how much time?

perhaps you remember this video where anti-choicers stammered to answer the question of, if abortion were illegal, what the punishment should be for women (my post here). yesterday feministing posted this video from the republican presidential candidate debates with the same question:

allan gregg interviews richard dawkins

a superior interview with richard dawkins:

click pic to source
via RD

the star trek apartment

more on 24th century interior design

pat condell on debating dogma

pat condell has made a lot of great videos but this one, it appears, expresses a great many people, judging by the linking and embedding it's received.

telling the green-eyed monster to go jump in the lake

the current question on on faith is: 'from clinton to craig, from swaggart to paulk, america seems obsessed with sex scandals. is sex outside of marriage a sin? is it a public matter? is it forgivable?'

richard dawkins contributes banishing the green-eyed monster.

i'm so much in agreement with this essay that i'd love to repost it whole but i'll limit myself to a few representative bits:

'it is the mark of the religious mind that it cares more about private than public morality.'

and

'just as we rise above nature when we spend time writing a book or a symphony rather than devoting our time to sowing our selfish genes and fighting our rivals, so mightn't we rise above nature when tempted by the vice of sexual jealousy?'

and also

'i'm not denying the power of sexual jealousy. it is ubiquitous if not universal. i’m just wondering aloud why we all accept it so readily, without even thinking about it. and why don't we all admire – as i increasingly do -- those rare free spirits confident enough to rise above jealousy, stop fretting about who is “cheating on” whom, and tell the green-eyed monster to go jump in the lake?'

the whole essay here, via RD.

spiral-tuality vi

holiday wishes from the hubble space telescope: spiral galaxy M74


click pic to source
'resembling festive lights on a holiday wreath, this NASA/ESA hubble space telescope image of the nearby spiral galaxy M74 is an iconic reminder of the impending season. bright knots of glowing gas light up the spiral arms, indicating a rich environment of star formation. M74 is located roughly 32 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation pisces, the fish. the image is a composite of advanced camera for surveys' data taken in 2003 and 2005.'

and phil plait gets eloquent.

500 blogs

mojoey's atheist blogroll reached 500 voices (or groups of) on tuesday. and it's still growing...
congratulations to him and to all participating bloggers.

the ape that got lucky

at everything is pointless

'resistence is futile'

keeps ringing in my ears.

this week's 'submissions'

200 lashes
teddy bears
thought crime
living under threat

the age of our world made easy

via answers in genesis BUSTED

christmas is pain

by roy zimmerman

christopher hitchens - milênio

unfortunately i don't understand spanish* but the interview is in english.



*portuguese as i've been corrected by my anonymous friend.

cool designs

click over to scientia natura for some really cool designs.

proof positive

via sandwalk

the god of eth and the problem of good

is god willing to prevent goodness, but not able? then he is not omnipotent.
is he able, but not willing? then he is benevolent.
is he both able and willing? then whence cometh good?
is he neither able nor willing? then why call him god?
- ethian philosopher

'....
ooblefrip: but god is, by definition, all-evil.

gizimoth: but why define god that way? why not suppose, instead, that god is neither good nor evil? or why not suppose he is all-good?
(booblefrip thinks gizimoth has gone too far.)

booblefrip: what a bizarre suggestion. it's obvious our creator is very clearly evil! take a look around you! witness the horrendous suffering he inflicts upon us. the floods. the ethquakes. cancer. the vile, rotting stench of god's creation is overwhelming!

gizimoth: yes, our creator may do some evil. but it's not clear he's all-evil, is it? it's certainly not obvious that his wickedness is infinite, that his malice and cruelty know no bounds. you're deliberately ignoring a famous argument against the existence of god--the problem of good.

booblefrip: i'm familiar with the problem of good--we theologians of eth have been debating it for centuries. but it's not fatal to belief in god.

gizimoth: really? let's see. the problem of good, as you know, is essentially very simple. if the universe was designed by an all-powerful, all-evil god, then why is there so much good in the world?

booblefrip: that's the supposed problem, yes.

gizimoth: why, for example, does god allow at least some people to live out happy, contented, and fulfilled lives? why doesn't he torture them instead? if god is all-powerful, he certainly could torture them, couldn't he?

booblefrip: well, yes, he could.

gizimoth: in fact, he could make their lives utterly miserable. and we know that, since he is also supremely evil, he must want them to suffer. yet, he gives some people every consideration. why? it makes no sense, does it?

booblefrip: perhaps not at first sight, no.

...'

evil lurks here, facilitated by stephen law.

the making of morality

time examines what makes us moral:

'.....
where do those intuitions come from? and why are we so inconsistent about following where they lead us? scientists can't yet answer those questions, but that hasn't stopped them from looking. brain scans are providing clues. animal studies are providing more. investigations of tribal behavior are providing still more. none of this research may make us behave better, not right away at least. but all of it can help us understand ourselves—a small step up from savagery perhaps, but an important one.
....'

do you dare test yourself on the morality quiz?

pullman pulled

click pic to source at amazon

via ctv.ca:

'the centre for inquiry and the canadian secular alliance is calling an ontario school board's decision to remove a children's book from its library shelves, "an overt example of the discrimination against atheists by the religious."

the halton catholic district school board ordered "the golden compass" to be removed from library shelves at dozens of schools after receiving a request for review from a member of the community.'

the rest here

and pz myers' reply, making libraries safe havens for the ignorant once again.

obviously i'm curious to read the book -- and will definitely see the film.

jane goodall in beijing

yesterday i was thrilled to attend a thanksgiving dinner with jane goodall and the jane goodall institute china, roots & shoots environmental education program.



this extraordinary woman greets her friends in the language of chimpanzees and proceeds to tell amazing stories of her experiences -- stories that help us connect humanity with the species she's come to know so well, ultimately bonding our consciousness to the rest of nature.





i have no personal experience with the roots & shoots program, but i saw children speak with her, intelligently and as equals. hopefully the experiences children have through these activities will last a lifetime, helping to forge a positive and hopeful future.



in my copy of harvest for hope: a guide to mindful eating, she signed, together we can change all this.



the jane goodall institute
the jane goodall institute in china, roots & shoots environmental education program

game trek

post-thanksgiving-day thanks to the trek movie report for its intrepid trek reporting and for gethering these fun clips.

more holofonia!

if you liked the 3D sound of the virtual barbershop, check out these new examples posted by mark at the darwinian remiix, armed with earphones.

goddiditity

pz myers posted: creationist crooks pilfer harvard's work

the original


the narrated version:


and s.a. smith blew the whistle on DI fellows-- expelled for plagiarism. this is the video as part of a talk, horribly mutilated in narration:


EDIT: the video without narration, with music, can be viewed here.

earth's true colors

click pic to source
'after its closest approach to earth, rosetta looked back and took a number of images using the osiris narrow angle camera (NAC). this particular image was acquired 15 november 2007 at 03:30 CET.'

this and more at the european space agency.

don't mention it

click to jesus&mo

hard-wired beauty

'is art beautiful because we are taught so, or are notions of beauty hard-wired into the brain?

when people were shown pictures of sculptures in a new study, brain scans suggest they judged beauty by at least partly hard-wired standards.

researchers in italy showed volunteers original and distorted images of classical and renaissance sculptures. the scientists picked 14 volunteers with no experience in art theory to try to see what role pure biology had to do with judging art.'

it's on livescience

thank goodness 2007

i've had difficult times when i was amazed how i got through every single day. this essay has been especially important to me. it's simple but clear and cuts through confusion. even though i posted it around last year's thanksgiving, i want to remind people to thank goodness.

thank goodness not god on thanksgiving by daniel c. dennett

'when i gaze in wonder at a starry sky, or the waves crashing on the granite shores of maine, i am not just thrilled to be alive on this wonderful planet; i am grateful. but to whom?

there is no person who created the universe, or the planet, or the biosphere, so there is really nobody to thank for that.

(a god who is not a person is not an appropriate recipient of thanks. or should we thank the law of gravity and the second law of thermodynamics for all they make possible? i don’t think they care, do you?)

but there is a suitably responsible cause of my health, my security, my freedom from want and from fear, and it is composed of, and the achievement of, persons. i can thank goodness–the wonderful fabric of excellence created by individuals working together in human civilization to make this planet a better place.

i can thank the creators–literally, not figuratively or symbolically--of a bounty of goods and services, arts and sciences, government and justice.

and instead of trying to repay this debt with burnt offerings, or prayers, or expensive ceremonies, i can repay it in kind, by dedicating myself to trying to add to the stock of goodness in the future, for the benefit of others. we nonbelievers have no difficulty with thanksgiving; we just Eliminate the Middleman and give thanks directly to the real, ongoing, human project of making the world safer and better for everyone.'

genii

rare moon

'the next time you take a moonlit stroll, or admire a full, bright-white moon looming in the night sky, you might count yourself lucky. new observations from nasa's spitzer space telescope suggest that moons like earth's - that formed out of tremendous collisions - are uncommon in the universe, arising at most in only 5 to 10 percent of planetary systems.

"when a moon forms from a violent collision, dust should be blasted everywhere," said nadya gorlova of the university of florida, gainesville, lead author of a new study appearing nov. 20 in the astrophysical journal. "if there were lots of moons forming, we would have seen dust around lots of stars - but we didn't."'

read the rest at JPL

help protect ayaan hirsi ali

if you were thinking of donating to the protection of ayaan hirsi ali but were still undecided, you may want to visit sam harris' FAQ about the ayaan hirsi ali security trust.
read it even if you weren't already thinking of donating.

aliens among us

are we alone in the universe? did life arise only on earth as a fluke? or is life inevitable and present everywhere? if life is probable, could it be that it has arisen independently several times on our planet?

scientists are now searching for alien life on the most earth-like planet we know of: earth.

‘no planet is more earth-like than earth itself, so if life does emerge readily under terrestrial conditions, then perhaps it formed many times on our home planet. to pursue this tantalizing possibility, scientists have begun searching deserts, lakes and caverns for evidence of “alien” life-forms—organisms that would differ fundamentally from all known living creatures because they arose independently. most likely, such organisms would be microscopic, so researchers are devising tests to identify exotic microbes that could be living among us.’

read this fascinating article on scientific american.
more /. goodness.

biological alchemy

'in an unprecedented feat of biological alchemy, researchers have turned human skin cells into stem cells that hold the same medical promise as controversial embryonic stem cells.

two teams of researchers -- one led by kyoto university's shinya yamanaka, the other by the university of wisconsin's junying yu -- used a virus to add four new genes to skin cells. thus transformed, the reprogrammed cells became capable of changing into nearly any cell type in the human body. embryonic stem cells also have this ability, and may someday be used to cure degenerative diseases, grow new organs and even replace limbs.

"it's a new era for stem cells," said robert lanza, chief science officer of advanced cell technologies, a cloning company in california. "it's the holy grail. it's like turning lead into gold."'

read about it on wired, at least!
located via /.

divine cranberry sauce

the stubborn curmudgeon presents alister mcgrath's secret recipe for a divine cranberry sauce.
do not miss other culinary delights featured on his blog.

hitchens on romney's mormonism

from the fox news program 'your world with neil cavuto'



via RD

find your god

reverend e's list of 2843 gods by culture, in alphabetical order.
who'd he miss?

free holiday e-cards

i'm not much of a card-sender, but i might send an e-card, if it's done up nice:


click pic for this and more

kirk vs jesus

excerpt: why james t. kirk is cooler than jesus christ
guess who wins.

via afterfaith.com

a notable interview with christopher hitchens

click pic to video source
'christopher hitchens is a contrarian and author. he’s the contributing editor at vanity fair and slate, and this past year he released his controversial book god is not great: how religion poisons everything.
this interview took place in a shul (a place of prayer for jews) and it is customary for even non-believers to wear a yarmulke on the premises.'

selective skepticism

o'reilly needs evidence -- with shirley maclaine:


but the same o'reilly doesn't need evidence -- with richard dawkins:


via atheoi.org

the second annual carl sagan memorial blog-a-thon

a year ago we had the extraordinary experience of the carl sagan memorial blog-a-thon. joel schlosberg's marvelous incentive resulted in an amazing and inspiring collective worldwide celebration of carl sagan and his legacy.

well, it's that time of year again and joel just officially announced the second annual carl sagan memorial blog-a-thon! please visit his blog for more information and details and consider contributing your thoughts.

m.c. mechanic

a contemporary take on my favorite artist!

mc mechanic - hand fixing hand - homage to mc escher
by shane willis - visit his page for more stunning images.
used with permission

found on boingboing

november 17th 1973

voodoo iii, too

two days after the georgia rain dance, a storm hits, blasting the roof off a church and injuring nine. the rain's thirstily soaked up by a parched soil but is left unquenched.

maybe the prayers needed more careful wording.

spotlight on the FSM

pastafarianism will be the focus of evolutionary controversy and a side of pasta: the flying spaghetti monster and the subversive function of religious parody at the american academy of religion's annual meeting.

via comcast:

'when some of the world's leading religious scholars gather in san diego this weekend, pasta will be on the intellectual menu. they'll be talking about a satirical pseudo-deity called the flying spaghetti monster, whose growing pop culture fame gets laughs but also raises serious questions about the essence of religion.'
and

'the tale of the flying spaghetti monster and its followers cuts to the heart of the one of the thorniest questions in religious studies: what defines a religion? does it require a genuine theological belief? or simply a set of rituals and a community joining together as a way of signaling their cultural alliances to others?

in short, is an anti-religion like flying spaghetti monsterism actually a religion?'

for background, here's the open letter by bobby henderson to the kansas school board that started it all:

'i am writing you with much concern after having read of your hearing to decide whether the alternative theory of intelligent design should be taught along with the theory of evolution. i think we can all agree that it is important for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves the theory that makes the most sense to them. i am concerned, however, that students will only hear one theory of intelligent design.

let us remember that there are multiple theories of intelligent design. i and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a flying spaghetti monster. it was he who created all that we see and all that we feel. we feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by him.

it is for this reason that i’m writing you today, to formally request that this alternative theory be taught in your schools, along with the other two theories. in fact, i will go so far as to say, if you do not agree to do this, we will be forced to proceed with legal action. i’m sure you see where we are coming from. if the intelligent design theory is not based on faith, but instead another scientific theory, as is claimed, then you must also allow our theory to be taught, as it is also based on science, not on faith.'

read the rest here.

in the meantime, prepare for the holiday season with this nifty ornament:


click to source


---------------------
church of the flying spaghetti monster
the american academy of religion

neil degrasse tyson on point of inquiry

another great interview with the stunning neil degrasse tyson:


like the pic? click to source
'in this conversation with d.j. grothe, neil degrasse tyson examines various approaches to informal science education, his experiences teaching science through pop-culture media outlets, and controversies regarding science popularization. he explains his views on the implications of science for religious belief, questioning the strategy of science educators who seem to equate science and atheism. he also recounts the direct influence of carl sagan on his professional development.'

bytheway, do not miss his carl sagan story towards the end.

secular believers

via RD

χαζομαϊμούδες*

hazomamades* (dumb mommies) and hazobabades* (dumb daddies) will dote on their kids. a smile from one's infant reduces (most) parents (ok, me too) to a bowl of jelly. but i have no patience for baby-talk and coochi-coo-ing -- i think you should talk to babies in normal (but loving) words and tones. am i wrong?

it looks like we apes may have persisted in this (highly irritating) drivel since before some of us turned sapient. behold the behavior of a hazomaimou* (dumb monkey):

'rhesus monkey females, according to jessica whitham of the brookfield zoo in chicago, also make fools of themselves over babies.'

and

'around babies, females also make a call called a girney, a whining sound that apparently goes well with a grunt.

sounding like wheezing, puffing calliopes, females approach the mother or the baby. although they look rather scary in their excitement, the noises apparently signal, "i'm no threat. i won’t hurt the baby."

sometimes the females move in and touch or grab the baby, or they groom the mother who might be higher ranking and, under different circumstances, less tolerant.

other times they grunt and girney when babies wander away from their mothers, which means they are directing the calls to babies alone.'

possiblly proven wrong in my judgemental attitude by livescience.

* this blog has the added advantage of teaching you modern greek.

nigersaurus on national geographic

thanks, david, for this video on nigersaurus on national geographic:

rap excels

rap represented in mathematical charts and graphs:


you'll just have to click to enlarge
lots, lots more here.
enlightened by retrospectacle.

rosetta: osiris’ view of earth by night

click pic to source

'this striking composite of earth by night shows the illuminated crescent over antarctica and cities of the northern hemisphere. the images were acquired with the osiris wide angle camera (wac) during rosetta’s second earth swing-by on 13 november.'

more on the european space agency.

nigersaurus

a dinosaur that vacuumed up food? usa today describes this extremely peculiar dinosaur as having hundreds of tiny, ever-replaceable teeth and backbone of paper-thin vertebrae.

project exploration has an extensive feature on nigersaurus:


'the skeleton of nigersaurus was discovered in the sahara in 1997 by a team led by dr. paul sereno. this bizarre-looking, long-necked plant-eating dinosaur is named nigersaurus taqueti in honor of the country in which it was found (niger) and a french paleontologist, dr. philippe taquet, who led the first fossil expeditions to niger in the 1960s.'

and

'its jaw bones were packed with more than 500 tiny teeth. as teeth wore down, they were replaced by a new ones! with its squared muzzle and crane-like neck, nigersaurus cropped mouthfuls of soft plants close to the ground—probably ferns and horsetails.'


lots more to read about on project exploration.

EDIT: video here.

circling satellites

click pic to source
saturn looks on as tethys, pandora and mimas round the rings.

there's always a lovely daily image to see at ciclops.

judgement day online!

judgement day: intelligent design on trial is now online...

click pic to source
complete with transcripts

holmes vs the sun

'a comet that has delighted backyard astronomers in recent weeks after an unexpected eruption has now grown larger than the sun.

the sun remains by far the most massive object in the solar system, with an extended influence of particles that reaches all the planets. but the comparatively tiny comet holmes has released so much gas and dust that its extended atmosphere, or coma, is larger than the diameter of the sun. the comparison is clear in a new image.

"it continues to expand and is now the largest single object in the solar system," according to astronomers at the university of hawaii.'

read about it on livescience.

eloquent susan sackett

click pic to source
via eloquent atheist, an interview with susan sackett. a production associate and writer for star trek and star trek: the next generation, assistant to gene roddenberry, author and humanist extraordinaire, susan discusses, among many things, how her association with roddenberry and star trek influenced her worldview:

'i adhered to a vague concept of a god until well into adulthood. it just never occurred to me to question this ingrained belief, or to give it much thought. i imagine there are millions of people out there who are in this same situation. then, in 1974, i began my association with gene roddenberry (the creator of star trek). over the 17 years i worked with him, we had many exciting and profound dialogues on philosophy, religion and the nature of life and the universe. gradually, i began to question religion and realized that there was no place for a biblical-based belief in a rational worldview, and i came to accept his humanistic concepts.

in 1989, isaac asimov, a good friend of gene’s, sent him a copy of asimov’s guide to the bible. i read it in its entirety, and was totally captivated! dr. asimov, who was then the honorary president of the AHA, sent gene more literature on humanism, which he shared with me. and i realized this was also my philosophy. after that, i joined the AHA and began attending their conferences (along with gene, up until his death in 1991).'

read the full interview here.

science as a candle in the dark

click pic to source
at LOLgod

rebranding intelligent design

intelligent design tries rebranding as PBS looks at landmark dover trial

'the dover trial was the latest in a long line of court cases involving the teaching of evolution, but it was exceptional in that it was the first case that tested the legality of teaching intelligent design in a science class. the decision at dover determined that id was unscientific and fundamentally religious. tonight, the pbs show nova will will take a look at the trial in a show that includes dramatized reenactments of courtroom scenes.

not surprisingly, the organized ID movement has not been pleased with the dover decision and has disparaged it at every opportunity (they're not fond of the nova special, either). regardless of their opinion, however, the court's ruling was decisive, and no court cases regarding id have made it to the trial stage since; dover has become an effective threat to both hasten legal settlements and changes of policy.

that's not to say that the discovery institute and other ID proponents have packed up and called it a day; instead, they seem to simply be changing tactics. recent developments indicate that the next wave of anti-evolution agitation will take a two-pronged approach. the first will be to try to foster doubt regarding evolution during high school education, while the second aims to explicitly carve a space for id proponents at the college level by pressuring for their inclusion as a form of academic freedom. we'll take a brief look at both of these developments.'

complete article here.

a dangerous delusion

before her debate with alister mcgrath at bristol university, dr. susan blackmore writes why belief in god is a dangerous delusion.


click pic to source
'tonight, at a debate at bristol university, i've been asked to propose the motion that "belief in god is a dangerous delusion". oxford theologian alister mcgrath will fight back and argue that it is not. by putting some of my thoughts up here i hope some of you may help me anticipate the flack to come, and since the thread should still be open afterwards, i can report back on what happened.

belief in god is certainly a delusion but is it dangerous? perhaps the organisers chose that word only because of the nice alliteration. perhaps they might have said "harmless" or "quaint" or even "beneficial", but no, i think they are right. belief in god is dangerous.'

the rest here.

'the portable atheist': an excerpt

from usa today, an excerpt from the portable atheist: essential readings for the nonbeliever by christopher hitchens.

the writing is as superb as we have learned to expect from hitch, but this paragraph, in particular, jumped out at me:

'believing then—as this religious objection implicitly concedes—that human life is actually worth living, one can combat one's natural pessimism by stoicism and the refusal of illusion, while embellishing the scene with any one of the following. there are the beauties of science and the extraordinary marvels of nature. there is the consolation and irony of philosophy. there are the infinite splendors of literature and poetry, not excluding the liturgical and devotional aspects of these, such as those found in john donne or george herbert. there is the grand resource of art and music and architecture, again not excluding those elements that aspire to the sublime. in all of these pursuits, any one of them enough to absorb a lifetime, there may be found a sense of awe and magnificence that does not depend at all on any invocation of the supernatural. indeed, nobody armed by art and culture and literature and philosophy is likely to be anything but bored and sickened by ghost stories, ufo tales, spiritualist experiences, or babblings from the beyond. one can appreciate and treasure the symmetry and grandeur of the ancient greek parthenon, for example, without needing any share in the cults of athena or eleusis, or the imperatives of athenian imperialism, just as one may listen to mozart or admire chartres and durham without any nostalgia for feudalism, monarchism, and the sale of indulgences. the whole concept of culture, indeed, may partly consist in discriminating between these things. religion asks us to do the opposite and to preserve the ancient dreads and prohibitions, even as we dwell amid modern architecture and modern weapons.'

does anyone else notice that hitchens has a thing for yellow...?


click pic to source
this book is so portable, it's flying over two continents, as we speak, to get to me.

via RD

cdesign proponentsists

until a video of judgement day: intelligent design on trial videos appear on the internet for the whole world to see, we will have to make do with various tidbits such as this from onegoodmove:


click pic to get to video at source
and what a luscious tidbit of transitional fossil it is.

play it again, genie: 'fish with fins and scales, birds with feathers, beaks and wings, etc.'

wake up, already!!

i can't wait for you all day....


click pic to source
living on the 'other' side of the planet is lonely, my friends... very lonely.

world sunlight map
rectangular projection here.
dugged

EDIT: here's the realtime map :

richard dawkins: growing up in the universe

watch growing up in the universe for free!
download them and watch with the children in your lives.


click pic to source

'oxford professor richard dawkins presents a series of lectures on life, the universe, and our place in it. with brilliance and clarity, dawkins unravels an educational gem that will mesmerize young and old alike. illuminating demonstrations, wildlife, virtual reality, and special guests (including douglas adams) all combine to make this collection a timeless classic.

the royal institution christmas lectures for children were founded by michael faraday in 1825, with himself as the inaugural lecturer. the 1991 lecturer was richard dawkins whose five one-hour lectures, originally televised by the bbc, are now available free online, courtesy of the richard dawkins foundation for reason and science.'

via RD

cargo cults

i'd read about cargo cults you-know-where* but i hadn't seen images until the atheist media blog posted this clip.

*the god delusion

earthrise, earthset

JAXA earth rise set HDTV image by kaguya from moon
stunning, stunning, stunning!


click pic to source


click pic to source

this is a youtube upload of the video available at JAXA:



via the planetary society

EDIT: these images seem to have sparked searches for the term pale blue dot. this note is for them to land here -- other posts can be located via my pale blue dot label.

meat&potatoes chimps

'chimpanzees prefer to dig for tubers and roots even when aboveground snacks are plentiful, a finding that bears on questions about humans' preferences for meat versus potatoes.'

and

'root and tuber chow could help to explain dental changes found in the fossil record for the earliest human ancestors. fossil evidence dating from 3 million to 4 million years ago has revealed changes in the teeth and jaws of the first hominids that indicate some fundamental change in diet that would require hardy chewing—more than is required by eating meat.

"we know that our earliest ancestors changed their diet in some fundamental way, because the teeth got bigger, especially the molar teeth, the jaws got stronger, the enamel got thicker," moore said. he added the dental change "seems to be associated with moving into savanna-like habitats." '

it's all on livescience.

christopher hitchens at FFRF

i haven't seen this yet -- it'll be interesting, at least.

children see, children do

via the meming of life

the sun's twin

from msnbc:


'somewhere out there, astronomers knew the sun had another long-lost relative aimlessly drifting through the milky way. now they've found it.

although a happy reunion is unlikely, as the star hip 56948 is about 200 light-years away, it is now considered to be the best "solar twin" out of four known candidates.'

free your mind

the atheist / agnostic blogosphere -- and some favorites of mine.



like it? spread it around.


EDIT: to make things easier for visitors, these are the two blogrolls featured in the video:
mojoey's atheist blogroll
the out campaign blogroll

happy birthday, carl

carl sagan's birthday was november 9th.

voodoo iii

what to do when the rain won't come? if you're georgia gov. sonny perdue, you pray.

the governor will host a prayer service next week to ask for relief from the drought gripping the southeast.

"the only solution is rain, and the only place we get that is from a higher power," perdue spokesman bert brantley said on wednesday.

the rest on boston.com

may i suggest a little reinforcement:


how to a rain dance:
1. never do a rain dance on a hill.
2. make sure you have a lot of room so you don't run into anything.
3. spin around in clockwise circles.
4. make up your own rain chant. it should be rythmical and easy to say fast.
5. yell your rain chant while spinning around in circles.
6. if you are trying to get rid of rain, spin in counterclockwise circles and say your chant backwards

i am curious, though -- which taxpayers are paying for this?

subsequent posts:
voodoo iii, too
previous posts:
voodoo
voodoo ii

vilayanur ramachandran: a journey to the center of your mind

in a wide-ranging talk, vilayanur ramachandran explores how brain damage can reveal the connection between the internal structures of the brain and the corresponding functions of the mind. he talks about phantom limb pain, synesthesia (when people hear color or smell sounds), and the capgras delusion, when brain-damaged people believe their closest friends and family have been replaced with imposters.



via think or thwim

comments on comments... (or 'zeus', sam? ii)

just because i wanted to add video, i'm continuing this here. thanks, genexs.

----------------

'advocating and encouraging reason is great idea. but you're not trying to convince me that "reason" would cure all our societal ills, are you? heh! if you are, then i congratulate you for having way more faith in humanity than i do. :) sadly, there's very little proof (if any) that if humans become enlightened, they'll act any differently than they have always acted.'

i don't think that humans have acted in the same way throughout our history. i don't know if all societal ills can be cured or even if we'll destroy ourselves before we can. we're animals with an enormous evolutionary history; however, even though our ability to reason is a fairly new 'trick', it's obvious that it has done more good than harm. think about what life was actually like for us humans 10,000 years ago -- or 500 or even 100. isn't our moral standard changing and improving?

we're 'way more' enlightened than our ancestors. we know so much more about our cosmos, our bodies, our origins and history and our place in the universe. isn't this enlightenment helping us reject slavery and racism and the burning of witches? of course we act differently than we used to. not all of us, and not always -- but i think there's a definite shift towards the better, with ample evidence.

to support what i'm saying, i'm embedding steven pinker's TEDtalk: a brief history of violence:


and richard dawkins on the shifting moral zeitgeist:


'in fact, that banner of "logic and reason" has been draped over some rather nasty periods in human history.'

it's important to realize who is doing the draping and for what purpose. this is a common -- but i think misguided -- accusation against atheism and reason.

are you actually saying that fascism or totalitarianism is a result of critical thinking and rationality? were these dark episodes , truly, supported by logic and reason? in what way? or were they simply purported to, then and now?

no... these phenomena are a result of dogmatic thinking -- accepting propositions without evidence or good reason. people can irrationally believe in a utopia or race superiority just as easily as in religious dogma. these beliefs are supported by little evidence and refuted by much.


'come to think of it, an obsessive belief in *non-existence* of deities might also occasionally lead one off the path of reason.'

that is true of obsessive belief of unsupported claims.

theists assume that things exist which are outside the realm of that which we can detect with our senses, directly or indirectly, using science and reason. well, then, how do we go about attaining knowledge of these things?

of course we can't know of every possible thing in the universe. scientists, in fact, don't claim to -- but theists do... and not just nebulous suspicions, but specifics as to what we can eat or how we can dress or against whom we can rub our bodies (or, as hitchens says, what bits of them we should saw off with sharp stones).

in the face of not only a complete lack of evidence, but a complete lack of any concrete indication for deities (ancient polytheistic or primitive monotheistic), xenus, leprechauns, poltergeists, fairies, etc., etc., the most intellectually honest stance is not believing in these things until we have sufficient reason to. maybe these things are not disprovable -- but are they even probable?

mary lefkowitz says, '...but the poison isn't religion; it's monotheism.' i disagree.. the poison isn't monotheism -- the poison is belief in the supernatural without evidence -- i.e. religion.

so, back to the ancient greeks -- from what i understand, without having studied them in depth, it's quite probable that theirs was a more multicultural and tolerant religion. absolutely, the greek myths have a great deal to teach us, when not taken literally, and they do lack the arrogance and narcisism present in even non-literal christianity. on the other hand, the greek gods were spiteful and petty and humanity was a minor irritant. i'm not sure if, given a choice between greek polytheism and christianity what i'd choose.

but you see, today we don't have to choose either. so can we just keep the tolerance and multiculturalism, insights and relevance to the human condition, and leave out the religion? can't we study and learn from them without espousing them?

bring back the ancient greek gods? no, let's not.

george carlin on abortion

JAXA released HDTV images of the moon

kaguya (selene): world’s first image taking of the moon by HDTV


click pic to source and more images

obviously the youtube version is lower resolution, as is the movie at the source (480X270px)



via the bad astronomer and the planetary society

jill sobule's got nothing to prove

it pays to blog about cool musicians! after embedding the video with jill sobule's theme song for julia sweeney's 'letting go of god', i received a link to jill sobule, live at joe's pub in new york, performed on july 7th and 8th, 2007!

the music's download-able for free and it's amazing and poignant and funny.

enjoy!

thank you, hardluck, for letting me know...

sam harris in rolling stone

sam harris is interviewed by robert s. boynton in the 40th anniversary issue of rolling stone.

his optimistic stance:

'how do you think this time will be remembered forty years from now?
with any luck, we’ll be embarrassed by the state of our discourse in the same way we’re embarrassed by the way our ancestors treated race during the first part of the twentieth century. we’ll be astonished by the smugness and certitude with which people not only held their religious convictions, but imposed them on others through public policy and the law. we’ll look back in wonder that the vatican was preaching against the use of condoms in the developing world, and that the united states impeded stem-cell research because some imagined that microscopic cells had human souls. forty years from now, we’ll realize that taking religion seriously was like taking astrology seriously.'

brought to you by the friendly atheist.

claiming US$1,000,000: dos and don'ts

click pic to source

10 tips for dealing with james randi: claim your million today!

**spoiler ahead**

all are useful, but i'll quote the last:
'10. do have paranormal powers. in fact, fulfilling this one suggestion lets you ignore all the others, and all but guarantees the cash will be yours. what are you waiting for?'

on wired, via BAB

faith is a crude coping ploy ...

lyrics at source

also: 'tis the season to get real

rationalize like a monkey

from the new york times:
'[this] self-delusion, the result of what’s called cognitive dissonance, has been demonstrated over and over by researchers who have come up with increasingly elaborate explanations for it. psychologists have suggested we hone our skills of rationalization in order to impress others, reaffirm our “moral integrity” and protect our “self-concept” and feeling of “global self-worth.”

if so, capuchin monkeys are a lot more complicated than we thought. or, we’re less complicated. in a paper in psychological science, researchers at yale report finding the first evidence of cognitive dissonance in monkeys and in a group in some ways even less sophisticated, 4-year-old humans.'

read the full article here.

el greco: the movie

a movie i want to see:



description of the shorter trailer:

'"an epic tale of an uncompromising artist and fighter for freedom, domenicos theotokopoulos, known to the world as «el greco». set in the 16th century, el greco's search for freedom, and love, ranges from the courts of crete and venice to toledo in spain. here he is confronted by his greatest adversary the holy inquisition. never backing down in his fight with the establishments of his day el greco's story is one of unusual heroism, betrayal, love, and the power of one man and his creative consciousness to stand out and overcome barbarity and ignorance. an inspiration which lives on to this day."

a greek-spanish-hungarian co-production
music: vangelis (chariots of fire,bladerunner)
costume design: lala huete (pan's labyrinth)
cinematography: aris stavrou (the cherry orchard)
direction: yannis smaragdis (cavafy)

in theatres october 18th 2007
www.elgrecothemovie.com'

'zeus', sam?

sam harris quips about the absurdity of believing in zeus, but mary lefkowitz believes that even the greek gods are better than atheism.

mary wants to delude herself by 'resurrecting' supernatural beings because they make her feel better. she and d'souza think science is rooted in irrational beliefs. anything -- anything -- but reason.

the contortions people will subject their minds to for a little comfort -- or for professional gain.

larry lessig on TED

how creativity is being strangled by the law
'larry lessig gets TEDsters to their feet, whooping and whistling, following this elegant presentation of “three stories and an argument.” the net’s most adored lawyer brings together john philip sousa, celestial copyrights, and the “ascap cartel” to build a case for creative freedom. he pins down the key shortcomings of our dusty, pre-digital intellectual property laws, and reveals how bad laws beget bad code. then, in an homage to cutting-edge artistry, he throws in some of the most hilarious remixes you’ve ever seen.'



via boingboing

5 planet system!

a 5-planet solar system has been detected and announced by astronomers at NASA!!:

-------------------------------------

mission news: scientists discover record fifth planet orbiting nearby star


click pic to source of artists' rendition and info

'pasadena, calif. - astronomers have announced the discovery of a fifth planet circling 55 cancri, a star beyond our solar system. the star now holds the record for number of confirmed extrasolar planets orbiting in a planetary system.

55 cancri is located 41 light-years away in the constellation cancer and has nearly the same mass and age as our sun. it is easily visible with binoculars. researchers discovered the fifth planet using the doppler technique, in which a planet's gravitational tug is detected by the wobble it produces in the parent star. NASA and the national science foundation funded the research.

"it is amazing to see our ability to detect extrasolar planets growing," said alan stern, associate administrator for the science mission directorate at nasa headquarters, washington. "we are finding solar systems with a richness of planets and a variety of planetary types comparable to our own."

the newly discovered planet weighs about 45 times the mass of earth and may be similar to saturn in its composition and appearance. the planet is the fourth from 55 cancri and completes one orbit every 260 days. its location places the planet in the "habitable zone," a band around the star where the temperature would permit liquid water to pool on solid surfaces. the distance from its star is approximately 116.7 million kilometers (72.5 million miles), slightly closer than earth to our sun, but it orbits a star that is slightly fainter.

"the gas-giant planets in our solar system all have large moons," said debra fischer, an astronomer at san francisco state university and lead author of a paper that will appear in a future issue of the astrophysical journal. "if there is a moon orbiting this new, massive planet, it might have pools of liquid water on a rocky surface."

fischer and university of california, berkeley, astronomer geoff marcy, plus a team of collaborators discovered this planet after careful observation of 2,000 nearby stars with the shane telescope at lick observatory located on mt. hamilton, east of san jose, calif., and the w.m. keck observatory in mauna kea, hawaii. more than 320 velocity measurements were required to disentangle signals from each of the planets.

"this is the first quintuple-planet system," said fischer. "this system has a dominant gas giant planet in an orbit similar to our jupiter. like the planets orbiting our sun, most of these planets reside in nearly circular orbits."

"discovering these five planets took us 18 years of continuous observations at lick observatory, starting before any extrasolar planets were known anywhere in the universe," said marcy, who contributed to the paper. "but finding five extrasolar planets orbiting a star is only one small step. earth-like planets are the next destination."

the planets around 55 cancri are somewhat different from those orbiting our sun. the innermost planet is believed to be about the size of neptune and whips around the star in less than three days at a distance from the star of approximately 5.6 million kilometers (3.5 million miles). the second planet is a little smaller than jupiter and completes one orbit every 14.7 days at a distance from the star of approximately 18 million kilometers (11.2 million miles). the third planet, similar in mass to saturn, completes one orbit every 44 days at a distance from the star of approximately 35.9 million kilometers (22.3 million miles). the newly discovered planet is the fourth planet. the fifth and most distant known planet is four times the mass of jupiter and completes one orbit every 14 years at a distance from the star of approximately 867.6 million kilometers (539.1 million miles). it is still the only known jupiter-like gas giant to reside as far away from its star as our own jupiter is from our sun.

"this work marks an exciting next step in the search for worlds like our own," said michael briley, an astronomer at the national science foundation. "to go from the first detections of planets around sun-like stars to finding a full-fledged solar system with a planet in a habitable zone in just 12 years is an amazing accomplishment and a testament to the years of hard work put in by these investigators."'

--------------------------------

you can download an (artist's) animation, journey to a star rich in planets, here.

in 12 short years we've gone from not ever having seen even one planet, ever, to discovering a 5-planet star system. well, short for us non-astronomers -- these wonderful people are devoting entire lifetimes to this and other research, meticulously examining the data and continuously innovating new methods of detection.

the gifts, the true wonder of scientific endeavor!

phil plait says it well:
'i’ll note that it took 18 years of observations to nail down this planet, because it was so hard to detect. the labor that went into this is phenomenal. we keep looking, and we keep learning more, and we keep finding cooler stuff the more we look. that’s what this is all about.'

comet envy

i've been green with envy at those who have been able to see comet holmes -- and it looks like it's mocking me.

richard dawkins at AAI 07

via RD

EDIT: and again here.

tuesday sunday afternoon

at xiang shan gong yuan, or the fragrant hills park. beautiful architecture, nature and people in a continuity of past to present -- in autumn, its most splendid season.

steve tut

steve martin has destroyed everything i'll ever hear about tutankhamun.

unveiled tut

from the bbc:

'the face of egypt's most famous ancient ruler, king tutankhamun, has been put on public display for the first time.

archaeologists took the mummy from its stone sarcophagus and placed it in a climate-controlled case inside his tomb in luxor's valley of the kings.

the event comes 85 years to the day after the pharaoh's tomb was discovered by british explorer howard carter.

until now, only about 50 living people have seen the face of the boy king, who died more than 3,000 years ago.'

the rest and pictures here.

steampunk laptop

here's another object of desire:


click pic to source
via boingboing

and don't forget the steampunk computer.

old songs

i've been listening to some very old songs today: songs i haven't heard in decades -- songs i'd forgotten existed. it's been fun remembering and i've found that i remember quite a few very well. i can remember the lyrics, melodies and beats almost perfectly. along with the tunes, i've been drawing up images and memories for each tune.. where i was and what was going on.

the mind is amazing.

so, i got up to 1974, and 'seasons in the sand'. and it hit me. this is the song that was the catalyst for me to stop believing in the afterlife. i remember i couldn't stop thinking about this for a long, long time. i was 12. it was a very difficult episode and the enormity of the discovery has never gone away. i suppose it was just a song, but then again, i was just a kid.

i think i'll take a break and then get back to the post and look for it on youtube.


lyrics