Just in time for the holidays, I'm happy to announce the grand opening of Cthulhu's Bar & Grill! It's a one-stop shop for vaguely Cthulhu-related t-shirts and chachkes and such.
The latest issue (Volume 1, Issue 4) of the publication Evolution: Education and Outreach has been made available free of charge to anyone who wants it. This link will take you to the main page, at which point you'll be able to navigate through the table of contents.
This issue is devoted entirely to that favorite Creationist shibboleth, the evolution of the eye. Much good stuff awaits those who seize the opportunity to download, download, download.
A hyphal tip to Genomicron for news of this great freebie.
On a note related to the previous entry about David Klinghoffer, a question by Lee Shelton IV on his blog The Contemporary Calvinist asks:
If only the natural world exists, then how did belief in the supernatural evolve?I've already given my answer. Won't you please take a moment to give yours?
...Our world is becoming increasingly consistent in its hatred of Christians and more and more prepared to receive God's judgment for its open rebellion against His commands. Soon, I fear for the lost, the festive singing and musical blasphemy embedded below is going to be over for them.Gee, and I thought these folks wanted the son o'Jehovah to hurry back.
The Bible makes it clear - and in no uncertain terms - that when the world becomes as it was when Lot lived in Sodom, God is going to shake this world like a sapling in a hurricane...
It's coming around! It's coming around as clear as crystal, isn't it?
...It's a Satan thing, you know?
The Cincinnati Zoo is shilling for the Creation Museum Theme Park.
The Fundamentalist Faction within the US military is teaching soldiers, among other bizarre claims, that evolutionary biology leads to suicide, that Humanism is based on selfishness, and that Charles Darwin was the first leader of the Soviet Union. It's gibbering, drooling, Disenlightenment mental illness, and it's on the taxpayer's bill. The message is being delivered in mandatory indoctrination sessions, no less.
Even the erstwhile ScienceBlogs have been infected with anti-vaccinationist, anti-science nonsense. The source of the sickness in this case is Germany, and the anti-vaccinationist is joined by a second nutcase who insists that the heavy metals found in Ayurvedic woo-juice aren't harmful. This despite a recent investigation that noted numerous cased of lead and mercury poisoning tied to those same compounds.
Hyphal tips to The Austringer, Daily Kos and Respectful Insolence, respectively, for the heads-up on these three sad stories.
There are some mornings when the news from the front in the war against ignorance and disenlightenment are so depressing that I barely feel that it's worth my time to go into the lab. Heck, it's almost not worth my time to get out of bed. It seems that no matter what, the cancer is just going to keep on spreading. Just when things seem to be getting better, just when it looks like some progress is being made, the legions of lesions turn up somewhere else. That the forces of idiocy should find a home in ScienceBlogs, that institutions like the Cincinnati Zoo and the US military should be creating opportunities for the further corrosion of reason in favor of superstition and misinformation, are truly grievous situations.
It seems that not only sound, evidence-based science can be readily overturned by the machinations of mythologists, but even Constitutional law can be ignored with impunity.
On some days, that makes me want to stand up and push back hard. It's one of the reasons I decided to become a dues-paying member of Greater Worcester Humanists. It's one of the reasons that I want to teach sound science and engage in useful and revealing research.
On other days, though, the bad news seems so overwhelming that I just want to hibernate like a bear. It's tempting to get back into bed, leave a wake-up call for the time when knowledge is valued over blindly clinging to the ancient misunderstandings, and pull the covers over my head. It makes me want to have scotch for breakfast.
The latter is not an option, of course. I have primers to design, a report for the state DCR to complete (hopefully by the end of the week), phylogenies to infer. Until shariah is instituted in Massachusetts, I have work to do. Besides, we have 200 proof ethanol in the lab. That's even better than scotch... right?
I read about a blog toy courtesy of Dispatches from the Culture Wars called Typealyzer. It purports to analyze the dominant style of a given blog and tell you a little something about both that blog and its author.
I plugged in the URL for Hyphoid Logic and got the following result:
The analysis indicates that the author of http://vyoma108.blogspot.com is of the type:All of which is, I think, close to the truth. When I was interviewed by Bruce Berman for an article he's writing about the impact of science bloggers on the evolution/intelligent design "controversy," he told me something very similar to what that last sentence says, although he used the more accurate "not gentle," a characterization with which I fully agree. I don't try to be most of the time, particularly when it comes to confronting those who wish to substitute superstition for reason. The way I see it, someone else declared a "culture war" and decided that I'm part of the opposing "army." Who ever heard of a gentle war?
INTP - The Thinkers
The logical and analytical type. They are especialy attuned to difficult creative and intellectual challenges and always look for something more complex to dig into. They are great at finding subtle connections between things and imagine far-reaching implications.
They enjoy working with complex things using a lot of concepts and imaginative models of reality. Since they are not very good at seeing and understanding the needs of other people, they might come across as arrogant, impatient and insensitive to people that need some time to understand what they are talking about.
The Skeptics' Circle convenes for the 100th time today. This time, the skeptics have gathered aboard The Liberator in attempt to discern The Trouble With Orac.
Have the forces of woo finally fried the neurocircuitry of the keeper of Respectful Insolence? Will the Circle be destroyed? Can the universe be saved from an unchecked explosion of hypercredulity?
Tune in and find out!
Congratulations to the SC for achieving the century mark.
The entire archives of the Royal Society, dating back to 1655, have been digitized and put online. Best of all, they're free until February 1, 2009. FREE. Anyone who wants anything from this huge archive, essentially representing the history of science since the dawn of the Enlightenment, can get whatever they want for nothing, nada, zip.
This is a huge deal. Access to the Royal Society's archives is not cheap. I suggest that you start searching the archives for whatever it is that interests you and downloading it. I know that I am.
Go to the Royal Society journals and get your hands on everything you can!
A Macrocybe-sized hyphal tip to Aydin Örstan of Snail's Tales for the news!
I shouldn't be astounded at the profound depths of superstition into which great chunks of America has sunk anymore. Really, nothing should surprise me when it comes to the extremes of irrationality that grips far too many people anymore. Nonetheless, it does. It truly does. Even as some of the world comes to better understand the world as it is, to peer deep into the heart of matter and prize out the basic mechanisms by which it works, other parts of it retreat further and further into the dark dungeon of ignorance and fear and bar the door behind them.
It is thus that we find that there are people walking among us who are utterly terrified of the supernatural implications of the last presidential election. Apparently, it's the boogeyman who will be moving into the White House in January. Hellfire is going to rain down upon the planet because of this. The world is ending.
The number one question being asked: Is Barack Obama the antichrist? I've received dozens of emails pointing out the odd fact that the day after the election, the daily pick-three lottery number in Obama's home state of Illinois was "6-6-6..."Ummm, yeah. See pp. 51-59 of John Allen Paulos' Irreligion about that first paragraph. On November 5, as on every day, there are several numbers drawn in the Illinois lottery, and the fact is that the Evening Pick 3 number was 666. By the same token, the Midday Pick 3 was 779 and the Evening Pick 4 was 7779. What to make of that set of two numbers numbers? The odds that the combination 7-7-9 would be picked twice in the same day is far smaller than the odds off 6-6-6 being drawn once, so it would seem to me that on purely probabilistic terms the first combination would be far more significant than the latter, but this is a classic case of confirmation bias. 6-6-6 has a special significance to some people, whereas 7-7-9 doesn't, so they notice one number while ignoring the other. It's also worth noting that 6-6-6 was also drawn as the winning number for the Midday Pick 3 of the Illinois lottery on 10/23/08, the Evening Pick 4 (as 0-6-6-6) on 7/5/08 (the day after Independence Day! Clearly, America is Satanic!), the Evening Pick 3 on 3/22/08 the first day of Spring!), and the Evening Pick 3 on 1/16/08, and nobody made a big deal about these other four instances of the same number being drawn on these other days in the very same lottery. Why is that? Simple: on those days, it was simply a random number, just as it was the fifth time it was picked in 2008 on November 5.
I don't see anything shocking in last week's election. I do believe strongly that a dark demonic cloud has swept over the land, but this is how we should expect the end times to play out. And, I foresee more negative events to come. The only thing that worries me is the Christians who fail to see the danger that comes from prophecy being fulfilled in our day.
I believe we are entering a time when Christians really need to set their priorities. Your last chance to do something for the kingdom of God may be sooner than you realize...— Todd Strandberg, "Fasten Your Seatbelts"
I have never been one for making "political" commentary, and I'll admit I haven't deeply explored the issues, but watching from the sideline, I am seeing some connections between our new president, and our old prophecies. Seems like people have been looking for the Antichrist for years, and each generation has never been disappointed to find one, even several! Maybe we have moved past that now to something even more ominous - the beast...Who could possibly refute the argument that people being overwhelmingly concerned about economics during a period of economic stress and voting accordingly is evidence that the person they voted for is Satan? I mean, aside from anyone who wasn't already of the opinion that the person elected was some supernatural force of evil. That economic collapse itself might usher in a period of terrible hardships across the nation and around the globe isn't important. What's important is that anyone who doesn't agree with Nicodemus' priorities, based in turn on his religious ideology, just helped but Beelzebub in power. Shame on you, worrying about the possibility of your kids not being able to get a higher education, about not having money on which to survive after retirement, about being able to keep your family fed and sheltered. All of that's just a distraction! Your family doesn't need such things, because Jesus is signing unemployment checks.
I have heard of Christians who voted for him for economic reasons. They believe he will save the economy. If economics is the most important thing, then our focus is in the wrong place. We cannot serve both God and money. Incidentally, there is only one other reference that I know of in the Bible regarding the number 666, and it is regarding Solomon's gold. If the mark of the beast has to do with our love of gold instead of our love of God, then maybe this is the time when the man of lawlessness has been revealed. Just maybe.— Nicodemus, "Obama Is Not The Antichrist...But Maybe Something Worse"
One thing that has amazed me is how Barack Obama is not only considered to be a president-elect of the United States, but also president OF THE WORLD...The fact that the election of Obama is celebrated by a world that has worried over the last eight years of the Bush Doctrine of preemptive warfare against any nation we think might be some kind of threat at some point in the future is a sign of the apocalypse, you see. That Obama is charismatic, that he might have (shudder to think!) a global view, that he's not bellicose and threatening, that the world might breathe a collective sigh of relief... these are signs of an evil nature. Normally, of course, the United States elects uncharismatic presidents who are lazy and anti-intellectual, who view the outside world as a threat, whose finger trembles perennially just above the metaphorical big red button. The election of someone not like this, someone that the rest of humanity thinks might actually be a shift away from a dangerous America, is evidence that he might be the Antichrist.
The Economist reported that Mr. Obama "quickly scooped support from readers in China, India and most of Europe, as well as from the United States itself. Mr. Obama won the backing of an overwhelming share of voters in 56 countries — including the likes of Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Indonesia and South Korea — claiming the support of 90 percent (or more) of those who voted."
The world map was almost a monochromatic blue expressing strong support for Obama, including in the Philippines. The only exceptions were Iraq, Algeria, Cuba and Congo in favoring Sen. John McCain. The general result of this Global Electoral College poll may look lopsided, but it is not unexpected. Opinion polls including one carried by the BBC also revealed that Mr. Obama is the world's overwhelming choice.
How about that? This is significant considering that the Antichrist will also have support of most of the world when he begins his reign. I cannot think of a time in history when an American president was viewed as an "overwhelming choice of the world."
Another fascinating feature about the antichrist is his charismatic personality that leaves people awe struck...— Rich Wilbur, "Is Barack Obama The Antichrist?"
...Remember, the identity of the antichrist is not for us to know, but for the world to know. He will offer himself up to the world...Hmmm... then again, Rich Wilbur is saying that Obama "fills the bill." Wilbur doesn't know that Obama is the Antichrist, but he clearly could be, and Wilbur spends a good deal of time in this piece providing evidence that he is before leaving himself an out at the very end of his supernaturally paranoid screed just in case, you know, it turns out that he isn't.
In the mean time, we will continue to watch and pray and make associations of what the bible says about the antichrist to Obama or anyone else who fits the bill.
Forsooth, hie thee hence to Blake Stacey's novel duchy in the kingdom Science Blogs and nourish thine mind and eyeballs with Carnival of the Elitist Bastards, Act I scene iv. Therein do bastards most elitist shake speares at the slings and arrows of outrageous codswallop.
With no offense intended upon the puissant persons of previous CEBs, I must declare that Blake has cobbled together the best one yet. What, pray tell, could be more justly elitist than a physicist writing in Elizabethan style?
It's time once again for the Skeptics' Circle, hosted this time by Reduce to Common Sense.
In this edition, the Skeptic Olympics hold their closing ceremonies and a few gold medal winners are honored. Pareidolia, Rocky Twyman, alternative medicine, Elvis and the end of the world... how can you go wrong?
You can't. You can only go.
The American Society for Microbiology's Moselio Schaechter has dedicated this week's blogging at Small Things Considered to articles about fungi. So far, three of the five promised articles have appeared:
The excellent microbiology blog Small Things Considered is celebrating the beginning of mushroom collecting season with a weeks worth of fungal posts.Which comes as a bit of news to we hardcore collectors who've been tromping through the woods since April! If anyone who thinks August is the beginning of collecting season is wondering why they aren't finding any of the good stuff, it's because I've already collected it all.
If you've been wondering where your partner is most likely to enjoy being touched, or how your preferences for where you like to be touched stack up against those of others, or even how much emphasis popular music and literature places upon various parts of the body, your next click should be over to the very interesting Fleshmap.com.
The Fleshmap project is undertaken by artists Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg. It gathered the opinions of hundreds of respondents of both genders and all sexual persuasions as to where they most enjoy being touched and where they most like to touch others. The results are presented as what looks like a thermograph that highlights areas of greatest interest, such as this one for where women most desire to be touched on the front of their bodies:
An entry I wrote recently about my inclination to shake my fist and scream at the Asian longhorned beetle has been blog-logged by Worcester Magazine. It's becoming something of a hot topic around town, I guess. Fellow Worcester blogger Jeff of Wormtown Taxi has written several bits on it, including this newest one.
I've also just learned this morning of the Massachusetts Introduced Pests Outreach Blog. There's useful information there about how to recognize the damage done by the beetles even if you don't see the beetle itself. I suggest that any locals take a look at MIPO Blog and learn how they can help their state keep track of this infestation. It's always possible that the extra bit of information you provide could be the one that tips the scales against the big bad bug.
In response to an article in which elderly and addled former philosopher Anthony Flew, once an atheist and now a rather babbling theist as he approaches the end of his life, accuses Richard Dawkins of being a "secularist bigot," Dr. Shane McKee of Belfast wrote:
One Flew, over the cuckoo's nest.Today, these are Shane McKee's intertubes. He won them, fair and square.
You don't have to go to China to witness Team Skeptic taking gold medals. The 92nd edition of The Skeptics' Circle is now live on The Lay Scientist. It's a particularly good one in which skeptical thinkers jump the hurdles of cell phone cancer woo, toss a javelin through the heart of religious Millennialism and kick the latest in anti-vaccine paranoia into the net of critical thought.
Check it out.
It's my blog and I'll obsess if I want to.
The murder of two people by Jim Adkisson at a liberal church has had me thinking a great deal about why things like this happen. I have noticed that the right-wing's explanation for Adkisson's actions is predominately that he was a mental case. It's hard to disagree with that. In my estimation, and I would like to believe that of the majority of American human beings of all political persuasions, anyone who attempts to address their grievances with a shotgun blast is disordered.
Still, there are plenty of deranged individuals walking around unrestrained these days. Some of them are even prone to violence, and the target of their rage has some explanation. Violent people rarely choose a random target; they usually (perhaps always) pick a mark that has some significance to them. That usually means someone who is visibly different in some way. Various psychopaths have targeted those of other ethnicities, or women, or the elderly. They choose their targets based on a distinction, and that distinction has a meaning to them. The significance doesn't arise in a vacuum, either. There may be some personal trauma involved or they may be acting on messages they believe that they're receiving.
It's valid to ask, certainly, why Jim D. Adkisson decided that his hatred would be focused on liberals. Liberals don't look different and, by and large, don't act differently than non-liberals. You can't pick the liberal from the crowd based on their pigmentation or mannerisms. A liberal in a suit looks exactly like a conservative in a suit or a Communist in a suit, for that matter.
Adkisson was almost certainly acting on messages from the media. Somebody told him, in his interpretation, that killing people with a particular social and political philosophy was the right thing to do in order to solve not only his own problems but those of others like him. He even wore a sort of a uniform when carrying out his imagined mission.
A brief dig around the internet this morning yielded such a message with very little effort. It looks like this:
All sales proceeds at PatriotShop.US support our Mission of Service to America's Armed Services, and help ensure that The Patriot Post is distributed to hundreds of thousands of military personnel and students without a fee...So, a bunch of people who have fantasies about shooting liberals and sell a product that endorses that fantasy call themselves "patriots" and seeks to influence the military (people with guns). The message here is that it is not only acceptable to shoot liberals, it's patriotic. It's what people who love their country enough to defend it ought to be doing. Anyone who sees humor in this sort of thing is already well on their way down the twisting path of psychopathy. The thought of killing another human being is only funny to those lacking any sense of empathy, the very basis of morality. This isn't patriotism, it's pathology.
Carnival of the Elitist Bastards #3 is live, hosted by minor science blogger, notorious cookie abuser and alleged biologist PZ Myers. Just as a broken clock tells the correct time twice each day, he had the good sense to include one of my articles amongst the codswallop, hogwash and ninnyblithering comprised by the rest of the morbidly sub-par attempt.
I should point out, however, that the article, Angel Appears to Florida Woman, contains a poison pill that I included precisely for the purpose of testing the acumen of CEB's host. This sentence appears in the opening paragraph of the piece:
It's an entry written for the occult community on LiveJournal by another Floridian writing under the user ID meb21.Had Myers been paying close attention to editing the carnival rather than flogging his snickerdoodle yet again, he would have noticed that I failed to capitalize the proper noun naming the forum in which the tale of sorcery appears. It should be written "Occult Community on LiveJournal."
Readers may have noticed two changes to this blog today. Since it hasn't changed that much in the previous year, here's the story on the disabling of anonymous comments and the appearance of a new icon/link at the foot of each entry.
For whatever reason, Google has picked up a recent entry and turned it into a featured blog link on its search engine. That's great for increasing good traffic, but it has also had the effect of attracting what look like a bunch of spambots. There have been a couple of them, it seems, crawling over the place today and attempting to leave numerous advertising spams. Each time an attempt is made, I get a moderation email notifying me of a new anonymous comment. I had scores of them after just a few hours, so I've decided to turn off anonymous commenting for the time being in the hopes that these notices won't turn into a flood in my inbox. I don't know for how long this will last, and I may or may not decide to turn it back on. Multiple anonymous comments can cause some confusion and, with the advent of OpenID and the like, it isn't all that necessary, anyhow.
The other change is the inclusion of an icon and link for Sphere that appears at the bottom right of each entry. Sphere is a free service that connects readers of an article they find interesting with other content sources containing related information, including blogs and mainstream media. Try it out; I did some surfing on it this morning and found it interesting enough to include it here. It looks benign as far as I can tell, so I'll give it a few weeks and see if people are using it.
If you were wondering, now you know.
