Beware the language.

I have no idea who posted those comments or what their religious views are. But these are still funny.

I first read something about this study about a year ago when it marked its 20th year, but I still don’t see it widely talked about. Which is a shame, because it’s a great example of actual observed data on accumulated mutations in a population. (And even better because it uses the bacteria’s genome, and not just physiology.) The researchers were able to test that certain mutations provided a reproductive advantage, illustrating natural selection in action. And, though I am not a biologist and in no way qualified to interpret the study, the persistence of neutral mutations across generations seems illustrative of genetic drift, one of evolution’s other mechanisms.

As an added benefit, the researchers say there are some lessons that can be applied to research on cancer and other diseases. Sounds like a winner to me.

Of course, I don’t have any illusions that doubters who read this won’t just say, “We still haven’t seen one species evolve into another.” When we show tiny, incremental changes leading toward that, they say “Show me the fossils connecting the two species.” When we show them transitional fossils linking two species, they say, “Show me the tiny, incremental changes leading toward that.”

I’m currently reading the final book of Morgan Howell’s Queen of the Orcs trilogy. I’ll probably post a review when I’m finished.

That’s the debate over the existence of a deity in a nutshell. Believers say we cannot prove there are no gods. They say that because science can’t explain with 100 certainty how and why the universe began, then “God did it” by default.

No hypothesis gets a free pass. Don’t tell me a god created everything — show me evidence one did it.

At the end of the day, I’m just trying to lead a good Christian life. That means going to church on Sunday, following the Ten Commandments, and fighting what I believe to be a sexual abomination through a series of petty actions and bitter comments made under my breath. Sure, I sometimes wish God would just reach into my heart and give me the ability to treat all people with, at the very least, the decency and respect they deserve as human beings. But unfortunately for that new couple who moved in three houses down, He hasn’t yet.

Must be nice to be able to blame all your shortcomings and vices on a greater power.

Completely unrelated to anything I normally write about, but check out these HDR photographs by Ann Teliczan of Michigan barns. From a quick look at her Web site, photography isn’t Ann’s only artistic talent.

In case you’re not familiar with HDR photography, see the Wikipedia entry here. Essentially, high dynamic range images combine multiple images into a composite image that can display a more vibrant range of color intensity than a normal photo.

More (quite striking) examples of such images can be found here.

Tonight I came back for a rematch. After warming up on a few other songs, I played “Float On” once more, and nailed it: I hit every single note, and managed to get a five gold star rating instead of just five normal stars. I was the monkey who typed Shakespeare.

Afterward, I checked the online leaderboard for the song … and I’m ranked 11,073rd. Nearly 10,000 points lower than the No. 1 score for a solo bass performance.

Guess I won’t be quitting my day job.

Alexander Macris at The Escapist has explained it far better than I ever could. Essentially, it comes down to an arms race in which players acquire ever more power through improved equipment and mastery of the game. (If you’ve ever stopped by the Elitist Jerks forum for World of Warcraft savants, you’ll know what I mean by “mastery.”) As the players’ power increases, more and more powerful enemies are introduced with ever greater rewards. These rewards eventually unbalance the whole ecosystem of the game until a giant reset button is needed.

Macris explains:

As more players reach the end game more quickly, the pressure to add even more powerful content increases. This only hastens the cycle of database deflation. The more developers layer on new levels of challenge at the end game, the more they hasten the inevitable degradation of all experiences prior to that point. Thus, the longer the game runs, the less time it takes for people to reach maximum level, and the less time it takes to exhaust a given content expansion. World of Warcraft lasted for 26 months between launch and its first expansion pack, but only 21 months between its first and second. The third expansion pack promises to arrive even more swiftly. (And of course this cycle has already played out with Everquest, which has now had 16 expansion packs in 10 years.)

Eventually, the developers can no longer update content fast enough. Players begin to linger in a state of perpetual boredom, halted only by occasional bursts of excitement when they consume new content, only to reach a deeper level of ennui when the new challenge is beaten. Such players are ripe for a new game where the challenge is undeflated. At this point, the developer’s only choice is either to give their players a sequel, or to lose them to a competitor’s new game. A sequel is the natural choice for any self-respecting developer.

Here’s hoping that World of Warcraft’s Cataclysm expansion will change the “world” enough to make me enthusiastic about returning to WoW. If not, where’s my sequel?