Intelligent design is real

This is an 18 minute video of Craig Venter announcing the creation of synthetic life. There so much to talk about with this one, and it's going to take multiple posts. Consider this, then, a bit of preview of some of the stuff I want to get into here in the future.

"Lies, damned lies and statistics."

Someone once said to me that it was easier to discuss statistics with someone who is ignorant of statistics rather than someone who knows a little bit about it, as the person who has some knowledge will probably get it wrong. This is largely, I suspect, because it's very easy to overlook assumptions and seemingly minor bits of information which turn out to be extremely important.

This is a 20 minute TEDtalk from 2005 which I quite like which illustrates that point.

PS. If you've never been to TED, you ought to. There are plenty of really interesting talks there.