The Eternal Gaijin

I got back to work today from the weekend. Someone asked me a rather typical question. "Did you have a good weekend?" I thought about it and answered, "Do you like wallpapering?" "No," my interlocuter had no reason to even ponder the answer. "Ah, I didn't have much of a weekend then." The few minutes I wasn't covered in wallpaper paste were productive in a sense. I noticed a large number of religion and education related posts and news articles out there. The American Family Association (or NAMBLA) noticed that higher levels of education can de-fundamentalize the kids. (http://www.afajournal.org/2006/august/0806colleges.html) Not sure what the conclusion they drew was. Maybe the kids just need Real Science. Atheist Revolution commented on the recent stories showing that fundamentalist Christian schools do a much worse job at education the kids. (http://atheistrevolution.blogspot.com/2006/08/study-finds-worst-performance-in.html) And I tho...

Being employed is much better than being unemployed. Work is off to a good start. Additional note: I made contact with CB, an old colleague from Tokyo who is another Canadian in Britain (CiB). From what he's said, he didn't land on his feet, but has pulled himself back up to them and is now doing pretty well. Glad to hear it. And the Register has an interesting article about the possibility of actually mixing up a liquid explosive on an airplane, which is extremely informative. Totally debunks the need for all the crap that's been going down at Heathrow all week. (http://www.theregister.com/2006/08/17/flying_toilet_terror_labs/) -- Posted by The Eternal Gaijin (email) London, UK Words are incapable of describing what I am about to tell you.

Evolution and Medicine Over at Respectful Insolence , Orac has run a lot of posts about the intersection of evolution and medicine, and covered the need in depth. Along the same lines, this article outlines the need for evolutionary biology to be more prominently featured in medical school.

The Cincinnati Post - Kevin Eigelbach: Lighten up on the scare letters Ken Ham is freaking out and starting more of his (and the Religious Right's) War on Christianity crap based on a sticker found in a Bible somewhere that said it should be approached critically. Nice take on the evolution warning sticker. Sorry this backfired on you Ken, but do you know where I can order some of those stickers?

LiveScience.com - U.S. Lags World in Grasp of Genetics and Acceptance of Evolution Dennis Miller (before his road to Damascus conversion) put it very well when he said little says more about American anti-intellectualism than the fact that calling someone a bit of an Einstein is an insult. He also pointed out that on one of the 3Rs actually starts with the letter r . So is that why these results are scary? (Come on, the US finished behind Latvia and Cyprus. How the hell does that happen? Or does it have to do with the ongoing PR campaign being waged by the Religious Right and IDC folks? Maybe is the growing backlash against any form of public education. Whatever factor or combination thereof, it's taking its toll. The US is slipping from it's heights. China is ascendent, bio-medical research has started its flight to other countries, science is moving elsewhere and India has started to make progress. W. seems to think that he can maintain and increase American power with his s...

NCSE Resource Follow the link for a good rundown on Brian Alters, the prof whose study was rejected for not providing sufficient evidence of evolution. Lotta links out to other articles.

NCSE Resource Follow the link for a good rundown on Brian Alters, the prof whose study was rejected for not providing sufficient evidence of evolution. Lotta links out to other articles.

Pooflingers Anonymous: The Hovind Files: Lying for Jesus The Pooflinger gave a hell of an effort and nearly gave himself aneurysm trying to get through Dr Flintsone's video series. A bit of linkage to his series.

NCSE Resource A nice rebuttal to Dr Dino and his spiel.

Dispatches from the Culture Wars: Guest Post: I Remember Hovey Another great article outlining the delicious insanity of the world of Kent Hovind, degree mill PhD, paranoid conspiracy nut, religious zealot and tax evader. 'Nuff said.

Pharyngula: Christian Calculus? A while back I went for an interview to do IT support for a Catholic college. Part of the application asked me my religion. Although it never came up in the interview I prepped an answer to any question about religion: Until I see a papal bull on DNS technologies, I don't see how it's a consideration. And now, through PZ Myers at Pharyngula, we see that there are problems getting fully Christian calculus delivered to the masses.

London Masturbating Marathon 2006 - Wank-A-Thon for Charity Harkening back to the Daily Show and it's segment on the guy who hated a-thon's and had to stay in his apartment, friend KP sent me a link to the upcoming London Wank-a-thon. Given how inhibited the English are it really surprises me that this is happening. Now, I'm not against masturbation, certainly not given my teen years (you can blush, but you know it's true for you too), but what the hell is this? On the other hand, it's well planned for: The Wank-A-Thon will take place in Clerkenwell this summer and will see hundreds of men and women doing it for themselves and for charity. They will be sponsored for how many minutes they can masturbate for and how many orgasms they achieve. Couples are welcome, as are more shy and retiring types who can masturbate in the privacy of a special booth. There will also be men only areas, women only areas and a comfort zone where contestants can spend time relaxing betwee...

David Byrne Journal: 8.2.06: American Madrassas David Byrne has a review of a movie called Jesus Camp which puts together the worst elements of Christianity and fundamentalism in a nice little re-education camp format and ships kids in for the summer. Frankly the whole idea gives me the wigguns but apparently nobody is asking me what to do about the States these days. But it does bring to mind the fundamental (ha-ha) hypocrisy of the ultra-religious: your fundamentalism is scary; ours is a reflection of solid values. Your martyrs are deranged whack-a-doodles; ours are on the side of god. The inability to see that each reflects the other is amazing and reflects a cognitive dissonance of astounding depth. Fundamentalists from both sides are looking in a mirror. The rest of us realize they are the funhouse mirror image of ourselves. In the meantime London is running out of water . This is hard to understand when you come from a country with half the fresh water in the world. How on earth...

Pooflingers Anonymous: Visiting the "Doctor" We should all be grateful to have a Pooflinger like this among us.

In tonight's Evening Standard there was an article on Mel Gibson's DWI arrest. When he was being cuffed he asked the officer if he was Jewish and then launched into a Elders of Zion kind of anti-semitic rant. Good one, Mel. That'll fix that South Park episode that made you look crazy! From Atheist Revolution Link The primary criticism received by Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" was that it was anti-Semitic. Nevertheless, the film and Gibson himself were embraced by Christians. Now it appears that Gibson has revealed his true feelings about Jews even more clearly. During a recent DUI arrest Gibson became belligerent and made unmistakably anti-Semitic statements to the police arresting him. It doesn't sound like Jewish leaders are buying his post-incident apology either. I can't help wondering if this incident will make Gibson more or less popular among his many Christian fans. -- Posted by The Eternal Gaijin (email) London, UK Words are incapa...