Flawed Movies

     Do errors in movies bother you? What if the errors are scientific impossibilities?

     What I usually notice in movies is errors in human judgment. People in movies often do things that peopl in real life simply wouldn’t do. For example, if a car began to chase me, I wouldn’t continue to run ahead of it, as movie characters do. I would dive to the side and run into a building or run down a narrow alley.  Or if I had only a small knife on me, I would not walk into a camp of heavily armed guards and expect to take them all out or even to walk back out alive.  But people in movies do those things.

     Tom Chivers has listed some other movie errors that involve breaking scientific laws.  One is the sound of spaceships traveling through empty space.  Another is laser guns that have beams that travel more slowly than the speed of light.  (In case you don’t know, sound waves cannot travel through empty space, and light beams always travel at the speed of light.)

     Check out the other errors, unless you don’t want any of those fantasies tainted by reality.

Summer 2009 Was Cool

     Did you know that last summer was cooler than average in the United States?  It was the 34th coolest summer on record.  Some states experienced nearly their coolest summers ever.

     I would find it much easier to believe in Global Warming if the temperatures were actually going UP.

     Oh, and what happened to the terrible hurricanes that we would have every year following Katrina?  I would be more likely to believe the Global Warming prophets, if their predictions actually came true.

How Do I Know If I Am Obsessed?

     My children say that I am obsessed with plants and gardening.  Of course, given their inability to stay interested in something for more than one hour at a stretch or for a time span of more than two weeks, I can see why they would say that I am obsessed.

     I have never been that inerested in gardening or plants until recently.  It brings back bad memories of the three years that my stepfather thought that we should have a vegetable garden.  It saved us lots of money and gave us a huge surplus to share with others.  (Yes, I was brought up to share with others, and I still believe in it and practice it.)  I remember digging potatoes until my back ached and getting itchy from picking green beans.  I remember getting dirt on my skin, which I have an aversion to.  If I do have OCD, it has to do with keeping oily, sticky or gooey substances off my skin.  I can hardly stand to watch a young child eat cotton candy or to watch a potter turn a pot.

     Recently, however, I have become very interested ingrowing plants.  Maybe I’m having a midlife crisis.  I like to think that I’m protecting those synapses in my brain and trying to create a few more while I lose so many others.

     It started when my wife said that she wanted roses out in front of our house.  I almost always like to fulfill my wife’s requests, which is probably one reason that we will celebrate our twentieth anniversary in a few months.  I procured some cuttings from our friends and planted them.  I have faithfully watered, fed, aerated, and pruned those roses.  I have had mild success, although I did make one mistake in applying too much manure and at the wrong time. I have just about restored the soil to good condition for the finicky bushes.  (By putting a mulch of dead grass and leaves around them.)

     My interest continued when my wife and children bought me some flower pots for Father’s Day, because I had bought my wife a plant stand for Mother’s Day and had nursed one of her potted plants back to good health.  I had also said that I thought it might be interesting to gow some more herbs.  I already had some mint, sage, and oregano in various flower beds, because a friend had transplanted them there for me.

     I planted some parsley, basil, and cilantro from seed.  They grew well, and I have been cooking with them and the other herbs that I mentioned above.  I then wanted to try propagating various houseplants using cuttings or divisions from my friends and neighbors.  Now our porch is covered in various plants that I have grown.  The rose garden is thriving, and I have planted various herbs around the rose bushes for their fragrance and their greenery.  (Another mistake I made is planting mint there.  It goes absolutely crazy!)

     I spend about 30-45 minutes a day taking care of plants.  Is that an obsession?  I spend a little time every week in reading up on plant care and propagation.  I am learning about soil pH and about dividing bulbs and corms.  It is fascinating.

     I am even getting used to having dirt on my hands.  I’m not exactly relishing it, but it does feel very elemental.  It is a wonderful break from technology.

     Do you think I am obsessed?

Not Just a Blob

     What if the “blob of tissue” that women get rid of during an abortion were not just a blob of tisuse?  What if it had appendages and even a rudimetary face?  By the time most women know that they are pregnant, decide to have an abortion, and then go through with it, the fetus is more than a little blob, and a new technology would allow them to hold a little model of her or him in their own hands. 

     Would a mother still want to”get rid of it” once she saw what ”it” really was?  Maybe.  I don’t think that most mothers would.

Facts About Migraine

     Migraine is a disease, not a bad headache.  The symptom that most people know about is severe head pain, but there is more to migraine than having a bad headache.  Not all bad headaches are migraines and not all migraine sufferers get bad headaches.  Migraine includes a long list of symptoms, including visual disturbances, hearing disturbances, dizziness, and nausea. 

     Here’s a little quiz to test your knowledge of migraine. . .

Migraine Knowledge Quiz

True or False?

1.  Migraine is merely an inconvenience.

2.  The cause of migraine is still not completely understood.

3.  Migraines are preceded by an aura of some kind that alerts the sufferer that an attack is imminent.

4.  There is a connection, especially in women, between hormone fluctuations and migraine.

5.  There are good clinical tests for migraine.

Multiple Choice

6.  How long does a migraine last?

a.  up to 3 hours 

b.  up to 12 hours

c.  up to 24 hours

d.  up to 72 hours

7.  People who suffer headaches with migraine usually (not always)  have the pain where?

a.  at the front of the head

b.  on one side of the head

c.  across the back of the head

d.  throught the entire head

8.  Migraine includes which stages?

a.  prodrome, aura, pain, postdrome

b.  aura, pain

c.  predrome, pain, postdrome

d.  aura, pain, postdrome

9.  Which is true about migraine sufferers?

a.  A particular sufferer always has the same pattern of symptoms during a migraine.

b.  All migraine sufferers experience all the stages of migraine.

c.  A particular migraine sufferer may not experience all the stages or experience the same symptoms every time he or she has a migraine.

10.  Which of these are known to trigger migraine attacks?

a.  particular foods and food additives

b.  changes in sleep habits

c.  bright lights and loud noises

d.  all of the above

11.  How can migraines be treated?

a.  by avoiding known triggers

b.  by taking preventative medicine

c.  by taking a drug that aborts them

d.  possibly all of the above

For the answers and more information. . .

Musing on Clouds

     If you looked up and saw a cloud that looked a bit like the profile of Abraham Lincoln, what would you say?  I would probably say, “Isn’t that interesting!”  But what if you looked up and saw the name ABRAHAM LINCOLN spelled out in letters across the sky?  I would wonder why some skywriter put it there.

     So, when you look at the cosmos around you, does it seem more like the clouds that happen to look somewhat like the profile of Lincoln, or does it seem more like his name deliberately spelled out by an intelligent being?

     Whenever we observe some kind of coded message, we can reasonably guess that it was produced by an intelligent being.  Are there coded messages in the universe, or is it just a haphazard jumble of meaningless matter?

     I can explain how water gets less dense just as it freezes into a solid.  I can understand how that change causes ice to float in liquid water.  What I cannot do is tell why  it is that way rather than the other way around.  I cannot explain why water exists in the first place.  Neither can I explain why I feel compelled, along with most of my other fellow human beings, to ask why.

     Erosion created the beautiful but random rock formations in Canyonlands, Utah.  Only an intelligent and intentional being could carve the buildings at Petra, Jordan.  They are symmetrical, and their parts are uniform.  Moreover, their purpose can be deduced from their structure.

     So again, when you observe the universe, does it appear more like the rock formations in Canyonlands or more like the fort at Petra?  Is it more like the result of chaotic forces or more like the result of an architect? 

     Features that indicate purposeful design are order and complexity.  Is there order and complexity in the universe and in the various living and nonliving things in it?  Or is the entire universe just a string of random data with no order or no complexity or both?  If so, then why did that last sentence, and this current one, express meaning to you as you read them?

     If the universe is just a haphazard jumble or the result of chaotic forces, would I even be writing this blog entry?  Would I even care, and would I feel either curiosity or awe about it all?  Would I feel an urge to thank God, or would an atheist, for that matter, feel an urge to deny His existence?

     What do you think?

On Being a Migraineur

     Did you know that there is a word for migraine sufferers?  It’s migraineur.  I had no idea such a word existed.  I had no idea I was one of them.

     My doctor friend has pretty much concluded that my weird symptoms are caused by migraine.  I never thought that I could be be having migraines, because my symptoms are atypical, and I was actually awkward about discussing them with my doctor.  I have had the type of headache that is invovled with migraines, but I did not realize that I was definitely having them.

     How much do you know about migraine?

     Did you know that a person can have migraines without having a headache?  Did you know that vertigo, which is a spinning sensation, can be the only symptom of a migraine?  Did you know that some migraineurs have different symptoms during different attacks of migraine?

     I myself have had the following symptoms:  visual aura in the form of flashing lights, intense unilateral headache, sensitivity to light, sensitivity to sound, temporary hearing loss, extreme vertigo with severe nausea, slowed gait,and paresthesia (numbness and tingling).

     I never have all of them during the same migraine attack, which is another reason that I never considered my condition to be migraine.

     Now that we are pretty sure of the diagnosis, there are several steps I can take.  I am going to try to determine if there are any triggers to my migraines.  It is possible that I can avoid the migraines by avoiding the trigger or triggers.  I have medicine to treat migraine, and if I were to have another episode, I would use that medicine.  If the medicine is effective, then it would confirm the diagnosis.  And, if the medicine is effective, then I can use it to treat any future attacks.

For Further Reading

Migraine-associated Vertigo, eMedicine

Migraine Associated Vertigo, American Hearing Research Foundation

Migraines:  Myth vs Reality,  MAGNUM (The National Migraine Association)

Few Believers

     According to a survey, only 39% of Americans believe in evolution. I find that a bit surprising, given the constant onslaught both in the popular media and in school from evolutionists.

     To what do you attribute the failure of evolution theory to take root in the hearts and minds of Americans?  Is it simply a weak theory?  Or is the opposition to it just so pervasive?

Poking Fun at Global Warming

     Is it just me, or do others find it very funny to see Al Gore at Global Warming conferences when it is freezing cold and snowing outside?

Life (Maybe) Created

     Researchers in La Jolla, California have observed RNA enzymes that could replicate themselves without any additional proteins or cellular components.  Some scientists have hailed this as the creation of life in a laboratory, while others say that the molecules in the test tube are merely life-like.  The implication of the observations is that RNA eventually evolved into DNA, which then evolved into all the forms of life that exist today.

     I have a few observations:

1. The main researcher, Tracey Lincoln, and his adviser, Gerald Joyce, both insist that although the little chemicals they played with have a few of the properties of living things, they are not fully living things.  To me there is still a huge gap from RNA enzymes displaying some interesting chemical reactions and a living, breathing, metabolizing, sensate organism.
2. Professor Joyce is quoted as referring to “Darwinian evolution.”  I’ve seen debates in which people claim that only Creationists refer to evolution as Darwinism or describe the theory as Darwinian.
3. What the observations do not prove is that RNA could somehow form spontaneously.  They do not prove that RNA would necessarily evolve into (or produce) DNA given enough time.  They do not explain how RNA could have replicated itself in an environment that is not set up in a laboratory.  Finally, they do not indicate where the material necessary for life would have “come from” in the first place, which is a more burning question to most people.  I would like to see them conduct the same experiments with an empty test tube and no starting enzymes.  Or maybe they coudl find some place in nature where RNA is spontaneously arising and replicating itself.
4. The huge and obvious irony in the whole thing is this:  it took intelligent beings to fiddle with the chemicals.  They set up the perfect conditions for the reactions to occur and inserted the perfect material into that environment.  It is much more like creation than evolution.  In fact, the title of the linked article refers to the near creation of life.  Wouldn’t that support the biblical theory rather than Darwin’s?