Congratulations! You’ve made it to Adam Paetznick’s blog.

This is my first blog entry ever. I still have yet to pick topics for this blog. My plan is to start out making posts about whatver I feel like. Eventually I’ll figure out which topics fit best and try to narrow the focus on them. If you have any suggestions feel free to comment.

Stay tuned for more posts!

Has anyone else been reading or hearing about the trial against the Dover school board that is to start on Monday? The debate seems to be very intense. There seems no doubt that this will eventually end up in the Supreme Court.

Although I personally support evolution, I think that intelligent design shouldn’t be immediately dismissed. After all, what we’re really looking for here is a deeper understanding of our origins. What better to further that understanding than an intelligent (no pun indended) debate?

The problem I see, however, is that while the debate should be about scientific issues, it seems to easily breakdown into a religous (and emotional) war. Just take a look at the blog battle between Wesley Elsberry and Casey Luskin.

I realize that the decision put to the courts is to decide if intelligent design is a religious ideology or not. But shouldn’t we really be trying to figure out if intelligent design really has any merit? When you start involving religion, the argument gets too convoluted.

Check out “Why scientists dismiss intelligent design” on MSNBC.com. It helps to explain the ideas behind intelligent design and why many scientists disagree.

It was just a few weeks ago that I was reading an article praising countries for reducing production of ozone reducing chemicals. The hole in the the ozone over the antarctic is as large as it has ever been, but apparently scientists expect it to start shrinking.

But now I read that the problem of global warming is still increasing rapidly. By the end of the century, there may no longer be ice in the Arctic. Alaska and Siberia are already experiencing large scale problems. This is scary stuff.

Ever wonder where your tax dollars go? It’s comforting to know that people can be trusted to spend them wisely.

A cruise ship. Seriously?

Apparently, the United States has recently refused to share control of the the Internet with the EU and many other countries. Right now the US has control over Internet domain names and the like simply because the Internet started up in the US.

This is a problem for other countries that are now becoming increasingly dependent on the Internet. In particular, this is an issue for non-English speaking countries for with many Internet conventions (like standard domain names) don’t make sense.

Are we really that childish? Granted, in terms of age, we are still just a “child” country. But that doesn’t mean that we can ignore rules that even kindergarteners know. It seems to me that opening up control of the Internet to a global community is the right thing to do. The very nature of the Internet is to connect people on a global scale.

We (the US) shouldn’t be so selfish.

It’s cliche but true. Nothing beats October baseball.

Of course, It would be even better if the Twins were there. I went to two of the Twins’ playoff games last year against the Yankees. It was nothing at all like a regular season game. It’s literally like flipping a switch. All of the sudden baseball is new and more exciting.

I’ve actually found some time to sit down and watch a few games that last few days. I had forgotten how relaxing and fun it was to watch a really good playoff game.

Have you ever thought, “Hey, I wonder if coating bacteria with gold particles would make a usefule electronic circuit”? Sure, we all have. It’s only logical.

Well, find a good lawyer now, because researchers have stolen your idea and made it reality. “Gold plated” bacteria have been used to make a highly sensitive humidity detector.

This sounds like really cool and promising technology. But then again, I am a huge nerd.

Normally, I’m pretty laid back. I don’t get too uptight, angry, or frustrated when things don’t go my way.
It’s amazing, though, how that all changes on the freeway. And I don’t think its just me.

Two incidents that occured in the last week made me think about why traffic makes me crazy more than anything else. The first was at the Illinois-Wisconsin border last Sunday. Traffic was backed up for as many as 10 miles crossing the border. An accident? No. Bad weather? No. Construction? No. All this, just for a stupid toll. We sat in traffic for over an hour only to then have to pay money to continue our trip.

The second was during rush hour traffic. A little more understandable, but no less frustrating. It took me over an hour to make a trip that would normally take 25 minutes. Okay, so it could have been worse, but it made me think. I normally have the good fortune of not having to get on the freeway to get to work. But sitting in that rush hour traffic I couldn’t believe that all these people would really put up with wasting their lives in traffic like that on a daily basis. I wouldn’t be able to take it. It got my blood going after only one day. I would literally go insane if I had to do that everyday.

We wait in ridiculously long lines at Disney World, or to get the newest XBox. But in those cases, we end up with something we really want. In traffic, all you end up with is one less hour of your life.

Over the last year, I’ve become a big fan of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. For those who aren’t familiar, the show takes actual news events and makes fun of them. It’s dubbed “the fake news”. The ironic part is that the “actual” news has been so ridiculous lately, that The Daily Show doesn’t have to stretch it very far at all. It’s hilarious as it is.

Also interesting is that Jon Stewart has become a recognized political pundit, of sorts.
Political authorts, congressmen, and other political officials including Colin Powell and John McCain are frequently guests on the show.

Why get your news from some drab anchor person when you can get the same thing from The Daily Show while laughing your ass off?

I was perusing through the news this morning and came upon an article talking about hearing loss due to use of “Ear bud” headphones. The subject of the story wasn’t really very interesting. It doesn’t take much intelligence to realize that your ears can get damaged if you crank up your iPod.

What was funny was the fact that there is actually a group of people, the National Hearing Conservation Association, that are “fighting” hearing loss. There’s an association for this?! When we’re talking about energy conservation or woodland conservation I can understand. But hearing conservation?

For anyone who’s interested, I think I’m going to start my own association. How about the International People Who Like Stuff and Want to Feel Important Association Incorporated (or IPWLSWFIAI for short).