January 2008
Was that fun, or what? →
That radio debate was a hoot and a half, but I can’t take credit. All the joy came straight from the mouth and brain of my lovely opponent, who obviously didn’t do a lick of research for either the debate or for his books. I was shocked for a moment when, after I’d mentioned the recent discovery of Indohyus, he went on to claim that there were no intermediates between that...
More laws please, we’re British →
Once, Britain viewed itself as the cradle of democracy and home of freedom and civil rights. Even then it was probably a false impression, but in recent years it has really become ludicrous.
Today, on the Radio news bulletins there has been a few items about how the police are trying to get online video sharing services (i.e. YouTube) to prohibit people uploading video of themselves driving...
Standard creationist tactics, as expected →
Two days ago I was asked to participate in a radio debate with a Discovery Institute fellow. I asked about the topic and the format, and they said, “the evidence of Evolution vs. evidence of Intelligent Design” and “each would get a 5 minute opening statement and then we would debate the issues brought out in the opening statements.” OK, sure, I said, while rolling my eyes...
Oil, Profits and Taxes - Who is to blame? →
It is a national outrage (depending on which segment of society you hail from) and it is certainly something that impacts all elements of the UK. It is also subject to a strangely twisted world view.
I am talking about oil prices (and petrol prices specifically).
For us poor Brits, the average price of petrol (gasoline for our colonial brethren) is now £1.05 per litre. This is approximately...
Should I go or should I stay? →
I have a MySpace page. It’s not much, just a token entry on one of the big social networking sites. Now here’s a problem: MySpace is run by religious bigots. They selectively censor atheist groups wholesale; this makes me rather dislike the place. Yesterday was International Delete Your MySpace Account Day as a protest — I didn’t participate because I didn’t find out about...
The 79th Skeptics' Circle is up →
Link →
Rest In Peace Cathy →
A friend of mine has passed away. She was 21 years old, she was beautiful she was kind and she drove on an icy morning, and for that minor lapse of judgment shes gone. She was not a close friend, we only hung out a few times but she was a good person and shes gone now. We disagreed on many things, she was raised as a fundamentalist christian, she once had written on her myspace, “People...
12 Tips for Improving Camera Phone Photos →
Photo by DavyRocket
We are living in a time where ‘convergence’ is everywhere. Gone are the days when a camera was a camera, a MP3 player was an MP3 player, a phone was a phone…. These days digital cameras are found in a variety of other gadgets - including cell phones. In fact Camera Phones are one […]
It stands for so much →
At last, we have the perfect symbol for America under Bush. Nothing testifies to your pride in a country that is impossible to satirized anymore than fake plastic testicles painted in camouflage colors with a yellow “support the troops” ribbon that you can hang on your gas-guzzling SUV. I swear, if I ever saw one of these on the freeway, it would be a traffic hazard because I’d...
Kmeson's Question: Acts and Desires →
I have a bit of a flu today and my mind is in somewhat of a fog. However, I wish to try to answer Kmeson’s question about Desire Utilitarianism;
Question: Consider two agents, A and B. Each has 10 equal desires. Each currently has 5 fully satisfied desires, and 5 unsatisfied desires. You as agent C, and desire utilitarian, have the ability to fulfill 2 of agent A’s desires, at a cost of 1...
Richard Dawkins, tune in on Friday! →
I’m sure he will be looking forward to this: his funeral is going to be held tomorrow. Since the teaser calls him “one of the most wicked and vile human beings ever to walk the face of this earth”, and since they’ve already done a hack job on Heath Ledger (in which they build a crude dummy of the actor and set it on fire), I have a sneaking suspicion that this won’t...
On Barbers →
Sunil reminds us of the pleasures of haircuts. When I first shaved my head hair off (2001 or thereabouts, when my hair retreated rapidly from the forehead and met the nape), I had recurring dreams in which I would get astonishingly hep haircuts by world’s best hair artists. Slowly my brain descended into hairless reality and regained its composure. I also stopped looking ravenous at heads...
MySpace, Not Yours →
You an atheist? Well, we at MySpace are all retards and don’t want around us no smarties who use their own brain to think for themselves. Tuck-in your atheist tail and tow the line or MySpace Monster will eat your balls (follow the link to read points 7 and 8, that’s how we feast on you, and make YOU enjoy the experience). If you protest we will make you friendless and throw you out...
A fundy fetish... →
Comments Platinum Award →
I can’t let an Awards ceremony pass unnoticed here. So here is the Exterminator’s Stermy award picture. Why, thanks, Exterminator. This may be the first time I realised a woman can get the horn. And a big “In your face, all you bloggers who didn’t get an award. Ha Ha.”
I have already thanked God, following standard award ceremony etiquette, in a comment on NoMoreHornets. I now feel like...
Another perspective →
I didn’t finish reading this but the title was interesting enough to warrant another look. Christians should fear a christian nation. Like I said I haven’t read the article but its a legitamate point, at least in the title, I’m curious to see if it makes good points the rest of the time.
Get the popcorn! →
Floridians are meeting to discuss evolution! You just have to read one account, complete with quotes, of a creationist mob trying to articulate their opposition to science. There are plenty of amusing examples of dumbitude, but this one is my favorite: Referring to the discovery that Pluto no longer is considered a planet by scientists today, Kendall said scientific opinions can change as...
Look around you →
British educational programs are astounding. I caught my daughter self-educating herself with this remarkable series of videos. The one below is on the brain — I learned stuff I’d never known before, and I have a Ph.D. from an Institute of Neuroscience! Read the comments on this post…
Finally! →
I’m fed up. There have been 5.5 Amaz!ng Meetings with James Randi, and I haven’t gone to a single one…yet. That’s finally going to change, though, as I’ve been invited to speak at TAM6, in Las Vegas, on 19-22 June. Who else is going? Maybe a few of you will think about marking your calendars and making the pilgrimage for the first time this summer, so that I’m...
Guillermo Gonzalez does two smart things →
That silly Iowa State physics fellow who was denied tenure has finally admitted to something sensible. First: Gonzalez said in an e-mail Monday that he is applying for tenure-track positions in case the Regents do not act in his favor. Good for him! Tenure denials happen all the time, and smart academics pick themselves up off the floor, brush off the debris, and move on. Turning it into a major...
Mike Huckabee is a wretched ignoramus →
Larry Moran has one video clip, and here’s another: What the heck is wrong with this country that such a clueless git should be considered by many to be a viable candidate for president? Read the comments on this post…
Word count →
Hank Fox tallies the words used in Bush’s state of the union speech…which I missed. Which I won’t bother to listen to. The only word I want to hear him say is “Goodbye,” but apparently his speech was all about “Terra’.” Read the comments on this post…
This Little Town of Mine →
The town I was born and raised in, the town I’ve lived in for all my life with the only exceptions being college and less than a year in CT, is a piece of shit. Like small towns every where the manufacturing jobs have gone, theres still a few but they’re struggling. It was already in decline when it was decimated by a flood in 1972. It’s never fully recovered. Instead we’ve...
Do we really care what the Pope says anymore? →
Many people have been sending me links to the latest comments by our charming Catholic pontiff, and I don’t know, I’m just finding the old boy increasingly irrelevant as he continues his reactionary slide into medieval thinking. More and more it’s like hearing reports of what some random homeless man in a Philadelphia subway station ranted about — it’s amusing and...
John Edwards bows out... →
Winter Sports Photography Tips - Flash... →
This guest post with a couple of tips on Winter Sports Photography is by Yves Garneau from G1Photo.com. Conveying the mood of a particular setting with tricky lighting can be difficult. Most of my photography is done in the mountains during the winter months where light can vary from rich and deep to flat […]
A house in Dharavi →
Dilip D’Souza at Washington Post. [via sqattercity]
Because housing is so expensive, about two-thirds of Mumbai’s population live in slums or on the streets. This has been true for decades and remains true in ready-for-boom-time India. Indian politicians have concocted countless schemes over the years to “redevelop” slums, which they consider eyesores. For a variety of...
PRIMO →
A poignant, sensitive performance by Antony Sher as Primo Levi. On BBC 4. You can watch it in iPlayer if you live in the UK. Read the comments on this post…
The Ludicrous Penny →
Stupid Thing: The Penny Why it’s stupid: Money that’s not. Costs 1.2 cents to mint. Need handfuls to buy a cup of coffee.
Bad rationale: Sentimentality, Hoarding Short-term solution: Round prices to nearest nickel or dime Long-term solution: All-electronic cashless transactions
“A penny for your thoughts…”
Are you a penny hoarder or a penny tosser? Do you leave them in the tray at 7-11? Or...
I keep telling them that I have a voice and face... →
It’s a bit of a switch from doing the Minnesota Atheists radio show last Sunday to what I’ll be doing on Thursday: I’ll be on the Jeff and Lee Christian talk radio program (they told me 4pm, but their schedule says 3; somewhere around there, anyway). Their guest is Geoffrey Simmons, and I’m supposed to “debate” him — he gets 5 minutes to present the evidence for...
NCSE has a wishlist? →
I didn’t know this until just now, but the National Center for Science Education has an Amazon Wish List. It’s interesting to see what dark corners they’re poking around in, so have a browse. And of course, if anyone wanted to make a little contribution to that worthy organization, you could always click on “Add to Cart” and help them out by sending them a copy. These...
Lying →
It is strange that, on an ethics blog, I do not spend time on the fundamentals of morality – the basic ideas of right and wrong – such as lying. I shall define a lie as any statement or act that an agent performs with the intention of causing another person to believe a proposition that the agent knows to be false. Of course, sign language is a clear cut example of how a person can communicate by...
I supped mightily on retardation today... →
Fly thoughts →
On Tuesdays, I have back-to-back labs from noon until six…in genetics. I’ve been juggling flies since early December, prepping stocks for our crosses, so when I saw this cartoon I was surprised. Does Darby Conley have a background in fly genetics? It’s perfect! Read the comments on this post…
A little free time... →
Metaphors choking Sam Harris’s thought →
* Insert tedious rant* This piece by Sam Harris was brought to my attention as being a hot topic on transhumanist sites. As far as I can make out, Harris is arguing for challenging nature’s limitations through the use of all available technology, including genetic modification.
His conclusion is:
Considering humanity as a whole, there is nothing about natural selection that suggests our optimal...
The state of Texas →
Steven Schafersman is the president of Texas Citizens for Science, and he sent along a status report for Texas — it’s not all bad news, and of course it’s always good to see a strong, active organization defending science in the state. I’ve put the full report below. Read the rest of this post… | Read the comments on this post…
Good for Oklahoma →
I don’t know how I missed it, but I was just made aware of OESE, Oklahomans for Excellence in Science Education, another great group of smart people rising up to fight for good education. I presume all the Oklahomans in my readership will now inform me that they’ve known about this forever, and it’s about time I highlighted their good work? Read the comments on this post…
Bad satire →
I’ve remarked before how difficult it is to satirize creationists — they’re already so absurd that any mockery is often overtaken by the reality. There is a corollary: creationists shouldn’t try to do satire. They really, really suck at it. This fellow from Sebring, Florida, William Dailey, Jr., has created a web site called the First Church of Evolution, for instance....
Cafe Scientifique tonight →
Come on out to Morris this evening — at 6:00, at the Common Cup Coffeehouse, Van Gooch of the biology discipline will be talking about bioluminescence and other phenomena in our Cafe Scientifique. The title of his talk is “Light Giving Life: Real and Artificial,” and I know he’s planning to bring sample organisms to hand out to the attendees. Read the comments on this post…
Rape →
trianero2 posted a photo:. rape evidente.
A Colorado prison inmate is being accused of raping a woman at a Denver apartment complex more than 16 years ago, because prosecutors say DNA evidence links him to the crime.
One of them served as a page in the Legislature when Klaudt was a lawmaker. Tags: child abuse, child molestation, foster daughters, lawmaker sentenced for rape, Rep Ted Klaudt,...
Introduction to Metering Modes →
The following post on Metering Modes was submitted by Trudy - a regular DPS reader.
Early last year when I bought my digital camera the sales assistant told me that it had different ‘metering modes’. At the time I was too embarrassed to ask what that means and bought the camera without knowing. It took me […]
He turns everything he touches to dross →
Ben Stein must be on a campaign to make himself look stupid. Everyone here knows about his association with creationism, but it turns out this former student of economics at Yale is clueless about everything…but he still gets published in The New York Times.
First, let me begin with a first. I have never warned readers away from any one columnist or journalist, but after reading his column this...
Ray Comfort: Angels keep planes aloft... →
The Sum of All Reasons →
In a comment to a different post, I received a different question about desire utilitarianism. I get this question in a number of different forms, and would like to take this opportunity to address one of those forms.
…my question is: when you say, “Furthermore, it argues against individualist subjectivism that it is all desires, not just those of the agent, that must be taken into...
Catholic Identity More Important than Helping... →
Catholic Identity More Important than Helping Needy
HB 1080, the archbishop believes, would hinder Catholic non-profits from hiring or firing employees based on the religious beliefs of the Catholic Church. Though recognizing that many non-Catholics work at Catholic Charities, Archbishop Chaput said the bill would remove the ability of the non-profit to maintain a Catholic leadership.
“…the key...
That reminds me… →
I’ve got to wash my underwear.
Read the comments on this post…
More UK broadband whines →
Complaining about Tiscali (regarding the service formerly known as Pipex) is normally T_W’s realm but I’m wading in, on the basis of an article in the Register.
(I can be detached, as well as moderately smug, here. Despite my initial annoyance when Virgin took over the previous Telewest service, of blessed memory, the worst you can say about Virgin broadband is that it seems to have outsourced...