Eeeeerrrrrrrrrrp! Eeeeeerrrrrrrrrp! There goes Simon again, with the velociraptor noises.

Simon is a co-worker, with a case of acid reflux. I guess that hits a lot of people as they get older. If you needed a poster child for the mid-life crisis, Simon would be your guy! Granted, I’m a few months older than him, but this is one ailment I haven’t had to deal with. I think I’d have to grow up first, before I could have a mid-life crisis. At least I haven’t started referring to myself in the third-person, and I haven’t replaced my middle name with the name of my favorite college football team. But, I’m sure I look foolish in other ways to those about me. Such is life.

Simon (a recently divorced dad) is living alone, and feeling his oats (as we used to say, back when we spent all day toiling in the field). He’s been active online with Facebook and dating sites, and often you will catch a glimpse of one of these sites as he furitively hides a window when you come up behind him at his desk. He’s been talking up his manly exploits recently, and yet he had to warn me not to post about the “woman from Cedar Rapids” on Facebook, because the woman he thinks he’s dating might see it, even though she doesn’t want to admit they’re in a committed relationship. Meanwhile, I’ve decided to join the Asexual group on Facebook, because the whole practice of pursuing the opposite sex seems like a monumental waste of time. Especially when someone else is demonstrating how futile and foolish it all is.

I found these in an email and don’t know who to attribute them to, but for ice, they’re hot!

• @ladykayaker Still a funny story. Like they say, "new to me" in reply to ladykayaker #
• @SusanZelinski Hi! I haven't been on since forever, actually. Been busy, etc. Guess I needed a break from online. Hope to be on more! in reply to SusanZelinski #
• @SusanZelinski That's a great video, yep! Nice to hear from you. Hope you're doing well. in reply to SusanZelinski #
• @naontiotami Go traditional, get the B.Sci. degree. At least that's the advice I'd have given 30 years ago. Are you excited about Uni? in reply to naontiotami #
• @naontiotami I'm sure your awesomeness will manifest itself when you really need it. At least it did for Spider Man. in reply to naontiotami #

Click on the meat, to check out an absolutely hilarious take on extraterrestrial life! What would you think, if you travelled vast distances across the galaxy, to find that you’d landed on a planet full of talking meat??

I despise the over-commercialization of the net. That said, I’m not sure what that really means. I mean, I’m an unabashed supporter of Capitalism… but, I think when consumerism and commercialization of things gets too heavy, it ruins things. On the one hand, I’m a dreamer. On the other hand, I’m a pragmatist.

So, I can get a fairly good number of visits on my sites, especially if I keep the content current. I never realized how much one could earn by putting ads on their website. I mean, nobody is going to accuse me of blogging since 1995 for the purpose of making money. Hell, no! But, am I doing myself and my family a disservice if, say, Google offers web advertisements, and I don’t put them on my site and thus lose an opportunity to maybe earn another couple hundred dollars a year? From what I’ve seen on some sites that don’t get the volume of traffic my website gets, Google AdSense can be lucrative.

So, I am thinking of giving it a try-out. Am I caving? Am I old and weak and giving in to the Dark Side? I don’t think so. But, I promise, if the ads are annoying or in the way, or at all distract from any possible message that I might someday possibly have on this site, I’ll get rid of them.

Comments? Feedback?

• RT @GuyKawasaki Want to stay married? Marry younger smarter woman. http://om.ly/TdJo — I repeat: younger, geeky (godless) women = teh sexy. #
• Promote positive humanism w/Earth's >1 billion nonreligious. Buy Greg Epstein's new book "Good Without God!" (discount) http://is.gd/4EsrT #
• @CynicalChris Hey, I like your blog and your cynicism Here are some of my night photos/neon: http://is.gd/4G5vh. in reply to CynicalChris #
• RT @boingboing Criticality Accidents: Keeping Up with the Russians – Boing Boing http://retwt.me/1D4W8 #
• RT @absolutspacegrl Physicist makes new high-res panorama of Milky Way http://is.gd/4GBmz #
• @naontiotami So all one need do to get you to tweet about them is send you gifts? So, school all finished?? in reply to naontiotami #
• RT @podblack: Skeptics to conduct Houdini seance – http://tiny.cc/EP8jt #
• I have Blu-Ray… Yay!?! Anybody want to come over with a movie? I'll make hot chocolate! #
• I have Blu-Ray… Yay!?! Anybody want to come over with a movie? I'll make hot chocolate! http://ff.im/-aIeot #
• Nice time at our QCESC/ASM banquet tonight, talking about why people need to learn a little science and stop hunting ghosts! #
• @reasonedmadness Sorry, it was BYOM (movie)… Nobody came, so I replayed "Ark of Truth", best anti-religion/pro-science Stargate ever! in reply to reasonedmadness #

And, the beat goes on… as that guy used to say. October has come and gone, the winds and rain have done their thing and it has been cold and warm and in-between. A lot has happened this past month. I realize I don’t blog much, that’s just a sign that I have too much on my mind to settle down and write.

As you may recall, I accepted the offer to develop two MORE courses this fall. I think we have successfully completed the first, and we should have the course design accepted by early next week on the second. When that is done, I will work hard for about a week to fully develop my three days and the associated media, and get it submitted for review. The review will take another week or two, and then we’ll close this out. (The other SME is going to flesh out weeks 4-6. The biggest hassle was getting a good course design, and it is fairly well detailed, so the remaining work won’t take too long.)

It is big, very big.

I also was freezing my ass off a couple weeks back, but now have a nice new furnace installed. The house is warm, and dry (which is very important!) and I think I will finish up the cleaning this weekend, and put the basement back in usable condition. The basement, of course, is where the home theater is. Now that things are clean and no longer smell like funky socks (mildew), I’ll try to make good use of it. But, walking that extra set of stairs is SUCH a hassle, I decided to splurge and replace the 35 inch tube in the living room with a 58 inch plasma HDTV. I’m very stoked about this development. I was a big depressed at having the basement out of order, and having to sit at my desk in an uncomfortable chair, to watch a movie. And, despite what Jarrett thinks, he’s not getting it to take to college! I have watched exactly one movie on it, so far, and I am in love. This weekend I’ll get it networked, and see what a Blu-ray movie looks like on it!

Speaking of networks, I’ve complained about the crappy Qwest 2wire DSL modem for several years. This week, I had the repairman come out and replace the 2wire with a Motorola, and at the same time, he found we were getting onlyl half the throughput we were paying for, and he doubled our Internet speed. Nice! Jarrett and I can both work on our computers, and we have plenty of (somewhat reliable) bandwidth to share. The new DirecTV, Blu-ray and HDTV all have network ports, so I will move the DSL modem to the entertainment center, and check out the features they offer. I have an Amazon coupon for a free movie rental, so I’ll see how movie downloads work. I think I am truly set for the pandemic now! I can be quarantined and work and never leave the house, as long as someone will deliver pizza.

Ellie considers how fortunate the timing of her operation was, and how much money she saved by not having to buy a Halloween costume.

The pool is closed, the yard is pretty much cleaned up, and the dogs are fine. We were worried, after the dogs visited the vet and Ellie was found to have a tumor (MCT). The tumor was “stage 2″, but they feel they got all of it in an operation two weeks ago. They also removed a huge growth on her side, that was fatty. Yuck! She will make the most of the stitches, for Halloween, and she gets the stitches removed on Monday. She’s very happy, and other than the first day, she hasn’t been too sore and recovered very fast from this whole ordeal. For a twelve year-old girl, she’s a pretty perky pup. Once the hair grows back, she’ll be better than ever, and I think the goal is to give her a few more happy, healthy years.

I’ve been busy with performance management at work, and with some big projects. I’ve been moving more than a dozen applications over to new virtual machines, and upgrading to new versions of the code at the same time. Once this is all done, we won’t have to do this again for a few years. I think all this will cool down before the holidays, so that will be nice. My only concern is about our bonus this year. I’m not anticipating much, if any, so it’s a good thing I’ve been working jobs on the side. We just finished midterms, in my astronomy class, and the students seem to be learning, and we haven’t had any outbreaks of H1N1… so, that’s good.

I have an IEEE/QCESC meeting tonight at Johnny’s Italian Restaurant, and after that I’m heading home to relax. It’s amazing how early the sun sets now, and it will seem worse, after we turn our clocks back this weekend. We’ll get extra sleep, but it will be even darker when we leave the office. It seems like I have energy to get a lot more done, in the summer. Maybe I can start back up at the gym, though, and that will give me more energy to compensate for the Earth’s habit of shunning the sun, this time of year. I’ll let you know how that goes, and maybe I’ll actually start blogging a few times a week, instead of once a month. I think I’ve been a bit lazy, because Facebook encourages that. Blogging is creative and takes effort, and Facebook is like fingerpainting with feces.

• I've been watching Deere stock and it's really taken off today. I guess the court ruling and the recommendation by RBC helped! #
• Agribusiness and the growing need for food are just one more reason stocks like DE are positioned to grow. http://is.gd/4r6qH #
• Ellie's out of surgery. She had one fatty growth that must have been 8" long. (Gross!) Benign but big. Should help her mobility. #
• I think it's time for lunch! #
• A good article on mast cell tumors in dogs (MCT). Very common as they age, and often do not return if caught early. http://is.gd/4rbyD #
• RT @Exoplanetology: The 400 Mark http://bit.ly/400Mark We've just reached the 400th mark of total Exoplanets on the 400th year of Astronomy #
• I took a Facebook quiz and Jesus thinks I'm a sanctimonious prick. That's not very Christian of him now, is it? #
• It's nice to see No God is a trending topic! Does that mean everyone on Twitter has become rational all of a sudden?? I'm skeptical. #
• The No God TT is a great way to find other skeptics and rational thinkers who are able to take a more objective view of the world. #nocults #
• Cool, NO GOD as a TT! Every day I wake up and people around me believe myths and fairy tales and it scares me. & #noaliens #noghosts #noshit #
• Soooooo many new people to follow who also have no need for small gods in their lives. Fun! BTW since there is no peace guess there's no god #
• @ppblock I totally agree, what sense does it make to follow a vain god who needs your worship. No god! in reply to ppblock #
• Please, if you are upset, stop using Twitter. Let those of us who feel there is No God have it to ourselves! #
• If Christ lives in me, can I charge him rent? (no god) #
• I know it's "convenient", but what makes people think we must have a purpose to exist? Because it sounds nice? Grow up. #nogod #
• Happy #atheisttuesday! I wonder how many days we can keep No God as the #1 TT? As long as god worshipers keep tweeting their dismay! #
• Nothing is sexier than a woman who is a little geeky and has no god. #
• The real irony would have been if this No God trending topic has occurred on a Sunday. LOL #nogodtuesday #
• Just so you know, to a rational person, someone mindlessly quoting the bible just looks plain stupid. In case that isn't obvious no god. #
• Since "No God" is the #1 TT, I'm offering a dog watching service to believers. Give me $1000 now and after the Rapture I'll dogsit for you. #
• I'm not sure, did we ever get rid of the Oprah followers on Twitter? Now maybe we can scare off the cultists. LOL.. no god.. #
• Maybe we can make Wednesday, "no allah" day? no god makes my Tuesday… Sorry for enjoying this SNAFU too much! #
• While we're at it, I am very offended by crucifixes. Can't a cult find a better symbol? That's like having a gas chamber as a symbol. no god #
• @alexhutton But, it is important to take a stand. You don't say you are agnostic about Santa. Nothing is ever known 100%, thats a given. in reply to alexhutton #
• @wickedlibrarian You know it! #
• @reasonedmadness I capitulate… there is shit. in reply to reasonedmadness #
• I'm excited about all the new (rational) people I'm following today! no god #
• @alexhutton It is nice that you consider my quotes as scripture. in reply to alexhutton #
• @alexhutton It does appear that rules are followed and the multiverse is consistent, not capricious. But, rational has been overused, true. in reply to alexhutton #
• @alexhutton Anyone can rationalize… But, I use the term 'rational' to mean the world obeys natural and predictable laws. That's all. in reply to alexhutton #
• RT @GreatDismal Not with a bang http://bit.ly/2TDgn9 but we do like a bang #
• Have I built a house of cards, from circular rationality? Feedback from my skeptical friends on my post is welcome! http://is.gd/4sYRg #
• I am so glad to have been online to enjoy two trends this week. 1) Selling my Deere stock as it shot up Monday & 2) No God Twitter Tuesday! #
• It seem many people are lacking the science education to understand no scientist claims life happened "accidentally" from "random" atoms. #
• no god, no pizza? OK, I give into my hunger. Whatever you say! You win! Now I can haz pepperony? #
• What is this censorship? No god was removed as a TT? Why? It's not hateful. What loose standards Twitter has. No moral compass! #
• I say #freespeech as the next TT on Twitter. Hmpf! #
• Jarrett's truck is moving and making noise. Not bad noises. I guess his engine is rebuilt, back and working. Good job! #
• @ladykayaker Wait! Hold the presses! Twitter has a business model and advertisers? No way! in reply to ladykayaker #
• @alexhutton Chaos and uncertainty exist, but that's not to say they prevent us from developing consistent laws to explain… in reply to alexhutton #
• @alexhutton unless that was sarcasm… never can quite tell…. I think sarcasm is too often given a bad rap. in reply to alexhutton #
• I agree that the no god thing was probably a drain on Twitter resources and utterly pointless… still, it was cool while it lasted! #
• @MovingToMontana @Toxicpath – Yeah, pretty sure they wouldn't take the criticism objectively. Can anything with Twitter in it trend? in reply to MovingToMontana #
• Yes, let's all watch the gods hurl rocks at us in tonight's meteor shower!! Orionid #meteorshower tonight. http://is.gd/4t1iX #
• @PMJaniszewski Good point. I am never surprised by our collective national ADD when it comes to issues. in reply to PMJaniszewski #
• India villagers beat 5 women accused as witches… caught on video. What century is this? http://is.gd/4t3Wh #
• RT @alexhutton RT @adamshostack: New blog: "Dear ChoicePoint: Lying like a cheap rug undercuts all that" http://is.gd/4uefD RT, please! #
• RT @vautrin: RT @DrWhoNews: #DoctorWho doctorwho: New Tardis Interior http://bit.ly/GXMHl #
• RT @hexachordal: Come listen to me co-host the DFTBA radio hour! http://tinyurl.com/blogtv #
• RT @jodrellbank: Fancy spotting some "shooting stars"? It's the Orionid meteor shower right now. #MeteorWatch. http://bit.ly/HR7rU #
• @wickedlibrarian Yeah… that's gross. I have to admit, I've never thought about a cat licking my eyeball before. Something to avoid. in reply to wickedlibrarian #
• @buckhollywood Just how much Karaoke CAN you eat?? in reply to buckhollywood #
• My dog, Ellie, has her costume for Halloween already, http://yfrog.com/6z60zj. Poor girl! She should be pretty well healed by then, I hope! #
• Ellie had a MCT tumor that was removed. They called a grade 2 and we have to watch to make sure it doesn't come back or spread. #
• @alexhutton She should be ok, but we have to watch that it doesn't come back. in reply to alexhutton #
• @TaviGreiner She had surgery to remove a tumor and fatty mass that was pretty big. She's getting around much better now. Thanks! in reply to TaviGreiner #
• I feel compelled to attend a "Quad City Creation Science Assoc." talk @ Augustana College today, 4:30 (Olin), to defend real science! #
• MSU scientists watch evolution unfold over 40,000 generations. http://is.gd/4ybYG #

There are a little more than a dozen principles that a good skeptic should adhere to. Not that there aren’t different perspectives one could take; different ways that one could define terms or interpret things – we are, after all, human and inherently biased to have the viewpoint of the fly under the bell jar in the laboratory experiment….

1. There are things we know we can never know, there are things we are not aware we can never know, but nothing can be known absolutely.
2. Our place in space-time defines our perspective and limits how we observe the universe.
3. The observable universe, by all accounts, appears to follow consistent and non-capricious laws, that are natural and not supernatural in origin. This leads to the conclusion that the laws of nature can be discerned. Although this may be a faulty, this is the basic assumption under which the scientific method is performed.
4. Once something previously considered supernatural, can be observed to be repeatable and predictable, it is a part of science and governed by a natural law, which we may or may not have a decent model for.
5. Everyone has some bias, or limiting interpretation of nature that prevents them from being completely objective. Bias should be recognized (admitted!) and accounted for, whenever possible. Bias can arise from personal preference, an intentional agenda, failure to properly define a problem, beliefs or hardwiring.
6. The human brain is a pattern recognition machine; it wants to discern faces, assign purpose and make sense out of noisy data. This leads to faulty reasoning, bias, circular arguments defending said faulty reasoning and the invocation of supernatural explanations that cannot be tested to explain a lack of data, poor data or spurious data.
7. The human brain, de facto, finds the lack of an answer unsatisfactory and chooses to fill such a gap with the answer that makes the most sense to the person at the time, even if this means invoking a supernatural cause. The good skeptic should not be afraid to admit, “I do not know (at the present time!)”.
8. Humans rationalize in the face of uncertainty; they often accept the story that agrees with their “gut instinct” and personal experience, although in many contexts they do not have the experience or knowledge to judge which of two different explanations is better. (Example: confusing correlation with causation. “This banana was perfectly created for the human hand, because it fits well into the hand.) The human brain is sometimes primed to accept a certain conclusion, based on conditioning. Biases can be developed over time, through such conditioning, or minimized by recognizing and working to eliminate them.
9. The human brain, de facto, assigns similar weights to strongly held beliefs with no evidence, and learned facts that have significant evidence. We tend to remember the hits, and forget the misses, depending on our beliefs and desires (biases).
10. Most people have poor argumentation and deductive skills, and therefore succumb to logically fallacious assumptions and circular reasoning.
11. Supernatural explanations are untestable, by definition, and therefore strongly held beliefs may stand up to logical challenges depending on how strongly they are held.
12. A rational view is one that attempts to be objective and logical. Beliefs are irrational, and arise from a person’s hardwiring or bias. Beliefs are unscientific, and if evidence is found that supports them, they are are then considered facts.
13. People will often accept clever slogans that fit on bumper stickers and sound bites over critical thinking.
14. The skeptic follows Occam’s Razor, which says that given two possible explanations, the simpler one is usually the best.
15. Be willing to change your mind, when presented with new evidence. Skeptics should not be seen as cynical or closed-minded.
16. Never debunk when you can discuss. Promote science and education, over the desire to create controversy and sensationalize. Substitute critical thinking for criticism. (I’m sorry if those sound too much like slogans!)
    

* Carl Sagan’s “Boloney Detection Kit”.

• Ok, I'm going to get a vanity plate for my Jeep, I need your help choosing. I'm thinking (in order): 1. Science 2. Skeptic 3. Null …. ??? #
• @naontiotami Hey, you're young and creative. Exercise that gray matter and give me your opinion. What should I put on my vanity licenseplate in reply to naontiotami #
• I feel like I'm catching a cold, too. There was a guy on the bus this morning, I swear had the swine flu. Where's my H1N1 vaccination!?! #
• @JJT Someone said to go with Null, because it would be mysterious and confuse people. I kind of like that. 'Science' is also cool or skeptic in reply to JJT #
• @JJT In Iowa, we can have 7 characters, not 8. in reply to JJT #
• RT @cosmos4u: Fireball over Netherlands was also seen from Germany: as http://is.gd/4hV2Q reports, fm Riesa it was bright/close to horizon. #
• Very cool blog, http://www.sentient-puddle.com/. #
• Douglas Adams on intelligent design: the puddle must also think it was designed, because it fits that depression in the ground so perfectly! #
• RT @ScienceChannel: Malcolm Gladwell is a bold thinker…. http://ow.ly/ud9V #
• They filmed "Megafault" here in Iowa, but it was such a bad movie, I had to stop watching after 15 minutes. Sorry Sye Fye Channel… #
• "Behold my weiner of mass destruction!" LOL http://is.gd/4hW3J #
• @faseidl Yes, and I think Ray Comfort's brain is like a puddle. in reply to faseidl #
• I took the dogs to the vet this afternoon. They wanted $150 blood tests for each dog, for good measure. $300 is pretty steep. I said no. #
• The vet still did a lot. She didn't cure how bad my dog's farts smell. Ugh! He just ripped one. #
• Watching Fringe… #
• I bought a space heater after two months, when they are finally going to replace the broken furnace on Monday. LOL. Better late than never! #
• Supernatural recorded like Supercrap, so I'm gonna download an HDTV copy from Rlslog.net. Also found Sarah Jane Adventures from BBC! #
• New South Park tonight! #
• "Single" Magnetic Charges in Spin Ice… http://is.gd/4lOQF #
• I'm irate over Congress even considering taxing softdrinks to help pay for the healthcare bill. & there are better ways to confront obesity! #
• One thing you'll notice if you travel abroad is they don't serve unlimited refills of soda or 40oz sized drinks. #
• RT @Lifehacker AVG 9 Free Now Ready for Download http://lifehacker.com/5383383 #downloads #antivirus #
• RT @BrianDunning: – Outstanding letter from @MichaelShermer to @BillMaher: http://is.gd/4mGJ8 #
• Thanks for RTs and recent conversations! #FollowFriday @ddocs @RationalMoms @stits @faseidl @JJT @naontiotami @Misstcalia @WyrdestGeek #
• Facebook only serves to emphasize how STUPID all my friends lives are. #
• @Misstcalia Weren't those discussions all, like a year ago or something? It loses its "cuteness" after 2-3 times, I agree. in reply to Misstcalia #
• ok- got beer and duct tape #
• @Monicks You should add me to your list! Looks like I've got some twits to check out, too! in reply to Monicks #
• I'm enjoying the Skeptic magazine I bought tonight, but pissed that the 2012 issue @MichaelShermer mentioned isn't at Boarders yet! #

One protest you hear from anti-evolution creationists is, “Where are the intermediate fossils?” Well, as Richard Dawkins explains very well, there are plenty! Of course, whenever we add another intermediate form to the list, they will probably say, “Now you’re missing TWO intermediate fossils!”

Learn how the whale evolved from land mammals, about 55 million years ago:

• I hate the new Windows 7 commercial w/the stupid little girl & slideshow. Microsoft must think PC users are only as smart as 4 year olds. #
• My goal this year is to watch House and diagnose my own medical problems… #
• My goal this year is to watch House and diagnose my own medical problems… http://ff.im/-9hLOi #
• The 2009 Cattle Baron's Ball website is now up with event photos at: http://is.gd/40u7O. #
• The ringing in my ears is particularly loud today… #
• It's a very dark and blustery night here… #
• It's a very dark and blustery night here… http://ff.im/-9lkrR #
• Does anybody else think of the scene with the popcorn in Arachniphobia, when they're eating popcorn and watching movies in the dark? #
• Does anybody else think of the scene with the popcorn in Arachniphobia, when they're eating popcorn and watching… http://ff.im/-9lAGC #
• Settling down on the couch, with a soft blanket, popcorn and a scary movie. Just what the doctor ordered! #
• Settling down on the couch, with a soft blanket, popcorn and a scary movie. Just what the doctor ordered! http://ff.im/-9lB2q #
• I enjoyed Fringe tonight. Entirely fantasy, but fun. In fact I've felt a lot like Olivia this week after she came back from Bell's Universe! #
• It amazes me that studies show many (most?) people believe things they have no evidence for as strongly as they do established facts. #
• What?? Snow?? #
• What?? Snow?? http://ff.im/-9yVcg #
• What?? Snow?? #
• This wicked weather is freezing my fanny! #
• > half-way done with full site backup… #
• When will #timeforhardwork or #timetothinklogially be a trending topic? Hmmmm… my guess, never. Humanity is doomed! #
• @Misstcalia Fine. I'll put pants on. Geesh! Way to ruin the fun… in reply to Misstcalia #
• Think I found Bill O'Reilly's intellectual peers on Facebook. 172 more people who are too thick to understand evolution http://is.gd/4eBif #
• @thomasflight Nice composition on the nature photos. in reply to thomasflight #

Ah, what a blessed age we live in, when science can give us such great advances as the wheelbarrow. Let me leave you with the world’s oldest science documentary, whilst I go consult with my menagerie of birds….

(I think this is still how Bill O’Reilly sees the world.)

Thanks to Skeptic North for sharing this video, and for having a great blog! Pay them a visit, eh!

• Frustrated that the UFO believers call MY logic into question, LOL… http://is.gd/3XdZi #

The next Doctor Who special is confirmed to be coming to BBC in November 2009. The special, titled, “Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars” will be followed by a two-part Christmas episode, which will be the final episode of the series for 2009, and the last with David Tennat as The Doctor.

Click here to view the embedded video.