The Eternal Gaijin

Smarter. More Smarter? Much more smarter. Yeah, that's us, ennit? Walter Shakespeare?! How only one in 20 Brits score top marks in tests designed for seven-year-olds | Mail Online But the number of adults who struggled with the answers paints a disturbing picture of a nation of dunces. In a test carried out for an information website, many were unable to answer questions aimed at children as young as seven. And some were guilty of the most appalling howlers, including giving Shakespeare's first name as Walter, the capital of Sweden as Oslo, and the cube of 2 as 24.

A couple of odd thoughts that struck me: What is the sugar content of the average skeptic's diet? I'm guessing that this is the only case of giving 110%. Is bald and beard an actual uniform or just a peer-pressure thing? I didn't know. I've just grown my hair back after a decade of shaving my head. Well, I didn't grow back the front, but that's not my fault. When ever stuck for words or in a conversational cul-de-sac, make a Trek, Firefly or Dr. Who reference. That'll paper over any problem. Example: A: How can you support the invasion of Iraq? B: The problem was putting the Packlids in charge. A: Heh, that was a good episode. There's a strong libertarian bent in the room. Go on. Pick a fight. Say something like: "I like what Obama has to say about wealth redistribution." Or: "Gay rights? I don't support rights for anyone not recognized in 1776. Freedom for the already free!" Anyway that...

Somewhere between the outrage of torture and the creepiness of the Scientology navy comes this little number: Reason Magazine - Hit & Run > The Death Ship Have they given up trying? Is there any way that this could be justified? "Well, we don't have a law banning floating prison torture ships if they're blue."

I'm just going to give you a link and say "me too." Bronze Dog devotes attention to a jackass here . Do they just cut and paste from each others' emails or what? I mean, Darwin's deathbed conversion? Is jackass serious? Powered by ScribeFire .

Is torture effective? From Andrew Sullivan : I applaud you for standing up on this torture principle. [snip] [The incident detailed in the snip] brought to mind the training I had received on POW handling a decade before as a 2ndLt in Quantico . We were told not to torture because (1) it was wrong and (2) it didn't work.  I remember our instructors noting that even the Soviets didn't torture for information. because it didn't yield reliable information.  The Soviets tortured for retribution, to make an example, maybe just for kicks, but not for information.  That contention was borne out for me on the streets of Fallujah.  Torture doesn't work.  In fact, in a counterinsurgency it works against you because it turns the locals against you.  That is why the Marines took that guy back to his house.  Because they knew we were trying to win that neighborhood's trust, and torturing one of their own was not the way to do it, even if he was w...

Saturday Saturday's commute went a bit better; I arrived and registered fairly easily, got my breakfast and sat with Friend DEG again. Michael Shermer's talk basically covered a few of the ways that thinking goes wrong especially with regards to the idea of agency in happenings. Apparently some of the work Sam Harris has been doing in neuroscience has shown that credulity is a default position for the human brain. We'll take what we hear at face value and to not believe it takes a bit more work.  Bad news for fighting the various folk beliefs in astronomy, biology, psychology, economics, politics, conspiracy theory, et cetera, that we need to. Susan Begley gave an excellent informative talk that strayed close to a depressing talk. The upshot it that in the fight against creationism and pseudo-science we can't count on the media. it would be a mistake to think that the role of the press is education, and as such it's important to know they're not our ally...

Bounty offered to anyone who can prove homeopathy outperforms placebos - Boing Boing Powered by ScribeFire .

So on Friday and Saturday I attended The Amazing Meeting 6 in Las Vegas. Originally I was going to attend merely the Friday, but it turned out that my wife got bored of listening to me talk about it and sent me back for the second day so she could relax on her own. Vegas, it seems is designed intentionally to make sure you don't actually get anywhere, as this would allow you out of the casino. A few times on the way to the Flamingo this became intensely, frustratingly apparent. The Luxor with its size, floor plan, and emergency lack of tram service to the nearest monorail station seemed to be actively conspiring to keep me where I was. And let's not even try to discuss the idea of cashing a traveller's cheque with a Japanese driving license. So my Tilley adventure clothing started to come in handy, as I was going to be safari-ing my way to the TAM venue, almost a full kilometre away. Meeting up with Friend DEG (man the bridges, brave Horatius) I took my seat two-thirds ...

All the facts in the world don't amount to a hill of metaphors when it comes to influencing people. Comedians often understand this. The funnies and best comedy exists at the edge of taste and acceptance because through comedy we can look back on ourselves and reflect in a way that you can't with fact. Comedians can truly get to the point with a quip in a way that no-one else can. You've often heard 'it's funny because it's true.' Follow the link for 7 great moments in creationism critique through comedy: Top Te... er, Seven Comedians on Evolution vs. Creationism | The Lay Scientist Powered by ScribeFire .

With the exception of the Carlin announcement I haven't been near a computer since we left last Friday. And so much has happened. All trips are different; they all begin the same way. There's little to distinguish the runaround, the last minute cramming in the suitcase, the run down the hill, the stress of catching the airport bus, that esprit-de-l'escalier making you wonder "Did I actually pack my passport..." It's the same beginning everytime. For this trip, all that took place and lead me out to Kanku (Kansai Kokusai Kuko -  and no, I'm not translitterating the long vowels.) Kanku is a new, clean airport, with little to recommend it over any other new, clean airport.  It is offers little in the way of amusement when waiting for Mrs Gaijin to show up, outside of Eikokuya or Starbucks coffee shops. Needless to say, I had a seat with a tall honjitsu no kohii and waited. When the wife arrived she and I checked in and began our own personal Trail of Te...

Good-bye, George. You will be missed. George Carlin dies at age 71 | Reuters Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs, dirty words and the demise of humanity, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday. He was 71.

See everybody in a week, then. -- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

Shorter BT: Pay me 90 quid and I'll try to get you the service you've subscribed to already. BBC NEWS | Technology | BT offers to 'speed up broadband'

Slowly it dawns on the Brits what their kids are like. Law creates underclass of child criminals - Times Online Britain has been condemned as a bleak place for children, where thousands are needlessly criminalised for misdemeanours and where the gap between the education and health of the rich and poor is growing. ...[snip]... The number of crimes committed by children fell between 2002 and 2006, but, according to research cited by the report, convictions rose by 26 per cent, leading to fears that a young criminal underclass is building. In the past misdemeanours were dealt with by cautions; the trend now is for police to bring charges. Britain detains more children than any other country in Western Europe, with 2,900 under18s locked up in the past year. Thirty children have died in custody since 1990, yet there has never been a public inquiry into conditions in youth detention centres. I love the commentators idea that more jail will solve the problem with the youth in the UK. In a cu...

Indonesia, as you know is the worlds largest Muslim country. It's easy to forget that this regional religion of the Arab peninsula has shifted it's centre population-wise, what with all the concern about Iraq, Iran, Irag, Irat, Irax, and every other Ira+letter combination that the western world (read: US) will be needlessly invading over the next few years. Indonesia has a reputation as a fairly relaxed place for Muslims to be and live. A calmer, more cosmopolitan version of the religion if you will. Until recently: Sect in Indonesia fears attacks on its members - International Herald Tribune Nearly 100 police officers guarded the road leading to this quiet, well-kept village in West Java on Tuesday to protect residents from possible attacks by hard-line Muslims. More than 70 percent of the village's 4,000 people are members of Ahmadiyah, a Muslim sect that fundamentalists have denounced as heretical. Villagers have been attacked at least three times in the past, and on Tue...

You know, if you use the words logic and proof in the title of your column you can also forgive me for expecting either of them. CFP: Logical Proof of the Existence of a Divine Creator, Why Atheism is Not Logically Sound HT to RichardDawkins.net So what does the unlikely fellow with the unlikely name Yomin Postelnik think? God is a great answer to everything. It's like a shield you can use to avoid all incoming facts. One of the beautiful aspects of self evident truths is that they can be proven on both the simplest and the most complex of levels. By contrast, to make an argument for what is in fact an illogical fallacy, one must use plenty of skill, sophistry and remain beholden to a dogmatic protection of what is really an illogical position. I agree. Generally they break down to the following lines: reality-based and god-botherers. Yet even after a detailed case is made for the illogical side of the argument, it can instantly be deflated like a balloon with the simplest poke ...

This. This is what's wrong with bullshit Alternate Ways of Knowing . Go on, woo-boys. Defend this. 'Albinos, Long Shunned, Face Threat in Tanzania' by New York Times - RichardDawkins.net Discrimination against albinos is a serious problem throughout sub-Saharan Africa, but recently in Tanzania it has taken a wicked twist: at least 19 albinos, including children, have been killed and mutilated in the past year, victims of what Tanzanian officials say is a growing criminal trade in albino body parts. Many people in Tanzania — and across Africa, for that matter — believe albinos have magical powers. They stand out, often the lone white face in a black crowd, a result of a genetic condition that impairs normal skin pigmentation and strikes about 1 in 3,000 people here. Tanzanian officials say witch doctors are now marketing albino skin, bones and hair as ingredients in potions that are promised to make people rich.

I've now lived in Japan a full quarter of my life, well a quarter and a smidge. (For those of you who study math in the UK that's 15%) I've always enjoyed it although there've been a lot of times that it's pissed me off to no end. I think it's telling that I've not been able to generate the same passion about London that I have for Tokyo. Or even Kobe now. So when this thought came to me today I thought I'd fire a few photos up celebrating some of the bits and pieces of Japan over the last year. First up, Kiyomizudera in Kyoto. Next: Last year's Luminarie, a commemorative display in honour of the victims of the Kobe earthquake in 1995. I know it's a moving van and he's lifting something, but I'm sure that Doraemon is mooning me here. Things the Japanese Like: Episode 4 Taking pictures of stuff with their keitai denwa (cell phones) Things the Japanese Like: Episode 50 Small dogs dressed in twee outfits On...

Do you really need a religious leader to tell you that terrorism is wrong? Seems like you should already know that. New Humanist Blog: Ultra-orthodox Islamic seminary issues fatwa against terrorism The Darul-Uloom Deoband, the Islamic madrassa in rural India where Taliban leader Mullah Omar studied, this weekend issued a fatwa against terror during a peace conference in Delhi, with Grand Mufti Habibur Rehman declaring: "The religion of Islam has come to wipe out all kinds of terrorism and to spread the message of global peace. Islam rejects all kinds of unjust violence, breach of peace, bloodshed, murder and plunder and does not allow it in any form."

If this is true: 'The Great Evangelical Decline' by Huffington Post - RichardDawkins.net What Baptist leaders have known for years is finally public: The Southern Baptist Convention is a denomination in decline. Half of the SBC's 43,000 churches will have shut their doors by 2030 if current trends continue. And unless God provides a miracle, the trends will continue. The denomination's growth rate has been declining since the 1950s. The conservative/fundamentalist takeover 30 years ago was supposed to turn the trend around; it didn't make a bit of difference. Leaders said it did. Reporters and politicians believed it did. But the numbers kept going down until, finally, they have become obvious to everyone. Evangelical faith has been dropping since 1900, when 42 percent of the U.S. claimed that distinction. Every year, Religious Right evangelicals, such as those who lead the Southern Baptists, are a smaller proportion of the country. Every year, their core values are...

BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Plan to restrict sales of airguns A pilot scheme restricting the sale of airguns in Scotland could be brought in to stop firearms getting a "grip" on communities. To borrow slightly from George Carlin: They want to ban air guns but keep the fucking real ones! Powered by ScribeFire .

I have mixed feelings about Bill Maher. I usually love his New Rules segments. I applaud his stance that religion is something you can ridicule. However, I deplore his nonsense about vaccinations and medical care. He's quick witted, but not an intellect on the order of Jon Stewart, the best comparison of someone with TV show that's outspoken on the issues and has a sense of humour. Sometimes his outrage is misplaced. Sometimes it's bang-bloody-on. So, making the rounds is his trailer for Religulous, his new movie where he tackles religion. It looks funny and thought provoking. It looks highly slanted and I'm looking forward to it in the exact same way Mrs Gaijin isn't. I dunno. What do you think?

Schneier on Security: The War on Photography The War on Photography What is it with photographers these days? Are they really all terrorists, or does everyone just think they are? Since 9/11, there has been an increasing war on photography. Photographers have been harrassed, questioned, detained, arrested or worse, and declared to be unwelcome. We've been repeatedly told to watch out for photographers, especially suspicious ones. Clearly any terrorist is going to first photograph his target, so vigilance is required. Except that it's nonsense. The 9/11 terrorists didn't photograph anything. Nor did the London transport bombers, the Madrid subway bombers, or the liquid bombers arrested in 2006. Timothy McVeigh didn't photograph the Oklahoma City Federal Building. The Unabomber didn't photograph anything; neither did shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Photographs aren't being found amongst the papers of Palestinian suicide bombers. The IRA wasn't known for its photogra...

Could this: BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | How to solve the British maths problem? The British are uniquely happy to admit being bad at maths, says a report. be related to this: BBC NEWS | UK | Education | Most maths teachers 'not experts' Less than half of maths teachers in England's secondary schools have a degree in the subject, despite a massive recruitment campaign. or this: BBC NEWS | UK | Education | Maths exams 'have become easier' School mathematics exams in England have become easier, shallower and less demanding, according to a think tank. This has been another edition of Well, duh . with your host, the Eternal Gaijin.

Oh, look. It's Thursday. Police protester snap did not breach rights | The Register The New Order: When reading is a crime | The Register Is this what it is going to be like? When simple possession of a proscribed document will be enough to see you clapped in irons and whisked down to the local police station? About two weeks ago (May 16), Nottingham University campus was agog as police arrived to interview former student Hicham Yezza. After some ten years' study, first as undergraduate, then graduate, Hicham was a non-academic member of staff in one of the University departments. His mistake was to agree to help Rizwaan Sabir, a friend in the Politics faculty, who needed a document downloaded from the web and printed off. This was all part of legitimate study: the document itself was on the Politics Faculty reading list. Unfortunately, the document in question also happened to be an al-Qaeda Training Manual. Dispatches from the Culture Wars: Pentagon Removes Judge from Gitmo T...

..Who will be defeated by McCain. Congrats to Obama on his well meaning candidacy. US elections 2008: Barack Obama wins Democratic nomination for president | World news | guardian.co.uk How Clinton turned an air of certainty into a losing run | World news | The Guardian

This is hopeful: The Canadian Press: New poll says almost a quarter of Canadians don't believe in any god Fewer than three-quarters of Canadians believe in a god, suggests a new Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey. "Religion in Canada today is not a particularly divisive subject and tolerance levels for different beliefs are high," said Harris-Decima president Bruce Anderson. "This is evident in the fact that one in four people feel comfortable saying they do not believe in a god." The poll found 72 per cent of respondents said they believed in a god, while 23 per cent said they did not believe in any god. Six per cent did not offer an opinion. Results may not total 100 per cent because of rounding. Polls have told a different story in the United States. "Canada's secularism stands in clearer distinction, when compared to the cultural and political influences of religion in the United States," said Anderson. "In one Harris Interactive study in...

I'd like to say that I do have good taste in movies. We have a wide collection of Kubrick and Kurosawa films on DVD. I have the full range of Blade Runner versions. I have most of the IMDB in my head and carry it around with me. (I also annoyingly spout out half of it every time a question about movies comes up) I love movies. So here's the confession: The other day I watched BloodRayne . Yes, that classic of the Uwe Bolle videogame-to-movie-to-video genre. Uwe Bolle is doing more to undermine movies that anyone else working within a 50 km radius of a box of film. Think Ed Wood without the camp factor. Or the raw cinematic talent. There is nothing about this movie that is good. For starters it takes much too long to get from the opening to the ending credits. From the outset you have a story of plot points unconnected to each other by lines. It's no way to make a kids colouring book and no way to make a movie. Characters, if such they can be called, are undeveloped beyond t...