Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Gawdawful · 07-01-2003, 11:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Taffer
I say we give him this to play with and start educating him from there.

I've had that open in a window for the last seven hours, I've managed to get 6 satellites to stay in a stable orbit for about six hours now. Highly entertaining little program. Thanks. Simple pleasure for a simple mind.

Warren in Oklahoma

[Edited to add: P.S. I can't seem to get one to stay at L-5. ]

PandaJoe · 07-02-2003, 12:56 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by lpetrich 1. The exact distance of the Earth from the Sun.

If 5% closer, the water would all boil off.

If 1% further away, all the oceans would freeze.

Charles Darwin would have a chuckle at that -- the Earth seems precisely positioned because it is the only planet in the Solar System that can allow us to exist.

Isn't our orbit elliptical anyways? I think we're about 3% closer at perihelion than at aphelion, and there isn't anything close to boiling or freezing, so isn't this just pure BS?

Kthulhu · 07-02-2003, 01:23 AM

Quote:

God shows us how to profit

Wow! We've solved the Underpants Gnome's conundrum from Soutpark! Previously it was:

Step 1: Collect underpants
Step 2: ????
Step 3: Profit

Now we know it's:

Step 1: Collect underpants

Step 2: PRAISE JEBUS

Step 3: Profit

Whew! I feel better!

~ The Thing That Should Not Be

lpetrich · 07-02-2003, 09:02 PM

How can the "message sender" (DNA) and the "message receiver" (RNA) both evolve by chance on exactly the same frequency? Impossible!

The tired old "god-or-chance" dichotomy. The reason that DNA and RNA can fit together and hybridize, as it's called, is because DNA is a derivative of RNA -- DNA's nucleotides are even manufactured from RNA's ones, by ribonucleotide reductases or RNR's. There's also some enzyme that turns the RNA-to-DNA nucleotides' uracil into thymine, but I can't track it down at the moment.

One often has to marvel at creationist scientific illiteracy and arrogance.

Worldtraveller · 07-03-2003, 07:05 AM

Quote:

QueenofSwords�s log, Stardate 0630.3. These are the voyages of the starship Nutwatch. Its continuing mission : to explore strange delusions, to seek out new rants and new inanities, and to boldly go where no skeptic has gone before, because this week, we do a Warp 10 past

Best Nutwatch Intro.....EVER!! :notworthy :notworthy

-Lane

07-02-2003, 09:02 PM	#24
lpetrich Contributor Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Lebanon, OR, USA Posts: 16,829	Taking on the creationism part... How can the "message sender" (DNA) and the "message receiver" (RNA) both evolve by chance on exactly the same frequency? Impossible! The tired old "god-or-chance" dichotomy. The reason that DNA and RNA can fit together and hybridize, as it's called, is because DNA is a derivative of RNA -- DNA's nucleotides are even manufactured from RNA's ones, by ribonucleotide reductases or RNR's. There's also some enzyme that turns the RNA-to-DNA nucleotides' uracil into thymine, but I can't track it down at the moment. One often has to marvel at creationist scientific illiteracy and arrogance.

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