Agnoiologist

Today’s my last day at home. Tomorrow, I’m going to Baltimore, Maryland. Soon thereafter, I will be attending Johns Hopkins University.

I pretty much only have two things to say:

1) I will miss everyone.

2) I’m ready.

Alright, and here’s the obligatory list of people I’ll especially miss, in no particular order (and since I’m lazy, I’ll include people who have already left): my sister, my parents, Ryan, Richard, Chris, JTL, my dog, Delora, Daryl, Anwell, Patrick, my car (oh my baby, I’ll miss you so much), Andy, Tony, Emerald, Stephanie, Sonja, Clement, Aaron, Wenschel, Josh, Mary (even though I haven’t seen you in person for hella long), Sarah, and, how could I forget: satellite television. Of course, I’m an idiot, so there’ll be people that I’ve forgotten to list. Which doesn’t mean you’re not special, it just means I’m a tired idiot. And even if I didn’t list you, I will still miss you.

“Amino acids are molecules that come in mirror-image right- and left-handed forms. But all the naturally occurring proteins in organisms on Earth use the left-handed forms - a puzzle dubbed the ‘chirality problem’.

“‘A key question is when this chirality came into play,’ says Uwe Meierhenrich, a chemist at the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis in France. One theory is that proteins made of both types of amino acids existed on the early Earth but ’somehow only the proteins of left-handed amino acids survived’, says Meierhenrich.”

A proponent of Intelligent Design may claim that the chirality problem indicates that there must have been an intelligent designer at work. He looks at a problem, throws his hands up in bewilderment, and says, “Magic.” A scientist will look at the problem and try to figure it out. Lo and behold, Space radiation may select amino acids for life. [Note: Quote at the beginning of this entry is from this article.]

Also note: “In 2000, an experiment showed that when circularly polarised ultraviolet light of a particular handedness was shone on an equal mix of right- and left-handed amino acids, it produced an excess of 2.5% by preferentially disintegrating one type.

“But that experiment was done using amino acids in a liquid solution, which behave differently than those in the solid conditions of icy dust in space. To avoid absorption by water molecules, it was also necessary to use light at a wavelength of 210 nanometres – significantly longer than the peak of 120 nm radiation actually measured in space.”

Again the proponent of ID would say, “Ah-hah! Look, you scientists have no idea what you’re doing. Your experiment is significantly different from real world conditions. You are completely defeated. Therefore, there must have been a designer.”

A scientist looks at the data and designs a new experiment, instead of throwing his hands up in defeat. He may be right, he may be wrong, but at least he attempts to find the truth.

“Now, Meierhenrich’s team has performed a similar experiment. The group shone circularly polarised light at a wavelength of 180 nm on a solid film of both right- and left-handed forms of the amino acid leucine. It found that left-handed light produced an excess of 2.6% left-handed amino acids.”

This looks encouraging. Instead of throwing your hands up in defeat and embracing ID, try giving science a chance. Search for the truth. God gave you a brain for a reason.

[P.S. It looks like I've learned from newspaper headlines how to create weblog entry titles. I hope you understand that the title was created to garner attention, while the entry takes a much less aggressive tone. If you leave a comment, address the entry, not the title.]

I’ve decided to post the latest Chalkboard Manifesto comics on this weblog. Here’s today’s!

Click here to vote for me on Top Web Comics!

It’s good to have goals in life. Otherwise, you don’t know where you’re going. I’ve already decided that I want to aggressively promote my new webcomic, The Chalkboard Manifesto. This weblog is a little bit different.

With my comic, I’ve found my groove, and I’m confident I have a good comic. I’m not so sure about this weblog. I’ve been updating a long time (longer than the comic), but I haven’t found my groove yet. Then again, it took me five years of webcomicking to finally design a comic that I’m really proud of.

So, no grand designs for this weblog quite yet. I want to work on finding something that works for me.

But what is that something? How can I search for that something if I don’t have any plans whatsoever.

I’ll try to focus on some questions: Do I want to be outrageous? Do I want to focus on politics? Do I want to focus on social issues? Do I want to focus on my life? Do I want to focus on bigger issues?

The answer to question #4 is no. I’ve figured that much out already. This isn’t biographical. It’s only about myself in the sense that I’m developing my ideas through this weblog. I want to develop a public persona.

I want to try to continue to blend talking about politics, social issues, and bigger issues. I’m not sure what I’ll do about other topics, though, like television. Should I just cut them out? Isn’t that part of the social fabric?

The biggest question I want to try to answer in the next month: Do I want to be outrageous? Being outrageous garners a lot of attention. But in the political world, there seems to be a glut of political extremism. I don’t think I want to be outrageous, but I don’t want to be a devout follower of the God of Reason as so many pundits are. They have this false God which makes them smug, which tricks them into thinking they know everything, which makes them non-human.

Most of all, I want people to know that there’s a human behind this. Can I achieve that? There seems to be no way to fight through these endless contradictions.

… unless I become a contradiction myself. Can I be a humble Agnoiologist? In a world where everyone can publish their not so humble opinions, can I refuse to make certain judgments?

I want to take a road less travelled. I want to combat the mythmakers, but I don’t want to be just another David fighting against this “MSM” monster. Because these “bloggers” are mythocrats too. How do I not become a part of that?

In a world where reason has become myth, how can the truth prevail? Am I over-complicating this? If so, then how else can I figure out what I want to do?

All I know for sure is: The answer is that there is no question.

Just kidding! I don’t know how he can save it, but I know how he can boost his approval ratings… I mean, something he can attempt in the future:

VETO! Please, show us that you care about domestic issues too. You gave up on Social Security.

Hopefully, Iraq will approve its constitution and have elections. I mean that not for the good of Bush’s approval ratings, but for the good of the world.

I haven’t posted poetry up here much because I want this my stuff to be eventually published. I figured this one was sufficiently mediocre to post on this weblog…

oh dreary summer

i could waste away

lounging in your river of apathy

although the better term for it would be:

drowning

dips so long in the nothing

that i forget to eat

forget to live

yes, i should

get up

They do not move.

Is it just me, or is cynicism starting to become the status quo? Crap. Now what do I do with a name like “Agnoiologist” for my weblog?

Maybe I’ll go for humility. The study of human stupidity — including my own. That’s the ticket.

Two pieces of breaking news that are related:

Not only do we have to deal with Islamofascism, but Communism is coming back too.

This from the second news article: “Chavez has irritated U.S. officials with his leftist policies, his fiery rhetoric against American ‘imperialism’ and his increasingly close ties to anti-U.S. regimes in Cuba and Iran.”

Cuba = Communism. Iran = Islamofascism. What happens when Communism and Islamofascism joins forces? Who will fight for democracy? Only the US, it seems.

Also this from the second news article: “[Chavez] praised President Fidel Castro’s system as a ‘revolutionary democracy.’” Is this guy delusional or what?

This wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t for nuclear weapons. We wouldn’t have had to invade Iraq if we weren’t afraid of “weapons of mass destruction.” Let’s face it, WMD is a horrible way of putting it. We’re talking about nuclear weapons. That’s the problem we must solve. We wouldn’t have the problems we’re having in North Korea if it wasn’t for nukes. We wouldn’t have the problems in Iran if it weren’t for nukes.

Portion of a dream from last night:

I wasn’t sure which way to go: left or right. I went left, rounded the corner, and ended up in an odd green room. It was a normal, albeit large, room, only the decorations had at least some type of greenish hue in them. The room had a very emerald or jade feel.

It was not, however, where I had intended to be. I apologized profusely to the people in the room, a few older people: I hadn’t meant to intrude, and I accidentally went the wrong way.

I was about to turn around when something compelled me to comment on the decorations. I said I liked the interior design of the room, especially the green feel, very much. I was sincerely complimenting them because the room truly did look beautiful. At that point, I noticed some people doing work in the back, and the room wasn’t quite completed. I quickly tacked a “even though it’s not quite finished” onto my compliment without missing a beat… rushing, in fact.

My stream of talk was interrupted by someone in the room, thanking me for the compliment, and waving his hand, saying, “Come, come, join us for dinner.”

There must have been some sort of trace of reluctance on my part, but I don’t remember any. I join them. The food’s delicious. Somehow or another, other people I know are there. After we leave, I say it’s a good thing I decided to compliment them on their room, otherwise we never would’ve had this delicious food. Hooray for seizing the moment.

I’m reminded of a comment I made a while ago to Ryan. There was this rather nice looking house/castle, but the color the house was painted was just horrible. I said that I wanted to ring the doorbell and tell the owners that their house was painted a horrible color.

“Everyday’s an adventure,” like I always say. (No, I don’t always say that, but I have it written down on a post-it.) However, upon waking, I am faced with this question: Is acting on random urges the same as seizing the day?

The thing about being 18 is that you can see how far you’ve come, but you can also see how far you still have to go.