Category Archives: News

TubeGuardian has arrived, have we won?

As you all probably know by now, the first public release of TubeGuardian has shaken up the votebotting scene, but is this the final blow in what has been an epic battle of morality and reason versus closed minded bigotry and censorship? Not in the least! In this blog, I will introduce everyone to TubeGuardian, answer a few common questions, and explain why this software is only the first step in many to come in the war against freedom and expression.

So, what exactly is TubeGuardian, and how does one acquire and use it?

TubeGuardian is software designed to determine and counteract votebot attacks. It can be downloaded right here at the League of Reason. Instructions for use will be posted in the forum entry for this blog post. If you do not know what votebots are, please see CosmicSporks excellent series of blog posts on the topic here. There are three main functions that TubeGuardian executes: gathering statistical information on videos, determining whether a video is under attack, and quickly disabling ratings on videos it determines are under attack. Let’s take each of those functions one at a time and dig a little deeper into how they work.

Continue reading TubeGuardian has arrived, have we won?

Andrew Parker Lost The Game (And The Metro, Happily, Did Not)

The last few hours have been full of nonsense.

Initially, a brief article in the London Lite detailing how a medium has told Jade Goody’s mother how Jade still loves Jack Tweed – the violent, sociopathic ass that he is – but doesn’t like him sleeping with other women.

That must have been the easiest work the medium ever did. “You’re the mother of a famous recently dead quasi-celebrity stupid racist bint . . . who could we possibly be here to talk about?”

There is no afterlife and anyone who says they can talk to the dead is either deluded or knowingly deceitful. And anyone who says they can talk to the dead and pretends to do so for bereaved relatives is just . . . reprehensible.

And this morning I found an article in the Metro, an interview with one Andrew Parker – an Oxford Uni biologist – who claims that God is behind the big bang, and has written a book (The Genesis Enigma – Why The Bible Is Scientifically Accurate). I was expecting to read the interview and find it full of mealy-mouthed delicacy and tolerance, but it seems the interviewer, Graeme Green, certainly isn’t taking Parker’s claims at face value. In fact, within the constraints of civility, Parker leaves with his ass in a sling. Instead of respecting Parker’s beliefs, something which happens with depressing regularity these days, Green submits him to fairly rigorous criticism – even levelling accusations of quote mining, a foul deed that all too many fundamentalists remain unchallenged on. In fact, I need to isolate that segment as you can practically hear Dr. Parker stumble:

“You say the second ‘Let there be light’¦’ refers to the evolution of the eye but you edited out the rest of the line, which clearly refers to the Sun, Moon and stars. There’s no mention in Genesis of the evolution of the eye.
Um, OK. I’ll probably have a look at this in more detail again. The first page of the Bible doesn’t spell out the eye but it doesn’t spell out any of the science in detail.”

“I’ll probably have a look at this in more detail again”? He’s already written the book, how come it’s only now that he’s deciding to reassess his source material thanks to a well-aimed question during a short interview? And he thinks creationism is unfounded and dangerous despite apparently subscribing to just that belief by thinking Genesis is completely true.

Full interview here.

And, of course, Parker would seem to be one of those people who doesn’t get how the eye could have evolved. For a recent diatribe on creationist tactics regarding ocular evolution CLICK THIS THING

A Friend of Mine Beaten and Jailed in Azerbaijan

A few articles I’d like to share.

Here’s one. And here’s another.

I was born in the second world so maybe it’s a little easier for me to understand how frequently governments will attack young agitators. My freind Adnan as handsome, charasmatic, and passionate about his homeland and his people, as am I (although, I’m better looking.)

I wish him well and will update on my Twitter as I here.

YouTube flagging gets out of hand

In a disgraceful example of not understanding how to interpret their own guidelines, YouTube has suspended dprjones without proper cause. dprjones was an awesome YouTuber and his voice will be missed there. His public dismantling of the PCS situation was awesome to watch. This is a sad day for him, us and YouTube itself. Pathetic flagging campaigns need to be met with a correct interpretation and screening processes by YouTube. On a positive note, dpr is a member of the “League Of Reason” and will be able to continue his activities here and on his filmrookie.com channel.
dprjones assisted Thunderf00t in his DMCA battle with PCS and also assisted me when I was the recipient of a dishonest DMCA claim against a creationism debunking series. His activities to combat votebotting and flagging campaigns are legendary. In keeping with the “War on ignorance” theme, I put this little piece together as a tribute to a fallen comrade.

Downfall of dprjones

Hopefully, YouTube will see the error of it’s ways. If it fails to prevent these situations arising and continues to allow censorship to become a valid form of argument, it will fade into obscurity due to a lack of relevancy.

DJ

Nanotechnology wins again!

Greeings from Denmark Leaguers! Just stopping by to post a bit of research that’s generating a buzz today. A team at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia have developed a technique for squeezing a potential 10 terabytes (!) of storage out of a DVD without compromising the size of the disc. This involves adding two additional “dimensions” to the format, namely colour and polarisation. These aren’t spatial or time-like dimensions – there is thus far no concrete evidence that our universe has any more than 4 dimensions – but rather two properties that can be exploited using nanomaterials. Firstly, these next generation discs would be able to respond to multiple wavelengths of light, as opposed to current discs which are monochromatic. This adds a range of colour values that can be manipulated within the same physical space on the disc, thus adding another dimension. Polarisation of the materials on the disc allows another possible range of information in the same space by altering the angle of the surface materials. By using materials that can adopt a range of angles, it is possible to influence them by polarising the light in the laser (setting the orientation of the electric field). I for one completely support this fresh way of thinking (as opposed to more stale attempts to increase data density, such as Blu-Ray) and I’m pleased to see that Samsung are now on board with this project. Apparently, we’ll see them being made commercially available in 5-10 years. I haven’t had a chance to read the paper yet, published in this month’s edition of Nature, but if you have access to the Journal, you can read it here. If not, you can always read the abstract!

I also would just like to say welcome to our newest bloggers, JRChadwick and SchrodingersFinch!

Life Could Easily Have Survived Meteor Bombardment 3.9 Billion Years Ago

One of the more annoying battle cries of creationists, or indeed anyone who seeks to disprove the workability of the abiogenesis model, is “But 3.9 billion years ago all life would have been wiped out by an epic meteor bombardment NOT LEAVING ENOUGH TIME FOR US TO EVOLVE TO THE STATE WE ARE NOW THEREFORE GOD DID IT.”

Now, from my perspective a meteor bombardment would have had to be sustained and concentrated enough to vaporise the seas and turn the entire surface of the earth to molten slag before you could make an assertion like “All life would have died.” We’re not even talking life as we know it, just single or maybe multi-celled organisms – organisms which are numerous, resiliant and extremely quick to reproduce. If only one was left alive, life would have continued.

So it’s nice to see my untutored assumptions backed up by science. A study from the University of Colorado shows that life could easily have survived the bombardment, thus potentially increasing the age of life on earth by several hundreds of millions of years.

And if life can survive a meteor strike of such intensity, it could have survived it on other planets as well. I’m waiting with impatience for news of Mars.

New primate fossil found

I would like to introduce you all to Ida, a holotype of Darwinius masillae

At 47 million years old, it puts this amazingly detailed fossil at a time period just after the split between strepsirrhines (Lemurs and Lorises) and haplorhines (us, other apes and monkeys). The detail on this is absolutely extrordinary. They are even able to analyse the digestive tract. Ida was preserved in a maar lake deposit as a result of a volcanic explosion turning a lake into an Eocene version of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (without the garden implements). Analysis of the teeth show this specimen to be a young juvenile animal.

If you feel inclined, trot on over to PLoS for the paper. There are also some great CT scans.

Ida being a bit negative

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0005723

Welcome to the family Ida!

DJ

COKE WILL DEATH YOU

An amusing article in today’s Metro (for people living in the wrong part of the planet, the Metro is a free daily newspaper given to commuters on the London Underground in an attempt to minimise casual violence).

“Guzzling down bottles of cola can cause muscle paralysis or even potentially fatal heart conditions, doctors warn.”

The cited example was a woman who “drank more than three litres of cola a day for six years”.

Now, whilst we all know that sugary stuff can fool with your teeth, getting paralysed by coke is a bit of a new one . . . but I really can’t see why people are surprised when they drink 3 litres a day. That was their representative case study? Someone too lazy or stupid to know what the hell she was doing? Well, I’m sure if I ate three litres of beans a day I’d discover some hitherto unknown consequences. Surely this is common sense? Over-indulgence of most things is going to do some damage.

Hell, why not write an article about people getting fat after eating a shedload of unhealthy food? That’s a more important, and far more prevalent, issue than “COKE HAS LICKED MY BRAIN”.

Star Trek – The Definitive Review

AW suggested I do a review, which struck me as difficult considering I don’t want to give away any of the plot, setpieces or script, so I’ll just censor the spoilers.

This film is balls to the wall winrar, culminating in a terrifying [censored] in which Scotty amputates [censored] [censored], plugging the leaking [censored] and so saving the ship. The scene in which Kirk [censored] for about fifteen minutes, before [censored] for a further five, is superlative. Special mention must be made of Kenneth Branagh, who [censored] every living thing in the movie.

Some surprises as well. Spock and Sulu smashing each other round the head and chest with office chairs; Chekhov’s wincing “toilet incident”; someone shouting “KHAN!!!” every few minutes; Nathan Fillion in a surprise cross-universe cameo as Mal Reynolds (although he [censored] after less than two minutes of screen time). And, of course, the blisteringly fast-paced trolley race which leaves a bewildered McCoy bleeding from his [censored], [censored] and partially severed [censored].

I heartily recommend this film to everyone. Where else are you going to see [censored], [censored], [censored] and – best of all – inter-species [censored]?