tale? >

Jack, it is mostly rubbish and that which isn't is twisted. I suggest that you could better find answers at Bad Astronomy. http://www.badastronomy.com

Sorry, I don't know how to make the link active.

Trackback: PZ Myers on The Daily Kos Tracked on: Telic Thoughts (217.157.179.11) at 2006 01 06 16:32:59
DarkSyde from The Daily Kos has an interview with biologist Paul Z. Myers, titled "Interview with a Mad Scientist". PZ runs the blog Pharyngula, where his gentle being and incisive analyses have won the hearts and minds of everyone here at Telic Thoughts.

#56714: — 01/06  at  04:47 PM
Intelligence exists only in living things as far as I know. It has evolved in some higher order animals to provide a more generalized decison-making ability. In every case it has but one function. Animals with intelligence can generalize to some extent about the problems they are faced with and come up with more adaptive solutions than animals that depend on genetic programming alone.

It has the same purpose as all survival mechanisms: to enhance those animals' ability to survive long enough to reproduce and send their DNA into the next generation with a good chance of doing the same. There are no other examples of or uses for intelligence that I have ever heard of.

ID proposes that some being with an apparently vast power of creation has somehow acquired intelligence. But if intelligence is for survival and ultimately for reproduction - why would it be given to a being that was immortal and didn't need to reproduce?

Perhaps our intelligent designer was created by a dumb designer who really screwed up. Yeah, that makes sense.

At the least I think my theory deserves equal time in science classrooms in Texas. Anybody want to sign up for my DD movement?

#56739: — 01/06  at  07:02 PM
Have you considered setting up a "Buy Pharyngula.org A New Server" Paypal account? I know I would contribute.

#56741: The Rev. Schmitt. — 01/06  at  07:10 PM
'Usually soft spoken'? Our Dr Myers? Bad KOS!

-The Rev. Schmitt.

Trackback: Pharyngula Tracked on: Jorge Rodriguez's Online Journal (216.32.83.124) at 2006 01 06 19:59:52
Heather linked me to a blog called Pharyngula written by Dr. Paul Z. Myers. I know what you're thinking, "Pharynwhat?" I don't know what it is either. But he was interviewed and I found it a very interesting read, despite the fact that I really don't h...

#56753: Ian Gibson — 01/06  at  08:41 PM
I suspect my anti-religious stance might give a few of our administrators' ulcers

No you don't - you suspect that Helicobacter pylori might give a few of your administrators ulcers!

#56795: — 01/07  at  02:30 AM
Hey PZ, I know I don't comment often, but I'd love to see a thread devoted to the best (worst?) hate mail you've gotten.

If this thing here in my home state (texas) gets any worse, any chance you'd come down to give the straight dope?