Blogiverse - Talking About Everything

Imagining the 10th Dimension

2012-02-01T17:30:00.000-05:00

I was cruising around the YouTubes inside the intertubes. I managed to avoid a bunch of cats, and I came across these two videos doing a passable job at attempting to explain 10 dimensions. Although, I still think they miss the entire point of the ultra small curled up dimensions, it's a good start at education.

Even Scientific American has good things to say about the effort of 10th Dimension in popularizing the science. And one can't leave this discussion without at least talking about the 4th dimension (which is spearate from t he 10 spatial dimensions in the previous videos):

Minor Critique of Abrahamistic Religions

2012-01-31T17:30:00.000-05:00

Just a minor critique that I saw that I wanted to pass along.

The Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) are essentially the same : schizophrenic.
We bring love and peace ... by telling you everyone else is an enemy to be avoided, hated and even killed when ordered.
We bring hope ... by telling you the world is hopeless and doomed.
We bring truth ... by telling you the most twisted lies you've ever heard.
We bring knowledge ... by telling you 'God' is the answer to every question you shouldn't ask.

I have often said they are all the same, because on the surface they really are. I am sure there are many other things these major religious spout off that they then act in total opposition to. Which is why Christopher Hitchens felt the need to actually confront these groups.

Mesmerizing loops of magnetism on the Sun ... and a flare

2012-01-29T10:30:00.000-05:00

Who knew that the Bad Astronomer had a YouTube channel all to himself? Well, I did (I am stalking him after all). So today he posted a video of some solar flares that were simply mesmerizing. As always, watch this in full screen, and in HD for the full effect. Awesome visuals with education, who could ask for more? Also, since so many folks are talking about the aurora and the effects of these solar eruptions, I figured this was topical.

Keep in mind, these flares are shooting off into space, and will not have any effect on earth right now. However, should one be pointed at us, be prepared for a light show.

He explains everything at his blog post if you are curios for more information.

This is a galaxy

2012-01-27T10:28:00.001-05:00

Much like Dr. Plait, the Bad Astronomer, I don't really think I can add a whole lot to this. Like him, you absolutely must watch it in HD and full screen though. Go ahead, it's only 90 seconds, and you may learn something, or at least be amazed at the things we are able to figure out.Aren't we clever considering we're just apes on an insignificant planet in a totally insignificant part of the universe.

The wisdom of Homer (Simpson)

2012-01-25T18:04:00.002-05:00

A long time back, I made a post talking about an atheist wager that should take the place of the ill conceived Pascal's wager that theists like to trot out so much. What it says is:

Instead, my wager is that if there is a god, and it is a just god, then living a just and moral life will be acknowledged regardless of ones beliefs. If there exists an unjust or immoral god, then I could never satisfy both my conscience and such a god. My wager is that if the christians are right (or any of the other millions of religions mankind has thought of) about god being just and all-knowing and all-loving, I will be rewarded if I act in morally sound, justified ways.

I don’t have any evidence that there is a god (and neither does anyone else). To me, the idea of a god, or even of an afterlife pales in importance to what we experience everyday. Life. Life is the only thing that I “know” I have and when that is gone, I doubt I’ll be around to care, however, others will. I must live my life as I please, and since I believe I will only ever get one chance at it, I want to live it in the best manner that I can and help others do the same.

So I was somewhat amused when I saw an article in The Guardian that delved into this idea a bit more. Especially considering my recent post about the huge number of variations even within each religion. Everything that I am seeing from at least the US evangelicals really drives to the second sentence of my wager. The god fellow they are so concerned about seems like a total douche (omnidouche?). I cannot support such a petty, cruel, vindictive, incompetent, and downright stupid creature even if it were to exist. Given these characteristics, and the 38,000 versions of christinaity, I am betting that even if Pascal's wager had any merit, the chances of picking the right one even amongst christians is a long shot, let alone the myriad of gods mankind has come up with outside that particular death cult. Or as Homer Simpson said: "What if we've picked the wrong religion? Every week we're just making God madder and madder?"

I urge you to read the whole article, but here is an excerpt from it that seems to sum up the whole idea behind Homer's Wager:

So let's call it Homer's Wager, for reasons that will soon become clear.

Here's how it works. Let's start with the very generous assumption that we think it more likely than not that God exists. To put a number on such things is ridiculous of course, but for the sake of argument, we'll use the figure of 67% which was the one a risk assessor came up with a few years ago. You might think that, if this is true, you should believe in God. But here's the problem: does it matter which God you believe in?

Maybe it doesn't matter, but it does matter if it matters. If it doesn't matter which God you believe in, it's because there are no important rewards or penalties for believing in the right or wrong God. But if that's the case, then it would not seem to matter if you didn't believe at all. A God who didn't care if you got belief right would hardly come down hard on those who didn't believe at all. I think we can safely conclude that the probability of a liberal God fascist – one who doesn't mind which version of him you believe in, but if you don't believe in him at all, he'll let you rot in hell – is negligible. As Homer Simpson put it when arguing that he shouldn't go to church: "Don't you think the almighty has better things to worry about than where one little guy spends one measly hour of his week?"

So if it doesn't matter whether you believe in such a vague God or not, you have no compelling reason to bother. The atheist bus slogan could just as easily be "There's probably a God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life".

If, on the other hand, it matters which God you believe in, it's because there are certain important rewards of belief that you will not receive if you don't believe in the right one, or punishments for failing to believe correctly. But even Homer Simpson can see the problem with this: "What if we've picked the wrong religion? Every week we're just making God madder and madder?" Choosing the wrong God might be worse than believing in none at all.

So to continue with the mad maths, even if you think it more than 50% likely that a God exists who will treat you differently – not just over the next few short years of your life but for all eternity – whether you believe in him or not, you still have no reason to believe in such a God, because you simply can't know which one to go for and life is too short to try them all out. In case you think that's overstating it, you only need to go into one church to find that there are almost as many Gods worshipped there as there are worshippers.

Newt is an Arrogant, Lying Sack of Shit

2012-01-19T22:48:00.001-05:00

So the giant Jabba the Hutt blob of butter with a fat head that is campaigning under the name of Newt is an arrogant, lying sack of shit... However, we already knew that. Why am I so pissed? Not because he said particularly insensitive stuff on Martin Luther King day, or anything like that. But he said some particularly egregious lies about food stamps and poor people, and made them sound like lazy people who are just too damn dumb to know how to fill out a job application or even find one to fill out.

Why does this have me mad? As Military.com reports:

more than $31 million worth of food stamps were used at commissaries nationwide in 2008 – an increase of about $6.2 million, or more than 25 percent – from the $24.8 million redeemed in 2007. That contrasts with a 13 percent overall increase in food stamp use by Americans for the same period,

Okay, now that may sound like some sort of increase that validates his claims that President Obama has somehow put all these people on food stamps, and that he is responsible for these great increases (and keep in mind, this isn't the totally the amount spent by the active duty folks on foodstamps, which numbered 2100 in 2003, the last time they surveyed). Again, that's not quite right:

In 2000, there were slightly more than 17 million Americans on food stamps, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington-based think tank focused on issues impacting low-income Americas.
By 2005, the number had increased to nearly 26 million while a government report issued earlier this year found that more than 32 million people are on food stamps.

Under Bush, the increase was about 9 Million people. And then the increase during the latter half of Bush, and then Obama, we have a total of a 6 Million people increase. Even if ALL of those were blamed on Obama, last I checked, 6 is less than 9... How can President Obama be responsible for putting more people on Food Stamps than any other president, when he clearly isn't? Oh yeah, sanctimonious, bullshit pandering logic that gets you a standing ovation from braindead hicks...What I would like to do is find a military member on food stamps, and have this guy get into Newt's face and ask him exactly how he can "own the fucking job he already has"? Especially one that has himself not served, and seems to be totally out of touch with the intelligent and hard working Americans that think he is a pompous ass, which should be everyone... Of course, that's just my opinion.

Update on Dynamic Quotes Sig Generator

2012-01-17T17:30:00.000-05:00

A while back I posted about A Dynamic Random Quote Generator Sig. Something fun for forums that allow you to place a IMG in your signatures. Well, I have updated it as well for myself. The two on the previous post still work. Although one of the owners updated the font and I really don't like it at all. So I went through the forum and gathered up all the quotes that I could fit, and made my own and had my brother-in-law help me with getting it set up.

So here is the new URL:

http://3meese.com/3meese/random/godtroll.phpGiving:

Have fun.

Now, if you want to make your own random sig generator, what you'll need to do is grab two files:
http://3meese.com/3meese/random/godtroll.txt

And

http://3meese.com/3meese/random/arial.ttf
Once you have these two files, you can do what you want. There will be a couple of things you will need to edit though.First of all, in the TXT file, you will see a line that says

$font = '/3meese.com/random/arial.ttf';. That will need to get changed to whatever your domain root structure supports. Then there is the part that starts off with:// array of random quotes$quotes = array("If every trace of any single religion died out and nothing were passed on, it would never be created exactly that way again. There might be some other nonsense in its place, but not that exact nonsense. If all of science were wiped out, it would still be true and someone would find a way to figure it all out again. - Pen Jilette","It appears to me (whether rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against christianity and theism produce hardly any effect on the public; and freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men's minds which follows from the advance of science. - Darwin","The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry. - Richard Dawkins","There's this thing called being so open-minded your brains drop out. - Richard Dawkins",This is where you can add in more of your quotes. Just start typing them in or copy paste them in above the previous quote. Just make sure that the start of the quote is where you start the quotation marks ", and when you get to the end (including attribution) is where you end the quote with another quotation mark and a comma ",. That will give you the full quote. And you can add as many as you want. Then save the TXT file as a PHP, and upload it along with the font file. Easy as that!

Of the Variations

2012-01-16T17:30:00.000-05:00

Did you know that there are over 38,000 different recognized versions of christianity? There are five main movements in judaism (with each movement also having differing movements within them totaling over 50 different recognized movements, and probably more fringe movements). Amongst the believers of islam, I was only able to find listings for about 100 different denominations. Now, my first thought would be that the christians seem to have seriously fucked up their system. They are the "middle" in terms of age, and seem to splinter at the slightest disagreement on scripture. The jews seem to have their shit together for the most part since they are the oldest, and have on several orders of magnitude fewer variations. The muslims, being a younger group, even though quite volatile, don't seem to have splintered as much as the christians, but decidedly more than the jews. Sort of reminds me of a quote:

If every trace of any single religion died out and nothing were passed on, it would never be created exactly that way again. There might be some other nonsense in its place, but not that exact nonsense. If all of science were wiped out, it would still be true and someone would find a way to figure it all out again. - Pen Jilette

One would thing that the word of god wouldn't be left open to so much interpretation? Doesn't speak well of the supposed inerrancy of any particular text. I wonder why that is?

The problem with religious thought is that it starts off on a bad foot. It says that the holy books proclaim truth, and that truth can't be questioned. Whereas science gives a conditional acceptance of a finding. Should new evidence come to light (through better measurements, new tools, etc.) science will indeed change. That's one of the fundamental strengths of science. However, when religion encounters a conflict with reality, it attempts to remain unbending according to its holy books. It has the entire observation chain backwards. That's why I think that Pen Jilette hit the nail on the head!

Adam Savage: Food for the Eagle

2012-01-15T15:00:00.000-05:00

In April of 2010, I drove down to Harvard with my daughter and her friend to see The Mythbusters. When I got the tickets, I really had no idea what to expect. Also, went to the wrong building at first, so we had horrible seats, but it was all good. The Harvard Humanist Society was handing out awards to these guys, and they gave a couple of speeches. Adam was using an iPad (which had just come out), while Jamie had a huge laptop that wouldn't fit on the lectern. All in all it was a great time. My daughter and her friend reacted is if a rock star had just taken the stage when Adam and Jamie came out (made me proud). After their speeches, there was an audience Q&A session, and they both got a chance to ask Adam and Jamie a question. My daughter still talks about the event to this day.

The reason I wanted to talk about it though was that I really enjoyed Adam's speech. While it was full of rather irrational imagery and drew from a book that may have been entirely a work of fiction presented as fact, it was still a great speech (things Adam acknowledges). So just for no other reason than that I happened to run into this speech recently on the net, I am going to post it for you here:

Food for The Eagle
By Adam Savage
Good evening.

I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to read my speech from my new iPad.

Yep. I'm not only a humanist, I'm also an early adopter.

I want to start by saying that, to me, any discourse from me about how one can live a moral existence without religion or the church would sound improperly defensive. That there's an opposite to be defended is absurd and based on a provably false premise. So let's dispense with that.

(To be clear: I'm referring to the humanist axiom "Good without God," whereby "good" means morality. It's provably false that there exists no morality outside of religion, therefore the statement sounds defensive to me.)

By what route does anyone come to believe what they believe? We all like to imagine that it's based on a set of logical facts, but it's often a much more circuitous route.

For me it was pretty simple. I'm actually the fourth generation in my family to have no practical use for the church, or God, or religion. My children continue this trend.

Here are a few things I've learned.

Prayer doesn't work because someone out there is listening, it works because someone in here is listening. I've paid attention. I've pictured what I want to happen in my life. I've meditated extensively on my family, my future, my past actions and what did and didn't work for me about them. I've looked hard at problems and thought hard about their solutions.

See, I order my life by the same mechanism that I use to build things. I cannot proceed to move tools around in the real world until my brain has a clear picture in it of what I'm building. The same goes for my life. I've tried to pay attention. I've tried to picture the way I want things to be, and I've noticed that when I had a clear picture, things often turned out the way I wanted them to.

I've concluded by this that someone is paying attention—I've concluded that it's me.I've noticed that if I'm paying attention to those around me, to myself, to my surroundings, then that is the very definition of empathy. I've noticed that when I pay attention, I'm less selfish, I'm happier—and that the inverse holds true as well.

I think one of the defining moments of adulthood is the realization that nobody's going to take care of you. That you have to do the heavy lifting while you're here. And when you don't, well, you suffer the consequences. At least I have. (And in the empirical study I'm performing about interacting with the universe, I am unfortunately the only test subject I have complete access to, so my data is, as they say, self-selected.) While nobody's going to take care of us, it's incumbent upon us to take care of those around us. That's community.

The fiction of continuity and stability that your parents have painted for you is totally necessary for a growing child. When you realize that it's not the way the world works, it's a chilling moment. It's supremely lonely.

So I understand the desire for someone to be in charge. (As a side note, I believe that the need for conspiracy theories is similar to the need for God.) We'd all like our good and evil to be like it is in the movies: specific and horrible, easy to defeat. But it's not. It's banal.

There's a quote I love: "Evil is a little man afraid for his job." I always thought some famous author said it, but I asked my 200,000 followers on Twitter today, and it turns out that Roy Scheider said it in Blue Thunder.

No one is in charge. And honestly, that's even cooler.

The idea of an ordered and elegant universe is a lovely one. One worth clinging to. But you don't need religion to appreciate the ordered existence. It's not just an idea, it's reality. We're discovering the hidden orders of the universe every day. The inverse square law of gravitation is amazing. Fractals, the theory of relativity, the genome: these are magnificently beautiful constructs.

The nearly infinite set of dominoes that have fallen into each other in order for us to be here tonight is unfathomable. Truly unfathomable. But it is logical. We don't know all the steps in that logic, but we're learning more about it every day. Learning, expanding our consciousness, singly and universally.

As far as I can see, the three main intolerant religions in the world aren't helping in that mission.

For all their talk of charity and knowledge, that they close their eyes to so much—to science, to birth control education, to abuses of power by some of their leaders, to evolution as provable and therefore factual (the list is staggering)—illustrates a wide scope of bigotry.

Now, just to be clear. If you want to believe, or find solace in believing, that someone or something set these particular dominoes in motion—a cosmic finger tipping the balance and then leaving everything else to chance—I can't say anything to that. I don't know.

Though a primary mover is the most complex and thus (given Occam's razor) the least likely of all possible solutions to the particular problem of how we got here, I can't prove it true or false, and there's nothing to really discuss about it.

If Daniel Dennett is right— that there's a human genetic need for religion— then I'd like to imagine that my atheism is proof of evolutionary biology in action.

There may be no purpose, but its always good to have a mission. And I know of one fine allegory for an excellent mission should you choose to charge yourself with one: Carlos Castaneda's series of books about his training with a Yaqui indian mystic named Don Juan. There's a lot of controversy about these books being represented as nonfiction. But if you dispense with that representation, and instead take their stories as allegories, they're quite lovely.

At the end of The Eagle's Gift, Don Juan reveals to his student that there's no point to existence. That we're given our brief 70-100 years of consciousness by something the mystics call "The Eagle," named for it's cold, killer demeanor. And when we die, the eagle gobbles our consciousness right back up again.

He explains that the mystics, to give thanks to the eagle for the brief bout of consciousness they're granted, attempt to widen their consciousness as much as possible. This provides a particularly delicious meal for the eagle when it gobbles one up at the end of one's life.

And that, to me, is a fine mission.

Thank you.

— Delivered to the Harvard Humanist Society, April 2010

Through These Godless Eyes.

2012-01-14T14:00:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I posted a video by philhellenes, and discovered that this guy has a whole series of videos. I won't post all 169 videos that he has (at least try not to!), but I did want to post this one.

I also wanted to post a couple quotes that I found along with this video:

"You take your holy book, I'll take a parachute, and I'll see you at the bottom of the cliff." - philhellenes

"We're a species of mammalian bacteria evolved to be temporarily resistant to the earth's penicillin." - mindhacker

Profoundly Emotional for Science

2012-01-13T17:30:00.000-05:00

Over at the RatSkep forums, a poster started a thread about the profound emotional experiences a person can feel when they are exposed to some natural wonder. Generally people experience this when looking up at the stars. Looking at the sky is indeed a very humbling experience. Now we know that we are looking out at a vast, vast expanse. A universe so large, that our little planet is a statistically insignificant part of the universe. That's right, statistically insignificant! If we assume that the earth is the only known planet to have life, if we used the entire volume of the earth as life supporting planet, then that means roughly 0.0% of the universe is capable of actually supporting life. Of course, the other part of that insignificance should be that we are indeed here, and it's the wonders of the universe that allow for that. While we may seem incredibly remote and disconnected from the stars, we are only here because of the stars. As Lawrence Krauss said:

“Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And, the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics: You are all stardust. You couldn’t be here if stars hadn’t exploded, because the elements - the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution and for life - weren’t created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars, and the only way for them to get into your body is if those stars were kind enough to explode. So, forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today.”

I also found this video that I wanted to share. It's a sort of anthem/creed for science that I heartily agree with. Sorry to be on this video binge, but it sure is easier than reading my ramblings.

Open-mindedness

2012-01-12T17:30:00.000-05:00

I have been accused of not having an open mind in terms of theism. Actually, my position should truly be described as agnostic atheist on the issue of deism (See this chart for an explanation) - I don't believe in any god(s) and live my life as if they didn't exist, and I don't think that the question can be reasonably answered (yet?). Although, I do claim gnostic (or strong) atheism on gods that are defined to actually DO things in this universe, since those actions have failed all evidentiary inquiries

The thing that would change my mind? Evidence. Of course, that supposes that people actually understand what the word evidence means. Admitting "I don't know" is not the same as saying "I don't know, therefore [insert my favorite idea]". "I don't know" is simply that, and only that. Nothing more. It's perfectly okay to leave the jury out on a question if we don't haver the answer. Unlike many theists, my mind is indeed open for evidence (not assertions). What is really more open minded? Actually admitting ignorance on a point and reserving judgment, or proclaiming that a totally UN-evidenced mechanism is the One True Answer^(TM)?

So I think this is an appropriate QualiaSoup video to present:

Irreducible complexity cut down to size

2012-01-11T17:30:00.000-05:00

And here is QualiaSoup's second video on irreducible complexity. It really does dismay me that made-up terms like this get so much attention because of the "argumentum ad ignorantiam" fallacy... It's all a Manufactroversy. That is, a manufactured controversy that is motivated by profit or extreme ideology to intentionally create public confusion about an issue that is not in dispute. And anyone who denies our understanding of evolution is indeed adherent to an extreme ideology... Just imagine how you would react to someone who was a proponent of "intelligent falling" as opposed to gravity. You'd label them as daft, right? (Yes, I know that it's an Onion Parody, but it applies. Just like a flat earther, or geocentric follower is equally daft.)

Rebuttals: irreducible complexity

2012-01-10T17:30:00.000-05:00

The next two videos will be about "Irreducible Complexity"... I know, I'm sorry, but dealing with made up stuff seems to be part and parcel of dealing with irrational thought. And this is a particularly insidious made-up bit because it deals in things that pretty much only the experts in whatever particular field has the required understanding to provide an adequate rebuttal. As I say over at my Facts, not Fantasy page where I discuss evolution, I mention:

* What about the "Irreducible Complexity" of the eye, blood, flagellum, etc.?
Well, first of all, "irreducible complexity" is a non-sense term invented by creationists and intelligent design proponents. All it really says is that they can't possibly understand a particularly complex mechanism, so therefore something else did it. The basic premise behind irreducible complexity is to take a well designed item, remove a part to break it, and proclaim that it's broken... The problem is that it's entirely backwards thinking, and doesn't take into account how something was actually built up. Every single item of irreducible complexity has an answer, however creationists and intelligent design proponents will keep throwing out examples of complex systems until they hit upon one that their debate opponent may not have all the facts on. As soon as they find that one thing that someone may not know the answer to, they proclaim victory for their entire side, totally ignoring all the other instances where their argument was trounced.

However, I think that QualiaSoup says it quite well in this video, and the one that will be posted tomorrow. Enjoy:

Putting faith in its place

2012-01-09T17:43:00.000-05:00

This is another QuiliaSoup video, on faith. Not necessarily the faith of religion, but the dictionary faith of accepting something just because someone says so. You know, that NON-critical thinking thing.Again, understand the differentiation of what he's addressing, yet also see how it applies to many things you may hold dear. It's not an attack on those things, but rather an invitation for you to examine those things. I'm sure you have at one time or another in your life been told something is one way, only to discover upon further contemplation and examination, that it's actually not that way at all. Santa Claus, tooth fairies, easter bunnies, and the like spring to mind? Maybe you also initially accepted that homeopathy worked, only later to figure out that it's full of shit (literally if water does have memory, right?).

Lack of belief in gods

2012-01-08T17:47:00.006-05:00

As I mentioned in my New Year's Resolution post, I was going to attempt to delve into all the reasons I don't believe in any gods. However, QualiaSoup has another great video that is worthy of your time before I attempt to delve into the subject myself.

Why Live?

2012-01-07T17:40:00.013-05:00

This question from theists sincerely confuses me. Apparently they are so invested in their religion, they just can't conceive of a life without it. I personally like Carl Sagan's quote as a partial answer to that:

I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking. The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.

Again, QualiaSoup (along with his brother TheraminTrees) has a beautiful video response:

Morality 3: Of objectivity and oughtness

2012-01-06T17:37:00.004-05:00

And finally part 3:

Morality Part 2: The not-so-good books

2012-01-05T17:34:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was part 1 of the morality videos. Here is part 2:

Yes, that's right, today we were the closest...

2012-01-04T21:29:00.001-05:00

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Yes, that's right, today we were the closest to the sun by about 3 MILLION miles. Remember, the axial tilt is the reason for the season.

Perihelion: The Earth is on its way back out again | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine

Astronomy | 23 Degrees | Tonight at roughly 01:00 GMT (08:00 p.m. Eastern time), the Earth will be at a special place in its orbit: perihelion, the closest point to the Sun. Our orbit a

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Morality (Good without gods) Part 1

2012-01-04T17:29:00.014-05:00

One of the most puzzling questions I get as an atheist is where I get morality from. As if the only place to get morality from is an external force, or a dusty old tome. Again, it has been shown that morality is a societally developed construct, and ancient forms of morality no longer apply to the modern world. Neuro-scientists have known this for a long time, and some are even arguing that we need to pay closer attention to the neuro-science of morality as opposed to the legislative aspect.

Again, QualiaSoup, in his very British style has a series of videos on this subject (in 3 parts). Here is part 1:

Keep in mind, in the near future, he may condense this all into one video. I think this was produced when YouTube had a 10 minute limit.

It COULD be Coincidence!

2012-01-03T17:22:00.014-05:00

One of the most incredible things that people experience on a daily basis is "the incredible coincidence". An event that seems so monumental and unlikely that it must have been magic of some sort. Humans don't understand how math actually rules their lives, and are notoriously bad at applying that math. It has been written about extensively (a good introductory book is The Drunkards Walk by Leonard Mlodinow). So, in continuing with my QualiaSoup videos, feast your eyes on this video:

Testing the New Blogger Interface

2012-01-03T15:33:00.000-05:00

I have used the older interface for the blogger system for quite a while now. I found it easy to use, intuitive, and clean. Everything was placed in an easy to use area, it was tightly grouped for accessibility, and didn't use too many fancy scripts to run the page. Well, for the longest time, I have been trying to use the old way of blogging to somehow automatically publish to my Google+ account. Heck, Facebook had a way of letting me automatically publish a blog post to my profile there, and it was easy. So anyway, I just wanted to complain that Blogger/Google+ took something that should be easy, and forced their users to adopt things that they may not want. Forcing someone to do something is generally not considered a good public relations practice.

Anyway, just wanted to bitch and moan about it... And test to see if this actually works the way it's advertised to...

Interesting graphic if true

2012-01-02T22:05:00.001-05:00

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A bit of science for this Monday! Just look...

2012-01-02T11:57:00.001-05:00

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A bit of science for this Monday! Just look at how much we are learning about the universe around us. Also, it's discoveries like this that continue to provide our species with great demotions, while at the same time giving us a unique viewpoint of our own amazing ability to actually do these things. We are both insignificant and special at the same time!

A nearby star rings in the new year | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine

Astronomy | dust | I am fascinated by junk floating around stars. And no, not paparazzi, har har. I mean circumstellar material, literally gas and dust orbiting other stars. We se

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My New Year Resolution?

2012-01-02T11:20:00.000-05:00

The other day my wife informed me that I actually have more readers on this blog than I ever imagined. Generally, I make posts that are geared towards an audience that has mostly free thinkers and people looking for specific information on those type of philosophies. In many of these posts, I have been pretty insulting to theistic belief systems. Let's just say that I have taken a Christopher Hitchens approach.

Well, given that some of the folks reading (that I really didn't suspect were actually reading) are theists, maybe I shouldn't outright insult them that much. Now, I don't want to accommodate them in any way, however I may need to be a little less abrasive. So she did give me a new years resolution to go for, which is to be less of a dick to theists.

I will do my best to be less of a dick, however I have some caveats and addendums to that...

Disagreement is not an attack. All too often, a theists will play the victim card just because someone doesn't agree with them. That's bullshit and a total coward act. If you pull that, the gloves come off.
If you actually believe the literal word of the bible, think the world is about 6,000 years old, and all that associated baggage, I have to attack that. Those bronze age fables are so wrong in so many ways that you are living in a fantasy. In a society where we DNA sequencing, spacecraft, electron microscopes, computers, aircraft, etc. having those sort of delusions are nearly criminal. I cannot abide or coddle that sort of insanity. Sorry.
An idea, no matter whose it is, does not merit automatic respect. This applies to atheists as well as theists. What matters is the evidential support that the idea can bring forth. If you get upset because your precious idea doesn't have any evidence, then think instead of being stuck on it.
Understand what the word evidence means! A personal experience, while real to you, in your brain, isn't proof. Generally, I find that what most people experience is easy to explain via numerous natural phenomenon that they are totally unaware of. Remember, an extraordinary claim will require extraordinary evidence.
When I link to someone else's article, those are their words, not mine. Try to keep up!

I'm sure that I'll come up with several more addendums to this as time goes on, although I will try to limit myself. As you can see, I have spouted off about these things before, so it's not exactly something new. After I am done with all the QualiaSoup videos, I also want to take another stab at the whole question of why I don't actually believe in a god. I know that Ricky Gervais and Gretta Christina tackled this question pretty well, but I think I'll do it in my own words too. Who knows, maybe I'll send it to PZ Myers and see if he'll put it up.

Does this sound like a fair resolution to carry forward?

Another orbit? Why, you don’t look a rotation older than 4.56 billion years!

2012-01-01T12:15:00.001-05:00

Start the new year with SCIENCE! I'm going to take a quick break from posting QualiaSoup videos because this is also really cool. Dr. Plait (The Bad Astronomer) has a great explanation on orbital phenomenon. Generally people don't care about things like that, except when an arbitrary demarcation point has been made (such as a calendar). So last night a lot of folks stayed up late, drank champagne, and kissed their loved ones. But what does it actually mean? Not a whole heck of a lot really, but astronomically speaking, there's a few opportunities to discuss how our planet behaves, and the effects it causes here. And I really think that's cool!

Yay! It’s a new year!

But what does that mean, exactly?

The year, of course, is the time it takes for the Earth to orbit the Sun, right? Well, not exactly. It depends on what you mean by "year", and how you measure it. This takes a wee bit of explaining, so while the antacid is dissolving in your stomach to remedy last night’s excesses, sit back and let me tell you the tale of the year.

First, I will ignore a few things. For example, time zones. These were invented by a sadistic watchmaker, who only wanted to keep people in thrall of his devious plans. So for now, let’s just ignore them, and assume that for these purposes you spend a whole year (whatever length of time that turns out to be) planted in one spot.

However, I will not ignore the rotation of the Earth. That turns (haha) out to be important.

Let’s take a look at the Earth from a distance. From our imaginary point in space, we look down and see the Earth and the Sun. The Earth is moving, orbiting the Sun. Of course it is, you think to yourself. But how do you measure that? For something to be moving, it has to be moving relative to something else. What can we use as a yardstick against which to measure the Earth’s motion?

Well, we might notice as we float in space that we are surrounded by zillions of pretty stars. We can use them! So we mark the position of the Earth and Sun using the stars as benchmarks, and then watch and wait. Some time later, the Earth has moved in a big circle and is back to where it started in reference to those stars. That’s called a "sidereal year" (sidus is the Latin word for star). How long did that take?

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE POST! (For Science!)

Critical Thinking

2011-12-31T14:59:00.005-05:00

This is the video that introduced me to QualiaSoup. I really would love to have people view this video again and again, and make critical thinking a true New Year resolution.

Skewed views of science

2011-12-30T14:56:00.004-05:00

This video addresses one of my biggest complaints when I get into a "debate" with someone. Not only do I have to debate the numerous factual errors they carry around, but I also have to correct some sort of gross caricature of science they posses. Hopefully this video will help people understand a bit more about their own ignorance and biases.

The Faith Cake

2011-12-29T14:52:00.009-05:00

QuailiaSoup is a fantastic YouTube producer. He has a series of videos that everyone should really watch. I am going to post a series of his videos over the next few days/weeks. Again, I encourage you to watch them, and see how they really ought to be applied in society in general. Don't be offended or afraid if they strike too close to home for your comfort. That is what they are supposed to do. As a species, we can't move forward without at least challenging those things we have always thought were a revealed truth to us.

Science is Cool (and empty?)

2011-12-28T11:06:00.000-05:00

Dr. Brian Cox is a scientist (and a musician, TV personality, and all around cool guy). One of the things that I like the most about him is that he is so enthusiastic about science. In this video, he does a demonstration that shows not only how we know that an atom consists of mainly nothing, but I think he touches on a great idea of science. That is, before we knew that atoms were mostly empty space, many imagined them to be like solid balls or in other ways much more material than we now know them to be.

That's probably the greatest strength of science. That it will actually accept evidence that is contrary to conventional wisdom, as long as that evidence is repeatable, reliable, and presented in a manner that adheres to reality. Anyway, enjoy this video, and even if you didn't learn anything particularly new, understand that the process of finding these things out is amazing in itself.

Free Thought Blogs: Atheistic christmas.

2011-12-24T22:32:00.000-05:00

To tell you the truth, this is more about an opportunity to get some time off from work where everyone else is too (i.e. not much is happening so I can do so with a clear conscience), and the opportunity to eat some good food and just hang out with the ones I love. That's it. So I really forgot that this is generally a "big deal" to a lot of Americans. Maybe because I have moved up here to a much more secular area of our country. I am not getting accosted with overt preaching, or the Faux Noise nonsense of some war (in their minds) against this holiday season. It's actually been one of the more enjoyable for me. (By the way, I favour the European tradition of doing gifts and stuff on christmas eve. We have already eaten good food, had good drink, and done our celebration. I get to sleep in tomorrow. By the way, our traditional meal consists of lobster, smoked salmon, caviar, champagne, etc. You know, good stuff I didn't have last month.)

Of course, as someone who doesn't buy into any of the legends surrounding this holiday, I forget that some folks get their panties in a bunch about it for one reason or another. So Edwin Kagin put things in a bit of a perspective for me when I read this post. I think I most just shook my head ruefully as I read it.

It is Christmas Eve, and I have almost lived through this year’s annual greatest of holidays. At midnight, Christmas will begin, and twenty-four hours later it will end. It will be over! But not yet. At this writing, the world is shutting down in anticipation. The 24 Hour Kroger closed at 6:00 pm. Gas stations are closing. People are smiling. Even NRP is playing Xmas music.

Lots of people are in church. Children are nestling to greater or lesser degrees of snugness in their beds awaiting, or fearing, the coming of Santa, an anagram for Satan. Lots of people are getting drunk, and lots are getting laid.

Santa Clause is coming to town. Not a very good modern role model actually. Overweight; labor laws scoffer; animal rights ignorer; and—believe it with horror—a smoker!

Some folks will die in car crashes from negligence and some will die by their own hands from, inter alia, pills, or pistols, unable to deal with what they experience as the depression and loneliness of the day. And it will be observed how awful it was for this to happen on Christmas. How dare they stain the wonder and magic of Christmas with their blood?

After the ripping of the packages, some fine meals will be consumed and much booze will be ingested.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE POST.

Get Up Early Tomorrow!

2011-12-09T15:18:00.000-05:00

You really need to get up early tomorrow morning. I know, it's a Saturday, and you want to sleep in, but you'll have a chance to see something pretty cool. Basically, there will be a lunar eclipse that may coincide with sunrise. Hopefully the weather in your area cooperates.

I know that generally a lunar eclipse is pretty ho-hum, but this particular confluence of celestial movements actually will be much more noteworthy for many of us. Dr. Phil Plait (The Bad Astronomer) explains more:

Watch The Lunar Eclipse Saturday
Tomorrow (Saturday December 10) the Moon will pass into the Earth’s shadow, causing it to plunge into ruddy darkness, an event called a total lunar eclipse. These happen roughly twice a year somewhere on Earth, but this is the last one visible in North America for more than two years, so even though it’s in the morning it might be worth a look for you.

You can get all the info you need on watching the eclipse from my pal Alan Boyle over at the Cosmic Log, including timing, locations, and where to watch live online, too. NASA has a page with more detailed information as well. This one favors US folks farther west; the Moon will have set when the eclipse really starts for East Coast folks.

But the fun begins when the Moon starts to enter the deepest part of the Earth’s shadow at 12:45 UT (04:45 Pacific US time), and the last bit passes into shadow at 14:06 UT (06:06 Pacific). Deepest eclipse is about 25 minutes after that. Interestingly, for people in the western US, that’s around the same time as sunrise. For me, the Sun rises at 07:12 (Mountain time) Saturday, and the Moon sets at 07:14 — when it’s still partially eclipsed! Unfortunately, the mountains to the west will block my view of the setting Moon.

But for those of you with a clear horizon to the east and west, you may get an extraordinary opportunity to very briefly see the Sun and eclipsed Moon at the same time! Normally this isn’t possible; by definition the Moon and Sun have to be directly opposite each in the sky to get an eclipse at all.

But due to a quirk of geometry and atmospheric physics, it is possible. The Earth’s air acts like a lens, bending the light from objects near the horizon. Because of this effect — I give a full explanation here — you can actually see the Moon for a minute or two after it has physically set; its light is bent "around the corner", so to speak, so both it and the Sun will be over the horizon for a short amount of time. You can face west to see the setting eclipsed Moon, then turn around and see the rising Sun in the East!

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF HIS EXPLANATION!

Technical Difficulties (And the war on christmyth)

2011-12-03T11:28:00.001-05:00

Well, it seems that I have been rather quiet this past month and haven't said much of anything. Well, actually, I did put a couple of posts together between work, studying for my PMP, and in general just doing stuff. However, for some reason, they all got saved as drafts and never actually published. Oops... And since I actually put them together ahead of time, I wasn't really monitoring them. My bad!

Anyway, I will get them up here as soon as I can. In the meantime, how about a rundown of some of the traditional December posts that will re-affirm the so called "war on christmas"? I must say though, since having moved up here to New Hampshire, I hear a lot less gnashing of teeth and rending of garments on this subject than I did when I lived down south. I think that stems a lot more from theists (and New Englanders in general) up here actually understanding that it's a private thing, and dragging everyone else into it whether they want to or not is frowned upon. Now if only the southern theitards would understand that....

Even less evidence for jebus

Merry christMyth

List of other deities also not born on the 25th

christmas as engineered hate

An atheist's guide to xmas

Santa vs. god

Remember the 2010 war on christmas

Report from the front line of 2010 war on xmas.

Paraprosdokians

2011-11-27T11:50:00.007-05:00

What a cool word! Paraprosdokians! So, what the hell is it? A paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect, sometimes producing an anticlimax.

Here is a small list that you may be familiar with. Why not add your own:

1. Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
2. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
3. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on the list.
4. If I agreed with you we'd both be wrong.
5. We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.
6. War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
7. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
8. Evening news is where they begin with 'Good evening', and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.
9. A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.
10. How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
11. Dolphins are so smart that within a few weeks of captivity, they can train people to stand on the very edge of the pool and throw them fish.
12. I thought I wanted a career, turns out I just wanted pay checks.
13. Whenever I fill out an application, in the part that says "In an emergency, notify:" I put "Doctor".
14. I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.
15. Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman.
16. You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.
17. The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!
18. Hospitality: Making your guests feel like they're at home, even if you wish they were.
19. I discovered I scream the same way whether I'm about to be devoured by a great white shark or if a piece of seaweed touches my foot.
20. There's a fine line between cuddling and holding someone down so they can't get away.
21. I always take life with a grain of salt, plus a slice of lemon, and a shot of tequila.
22. When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire Department usually uses water.
23. You're never too old to learn something stupid.
24. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.

There ARE some things worse than being ignorant

2011-11-22T11:42:00.009-05:00

I am a huge supporter of education. I have always said that ignorance is the equalizer of all unsuccessful and small minded morons out there. And one good source of general education is the news. That is, if it's actual news! It appears that Fox News viewers are less informed than people who don't watch any news, according to a new poll from Fairleigh Dickinson University. The poll surveyed New Jersey residents about the uprisings in Egypt and the Middle East, and where they get their news sources. The study, which controlled for demographic factors like education and partisanship, has shown that being a Faux Noise viewer will actually make you more ignorant of the world around you... Either that, or you are just gullible enough to swallow the outright lies of that fake news outlet.

Interestingly, speaking of fake news outlets, people who watch The Daily Show actually scored at the top of the survey in factual accuracy! I am starting to think that perhaps Faux Noise is some sort of massive art project to see just how big a pile of bullshit people will swallow...

The political season of wackiness

2011-11-16T11:30:00.016-05:00

A while back the T.E.A. party started, and the rank and file were an amazingly representative slice of the US. Many of the members of that party even proudly proclaimed that they did indeed represent Americans. And perhaps they did. However, it is now another election season, and let's look at the teabaggers now? In 2008 there started to be some ugly groundswells in that movement that were basically ignored. Now, I don't think you can ignore it. Instead of being representative, they have turned into the actual caricature that some started to make of them. Now they really are a bunch of redneck, theitard, racist, wackjobs... (and yes, I realize theitard and wackjob is redundant!) Not that this hasn't been mentioned before.

For a short but accurate take on “tea party” and religion, just see:

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/08/the-tea-party-as-a-christianist-force.html

And for both the far-right and religious aspects, just see:

http://digitaljournal.com/article/289821

Sullivan quoting the NYT:
“Next to being a Republican, the strongest predictor of being a Tea Party supporter today was a desire, back in 2006, to see religion play a prominent role in politics. And Tea Partiers continue to hold these views: they seek “deeply religious” elected officials, approve of religious leaders’ engaging in politics and want religion brought into political debates. The Tea Party’s generals may say their overriding concern is a smaller government, but not their rank and file, who are more concerned about putting God in government.”

But there’s no lack of details – data, facts, in fact, but also explanations, even hypotheses – that further support the characterization as both “far right” and “mired in a radical religious agenda”, of which these links are just smatterings:

http://www.npr.org/2010/11/22/131512631/culture-war-brewing-within-tea-party

http://colorado.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2010/12/the-fourth-tea-party/

http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/149572/new_study:_tea_partiers_three_times_more_likely_to_say_violence_is_warranted._exhibit_a:_glenn_beck

http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2011/01/the-tea-party-more-anti-gay-than-all-seniors/177062/

http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2011/01/the-tea-party-on-prohibition-lovin-it/177056/

http://www.alternet.org/economy/150097/tea_partiers_have_a_very_mixed-up_notion_of_what_the_american_revolution_was_about

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0324/Planned-Parenthood-showdown-could-reveal-true-nature-of-tea-party

http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2011/03/race-the-tea-party-and-conservatism/173650/

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/04/ygl.html

On (what would have been) Carl Sagan's 77th Birthday

2011-11-09T18:45:00.000-05:00

Today Dr. Phil Plait reminded me that today is the day that Carl Sagan would have turned 77. I really don't think that I could say anything better than Dr. Plait said it, nor even the way that Dr. Sagan would have said it. I think that Dr. Plait selected one of the best videos from the pile to choose from. Generally I hate autotune, but I was tempted to go with the Symphony of Science series, but I will stay with regular convention.

And I figure that I would close it out with a couple of quotes from Dr. Sagan that I think really sum up so many things so beautifully on top of the Pale Blue Dot video.

In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
Keynote address at CSICOP conference (1987)
Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever it has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved?
Interview with Charlie Rose (1996)
I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking. The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.
"In the Valley of the Shadow", Parade, 1996-03-10
In some respects, science has far surpassed religion in delivering awe. How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, "This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant. God must be even greater than we dreamed"? Instead they say, "No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way."
Pale Blue Dot, p. 50

An Open Letter to the United States Congress

2011-11-03T12:53:00.000-04:00

Direct copy paste with Todd W.'s permission:

Dear Members of Congress,

I recently learned that you passed, overwhelmingly, a resolution (PDF) reaffirming "In God We Trust" as the official motto of the United States. I am left to wonder, why?

Have you, unbeknown to the rest of the country, implemented legislation to help create jobs? Have you worked to improve health care? Cut down our debt? Eliminate waste?

How much time did you take away from important matters to not only vote on this, but to draft, read, refer to committee, approve and all the steps required to bring this to the full House?

Maybe I'm wrong to chastise you for wasting time on a resolution that has no power in law and accomplishes nothing to address the issues facing our nation. So let me bring up something else. When you were elected to office, you swore to uphold the Constitution. Part of that document, the supreme law of our land, is that Congress "shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion". Although the resolution is not a law, it would seem to me, as well as some of your colleagues who opposed this resolution, that the spirit of the resolution violates the principles of the First Amendment.

Beyond this, the text of the resolution makes several errors of fact.

Whereas the sentiment, "In God We Trust", has been an integral part of United States society since its founding

This is not true. While many of the founders may have placed their trust in God, it was made quite clear in the writings of several of the founding fathers that this nation was a secular one. It should further be noted that it was not even the official motto of the United States until 1956.

Whereas in times of national challenge or tragedy, the people of the United States have turned to God as their source for sustenance, protection,wisdom, strength, and direction

Although this may be true of a majority of the people, it is not true as a blanket sentiment. There are many individuals who have turned to multiple gods or to no god at all, but rather have looked to one another for comfort and solidarity.

Whereas John Adams said, "Statesmen may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand."

While he may have said these words, the writers and backers of this resolution ignore what else President Adams wrote in the Treaty of Tripoli:

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion

Concurrent Resolution 13 raises up one religion (or a class of religions) above all others. You have taken steps to exclude by sentiment those who do not believe in God, those who believe in multiple gods and those who have no belief in any deity of any sort. The language of the resolution makes it explicit that the intent of the resolution invokes religion, rather than a secular cause. Furthermore, wedding government and religion in such a manner sets a dangerous precedent. It is both bad politics and bad religion, for while Christianity is currently the dominant religion in this nation (in terms of number of practitioners), it may not always be so. Using the secular government of our nation for en explicitly religious reason such as this opens the door to further waste of time and resources, as well as the establishment of resolutions and language associated with religious matters in the future, to the detriment of all citizens of this country.

Those who drafted this resolution have shown a disrespect for the Constitution they are sworn to uphold. Those who voted in favor of this resolution have shown a disrespect for the citizens they purport to represent. Only those who, through careful thought and the courage to stay true to their duty, voted against this resolution are deserving of our praise and approbation.

I place my trust in the people around me. I trust in scientists and doctors to advance our knowledge and improve our well being. I trust in my friends, family and acquaintances, that they will do their best to improve their lot and that of everyone around them. I trust, rightly or (as evidenced by this resolution and the constant bickering along party lines) wrongly, in lawmakers to properly and truly serve all of the people they represent, not only those who happen to be in the majority or who give the most dollars.

That is a trust that you have broken. You have broken faith with the people of these United States. For the actions of people decide the fate of our nation. It is "we the people" who move this country forward. We the people will raise the nation up or, through ideology and greed, bring it crashing down.

I implore you, as individuals, elected by the people, purporting to represent our interests, do what is right and rescind this resolution. And if not, then I call upon those whose minds are like mine, to replace everyone who voted in favor of this resolution with someone who places the good of the nation, rather than the good of religion, first.

100 Voices of Disbelief

2011-10-21T17:44:00.000-04:00

I've mentioned a few times why I am atheist, and I've also tried to use quotes and other people's essays to help explain. Yet I still get the questions from people who just can't understand (or would that be unwilling to understand), how or why I just don't believe in god(s). Okay, maybe if I can't articulate it, maybe these people can? These are two videos that total about an hour that has 100 renowned academics speak about their disbelief. Hopefully you have heard of these folks, but even if you have not, they are giants in their fields. I really urge you to watch both videos, they are well worth your time.

Part II:

In case you are interested in who all these people are, Jerry Coyne of "Why Evolution is True" has a list of all the folks in the video, and has even highlighted the ones he thinks said it best. I think you should listen to both videos in their entirety.

A Dynamic Random Quote Generator Sig

2011-10-19T17:58:00.036-04:00

Over at the Rational Skepticism forums, a poster by the name of Jakov came up with a dynamic sig that puts some quotes onto forum profiles as an image. Then one of the other members, by the name or crank, of RatSkep updated it. You even have two separate styles to choose from. Just enclose the img code inside HTML or BBCode tags.

img=http://bit.ly/kg4Qqo
Giving:

Or a second choice is:

img=http://bit.ly/k7MTQJ
Giving:

I personally like the second one, which is what I use at RatSkep. Again, as you come back to this page, it will randomize the quote selected to display, and it will do that for each person who loads up your sig. Of course, there may be limitations on some forums that will not allow this code to be added, but I think it's a cool little thing that I am trying to incorporate into all my forum profiles.

Astronomy Lessons from the Bad Astronomer

2011-10-17T17:34:00.043-04:00

As you may know, I am a big astronomy fan. I love learning about our universe, and how really insignificant we are in it. I even have the audacity to understand that this whole vastness was in no way created for us (as some people seem to believe). I even enjoy watching all the documentaries that present the same information over and over again on the Discovery Channel. And I also stalk (erm, I mean follow) Dr. Phil Plait, also known as the Bad Astronomer. Anyway, he put up a couple really amazing posts the other day, and I wanted to pass them along for your perusal. They are just amazing entries, and really show how much we have come to learn about the universe, even if we are only marginally clever apes on our little planet all alone as far as we know (for now).

The first article I want to point you to is one that deals with evidence. Evidence for dark matter (something we have no idea what it is, but we see the effects of). Just plain old cool stuff here. Here is the first entry (and scroll down for the link to the second entry):

Before I do anything else, I simply have to present this insanely cool Hubble image of the galaxy cluster MACS J1206, which lies at the mind-numbing distance of 4.5 billion light years from Earth:

[Click to enclusternate, or grab the bigger 2564 x 2328 pixel version.]

Like I said, insanely cool. The cluster has thousands of galaxies in it, and a total mass of something like a quadrillion — that’s 1,000,000,000,000,000 — times the mass of our Sun!

The image was taken as part of a program called CLASH, for Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble. A large group of astronomers from ten different countries are observing more than two dozen such distant clusters to look for many interesting things, including exploding stars (which help us gauge the expansion rate of the Universe), very distant galaxies (to help us understand the early Universe), and to look for dark matter.

Dark matter is stuff that doesn’t emit light, but has mass. Careful observations over the years have ruled out pretty much every form of normal matter we can think of, from simple hydrogen clouds to black holes. Whatever this stuff is, it’s weird, not matter as we know it.

CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE ARTICLE (Trust me, you WANT to do this).

Okay, on to the next article. And truth be told, I think this one is actually much cooler than the first one. Just because it deals with so many things so far back in time that it simply boggles the mind. Especially when you consider how much we have indeed figured out, and been able to observe. And we continue to figure out more and more as time passes. I keep hearing all sorts of gaps slamming shut all the time. Sadly, it appears that too many people are deaf (and blind), and still adhere to bronze age myths passed down by illiterate goat herders... I much prefer reality, even if it makes me small and totally insignificant. I relish that we still strive to understand!

Astronomers have found when and how the cosmic fog was lifted
Take a look at the image displayed here [click to redshiftenate]. Every object you see there is a galaxy, a collection of billions of stars. See that one smack dab in the middle, the little red dot? The light we see from that galaxy traveled for 12.9 billion years before reaching the ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. And when astronomers analyzed the light from it, and from a handful of other, similarly distant galaxies, they were able to pin down the timing of a pivotal event in the early Universe: when the cosmic fog cleared, and the Universe became transparent.

This event is called reionization, when radiation pouring out of very young galaxies flooded the Universe and stripped electrons off of their parent hydrogen atoms. An atom like this is said to be ionized. Before this time, the hydrogen gas was neutral: every proton had an electron around it. After this: zap. Ionized. This moment for the Universe was important because it changed how light flowed through space, which affects how we see it. The critical finding here is that reionization happened about 13 billion years ago, and took less time than previously thought, about 200 million years. Not only that, the culprit behind reionization may have been found: massive stars.

OK, those are the bullet points. Now let me explain in a little more detail.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE (Again, you really, really NEED to do this!).

Coincidence?

2011-10-15T17:39:00.011-04:00

And the sub-caption?

Well, fucking DUH! Of course it’s a coincidence!

Eulogy for my Sister

2011-10-13T17:59:00.004-04:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, my sister passed away recently. I set up a memorial fund for her kids (please visit the link and get the info). I also delivered a eulogy for her and I wanted to share it. The two youngest children do not know that this was a death by suicide, I had to actually alter what I had written to take out one of the central themes (i.e. not to lay blame) so that it wouldn't be disturbing to them. Here is the full text of the eulogy as I wrote it.

As I look to each of you, I see my own sorrow in your eyes. Behind the tears that fall for my sister, Susan, I see great love and admiration. I know that Susan would be humbled to realize that you’ve taken time from your busy schedule to join in celebration of her life and on behalf of our family; thank you for the support that you’ve offered at this difficult time.

If anyone asked Susan what her finest legacy to the world is, she wouldn’t have hesitated to say, “my family”. She was the proud mother of Cole, Sommer, Noelle, and Grace, and I hope that each can remember that while they have lost a link to the past with Susan’s death; they will always be her hope for the future. Albert Einstein once said, “Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation.” I’m comforted by the fact that Susan will be revered, loved and remembered for decades yet to come.

My sister was an intelligent, funny, strong willed, determined and vivacious young woman. She was a skilled labor and delivery nurse and loved her job. She enjoyed running and biking and was, by her own admission, an open book. She loved to laugh (often) and was spontaneous and fierce. While she seemed strong as steel, the reality is that she was as fragile as crystal and it is this fragility that brings us here today.

It seemed that Susan had it all. She was at the top of her professional years and had many more years to live and many more lives to influence. Yet she faced internal demons none of us even knew of. Many of us feel a selfish guilt right now. We are not just wondering “why” but we are wondering “what”….What could we have done? In the end, as long as we were good and faithful friends to Susan, we did all that we could do. One of the glories of being human is that we get to make choices, and while I don’t agree with my sister’s choice to end her life; it is one she made, and in the end, my wish is that she has found the peace she was looking for.

I don’t think of my sister in the past tense because she is always going to be a part of my memories. I will always remember my younger sister as an inspiration and gift in my life and I am going to miss her more than words can say.

I don’t harbor anger or resentment towards Susan for her final act. She was ill and she did not get the help she needed. Maybe her self reliance and determination prevented her from admitting this illness to herself, thus disallowing necessary help.

Death is the final equalizer for all of us. For most, death comes naturally after a life of many decades. To some life is cut short through no specific plan of an individual through disease or accident. Sadly, others suffer from a misunderstood disease of mental illness and they lose perspective on life and irrationally end it for themselves.

There is so much we don’t know. We don’t know what led her to think that she had no other choice and we wonder at the despair that at last got out of hand and drove her towards her decision.

But…we are not here to hand out blame. Adlai Stevensen once said, “It is not the years in a life that counts; it is the life in the years.” I will be the first to tell you that Susan packed a lot of life in her years and it is that very life that we celebrate today.

An example of her determination, iron will, and the life she led. During the lobster festival in Maine, they have a lobster crate race. Susan tackled that race with her usual gusto. She had clearly won the race, but she kept going. Even after she set the record for that race, she kept going. Not satisfied with just breaking the record, she wanted to make that record her own. She kept going to the point of exhaustion and made that race her own personal property! That record stood for well over a decade. That is the type of person that I will always carry with me.

Moving into the future without Susan by our side will be odd. However, as long as one is remembered they are not truly dead, and if we carry memories of Susan in our heart, she will be with us always.

In her memory, I would like to read a poem written by Edwin Harkin of the UK, in 1981. I think Susan would have liked this:

You can shed tears that she is gone
or you can smile because she has lived.

You can close your eyes and pray that she’ll come back
or you can open your eyes and see all she’s left.

Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her
or you can be full of the love you shared.

You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.

You can remember her and only that she’s gone
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.

You can cry and close your mind,
be empty and turn your back
or you can do what she’d want:
smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

Rest well, Susan. I miss you terribly.

Facts are not beholden to opinions

2011-10-11T17:37:00.036-04:00

The season of "I'll say anything to get a job" is now in full swing. Others call it election season, but hey, we all know what it is. The sad part about this though is that some of the things that these critters are saying is just outright false. You have such crazy doozies as Michelle Bachman totally leaving the reservation of reality (but then that's to be expected). Rick Parry is equally as loony, and Donald Prothero at Skepticblog tackles some of that. I figured that I'd pass some of that info along. I suppose it must be especially bad if Fox News is actually calling you out on it (the emphasis is mine)!

It happens so often that we are inured and desensitized to it. Creationists spout lies and distortions about science and reality, and no one disputes them (except an occasional high school student who challenged Michele Bachmann’s assertion that Nobelists denied evolution). Politicians like Rick Perry and Bachmann get up and brag about their doubts about the reality of global climate change and evolution, and they become the darlings of the GOP. Partisan media like Fox News and their parent company NewsCorp admit that they are receiving money from GOP candidates, or funneling it to them, and no one seems to care. News Corp and Rupert Murdoch get away with all sorts of outrages in their tabloids, yet they are so powerful that British politicians and cops dare not cross them—until their actions are so extreme that all of the UK is disgusted with them. But every once in a while, the cat is let out of the bag, and someone says something that reveals how these people are either abysmally ignorant of reality because of deluded ideology, or they are smart enough to recognize it but play along in a cynical grab for power over those who are ignorant or ill informed.

The latest incident occurred when two pundits on Fox News were discussing the GOP candidates. They point to Jon Huntsman as the sole candidate who would admit that global warming is real (Romney, Gingrich, and others who also once admitted it are now backtracking to kowtow to the extremists who vote in GOP primaries and caucuses). They comment that he’s losing ground to Rick Perry, who made false claims not only about global warming but also about how scientists were allegedly committing fraud. One of the Fox anchors, Clayton Morris, says it it in no uncertain terms:
Certainly, if you dive into the weeds a little bit on this global warming thing, you see that it seems the facts are certainly on Huntsman’s side on all of this and fact checkers have come out, and we’re actually having our own brain room look at this right now, that any of Perry’s comments don’t seem to hold a lot of water. But it doesn’t matter, because what’s resonating right now in South Carolina is helping Governor Perry tremendously. He fired back at Huntsman on global warming and gaining traction, facts or not.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE WHOLE BLOG ENTRY! Please do, he says some really pertinent things. There is also a series of quotes at the start of his blog article that are all worthwhile reading. As a matter of fact, these quotes lead directly to a post made by Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy that is right in line with this. He has a post he calls GOP senior officials quietly trying to restore science to their agenda which I think is worth reading:

If you’ve read this blog for more than a few nanoseconds, you know how incensed I am over the blatantly antiscience trend in the Republican leadership. As I have pointed out before, supporting the reality of global warming or evolution is akin to political suicide if you are a candidate for office in the GOP. The attacks on science by the far right are not new, but the openness and outspoken nature of it are fairly recent. Even Newt Gingrich, who used to a be a strong supporter of science, is making Michele Bachmann-level misstatements about it.

So I was very glad to read an article at the National Journal saying that older leaders of the Republican party are trying to re-establish the role of science in the GOP:
But quietly, many acknowledge a deepening GOP schism over the issue, as many moderates grow increasingly disturbed by their party’s denial of proven science. A number of influential Republicans who have left the battlefield of electoral politics are now taking action in an effort to change the GOP’s stance.
And we’re not talking about lightweights, either. People like former (under Bush I) Secretary of State George Shultz, who said this:
"My own opinion is that this [climate change] problem is very real," Shultz told National Journal. "I recognize there’s a lot of people pooh-poohing it. Whether they like the science or not, there’s a huge problem coming at us. There’s a huge melt coming in the Arctic regions. There’s melting taking place." Of Republicans like [Presidential candidate Rick] Perry who deny climate science, he said, "They’re entitled to their opinion, but they’re not entitled to the facts."

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE BLOG ENTRY. Even though Secretary Schultz messed up the Senator Moynihan quote a bit, I was glad to see this. As I lamented a while back, it's sad that adhereing to reality is a career killer for a GOP candidate...

Just Existing Makes Atheists Dicks

2011-10-09T17:55:00.049-04:00

Well, it would seem that way... The following story was posted at Freethought Blogs by JT Eberhard. The whole story reminds me of a similar experience. A while back I had put together a presentation on the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, and I wanted to do a bit of a public outreach on science to the local community in the Panhandle* of Florida (Niceville to be exact). I mentioned this in the local paper's community forum, made a blog post there about it, and put up a poster at the library.

Come the night of my presentation, no one showed up. After 15 minutes of putting up pretty pictures of Mars and photographs the rovers had taken, I was finally approached by a few adults. They kindly (in that totally hypocritical, covered in sugar, I'd like to see you burn in hell kind of way they do in the south) asked me to remove the posters and please leave. They didn't want any of "the devil's science to taint the purity of their children." You can't make this shit up!

Anyway, on to the letter at Freethought Blogs:

This past weekend I had an experience I wanted to share with everyone. In the past, I would have simply done so on my own blog, but as I’ve become a public person and my chances of finding and keeping a job in my profession depend on me not being the outed atheist I have been in the past, I’ve tended to downplay such posts over the past few years. But the experience this weekend was too frustrating not to use to make a point that many in the atheist movement, have been hammering at for a long while now.

I have a tendency to do quite a bit of science outreach and this past weekend, I set up a telescope in a public place. I had a large number of people stopping by and my objective was just to let them look and marvel. I’d answer questions, but I wasn’t out to shove science factoids at them, and absolutely wasn’t going to bring up religion. Yet at one point, it happened. It wasn’t a theist that did so, but another of the bypassers that made some off hand comment that didn’t make room for any sort of God. A theist, standing nearby objected and although I’m not quite sure how (I was too busy having to adjust the telescope) they got onto the topic of Jesus invalidating the laws set forth in the Old Testament.

This is where I jumped in on the conversation. I pointed out that this depends on who you ask. Most Christians accept this, yet others note that Jesus at some point mentioned that Jesus claimed to come to “uphold his Father’s word”. This is an argument I’ve heard from several preachers. It’s often the basis for maintaining emphasis on Levitical laws to hate on gays. As such, the blanket statement from the theist, that Christianity as a whole rejects the OT laws and that he could treat his interpretation as the one true version. I made a few other quick notes that what various sects of Christianity, and other faiths that draw their basis from the Torah, deem as important varies wildly. And that was the end of the conversation at that point.

Yet a few hours later, as I packed up my telescope, the theist came walking by and asked why I was so “hostile to Christianity”.

I admit that I stumbled on this one. I didn’t think that I had been. I hadn’t in any way said that it was wrong, or even he was wrong. I only noted that there’s lots of interpretations on a vague source and no way to know if they were correct. He responded, not by disagreeing, but instead calling me “arrogant”, “close-minded” and “elitist”.

I’ll skip the part with all the other tropes where he tried to claim that science was just another religion, or that evolution didn’t have evidence, or the fossil record was incomplete, or that we’d never seen species diverge, and that Christians are horribly persecuted. I think we all know silly these arguments are. If you don’t, leave a comment and I’m sure someone will come along and explain it.

I’m not going to get into those because they really don’t phase me. They’re lies that are taught by religion that theists have never been taught to critically analyze so they blindly parrot. I really can’t blame them; religion is convincing and skeptical thinking isn’t taught in schools.

What does bother me is the attempts to claim that I was being “hostile”, “arrogant”, “close-minded”, and “elitist”. And here I thought I’d been being damn accommodating. I didn’t make the claim there was no God. I didn’t insult him personally. I just mentioned that there were many interpretations within the Christian faith. This is a simple fact that I would think is broadly recognized.

Yet it’s enough to make Christians feel attacked and lash out, playing the victim card, claiming that atheists are being mean.

And that’s the point I want to get at.

Phil Plait says not to be a dick.

I wasn’t.

But I was perceived as one.

This, and countless other experiences show that accommodationism doesn’t work. We don’t have to actually attack religion to be offensive. Simply existing will do it. And as this experience shows, even mentioning that other Christians may disagree will do it. It’s not atheists that scare them. They’ve been taught to fear every shadow, including their own.

In many equal rights movements, we hear about how simply the fear of being thought of as different will effectively silence the oppressed. “Gay baiting” (the practice of insinuating an opponent is gay in an effort to shame them so others stop listening) is a perfect example of this. Events like this are a direct parallel. Atheists are being shamed into silence for fear of being a dick. Even when they do discuss it, we often substitute other words like “skeptic”, or hide behind the “agnostic” label.

All because we don’t want to be a dick.

And that’s a damned shame. It’s a shame that pointing out something as mild as “Christians disagree” makes me a dick. And it’s a double damned shame that such things are so offensive that I’m asking JT to post this, because my employment may depend on not being even perceived as a dick.

We’re in a catch 22 here, which is exactly what the theocratic superpower wants.

What do I make of this? The lesson I’ve been so starkly reminded of here is that I can’t worry about being a dick when placed in such a situation. If I’m going to be thought of one no matter what, I should make the best, most devastating arguments possible. Someone else might be listening.

Which is exactly what happened this weekend. During the entire exchange, a young girl (who later told me had just started college) was listening. She approached me afterward and told me she could see where the better argument lie and that, having grown up in a tiny town, she had never seen anyone able to stand toe to toe with someone so adamant about their religion. I didn’t ask if she was religious. I didn’t need to. Even if she was, it was clear that the exchange left a deep impression.

And that’s what is important. We can’t let ourselves be shamed into silence because of some people that toss up their defensive distractions, calling people arrogant and elitist, whenever challenged. Because people are listening. And whether some people get freaked out over it, being right actually works.

This particular person's story really does show the fight anyone who isn't a christian is in for. And woe unto those who are atheists (which is worse than being a muslim to them). So just be simply existing we are somehow offensive to them. And don't we even dare advertise that we exist! The fervor and indignant rage that boils up whenever an atheist billboard goes up is almost as if we had posted a picture of atheist lesbians masturbating with bibles! Well, if we're offensive, it's just too fucking bad! At least we don't follow some misogynistic bunch of bronze age fables that truly are offensive. Of course, asking that sort of introspection is also offensive, right?

*By the way, has anyone else noticed that any state that has a "Panhandle" is fundamentally fucked up?

*** I had mentioned some petitions of interest to anyone who understands the secular nature of our nation:

Also, don't forget about this petition to the White House to at least treat military atheists equally

Make E. Pluribus Unum our official motto.

Remove "Under god" from the Pledge of Allegiance.

Remove "In god We Trust" from currency.

Stop Federal Funding and Support of BSA (for their bigoted discriminatory rules).

Remove tax exemption from churches and allow them to apply like a non-profit organization (Especially when they engage in direct political activities)

Astronomy: Another demotion to come (We're not unique)

2011-10-07T17:13:00.038-04:00

The last post I did should have been a bit of perspective to our place in the universe (i.e. we are in no way centrally located). This knowledge should be known by all humans on this planet after a series of great demotions as Carl Sagan called them. However, I think it's valuable to remind everyone that we are far from unique in this universe. The Kepler mission is out there looking for planets that could be a lot more like ours than any others we have found. Now, the geometries involved here mean that very few (relatively speaking) are actually going to be detected. Or as they say:

Geometric Probability

Transits can only be detected if the planetary orbit is near the line-of-sight (LOS) between the observer and the star. This requires that the planet's orbital pole be within an angle of d*/a (part 1 of the figure below) measured from the center of the star and perpendicular to the LOS, where d* is the stellar diameter (= 0.0093 AU for the Sun) and a is the planet's orbital radius.

This is possible for all 2pi angles about the LOS, i.e., for a total of 4pi d*/2a steradians of pole positions on the celestial sphere (part 2 of figure).

Thus the geometric probability for seeing a transit for any random planetary orbit is simply d*/2a (part 3 of figure) (Borucki and Summers, 1984, Koch and Borucki, 1996).

For the Earth and Venus this is 0.47% and 0.65% respectively (see above Table). Because grazing transits are not easily detected, those with a duration less than half of a central transit are ignored. Since a chord equal to half the diameter is at a distance of 0.866 of the radius from the center of a circle, the usable transits account for 86.6% of the total. If other planetary systems are similar to our solar system in that they also contain two Earth-size planets in inner orbits, and since the orbits are not co-planar to within 2d*/D, the probabilities can be added. Thus, approximately 0.011 x 0.866 = 1% of the solar-like stars with planets should show Earth-size transits.

Which is why the Kepler results really are in line with what we know of the universe. Kepler has been up there for a short while, and has a possible list of nearly 2000 planets just looking at about 150,000 stars for only a couple of years! So if only 1% statistically transit, that would mean that just randomly 1500 systems would have the correct orientation (given the results to date, that makes sense). And given that about 7500 stars were eliminated from consideration due to being variable of one sort or another... I think it would be pretty safe to say that pretty much every star out there has at least some sort of planetary body around it.

And what we know of evolution and life here on earth (particularly in regards to its resilience and ability to pop up just about anywhere), it's a safe bet that life out there will be relatively common. Granted, we only have a smaple size of one at the moment. However, should we find evidence on Mars or Europa for instance, that will really open the field up. With the possibility of life being pretty common, that begs the question of intelligent life out there. We (notionally) have a smaple size of one on this too. Sadly, the factors involved in our ascent to (supposed) intelligence are unknown and very difficult to translate to any other of a myriad of possibilities. But given the large numbers involved, I'm pretty sure they are out there. I just highly doubt we'll ever get to talk to any of them.

And just to leave you with another preliminary paper about the probability of earthlike planets out there, Dr. Phil Plait covers this as well:

A paper has been accepted for publication in a science journal (PDF) where the author has analyzed data from NASA’s Kepler planet-finding observatory, trying to figure out how many Earth-sized planets there might be in the galaxy orbiting their stars in their habitable zones; that is, at the right distance so that the star warms the planet enough to have liquid water. In the paper, he estimates that on average 34% (+/-14%) of Sun-like stars have terrestrial planets in that Goldilocks zone.

34%!

I can explain how he got this number. But I can also explain why I think this needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Let me be clear: it’s possible he’s right, and I suspect he may very well be. His math looks good to me. But a couple of assumptions he had to make need to be pointed out, and I want that to be clear before the media start running around saying there are billions of Earths in the galaxy based on this.

Here’s the deal. Kepler is an orbiting observatory that’s staring at about 100,000 stars, looking for dips in their light when an orbiting planet passes in front of them from our perspective. The length of time the dip takes gives us the orbital period of the planet, and the size of the planet (if the star’s size is known, generally true) can be determined by how much light is blocked. I talk about how this works in a little more detail in an earlier post.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE POST.

A Tragic Loss (The death of my sister, and college funds for her kids)

2011-10-06T12:27:00.001-04:00

I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.

The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.
- Carl Sagan "In the Valley of the Shadow" PARADE magazine (10 March 1996)

Yesterday I found out that my sister took her own life. It was a very sad shock and a huge tragedy. Personally, as an atheist, all the evidence supports the position that once electro-chemical processes stop in the brain, that's it. That person is no more, and no one will ever be able to interact with them in any way ever again. It is the final equalizer for us all. For most, death comes naturally after a life of many decades. To some it is cut short through no specific plan of an individual through disease or accident. And sadly, some suffer from a misunderstood disease of mental illness, and they lose perspective and irrationally end it for themselves.

I am of course very sad about this news. My sister was a very intelligent, funny, strong-willed, determined, and vivacious young woman. All those attributes are generally not ones you would think of for someone who would take their own life, yet she did. I find that I harbour no anger or resentment towards her for this final act. She was indeed ill, and she didn't get the help she needed. Maybe her self reliance and determination prevented her from admitting to herself her illness and actually seeking the help she needed. She had been in an opportunity to be evaluated for mental health help, however, as a nurse (and a smart one at that), I am sure she was able to provide the doctors with the answers to their questions that would allow her to leave the psychiatric evaluation facility with minimal follow up. If anything, I feel anger towards that institution more than anything else.

I am most concerned for her children though. Susan had a very tumultuous life, and her children were really the one stabilizing factor for her. They are wonderful kids, and this isn't the sort of thing that any child should have to deal with. In celebration of her life, I am setting up an educational fund for her kids. If you wish to donate, here are the details:

Send a check or money order to (these are 529 plans, so they may be tax deductible depending on your state):

USAA College Savings Plan

(Susan L. Carroll Memorial Fund)

P.O. Box 55354

Boston, MA. 02205-5354

1-800-531-8722 Extension 24992

If you have a U Promise account, you can link to these as well. You will need to specify the accounts you want the funds to go into (or ask them to equally disburse the funds):
Cole: 505293251-01
Sommer: 505293251-02
Noelle: 505293251-03
Grace: 505293251-04

If you have questions or concerns, please call the phone number above, or you may contact me and I'll see what I can do to help.

P.S. I have several blog entries already in the queue. I think I will let them auto-publish over the next few days. This is not out of insensitivity or anything. I just figure that since we only have this life, I should not go out of my way with grief, but instead draw on the support of friends and family, and manage to continue living my life as a testament to its value. I hope you can understand that.

The Known Universe by American Museum of Natural History

2011-10-05T17:02:00.008-04:00

Watch this in full size! That is all I have to say about that.

This is home sweet home. The only one we have, and probably will ever know. We may learn about others out there, but they will only be dots in the sky that we learn about in books and through science. This one is the one we need to take care of, because fuck it all, we're really screwing this one up for ourselves.

I think over the next few days, I will post a few more things that really show how small and insignificant we really are. The universe doesn't give a damn about us, nor does the galaxy, the solar system, or even the planet. We are wholly responsible for our own fate, and we are being total fucktards about it as a species because the 0.1% that think they are in charge of everything haven't a fucking clue what they are doing.

Sign This Petition!

2011-10-05T13:46:00.001-04:00

This petiton needs signatures! It doesn't matter if you are atheist, or religious. As an atheist (former) service-member ALL service members should be protected from overt discrimination or punishment under EEO policies that are established, but oft ignored. If we can't get a commanding officer torespect the religious freedom of his subordinates, how can we trust him to stand up and fight for our country’s promised freedoms? We can't!

SIGN THE PETITION!

Ed Brayton at Freethought Blogs has a post about how non-religious service members are treated on a regular basis, and it doesn't seem to be getting better. Here is what he has to say, with a couple of examples:

Justin Griffith documents some of the treatment of non-believing soldiers who resist being forced into going to religious services by their superiors. A former Marine NCO writes to him about his experiences in boot camp when he requested permission not to attend church services on Sundays. As usually happens, he was forced to clean the barracks instead; he was also berated repeatedly by his drill instructors.
July, 7th 1998 I went to Marine Corps Basic Training in San Diego, CA. Shortly after being assigned to Platoon 1103 and meeting our Drill Instructors, the first Sunday of my enlistment rolled around. We sat in one of the theaters and listened to a Chaplain speak, telling us that they offered services for almost any form of religion and that after he was finished we were to get in line for our appropriate religion. He also said that there was a non-denominational group that would discuss our relationship with god. Lastly he said that we did not have to attend any church services if we did not want to.

I looked for the “not attending church” line, but could not find it. I was instead ordered to line up in the non-denominational line.

I sounded off, “Sir, This Recruit requests permission to not attend church services, Sir!”

Another platoon’s Drill Instructor interrogated and berated me for quite some time as I continued to respond with that phrase. Finally he gave in and took me back to the barracks where my Drill Instructor did the same. Eventually he too gave in and put me to work cleaning different areas of the barracks.

My Senior Drill Instructor (a church choir singer and devout christian) was then informed. He attempted the interrogation and berating, having the same effect. Later he had both a private and a public “Hats off” more polite conversation urging me to attend church services. Again I sounded off with the phrase that became my mantra. ”Sir, This Recruit requests permission to not attend church services, Sir!” He then seemed to want nothing to do with me since I wouldn’t “Do this for him.”

At least he stopped trying to force me to go.
As Justin notes, this is a story that you hear constantly from atheist soldiers. The experience seems to be so routine as to almost be a matter of official military policy. This particular soldier was even arrested for refusing to attend a religious service, though no charges were filed because the arrest was clearly illegal.

Here’s Justin’s own story:
There are two choices we can make when faced with this in boot camp.
1) Clean up and get yelled at every week – a punishment for not believing in god. 2) Go to a religious service and tune it out.

I tried both. I was not allowed to write letters, sleep, or even sit down. If for even one second I wasn’t actively cleaning, the Drill Sergeants would throw sand across the (freshly) waxed floor, or otherwise punish me. They get really creative. I was a special case because just before graduation, I was seriously injured. This extended my stay from the standard 9 weeks to a grueling 30-something weeks long.
This is why what Justin is doing in organizing Rock Beyond Belief and and in giving a voice to all atheist soldiers is so important. Atheist soldiers can no longer just sit back and take the abuse, they must speak up if they have any hope of ending it. By holding that event at Ft. Bragg, we are getting the attention of the Pentagon and letting them know that the rights of atheists are just as important as the rights of Christians — and that we’re going to be watching to make sure they get the point.

ORIGINAL POST HERE!

The Guardian: Rising atheism in America puts 'religious right on the defensive'

2011-10-03T17:54:00.017-04:00

According to The Guardian, atheism (or more specifically secularism) is on the rise in the United States. Particularly with younger folks. I guess since all these younger folks aren't responsible for most of the politics or TV programming, I guess we still have to put up with the likes of Rick Parry and all the smarmy televangelists or hateful preachers, but there may be hope for the future. They do point out the statistics that we are starting to hear more an more about. It's funny that someone would discount 15-20% of the electorate like the nutbag theocrats are doing, but then just as well. Although I really wish they wouldn't have success at the local level which seems to embolden them to think that the rest of the world is just like their little fantasy neighborhood they just crawled out of...

The US is increasingly portrayed as a hotbed of religious fervour. Yet in the homeland of ostentatiously religious politicians such as Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, agnostics and atheists are actually part of one of the fastest-growing demographics in the US: the godless. Far from being in thrall to its religious leaders, the US is in fact becoming a more secular country, some experts say. "It has never been better to be a free-thinker or an agnostic in America," says Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the FFRF.

The exact number of faithless is unclear. One study by the Pew Research Centre puts them at about 12% of the population, but another by the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture at Trinity College in Hartford puts that figure at around 20%.

I did get a particular kick out of one paragraph though (emphasis mine).

There are other indications, too. For a long time studies have shown that about 40% of US adults attend a church service weekly. However, other studies that actually counted those at church – rather than just asking people if they went – have shown the true number to be about half to two-thirds of that figure.

In other words; are the theitards lying for jebus again? If it wasn't so totally expected, and exactly the modus operandi they have been under for decades, I would be surprised (or maybe I wouldn't).

16 Things Atheists Need Christians to Know

2011-10-02T17:31:00.012-04:00

I am filing this under humour only because it really is very much tongue in cheek (and besides, associating knowledge with a theists? Who are we kidding? They will continue to blindly parrot their assertions and stick to their silly preconceived notions of how the world works.) Was that parenthetical too snarky? Well, fuck them them if they have their feelings hurt...

I just happened to find this over at the I Am An Atheist website, and it was making the rounds on facebook and other places, so I wanted to add in my amusement at the whole thing. Here it is:

Guest essay by Deborah Markus

Please stop hedging when you mention our lack of belief. Atheists are atheists. We're not "self-described," nor do we "claim" to be atheists. You don't want us to start saying things like, "This is my friend, Julie. She calls herself a Christian," do you? Then man up, brace yourself, and use the a-word all by itself. Practice in front of the mirror if you need to. You'll know you have the proper calm, factual tone when the glass doesn't shatter.
Please stop capitalizing the word "atheist." Unless it comes at the beginning of the sentence, you're just wasting ink. We know you're probably trying to be polite, but it doesn't work that way. There is no guy named Athe.
Some of you keep insisting that we're angry at your god. And then you laugh at us for being so silly – being angry at someone we don't even believe in. Well, you're right. That would be pretty darned silly. That's why we don't do it. Are you annoyed at Zeus? Do you have a grudge against the faerie folk? Of course not. It's the same for us – how could we feel anger or hatred toward a non-existent being? (Some of his followers cheese us off, but that's another story.)
Stop saying that deep down inside, we really do believe in your deity. Belief in the kind of guy who can create an entire universe with the force of a few well-turned phrases is not the sort of secret that fits neatly into a back pocket, as it were. If we thought this fellow was real, we'd be the first to know. And people don't tend to keep that particular nugget of information to themselves. Ever notice that?
Please understand that "You're such a nice person! I can't believe you're an atheist!" is not a compliment. More importantly, please understand that we understand that. Believe me, every single one of us has considered replying, "And you're so smart – I can't believe you're a Christian!" How about we all agree to not go there?
The only thing all occupants of foxholes have in common is access to weapons and a willingness to fight. It might be the better part of wisdom not to provoke them by insisting that you know more about their beliefs or lack thereof than they do.
How can our lives have any purpose without God? One word: chocolate.
It's sweet of you to worry about us, really it is. But it's not terribly helpful to tell us that we should go ahead and believe in your particular faith "just in case." Just in case what? In case a deity who can't distinguish heartfelt faith from apple-polishing affectation happens to be running the show?
Let's make a deal: we promise to stop asking that stupid question about whether God can make a rock so big he can't lift it. In exchange, please stop saying, "Well, God doesn't believe in atheists!" and then laughing like Shakespeare came back to life just long enough to write one last comedy.
Please quit asking us how or why we "turned our backs" on God. The whole point of being an atheist is that we don't see any reason to think we did any such thing.
Anyone who was born in an English-speaking country and is more than two minutes old has heard about God and Jesus. It's annoying when you assume that atheists just haven't heard enough about them, and that's why we're still atheists. Many of us have done extensive research on the subject of religion. Many of us credit our atheism to exactly that.
Please stop telling your atheist acquaintances that you'll miss us when you get to heaven. No, you won't. If you turn out to be right, you'll be in heaven – the place where, by definition, people don't feel sad. And if we're right – well, guess who won't be feeling much of anything?
If you've ever said, "You can't prove there isn't a God" – first of all, congratulations. You're officially four years old. Second, we never said we could. But until you can show some serious proof that there is one, we see no reason to believe. There's nothing wrong with taking a leap of faith, provided you acknowledge that's what you're doing. Atheists simply prefer other forms of exercise.
Stop asking us how we can be moral without God. It's simple. We're awake, and we're not idiots. That's all it takes to figure out that sharing the planet with so many other people is a lot more pleasant when we also share some basic ideas about acceptable behavior. I don't like being stabbed; therefore I support laws against stabbing and promise not to stab anyone myself, no matter how much I may feel like doing so. See how easy?
So far as being a Christian is concerned, you're either a member of a persecuted minority, or part of a solid majority. Figure out which one of those is the case, and then live with it. You don't get to switch back and forth depending on whether you think you can smother dissent better at any given moment by either whining that everybody's always being mean to you, or bellowing that this is your house and you make the rules.
Speaking of persecuted minorities: Christianity used to be one. Did you fight your way to freedom of faith just so you could treat nonbelievers the same way they used to treat you?

Can you guys think of any good clever things to add to this list?

Laws I would Enact...

2011-09-15T17:51:00.030-04:00

First of all, I would never run for public office. Mostly because I don't think I have the right temperament for it (bullshit and assholes piss me off, and that's all congress seems to be made of). Also, as an atheist, I am pretty much totally unelectable... I know, it's a sad truth that somehow I am in America's most hated group (even though having served, I am also in one of the more trusted/respected groups...). Anyway, I do think that there are several laws that need to be passed (some of these are only half hearted jokes, but some of them I am serious about):

Between the time the President's Budget is submitted, and Congress approves it, they shall not gather any pay, nor shall any pay be retroactively awarded. This no-pay period cannot be bypassed through legislation to increase Congressional salaries.
All discretionary or supplemental riders to the President's submitted budget plan must be budget neutral through either cutting of another program or an appropriate tax increase.
No Congressional salary increases shall take effect until after all legislators who voted on the bill have left office.
The Debt Ceiling shall be eliminated. Instead, prior to passing any federal budget, if expenditures are greater than income, a statement shall be read and acknowledged by all members stating that they are also approving the required debt ceiling to pass this budget (that this should even need to be a law is incredibly silly, but this past August showed that it is apparently required...).
When Congress authorizes any deceleration of war, there will be an automatically enacted "War Tax" which will cover the expected expenses beyond the currently approved DoD budget. Any military action taken by the President as Commander in Chief shall also enact a "War Tax" as to be budgetary neutral.
Term Limits!
Tort reform.
Campaign finance reform.

Some sillier laws that I wish would be practical:

Since a corporation is considered a person for purposes of campaign contributions, it shall be treated as a person for applicability to all other laws as well. Much like you can't leave behind your hands or feet when you go somewhere, if any one individual of a corporation is subject to other laws, penalties, or restrictions, so shall ALL members of the corporation be equally subject to those laws. (In other words, someone gets busted for a DUI or something, everyone in the corporation faces the penalties... Hey, the corporation is a person, right?)
If you wholly deny evolution, then you are only allowed access to medical technology as it existed prior to 1859. If you are convinced that evolution is somehow guided by something supernatural, then you are allowed medical technology as it stood in 1953.
If you are a climate change denialist, you will be invited to move to Texas, Arizona, or Nevada and provided a free house sans air conditioning (okay this is the silliest one, but seriously how can one deny climate change in this day and age? (See this comic for my take on it even if you are anti-reality, why you should support cleaning up our act.)
If you feel that any laws that protect the air, our food, product safety, etc. are a bad idea, a new chain of stores will be opened where you can buy products that have never been inspected.

Anyway, if you can think of more, maybe we should copy/paste this list and send it to our currently bought (I mean elected) politicians?

Them thar chickens coming home to roost is a bitch, ain't it Parry?

2011-09-12T17:42:00.000-04:00

I could joke about how there is some sort of causality to the problems Texas is having with wildfires, and their governor's bahviour. However, I think instead, let's look at the sort of shit this idiot pulls, and then looks confused (a normal mental state for the man I think) as to why things are going poorly, even though at one time there were tools to help deal with this situation. The American Independent has a few words to say about this. I particularly noticed:

But while Perry complains about the feds’ response, he and Texas lawmakers have also been called to task for huge cuts to state firefighting resources passed earlier this year. The two-year budget that took effect last Thursday includes a 75 percent slash to volunteer fire departments — from $30 million to $7 million — and a one-third cut to the Texas Forest Service. State Sen. Kirk Watson (D-Austin) said this year’s fires near the capital city underscore the need to better fund the emergency-services districts stretched thin at the outskirts of Texas’ growing cities.

Texas’ 879 volunteer departments are the first line of defense against wildfires for much of the state. The forest service, with 230 firefighters and 15 trucks, provides statewide support. After that, help comes from the federal government and other states.

And in case all the denialists legislators want to pass the buck and attempt to not accept at least partial blame:

In fact, the Texas firefighting force that’s battling flames right now is a result of a beefed-up budget approved by legislators in 2009, after the forest service succeeded in convincing lawmakers it was a wise investment. In 2008, Texas was coming off another serious drought, and a wildfire season two years earlier that required huge federal assistance including $34 million in FEMA grants.

In a funding request for 2010-2011, Texas Forest Service directors made a strong case for a bigger up-front investment from the state. “National mobilization costs 3-4 times per unit (a firefighter, a dozer) as it does to have our own state resources,” directors wrote, and take longer to arrive. “It takes three to five days to mobilize out-of-state resources. Our urgent resource requests could be efficiently alleviated if we had adequate state resources to rapidly attack and keep wildfires from turning into large, complex, multiple-day events.”

“We have examples of communities being burned because the state did not have enough resources,” directors wrote. The legislature responded with a $15 million bump in forest service funding, as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported in April.

This year, though, lawmakers rolled back the forest service budget, mostly by cutting its funding for grants that help volunteer fire departments buy new equipment.

And in case Parry thinks this is just a one time thing, keep in mind:

Texas’ drought is no temporary arrangement, though, and the ongoing urban sprawl will ensure homes keep crawling farther out into wildfire territory.

But thanks to cuts made this year by the Legislature, when those fires start up next year, and the year after that, Texas’ volunteer fire departments will head out to battle those flames with the same trucks and gear damaged in this year’s fires.

Yeah, I call this guy an idiot, and I think rightly so. It's his kind of anti-reality based fantasy thinking that will drag this country into third-world status faster than anything else.

September 11th

2011-09-11T00:15:00.020-04:00

I remember that I was getting ready to go fly that morning. I was in maintenance checking out the 781s and saw the news about the first plane (at that time assumed to be an accident). I actually watched it live as the second plane was deliberately flown into the South Tower. I told the rest of the crew that we would not be flying that day, and commenced to go into lock-down and was totally absorbed by the news like the rest of America. I know that all over there will be numerous remembrances, memorials, discussions, etc. It's sort of arbitrary that the 10th anniversary will cause so much reflection (because of our base 10 mathematical system), but I did see a specific passage that I couldn't agree with more:

Ten years have now passed since many of us first felt the jolt of history—when the second plane crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. We knew from that moment that things can go terribly wrong in our world—not because life is unfair, or moral progress impossible, but because we have failed, generation after generation, to abolish the delusions of our ignorant ancestors. The worst of these ideas continue to thrive—and are still imparted, in their purest form, to children.

Since when is reality a career killer?

2011-09-09T09:01:00.002-04:00

Poor Jon Huntsman. He's the only GOP candidate that actually has a grip on reality, and because of that, he's totally unelectable. As has been bandied about, lifted from Bad Astronomy, lifted from The Friendly Atheist, who lifted it from The Daily Dish…

Listening to GOP Presidential candidates talk about science is like listening to children talk about sex: They know it exists, they have strong opinions about what it might mean, but they don’t have a clue what it’s actually about.

And to make things even worse... Listen to this video, and see if you can spot not only a denial of reality, but a total misrepresentation of history:
I know Texas seems to have a fundamental problem with history as it is, but doesn't Rick Parry know who it was that disagreed with Galileo? And how totally and abjectly wrong the pope and church actually were? Okay, so all this plays well with their base, but doesn't anyone remember what happened when we elected an intellectually dampened individual to the White House? We're still paying for this now! Of course, the GOP and the teabaggers are busy blaming the black guy for "W's" mess, so it's all okay...

Keep in mind, the visceral appeal of some of these yutzes and yahoos that appeal to the GOP base is that they are down home, or just like them. Okay, how many of you out there honestly think you have the brains and ability to lead the United States? Be honest! I for one would prefer to have the smartest, most educated, and intellectually honed individual in the seat in the Oval Office. Putting some rotin tootin Yosemite Sam idiot there is a sure recipe for disaster. And to be honest, I measure people's intellect on their adherence to reality. It does not speak well for this current field of candidates. For fuck's sake, do you want a guy that could barely pass high school to be your surgeon should you need an operation? Then why the fuck do you want someone as intellectually handicapped as some of these candidates running this country?

Hell, I saw the NBC News Poll where the public thinks that all this is a "long term problem" for the President... Are you fucking kidding me? The American public has the memory and attention span of a fucking goldfish (OMG! A plastic castle! OMG! A plastic castle! OMG! A plastic castle!). In six months, most Americans won't even be able to recall the GOP debate or the President's job speech. And the 24 hour news cycle will be all about whatever the next manufactured crisis or punditry will be, which will have no bearing on any reality as usual. I think I will hide until election day, or better yet

Science Lesson (GRB and Black Holes)

2011-08-29T16:39:00.007-04:00

I thought that this video was pretty damn cool, and wanted to pass it along. Who knows, maybe someone will learn something, and spark an interest in astronomy or astrophysics. Someone who will be at Goddard in 20 years? We can only hope.

As is mentioned at the YouTube page itself:

Armed with state-of-the-art supercomputer models, scientists have shown that colliding neutron stars can produce the energetic jet required for a gamma-ray burst. Earlier simulations demonstrated that mergers could make black holes. Others had shown that the high-speed particle jets needed to make a gamma-ray burst would continue if placed in the swirling wreckage of a recent merger.

Now, the simulations reveal the middle step of the process--how the merging stars' magnetic field organizes itself into outwardly directed components capable of forming a jet. The Damiana supercomputer at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics needed six weeks to reveal the details of a process that unfolds in just 35 thousandths of a second--less than the blink of an eye.

This video is public domain and can be downloaded at: ‪http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?10740

Attention Governor Perry: Evolution is a fact

2011-08-28T15:40:00.001-04:00

I am a little late with posting this article, but I wanted to share it. Especially given how popular this dumb as a box of bricks theitard seems to be. Now I could rant and rave, or I could have Professor Richard Dawkins hit at the heart of the matter (emphasis mine):

There is nothing unusual about Governor Rick Perry. Uneducated fools can be found in every country and every period of history, and they are not unknown in high office. What is unusual about today’s Republican party (I disavow the ridiculous ‘GOP’ nickname, because the party of Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt has lately forfeited all claim to be considered ‘grand’) is this: In any other party and in any other country, an individual may occasionally rise to the top in spite of being an uneducated ignoramus. In today’s Republican Party ‘in spite of’ is not the phrase we need. Ignorance and lack of education are positive qualifications, bordering on obligatory. Intellect, knowledge and linguistic mastery are mistrusted by Republican voters, who, when choosing a president, would apparently prefer someone like themselves over someone actually qualified for the job.

He contineus with this praise of the US (but dispair at our politics):

The population of the United States is more than 300 million and it includes some of the best and brightest that the human species has to offer, probably more so than any other country in the world. There is surely something wrong with a system for choosing a leader when, given a pool of such talent and a process that occupies more than a year and consumes billions of dollars, what rises to the top of the heap is George W Bush. Or when the likes of Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin can be mentioned as even remote possibilities.

Add in why he decided to write to Parry about this:

A politician’s attitude to evolution is perhaps not directly important in itself. It can have unfortunate consequences on education and science policy but, compared to Perry’s and the Tea Party’s pronouncements on other topics such as economics, taxation, history and sexual politics, their ignorance of evolutionary science might be overlooked. Except that a politician’s attitude to evolution, however peripheral it might seem, is a surprisingly apposite litmus test of more general inadequacy. This is because unlike, say, string theory where scientific opinion is genuinely divided, there is about the fact of evolution no doubt at all. Evolution is a fact, as securely established as any in science, and he who denies it betrays woeful ignorance and lack of education, which likely extends to other fields as well. Evolution is not some recondite backwater of science, ignorance of which would be pardonable. It is the stunningly simple but elegant explanation of our very existence and the existence of every living creature on the planet. Thanks to Darwin, we now understand why we are here and why we are the way we are. You cannot be ignorant of evolution and be a cultivated and adequate citizen of today.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE.

Tim Minchin on Religion

2011-08-27T15:11:00.000-04:00

Tim Minchin is a comedic GENIUS! This came just after his song about god and anal sex (a brilliant little ditty entitled "Ten foot cock and a few hundred virgins"), which is what he is referring to when he says "material like that". So not only is he great with his beat poem, or his many other songs, but just general observations make him stand out as well. Enjoy.

Veal Marsala With Asparagus Risotto

2011-08-26T08:39:00.000-04:00

I found this recipe over at the freethoughts blog, and I had to share. This particular blogged goes by the handle of Comradde Physioprof, and I highly recommend his page. Here is just one example.

INGREDIENTS
For veal marsala:

pasture-raised veal scallopinis
flour
eggs
half pound sliced mushrooms
one cup dry marsala wine
one cup veal or chicken stock
half cup diced shallots
one diced garlic clove
olive oil

For risotto:

one cup carnaroli rice
half cup diced onion
three diced garlic cloves
olive oil
one tablespoon chopped flat parsley
one bundle of asparagus
half cup dry white wine
half cup grated parmigiano reggiano
one tablespoon butter
grated pecorino di moliterno for garnish

Cut the top halves of the asparagus into pieces and boil in salty water for a few minutes, until they are to the correct “al dente” doneness. Reserve the boiling water, bring up to one quart total volume, and then throw in the asparagus bottoms and boil again to make a nice asparagus broth. Remove and discard the bottoms, and keep the broth on a low simmer.

Dredge the scallopinis in beaten egg and flour after seasoning with salt and black pepper.

Pan fry the motherfuckers in olive oil, and put aside in a dish (cover with foil).

Sautee the shallots and garlic in the veal pan with some black pepper. Start sauteeing the onions and garlic for the risotto with black pepper at the same time you start sauteeing the shallots and garlic for the marsala sauce. From here on out, you are simultaneously making the marsala sauce and the risotto.

Sautee the mushrooms until they are fully sweated out, but not breaking apart.

When the onions and garlic are translucent and soft (don’t brown them), add the rice and continue to sautee for about four minutes, until the rice starts to smell toasty and is fully coated with oil.

Deglaze with the wine, cook off all the alcohol, and then cook the risotto in the usual way, adding the simmering asparagus broth ladle by ladle, stirring until it incorporates, etc. Salt to taste when it is nearly done, but be careful, as you will be adding more salt from the cheese (and maybe, the butter if you use salted butter).

Deglaze the mushroom pan with the marsala and cook off the alcohol.

Add the veal or chicken stock and continue to reduce. If there is not enough flour left from the scallopinis to thicken the sauce, you can add a little more. Also, salt to taste.

When the risotto is ready (remember to cook it only until it is more al dente than you want to eat, as it will continue to cook after you turn the heat off), turn off the heat, add the butter, cheese, and parsley, and stir well to incorporate.

After you have incorporated the cheese, butter, and parsley, put in the asparagus, stir gently (so you don’t break the asparagus tops), and cover to rest for about five minutes.

Reduce the sauce until it is nice and thick.

EATTE THE SHITTE!!!!!!11!

You can find great stuff in the oddest places!

2011-08-20T22:01:00.000-04:00

So today my wife and I drove out to Hillsborough, NH to get my daughter who was at a sleepover with her friend last night. They had not finished watching their movie yet, so we said we'd let them finish watching, and since we were hungry, we decided to grab a bite to eat. As we got up on Main Street of this quaint little town, we smelled something mouth wateringly good. We had found Beauford's Southern BBQ. We were very pleased, and a little confused. I mean, New England is an area that thinks pepper is an exotic and powerful spice. A New England boil with salt is about as flavourful as most here dare go. So to find this place was surprising. And then we had the food. As someone who has lived all over the world, and spent a good amount of time in the south, I can tell you that they know what they are doing.

The Story of Beauford's
Beauford's Southern Barbeque grew out of a love for "Southern Style" food. After many years living in various parts of the country and traveling extensively in the "south" I developed a love for true southern barbeque. No matter how you spell it, Barbecue, Barbeque, Bar-B-Cue, BBQ, etc.., barbeque is it's own food group plain and simple. Whether it's Pork in the Carolinas, Beef in Texas or Mutton in Kentucky you mention the word barbeque and no other explanation is needed. You know exactly what's for dinner. Barbeque is not, and I repeat, IS NOT hot dogs, burgers, boneless chicken, portabella mushrooms or anything else you can imagine on the gas grill in the backyard!

I named the business after my dog Beauford. He came to me as one of a litter of 7 from Ladybug who was rescued in Georgia. She was pregnant at the time and shortly after we got home she gave us Beauford and litter mates.

I started Beauford's Southern Barbecue with a Lang model 84 Tandem Trailer in the summer of 2010. I spent my first summer in Concord NH selling my 'Que to passersby in a hockey arena parking lot. This gave me the desire to step it up and open a sit down place.

I can now be found in downtown Hillsborough NH next to the Mobil station in a former pizza place. The place is small but inviting. I invite you to come in and try our Southern Barbecue. We look forward to seeing you!

If you are ever in Hillsborough, give them a visit. It will be well worth your time.

Can we laugh at the Theitards again?

2011-08-18T17:17:00.024-04:00

So back in April, the loony that runs Texas this time had a 3 day prayer vigil for rain in Texas. Seriously!

With Texas in the midst of an historic drought and battling thousands of wildfires, Gov. Rick Perry has decided to ask for some divine intervention. The governor issued a proclamation yesterday officially declaring April 22-24 “Days of Prayer for Rain in the State of Texas.” (You can see the proclamation here.) “I urge Texans of all faiths and traditions to offer prayers on that day for the healing of our land,” Perry wrote.

Well, it is now August, and loony Parry (I mean Perry, damn that Colbert) has precious little to show for it. It seems it only gets drier and hotter. And this guy thinks that he's somehow a viable candidate for President? Even if we ignore the fact that his beliefs are barely past the stage of Bronze Age myths, how about the state of Texas in things that would indicate how he runs things? Just check out their record on deficits, education, employment (especially under-employment), and the list goes on. This guy is dumb as a box of rocks, and that's probably insulting to rocks.

And worst of all, Parry and his ilk are ignoring their very own teachings. I just wish they would shut up, but then, seeing how loony they are is probably a great weapon against them; if it wasn't for all the other stark raving mad loonies that are here in the US...

Companies Are Hiring. Just Not You

2011-08-17T17:23:00.031-04:00

The rising anti-intellectualism in this country is having an effect on everyone. I just read a Bloomberg Businessweek article that finished with these words:

The bottom line: With the jobless rate still above 9 percent, the untapped labor pool is deep. Yet some companies struggle to find qualified applicants.

And from what I am hearing, there are over a MILLION jobs out there. The basic gist of the problem is that our workforce is too dumb to perform those jobs. Instead Chinese and Indians will get them. You see, this is an actual material effect of thinking that bronze age fables represent reality. You can't really hold a job in a science and technology field successfully if you think the world is 6000 years old. You are just too willing to discount too much evidence to be considered intellectually reliable. Not only that, but there are probably serious gaps in the education you have.

And education is a key. I am lucky, I have a great job, and I have excellent credentials and qualifications. But then, I value education, and pursued it vigorously! Many think that education really is key to restoring the American Dream. And I agree. But again, if people get educated, they may stop following bronze age fables, start to question what misplaced authority figures have told them, and start to question their "place". And trust me, corporations and the rich want to keep you in your "place"! The wealth disparity is good for them in the short term, and they want to keep it that way. Sadly, they seem to have forgotten to study history. If they looked at the 100% reliable pattern of what happens when things become as skewed as they are now, they should be concerned. Well, either that, or they simply just don't care. Makes you wonder why they hate the country that actually gave them such obscene wealth?

We Stopped Dreaming

2011-08-16T17:15:00.000-04:00

Here is a clip from Real Time with Bill Maher, where Neil DeGrasse Tyson has a very good "rant" about how we have become downright ANTI-intellectual in this country (more on that on another post). Sadly, this will actually lead to a downfall of our standing in the world. The Europeans, Indians, and Chinese will take the risks we used to be famous for. And watch out for the South Americans! That is where the center of American power will be in a century if we keep on this "idiocracy" and bronze age culture.

Deconversion Story

2011-08-14T17:28:00.000-04:00

I am always interested in reading the deconversion stories of people. I don't have one myself, so I find it valuable to understand how someone can go from a mindset of "faith" and acceptance of the supernatural (or ridiculous) to being rational. In my personal experience, it's so easy that anyone should be able to do it. Faith and other woo-woo ideas are so patently silly that I am even confused how people can hold on to those ideas, but then I also realize that I am shaped by my personal experiences and education. Not everyone will think like me.

My wife has her own deconversion story (which I contributed to a great deal I think), but that may be too close to my own experiences to truly learn a great deal from (and she had started her journey before she met me, I just helped her be less afraid of the journey).

So, today I'd like to give you all this story: http://centersolid.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-im-atheist.html

Of course, even after reading this heart wrenching tale, I can already hear the apologists with their (predictable) platitudes and outright bullshit comments of:

"Why are you angry at god?" or the ever popular "Gawd has a plan that you just don't understand. You will see that your son's death had a purpose." /puke Way to insult the man and his very real pain.

I must admit, this one seems quite a bit different than the other deconversion stories that I generally hear. Most of the stories I hear are how people realize how religion consistently and deliberately lies to them, and tries to keep them ignorant. After a while, things lead through the indoctrination and questions get asked. And once the questions come, they start seeing that it's turtles all the way down.

It takes talent to fuck ourselves like this

2011-08-01T21:03:00.000-04:00

So I finally got to my DVR to watch Fareed Zakaria GPS. He opened the show with a few thoughts about this "debtageddon" that we seem to have narrowly averted.

Well, what do you know? We totally did this to ourselves in more ways than one... One of two countries that even has this cluster fuck of a process in place? And if you think about it, the votes to approve the budgets really are an endorsement of all this fucktardery we have done to ourselves, so why are they throwing a hissy fit now? I think I join the rest of America in my utter and total disgust with our elected officials.

Exactly HOW stupid are Fox talking heads?

2011-07-28T22:28:00.000-04:00

Okay, so we found evidence of a volcano that existed on the moon way back when. Faux Noise asked Bill Nye to talk to them about this. So exactly HOW stupid a question could a reporter come up with? Just watch and be amazed!

I am surprised he didn't actually laugh out loud at that first question! And the way he changed gears trying to figure out exactly how to say something in monosyllabic words was priceless!

So, who won't get paid?

2011-07-27T17:46:00.031-04:00

So, as we all know, there is a huge kerfuffle in Washington DC because some people have the negotiating skills of a petulant 3 year old (I'm looking at you teabaggers!). Sometimes I wonder if the resistance this time to raising the debt ceiling is because of the skin color of the Executive, but that's probably me just being too cynical.

While wondering what douchefuckery our congress critters are up to, I started contemplating who would be the first to feel the effects of the government not being able to pay its bills. There are a whole list of people that would start feeling effects pretty quickly. Social Security recipients, small and large businesses under contract to the government, military retirees, active duty military personnel, all the civil service employees, and the list goes on, and on, and on. You know who is protected and guaranteed to be last on that list? Yep, the same fuckups that are pretty much responsible for holding the entire US economy and entire middle class (i.e. anyone who isn't RICH) hostage... I really think that congressional pay should be the FIRST thing on the block. Furthermore, as long as these incompetent fuckwads are voting their own salary, I say the US population should be allowed to vote for a multiplier to that particular salary. Planck's Constant sounds like a good multiplier.

And while we are at it, why is it such a anathema to ask the rich (or as the Repugnican'ts have taken to calling them, the "job creators" despite the fact that they are outsourcing jobs and NOT creating any) to contribute to the running of this nation in a material way as opposed to just buying politicians? The wealth disparity in this nation has become the worst since it ever was since the Crash of 1929. And if you look at every civilization and government that has ever existed on this planet, every time things get this out of whack, bad things happen. Is there some sort of plot by fundytards to try to hasten some sort of apocalypse? It sure as hell seems like it.

Save the James Webb Space Telescope!

2011-07-26T17:38:00.019-04:00

So, this week we saw the end of the Space Shuttle era. Something that had been coming down the pike for a while. One of the things that the Shuttle Program will probably be most remembered for is the spectacular goof and then rescue of the Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble is probably one of the most enduring, and well known, legacies of the Shuttle Program, as well as for the entire human race. Now that the Shuttle is no more, eventually Hubble will break, and it too will be no more. However, us (marginally) clever apes have a plan. It's called the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It's an amazing bit of engineering and technology, and will actually expand our sights into the univers beyond what Hubble gave us! Sadly, this program is in danger from the congress critters in DC. Lawrence M. Krauss has written a great peice about saving this mission. Please join the cause. It makes sense to scrap some things, but this just isn't one of them... (Emphasis mine.)

Almost 20 years ago Congress cancelled what was then the most ambitious scientific project ever launched, the Superconducting Super Collider. Well on the way to completion and after several billion dollars had been spent, cost over-runs and management issues meant that the project, the world’s largest particle accelerator which would have resolved questions ranging from the origin of all mass to the nature of fundamental forces, gave a democratic congress an excuse to kill the program during hard economic times.

A similar situation is arising now and is threatening to ground the nearly completed James Webb Space Telescope. Coming in at $1.6 Billion over its recently updated cost estimate of approximately $5 Billion, this successor to the phenomenally successful Hubble Space Telescope will peer back to the period of ‘first light’, when the first stars and galaxies formed in the universe giving new insights into exotica from the first giant black holes, to the mysterious dark matter and dark energy that dominate the dynamics of the universe. After billions have been spent, the House Appropriations Committee has recommended terminating the project because it is over budget and has had management issues.

The cancellation of the JWST would likely herald the beginning of the end of US leadership in Space Science, just as the cancellation of the SSC moved the center of gravity in particle physics to Europe. The JWST was designed to take off where the Hubble Space telescope—which has revolutionized astronomy—has ended, by taking us to the very beginnings of visible structure in the Universe. It was meant to be the centerpiece of astronomy for the next two decades, and without it, the tantalizing hints that Hubble has been able to glean about our beginnings will remain just that for perhaps a generation.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE POST!

All theist arguments boiled down to four lines

2011-07-25T17:50:00.008-04:00

When "discussing" reality with theists, I have noticed a terrible redundancy in their arguments. Once you get them to at least a marginally honest position, it ends up devolving into this argument:

I don't know
You don't know
No one knows
Therefore I know

It's that last one that always bugs me to no end... How can that even be taken seriously? And what makes their particular flavour more real than any other flavour? Why not just accept that "I don't know" is a perfectly good and acceptable answer? And they accuse atheists of arrogance? *sigh*

My heart goes out to Norway

2011-07-23T11:06:00.000-04:00

So I just found out about a horrible event in Norway. Absolutely heart-wrenching! Initial speculation of course ran rampant. The specter of a muslim extremist was the the first thought on many people's minds. Nothing like having the worst thoughts turned to reality so that one can continue to systematically demonize the enemy. Well, turns out it was a Norwegian. Anders Behring Breivik, a right-wing extremist, a christian, a nationalist, and islamophobe no less. Well, that just got me thinking:

Will the news media have the panoply of talking heads on talking about how christianity is inherently a violent religion, and that it is inimical to "our way of life" ans must be contained?
Will the christian faith be viewed as one inherently violent and cruel?
Will there be demands for action that christians are to be shunned and viewed with suspision?

OF COURSE NOT! No, imagine if the suspect had been a brown, islamic immigrant...

Now, I am not claiming that islam is innocent by any stretch of the imagination. The list of Cruelty and Violence in their book is depressing enough as it is (although I note with irony that the christian list is nearly three times as long!). All I am saying is that irrationally held beliefs are fertile ground for irrational action. That really is my main problem with any and all religions.

In the meantime, do what you can for the people of Norway.

So... Yeah, I haven't blogged in a while

2011-07-22T16:49:00.002-04:00

I am sorry that I haven't said anything in a while. I have a whole list of handy excuses:

My main computer is on the fritz
Work has been really, really busy (with a lot of travel involved too)
I've been studying for my PMP exam
I went on a brief vacation

Of course, excuses are like assholes. Everyone has one, and they all stink... Or whatever that saying is. Also, I have been spending a lot more time lately reading (Love my Kindle). And of course, I have been reading some heady stuff like sting theory, physics, cosmology, and the like. I am even tackling some books that are a slog of unbearable intellectuall mish-mosh (i.e. apologetics books). Heck, I haven't even seen the last Harry Potter movie yet! I think I may be the only person in the civilized world that hasn't! See, I told you things have been just a wee bit crazy.

Anyway, I am going to try to keep up on posting here. Maybe do some actual book reviews? Would that be of any interest to anyone?

Lumpy Potato Moon

2011-06-17T16:31:00.000-04:00

No, that's not a new band name, but a description The Bad Astronomer often uses when talking about Phobos. Today he had a great entry on his blog, and I just had to share the video. Basically, what you are seeing is a video stitched together from images sent back by the Mars Express Orbiter of the moon Phobos as it passes by Jupiter (from the orbiter's frame of reference). Dr. Plait's blog explains the geometry with pictures and everything.

CLICK HERE TO READ AN ACTUAL ASTRONOMER'S THOUGHTS ON THIS.
Although,truth be told, "Lumpy Potato Moon" does sound like a great band name!

Any Program Managers Looking for a Job?

2011-06-11T20:14:00.000-04:00

I am not looking for a job myself. I am very happy with where I am working. (Although, if I got the same, or better, benefits and at least a 25% increase in salary, I could be convinced to at least listen to you. Keep in mind, my benefits package is pretty rare in today's climate, so that alone would probably stop most offers.) That said, I do still get a lot of emails and information on jobs that are out there. So here I am just passing along information as promised in an email. I figure between the blog and it getting reposted on facebook, a lot of folks should see this.

With your PROGRAM MANAGEMENT background in the AEROSPACE/DEFENSE sector, I was wondering if you would be open to exploring an exciting position in Dallas/ Fort Worth?

As a SR. PROGRAM MANAGER you should possess strong leadership and communication skills with an emphasis on program execution. The opportunity would include managing $30M program for a very well-known International company with a variety of products/systems.

You would be responsible for:
*Coordinate and oversee all aspects of the program; monitor, direct, and coordinate program resources, budgets and logistics.

Experience in any of the following areas:
*Avionics/aircraft related to defense/military programs (maintenance, repair, overhaul (MRO), modification, manufacturing, or weapon/mission systems integration).
* Self-starter with initiative and the professionalism to effectively communicate with customers, suppliers, management and team members.
*Although not required it would be a plus; PMP/PMI certification and/or Earned Value Management (EVM).

Highly visible role with excellent benefits + generous relocation package and attractive salary
Active Secret DoD Clearance, eligible for TS
LOCATION: Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX

Interested? Reply to mike.delaney@gnr-corp.com, with a range of times to talk, your phone number; include an attached resume, should you have one.

Astronomy Coolness

2011-06-03T16:36:00.000-04:00

Thank you Dr. Plait for posting this. Again it reaffirms that Saturn richly deserves being everyone's favorite planet. And if it isn't, it should be. This is basically a video compilation of numerous still photographs from Cassini, which has been orbiting Saturn for 7 years now. A videographer named Chris Abbas is the genius that put this together. If you are interested in some of the optical effects that appear in some of the photographs, Dr. Plait explains them.

CASSINI MISSION from cabbas on Vimeo.

The Myth's Prayer

2011-06-01T16:55:00.002-04:00

The Myth's Prayer

Our Father, which art a myth, horrible be thy name.
Thy Kingdom laughable, thy will be dumb,
because men created your heaven.
And because we worked for it, we have our daily bread.
And only because it is the right thing to do,
we forgive those that trespass against us.
And lead us not into religion, but deliver us from it.
For thine is the nothingness, the myth, and the delusion for ever and ever.

Amen my ass!

Original by Sam Henline via Facebook.

The Possibility of Experimental Results for a Cyclic Universe?

2011-05-30T10:14:00.000-04:00

I am not particularly enamoured with the idea of a cyclic universe as a hypothesis, however, if the data comes back and shows it as such, well, then I may have to change my mind. Or as Carl Sagan said:

In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
Keynote address at CSICOP conference (1987)

Anyway, I was a bit surprised at this finding. (If you want the whole paper, here it is in PDF format.) Basically the idea is that the universe has a cyclic nature, and that our Big bang was just one of many throughout cosmological time. And we may be able to detect the echoes of any black holes that were in the previous universe in this universe. If the universe is indeed cyclical, then the question of what happened before the big bang (t=0) would actually have an answer as opposed to being nonsensical. Although, I suppose this may shut out another gap for even a deistic god figure. Of course, I'm sure some theitard will get their panties in a bunch about this as well. You know how reality tends to always disagree with their primitive iron age fables...

Persistence of black holes through a cosmological bounce
B. J. Carr, A.A. Coley
(Submitted on 19 Apr 2011)
We discuss whether black holes could persist in a universe which recollapses and then bounces into a new expansion phase. Whether the bounce is of classical or quantum gravitational origin, such cosmological models are of great current interest. In particular, we investigate the mass range in which black holes might survive a bounce and ways of differentiating observationally between black holes formed just after and just before the last bounce. We also discuss the consequences of the universe going through a sequence of dimensional changes as it passes through a bounce.
Comments: 8 pages, 1 figure
Subjects: Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO); General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
Cite as: arXiv:1104.3796v1 [astro-ph.CO]
Submission history
From: Alan Coley [view email]
[v1] Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:34:12 GMT (29kb,D)

Awesome on so many levels

2011-05-29T12:13:00.000-04:00

The Bad Astronomer found this, and I just have to share. There is so much awesome contained in this video, that it can't be contained.

That's all I have to say about this.

Science Daily

2011-05-23T16:37:00.000-04:00

In case you didn't know, I love science. It epitomizes the process of learning and clawing our way out of ignorance. So that's why one of my favorite websites is Science Daily! Not only is it chock full of science news, but you can find news that is categorized by your interests. I'm sure this isn't news to anyone that knows me, but I wanted to post this just because any popularization of science is only a good thing. Add Science Daily to your news feed! Tell your friends. This country is too scientifically illiterate to survive much longer if we keep doing the same things. That's why I encourage everyone to break loose of the shackles of ignorance, and move forward.

Making fun of Rapturetards?

2011-05-22T16:47:00.002-04:00

I suppose it would be easy to make fun of the idiots that fell for all this rapture nonsense (or the ones who are all in a tizzy about 2012). And I would like nothing more than to mock these people into such a state that they will never, ever be so dumb and gullible again... Sadly, human psychology is such that the really true believers will cling all the more tightly to their delusion... And these people need serious help... So while it is natural to mock these poor deluded folks, and the state of mind that makes them fall for this bullshit, keep in mind the real consequences of this travesty...

Keep in mind the mentally disturbed man that killed himself in a church to self-fulfill this bullshit.

Or all the strain this has placed on families that gave away everything thinking that the end was really here.

Or the fact that the criminal Harold Camping is deserting his flock, with all his ill gotten gains.

A lot of people bought in to this, and a lot of people were victims:

However, the most heart rending is shit like this:

How can you even think of taking a box cutter to the throats of your children? SICK! SICK! SICK!

Well, let's inject a little humour into the despicable and heart wrenching situation. I for one have this theory about why the rapture didn't happen: We were saved by a man that transcends time and space. A man that conquered death and daily performs miracles. A man that preaches non-violence. Yes, saved by The Doctor.

Some others may have a theory as to why the rapture didn't happen. One significant death yesterday was that of Macho Man Randy Savage. Maybe he saved the world?

A final theory is that perhaps no one qualified?

Of course, the real answer is that it's all a bunch of bullshit, and anyone who believes in it now, or ever, is just deluded...

Why The Fuck Are You Still Here, You Annoying Peice Of Shit?

2011-05-21T18:58:00.016-04:00

Well? Isn't today the rapture? Heck, I even gave it an hour just to make sure that you guys are wrong (yet again). Look, I don't mind the fact that you act like a fucking moron, but for the love of Thor, please, just shut the fuck up already... What really breaks my hear is that so many of the followers of this supreme dickwad basically blew everything they had... And people wonder why I have a problem with religious thought.

I realize that this was a small number of religious nutbags, but the distinction really doesn't need to be made. All religion is as crazy and fucked up as what these idiots fell for. Some just hedge their bets better, and don't make as big a public spectacle of it. Anyway:

[NELSON]

HA HA!

[/NELSON]

Everybody Draw Mohamed Day

2011-05-20T09:10:00.000-04:00

Today is Everybody Draw Mohamed day on Facebook. Well, I can't draw at all, so I am going to post someone else's drawing instead.

Generally I don't give a great deal of thought to muslims, since they make up a smaller part of the US population than us Atheists. So I am participating in this before all the poor prosecuted christians start their belly aching about me being mean to them. Remember, ALL religion is a crock of shit, and that includes muslims. The fact that I tend to challenge christians is because they are the ones in my face, or attempting to go against the Constitution. But we all know that it's different for xtian theitards, because they are really right, not any of the other ones....

Some more humorous images that I think are appropriate:

No, Cancer hasn't been cured (yet)

2011-05-19T16:56:00.033-04:00

So a bunch of facebook people are getting suckered into posting a headline that basically says “Scientists cure cancer, but no one takes notice.” This really drives home my absolute hatred of irresponsible media reporting, and how most of the fuckwads in the media wouldn't know science if it bit them on the nose.

Thankfully we do have some people who can approach the subject with some scientific background. I give you three quick examples.

Fists, Steve Novella over at Skepticblog has a thoughtful response. I think EVERYONE should take heed with his conclusion:

The history of cancer treatment has taught researchers to be humble and realistic. New treatments are great, and they are each contributing to the slowly increasing survival of many cancers. We are making progress with a lot of singles – just not the grand-slam home-runs that the media wants for good headlines.

So don’t believe the conspiracy-mongering and the hype. The research is happening. It is being targeted largely to therapies in proportion to their promise. But unfortunately research progresses much more slowly than rumors spread through Facebook and Twitter.

Of course, if you want to know something about biology, maybe talking to a biologist would be a good idea? At least he knows about what dichloroacetate is and means, right? P.Z. Myers is one such biologist, and he weighs in with pictures and everything. I think he states it quite well when he says:

The simple summary is this: that claim is a lie. There have been no clinical trials of dichloroacetate (DCA) in cancer patients, so there is no basis for claiming they have a cure; some, but not all, cancers might respond in promising ways to the drug, while others are likely to be resistant (cancer is not one disease!); and there are potential neurotoxic side effects, especially when used in conjunction with other chemotherapies.

Then there is the ever popular Orac at Respectful Insolence. Here is an actual medical doctor (surgeon actually) with his views. It's hard to pick one summary quote from this latest entry, but I really liked this one:

I think Dr. J. Leonard Lichtenfeld, Deputy Chief Medical Officer for the national office of the American Cancer Society, put it well in writing about this latest DCA study on his blog, Dr. Len's Cancer Blog:
This research still needs lots of work before we know whether it works or doesn't work, and whether it is really safe or not when given to patients with cancer under a variety of circumstances. If that sounds overly cautious, so be it. I have seen too many dashed hopes in my medical career which make me a bit cautious about reports like this. That's not to say I don't think it could work--it could, as I mentioned above--but I want to see evidence in well done trials that prove the point that DCA is effective in the treatment of which cancers under what circumstances. Early in my cancer training there was a substance isolated by a researcher that was supposedly non-toxic and would cure leukemia. The research center where I was working was inundated from people around the globe who wanted this treatment, especially after the lead researcher injected himself on a nationwide morning show to demonstrate its apparent lack of toxicity. Only grams of this medicine existed. Fortunes were offered in return for getting this miracle drug. But the miracle drug--after reasonable clinical trials were done--didn't work after all.
Many are the lists of new "miracle cures" that have met this same fate. The difference today is that the Internet has allowed news of these drugs to be disseminated to more people than ever before--and faster than every before. Moreover, it has linked patients and activists into mutually supportive disease-specific communities, who can inform and educate each other, as well as publicizing research about their disease and lobbying legislators. The dark side of this power, however, is that it can facilitate the spread of false hope and the demand for a drug after only cell culture and animal work, before it even makes it to human trials. Add unscrupulous "entrepreneurs" into the mix, and the potential for harm is great. I like to echo the words of Fran Visco, President of the National Breast Cancer Coalition, who said:
...this isn't about emotion, it's about saving as many lives as possible and not about getting as many drugs out as possible. It's about doing the right research and making sure we have patient protections in place and making drugs available that are truly helpful.
Exactly. Emotion is easy. Conspiracy mongering is even easier.

So there you have it. Remember that this isn't something new, but it's not the miracle cure that people are touting. Cancer is a horrible disease, and anyone struggling with it has my heartfelt sympathies. But don't succumb to charlatans and liars that specifically prey on people struggling with it. As Tim Minchin quipped, "Alternative medicine that actually works is called MEDICINE."

SEX and Secularism

2011-05-17T16:39:00.006-04:00

Just saw this from the IPC Press, and thought I would share it. This is a PRESS RELEASE of a book they are publishing. Sadly I can't reproduce the table they included in the press release, but I found it quite a telling survey. In particular about the poor education children of religious parents get regarding sex in general. While the parents may think they are protecting their kids, the data CLEARLY shows they are setting them up for failure. Again, this is the sort of anti-reality sort of stuff that has such horrible consequences, but the solution is too anti-dogmatic for them to even consider. And the cycle of ignorance and disappointment continues.

The main points are highlighted here:

From: IPC Press,
Marketing Public Relations Dept.
15699 Kansas Ave.
Bonner Springs, KS 66012

For Release: May 15, 2011

For: Sex Improves Dramatically After Leaving Religion

Sex and Secularism: What Happens When You Leave Religion, A survey of over 14,500 American Secularists. A ground-breaking study of sexuality among the non-religious.

Contact: Dr. Darrel W. Ray
913-486-3666
publisher@ipcpress.com

www.ipcpress.com

Key findings:
1. Sex improves dramatically after leaving religion.
2. Sexual guilt has little staying power after leaving religion.
3. Those raised most religious show no difference from those raised least religious in their sexual behavior.
4. Those raised most religious experience far more guilt but have just as much sex.
5. Religious parents are far worse at educating their children on matters of sex.
6. Religious guilt differs in measurable amounts according to denomination.

This ground-breaking study surveyed over 14,500 secularists about their sex lives. This first of its kind survey looks at attitudes and behavior related to sexuality and religion including religious sexual guilt, parenting behavior, sex education and sexual satisfaction before and after leaving religion.

The most important finding shows dramatic improvement in sexual satisfaction and a decrease in guilt after people left religion. Approximately 55%% of respondents said their sex life greatly improved an 8, 9 or 10 (on a 10 pt. scale) after leaving religion while only 2.2% said it became worse.

The primary findings show that people who are religious have a good deal of guilt about sex and sexuality but their behavior is about the same as the non-religious. Guilt is a key component of religious attitudes about sex but actual behavior, whether first masturbation, first oral sex, first intercourse, etc. do not change appreciably with religiosity.

The US government has been deeply involved in abstinence only education for almost 10 years. The government’s own research shows that such programs do not work or at best, delay the onset of sexual behavior by months. Results of this survey closely mirror those of abstinence only programs. Children from religious homes don’t delay sexual activities appreciably but they feel guilty about doing it and probably know less about sex and protecting themselves, than their secular counterparts.

One key finding was a clear pattern of improvement in sexual satisfaction depending on former religious affiliation. (See chart below) Those leaving high guilt religions showed the most improvement in their sex life.

The study found guilt to be measurably different depending on the denomination. This may sound obvious, but no one has actually tried to measure this before. The study concluded that Mormons, Jehovah’s Witness, Pentecostal, Seventh Day Adventists, and Baptists are among the most guilt driven of religions with Unitarians, Atheists and Episcopalians being among the least.

In the US, many religious leaders are against sex education in schools and insist that parents and churches should be primarily responsible. Results of this survey show parents, whether religious or not, are not particularly good at talking to their children. More secular parents do talk to their children 38% of the
time to a mere 13% of religious parents. People from religious homes felt that their education in sex was poor compared to those from less religious homes.

Most religions preach strongly against pornography so it is reasonable to think that porn use would be less among the more religious. This survey found that porn use is quite high in all groups and is a key source of sex education for religious teens. The most religious teens said they got their sex education from porn 33% of the time, the less religious 25.2% of the time. The survey found that 90% of men were using pornography by age 21 with no significant difference between those most and least religious. For women, over 50% were using porn by age 21 and 70% at age 30, with little difference between most and least religious.

Religions teach against sex before marriage, but the survey found that differences between the most and least religious was negligible. Most important, religious teens said they got their sexual education from personal experience 50.2% compared to 42.4% for the less religious. In other words, children raised most religious are experimenting with sex more than those raised non-religious.

Women and men saw equal improvement after religion. Those who felt their sex life was worse gave revealing comments like:
“Since leaving religion, I have not had a physical or emotional relationship with my wife.”
“Since becoming an atheist I have not met anyone who does not have some religious or 'spiritual' belief system. As a result, life is very lonely. I am proactively meeting new single members of the opposite sex, in an effort to find someone who does not believe in the supernatural.”

Some said that religion contributed to marital problems. Those married to very religious people had the least satisfying sex lives and reported many restrictions on what was allowed, even if they had been married many years.
“Once, my wife came home from Church and announced that there will be no more oral sex because the priest said oral sex was a sodomy and she should not practice it.”
“His religiosity prevents us from having honest discussion. I feel like there is an unseen wall between us now.

The researchers expected to find those who left religion with residual effects of guilt for years after. Surprisingly, those who had been out of religion for several years reported few residual effects with great sexual satisfaction. Many indicated that leaving religion had a strong positive impact on their sexual satisfaction.

The study concludes that “biology happens” and people will have sex regardless of religious training. Religious parents do a poor job of educating their children leaving them without the tools to make good decisions. That religious people have more guilt about sex but do it just as much. That the effects of religion wear off fairly quickly for most people once they leave religion entirely. Finally, leaving religion improves sexual satisfaction dramatically for most people.

The full report can be downloaded at www.IPCpress.com on or after May 15, 2011. Dr. Ray is available for comment, discussion or interviews.

About the principle researchers:
Dr. Darrel W. Ray, is a psychologist, director of The Institute for Performance Culture and author of the best selling book The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture and author of two books on organizational psychology. In his career he has been interviewed for the Wall Street Journal, ABC News Nightline, and many other media sources. He has spoken throughout North America as well as
Ireland and the UK. His new book, Sex and God: How Religion Distorts Sexuality will be released in late 2011. Amanda Brown is an undergraduate at Kansas University studying sex and sexuality.

For further information please visit www.ipcpress.com or Email publisher@ipcpress.com

Skeptics: StackExchange

2011-05-15T16:58:00.019-04:00

Just doing a little self promotion here. I have recently become quite active at the Skeptics StackExchange site. I am having a great time answering questions (and even asked a couple). It's sort of like a YahooAnswers! but actually with standards! Answers must be documented. Questions themselves must be useful questions. The moderation may seem a bit heavy handed at times, but I find that it improves the quality of the site. And if you are interested in other subjects, StackExchange offers many communities which you can get involved in. And it's easy to sign up if you have Facebook since you can link the accounts.

Anyway, I am also sort of promoting myself on the site as well. Hey can't blame a guy. You establish reputation on the site by people voting on your answers and questions. You also receive virtual medals for your activity. I am close to receiving a couple of gold medals, and I am hoping that anyone who reads this would be so kind as to go to the site, register an account, and then vote up my answers. For instance, if you vote up:

Is it possible to fly 4 helicopters into a country without knowledge

or

Does the second law of theormodynamics contradict evolution

I could get a couple of gold medals with less than 10 votes on each. Of course, votes on all my questions and answers help me out, so don't feel like you need to stop at those two. Just click my profile link, and it gives a list of all my questions and answers. Come on, what's stopping you?

Oh, and thank you in advance! I really do appreciate it!

Science! It works, bitches! (Again. And gain, and again, and again...)

2011-05-08T17:04:00.009-04:00

Today at Skepticblog, Donald Prothero had a great write up about science. As a matter of fact, it's so great that I really have very little to add to it. Although I think he missed an opportunity to show off that XKCD Comic that I am so fond of. But he does treat you to another comic, so it's all good. He calls his entry "Reality Check" which I encourage you to read. And I love the very first quote he starts the blog off with.

The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.
—Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, on “Real Time With Bill Maher”, Feb. 4, 2011
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.
—Philip K. Dick, author
It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
—Carl Sagan
In recent years, both philosophers and science deniers (such as creationists) have repeatedly attacked the objectivity of science and scientists. Creationists claim that scientists are big frauds, deceived by a mass delusion about evolution. They argue that the stratigraphic sequence of fossils in the rock record is faked by evolutionists who shuffle the fossils and the strata in the order they need to prove evolution, then allegedly point to the same sequence as proof of evolution. (Never mind the fact that the objective, empirical sequence of fossils through geologic time was worked out by devoutly religious naturalists like William Smith and Georges Cuvier before 1800, at least 50 years before evolution was published by Charles Darwin). The Creation “Museum” in Kentucky is built upon the basic premise that “evolution scientists” and “creation scientists” start with the same data, but view them with different assumptions about the world–the fossils cannot speak for themselves, nor can the evidence falsify one position or the other.

On the other hand, philosophers and cultural critics have attacked science as well. Some philosophers have argued that outside reality is an illusion, and we can only know what we personally experience. If we do not perceive it, reality does not exist. More recently, the fad for deconstructionism in the non-scientific realms of academia argues that all our ideas are so culturally based and biased by our human prejudices that we cannot decide what is “real” or “objective.” This argumentation has gone in circles within philosophy for centuries. Philosophers of science, in particular, are fond of telling scientists what they should do, often without finding out what scientists actually do.

For the most part, scientists themselves have largely ignored these debates swirling around their activities. Rather than agonize over what method they should be using, or whether they are being truly objective, most scientists just get to work and produce results. Although some working scientists are familiar with the debates among philosophers of science, most are not, and it doesn’t seem to reduce their scientific productivity a bit. This raises a larger question: How do we know what scientists do, and what science tells us, is real or not? Is it all an illusion? Is it just the product of cultural expectations? There are many good arguments against the idealist/solipsist position or the deconstructionist ideas as well, but the simplest ones are these:

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE POST!

Religiosity and Racism

2011-05-04T21:57:00.001-04:00

In the "No shit, Sherlock!" category, I present this paper to you. The Chronic Dependence Of Popular Religiosity Upon Dysfunctional Psychosociological Conditions by Gregory Paul, Evolutionary Psychology, 7(3): 398-441 (2009). Which seems to be a follow-up to an article that I have regularly referred to when showing how detrimental religion is to society.

Abstract: Better understanding the nature, origin and popularity of varying levels of popular religion versus secularism, and their impact upon socioeconomic conditions and vice versa, requires a cross national comparison of the competing factors in populations where opinions are freely chosen. Utilizing 25 indicators, the uniquely extensive Successful Societies Scale reveals that population diversity and immigration correlate weakly with 1st world socioeconomic conditions, and high levels of income disparity, popular religiosity as measured by differing levels of belief and activity, and rejection of evolutionary science correlate strongly negatively with improving conditions. The historically unprecedented socioeconomic security that results from low levels of progressive government policies appear to suppress popular religiosity and creationist opinion, conservative religious ideology apparently contributes to societal dysfunction, and religious prosociality and charity are less effective at improving societal conditions than are secular government programs. The antagonistic relationship between better socioeconomic conditions and intense popular faith may prevent the existence of nations that combine the two factors. The nonuniversality of strong religious devotion, and the ease with which large populations abandon serious theism when conditions are sufficiently benign, refute hypotheses that religious belief and practice are the normal, deeply set human mental state, whether they are superficial or natural in nature. Instead popular religion is usually a superficial and flexible psychological mechanism for coping with the high levels of stress and anxiety produced by sufficiently dysfunctional social and especially economic environments. Popular nontheism is a similarly casual response to superior conditions.

You really need to click on the link to the PDF and read it. Just trust me on this! This excellent article in the NYT is what led me to it.

Why do Americans still dislike atheists?
By Gregory Pauland Phil Zuckerman, Published: April 29

Long after blacks and Jews have made great strides, and even as homosexuals gain respect, acceptance and new rights, there is still a group that lots of Americans just don’t like much: atheists. Those who don’t believe in God are widely considered to be immoral, wicked and angry. They can’t join the Boy Scouts. Atheist soldiers are rated potentially deficient when they do not score as sufficiently “spiritual” in military psychological evaluations. Surveys find that most Americans refuse or are reluctant to marry or vote for nontheists; in other words, nonbelievers are one minority still commonly denied in practical terms the right to assume office despite the constitutional ban on religious tests.

Rarely denounced by the mainstream, this stunning anti-atheist discrimination is egged on by Christian conservatives who stridently — and uncivilly — declare that the lack of godly faith is detrimental to society, rendering nonbelievers intrinsically suspect and second-class citizens.

Continues @ http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-do-americans-still-dislike-atheists/2011/02/18/AFqgnwGF_story.html.

Certainly does not paint a rosy picture for those who insist that religion is some sort of force for good. If anything, the data seems to indicate the exact opposite. Now there is a large argument to make about correlation and causation. However, with the US being the only outlier in the data, things are hard to line up if you want to remain in the area of countries that are considered first world. Although, I think if you open up the bin, and compare nations that do not rank so high in economic and technological advancement, it would still look very bad for religiosity and societal well being.

Another telling bit of data would be the breakdown of how each state within the United States ranks. Again, if you look at the more secular states, and they are much better off than the more religious states. Not only by crime statistics, but by the "seven deadly sins" aggregates! Kansas State University has created this amazing map of sin by plotting per-capita statistics on things like violent crime (wrath) , STDs (lust) and gluttony (fast food joints).

In other words,not only are religious people deluded, they are dangerous hypocrites. But like I said, "No shit, Sherlock!"

Swirling Thoughts

2011-05-03T21:02:00.000-04:00

Nothing in particular to say, but considering how momentous the past few days have been, I wanted to make sure that I at least posted something. Everyone is talking about it, and I may as well add my two cents into the conversation. While on a rational and humanist level, celebrating the death of any human seems to strike me as a bit odd, I must side with Clarence Darrow when he said: "I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction."

Osama bin Laden was about as despicable a human being as they come. Right up there with the Pope for the amount of suffering that has been imparted on humanity as far as modern living humans go. Now, while I am a fan of the humanist view of things, I can't help but be reminded that human beings are at their heart, jerks. Just look at people celebrating in the streets here in the US at the death of Osama bin Laden, yet we decry the celebrations of those opposed to our ideology when they celebrated the 9/11 attacks? Of course, people will rationalize the differences, and say we are nothing like those barbarians. I contend we are very much like them. I only happen to believe that our way of life and approach to human rights is much, much better than theirs. Sort of like how Sam Harris addressed the moral landscape. But don't think for one moment that we are somehow, as individuals, better than them, or anyone else! That's how most of these stupid fights get started...

Next time they show a documentary on National Geographic, look for the one where the two chimpanzee tribes go to war with each other. Look really closely at their behaviour and actions. Now tell me if you can really spot any difference between them, and us? Not at a fundamental level. Sure we use guns, they use sticks, but at its heart, there is no fundamental difference.

Also, I was contemplating the lack of funding for the Allen Telescope Array. Some people contend that the whole idea of SETI is silly. As much as I love SETI, I am going to go out on a limb and predict that we won’t find any intelligent life out there using our current technology*. As even our own technology is indicating, we are becoming less and less detectable by going to compressed digital formats, and using technology like fiber optics. Even the Areciebo Observatory would have a hard time detecting our civilization from the obit of Pluto.

That said, the first Model T didn’t go 55 MPH. The wright flier never broke Mach 1. Freedom 7 never got near the moon.

So the point is? Sometimes things are worth doing for the journey, and perhaps what they teach us about ourselves in the process. I think too often we get caught up in what is going on to remember that bit. As humans, while we are basically jerks (because of that evolved structure of our brains) we also have the intelligence to reach beyond that. So keep that in mind as we go about our brutal lives here on this small planet and celebrate the death of a horrible member of our species.

*That said, given what we know of chemistry, physics, biology, etc, I do predict that we will answer the question in the future, and I also predict that the answer will be that we are not alone.

SETI Funding and Carl Sagan

2011-04-28T19:25:00.000-04:00

Just read a couple of blog entry posts from Dr. Phil Plait (aka The Bad Astronomer) that I wanted to share.

First of all, SETI is not getting any funding, and they need to raise money, or shut down the Allen Telescope Array. Now I know that a lot of folks may not agree with the stated purpose of SETI, but one thing that they are doing that actually impacts you and many other people is signal processing. Just because of this technology, your access to the EM spectrum is increased for applications like cell phones and WiFi. Just based on that, you ought to donate to the cause. Or as Dr. Plait says:

But that won’t happen for a while at least. The array costs about $2.5 million per year to run, and that money simply isn’t coming in; there are several funding agencies — including the eponymous Paul Allen — but as the SETI press release puts it:
In an April 22, 2011 email (PDF) to Allen Telescope Array stakeholder level donors, SETI Institute CEO Tom Pierson described in detail the recent decision by U.C. Berkeley, our partner in the Array, to reduce operations of the Hat Creek Radio Observatory (and thus the Allen Telescope Array) to a hibernation state effective this month. NSF University Radio Observatory funding to Berkeley for HCRO operations has been reduced to approximately one-tenth of its former level and, concurrently, growing State of California budget shortfalls have severely reduced the amount of state funds available for support of the HCRO site.
Knowing my readers, some of you will want to help. SETI has a donation page. I talked with Seth yesterday and he told me "every little bit helps".
And hey, if you happen to know a millionaire who happens to be able to look a little bit beyond the next day or two of market fluctuations, you know where to send them.

And then we have this movie from the greatest science communicator of all, Carl Sagan:

How did everyone else miss this?

2011-04-24T12:05:00.000-04:00

So today is the Jewish Zombie day. People will celebrate it by observing the pagan rituals and holidays of Ishtar and Oaester, all the while thinking they are observing xtian rituals... How is it that these events were missed my everyone else? If the passage quoted in the snarky picture really happened, why is it that no one noticed? Yet one more example of how really fucked up this fairy tale is...

The total lack of evidence has been discussed quite a few times. And the total lack of historical reference only backs up the initial statement I made about all the historians seemingly missing major events like this.

Again, you are free to believe whatever crazy shit you want to. It's not my place to get into it if you are happy with it. Just remember though that as soon as you put it out there for criticism, your fairy tales will get the mocking they so richly deserve. So do us all a favour, don't get all righteous about your jewish zombie. We don't want to hear the "good news" because it's just plan silly and it makes us feel bad for you to see you behave in such an obviously brain damaged way. Instead, respect our rights to follow our hearts, and we'll leave you to your devices as well.

And if you happen to see any zombies today, remember that the only way to deal with them is by a headshot. Apparently, according to your myth, some Roman muffed the handling of his zombie, only stabbed him in the side, and now his zombie is responsible for some fucked up cult that is a convenient excuse for bigotry, hate, and downright idiotic beliefs... And speaking of idiotic beliefs, this next picture just seems to sum up how silly things are if you think about the need for jebus and all that...

Where I invent a new drink for Hubble

2011-04-20T16:26:00.000-04:00

Friday is the 21st anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space telescope. Perhaps one of the best inventions of mankind. On the Bad Astronomy blog, I joked about coming up with a drink to celebrate this significant "birthday" and this is what I came up with:

151 Rum floated on top (to make you blind at first?)
OJ (Launched from the Cape, FL)
Grenadine (Red Shift)
Vodka (OJ and Vodka is a screwdriver signifying all the repairs)

Each ingredient has a "theme" related to Hubble and the launch. What would your suggestions be?

Lyrid Meteor Shower Peaks April 22

2011-04-19T16:28:00.000-04:00

I just found this post over at the JREF Forums:

The annual Lyrid Meteor Shower is expected to reach its worldwide peak on 2011 APR 22 at 19 hr UT. The shower actually runs from about APR 16 through APR 26. For any particular locality observation is generally best between local midnight and dawn. A full and then waning gibbous Moon may provide a bit of a hindrance.

For a single observer the Lyrids produce roughly ten meteors per hour with a typical magnitude of +2, which is similar to the North Star (Polaris). However “Lyrid Fireballs” get bright enough to cause shadows and leave smoky trails. And occasionally as in 1982 up to 90 meteors are seen per hour.

The Lyrids are particles from Comet Thatcher and have a radiant in the constellation Lyra. The radiant is the point toward which the meteors’ tails point, but they can be seen anywhere in the sky.

In case you don't like to wait to find out about these events, and want to plan your sky viewing activities (and who doesn't?), the poster also provided this wonderful link: http://www.curtrenz.com/asteroids01.html It's a table that lays out all the meteor showers from now until the end of 2020 (with moon phases for even more planning). He has several other interesting astronomical topics on his page as well.

Happy sky gazing!

Bad Universe! Tell your friends.

2011-04-18T09:55:00.000-04:00

I have often lamented about the decline of actual science programming on those TV channels that pruport to air that sort of stuff. For a fun and accessible program, I recommend Dr. Phil Plait's Bad Universe. It will air on the Discovery Channel tomorrow, April 19, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern (US) time (check local listings). The reason I am encouraging people to watch it, DVR it, or just get excited about it is because the series has not (as far as we know) been picked up by the network.

I can't promise he won't say "Holy Haleakala" a million times, but these are great shows based on his book "Death From The Skies". (Yes, I have my signed copy of that book!) Fun and engaging science! Something we all need.

The Only Home We've Ever Known

2011-04-13T16:51:00.001-04:00

Just watch this. That is all.

This change in perspective brought to you by reality and Carl Sagan.

Hat tip to The Perplexed Observer.

50 years ago

2011-04-12T09:20:00.002-04:00

Today is the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin making it to space. This was the first tentative steps by Homo Sapiens to become a space faring species. We are still in the baby steps phase of our space faring (and sadly it seems that we will remain in the baby step phase for quite some time).

In celebration, Google has a great Google Image. There is also a great film called First Orbit that is out. Go to the First Orbit page and give it a look.

Tim Minchin: Storm!

2011-04-09T16:59:00.007-04:00

I figured that since I am going to get to see Tim Minchin in Boston for my birthday, I would popularize his brilliant wit a bit. Apparently he has released a video to his beat poem "Storm". If you don't watch this, and listen to it, you are dead to me.

Preventable Diseases Making News (Weapon Grade Stupid)

2011-04-08T08:54:00.003-04:00

I was going to put this up over at Facts, not Fantasy, but realized that I was getting rather hot under the collar, and I wanted to really let loose on these fucking assholes that want to have people dies from perfectly preventable diseases. Oh sure, they will say they don't want people to die, and they are only doing what they think is best... Well, shut the fuck up, and do what is right. Your actions speak louder than your empty, hypocritical words ever will. You don't trust "big pharma" or doctors, or any of that fancy science, until you really need it! Not that I am one to wish ill on people, but I seriously hope that every single anti-vaxer pro-diseaser that has ever uttered the words "vaccines cause autism" or any of the other lies they spread is shown dramatically what it means to use evidence based medicine. I want to see you all crawling on your knees to a real hospital! All your "alternative-medicine" crap is just that, crap. If it actually worked, it wouldn't be "alternative", it would actually be medicine...

Anyway, on to numerous stories about people getting sick because too many assholes are being irresponsible and just giant douche-nozzles...

1.) Houston has seen it's first case of measles in 6 years. The victim is an 11 month old baby. She caught it while traveling. Hope there are no complications from this.

2.) There has been an outbreak of pertussis in a northern Virginia school. As a matter of fact, it was severe enough to close the school. The thing with pertussis is that while whooping cough sucks for a strong healthy adult, it will kill people. It already has killed numerous people in the US, and I am always reminded of the Dana McCaffery tragedy. While this is in a High School, who knows what infants the kids may come in contact with while babysitting or just visiting with friends and family. I think the school has taken the right course of action.

3.) There is an outbreak in Minnesota. This I am pretty sure can be traced directly to the doorstep of the anti-vax pro-disease fuckwads...

4.) Canada is not immune to the stupid either. They are dealing with a mumps outbreak... What the fuck? I thought this disease was pretty much eradicated.

5.) Vaccine Times has even more things to report on. I am pretty sure that if you are reality based, this shit will make you sick... I'll just quote a small portion, you need to go to that page to read all the stuff there...

Six-week-old boy clinging to life – A 6-week-old Australian infant is clinging to life after being infected with whooping cough. The infant was too young to be vaccinated and although his parents were vaccinated, he still contracted the disease. His mom pleads with adults to get vaccinated:
“Get everyone vaccinated,” she said.
“It’s such an outbreak at the moment, people in their 20s don’t realise that they need another vaccination.
“It could have been someone in their 20s or 30s or someone older that gave my son this illness.
89 children dead of the flu in the US – No commentary is needed. As reported by the CDC Influenza Season Week 12 ending March 26, 2011 Surveillance report.

2,000 sick and 5 dead of measles in the Philippines – A measles outbreak in the Philippines has sickened 2,000 and killed 5 in the first quarter of 2011 (Jan-Mar 2011). To address this problem, the Department of Health has launched a month-long nationwide vaccination campaign targeting children aged 9 months up to 8 years old, hoping to stop the rising incidence of measles cases, which reached 6,000 in 2010. The campaign will cover 17 million children nationwide and targets to achieve a measles-free Philippines by 2012.

6.) I am very glad to at least hear about Seth Mnookin, who wrote "The Panic Virus" an exposé of the antivax movement, has posted his thoughts on these recent news stories. At least there is someone else out there that is with the facts instead of fantasy. I'm sorry, reality has a scientific bias. If you want to deny that, you can just fuck off.

This is what people have been afraid of – these little outbreaks of diseases that show the holes that exist in herd immunity. In fact, a lot of the anti-vaxers have been saying that “if herd immunity is such a big deal, why aren’t we seeing outbreaks in low-vax areas” – well, morons, guess what – you got your wish.

If you look at the Roanoke & MN outbreaks, they occurred exactly where we would expect them to be – in low vaccination areas / populations.

Not being vaccinated is equivalent to a business emitting pollution, or a person driving under the influence of alcohol — you raise the chance that those around you will suffer ill effects. Government has a role in coercing individuals who would otherwise inflict costs on others.

Thanks a lot you idiots. You have reached a level of weapon grade stupid with this shit...

LHC Tour

2011-03-19T11:05:00.001-04:00

I found this most cool video that lets you do an interactive tour of the LHC. You move the mouse around and see different things at the site. If you hit one of the arrows, you get a different view. You can also go to a full size web page of this same thing I am embedding, but the controls were a little more screwy in that one, but it's a really cool sight.

CERN CMS 4 in Europe

Of course, most idiot Americans think of this bullshit when they think of the LHC... Not that people are generally dumb, but they sure as hell are uneducated... No wonder this was built in Europe, all the people with an actual education to do this work would have a shorter commute.

Georneys Rundown On Nuclear Powerplants (Conversations with an ACTUAL Nuclear Engineer!)

2011-03-18T16:03:00.029-04:00

A lady that I go to Granite State Skeptics with is married to a Nuclear Engineer that actually worked at a nuclear powerplant. A real live one! Not one of those TV talking heads. Their daughter has a blog called Georneys (Geology and Journeys combined, very clever). She has been having a series of conversations with her dad, and has been putting them up on the net, as well as the transcripts.

I encourage you to go to her blog and read up. It's a whole lot better than what any news organization will give you. Keep in mind, her dad is a nuclear engineer, and he has worked in a real nuclear power plant, but he's not actually on site. There are limitations. Anyway, here is a list of links that she has up so far, I highly recommend that you follow this blog:

I am also going to highlight a couple other posts she made that are also worthwhile reading. This lade actually knows her Geology, and she is world traveled!

How Can christians take advantage of such suffering?

2011-03-17T21:16:00.037-04:00

Just read a blog post by Social IQ Lady that sort of struck home. It just seems that theitards want to take this (or any natural disaster) as some sort of warning that it isn't. Now, there was a young lady that was attempting to pull a Poe on us, and her actions are equally as despicable. Especially since it is nearly inevitable that the theitards will oblige us in no time at all. Of course, it's all in their heads (like their entire religion).

What I can't understand is that this gawd idiot can only make earthquakes happen where there is a natural mechanism for said earthquakes... And what is with this asshole's aim? He wipes out a bunch of people, to include children, and even a few of his own followers for good measure. But then a place like Mecca has stood unmolested since it was set up. Or the pedophiles of the world seem to walk around without any divine retribution (especially the institution that systematically raped children and protected the priests...). Or what about the Haiti quake? 96% of that country is godbotherers, yet they get taken out (again, by an earthquake that only happened at an already naturally occurring fault). This has nothing to do with how people act or behave. Nor does it have anything to do with some petty, angry, sociopathic lunatic in the sky. Earthquakes happen all the time. Any pattern or connection is all in your head...

And as the Scientific American article mention, these people are just looking for signs to prop up their weak and paltry belief system. They will of course cherrypick with the best of them. I bet anyone could do it.

Let's see...
Christianity takes root in Jerusalem = the Romans sack Jerusalem
Christianity takes root in the roman empire = The roman emperors go mad and the Vesuvius erupts
Christianity is repressed = the roman empire flourishes
Christianity becomes the state religion = Plagues, famines and instability destroy the roman empire
Christianity conquers Europe = Plague after plague ravages the continent
Europe becomes more secular and turns towards antiquity = Europe conquers the world
King james bible is written = great plague and great fire of London follow within a few decades.
The puritans leave britain = Britain becomes the biggest empire of the world
The USA leaves its religious roots behind = The USA trumps the british empire
The religious right becomes more vocal in the USA = Mount st Helens erupts
The religious right becomes even more influential = The economy collapses and massive hurricanes hit the country

Clearly this is an indication that a higher power exists and punishes nations that allow christians to gain the upper hand.

Well that, or I'm cherrypicking data and fitting that to what I want to show.

Oh, just thought of another one: Gawd so loved Islam that he put the Islamic people on top of the land with the most critical natural resources -- oil. Gawd wants all christian people to bow down to Islam and be dependent on the holy oil that he gave the Arabs control of.

See it's easy...

Just do me a favour. Instead of looking for a meaning, or even praying for anyone, go to a charity site and donate money. Here is part of the list from NBC News:

The American Red Cross. Using your cell phone, you can text-message donations of $10 to the agency. Text the letters REDCROSS to 90999 to make the $10 donation, or visit the organization's website.
The International Medical Corps is putting together relief teams, as well as supplies. The organization is in "contact with partners in Japan and other affected countries to assess needs and coordinate our activities,” said Nancy Aossey, IMC president, on its website. You can donate here. Or, you can text MED to 80888 to donate $10 to emergency relief efforts.
Doctors Without Borders, an international group, already has teams working in Japan. The groups notes it is "drawing on unrestricted donations" given to it to fund its efforts, and "we are not accepting donations specifically earmarked for the recovery efforts in Japan. We greatly appreciate your generosity and encourage your support of our work. We will continue to post updates on our homepage, Facebook and Twitter as new information becomes available." To donate, call 1-888-392-0392.
Habitat for Humanity; donations accepted at website, or phone donations can be made by calling 1-800-HABITAT.
The U.S. Fund for UNICEF is raising funds to help children in Japan. Donations accepted at website, or by calling 1-800-367-5437.
AmeriCares has dispatched a disaster relief expert to the region to assess the health care needs and is prepared to send medicines, medical supplies and humanitarian aid as necessary. Phone number for donations: 203-658-9500.
International Rescue Committee, based in New York; Phone donations to: 1-877-733-8433. The organization is "dispatching IRC relief experts from our Thailand program to Japan to see how we can assist Japanese authorities in responding to the earthquake/tsunami disaster. We recognize Japan’s significant emergency response expertise, but will offer direct technical assistance and other emergency support."
Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, based in San Dimas, Calif., "has activated its Disaster Coordination Center in Tokyo ... Right now, Tzu Chi offices in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan sustained minor damages," but the two offices are open as service centers. To donate by phone, call 1-888-989-8244.

Comments:	8 pages, 1 figure
Subjects:	Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO); General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
Cite as:	arXiv:1104.3796v1 [astro-ph.CO]