TAM London: the clock is ticking!

post from Bad Astronomy on 10 March 2009 04:17:00 PM. © Bad Astronomy

As you must know by now, The Amaz!ng Meeting is the premier critical thinking conference in the US. It’s held every year in Las Vegas, and registration is open for TAM 7, which will be held July 9 - 12, 2009.But what if you’re in London?[...]

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This is unheard of!

post from Pharyngula on 10 March 2009 04:08:05 PM. © Pharyngula

My university has closed the campus, and we're supposed to shoo everyone off towards home, all because of a little blizzard. It's like a Snow Day!

Unfortunately, getting kicked out of work just means I have to go home to Morris. In a blizzard. With everything shut down and locked up tight. Well, I hope I don't get lost in a whiteout and freeze to death while trying to find the door to my house…

2:37. Made it home, covered in snow. All that wind also blows the snow in through every crevice — took my coat off and shed snow on everything. Afraid to go to the bathroom now.

3:10. Have discovered that the cupboard is bare. Should have stockpiled food yesterday. Too late now — the car is a chunk of ice, and there's no way I'm walking outside.

Contemplating cannibalism.

3:28. Darn. Wife is snowbound in Willmar and will be spending the night there, so I'm going to be home alone. There goes the cannibalism idea. May have to carve out a chunk of my own thigh to survive.

Wait! The cat!

3:48. Took a long hard look at the cat. I'm not that hungry. Back to palpitating thigh for tenderness.

4:01. CAAAAABBIIIIIIIIIIINNNN FEEEEEEEEEEEEVVVER!!!!

4:32. I'm feeling better now. I found the Narwhal song, and I'm playing it over and over. I won't go insane now, no sir.

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Free Book on Tar Sands!

post from BSI Blog on 10 March 2009 04:07:05 PM. © BSI Blog

Hi all, I thought I would share with you a truly wonderful opportunity to learn about the devastating environmental impacts on Canada’s tar sands, an unique oil extraction technique that devastates the Boreal Forest. On March 16 – 20, 2009[...]

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Sokkelo

post from Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted) on 10 March 2009 03:59:59 PM. © Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)

tags: labyrinth, Suomenlinna, Helsinki, Finland, image of the day

Sokkelo.

A look down the dark labyrinthine tunnels connecting the
many small rooms and alcoves within the stone Suomenlinna fortress.

Photographed at Suomenlinna on Kalevalapaäivä (Kalevala Day).
This is one of my favorite places to visit in Helsinki, Finland.

Image: GrrlScientist, 28 February 2009 [larger view].

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Cognitive Malfunction

post from Climate Change Action on 10 March 2009 03:26:00 PM. © Climate Change Action

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Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty
city! For in one hour is thy judgment come

post from Pharyngula on 10 March 2009 03:19:43 PM. © Pharyngula

Adding to my joy of late is a remarkable article predicting the demise of evangelical Christianity in our lifetimes.

Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.) In the "Protestant" 20th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century.

Do I believe it will happen? I confess that there's a good bit of wishful thinking on my part that clouds my judgment, but I have high hopes, and I think it entirely possible. This particular article is especially interesting because it is published in the Christian Science Monitor, and it's written by a Christian (well, more accurately, "a postevangelical reformation Christian in search of a Jesus-shaped spirituality," whatever that means), writing as an insider with intimate knowledge of the evangelical movement. He's not happy about it, either, which makes the article an interesting read just because every time he intones an article of woe in his litany of doom, I'm feeling like pumping a fist in the air and shouting "Yes!"

He places the blame on several factors. 1) Evangelicals hitched their wagon to conservative politics, and that cart is busted. 2) Christian media has been superficial and failed to teach them the basics of their belief (which I don't think is quite as damaging as he thinks—teaching the actual scripture is a great way to make atheists). 3) Megachurches. Enough said. 4) Christian education has failed. 5) Christianity has become a taint rather than a selling point in efforts to do good works. 6) Confidence in the bible and faith are waning. And probably most importantly, 7) "The money will dry up."

One caveat to his explanations, though, is that he is making specific predictions about a very narrow part of the Christian spectrum, evangelicalism. We still have to worry about the crazy Charismatics, the freaky Fundamentalists, the conservative Catholics, and all those weird little splinter sects all over the place. Christianity isn't going to simply vanish, it's simply going to submerge for a bit, be a little less flamboyant and openly money-hungry, and maybe be a little less politically influential. Those are good outcomes all around, in my opinion.

He also wants to predict that a new and vital Christianity can arise from the ruins. Let's hope not — I want to see a clearing away of the detritus of superstition to allow for a new Enlightenment to shine forth, instead.

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La ciencia es importante

Lourdes Cahuich is a young scientist and skeptic living in Mexico. Like me, she worries about spreading the word about those two endeavors in the Spanish speaking world, where inroads seem to be tough. So she took my recent video on why science is[...]

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Can't we all get along

The Phelps gang is picketing in Chicago with their "god hates fags" sign. Hate meets hate: there was a counter-demonstration.

Which side to take? I'm a firm believer in Myers' Wager — who would you rather piss off, the little guy with the beard preaching peace and love, or the pitiless tentacled monstrosity from a space beyond space and a time beyond time? — so I'm going to side with this sign. Besides, she's much cuter than ~~the cryptkeeper~~ Fred Phelps.

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