Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Front Row Seat to an Execution

King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz. (2002 photo)Image via Wikipedia
This article brought back memories of some trips to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  Occasionally there would be an article in the Jeddah paper about a public execution that had occurred the Friday before. What made the whole thing macabre was the beheading took place at the end of a Muslim worship service.

I was told that if westerners attended, they made a point of putting them in the front row, where they'd get a real good look at Saudi-style justice.

The image came to mind of a Southern Baptist service in the US or Canada ending with announcements: "at the end of the service today, we will be beheading brother Bob for adultery. Please stick around, if you can. We'll be serving strawberries and cream on the lawn afterwards...."

I just can't understand the mind that uncritically celebrates multiculturalism. To me the unwillingness to differentiate among religions and cultures is an abnegation of rationality. I suspect what is at work in many cases is an effort to deny the supremacy of one particular culture --  western judeo-christianity.

Meanwhile, raise a glass to multiculturalism, and give the sheik a wave -- "see you at the beheading"!
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Quote of the Day: "Those Who are Attracted to Atheism are First Repelled by Theism”

Dr. Alister McGrath poses for a picture while ...Image via Wikipedia
"History strongly suggests that those who are attracted to atheism are first repelled by theism." -- Alistair McGrath.

The Church's message is not, "look at us". It is look at Christ. The Christian's message is not, "look at me". It is look at Jesus.

"Christ as King of Kings". A Russian...Image via Wikipedia
When I became a Christian, it was not because I was attracted to the Church. I did find my New Testament professor an attractive person, but he was the exception. What I was attracted to was the person of Christ. He is the idealist's best friend, and the moral perfectionist's best hope. When I looked at him, the gap between "is" and "ought" made perfect sense.

Dissatisfied with the "is" of your life? Look to the "Ought".

You want to see moral perfection? Look at Christ. You want to see God-at-work? Look at Christ. Want to hear words of wisdom? Listen to Christ. Want to see a man who loves God with all his heart, mind, soul, and body? Look at Christ. Now, look at him on the cross.

Do you want to see evidence of the saving power of God at work -- the power of God to overcome the evil of this life and "make things right"? Look at Christ raised from the dead, ascended, and seated on high. Do you want reason to hope that evil will be finally overcome? Look to Christ, the soon-coming King of Kings and Lord of Lords who will establish the rule and dominion of God on this earth.

Speaking of dominion, do you want to know what Canada's destiny is? "He shall have dominion from sea to sea."

"We preach not ourselves, but Christ crucified".

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Monday, August 30, 2010

Me, me, me... that's me!

Journey into the Mind of an Islamic TerroristImage via Wikipedia
The National Post headline: Friends of Montreal terror suspect baffled by arrest -- "They say Khurram Sher is a peaceful, likeable, funny guy".

Peaceful?

that's me.

Likeable?

me.

Funny guy?
me...

I'm really close...

Yikes! I fit the profile of an (accused) Islamic terrorist!

This story reminds me of the serial killer/cannibal next door stories -- the astonished disbelieving neighbors invariably say the perp was a quiet, likeable, ordinary guy.

Bonus points to Ball Bounces readers -- what movie is the above dialog riffing?
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"You Prepare A Table Before Me"

The first few hydrogen atom electron orbitals ...Image via Wikipedia
Ball Bounces contributor PatJ's take on fine-tuning:
The universe is 880,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 metres across, and in all of it, there is one tiny spot, a region less than 4,000m thick on the surface of a tiny sphere, where you could survive (most of that surface covered by water that would drown you in minutes, so cold you would freeze to death in an hour, or so dry you would desiccate in days). The rest of the universe is dominated by extremely dissociated hydrogen gas, and bombarded by cosmic rays. (There may be other, similar small areas where you could survive, but none within a reachable distance, of course). But that only accounts for less than 5% of the universe mass, as most is less ordered than the hydrogen atom. The universe is at least 13,750,000,000 years old, our sun less than 5,000,000,000 years, the planet only slightly younger, and an atmosphere with sufficient oxygen that you do not asphyxiate instantly less than 2,500,000,000 years. Your oldest relatives that could even loosely be termed “hominid” developed less than 2,000,000 years ago. Your religion was invented less than 2,000 years ago, and you, I suspect, are less than 100 years old. 
So less than a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of the universe is habitable by you, and your life span is a billionth of the life span of the universe. But somehow it is all about you. How self-deluded and self-important do you have to be?
My response:

First, I want to thank PatJ for his contribution, and commend him for his knowledge of science.

As usual, it is not the facts on the table, but how they are interpreted (and why there is a table in the first place!).

The facts presented are entirely in keeping with a God who is a) Big, i.e., operates on a scale that is unimaginably bigger than we are, b) in no hurry, i.e., has all the time in the world since he made both the world and time itself, and, c) wanted to give us something marvel-worthy.  Even atheists agree that the heavens are a marvel.

As for it being about "me".

It's not about "me", but the marvel that there is a "me", i.e., a self-conscious soul peeking out of the molecules to do the marvelling.

It's about Christ, the Logos, by whom all things were made, who sustains the universe moment by moment, and for whom all things were made.

Now, I cannot help the fact that God loved this world wrecked by sin -- that's his choice, not mine. But, I'm not going to let that stop me from signing-on to his offer and program, as countless others have done and will I trust yet do.

In the book of Revelation there is a wonderful picture of the countless multitudes who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, and who have thus been made worthy of God Himself.  They are engaged in the wonder not merely of creation but also of redemption. The gospel is not just praise-worthy, when properly understood, it is gasp-worthy. One of the things I like to say about it is that it is "too good not to be true", by which I mean, no human would or could invent such a story of human unworthiness and divine sacrifice and all the paradoxes and table-turning that takes place at the Cross.

I don't know how many are in the countless multitudes standing washed in the blood of the Lamb, but we are well on our way to reaching the quota. Let's not forget that when this prophecy was given, Christianity was, as its critics are wont to point out, an obscure, insignificant movement that numbered in the hundreds or low thousands at most -- so insignificant that it barely, but just, shows up in official records of the day.  A pretty brave prognosis by the politically powerless John exiled on the Isle of Patmos for the word of God.

And yet his prophecy is all part of the arrow of divine purpose launched in Genesis and which culminates in the book of Revelation -- a narrative in whose shadow we all live our lives, whether wittingly or unwittingly, willingly or unwillingly.

So, no, it's not about me. I didn't make the table, and I didn't set the table. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to eat what's on the table.
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Sunday, August 29, 2010

Quote of the Day: "The second half of the double dip yawns before us like the Grand Canyon"

Philadelphia - Old City: Second Bank of the Un...Image by wallyg via Flickr

 The USA is in trouble. As Conrad Black writes in the National Post:
The United States is blundering through its fourth consecutive failed presidency, and the economic apocalypse that is about to occur may be the only way, since decades of less soul-shaking opportunities have been squandered, of restoring America and its headship of state, to the practical and moral strength of former times.
America’s problems are not imperial overreach, or social decay, which have brought down the world’s previous leading nations and peoples; they are profound but corrigible public-policy errors. The nation was transformed into a white-collar fool’s paradise, where lawyers bill $1-trillion a year, manufacturing departs and too few people are actually doing anything useful. The result: no saving, little investment and instant gratification on borrowed money.  
The United States now is in a shockingly deteriorated condition. It is debt-ridden, hobbled by grievous failings in honesty of government, integrity of the justice system, competitiveness of the education system, anomalies in immigration policy, insupportable health-care costs, a presidency that has almost no credibility, a foreign policy that has foundered on the appeasement of Iran (as well as absurd nostrums such as the pursuit of a non-nuclear world and the war on global warming) and an economic policy that has been an epochal failure. The second half of the double dip yawns before us like the Grand Canyon, and it will be deeper and longer than the first, until leadership provides the radical solutions that are required.
-- Conrad BlackNational Post.
The "radical leadership" that is needed is to get the US debt under control, and under management. But, in a culture that eschews deferred gratification (the foundation of all successful societies and lives)  is there a moral, social, or political will to do so?

 "Instant gratification on borrowed money" is not a Christian value or virtue.  John Wesley preached, "earn as much as you can, save as much as you can, give as much as you can." That's still good advice for Christians, and for society at large. A society that takes as much as it can, saves as little as it can, and borrows as much as it can is built on sand.

Right now, the US is in sinking-sand debt up to its nose.

May God save the USA, because, if it falls, we all go down with it.
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Quote of the Day: "What is at issue is not what reputable biologists believe, but whether it is true"

It is precisely the reputable biologists who are under attack. For the first time, they are being asked to defend the thesis that biological design is more apparent rather than real. The effort has left them breathless. They are, of course, not about to surrender their ideological allegiances. Their rhetoric fills the op-ed columns of every liberal newspaper and is conveyed additionally by academic allies whose welfare is contingent on theirs -- analytic philosophers, pop psychologists, and even newspaper columnists eager beyond measure to do anything but attentively study the evidence.

But what is at issue, of course, is not what reputable biologists believe, but whether it is true.
David Berlinksi, Academic Extinction.

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Saturday, August 28, 2010

Saturday Morning Kick-Back Time™: Whatever Happened To Al Gore?

Quote of the Day: With the hypothetical approach, God is the starting point.”

“With the philosophical approach, God is the endpoint of our deliberations. With the hypothetical approach, he is the starting point.” --  Edgar Andrews, Who Made God? Searching for a Theory of Everything.  


Christianity has great explanatory scope and power. It arguably explains the "facts of life" and human experience better than any competing world-view. It is also deeply satisfying.


Andrew's book is reviewed here at Apologetics315:
Andrews proceeds to test the God hypothesis as it compares to an atheistic hypothesis when it comes to cosmic origins, the origin of the laws of science, the moral law, and the origin of first life, and living organisms. He notes the limits of science to explain everything: “The claim that, given time, science will explain everything is simply the atheist’s version of the God of the gaps.”(96) Andrews also explores the issues of design found in DNA and the cell.

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Friday, August 27, 2010

Recommended Read™: A Universe Built For Us

Hopefully instructive figure showing that the ...Image via Wikipedia
In 2008 Discovery Magazine published Science's Alternative to an Intelligent Creator: the Multiverse Theory. The tag: "Our universe is perfectly tailored for life. That may be the work of God or the result of our universe being one of many."

Tom Gilson deconstructs the article, and the issues involved, here.

A Ball Bounces Recommended Read.™

Enjoy.
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Quote of the Day: "Who Predicted The Complexity?"

緑橋文化祭 - Evolution of LifeImage by Sekikos via Flickr
Who predicted the complexity: the Darwinians or the intelligent design proponents?  You already know the answer.  The Darwinians have been wrong on this matter time and time again.  The origin of life would be simple (the Warm Little Pond of Darwin’s dreams).  Protoplasm would be simple.  Proteins would be simple.  Genetics would be simple (remember Darwin’s pangenes?).  The carrier of genetic information would be simple.  DNA transcription would be simple (the Central Dogma).  The origin of the genetic code would be simple (the RNA World, or Crick’s “frozen accident.”).  Comparative genomics would be simple, and we would be able to trace the evolution of life in the genes.  Life would be littered with the trash of mutations and natural selection (vestigial organs, junk DNA).  Simple, simple, simple." -- CreationSafaris.Com
Darwinists accuse Christians of committing the logical fallacy of argument from personal incredulity. At some point, incredulity is the rational response, and its opposite is not reason but gullibility. One man's "incredulity" is another man's skepticism.

I've never met a self-confessed "skeptic" who was skeptical of darwinism. They direct their skepticism at facts which, if true, would demand a radical change of mind, heart, and behaviour -- something the ancients called "repentance".

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Thursday, August 26, 2010

Miller Time or Mecca Time?

Improvised Explosive Device blast holesImage by The U.S. Army via Flickr
Three Ontario men face terror conspiracy charges:
Three men arrested in Ottawa on Wednesday were preparing to build improvised explosive devices for attacks in Canada, police say.
They were also raising money to fund IEDs for attacks on Canadian troops in Afghanistan, RCMP Chief Supt. Serge Therriault said on Thursday at a news conference
No mention of any religious or ideological affiliations, so we're left guessin'.  At least there's no RCMP guy insisting the accused come from all walks of life and represent the broad Canadian populace. There is a side headline saying Canadian Muslim leaders are shocked at the arrests.

"They were also raising money to fund IEDs for attacks on Canadian troops in Afghanistan."

Does Canada still have treason on the books, or did treason go out the window when feel-good, multicultural Trudeaupia came in?
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"Self-Assembly of the Bacterial Flagellum: No Intelligence Required"

There was a man named Magellan
Who sought a motor flagellum
He got on his ship, propeller went zip
That's it, if I could just tell him!

(with apologies to Ferdinand, his family, and associates.)

The propeller of a ship is clearly designed; the bacterial flagellum (aka hot dog on a crooked stick, pictured), is a world of complexity by comparison. It is, we are assured, not.

There's an interesting article over at BioLogos entitled "Self-Assembly of the Bacterial Flagellum: No Intelligence Required". BioLogos seeks to straddle darwinian presupps and Christian theism. It's not a pretty sight.
Nothing we know from every day life quite prepares us for the beauty and power of self-assembly processes in nature. We’ve all put together toys, furniture, or appliances; even the simplest designs require conscious coordination of materials, tools, and assembly instructions (and even then there’s no guarantee that we get it right!). It is tempting to think the spontaneous formation of so complex a machine is “guided,” whether by a Mind or some “life force,” but we know that the bacterial flagellum, like countless other machines in the cell, assembles and functions automatically according to known natural laws. No intelligence required.
Of course, at this point, "laws" become merely descriptive, not explanatory. What needs explanation are the laws themselves that inexorably, inevitably it seems, first produce life, then complex life, conscious life, self-conscious life, then self-conscious, rational, free-willed, moral life.

The comments are informative and mostly respectful.
Flagellum of Gram-negative Bacteria. The base ...Image via Wikipedia

I liked this comment from "Chip".
"No intelligence required…  and I want to praise our great God."
If no intelligence at all is required, then the Dawkins faction is certainly right:  The process—as impressive as it is— got started arbitrarily, gets periodically updated, and consequently chugs along quite nicely through completely undirected and non-intelligent mechanisms.  God and any intelligence he might have are either non-existent or superfluous.  Why praise a person for an accidental process he has nothing to do with? 
If, on the other hand, praise is warranted, it can only be because God had something intentional  to do with the creation and/or sustenance of the BF’s assembly process (the context in which Applegate made her statement)—even if that something was frontloading the programming that allows the process to function “without the help of any conscious agent.”
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Quote of the Day: "It’s Infinitely More Complex”

A colony of embryonic stem cells, from the H9 ...Image via Wikipedia
“When we started out, the idea was that signalling pathways were fairly simple and linear,” says Tony Pawson, a cell biologist at the University of Toronto in Ontario.  “Now, we appreciate that the signalling information in cells is organized through networks of information rather than simple discrete pathways.  It’s infinitely more complex.” -- Tony Pawson

There is an elegantly simple Solution to this infinite complexity.

In the beginning was the Word.

Regain your humanity. You are wonderfully made in God's image. Rebel against the atheist machine.™


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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Dinosaur Bones in Canadian Sewer: The Real Story™


The Ball Bounces brings you The Real Story™ behind the headlines.

Canadians have a reputation for being nice, and Canada has a reputation for being clean.

How clean?

Glad you asked.

Came across a story today about Edmonton sewer workers finding a dinosaur bone in the Edmonton sewer system.  Now, I'm all in favor of finding dinosaur bones, but the real story is this: anybody notice how clean this Canadian sewer system is??!!

Notice the gothic-shaped tunnel, the men on their knees -- while in other sewers workers pray to get out, these guys could be praying to stay in! While in other sewers you give up your lunch, in this system, you can eat your lunch! While in other systems, you have to change your clothes when you get back up to the top, in this one, you just wear them home and then out for dinner!

It's like Ed Norton died and went to heaven!

Canada should have a contest -- city with the cleanest sewers.

I think Edmonton would win, hands-down!
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Canadiana Quiz Question of the Day™

Flag of the Northwest TerritoriesImage via Wikipedia
Canada still has a Northwest Territories. True/False?

(Or, are you having Nunavut?)
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Quote of the day: "“If you don’t want God, you’d better have a multiverse.”

Cyclic progressions of the universeImage via Wikipedia
“If you don’t want God, you’d better have a multiverse.” -- Bernard Carr

With the sheer improbability of the fine-tuning of the universe for life, the multiverse is the only game in cosmic-town.

h/t Tom Gilson, “A Universe Built For Us”.
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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Typo Vigilante's Correct Errant "Signage"

'Yabba Dabba Doo means Welcome' - Welcome Sign...Image by mlhradio via Flickr
Good grammar and spelling are evidence of clear thinking and, frankly, just plain paying attention.  So, in principle at least, I'm all for these two guys who went across the US correcting public signs and then did the American thing: wrote a book about it.

This bit of their odyssey seems a tad extreme (from Globe and Mail article):
They... ran into trouble at the Grand Canyon where they were arrested for fixing bad grammar in an official sign. A federal judge fined them $3,000 and banned them from speaking publicly about fixing typos for a year, a period that expired in August of 2009.
Banned from speaking about it for a year?  I mean, I know Canadian human rights tribunals can make these kind of rulings, but I frankly doubt this could happen in the USA -- even though countless sources are basically running the same article as the Globe and Mail. I did a quick search and found this from the 2008 Arizona Republic:
Jeff Michael Deck, 28, of Somerville, Mass., and Benjamin Douglas Herson, 28, of Virginia Beach, Va., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Flagstaff after damaging a rare, hand-painted sign in Grand Canyon National Park. They were sentenced to a year's probation, during which they cannot enter any national park, and were ordered to pay restitution.
Sounds more likely.

Common typo errors include "unnecessary" quotation marks, and misplaced apostrophe's. Personally I believe every word that contains an unnecessary apostrophe is balanced by a word that is lacking one; this maintains the cosmic equilibrium and prevents our universe from collapsing in upon itself.

A couple of fun sites that cover this sort of thing include:

Apostrophe Catastrophes - The Worlds' Worst. Punctuation;

and

The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks.

For a tutorial on "quotation marks" and apostrophe's:

Quotation Mark Wiki.

Apostrophe Wiki.
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Quote of the day: "The Christian Faith Has Internal Logic and Consistency"

Origins: A Watershed Issue (John MacArthur)Image by Grace to You via Flickr
"The Christian faith has an internal logic and consistency that is far greater than anything an atheist who wants to believe that we descended from slime yet somehow possess intrinsic worth and value can come up with." -- blogger R.K. Ball, here.
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Monday, August 23, 2010

Something for Joe and Jonathan to Chew On: Rice

On the evolutionary scale, I would have to say that rice and human beings, while obviously separated by intermediary species such as whales and bumble-bees, have a lot in common  -- Chicken fried rice, rice-cakes, Rice-a-roni, to name a few.

Tiny man found in chicken fried rice at local ...Image by Carey Tilden via Flickr
The family resemblance between humans and rice can be seen in the unretouched photo to the right of a man-like grain of rice found at a Chinese restaurant. (Evolutionists believe that as rice adapted, it lost the genetic code for arms, legs, head, and hat-tassle.)

Most humans probably look down their elegantly refined noses at rice. (In fact, some human beings who have just chowed down on the local Chinese all-you-can-eat lunch buffet probably have a grain or two of rice stuck on the end of their noses.)

But, they shouldn't.  Did you know that in the evolutionary tooth-and-claw struggle for survival that the lowly grain of rice, lacking both tooth and claw, has managed to come up with more genes than us? I would say that's impressive. Remember Dawkins: the species with the most genes wins!
Dr Andrew George, reader in molecular immunology at the Hammersmith campus explained: Although humans are normally thought to be considerably more complex than organisms, such as plants, rice, yeast and earthworms, this is not reflected in their number of genes - humans have less [sic] than other supposedly less complex organisms. -- ICL Reporter
Next time you throw rice at a wedding, remember this: you are throwing a highly evolved, highly complex life-form into the air.  You might want to consider throwing your cousin George instead.

However, we get to eat rice, and no grain of rice has ever been known to fry-up and eat a human, so, I'm calling this a win for human beings!

PS -- I plan to do some further research today at the local Chinese lunch buffet. Will report back.

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Quote of the Day: "A Cell full of Info-rich Molecules, in a Universe with Info-rich Laws"

Self-Assembled DNA Nanostructures. (A) DNA “ti...Image via Wikipedia
"No organism grows from just a strand of DNA. DNA is always situated in an environment--a cell full of info-rich molecules, in a universe with info-rich laws of physical properties of matter and energy." -- Steve Potter, Information Layering.  h/t P@J.

Information-rich molecules embedded in a universe filled with information-rich laws.

Sounds good to me.

In the beginning was the Word.
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Sunday, August 22, 2010

Iran Goes Nuclear

Coat of arms of the Islamic Republic of Iran. ...Image via Wikipedia
Moral equivalencers, multiculturalists, appeasers, one-world idealists and leftists generally will be glad to hear that an Islamic state, Iran, is going nuclear.

After all if the US (which according to Obamavision is "just another nation") is nuclear, why shouldn't Iran be? If the West is nuclear, why not the Islamic world?  We're all the same, right?

Actually, in going nuclear, Iran is almost entirely indebted to western, non-Islamic technology and know-how.

Israel, which can't afford the luxury of western self-delusion, "is not amused".

Keep your eyes on the Middle-East. When you see hostile nations of the world surrounding Israel, God's time-piece, head for the hills. In the meantime, pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the security of Israel.
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Morning Has Broken!

Prayer. Conversations with GodImage by mufan96 via Flickr
17 "What is man that you make so much of him,
       that you give him so much attention,

 18 that you examine him every morning
       and test him every moment?

Job chapter 7.



A morning prayer:

Thank you for this day begun
Thank you Father, for your Son.
As I begin this day anew
I thank you God for all you do.
Amen.


Morning has broken!



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Saturday, August 21, 2010

(Un)Happy Seed Provider's Day, Dad

child abuseImage by Southworth Sailor via Flickr
A fresh article by Barbara Kay: Happy Seed Provider’s Day, Dad.

We used to call the man and woman who conceived us "father" and "mother"; they were also known, with rare exception, as "husband" and "wife".  No longer. In Ontario, it's now Parent A and Parent B.

Liberals have been cheer-leading and enabling this decline all the way.  As someone recently said, adult rights come first, and children are just going to have to get by on what we give them.

This is not the way God intended. Consider this: "Honor your father and mother".  For far too many children, they long for nothing more than to be able to do just that.

It's not right.

And that's the way the traditional-marriage, traditional parenting Ball bounces.

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Sponge Bob's Your Uncle!

The news is out: sea sponges share almost 70 percent of human genes.
A complete genetic catalog of the sponge Amphimedon queenslandica suggests that the first animals already had a complex kit of genetic tools at their disposal. Sponges harbor between 18,000 and 30,000 genes — roughly the same number as humans, fruit flies, roundworms and other animals, an international team of researchers reports in the Aug. 5 Nature.  
Comparison of the sponge’s genetic blueprints with those of other animals reveals that sponge genes are lined up in the same way as those of other animals. Analyses in the new study also support the idea that sponges form the base of the animal branch of the evolutionary tree, says April Hill, an evolutionary developmental biologist at the University of Richmond in Virginia who was not involved in the work.   Sponge Genes Surprise 
The world turns its lonely eyes to the Ball bounces, and asks: what does this mean?


It means we are a lot like sponges, a lot of your friends are probably sponges, and when you take a sponge bath, it is a meeting of minds. When you take a bath, you're probably putting the squeeze on grandma, so go easy.


A wet sponge -- 97.86% water; humans 97.86% water -- coincidence??!!


Ever seen a picture of a human brain -- sponge-like, eh? Humans are basically just sponges who grew arms, legs, eyes, etc. One cell at a time.™


We are not special. If we have rights, sponges have rights. One of the consumer rights of sponges is not to get soaked. If they over imbibe, they have the right as any of us to check in for treatment and dry out.


Never mistake a sponge for a chunk of swiss cheese. This is a big social faux-pas. It makes them mad. If you bite them, they sue. Plus, for some reason I've never understood, the Swiss get all cheesed about it, too.


Never call a certain relative "a perforated blob", as in, "you perforated blob!". It just hits too close to home. It makes 70% of their DNA tingle.


As for the rest of the story. Sponges got us to the 70% mark; throw in some time, environmental pressures, Mercedes appearing in your driveway (eyes, lungs, heart, ears, brain, liver, nose, etc. etc.), and...


Sponge Bob's Your Uncle!


see article at Uncommon Descent re: the ready-made tool kit.


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Morning Has Broken!

Double chromatic harp, built ca. 1890 by Henry...Image via Wikipedia
 1 It is good to praise the LORD
       and make music to your name, O Most High,
 2 to proclaim your love in the morning
       and your faithfulness at night,

 3 to the music of the ten-stringed lyre
       and the melody of the harp.

 4 For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD;
       I sing for joy at the works of your hands.

 5 How great are your works, O LORD,
       how profound your thoughts!

Psalm 92. A psalm. A song. For the Sabbath day.


A morning prayer:

Thank you for this day begun
Thank you Father, for your Son.
As I begin this day anew
I thank you God for all you do.
Amen.

Morning has broken!

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Friday, August 20, 2010

The PM Was In Fine Form Tonite

12th row floor for the Vancouver #Olympics Ope...Image by Chris Breikss via Flickr
The PM was in fine form speaking in Crapaud, PEI tonite.

He mentioned how Canada has weathered the recession better than any other developed nation, and how "on top" we are basking in the medal success of the Vancouver Olympics, and Canada's influence at the G8 and G20 meetings.

He said that Canadians have good reasons to be justifiably proud of the success of our country, and we don't have to resort to cheap America-bashing like Liberal governments of old.

He mentioned a whole bunch of sensible initiatives and emphasized how the government is obstructed at every turn -- every turn -- by the scallywag Liberal-NDP-Bloc alliance.  Boo! Double-boo!  How could anyone oppose this PM and his sensible initiatives??!!

He said the world recovery is still fragile, with other countries having mountains of debt. The economy is Canadian's number one concern going forward.

Mike Duffy, of course, was there.

I also spotted Stephen Taylor of Blogging Tories and historian Michael Bliss.

It was also fun to spot the Secret Service CSIS RCMP agents.

I had a chance to speak with the Prime Minister for a few minutes and mentioned how I used to work with his Dad, Joe Harper, at Imperial Oil in Toronto.  I told the PM his Dad was a real gentleman, which he was.

The hot-dogs were good, and there was cake to polish things off.

And that's the way the Tory Ball bounces.
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"... nothing intellectually compelling or challenging.. bald assertions coupled to superstition... woefully pathetic"