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Author Topic:   www.conservapedia.com - What do you think?
RAZD
Member (Idle past 1405 days)
Posts: 20714
From: the other end of the sidewalk
Joined: 03-14-2004


Message 46 of 167 (388020)
03-04-2007 8:27 AM
Reply to: Message 42 by Dr Adequate
03-04-2007 7:56 AM


ring around the tree rings
What's funny about that, I hear you ask? What's funny is that that's the entire article.
This is what it says about tree rings:
quote:
You searched for tree rings
There is no page titled "tree rings". You can create this page.
Page text matches
1. Dendrochronology (223 bytes)
1: ... of counting tree rings to determine the age of a tree.
Wile, Dr. Jay L. ''Exploring Creation With G...
2. As You Like It (133,473 bytes)
1247: Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
1467: But, poor old man, thou prunest a rotten tree,
1709: Under the greenwood tree
1765: duke will drink under this tree. He hath been all
2226: O Rosalind! these trees shall be my books

and clicking on Dendrochronology gives (in toto):
quote:
The process of counting tree rings to determine the age of a tree.[1]
References
1. ‘ Wile, Dr. Jay L. Exploring Creation With General Science. Anderson: Apologia Educational Ministries, Inc. 2000
Only one reference? And they didn't even cite Don Batten's article?
To say nothing of the FACT that "Dendrochronology" is about more than just the age of the tree in question (hence the inclusion of the "-chronology" root):
den·dro·chro·nol·o·gy -noun: 4 definitions:
Definition #1:
the science dealing with the study of the annual rings of trees in determining the dates and chronological order of past events.
Definition #2:
The study of climate changes and past events by comparing the successive annual growth rings of trees or old timber.
Definition #3:
"dating by tree rings," 1928, from dendro- (see dendrite) + chronology.
Definition #4:
The study of growth rings in trees for the purpose of analyzing past climate conditions or determining the dates of past events. Because trees grow more slowly in periods of drought or other environmental stress than they do under more favorable conditions, the size of the rings they produce varies. Analyzing the pattern of a tree's rings provides information about the environmental changes that took place during the period in which it was growing. Matching the pattern in trees whose age is known to the pattern in wood found at an archaeological site can establish the age at which the wood was cut and thus the approximate date of the site. By comparing living trees with old lumber and finding overlapping ring patterns, scientists have established chronological records for some species that go back as far as 9,000 years.
That last one from The American Heritage Science Dictionary.
Not ONE of the definitions says it is only about seeing how old the tree itself was.
Sad when an "encyclopedia" can't even get the definition correct eh?
Sad when you get more information from a definition than you do from an "encyclopedia" when they could easily just use the definition in the first place.
Illiteracy is like that.
Enjoy.

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This message is a reply to:
 Message 42 by Dr Adequate, posted 03-04-2007 7:56 AM Dr Adequate has not replied

  
Straggler
Member
Posts: 10333
From: London England
Joined: 09-30-2006


Message 47 of 167 (388022)
03-04-2007 9:06 AM
Reply to: Message 41 by Tusko
03-04-2007 7:15 AM


Re: Christian Cult of Ignorance
I broadly agree with you. I would add that the incitement to religious hatred laws and the equivelent race hate laws seem to be getting embroiled with each other in a way that is not helpful to either.
The governments over zealousness in introducing new legislation as an answer to every problem and the fact that if used wrongly such legislation can, as you say, be very counterproductive are both causes for concern IMHO.
I don't know what the forum guidelines say about revealing locations etc. (if anything) but I just wondered which part of london you are from?

This message is a reply to:
 Message 41 by Tusko, posted 03-04-2007 7:15 AM Tusko has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 131 by Tusko, posted 03-07-2007 1:16 PM Straggler has replied

  
Dr Adequate
Member (Idle past 284 days)
Posts: 16113
Joined: 07-20-2006


Message 48 of 167 (388032)
03-04-2007 10:55 AM


Spain
Country located on the Iberian Penninsula. Borderd by the Alantic Ocean to the west and the Mediterranean on the east. Portuagal is located on the same penninsuala. Is the same country as was in the medieval times. And known for its famous explorers.
---
Yes, that's the whole article.
Even more breathtaking in its brevity:
Catholics
The members of the Catholic church.
---
I detect the hand of a subtle prankster:
War Elephants
In The Ancient World
War elephants were important, although not widespread, weapons in ancient military history. Their main use was in charges, to trample the enemy and/or break their ranks, they were also used by the Diadochi to protect against cavalry attack. War elephants could be either male or female animals. Male elephants were generally larger and more physically powerful, but female elephants were generally considered to have a more violent disposition (particularly during their menstrual cycles) that made them well-suited to a battlefield role. The Carthaginian general Hannibal made devastating use of menstruating "Berserker Elephants" during the Second Punic War (218 - 202 BC).
In The Modern World
While the introduction of modern [[firearms], artillery, and tanks largely limited the elephant's usefulness on the battlefield, they are still employed in a variety of specialized combat roles in modern armies around the world. In 2003, Thailand contributed 260 specially trained elephants to Coalition Forces in the Iraq War for purposes of unexploded ordinance disposal and minefield clearing. Within two years, all of these animals were killed in theater. A memorial to these elephants, affectionately known as "Dumbo Team", was erected in Patong Beach, Thailand in 2006.
Crushing By Elephants
Crushing by elephant was for thousands of years a common method of execution used in parts of southeast Asia and India. Elephants employed in this manner were used to crush, dismember, or torture captives in public executions. It was not uncommon for the victims' families to be forced to wash the feet of the elephants after an execution.
The use of elephants to execute captives often attracted the horrified interest of European travellers, and was recorded in numerous contemporary journals and accounts of life in Asia. The practice was largely suppressed by the European empires that colonized the region in the 18th and 19th centuries, but recent reports confirm that Christian missionaries in Pakistan were crushed to death by elephants in this manner as recently as 1997.
Sources
http://www.dopa.go.th - Department of Provincial Administration, Ministry of Interior, Royal Thai Government
---
That link is well worth following
---
It's also interesting to have a look at their longest pages: a list can be found here.
Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.

  
AZPaul3
Member
Posts: 8513
From: Phoenix
Joined: 11-06-2006
Member Rating: 5.3


Message 49 of 167 (388033)
03-04-2007 10:56 AM


The Problems Start at the Top
Conservapedia:Commandments - Conservapedia
Note Commandment #4:
“When referencing dates based on the approximate birth of Jesus, give appropriate credit for the basis of the date (B.C. or A.D.). "BCE" and "CE" are unacceptable substitutes because they deny the historical basis. See CE.”
Conservapedia:Index - Conservapedia
Now see their World History Index.
That is a real indicator of the intellect of this site...stupidity.

  
Dr Adequate
Member (Idle past 284 days)
Posts: 16113
Joined: 07-20-2006


Message 50 of 167 (388036)
03-04-2007 11:25 AM


Everything Conservatives Know About Peru
Peru
Country in western South America.

  
Dr Adequate
Member (Idle past 284 days)
Posts: 16113
Joined: 07-20-2006


Message 51 of 167 (388038)
03-04-2007 11:37 AM


Everything Conservatives Know About Iraq
Iraq
A Middle-Eastern country, invaded in 2003 and currently occupied by a U.S.-led coalition.
---
With that sort of detailed insight, it's hard to see how anything could have gone wrong.

  
sidelined
Member (Idle past 5908 days)
Posts: 3435
From: Edmonton Alberta Canada
Joined: 08-30-2003


Message 52 of 167 (388043)
03-04-2007 11:56 AM


Even their closest neighbours are not worth much discussion
Canada
Canada is the second largest country in the world for it's considerable amount of land. It was named Canada because when an explorer came to a Canadian Indian village he asked what this place was called, and they told him "Kanada", which means village in their Indian language. It borders the United States, and most of it's population is in The more southern provinces of Canada.
The capital city of Canada is Ottawa, Ontario.
Canada was founded in 1867 and its first Prime Minister was Sir John A. Macdonald.
The people writing this are just beacons of information eh?
Edited by sidelined, : No reason given.

  
Jon
Inactive Member


Message 53 of 167 (388049)
03-04-2007 12:27 PM
Reply to: Message 3 by RAZD
03-03-2007 5:06 PM


Re: christian fundamentalism ≠ all conservatives
HA! I find this quote you picked out exteremely interesting, mostly because of how contradictory it is:
quote:
...extreme mutation which causes an extra chromosome to be present. ... However, mutations can only decrease information, never increase it.
Emphasis mine
They admit that Down's Symdrome is a MUTATION caused by an INCREASED number of chromosomes, and then go on to say that MUTATIONS never INCREASE information.
As mad as a Weasel on a Pogo-stick indeed!
Max
Edited by Trékuhrid, : Sphelling

This message is a reply to:
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subbie
Member (Idle past 1255 days)
Posts: 3509
Joined: 02-26-2006


Message 54 of 167 (388077)
03-04-2007 2:54 PM


Scopes at Conservapedia
quote:
5. John Scopes was just a young teacher in Tennessee when he unwittingly became a test case for promoting evolution in American schools. Tennessee had a law against teaching human evolution, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) wanted to overturn it. It enlisted the top criminal attorney of the day, Clarence Darrow, to serve as Scopes attorney. As crafty as the day is long, he arrived in Tennessee armed with his bag of tricks.
William Jennings Bryan, the former presidential candidate and Secretary of State, had oratorical skills second to known. His "Cross of Gold" nomination acceptance speech in 1896 is considered one of the greatest political works in American history. He united the Populist and Democratic Parties then and laid the foundation for the takeover by the Democratic Party of American politics 36 years later.
After witnessing the horrors of World War I, Bryan became convinced that the teaching of evolution was leading society to ruination through war. "Survival of the fittest" provided an intellectual justification for the brutal killing of other nationalities and races. Bryan foresaw the ethnic cleansing that grew to its horrible culmination in the Holocaust.
Bryan defended the Tennessee law and its application to Scopes, with its mere $100 fine as the penalty for teaching evolution. Darrow agreed to take the witness stand in favor of teaching evolution if Bryan took the witness stand against it. Bryan then testified and performed well. So well, in fact, that Darrow reneged on his promise and forced Scopes to plead guilty to end the case. With that the trial ended, and Tennessee's law remained in effect for another half century. To this day, Tennesee schools teach little evolution, and George W. Bush won the presidential election by carrying this home state of his opponent, Al Gore.
A famous liberal reporter at the trial, H.L. Mencken, published such one-sided articles that it would make today's media blush. He excoriated Bryan at every possible turn, trying to make him look foolish. When Hollywood got into the act with a movie called "Inherit the Wind," it imitated Mencken's bias. Misinformed, many think Scopes and the evolutionists won the trial, but conservative rule in Tennessee today reflects the true outcome.
No webpage found at provided URL: http://www.conservapedia.com/John_Scopes
Ah, what a breath of fresh, unbiased, air.

Those who would sacrifice an essential liberty for a temporary security will lose both, and deserve neither. -- Benjamin Franklin
We see monsters where science shows us windmills. -- Phat

Replies to this message:
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crashfrog
Member (Idle past 1467 days)
Posts: 19762
From: Silver Spring, MD
Joined: 03-20-2003


Message 55 of 167 (388091)
03-04-2007 3:40 PM
Reply to: Message 54 by subbie
03-04-2007 2:54 PM


Re: Scopes at Conservapedia
I see that it meets Conservapedia's factual standards, as well. Scopes pleading guilty? Oh, and I'm so completely sure that the Scopes Monkey Trial was the reason Bush carried Tennesee in 2000.
These people expose the idiocy that represents the very core of American conservativism.

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Jon
Inactive Member


Message 56 of 167 (388118)
03-04-2007 6:10 PM


quote:
s.v. "Gravity"
Some have criticized gravity, reminding us that it is only a theory, and that no scientist has ever seen a graviton or a space curve. Furthermore, experiments done by NASA prove that the Moon is receding (moving further away) from the Earth at a rate of 3.8cm per year, directly contradicting the theory that masses attract one another[1]. Indeed, astronomers can observe that all stars in the universe are moving away from one another. The considerable disagreement between scientists about the theory of gravity suggests that, like evolution, the theory will eventually be replaced with a model which acknowledges God as the source of all things, the Prime Mover, and the only real fundamental force in the universe.
Max

  
Hyroglyphx
Inactive Member


Message 57 of 167 (388141)
03-04-2007 7:53 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by Tusko
03-03-2007 11:13 AM


Wiki bias
Clearly it is very amateurish, and says some very funny, strange things. It must be noted that it has to some degree been compromised by piss-takers and pastiche-artists, hence the current lock-down on new accounts.
Personally, I think its as mad as a screaming weasel on a pogo-stick, and I think it might be potentially quite damaging - an example of a kind of social isolationism. I was just wondering what anyone else thought of it.
Amteurish or not, the fact that Wikipedia is a user net means that anybody can simply invent their own facts based on only superficial evidence. They do have editors who look for "vandalism," but given that Wikipedia is run by about 30 people coupled with the fact that there is probably over a million articles at this point, means that special interest groups can spin their own version facts and history.
Is it a big problem? No, not for the most part. I think Wiki is still basically a reliable source, but there is alleged bias both liberal and conservative. And I can say that I've come across some very suspicious articles. Usually, however, they are flagged for "neutrality," which means one of those 30 people is doing their job.

"He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. -Micah 6:8

This message is a reply to:
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NosyNed
Member
Posts: 8996
From: Canada
Joined: 04-04-2003


Message 58 of 167 (388143)
03-04-2007 8:09 PM
Reply to: Message 57 by Hyroglyphx
03-04-2007 7:53 PM


suspicious articles
If you find any that relate at all to EvC you could bring them up for discussion maybe? One to a thread would be appropriate I think.
It is certainly easy to find junk, not just biased but junk, in the conservawiki. It's quite fun actually.

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Omnivorous
Member
Posts: 3978
From: Adirondackia
Joined: 07-21-2005
Member Rating: 7.3


Message 59 of 167 (388168)
03-04-2007 10:40 PM
Reply to: Message 25 by Tusko
03-03-2007 7:09 PM


Tusko writes:
But do you know what the really sick thing is? The more that people take the piss by altering this godawful site, the more this proves to people inclined to take it seriously that the evolutionists/atheists/onanists are a nasty bunch who should be avoided: the more it proves that Wikipedia is biased - which to them is clearly synonymous with wrong.
Isn't that the biggest tragedy of all?
Well, it's pretty stupid all round, but I don't think it rises to the level of tragedy. It is deliciously appropriate that no certain distinction can be made between sincere idiocy and its parody on Conservapedia.
The use of our magnificent brains to create and maintain ignorance and bigotry--now, there's tragedy. Everything else is carnival.

Real things always push back.
-William James
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Chiroptera
Inactive Member


Message 60 of 167 (388169)
03-04-2007 10:49 PM
Reply to: Message 59 by Omnivorous
03-04-2007 10:40 PM


quote:
It is deliciously appropriate that no certain distinction can be made between sincere idiocy and its parody on Conservapedia.
This morning I noticed that someone had written a long article on Hillary Clinton. I noticed, because last night it was only a paragraph long. It mentioned that she was involved in the national health care debate a few years ago. "National health care" was a link, and when I clicked on it I got the page on Communism.
Heh. I'm still trying to decide if that was a "sincere idiocy" or a parody.

Actually, if their god makes better pancakes, I'm totally switching sides. -- Charley the Australopithecine

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