Free Time? What's That?? (Oh, And Don't Forget The 2 New Blogs In The Blogroll)

Techne, a new contributer to Telic Thoughts, has an interesting blog called The Teleomechanist. I say interesting loosely because I've only had a chance to skim through it briefly; I need some free time to give it the attention it deserves.

Anyhoo, The Teleomechanist has been added to my blog roll, and it is getting long! I may have to do a re-organisation of my blogroll closet soon (again, need free time which I do not have much of).

Oh, and I also added the Dilbert blog, too. Can't be an engineering blog without it! ;)

UPDATE 02 December 2008: 2nd attempt of re-organising done. I'm probably going to piss off everyone with this, but keep in mind this is not final, especially with all the distractions going on around the house.

Calling All Engineers Who Want To Be A Part Of Evolution Engineered!

As to be expected when your chosen profession is engineering, work has a tendency to become insanely busy, which it recently has. Couple that with house issues (one of which may make an interesting post, once it becomes resolved) and family life, and I find myself with very little time for posting and/or commenting here at EE.

I am very pleased with how EE has developed during its short existence. There have been several excellent and lively discussions (sometimes too lively!). So much so that I have not had the time to properly investigate some commenters claims.

I have come to the conclusion that EE has become such a sucess that it is too much for one practicing engineer to maintain. Therefore, I am putting out a call for any interested engineers who wish to post here at EE. I don't care if you're on one side or the other; I believe I have more than demonstrated my tolerance for hearing out both sides. I want to hear what engineers think about evolution and ID.

For those interested in writing posts for EE, email me at JJS.PEng@gmail.com

Lest We Forget

I apologise for the lateness of this.

This post is dedicated to current and former soldier who fought, and still fight, for the freedom we enjoy.

I Couldn't Have Say It Any Better...

"...natural selection doesn't "produce" anything. As Darwin himself wrote to his friend Charles Lyell, natural selection preserves certain forms and eliminates others. The real "engine" of change in biology is not natural selection, but rather the "engines of variation" that produce the blizzard of new forms, a few of whom survive and reproduce."

-Allen MacNeill @ TT
IMO, Allen MacNeill is absolutely correct. Natural selection cannot create/design anything. It is merely a filter.

My One (and Hopefully Only) Post on Global Warming

A couple of days ago, author Michael Crichton passed away. He was a gifted storyteller and someone who was not easily swayed by mainstream thinking. I particularly enjoyed reading one of his speeches from 2003 called "Aliens Cause Global Warming". As my salute to Michael Crichton, I present his speech to you for your reading enjoyment.

Outside the Box, Back in the Blogroll

I once had the blog, Outside the Box (OtB), on my blogroll to the right, but removed it due to lack of updates. I can see now that was a mistake on my part. That is an error that is quickly corrected. OtB has made its return to the EE blogroll (which is getting quite large actually!).

With that done, I found several interesting posts @ OtB regarding the reasons for his belief (parts four and five to come). I encourage you all to read them and post comments, should you feel the need, just keep them clean.

Here are some excerpts I found interesting...

"...the arguments from fine-tuning, no matter how intuitively they point to a Creator, can never prove the existence of God. For me and many others, however, Occam’s razor (the logical construct which says, “All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best”) leads us to a strong likelihood of a “superintellect” First Cause. The alternate explanations, while plausible, are complex and lack evidence. It is my view that the simplest solution is to credit fine tuning to the hand of the Designer, Planner, and Creator of the universe."
-Cliff Martin, "Reasons: I. Finely-Tuned Cosmos"

"Well, a priori [reasoning from cause to effect] one should expect that the world would be rendered lawful [obedient to law and order] only to the extent that we [human beings] intervene with our ordering intelligence... [But instead we find] in the objective world a high degree of order that we were a priori in no way authorized to expect. This is the ‘miracle’ that is strengthened more and more with the development of our knowledge."
-quote from Albert Einstein as posted by Cliff Martin, "Reasons: II. Ordered Universe"

"Denton uses the term “directed evolution” to help answer the inevitable questions about how complexity of such staggering proportions could ever come to self-organize. Mike Gene suggests another term, which I prefer: front loaded evolution. Both of these theorists have proposed that the incredibly elaborate machinery inside the cell, machinery composed of variously shaped protein molecules specified by RNA blueprints, demand a designer. Not the designer of the Intelligent Design theorists who propose a designer for complex organisms. Rather, the designer of the DNA process which is capable of building such organisms over time through the processes Darwin described."
-Cliff Martin, "Reasons: III. Markers of Intelligence"

It's November, and That Means...

...it's time for post-season football, Canadian style!

Unfortunately, one of my Canadian teams was eliminated today. The University of Saskatchewan Huskies fell to the Simon Fraser Clan (no that is not a typo, there is actually a team named "the Clan") 40-30.

However, the defending Grey Cup champions, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, have clinched home field for the CFL Western Semi-Finals next Saturday against the B.C. Lions. LET'S GO!!! RIDERS!!!

I'm hoping they repeat because my American teams ain't doing squat! Michigan just got eliminated from bowl contention today and the Seahawks are cursed with injuries.