How long will it last?

So this week here in the United States we averted a major tragedy when an airline pilot was able to pull off the nearly impossible and land a commercial airliner on the water without it breaking apart or flipping over. Soon after landing on the river there were ferries and tugboats there to rescue those 140+ passengers on that plane. Why is it that only in the moments of near tragedy that we all band together? The last time that we saw it as a nation was when we all pulled together on that HORRIBLE day in September of 2001 when our freedom was attacked. The togetherness from that attack lasted a few weeks or months and then it was back to the same old same old cutting each other off, flipping them the bird, cussin them out, not looking out for anyone but ourselves. Why is it that it takes tragedy to bring our nation together? Sadly I dont think the togetherness of this incident will even last a week. Some may say that the events coming up this coming week will draw us together but sadly I dont think they will serve that purpose. I dont think any of the candidates that were in the running for the position this year would have been able to draw our nation together. Our nation, the GREATEST nation, has a deep dividing line that will not easily go away.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed Review

So over my Christmas vacation I watched the movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed", a documentary done by Ben Stein. Yes that Ben Stein from the show "Win Ben Stein's Money" that used to be on TV. At first I was very skeptical because of that fact that the documentary would be far from serious. Boy was I very wrong about that fact. In the documentary Ben goes around and talks to scientists at various institutions ranging from the Smithsonian Institute to even Ivy League Schools who have been fired from their positions or their contracts not renewed because of anything from publishing an article in a magazine containing reference to Intelligence Design to putting it on a slide in a PowerPoint saying it is an opposing view that is out there. The Intelligent Design debate is so often attributed to being tied to religion and God. The problem with that is the Intelligent Design folks are not saying that God is the one that created everything they are only saying that the intricacy of the "simple single celled organism" that scientists say that everything evolved from point to their being someone that designed that cell. The scientific community goes to great lengths to follow Darwin's Theory of Evolution that comes out of his book Origin of Species. The problem with his book is that it doesnt not actually address the beginning or where that first single celled organism originated. The main point of the movie is to show that throughout the academic and scientific community anyone who is in anyway affiliated with the Intelligent Design community are shunned and can even lose their jobs because of that fact. One of the cases mentioned in the movie is a man who worked for the Smithsonian Institute, who after publishing an article in the Smithsonian Magazine (a peer reviewed magazine) that metioned Intelligent Design, was fired from his position. There was also a highly respected teacher who after mearly putting the words Intelligent Design on two Powerpoint slides was not fired but her contract was not renewed. The irony of the scientific community shunning those that question the accepted "norm" is that this is in fact what their high and mighty Darwin did when he first proposed his theory to the world. One of the more laughable parts (and also infuriating) of the movie is when Ben sits down with a die hard evolutionist and asks him where that first single celled organism came from. This "brilliant" scientist then goes on to explain (very poorly) that one of the current theories is that the first single celled organism came on the backs of crystals. When Ben, rightfully, asks for clarification on this, the scientist get very defensive, almost beligerent, and says well i already told you (which his explanation is almost verbatim what i wrote). It amazes me how people in the evolution camp are viewed as the "intelligent" ones and that anyone who is in the Intelligent Design community are viewed as "ignorant and dumb". This was a good documentary, it pointed out a lot of rather interesting cases as well as the fact that as our understanding of the simple single celled organism has progrossed over the years it has become so much more complex than Darwin imagined. I think one of the main problems with documentaries in general is that while they provide us with information, you are usually left with the "What do I do now?" question. This movie got hardly any press, it also got horrible reviews. This is not surprising but very sad at the same time. It was done very well. I enjoyed it. If you enjoy science in anyway it is worth checking out.