h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Warner,

>You KNOW the answer, but you still insist on asking the question!

Would you mind telling me what I already know? Remember, the question is why it is not relevant to ask what caused a 'first cause'.

Gif

Hi Ed,

>Surely even we Atheists formulate something akin to 'meaning' in our lives, don't we?

Sure. We just don't claim it's external to our own minds though.

My little geekette gives my life meaning. I don't think she's The Reason The Universe Was Created though.

Gif

Your geekette is imaginary?

More seriously...you may be positing an overly simplistic version of religion. Some might say it has something to do with the interplay between the mind and the wider universe.

Very dissimilar to that between a and a ette?

I don't think it's for nothing that some of the buggers came up with 'God is Love'.

A trio of videos worth watching my youtube playlist threw together.

Individually, they each in a way address points that have come up recently in this thread, but as I just found out, watching them back-to-back has quite a nice cumulative effect.

So

For Warner:
who found my, quote, "lingual scientific jargon" about how nature works was "no explanation" vis a vis Richard Lenski's experiment with e-coli.

Try this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUhYGgtwNkE
(It has pictures with captions)


Separately for Tarantoes:
On this issue about phylogenies, I ran across this video, discussing the issue of paraphyletic groups and monophylogenies, (The 'all of them except for us' issue of what is an ape and who is human) and going to task, again, on the importance of cladistics, to the modern understanding of evolutionary ancestry by decent from common ancestors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igq_niFmXNs


Finally, for Kuzushi:

Some time ago, they listed the presence of pseudo-gene responsible for vitamin C production being present but non-functional (via mutation) in the the human genome, as one of their reasons for abandoning their former creationism (and another round of for them!)

This video goes into that very topic and rather neatly draws all the preceding threads relating to mutations over subsequent generations becoming embedded in successful populations - as confirmed in the lab by Richard lenski - IS evolution in action and shows how successfully divergent populations (and ultimately clades of) divergent species carry with them the history of their evolutionary past.

Keep an ear open for those pesky definitional categories of "humans and the other higher primates"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF2N2lbb3dk

Yes, the whole ascorbic acid/broken gene thing with humans and chimps/gorillas has had a very powerful effect in convincing me that we must be related to the other apes.

I don't really see how one can remain unconvinced if one has looked into this, although I have seen arguments by creationists against this. Not read the1m in depth yet, but I'm curious to know how they can argue that it doesn't strongly imply common descent for humans, chimps and gorillas. Why would God create us with the gene for making ascorbic acid broken, and for some strange reason do the same with chimps and gorillas?

Another thing that strongly points to a very old age for the earth is the white chalk cliffs that must have taken aeons to form from tiny dead sea creatures.

I have for the past year been experimenting
with topical applications of ascorbic acid
with seemingly miraculous results. And because
I cannot believe that my discoveries are unknown
to Science but have for some reason been suppressed,
I will expound upon the matter at length and in detail
in another thread. In the meantime I recommend that
you all pursue the acquisition of a small batch of
this crystaline miracle cure - you may find it quite
difficult and meet raised eyebrows from chemists but
it is not an illegal substance (yet).

~jwf~

Chimps...Gorillas...

Currently reading 'The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee' by Jared Diamond. Rather good!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0099913801/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=103612307&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0060845503&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=0JHTKZ5TE125MA37JA1P

Ascorbic acid can cause problems for some people -

http://www.drugs.com/sfx/ascorbic-acid-side-effects.html

Clive: I'll add it to my list of things to view

"Another thing that strongly points to a very old age for the earth is the white chalk cliffs that must have taken aeons to form from tiny dead sea creatures."

A perfectly reasonable argument that, sadly, falls to, "Oh well, when God made the world some 6-10,000 years ago, He made it look old."

Yeah...it's a forgery of an *actual* old earth elsewhere.


(insert obligatory Magrathea reference)

@JWF

<>

Keep us posted on that! Sounds fascinating.

Meanwhile, keeping in touch with the Dutch!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14417362

All the joys of church without God and an Afterlife.



~jwf~

Hi Gif,

<>

I'd certainly be interested in going, but I don't think I'll be able to. I'd like to see what answers they could provide to questions such as the vitamin C broken gene in humans and chimps, the fact that monotremes are found only in Australia and Papua New Guinea, etc etc, but I suspect it would only be frustrating, with lots of far-fetched and evasive answers.

This whole question that we and our brother apes
have lost the ability to produce Vitamin C is all
news to me. It certainly must be factored into any
study of the spread of hominids away from the tropics.
But it makes sense!

Personally I have always wondered at the health benefits
of taking dosages of Vitamin C and the 'fact' that there
is a limit to our ability to absorb and process it and
simply discharge quantities beyond our daily needs.

My experiments have been in creating an ointment using
ascorbic acid crystals in a solution of liquid Vitamin E
(from gelatin capsules) and diluting this pastey mix in
a Vitamin E enforced skin cream.

It has reduced brown spots (also called liver spots),
freckles, warts and even several insect bites and sun
damage that was diagnosed as a non-melanoma form of
skin cancer. Treatment of these by liquid nitrogen,
the usual process for wart removal, was only marginally
successful leaving gaping wounds in my scalp that did not
heal.

After a year of applying my formula on an irregular basis
I am happy to report they have all but disappeared! The
skin cancer on my scalp, the insect bites on my arms that
had not healed for two years and even a large black crusty
mole-like growth that had been on my back which for years
has softened and faded and will likely be gone in a few
more weeks.

I have to say after waiting for years for some improvement
after the liquid nitrogen treatment I am delighted with the
results.


~jwf~

Wow!
Perhaps you should patent your lotion.

Careful on your chest -- you wouldn't want to lose your nipples.

I second that lotion!


End with a song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI_0tQdEA5k