Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Look at these adults pretending to be on a virtual Teams call with the Creator of the Universe.

Is Household Voting another step on the road to Gilead?

Florida has decided that it has too many children while Western States align to keep their children healthy. Dr. Feelnogood got to be on raw milk and no alcohol.

Members of the Religion of Peace burn another woman to death on behalf of their imaginary god.

JD Vance’s Catholicism is displayed by admitting he is happy to commit war crimes.

World of Woo:  The Glucose Spike Myth.

Environment:  A23a is no longer the world’s biggest iceberg.

Scientific objectivity is a myth but not every idea deserves equal time.

Digital immortality is a metaphysical mirage as consciousness can’t be uploaded.

What was the ‘common ancestor’ that all lifeforms share?

The Department of War is racing to integrate AI into its weapons systems.

Long Reads:

The great Moon Rush.

The Ministry of Truth opens The Founders Museum.

Was Diogenes Woke?

America is choosing decline.

And the winner for the best algorithm movie is…..Netflix.

Sunday Book Club:  What Is Intelligence? Lessons from AI About Evolution, Computing, and Minds

Some photographs taken last week.

While you are waiting for the kettle to boil……

Coffee Break Videos:  Anne Applebaum on the Trump revolution. Is Traditional Religion Doomed? Don’t eat too much Nutella.

 

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Have a great week everyone!!

Atheism isn’t a belief—it’s a refusal to pretend. 

 

[_Robert_Participant]

Just frogs in a pot as the water begins to boil.

“My farm is going out of business, but I still believe Trump is doing the right thing”.

Ain’t that America. Little pink houses for you and me.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg,

JD Vance’s Catholicism is displayed by admitting he is happy to commit war crimes.

You know, if someone really wanted to “Make America Healthy Again,” not to mention “End Forever Wars,” and have “Gold Standard Science,” they could start by using Genetic Engineering to make drugs that kill pain without killing people and which don’t encourage addiction. Then flood the global market with these new, better drugs and put all the cartels and narco-terrorists out of business.

This would end the “War On Drugs” and end the wars for drug turf that are fought by gangs on our cities, and take away funding of Islamic terrorists. We would also have no more addicts unable to function and living in the streets.

But, of course. this takes thinking minds, something not encouraged by JD Vance’s Catholicism and JFK Jr.’s schizoid practices regarding CRISPR:

RFK, Jr. invested in CRISPR gene editing company while his Children’s Health Defense nonprofit vilifies the technology
Jonathan Wosen | STAT | January 28, 2025

RFK, Jr. invested in CRISPR gene editing company while his Children’s Health Defense nonprofit vilifies the technology

Will we ever learn? It’s not looking good right now.

• This reply was modified 5 months, 4 weeks ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Correcting the link

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Robert,

Just frogs in a pot as the water begins to boil.

Contrary to that old urban legend, frogs only stay in water as young tadpoles. Grown frogs don’t stay in water, no matter what the temperature.

This actually makes them smarter than humans in that respect. Frogs don’t engage in The Sunk Cost Fallacy.

[StregaModerator]

Thanks Reg 🙂

[_Robert_Participant]

TheEncogitationer wrote:

Robert,

Just frogs in a pot as the water begins to boil.

Contrary to that old urban legend, frogs only stay in water as young tadpoles. Grown frogs don’t stay in water, no matter what the temperature. This actually makes them smarter than humans in that respect. Frogs don’t engage in The Sunk Cost Fallacy.

Yeah, I know, it’s just a false allegory, like most of bible but it gets a point across. Plus, I think any frogs swimming in our little pond will get eaten by a largemouth bass almost immediately. There are a few very large (~10 lbs) channel catfish in there as well. I stocked the pond eight years ago.

Frogs are definitely smarter than many of my fellow Floridians. I can’t wait to see what they do when the first school kid to comes down with polio.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

Scientific objectivity is a myth

I argue a more accurate view of science is that pure objectivity is impossible. Once you leave the myth of objectivity behind, though, the way forward is not simple. Instead of a belief in an all-knowing science, we are faced with the reality that humans are responsible for what is researched, how it is researched and what conclusions are drawn from such research.

This is true.  Science is a product of the society that creates it.  But science is also self-correcting, and when it discovers bias, it attempts to correct it, because it wants to be as objective as possible.

Nature magazine has been criticised for “going woke”.  The implication is that they might distort scientific findings to fit an agenda – oh yeah, that sounds familiar.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

I think the writer is “tilting at windmills” and is arguing a point that does not need to be made. It could even be deemed a “strawman argument”. Her critique seems aimed more at an imagined “scientific arrogance” than at how science is genuinely practiced. Very few scientists claim perfect objectivity; rather, they emphasize the method as the source of correction. They understand that their own opinion is subjective and submit their finding to the “peer review” process where individual subjectivity gets filtered through collective scrutiny, and what emerges is closer to objectivity.

The culture of science itself recognizes this—that’s why we have peer review, replication studies, double-blind trials, statistical checks, etc. The whole apparatus exists precisely because individual scientists are fallible, biased, and human.

Philosopher Helen Longino proposed that objectivity in science is not about removing all values, but about subjecting findings to diverse critical perspectives within the scientific community. What makes science objective, then, is how it invites scrutiny from multiple viewpoints and not the absence of values. In fact, she argues that science can be objective precisely because it is not value-free. Philosophers like Thomas Kuhn (one of my favorites) have emphasized how scientific “facts” and theories are often contingent on prevailing paradigms. According to him, what counts as valid evidence or explanation can shift dramatically across cultural or historical contexts.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg and Simon,

Scientific objectivity is a myth but not every idea deserves equal time.

Just because science is practiced in the context of a particular society, culture, or time period doesn’t mean science is bound to that context and not objective.

Something is objective when it’s there when you sleep and there when you wake or when you turn you head from it and when you turn your head back. And when other observers do the same and get the same result, that’s where the element of reproducibility comes in.

This article reminds me of the Apologetics who claim that because the Scientific Revolution took place in a predominantly Christian society, Christianity therefore created Science.* Or because the principles of Algebra and Algorithms were first used in the Arabic Islamic world, Algebra and Algorithms are therefore Islamic.

* (That Christian Apologist Gish Galloping Galoot I once told you about one time even went so far as to claim that the entire Enlightenment experiment and even Atheism were the product of Christianity! That takes some real mental gymnastics!)

• This reply was modified 5 months, 4 weeks ago by  TheEncogitationer.

[jakelafortParticipant]

Frog log.

There i was. There i was. Northern Maine beside the lake beneath the trees fluttering and dancing in the breeze. GF sitting peacefully alongside ingesting the tranquil scene and the din of nature. Well don’t ya know i burst into bullfrog. I am a passable mimic. Even so am to this day unsure what caused me to break into bullfrog. Don’t ya know they answered?

Yes indeedyly doodly moodily. Perhaps they were immersed in the water and getting it on. But to all appearances they answered me. Stunned into shaking her head and wondering what other hidden talents i possessed…

………. AI……..

Yes, while frogs are amphibians that live both on land and in water, they all need water to survive due to their permeable skin, which requires moisture to prevent dehydration. Some species, like the African clawed frog, spend almost all their lives in the water, while others, like the Australian water holding frog, can survive in arid conditions by burrowing and storing water.
Why Frogs Need Water
Skin Absorption:
Frogs absorb moisture directly through their skin, which can also help them breathe. If their skin dries out, they will die.
Breeding:
Frogs lay their eggs in water, and their young, called tadpoles, must live in water to develop using gills.
Habitat:
Most frogs live in aquatic or swampy environments because they need access to freshwater to stay moist.
Different Lifestyles
Semi-Aquatic:
.
Many frogs are semi-aquatic, meaning they spend time both in and out of water, thriving in environments like ponds, lakes, and moist forests.
Fully Aquatic:
.
Some species, such as those in the Pipidae family, are nearly entirely aquatic, living their whole lives underwater.
Terrestrial Adaptations:
.
Even frogs in drier regions, like the African waxy tree frog, require a water source and may have adaptations like thicker skin to reduce moisture loss.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Burst into bull frog? There are a few known cases of it happening.

 

 

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Robert,

Yeah, I know, it’s just a false allegory, like most of bible but it gets a point across. Plus, I think any frogs swimming in our little pond will get eaten by a largemouth bass almost immediately. There are a few very large (~10 lbs) channel catfish in there as well. I stocked the pond eight years ago.

Frogs are definitely smarter than many of my fellow Floridians. I can’t wait to see what they do when the first school kid to comes down with polio.

Well, that’s the beauty of going with a Biology text over an allegory or a book of grim fairy tales. The Biology text will reassure you that a Cajun pot or a Billy Bass or a big disease with a little name does not have to be your fate.

And as millions of non-sapient species prove, Natural Selection doesn’t even require intelligence (though it helps,) just adaptability. Maybe Florida Man’s young will be spared.

[_Robert_Participant]

Yeah Enco, I don’t recall exactly when Americans started loading themselves onto the short busses because I spent my working years with teams of engineers and scientists. I generally thought the average among us had a lick of sense. My grandparents understood that vaccines do save lives and authoritarianism is bad. They knew not to eat so much that they didn’t need seatbelt extensions, and their car batteries didn’t have warning stickers telling them not to drink the battery acid. I mean, tricky Dick is a fucking saint compared to our ass clowns in charge.

So here we are and sorry, but we are still the proverbial frogs because we all will pay for this mass stupidity one way or another.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Jake,

I stand corrected on the African Clawed Frog. However, even those would avoid staying in water with a life-threatening heat source. As for all others of adult age, water is an as-needed thing, not a home.

My main point is the boiling frog trope is so tired.

[Author]

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