Says It All, Doesn't It?

(h/t Orac)

Jesus and Mo

Huffpost Update

My short complaint regarding the Pederast's Protector has gone up on Huffington Post.  Here's the link if you care to comment.

Depose the Poser

This needn't be an extended justification, for what I suggest should be taken as unremarkable.

Depose the Pope.

Depose him for his testimony, then after a full interrogation by authorities, depose him from that false throne.  This human shall have no right at all, forevermore, to expound on 'moral' law, or much more offensively, to claim 'authority' on its interpretation or imposition.  Preaching to the poor and infected of sub-Saharan Africa that condoms are immoral and forbidden, even as they stare down a genocidal virus, while systematically protecting serial child-rapists as a matter of expediency, should qualify a level of depraved hypocrisy no public should let pass.

Nor should any man be above the law.  To be complicit in the raping of children is to be guilty of it (and let's, please, not use a nicer word; rape is what it was, and what it will remain).  If that complicity is substantiated, as seems likely, Pope Benedict should be prosecuted, as would be the head of any other organization guilty of these crimes.

I would confidently guess that if, in Europe, it was discovered that a leading Muslim Cleric was systematically hiding and facilitating the rape of numerous children, he would be subjected to legal inquiry, and public demands for justice. The same process applies to any illegal action undertaken, and has been enforced several times with clerics found to be complicit in terrorist activities.  The crimes here are no less grave. 

Why, then, is it considered wishful thinking to expect equal treatment for the Pope?  When you answer that for yourself, as you easily will, the abyssal absurdity of this scandal will crystallize in your mind.

Reflections on Our Place in the Cosmos - A Short Reading By Carl Sagan

First Ever Amphibious Insects Discovered in Hawaii

Fascinating Article from Science News:
They don’t surf, but caterpillars found only in Hawaii are the first insects known to feed and grow as readily in water as on land.

Other land insects can endure a dunking. And other aquatic ones can survive a dry spell stranded out of water, says evolutionary biologist Daniel Rubinoff of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. But he and a colleague now describe amphibious habits of larvae in 12 new species in the moth genus Hyposmocoma. Young of each species can thrive both underwater in rushing streams and exposed to air on rocks poking out of the water.

Hyposmocoma moths live only in the Hawaiian islands, and most species in the genus spend their caterpillarhood exclusively on land before flitting away as full-grown moths. Yet genetic analyses show that at least three times within the genus, landlubber lineages have independently evolved amphibious caterpillars, Rubinoff and University of Hawaii at Manoa colleague Patrick Schmitz report online March 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Besides introducing some remarkable caterpillars, the work emphasizes the importance of islands in the study of evolution. Isolated mixes of the relatively few kinds of creatures that arrive on islands can come up with novelties unknown elsewhere. “Islands are clearly these crucibles of evolution,” Rubinoff says.

Read Full Article By Susan Milius at Science News.

No Man Is Above The Law - Christopher Hitchens in Slate

Excerpted:  
Here's a little thought experiment on practical ethics. Suppose that you are having a drink with a new acquaintance and the subject of law-breaking comes up. "Ever been in any trouble with the authorities?"

You may perhaps mention your arrest at a demonstration, your smuggling of excess duty-free goods, that brush with the narcotics people, that unwise attempt at insider trading. Your counterpart may show a closer acquaintance with the criminal justice system. He once did a bit of time for forgery, or for robbery with a touch of violence, or for a domestic dispute that got a bit out of hand. You are still perhaps ready to have lunch next Friday. But what if he says: "Well, I once knew a couple who trusted me as their baby sitter. Two little boys they had—one of 12 and one of 10. A good bit of fun I had with those kids when nobody was looking. Told them it was our secret. I was sorry when it all ended." I hope I don't seem too judgmental if I say that at this point the lunch is canceled or indefinitely postponed.

And would you feel any less or any more revulsion if the man went on to say, "Of course, I wasn't strictly speaking in any trouble with the law. I'm a Catholic priest, so we don't bother the police or the courts with that stuff. We take care of it ourselves, if you catch my meaning"?

Read the full article by Christopher Hitchens in Slate.

The Moral Landscape - Science Can Speak to Objective Moralities

Oh My God, Charlie Darwin

The Low Anthem, who I might see this Thursday, has put out a video of their song "Charlie Darwin."  The song is moving, though I don't take its somber view.  In my eyes, liberty pours forth from Darwin's discovery.  To emancipate, according to Merriam-Webster Online, is:

1 : to free from restraint, control, or the power of another; especially : to free from bondage
2 : to release from paternal care and responsibility and make sui juris
3 : to free from any controlling influence (as traditional mores or beliefs)

What, then, was Charles Darwin if not humanity's great emancipator. He made it thinkable to break the heaviest chain of all. There is far too much beauty in the cosmos to be nihilistic over the fact that our responsibilities to each other, and to life on this planet, are of an entirely natural genesis. We're made of chemical stuff, and genes, and proteins... but think on what those molecules "do, given 4 billion years of time." (Sagan)

Anyway, it's a great song, and an inspired video.  Enjoy.

Hobo Clown & Forest - Video Art by Allison Schulnik

Hobo Clown & Forest                         by Allison Schulnik,  January 2010
Forest from Guernica Magazine on Vimeo.

Life Is Beautiful

The White Mountain from charles on Vimeo.

Hogan Hears a Who?

Here's another article regarding the holographic principle, and Craig Hogan's (crazy?) idea.  I prefer this article to the last, as it raises more of the issues with such a hypothesis.  From Science News' Website:

The Grinch detested the noise created by the tiny residents of Whoville. Cosmologist Craig Hogan, in contrast, has become enamored of a noise he claims is generated by something even tinier — a minuscule graininess in the otherwise smooth structure of spacetime.

Courtesy of C. Hogan, illustration by T. Dube

Call it Hogan’s noise. Many physicists are skeptical, but if his hunch about the existence of this subatomic clatter proves correct, it could have a mind-boggling implication: that the entire universe is nothing more than a giant hologram.

What’s more, it would mean that the structure of spacetime on subatomic scales might soon be revealed. “What’s new is that we can make a prediction and design an experiment to measure something on the tiniest of scales in the universe, and that’s what hasn’t been done before,” says Hogan, director of the Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics in Batavia, Ill., and a researcher at the University of Chicago.

In fact, it’s just possible that a detector in Hannover, Germany, built for an entirely different study, may have already recorded the noise generated by the smallest units of spacetime in the universe.

But Hogan’s model would go even deeper than that. It could lead to a major revision in how scientists think about spacetime, says theorist Bernard Schutz, director of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany. Hogan’s hypothesis suggests that information encoded on a tiny piece of spacetime could somehow influence the amount of information available to an observer from a region far, far away — violating a principle of physics known as locality. Rejecting locality would have major implications for attempts to knit together the quantum world — the subatomic realm — with Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which deals with gravity and the structure of spacetime on the very largest cosmic scales.

In most models that try to apply quantum theory to spacetime, the universe is indeed grainy, Schutz notes. But that graininess is usually the same everywhere in the cosmos. In contrast, Hogan’s model suggests the graininess isn’t uniform. It gets amplified the farther an observer resides from grains in a remote region of spacetime. That concept “would be a major revolution” in quantum gravity research, Schutz says.

Read the Full Article, by Ron Cowen, at Science News.

Children Accused In The Name Of Jesus

Dennett et al - New Report on Unbelieving Clergy

Daniel Dennett's talk at AAI09 centered on the phenomenon of non-believing clergy, and the effects of such skepticism on their careers and personal lives. A formal report reviewing this topic, by Dennett and Linda LaScola, has just been released. Click For PDF.

Epiphenom: Altruism

Excerpted:

One of the mysteries of human behaviour is why we sometimes act with completely selfless altruism. When asked to play totally anonymous games in which we can cheat without anyone else ever finding out, very often we don't.

Instead, we play the game fairly, which results in a cost to ourselves (compared with what we could've had) and a benefit to the stranger. That's a mystery because evolution says that organisms which don't act to maximise benefit to themselves - whatever the cost to others - should die out.

Several explanations have been put forward, but one of the most intriguing stems from the fact that we live in social networks. In a network like this, we depend critically on the kindness of others.

A new study has looked at how altruistic behaviour can be transmitted between players in the kinds of anonymous games that social psychologists are so fond of. The data were from some earlier experiments in which 240 people played the games over six rounds, each time with different partners (all anonymous).

What they found was that the amount individuals contributed in one round was affected by how generous their partners were in previous rounds. If they played with generous people in round 1, then they would be more generous to the new partners they had in round 2.

In fact, they showed that this effect was propagated through new partners. As you can see in the figure, if Eleni was generous to Lucas, then Lucas would be generous to Erika, and Erika more generous to Jay.

Unselfish acts propagated out to 3 degrees of separation. When you remember that only 6 degrees of separation stand between you and every other person on the planet, you can understand how powerful and important this effect is.

Full article by Tom Rees from Epiphenom (a great site if you haven't already checked it out).

Dark Energy, Or Worse - Was Einstein Wrong?

I recently watched Sean Carroll's NSF Lecture and thought it was fantastic.  Even if the title is a tad bit hysterical, spend some time and watch it.  The segment (middle) about galaxy collisions indicating dark matter, due to gravity coming from galaxy's main body when it should instead be coming from the gas is mind blowing! The universe teases us.

Some Additional Ugliness

This is from ABC Nightline, regarding the Orwellian re-education effort in Texas, and its headmaster.  Don McLeroy has been voted out, but that changes nothing, they have already committed the crime.  If you are not yet familiar with this outrage, read The Texas Ministry of Truth posting.

Sean Penn Hopes I Die of Rectal Cancer

For I am now publicly his critic...  

Last Friday on Real Time With Bill Maher, Penn gave one of the most incoherent, string-along, delirious rants I have ever had the pain of watching on television. His sentences stumble from one non sequitur to another in a physically discomfiting way.  

Maher asks Penn of his buddy Hugo Chávez, who has shut down many news outlets in Venezuela for the licentious crime of questioning the policies of 'The Great Leader.' Penn defends Chávez, and then claims that those in the media who call him a dictator should be punished with prison. Apparently Chávez's censorious excesses have made an impression on Penn. To hell with free speech (even after Penn praises transparency), jail the detractors!

Oh... then comes the rectal curse, specially reserved for critics of the great humanitarian Penn.  The scorching flames of burning stupid have wounded mine eyes and ears...

I can accept that Penn truly wants to help people and that his motivation is sincere, but he is so far outside the bounds of critical thinking that he may never find his way back.
 
Any totalitarian leader that manages to rule benevolently (which of Chávez I wouldn't concede), would qualify a dictator, all the same. Chávez is certainly trending in that direction, though it may not yet be right to call him a full-blown dictator. You'll notice that Maher doesn't seem at all convinced, when all is said (ahh!) and done (thank God!).

The better part of the rambling interview (the Chávez portion is actually Penn at his most coherent) can be found here.

For Shame

It is done. We knew the small chance it wouldn't be done was unworthy of hope, but still... 

AUSTIN, Tex. — After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas School Board on Friday voted to approve a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the role of Christianity in American history and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light. 

The vote was 11 to 4, with 10 Republicans and one Democrat voting for the curriculum, and four Democrats voting against... 

In recent years, board members have been locked in an ideological battle between a bloc of conservatives who question Darwin’s theory of evolution and believe the Founding Fathers were guided by Christian principles and a handful of Democrats and moderate Republicans who have fought to preserve the teaching of Darwinism and the separation of church and state.

More Here from the New York Times. 

There is one more procedural vote to come; but the board's makeup will remain the same until then, whenit will be all but sure that the same vote is cast. Shame on Texas.

Sean Carroll Does The Colbert Report

Carroll is the author of From Infinity To Here, and is a great communicator of theoretical physics - for the relatively well-versed adult.  After watching the Colbert clip, the interested among you can turn to The Science Network: An Interview With Sean Carroll for a serious discussion.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Sean Carroll
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Skate Expectations

The Texas School-board Forges Ahead

I've ranted on this matter before at some length; now it's coming perilously close to zero hour.

AUSTIN, Tex. — Even as a panel of educators laid out a vision Wednesday for national standards for public schools, the Texas school board was going in a different direction, holding hearings on changes to its social studies curriculum that would portray conservatives in a more positive light, emphasize the role of Christianity in American history and include Republican political philosophies in textbooks.

The hearings are the latest round in a long-running cultural battle on the 15-member State Board of Education, a battle that could have profound consequences for the rest of the country, since Texas is one of the largest buyers of textbooks.

The board is expected to take a preliminary vote this week on a raft of changes to the state’s social studies curriculum proposed by the seven conservative Republicans on the board. A final vote will come in May.

Conservatives argue that the proposed curriculum, written by a panel of teachers, emphasizes the accomplishments of liberal politicians — like the New Deal and the Great Society — and gives less importance to efforts by conservatives like President Ronald Reagan to limit the size of government...  one guideline requires publishers to include a section on “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract with America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.”

More HERE from the New York Times.

Also:

Conservative members also scored a string of victories in a burst of activity before lunch on the second day of a three-day meeting.

A party-line vote defeated an amendment by Democrat Mavis Knight of Dallas that would have required students to study the reasons "the founding fathers protected religious freedom in America by barring the government from promoting or disfavoring any particular religion above all others."

The board agreed to strengthen nods to Christianity by adding references to "laws of nature and nature's God" to a section in U.S. history that requires students to explain major political ideas.

They also agreed to strike the word "democratic" in references to the form of U.S. government, opting instead to call it a "constitutional republic."

The board also added a reference to the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms in a section about citizenship in a U.S. government class.

More HERE from the Houston Chronicle. 

Scientology - Still Crazy After All These Years

From the New York Times: 

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Raised as Scientologists, Christie King Collbran and her husband, Chris, were recruited as teenagers to work for the elite corps of staff members who keep the Church of Scientology running, known as the Sea Organization, or Sea Org.

They signed a contract for a billion years — in keeping with the church’s belief that Scientologists are immortal. They worked seven days a week, often on little sleep, for sporadic paychecks of $50 a week, at most.

But after 13 years and growing disillusionment, the Collbrans decided to leave the Sea Org, setting off on a Kafkaesque journey that they said required them to sign false confessions about their personal lives and their work, pay the church thousands of dollars it said they owed for courses and counseling, and accept the consequences as their parents, siblings and friends who are church members cut off all communication with them.

“Why did we work so hard for this organization,” Ms. Collbran said, “and why did it feel so wrong in the end? We just didn’t understand.”

They soon discovered others who felt the same. Searching for Web sites about Scientology that are not sponsored by the church (an activity prohibited when they were in the Sea Org), they discovered that hundreds of other Scientologists were also defecting — including high-ranking executives who had served for decades.

More Here.

There Is Grandeur In This View Of Life

Talented AHughman08 created this video for youtube-Hat tip-Diana Agorio

Respect My Religion... Or Else

    A Saudi Arabian lawyer by the name of Ahmed Zaki Yamani has sent a threatening letter to the group of Danish newspapers that reprinted the now famous cartoons from 2005, which depicted Mohammed as violent.  The cartoons caused much unrest and intimidation from the Muslim world.  Embassies were burned to the ground in countries throughout the middle east, people were killed, and protesters wielded signs reading "behead those who insult the prophet" (or variations on the theme).  

     Apparently lost on the rioters was the irony in perpetrating a reign of terror on western symbols (any analogue of Denmark would do), in angered response to a cartoon critiquing violent strains within their religion.  I fail to envision rioting after, say, cartoons depicting crusaders carrying out massacres in the name of Christ, or even after a derogatory depiction of Jesus himself. No, the Muslim world takes its blasphemy quite a bit more gravely than do other religions in the modern age.

     In 2008, when a cell was discovered plotting to murder the cartoonists, a group of Danish newspapers reprinted the cartoons in solidarity with the cartoonists, and as a show of support for the freedom of expression.  In response, Yamani drafted the letter claiming to represent the 94,923 of the prophet's very offended descendants - (amusingly, that is like me claiming standing in a class-action suit against the defamation of Blackbeard the Pirate - to whom I am apparently related, according to family lore).  The letter pressures the newspapers to enter into a settlement with Yamani, and to apologize to the Muslim world, in order to avoid "costly legal damages" and thinly veiled threats of further boycotts, etc.

     What's regrettable is that one publication, Politiken, has already buckled under the intimidation.  What's more ironic, is that the newspapers of a western country with freedom of religion are being coerced to show special respect for Islam, in particular, by a law firm headquartered in Saudi Arabia, where the promotion of any religion besides Islam is illegal... no churches, no synagogues, no Buddhas... no, no, and no.  And of the Muslim countries, it's not the only nation of this persuasion.  Tell me about respect for religion again?  -  I know this, if freedom of religion is desired, then freedom of speech is required.  

     I sat down this morning to rant at length on the matter, but then came across Christopher Hitchens analogous article in Slate:

The thing would be ridiculous if it were not so hateful and had it not already managed to break the nerve of one Danish newspaper. In Ireland a short while ago, a law against blasphemy was passed, making it a crime to outrage the feelings not just of the country's disgraced and incriminated Roman Catholic Church but of all believers. The same pseudo-ecumenical tendency can be found in the annual attempt by Muslim states to get the United Nations to pass a resolution outlawing all attacks on religion. It's not enough that faith claims to be the solution to all problems. It is now demanded that such a preposterous claim be made immune from any inquiry, any critique, and any ridicule.

This has to stop, and it has to stop right now. All democratic countries and assemblies should be readying legislation along the lines of the First Amendment, guaranteeing the right of open debate on matters of religion and repudiating the blackmail by law firms and individuals whose own true ancestry would not bear too much scrutiny.

Of course, Hitchens' great skill is to put it better than most, so read his full article. 

Dr. Lawrence Krauss - Science and Religion Lecture

Hampshire College | Dr. Lawrence Krauss' Science & Religion Lecture from Hampshire TV on Vimeo.

Hélène Grimaud Plays Bach - Chaconne in D minor

Helene Grimaud - Bach - kewego
Helene Grimaud - Bach

Mots-clés : bach helene grimaud

Video de kkbb

Christopher Hitchens To Reveal His Bisexuality In Hitch-22

Today the Daily Mail ran an article which claims that in his coming autobiography, Christopher Hitchens will reveal that he had sexual relations with men during his years at Oxford.  And that isn't all...

"Every now and then, even though I was by then fixed on the pursuit of young women, a mild and mildly enjoyable relapse would occur and I suppose I can claim this . . . of two young men who became members of Margaret Thatcher's government."

Predictably, the press is now fiendishly clamoring for any clues that might help reveal the identity of Hitchens' liaisons, as his own lips are sealed;  and there is little question that his new book, Hitch-22, will sell the better for it.

For those who aren't familiar with Hitchens as the intellectual voluptuary, it might be surprising, given Hitchens' more widely known reputation as a womanizer.  But for others, it won't be much the matter.  The press, on the other hand, has got it's teeth in it now.

     But those who knew 'Hitch' in his Balliol College years, between 1967 and 1970, when he read Politics, Philosophy and Economics while simultaneously running amok as a rabid Trotskyist (he got a third-class degree, incidentally), have little doubt his claims are true. 

     For although he has always enjoyed a reputation as a womaniser, at Oxford Hitchens was known to be bisexual. 

     According to one contemporary: 'He had a reputation for being AC/DC and, although a Trot, he was fancied by quite a few gay Tories and moved in those circles.' 

     One may wonder just why a young man who despised capitalism and all it stood for should have dallied with future Conservative ministers rather than future Left-wing leaders. 

I'm no fan of the article itself, in tone or content, but here it is again.

Teach The Controversy

Tip of the non-troversy to atheistcartoons.com

Be Wary...

Glenn Beck, Go Live In Iran

     Glenn Beck says there is no right to an education within the United States.  He argues that our rights come from GOD and God alone.  Thats a scary thought.  The sad thing is, his viewers are probably uneducated enough to swallow that whole.
     Beck's view of history is completely corroded and warped... this is a secular democratic republic, and human rights are the same whether you are a Christian or a Buddhist or an atheist.  The constitution mentions nothing of a right to education, he says - well, the constitution also defines a slave as three-fifths of a human being.  Constitutional rights and human rights are two different things.  The constitution neither provides for a military, fire department, nor food safety regulators, etc... These, then, must be Communist institutions!
     Personally, I would argue that depriving a child from an education is a form of abuse.  Preventing a child from going to school (whether at home or elsewhere) is a clear infringement upon that individuals rights, with devastating results throughout adulthood.
     Imagine your neighbor bears a child.  You watch this child grow over the years, never permitted to leave the house for school and never given an education, not even by homeschooling standards.  The child is under the parents rule.  Would not this deprivation be a more egregious infringement than would be the deprivation of proper nutrition?  I think it would.  What level of education should be the right of the U.S. citizen is open to argument (but Beck would never grasp nuance even if it stared at him from the pages of scripture.)
     Also, I don't really find comfort in, or appreciate, the rights that God "provides" in scripture.  A daughter is condemned to stoning if she should be raped and thereafter refuse to marry her rapist?  Really?  Perhaps you can help me with that Glenn.  If you believe that our rights are only those provided for by scripture, sad little cretin, move to Iran.
     The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed and pushed for by the U.S. in 1948, says clearly in article 26, that "everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory."

A state has the right to cut the education budget, too, even if lamentable,

but the students also have the right to protest.

Decalogue 2.0

Christopher Hitchens and Vanity Fair have made and amusing video critique of the ten commandments, followed by an even more amusing revision.  I would have added "Do not condemn those who express opinions that differ from your own."

OK GO!

Ok. I get it.  I saw this video days ago and thought it was awesome.  But since EVERYBODY is obsessed with it, I'm going to post it here for those of you who haven't seen it...  It is pretty cool, really.

Click to Watch Full Screen

Article Calls For Theist/Atheist Unity - Oops, Not So Much...

     So.  There is a new Religion section over at the Huffington Post, the stated aim of which is to become a forum for believers and non-believers alike.  I do hope it turns out that way.  So far, however, I have seen nothing much from the rational community.  We should be showing a spirited presence there, else we leave it to the religious to dominate a highly - no - insanely valuable piece of web real-estate... So lets make our presence known.
     For good example, direct your attention to a new article by Alan Krinsky, titled "Rational Theists and Rational Atheists of the World, Unite!"  (Who knew theism could be rational?)  Krinsky asserts that non-believers overlook the essential mystery of existence, and that religious people live purposefully with obligations to family and God (as opposed to feeling "entitled", a more than nasty insinuation).  He then confuses intelligence with rationalism, in the tired old argument that there are Nobel Laureates (i.e. smart people) who believe in God.
     These are just SOME of the specious claims made.  The article contains logical fallacies too numerous to invest time in debunking.  That it fails miserably to "unite" us in any way is putting it lightly.  The overwhelming weight of the article is devoted to a rather ineffective persuasion that theism is just as rational as atheism - what a dishonest summons it is, then.
     In a single token-sentence Krinsky suggests theists should cooperate with atheists "to combat the irrationality in our schools, our politics, and our public discourse," (which I am on board with - although I assume what he meant to say was that we should cooperate with religious liberals).  I assume as much, because it's theists who are pushing that very irrationality into our schools and politics, an irrationality based on, you guessed it, theism!  Also, promoting rationality in public discourse is where this proposed, tenuous unity breaks down - since the secular/non-belief movement is concerned with the desired extirpation of irrationality from our public discourse, and since we consider religion, along with "revealed truth," to be irrational.
     I can certainly support coming together on issues common to atheists, religious liberals, and moderates.  Fighting Intelligent Design Creationism invasion of the classroom would be a good place to start.  In that case, Mr. Krinsky, write an article about what we can come together and fight for, don't mislead us to sit through a weak defense of your God.

- My direct comments to the author are reposted below-
(Click them to see them clearly - No response yet)

The Absurd Award Goes To Russia!!!

Lest you fall sleep without some strange sequence in your head...

Replacement

Forced reliance on big Brother

Won't take me where I need to go.

Sacred ages, old, cruel and scared,

Slowly build me a new Lover.

Truth, more real is Her beauty, and

So much better than the other.

2012 Explained