Atheist Physics Teacher

Should NPR Receive Federal Funding? Maybe not.

2011-03-31T20:50:00.001-04:00

Follow this link to NPR's Planet Money website and listen to Friday's podcast: The Friday Podcast: Economists On Federal Funding For NPR. Seriously. Go listen to it, and then come back here.

Interesting stuff, right?

There is no way that the House bill to prevent federal funding to NPR will get past the Senate, let alone the president's veto, but it is still an interesting discussion. We should be able to question, and have the chance to justify, the funding of anything with our tax dollars.

In case you didn't listen to the podcast (GO LISTEN TO THE PODCAST!) they start by defining public radio as a "public good". There are two criteria for something to be considered a public good:

It must be non-excludable - there is no way to stop people from using it.
It must be non-rivalrous - its use by one person does not prevent its simultaneous use by another person.

Other common goods include roads, national defense, police, and so many other things that we take for granted. Not all public goods, however, are actually "good". One of their guests uses the facetious example of a stink bomb as a public good. There's no way you can prevent someone from enjoying the odor, and any number of people can enjoy the odor at the same time. The decision to use tax dollars to fund public goods has to be based on what we value as a community.

Their conclusion is, well, inconclusive. On the one hand NPR could probably get along without federal funding. I know that if NPR lost funding and couldn't find it elsewhere I would do my part by increasing my monetary support of my local station, and I think there are many other listeners and underwriters who would do the same thing. Local stations in areas with smaller populations might suffer, however, and that would be a shame.

On the other hand, if federal funding remains, or, dare I say it, increases, there's no doubt that they will continue to report interesting, objective stories that you can't hear anywhere else. Like this recent report by NPR and ProPublica about the military's diagnosis, treatment, and tracking of traumatic brain injuries (or lack thereof), which has resulted in the Army reevaluating its policy and practices regarding Purple Hearts for victims of concussion injuries.

I certainly hope that NPR stays on the air. I don't know how I would get through my commute without it.

QuarkNet 2010: Day 4

2010-07-02T12:22:00.000-04:00

Today we built a very important part of the cloud chamber apparatus: the magnetometer. This instrument will allow us to measure the strength of the magnetic field on the surface of our plate where the cosmic rays will be detected.

It's important to know the strength of the magnetic field so that we can calculate the momentum of the particles. The greater the magnetic field strength, the more the charged particles will curve.

The construction of this apparatus required a lot of soldering, at least for someone who has never soldered before, like me. Not to toot my own horn too much, but I think I did a pretty darn good job. Decide for yourself:

The magnetometer has a Hall Effect Sensor which has current running through it. The sensor is attached to a voltmeter, and when the sensor is inside a magnetic field the voltage changes, depending on the direction of the magnetic field. A change in 1 mV in the voltage is equal to 1 guass. The difference be the normal voltage and the experimental voltage gives you the magnetic field strength. I found the max field strength near the center of the magnet to be about 740 gauss (the Earth's magnetic field is about 0.5 guass).

We had a picnic lunch outside the physics building, and when we came back in we were ready to cool down our chambers for the first time. I didn't put enough alcohol in the ice box or in the reservoir in the tank, so I didn't see anything at first, but when I fixed those problems I started to see some tracks.

I wonder if a lot of the particles are being blocked because we are in the basement of a large building. Maybe when I take it home or use it at school we will get more tracks.

Someone decided we needed a radioactive source so we would be able to see a lot of tracks. We used the calibration source of a geiger counter to shoot gamma rays into one of the chambers. Here's what it looked like:

In that clip you should see the "cloud" which looks like fog or rain. If you look carefully you will see wisps in the cloud, which is caused when a cosmic ray ionizes the alcohol.

This isn't my chamber, but they are all basically the same. This video was shot at 720p, and I wish it could be a little clearer, so the next time I'll try 1080p, and probably 720p at 60fps after that.

QuarkNet 2010: Day 3

2010-07-01T09:43:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we didn't do much building at QuarkNet. On Tuesday there weren't enough supplies for each of us to build two alcohol reservoirs, so many of us spent a few minutes in the morning building or second reservoir.

The magnets arrived yesterday, and after lunch we installed them. Each magnet is about 6 cm by 12 cm, and I am pretty sure Helio said they are about 500 gauss. It was a simple install. They had brackets already made and holes already drillled. All we had to do was add a little silicone adhesive to help hold it in place and screw the bracket to the underside of the plate. See?

This magnet will create a magnetic field (duh) in the alcohol fog, which will cause the charged particles to travel in a curved path. Negative particles will curve on way, and positive particles will curve the other way. The amount that the particles curve depend on the mass of the particle, so by studying the particles path we will be able to calculate the momentum of the particle.

The rest of yesterday was taken up by a very interesting lecture by Helio, and a Q&A session in the afternoon. Helio's lecture was great. He is a soft spoken man, with a good sense of humor, and he is incredibly knowledgeable. Better still, he is good at explaining things and is very patient. We learned a lot about particle physics, which is my favorite aspect of physics.

Today we are going to build the magnetic field sensors, and I really hope we'll get to make some clouds today. I saw someone bring in some dry ice, so that's promising.

QuarkNet 2010: Day 2

2010-06-29T15:55:00.001-04:00

Today at QuarkNet we built a reservoir for the alcohol. One of the teachers who has been involved with QuarkNet for a while had the PVC already cut for us, we just needed to assemble it. The reservoir has magnets on each end, which will be attracted to magnets on the outside of the tank. The magnets are offset a little, so that as the tank is turned upside down the top of the reservoir always points up. This is going to make it incredibly easy to load alcohol into the chamber.

Here's the reservoir:

There's felt inside which will increase the surface area of the alcohol to aid in its evaporation.

After lunch we assembled the light strip that we'll use to illuminate the fog, making the tracks easier to see. Another QuarkNet veteran prepared the wood and provided us with excellent instructions. We had to do a little wiring and soldering, but it was pretty easy.

Here's the light strip:

and illuminated:

Added to the setup from yesterday we have:

Tomorrow we'll build sensors to measure the magnetic field on the surface of the plate. I guess we'll also add the magnets. Maybe we'll even be able to make some clouds.

QuarkNet 2010: Day 1

2010-06-29T10:14:00.002-04:00

I'm participating in QuarkNet 2010 this week at Stony Brook University. QuarkNet is a workshop they have been running since 1999 (I think) for high school physics and chemistry teacher, and pre-service teacher as well. This year each participant is building a cloud chamber which we'll use to measure the momentum of cosmic rays.

I took class at Stony Brook while I was a grad student there with the same professor who is running this workshop, Helio Takai, and in that class we were working to improve a previous cloud chamber design. It was a really fun class (for which there were no assignments or homework) but there was only one cloud chamber. In this workshop we are each building one, and we get to bring them back to our schools for demonstrations next year.

Here's the basics about how the cloud chamber works:

A metal plate is placed above a styrofoam cooler filled with dry ice and alcohol. Metal feet/legs extend down from the plate into the solution to conduct heat out of the plate. On top of the plate is an upside down fish tank, with a reservoir of alcohol in the top of it. There is a temperature gradient between the cold metal plate and the top of the fish tank at room temperature, which causes the alcohol to evaporate and then condense in a layer about an inch think at the plate.

This "cloud" is supersaturated, and when cosmic rays (electrons, positrons, protons) pass through the fog you can see their trail. A magnet is added under the metal plate to create a magnetic field, which affects the path of the charged particles that pass through the cloud. By filming the cloud chamber in operation for a while we will be able to extract frames during which an interesting event happened and calculate the momentum of the particle.

Yesterday was the first day of the workshop, and there were two main activities: (1) Learn how to edit/publish movies, and (2) build the ice box and assemble plate/legs.

I took a quick video of the room with my new Kodak Zi8 digital camcorder, and quickly cut it up and added titles and sound effects in iMovie. Here's the result:

I know, I know...totally lame. Here's the ice box:

And the plate:

Look for more updates as the week progresses.

God Prefers Atheists

2010-06-17T11:25:00.000-04:00

I always figured that if God did exist, and if he was a reasonable God (a lot to ask, I know), that I'd be okay because I try to be a good person, for no other reason than I think it's the right thing to do.

Long Term Energy Plan

2010-06-16T09:38:00.000-04:00

People are not going to like this, but something has to be done.

The price of gas has to increase. We can wait for the supply to diminish to the point that the market raises the price, or the government can levy higher taxes to manipulate the price at the pump. Gas should be at least $5 per gallon. The money raised by taxes can go to support R&D for alternative energy sources, and the higher cost of travel will encourage people to conserve by buying fuel efficient cars, car pooling, taking public transportation, walking/cycling more, or by simply traveling less.
Encourage the production of more nuclear power plants now that the moratorium is over. Nuclear energy is not the long term solution, but it is a major step in achieving oil/coal independence. There are so many reasons to build new nuclear plants:
1. The moratorium didn’t shut down old plants, so now we have 104 nuclear power plants operating in this country that are at least 30 years old.
2. New nuclear technologies have been developed that are more efficient than old technology. This means that the energy they produce is cheaper.
3. Safety is the biggest concern of opponents of nuclear power. New nuclear technologies are safer than the ones currently in use.
4. The storage of spent nuclear fuel is not as dangerous as people make it out to be. Read Richard Muller’s book “Physics for Future Presidents” for more information.
5. In America, more people have died working in the coal industry this year than have ever died working in the nuclear power industry.
Three Mile Island was a success, not a failure. Of course things might go wrong; people make mistakes and equipment malfunctions. That’s why there are so many backup systems and safety measures in place. The events at Three Mile Island showed us that those systems work.
Public and private sectors both need to invest in wind and solar energy. My money is on solar energy, but current technology is very expensive and minimally efficient. Over the next 50-100 years, solar cells will get cheaper and more efficient, and we will either incorporate them into structure we already have (solar shingles for instance) or build large solar farms, or both. After the initial investment this energy is essentially free, requiring fees only to maintain equipment and eventually replace it. No burning of fossil fuels, no storing or nuclear waste, just cheap, clean electricity.

All of these steps need to be taken in order for us to have the energy we need. If we choose to start now, the process will be less painful. If we wait, times are going to be tough. Some countries are already on step two, so if we want America to be an important player in the energy market a hundred years from now we have to start playing catch up. I think we can do it if we stop letting politics get in the way of things that really need to get done. I fear this might be too much to ask for.

There Is No God (And You Know It)

2010-06-11T16:32:00.000-04:00

Someone posted this old article on /r/atheism on Reddit today. It's Sam Harris and it's from the Huffington Post in 2005. Read the entire piece here. It's short and well written, like Harris' other works. Here are a couple excerpts.

On what atheism is:

"The entirety of atheism is contained in this response. Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply a refusal to deny the obvious."

In reference to the "people of faith" that died during Hurricane Katrina:

"Only the atheist has the courage to admit the obvious: these poor people spent their lives in the company of an imaginary friend."

Why atheists can be the most humanistic and compassionate people:

"Because he refuses to cloak the reality of the world’s suffering in a cloying fantasy of eternal life, the atheist feels in his bones just how precious life is -- and, indeed, how unfortunate it is that millions of human beings suffer the most harrowing abridgements of their happiness for no good reason at all."

How Are We Not Outraged?

2010-06-10T07:57:00.000-04:00

We have been hearing about this oil spill in the Gulf for almost two months now, and I just realized that I am furious about it. Up until now I have been reacting like I normally do to the news. I shake my head and scoff at the failure of our politicians, the corruption of government regulations, and the greed of CEOs and shareholders.

When I first heard about the spill I thought, “Wow! That sucks. They better get that taken care of soon. I’m sure they will.” I was fucking wrong. Seriously, how are we not outraged? People should be rioting outside BP’s US headquarters in Houston. I mean fucking rioting! Would rioting make the oil spill stop? No, but it might make us feel a little better.

I still see people buying gas at BP stations. WTF?!?!? Have they not been listening to the fucking news? How could you voluntarily give your money to a corporation that is single-handedly destroying the ecosystem in the Gulf? AAAAHHHHH!!!!!

What can we do about this?

</rant>

Reddit Find - "Sorry atheist ladies. No luck for you."

2010-06-09T09:00:00.000-04:00

I'm sure they're all very upset about it.

Observations at Church

2010-06-07T09:00:00.001-04:00

I had to go to church on Saturday for my wife's friend's wedding. A Roman Catholic church to be exact. Here are a few observations:

1) For a Roman Catholic church, it was quite modest. It is surrounded by trees and large sections of the walls are glass. You seem almost to be in the forest yourself.

2) It is fucking scary listening to people recite prayers or saying things in unison. It's like they've all been brainwashed into some sort of crazy cult...oh, wait...nevermind.

3) The one part of mass that I actually really like is the "peace." If you are not familiar with Catholic mass (I'm not sure if other sects do this) at some point during the service everyone turns to the people around them, shakes hands, and says, "Peace be with you." I think this is great. Strangers turning to strangers and wishing each other peace in their lives. People really do seem sincere when they do this, and it is not necessarily a religious act. I would like to experience that more.

4) Church etiquette for an atheist or non-Christian: When everyone rises for some reason, I rise. I don't do any of the praying or the crossing or anything, but I stand to be polite. When everyone kneels to pray, I just stay seated. There's no way I'm getting down on my knees for anyone. (insert gay joke here)

What do you think?

What a Jackass

2010-06-05T10:08:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we had an assembly at school 9th period (the last period). I appreciated this because 1) the auditorium is air conditioned and 2) because the auditorium is near the main entrance/exit. Once the final bell rang, I bolted out the front door to my car, hoping to beat the buses and traffic on the LIE. I get to the Northern State on the Sunken Meadow and there's fucking traffic already! It's only 2:30, what the fuck?

Then I see this asshole:

I guess he didn't see the myriad of signs stating that commercial vehicles are prohibited on the parkways and that there are low bridges. He also failed to notice the sign right before the bridge (you can see it just to the right of the trailer) that says the bridge is only 11'6".

It's a good thing this happened so early. I bet the road was cleared within an hour, in time for the normal cluster-fuck on a Friday afternoon.

Oh! One time on the way home from college I sat in traffic for about two hours on the Cross Island Parkway, which is only 10 miles long, because some jackass rented a U-Haul and got stuck in the underpass at the Southern State. Some people...

Patchogue-Ecuadorian Relations

2010-06-04T16:25:00.000-04:00

A lot of people have heard about the 2008 murder of Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero in Patchogue, NY, my home town. It was on CNN, the NY Times, lots of places. The event shined a light on the anti-Hispanic sentiment that is common on Long Island. Recently the ring leader of the Patchogue-Medford High School students who went out looking to beat up "Mexicans" was sentenced to 25 years for 1st degree manslaughter.

But that's not what this post is about. In this week's issue of The Long Island Advance there was an article about the Mayor of Lucero's home town, Gualaceo, coming to Patchogue. Marco Tapia Jara met with the mayor of Patchogue Village, Paul Pontieri, and Deputy Mayor Steve McGiff. Mr. Jara also traveled around the village and had a chance to meet with some of the many immigrants from Ecuador.

Mr. Jara said, "The people here are very grateful. We can say our villages are alike. This gives us the idea that Patchogue welcomes harmony." I am not quite sure about that, myself, but it is nice to hear this sentiment from a visitor. Mr. Jara was also able to reunite with his brother and sister who left Ecuador for Long Island when he was young.

Mr. Pontieri is planning on visiting Gualaceo soon to visit Lucero's home town.

I think this is a great way to share culture and ideas, and hopefully to promote tolerance. Although, the mayors of the towns are obviously already tolerant. Perhaps there should be an exchange program for young people in Patchogue and Gualaceo to see learn about each other's lives.

Mr. Jara continued, "The politicians from the village of Patchogue support the families of Ecuador. We have confidence in Patchogue. From my heart I have a feeling of happiness."

Atheist Blogs

2010-06-03T08:12:00.000-04:00

I definitely need to spend more time browsing the many great blogs on the Atheist Blogroll, but I have recently found a few blogs that look really cool. Rather, they found me.

Laughing in Purgatory: It's all about Atheism, parenting, and comedy.

This blog has only been around for a few months, but it is updated regularly. Andy runs the site, and it is interesting and funny. I'll be adding this to my new Atheist RSS feeds.

Sober Without Gods:An oasis of free thought and expression for those who seek to live a sober life based on reality & rationality with the support of people who've been there.

This is another new blog, and I really like the idea of it. Fortunately I don't have any problems with drugs or alcohol, but even so I always resented the 12 step programs for excluding atheists and nonbelievers. Apparently AA is bullshit anyway (see Ed's post here) but it still pisses me off.

Atheist Revolution:Breaking free from irrational belief and opposing Christian extremism in America

This blog is amazing. Vjack has been running this site since 2005 and it's really well organized and written. One of the things I really like about the site is that Vjack enjoys giving advice to new bloggers, and there are a lot of tips and suggestions for improving your blog and getting more traffic. Better yet, the advice it tailored to atheist bloggers. Needless to say I'll be spending the next couple of evening perusing the Revolution.

As always, check the Atheist Blogroll for these and other great sites by and for atheists.

Bible for Atheists: Genesis 21 & 22

2010-06-02T08:46:00.000-04:00

Genesis 21

Not much happens in this chapter. Sarah bears Abraham a son, Isaac. Abraham sends Hagar and Ishmael out of his camp at the request of Sarah. Hagar and Ishmael are dying of thirst in the wilderness but the angel of god came to them and showed them where to find water. Again god says that he will make a great nation of Ishmael.

I think this is interesting because it confirms to Jews and Christians that their god is also the god of Muslims, and that they are a legitimate Abrahamic religion.

Genesis 22

This chapter is a real doozy. It exhibits one of the worst aspects of religion. God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac and Abraham obeys without question. Of course, when Abraham gets Isaac on the altar and is preparing to kill him the angel of god stops him. It was all a test to see if Abraham “feared” god.

This is a prime example of how religion is bad for humanity. People will commit crimes, murder included, because it is “commanded by god” or in the name of god. This chapter of the bible teaches us that this is good. The command of god is more important, even, than our very own children.

This world would be much better off if people cared first for their fellow man and second for their invisible god.

Stairway to Heaven

2010-06-01T08:02:00.000-04:00

I was camping this weekend and Ramble On came on the iPod we were listening to. Ramble On, as you may know, has references to The Lord of the Rings:

“In the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair, but Gollum and the evil one, crept up and slipped away with her.”

There are other references to The Lord of the Rings in the Led Zeppelin songs “The Battle of Evermore” and “Misty Mountain Hop” and some people believe “Stairway to Heaven” is also about LotR, but I read somewhere that the band denied that.

Even if the band wasn’t purposefully referencing The Lord of the Rings, listening to “Stairway to Heaven” always makes me think about Tolkien’s world.

“In a tree by the brook, there’s a songbird who sings…”

This line alone would not make me think of LotR, but taken with the others I interpret this to be about Tom Bombadil. Tom is the songbird because he sings everything, and the “tree” is Old Man Willow because that is where the hobbits first encounter Tom.

“In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees…”

Smoke rings, as far as I know, don’t occur naturally. Bilbo and Gandalf smoke their pipe weed and blow smoke rings together in times of peace. This line sounds like some character longing for those relaxing days.

“…and the forests will echo with laughter.”

Makes me think of the Ents, but they don’t laugh much. Not that strong of an argument for this one.

“There’s a feeling I get when I look to the West, and my spirit is crying for leaving.”

In Tolkien’s mythology/history of Middle-Earth, the elves awoke in the east and traveling west, toward Valinor where the gods lived. The elves that remained in Middle-Earth, and those that traveled back from Valinor, have a spiritual urge to return. Around the time of The Lord of the Rings the time of elves is fading and the era of man is beginning. Indeed, in both the books and the movies we have scenes showing the mass exodus of Middle-Earth by the elves.

Blog Traffic Update

2010-05-28T06:00:00.000-04:00

So I've had my blog up and running again for six weeks, and I think I have posted something every weekday. I'm pretty proud of that, even if some days I just posted a funny picture or Youtube video.

About a month ago I signed up at StatCounter.com to keep track of page loads and visitors. The graph above is of the past 30 days. It's interesting to see how the traffic fluctuates during the week. There is little traffic on the weekends because people are too busy living life to read my silly blog, and it picks up later on in the week (Thursdays have seen the most total traffic) as people become less and less motivated to do work at their job. I figure it usually slows down on Friday because people realize they have a lot of shit to do before the weekend.

In total I have had 878 page loads, 482 visitors, and 58 returning visitors these past thirty days. And before anyone suggests it StatCounter.com does not count me in those numbers.

I hope that some of those returning visitors are real-life friends of mine, but I figure most of them are coming in from the Atheist Blogroll. I need to spend more time reading the blogs that are often listed as *NEW* along with mine on the list. I have already spent time reading some of them, and I am thinking about reviewing some of my favorites.

DO ME A FAVOR - If you are one of my returning visitors, or if this is your first time here, let me know who you are in the comments.

From the Archives: May 20, 2010

2010-05-27T10:45:00.000-04:00

In my local paper, The Long Island Advance, there is a weekly (as is the paper) segment titled From the Archives of the Long Island Advance, in which they present some news clips from 100, 75, and 50 years ago. A lot of the news is so mundane that I find it to be very funny. I hope that you do too.

From 100 years ago:

Ira Rogers’s bull dog Jumbo was run over and killed by
an auto.
About a dozen Tungsten lights on Main Street, between
the village limits and Swan River, were turned on by the
Patchogue Electric Light Co. They are the first to be placed
in the recently organized lighting district.
At the Unique the contest to decide the most popular
young lady in town stood as follows: Esther Smith, 175;
Edith Nugent, 239; Eunice Foster, 189; Fanny Smith, 49; Sadie
Ginocchio, 61; Nellie Gibbons, 169; Hilda Webber, 32;
Lottie Link, 100; Mayme Vanderpool, 51; Clare Marran, 54;
Fanny Budd, 97; Lillian Davis, 2; Nellie Ackerly, 8; Roselle
Daly, 5; Edna Webb, 4; and Virginia Ullman, 10.
Thomas B. Camidge has purchased a power vacuum
cleaner on wheels, run by a gasoline engine. He will take
orders for cleaning houses. This is an innovation that will
be welcomed by the ladies.Mr. and Mrs. John Romanski left for a trip to Germany
and expect to be gone three months.

Bible for Atheists: Genesis 20

2010-05-26T06:00:00.000-04:00

In this chapter Abraham pulls a stunt we’ve seen him pull before, but it is still mind boggling. Abraham and Sarah settle in Gerar and Abraham tells the king, Abimelech, that Sarah is his sister. Abimelech sends for Sarah, even though she is at least 90 years old at this point. In a dream that night God tells Abimelech that he is in deep shit because Sarah is actually a married woman and demands he return Sarah to Abraham.

Abimelech is confused and angry. He calls Abraham and says to him, “What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you have brought such great guilt on me and my kingdom. You have done things to me that ought not to be done.”

Abraham tells Abimelech, “I did it because I thought, There is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife. Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.”

Well that’s the first we’ve heard of that. So Abraham wasn’t technically lying, but he was still being dishonest.

Abimelech pays Abraham in sheep, oxen, and slaves and tells him to settle anywhere he pleases.

Oh, and we find out at the end of the chapter that God had “closed fast all the wombs of the house of Abimelech” but Abraham prays to God and God “heals” them.

Here’s a similar situation:

You see a speed limit sign that says 65 mph, so you drive that fast, but soon a cop pulls you over. He tells you that the speed limit is actually 30 mph, and revokes your license. It turns out that it was the cop who put the 65 mph speed limit sign up. You tell the judge about the misleading sign, but the judge already knows about it, and he demands you pay a hefty fine to have your license reinstated.

Bullshit.

LOST / 24

2010-05-25T06:00:00.001-04:00

(beware: spoilers ahead)

Sunday and Monday night saw the series finale of two shows that I've been following for a long time - LOST and 24. These are two television programs that really changed the way we perceive the medium.

I think LOST should have ended a couple years ago. That being said, I was satisfied with the finale and the last few episodes. All of our questions weren't answered, but I didn't expect that and I wouldn't want that anyway. If all the questions were answered we would close the book on LOST and move on, never to think too much about the show again. Now, even after the show is ended, we can speculate and theorize about the unknown. LOST was about mystery and now it will be forever.

For me, the finale of 24 didn't seem like a series finale, it seemed more like a season finale. With plans to make a 24 movie (or movies, more likely) the writers didn't have the freedom to provide the audience with a sense of closure. If you followed this season, especially the last 4 hours or so, you have to agree that Jack should have assassinated the Russian president and been taken out afterward by CTU. If the writers and producers of 24 wanted to make an even more lasting mark on television history, the final minutes of the series would have been Jack being taken out by CTU in a crazy firefight with Chloe crying on the sidelines, followed by a silent clock.

Kung Fu Bear

2010-05-24T06:00:00.002-04:00

Most bears will kill you with teeth and claws. Some will kill you with kindness (see: Pooh, Winnie the). This bear will kill you with mad kung fu skills.

Maine After Nan Died

2010-05-21T06:00:00.000-04:00

My grandma died on July 10, 2008. It was a Thursday and I was planning on spending a long weekend in Maine with some friends from college. My dad told me I should still take my trip because it would take a few days to make the arrangements and for his brothers to fly in from Arizona anyway.

--------------

We weren’t surprised that she died. I had resigned myself to that fact months earlier. I was heading home from an exam and saw an ambulance in front of me heading in the same direction. Somehow I just knew it was going to my house.

My grandma was a stubborn old lady. Even at 81 she didn’t ask for help putting something on the top shelf in her closet, but instead decided to stand on a chair and do it herself. She fell off the chair onto the hardwood floor and broke her hip.

I entered the house to her screaming in agony. I tried to see if there was anything I could do to help, but I just couldn’t listen to her cries. I went downstairs to my room and started throwing shit around, which is what I am prone to do when I’m upset. My grandma had survived multiple open-heart surgeries, but I knew she wouldn’t make it through this.

When I was just a baby, my parents were having a house built and decided that my dad’s parents would move in with us, I think for financial reasons. My grandpa died when I was seven and my parents were divorced when I was eleven, and after that it was just myself, my sister, my dad, and my grandma in the house. My dad always worked two or three jobs so we spent a lot of time in my grandma’s care. She was one of my greatest influences in life.

------------

I met Dan at the Ronkonkoma train station. He lives in the city and doesn’t have a car there so I end up driving when we travel. I didn’t know how to tell him about my grandma. It didn’t affect our trip, so I didn’t say anything at first.

We missed the first ferry out of Orient Point so we killed the time at a restaurant next door. While we were there I stepped outside to call my sister, who was closer to my grandma than I was, to see how she was taking it. I used this as an opening to tell Dan the news.

“Everything okay,” he asks.

“Yeah. I was just calling my sister. My grandma died this morning and I wanted to see how she was taking it.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

Awkwardness ensues.

We met Mark, Oliver, Emily, and Nikki in Massachusetts. Dan and I went to college with Mark and Oliver, Emily was Oliver’s girlfriend (now fiancée), and Nikki is Emily’s friend. We made it up to Maine in a few hours and were having a great time.

On Saturday we bought some steaks and lobsters. We were planning a feast. Dan and I were manning the grill, drinks in hand. We had been drinking for a couple hours. At some point Mark came out with fresh drinks for us, and I asked them if they’d mind a toast to my grandma. This is how Mark found out she had died.

After this my recollection of the evening gets unreliable. I have memories like snapshots. My friends have filled in the blank spots for me.

We were eating dinner on the screened in porch. I had not stopped drinking and it was getting difficult to stem my emotions. I remember stuffing my face with food and I think I started crying. This is how Oliver, Emily, and Nikki found out my grandma had died.

I excused myself from the table and ran out the front door, disappearing into the night. Oliver and Dan found a couple flashlights and came after me. Dan was quite drunk at this point as well. They were worried about me, I think, because they thought I had gone down to the rocks.

The rocks is where we would hang out around sunset, or sunrise if you were up that early. They could be dangerous, especially at night, and especially if you were drunk. But I didn’t go to the rocks. I ran up the dirt road toward the main road and at some point decided I should lay down in the road.

Oliver and Dan worked their way from the rocks toward me when Dan had to vomit. He got down on hands and knees and puked in the neighbor’s yard. Oliver had both flashlights at this point, using one to keep an eye on Dan and the other to find me.

Find me they did, and they led me back to the cottage, but I started running and escaped their view. When they got back to the cottage Mark, Emily, and Nikki said they saw me run past the house and into the back yard.

They shined their flashlights into the woods, hoping I wasn’t being mauled by a bear. They thought they saw me but weren’t sure, so they gave up. I had gone in the back door and up to my bed. I was already sleeping.

I woke up around 5:00 AM confused and thirsty. I went downstairs as quietly as I could. To get to the kitchen I had to walk right past Nikki, who was sleeping on the couch. As I passed she woke up, and I gave her a kind of half smile as if to say, “Sorry to wake you, and sorry for the incredible awkwardness I created last night. Now go back to sleep.”

After some water I sat in the recliner and stared at the ceiling for a while. My pounding headache prevented me from falling back asleep. Eventually Dan came downstairs and I followed him down to the rocks for the sunrise.

I wasn’t done mourning for my grandma, but this weekend in Maine with my friends eased the pain. I will be eternally grateful to them for putting up with my shenanigans, though they don’t mind, I think, because they enjoy retelling the story.

Bad Religion Song of the Week: Atheist Peace

2010-05-20T06:00:00.000-04:00

Atheist Peace
Bad Religion
The Empire Strikes First

Maybe it's too late for intellectual debate
But a residue of confusion remains
Changing with the times and amphetamine tortured minds
Are the average citizen's sources of pain

Tell me what we're fighting for
I don't remember anymore, only temporary reprieve
And the world might cease if we fail to tame the beast
From the faith that you release comes an atheist peace

Political forces ran critical winds of discontent
And the modern age emerged triumphantly
But now it seems we've stalled and it's time to de-evolve
And relive the dark chapters of history

Tell me what we're fighting for
No progress ever came from war, only a false sense of increase
And the world won't wait for the truth upon a plate
But we're ready now to feast on an atheist peace

There are two levels of “atheist peace”: peace within oneself and peace in the world.

I think that atheism can be a great source of inner peace. One does not need to worry about the arbitrary rules of religions. Although trivial, perhaps, the various food laws of many religions are an extra thing to worry about.

An atheist also does not need to deal with the guilt associated with many religions. There is no “original sin” for atheists. We are responsible for our wrongdoings, but not those of our ancestors.

Also, theists have no solution to the paradox that “god is omnipotent”, “god is benevolent”, and “evil exists” are three statements that cannot all be true. Does God not care about us? Is he unable to prevent evil? Theists believe that the good things that happen to them are gifts from God, but what about the bad things? Atheists do not have these spiritual contradictions. Things happen, sometimes at the fault of no one, and we must deal with them.

In terms of world peace it is obvious, or at least it should be, that a world without religion would be a more peaceful place. Think of all the things that have been, are being, and will be done in the name of religion or because of peoples’ religious beliefs: crusades, witch hunts, fighting in Northern Ireland, wars between Israelis and Palestinians, destruction of the Twin Towers. The list goes on.

Religion is a label that divides people, just like race. We don’t need it.

Atheism Replacing Religion?

2010-05-19T09:00:00.000-04:00

I wasn't sure what to blog about today, so I spent 45 minutes trolling Reddit last night. Glad I did, because I found this:

Why Atheism Will Replace Religion, on the blog The Human Beast by Nigel Barber, Ph.D.

It's a short article if you want to read the whole thing, but he is basically saying that in developed social democracies, such as Sweden and Denmark, people do not rely on religion very much (Sweden is 64% nonbelievers!), while in developing places like sub-Saharan Africa nonbelief accounts for less than 1% of the population.

It seems that people turn to religion as a salve for the difficulties and uncertainties of their lives. In social democracies, there is less fear and uncertainty about the future because social welfare programs provide a safety net and better health care means that fewer people can expect to die young. People who are less vulnerable to the hostile forces of nature feel more in control of their lives and less in need of religion.

Extrapolate these findings, and one can see how religion might eventually be marginalized as more countries are developed.

The United States would fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. Obviously religion is much more prevalent here than in Western Europe, but we also do not have the level of social programs they do.

Perhaps increased atheism will be a pleasant side effect of healthcare reform. No? A guy can dream, can't he?

People Who Have Read the Entire Bible

2010-05-18T09:00:00.000-04:00

I can't disagree with this chart. I mean, it's completely unscientific, but that's beside the point. If you read the whole Bible, and I mean really read it, I don't see how you could believe everything some people believe. There are plenty of contradictions in there and lots of stories that have pretty ambiguous moral conclusions.

At the very least, any reasonable person would have to admit that the book was definitely the product of man, and not some divine word of god. That alone would prevent you from fully participating in many Christian sects.

I guess this infographic might also be a commentary on the mentalities of believers and non-believers. Many atheists I know (I hesitate to say most atheists) also have an insatiable thirst for knowledge, which leads them to learn about other people's beliefs, especially of the dominant religion in their country.

Religious people might be content to have the bible interpreted for them, and to be told what to believe and how to worship. In fact, for many years the Bible was only available in Latin, preventing all but the priestly class and other well educated people from reading it and developing their own interpretation.

tl;dr - Read the bible.

Eyjafjallajökull

2010-05-17T09:00:00.001-04:00

I found this video of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull on Reddit the other day. I shared it on Google Reader, but it is so cool I figured I'd post it here too.

Oh, and if anyone wants to buy me a Canon 5D MarkII, please send me an email.

Bible for Atheists: Sodom and Gomorrah Edition

2010-05-14T08:19:00.001-04:00

Disclaimer: This is a long-ish post, but these chapters are among the mostly cited, especially here in America by the anti-gay movement. I encourage everyone to read the actual text and to draw conclusions for themselves. I hope that the following summary and commentary will help some people make sense of this particular passage.

Chapter 18

God and a couple angels appear before Abraham one day. God tells Abraham that his wife Sarah, who is very old (“it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women”), that she would bear Abraham a son. Sarah laughs at this.

God hears her laughter and asks Abraham why she would laugh, and if she did not believe that God could do as He says. Sarah says, “I did not laugh.” God replies, “Oh yes, you did laugh.”

That short conversation seems juvenile to me (Did not! Did so!) but besides that, I think this might be an illustration of the righteousness of men as opposed to women. Men are the truly pious and are therefore superior to women, at least in the eyes of God.

I look at this a completely different way. Abraham takes what God says as true, without question, but Sarah uses her logic and reason to evaluate the situation for herself. Of course this doesn’t work out for her, since God is actually there and his existence and power cannot really be questioned, but I admire her spirit.

Here is the really interesting part of the chapter. God has an internal debate about whether or not he should tell Abraham his plans regarding Sodom and Gomorrah. God decides not to keep this secret from Abraham, as he is to be the father of God’s chosen people. The angels will be sent to the cities to see if the rumors about their wickedness are true (I guess God is not truly omniscient after all) and if they are He will destroy them.

Abraham is appalled, and he dares question God’s decision. “Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you!”

Abraham actually used exclamation points against God! But God has been convinced: “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.” That seems reasonable, but Abraham is not satisfied. What if there are only forty-five righteous? Or forty righteous? Abraham eventually negotiates with God down to ten righteous. (And you wonder where the Jewish stereotypes come from, huh?)

This is amazing! A mere mortal “who [is] but dust and ashes” argues with God and changes his mind. Perhaps God needs Abraham more than he lets on. Or maybe this is precisely the type of man God needs to be the father of His people.

Chapter 19

The angels arrive in Sodom and Abraham’s nephew, Lot, meets them at the gateway and, like Abraham, gives them the royal treatment, and insists they stay the night at his house.

“But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house; and they called to Lot, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we might know them.’”

These guys didn’t want to get to know the angels over a few beers, they wanted to know them in the Biblical sense. All of them. They all wanted to have sex with these guys.

Lot will have nothing of it. He talks to these men and tells asks them to do nothing to his guests, but that he has two virgin daughters he can send out to them, to whom they can do whatever they please. Boy, Lot is a righteous man. “Please don’t gang rape these guests who I’ve just met. Gang rape my daughters instead!”

The angels prevent the men from raping them, obviously, and tell Lot to get his people out of the city before it is destroyed. Lot cannot convince the men who would become his sons-in-law to join his, so he sets out with his wife and daughters. They are told to flee and not to look back, lest they be consumed with the city. Lot’s [unnamed] wife looks back anyway, and is turned into a pillar of salt. (Men are righteous, women are not.)

Lot and his daughters take up residence in a cave, and the girls decide that they must have children. Since no men will come to them, they get their father drunk and “lay” with him. They bear sons name Moab, ancestor of the Moabites, and Ben-ammi, ancestor of the Ammonites.

The unsavory origins of these people will be used as justification of the Jews’ war against them. This is yet another evil that can be blamed on women.

This story is often used as confirmation of God’s dislike of homosexuals. The way that a man might “know” another man is even named after this Biblical city. While I cannot deny that the Old Testament is pretty clear that homosexuality is not acceptable, I do not think this particular story is a condemnation of homosexuals.

Were the men of Sodom evil for wanting to have sex with another man, or were they evil for wanting to gang rape someone. I guess it could be both, and it is open to interpretation, but I feel that the men’s anger and malice is more to blame than their particular brand of sexual desire.

Bad Religion Song of the Week: God's Love

2010-05-13T09:00:00.003-04:00

God's Love
Bad Religion
The Empire Strikes First

Striking at mental apparitions
Like a drunk on a vacant street
Silently beset by the hands of time
Indelicate in its fury
An aberrant crack as skeletons yield
To unrelenting gravity
While viruses prowl for helpless victims
Who succumb rapidly

(Tell me!) Tell me; where is the love?
In a careless creation
When there’s no “above”
There’s no justice
Just a cause and a cure
And a bounty of suffering
It seems we all endure
And what I’m frightened of
Is that they call it “God’s love”

Twisted torment, make-believe
There’s a truth and we all submit
“Believe my eyes,” my brain complies
To all that they interpret

[Chorus]

I know there’s no reason for alarm
But who needs perspective when it comes to pain and harm
We can change our minds; there’s a better prize

But first you’ve got to…
[Chorus]

They call it God’s love
My pain is God’s love

"It's all part of God's plan."

If you want to immediately lose my respect say that phrase to my face. Not only does it not give me any comfort at all because God doesn't exist, it doesn't encourage me at all to even want to try to believe in God.

Tell me that unfortunately there are many things in life that are beyond our control. Even tell me that things will probably work out alright and that maybe I'll be a better person for my experiences.

Is it part of God's plan that a woman was just raped? Or that five thousand people will die of AIDS today?

Graffin says they call it "God's love," but he means the same thing.

I guess this is the scary thing: If Christians call it God's love, and if they actually believe that, then what incentive do they have to try to make a difference in the world? You wouldn't want to mess with God's plan would you? Unless that, too, was part of God's plan.

On second thought, let's not go down that road, huh?

Bible for Atheists: Genesis 17

2010-05-12T12:00:00.000-04:00

Genesis 17

God makes Abram an offer he can’t refuse. Abram shall be henceforth known as Abraham, for he will become “the ancestor of a multitude of nations.” (NRSV, Genesis 17:5) Abraham’s descendants will be kings of all the land of Canaan and all Abraham has to do is cut off his foreskin, the foreskins of all the males in his house, the foreskin of every baby born in his house, and the foreskin of any slave bought with his money.

Um…what the fuck, God? What is the deal with God’s foreskin fetish? In Chapter 17 of the NRSV the words foreskin and circumcision occur eight times between verses 9 and 14.

Well, I have an idea why God had such a strange request, and I can thank Professor Heinegg of Union College’s English Department. I took his World of the Bible class junior year. It was a secular class about the Bible and its place in history and as an historical document.

The reason why the Jews have been practicing circumcision might be to distinguish themselves from neighboring tribes. This was Heinegg’s explanation of other Jewish traditions as well, such as their food laws. In order to have a distinct cultural identify they chose to do things differently than their neighbors.

Back in the day, when you saw a Jewish man’s penis you knew something about him. You might know he is one of you, or that he is an enemy, but either way it identifies him as a Jew.

From the Archives: May 6

2010-05-11T12:02:00.000-04:00

The great Neuman, the Russian psychic, who astonished
New York and other big cities last fall by his marvelous
feats of mind-reading, will come to Patchogue next week
at the auditorium.
Mr. and Mrs. John Romanski left for a trip to Germany
and expect to be gone three months.
In the line of progress, we are glad to note Ackerly’s new
24 H.P. automobile piano truck. This is the first piano house
on Long Island to have its own auto-delivery. Mr. Ackerly
says the bugbear of long drives for delivery has now been
changed into a pleasure, and he is looking forward to a radius
of business three times as great as formerly.
The 50 Tungsten lights in the Blue Point lighting district
were turned on by the Patchogue Electric Light Co. and the
illumination makes a gratifying difference to those going
through this section at night. The East Patchogue district
will be lighted by May 15, it is said. The company is pushing
work along for the Moriches district. The Bellport Village
district has not yet signed the contract.

Are You Fucking Kidding Me?

2010-05-07T08:17:00.001-04:00

Now Congressional Republicans and Democrats would like the ability to strip a US citizen of his/her citizenship in the case of a terrorist attack (or, apparently, an attempted terrorist attack). Being a citizen of the United States comes with many rights and privileges, such as your right to remain silent.

To be honest, I only heard a small segment about this on CNN this morning, so I don’t understand all the details. Here are some questions I have:

Would this only apply to naturalized citizens or to naturally born citizens as well?
Would this apply to all terrorist attacks or only terrorist attacks perpetrated in the name of religion?
a. Only Islam or any religion?
How would the government be prevented from applying this de-citizenship more liberally, in cases that aren’t clearly terrorism, or even in cases that clearly are not terrorism?

No matter the answers to the above questions, I don’t like this idea one bit. People are born Americans or they earn their American citizenship, and this is something that should not be revocable. If we need to change or create some laws in order to more effectively prosecute terrorists, then Congress should make those laws, but citizenship should be untouchable.

Times Square Car Bomb

2010-05-06T09:00:00.002-04:00

Recently naturalized American citizen Faisal Shahzad was arrested Monday night for attempting to blow up a vehicle parked in Times Square in New York City. Mr. Shahzad was born in Pakistan but was naturalized in April 2009.

With the intent of attaining information regarding imminent threats to the United States, Shahzad was interrogated by the F.B.I. without being read his Miranda rights. If the United States were in imminent danger of some other, preventable terrorist attack, Mr. Shahzad had no right to remain silent.

After providing what the F.B.I. called “valuable intelligence and evidence” Shahzad was read his Miranda rights but decided to keep talking.

This procedure was not strict enough for some Republicans.

Senator John McCain of Arizona called it a mistake to read Mr. Shahzad his Miranda rights so soon. “When we detain terrorism suspects, our top priority should be finding out what intelligence they have that could prevent future attacks and save American lives,” he said on Sean Hannity’s radio show. “Our priority should not be telling them they have a right to remain silent.”(NY Times)

This is a very different situation then we have seen before, however. Mr. Shahzad is an American citizen, arrested in the United States for crimes committed in the United States. If any of these were not true there would be precedent to interrogate him without Mirandizing him. For instance, the Supreme Court has ruled that an American citizen captured in Afghanistan could be detained as an enemy combatant.

I think it would be a pretty slippery slope to set a precedent of labeling some UNITED STATES CITIZENS as enemy combatants and withholding their rights. Of course they could say this would only be done in cases of terrorism, but I think it would still be too risky.

If this precedent had been set years ago, would Timothy McVeigh have been read his Miranda rights? Or would this treatment only be reserved for Muslim domestic terrorists?

I never thought I would say this, and I hope I never have to say this again, but I’m going to have to agree with Glenn Beck on this one…

“He’s a citizen of the United States, so I say we uphold the laws and the Constitution on citizens…He has all the rights under the Constitution. We don’t shred the Constitution when it’s popular.”

…okay, that’s all I can take right now.

US Constitution

2010-05-05T10:52:00.003-04:00

As some of you may know, I have been reading through the Bible and commenting. I haven't even finish Genesis yet, but I'm in no rush. I am also going to start reading through the US Constitution commenting on that.

Something I saw on YouTube last week got me interested in reading the Constitution again. It was a clip from MSNBC in which they compared statements from Sarah Palin regarding the United States and Christianity with quotations from the Constitution and from our Founding Fathers.

The point they were trying to make was that although Palin and others consider America a "Chistian nation" the Founding Fathers did not. In fact, they envisioned the exact opposite. They had seen the effects of religion on the nations of Europe and elsewhere, and did not want the same for their new nation.

I started to skim through the Constitution on my computer, but shortly it was bedtime. Wanting to keep reading, but not having a computer in my bed, I did the next best thing - downloaded a US Consitution app on my iPhone. I read most of it that night and finished it the next day (it really isn't that long).

The thing I found most interesting was the comment section in the app store. At least 50% of the comments went something like this: "This is a great app! Everyone should read this amazing document! If only Bush/Obama would read it."

I thought comments were a little ridiculous but I couldn't stop reading them. When I finally tore myself away from them and delved into the Constitution itself, I realized just how ridiculous those comments were.

The authors were very specific in some parts, but those passages are all about procedures (ie. how the president is elected). The majority of the document is quite vague and unspecific. That is why we have a Supreme Court, whose duty it is to interpret the Constitution and rule whether or not the acts of Congress and the President are constitutional.

Let's start with the Preamble, shall we?

"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Damn those guys were ambitious. They also had a great understanding of what aspects of society should be the domain of the national government – the big ones: Justice, Domestic Peace, Defense, Welfare, and Liberty.

I can see where Libertarians get the idea of minimal government (federal, at least) interference. But those categories are pretty vague. For instance, “promote the general welfare” could mean a lot of things. The government has fulfilled this obligation by creating agencies such as the FDA and the CDC and programs like Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid.

Is this what the founding fathers had in mind? Honestly, does it matter if this is what the founding fathers had in mind? I don’t know on either account.

We’ll find out as we examine this document that a lot of the language is vague, which leads me to believe that the founding fathers expected that the Constitution would be interpreted differently by the generations and would need to be placed in the context of the times.

(Maybe people would disagree with me, and I encourage you to do so in the comments!)

Bad Religion Song of the Week: Kyoto Now

2010-05-04T09:00:00.000-04:00

Kyoto Now
Bad Religion
The Process of Belief

It's a matter of prescience
No, not the science fiction kind
It's all about ignorance,
and greed, and miracles for the blind
the media parading, disjointed politics
founded on petrochemical plunder
and we're its hostages

If you stand to reason
you're in the game
the rules might be elusive
but our pieces are the same
and you know if one goes down we all go down as well
the balance is precarious as anyone can tell
this world's going to hell

Don't allow
this mythologic hopeful monster to exact its price
Kyoto now!
We can't do nothing and I think someone else will make it right

You might not think it matters now
But what if you are wrong
You might not think there's any wisdom in a fucked up punk rock song
But the way it is
cannot persist for long
a brutal sun is rising on a sick horizon

It's in the way
we live our lives
exactly like the double-edge of a cold familiar knife
and supremacy weighs heavy on the day
it's never really what you own but what you threw away
and how much did you pay?

In your dreams
You saw a steady state a bounty for eternity
Silent screams
but now the wisdom that sustains us is in full retreat
Don't allow
this mythologic hopeful monster isn't worth the risk
Kyoto now!
We can't have vision for the future if it can't be fixed
Alien
We need a fresh and new religion to run our lives
Hand in hand
the arid torpor of inaction will be our demise

Oh, Kyoto now

People don't understand, or don't want to understand, or don't want you to understand humans' effects on the environment. The oil industry has our elected officials in their pockets, and there's nothing we can do about it.

"We can't do nothing and think someone else will make it right." This is true in so many contexts. In terms of the environment it is even more important because the "we" is all human beings. If we won't change ourselves who will change us?

People don't understand that the problems we face with the environment are not immediate. It is not like a volcanic eruption or coal mine collapse. We need to look look at trends in the environment over periods of decades, or centuries, or millenia in order to understand it and our impact on it. Most people don't understand such abstract ideas, and they don't care either.

In the past we thought nothing of exploiting the environment. Few would have used the word "exploit." Now we are learning about our misdeeds, and hopefully we will look into the future and decide that we cannot go on in our current relationship with the environment. If we don't then "hand in hand the arid torpor of inaction will be our demise."

Biggest Loser

2010-05-03T09:00:00.001-04:00

Biggest Loser started last month at my school, and I decided that I should join this time. Bri and I have our own place now so we have the ability to keep healthier food around and access to the kitchen whenever we need it. I had no excuse to not join.

I don't expect to win this year. Don't get me wrong, if I wanted to win I would win, but I would be miserable the whole time and I would put the weight right back on. Biggest Loser would be some motivation for me, but it would not be the goal itself.

It is unhealthy to lose weight too quickly, for whatever reason. A pound a week seems to be the standard, healthy amount. A pound a week isn't going to do too much for me in the Biggest Loser contest, which is only 3 months (12 pounds) long. If I can change my lifestyle, though, and keep up the dieting for a longer time, I could lose as much weight as I want.

So here's my new goal: A pound a week for a year. That will amount to a net loss of, you guessed it, 52 pounds, which will leave me at a healthy 180 pounds. For a man of 5 feet 8 inches 180 pounds is still considered overweight according to most height/weight charts (I am currently obese, apparently) but I don't think the "healthy" range of 130-170 pounds would actually be healthy for me.

Progress so far? Well, so far so good. I've been up to this for a month and I have gone from 229.2 pounds to 222.2 pounds (a 7 pound loss) so I am actually ahead of the game.

I am not going to be strict about only losing 1 pound a week for now, and later on when I only lose 1/2 pound a week that will be okay too, as long as I am on track to have lost the 52nd pound by next April.

Kill-a-Watt

2010-04-30T09:00:00.001-04:00

My wife and I recently bought a Co-op, and we were astounded by our first electric bill. We have a lot of tech, so I figured that would make it more than our neighbors, but this was just way to much. I decided to invest in a Kill-a-Watt to find out just how much power our stuff uses, both "on" and "off".

I checked all the components hooked up in the entertainment center, at my desk in the office, and the few gadgets in the kitchen. I currently have the Kill-a-Watt hooked up to the refrigerator, and in a couple days I'll check it to find out the average power (it varies a lot depending on whether or not the compressor is running).

I've posted the power of each item (the number in parentheses is when the item is "off") and the total cost to me each month, based on my estimated hours of usage. Check here for a complete rundown.

Oh, we live on Long Island, and we have decided :cough:were forced:cough: to get our electricity from the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) which charges 18¢ per kWh.

The only thing I really discovered is that I should make sure I put my computer in sleep mode or turn it off when I am not using it. I spend about $20 per month to run my computer, but I am only using it a few hours a day.

The question still remains: what are we spending all this money on every month?!?!? There are things that I can't/won't test with the Kill-a-Watt (washer/dryer, dishwasher, water heater, etc), but I don't know if they could make up the difference. Any suggestions in the comments would be appreciated.

Item	Power	Cost Per Month

Living Room

Floor Lamp	7.5 (0)	0.162
NES	10 (4.5)	0.5832
MacMini	20 (0)	0
LaserDisc (Pioneer)	22.5 (8)	1.0368
N64	8.5 (0)	0
Cable Modem	8 (N/A)	1.0368
Plasma TV (Samsung)	250 (0)	6.75
Phone	1.5 (N/A)	0.1944
Wireless Router	2.5 (N/A)	0.324
Wii	16 (1)	0.1296
Xbox 360	100 (0)	1.08
Cable Box	22 (22)	2.8512

Office

Computer	150 (2)	19.44
Monitor	25 (0)	3.24
Computer (w/sleep)	150 (2)	3.456
Monitor (w/sleep)	25 (0)	0.54
Printer	7 (0)	0.9072
External DVD-R	6 (9)	0.7776
Speakers	11 (6.2)	1.4256

Kitchen

Keurig	5.4 (3.8)	0.69984
Toaster	950 (1.7)	0.647055
Kitchenaid Stand Mixer	90 (0)	0.0324

Total Cost (w/o sleep)		41.317695
Total Cost (w/ sleep)		22.633695

Separation of Church & State?

2010-04-29T15:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday the Supreme Court ruled on a case regarding the separation of church and state. Here’s a summary of the case straight from the Court’s ruling:

“In 1934, members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) placed a Latin cross on federal land in the Mojave National Preserve (Preserve) to honor American soldiers who died in World War I. Claiming to be offended by a religious symbol’s presence on federal land, respondent Buono, a regular visitor to the Preserve, filed this suit alleging a violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause and seeking an injunction requiring the Government to remove the cross.”

At some point in the 90’s a Buddhist requested permission to use public land nearby but was denied.

A District Court decided that having the cross up violated the Establishment Clause. While the government’s appeal was pending, the Congress passed “the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2004, §8121(a) of which directed the Secretary of the Interior to transfer the cross and the land on which it stands to the VFW in exchange for privately owned land elsewhere in the Preserve (land transfer statute).”

The District Court ruled that this was disingenuous; that Congress was just circumventing the court’s ruling. The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the District Court was wrong, and that such a land transfer would be an appropriate action.

From the majority opinion of Justice Kennedy:

“…the District Court concentrated solely on the religious aspects of the cross, divorced from its background and context. But a Latin cross is not merely a reaffirmation of Christian beliefs. It is a symbol often used to honor and respect those whose heroic acts, noble contributions, and patient striving help secure an honored place in history for this Nation and its people. Here, one Latin cross in the desert evokes far more than religion. It evokes thousands of small crosses in foreign fields marking the graves of Americans who fell in battles, battles whose tragedies are compounded if the fallen are forgotten.”

I understand the sentiment here, and by no means would I disrespect the men who have fought and died for this country, but he main idea that an eight foot tall Latin cross evokes is religion. There are plenty of beautiful, respectful monuments in honor of our troops all over this country that do not display such blatantly religious objects. I pass a very nice, patriotic monument honoring those lost in Vietnam every morning on my way to work. I think it’s great. If I had to drive past a large cross on public property every day I would not be so happy.

From the dissenting opinion of Justice Stevens:

“The Establishment Clause, if nothing else, prohibits government from ‘specifying details upon which men and women who believe in a benevolent, omnipotent Creator and Ruler of the world are known to differ.’ A Latin cross necessarily symbolizes one of the most important tenets upon which believers in a benevolent Creator, as well as nonbelievers, are known to differ.

I certainly agree that the Nation should memorialize the service of those who fought and died in World War I, but it cannot lawfully do so by continued endorsement of a starkly sectarian message.”

I couldn’t say it better myself. I guess that’s why these people get appointed to the highest court in the land.

By the way, the Court’s rulings were very easy to find and, believe it or not, they are moderately comprehensible for the lay person. Find more here: SupremeCourt.gov.

Bad Religion Song of the Week: Punk Rock Song

2010-04-28T15:00:00.000-04:00

Punk Rock Song
Bad Religion
The Gray Race

Have you been to the desert?
Have you walked with the dead?
There's a hundred thousand children being killed for their bread

And the figures don't lie, they speak of human disease
But we do what we want and we think what we please

Have you lived the experience?
Have you witnessed the plague?
People making babies sometimes just to escape
In this land of competition the compassion is gone
Yet we ignore the needy and we keep pushing on
We keep pushing on

This is just a punk rock song
Written for the people who can see something's wrong
Like ants in a colony we do our share
But there's so many other fuckin' insects out there
And this is just a punk, rock, song!

Have you visited the graveyard?
Have you swam in the shit?
The party conventions and the real politic
The faces always different, the rhetoric the same
But we swallow it all, and we see nothing change
Nothing has changed...

This is just a punk rock song
Written for the people who can see something's wrong
Like workers in a factory we do our share
But there's so many other fuckin' robots out there
And this is just a punk, rock, song!

10 million dollars on a losing campaign
20 million starving and writhing in pain
Big strong people unwilling to give
Small in vision and perspective
One in five kids below the poverty line
One population runnin' out of time, running out of time!

This is just a punk rock song
Written for the people who can see something's wrong
Like ants in a colony we do our share
But there's so many other fuckin' insects out there
And this is just a punk, rock, song!

This is a great song about people's apathy and disregard for the suffering of other humans beings. I'll be honest, the song kinda makes me feel guilty, because I haven't done a whole lot to change the world myself.

From the Archives: April 15

2010-04-27T15:00:00.001-04:00

Miss Mae Andrus entertained a dozen of her school girl
friends with music and games, it being her 12th birthday
A curiosity in the shape of a pretty white rat with pink
eyes was caught in the barn of C.M. Hedges in East Patchogue.
Local firemen are discussing the possibilities of securing
a siren whistle as a fire alarm.

From 50 years ago:

The three pupils of the Brookhaven School who took the
Regents examinations had the following marks: Ruth Ballard,
arithmetic 100, spelling 88; Elsa Kip, arithmetic 96,
spelling 88; Elizabeth Kuzmech, arithmetic 93, spelling 88.
Miss Marion Byers of Bellport is attending the ice carnival
at Williams College in Massachusetts.

Top 5 Concerts - Metallica @ Nassau Coliseum

2010-04-26T15:00:00.000-04:00

It had been quiet a while since I was excited about a new Metallica album. Actually I had never been excited for one before, since I only started listening to them around the time Reload came out, and I only heard negative things about St. Anger (feel free to disagree in comments). The best thing about a band releasing a new album is that it is almost always followed by a tour.

Sure enough, Metallica was scheduled to play at Nassau Coliseum at the end of January 2009. A friend of mine knew someone who worked at the Coliseum, who thought they could get him in for free, and I was really jealous. I wasn’t sure if anyone else was going, so I didn’t buy a ticket. The day before the concert, my friend finds out he is going for free, and I scrambled to find a ticket. I figured that I could, at least, drive there and back with him. My father-in-law sells merch at the Coliseum, and he offered to buy a ticket for me from the box office since he would be there a few hours early. I’m in.

We get to the show, and I hang out with my friend, hoping I could tag along with them to their seats. But they don’t have regular seats, they will be enjoying the show from an unoccupied luxury box, and they can get me in too. Sweet!

We get up there and they have hot food out (pretzels, hot dogs, burgers) and cold beer in the fridge, all on the house. They even brought more beer later on. The box is like a hotel room, with a bathroom, a kitchen area, and a couch and a couple chairs. This is where the food was and where we hung out during the opening bands.

When Metallica came on we moved down to the seats of the box, and the show was great. Although no one was blocking us, the view wasn’t that great because we were up really high, but it’s about the music, right?

Getting to see one of my favorite bands + free food and beer + not dealing with a crowd + private bathroom = Top 5 Concert.

Religious Respect

2010-04-23T15:00:00.000-04:00

Dredged from the depths of Reddit:

(Actually it was on the front page. I usually don't get more than 3-4 pages deep.)

I don't really have much to add to this, but I'll muster something up.

I, personally, haven't been harassed about my atheism (not seriously, anyway) and I know that among my brothers and sisters in less tolerant places in the country/world I am counted lucky. Humor me one example:

As you may have guessed from that title up on the top of the page, I am a teacher. Working in a school means I am often expected to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance. Besides the fact that our school children recite this short verse so frequently that it has grown almost completely meaningless, I don't really have too much of a problem with it. I just refuse to say the "under god" part. That's reasonable anyway, since "under god" was not added until 62 years after the pledge was penned. (The original pledge is quoted below)

Whenever I mention my distaste for those eight letters people usually respond in some way that amounts to, at least to me, "Your opinion and feelings don't matter to us because the vast majority of Americans believe in some god so don't make a big deal about it crybaby." Maybe that is just my irrational emotions, but they are backed up by the 1st Amendment of the mother fucking Constitution of the United States.

I have experienced disrespect from Christians, for simply sharing my feelings about something that is important to me, but god forbid anybody criticize their beliefs or religious institutions.

Even when the pope helps pedophiles get away with molesting children.

"I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all."

-Francis Bellamy, 1892

Monkey Prostitution

2010-04-22T15:00:00.000-04:00

I just finished listening to Superfreakonomics. It was really good, and I especially liked the epilogue, which was about monkey prostitution. Read that again. Monkey prostitution, that’s right.

This whole thing began as a study to find out if monkeys could adopt an economy. The researchers used something like washers as money, and the first thing they had to do was teach the monkey’s their value. A researcher would hand a monkey a coin and if/when the monkey gave it back the researcher would give the monkey a piece of fruit. Eventually the monkeys learned the value of money, and even learned to handle a fluctuating economy.

One day a male stole the coins from the research room and brought them back to the cage where all the monkeys lived. Sure enough, the male with all the coins gave one to a female and within minutes they were boning down.

Talk about the world’s oldest profession.

Genesis 15-16

2010-04-21T15:00:00.001-04:00

Genesis 15

Abram complains to God that he doesn’t have any children, but God reassures him that Abram’s descendents will be “as numerous as the stars.” (Genesis 15:5, NRSV) Abram makes the required sacrifice, and falls into a deep sleep, in which God tells him, “Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred year; but I will being judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.” (15:13-15, NRSV)

Obviously this is a foreshadowing, a pretty blatant one, of the Jew’s time in Egypt. Reading this passage raises many questions in my mind about this god. Is he just foretelling the future like a psychic, or will he be the cause of the oppression? If the former, couldn’t he do anything to prevent centuries of oppression of his chosen people? If God can bring judgment on “the nation that they serve” couldn’t he just prevent the whole ordeal? If the latter, why? To prove the Jews are worth being the chosen people?

Genesis 16

Sarai tells Abram that since she could not bear him a child, he should take her handmaiden Hagar as a wife. The son Hagar bears for him would, apparently, be considered the child of Sarai and Abram. Abram agrees to this, either in spite of what God had just told him or because he felt this would fulfill God’s promise. Hagar conceives a child and proceeds to “look with contempt on her mistress.” (Genesis 16:4, NRSV)

I can understand the response, I guess, since I have known some bitchy people. Hagar accomplishes something Sarai could not and looks down on her because of this (even though Sarai is wicked old and her lady parts don’t really work anymore).

Sarai doesn’t take this attitude too kindly. “May the wrong done to me be on you!” she yells at Abram. What the fuck!?!? How is Hagar’s attitude his fault? Women…psh. Abram, the ever patient husband tells her that since Hagar is her slave-girl, Sarai should “do with her as you please.” (16:6, NRSV) Sarai gives her what-for and she runs off.

Hagar is out in the wilderness and an angel appears and tells her to go back to Sarai and to submit to her. The angel tells Hagar that he will greatly multiply her offspring, and that she should name her son Ishmael, who will be “a wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him.” (16:12, NRSV) What is that all about? This is the Ishmael, mind you, that is considered the ancestor of the Arab people and a prophet of Islam. I don’t get it.

"The Universe"

2010-04-20T15:00:00.000-04:00

I recently entered the Reddit WritersGroup Prompt Contest IV. The prompt:

Write a story about a character witnessing some sudden, catastrophic event. It could be a bombing, an auto accident, a random murder, a very public breakup, or something less lame. The event should be sudden and out-of-flow with the character's life, and you should depict an aftermath.

I focused on the "something less lame" part, and I went with the other extreme, the most awesome event - the big bang. I figured I'd try to write something from the perspective of the universe itself, and it ended up being a poem.

Please leave criticism if you like!

"The Universe"

An explosion of
immense proportions.
I am energized. Unlimited
potential. The searing heat fires
my soul. The blinding light stimulates
my mind. The force swells within me. The
force is me. Many forces, but one only. There
is a soup – a boiling, bubbling, delicious soup. I drink
it in. It fills me up, but my capacity is unlimited. I
am growing, growing, growing, More quickly
than you can comprehend. I am Behemoth,
Ziz, Leviathan. Cooling off now, things
start to make sense. Colder still,
and I can see everything.
Can this last forever?
Can I last forever?
I am alone.

Bad Religion Song of the Week: Don't Pray On Me

2010-04-19T20:24:00.000-04:00

Don't Pray On Me
Bad Religion
Recipe for Hate

A grizzly scene on my electron beam
Told a story about human rights
So all of king's horses and all of king's men
Had a riot for two days and nights
Well, the city exploded but the gates wouldn't open
So the company asked him to quit
Now everybody's equal
Just don't measure it

Well, Hanson did it to Hester
And Mark David did it to John
And maybe Jack did it to Marilyn
But he did it to South Vietnam
For beauty and glory
For money, love, and country
Now everybody's doing it
Don't do that to me

A bitter debate and a feminine fate
Lie in tandem like two precious babes
While the former gets warmer, it's the latter that matters
Except on the nation's airwaves
And custodians of public opinion state facts
After vainly discussing her rights
Lay hands off her body
It's not your fucking life

Now I don't know what stopped Jesus Christ
From turning every hungry stone into bread
And I don't remember hearing how Moses reacted
When the innocent first born sons lay dead
Well, I guess God was a lot more demonstrative
Back when he flamboyantly parted the sea
Now everybody's praying
Don't pray on me

The first verse references the LA Riots. The King is, of course, Rodney King, whose beating sparked the unrest. “Now everybody’s equal, just don’t measure it.” This line represents the history of the civil rights movement in this country. Technically, legally all citizens are equal under the law. Practically, equal couldn’t be farther from the truth. Minorities suffer the worst schools, lowest paying jobs, and highest incarceration rates, to name a few.

Second verse: Everyone is fucking each other, figuratively or literally. I read that Hanson/Hester is an incorrect allusion to the Scarlett Letter, Mark David Chapman killed John Lennon, JFK boned Marilyn Monroe and fucked up Vietnam. Moral: don’t fuck people over.

Third verse: Blatant protest against pro-lifers.

Fourth verse: Moral inconsistencies in the Bible - examples abound. How could the same god that preaches peace and loving thy enemy allow people to go hungry or cause the death of innocent children?

Hiatus

2009-08-20T12:59:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I know, I haven't been posting lately. I apologize. Bri and I went away for a long weekend, and since we've be back I have been working on getting ready for the new school year.

Until then, expect that there won't be too many posts. Once the school year starts, I will set aside some time a few days a week to keep posting.

Stay tuned for more Bad Religion Songs of the Week, Bible for Atheist chapters, and more. For now, keep yourself entertained by this webpage: Can Atheists Be Ethical. Also browse the rest of the site if you have the time and the inclination.

I'll comment on that page later. First I want to hear (read?) your opinions.

Genesis 13 & 14

2009-08-04T12:00:00.000-04:00

In Chapter 13 Abram and Sarai and Lot leave Egypt, and Abram realizes that the flocks of Lot and himself are too large to be grazing on the same lands, so Abram tells Lot that they should separate. Abram gives Lot the choice of where he will live, and Abram takes up some other land. When Abram gets there God tells Abram “all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.” (Genesis 13:15-16, NRSV)

In Chapter 14 there is a big battle between a lot of the kings in the region that Abram and Lot are living. Lot ends up being captured and Abram takes his men (318 of them) to retrieve Lot.

When Abram returns he is met by King Melchizedek and Abram gives him one tenth of everything he had plundered. The King tells him to give him the persons, but to keep the goods for himself. Abram replies, “I have sworn to the Lord, God Most High, maker of heaven and earth, that I would not take a thread or a sandal-thong or anything that is yours, so that you might not say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me.”

This is a good lesson for anybody, religious or not. Abram knows that the King might later ask favors of him in return for his generosity. Abram takes nothing that is not due to him, and will therefore be left alone in the future.

Bad Religion Song of the Week: Skyscraper

2009-08-03T12:00:00.000-04:00

Skyscraper
Bad Religion
Recipe for Hate

Come let us make bricks and burn them hard,
We'll build a city with a tower for the world
And climb so we can reach anything we may propose,
Anything at all

Build me up, tear me down
Like a skyscraper
Build me up, then tear down
These joining walls
So they can't climb at all

I know why you tore it down that day
You thought, that if you got caught we'd all go away,
Like a spoiled little baby who can't come out to play,
You had your revenge

Build me up, tear me down
Like a skyscraper
Build me up, then tear down
These joining walls
So they can't climb at all

Well madness reigned and paradise drowned
When Babel's walls came crashing down
Now the echoes roar for a story writ
That was hardly understood
And never any good

Build me up, tear me down
Like a skyscraper
Build me up, then tear down
These joining walls
So they can't climb at all

This song goes along with last week's Bible for Atheists post. It would seem that I am not the only confused and disturbed by the story of the Tower of Babel. The second verse of this song makes the same argument as me, that God is immature and weak and scared that humans will get too powerful, so he "tears them down".

I really need someone to let me know how Christians explain God's actions in this story. What do they teach you in Sunday school?

Top 5 Concerts - The Good Rats @ B.B. King's Blues Club

2009-08-01T12:00:00.000-04:00

If I was forced to make a list of hobbies, interests, or activities I would have to include going to concerts. I am sure there are people that go to more than I do, but come on, concerts are expensive.

I have been meaning to make a list, for myself, of all the concerts I've attended, so that I don't forget them. I figure this would be a good forum to share my favorite concerts. Right now I'm planning on recounting my 5 favorites (in reverse chronological order), and maybe more when I'm done.

While I certainly enjoy the music of all the bands I've seen, my Top 5 concerts are not of my Top 5 bands. The criteria for best concerts have a more to do with circumstances and environment than the music alone.

The most recent concert I've been to that I include in my Top 5 is the Good Rats reunion show at B.B. King's Blues Club in NYC. I was chilling at my computer around 10am one Saturday, and my dad came downstairs.

"What are you doing today," he asked.
"Nothing," I replied.
"Want to go to a concert?"
"Yes! What concert?"

As long as the price is reasonable, I will go to basically any concert that someone I know is going to. That's how I discovered Guster sophomore year.

My dad told me it was The Good Rats, who I had heard of, and that the ticket was free. He even offered to pay for my food and drinks as long as I paid for the train. I'm in!

My dad's friend Jeff picked us up and we shared a few beers and some stories from back in their day on the way into the city. B.B. King's Blues Club is a pretty cool place. It's not a theater, but it's not a club either. I've been calling it a supper club, like where Ricky played on I Love Lucy. It basically looked like a restaurant with a stage, and our table was right up front.

No opening band to put up with, I love it. During the show waiters come around to replenish beers, so you only have to get up to pee. The show was great. I didn't really know any Good Rats music, but I ended up buying a couple CDs because they are so good.

This one makes my Top 5 list for the following reasons: no opening band, uniqueness of the venue, quality/quantity of food & drink, discovery of a new favorite band.

From the Archives: July 23

2009-07-31T12:00:00.000-04:00

I used to think that a blog had to be specialized; that I needed different blogs to present different ideas. Hogwash!

In my local paper, The Long Island Advance, there is a weekly (as is the paper) segments titled From the Archives of the Long Island Advance, in which they present some news clips from 100, 75, and 50 years ago. A lot of the news is so mundane that I find it to be very funny. I hope that you do too.

From 100 Years Ago:

Charles F. McNeil fell from a motorcycle in the rear of Roe's Hotel and was bruised up a bit.
Blanch, the 6-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Woodruff, was bitten by a dog, The wounds were cauterized and the dog was shot. The child is said to be out of danger
Bonaparte Overton was thrown from his carriage on West Main Street, corner of West Avenue, and received a number of scalp wounds. He is now out again.
John McVoy was arrested by Officer Smith and fined $5 by Justice Losee, the fellow being drunk and disorderly. McVoy was lying across the sidewalk on West Avenue, near Amity Street, partly dressed.

Bible Genealogy, v 4.0

2009-07-30T12:00:00.000-04:00

This just keeps getting bigger and bigger. This version extends to Lot, nephew of Abram. Also, I've added asterisks next to the names of people in the direct line from Adam to David.

Click the image below to view the full genealogy.

Genesis 11 & 12

2009-07-29T12:00:00.000-04:00

Half of Chapter 11 is very interesting, and half is a continuation of the genealogy. The first half, the interesting half, is the story of the Tower of Babel. I can only understand this story if God is weak, nervous, and jealous.

Here’s the story if you don’t know it. Everyone speaks the same language. They are all direct descendents of Noah so this makes sense. Humans decide to build a big tower “with its top in the heavens.” It seems that this tower is intended to be a symbol of their unity so that humans will not be “scattered abroad upon the face of the earth” (Genesis 11:4, NRSV).

This scares God. He is afraid that now “nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them” (11:5, NRSV) so God confuses the humans’ language and scatters them around the earth.

What the fuck?

Humans peacefully work together in the name of unity and they get punished for it. I’m done.

If you are interested in the story of Babel make sure to check out next week’s Bad Religion Song of the Week.

The first half of Chapter 12 describes Abram’s journey with his wife and nephew Lot, eventually leading them to Egypt. The Bible says that they took “the persons whom they had acquired in Haran” (12:5, NRSV). Does this mean slaves? Or does this mean people who joined their settlement? I bet it means slaves.

The second half of the chapter is interesting and confusing. There is a famine where Abram is living, so he takes his family into Egypt. Abram is worried that upon seeing his wife Sarai the Pharaoh will kill Abram and take his wife. To prevent this they lie to the Pharaoh and say that Sarai is his sister. Pharaoh does, indeed, take Sarai as a wife, and pays Abram in animals and slaves.

Consequentially, God gets pissed at Pharaoh for committing adultery (although there are no commandments yet) and afflicts his house with great plagues. Pharaoh calls Abram, gives him a piece of his mind, and sends him and his wife and his people away.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely understand how Abram’s scheme was supposed to work, and it did! It just boggles my mind that Pharaoh is punished for committing a sin, that has not yet been prohibited, in ignorance, and Abram, who essentially whores out his wife to save his own life, gets off scot free. More than that, he gets a bunch of animals and slaves as a reward.

God’s idea of justice is twisted.

Convetional vs. Religious Logic

2009-07-28T12:00:00.000-04:00

Who has the burden of proof?

Whoever is trying to prove something. If a theist is making the argument that God exists, they have to prove it. If an atheist is making the argument that God does not exist, then they have to prove it.

Any reasonable person, atheist or theist, must be agnostic when it comes to God's existence. If they are not then they are not reasonable.

I don't believe that God exists, but I would never argue that he is,indeed, nonexistent. I have no proof of this, so it would be ludicrous for me to presume to know any more than the theist I am arguing with.

This doesn't mean that I would not argue in support of my reasoning for not believing in God. I would even try to influence people to believe the same thing as me, but I would never claim to be proving anything.

Bad Religion Song of the Week: Do What You Want

2009-07-27T12:00:00.000-04:00

Do What You Want
Bad Religion
Suffer

Hey do what you want, but don't do it around me.
Idleness and dissipation breed apathy.
I sit on my ass all goddamn day,
A misanthropic anthropoid with nothing to
Say what you must, do all you can,
Break all the fucking rules and
Go to hell with superman and
Die like a champion, yeah hey!
Hey I don't know if the billions will survive,
But I'll believe in God when 1 and 1 are 5.
My moniker is man and I'm rotten to the core.
I'll tear down the building just to pass through the door.
So do what you must, do all you can,
Break all the fucking rules and
Go to hell with superman and
Die like a champion, yeah hey!

Not too much to say about this song, it's just one of my favorites. A song about selfish, thoughtless people who live life without regard for anything but themselves.

Venn Diagram

2009-07-26T12:00:00.000-04:00

I was browsing a website of humorous charts and graphs (yeah, I know, what a nerd) and I came across this gem. I don't really have anything to add. I think it is quite clear and I pretty much agree with the whole thing.

What do you think?

Bible Genealogy, v 3.0

2009-07-25T15:00:00.000-04:00

This is a big one. It includes the descendants of Noah, as listed in Genesis chapter 10. I can't make this one an image, it is just too big. Click the image below to view the entire table.

Genesis 9 & 10

2009-07-24T15:00:00.001-04:00

OK, I was right the first time. God did originally intend for humans to be vegetarians. In Genesis 1 God gives all the green plants to the humans and other creatures as food. Here in Chapter 9 God tells Noah and his sons, “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.” (9:3, NRSV) Take note that God does not mention any of the food laws that are to come.

God also tells them, “Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person’s blood be shed; for in his own image God made humankind.” (9:6, NRSV) Is this a straightforward endorsement of capital punishment or a more philosophical statement along the lines of, “what goes around comes around”? Are we supposed to murder a murderer? That’s what it sounds like.

God makes a covenant with Noah and his sons, and the sign of this covenant? A rainbow! “I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clods over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.“ (9:13-15, NRSV)

I like this. Even without any religious connection I am awed by rainbows. Just imagine how the ancients who believed it to be a sign of the covenant felt.

The remainder of Chapter 9 is an unusual story that I think is not mentioned often in Sunday school. Noah plants a vineyard, drinks his wine, gets drunk and passes out naked. His son Ham sees his father and goes to tell his brothers. They bring “a garment” and shielding their eyes cover their naked father. When Noah finds out what Ham did, he curses Ham’s son Canaan rather harshly.

I am not really sure how to take this story. I figure the first part is about respecting your parents, which makes sense. But I am not sure what moral I am supposed to learn from the second part. Should children be held accountable for the sins of their parents? Maybe another passage in support of original sin?

Chapter 10 lists the descendents of Noah. The next version of the genealogy, to include this chapter, will be posted tomorrow.

Genesis 7 & 8

2009-07-22T15:00:00.000-04:00

Back to Noah’s mission. As we all know, God commands Noah to gather pairs of each animals, males and females together. Specifically God commands, “Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate; and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female , to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth.” (7:2-3, NRSV)

My first thought about this passage was that maybe God wants the extra clean animals so that Noah et al. would have kosher food to eat for forty days and forty nights. Then I realized that the food laws haven’t been developed yet, but thought maybe God was just preparing them. We will soon see that I am still wrong.

The bible is very descriptive of when the rains started: “In the sic hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month…” (7:11, NRSV) Is there something important about this reference that I don’t know about or is it just another oddity of the bible?

I didn’t bring this up in the last installment, but they mention cubits again in Chapter 7, so I figured, “Why not?” In 7:20 the bible says that the mountains were covered fifteen cubits deep. According to Wikipedia, the most trustworthy source of information on the interwebs (am I joking? I don’t know.), a cubit was about 44 cm, so the mountains were covered by 6.6 meters of water. The ark was 132 meters long, 22 meters wide, and 13.2 meters tall. The maximum volume of the ark was a little more than 38 000 meters cubed. Enough to hold two of every animal (fourteen of some)? Probably not, but I am not up to the calculations right now, maybe another time.

In Chapter 8 the flood subsides. “And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided…” (8:1, NRSV) Did God blow the water into space? Or did the wind aid evaporation? Just kidding; it’s a metaphor!

Again in 8:3-5 and 8:13-14 we have very specific dates mentioned. Why?

When the flood subsides, Noah builds an offer and makes a burnt offering of the clean animals (that’s what they were for!). God smells the offering and says, “I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth…” (8:21, NRSV) This sounds like God is in support of the idea of original sin. We start off evil, and must become clean; not the other way around.

Bad Religion Song of the Week: Destined for Nothing

2009-07-20T15:03:00.000-04:00

Destined for Nothing
Bad Religion
The Process of Belief

Who do you believe can put some meaning in your life
meaning in your life
meaning in your life
Who do you conceive to provide you guidance and light
guidance and light
guidance and light
Are they waiting for you in the by and by
Do you even have to try

Headed for eternity and destined for nothing
The future isn't difficult to see
It's easy to confuse grand design with life's repercussions
Lament not your vanquished fantasy
It's only destiny

Why do you consent to live in ignorance and fear
ignorance and fear
ignorance and fear
Ancient people succumbed to it can it happen here
can it happen here
can it happen here
Does it make you suffer cause you have to die
Is it best to live a lie

Headed for eternity and destined for nothing
The future isn't difficult to see
It's easy to confuse grand design with life's repercussions
Lament not your vanquished fantasy
It's only destiny

Why can't you see
there ain't no destiny
for you and me
there ain't no destiny
Why can't you see
there ain't no destiny
for you and me
there ain't no destiny

Headed for eternity and destined for nothing
The future isn't difficult to see
It's easy to confuse grand design with life's repercussions
Lament not your vanquished fantasy
It's only destiny

I went to Warped Tour this weekend at Nassau Coliseum. I really only went to see Flogging Molly and Bad Religion. We got there around 1pm so of course my bands didn't go on until 7pm. We saw a couple of other good bands, and were first in line for the Flogging Molly signing.

Both bands were awesome, as usual, I just wish I could see them for a full concert. Thirty minutes just isn't enough.

Anyways, the above song is one that I once put on a CD for my high school philosophy teacher because the topic of my final paper was destiny.

I don't believe in destiny. How could I feel in control of my life and be responsible for my actions if I believed that everything was predetermined? Back in the day religion and superstition ruled people's lives, and while we live in a much more secular and, dare I say, rational world today some people still rely on beliefs like this.

It really bothers me when people say to me, "Everything happens for a reason." No. Not everything does. Some things just happen. People say this when someone else gets the fellowship you applied for, or you don't get a job you've been after, or the house you've been looking at gets sold before you can make an offer. Does this make some people feel better? Probably.

And of course sometimes it turns out that it was good that you didn't get that job, because a better one came up and you got that one, but this is not the reason you lost the first job. There are plenty of times that you miss one opportunity and then a better one doesn't appear.

I won't go as far as to say that everything is random, but things certainly aren't destined to happen.

Bad Religion Song of the Week

2009-07-13T15:00:00.000-04:00

Modern Man
Bad Religion
Against the Grain

I've got nothing to say
I've got nothing to do
All of my neurons are functioning smoothly
Yet still I'm a cyborg just like you

I'm one big myoma that thinks
The planet supports only me
I've got this one problem:
Will I live forever?
I've got just a short time to see

Modern man, evolutionary betrayer
Modern man, ecosystem destroyer
Modern man, destroy yourself in shame
Modern man, pathetic example of earth's organic heritage

When I look back and think
When I ponder and ask, "Why?"
I see my ancestors spend with careless abandon
Assuming eternal supply

Modern man, evolutionary betrayer
Modern man, ecosystem destroyer
Modern man, destroy yourself in shame
Modern man, pathetic example of earth's organic heritage
Just a sample of carbon-based wastage
Just a fucking tragic epic of you and I

I’ve posted these lyrics a long time ago on the message board I ran freshman year. I was really into Bad Religion then and I still am. This is one my all time favorite BR songs. It’s short, catchy, and it’s got great lyrics.

My Take:

We are apathetic lemmings, just following along with everyone else, but we are not imbeciles. We could make better decisions but we do not.

We are self-absorbed as a species. All we care about is ourselves and we believe that everything in nature belongs to us. We are concerned with our own preservation at the expense of everything else.

Evolutionary betrayer – in the process of evolution organisms adapt to their changing environment, but humans change their environment to adapt to their lifestyle.

Ecosystem destroyer – humans are responsible for the ruin of many ecosystems and the extinction of countless species.

However, we, the current generation, were not the ones who created this mentality. Our ancestors, either due to ignorance or greed, consumed natural resources as if they would never run out and with no regard for the environmental impact of their gluttony.

An aside: It was once said, by someone, that before Europeans came to the New World a squirrel could travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River without touching the ground.

We are a waste of life. We evolved such a powerful intelligence and thus far we have used it only for evil (as far as the environment is concerned).

We don’t have to continue on this course though. I think that we are slowly but surely mending our evil ways and learning to become a cooperating member of the global ecosystem. We need to speed up the process.

Bible Genealogy, v 2.0

2009-07-11T15:00:00.001-04:00

This one's a little more complicated...more to come.

The number in the right most column is the age at which the person "begot" his named son (and the age at which he died)

Genesis 5 & 6

2009-07-10T15:00:00.000-04:00

Chapter 5 of Genesis is strictly a list of Adam’s descendents down to Noah and his sons. These are the people that fathered children into their second century (Noah was actually 500 when his sons were born) and lived into their 900s. There isn’t too much going on in this chapter, but it is interesting how long these men are reported to have lived.

Let me start by saying that there is no way that these men physically lived 900 years. I think there could be several reasons why the men who wrote the bible inflated their ages by such a degree. The most likely is that these people were alive longer ago than any others, and often times details from long ago get exaggerated, i.e. Paul Bunyan.

I think that maybe another reason to inflate the ages of these men could be to increase the temporal distance from the creation. It is still only nine generations after Adam, but because of the years between generations the time that has elapsed amounts to 1556 years from the creation of Adam to the birth of Noah’s sons (which is already about 25% of the history of the earth according to some young earth creationists).

One last thought: During the time of Noah God decides he must destroy mankind because of how evil they have become. If the generations between Adam and Noah were, let’s say, 20 years, only 180 years would have passed. It might seem unreasonable for humans to have become so evil in so little time. In 1556 years, though, anything can happen.

Chapter 6 of Genesis is where the shit starts to hit the fan. But first there is an odd statement by God (at least one that I do not comprehend). “Then the Lord said, ‘My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years.’” (6:3, NRSV) I’ll admit that I peeked ahead to see how old the sons of Noah grow to be, and it is well beyond 120 years. Maybe he means that it will be 120 years until the flood, but he hasn’t even mentioned the wickedness of man yet. Maybe it is just a bit of poor editing.

God also says that, “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days…These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.” (6:4, NRSV) The Nephilim might have beent very tall, very strong and resilient men. There are men like this in other cultures, such as the heroes of prehistoric Greece from the Iliad and the Odyssey. I am not an historian but I wouldn’t be surprised if there are men of this stature in many other cultures of the time. Now that I think of it, some of the heroes, Achilles for example, actually had divine ancestors, and another hypothesis for the Nephilim is that they are the offspring of fallen angels and human women.

So God sees the wickedness of humankind and he was sorry that he had made them. He decides that he will “blot out from the earth the human beings [he] has created – people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air.” Say what!?!? This is an excellent story, with at least an okay moral of how being righteous has its rewards, but taken literally this story is too farfetched. (I know that not everyone takes the bible literally but enough people do for me to get this off my chest.)

1) Why does God choose to kill the animals and creeping things and birds? Have they also become so evil that they must be destroyed?

2) Could Noah and his family have been the only eight people on the planet who deserved to survive?

3) God created the universe, or at least the earth, in just six days. If he wants to exterminate the evil humans why can’t he just make them disappear, or at least just drop dead?

Numbers one and two stump me, but for number three I think it could be that having Noah build the ark and gather the animals is one final test of his righteousness, proving once and for all that his family deserves to survive the flood.

Verses 11 through 22 of Chapter 6 are God’s instructions to Noah, about how the ark should be built and how Noah should gather the animals. While not the most intriguing passage of the bible it sets a precedent for the Old Testament of God relying heavily on very clear, specific instructions and laws. We will seeplenty of these in the books to come.

Bible Genealogy, v 1.0

2009-07-08T15:00:00.000-04:00

This is easy so far, but just wait until next time.

Genesis 3 & 4

2009-07-07T14:34:00.000-04:00

Ok, so everything was going great for all of two books, and then the serpent appears; the first, and one of the few, talking beasts in the bible. “The woman says to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’’” (Genesis 3:2-3, NRSV)

God is a liar. He tells the man and woman that if they eat fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they will die. Then they eat of the fruit. Then they don’t die. One of the most important things I learned in the last year and a half of teaching is that if you want your subordinates to do or not do something you have to assign a reasonable punishment and then follow through. Death doesn’t seem reasonable and God doesn’t follow through. He is new at this, however, and perhaps this will be a learning experience for him.

The woman “…took of [the tree’s] fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.” (3:6, NRSV, emphasis added)

I always thought that she ate the fruit without the man knowing, and then went to him and was like, “Here, eat some of this fruit that I didn’t pick off the tree that God forbade us to eat from.” Au contraire! The dude was right there, and then when God gets pissed the man tries to pass all the blame onto the woman: “’The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate,’” (3:12, NRSV), and even worse, God buys the man’s B.S. and rebukes the woman and gives her painful childbirth. Gender equality: 1 (from 2:23-24), Patriarchy: 1.

Shortly after this God says, “See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.” (3:22, NRSV) Who is God talking to? This is the first of many passages in the Old Testament that refer to other gods. In this passage God might actually not be talking to other gods, but he is at least talking to the cherubim or other order of angels. The issue of the existence of other gods will be more important in a few books.

The man and woman are banished from Eden and they “know” each other resulting in the fabled sons Cain and Abel. Abel offers to God the “firstlings of his flock” and Cain offers to God “the fruit of the ground.” For some unexplained reason God favors Abel’s offering and rejects Cain’s. This seems contradictory to God’s pro-vegetarianism statement in Genesis 1.

Once again God is acting unfairly toward one party. Each brother made an offering in his own kind, but God isn’t satisfied. The only explanation I can think of is that perhaps God was testing Cain, to see how he might react. I think it is fair to say that Cain fails the test. Then god exiles him, but bestows upon him a mark (the Mark of Cain) so that people will not kill him. Who are these people that Cain is afraid of, by the way? Cain is the son of Adam and Eve, the first and only people created by God. How could there be other people that might kill Cain? Did God only create some humans? Did God create other humans after Adam and Eve and we just don’t know about it? Either way it is obvious that we cannot take the bible to be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Finally, Cain’s great-great-great grandson, Lamech, “took two wives.” Gender equality: 1, Patriarchy: 2.

Time Travel in Popular Culture

2009-07-03T14:26:00.000-04:00

The following is a paper I wrote for an independent study from junior year. If you want to read the whole thing, download the PDF file linked to below the excerpt.

Time Travel in Popular Culture

by

Justin King

How many of us have wished we could go back in time to correct a mistake? Or visit the future to see our world 100 centuries from now? I bet we all have, and this is why time travel has become so pervasive in popular culture. If time travel were possible, we could travel to the past and visit the dinosaurs or witness the sermon on the mount; you could go back to last week and give yourself the correct answers for an exam; you could even travel into the future to a time where ~~ears~~ cars no longer run on gasoline, when we all have personal assistance robots, and when space travel is as common as driving to the market. It is this last possibility that is the most intriguing aspect of time travel, and is the focus of most time travel literature and film.

As we examine time travel in popular culture we will begin with early examples of machineless time travel, but our focus will be on time travel via time machine. Appropriately then, our first example of machine facilitated time travel will be H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, published in 1895. Since then stories about time machines have been bountiful, but we will look at the Back to the Future trilogy and Planet of the Apes. I have chosen these because the former is probably the most well-known time travel story, and the latter because it is one of the most scientifically accurate time travel stories.

Time Travel in Popular Culture

The Missing Peace

2009-06-24T22:27:00.000-04:00

I went into the city ("the city" = NYC, of course) Monday night for Andrew's birthday. We met one of his Canadian friends in Washington Square Park, and there were some people standing around the entrances handing out flyers or something. This is common urban areas, so I just ignored them as I walked by.

After dinner (which was great, by the way - OTTO is one of Mario Batali's restaurants, and the gelato was crazy good)we walked back to the park to relax for a few minutes. I noticed that a lot of the flyers those people had been hanging out were scattered about (Mitch Hedberg joke - "Here, you throw this away"). I also noticed that there were puzzle pieces on the cards, so I thought it had to do with autism awareness. It is so much better than that.

There's nothing offensive about it. It's just a harmless advertisement for the Times Square Church. I like it because of the clever(?) title: "The Missing Peace". Becker suggested that this is like the bumper sticker "Know Jesus, Know Peace. No Jesus, No Peace."

Christians are good with puns.

Genesis 1 & 2

2009-06-23T11:03:00.000-04:00

Ah, creationism. I’d like this part of the bible more if I didn’t know that millions of people take this story literally. It’s a great tale. In fact, another interesting study (which I am sure someone has already done) would be to compare creation myths of various religions/fantasy literature.

There are two points I’d like to discuss about Genesis 1 and 2 – that man and woman were created equal, and that god created all animals to be vegans.

I’ve always thought that the creation story in Genesis supported a male dominated society, and I think this might be a common misconception. In the first creation story (that’s right, there are two creations, one right after the other!) god creates males and females at the same time:

“Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the Earth.’ So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27, NRSV)

In this story, god creates man and woman at the same time and gives them dominion over the other animals. There is absolutely no indication a superior sex. In the King James bible god says, “Let us make man in our image,” but this certainly refers to human beings in general and not males specifically because this is following by, “…and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea…” (1:26-27, KJV)

The creation story in Genesis 2 describes things differently. After god created man (meaning a male this time) “from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (2:7, NRSV) he created the garden of Eden in which man should live. God decides that the man should not be alone and attempts to find him “a helper as his partner,” (2:18) so god creates all the animals and brings them to the man to be named, but none of them are suitable partners.

Here’s the story most people know: God puts the man in to a deep sleep, removes one of his ribs, and from that rib god creates a woman. At first glance this might seem to indicate that man is superior to woman because he was created first and she is made from just a small part of him. Keep reading.

“Then the man said, ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.’ Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.” (2:23-24)

Finally the man has found a suitable partner. No other creature could be found to fill this position, until god created a creature made of the same stuff as man. Woman is the creature that completes man, the yin to his yang, the salty to his sweet, the Samwise Gamgee to his Frodo Baggins. Man “clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.” That sounds like equality to me.

Okay, back to Genesis 1. On the third day god creates dry land on the earth and brings forth vegetation. On the fifth and sixth days god created all the animals including humans. God said to man, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; and you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” (1:29-30)

I know that very shortly god is going to give men all sorts of laws about food and that these will include what animals you can and cannot eat, but this first passage about what man, and all the animals, will have for food is a blatant endorsement of veganism. God does not mention the eating of other animals, as though this thought has not even crossed his mind. Perhaps when the man and woman eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they learn about eating animals, but I don’t remember that being explicitly stated. We may find out shortly.

Acupuncture

2009-06-20T22:03:00.000-04:00

I’ve been having lower back pain for a few weeks now. I believe it first happened when I tried the simplest yoga pose on the Wii fit, so that tells you something. It’s been really bothering me, it got worse the other day when I was moving some things around in the attic. I finally decided to go and get some acupuncture. I’ve seen the chiropractor and I’ve gotten a massage, to no avail. An episode of M*A*S*H reminded me of acupuncture so I decided to give it a shot.

I found an acupuncturist near home, only about 5 minutes away, on Google maps, and I went there for an appointment and I filled out the paper work like you always do. It started with a consultation type of thing. She explained how it works, double checked my problem, and had me show her where I have pain. What really got me was the explanation of how it works. Acupuncture is what, like, 3000 years old, and obviously it works because people have been getting acupuncture for 3000 years. How it works is something like the following:

Your body has things called chakras, different places in your body, and your body has an energy called chi. You have pain or you are ill because your chakras are blocked, and chi can’t get around your body. So based on what type of pain you’re feeling or what sickness you have they put the needles into the different chakras which unblocks them and allows the chi to flow.

That’s not what actually happens, because that’s not real. That’s not science. I like the explanation; it’s a great analogy for what probably happens in real life, scientifically, in your body. We know what the body is made of now; 3000 years ago that’s what they thought it was. Again, I think it is a good analogy for what happens in real life, which is something like this:

The ancient Chinese found important pockets of nerves in the body, by, I guess, trial and error. By sticking the needles into those nerve clusters you stimulate them, which I can see causing extra blood to flow to that area. When blood flows to the affected area it carries the toxins away, and the cells get healthier.

It works! I still have some discomfort in my back, but it’s feeling better, and acupuncture is absolutely painless. You almost don’t feel anything at all. I laid down, she tapped the needles in, and it only feels like a little pressure. It doesn’t even feel like something pointy going into your skin. She put a heat lamp over my back and I fell asleep for twenty minutes. Then she took the needles out, massaged the area a little, and put these patches on that supposedly contain Chinese herbs. They are like nicotine patches, I guess, but instead of nicotine, it’s, you know, Chinese herbs.

I’ve been there twice, and I am going two more times next week. If it’s not better by then I’ll probably stop going, as it’s costing me $55 a visit. So far, though, I’m liking it. Even if the Chinese explanation about how it works isn’t right something happens, and I like it.

Old Mr. Gruff

2009-06-18T19:31:00.000-04:00

Another post from the old blog that I just can't allow to gather dust:

Do you exhibit any of these symptoms?

always so sad
very grumpy
bitter
lashing out at children
tricking people into neglecting God's Word

If you suffer from any or all of these symptoms you are probably an atheist, and require "advanced witnessing techniques." Sounds like the Bush administration is not the only organization that supports waterboarding.

Bless You?

2009-06-18T19:24:00.001-04:00

Here is a post I made on an old blog from 2 years ago:

I have been swaying back and forth lately between saying "Bless you" and not saying "Bless you" when people around me sneeze. I NEVER say "God bless you" of course...that would be stupid.

Since I am currently working toward my teacher certification and Masters degree, I have been thinking about how things will be when I can a teacher. I certainly can't say "Bless you" sometimes and not say it other times, or students might think I am playing favorites.

I think the responsible thing for me to do as an atheist is to stop saying anything, but I am afraid people will find this to be rude. We need to come up with a new, secular phrase to use when people sneeze. Sometimes I tell people "Shut Up!" when they sneeze, but that's just plain mean.

As the title of my blog suggests, I have finished my education education (suggestions on something better to call that?) and I am now teaching physics at a high school on Long Island. The decision was easier to make than I thought - I just don't say anything. No one really cares.

Atheist Blogroll

2009-06-18T19:03:00.000-04:00

Atheist Physics Teacher has been added to The Atheist Blogroll. You can see the blogroll in my sidebar. The Atheist blogroll is a community building service provided free of charge to Atheist bloggers from around the world. If you would like to join, visit Mojoey at Deep Thoughts for more information.

Project Bible for Atheists: Introduction

2009-06-17T22:53:00.000-04:00

I am currently listening to the audio book Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible, by David Plotz. (I am literate, by the way, but it is unsafe to read and drive at the same time). This book originated as a blog series on Slate.com, which Mr. Plotz is currently the editor of. Plotz is a secular Jew, and he decided to undertake this endeavor when he was flipping through a Bible at a Bat Mitzvah and discovered an alarming story he had never heard of or read before.

The book is incredibly interesting. It is a reaction to the most widely read and translated book in the world by a normal, albeit well educated, man. It is intelligent and insightful without being academic and boring. I am not sure who his intended audience is though, and in fact it would seem that he has no particular audience in mind. Plotz relates a lot of what he is reading to Jewish culture and the current situation in the Middle East, but as an atheist from a Christian background I do not feel left out of the discussion.

Listening to this book has sparked my interest in delving into this incredible work once again. The first time I attempted to read the Bible, it turned me into an atheist. The first time I actually made it through the Bible in its entirety (I might have skipped a few “begots” here or there) it was for a class at Union called World of the Bible, which was an examination of the bible as an historical and cultural document.

This time through I want to read the Bible specifically from the point of view of an atheist. I want to see what a non-religious person might glean from this text. Just because I don’t believe in the existence in real life of the main character of the book and that I believe almost nothing written on its pages to be the literal truth doesn’t mean there aren’t ways a serious reading can’t be enriching. After all, I feel I have been enriched by reading many novels, notably The Lord of the Rings and the Ender series.

As I read through the Bible one more time, I will reflect on the things that even an atheist can take away from it. Our understanding of history, human behavior, morality, philosophy, and more will be improved.

Oh! How could I forget? Another thing an atheist might come away from a perusal* of the Bible with is an arsenal of contradictions and horrendous stories to use in the battle against the Religious Right.

I have to credit David Plotz for inspiring me to reread the Bible and share my own thoughts with you. I hope he will keep in mind that imitation is the greatest form of flattery.

* peruse – verb – to read through with thoroughness or care. Crazy, huh?

Project Bible for Atheists

2009-06-16T23:45:00.000-04:00

Coming Soon...

Time Machine

2009-06-04T21:23:00.000-04:00

Wow, I thought I had given up on this blog. Guess not. Here is a sketch I did for a GURPS campaign I'm planning. Notice it has the mandatory multi-colored control panel and the green glowing windows into the nuclear reactor. That's how time machine work, right?

Heeeeeere's Becker!

2009-04-10T15:33:00.001-04:00

I have been putting off making a higher quality sketch of Becker for a few days because the first sketch I did turned out great and I wasn't sure I could do it again. He just has so many distinguishing features: the goatee, the glasses, ~~the smug look of a douche bag~~, the huge forehead.

I don't know about you, but I think this looks just like him. Like, if Becker somehow got sucked into a cartoon this is exactly what he would look like. Especially if it was a cartoon drawn by me.

I hope he likes it.

Bri Take 2

2009-04-09T01:18:00.000-04:00

Here is another Bri. I think this is the final version. I spent a lot of time and a lot of paper trying to work out the hair. I hope you will agree that this is a lot better than the mess of spaghetti on her head before.

I have preliminary sketches for Andrew and Becker and Meier, and those will be up soon.

I think that is all for now.

Another Me

2009-04-07T19:24:00.001-04:00

Here's another drawing of me. I think I will be focusing on drawing people's faces for a while, and just post those. Maybe next week I will just post drawings of people's legs. You can mix and match.

I am trying to sketch a lot of my friends but since the sketches are so minimalistic it is difficult draw someone who doesn't have distinguishing facial features. I will do what I can.

Check back occasionally for updates. Maybe I will draw you.

Future Human Evolution

2009-04-07T04:21:00.000-04:00

Becker stayed at my house until after 4:00am. Somehow we resisted the Xbox 360 with Burnout Paradise in the tray and just talked about stuff. Somehow we got on the subject of human evolution.

Will humans continue to evolve? Could human evolution possibly continue in the same way that got us to where we are now? Is it possible to prevent evolution?

Yes. No. No.

I envision a very distant future in which the evolution of technology has paralleled the evolution of man.

Imagine:

We develop technology such that most things have been automated (i.e. agriculture, manufacturing, cooking, etc.) and humans manipulate these automated systems via computers. Eventually we are no longer required to type commands because computers understand voice commands. Later we no longer have to voice our commands because the computers can read our brain waves.

Computer input does not evolve on it's own. Output evolves as well. Computers do not present information through peripherals anymore. The computer does not display an image of something on a screen which we view with our eyes; the computer sends the same signal our eyes would send to our brain directly to the brain. The same with the other senses.

Physically humans are diminished. We no longer need eyes, ears, taste buds, nerve endings to experience the world. Our technology can see and hear and taste and feel things for us, and send the signals to our brains.

This is not worse! It is better. Our current senses are limited to the area around our bodies because our sensory organs are attached, essentially, to our brains. In the future our "eyes" can be probes light years away; our "ears" can be speakers at the bottom of the ocean.

Our sensory organs are limited anyway. The human eye can only experience the electromagnetic spectrum between wavelengths of 400 and 700 nanometers. The human ear cannot sense sounds below 20 hertz or above 20 000 hertz. We currently have instruments that are more sensitive or are sensitive to a different range than human senses. If we could experience these aspects of the universe that we are missing in a more intuitive way, imagine how our understanding of the universe might progress.

By using technology as our senses, we would be able to visit distance galaxies and witness events such as the creation and annihilation of particle-antiparticle pairs. What could be more exciting or more beautiful than this?

Proselytizing Atheist

2009-04-05T11:19:00.000-04:00

I thought of another good name for the blog. The Proselytizing Atheist. I like it. More people should be atheists. I can make that happen. Can I change the name and address of the blog once it has already been published? Should I? Is there enough cream cheese on my bagel? We may never know.

Bri

2009-04-03T15:13:00.000-04:00

Here's Bri. I think I did a pretty good job. I mean, I remembered that girls wear skirts instead of pants and have boobs. I am not sure about the hair though. If I don't draw enough strands, she looks like a chemo patient, but if I draw too many she looks like I poured spaghetti on her head.

Thoughts?

My First

2009-04-02T22:39:00.000-04:00

This is my first attempt at making a sketch of myself. The students in the club that I advise (the Graphic Literature Association a.k.a. Comic Book Club a.k.a. Nerdsquad) have inspired me to ~~right~~ write a comic.

I finally have something to base off of Becker's three utterances on a salvia trip.

(1) I've dreamed of this...
(2) Those poor people...
(3) Close the door...

I figure I can work those three lines into a comic about the zombie apocalypse. Right?

P.S. In the drawing I am wearing contacts. Also, I don't have any arms. Arms are hard for me to draw. Use your imagination.