christopher hitchens: debating tony blair on faith

on the washington post's on faith:

'i am sometimes asked whether i ever get tired of debating the faithful. there are two reasons why i never do. the first is that this argument is at the root of all other arguments: constituting the essential underlay of differences about philosophy, cosmology, history, textual criticism and even medicine. the second is that i never know what my antagonist is going to say, or affirm, or claim to believe.

in any case, there was scant chance of being bored while contesting these matters with tony blair. but he did exemplify, to an unusually high degree, the tendency of modern believers to eclecticism and to the public presentation of what often turns out to be a virtually private or personal definition of religion. (i find this doubly odd in the case of a man who went to a lot of trouble to convert to one of history's more disciplined and rule-bound churches, at a time when its latest pope is striving to reinvigorate a highly traditionalist interpretation, but let that pass for now.)'

continue reading...


tony blair's corresponding piece is here. here's a snippet:

'christopher hitchens is someone of huge integrity and whatever the disagreement between us over religion, he is someone who puts the case against religion with vigor.  and of course, his argument requires an answer. no rational person can look at the world today - and especially the history of the last decade - and deny religion can be a source of division and conflict.'

again, read on...

christopher hitchens vs tony blair

munk debates, in 7 parts.



the full transcript is here.

you can also watch this in at munk debates -- the price is $2.99.

harvard scientists reverse the ageing process in mice

on the guardian:

'scientists claim to be a step closer to reversing the ageing process after rejuvenating worn out organs in elderly mice. the experimental treatment developed by researchers at the dana-farber cancer institute, harvard medical school, turned weak and feeble old mice into healthy animals by regenerating their aged bodies.

the surprise recovery of the animals has raised hopes among scientists that it may be possible to achieve a similar feat in humans – or at least to slow down the ageing process.'


more...

sous l'arc

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bleu, blanche et rouge.

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©2010 helen sotiriadis

ten questions science should answer

to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the founding of the royal society, the guardian is featuring 10 vital questions -- posed by 10 scientists -- that we must answer, if we are to survive and flourish.

here's brian cox's:

can we make a scientific way of thinking all pervasive?

this would be the greatest achievement for science over the coming centuries. i say this because i do not believe that we currently run our world according to evidence-based principles. if we did, we would be investing in an energy manhattan project to quickly develop and deploy clean energy technologies. we would be investing far larger amounts of our GDP in the eradication of diseases such as malaria, and we would be learning to live and work in space – not as an interesting and extravagant sideline, but as an essential part of our long-term survival strategy.

one only has to look at the so-called controversies in areas such as climate science or the vaccination of our children to see that the rationalist project is far from triumphant at the turn of the 21st century – indeed, it is possible to argue that it is under threat. i believe that we will only be able to build a safer, fairer, more prosperous and more peaceful world when a majority of the population understand the methods of science and accept the guidance offered by an evidence-based investigation of the challenges ahead. scientific education must therefore be the foundation upon which our future rests.

9 more here.
via boingboing

paxman meets hitchens

the full almost full interview

a gift from theresa

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theresa lasichak -- aka t does wool -- is a talented photographer friend of mine on flickr. i've previously posted a gallery of her wonderful work on my blog.

some people have more than their fair share of talent, and theresa's overflows everywhichway. she creates inspiring imagery but is also 'a handworker of fibers, maker of things, wife, mother, consoler, and fixer of just about everything'. to that, i'll add a great friend.

theresa maintains a blog where you can browse through her cozy, beautifully knits, skillfully and lovingly photographed by herself.

i was thrilled when, a few weeks ago, theresa announced that she was knitting a pair of fingerless gloves for me! i adore fingerless gloves, especially since i need to wear something in the cold, but also want to be able to control my camera. i always have a pair in the winter, but they're usually plain, store-bought items.

you can imagine how happy i was when i finally received them in the mail... i've been wearing them at the slightest hint of cold, even though the winter's been exceedingly mild in athens so far.

thank you, thank you, theresa!

to do justice to this lovely pair, i needed a model with pretty hands -- of course, that would be my muse.

outtakes:



speaking of my model, mourlegovits is doing great with photography and processing herself -- check out her latest creation on flickr:



©2010 helen sotiriadis

sweet november

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i shot these just a couple of weeks ago -- they're still there in the garden. and this is just what i needed to cheer myself up today.

btw, i whipped up a humble flickr group the other day... so feel free to browse some awesome macro photography at macronaut.

©2010 helen sotiriadis

un banc

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aux champs élysées
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©2010 helen sotiriadis

a preview of christopher hitchens on BBC newsnight

an interview with jeremy paxman



originally, on BBC news
via daily hitchens

pre- hitchens / blair debate interviews

click image to source

at the globe and mail
transcripts and video

via daily hitchens

hitchens and geiger, the globe and mail, on hitchens debate transcripts.

bonne nuit, louvre

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this is the best hour at the louvre -- the intricate stone is golden, the pyramid, aglow, and the sky is the deepest blue. i'm quite sure that, if i lived in paris, i'd be hanging out here a lot.

i scampered around shooting everywhichway -- of course, quite a few turned out crappy. if i were younger and more agile, surely i would've run out to take some overviews from further away. maybe i'll be lucky enough to visit again.





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©2010 helen sotiriadis

a breathable atmosphere on rhea

click pic to source
according to science, rhea has an 'oxygen–carbon dioxide atmosphere. the atmosphere appears to be sustained by chemical decomposition of the surface water ice under irradiation from saturn’s magnetospheric plasma.'

and io9 says,

'while the presence oxygen is relatively easy to understand, the carbon dioxide is actually even more intriguing. the gas is likely created by reactions between organic molecules and oxidants down on the moon's surface. that seems rather shockingly earth-like, or at least like the earth of a few billion years ago. this is just further proof that the building blocks and basic prerequisites of life exist all throughout the solar system, even if it was apparently only on earth where conditions were good enough for it to actually lead very far.'


so... is there life on rhea?

aurora borealis timelapse HD - tromsø

aurora borealis timelapse HD - tromsø 2010 from tor even mathisen on vimeo.

via io9

dan phillips: creative houses from reclaimed stuff

this is not just about architecture -- it's about our resources and how to not waste them.
very interesting.

octaèdre

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and you thought it was a pyramid.

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©2010 helen sotiriadis

richard dawkins: the greatest show on earth

the only game in town

jason fried: why work doesn't happen at work

tell me about it.

stand by me

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hesitant companions at first, each is now part of a greater whole.

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©2010 helen sotiriadis

fibonacci

the golden mean

émerger

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the louvre and the pyramid: more rotation victims.

more paris

©2010 helen sotiriadis

tim minchin on religion

this is an extended upload of 'take my wife', with an excellent intro.

diagrams that changed the world

on BBC.

here's one favorite:


click to source

the scale of the universe

here's another great animation for the scale of the universe, in an animated flash.


... and here's a cell size and scale...

via boingboing


i've seen quite a few over the years -- maybe i'll gather them all into a set of links...

the guardian: is religion a force for good in the world?

'in anticipation of the coming debate between christopher hitchens and tony blair on the value of religion, we gathered a selection of thinkers on the subject to discuss the topic.

ac grayling, evan harris, jon cruddas, cristina odone and samia rahman debate the virtues of religion.'



the christians? ... facepalm....
i listened to this for ac grayling.

beyond reason

get serious



via atheist movies

a wave of reason

from the symphony of science

bijou classique

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i have a bunch of shots of the louvre with the pyramid. this is the most classic view -- stay tuned for more...

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©2010 helen sotiriadis

10 questions for stephen hawking

on time.

#1

if god doesn't exist, why did the concept of his existence become almost universal? —basanta borah, basel, switzerland.

i don't claim that god doesn't exist. god is the name people give to the reason we are here. but i think that reason is the laws of physics rather than someone with whom one can have a personal relationship. an impersonal god.


#10:

do you think there will ever come a time when mankind understands all there is to understand about physics? —karsten kurze, bad honnef, germany

i hope not. i would be out of a job.



there are 8 more before these, here.

christopher hitchens vs william dembski

hitchens really knows how to talk to young people. dembski is hardly capable of reading his notes.

EDIT: here it is directly from prestonwood christian academy.

AGAIN EDIT: on youtube, while it lasts:

'when did you choose to be straight?'

...good question...

extraordinary claims

oooooooooooh.... i hadn't seen this:



just wonderful... from CFI's extraordinary claims campaign.

and here's their corresponding video:

ricky gervais live: act of god

busy god... so busy



thanks, julia!

does the universe have a purpose?

matt ridley, michael shermer, richard dawkins vs rabbi david wolpe, william lane craig, douglas geivett



via RDFRS

EDIT: the host is highly annoying.

'before' the big bang?

so while i was listening to the grand design audiobook, [doing my best imitation of that awful carrie bradshaw] i couldn't help but wonder -- can we find evidence of other universes or states beyond or 'before' the big bang?

it seems that sir roger penrose claims that he's found windows to a 'previous' universe in the form of ripples in the cosmic microwave background.

i put previous in quotes because ... well, i'm not sure if there can be a before before the beginning of time...?

i downloaded a PDF of his abstract, which 'posits the existence of an aeon preceding our big bang'... but obviously i have no hope of understanding any of it.

found at io9 which refers to the PDF at arxiv.

EDIT: it looks like not everyone is impressed with penrose's idea.
thanks to physicist jonathan shock for the link.

like mother, like daughter

one of my all-time favorite photographers:


like it? click it!

©2010 mourlegovits

EDIT: here's another...

forgotten dreams by lawrence m. krauss

on scientific american

'just think of the intellectual poverty suffered by those who miss the rich cultural and intellectual opportunities afforded by witnessing our past when they decide the real story of our development must be replaced by an abbreviated and redundant myth. it is a disservice to the spirit of adventure and curiosity that we should nurture in our children to rob them of the opportunity to be inspired by nature, and for some of them, to go on to make profound new discoveries.

there is poetry in the real world and it diminishes the human spirit to deny it or reject it. what goes for evolution is true for the big bang, which left a beautiful and rich pattern on the sky that we observe with our many telescopes, each galaxy or cluster providing a clue to a cosmic puzzle that we are still trying to unravel to decode the secrets of our own cosmic origins.'

and

'we owe it to ourselves and our children to celebrate the richness and mystery of being human in all its aspects, from the biological creatures we are, to the social and cognitive wonders that have made it possible for a creative and imaginative species to be caught across the ages in the lens of a creative artist who helps force us to reconsider our own place in the cosmos.'

via RDFRS

jesus&mo: drive

click!

a.c. grayling and r. dawkins, watch out!

my favorite photographers: piriskoskis.

click to gallery

this is a relatively new discovery for me, but after seeing his first images recently, i've been consistently blown away... figures against structures, gentle curves or sharp angles, black and white or color pops, all with a style that screams awareness.

gallery
piriskoskis.' photostream
profile

exogalactic exoplanet

by tony darnell

christopher hitchens on ABC1 lateline: part 2

in two parts:



part 1 is here.

via daily hitchens

a godless clergy

on the emily rooney show at WGBH boston:

from the website description:

'a godless clergy: faith in god—and holding fast to it despite your fears and doubts—is a central tenet of nearly every religion. but what if the head of your church doesn’t believe? tufts university professor daniel dennett joins us to talk about the growing number of priests and clergy who no longer believe in god. why do they continue to preach? and what does that mean for the people they serve?'



mp3

via RDFRS

christopher hitchens on ABC1 lateline: part 1

in two parts:



part 2 is here.

sam harris on religious fundamentalism

on MSNBC, posted on youtube:

dennis dutton: a darwinian theory of beauty

on TED:

exchanges at the frontier: episode 3

a.c. grayling discusses string theory with physicist brian greene.

i've been listening to the grand design by stephen hawking and leonard mlodinow and even though it's a bit of a struggle, it's fascinating... and this discussion, on the same theme, is helping me to understand the concepts a bit more.

via RDFRS

in restless dreams i walked alone

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'narrow streets of cobblestone.'
a back street at montmartre.
the dome of sacré-cœur is blown out in the distance.

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©2010 helen sotiriadis

my favorite photographers: mourlegovits

a creative young person, full of surprising ideas, on the road to self-discovery:


like it? click it!


click!

check out her photostream!

more favorite photographers
©2010 helen sotiriadis

sunset on mars

a sunset on another world...



via bad astronomy

la ville lumière at twilight

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from l'arc de triomphe towards la tour eiffel.
[this is not HDR.]

also...



more paris

©2010 helen sotiriadis

arkas on evolution

translation:

1. i remember how adam and eve loved life here in paradise!..

2. ... of course, they were naive and foolish, but that's precisely why they were happy... all day, they'd run and laugh, carefree and innocent like small children!

3. but later, they lost everything. the snake gave them to eat from the tree of knowledge and that's how they learned!..

learned what?

4. that humans are descended from apes.

more arkas at his official site.

richard dawkins answers reddit questions

as posted on reddit.

the end's very funny.



via RDFRS

adventures of an urban astrophysicist

simultaneously illuminating and entertaining: neil degrasse tyson at the howard hughes medical institute:

acropolis of athens, full reconstruction, 2001

full reconstruction of an incomplete archaeological model
arart


university of santiago de compostela, technological research institute

les artistes à montmartre

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a somewhat intense tourist spot: on one side of la place du tertre, you can buy finished paintings and on the other, you're urged to get your own portrait done. it's certainly a fun place to take pictures.

btw, this is a cool view of the place.







more paris

©2010 helen sotiriadis

christopher hitchens: 'you have to choose your future regrets'

'"even with all the advantages of retrospect, and a lot of witnesses dead and gone, you can't make your life look as if you intended it or you were consistent. all you can show is how you dealt with various hands."'

and

'hitchens dislikes the "new atheist" title. "it isn't really new," he says, "except it coincides with huge advances made in the natural sciences. and there's been an unusually violent challenge to pluralist values by the supporters of at least one monotheism apologised for quite often by the sympathisers of others. then they say we're fundamentalists. a stupid idea like that is hard to kill because any moron can learn it in 10 seconds and repeat it as if for the first time. but since there isn't a single position that any of us holds on anything that depends upon an assertion that can't be challenged, i guess that will die out or they'll get bored of it."

as for the notion that his brand of atheism is reductive or joyless, it's religion, he contests, that is "cosmically hopeless, as is all the related masochism that goes with it – you've got to spend your entire life making up for the vermin you are. what is that if not degrading? we don't do that to people. we say you may as well know you're a primate, but take heart, primates are capable of great things."'


... at the guardian

contradictions in the bible

in a very cool and very large PDF:


click to load.
from project reason, via your friendly atheist.

EDIT: download hi-res printable version here. right click and 'save target as' on the 33” x 44” link.

gooooooooooo science

they're bustin' down the stereotypes.



via the atheist experience.

en haut

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who's to say which way is up?

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©2010 helen sotiriadis

heaven and hell: counting the days

by the thinking atheist

TSN: the great debate

at the science network:



'on november 6th, 2010 a panel of renowned scientists, philosophers, and public intellectuals gathered to discuss what impact evolutionary theory and advances in neuroscience might have on traditional concepts of morality. if human morality is an evolutionary adaptation and if neuroscientists can identify specific brain circuitry governing moral judgment, can scientists determine what is, in fact, right and wrong? the panelists were psychologist steven pinker, author sam harris, philosopher patricia churchland, physicist lawrence krauss, philosopher simon blackburn, bioethicist peter singer and the science network’s roger bingham.'

cheeeeeeeeeeeeeese

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©2010 helen sotiriadis

a shadow biosphere

on cosmos magazine:

'if life started more than once on earth, we could be virtually certain that the universe is teeming with it. unless there is something very peculiar about our planet, it is inconceivable that life would have begun twice on one earth-like planet but hardly ever on all the rest.

until recently, biologists assumed that all life on earth is of the same origin, with every organism that ever lived descended from a common genesis. but how do we know that is so? could there be two or more different sorts of life on this planet? has anybody actually looked?'

read on...

they own you

greek working people have been told they've been really naughty and have to give up what they've struggled for, while at the same time, the wealthy continue to live well.

the french now have to work for more years.

and america? well, its middle class is... where, exactly?

george already told us: they don't give a fuck about you.

coffee with bernie

i don't know... it almost never goes this well:

jesus&mo: prove

click to read at source

gamma ray emitting bubbles!

at NASA: two new structures have recently been discovered... and the galaxy is suddenly changed.


click to video


click to source

via RDFRS

from l'arc de triomphe to la défense

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i liked the color version, but the BW seemed more exciting.

in color:



more paris

©2010 helen sotiriadis

carl sagan's 76th birthday...

would have been today -- but we lost him in 1996. his lifetime was a fraction of the last second of the cosmic calendar:



but his legacy is timeless.

métro

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if you're visiting paris on a budget, you're seeing a lot of the métro. if i'm not mistaken, this is the exit from tuileries... but not that you can really tell.

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©2010 helen sotiriadis

spiral-tuality li

edge-on NGC 4452:



click pic to source at hubble

statuesque

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aphrodite of milos [venus de milo] at the musée de louvre, paris



the three kharites [the three graces]



hermaphroditos asleep

more paris

©2010 helen sotiriadis

life the universe and everything with neil degrasse tyson

at scicafe at the hayden planetarium.



wonderful. many thanks to the perplexed observer

les souvenirs

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of course, you'll want to take a piece of paris home with you -- but... watch out! prices vary, dramatically :-)
these were next to the seine, across notre dame.



eiffel souvenirs in dof



overview



les cartes postales

i assume you want a closer peek at these...:



les cartes postales - closeup

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©2010 helen sotiriadis