I finished Neal Stephenson’s RSA encryption , which led me on a number of tangents in Wikipedia. After encounters with the Fundamental theorem of Algebra and the Fundamental theormem of Arithmetic, I surfaced for air and lit out for Blogdex. There I found a recent New Yorker: Fact article criticizing the ‘intelligent design’ advocates who are basically pushing science of dubious merit. The ‘intelligent design’ field was basically manufactured by deep-pocketed backers and has pushed to get recognition from legitimate scientists. Their fundamental gripe is with the success of philosophical materialism, i.e. athiesm. They have achieved some success in getting media attention, though the legitimate scientific community has largely panned their efforts engage in debate. The reason for this is simple: there is absolutely nothing to gain in debating a ridiculous idea. It’s the same reason legitimate science doesn’t hold debates with members of the Flat Earth Society. However, the group recently earned an article in the London Times by the venerable Richard Dawkins for the attempt to cast doubt on evloutionary theory and gain an equal footing in Kansas public school curriculum.

The Discovery Institute’s “Wedge Document” is mentioned in the New Yorker article, and it’s telling: the ultimate goal of the ‘intelligent design’ is increased influence not only over academic institutions, but over legal and social matters as well. The institute later published a unapologetic rebuttal, “So What?“, without discussing the implications of their organization’s plan to hijack academic research to attack materialism.

The “So What” document brushes off the organization’s planned attack on philosophical materialism (please note the difference between philosophical materialism, the idea that the philosophical view that the only thing that can truly be said to ‘exist’ is matter, and L.A. style “you’re only as important as your possessions” materialism) haughtily, without extending its alleged basis in science to this attack. Disappointing, but ultimately probably good for proponents of sound science. Darwin’s big risk in publishing Origin of Species wasn’t his support for the already-established idea of evolution, it was his support for philosophical materialism. Materialism was roundly despised by theologians because, well, it would indicate that they’re idiots (or charlatans). Indeed, since the publication of Origin of Species, the most heated attack on evolutionary theory has come not from legitimate science, but from theists. However, the science is strong enough to be accepted as “more than a hypothesis” by Pope John Paul II.

Ultimately, I think ‘intelligent design’ should be held up in schools as an example of the desire by religious groups to legitimize their beliefs by any means necessary. Dawkins, in his article, tells it like it is once again:

The creationists’ fondness for “gaps” in the fossil record is a metaphor for their love of gaps in knowledge generally. Gaps, by default, are filled by God. You don’t know how the nerve impulse works? Good! You don’t understand how memories are laid down in the brain? Excellent! Is photosynthesis a bafflingly complex process? Wonderful! Please don’t go to work on the problem, just give up, and appeal to God. Dear scientist, don’t work on your mysteries. Bring us your mysteries for we can use them. Don’t squander precious ignorance by researching it away. Ignorance is God’s gift to Kansas.

Terry Fox was a cancer-stricken Canadian who, to raise money and awareness for cancer research, decided to run across Canada. This in itself would be a tremendous accomplishment, but it was made even more astonishing by the fact that he planned to do this with only one leg (the other was amputated below the knee). He managed to run at this pace for 143 days, averaging 42 kilometers each day. That’s the lenght of a marathon. Tragically, before completing his amazing journey the cancer spread to his lungs and he was forced to stop. He died within months at the age of 22. He is the second most famous 20th century Canadian.

I had read about this amazing story before, and it immediately came to mind when I learned about the monks of the Hiei Monastery in Japan. The monks run the equivalent of two full marathons each day, on three to four hours of sleep, consuming around 1500 calories. They do this for 100 consecutive days before they’re eligible to apply for the 1000-day test of bodhisattvahood. The icing on the cake of this unimaginably intense exercise: the monk is duty-bound to commit suicide, by ritual disembowelment or hanging, if he is unable to complete his run. I thought this kind of intensely ascetic activity ran counter to the ‘middle way’ philosphy of Buddhism, but it’s incredible nonetheless.

I had a conversation about Project Gutenberg, the free repository of free (as in liberty) books that have entered the public domain. These books are no longer under copyright, which means that anyone can copy them and distribute them to the general public.

I proceeded to write a post about how great it would be if there were a human-read audiobook version of Gutenberg.

Then, while I was browsing the Gutenberg site again, I noticed that there was already a section of human-read audiobooks. Nice. Kind of disappointing to see that there are only 31 human-read books on the site. There are 369 computer-generated audiobooks, but I worry that the computer’s reading would lack the tone and inflection needed to make them really compelling stories.

There are a number of options for getting audiobooks online. AudioBooksForFree has a large and growing list. Audiobooks.org has links to publishers. There are scattered assortments of sites with free offerings, but this area is clearly missing a category-killer that has one stop shopping and a dedicated community. I’d like to see the Wikimedia Foundation put up something like this, but who knows. The most important part would really be a site that insists on Creative Commons-licensed works. Maybe I should just throw it up on my currently abandoned wiki.

They must be stopped, and Seattle police are taking a stand. They’re sending a message that no pregnant woman, no matter how far into the third trimester of the pregnancy she is, is safe from the blistering 50,000 volts of the taser. Even if the offense is nothing more serious than refusing to sign a traffic ticket.

The police, of course, are understanding of the risks. King County sheriff’s Sgt. Donald Davis, who works on the county’s Taser policy, said:

“I know the Taser is controversial in all these situations where it seems so egregious,” he said. “Why use a Taser in a simple traffic stop? Well, the citizen has made it more of a problem. It’s no longer a traffic stop. This is now a confrontation.”

That’s right. Our brave public servants must draw a line in the sand. If they don’t tase women in the third trimester, soon it will be the second trimester. Then it will be the first trimester. Soon, any woman on her period will be making routine traffic stops into Confrontations by dangerously refusing to sign her ticket. This must not be allowed to happen. I’m surprised the police didn’t invoke 9/11, because if the police aren’t allowed to tase pregnant women, the terrorists have already won.

I just got myself into the epic tome that is DrunkenBlog: Deconstructing Maui X-Stream.

Drunkenblog goes all haole on the Hawaiians for their plundering of OSS code for their products. This is one of the longest blog posts I have ever seen in my life, and arguably one of the most informative.

Josh Schachter has revived the del.icio.us blog. Of course, the design is completely minimalist, no big shocker there, but I’m looking forward to checking it out. Naturally, Dave Winer jumped on the inaugural comment to boast about his invention of weblogs, RSS, tags, the internet, the internal combustion engine, and fire. Then he took a moment to demand a spot on the site as-yet-nonexistant blogroll.

The US Senate is poised to vote on national ID card legislation.

Send your senators a quick note (even if you didn’t vote, do this anyway) and tell them, “Hey, the totalitarians called, and they want their ID cards back!”

Admittedly, I was pretty excited about OSX Tiger, but a new, blatant, pants-down security flaw is giving me second thoughts. Apparently it’s possible for a web page to install a Dashboard widget through Safari without your consent. A benign example is offered as proof of concept, and the article proposes a horribly offensive alternative. I think the most offensive alternative of all will be an adware widget, and that’s the more likely option.

Of course this only works in Safari, so it’s not the end of the world and serves as yet another advertisement for Firefox. Still, c’mon Apple, what were you thinking?

Sorry I haven’t posted the promised updates. I got to the Salt Lake City airport and while there were mormons aplenty, there was no free wifi. Alas.

I learned important lessons in the midwest this weekend. One of them was how it’s really hard to get online to post when you’re out in the countryside with folks who haven’t heard of iPods yet. I’m serious.

That was really interesting.