philh

There seems to be a lot of discussion on how sceince and religion should be seperate and they dont necessarily conflict. But it is surely obvious that the bible gives us an account of our history that is totally at odds with reality as understood by science. For instance the bible claims the sun , the stars and the moon were created after the creation of day and night, light, the oceans, and plants. This is in complete contradiciton to the scientific evidence. You can define 1 biblical day as a literal day or an epoch. It makes no difference , one is right and the other is wrong. You can choose based on evidence or based on dogma, but you have to choose.

oops wrote tht a bit too late at night, thanks.

Evolution refers to bioligical change over generations. It is not limited to speciation(the changing of one species into another). Life is compromised of a DNA code of four amino acids A,C,G and T(like the computer codes of 0,1's), different combinations of these four letter determine protein manufacturing which in turn determine bodily function. With reproduction the genetic code is copied. But it is never copied perfectly. One reason for example is the continual bombardment of the Earth by cosmic rays. As a a result the code of a descentdent is never the same as the parent. The code mutates. This is evolution, that this occurs is as in as much doubt as gravity. The idea that nature selects mutants which are best adapted to their enviroment is the Darwinian theory of natural selection. This is seperate from the fact of evolution. Much genetic engineering is only possible because all forms of life on this planet share common DNA as they are descended from a common ancestor. The part of the code for many functions of the body are exactly the same across countless living things. As the code mutates species change. At what point do we have a new species? Such a point is necessarily arbitrary. However the standard accepted point in biology is when two organisms cannot generate fertile offsprings through mating. This has been observed many times. One of the most well known cases is in fruit fly research. We can see evolution happen there becuase they reproduce so quickly. Surely anyone familiar with biology will know of the research of Dobzahsky and Pavlovsky. But if you are not look them up in Nature and you will see clearly observed instances of speciation. The fact that you are not aware of such research does not mean it does not exist.

I think you have misunderstood the nature of proof. Science does not get involved in proof. Only mathematics has proofs. In science things are considered to be facts when they exactly match observations consistently. evolution meets this criteria. Evolution is observed continually both in the lab and in the real world. One example, treatments of the HIV virus has been hampered becuase it has evolved several times. You can deny that as much as you can deny the world is not flat.

Most people object to Id being taught in science classes. I have no problem with religious beliefs being taught as part of religious education classes but they are not science and hence should not be in science classes. Science is something which can be tested and possibly refuted, it is open to examination and modification. None of this is true with ID. ID has as much place in a science class as flat earth views. Evolution is a fact as much as anything in science is. It is not a theory. Natural selection which is Darwins explanation for the fact of evolution is a theory , perhaps people have the two confused.

The concept of intelligent design(ID) is just the old god of the gaps ressurected. Whenever there is a gap in our knowledge theists try and jump in and say" ah must be god". When mankind had a gap in its knowledge as to where lightining came from theists of course concluded sure enough god was the explanation. But oh dear a better explanation finally arrived. Whenever this process occurs theists will jump to another gap in our knowledge and claim that god must fill that gap. But making up a imaginary friend doesn't explain anything. In the case of the fine tuning argument the whole proposition of ID falls apart on any close scrutiny. The idea the fundamental constants are fine tuned to create us is nonsensical. Firstly in order to say that the the fact the values of the fundamental constants of nature are suprisingly tuned to create life we have to know what other possible values they might have taken. But we have no idea how these constants get their values so we cannot say that the values they have are unlikely. If we get dealt an ace of spades in a pack of cards we have to know the pack was made of 52 different cards before we can say that the ace of spades was unlikley. If there was simply 51 other ace of spades it wouldnt be so unlikely would it? For the fundamental constants of nature we have no idea how many cards there are in the pack let alone what value they have. So we cannot say anyhting about the likelihood of them taking on the values they have. But lets suppose we agree it is unlikley for the universe to produce life. There are two possibilities 1) the universe will continue expanding forever or 2) it will contract and end in a big cruucnch. In the 2nd case the universe could start again ad infinitum and we would be bound to be born in the universe with conditions that suit us. in the first case the universe will eventually expand so that all life will die. The suns will run out of their nuclear fuel and every planet will be too far from its sun even if they didnt. The life of the universe will be infinite but the proportion of time that it supported life will be infinitisemly small, statisticaally we might as well say that life in the universe was a momentary blip, if that. This hardly backs the claim it was intellignelty designed with us in mind. Lastly there is no observational evidence for ID at all. There are however rival theories. In quantum mechanics(something whcih has more evdiece to suport it than most theories of just about anything) there is the hypothhesis that that the universe is part of a larger mutliverse which would automatically explain any fine tuning problem. As long as there at east one other explantion there is no reason to conclude in favour of ID. But as I hope I have shown there is no problem to even explain.

I have used the in air com system both in the tunnel and in freefall with Alchemy. I can confidently say it is amazing. The audio is very clear. The differecen it makes to the learning curve is awesome. I would go as far as to say the com system is almost as useful as tunnel time,. I think it will revolutionise the sport.

Hi Does anyone know if Nils Predstrup offers coaching in freestyle? Saw the video of the artistic woird cup in Brazil and wow! I heard the team were based in Portugal but on their web site they are not listed. Any ideas?

Hi just been on Skyventure's Uk's web site and they imply the tunnel is going to open in June 2005. Am I right to think this is wildly optimistic? Has construcion started? Arizonas still seems a couple of months away from opening and they were talking Dec 2004 origianlly. What are the specs gonna be? Will it be the same as the one in Perris and Orlando? Cant wait to hear more about it.

I was trying a flip through in the tunnel in Orlando. For those that aren't aware this is like gymnastic flares. I slid into the wall and thought it was just a bruise and carried on flying. It turns out I has subluxed my shoulder and was out of action for about 2 months. Subsequently I have flown in the Perris Wind tunnel. I would not get in it under any circumstances without the heavy duty pads i bought from a rugby store.

Thanks for your helps guys, I am curious, Christ, exactly what exercises do you reccomend in the gym to strenthen my arms? Im pretty sure that its caused by free fall rather canopy flight as the worst paign I felt was after doing a hight altitude jump from 23000 ft. By the way, yes IQuote am pretty fit, but obviously not fit enough. Oh and i dont do 30 jumps every week, I tend to do most of my jumping on a jumping vacation rather than go to the DZ every weekend. Cheers.

Anyone have the same problem or suggest any solution? After about 20-30 jumps in a week or so my arms start to give up on me. Im pretty fit and work out in the gym on averga 20 hrs a week. I lift about 40kgs + the bar on the bench press for example but still I find doing too many jumps just too painful I mostly do freestlye and head up free flying, when I wore sit wing suits it was worse but I still get it just jumping in a t shirt. Any ideas?

I jumped Mike Mullins King Air many times at Quincy. It is awesome, we often got 15,000 ft in about 7 minutes. Mike was always the first to take off at the WFFC and the last to touch down. He seemed to be at the controls all day, thats dedication. 23,000 ft high altitude jumps took 14 minutes to altitude and when there was low cloud base it took 90 seconds to climb to exit alt 4,500 ft. Best of all when conditions were too windy Mike let me hire the aircraft and flew zero g runs for a few friends, what other jump operators can say the same?

I wear daily disposable contact lenses and no matter what goggles I wear they keep popping out in freefall, usually when I track. Anyone else have this happen to them? Any solutions?

What happening vis a vis fires at Perris? Havent heard anything on the news since the weekend. Gonna be there on the 20th of Nov, hopefully the whole sky is not smoke and maybe even the wind tunnle open by then. What do you think are the odds?

When going for deployment bring both arms in close to the body , dont leave them spread out. You want to reduce the inflation of the wings to zero, this will ensure no depoyment problems. Definitley do some DP's on your first jump. But really it shouldnt be a problem.

Getting the wind tunnel ready for Halloween? Or just getting ready for halloween? By the way, thanks for keeping us up to date, do appreciate it.

Anyone on the ground at perris know the progress of the wind tunnel, can give us updates on estimated opening date. There was a clock saying how many days to opening on their web site, but that has been removed. Sign of delay?

Im planning to go to Perris Valley for 4 days in November for some tunnel flying. How much tunnel time do you think I should book?I want to mazimise my available time in the tunnel but without ripping my muscles to shreds. For skydiving - 1 hour of free fall , well I would probably get that done in 10 days assuming perfect weather and my muscles usually ache a bit. Im tempted to book 2 hours, but do you think this is too much? Im reasonably fit, work out every day and wieght 67 kilos and am 5 foot 7, but I still ache if I do too many skydives (usually my arms from head up flying). What do you reckon?

Ive been to many DZ's around the world but in my mind Empuria is the best. The views are stunning, to the south east you can see the Med and the beach to the north the Pyrenese mountains (often with snow on them)and beneath you the canal system of Empuria. The staff are friendly and effecient. I'm amazed at how many languages evryone speaks. The facilities are second to none, swimming pool, tennis courts, go kart track, bar and restaraunt, massage etc. But what makes Empuria really different to most DZ's is that when you leave the DZ you are not in the middle of nowhere. Instead you are in a lovely holiday resort, the biggest residential marina in the world. So once you have finished jumping you can simply walk out the DZ to the bars, resteraunts, hotels, clubs, the beach etc. Its really nice to go on holiday and not have to spend 24 hrs a day at the drop zone. The last holiday we took we would jump then chill out by the pool, do some local sightseeing , jump again , go out all night etc etc. Where else is all this within walking distance of the drop zone? On the downside the winds are often strong in the afternoon, the landing area is a long narrow strip, not pleasant when the wind is not blowing either north or south and the altitude is rarely more than 13,000 ft. Also the Cd playerin the plane at Space Centre makes a major difference that perhaps gives a bit of an edge that Empuria doesn't have. But these are minor problems. Overall Empuria makes not only a great DZ, but also a great holiday destinantion even for Whuffos, just ask the rich Germans who have their villas beneath you.