Question Everything
How can I resist? Eric Hovind does the usual trick of putting two reasonable answers on it to split the rational vote, but I think a good goal would be to simply make both of them crush the stupid creationist answer.
What do you believe about evolution?
It's a religion. 46%
* It's a fact! 43%
* It's a reasonable scientific theory. 11%
Fly, my pretties! Destroy the poll!
Read the comments on this post...Spiegel has a wonderful interview with Venter. The more I hear from Venter, the more I like him; he's very much a no-BS sort of fellow. He's the guy who really drove the human genome project to completion, and he's entirely open about explaining that its medical significance was grossly overstated.
SPIEGEL: So the significance of the genome isn't so great after all?
Venter: Not at all. I can tell you from my own experience. I put my own genome on the Internet. People had the notion this was the scariest thing out there. But what happened? Nothing.
There really was a lot of hysteria in the early days about how the insurance companies would abuse the information in the genome, and there was also the GATTACA dystopia. None of it has, and I daresay none of it will, come to pass.
Venter: That's what you say. And what else have I learned from my genome? Very little. We couldn't even be certain from my genome what my eye color was. Isn't that sad? Everyone was looking for miracle 'yes/no' answers in the genome. "Yes, you'll have cancer." Or "No, you won't have cancer." But that's just not the way it is.
SPIEGEL: So the Human Genome Project has had very little medical benefits so far?
Venter: Close to zero to put it precisely.
SPIEGEL: Did it at least provide us with some new knowledge?
Venter: It certainly has. Eleven years ago, we didn't even know how many genes humans have. Many estimated that number at 100,000, and some went as high as 300,000. We made a lot of enemies when we claimed that there appeared to be considerably fewer -- probably closer to the neighborhood of 40,000! And then we found out that there are only half as many. I was just in Stockholm for the 200th anniversary of the Karolinska Institute. The first presentation was about the many achievements the decoding of the genome has brought. Then I spoke and said that this century will be remembered for how little, and not how much, happened in this field.
Hmmm…I seem to recall that Venter's company was one that was trying to patent an inflated number of genes, which contradicts what he's claiming here. But otherwise, yes, the HGP isn't yet a source of useful medical information, but it's a trove of scientific information; I'd also add that the technology race put a lot of useful techniques in our hands.
Venter: Exactly. Why did people think there were so many human genes? It's because they thought there was going to be one gene for each human trait. And if you want to cure greed, you change the greed gene, right? Or the envy gene, which is probably far more dangerous. But it turns out that we're pretty complex. If you want to find out why someone gets Alzheimer's or cancer, then it is not enough to look at one gene. To do so, we have to have the whole picture. It's like saying you want to explore Valencia and the only thing you can see is this table. You see a little rust, but that tells you nothing about Valencia other than that the air is maybe salty. That's where we are with the genome. We know nothing.
Exactly! Traits are products of overlapping networks of genes. Venter also explains that a lot of the effects of genes are developmental, so you can't expect to be able to take a pill to correct something that went wrong in the assembly process in the embryo.
Here's my favorite exchange from the interview.
Venter: Yes, and I find them frightening. I can read your genome, you know? Nobody's been able to do that in history before. But that is not about God-like powers, it's about scientific power. The real problem is that the understanding of science in our society is so shallow. In the future, if we want to have enough water, enough food and enough energy without totally destroying our planet, then we will have to be dependent on good science.
SPIEGEL: Some scientist don't rule out a belief in God. Francis Collins, for example ...
Venter: ... That's his issue to reconcile, not mine. For me, it's either faith or science - you can't have both.
SPIEGEL: So you don't consider Collins to be a true scientist?
Venter: Let's just say he's a government administrator.
Oh, snap.
Read the comments on this post...The peculiarities of dietary restrictions by the religious are always entertaining. Catholics have their own weird practices: here's a bit of strange information from a Catholic agony aunt forum.
Do alligators count as fish?
As a Catholic who observes the custom of abstaining from meat on Fridays, I would like to know if alligator would be considered meat or fish. Recently, on a Friday, I was in a local restaurant where I was sharing a dinner of alligator. I thought upon this, and decided, as a reptile, alligator would fall into the fish category. I hope I'm not sounding too scrupulous, but if it is considered meat, I will avoid it on Fridays in the future.
Uh-oh. This woman made a judgment on Catholic theology without consulting a priest. Doesn't she know she could be getting an eternity in hell for her plate full of alligator? Fortunately, it turns out that going meatless still allows one to eat all the reptiles, amphibians, and insects you might want.
An alligator is certainly not a fish, and it certainly does have meat. But the custom of abstaining from meat on Fridays is abstinence from the flesh of mammals and birds. Fish, reptiles, amphibians, insects, etc., are exempt from this. Since an alligator is a reptile, those who abstain from meat on Fridays are free to eat alligator if they wish.
Why?
Does anybody ever just ask why these strange eating habits are a part of the doctrine? Does god like birds and mammals so much that he doesn't want you to eat them on one day? Would he really be that pissed if you had a cheeseburger on Friday?
Read the comments on this post...MPR picked my brains about the impossible plan to eradicate mosquitoes. No, we can't, and no, we shouldn't. That wasn't so hard.
Read the comments on this post...The 10th anniversary of the journal Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines is being celebrated by making all of the articles in a special review issue entirely free for download…for the month of July. It's almost over! Grab those pdfs while you can!
Read the comments on this post...
(via Daily Squee)
Read the comments on this post...
It's a simple question.
Do you think Livingston Parish public schools should teach creationism?
Yes, evolution is a lie 22%
Yes, so children can hear both sides 35%
No, religion has no place in science class 29%
No, we don't need to waste tax money on lawsuits 13%
Don't know 1%
I think readers here might have a slightly different set of answers than are up currently, though.
Read the comments on this post...Helen Thomas vacated her front row seat in the White Press (under ignominious circumstances, unfortunately), and now it's up for grabs. The White House Correspondence Association is going to decide whether to give it to NPR, Bloomberg, or, appallingly, Fox News. Sign the petition. Slap down the right-wing propaganda organ and insist that a legitimate news organization like NPR get the seat.
Read the comments on this post...
I have the privilege of being a graduate student at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the largest private, non-profit oceanographic institution in the world. Called WHOI (“who-ee”) for short, the institution is a remarkable place to work and learn. WHOI carries out oceanographic research in all of the world’s oceans. Many people assume that “oceanography” is focused on studying biology (whales and dolphins and such). I do have many friends who study marine mammals, but that research is only a small part of what WHOI (and the Biology Department, which studies all marine life from microscopic to macroscopic) scientists study- in addition to Biology, there are four other departments: Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Physical Oceanography, Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering, and finally my department- Geology and Geophysics. To aid in this research, WHOI operates four research vessels, the Alvin manned deep-sea submersible, and numerous robotic submersibles.
I feel very lucky to be part of WHOI as a PhD student in the joint graduate program with MIT. Every so often, I have a moment where I sit back and am amazed that I am a part of WHOI. I am amazed that, every day, well-regarded scientists make time to help me with my research. These scientists listen to me and genuinely care about what I, a lowly graduate student, am doing.
My current advisor (who rescued me after I left my first advisor and my second advisor left me) is a truly remarkable woman- in addition to all of her scientific accomplishments studying hydrothermal deposits, she is currently overseeing the design of the new manned submersible that will eventually replace Alvin. Once, my advisor called me to tell me that she had to reschedule our weekly meeting… because she had to meet with some high-ranking Naval officers about the re-design of the Alvin. She felt terrible and apologized profusely.
I was shocked- clearly, our weekly meeting was not nearly as important as meeting with the Navy about Alvin. Yet, my advisor puts a priority on meeting with me as often as I need- at least weekly. She’ll drop what she’s doing to help me identify a mineral or give me advice on how to ship samples. I don’t bother her with every mundane detail of my research, but I know that I can always come talk to her about anything. And that amazes me and makes me feel very grateful to be here. And that motivates me when it’s 9pm at night and I still have two hours of labwork to do. My advisor is one of the smartest, hardest-working yet still down-to-Earth people I have ever met. The least I can do is work hard to be a good graduate student.
As you all know by now, I am a geologist. Specifically, I study how carbonates form through alteration of oceanic crust. I am a hard rock geologist and a geochemist. As a geologist, I know about compasses, maps, GPS units, minerals, and hammers. As a geochemist, I know about acids, being paranoid about contamination, mass spectrometers, the periodic table, and the table of the nuclides. I know very little about ocean water and oil, and I know even less about deep-sea drilling rigs. Yet, over the past 101 days since the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill began, I have been asked numerous times about the oil spill and its implications. As soon as people know I work at WHOI, they presume I am an expert about everything related to the oil spill. When I try to deflect, they insist that I am a geologist at WHOI so therefore I must be able to answer their questions.
Quite honestly, I know very little about the spill, about how oil spills work in general, about ocean circulation, about the technical details of stopping the spill, et cetera. I mostly know what I have read in the news and on WHOI’s website. I know a little more by talking to friends who work on oil spills, including Deepwater Horizon. Also, I suppose that as a scientist with training in marine geology and plenty of exposure to all things oceanography, I am in a position where it is easier for me (compared to the average person off the street) to understand what’s going on with the oil spill. But, it has been a little frustrating trying to explain that I am not an expert, and trying to refer people to the true experts. I try to convey that scientists, particularly at this level, are specialists- I know a great amount about very little. My thesis research is very focused and has nothing to do with oil or oil spills. However, the questions I have found myself receiving (and usually deflecting) have also encouraged me to learn more about the science of the oil spill, particularly WHOI’s involvement, which is significant.
I highly recommend this website, which has been set up to describe WHOI’s involvement in the oil spill.
I’d also like to point out that TONIGHT from 7-8:30 pm EST there is going to be a public forum here in Woods Hole where WHOI scientists involved in the oil spill response will give updates and field questions from the audience. If you’re in the area, you can come ask questions in person. If you’re not in the area, you can send your questions by email and can watch the forum online. This is a chance for you to have your questions answered by the proper experts. I hope some of you can make it and/or watch it online.
The next item up on the auction block: a Muppets Pigs in Space action playset courtesy of Maria!
Maria says it’s a full Swine Trek set that features moving levers, swiveling side panels, retractable doors, removeable consols, swiveling chairs, and an interchangeable rear view-screen. It even has a Miss Piggy figure!
If you request, Maria will even sign it for you! And if you don’t mind waiting until after I visit DragonCon, I and a bunch of other Skepchicks will sign it, too. Just because you’re awesome.
Go! Bid!
They just keep popping up out of nowhere, all shrill and assertive and extreme. Take a look at this new guy getting all in-your-face about religion. And he's a Scot, too; even worse.
Disreputable rascals, every one.
Read the comments on this post...Earlier this summer, I mentioned the Oregon Octocam, which featured an octopus named Deriq.
Deriq has died. It's a sad fact that most cephalopods are very short lived.
"The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you have burned so very, very brightly, Deriq."
Read the comments on this post...
There’s no denying that our everyday lives are influenced more and more by technology. Whether it’s something fun, like the release of StarCraft II, or the promise of something practical (and fun), like the Porsche 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid car, there is never a shortage of awesome new items being developed, manufactured, and sold.
And I love new technology. All of it. Though I freely admit I can’t keep up with it all. There just aren’t enough hours in the day for me to see to my personal quirks and glitches and procure and actually use all the latest cool gadgets. Hell, I’ve barely managed to squeeze computers, cell phones, MP3 players, and a Mr. Coffee machine into my routine. But I would definitely use more if I could.
When it comes to an item like a Kindle or an iPad, however, I simply have no interest.
Amazon reported a couple weeks ago it is now selling 80% more downloaded books than hardbacks, so it is obviously another popular wave of consumer technology, but the thing is, electronic books just don’t appeal to me.
I don’t consider myself old fashioned, despite the fact that a night out for me consists of pitching woo in the rumble seat with my best girl and using phrases like “23 skiddoo”. And I don’t necessarily want to kill trees, but I prefer printed books.
Now, I have no rational reason for the preference, and I realize that I may eventually have to change, as more and more titles become available only in electronic form. I just like the heft of a printed book, the feel of it in my hands, the smell and feel of the pages, and the nostalgia of seeing my favorites sitting on my bookshelf.
But what about you?
Do you have a preference? Print or electronic? What are the pros/cons of either? Do you have a Kindle, iPad, other? Any hard-dying connections with books? Do you place value on a well stocked bookshelf? If a train left New York traveling west at 65 mph, and at the same time, a jet left Los Angeles traveling east at 650 mph, what would be the sound of one hand clapping? And just how do they grow more seedless watermelons anyway? Also, if a tree fell in the woods, are you hoping it lands on me right about now?
The Afternoon Inquisition (or AI) is a question posed to you, the Skepchick community. Look for it to appear Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 3pm ET.
They're Christian, so you can trust them to have your best interests at heart. The Modesty Survey is a bizarre instrument created by asking young Christian women to put together heartfelt questions about their clothing ("Are bikinis immodest?" "Are jeans immodest?"), and then teenaged Christian boys are surveyed to get their opinions. Because, of course, the girls need boys' advice.
Reading through the questions is weird: they're phrased in different ways, but one of the most common motifs is the "stumbling block". The boys are asked to judge whether an item of clothing is something that might cause them to think wicked thoughts…so once again, the women are to blame for inciting men's behavior by wearing tight jeans or a strapless dress.
They're also explicit about it:
We're not telling you what to wear — we're just telling you what we, as guys, have to guard against. It is God's Word, your own heart and conscience, and your parents and godly friends who should help you decide what to do about it.
What they have to guard against? They should be plainer. "We're not telling you what to wear — we're just listing the stuff that will justify raping you."
I get a Taliban tingle just reading it. It's a far more generous document than anything Islam dictates — young Christian men do not want young Christian women to wear burkas — but in principle, it's the same thing. It's men declaring ownership of women's bodies and telling them what to wear, with the the threat of justifiable sexual assault if they do not obey.
It is a little disturbing, though, to see that their logo has a picture of a woman with a veil over her face.
Read the comments on this post...One of the more contemptible anti-gay activists is Reverend Scott Lively, a true liar for Jesus who considers it his sacred mission to rid the world of homosexuals. He was proud to have inspired the Ugandan death penalty for homosexuality law (although in the face of the outrage that generated, he backed off, claiming they should give them the choice of prison or gay conversion "therapy").
His other claim to fame is that he is a holocaust revisionist. He has written a book, The Pink Swastika, in which he claims that Hitler and his entire inner circle was gay, that the atrocities the Nazis committed were driven by the immoral impulses of the gay Nazi elite, and that the well-known anti-gay laws and mass murders of homosexuals in the Third Reich were just a cover, a distraction to conceal the fact that Nazis were all gay. Oh, and also that the reason they were murdered is that gays are intrinsically violent, anyway.
Lively is an evil little liar, so it was delightful to see him exposed on the Daily Show. This is one of the clearest illuminations of the insanity of these gay-hating evangelicals I've seen.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Gay Reichs | ||||
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The best moment was after Lively expounded on his ferocious gay Nazi theory and how the Nazi's public denunciation of gays was evidence that they were all secretly gay, the interviewer asks him, "That which you hate the most you secretly are?" Reverend Scott Lively sits there stunned for a moment before he can say, "I'm not gay."
I don't see how we can conclude that he's not, though, given the Christian logic he has so impeccably applied to the problem.
Read the comments on this post..."One of the most striking things that I read recently was a thought from Richard Dawkins that he might want to take advantage of our education legislation to open a new school, which was set up on an explicitly atheist basis.He later told reporters "If Professor Dawkins wants to set up a school we would be very interested to look at an application."
"It wouldn't be my choice of school, but the whole point about our education reforms is that they are, in the broad sense of the word, small 'l', liberal, that they exist to provide that greater degree of choice."
"The BHA campaigns for totally inclusive schools for children of all faiths and none. In our view, many inclusive community schools are already more or less humanist in their ethos and values. If compulsory collective worship was ended and RE became universally objective, fair and balanced, community schools would indeed be humanist in all but name, open and accommodating to all."I'm looking to cover this in the next issue of the magazine, so reader comments would be greatly appreciated. Where do you stand on this issue? Do you welcome Gove's comments? Should atheists now look to use the provisions of the Academies Act? Or should we oppose the idea of any school set up in the name of a particular religion or philosophy?
Jam rags and pile cream: Unnecessary and not particularly helpful
Director Vivienne “Nanny” Pattison got the call after some complaints had been made about the phrase “jam rags” appearing on a chalk-board in Emmerdale. She rose to the occasion with a deftness of touch worthy of her predecessor “Massah” John Beyer:
Clearly whoever wrote that knew exactly what they were doing, and they certainly didn’t need to,
she began, ambiguously.
It’s not a particularly helpful phrase to refer to sanitary towels as “jam rags” , and it is unnecessary.
It didn’t need to be there at all.
There we have it. Mediawatch-UK has come a long way since the hard campaigning days of Mary Whitehouse. No longer is it the nation’s conscience, standing up for Christian righteousness in the face of a liberal media elite. It has become the leading voice in the fight against the not particularly helpful.
Because research shows that if children are exposed to the not particularly helpful every day in the media, they will grow up to be not-particularly-helpful adults.
Mark your calendars! The end of the world is nigh, and we've got a specific date: the Rapture will occur on 21 May, 2011, and the world ends on 21 October 2011. How do we know this? As near as I can tell, it's pure numerology, diddling dates to create a pretense of pattern that are then used to draw conclusions.
I wouldn't worry about it. But now you've got an excuse to plan a party for next spring.
Read the comments on this post...Zeno catches something amusing: a right-wing radio host ranting about professors.
Sussman:I get a kick out of— You go to UC Berkeley, you go to Stanford, you go to these various campuses and these students are out there protesting, "We need more money for our schools!" And standing next to them are the professors. "We need more money for our schools!" Hey, have you ever asked that professor how much money they're making every year? These professors are all millionaires. They're millionaires with big, big salaries and big, big retirement packages. And yet they dress like little schmoes, you know, with their crummy jackets [Officer Vic: Patches on the elbow.] that are twenty years old, yeah, and patches on the elbow. And their ties are askew and their hair's kinda crappy and they drive crummy little cars and they're millionaires. They're all millionaires! And they actually have the gall to stand next to the kids who are protesting because their fees are too high. "We need more money for our schools!" So you can pay these millionaires!
Reality doesn't matter to these guys, does it? We wear the crummy jackets and drive the crummy little cars because that's what we can afford: professors are proud members of the middle class, not even the upper middle class. It isn't pretense.
I'm also not really getting a pay raise. In Minnesota, we're getting a pay cut this year.
Read the comments on this post...
Technically, this should be for cute animal Friday but dammit, I’m making today cute cartoon Wednesday!
I know it’s not new but I saw it for the first time last week at Wootstock and it made me SO mother-fing-happy that I had to post it here!
Have a great day everyone!
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| Breed pictured - not actual dog |
I recently returned home from Comic-Con in San Diego and it was AMAZING!
Sorry to drop this on top of Chelsea’s Con envy AI post but yeah, Comic-Con was AWESOME!
Seriously, I had no idea what I was in for. I had never been to Comic-Con. I mean, I had friends like A.Real.Girl tell me it was the biggest convention of its kind in the country and that I should attend but I guess I didn’t fully grasp how completely freakin’ wild it was going to be. Comic-Con made every other convention I have been to fizzle when compared to the explosive-awsomeness of geekdom that I was exposed to! There is no way that I can give you a complete rundown of everything that happened over the 4 days of the con because the event itself was HUGE but I will give you a quick recap of what really was amazing to me.
First of all, I left town on a train to San Diego all alone. I was feeling rather sad and disillusioned as of late. I have been exposed to a lot of unnecessary negativity online and in skeptical circles and I really felt a need to reevaluate what I was doing here. Was I making a posative impact? Did I want to stay? And if so what should I do next? So I packed my bag, I kissed the wonderful, Mr. Surly goodbye and hopped the ‘Surfliner’ train to San Diego to help clear my head.
The always lovely and charming, A.Real.Girl picked me up from the train station and the four day weekend began. Now, I am sorry to have to gloss over a lot of Comic-Con but the convention is literally SO GIGANTIC that one person could never experience every aspect of it. But if you have never been, essentially Comic-Con is a science-fiction and art extravaganza with over 100,000 people in attendance. Every cool or geeky TV show and movie from from Eureka to the new Tron has a panel or an exhibit with all of the stars in tow. 
All the cool comic book artists are there as well selling stuff and signing autographs. For example, we saw Stan Lee just hanging out at the Marriott hotel. STAN LEE. He is like the freaking Hugh Hefner of comics! (Yes, because all the ladies love him.) But seriously, the guy is an icon of comic art. He might as well be a rock star and he was there and accessible to the likes of you and me! (Awesome!)
We attended a lot of panels. My favorite panel (no big surprise) was the MythBusters panel. It was moderated by the Nerdist, Mr. Chris Hardwick. 
He is funny, witty and charming and I was lucky enough to shake his hand! If you are not familiar with his work, do check him out!
Remember, I was on a soul searching mission. I was searching for purpose and direction in the land of the geek and something wonderful was said at the MythBuster’s panel that caught my attention. I am totally paraphrasing here but Chris Hardwick asked Adam Savage essentially how he felt about being a very popular scientific role model and how his show had become the best science show on television at this time and how he felt about that. Part of Adam’s response was along the lines of, ‘When you are naturally curious about stuff it ends up as science.’
That comment was very simple but encompassed a lot of why I am interested in science and skepticism today. I am not a scientist, nor am I an academic but I am naturally curious. In fact that curious nature is what led me here to Skepchick. A simple and honest curiosity about the world can lead to wonderful projects like television shows and art and blogs and more. And sometimes, if pursued with a genuine love for knowledge, the results of that curiosity can ripple outward and impact the world in wonderful ways. Yay MythBusters!
We walked the floor at Comic-Con. The ‘floor’ is a giant room filled with art and exhibits and items for sale and books and art and it was overwhelming and packed with people. It was so big and crowded that I never even made it to the booth that was selling some of my Surly jewelry. Seriously. But I did see a giant Bart.
There were a lot of giant things at the con. In fact giant bags were the big thing! (Thank you. I will be here all week. Don’t forget to tip your waitress and no, I won’t quit my day job.)
Every production company had issued a giant bag that you could have for free. The SyFy Giant Bag vs Giant Backpack was very popular.
I opted out of the giant bag craze but a certain astronomer friend of ours was seen gathering quite a few. 
All in all Comic-Con was very cool. But perhaps a bit ironically my very favorite part of the entire experience was a fringe event that I attended on the very first night. It was an event I was at the time unfamiliar with but now am officially a GIANT fan of. A little fringe event called Wootstock. Yes, Wootstock was my giant bag.
Wootstock is a concert event for geeks hosted by Wil Wheaton, Paul and Storm and Adam Savage. Participants in this particular Wootstock also included, Phil Plait, Chris Hardwick, Molly Lewis, Marian Call, Comic book legend Matt Fraction, live art by Len Peralta, all the fellas from Rifftrax, Jamy Ian Swiss and more. Dudes. It. Was. AWESOME! You know the saying, the geek shall inherit the earth? Not only do I now believe that to be completely true, I now think that when it happens Wootstock will be our Sunday mass. At the very least it should be! I laughed almost the entire time except for when I almost cried during Matt Fraction’s presentation. Needless to say, I was inspired by the wonderful sense of community and by the amount of talent and the wonderful gracious geekiness of it all. If you are not familiar with the event please do search youtube for it. Wil Wheaton is better at explaining the event than I am so here is a a clip of his intro from that evening.
The rest of Wootstock (it lasted more than four hours) can be found on youtube thanks to the audience members who recorded it and for Wil Wheaton and others for allowing for it to be shared. And guys, I will be honest here. I never watched the Star Trek episodes he was in and I was not a Wil Wheaton fan before this event. I am now a fan. He is funny and smart and the fact that he has a hand in an event like Wootstock makes him cool as hell in my book.
So what is the moral of this story? What did I find while on my journey to the land of the geek?
I realized that there is a wonderful fringe community that is verging on the mainstream and we all, every single person who embraces curiosity, science or any of the geek-arts has a right to be a part of it. Regardless of what college degree you have or do not have, or what your job title is or what your qualifications are, if you have a talent or something positive to contribute to this community or simply a desire to learn more you should feel welcomed into it. This community that I self identify with encompasses much more than just skeptics. Skepticism is a part of it but that is simply one aspect of it. It is a collective that celebrates ideas and the sharing of empirical knowledge and science-based information. It is a world-view that I want to be a positive and productive part of.
So to all of the negative ninnies who have been squawking in the sidelines of my world as of late, I say sianara. I can no-longer hear you over the AWESOME that was Comic-Con and Wootstock!
Science is inspiring. Life is amazing. There is much information to share, much good to do and much to create. And we, all of us, have a lot to learn.
PS. Can I just say ONE more thing? Somehow, little surly-ol me ended up as a guest at a party where Jamy Ian Swiss was doing close up magic tricks for Wil Wheaton and the cast of the MythBusters. Seriously. Dudes. Wow. I really don’t know what else to say about that other than the fact that if a little art-geek like me can end up in a magical place like that, almost anything is possible. 
Life is grand! I’m off to make my own tiny ripples.
Sorry the AI is late, guys! I was distracted by saving the world and watching Newsradio.
I won’t lie. I’ve got CON-envy. Added to it, I’m a complete CON-virgin. I’m not the nerdiest person… I don’t read graphic novels, I barely watch any anime, I could probably not name all of the cosplay characters in a given room if I tried. What I envy is the sense of community.
Despite the drama that goes along with being part of an inner-circle, social placement is important to most people. I don’t want to necessarily be well known, but to feel like I’m welcomed and accepted in an entire community of like-minded people is really very cool.
And I want to hug you all.
Anyway, one of these years I plan to attend a conference. I don’t know which it will be because they all get SUCH great reviews from everybody. So…
If you were to suggest a single conference for me to attend as a con-virgin, which would be your personal choice? What are you basing your decision on? Would you buy me a beer? No really. Will you buy me a beer? I need one.
The Afternoon Inquisition (or AI) is a question posed to you, the Skepchick community. Look for it to appear Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 3pm ET.
A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about the tragic case of Ismail Mohamed Didi, a 25-year-old Maldivan who apparently committed suicide following the negative and abusive reaction he received to his admission that he was an atheist and not a Muslim believer.
A Beavercreek couple who left their infant daughter's fate to God rather than seek medical treatment for a mass that grew over her left eye will face charges of first-degree criminal mistreatment.
Prosecutors revealed Thursday during a custody hearing that a grand jury has indicted Timothy and Rebecca Wyland, members of Oregon City's Followers of Christ church.
The Wylands' 7-month-old daughter, Alayna, was placed in state custody earlier this month after child-welfare workers received a tip about the untreated and ballooning growth. Doctors said that the condition could cause permanent damage or loss of vision.
The Wylands were indicted within the past few days and probably will be arraigned next week, said Colleen Gilmartin, the deputy district attorney handling the custody case in juvenile court.
Under Oregon law, it is a crime for parents to intentionally and knowingly withhold necessary and adequate medical attention from their children. First-degree criminal mistreatment is a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
The Wylands and their church reject medical care in favor of faith-healing -- anointing with oil, laying on of hands, prayer and fasting. The parents testified at a juvenile court hearing last week that they never considered getting medical attention for Alayna.
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Richard Dawkins, famous biologist, atheist and author made his visit to Alaska to speak at UAF, an event causing controversy long before it happened. The UAF Socratic Society invited Dawkins, who waived his speaking fee. Dawkins’ airfare and accommodations were entirely paid for by the Richard Dawkins Foundation.
Dawkins has published many books and traveled extensively speaking about religion and science. He established the Richard Dawkins Foundation in order to encourage critical thinking, a concept he feels religion tries to repress.
The speech, scheduled at 7 p.m., had already drawn huge lines by 6 p.m. The evening started with an introduction by Eduardo Wilner, who spoke of Dawkins’ published books.
“The Selfish Gene was published in 1976, and sold over a million copies. Harry Potter and the Bible sold more, but both of those are works of fiction,” said Wilner.
Despite the controversy it was a friendly crowd, with many of Dawkins’ opinions and comments met by an audience nodding and laughing. The only sign of dissent was a table outside where Karl Sapp, of the Campus Bible Ministries, handed out a pamphlet titled “Destroying the Delusions.” Mike Sapp, also handing out the pamphlets, said that, “[they] believe the Bible cover to cover.”
The presentation “Is Religion Good for Nothing?” covered Dawkins’ theories of why religion is a natural phenomenon and how it occurs. His theories include how children are hard-wired to believe what they are told by those older than themselves, most usually their parents.
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The obvioius option would be to look for something else not of a religious slant. To take an example, this is a sketch by da Vinci of the Virgin Mary on the knees of St. Anne (that’s Mary’s mother, for those of you not wised-up with your New Testament genealogy), with the baby Jesus on her lap and a young St. John the Baptist by their side. On one level, we could take a secular view of this quite incredible drawing and focus on the relationship between three generations of a family and the tender expressions on each of their faces. But clearly, we are missing something. If you believe the child sitting on the lap of this woman is God incarnate, then it changes your entire viewpoint. Whether it changes it for better or for worse is a matter of debate, but that it changes it is what should be noted. Aside from the skill of the technique and the mastery of human emotion shown, this work of art cannot be enjoyed in a religious vacuum. But how then, can I or any other non-believer be astounded by the sight of something like this? 
Thanks to LWS for the link
Original link
Female circumcision will be inflicted on up to 2,000 British schoolgirls during the summer holidays – leaving brutal physical and emotional scars. Yet there have been no prosecutions against the practice
Survivors talk about the traumatic effect female genital mutilation has on their lives WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS DISTRESSING AND DISTURBING IMAGES
Like any 12-year-old, Jamelia was excited at the prospect of a plane journey and a long summer holiday in the sun. An avid reader, she had filled her suitcases with books and was reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when her mother came for her. "She said, 'You know it's going to be today?' I didn't know exactly what it would entail but I knew something was going to be cut. I was made to believe it was genuinely part of our religion."
She went on: "I came to the living room and there were loads of women. I later found out it was to hold me down, they bring lots of women to hold the girl down. I thought I was going to be brave so I didn't really need that. I just lay down and I remember looking at the ceiling and staring at the fan.
"I don't remember screaming, I remember the ridiculous amount of pain, I remember the blood everywhere, one of the maids, I actually saw her pick up the bit of flesh that they cut away 'cause she was mopping up the blood. There was blood everywhere."
Some 500 to 2,000 British schoolgirls will be genitally mutilated over the summer holidays. Some will be taken abroad, others will be "cut" or circumcised and sewn closed here in the UK by women already living here or who are flown in and brought to "cutting parties" for a few girls at a time in a cost-saving exercise.
'
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Thanks to Peter for the link
Original link
How species form and what keeps them distinct from each other, even though they can interbreed, is a key question in evolution. Researchers from Taiwan, led by Dr. Jun-Yi Leu, an Assistant Research Fellow from the Institute of Molecular Biology at Academia Sinica, have recently identified genes in three closely-related yeast species that cause sterility, increasing our understanding of how species can remain distinct. The findings are published in the online, open access journal PLoS Biology.
If one species mates with another, the hybrids produced often die or are unable to reproduce. Such hybrids can provide clues about the process of speciation. At the molecular level, one cause of the inability of hybrids to reproduce (reproductive isolation) results from a mismatch between genes, which prevents those genes functioning properly. There are various types of such genetic incompatibility, one of which is a mismatch between genes in the nucleus and those in the mitochondrion (a vital organelle playing a key role in cell respiration, the process by which cells produce energy).
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Original link
LIVINGSTON — The Livingston Parish School Board will begin exploring the possibility of incorporating the teaching of “creationism” in the public school system’s science classes.
During the board’s meeting Thursday, several board members expressed an interest in the teaching of creationism, an alternative to the study of the theory of evolution, in Livingston Parish public school classrooms.
The discussion came up during a report on the pupil progression plan for the 2010-11 school year, delivered by Jan Benton, director of curriculum.
Benton said that under provisions of the Science Education Act enacted last year by the Louisiana Legislature, schools can present what she termed “critical thinking and creationism” in science classes.
Board Member David Tate quickly responded: “We let them teach evolution to our children, but I think all of us sitting up here on this School Board believe in creationism. Why can’t we get someone with religious beliefs to teach creationism?”
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Thanks to Ivan for the link.
Original link
The BHA has strongly condemned the decision of the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom to award the creationist Noah’s Ark Zoo in Wraxall, near Bristol, a 'Quality Badge' in recognition of its educational programme.
The Council for Learning Outside the Classroom was established by the previous government to promote educational visits for schoolchildren. Its Quality Badge is intended to assist schools in identifying external organisations, such as museums, who are 'committed to providing high quality teaching and learning experiences'. The Quality Badge was awarded to Noah’s Ark Zoo following a visit by assessors in June.
The BHA is writing to the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom urging them to retract the award.
BHA education campaigns officer James Gray said:
‘This is an appalling decision. It is entirely inappropriate that the Council should support an establishment that advances creationism and seeks to discredit a wide variety of established scientific facts that challenge their religious views, such as radio carbon dating, the fossil record and the speed of light.’
‘Teachers and parents look to the Council for assurance that children will experience high quality educational visits that meet the relevant government guidelines. Awarding this particular zoo a Quality Badge risks exposing hundreds of children to anti-scientific dogma.'
‘This is not a freedom of speech or freedom of religion issue. The question is whether the information displayed by this zoo meets the tests of accuracy and truth that parents, teachers and other educational professionals expect.'
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Thanks to Derek Morr for the link.
Original link
Women wear the niqab, a face-covering veil, as they shop in Damascus' oldest market on Monday. The Syrian Education Ministry's ban on the veil comes as similar moves in Europe spark cries of discrimination against Muslims.
It's a small piece of cloth that has become a political symbol.
As a loud and controversial debate continues over wearing the Muslim face veil in Europe, Syria quietly imposed curbs Sunday on the niqab, the veil that exposes only the eyes.
The secular-minded Syrian government has rejected extreme religious dress in the classroom, the first Arab government to weigh in so heavily on the face veil.
While many Syrian Muslim women wear a head scarf, the Syrian government sees the face veil as a growing sign of radical Islam. The latest crackdown is in the education system. However, over the past year dozens of Islamic institutes have also been shuttered.
Most Syrians welcomed the government's decree and those who didn't kept quiet about it.
In the Rawda cafe, an institution here, where backgammon games go long into the night, English student Alaa Badran believes most Syrians don't accept extreme religious expression.
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Thanks to Roger Stanyard for the link
Original link
In his fight against British imperialism, Mahatma Gandhi described the life cycle of successful civil disobedience: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." Mikey Weinstein, the 55-year-old founder of the Albuquerque, New Mexico-based Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), likes to quote it, knowing full well he's crossed the line into a bloody-knuckle brawl. Over the past year, Weinstein and his organization have recorded a tremendous string of victories in the fight against Christian supremacists inside the armed forces.
In January, the MRFF broke the story on the Pentagon's Jesus Rifles, where rifle scopes used in Afghanistan and Iraq were embossed with New Testament verses. In April, he got the military to rescind its invitation to the Reverend Franklin Graham to speak at May's National Prayer Day because of Islamophobic remarks. Most shockingly, MRFF received its second nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in late October. These high-profile victories have earned him the enmity of the hardcore Christian Right and the mentally unstable. And the crazies are getting crazier. Weinstein and his family are bombarded with hate mail, from the grammatically incorrect and easy to dismiss -- "I hope all your kids turn out gay as hell, take it in the ass, and get aids and die!!!!" -- to the kind of threats that immediately make you leap out of your chair and double-check that the doors and windows are locked. (MRFF has referred multiple death threats on Mikey, his family, and MRFF employees to the FBI.)
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Thanks to LWS for the link
Original link
Catholic group's initiative will see the slogan 'Pope Benedict Ordain Women Now' appear on 10 buses throughout September
The group has paid around £10,000 for posters to appear on 10 buses for a month from August 30
In a move designed to coincide with the pope's visit to Britain in September, London buses are to carry posters calling for the ordination of women.
The initiative, from the UK group Catholic Women's Ordination (CWO), will see buses carrying the slogan "Pope Benedict Ordain Women Now".
According to the weekly Catholic magazine the Tablet, CWO has paid about £10,000 for the posters to appear on 10 buses for a month from August 30.
The pope will be in the UK from September 16, spending two days in the capital, and the posters will appear on routes that go past Westminster Cathedral and Westminster Hall. Both venues feature on the papal itinerary.
Last Thursday the Vatican issued sweeping changes to its laws on sexual abuse, extending the period in which charges can be filed against priests in church courts and broadening the use of fast-track procedures to defrock them. But while the document dealt mostly with paedophilia, it also stated that the "attempted ordination of a woman" to the priesthood was one of the most serious crimes in church law.
The mention of both issues in the same breath caused anger within some groups, especially those in favour of women priests, and prompted a Vatican official to clarify its position, saying the crimes were of a different nature and gravity.
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Imagine trying to rewind the clock and start your life anew, perhaps by moving to a new country or starting a new career. You would still be constrained by your past experiences and your existing biases, skills and knowledge. History is difficult to shake off, and lost potential is not easily regained. This is a lesson that applies not just to our life choices, but to stem cell research too.
Over the last four years, scientists have made great advances in reprogramming specialised adult cells into stem-like ones, giving them the potential to produce any of the various cells in the human body. It’s the equivalent of erasing a person’s past and having them start life again.
But a large group of American scientists led by Kitai Kim have found a big catch. Working in mice, they showed that these reprogrammed cells, formally known as “induced pluripotent stem cells” or iPSCs, still retain a memory of their past specialities. A blood cell, for example, can be reverted back into a stem cell, but it carries a record of its history that constrains its future. It would be easier to turn this converted stem cell back into a blood cell than, say, a brain cell.
The history of iPSCs is written in molecular marks that annotate its DNA. These ‘epigenetic’ changes can alter the way a gene behaves even though its DNA sequence is still the same. It’s the equivalent of sticking Post-It notes in a book to tell a reader which parts to read or ignore, without actually editing the underlying text. Epigenetic marks separate different types of cells from one another, influencing which genes are switched on and which are inactivated. And according to Kim, they’re not easy to remove, even when the cell has apparently been reprogrammed into a stem-like state.
But reprogramming adult cells is just one of two ways of making stem cells tailored to a person’s genetic make-up. The other is known as nuclear transfer. It involves transplanting a nucleus (and the DNA inside it) from one person’s cell into an empty egg. The egg becomes an embryo, which yields stem cells containing the donor’s genome. Kim has found that these cells (known as nuclear transfer embryonic stem cells or ntESCs) are much more like genuine embryonic stem cells than the reprogrammed iPSCs. They’re ‘stemmier’, for lack of a better word.
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By Xenu, Scientology is surely the most volcanically stupid cult in history. They’ve just triggered an almighty Streisand Effect by complaining about a Welsh councillor’s Tweet, which said:
I didn’t know the Scientologists had a church on Tottenham Court Road. Just hurried past in case the stupid rubs off.
And now the Twittosphere has erupted in a dawn chorus of tweets tagged #stupidscientology – all variations on the theme of the stupid cult’s idiocy.
That’s the trouble with being stupid – you never learn.
(MWW has been quiet of late, and will continue blogging sparsely for the next month or so. Paying work is currently overwhelming.)
Faith schools are likely to boom, in this most secular of nations. An ICM poll for The British Humanist Association – of which I am president – finds 72% of people concerned at academies being set up by religious organisations. So far 273 faith schools are bidding to become academies, free to teach creationism or any nonsense they like. In the Lords, Baroness Murphy described one example: "Take the case of the Ebrahim Academy in Whitechapel, an academy school for boys … The school day begins with tahfeez, which is reciting the Qur'an and getting the pronunciation right, which takes up half the day. Then the national curriculum takes up the second half of the day. It is a state-funded, tax-funded madrasa for the Islamic faith."Read on at the Guardian website, where there is, of course, a lively comments thread.
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