A Lesson from The Flat Earth Wager of 1870

Once again I want to call into question whether debating should be used as a technique to settle arguments about the validity science. For example, Creation vs Evolution, or whether global warming is real or a scientific hoax.

I have been reading the book "Flat Earth, the history of an infamous idea" by Christine Garwood. There is a historical precedent that we might be able to learn from that we can generalize to all science vs. non-science arguments.

This historical debate was about the flat earth in 1870. It involved AR Wallace, who was coincidentally the co-discoverer of evolution.

A. R. Wallace took up a monetary wager against flat Earth promoter John Hampden. To win the wager, Wallace had to prove, to the satisfaction of a third party referee, that the Bedford Canal had a curve to its surface.

Wallace set two markers at a height of 13 feet above the water, one was at 5 km., the other at 10 km. He then used a professional surveyor's telescope with cross hairs, also at thirteen feet height and observed that the furthest marker was lower than the middle marker, by about 4 feet. The previously agreed impartial observer, William Carpenter, was then allowed to look through the telescope, at which point he joyously declared the points lined up therefore the canal was flat. No amount of persuasion could convince the observer that the middle marker was higher than the furthest marker.

Finally after days of wrangling, another judge, Walsh, was chosen, and he said that the difference in height of the markers clearly indicated curvature of the canal water surface. Furthermore, Walsh discovered that William Carpenter, the previous referee, was a close associate of John Hampden, and Walsh issued a statement in which he included the comment "The deception was, to say the least of it, 'unscientific'." (speaking of the choosing of William Carpenter who did not disclose his close collaboration with Hampton)

As a result of this comment by Walsh, John Hampden claimed that he was being libelled, and also accused the new referee of colluding with Wallace. Hampden took legal action to prevent the wager money being given to Wallace. After years of fighting in court, A.R. Wallace won the money, but ended up no further ahead after lawyers fees, and had done nothing to stop the spread of the "Flat Earth" philosophy.

What we can learn from this, is that scientists and anti-scientists do not have the same standards of fairness. Why would I say that, and how could I ever confirm it? Of course it can never be confirmed that anti-scientists are all cheats, and it does not even seem to be a reasonable statement. I would go further, and say it makes me sound like a lunatic that I would even propose that all anti-scientific people are liars and cheats. Therein lies the paradox that prevents a debate from being a good way to settle the matter.

For any debate to succeed, you need to have both sides willing to listen to reason, to abide by observed facts. But that very idea is at the heart of "The scientific method". If you can show me two people willing to listen to reason, and abide by observed facts, I will show you two scientists.

But the world at large, observing this debate, sees only two equally earnest sides, pro science vs. science deniers. If the pro science side ever at any time in exasperation, insults the science deniers for their lack of logic, for their hardball tactics, for their deceit, a whole new argument is launched. This new argument is about personal honour. In the new argument, the scientists were the first to insult the other. And they lose.

A Second Look at the 2010 Honda Shadow RS

Two jobs I wouldn't mind having. One is a designer for Honda motorcycles, specifically in the "Style" department, since I assume they also have designers for engines, brakes etc. The other is a motorcycle journalist. In this blog, I can do both in a way. In the way that I don't get paid.

First the new Honda Shadow RS needs a redesign. I have never liked how Honda moved toward cruiser styles, and now the Harley Davidson Sportster. Although if the shoe was on the other foot, Harley Davidson would try to do the same thing to Honda. I feel that copying stifles creativity. I don't think Harley Davidson is innocent of copying and lack of creativity either. They regularly copy their old styles, because that's what sells. And it seems Honda has to do the same. So to show Honda how they could create a perfectly good bike that would be distinctive from the Harley Sportster but have more style, I did a little make-over.

For my first change, the exhaust goes from two mufflers to one, and I kept the line of the exhaust high from front to back. Of course this is going to cause all kind of heartbreak in the engineering department, as they have to worry about heat shielding, power output, noise etc. That's exactly why I declined a position in the engineering department. The Shadow RS looks better this way, and it does not look like the Sportster.

My other change was the passenger seat. I want either a real seat for the passenger, or I want nothing. I despise the bitch pads that Harley loves to put on their bikes, as it is subliminal male chauvinism gone wrong. So I fixed that psychological problem. Again it makes the Honda look more like a Honda, and look better at the same time.

The third and fourth details would not make the bike look better, so I didn't bother. It would make the bike work better to have bigger fenders, and a bigger gas tank, but I kind of like it the way it is in this picture, and I don't want to cause too many problems for the engineers.


Now to look at the Honda Shadow 750 RS compared to the Sportster and compared to my Vulcan 900.

One thing I have always liked about the Harley Sportsters is that they are about as close to an economical standard bike as Harley seems to get, especially with mid-mounted footpegs. The only problems they had were that (A) they were not made by Honda, and (B) small gas tank, (C) they looked like the back end was dragging on the road.

This Shadow RS by Honda is just about how I would change the Sportster if I could. The Honda also has water cooling, and three valves per cylinder. Both now have fuel injection.

The key differences in features would be cast wheels, belt drive, rubber mounted engine, disk rear brake, and more accessories available. (all + for Sportster)

Minuses for Honda are chain drive combined with no centre stand (which I don't like), and smaller gas tank.

On the plus side for Honda, higher seat height (better for me), about 60 lbs less, but a bit bigger size.

None of the differences would put me off getting the Honda instead of the Sportster, although they may be more important for someone else.

I was not able to confirm how bad the Honda's vibration would be, as it apparently does not have a counterbalancer or a rubber mounted engine. The Sportster has rubber mounting, and my Vulcan 900 has both rubber and counterbalancer. I am quite happy with the low vibration levels of my Vulcan.

I believe all three bikes (including the Vulcan 900) are in about the same price range.

Update: I have written another blog comparing the Shadow 750 RS to the 1969 Honda CB750 Four.

Motorcycle Gas Tanks

A motorcycle gas tank, unlike a car gas tank, is a visual focal point. There are some bikes, like Mary Ann's Burgman scooter, that hide the gas tank entirely, then others like the Gold Wing that put the gas under the seat, but still have an object that looks like the gas tank in the traditional spot.

I have a lot of likes and dislikes about the shapes and sizes of gas tanks. The thing I probably dislike the most is a gas tank that is too small to go at least 200 km between fill ups. You really can't even guess the capacity of the tank by looking at it from above, because the underside of the tank is scooped out to fit over the engine and frame.

My Kawasaki Vulcan 900 has about the longest range of any motorcycle I have had, at 400 km. This distance of course varies, according to speed and wind direction. The shortest range I ever had was my Yamaha 250 that needed to fill up at 150 km, on the average. Although due to it's 2 -stroke engine, it would consume twice the gas at 70 mph than it did at 40. So the range actually varied tremendously.

There are many reasons why I like a bigger gas tank, and surprisingly none of them have to do with the actual running out of gas. The only time I run out of gas is if I don't think about it, and the smaller the tank, the more I think about it. Actually part of the problem is that I don't usually like stopping to fill up at all. Many years ago, when I started riding, we did not have convenient gas stations like we do today. No, I don't mean the pay at the pump, I mean we didn't even have self service stations. You would pull into a gas station, and the bike would sometimes be too light to trip the warning bell for the attendant.

Many people are too young to even remember what gas station attendants were like in the seventies. That was a time when the attendant was often a mechanic in the garage, busy working on some important thing like removing a rusty muffler from a car. He (it was always he) would have to interrupt what he was doing, when he finally figured out there was a motorcycle waiting for gas, drop his blowtorch or whatever, and walk out to the gas pumps. Then he saw this was one of them motorsikkles, which used to be strongly identified with biker gangs, booze, and criminal activity. Next he had to figure out where to put the gas, and trust me, it was always better for me to take the nozzle and pour it in myself. The final problem was that the fill up would cost something like $1.78, meaning not only had he disturbed his routine for only about 2 cents worth of profit, but he would have to look for change. Yes, I wanted change. He would ask if I could fill it up a little more, and I would point to the level of gas in the tank, which was just about sloshing over. Back in those days, I saw some attendants dump raw gas directly onto the ground rather than go for change, so I guess they really didn't like getting change.

With 5932 km from Sept Iles QC to Powell River BC each way, divided by 150 km it works out to 80 conversations with garage mechanics on the entire trip. I know it doesn't sound like much, but when I spotted my first self service gas station, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Today I prefer the even better "Pay at the pump", as I don't have to remove my helmet and ear plugs to get gas. I do that if I need to go inside and pay, to be able to hear the dumb question the cashier needs to ask like "Will you be needing a car wash with that today?".

A bigger tank is preferable for group riding. I do not like to have the smallest tank of a group because of the inconvenience and difficulty of having to stop the entire group for a gas stop when I am the only one who needs gas. These days, I often ride with other people, and I really appreciate at least a 250 km range. With my Vulcan, I can sometimes skip group fill-ups, which is an indication that this bike has a really good range, or that somebody in the group has a really small tank.

Finally, we come to the reason I wrote this blog, and it is the new 2010 Honda Shadow RS. It just happens that I love the look of the gas tank, and in fact the entire bike looks great. The tank fits the bike perfectly, and unlike the similar Harley 883, the back of the bike does not look like it's dragging the ground. But the RS tank only holds 2.7 gallons (US), or 10.6 Litres, and this will probably mean, at 4.2 l/100km, stopping every 252 km. But as everyone knows, gas stations do not pop up when you run out of gas, and if you check the specifications for other bikes, they generally have bigger tanks and go further.

Apparently, the new Shadow RS is priced at $7799. It is definitely going to annoy the Harley Davidson fans because the RS resembles the HD Sportster 883 which sells for a dollar more, at $7800, and you can just imagine all the tattooed bikers jogging over to the Honda dealer to scoop up the bargains.

Pictures: The 2010 Honda Shadow RS (White) and the Harley Davidson Sportster Iron (Black) if you have some way of saving and flipping the pictures alternately, they are just about to scale, and positioned identically to compare the profiles. I based the scale as close as I could to the HD wheelbase at 1524mm and the Shadow's at 1562mm.

What Do You Mean, Anti American?

In the last ten years, coincidentally the years of the Bush administration, I have occasionally been accused on the internet of anti-Americanism. This is ridiculous, as far as I'm concerned, especially because the only thing I did was place a peace sign on my motorcycle web page. I put it there before 9/11, if that makes any difference, and it is still there.

I am so like an American that most people could not tell the difference unless I stick a Canadian flag to my motorcycle saddlebag. My only quarrel with any American I have met in person, was about their beer, which was not up to Canadian standards.

I am a very tolerant person, and if I can speak rationally with Muslims and Christian fundamentalists, then why would I be anti-American?

I think the problem comes when some people start to define "American" as being pro-war and pro-torture. Most Americans I know do not accept that stereotype. And I happen to know some Canadians that are pro-war and pro torture. So if I was really anti American I guess I would also be anti Canadian. The most pro-torture character on TV, Jack Bauer on "24", is played by Kiefer Sutherland, a Canadian.

Of course there are some cultural differences. At one motorcycle rally, I was at a restaurant with some Americans. Until that day, I had never, and I mean never, seen someone order the all you can eat buffet AND a full entree. He was an American, and I never fail to marvel at the differences between Canadians and Americans when you dig deep enough. At another rally, again in the USA, I somehow became the butt of some jokes for eating my pizza with a knife and fork. Now, if I'm standing in an open field eating a slice of pizza, I will eat it with my hands. But at a sit-down meal in a restaurant, I have never seen anyone in Canada eat pizza with their hands. So I explained to the Americans present that in Canada, we often use knives and forks.

I told a story from a Canadian camping trip I took to Beausoleil Island in Georgian Bay. One night, we had all our chocolate bars stolen by a bunch of raccoons, who unwrapped and ate them behind a bush, leaving all the wrappers behind. The next night, I stored all our food in the plywood chuck box, and locked it, leaving all the cutlery and cookware out on the table. In the middle of the night I got up with a flashlight to check out the commotion, and scared off a bunch of raccoons. Every one of our knives and forks had been picked up and jammed in to the crack between the lid and hinges. Obviously they were Canadian raccoons.

So let's not make out that being anti-torture is anti American. I personally think that is insulting to many Americans. On the other hand, that stuff they call beer is fair game.

A Cautionary Tale of Cold Weather Motorcycling

What more can I say about winter riding? I would actually prefer to be writing about spring and summer riding, but winter is all I've got right now. So last Saturday, I went for another ride, and this one was the coldest I have ever ridden with my Vulcan, at -8c. This time I let the motorcycle warm up thoroughly, and had new 10w-40 oil in it, so no strange sounds as I revved it up.

The most obvious danger in the winter is snow and ice on the road, but that day it was not a problem. There were other problems that need to be kept in mind.

First is the problem with the controls. With it being very cold, I have handlebar muffs and heavy gloves, which can make it awkward for me to get my hands back on the controls once I remove my hand from the handlebars. Unfortunately, in the winter time I have a greater than ever need to remove my hands from the handlebars, at least with my current home-made setup.

One thing that I have to keep fiddling with is my face shield. It is an ordinary summer helmet, and the face shield fogs up easily sitting at a traffic light, and we have tons of those in Kitchener, especially on the route I had to take to Tim Horton's. There are probably a lot of solutions, from anti-fog spray all the way up to a $500 Bombardier snowmobile helmet with a special breathing mask inside that clamps over your nose and mouth when closing the visor. Yes that would be nice. But I simply fumble with lifting the face shield a little at the stop light, then closing it again when I get moving. It is really too cold to leave it up even a crack on these roads, where it is 80 kph between lights, and no, that's not just me, it's everybody.

Another thing to fiddle with is the on-off switch for the electric vest. I can't just leave it on, it's too hot, and it drains the battery while I'm sitting idling at the light. If it doesn't drain the battery, it does prevent it from charging up after the difficult starting at -8c. It is always difficult for a battery to start an engine at those temperatures, though so far, the Vulcan has been good. My vest's on-off switch is hard to find under my jacket flap, and it is hard to figure out which is the on and off position while I'm riding.

Luckily, I don't also have to wave to other motorcyclists at this temperature, so in that way I keep my hands on the controls more.

It doesn't sound too difficult so far, but I'm surrounded by traffic almost all the time. You never know when somebody who is learning to drive at the "Yelling Boyfriend" driving school, will make an ultra-sudden lane change. And of course, how would you expect her to see me, since she is about 4' 8" tall and has no booster seat? Apparently I'm not the only one trying to figure out how to arrange my gear for driving.

So no, I did not hit her, she did not hit me either. But that sudden move caught me fiddling under my jacket for the electric vest switch with my left hand. My right foot was not on the brake pedal either, I guess I forgot this is a cruiser with floorboards where you have to lift your foot to hit the brake. On my BMW, my foot was always right over the rear brake pedal. The rear brake allows a little bit of braking, but you really need the front brake, and both hands on the handlebars to haul the speed down in an emergency, and it has often saved me in the past. I am not a believer in the "Rear brake only" school of braking/crashing that is popular in the cruiser crowd.

That was not my only worrisome moment. On one traffic roundabout, I felt the rear of the bike slip momentarily. I was really going slow, there was no ice either. But the same thing happened at exactly the same spot the time I went out in January. I suspect it is a sharp curve combined with a very cold tire that was never designed for these temperatures. Even an all-season car tire loses a bit of its rubberiness under 10c. And this Metzeler cruiser tire made no claim to be anything other than a summer tire, and it was -8c. It also makes me wonder how useful really hard braking would be. But on the other hand, it could be that the tire had built up a layer of dust just off the centreline, because I did try some hard straight-up braking to see if it slipped, and it didn't.

There was only one other bit of worry, after I had sat in Tim Horton's way over their 20 minute limit (way way over), the bike seemed reluctant to start. I don't mind a problem like that at home, but I don't want it happening anywhere else. Maybe that's why Tim's has a 20 minute limit, to make sure the engine is still warm. They are very thoughtful people.

Picture: Do you really want to see me in all my cold weather gear set up for a ride in February? Neither do I.

The New Face of Militant Religion

Mark Steyn wrote a book "America Alone" the end of the world as we know it. In it, he described the coming of the Islamic hordes who would sweep away all our democracy, rule of law, and freedom of speech, and reduce us to what they are, which I suppose is a fanatical religion fostering terrorism, bombing, suppressing women, and reciting the Koran endlessly while being beaten if we don't get it right.

OK maybe I over exaggerated the stark changes to come in society. My point is that these changes might be coming, not because they are forced on us by Muslims, but because we willingly submit to them from people posing as followers of Jesus, and an example would be Sarah Palin.

What does Sarah Palin stand for, by her beliefs and her public statements? Here are the "Seven Pillars of Palin".

1. Fundamentalist religion. I don't like to call it Christianity, because my Christianity does not include torture, and wars of aggression. Hers does. (I define that as Militant Religion)

2. Terrorist bombings. Sarah does not call bombings of abortion clinics "terrorism", at least according to one interview on network TV.

3. Wives are submissive to husbands, which is a significant part of her religion. Plenty of evidence exists of her husband sitting in the Governor's chair conducting state business in Alaska. She does not emphasise this point, and few reporters press her on the issue. But I believe that's what all Evangelical Christian Fundamentalist wives are like.

4. Beating children and memorizing bible verses, both of which are part of her religious beliefs. Again not a big political issue, you have to know the Evangelicals

5. Opposition to science and public education, which are a part of her religious conviction. Unless the public education renounces evolution and teaches the bible.

6. War and torture (which I mentioned earlier) Ask an Evangelical what Jesus means by "Turn the other cheek", and "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone" and "Blessed are the meek". If you are an educated, tolerant person, you will be shocked.

7. Support for one party rule. Although she never condemned democracy itself, she is certainly not ready to accept a non Christian extremist "Terrorist sympathiser" winning an election. She has tacitly supported secession of both Texas (recently with the teabag movement) and Alaska (before becoming governor her husband was a member of the Alaska Independence Party) from the USA. If Alaska or Texas secede from the union because of Obama winning, are they going to be stupid enough to allow more liberals to run for leadership of their "free" states in democratic elections? Secession is nothing but a code word for one party rule by Christian conservatives. It is against all the principles of democracy to secede when your party loses an election. Democracy absolutely requires a "loyal opposition", not disloyal obstructionists, breaking up the country after elections, especially in a time of war.


I just don't see much difference the between pro-violence Islamic extremists and pro-violence Christian extremists. On the other hand, I see a lot of similarities between peace loving educated Christians and peace loving educated Moslems.

In my opinion the real clash of civilizations is not between people of different skin colour, or different languages, or different holy books. It is between warmongering, moral absolutist, anti-intellectual, female subjugating, religious fanatics on one side, and on the other side, freedom loving, tolerant, pro-education, pro equality, democratic people all over the world. And this may be just my opinion, but I think that clash has been going on for as long as history has been recorded. With the invention of writing came the beginning of liberalism. But liberals do have a tendency to keep quiet while religious extremists a busy burning heretics.

In the last 200 years, liberals have gained the upper hand in many parts of the world. That's because, in the last 200 years, they have usually been able to express themselves without being locked up or killed. And it is America that has been, from time to time, the leader in a modern world of scientific learning, democracy, freedom, and tolerance. I believe its independence was framed by tolerant people who tried to lay a foundation for freedom of religion and democracy.

There are signs that this time of intellectual progress may be temporarily stalled in America. I hope some other countries can take up the lead, if America ever chooses to suppress freedom in favour of religious fanaticism. Don't assume it cannot happen, or that it never happened before. Just check the history books or Wikipedia for Puritans and slavery in America.

Picture: Sarah Palin superimposed on a poster of the Ayatollah (not sure which one)

An International Food Guide

Another chain email arrived. Here it is

For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies:

1. The Japanese eat very little fat
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Brits and Americans.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Brits and Americans.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Brits and Americans.
4 The Italians drink a lot of red wine
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Brits and Americans.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Brits and Americans.

CONCLUSION

Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you..

I immediately noticed that there may be a better link between our car culture and heart attacks than there is with language. So I googled "International cardiovascular disease statistics". Listed below are just the countries mentioned in the chain email. But I added Russia as it has far and away the highest rate of coronary deaths of any country listed. And I added Canada because I live there.

Russia with 1555 (deaths per 100,000)
Chinese rural with 413
Chinese urban with 389
England/Wales with 301
USA with 289 and
Germans 270
Mexico 235
Italy 218
Canada 212
Japan 170

Then I noticed all the top countries in order were Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, China. I guess you could also make the argument that eating in a Communist restaurant leads to heart attack.

But it is not from lack of trying that America loses out to Communists in heart attacks. Americans don't like to come second.

I took the pictures from a patriotic restaurant that goes by the name "The Heart Attack Grill"