Latest Update on Free Music?

Here is an article from Sky News (posted 11:00 CST) on the Qtrax attempt to start a free music business with a catalogue of over 25 million songs:

Just hours ago, music download service Qtrax claimed it has brokered an historic deal that, for the first time, would deliver an unlimited supply of free songs to music fans.

But hopes, it seems, have already been dashed as the three of the big four studios allegedly involved have come forward and denied signing any such deal.

Qtrax, which offers a catalogue of 25 million songs to download for free, said today that its service will be endorsed by the biggest powers in the music industry - EMI, Sony BMG, Universal Music and Warner Music.

The service was unveiled at the global music industry's largest annual event, MIDEM, in Cannes.

Qtrax chief executive, Allan Klepfisz, said customers expected to be able to get music for free, but didn't want to use illegal sites. "It's been a long trek to this point for peer-to-peer to find its place in a legal world."

He then went on to say that the service would deliver up to 30 million free and legal music tracks for download.

In return for access to the music, users will have to put up with some advertising and Qtrax claimed that Ford, Microsoft and McDonald's have all signed up to advertise.

The files will still contain DRM (Digital Rights Management) software, which means that record companies will be able to keep track of how often their tracks are played and downloaded, and they will be paid in proportion to how popular their music is.

Qtrax says that record labels will also get a cut of the advertising revenue.

Qtrax added there is also plans for an iPod solution as the service is currently not compatible with the Apple device.

But now an Australian news channel is reporting that no such service is on the way and in fact, three of the four record company backers are denying their involvement...

Free Music?

A published web article describes a free music download that is going to provide access to over 25 million free songs! Here is a blurb from the UK Times Online article:

 

From today, feel free to download another 25 million songs - legally

Adam Sherwin, Media Correspondent, in Cannes

After a decade fighting to stop illegal file-sharing, the music industry will give fans today what they have always wanted: an unlimited supply of free and legal songs.

With CD sales in free fall and legal downloads yet to fill the gap, the music industry has reluctantly embraced the file-sharing technology that threatened to destroy it. Qtrax, a digital service announced today, promises a catalogue of more than 25 million songs that users can download to keep, free and with no limit on the number of tracks.

The service has been endorsed by the very same record companies - including EMI, Universal Music and Warner Music – that have chased file-sharers through the courts in a doomed attempt to prevent piracy. The gamble is that fans will put up with a limited amount of advertising around the Qtrax website's jukebox in return for authorised use of almost every song available.

The service will use the "peer-to-peer" network, which contains not just hit songs but rarities and live tracks from the world's leading artists…

 

 

Qtrax's website can be found at: http://www.qtrax.com

 

Does anyone know anything about this, and what is going on?

Origin of Life Problem #2 – Which Came First, DNA or Proteins?

Hi everyone from my family and I, in our warm, cozy Burnsville home. However, this was not the case last weekend. The problems started when I had installed a new thermostat in our home. It worked fine for a couple of days. But on Saturday morning I woke up to a 59 degree home, with it being 20 degrees below zero outside. I tried everything, but it looked hopeless – with the possibility of a major financial hit if we needed a new furnace. We barely staid warm through the weekend, thanks to a gas fireplace and a couple of space heaters. But my brother Bill came to the rescue last Sunday night. He was able to find a lose connection in the thermostat, and somehow he was also able to get our fan working. And we have been warm and cozy ever since. Whew!

 

Today's topic is to discuss one of the many problems that arises in atheistic science's examination of a living cell – the problem of what came first, the cell's DNA which gives instructions to make proteins, or proteins, which allow the DNA to reproduce? First, let me this tie together with n the topic of the complex and vast amount of information that is contained in DNA. The problem is that science uses only natural means for explaining the creation of the first living cell. This is an incredibly large problem, because it involves science trying to explain the cell's DNA and the vast amount of information it contains only by looking at nature's random paths. I like a quote of Bill Gates when he said when asked about the complex nature of DNA, "DNA is like a computer program, but far,
far more advanced than any software we've ever created." Now Chuck Colson also had an interesting comment about DNA in his How Now Shall We Live book (p. 75), where he notes: "It's true that DNA is composed of ordinary chemicals (bases, sugars, phosphates) that react according to ordinary laws. But what makes DNA function as a message is not the chemicals themselves but rather their sequence, their pattern. The chemicals in DNA are grouped into molecules (called nucleotides) that act like letters in a message, and they must be in a particular order if the message is going to be intelligible…" Anyone who has ever done the simplest of computer programs knows what will happen if there are small amounts of random code added to what you've written. Adding anything other than what the Programmer intends only causes chaos, and will destroy whatever working program was there in the first place. This leads me to believe that DNA, and the information it contains as directly created by God. Everything we know about nature makes it obvious that chemicals sloshing around together can create neither life nor information, no matter how much time you are given.

 

DNA is soooo amazing, it deserves a little further discussion. DNA is in each of the 300 trillion cells of the human body. And I believe this is correct, DNA has 3 billion units of information within it. These 3 billion units are what Mr. Gates described as being similar to a software program. A cell needs over 75 "helper molecules", all working together in harmony, just to make one protein as instructed by the DNA. And the cell is also fast. Not just fast, it is faster than even the fastest of manmade super-computers. As one writer noted, Interpreting a DNA program and translating it through a code into a physical molecule, the cells collectively function at almost a thousand times the processing speed of IBM's new Blue Gene/L state-of-the-art supercomputer. Again, the cell's speed with the enormous amount of information that it contains is something that is obviously designed. And the cell's Designer has a far greater intelligence than our current level of understanding. This Designer is the Triune Christian God.

 

Now allow me to get back to the original question, of which came first DNA or Proteins? So here is the problem: DNA contains the information that creates the recipe for amino acids to form into proteins. And replication of DNA requires a lot of very complex protein machinery and that protein machinery needs a lot of DNA to store the instructions for how to make it. This account brings to mind the old riddle: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? DNA holds the recipe for protein construction. Yet that information cannot be retrieved or copied without the assistance of proteins. Which large molecule, then, appeared first in getting life started--proteins (the chicken) or DNA (the egg)?

 

It appears that the first living cell had everything working together in it: DNA, proteins, and RNA. So how was this incredibly fast, a large storehouse of instructions and information, a miniature factory created? The answer is as clearly before us as the heavens in the sky – it is God who is responsible for all life. And this is what is really amazing – all life is one. There is one language used in all of life, whether it be a plant, an animal, bug, or something microscopic, they all use the same language, the same dictionary, and the same Programmer's code. The genetic code is the same in every creature. As one writer states: the unity of life is an empirical fact. And so, there is a universal language contained in every cell of every living creature. And this language speaks loud and clear to me, and I hope also to other believers: DNA is a message from an outside, higher source of Intelligence. Those of us living today in the 21^st century, now know that there is a complex message inside each one of us, and in all of life. This message, the very DNA inside each of our cells, is a message from God telling us that He is here. Give glory to God, the Creator of all of life.

Cambrian Explosion

If you accept that the earth is billions of years old (4.5 billion years according to most scientists) then there is something that took place 530 million years ago that is one the five best examples that supports that life on earth is intelligently designed. This top five example that supports Intelligent Design is called the 'Cambrian Explosion' of life that took place over a very short period (compared to earth's age of 4.5 Billion years) of between 5 and 10 million years in which all sorts of life on earth exploded onto the scene without any sort of ancestral fossils. Remember Darwinism believes in small changes over great lengths of time. Life appearing suddenly with nothing in the fossil record to explain why? This sounds like another great proof in support of God's Hand in creating and developing life in the world around us.

 

First, allow me to briefly explain what took place during the Cambrian Explosion. Prior to the Cambrian Explosion life was very basic: algae, sponges and the like. But 530 million years ago, over as short of a timeframe of only 5 million years, life suddenly exploded: now life developed the eyes in different forms, the spinal cord, the hard shell covering the cousins of crabs, animals with teeth, the multiple legs of spiders, all sorts of different kinds of eyes, and the wings of flies. Life as different as "worms, and flies, mice and fish". All of these varied and different life forms popped into existence without any ancestors in the fossil record. Here is how Time Magazine explains the Cambrian Explosion in its December 04, 1995 issue:

 

"…For the Cambrian is a period distinguished by the abrupt appearance of an astonishing array of multicelled animals--animals that are the ancestors of virtually all the creatures that now swim, fly and crawl through the visible world.

Indeed, while most people cling to the notion that evolution works its magic over millions of years, scientists are realizing that biological change often occurs in sudden fits and starts. And none of those fitful starts was more dramatic, more productive or more mysterious than the one that occurred shortly after Erwin's wormlike creature slithered through the primordial seas. All around the world, in layers of rock just slightly younger than that Erwin discovered, scientists have found the mineralized remains of organisms that represent the emergence of nearly every major branch in the zoological tree. Among them: bristle worms and roundworms, lamp shells and mollusks, sea cucumbers and jellyfish, not to mention an endless parade of arthropods, those spindly legged, hard-shelled ancient cousins of crabs and lobsters, spiders and flies. There are even occasional glimpses--in rock laid down not long after Erwin's Namibian sandstone--of small, ribbony swimmers with a rodlike spine that are unprepossessing progenitors of the chordate line, which leads to fish, to amphibians and eventually to humans.

Where did this extraordinary bestiary come from, and why did it emerge so quickly? In recent years, no question has stirred the imagination of more evolutionary experts, spawned more novel theories or spurred more far-flung expeditions. Life has occupied the planet for nearly 4 billion of its 4.5 billion years. But until about 600 million years ago, there were no organisms more complex than bacteria, multicelled algae and single-celled plankton. The first hint of biological ferment was a plethora of mysterious palm-shape, frondlike creatures that vanished as inexplicably as they appeared. Then, 543 million years ago, in the early Cambrian, within the span of no more than 10 million years, creatures with teeth and tentacles and claws and jaws materialized with the suddenness of apparitions. In a burst of creativity like nothing before or since, nature appears to have sketched out the blueprints for virtually the whole of the animal kingdom. This explosion of biological diversity is described by scientists as biology's Big Bang

Over the decades, evolutionary theorists beginning with Charles Darwin have tried to argue that the appearance of multicelled animals during the Cambrian merely seemed sudden, and in fact had been preceded by a lengthy period of evolution for which the geological record was missing. But this explanation, while it patched over a hole in an otherwise masterly theory, now seems increasingly unsatisfactory. Since 1987, discoveries of major fossil beds in Greenland, in China, in Siberia, and now in Namibia have shown that the period of biological innovation occurred at virtually the same instant in geologic time all around the world. …" Time Magazine, Dec. 04, 1995 (emphasis supplied.)

 

First, let me emphasize the point made in the last paragraph of the Time Magazine quote (above). Some scientists have tried to explain away the sudden appearance of many different life forms by claiming there was long periods of evolution taking place that is just missing from the fossil record. But as Time Magazine points out, this explanation doesn't work. It doesn't work because the Cambrian Explosion of life takes place all over the world, and at the same time in all fossil beds discovered to date. So the record is very clear, there was a sudden emergence of complex life 530 million years ago, with no transitions, no intermediates to show that Darwinism had anything to do with this.

 

So why is the Cambrian Explosion so damaging to Darwinism, and points to a Creative Intelligence? The Cambrian Explosion destroys Darwinism because it shows that complex life makes a sudden appearance, rather than slow, long transitions. All sorts of very complex organs life eyes appear suddenly, and in different forms (compare a fish's eye, to a fly's eye, to a spider's eye). The sudden appearance of so many different life forms again gives the impression that there was some outside Intelligent Agent working behind the scenes. SomeOne has created life's diversity.

 

By the way, in case you are wondering what are my top-5 best evidences to support that life is Intellengently Designed on earth, they are – 1^st, the origin of the first living cell on earth; 2^nd, the universe itself, with its order and fine-tuning all pointing to an Intelligent Creator. 3^rd, the evidence of genetics from Professor Michael Behe that only small non-cumulative changes takes place in a cell, and that random mutation/variation does nothing in explaining life's complexity (see, M. Behe's Edge of Evolution); 4th, Life's obvious appearance of design; and, finally 5th the Cambrian Explosion. Praise God whose attributes are clearly seen because of the world around us, making all people without excuse (Romans 1:20). Thank You Lord, for sending Jesus!

A couple of interesting news stories in this morning's Drudge Report:

 

1. The Number of US Abortions Performed is at Lowest Level Over the Past 35 Years
   

   
   
   The report shows that there were "only" 1.2 million abortions performed in 2005.
    

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080117171119.g3u627l1&show_article=1

 

2)                    A First Temple Seal Discovered.

 

A stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylonia has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said Wednesday.

Photo: Edwin Trebels courtesy of Dr. Eilat Mazar

The 2,500-year-old black stone seal, which has the name "Temech" engraved on it, was found earlier this week amid stratified debris in the excavation under way just outside the Old City walls near the Dung Gate, said archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, who is leading the dig.

According to the Book of Nehemiah, the Temech family were servants of the First Temple and were sent into exile to Babylon following its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.

The family was among those who later returned to Jerusalem, the Bible recounts.

The seal, which was bought in Babylon and dates to 538-445 BCE, portrays a common and popular cultic scene, Mazar said.

 

The full news story can be found at:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1200475897717&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 

The Super Bowl and the ITunes Music Fight

My family and I have both Microsoft's music rival Zune as well as several Ipod music players. So I found the following story about the music industry's upcoming attack against ITunes interesting. The story can be found here: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7d62cb62-c38c-11dc-b083-0000779fd2ac.html.

 

Here is the beginning of the news report: Bruised music majors back iTunes rival

By Joshua Chaffin

Published: January 15 2008 19:16 | Last updated: January 15 2008 19:16

Next month's Super Bowl will feature a sales promotion that is audacious even by that event's over-inflated standards: Amazon.com, the largest online retailer, will offer as many as 1bn free downloads from its new digital music store in partnership with Pepsi and singer Justin Timberlake.

The promotion represents a coming-out party for the Amazon MP3 service, which launched in September. But it also poses a question: is a viable competitor to Apple's iTunes digital music store finally on the horizon?...

Endtime Views - Strengths and Weaknesses

Hi Everyone,

On these cold and long winter days (long in the sense of boring), I thought I would share with you the views of Pastor Kim Riddlebarger whom I admire. He writes today on the topic of the strenths and weaknesses of the various endtime views, and Jesus Christ's promised return. Pastor Riddlebarger supports Amillenialism, and is a Reformed preacher, along the lines of John Calvin. Here are his thoughts on the two main endtime views, Premillianism (This is the view of the 'Left Behind' book series - Jesus raptures believers up to heaven, followed by tribulation for the rest of the world, Jesus then sets up a 1,000 year Milleniall Kingdom, Satan causes a worldwide revolt, and the final Judgment), and Amillenialism (where Jesus returns once on Judgment Day, with the Judgment seat being rewards for believers, and just punishment for non-believers.) Here are Pastor Riddlebargers thoughts on the two main endtimes views, Premillenialism and Amillenialism:

Lëmi asks (October 31, 2007): "Could you explain briefly all the millennial positions pointing out their main strengths and weaknesses?"
Thanks for the question Lëmi...

Lets start with premillennialism. As for its strengths, there seem to be two. One is the fact that Revelation 19 depicts the return of Christ, while Revelation 20:1-10 depicts the reign of Christ on the earth. If these chapters describe consecutive events (a point with which I would take issue) then this would place the millennial age after Christ's return. A second apparent strength is that a number of church fathers state that this was the teaching passed on to them by the eyewitnesses to the ministry of the apostles, although this was not the only view in the early church (book citation omitted.)


There are several serious weaknesses with premillennialism. The first weakness is that premillenniarians have to explain how it is that people make it through the return of Christ and yet remain in natural bodies. Jesus taught that his return marks the end of the age (Matthew 13:39) and that after his return, people no longer marry or are given in marriage (Luke 20:34-36). At Christ's return, he judges the world, making it tough for someone to be judged and yet not eternally condemned or rewarded with eternal life (Matthew 25:31-46). This is especially problematic for premillennarians, since they claim that their view is based upon a "literal" interpretation of prophecy. Where, then, is the one-thousand year gap between the return of Christ and the judgment (which, according to premillennarians takes place at the end of the millennium) when Jesus teaches that judgment takes place at his return? Those who take the Bible "literally" find themselves having to insert a gap into the biblical text which isn't there.

The other problem with premillennialism is, if it be true, there is a great apostasy on the earth after one thousand years of Christ's rule (Revelation 20:7-10). If there cannot be people on earth in natural bodies during the thousand years (which supposedly comes after Christ returns), then who are the people who revolt against Christ at the end of the millennium? And that after Christ's own rule? It makes much more sense to see Revelation 20:1-10 as a description of the entire inter-advental age, since the scene takes place in heaven where the thrones are (vv. 1-6), before shifting to the earth in verses 7-10...

As for amillennialism, it has no weaknesses whatsoever, since it is the biblical position (I'm being facetious). In all seriousness, Amillennialism's strength is its understanding that imminent return of Christ is the consummation of all things and marks the fullness of both the kingdom of God and the age to come. Christ will return to judge the world (Matthew 13:36-43; Matthew 25:31-46; 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9), raise the dead (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17; 1 Corinthians 15:54-57) and make all things new (2 Peter 3:3-15). He does not return to set up a kingdom (as in premillennialism), but to usher in the eternal state and create a new heaven and earth--the final consummation.

The biggest weakness of amillennialism is in the details--what does John mean by the binding of Satan? Can we really say Satan is bound now? (I say "yes"). What about the first resurrection in Revelation 20? Is John referring to regeneration, or the bodily resurrection? These things require a fair amount of explanation, especially since most American evangelicals know only the premillennial view.

Pastor Riddlebarger's full thoughts can be found at http://kimriddlebarger.squarespace.com/. Anyone have any thoughts about Jesus' return?

Origin of Life – Problems; Post No. 1

I love the picture below, the one with a magnet in front of a car. I am told that this idea was actually patented some years ago. Can you guess why it doesn't work? The picture is fun, but it also raises one of man's eternal quests that he has pursued from the beginning of time: for a Perpetual Motion Machine. A Perpetual Motion Machine is one where no additional energy needs to be supplied, and so it's self-sustaining. But no one has ever discovered such a machine. So no matter how strong the magnet is, the force that the magnet exerts upon the car is exactly canceled by the force that the car exerts upon the magnet. There is no extra energy created by putting the magnet in front of the car.

 

 

In case my picture doesn't show up in my blog, it can be seen at: http://www.theory-of-evolution.net/chap10/self-replicating-RNA-perpetual-motion-4.php

 

So what does the Magnet Car have to do with the problem of the origin of life on earth? They both violate the same law – the law of conservation of energy. The theory that science uses in explaining the very first living/self-replicating cell that is believed to have existed some 4 billion years ago is that life arose simply and developed more and more complicated over time. To do this, the theory goes an RNA molecule arose which was both the code for the cell along with a catalyst. The RNA can act like the DNA's code in its instructions to the other components of the cell. It also can act as a catalyst to speed up the cell's chemical reactions. The great advantage of this theory is that it does not have to explain how something as complicated as DNA was created from simple chemicals, water and rock. But there are many problems with the RNA first model, and one of them is that it is essentially a Perpetual Motion machine, like the Magnet Car.

 

RNA doesn't have a means to allow it to use the sun's energy. I like the way author Stuart Pullen describes the problem for usable energy in the RNA came first theory. The RNA first model looks at the sun and forces like lightning, and suggests that these are the forces that could be used by the first RNA molecule to let it become "alive" (life for a cell I use as meaning that it can divide by itself and grow, or another term is self-replicate.) Author Pullen describes the problem as follows: "Consider a man and his car with no gas in the desert. The man is not concerned. He knows that … he has an unlimited supply of energy in sunlight. He theorizes that after the car absorbs enough sunlight, (the car) will suddenly start and he can drive home. His theory is flawed because his car does not know how to use the energy from the sun to perform useful work, and 5 billion years will not solve his problem." Stuart Pullen, 'Intelligent Design or Evolution', p. 135 (2005).

 

Thus, science's theory of some sort of a simple living/self-replicating RNA first molecule cannot work unless there is a supply of energy for the molecule, and a way to use and implement this energy. Otherwise, the RNA first molecule will just be a car in a desert trying to absorb sunlight. And so, any living cell must know how to couple to an energy source and also be able to couple its replicating to a powerful energy source. If it is unable to do this, then it is simply another Perpetual Motion Machine, like the Magnet Car picture shown above. Life for an RNA molecule is not that simple. It takes the combination of all three elements of a cell to create life: DNA, RNA, and proteins all working together. Therefore, if the very first living cell is this complicated, and even the best theories in science fall woefully short, don't you agree that this is another example of evidence of design in the world that is around us?

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone,

Does anyone have any predictions for what will happen in 2008? Here is a short list to get the predictions started:

- The Democratic nominee will win the Presidency. Right now, I don't see how Senator Hillary Clinton can lose;

- The Minnesota Twins will trade superstar Pitcher Johan Santana to the Yankees, and the Yankees will win the World Series;

- Israel will give up portions of Jerusalem, to quiet the world pressure upon them;

- The New England Patriots will win the Super Bowl, and have back-to-back undefeated seasons in 2008!!!