Monday, December 20, 2010

Paradox? So there's a qur'an written an Saddam Hussein's blood and no one knows what to do with it.


Qur'an etched in Saddam Hussein's blood poses dilemma for Iraq leaders

The Wall Street Journal publishes an essay by Ricky Gervais


A Holiday Message from Ricky Gervais: Why I’m An Atheist


Why don’t you believe in God? I get that question all the time. I always try to give a sensitive, reasoned answer. This is usually awkward, time consuming and pointless. People who believe in God don’t need proof of his existence, and they certainly don’t want evidence to the contrary. They are happy with their belief. They even say things like “it’s true to me” and “it’s faith.” I still give my logical answer because I feel that not being honest would be patronizing and impolite. It is ironic therefore that “I don’t believe in God because there is absolutely no scientific evidence for his existence and from what I’ve heard the very definition is a logical impossibility in this known universe,” comes across as both patronizing and impolite. ...read on

Ahh the holidays...

Religion, the last bastion of socially accepted discrimination. You'd of figured by now people would be smart enough to realize that if there really were only 'one true god/religion' it would have to be accepting of all people everywhere on earth. Yet all religous people everywhere would then have to accept that their god also created all these other religions, so either A) there god is not the only god or B) their religion is just as askew from the truth as all the others. But we do so enjoy telling people they're wrong...

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Albert Einstein Misquoted

So theists in their quest to convert the world to religion, realize that the biggest obstacle standing in their way is science. So their spin doctors do a few things, first they try to explain their position allegorically using the very physics that refute it, then they cry that their holy book is just metaphor for the very things that scientific knowledge uncovers (like 7 days being 250 million years) and when that doesn't work, they lie that our greatest scientific thinkers were in fact theists themselves.

Dear Theists, thank you for so blatantly making yourselves look blind, ignorant, and untrustworthy. There's no need for outspoken Atheists, you're doing a stand-up job at undermining yourselves.



There are so many things wrong with the logic being presented here I'm just going to quote a fellow atheist who has already commented on the video:
If the definition of cold is 'the absence of heat', then clearly cold objects and regions do exist, the same with dark ones. If you ask if Y exists, define Y as a state of absence of X and then prove some things exist in a state of absence of X, you have proven Y exists. What sort of terrible lack of reasoning are you using when you can be refuted merely with you own definitions? Also, saying that there are places without God refutes the quality of omnipresence, which most western religions are rather attached to.
Or as I thought immediately after watching it, if you're going to use reason, logic and science to swindle people into believing in the existence of a god, then unfortunately using a very well documented Pantheist/Atheist like Albert Einstein will surely make that a very ridiculous argument indeed.

http://www.snopes.com/religion/einstein.asp 



Thursday, November 4, 2010

Robert Sapolsky: The uniqueness of humans | Video on TED.com

Robert Sapolsky: The uniqueness of humans | Video on TED.com

click the above link for the TED lecture or click this youtube link and skip to 4:50


Dr Robert Sapolsky also talks about Toxoplasmosis and it's role in cats and humans...with one of my favorite quotes:

"Well, in the endless sorta struggle neurobiologists have in the terms of free will, determinism and all of that, um - my feeling has always been there's not a whole lot of free will out there.. and if there is, it's in the least interesting places and getting more sparce all the time..."

You should watch this lecture:

http://blip.tv/play/hLJxga2_ZQA

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

More powerful then any other collective idea in history, and the vast majority of people either don't know about it, choose to ignore it, or just don't get it.

Monday, November 1, 2010

My Idols

Friday, October 29, 2010

Turns out Marriage ceremonies don't actually mean anything...

So you mean the yuppie couple with too much money got taken by the locals for performing a "real" wedding ceremony. Wait till she finds out what that Tattoo she got means.

From the BBC

Monday, October 25, 2010

God or nothing

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Stylo

Stylo by CloudsoundsIII

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Darwin's sound of Science

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Jeremy Rifkin on "the empathic civilization"

Sunday, September 5, 2010

TYWKIWDBI: Thorium - a replacement for fossil fuels?

TYWKIWDBI: Thorium - a replacement for fossil fuels?: "Excerpts from an interesting article by the business editor at the Telegraph - If Barack Obama were to marshal America’s vast scientific and..."

Friday, August 27, 2010

Wow, wasn't expecting that...

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Think about it...

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Ahhh, the American Dream...

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Will it bring happiness?

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

This is brilliant...

Matt Ridley: When ideas have sex

Turns out we're even less important in the time scale...

"Scientists have in the past estimated that the Earth's development, a process known as accretion where gas, dust and other material clumped together to form the planet, happened over just 30 million years. 

But the new research suggests this process may have taken up to 100 million years – more than three times longer than previous estimates."
 

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Craziest shit ever...


This parasite enters through the gills, and then attaches itself at the base of the spotted rose snapper’s (Lutjanus guttatus) tongue. It extracts blood through the claws on its front, causing the tongue to atrophy from lack of blood. The parasite then replaces the fish’s tongue by attaching its own body to the muscles of the tongue stub. The fish is able to use the parasite just like a normal tongue. It appears that the parasite does not cause any other damage to the host fish.



Badass

Tom Wolfe and Kurt Vonnegut...

Best movie ever...

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

4th of July coming up...!


Monday, June 21, 2010

Radial Tree of life... awesome!!!

http://www.zo.utexas.edu/faculty/antisense/DownloadfilesToL.html

Monday, June 14, 2010

Michael Shermer: The pattern behind self-deception

Thursday, June 10, 2010

I'm an atheist, in as simple a way as it can be stated...

Thursday, June 3, 2010

This can't be expressed how awesome!!!

Monday, May 31, 2010

Why Twilight is Popular

Today in WTF?!! Rachel Maddow: The more spills change- the more they stay the same!

Near-Earth Objects as Future Resources...

The comets and asteroids that are potentially the most hazardous because they can closely approach the Earth are also the objects that could be most easily exploited for their raw materials. It is not presently cost effective to mine these minerals and then bring them back to Earth. However, these raw materials could be used in developing the space structures and in generating the rocket fuel that will be required to explore and colonize our solar system in the twenty-first century. It has been estimated that the mineral wealth resident in the belt of asteroids between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter would be equivalent to about 100 billion dollars for every person on Earth today. Whereas asteroids are rich in the mineral raw materials required to build structures in space, the comets are rich resources for the water and carbon-based molecules necessary to sustain life. In addition, an abundant supply of cometary water ice could provide copious quantities of liquid hydrogen and oxygen, the two primary ingredients in rocket fuel. It seems likely that in the next century when we begin to colonize the inner solar system, the metals and minerals found on asteroids will provide the raw materials for space structures and comets will become the watering holes and gas stations for interplanetary spacecraft.
Reference: Lewis, John S. Mining the Sky: Untold Riches from the Asteroid, Comets, and Planets. Addison-Wesley, 1996.

From NASA

Friday, May 28, 2010

Did megafauna extinction cool the planet?


Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Drill baby drill...


As this tragically long photo essay shows. There is a cost to these risky ventures in offshore drilling, and they are not adequately paid by the companies doing the dirty work.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

The sequel to Sherlock Holmes...?

Friday, May 21, 2010

Don’t drunk dial FreedomWorks

Don’t drunk dial FreedomWorks
An important PSA you need to watch from voice actor Lance “D.C. Douglas” Baxter (go to http://voices.washingtonpost.com/right-now/2010/04/geico_voice_actor_fired_after.html if you need context).

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Newly-discovered frog with funny long nose

Of course it's newly discovered, god didn't think to make it till he watched Jim Henson... And I thought Gonzo was a chicken?!



http://www.boingboing.net

Monday, May 17, 2010

Fast food isn't good for you...

RAD OMEN - "Rad Anthem" from Nicholaus Goossen on Vimeo.

Well I can't deny that Religion has had a positive influence on architecture...


Sunday, May 16, 2010

It's just silly to think we're not Apes. Crafty self-centered apes...

Friday, May 14, 2010

One of my Heroes

Congress is a disfunctional mess

Congress is a disfunctional mess

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Bag End, a LOTR dollhouse masterpiece.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Calvin And Hobbes Parallels Fight Club...?

I found these over at Popped Culture, these great links concerning Calvin and Hobbes.  One the similarities between Calvin and Hobbes and Fight Club, and the other this picture:
(Calvin on Riddlin )
Too funny...

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Nature and math....


Nature by Numbers from Cristóbal Vila on Vimeo.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Conan's interview with Google...

Don't you judge my parenting habbits... Happy Mothers Day!

Friday, May 7, 2010

Michael Specter: The danger of science denial

Tetris fans are screwed...

Torus, by Ben Joffe


Thursday, May 6, 2010

Last years Oscar nominations for Best animated short film

Here are some of the 2009 Oscar nominations for Best animated short film: "Wallace And Gromit" "Logorama" "Granny O'Grim" "French Roast" And let's not forget "The Lady and the Reaper" (La Dama y la Muerte)

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Brain shuts off in response to healer's prayer - life - 27 April 2010 - New Scientist

Wow, you don't say..!  Who could ever have guessed this?

Brain shuts off in response to healer's prayer - life - 27 April 2010 - New Scientist

Exclusive: Amazing photos of the Gulf Coast oil rig exploding, sinking

http://www.americablog.com/2010/05/amazing-photos-oil-rig-exploding.html

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

A Microsoft Software Engineer Demos Photosynth. This is what the iPad wishes it could do...

Spring is Here, and this is one of my favorites...

A few things from the bike shop.

 

Dad takes a Glassblowing Paperweight Lesson in Balboa Park, San Diego

If Religions Were Real - "She Bears"

Monday, May 3, 2010

Mr Deity... the first episode

Star Wars Vs. Star Trek


On another line of reasoning could a Jedi lightsaber cut through Superman?

Yahoo Answers Best Answer:

Short answer: No.

PLASMA
A Jedi lightsaber is plasma contained in a magnetic field. Plasma is basically the form of matter which stars are made of. Pre-Crisis Superman has flown through the heart of a star without being harmed. Therefore, he is immune to plasma.

Post-Crisis Superman was not as invulnerable, e.g. a nuclear explosion would weaken him. Assuming a lightsaber contains power similar to a nuclear explosion, it could similarly disrupt his invulnerability during impact. See FORCE OF IMPACT below.

RED LIGHTSABERS
Superman receives his power from the radiation of our yellow sun, and is weakened when exposed to radiation from a red sun. It is possible that a sith lightsaber, being red, might have similar properties.

Even so, Superboy Prime was defeated after being plunged through Krypton's red sun - which weakened him, but did not destroy him. Therefore, a red lightsaber which hypothetically had the same properties as a red star should have a similar effect, i.e. it would injure him, but not "cut" him, much less cut through him.

FORCE OF IMPACT
If Superman were rendered vulnerable by a lightsaber, it would likely create a momentary weakness in that spot, allowing the physical impact to cause damage. However, lightsaber blades, being made of plasma, presumably have a very small mass. Therefore, the force of the impact would be negligible.

In short, hitting Superman with a red lightsaber is like hitting a normal human with a wet noodle.

Source(s):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powers_and_abilities_of_Superman

Friday, April 30, 2010

Benjamin Wallace on the price of happiness

Avatar was so awful, yet so pretty...

Creationism propaganda for children caught on camera...