About the “Expelled” Animation

In case you missed the flap over the animation of cellular processes in the upcoming movie Expelled, here’s the nutshell version:

People at prerelease screenings said they saw footage from XVIVO/Harvard’s The Inner Life of the Cell. Bits of very similar animation appear in promotional clips for the movie such as this one. There’s a post at antievolution.org that shows stills from both films, side by side.

Now XVIVO, the makers of the original animation, are suing the makers of Expelled for copyright infringement.

My IANAL thoughts below the fold. Read More

A Million Red Roses, and Huge Boobs

In the packrattish hoard of accumulata that is my music collection, I recently discovered a song by Russian singer Alla Pugacheva, about a man who loves a woman so much that he sells his house and buys a million red roses, so that she opens her blinds and sees a sea of flowers outside her window. In the end, she can’t stay, and he winds up alone, but it’s okay because they shared a moment in this sea of flowers.

Apparently this is supposed to be romantic. I confess that my first thought was, “Where’s this moron going to live, now that he sold his house to pay for a bunch of flowers that are going to wither in a few days?”

It’s one thing to have larger-than-life events in a story or song; it makes things more exciting. But the story in this song is just insane. So there must be something else going on.

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They Liked It

If I may boast for a bit, it looks as though the folks at the ACA liked my April Fools piece, enough to mention it on the latest episode of The Non-Prophets (about 6:00 through 6:30 minutes into the episode). (You can listen to the intro to hear where the phrase “Dillahunty International Studios” comes from. Short version: it’s really the host’s apartment.)

Denyse O’Leary: Embarrassingly Ignorant?

Over at Dembski’s wankfest, Denyse O’Leary is having an outragegasm over her favorite PZ Myers quote. So nothing new to report in that respect.

But a few sentences caught my attention:

Myers, who teaches at a Minnesota liberal arts university that is proud of its status […]

But most Americans do not know even about it, let alone contemplate what it means that a teacher at a “liberal arts” university should express himself in this way.

Thus, a person who writes as Myers does is nonetheless viewed as a mild-mannered gentleman and scholar, worthy a place at a liberal arts university.

The only way I can imagine this making sense is if O’Leary thinks that a liberal arts college is a politically left-leaning school.

Denyse, if you happen to stumble upon this post, allow me to quote from a source you might trust: Conservapædia:

Liberal arts refers to the non-technical disciplines ordinarily taught as part of a baseline college education at American colleges. These include philosophy, history and English literature, and sometimes Latin, which lay the foundation for a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree. As such, many American colleges are referred to as “liberal arts institutions.” Technical fields of study are common, but not included under the aegis “liberal arts.” In Europe and Canada the Liberal arts are generally called the ‘Humanities’.

The term bears no connection with the modern political ideology of liberalism, save in the classic, historical sense.

Monique Davis Concedes Every Religious Argument

(Update, Apr. 10: Rep. Davis has apologized to Rob Sherman. Good on her. Oh, and the hearing described here wasn’t about the moment of silence thing.)

Eric Zorn reports an exchange in the Illinois General Assembly between State Rep. Monique Davis and Rob Sherman, an atheist who opposes Illinois’s law mandating a moment of silence:

Davis: I’m trying to understand the philosophy that you want to spread in the state of Illinois. This is the Land of Lincoln. This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God, where people believe in protecting their children. […] What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous, it’s dangerous—

Sherman: What’s dangerous, ma’am?

Davis: It’s dangerous to the progression of this state. And it’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists!

(Emphasis added. Oh, and the audio is also available.)

Stop right there. Reread what she said. She said it’s dangerous for kids to even know that there’s such a thing as atheism.

Davis conceded right there that religion has nothing going for it. If your viewpoint is so weak that it can’t tolerate so much as the existence of an opinion that you’re wrong, then you’ve lost; your viewpoint isn’t worth having.

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A Love Song

The What Have We Learned crew present a song about the very special love between a man and his aluminum picnic table:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcHVYCG6VRM&hl=en]

The guy on the right is Mike Argento, the H.L. Mencken of the Dover Panda Trial.

Is It Too Much to Ask For?

Maybe I’m being too demanding, but five years after the start of the war in Iraq, wouldn’t it be nice if people at the US embassy, in the heavily-fortified Green Zone, didn’t have to worry about being killed by rocket and mortar fire? I’m sure their families would also rather not take time out from their busy days to receive a flag-draped package at the airport.

‘Cos, you know, people might not realize just how much progress we’re making. Some might even mistake our success for a clusterfuck.

Masturbation Etiquette

Every so often, I run across an Internet forum where people discuss how to stop masturbating. Now, I happen to think these people are misguided, but neither do I think everyone should just jack off whenever they feel like it. So here are my recommendations on how, where, and when to masturbate. These are written from a heterosexual male perspective; please adjust for your preferences.

It’s okay. Masturbation is sex with someone who knows exactly what you like and is always in the mood when you are. But since you’re not going to marry yourself, it’s not premarital sex, so it’s not even a sin.

Don’t do it in public. Masturbation is like defecating: we all know you do it, and we’re fine with that, but we just don’t want to watch you doing it. Or if we do, we can find the right web sites.

Don’t do it in the morning unless you’re sure that you have time to wash up, get dressed, and make it to work on time.

Don’t do it too often. If you’re feeling sore, stop and try again in a few hours or days.

Don’t masturbate instead of having sex. This is the most important rule. If your SO might be looking forward to dinner with you, it would be rude to come home and say, “No thanks, I stopped for a burger on the way home.” Likewise, it’s rude to masturbate if your sweetie might want to make love. If, on the other hand, she’s sound asleep after you’ve gone at it three times and you’re still horny, then hey, have at it (assuming she’s okay with it, of course).

Fundamentalist Education

Over at Pharyngula, PZ presents this appalling video:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUeoem1gR3s&hl=en]

and points out

The really awful pedagogy. Over and over again, the creationist says some stock phrase and then pauses, waiting for his kids to fill in the missing word. This is simply demanding rote learning. Similarly, he leads the kids in asking a good question — “how do you know?” — while training them to ignore any answers. Right there on the wall is a description of radiometric dating methods, for instance, and they turn their back on it.

This seems to be of a piece with other fundamentalist traits. The oft-repeated assertion that morality and human rights come from God. Appeals to the Bible. Attempts to disprove evolution by discrediting Charles Darwin (or Richard Dawkins, or PZ Myers, or whoever’s the antichrist this week).

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Great Christina

Allow me to pimp Greta Christina’s Blog, for no other reason than that she’s worth reading, including a few articles that I wanted to write, but she beat me to it:

Why Religion Is Like Fanfic compares religious apologetics (why does the Bible say that Judas hanged himself in one passage, but that he exploded in another?) to fans coming up with explanations for incongruities in their favorite TV shows and book series.

On The Amazingness of Atheists… And Why It’s Doomed is about why the contemporary atheist movement will blow over, and why this is a good thing.

Go and show her some love.