Source: http://www.uncommondescent.com/evolution/getting-over-our-love-for-darwin/

Charles Darwin published his “Origin of Species” in 1859. There he presented the classic formulation of his theory of evolution. Lady Ashley, reacting to the theory at the time, remarked, “Let’s hope that it’s not true; but if it is true, let’s hope that it doesn’t become widely known.” Lady Ashley’s second hope has failed: Darwin’s theory is everywhere and has now become textbook orthodoxy. This year, universities around the globe are celebrating the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s “Origin of Species” as well as the 200th anniversary of his birth.

But what about Lady Ashley’s hope that Darwin’s theory is false? Darwin presented a bleak picture of ourselves: we are mere modified apes; we are the “winners” in a brutal competitive evolutionary process, most of whose players are “losers,” wiped off the evolutionary scene before they could leave a legacy; the traditional Christian view that we are made in God’s image is simply a story we tell to convince ourselves that we’re special.

Intelligent design supporters like me view Darwin’s theory as untrue and even as laughable: The theory purports to give a materialistic account of life’s development once life is already here, but it has a gaping hole at the start since matter gives no evidence of being able to organize itself from non-life into life. The fossil record, especially the sudden emergence of most animal body plans in the Cambrian explosion, sharply violates Darwinian expectations about the historical pattern of evolutionary change. The nano-engineering found in the DNA, RNA, and proteins of the cell far exceeds human engineering and remains completely unexplained in Darwinian terms.

Darwin lovers are quick to reject such complaints.  After all, as novelist Barbara Kingsolver declares, Darwin’s idea of natural selection is “the greatest, simplest, most elegant logical construct ever to dawn across our curiosity about the workings of natural life. It is inarguable, and it explains everything.” Kingsolver is no fan of Christianity. Yet many Darwin lovers are Christian. Francis Collins, who directs the National Institutes of Health, is a Christian Darwinist. Leaving aside a healthy skepticism that regards every scientific theory as refutable in light of new evidence, Collins exempts Darwinian evolution from such skepticism: “evolution, as a mechanism, can be and must be true.”

Any theory that explains everything and that can and must be true is either the greatest thing since sliced bread or the greatest swindle ever foisted on gullible intellectuals. The intelligent design community takes the latter view, siding here with Malcolm Muggeridge, who wrote: “I myself am convinced that the theory of evolution, especially the extent to which it’s been applied, will be one of the great jokes in the history books in the future. Posterity will marvel that so very flimsy and dubious an hypothesis could be accepted with the incredible credulity that it has.”

Still, it’s easy to understand why so flimsily a supported theory garners such vast support. It provides the creation story for an atheistic worldview. If atheism is true, then something like Darwinian evolution must follow. Hence, any attack on Darwin becomes an attack on the atheistic secularism that pervades our culture. Nonetheless, even though atheism implies Darwinism, the reverse is not true: Darwinism does not imply atheism. Indeed, Christian theists who embrace Darwin abound.

The wedding between Darwinism and Christianity, however, is an uneasy one. To be sure, plenty of marriages are uneasy, and uneasy marriages are often endured because divorce can entail more difficulties than endurance. Thus, when I got involved with the evolution controversy 20 years ago, I naively thought that any Christian, given sufficient evidence against Darwinism, would immediately jump ship. Darwinian evolution, according to Cornell historian of biology Will Provine, is “the greatest engine of atheism ever invented.” Why should Christians stick with such an engine when it’s no longer needed?

Little did I realize how infatuated many Christians are with Darwin. Having convinced themselves that design is an outdated religious dogma, they embraced Darwinism as a form of enlightenment. And having accommodated their faith to Darwin, they became loath to reexamine whether Darwinism is true at all. Unlike Lady Ashley, Christian Darwinists hope that Darwinism is true. But is it really? In this year of Darwinian bacchanalias, let us soberly reassess whether Darwin’s theory is indeed true. And if the evidence goes against it, as the intelligent design community is successfully demonstrating, then let’s be done with it. In that case, reconciling Christianity with Darwinism becomes a vain exercise, solving a problem that no longer exists.

William A. Dembski is research professor in philosophy at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of prominent books in the field of intelligent design, including The Design of Life: Discovering Signs of Intelligence in Biological Systems, written with biologist Jonathan Wells.

[podcast]http://feeds.radioamerica.org/podcast/GGL/audio/000003_014438.mp3[/podcast]

Thanks to G. Gordon Liddy: http://www.radioamerica.org/POD_ggl.htm

On Thursday, November 5th 2009, William Lane Craig and Francisco J. Ayala will debate the subject: Is Intelligent Design Viable?

The debate will be moderated by (atheist) Dr. Bradley Monton and will take place at Indiana University.

More about the participants here.

If you have fast internet (that rules out all of New Zealand), then you can get a live video feed here.

The MP3 is available online here: http://www.brianauten.com/Apologetics/craig-ayala-debate.mp3

Make sure you read the comments on Apologetics 315.  Sounds like a disappointing debate overall and one guy on Ayala’s side comments that he reckons he is on the move toward the ID side because he is tired of the evidence for evolution just never quite making an appearance.  Well, read it yourself…

Take a look at the intro video and following handful of pages showing the features here: http://www.logos.com/4.

You can get a 25% discount HERE thanks to an update by I am Jonny King, who also has a link to a review that you might want to have a look at, by someone in the know.

You should also check out this very good interview of Brian Tamaki and Richard Lewis, along with cult watcher and Destiny critic Mark Vrankovich here.

What do you think of Brian Tamaki?  I have to say, I actually quite like the guy (but then I also quite like Richard Dawkins too), but that has little to do with agreeing with what they believe.

I think we have to bear in mind that Brian and co are dealing with people that most churches would probably not know what to do with, so how does this play into the equation?

I state in advance that I am fully aware that there are Apple fanboys out there who will defend their beloved cult to the death, and that any criticism of such a divine invention as The Mac is far worse than Muhammad cartoons or burning Richard Dawkins books.  But since I am mostly fearless, except when I’m not, I shall proceed with vigor…

In the following, I am going to jot down some problems and various thoughts that I have had as I play with OS X 10.6 (and perhaps 10.5).  At times I will compare the latest and greatest from Apple with the almost latest and greatest from Mickey$oft.

Btw, I have used XP, Vista (2+ years) and Win 7 for 6+ months but currently have no plans to upgrade to Win 7 final release because the price is just way toooooo high.

Oh, and btw again, I am thinking of moving to a Mac.  Right now as I type this on a white MacBook, I am probably about 70:30 moving toward changing to Mac.  The next week of playing on this MacBook will make all the difference, and of course Mickey$oft’s pricing which could sway me a bit, perhaps.

So here goes…

• Installed 10.6 on a brand new MacBook, which apparently is not possible using an upgrade disk. Wrong, it is possible and very easy and took about 40 minutes.
• Finalizing installation, it asked to take my picture/photo with the built in camera, and froze with the green camera light on. Not a good start — so quit the installer and rebooted — same problem.  Did a Google search and found that the SVRAM(?) needed resetting to fix this bug (reboot, hold down option+command +p+r).  That fixed that problem.  Comment — this sort of problem just never happened to me when using Win 7. So much for the legendary Mac stability, and apparent excellence with their control-freak attitude to their hardware manufacture.  Windows has to work with thousands of different cards and chipsets, yet this sort of problem is of a bygone era in my experience.
• Two finger (no being rude now) scrolling on the MacBook mousepad is awesome.
• Time Machine (TM) it seems cannot even back up to a simple network storage device.  I have a server and The MacBook can see it fine on the network, but no backup to Swerver the server is available.  I guess this is another instance of Apple’s legendary control-freak lock-in as it is in principle possible to do such backups using hacks from cyberspace.  Sorry Apple, but Mickey$oft has no problems doing this and I have no intention of purchasing your extortionate-priced Time Traveler Capsule.
• How do you invoke the ubiquitous Finder with a simple keypress as you can with Explorer in Windoze?  Winkey+E = Explorer. Winkey+F = Find. Winkey+D = Desktop. Mackey+What=Finder???
• Why are so many downloads for Mac 2 to 3 times bigger than the same thing for Windoze?  Skype is like 42MB for Mac and about 8MB on Win IIRC.  iTunes is about 90MB on Mac — WTH — it’s only a music player and a few other things — talk about bloatware.
• Why does Windoze hardware suck so much — why doesn’t HP or Acer make a Mac Mini copy at half the price?
• Sarfari (a real mutt on Windows) looks like it is fixed in 10.6.  Simple switching between tabs worked differently in forward and reverse but 10.6 seems all good!  But, compared to Google’s Chrome, Safari sux.  And in case you think I am showing irrational bias, I reckon IE 8 sux compared to Sarfari.  At least Google’s Chrome is now available for Mac!!!
• Spotlight searching is really great — much better than my 2+ year old Vista install which is really slow now.  But what will Spotlight be like after 2 years of adding and deleting files I do wonder?!
• Open Office on the Mac is surprisingly good. The screenshots on the Open Office website do a great disservice to this office suite.
• VPN and remote desktop work really well. VPN is built into Mac OS and Remote Desktop for Mac is provided by Microsoft. Very nice!
• Skype for the Mac is a bit of a jumble compared to the latest Windoze version. This is probably because it is a couple of versions behind the latest Windows release.  And why the huge-mongous download? If this is due to the dual binaries (x86 and PPC), then why not split them into two separate downloads?
• My spam folder in Gmail has over 6000 spams for the last 30 days, yet Apple Mail (using IMAP) insists on downloading them and keeping the spam up to date.  Come on Apple – how pathetic – did any of you actually use Mail before releasing it?
• Installed some new patches using Apple Update. It installed the patches and rebooted but locked up in the process. Yup, 12 hours later I still had the round spinning thing on the blue screen (of death).

More to come…

We at Christian News agree with the sentiments of this post, even if we don’t always grasp this bloggers “distinctive” style, and we encourage everyone to think seriously about how they can play some part!

It’s over to I am Jonny King….

Disclaimer: Matt and Madeline Flanagan are the victims of this piece of gutter journalism… sorry, verbose diatribe! They have in no way done anything to foster the words or these intentions. They are posting this [God Willing] as a result of this individuals pleadings… Remember, the effigies can still be a reality MandM!

Bloggers of NZ-World… Feel free to cut and paste… but blog it over… If this is gonna fly, you may have to give it wings!

“Oh, so you think so I am Jonny King.” Well, that was the point of the Header, so guilty as charged, but I have blog cred., so backoff, otherwise I will unload a can of “I am an ugly Calvinist” on ya, cause I am Jonny King does not wear pink for no reason!

Okay, so talk is cheap, and we have three children… does that mean I am easy?! I am a married man, and if I sing, I will sing like Solomon to my Shulamite! After all, it is biblical!

No mental pictures, they say that beauty is in the eye of beholder… or should that be beer-holder?!

If the reader is beginning to perceive a growing reality of perplexion in one’s perception, join the club! It is a fan club of one, but I am looking to expand, take over the world… no need to fear!

Nevertheless, I am looking to glorify God in what I write. Laugh Sinner, surely the grace of God has given you everything is reason enough [the offer is still on the table]!

I know, if only this blogger had foot in mouth disease, at least something would shut him up. However, there is madness to my method [that is plain to read... or, is it the other way around?]!

We are at a stop sign, so I will slow-down-to-stop-and-park-then-proceed… forward… noted. I can put it in no simpler terms than this… Jesus Christ came to save sinners of whom we are near enough to be chief. We are all the worst sinner we know, and because of this, we need to be “Baywatched” because we are drowning, cold, and out of breath. This is one deal that the government can not even try and buy back [for the Yanks], as it is bankrupt as well! If this is a foolish message to you reader, it says more about the perspective of your presently-pending destiny than it does about the messenger and His Message, and even if this story will merely annihilate your approaching reality [for you Mr Flanagan], what a “Hell” of a way to continue one’s story, when there is a hope that will float your human-resurrected boat, all the way into eternity!

That my friends, is the Gospel message… Well, that might impugn the Word of God… let’s say that this is a creative summation!

Therefore, if I may, let me speak for the Flanagans [a cold sweat descends on MandM], but such a message is the foundation of their present-to-future, the fuel of their existence, the certain hope of their endless future, and the means whereby life makes sense… even if they could do with more dollars!

I don’t know about you, but I believe that the God of the Bible has correspondence with the God of the Reality, and I believe that He has authorial intent to say what He chooses. Even though you may doubt my method, and you may call such affirmations madness, I believe that He is in control, and that He has a plan, even a cunning plan [Joesph and Job], but He is a postal service we can all trust!

Could such be a time, when even Job’s wife believes?

Therefore, in light of God’s call in our own lives, in light of His call to our nation of New Zealand, in light of the implications of the Gospel, I am sounding the Trumpet, as shofar has not been sho-good [I know that stinks like a ram's horn]!

Therefore [again], I am calling Christians in the blogosphere to unite behind a common cause for very un-common ends.

Today, as I have read the MandM blog, I have been reminded again of the following words.

Let me quote myself… Go on then!

In the good providence of the always good God, who is always on time, Matt is waiting for his academic train to arrive. In the Rhode Island of our God [that may be a bit obscure... let me help, a city in the state of Rhode Island... No?... Providence], Madeline is also coming through unusual days, with recovery from an accident impacting her present-future… such is the motivation for a clarion call of the faithful to stand with their comrades…

… We Christians in NZ need the Gospel to grasp us better so that we view our money as His money… are we not mere stewards of this resource?… yeah, as long as we control its use!… just maybe, we could do something really significant if we would put all our chips in His hands and go all in, not merely with our words, but with the expression of our existence. We too easily affirm that Acts 2:42-47 is merely historically descriptive, without asking the question as to what would happen if we grasped the spirit of what happened then and practice it now… in our time and in our place!

Can I say that I am becoming more and more convinced that if we could only fix and gaze at His bigger picture and remove our personal parochial positioning that is so often privately motivated, we would be more willingly to give what we have, and give it to something bigger than ourselves, something that is doing a job that we do not and can not, remembering it is not all about us!

What Matt [and Madeline] can do for the Kingdom is not available to all, nor should this be expected [body analogy, anyone]… Yes, you could spend the years of committed diligence and replicate his journey, however, this also assumes that one is spiritually gifted in kind [body analogy... with the Creators providentially purposeful plan], and this will be an exception to any rule, which is why we should be supporting this couple in our New Zealand context and use this opportunity as a catalyst for the Flanagans to be better resourced, better supported and better used for the glory of our Creator…DO YOU FEEL ME!!!

This is about the Priesthood of all believers taking on this reality, passionately in pursuit of Christ, His mission… and to use some recent-ish lingo, help the Flanagans continue to minister “missionally” in a New Zealand context.

Just imagine as a witness to our belief that we believe the Flanagans serve an important and vital part in the body of Christ, if we the people did something about this. Yes, we could wait for something to turn up, but what if in the providence of God we stood and were counted because we believed it was the right thing to do, and because it is the right thing to do, it will be done!

Imagine, for example, if we could get 100 contributors each giving $5 a week to support the Flanagans to continue to pursue, even more intently, the important niche where they are both gifted that would also give them the needed resource with which to provide for their family, for a time period of His choosing… be it short or even long!

Seriously, I see this as a practical way of affirming that we are apart of something bigger than our own picket fence, with such possibly even being the catalyst for a greater unity where a groundswell of the common folk pick up their plowshares, link arms and… walk on [U2 reverberating in the distance].

Practically, surely such an amount is not overtly prohibitive. I am personally aware, given our context, the scarcity of the monetary resource. However, for more people than not, the pertinent criteria relates to whether one believes that this is one of those things that one will commit to doing. One could also take this out of one’s giving to the local church without seriously impacting this context [assuming you are not the only giver... at your own church... Pastor], or one could be put this aside in a greater family context.

Think on this next time you supersize your 2nd combo at Macca’s… for that day!

I know, this talk comes pretty cheap… however, I am willing… are you?!

Surely such an undertaking represents how the body should be working, and how most often it does not.

It’s time to get real, we stink at supporting people in ministry, and its time to clean up our… stuff!

What do you think? What will you do?

Today, I spoke with someone… no, it was not myself… I have a friend [he claimed I did most of the talking... Yeah Right, who's gonna believe that porker] about providing, therefore positioning Mr Flanagan in our New Zealand context that would allow him to function in a missional sense, whereby, for examples sake, having a visit from someone like William Lane Craig would be the exception, as we the people have set up another rule, whereby Christianity in New Zealand can have an ever-growing voice of intellectual reasoning that can speak out to any number of contexts, in any number of media.

The potential is possible, and can be probable!

Could it be in the providence of God, the delay in finding his future, is ripe for our picking, and that God “combatabilistically” knows this is the time, and this is the plan, where Matt can be best used in our nation?!

Okay, What Now [I am way too mature for that programme now... Special Agent Oso, anyone]?

It’s up to you the people! Now this call is to a New Zealand context, but it is not limited to New Zealanders. Readers-Christians of the World, we are one in Him, let’s prove it! Catch the vision!

Today, I put my stake in the ground… again. Our beginnings can be small, with only a few, and many of you maybe thinking this as you read… another pie pig-in-the-sky idea, and it is easy to think such things, as we are want to talk big and act small… History proves this too often… But whose fault is that???

Just as you think that this is somehow an insignificant happening, which you will let pass… let me take you back to 11 frightened disciples in another time zone from New Zealand, whom God used to shake the very foundations of our culture and existence.

While history never really repeats, God laughs

Even today, I believe we can do something in our country that affirms the intent of Ephesians 3:20-21!

I invite you to play your part. Commit yourself to giving $5 .00 a week. I don’t know where this will end, or if it will only allow them to get by and continue doing their thing in the short term [and, If you are committed to the practice of the vision, leave a message here or contact me at I am Jonny King]… If you want to commit more millionaire, feel free! This is merely a figure to get the ball rolling!

But, why don’t we do something in our generation. Stop reading church history to see God doing something, Stop looking overseas for something good in God. It’s not about us, but let’s do something body.

There may be other ideas and other plans, but if such be a beginning to a greater ending, start your engines, speak forth, and take this to the next level [as I said it's not about us... me]!

These words are done!

In closing, I want you to read… even feel free to sing our national anthem, but look at the words. We so freely sing these words, but they are our battle hymn of the commonwealth. Maybe you would want to say something else… nevertheless, they are sending a message, which should be loud and clear!

If such be our cry, then… Nike it!

Until Next Time

I am Jonny King

God of nations! at Thy feet
In the bonds of love we meet,
Hear our voices, we entreat,
God defend our Free Land.
Guard Pacific’s triple star,
From the shafts of strife and war,
Make her praises heard afar,
God defend New Zealand

Men of ev’ry creed and race
Gather here before Thy face,
Asking Thee to bless this place,
God defend our Free Land.
From dissension, envy, hate,
And corruption guard our State,
Make our country good and great,
God defend New Zealand.

Peace, not war, shall be our boast,
But, should foes assail our coast,
Make us then a mighty host,
God defend our Free Land.
Lord of battles in thy might,
Put our enemies to flight,
Let our cause be just and right,
God defend New Zealand.

Let our love for Thee increase,
May Thy blessings never cease,
Give us plenty, give us peace,
God defend our Free Land.
From dishonour and from shame
Guard our country’s spotless name
Crown her with immortal fame,
God defend New Zealand.

May our mountains ever be
Freedom’s ramparts on the sea,
Make us faithful unto Thee,
God defend our Free Land.
Guide her in the nations’ van,
Preaching love and truth to man,
Working out Thy Glorious plan,
God defend New Zealand.

Australian atheists are under attack, with the websites of both the Atheist Foundation of Australia and the Global Atheist Convention knocked offline in a major cyber attack yesterday afternoon.

The “distributed denial of service” attacks flooded the websites with traffic, forcing them offline about 5.20pm yesterday.

As of this morning, the foundation had still not been able to restore the websites.

The attacks may be related to the Global Atheist Convention, which is being held in Melbourne in March next year. Speakers include Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion and comedy writer Catherine Deveny.

Christian News New Zealand in no way endorses hacking of websites, IF that is really what happened. But is it?  A reader writes:

1. Why does there have to be a designer/culprit behind this event? It seems like this could simply be the result of undirected, random, chance.
2. It seems very likely that this is a simple case of “Internet-natural selection.” Obviously the strong have successfully killed off the weak. Rather than attempting to revive these weak websites, their demise should be applauded as progress!
3. Is there some standard of right & wrong that makes a cyber attack like this “wrong?” If so, where does such a standard come from?

Some good points made by the reader. I think that we can safely say that whatever the cause was for the websites going down, they were really only dancing to their DNA, their program code compiled and then defiled, evolved and dissolved.

Millions of computers have been running for millions of computer-years, making it a certainty that given enough time and enough Dawkinsian faith, we could be sure that the equilibruim would be punctuated with an explosion of new information.  We just need enough faith to believe that the seemingly impossible can happen, and will happen, and if not in this universe, then in a parallel universe far far away.

Read the full article here:
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2009/10/richard_dawkins_the_greatest_s.html

PS. Well done to Francis Ayala who has the guts to step up to the plate and debate.

Discovered in 1860, only a year after Charles Darwin published his famous “On the Origin of Species,” the raven-sized archaeopteryx was generally assumed to show evolution in action. It had the feathers and wishbones of birds, but it also retained the teeth, tail and three-fingered hands of dinosaurs.

But new studies of its bones and those of other fossils, by a team led by paleontologist Gregory M. Erickson of Florida State University and the American Museum of Natural History, show that it was much less bird and far more dinosaur than had been believed.

It continues:

Examining other early fossils, they concluded that modern bird physiology did not begin to appear until Confuciusornis, a toothless bird from the Yixian geological formation in China that did not appear until 20 million years after archaeopteryx.

Wikipedia (that great source of  reliable information) seems to contradict this:

Archaeopteryx, sometimes referred to by its German name Urvogel (“original bird” or “first bird”), is the earliest and most primitive bird known.

This confusion regarding historical science underlines again just why evolution is just as much a fact as gravity.  Yeah, right!

As the famous Stephen J. Gould wrote: “The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of palaeontology.“

CHILD RAPE IN A MATERIALISTIC WORLD

http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/child-rape-in-a-materialist-world/

The aforementioned post shows again so nicely that in a Godless (e.g. material-only, or materialistic) world why “all things are permissible”.  Materialists (e.g. atheists) should own up to the moral bankruptcy of their worldview and start being consistent with themselves and the rest of us. E.g. stop illogically smuggling moral values into conversations. e.g. you SHOULD smack deaf politicians, or you SHOULD NOT kick cats.

Leading Darwinist Richard Dawkins Dodges Debates, Refuses to Defend Evolution as The Greatest Show On Earth

Seattle – Richard Dawkins, the world’s leading public spokesman for Darwinian evolution and an advocate of the “new atheism,” has refused to debate Dr. Stephen C. Meyer, a prominent advocate of intelligent design and the author of the acclaimed Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design.

“Richard Dawkins claims that the appearance of design in biology is an illusion and claims to have refuted the case for intelligent design,” says Dr. Meyer who received his Ph.D. in the philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge in England.

“But Dawkins assiduously avoids addressing the key evidence for intelligent design and won’t debate its leading proponents,” adds Dr. Meyer. “Dawkins says that there is no evidence for intelligent design in life, and yet he also acknowledges that neither he nor anyone else has an evolutionary explanation for the origin of the first living cell. We know now even the simplest forms of life are chock-full of digital code, complex information processing systems and other exquisite forms of nanotechnology.”

In Signature in the Cell, Dr. Meyer shows that the digital code embedded in DNA points powerfully to a designing intelligence and helps unravel a mystery that Darwin did not address: how did the very first life begin?

Signature in the Cell has just entered its third printing according to publisher HarperOne, an imprint of Harper Collins, and has been endorsed by scientists around the world, including leading British geneticist Dr. Norman Nevin, Alastair Noble, Ph.D. chemistry, formerly Her Majesty’s Inspector of Schools for Science, Scotland, and Dr. Philip Skell, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Meyer challenged Dawkins to a debate when he saw that their speaking tours would cross paths this fall in Seattle and New York. Dawkins declined through his publicists, saying he does not debate “creationists.”

“Dawkins’ response is disingenuous,” said Meyer. “Creationists believe the earth is 10,000 years old and use the Bible as the basis for their views on the origins of life. I don’t think the earth is 10,000 years old and my case for intelligent design is based on scientific evidence.”

According to Discovery Institute, where Dr. Meyer directs the Center for Science & Culture, the debate challenge is a standing invitation for any time and place that is mutually agreeable to both participants.

On the Apple side of things, the Mac Mini, as I have documented previously on this site, has about $400 NZD difference between the two available models, yet the actual differences in the components (hard drive and memory) can be calculated to be about $70 NZD.

But it’s worse than that. In the USA, the basic MAC Mini is about $599 USD.  We NZers can buy such a beast from BHPhotoVideo in New York, pay postage for 5 day delivery, pay the gst when the machine goes thru customs, and still have the item on our desk within a week for about $1019 NZD.  Compare that to the NZ retail price of $1400!  Keep a watch out — Apple are likely about to release new Minis and perhaps reduce the current price by $100 USD — perhaps.  Check the Apple rumor sites if you don’t believe me!

So here’s a free thought. Instead of being fleeced about $250 NZD for Windows 7, upgrade your PC and operating system by buying direct from the USA.  A new Mac Mini will probably be much faster than your old PC, be a fraction of the size, use a fraction of the power, will run Windows XP, Vista or 7, come with lots of great software, and will probably use your existing mouse and keyboard.  Oh, and they come with a free version of Parallels which retails for about $80 USD and enables MAC OS and Windows to run simultaneously.

Yet another scientific scandal has come to light which knocks another whopping crater in the already shattered theory of anthropogenic global warming. Eight peer-reviewed studies, which for years have played a significant supporting role behind the IPPC’s claims of AGW, have been shown to be fraudulent.

As Andrew Orlowski reports in The Register, the issue is the use of tree rings as a temperature proxy in order to ‘reconstruct’ past temperatures. The papers in question incorporated data from trees at the Yamal Peninsula in Siberia:

This dataset gained favour, curiously superseding a newer and larger data set from nearby. The older Yamal trees indicated pronounced and dramatic uptick in temperatures.

How could this be? Scientists have ensured much of the measurement data used in the reconstructions remains a secret — failing to fulfill procedures to archive the raw data. Without the raw data, other scientists could not reproduce the results. The most prestigious peer reviewed journals, including Nature and Science, were reluctant to demand the data from contributors. Until now, that is.

At the insistence of editors of the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions B the data has leaked into the open — and Yamal’s mystery is no more. From this we know that the Yamal data set uses just 12 trees from a larger set to produce its dramatic recent trend. Yet many more were cored, and a larger data set (of 34) from the vicinity shows no dramatic recent warming, and warmer temperatures in the middle ages.

In all there are 252 cores in the CRU Yamal data set, of which ten were alive 1990. All 12 cores selected show strong growth since the mid-19th century. The implication is clear: the dozen were cherry-picked.

And a couple of comments from people on The Spectator:

The whole climate science world is buzzing with this. The first line of defense for the warmists is always to discredit the source. Neither Science nor Nature have an unblemished record. Both have published nonsense – scientific fraud – in the past. It may turn out that much of the warmism they publish now is nonsense, despite the “peer-reviews” by similarly-minded believers. The exposure of the Briffa tree ring fiasco is but one nail in the coffin being fitted for the “consensus”.

and

That may be the case – I have never read the Register. But the allegation is hugely serious and deserves proper investigation. Or would you just rather close down the debate?

The ADL has objected to attempts to inject Nazi imagery into the health-care reform debate (“Such statements only serve to diminish and trivialize the extent of the Nazi regime’s crimes against humanity”), the abortion debate (“Such analogies can only trivialize and diminish the horror”), the animal-rights debate (“the issue should stand on its own merits, rather than rely on inappropriate comparisons that only serve to trivialize the suffering of the six million Jews”), and in many other contexts.

But if Rush Limbaugh, for example, used “outrageous, deeply offensive and inappropriate” Nazi comparisons to stigmatize sponsors and supporters of health-care reform, why is it no less outrageous to compare people (like the late Irving Kristol, for example) who doubt Darwinian evolution to the moral cretins who deny the Holocaust? In his new book, currently the #22 best seller on Amazon, The Greatest Show On Earth: The Evidence for Evolution, Dawkins calls Darwin critics “history-deniers” and dwells on the comparison, even remarking that “The evidence for evolution is at least as strong as the evidence for the Holocaust, even allowing for eye witnesses to the Holocaust.”

Is that some sort of cruel joke? The evidence for Darwin’s account of evolution and, more so, its controversial mechanism of natural selection is a matter of inference, no matter how strong you think the inference is. The evidence for the Holocaust includes countless eye-witness accounts — a very different and superior order of evidence.

“People who reject the theory of evolution should be placed on a level with Holocaust deniers, argues an author in his controversial new book,” headlined the London Times when the book came out there last month. Yet not a peep from the ADL.

Read the rest here.

As I survey the wreckage of the Obama landscape, I fear that my predictions before the election may sadly come true. Although some dismissed me (even people I thought would give me a fair hearing), I predicted that, if elected, Obama would lose the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and that the US would be hit hard by more terrorist attacks.

It is obvious that Obama does not stand against evil internationally. He failed to denounce the rigged elections in Iran; he chums around with Hugh Chavez, a Marxist dictator; he does not even mention international terrorism when he “speaks to the Muslim world” in Egypt (although he does speak of the Koran as being “revealed.”) Our General on the ground in Afghanistan tells him that only a troop surge will prevail against “mission failure” there, yet he refuses to immediately act and considers troopwithdrawls. I doubt he has the nerve to make the victory stick in Iraq, especially given his gutless approach to Iran, which has sponsored terrorists in Iraq.

More here.

Tauranga – Monday 5 October 7.30pm, The Redwood Room, Bureta Park Motor Inn Vale Street, Otumoetai, Tauranga

Hamilton – Thursday 8 October 7.30pm, Hamilton Central Baptist Church, 33 Charlemont Street, Hamilton.

Speakers – John Boscawen, ACT MP, Bob McCoskrie, Family First, Larry Baldock, Referendum Organiser.

John Boscawen will be inviting the local MP to each of the meetings and Sue Bradford, Green MP.

Come along and learn about what you can do to help the law to be changed.

For more information, contact Karen Bridgman on kbridgman@xtra.co.nz