Recently in reality Category

This is a fluffier book than Bonk or Stiff both grounded in a reality that's going to be a lot harder to nail in a book about research into the afterlife. Amongst other things Roach takes a look at ectoplasm, EVP that's the people that listen to noise and claim to hear things, past lives,attends a class in the UK on how to be a medium. She also looks at the science of testing "psychics" like DuBois and other cold readers that are cynical ,delusional or both ( my bias). That blunt an answer is something this book isn't going to provide for you but it's probably a good thing that she's not attempting to do that. She's a very entertaining writer,her footnotes amusing,and there's real science to follow up on. I just didn't learn as much as her prior works since it's hard to accumulate a body of evidence for life after death when all we have is evidence of bodies.

If you had asked me to write down 3 main criticism's of Bill Maher's movie, Religulous,  that would be  brought  up in negative reviews    number one on my list would be

"Well you're atheism is  just a religion  anyway " 

I get that one often. The need to drag people to their level    is one of the ideas that Bill O Reilly  espouses , you can't justify bad action by pointing out another's bad  to make your point . I didn't say  O' Reilly manages to walk that walk but  it's an ideal, kinda like the Christ myth on which the followers of both = Major Fail.  Most negative reviews  reference this sentiment and here's an example From Glen Whipp at LA.com which neatly encapsulates the form of dementia.

"...thought is absent in "Religulous," as is imagination. The movie is Maher's monument to Maher, as ugly and hateful as anything he decries in the film.

Yep  Bill Maher is the equivalent of crusaders,  suicide bombers and those that rape children.  Sounds like a psychotic* idea. A movie about ideas, EVEN , if you believe it to be a bad movie is not as hateful  as the wanton destruction of sentient beings by blowing up families in a market because  you're invisible friend tells you too? 

I call bullshit because this guy is  as deserving of the phrase "and then there's this asshole"  as anyone claiming to be a critic.

Movies Maher ridiculous in 'Religulous'

 

*the term is also used in a more general sense to refer to mental disorders in which mental functioning is sufficiently impaired as to interfere grossly with the patients capacity to meet the ordinary demands of life.

Half the people  you meet not  only believe in angels but claim to have actually experienced their influence.  Nope this is not from a country that burns witches ( I can't say yet,  maybe  at this time is safer)  or riots because they  believe their football game were cursed but  from the USA #1  in debt since , well let's not confuse a stupid population with the current financial crisis ;), since it was worked out that you can do just about anything here and then pull out an angel to justify your actions.

By now you've guessed that we're not talking about Curtis and his gang but the kind of bright light, flappy flappy harp playing  goody two shoes types that  schlep around carrying messages from the "Almighty"  , whose omni presence  doesn't stretch to a decent two way communication system  with his creation apparently, and  seemingly  are there to give you   a push , a warning  or whatever help you may need to stay out of harms way.   Here's a fun story I like to relate about a marketing manager at a prior company ( a few back) that crashed her car on the way back to the office after lunch.

Her eyes were closed while driving . There wasn't a foreign object in there, not squinting from the sun   or   taken by a sudden bout of narcolepsy but..  they were closed because she was praying.    Guess what ? She felt lucky that she was praying as the accident could have been so much worse OTHERWISE!  55%    Adults , Voters, Drivers, EEP!

Guardian Angels Are Here, Say Most Americans - TIME

In a poll of 1700 respondents, 55% answered affirmatively to the statement, "I was protected from harm by a guardian angel."

Came across this item on the  Clean Technica blog which has a practical  view of energy that's sadly lacking on those that oppose it. Hell in the UK when Torness , a nuclear power station, was being built many locals had a sticker that said "nuclear power? No thanks. Atop an image of the sun.  I laughed, I still laugh and to this day usually ascribe such glorious ignorance to those that   want to save the planet but ONLY  within their ideological boundaries on what's comfy technology wise.  In most cases their comfort level is  fire , then you have the raw foodies who've not even gotten that far but more abuse on that natural crowd later.  Natural does not equal good in all, hell most cases. That people post these online rather than using a "natural" rock to stand and engage passers by with leads me to question their commitment to the atavistic tendencies that seem to serve them so well with the diet.   

Anyway.  Let's get back to the portable nuclear generators and how fricking handy these will be if we can  avoid the people that work at Jiffy Lube ever getting these in for service.. :D

Answer to an Amory Lovins Disciple Who Believes in Conservation, Solar, Wind and Micropower : CleanTechnica

Hyperion Power Generation, for example, is focusing on a heating unit that is small enough to fit on the back of an over-the-road truck that can produce 70 MW of thermal energy constantly for several years. I spoke to the company founder for The Atomic Show Podcast and he explained how his company is establishing the supply chain needed to build 4,000 units that will be able to provide heat for about $3 per million BTU. By comparison, liquified natural gas sold in Japan last week for $20 per million BTU.

Invertebrate Astronauts Make Space History | Wired Science from Wired.com

 Erin was telling me that the "hardest" animal in existence could survive ,exposed, in the vacuum of space.  Bullshit I said, the hardest animal  is a pig with a flick knife and everybody knows that.  Looks like I was wrong. 

You'd never guess from looking at these clips that the millimeter-long tardigrade is the world's toughest animal, found from deep ocean to Himalayan mountaintops, able to survive at a single degree above absolute zero.

Tardigrade (Water Bear)

These things are so cute that there needs to be a plushie made in their honour.  I look forward to sharing their DNA soon. :D

Erin with Teller. ( I love his voice, his writing’s rather good too) I've been a fan of Penn and Teller since being exposed to them in the mid 80's and one of the life goals, as far as I have plans, was to see them perform live. That's another collective 40 years experience up on stage and if they were great in the 80's they are now fucking amazing. During the intervening time I didn't turn out to be an atheist as I always was one, as are all newborns it's only the prevailing culture that tells a three year old that he's a Christian child and sadly he's doomed to burn in hell unless he thanks the zombie jew for his gift of ever lasting life, feeling sick yet?

Daddy you can let go now.....

At a recent Father-Daughter Purity Ball, the girls ranged from college age to a tiny 4-year-old dressed in purple who climbed into her father's arms to be carried

I wonder if they take a toddler to AA too? These people , these people that define innocence yet take their fucking 4 year old ( is there irony in there folks? ) to events like this. I am nowhere near taking Dobh, or myself , to a fetish ball in the near future but maybe I need to take a play from my 'moral superiors'.

I can only hope that they are trying to create a super sexually fucked up batch of women to compete with the Catholic education / Baptist pastor's daughter that have been highly reviewed by some of my friends.

I used to shop here, used to. Sadly I can't take em seriously anymore. The same bullshit I saw with local atheist groups, e.g Bush's god =bad, Kerry's , Gore, Edwards and now Obama's is fine. Suggests that there's a lack of ethical rigor from a store that seems to be in favour of principle over profit. That Obama has a peace symbol sticker for the O in the name is hilarity itself that an overt theist is a poster child for the reality based community is desperatly sad. Crazy.. is crazy.

Don't Make Me Come Down There sticker
$2.00
Don't Make Me Come Down There sticker. Just a subtle warning from the Almighty, to his so-called followers, lest they continue spreading hatred and division in His name!

New Products for Freethinker science lovers darwinfish holders civil right workers and many others

Ah yes I remember this game, Mikrogen's "everyone's a wally" but not everyone this weekend was a Wall*e as Wanted took down some serious money too. Interview with director on ,Daywatch, his prior movie {seesmic_video:{"url_thumbnail":{"value":"http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/YwsQw7epV7_th1.jpg"}"title":{"value":"Wanted "}"videoUri":{"value":"http://www.seesmic.com/video/LPxLZ2nr1k"}}}

And in the question of the day.

How does one tell that which invisible apart? I'm confused. The obvious answer is ignorant stupid people but hey the shaman has a prettier way of saying it.

"These are vendettas. It is not that people really bewitched somebody," he says, adding he believes that witch hunts are really about people expressing hatred and coming up with an excuse to hurt someone.

What this illustrates? That Sam Harris is mainly right in his book,"The end of faith". Religion is a framework within which the true nutballs are given license by their society to believe/ behave in manner that wouldn't arise without an invisible friend to redirect your actions against. Without the casual believers it's hard to imagine the fanatics would have the moral framework in which to operate and seen for the criminals they really are.While many found that Harris' conclusion re a form of personal spirituality / mysticism to be a replacement for organized religion was not bleak enough ;) ( yeah some atheists demand rigidly defined areas of rational thought ) yet this one case points to a better way forward. What's better billion believing in 1 "gawd" or a billion gods believing that they are Elvis?

Deadly hunt for 'witches' haunts Kenya villagers - CNN.com

- It may be difficult for Western cultures to fathom, but in Western Kenya, beliefs in ghosts and witches are very real. And sometimes they have deadly consequences.