Archive for July, 2005
July 29, 2005 at 8:16 am · Filed under Skepticism
I’m pushing this post to the top as a reminder. I need submissions!
The thirteenth Skeptic’s Circle, hosted by Orac, was a fine success, helped along by much fine ale drinking. Much was discussed, from anti-vaccination conspiracies to young earth creationism and intelligent design.
The 14th Skeptic’s Circle will be happening in two weeks time, and I have the pleasure of being the 14th host. I have a very special venue planned, but before I can finalize those arrangements I need some skeptical submissions! If you’re having skeptical thoughts and you need to get them off your chest, then blog about them, and send me a link.
Submissions can be sent here. I have heavy-duty spam-filters in place, so if your mail bounces or you don’t get a response from me, leave a comment here and I’ll find another way to contact you.
July 27, 2005 at 8:12 am · Filed under Family+Friends
Shawn left his smart and fancy hat at our house. As stipulated in the small print of any invite to our house, anything left there becomes mine (unless it’s pink, then it becomes Jen’s).
July 26, 2005 at 7:33 am · Filed under Skepticism
First it was the religious busy-bodies wringing their hands and crying that the Harry Potter books were devil worship and must be banned. Now even a few psychologists are finding fault, suggesting that the Harry Potter story has become too dark, too violent, too scary for children. The final group of naysayers are those who just poo-poo the books as bad literature and over-hyped rubbish.
On the other side of the argument, other psychologists are saying the books are a good tool to teach children about death and about some of the bad things that happen in the real world. Teachers and parents are just happy that something has made kids get back into reading. And of course the fans themselves will proclaim the genius of the novels at every opportunity.
Whichever camp you look at, the fans or the naysayers, they are both incredibly vocal. Do a search on Google News for articles about Harry Potter and you’ll find hundreds of them. I don’t remember seeing such prodigious output for one book or series of books (ok, The DaVinci Code came close).
Do the books hurt their readers or help them? Who cares? I’ve been reading fantasy literature since I was a kid. I read things at a very young age which had a lot more violence in than anything JK Rowling has written. I’ve read books that I’ve enjoyed more than Harry Potter, and I’ve read a lot of books that I enjoyed less.
No book has ever affected my real life behaviour (unless you count setting up a secret club after reading the Secret Seven series). No single book has shaped my religious, spiritual or moral beliefs. No book has made me commit a crime, or perform a ritual sacrifice, or sent me into therapy.
If adults are worried about the effect literature is having on children, they should stop concentrating on one specific book or series of books. Instead they should be concentrating on teaching children to understand and recognize the difference between reality and fantasy; between real life and fiction. They should be instilling critical thinking skills into children from the earliest possible age. The same goes for TV, movies and video games.
Encourage children to read. Encourage children to question and talk about what they read. If they get scared or upset, comfort them and remind them it’s just a story. If they ask difficult questions, answer them in a reasoned, logical and non-judgmental way.
July 25, 2005 at 7:36 am · Filed under Family+Friends
Our second surprise party in two weekends happened yesterday, this time cunningly arranged by Jen and Tyler for Cara’s birthday. She was lured to our house under the pretense of a greeting card discussion and looked a little stunned when she walked out onto our deck to cries of “Surprise!”.
We were joined by:
- Eddie, Manon, Raphael and Gabriel.
- Shawn and Ellen.
- Kevin, Helen and Benjamin.
- Mike.
- Chris and Pierre.
Large amounts of bbq food were consumed, including:
- Baked beans - navy beans soaked overnight, mixed with fried bacon, chopped onions, chopped apples, whizzed tomatoes, brown sugar, maple syrup, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper and baked in a covered pot for 6-8 hours, uncovering for the last hour or so.
- Chicken pieces marinated in a mixture of lemon juice, lime juice, beer, mustard, rosemary, salt and pepper.
- Potatoes and onions drizzled with oil and tossed with rosemary, salt and pepper and grilled in a foil pouch.
- Potato salad dressed with mayo, lemon juice, lime juice, mustard, oregano, pepper and a splash of maple syrup.
- Cherry tomatoes, halved and mixed with sliced vidalia onions, oil and balsamic vinegar.
- Hot dogs. From a package.
There was also much drink, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, and an ice cream cake with a sheep and quite a few candles (discretion prevents me mentioning exactly how many) on it.
We even managed to squeeze in a few Magic games at the end of the day. Which was nice.
Oh, and we met a married gay couple for the first time. They were very nice and did not destroy our marriage.
July 20, 2005 at 11:47 am · Filed under Movies + TV
A sad day for Star Trek fans. Scotty is dead. James Doohan will always be remembered as the inimitable Montgomery Scott, and judging by the article he was happy about that.
July 19, 2005 at 8:40 am · Filed under Skepticism
The Houghton mansion in North Adams, Massachusetts is a Victorian home which is now a Masonic temple. Sounds like an interesting place to visit. But wait, there’s more! It is also the headquarters of the Berkshire Paranormal Group who say that the house is one of the area’s most haunted buildings
. Apparently The evidence gathering continues…
, which suggests that some evidence must already exist; I rushed to explore their site and find it.
First of all there’s the photographic evidence. I won’t reproduce the photos here, but follow the link to see the amazing evidence yourself.
The first photo shows a small white blur in an upstairs window. Apparently this shows that There is clearly someone or something standing just inches away from the window
. Clearly! Maybe I need to have my eyes tested. I’ve squinted and peered at the picture but all I see is a white blur.
The second photo shows an orb
roughly in the direction that some guy is pointing. I’m not even going to bother explaining the orb phenomenon, as James Randi has debunked it so many times already. Search for orbs on his site and you’ll find it popping up in many of his commentaries, like this one.
The next few photos show more of those silly orbs, as well as some “rods” and light streaks. All artifacts of the photographic process and certainly not evidence of anything paranormal.
This photo has to be my favourite though. It’s ridiculously blurry, doesn’t show anything at all, and yet the caption says Remarkable photo appears to show the ghostly figure of a dog-like animal at the entrance to the kitchen
. These people may be nuts, but they certainly have a vivid imagination.
The rest of the photos are more of the same, but this one caught my eye. It shows a row of chairs, which according to the caption have a Horizontal mist
in front of them. Now maybe it’s just me, but that mist
looks a lot like a ghosted (no pun intended) image of the chairs themselves. Could it be another example of a shaky photographer? Surely not.
As you might guess, I haven’t been convinced by the photographic evidence, so I had a look around to see what else there is. I followed all the links, I read all the text. I found nothing. But apparently Official BPG investigation & results [are] coming soon!
. That’s good then, I can’t wait.
The Berkshire Paranormal Group is headed by Ron Kolek. Apparently he is a self-proclaimed skeptic. Judging by this article though he’s about as skeptical as a radish.
July 18, 2005 at 8:11 am · Filed under Blogging
Saturday was the one year anniversary of this blog. I never thought I would manage to keep it regularly updated for this long but apparently I had more to say than I thought.
My first post said:
Hopefully I’ll fill this with enlightening, witty, sardonic, cynical and smartass comments.
I’m not sure how enlightening, witty, sardonic and cynical I’ve been, but it’s been a lot of fun. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this stuff as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. Here’s to another year or two!
July 16, 2005 at 9:31 am · Filed under General
Last night at midnight we were at the McGill Bookstore surrounded by wizards, witches and muggles all desperate to get their hands on the latest installment of the Harry Potter Saga. There were pancake patties and cockroach clusters. There was butterbeer. There were owls and golden snitches and there were big piles of the new book, in adult and child forms. We got one of each.
Now don’t disturb me, I’m reading.
Mischief Managed.
July 13, 2005 at 8:02 am · Filed under General
A meme over at her place inspired me to do this. I’m not following the meme exactly because it was only the first part that got me thinking.
20 years ago
I was living at home with my mum, stepdad, and half brother, just finished senior school (that’s high school for you North Americans) and about to start sixth form college. I had recently discovered beer and was enjoying it immensely. When I could get served. Which wasn’t often. My dad was running a pub, so I spent as much time with him as I could. I still had my ZX Spectrum, and didn’t know what a PC was.
15 years ago
I was living in Surbiton, south-west London in a dingy bedsit. One small room with a bed, a tv, a cupboard, a table, a sink and a fridge. I was working for a publishing company as a technical analyst (vague job title for a vague job), spending most of my time at work or at the pub across the road from work to avoid going back to the nasty bedsit. I was in debt, but still drinking too much. I was learning Unix voraciously.
10 years ago
I was sharing a flat in Surbiton with my friend Philip and his friend Shaun and very happy to be away from the bedsit. I was working as a programmer for an EDI company in Hampshire, and driving two hours a day to get there and back. I was drinking less but smoking more. I had also recently discovered the internet and multi-player gaming…
5 years ago
Jen and I had just bought a fancy schmancy loft-style condo beside the Lachine Canal on the edge of Point St Charles. I snuck in there on moving day before Jen with a blanket, candles, and champagne so we could have a picnic in the middle of our big new empty space. I’d been in Canada since the start of the year and only just got around to getting some consultancy work. We had three PCs next to each other in the condo, but still talked to each other over ICQ.
1 year ago
We had been in our new house in Beaconsfield for 1 year. I was discovering the joys of gardening and BBQing. In three days time I would start my blog. I like to think I started blogging early enough to not be accused of jumping on the bandwagon.
Yesterday
We went to Le Caverne Grecque on Prince Arthur for a meal on the terrace with the Toastmasters crowd. The food wasn’t fantastic but the company was good, and Little Penguin wine was on the table.
July 12, 2005 at 8:51 am · Filed under Family+Friends
On Saturday we went up to the country to see Elisabeth and Richard for Richard’s birthday celebration. We enjoyed a chicken dinner made by Richard, a greek salad made by Elisabeth and a chocolate birthday cake made by me, followed by the obligatory gift un-wrapping. Richard got a Jamie Oliver book from us, and an inflatable boat from Elisabeth.
Richard and I spent a fairly large part of the following morning inflating said boat. After the launching ceremony, Richard tried to climb aboard in a dignified manner. He failed. He got on board, but it definitely wasn’t dignified. After watching him attempt to navigate the pond without any oars, we headed off home.
While we were there, Jen got a bit fidgety, and put it down to the lack of technology. No internet, limited TV. While we did watch the F1 race on Sunday morning, and I did go online briefly to show Elisabeth my blog, it was still a very low tech weekend for us. This made me wonder how long I could survive without technology.
I spent a week in Wales once, where they don’t have electricity yet. Well ok that’s not true, but the cottage we stayed in didn’t have electricity. I survived ok, even managing to listen to my Uncle’s stories with good grace, despite how often they got repeated. There was a pub to go to there though, so I don’t know if that counts.
I’m pretty sure I could survive quite a while as long as I had stuff to read, eat and drink. I would probably be itching to check my email after a few days, but I could resist that temptation. Couldn’t I?
July 7, 2005 at 8:24 am · Filed under Skepticism
The 12th Skeptics Circle has taken place, this time in a dusty saloon somewhere out west. Go check it out, and don’t worry, the gunslingers are taking a day off.
And I’m not really wearing a toque.
July 6, 2005 at 11:09 am · Filed under Pubquiz
After being in the lead for most of last night’s pub quiz at Hurley’s, we were pipped at the post by him and her and their little buddy. They beat us by half a point! The half a point we lost was because of my lack of faith in my own memory. If I’d had confidence in my James Bond knowledge, we coulda had a tie.
Oh well. It was a fun evening, despite getting drenched on the way there. Sahfi joined us and entertained us with tales of debauchery from her weekend in Montreal. Mel also joined our team and was quite a bit smarter than we were on several occasions. We had a big crowd too, with seven teams, including lots of newcomers. Hopefully the Hurley’s quiz has been revitalized.
July 5, 2005 at 8:28 am · Filed under Skepticism
I came across this letter to Fredericksburg.com while looking for news to be skeptical about. I can certainly be skeptical about this:
The famous evolutionist George Gaylord Simpson stated, “The meaning of evolution is that man is the result of a purposeless and natural process that did not have him in mind.”
Do these writers believe they are just a mistake of life? What is the purpose of life if we really have no purpose?
First of all, just because we resulted from a natural process, that doesn’t make us a “mistake”. It also doesn’t mean we have no purpose. Our purpose is our own to choose, we don’t need any kind of higher being to tell us what our purpose should be. Resulting from a purposeless process does not make us purposeless.
In real life, evolutionists do not base their conclusions on “scientific” evidence.
Really?! This is going to be good…
The assumptions they make are based on naturalism, the doctrine that “nature is all there is,” and materialism, the belief that matter is all there is (i.e., the fundamental particles that make up both matter and energy).
Scientists don’t need to make those assumptions. If the evidence points to an all-natural explanation, then why do we need to look to the supernatural? The natural world provides overwhelming evidence to support current evolutionary theory. If the supernatural does exist, it is un-necessary.
There is nothing “scientific” about these evolution assumptions. (Ask any real scientist–no, I’m not one.)
No, you’re definitely not.
And it would imply that they make their conclusions hoping there is no God. If there is no God, then life is indeed purposeless.
Oh the fallacies just keep on coming. Firstly, there are plenty of evolutionary scientists who still believe in God (strange but true), and even those who don’t are not hoping God doesn’t exist, they just see no need for having any God in the picture. As for that second sentence, well as I said above, we don’t need any higher beings to tell us our purpose.
It takes more faith to believe in evolution and no God than it does to believe in creation of the human race by “intelligent design.” Therefore, evolution is just another religion, goes really well with New Age thought, and we should not teach it in public schools.
Accepting solid evidence requires no faith. Invoking the supernatural because you’re not happy with the explanation provided by science is what requires faith. If evolution is a religion, then so is aerodynamics, astronomy, botany, and any other scientific endeavour you care to mention.
And it is definitely humanism, which the U.S. Supreme Court has declared to be a religion.
This article will clarify what humanism is. Religious humanism is just one type of humanism. Teaching evolution has nothing whatsoever to do with religious humanism.
The letter I’ve referred to here is by Karen Kuzdzal. I did a quick search and found this letter also by her. A select quote:
I praise God for President Bush, and for the wisdom God gave him to pull us out of the environmentalist-wacko Kyoto global-warming agreement and for gutting the Clean Air Act.
It scares me that there are people like this.
