www.jeffthefish.com

Hey Guys,

I just got an email from the Director of Research at the Tennessee Aquarium in response to my question about the coal ash spill. The Aquarium releases the sturgeon upstream from where the spill happened, and in a different tributary. This sounds like good news, and it probably is, but they know that many of the sturgeon migrate downstream.  But really, it’s too soon to know anything for sure.

Just thought I’d let you know.

Love,

Jason

According to YouTube user globetrekker2:

true scientists are Christians, all others are a poor excuse for a human. [Source]

K thx!

Did you know that I have a priori commitment to the conclusion that God doesn’t exist, and no evidence anyone presents will ever change my mind?  Neither did I!  But a helpful fundamentalist told me that today, so it has to be true!

Here is what Atheist Central commenter Ephemeral Mortal said in response to my suspicions that he himself had an a priori commitment to creationism:

“Absolutely true, and I make no secret of the fact that have an a priori commitment to the Bible and the belief that God exists and therefore by extension creationism. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that “…he who comes to God must believe that He is…” - that means believe that He is before anything else is considered.

But so do you, only you’ll never admit that. You (I mean people who hold to your kind of beliefs) always love to give the impression that you completely objectively examine all the evidence which forces you inevitably to the conclusion that there is no God. You’ve got an a priori commitment to there being no God and all your examination of the evidence is coloured by that commitment. It’s clear to see by the fact that there’s no evidence that will convice you - only that which will fit into your ‘no God’ framework.”

Oh!  Well!  I guess I done learned something new about myself!

Well, this really makes me sad. Five hundred million gallons of coal ash were spilled into the Tennessee River system when a containing wall failed.  I mean, epic failed. According to this Scientific American article, coal ash is more radioactive than nuclear waste. And there’s five hundred million gallons of it!  That’s 500,000,000 gallons!

But I have a more specific reason for being sad about this.  As soon as I heard about this, I remembered reading that the Tennessee Aquarium  does conservation work on the lake sturgeon Ascipenser fulvescens. Apparently, all the sturgeon in the Tennessee River system today have the Aquarium to thank! I have a tender place in my heart for large freshwater fish.

The spill happened in Kingston, and the Tennessee Aquarium is in Chattanooga.  I looked these cities up on Google maps and found that the Aquarium is about 100 miles downriver from the spill.  But the site where they release the fish is near Knoxville, even closer to the spill, though I’m not sure if it’s upstream or downstream.

Either way, this will cause an assload of environmental damage to an already delicate system.  Fucking fuck.

P.S.  I emailed the Tennessee Aquarium to ask if they knew what kind of impact this might have on the sturgeon, but I got an out of office reply indicating that I might not get a response until after January 5.  When I do, I’ll follow up.

One of Ken Ham’s favorite tactics is to in one breath deny some claim and use that denial to prove the claim.  I know, it doesn’t make sense.  For instance, he might say something like, “Of course we don’t belive that Darwinism caused the Holocaust.  That is absolutely ridiculous. Anyone who thinks we believe that is simply mistaken, or deliberately misrepresenting our position.  What we really believe is that Darwinism caused the Holocuast.”

Yesterday Ken Ham posted a classic example of this kind of stupidity on his blog: in response to Telegraph article about the relatedness of all living human beings. Ken quotes this part of the article:

To get to the universal ancestors (when everyone was the forefather of everybody alive today, or of nobody) we need go back only 5,000 years. Had you entered any village on Earth, the first person you met would, if he or she had heirs, trace their descent straight to you and your partner.

I’m not exactly sure how accurate that can be, since the Australian Aborigines were genetically isolated from everyone else for at least 40,000 years. Perhaps the research doesn’t include the Aborigines, because clearly any common ancestor to all living humans would have had to have lived before the Aborigines were isolated on the continent of Australia.

But that aside, Ken Ham is thrilled about this news!  Here’s what he has to say:

This research certainly doesn’t prove the Bible’s history is true—but it certainly fits with biblical history, thus confirming once again the trustworthy historicity of God’s Word.

Wait, what!??? This research doesn’t prove the Bible’s history, but it definitely proves the Bible’s history! A reasonable person would have said something like, “This research doesn’t prove that the Bible’s history is true, but it does seem to fit with biblical history.” That’s really all you can say about it, if you can even say that much.  In no way does this research confirm “the trustworthy historicity of God’s word”, as even Ken Ham agrees!

Ugh, what a dishonest man.

I need to think of something funny soon, or this website will die!  Here’s a blog meme I got from Happy Jihad’s House of Pancakes.  It’s a list of 100 things, and you highlight the ones you’ve done.  I don’t think I’ve done very much.

1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (several!)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sung a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched lightning at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables (it was a complete failure, but I did it!)
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors (they weren’t very distant ancestors)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight (looking for sea turtle hatchlings)
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had my portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen (Well, I bussed tables.  Still counts.)
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar (Five note streak!)
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job (fired, rehired, then refired from the same job)
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone (someone else’s bone)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible (I won’t bold the whole thing, b/c I’ve only read most of it)
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake (I walked in it a little bit.  It smells too bad to swim in.)
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Ridden an elephant

I guess I’ve done more than I realized.  Please feel free to post your own in the comments!

Remember when that guy posted that thing on Ray Comfort’s blog that included the lyrics to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song? Remember how Ray took one part of that guy’s post and used it to look like positive feedback on the header of his blog?  Rememer how I figured it was because Ray was dishonest?  Well, I did try to give him the benefit of the doubt by suggesting some possible alternatives, like this:

Alternative hypothesis #1:  Ray Comfort has never heard of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.  I find this unlikely, since Ray lives in the United States of America in the twenty-first century, in southern California, has Hollywood connections, and has even written books about Hollywood.

But nowadays I find that even less likely than I did back then.  Why’s that? Because Will Smith just gave $200,000 to Ray Comfort:

Just-released tax returns for movie star Will Smith’s charitable foundation show he and wife, Jada, gave $1.3 million in donations last year to a variety of religious, civic and arts groups.

Smith’s biggest single contribution was, as usual, Yesha Ministries of Philadelphia. He gave the born-again Christian based organization run by Reverend James Robinson a whopping $250,000. That’s a hefty raise from the $140,000 he gave them the previous year. Another $200,000 went to a Christian ministry outside Los Angeles called Living Waters.

And Living Waters is owned by Ray Comfort. So, it’s still possible that Ray has never heard of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,  but increasingly unlikely.

Until I can think of something funny / original:

It’s called Welcome To Boy Zone! And you can buy it for only $10.  That makes sense, right? This album represents three years of hard, hard work. So far the feedback has been good.  I hope you like it! That’s our very own Mr Spider on the cover!