To hell with the Pagans, too
Permalink | Tweet This! | | December 24, 2008 by John in Religion, Science
Now, for the rest of us, there is a real celebrity birthday to celebrate for Xmas. Someone who had a positive impact on the world. Someone whose followers didn’t crusade, sponsor slavery, host a little party called the inquisition and condone pedophilia. No longer do we have to mention old pagan holidays (appropriated by christianity) like saturnalia or the winter solstice. Now we can move forward in a positive and science-focused manner. The Ten Days of Newton (as always, via RichardDawkins.net):
Some years ago, the evolutionist and atheist Richard Dawkins pointed out to me that Sir Isaac Newton, the founder of modern physics and mathematics, and arguably the greatest scientist of all time, was born on Christmas Day, and that therefore Newton’s Birthday could be an alternative, if somewhat nerdy, excuse for a winter holiday.
The author also came up with a nice little festive ditty…
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I’m Evolving, Beeyotchs
Permalink | Tweet This! | | June 23, 2008 by John in In the News, Science
‘Sarcasm Seen as Evolutionary Survival Skill’ by Live Science
Sarcasm, then, is a verbal hammer that connects people in both a negative and positive way. We know that sense of humor is important to relationships; if someone doesn’t get your jokes, they aren’t likely to be your friend (or at least that’s my bottom line about friendship). Sarcasm is simply humor’s dark side, and it would be just as disconcerting if a friend didn’t get your snide remarks.
It’s also easy to imagine how sarcasm might be selected over time as evolutionarily crucial. Imagine two ancient humans running across the savannah with a hungry lion in pursuit. One guy says to the other, “Are we having fun yet?” and the other just looks blank and stops to figure out what in the world his pal meant by that remark. End of friendship, end of one guy’s contribution to the future of the human gene pool.
That’s right. I’m leaving y’all behind…
I Feel Pluto’s Pain
Permalink | Tweet This! | | January 8, 2007 by John in Humor, In the News, Interesting/Trivia, Science
- Plutoed
- “To pluto is to demote or devalue someone or something, as happened to the former planet Pluto when the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided Pluto no longer met its definition of a planet.”
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Some of these are bound to be NSFW*
Permalink | Tweet This! | | August 22, 2006 by John in Interesting/Trivia, Religion, Science
10,000 Reasons Civilization is Doomed:
“This is a list that is started by the people, aggregated by the people and an offering to all people everywhere that want to take solace in a list that proves that we are not being fooled. Rather, we are on to all the bullshit out there and want to make it clear to anyone that adds to this list that you, too, can take comfort in like-minded individuals that have come together to express the 10,000 Reasons Civilization is Doomed. Perhaps if we are heard, some of the doom can be deterred.”
* Not Safe For Work
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Simple skin test may spot Alzheimer’s early
Permalink | Tweet This! | | August 17, 2006 by John in Health-Medical, Science
THIS is why science RULES: “Significantly, the chemical signal is produced in skin cells as well as brain tissue, which would make for a safe and convenient diagnostic test.”
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Now THAT’S Mindbending. I need a cigarette.
Permalink | Tweet This! | | August 14, 2006 by John in Science
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They’ll just say it’s fake
Permalink | Tweet This! | | April 6, 2006 by John in Religion, Science
Sorry, people. The Fishapod fossil is not, I repeat, NOT, a victory against creationists, especially the fundie kind. I’ve already heard their boilerplate response time and time again, “God put that there to test our faith.” (To quote Bill Hicks, “God put [fundamentalists] here to test my faith.”) But it is a pretty cool find, ya know, for a fake fossil put there by an invisible man in the sky.
Sigh… George Carlin is here tomorrow night! Woohoo!
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Now I feel validated.
Permalink | Tweet This! | | March 24, 2006 by John in Interesting/Trivia, Science
What scientists have only recently begun to realize is that people may do their best thinking when they are not concentrating on work at all. If you’ve ever had a great idea pop into your head while you were washing your car, walking your dog, or even napping, you already know what a team of Dutch psychologists revealed last month in the journal Science: The unconscious mind is a terrific solver of complex problems when the conscious mind is busy elsewhere or, perhaps better yet, not overtaxed at all.
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