Friday, 31 August 2007

Sweden regrets free speech

Sweden regrets free speech:

Sweden's embassy in Pakistan has expressed regret over the publication of a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a Swedish newspaper.
The Swedish government had nothing to do with the cartoon. It points this out and states it cannot apologise for the cartoon, but it still "expressed regret that the publication of the cartoons had hurt the feelings of Muslims". Damn those people and their pesky opinions, if only they didn't have them! I wish governments would not feel that as soon as religion is mentioned they have to start scrambling to cover themselves.

BREAKING NEWS: Shakespeare to pwn n00bz! OMG.


"The issue of correctness didn't bother him," says Ms. Paster. "He loved to play with language." As for leet, "He would say, 'Bring it on,' absolutely."

Alright, so maybe it's not exactly breaking news, and Shakespeare didn't actually say it, but but for a few trifling centuries he would have. And that's what counts. Go read about the evolution of leetspeak and how Shakespeare would have loved it here.

(Hat-tip: Language Log)

Thursday, 30 August 2007

The evils of PoMo

Okay, 5 points if anyone can tell me what this research statement has to do with biology. Or even what it means. Or if it's english. And why, why, why did they give him tenure? Anyone?

(Hat-tip Pharyngula)

Wednesday, 29 August 2007

Cool Atheist Music 1 - XTC - Dear God

Okay, here's the first in a (hopefully) regular series of cool music with an atheist view point. This a great track from XTC, and there's a Sarah Mclachlan cover floating round somewhere which gives it a different twist, if you can find it. If anyone has any ideas for cool atheist music feel free to contribute, and hopefully this series can become a little more regular!

UPDATE: For other posts in this series, see here.

Tuesday, 28 August 2007

Daddy longlegs: door to the past?

Okay, if you're anything like me, this post at Catalogue of Organisms will clear up a lot of confusion over daddy longlegs - it turns out it refers to no less than three separate organisms! I really need to stop treating crane-flies with such respect - I've always thought that they were one of the most poisonous creatures in existence, but their fangs were too small to pierce human skin (Hey, what if they bit you on a cut, okay?). It turns out that not only is this not true, it referred to a different animal in the first place. Anyway, once you've cleared up that confusion, go read Carl Zimmer's post on what daddy longlegs can tell us about the past. Toddle along now.

Slime-Snake-Monkey-People!


Okay, I'm somewhat late to the party on this one, but creationist Robert Bowie Johnson Jr. has a website where he insists that ancient Greek art portrays biblical characters as historical figures, and advocates name-calling as a prime method of argument:

It's a simple matter of name-calling—accurate name-calling. Forget the euphemistic terms Darwinist, naturalist, and evolutionist. Call them what they imagine they are: Mutants and Slime-Snake-Monkey-People. Sooner or later, with many of them, the idiotic and unscientific nature of Slime-Snake-Monkeyism will sink in. If they object to being called by these names, all we have to do is ask them why.

Classy. But what really gets me is this paragraph, where he portrays possibly the least ability to see things from the other person's point of view ever:
Did ancient Greek architects, sculptors, painters, and laborers toil for 15 years elevating those magnificent sculptures on the Parthenon, believing all the while that the artistic themes represented nothing more than "myths"? Is that our rationale for building monuments today? Elevating "myths"? Only a moron would answer these questions in the affirmative. And yet the academic and scientific worlds today, abetted by mainstream journalists, continue to assert categorically that ancient sculptors and vase-artists spent their entire working lives portraying nothing more than "myths." Why do they believe this?

No wait. He's right. No-one would do that.

(Hat-tip: Stranger Fruit and Pharyngula)

Monday, 27 August 2007

The Atheist Blogroll

Just a quick post to note I've joined the Atheist Blogroll, and added it to the blog. Look to it on the right for all your atheist blogging needs!