Archive for August, 2009

How to do nothing and think you are helping

rabbitpirate

Wed Aug 12, 2009 4:54 pm by rabbitpirate

You’ve got to love stories like this. If you have looked at the news or even had the most basic of human contact in the last few months then you will know about the swine flu. Well over in Israel, where the flu is simply called “H1N1″ because pigs are seen as unclean, they have come up with a rather innovative way of combating the virus. See if you can see a flaw in this plan, you’ll have to really pay attention to spot it:

A group of rabbis and Jewish mystics have taken to the skies over Israel, praying and blowing ceremonial horns in a plane to ward off swine flu.

About 50 religious leaders circled over the country on Monday, chanting prayers and blowing horns, called shofars.

The flight’s aim was “to stop the pandemic so people will stop dying from it”, Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri was quoted as saying in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

Now obviously their mistake here is one of instrumentation. As you all no doubt know ceremonial horns are used for fighting bacterial infections while consecrated pan pipes are the musical instrument of choice when dealing with viruses. But despite this fundamental mistake it seems it may have been effective.

“We are certain that, thanks to the prayer, the danger is already behind us,” added Mr Batzri was quoted as saying.

Well you can’t argue with that.

Discussion (16) • Add Comment Posted in Religion

Finally DMCA’d . . . By A Homophobe! RICHNESS

Th1sWasATriumph

Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:37 pm by Th1sWasATriumph

I got DMCA’d for this video (mirrored by AndromedasWake) by homophobic moron Youtuber JiLAdren.

I feel quite special. Votebotted and DMCA’d – I’m apparently a threat, and if I’m a threat then I’m sure as hell doing something right.

However, JiLAdren has managed to get the video he tried to censor seen by (over the next few days) thousands of people. He’s exposed me to a wide audience just begging to denounce him as a homophobic coward.

Which brings me to my main point – dprjones provided swift legal advice, AndromedasWake recorded a new intro and mirrored my original video, and people are already starting to mirror it themselves. It’s immensely gratifying. To everyone who’s already mirrored, and to anyone that does, or might, or even thinks about it – thanks. And that goes double to AW and dpr.

You could even pre-emptively mirror my new video on JiLAdren . . . I’m sure he’ll DMCA it in short order, and in any case then you’d have the full set lying in your videos.

League of Reason AWAAAAAYYYYY!

Discussion (16) • Add Comment Posted in Censorship, Reason, YouTube

Demons and witches and aliens…oh my

rabbitpirate

Tue Aug 11, 2009 2:32 pm by rabbitpirate

Ok firstly this is not the post I was intending to put up. That post, the post I spent most of the weekend researching, writing and re-writing until I was finally happy with it, well that post was deleted when my computer decided to inexplicitly eat my USB stick yesterday. Yes I know I should have had it saved somewhere more reliable, and I won’t make the same mistake again, but you really don’t expect your pc to erase several hundred files for no apparent reason, without any warning in just a fraction of a second. Ah well, we live and learn. I have yet to decide if I can be bothered to rewrite my lost post again, but either way I really should put something up and so I’ve picked a topic, somewhat at random, that every good rational thinker and skeptic should know about. Picture the scene.

It’s night and you’re alone in bed sound asleep. Suddenly you wake and quickly become aware that there is someone or something in the room with you that shouldn’t be there. You try to move but find that your body will not respond. The thing moves nearer. Fear grips you with an intensity that you can’t remember ever having experiencing before. You can hear strange noises coming at you from all directions, voices that somehow don’t seem human, unearthly lights flash all around you and now the thing is leaning over you, pressing down on your chest and making it hard to catch your breath. You try to scream out but your voice just won’t come. This is it. The aliens, demons, witches, goblins or even the devil himself has finally come for you.

Or maybe, just maybe, there is something else going on.

(more…)

Discussion (9) • Add Comment Posted in Reason

Calling all Astronomers! Perseids meteor watch this week! #Meteorwatch

AndromedasWake

Mon Aug 10, 2009 6:40 pm by AndromedasWake

Things are changing. Really.

Internet technology allows people all over the world to connect and viralise information at speeds that would seemingly defy nature’s limits in the eyes of scientists just a few hundred years ago. For the first time ever, the annual Perseids meteor shower will be mass-tweeted by astronomers and enthusiasts worldwide. It’s an initiative proposed by the Newbury Astronomical Society (that’s here in England) and promoted as part of the International Year of Astronomy, and you can be involved!

Firstly, make sure you have a Twitter account. Then make sure you’re following me and the LoR Blog. Got you! Okay, that bit wasn’t essential, but it’s recommended. Definitely be sure to follow Newbury AS though.

Now, you’ll need to understand how hash-tags work. A hash-tag is a search term that you can attach to a tweet, instantly referencing the tweet with the term in Twitter’s database. During the Perseids meteor watch, we’ll be tweeting with the tag #Meteorwatch. By following that page you’ll be able to see the Tweets in real time as people all over the world report meteor sightings. So if it’s cloudy where you are, you can sit in and watch it all unfold online. Beautiful.

(more…)

Discussion (2) • Add Comment Tags: Astronomy, International Year of Astronomy, IYA2009, Meteor, Meteorwatch, Newbury Astronomical Society, Perseids, Shooting, Star, Twitter, Watch
Posted in Astronomy

About Knowledge

zomgitscriss

Sun Aug 09, 2009 12:51 am by zomgitscriss

Hey there .

It’s very late and I’m tired but I said I will have a blog by Sunday and if I don’t deliver I will OCD my brains out over it. I’m awesome like that. So please excuse my possible ramble.

In this blog I will mainly adress the Theists. I heard many of them saying that they KNOW certain things in regards to God and what they say to be “the Creation” . Even in the recent debate between Thunderf00t and Ray Comfort, Ray said a couple of times that (unlike Thunderf00t) he KNOWS what the truth is.

I will try to argue why this claim cannot possibly hold water.

First of all, what does “to know” mean anyway? Can we say that we know anything at all ? I would say we can. For instance, I KNOW that there are more than two people writing on this site. I know this because I can count, I can read, I personally know more than two of them, etc. The point is, I can say I KNOW this because it is in my immediate and direct observation.

I can also say I know that Human and Chimpanzee DNA is about 98.5 percent identical. This is clearly not in my immediate and direct observation but I can still say I KNOW it because I have sufficient data proving it. All facts gathered through observation and experiment point to this conclusion, none of them point against it.

But let’s try another example. Not to long ago, if anyone asked me to define a triangle without mentioning its angles, I would have said that any given 3 points that are not in a straight line form a triangle . And I thought I KNOW that the sum of the interior angles of any triangle is 180 degrees. But I was wrong. This is true if the given triangle is in Euclidian space. But if someone could draw a triangle in the near neighbourhood of a Black Hole with such intense gravity forces, the interior angles of that triangle would NOT add up to 180 degrees. The results are very different depending on how Space bends. So suddenly, even if I was certain I KNOW something, at some point I realized that my so called knowledge was in fact a belief. And I was wrong in my belief because I was ignorant of the data.

I still have certain beliefs. For instance, I believe that Quantum Mechanic could be eventually proven not to contradict Determinism. I don’t believe that the atoms act randomly but rather that at atomic level there might be laws we haven’t discovered yet and variables we cannot calculate. Which, imho, is not to say that the atoms are not subjected to the cause and effect rules. And I believe that (strongly I may say) because EVERYTHING in the observable Universe is subjected to the cause and effect rule. But I am willing to admit that I don’t KNOW that and there is a possibility I might be wrong. And if, at some point, all evidence will lead to the conclusion that atoms can act randomly, I will change my belief. I highly doubt this will happen, what I am trying to say is that I don’t rule out this option because I realize this is something I believe and NOT something I know.

How about God ? When you say you KNOW God is real and He created everything, what do you base it on? On a book with origins and authors very dubious (to say the least). God is not in your immediate and direct observation and there is no collected data to support his existence. He cannot be proven through observation and experiment. So you are left with your book. And how do you know that your book is the Truth ? Because it says so in your book. Can you spot the problem with this ? (hint : it starts with a “c” and it ends with “ircular”)

And you may say now that according to this logic, Atheists cannot say they KNOW there is no God. Which is correct and I don’t know one single Atheist who says so. An Atheist will say he does not BELIVE in a God. The difference between the logic of an Atheist and the logic Theist is that the first doesn’t believe because of lack of evidence while the former believes DESPITE the lack of evidence.

Where I am going with this is that you cannot say that you KNOW your God is real. You only BELIEVE he is real. And if you accept that what you call knowledge is in fact a belief, you will also have to accept the possibility that you might be wrong.

I’m just sayin’

Criss

Discussion (24) • Add Comment Tags: atheism, knowledge, Reason, theism
Posted in Introductions, Philosophy, Reason

Compulsory self-conscious introductory post

rabbitpirate

Fri Aug 07, 2009 2:30 pm by rabbitpirate

A few weeks ago the League sent out a call. They were seeking new bloggers to join them in their fight against the forces of injustice. This was the moment I had been waiting for, a chance to rise phoenix like from the ashes of obscurity, to take my own person style of vigilante skepticism to the forefront of the war against the credulous, nefarious, discriminatory horde. No longer would I have to fight alone, now the League would have my back. And so I answered that call, and yesterday the League invited me to join their ranks, my excitement was boundless.

My excitement ebbed some what when I discovered I had just joined the League of Reason rather than the Justice League of America or the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but I guess it will do. I will however have to return the spandex bodysuit and red y-fronts that I purchased specially. I’m keeping the cowl however as it’s dead sexy.

Seriously I am unbelievably honoured to have been made a part of this blog. Honoured and incredibly intimidated at the same time. There are some seriously heavy hitters involved in this thing. I love the stuff that these guys, and gals, come up with and I am right now feeling rather out of my depth. I actually think Superman and his friends would be less disconcerting right now. Gulp.

Anyway my first task as a newbie League member is to introduce myself. I am RabbitPirate, so named because pirates are awesome and rabbits are, er, fluffy! Unlike many of the bloggers here I do not come to the League of Reason with a massive Youtube following. In fact if you were to visit my page you would discover I have no subscribers, no views and only one video…which is actually a repost of something someone else made. What I do instead is blog, and try to write books, but mainly blog. I have been blogging for a number of years now about anything and everything that peaks my interest. However recently I have turned my attention away from such important issues as what I did at the weekend and how much my job sucks on to stories relating to science, religion, skepticism and critical thinking. It is these areas where my passion lies.

I live in the UK just outside of the university city of Cambridge. Alas however that is about as close as I have ever come to higher education as I decided instead to jump straight into the fun filled world of IT support, a decision I regret more and more with every passing day. I spent most of the first twenty odd years of my life as a Christian and even considered going into fulltime ministry work. While I no longer hold the beliefs of my youth I would not describe myself as an atheist, partly because I don’t really like labels, after having the label “Christian” tell people everything about me for so long, and partly because I think it would make my Mum cry if I did. That said if I was forced to call myself anything I would probably go with “skeptic”.

When not blogging I like to spend my time reading, writing stories I never actually finish, watching stupidly large amounts of sci-fi on TV, going to the cinema (honestly could I be more of a geek) and arguing with Ray Comfort on his blog…and by arguing I mean he says something stupid, I correct him and he ignores me completely. Meh, it’s a hobby.

Well that’s me, hopefully by the time I get to my first real post I will have thought of something interesting to say as right now I’m drawing a complete blank.

Thanks for your time,

RabbitPirate

Discussion (12) • Add Comment Posted in Introductions

Andrew Parker Lost The Game (And The Metro, Happily, Did Not)

Th1sWasATriumph

Tue Aug 04, 2009 10:47 am by Th1sWasATriumph

The last few hours have been full of nonsense.

Initially, a brief article in the London Lite detailing how a medium has told Jade Goody’s mother how Jade still loves Jack Tweed – the violent, sociopathic ass that he is – but doesn’t like him sleeping with other women.

That must have been the easiest work the medium ever did. “You’re the mother of a famous recently dead quasi-celebrity stupid racist bint . . . who could we possibly be here to talk about?”

There is no afterlife and anyone who says they can talk to the dead is either deluded or knowingly deceitful. And anyone who says they can talk to the dead and pretends to do so for bereaved relatives is just . . . reprehensible.

And this morning I found an article in the Metro, an interview with one Andrew Parker - an Oxford Uni biologist – who claims that God is behind the big bang, and has written a book (The Genesis Enigma – Why The Bible Is Scientifically Accurate). I was expecting to read the interview and find it full of mealy-mouthed delicacy and tolerance, but it seems the interviewer, Graeme Green, certainly isn’t taking Parker’s claims at face value. In fact, within the constraints of civility, Parker leaves with his ass in a sling. Instead of respecting Parker’s beliefs, something which happens with depressing regularity these days, Green submits him to fairly rigorous criticism – even levelling accusations of quote mining, a foul deed that all too many fundamentalists remain unchallenged on. In fact, I need to isolate that segment as you can practically hear Dr. Parker stumble:

“You say the second ‘Let there be light…’ refers to the evolution of the eye but you edited out the rest of the line, which clearly refers to the Sun, Moon and stars. There’s no mention in Genesis of the evolution of the eye.
Um, OK. I’ll probably have a look at this in more detail again. The first page of the Bible doesn’t spell out the eye but it doesn’t spell out any of the science in detail.”

“I’ll probably have a look at this in more detail again”? He’s already written the book, how come it’s only now that he’s deciding to reassess his source material thanks to a well-aimed question during a short interview? And he thinks creationism is unfounded and dangerous despite apparently subscribing to just that belief by thinking Genesis is completely true.

Full interview here.

And, of course, Parker would seem to be one of those people who doesn’t get how the eye could have evolved. For a recent diatribe on creationist tactics regarding ocular evolution CLICK THIS THING

Discussion (67) • Add Comment Tags: andrew, bang, big, creationism, graeme, green, parker
Posted in News, Reason, Religion, Science

Leaguer fights back against Votebotting, TubeGuardian in development

AndromedasWake

Mon Aug 03, 2009 7:36 pm by AndromedasWake

Well, well, well. What do we have here?

In the war against censorship, one of our forum members and Youtuber joshTheGoods is taking matters into his own hands, and I have to say I feel much safer at night knowing that at least one sensible codemonkey is working on the software weapons we need.

Josh posted the video embedded below on his channel today, demonstrating an early build of TubeGuardian, an innovative background application that monitors your Youtube channel statistics (or anyone else’s, for that matter) and if given access to your account, will sense when videos are targeted by votebots, and automatically react to protect them. This does not involving counterbotting – which would only be stooping to the level of those free speech-hating cowards – but rather the act of defending your videos by disabling ratings. Check out the video for the full lowdown from Josh himself. It’s set to play in HD, so be sure to embiggen it with the fullscreen function for maximum effect.

Since I began writing this post, it appears the above video was itself votebotted! A nice demonstration of the effectiveness of TubeGuardian, which disabled ratings after just five 1-star votes. Note that it is not the number of ratings that triggers TubeGuardian‘s defence programme, but rather a suspiciously high number of ratings when compared to views.

As Josh mentioned in the video, he is open to suggestions as the software is in development, so if you have any, or can offer any help, please send him a PM on Youtube. If anyone can port the software to OS X, I’d certainly appreciate it (and let’s not forget our friends on Linux). Once it reaches a stable release, we will be sure to host the install files officially here at League of Reason.

In the meantime, check out joshTheGoods’ channel and subscribe to him for video updates about TubeGuardian.

Discussion (4) • Add Comment Tags: Censorship, joshTheGoods, software, TubeGuardian, votebots, YouTube
Posted in Censorship, YouTube