Iz Dummin Yur Kidz

Some of you may have heard that creationist Ken Ham (originator of the Answers in Genesis website, which I will not honor with a link) has opened a Creation “Science” Museum in Kentucky to disinform the masses. Far more knowledgeable people than I have already picked it apart, but I can make this silly contribution.



You can make your own silly images with the LolCats creator.

Get Motivated

You know, you can do terrible things with an online motivational poster maker.

The A-Team Takes On Sauron

Once again, Aaron Williams shares a video that is both entertaining and disturbing at the same time.



Ow! My childhood! It hurts!

Consensus

Global Warming is one of those topics that requires a discussion of “consensus”. This is what “most” scientists agree is correct regarding a particular topic. You may have heard that the consensus of the scientific community is that global warming (a rise in average temperature) is occurring and that human activity has some role in it. This does not mean that all scientists agree on this conclusion, as a blog post by a friend of mine shows.

“I have seen scientists who are otherwise reasonable people, drift right over the edge, and now I am completely fed up. Anthropogenic Global Warming is a hoax.”

Hawk is a legitimate scientist with a degree in nuclear engineering. He models space environments and radiation effects for NASA. To put it bluntly, he is a rocket scientist. To my knowledge, he has no conflict of interest or ulterior motive for disputing the scientific consensus that human activity is creating conditions that increase temperatures at the Earth’s surface. He cites computer models that indicate the amount of ice in Antarctica is actually increasing, not decreasing. There is every reason to think he honestly believes the scientific consensus on climate change to be wrong.

At the same time, NASA is releasing data from satellite observations that show a large mass of Antarctic ice recently melted away.

Scientific consensus is a changing beast. Scientists are constantly collecting and analyzing new information in an effort to build a more accurate description of the universe. Different scientists look at different data sources, and they don’t all necessarily have the same picture based on their information sources. The opinion of any one scientist on a particular matter can easily be wrong; that’s why scientists are so keen to see original data and methods included in published scientific papers. One of the basic principals of the scientific method is to repeat experiments to verify the results, checking each others' work.

Hawk is an extremely intelligent man, and far more knowledgeable than me in many fields. That said, his is not a climatologist, so he is not as prepared to validate a given climate model as someone specialized in that field. Furthermore, he is in the minority in the scientific community. One man’s dissent in a community of thousands is not grounds to ignore a potentially serious problem.

Hawk himself does not dispute the prediction that the Arctic Ocean may be completely ice-free in the summer within ten years, and his update to the article shows that the ice-growth model he cites has a limited scope. It shouldn’t surprise us to find ice accumulating in some areas, but that does not necessarily mean that the overall quantity of glacial ice in the world is increasing.

If most scientists agree that global warming is a matter of concern, it behooves us as a society to accept at least the possibility that our activities are changing the planet and consider what we can do to mitigate such changes. Future studies may show that the current concern is unwarranted, but a little caution now may save a lot of pain in the future, as well.

Would It Be So Hard?

The Welsh government seems determined to kill an infected bull that is sacred to a Hindu temple there. The bull tested positive for tuberculosis, and the standard procedure there is to slaughter TB-infected animals to “protect both human and animal health”.

“An animal kept by the Community of the Many Names of God has tested positive,
and the case is being dealt with in the usual way. Every effort will be made to
deal with this case as sensitively as possible.”

I happen to know that TB can be cured with antibiotics, and I also know that I would be pretty pissed off if the government told me they were going to kill one of my dogs or horses because it had contracted a treatable disease.

Would it kill the Welsh government to let the Hindu temple pay for this animal’s treatment by a veterinarian? They seem determined to create animosity in the local community for no good reason. I know you don’t want to overuse antibiotics because of the risk of antibiotic-resistant strains evolving, but treating an isolated sick animal hardly seems to be a huge resistance-development risk.

Swetnam’s Advice: A Case Study

As I’ve noted before, Joseph Swetnam strongly advises his readers to avoid killing someone if possible, even in a duel which would widely be considered honorable. As an example of the consequences of being involved in a duel to the death in Elizabethan England, I offer the case of William Bradley, who was killed on September 28, 1589.

Between two and three o’clock on that day, Bradley became involved in a duel with Christopher Marlowe (yes, the playwright). How the fight started isn’t known, but a gentleman by the name of Thomas Watson drew his own sword and tried to break it up.

Marlowe apparently withdrew from the fight, but Bradley turned upon Watson, possibly because of a standing argument that already existed between them. Watson retreated from Bradley, taking some serious injuries in the process, until he was essentially cornered against a ditch. Unable to retreat any further, Watson struck back and stabbed Bradley through the heart.

Watson and Marlowe were both arrested for murder and incarcerated in Newgate prison. Marlowe paid a fine and was released on October 1, 1589. A jury determined that Watson acted in self-defense, but he remained in prison until February 12, 1590, when he received a pardon from the Queen.

Bibliography
J. Christoph Amberger, The Secret History of the Sword, Multi-Media Books: 1999, p. 203-204.

Returned from Crown List

If you’re an SCA person living in Meridies, you’d have to be living as a hermit under a rock not to know by now that Maximillian and Lethrenn are the new heirs to the throne. With the succession assured, the Crown can move on to other business.

Included in the business at Crown List was choosing the Kingdom's Poet Laureate, Kingdom Bard, and Dance Champion for the remainder of the reign of Boru and Deidre. I had not originally realized that Her Majesty was selecting her Dance Champion at this event. I entered the "performing arts" competition because fencers who did would receive an extra life in the finals of the Queen's Rapier Champion tournament, and I went to the event primarily to enter that tournament. I wasn’t even sure with whom I would dance before I arrived, but Duchess Katrina agreed to dance with me for the competition (my Laurel is very good to me). We danced Rostiboli Gioioso, a 15th-century Italian dance with which we are both quite familiar. We had strong competition from Lady Alasais, Lady Andreva, and Lord Lorenzo this year. The outcome of the competition would remain a secret until court, which would not take place until after the Queen’s Rapier Championship tournament

Speaking of which, I made it to the finals. As did three other fencers from the Shire of Glaedenfeld. We rock! Naturally, we somehow ended up fighting each other in the first couple of rounds of the final list: It was a conspiracy, I say! Ysabel and I double-killed each other in the first of the final rounds (immediately using up both of our extra lives), and Corbin killed me in the next round. *Sigh* Lord Jean-Michel won the tournament in the end.

But, in court, I did learn that Katrina and I won the Dance Championship, so life is good.

My Evilness

Pharyngula started passing this little contest around, and it's just the sort of rating chart that I'd want to know about, so...


How evil are you?

Great. He gets to be "Pure Evil" and I'm stuck with just "Twisted". Whatever. When my legions of terror strike, won't he be surprised.

Anatomy of a Dance Reconstruction, Part 7

Eureka!

(Believe it or not, I actually wrote Part 6 weeks ago, and only got around to posting it today.)
Sometimes you have an issue with a dance that requires just a bit of tweaking. Allow me to recall such an issue from the last installment of this series.

48	6 Seguiti gravi, exchanging hands around the set, starting with your partner

This series of exchanges will be tricky. Much as they did in the previous movement, the lords and ladies will work their way around the circle in opposite directions. They will use a slow single for each exchange. Since there are forty-eight beats in the “A” section of the music, each seguito grave will take eight beats. What the dancers will hear, however, is eight measures of six beats. I expect that this clash between the rhythm of the dance and the rhythm of the music will this section the hardest part of the dance to perform correctly.

Forty-eight beats to complete six seguiti gravi, meaning each seguito grave will take eight beats. Rather difficult to keep straight in your head, since you’ll be listening to eight measures of six beats each. So, what if you could eliminate twelve beats somehow, allowing you to do the six seguiti in six measures of six counts each? It might not be absolutely authentic, but it would be far easier to perform and spread to the masses.

The solution? Reverence. Two riverenza minima would consume twelve counts (two measures), leaving thirty-six (six measures) for the seguiti gravi. An elegant solution to the problem. Where should I put the reverences, though? After some thought, the a brief riverenza before the first pass and a second when you meet your partner on the opposite side of the set (before continuing) seems to work best with the music.

6	Riverenza minima
18	3 Seguiti gravi, exchanging hands around the set, starting with your partner
6	Riverenza minima
18	3 Seguiti gravi, exchanging hands around the set, starting with your partner

Start at Part 1.

Anatomy of a Dance Reconstruction, Part 6

At this point, we have all of the steps of the dance matched to the music. Now we have to interpret the movements.

We start out with men and women alternating “in the wheel”. The simplest interpretation is that the dancers will stand in a circle. We then go through the first movement of the dance, done to the “A part” of the music.

Beats	Steps
12	Riverenza grave
12	2 Seguito Ordinario (doubles)
6	2 Passi Grave (slow singles)
6	1 Seguito Semidoppio (two quick singles and a spezzato)
6	2 Passi Grave (slow singles)
6	3 Trabuchetti (one hop to each foot per trabuchetto)
24	Repeat from seguiti Ordinarii through Seguito Semidoppio

A riverenza is normally performed to your partner, but since everyone is supposed turn left to start the seguiti ordinarii, we can conclude that they all start facing the center. Given the circular arrangement and this initial facing, it makes more sense to reverence to the entire set.

Everyone then turns to the left, so the sequence of two seguiti ordinarii (doubles), two passi gravi (slow singles), and a seguito semidoppio (two quick singles and a step-ball-change) moves clockwise.

Everyone then turns back to the center, takes two slow singles toward the middle, then completes the three trabuchetti (small hops from left to right).

Everyone the faces to the left again for another sequence of two doubles, two singles, and a seguito semidoppio moving clockwise. At the end of this sequence, the lords will have to turn around to face their ladies.

The “B part” of the music now begins, and the lords and ladies start traveling in opposite directions around the set.

12	2 Passi gravi, and 1 Seguito ordinario (hands)
12	2 Passi gravi, and 1 Seguito semidoppio (hands)
24	4 Seguiti ordinarii, 2 flanked back, and 2 forward
12	2 Passi gravi, and 1 Seguito ordinario (arms)
12	2 Passi gravi, and 1 Seguito semidoppio (arms)
24	4 Seguiti ordinarii, 2 flanked back, and 2 forward
12	2 Passi gravi, and 1 Seguito ordinario (both hands)
12	2 Passi gravi, and 1 Seguito semidoppio (both hands)
24	4 Seguiti ordinarii, 2 flanked back, and 2 forward

Each lord takes his lady’s hand, and they change places with two singles and a double. They do not turn back to face each other, though. Instead each dancer gives his or her left hand to the next person, and trades places again with two singles and a seguito semidoppio. This means that ladies are traveling around the set clockwise while lords are traveling counter-clockwise.

Assuming we number the couples clockwise around the set, the first set of exchanges leaves lord 1 paired with lady 2, lord 2 with lady 3, and lord 3 with lady 1.

Everyone now completes a series of doubles, two flanking backwards and two more forwards. Assuming that the dancers don’t change facing, everyone will need to flank back to their own left: otherwise dancers will collide with each other as they’re backing up.

48	6 Seguiti gravi, exchanging hands around the set, starting with your partner

This series of exchanges will be tricky. Much as they did in the previous movement, the lords and ladies will work their way around the circle in opposite directions. They will use a slow single for each exchange. Since there are forty-eight beats in the “A” section of the music, each seguito grave will take eight beats. What the dancers will hear, however, is eight measures of six beats. I expect that this clash between the rhythm of the dance and the rhythm of the music will this section the hardest part of the dance to perform correctly.

24	Riverenza grave, and 2 Continenze
24	4 Seguiti ordinarii, 2 flanked back, and 2 forward
12	2 Passi gravi, and 1 Doppio presto forward
12	2 Passi grave, and 2 Riprese to the right
24	4 Seguiti ordinarii, 2 flanked back, and 2 forward
12	Riverenza gravi to partner
12	Riverenza gravi to contrary
24	4 Seguiti ordinarii, 2 flanked back, and 2 forward
*	Riverenza grave

And a final sequence to wrap up the dance.

On to Part 7.