new post after much downtime focusing on other things. first, obama won. am glad, voted for him and think good things will be in the near to mid near future. but not immediately. i am pragmatic and realize that the economy is going to bounce back instantly or painlessly. i do have some problems with the big three bailout. they haven't really said anything convincing about how they will change their model (both business and car) with the money. they have proven to be more stubborn than i am (believe me, that's a bold statement) about changing their ways. iococca was able to do a little with the bailout he got, but generally, the only changes of consequence that have come out of detroit in my lifetime is to make cars bigger and less efficient. they react more to the market than try and drive it. "you want big suv's? sure we'll make 'em ad naseum. what's that? want more efficient environ friendly cars, but we are still building big suv's. we'll keep doing this for a few more years and you'll come back. damn, we were wrong (pronounced with the same great difficulty that the fonz used to experience). ok, we need money to do the same old crap."

i must comment on the utter dearth of scientific knowledge i run into on the web these days. i don't expect everyone to be on the same level as i am. i have a phd in cell biology. but, i routinely see posts on news message boards that simply make me say hmmm. without delving deeply into my issues with organized religion, why is it people are so willing to dismiss convincing, hardcore scientific data that leads to only logical conclusions about evolution to instead believe it was all done by the invisible guy. fossils are not there to test faith, they are all pieces of data all increasing the fact that evolution is the way we came about. a few concepts people refuse to grasp. we did not descend from chimps. we descended from a common ancestor as the chimp. it didn't look like us. it didn't look like a chimp. it is an animal more primitive than us. people don't seem to remember that when we split from the line that lead to chimps, the chimps have undergone the same amount of evolutionary time and number of (but not kind of) stresses that we did. but we headed into the savanna and they stayed in the jungle, so we went on different paths to where we each are now. another item-the time scale is vast. people complain about not seeing evolution going on around them. it's not that fast. evolutionary time is in the ballpark of geological time. to the people who try and use statistics to prove "random" evolution is not possible in the time frame of the existence of the earth. two major issues. first evolution is not wholly random. genetic drift and natural selection, while arise from the random accumulation of mutations that lead to preferable traits, are not random, but driven by forces of selection. also, the stats are complete foolish. often based upon the size of the entire genome instead of the coding and "functional" (i.e. not just genes, but additional rna species, structural units, and epigenetics) which is a much smaller number, destroying much of the statistical argument of impossibility. also, random changes of an a, g, c, or t to another nucleotide is not the only way for evolution to occur. horizontal exchange of dna, i.e. between bacteria; the incorporation of viral dna into a genome and hijacking of genes (link many in cancer - the normal gene in a human is a protooncogene, but when certain viruses hijack the gene and it becomes mutated or disregulated when replaced into the infected genome (see src, ras, etc). gene duplication and divergence of function of paralogs is also a way of evolving. fruit flies have one hox cluster, we have 4 (through 2 duplications and divergence and compartmentalization of functions). point is it isn't just the random mutation that can drive evolution, there are a lot of things going on at once.

well, the point of the ramble was that the evidence is there. just because you don't "believe" in evolution, it is. there is no faith involved, just observation and rational thought.

mccain is getting desperate

so now mccain is trying to say that, even though his central campaign issue was obama's lack of washington experience, that the failing economy is because of what obama has done in washington. please. mccain was there for 26 years and sponsored/wrote/backed tons of legislation that deregulated and removed transparency from wall street. but, its obama's fault. also, he needs to stop bitching about the former ceo's or freddie and fannie advising obama. mccain knows full well that Franklin Raines is not an advisor to obama and james johnson, who headed the vp search committee, left fannie mae in 1998 long before this mess started. so, laying blame of fannie's screw up with sub-primes, etc. is a conscious lie on mccain's part. but it is looking like that will be his tenor for the next 45 days.

an article today on msnbc's web page about lingering racism possibly having a negative effect on his chances. really, no kidding. lingering racism in the u.s.? how about rampant racism. i'm a white guy so i don't experience it, but i see it. not liking, fearing, or lessening the value of a person based on their color, sex or anything else is, to me, the ultimate sign of laziness and stupidity. every person i meet starts off with the same level of respect. then, that person either looses that respect though their actions, or gains more respect through their actions. the point is, it is that person who decides their own fate. the people who won't vote for obama are afraid that it will turn into a black house, etc., are lazy and utterly misguided. they also fear someone who they hate that is smarter than them. granted, most people are smarter than racists.

good day

are you kidding me?

i love the palin people. we don't like that you want to talk to us, even though you have subpoenas and we are legally required to talk to you, so we're taking our ball and going home. that worked pretty well in grade school, but doesn't really fly in presidential races. silence gives weight to the allegations, which seem likely to be true, given the info about her leadership style. this on top of the fact that just about every statement in her acceptance speech (and everyone since that considering she just keeps repeating the same catchphrases over and over) has turned out to be either an extreme exaggeration or flat out lie. that is probably why the bump for mccain is gone and he now trails again.

first post. for the record, these are my views, philosophies, and beefs. they are based on knowledge, research, and logical thought. the nucleus is the brain of the cell - where all the information is kept. this is a blog about my thoughts on the information out there. constructive feedback is welcome. informed opinions are encouraged. bitch about writing style or language and find yourself deleted. ad hominem attacks on me will be thwarted. i appreciate logical arguements, not name calling. that being said, here goes.
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for the sake of full disclosure. i am leaning towards obama, but am not a brainwashed follower. i do not think he is the second coming and don't agree with everything he and biden say. i respect john mccain and agree with him on some issues. i simply feel obama is the better choice. the problem with this election right now is that no one wants to discuss relevent issues (though talking about the economy is a good start - see below). people are out there on both sides bitching about non-issues. he called here a pig/he didn't call her a pig, etc. there are important issues to discuss.

there is no job out there that gives you the experience to be president, except president. being a senator means you know how washington works, but from the wrong end of pennsylvania ave. being a governor gives some executive experience, but running a state is very different from running a country. and for the love of god, why do people want a candidate that they can have a beer with? i don't want a regular joe/joan to be president. i want a person who is intelligent, thoughtful, realistic, and logical. hasn't anyone noticed what happens to the country when a regular guy who you wouldn't mind having a beer with is in charge? it doesn't tend to work out. i want someone with gravitas. also, i don't care what color or sex that person is. i want the best person. if that person is black (or half as the case may be), fine. if that person is female, fine. but voting for someone because they are black or female is short sighted. vote for the best person.

so mccain says the economy is strong, realizes how silly that sounds and changes it to the workers in the economy are strong. yeah, nice try. biden blames hedge funds for the problems with the economy, even though hedge funds are small compared to the investments of lehman, et al. so, both sides seem to be talking about topics they don't fully grasp. why is it lawyers and not economists who run for office?

good weekend of football. leave ed hochuli alone. he's one of the best ref's out there. he made a mistake and everyone else has the benefit of the review. its not so easy at real speed. the nfl needs to change the rule.

college hoops starts in a little over a month and a half. too long to wait.

that's it for today. i could rant long enough to fill all of the space blogspot gave to me, but will leave that for additional posts. fell free to comment on the substance. i will try and post something everyday if i can.

crow