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jack"A proof of the Riemann hypothesis"
Linked from God plays dice blog, a putative paper on the Riemann hypothesis. I can't read it, I never was plugged into the mathematical grapevine. But it would feel remiss in the extreme not to pass on the comment.
For non-mathematicians, the Riemann hypothesis refers to a simple formula f(z), where z is a complex number. It is zero at z=-2, z=-4, z=-6, etc. It is also zero for many complex numbers z=0.5+it, ie. with real part 1/2, and some imaginary part. The hypothesis is that these are the only complex numbers with f(z)=0.
This is explained in more detail in the comments below, directly after "unnecessarily confusing, you should have..." and before "not entirely accurate because...".
The Riemann hypothesis is interesting because it ties into all sorts of different maths (eg. primes), and everyone's sure it's true, and people have had computers checking millions of solutions and seeing that they do conform, and there's lots of maths proved on the assumption that it's true. If it were proved, it would be the most famous result in maths in the last, um, ten years :)
ETA: The result is from a stable that does work on the Riemann Hypothesis, but has had several flawed proofs published before. This was flawed, and maybe patched already.
Bacteria make major evolutionary shift in the lab
Evolution , with the magic of stop-motion fridges. (Also: Dumbasses put hands over their ears and say "la la la, can't hear you". Original scientist sends long, thoughtful reply saying "Pull your fucking heads out of your asses, already. Duh.") Disclaimer: people who believe in the absence of any sort of evolution are not automatically dumbasses. Really.
God hates FAQs
A friend recently linked to a service which, when you're raptured, can send a last message to a loved one. There are two basic approaches. You've been left behind .com is run by Christians, and employs an ingenious dead-man's-handle.
Post Rapture Post .com is run by atheists. Post Rapture Post is a lot funnier.
Q. How Do We Know that You Will Not Ascend To Heaven with Us?
A. The Bible says that only those that repent of their sins and accept Jesus as the True Son of God will be saved. We do neither. Some of our personal sins include: drunkenness, heresy, sacrilige/blasphemy, gluttony, laciviousness, and sloth. There is no way we are going to disappear into Heaven any time soon.
Q. Aren't You Afraid of God's Wrath?
A. We don't believe in God, remember? In the event that the Rapture actually occurs, we will go to Plan B: "Lifetime of Sin Followed by Deathbed Repentance."
FWIW, I think both sites, whatever their personal beliefs, genuinely offer the service, but don't hold me to that.
Linked from God plays dice blog, a putative paper on the Riemann hypothesis. I can't read it, I never was plugged into the mathematical grapevine. But it would feel remiss in the extreme not to pass on the comment.
For non-mathematicians, the Riemann hypothesis refers to a simple formula f(z), where z is a complex number. It is zero at z=-2, z=-4, z=-6, etc. It is also zero for many complex numbers z=0.5+it, ie. with real part 1/2, and some imaginary part. The hypothesis is that these are the only complex numbers with f(z)=0.
This is explained in more detail in the comments below, directly after "unnecessarily confusing, you should have..." and before "not entirely accurate because...".
The Riemann hypothesis is interesting because it ties into all sorts of different maths (eg. primes), and everyone's sure it's true, and people have had computers checking millions of solutions and seeing that they do conform, and there's lots of maths proved on the assumption that it's true. If it were proved, it would be the most famous result in maths in the last, um, ten years :)
ETA: The result is from a stable that does work on the Riemann Hypothesis, but has had several flawed proofs published before. This was flawed, and maybe patched already.
Bacteria make major evolutionary shift in the lab
Evolution , with the magic of stop-motion fridges. (Also: Dumbasses put hands over their ears and say "la la la, can't hear you". Original scientist sends long, thoughtful reply saying "Pull your fucking heads out of your asses, already. Duh.") Disclaimer: people who believe in the absence of any sort of evolution are not automatically dumbasses. Really.
God hates FAQs
A friend recently linked to a service which, when you're raptured, can send a last message to a loved one. There are two basic approaches. You've been left behind .com is run by Christians, and employs an ingenious dead-man's-handle.
Post Rapture Post .com is run by atheists. Post Rapture Post is a lot funnier.
Q. How Do We Know that You Will Not Ascend To Heaven with Us?
A. The Bible says that only those that repent of their sins and accept Jesus as the True Son of God will be saved. We do neither. Some of our personal sins include: drunkenness, heresy, sacrilige/blasphemy, gluttony, laciviousness, and sloth. There is no way we are going to disappear into Heaven any time soon.
Q. Aren't You Afraid of God's Wrath?
A. We don't believe in God, remember? In the event that the Rapture actually occurs, we will go to Plan B: "Lifetime of Sin Followed by Deathbed Repentance."
FWIW, I think both sites, whatever their personal beliefs, genuinely offer the service, but don't hold me to that.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 03:54 pm (UTC)They don't think that anti-biotic resistance falsifies creationism because they think is it an example of 'information being lost'.
If it is proven that 'information is gained' they'll either argue that the capability was hidden in there somewhere but is only now expressed, or they'll fall back to the next line of sandbags where they say "aha, but it's still bacteria, it hasn't become multicellular or anything like that, it's still of the same kind".
I feel sorry for creationists, and I'm not sure what can be done about reeducating them. I don't think they're completely lost though (although no doubt some are - the ones at the top), some of the smarter ones can be persuaded with actual science (this could have happened to me in the past, but I didn't know any smart biologists at the time), others may be persuaded by those of us inside the church using theological arguments. In the long term getting rid of creationism is going to require a concerted theological push from inside the church, and good science education of kids (which is why all this 'teach the controversy in science classes' stuff must be stopped at all costs), then in a few generations there'll be far fewer creationists (which is what happened in the UK AFAICT).
no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 01:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 01:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 01:36 pm (UTC)There's generally a conversation like:
A: But... that'd only be possible if some external source was pouring energy into the system!
B: LOOK UP! IT'S THE SUN! IT'S A BALL OF NUCLEAR FLAMING GAS 300,000 TIMES BIGGER THAN THE EARTH, HOW HAVE YOU NOT NOTICES THIS?
:)
no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 01:39 pm (UTC)See also: http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/dont_use.asp
no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 01:48 pm (UTC)It's also nice to see them state that Einstein did not believe in God. It really annoys me when people claim that he did.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 01:55 pm (UTC)