In Case You Haven't Noticed...

... I have tried to steer my blog, Evolution Engineered (EE), towards more engineering topics. The posts, Redundancy - A Mark of Design? and WTC7 & ID have been, in my opinion, very successful in terms of providing stimulating and entertaining discussions. I hope to continue this trend in future posts, but I also reserve the right to post on stuff that interest me (call it the blogger's home field advantage).

I hope you continue to enjoy visiting and commenting at EE.

Information Theory Post at PT

I'd like to think that I have a reputation of being fair to both sides of the ID/evolution debate, giving credit and criticisms where due.

That said, I enjoyed a recent post at Panda's Thumb by PvM entitled "Information Content of DNA" (see my blog roll at the right). I found the post to be interesting and fair. I would have preferred more details (i.e. equations, reference papers) to support the claims made, but I'm sure someone will point me in the right direction.

As some of you know, I believe Information Theory is a key area of interest/research in biology and could help shed light on the ID/evolution debate. The tricky part is determining exactly what constitutes information in biology, something the PT post commented on.

Critical Thinking

From a post at Mike Gene's blog. I particularly like numbers 2 and 4:

"2. understand and define terms (make others define terms, too)

4. question the conclusion: do the facts support it? is there evidence of bias? remember correlation does not equal causation."

Free Plug For AcademicFreedomBlog

I like the blog AcademicFreedomBlog so much that it is part of my blog roll at the right. Like Tom Gilson at Thinking Christian (another free plug!), I find Dr. Mc's commentary to be even-handed and level-headed.

In the latest post, Baraminology and Pseudoscience, Dr. Mc made some, what I will call, in-your-face comments; direct and brutally honest (IMHO):

"The current classification structure of genus (meaning general) and species (meaning specific) is bankrupt.I don’t think that’s too strong a statement, since after hundreds of years of use a clear definition of what a "species" is has not emerged. Take for instance the coyote ( Canis latrans), the gray wolf (Canis lupus), and the black backed jackal (Canis mesomelas). They are classified as three different species in the genus Canis, yet domesticated dogs of any description are all considered to be the same species (Canis familiaris). The term virtually has no meaning. So why haven’t scientists abandoned this antiquated classification system, developed by an 18th century creationist, in favor of a more precise one? Because fuzzy boundaries serve evolution theory well. If clear boundaries are discovered between classifications of organisms, then that lends support to creationism and undermines evolution. So science is not allowed to advance in that direction! In order to keep baraminology as pseudoscience, we must live with pseudospecies."

I would encourage you to make any comments you feel are necessary over at AcademicFreedomBlog. I am too busy at work to follow the comments at EE (with the exception of this one).

Paging Dr. Heddle (or Some Other Physicist-Type Person)!

Thanks to a lack of posts that I feel I can competently comment on or are worth commenting on (I blame you UD and AtBC!), I was wandering down one of my favourite site, What You Ought to Know, and watched the episode, Gravity, You Failed Us.

I want to know two things:

1. Explain in layman terms - or maybe undergrad physics terms - what the big deal is with solving for a Three-Body System, and

2. Is there something to this "Electric Universe" thingy?

Feel free to discuss here,

Cooption Confirmed?

I'll just point you to Mike Gene's blog post and you can come back and discuss here.

WTC7 and ID

During the comments of a recent post, it was suggested I look into the collapse of WTC7 from September 11, 2001. A theory going around the web suggested that the collapse was due to a controlled demolition. Not being a big fan of conspiracy theories (which this sounded like one to me), I was skeptical, but I looked into it and found this briefing from the National Institute of Standards and Testing (NIST) dated August 21, 2008. The following is from the linked briefing:

Determining the probable collapse sequence for WTC 7, NIST found that the impact of debris from the collapse of WTC 1 ignited fires on at least 10 floors of WTC 7, and the fires burned out of control on six lower floors. The heat from these uncontrolled fires caused thermal expansion of the steel beams on the lower floors of the east side of WTC 7, damaging the floor framing on multiple floors. Eventually, a girder on Floor 13 lost its connection to a critical interior column that provided support for the long floor spans on the east side of the building. The displaced girder and other local fire-induced damage caused Floor 13 to collapse, beginning a cascade of floor failures down to the fifth floor. Many of these floors had already been at least partially weakened by the fires in the vicinity of the critical column. This collapse of floors left the critical column unsupported over nine stories.

“When this critical column buckled due to lack of floor supports, it was the first domino in the chain,” Sunder explained. “What followed in rapid succession was a progression of structural failures. Failure first occurred all the way to the roof line—involving all three interior columns on the most eastern side of the building. Then, progressing from east to west across WTC 7, all of the columns in the core of the building failed. Finally, the entire façade collapsed.”

The investigation team considered the possibility of other factors playing a role in the collapse of WTC 7, including the possible use of explosives, fires fed by the fuel supply tanks in and under the building, and damage from the falling debris of WTC 1.

The team said that the smallest blast event capable of crippling the critical column would have produced a “sound level of 130 to 140 decibels at a distance of half a mile,” yet no noise this loud was reported by witnesses or recorded on videos.

As for fuel fires, the team found that they could not have been sustained long enough, could not have generated sufficient heat to fail a critical column, and/or would have produced “large amounts of visible smoke” from Floors 5 and 6, which was not observed.

Finally, the report notes that “while debris impact from the collapse of WTC 1 initiated fires in WTC 7, the resulting structural damage had little effect in causing the collapse of WTC 7.”

A chain of probable causes was discovered and laid out in detail by the NIST investigative team. The bottom line: the evidence did NOT point towards controlled demolition.

This parallels the situation of ID: how can we determine if design is a legitimate explanation? At first glance, it may look like design, but peer deeper into the details, and the design may show itself to be an illusion.

Mike Gene has laid out how we may investigate our suspicions in The Design Matrix, but he leaves it at the investigation stage. This is perhaps due in part to ID being "a nascent protoscience".

So let's open the floor for comments. The theme is "By purpose or by accident: how can we tell?"

Welcome to BLOG-O-RAMA-RA-MA!

It is BLOG-O-RAMA-RA-MA time! The rules are simple: how many posts and comments can I do in a 48-hour period?

Remember, it's not just any old blog-o-rama: it's BLOG-O-RAMA-RA-MA!!!

Post Count:
1. WTC7 and ID
2. Cooption Confirmed?
3. Paging Dr. Heddle...

Comment Count:
1. EE (yes, my blog counts too) ;P
2. Thought Provoker
3. Thinking Christian
4. Exiled From GROGGS
5. EE
6. EE
7. EE
8. EE
9. Reasonable Kansans
10. Coincidence Theories
11. EE
12. Reasonable Kansans
13. Reasonable Kansans
14. Coincidence Theories
15. Coincidence Theories
16. EE
17. EE
18. EE
19. Coincidence Theories
20. Coincidence Theories
21. EE

Paging Dr. Phil (Plait That Is)

Many of you may have noticed a link I have to Dr. Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy site that debunks the Moon Landing Hoax theory quite nicely. Well, I have a bone to pick with Dr. Phil.

It's kil-AW-met-er, not KILL-o-mee-ter. So :P

And those "right-thinking people" who applauded you either don't follow hockey (which means they're not real Canadians) or they're geeks who live in their mother's basement own little world. So double :P

And yes I know I'm just a little bit late in responding to this, but hey, this makes a good "unofficial" start to BLOG-O-RAMA-RA-MA*, eh?

The comments for this post are reserved for humourous verbal smackdowns (but leave yo' mama out of it).

*Just for Dr. Phil, it's pronounced BLAWG-OH-RAHMAH-RAH-MAH

BLOG-O-RAMA-RA-MA This Saturday!!

It's not very often I have time to roam the blogosphere and leave comments here and there. This Saturday (and possibly this weekend) will be one of those times.

So I'm having fun with this. I hereby christen this weekend BLOG-O-RAMA-RA-MA! Tune in for comments galore and maybe even a post or two!

BLOG-O-RAMA-RA-MA! Buy all our playsets and toys!

Side note: I am disabling comment moderation on a trial basis. Your comments should be appearing in real-time now.

UPDATE: It has occured to me that many may ask "What exactly is BLOGORAMARAMA?" I will set up a post listing all the comments I've left behind at various blogs on Saturday night (maybe I'll cheat and start Friday). Any bets I can make 100?