Archive for August, 2005
August 31, 2005 at 8:31 am · Filed under Skepticism
What’s happening in Louisiana right now is horrible. Hundreds dead, probably thousands homeless, an historic city in ruins, polluted waters, out of control looting and crime. But Louisiana’s Governor Blanco’s “solution” is not going to help:
Louisiana’s Governor Blanco urged residents to spend Wednesday in prayer and assured them the crisis would eventually be overcome.
Prayer? Prayer didn’t help them yesterday did it? It’s not going to help today either. She should be urging residents to get the hell out of the city/state if they can, or help with the rescue effort otherwise. If neither option is possible, stay home and try to relax; play scrabble or read a book. Prostrating yourself and pleading with the Flying Spaghetti Monster or your deity of choice is just a waste of time.
August 30, 2005 at 8:29 am · Filed under Skepticism
Vanier College is one of Montreal’s most respected colleges, offering a wide range of credit and non-credit courses. Sadly that range is a little too wide. Last weekend I was reading through the new course brochure from the college, and found a section entitled “World of the Supernatural”; this did not bode well. In this section I found:
- Tarot - The Spiritual Journey
- Relationship Astrology
- Numerology Workshop
- Psychic Development Workshop
- Past Life Workshop
- Evolution of the Soul
- Palmistry
- Zodiac Series
Elsewhere in the course list I found:
- Introduction to the Chakra system
- The Principles of Kabbalah
- Prophesy: Book of Revelation
Those last three should at least be in the World of Supernatural section.
I found it shocking that a reputable educational institution would be offering such courses and I fired off an email to them telling them so. A quote from my email:
How is this educating people? Half of these courses are faith based and seem to be more like worship sessions than serious classes. The other half are pseudo-science and quackery. You even bracket most of them under “The World of the Supernatural”. Is this serious education or just a way for you to make a quick buck out of the gullible?
Here is the complete response I received:
Vanier College is a recognized reputable educational institution and the Continuing Education department has successfully offered different types of courses for many years. As you probably noticed, we offer a wide range of Credit courses for the academically focused students. We also have a selection of LifeSkills courses for those individuals who may wish to pursue other avenues of learning and discovery. Both our Credit and LifeSkills courses have run successfully for many years.
As this reply did not address the points I raised, I replied explaining that I would publish our exchange on my website and forward it to James Randi. I also suggested they might be interested in claiming his million dollar prize. So far I’ve had no further response.
I don’t hold out much hope of colleges like Vanier dropping the quackery courses, as there is obviously a demand for them. The challenge for skeptics everywhere is to reduce that demand so such courses are no longer financially viable. Sometimes it feels like a losing battle, then Randi publishes an email from someone who became less credulous or a snake oil salesman gets prosecuted and suddenly things don’t seem so bad.
August 29, 2005 at 7:55 am · Filed under Movies + TV
Him and her came over on Saturday night and we watched Sin City, a film noir with enough hard-boiled dialogue to last anyone a lifetime. It is an incredibly stylishly shot movie with some great moments, but it is way too long. I wasn’t sure where it was going, but it did more or less manage to bring all the stray storylines together by the end. The violence was even more cartoony than Kill Bill V1. Oh, and it seems to be a guy movie. Jen and Kerry were not impressed.
We had also rented The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, but we’re too old to stay up late enough to watch two movies so Jen and I watched it the next morning. It’s a very strange movie, but I really enjoyed it. For once Owen Wilson did not annoy me. The animated creatures sprinkled throughout the movie were cute and added a surreal touch and the story moved along at a reasonable pace. Cate Blanchett and Willem Dafoe had the best characters. Jen wasn’t impressed with this one either.
August 25, 2005 at 10:18 am · Filed under Movies + TV
Like, there’s sooooo much I want to say. Like I’m still a teenager? and I still have lots of growing to do? and ohymgod all of this helped me. So thank you, I’ve like learned so much about everyone here? about everyone that I’ve seen, about being judged? about being with a band, about meeting new friends, about the sick kids, like I said. Like, ohmygod, all those experiences are totally making me.”
ok, so I sprinkled a couple of OMGs into that, but that’s to make up for the fact that I can’t reproduce her teenage squealing in text form. I’m so glad Casey is gone.
I will have to listen to the same kind of cringeworthy conversations on the train from next week onwards, as the squealy teenage girls go back to school. Deep Joy.
August 24, 2005 at 7:49 am · Filed under Blogging
I guess it’s time to respond to his meme tag.
5 CDs in your Player:
The only CD player I use is the one in our car, and that tends to have Jen’s mix CDs in it. I’ll give you five CDs that have recently come into our posession instead…
- Arcade Fire - Funeral
- The Killers - Hot Fuss
- The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
- Blue Rodeo - Are You Ready
- Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams
5 Movies You’ve watched Recently:
- Wilby Wonderful - quirky Paul Gross movie set in Nova Scotia
- House of 1000 corpses - Rob Zombie is a twisted, twisted man
- Stepford Wives - Well the vibrator gag was funny
- Bladerunner - It’s a classic
- Lord of the Rings - all three, extended editions, over one weekend
5 Nice Things That Happened To You Lately
- Dan, Susan and our nephew Simon visited us
- Simon gave me a hug
- I made bread that turned out ok
- One of my blog posts was really popular
- I was tagged with this meme, giving me one less post to think up
5 MP3s on your playlist:
Not listening to anything right now, but these are off my laptop…
- The Streets - Close Your Eyes
- Kings of Leon - Molly’s Chambers
- Mr Brightside - The Killers
- Cake - Short Skirt, Long Jacket
- Modest Mouse - Ocean Breathes Salty
5 Friends You’re Passing This To:
Pssh, like I have 5 friends. Let’s try…
- Jen - because she hasn’t taken John up on his offer yet
- Blork
- Orac
- Lisa
- And uh, Zach Braff - well, you never know.
August 23, 2005 at 7:50 am · Filed under Family+Friends
Normally I walk to work from the train station, but this morning there happened to be a bus coming so I jumped on it. There sitting on the bus looking bored was her. We only had a couple of stops to chat, but it’s always nice to run into someone you know, especially in a city where you hardly know anyone.
August 22, 2005 at 9:53 am · Filed under Family+Friends, Food
Jen’s brother Dan arrived on Thursday with his wife Susan and our one year old nephew Simon. We had a big family meal on Thursday night, for which I cooked:
Potato and Cauliflower curry: onions fried with a spice mix of mustard seeds, cumin, coriander, fenugreek, cayenne pepper and cardomom. Fresh ginger and garlic added, followed by carrots, potatoes and cauliflower. Whizzed up tomatoes added for the liquid.
Naan bread: yeast in warm water added to flour and baking powder with some toasted cumin seeds, made into a stiff dough and kneaded for 10 minutes. Cut into pieces and rolled into Naan shapes, brushed with butter and cooked in a frying pan (in the absence of a brick oven).
Finished off with a delicious carrot cake which Dan fetched from the local bakery.
On Friday we had a bbq for the other side of the family, with marinated chicken and grilled veggies as well as some delicious hungarian style salads provided by Jen’s Dad.
Finished off with a delicious apple crumble pie which Dan fetched from the local bakery.
The rest of the weekend was spent in the country where Richard brined and smoked a chicken for us and Elisabeth hacked up her basil plants to make pesto.
Despite being only one year old, Simon is already sampling much of the same kind of food. I see a celebrity chef in the making.
August 17, 2005 at 12:14 pm · Filed under Skepticism
With the Cult of the “Christian” Right clamouring for creationism intelligent design to be taught in school biology classes, I figure the rest of the curriculum needs a radical shakeup too:
History
With the bible being a historically accurate record of the history of the universe, this obviously casts doubt on theories such as the stone, bronze and iron ages of man. These should be replaced with detailed analysis of the great flood and that whole parting of the Red Sea event. Also, for some reason, the word of God stopped being written down about 20 centuries ago, so until the bible is officially updated, all modern history will be ignored.
Geography
The bible states quite categorically that the Earth is a “circle”, and of course, circles are flat, so this whole globe theory has to go. Obviously, unknown currents are driving us around the circle making it seem like we’re on a globe. Alternative maps will be provided.
Chemistry
Experiments to investigate transubstantiation will be added to the syllabus, as well as possible theories for how human bodies can suddenly turn into salt.
Physics
The big bang, aerodynamics, and gravity are all “just theories”, so biblical alternatives must be provided. Seven day creation, the marionette theory of flight, and intelligent falling will be offered as alternatives.
Language
The word of God was written in Aramaic, Hebrew or Greek (depends who you talk to, but we’ll just gloss over that), so these will be the only three languages taught in our schools. All lessons will be held in Hebrew.
Art
The bible has no pictures, so art isn’t allowed.
Physical Education
To be added to the syllabus: Wooden cross carrying; walking on water attempts; “active” praying; stoning practice.
Sex Education
Sex is a sin, don’t do it. Filthy children.
August 16, 2005 at 8:14 am · Filed under Canada
It looks like my fellow ex-pats and I might be able to start giving blood soon. Hurrah for better test methods.
August 15, 2005 at 7:56 am · Filed under Food, Games, Home, Movies + TV
Days off: 3.
Cleaned: Bathroom, Bedroom, Guest room, Landing, Hall, Living room.
Harvested: Many tomatoes, some basil and a few chiles.
Watched: Stepford Wives; one very funny moment and a whole bunch of mediocre ones. Wilby Wonderful; a cute but slightly slow Canadian movie with Paul Gross and Ellen Page. A whole bunch of old Dr Whos.
Read: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Cooked: My first made-from-scratch pizza: tomato sauce, cheese, sausage, bacon, onion and chiles, inspired by the pizza-meister Blork even though I didn’t have the quarry tiles. And a joint of pork slow-cooked on the BBQ.
Won: 2 games of euchre and 1 round of Magic.
Lost: 1 game of euchre and 2 rounds of Magic.
Ate: A delicious garlic risotto made by Cara.
August 13, 2005 at 8:16 pm · Filed under Home
My first attempt at furniture stripping happened a couple of years ago at the condo. We tried to strip a small cupboard which turned out to be painted with some kind of alien substance impervious to all known stripping methods.
I’m happy to say that last weekend’s attempt was much more successful. This chest, which we acquired from Jen’s mum, was painted a very nasty brown colour. Thankfully it all came off very easily. A quick sand, a couple of coats of linseed oil and a finish of antique wax, and we now have a pretty good looking chest of drawers.
August 11, 2005 at 2:11 pm · Filed under Canada
After receiving my confirmation letter at the start of the summer, I’ve been waiting to hear when I would be doing my Canadian citizenship test. Today I received a letter, but it wasn’t what I was expecting.
When I sent of my application, I was very careful to make sure everything was in the envelope and that I had followed all the instructions in the application guide to the letter. Included were two passport sized photos of me, signed on the back by me.
The letter today tells me that the signature on the photos doesn’t match the signature on my application. Excuse me? I mean maybe I can’t exactly duplicate my signature every single time, but usually it looks more or less the same. Is this just some fussy bureaucrat being picky or did I really mess it up that much?
They are telling me to send new photos, but the question is how do I sign them? What if it was the signature on the application that I messed up? Then I’ll get the same letter back again in another 3 months. If I send a letter with them, also signed, what if the signature on that is different to the one on the photos, and different to the one on my original application?
Why couldn’t they just ask me to show up at some office somewhere and demonstrate my signature in person? They could even compare my real face to the photographs, and look at all my identifying cards. I mean even if all the signatures matched, that’s still not proof that it’s my signature, is it?
August 10, 2005 at 11:06 am · Filed under Movies + TV
As he is away on holiday, I figured I would fill his place as reality tv commentator.
Canadian Idol is finally getting good. Last night was the top 7 show, featuring the “standards”. You know, old songs sung by guys in tuxes and women in frilly dresses.
The first 5 performers were amazing; spotless performances from all of them, filled with imaginative and creative touches. Suzie got the audience involved, Aaron danced around his mike, Josh slowed things down and gave us his unique style, Melissa sang with ease and made it cheeky and Rex showed that he’s not just a rock singer. And they all dressed the part.
Then came Casey and Daryl. What a contrast.
Casey, who always looks like a deer caught in the headlights, tried to wiggle her way to success but it was just uninspiring and her voice cracked on a high note. Farley and Zach tried to be nice, but there wasn’t much for them to be nice about.
Daryl dressed like someone out of the 70s, I guess the 50s were too far back for him to grok. His song choice was Wonderful World, which just didn’t fit his voice at all. It was horrible to watch, and the judges didn’t hold back or even try to be nice.
My predictions for the bottom three? Casey and Daryl because they just plain sucked, and Josh because he’s “different”. Daryl should be out, but Casey will go because all the little girls love Daryl.
August 9, 2005 at 7:36 am · Filed under Home
Jen’s office is a messy place. It was so messy that I submitted it to CBC for a messiest room in Montreal competition, and she almost won. It is still messy today, but not as messy as it was three days ago. Jen went into a cleaning frenzy, and with a bit of help from me managed to throw out three big boxes of recycling and two garbage bags full of trash. We almost killed the paper shredder and filled up the vacuum cleaner. We also found a ton of stuff for our next garage sale.
There is still stuff all over the floor, and all the drawers are full of crap, but there are some work surfaces and shelves now visible. The dancing hamsters are visible once more, as is the L.H. Lillicrap award (long story).
August 4, 2005 at 7:21 am · Filed under Skepticism
The ceiling of the great hall was studded with stars, the milky way splashed across the centre of it, mimicking the night sky outside Hogwarts. The long house tables were groaning under the weight of hundreds of bowls, plates and platters. Ron Weasley was in the middle of his second large helping of chocolate ice cream when, with a bright flash, all the food vanished. The buzz of conversation died down as Professor McGonagall stood and surveyed the room.
“Students of Hogwarts, I cannot describe how happy I am that you were all able to attend this special summer school session. These are dark times we live in and so it was decided that some extra tuition was required. Today we will not be discussing spells or magical creatures. We will not be examining charms or magical herbology. Today we will be teaching you something which is common to the Wizard world and the muggle world. Sadly it has not been taught enough here, just as it has not been taught enough in muggle schools.”
“I am talking about critical thinking. In a world filled with magic, strange creatures, weird plants and dark lords it is easy for us to fall into the common trap of believing everything we see. It is a dangerous trap because even in the wizarding world we can be fooled by our senses and tricked by our beliefs. We must evaluate everything we see and hear, weigh the evidence and make a judgement on whether we want to accept what we have seen or heard.”
“To illustrate the demands of skepticism and critical thinking, we have for you today a group of guest speakers. We have even made the unprecedented decision to invite a few muggles into Hogwarts.” A buzz of conversation rose up at this point and the students were looking around for muggles.
“Pay attention please. Now our first topic tonight is a topic which affects wizards and muggles alike. Autism is something for which we have no cure either magical or medical. We are not even able to say what causes Autism. Some people believe they know the cause, but as Kevin, whose daughter is autistic, will tell us, belief is not enough.”
The doors to the Great Hall opened wide and a man strode in carrying a small box. Harry Potter turned to Ron and whispered “It’s a laptop computer!” to gasps of amazement from Ron and the other Gryffindors sitting nearby. Kevin launched into his speech on the importance of critical thinking.
At the end of Kevin’s presentation, Professor Sprout stood and addressed the students. “In herbology we often examine cures for magical maladies, but we are far from being experts. Madame Pomfrey is an expert and it is experts like her that we should turn to for diagnosis and cure. My old friend Prometheus has agreed to come here to explain why mere experience of something does not make one an expert.”
With a flash of fire, Prometheus appeared and without ceremony launched into a tirade against pseudo-experts. As soon as he finished, he vanished again in an equally impressive spout of flame.
After a brief pause, Mr Weasley appeared out of one of the fireplaces, brushing ashes off his robe. Ron whispered excitedly to Hermione and looked proud as his Dad addressed the room. “While we’re on the subject of cures, in the muggle world they have these wonderful things called farmanimals which muggles take to cure themselves of maladies. Yes Hermione? Farma what? Oh Pharmaceuticals, right right. Well anyway they are very exciting but apparently some unscrupulous types try to sell the uh, pharma, thingies, on this incredible thing called the interweb!”. Hermione interrupted again, “It’s the internet!”. “What? Oh, yes, ok, well anyway my muggle friend Joseph is here to tell us about this dubious activity.”
After Joseph had sat down again, Hagrid stood up at the head table. “Right well, theres this bloke right and hes a muggle n’all but that don’t matter cuz muggles are ok wiv me but he’s gone and said that the ‘arry Potter story is just a story. Blimmin good story if you ask me but anyways he says its popularity shouldn’t be used to further personal agendas wotever that means. I’ll let Mark explain it better.
Mark spoke his piece and then got sent flying by Hagrid patting him on the back for his efforts. Professor McGonagall started to rise but sat again looking surprised as Hagrid started speaking again. “Now when Mr Dumbledore, bless ‘im, gave me the care of magical creatures job, he taught me all ’bout evolution. See even the critters I look after all evolved, just like we did and the muggles did. Everyone knows that dunt they? Well it seems like some muggles dont so we thought that in case some of you lot werent sure we’d better talk about it. I aint no expert on it though so I found some other people to give you all the info you need.
Hagrid sat down and and a man wearing muggle clothing approached the front of the hall. He introduced himself as Red State Rabble, funny names some of those muggles have, and told the students about a muggle movie pretending to be science while actually promoting religion.
Following on from that, another muggle was brought in by Professor Flitwick and introduced as Chris, who delivered an entertaining review of an article about Intelligent Design seen in a muggle magazine.
After Chris sat down, there was a long pause and gradually the attention of the whole room was on one man sat on the edge of the head table. He was staring raptly at the star-studded ceiling, completely lost in thought. Hagrid poked him, making him almost fall off his chair.
“What? Oh, sorry, I get lost in the stars so easily. But that’s not what I’m here to talk to you about today. My name is Phil and I want to tell you about a very misguided muggle world leader who thinks evolution is not the answer.
After Phil had given his very eloquent speech, he sat back down and went back to staring at the stars. The doors to the great hall crashed open and the sound of rock music filled the room as a man appeared surrounded by smoke, clutching a bright purple guitar. The Rockstar sang two songs, one about Deception from ID proponents and one about that muggle world leader mentioned previously by Phil.
Before Hagrid could get up again, Professor McGonagall was on her feet and speaking. “Some of those last speeches touched on the subject of religion. For those of us not familiar with the muggle world this is very strange concept and I for one would love to hear more about these quaint, antiquated customs which cause so much tribulation to those poor muggles. Let me introduce Jay who will tell us about the historical ignorance of biblical prophesy advocates.”
Jay’s speech was long but very interesting, captivating everyone in the room except for a few unruly boys at the Slytherin table. Following directly on from him was the wizardly Brent Rasmussen who told everyone about a blogger who is worried about losing his soul during apparating! Of course everyone knows how safe apparating is.
When he sat down, Cornelius Fudge appeared from another one of the fireplaces, brushing floo powder out of his hair. “As you know, the ministry of magic takes interference with muggles very seriously. We only allowed tonight’s gathering to include muggles once we had assurances that memory charms would be used to remove all memory of this event from the muggles minds. We are very careful that wizarding activity is not noticed by the muggle world. Imagine our panic then when rumours of strange happenings in what the muggles call the “Bermuda Triangle” reached us. After much investigation we were able to confirm that there was nothing at all strange about this area, and certainly no wizard activity there. Blog Caribe is here to tell us that some muggles agree that there is nothing to the Bermuda Triangle myth.
The students enjoyed an enlightening speech about this strange and non-existant phenomenon before Filch the caretaker came in carrying a small transparent plastic box containing flashing lights. “I found this on the front steps, probly some joke by them Weasley twins. I’ll thrash ‘em with thorns if I ever get my ‘ands on ‘em.”
“I beg your pardon sir, but I am not a joke.” The voice was coming from the box! “I am Orac and I’m here to participate in this evening of critical thinking.” Filch hastily dropped Orac on the head table and practically ran out of the room.
Orac continued “As you heard from the last speaker, muggles will often believe something for no other reason than hearsay and gossip. They are also capable of seeing patterns or images where none exist. A grey blob on a wall suddenly becomes a religious icon. The imagination exhibited is a fantastic thing, but it can be taken too far. I’m going to address an example of this imagination gone crazy. First I’ll tell you about a statue that folk thought had come alive and then on a happier note, someone who didn’t let their imagination get the better of them.”
“Excuse me if I might interrupt?” said a man at the back of the room. “My name is Lord Runolfr and I think I have an explanation which covers much of the last few speeches. You see, muggles, and even some wizards, suffer from what is known as illusory causation“.
Orac seemed a little put out by the interruption, but begrudgingly conceded that Lord Runolfr had a very good point. His flashing lights suggested he was about to launch into another speech, but before he could speak another voice spoke out. “You know, that also explains some of the things I wanted to speak about. Sorry, my name is Skeptico and I’m here to tell you about a gullible family who were convinced their child had been a fighter pilot in a previous life . After some investigation I was able to explain most of the story without resorting to dreams of reincarnation. I’d also like to tell you about supposed government mind zapping conspiracies, obviously the work of a delusional mind! And finally, on a more serious note I want to impress on all of you here today the importance of arguing based on facts and data instead of using the dark art of ad hominem attacks.”
Once Skeptico was finished with his trio of skeptical delicacies, Professor Binns, the ghost teacher of the history of magic stood, to muted groans from the students and thanked Skeptico before launching into a long and incredibly boring preamble about the similarities and differences between wizard history and muggle history. Half the room were nodding off and Hagrid was snoring loudly before Professor Binns finally got to the point. “Whichever history we talk about it is important to remain as factual as possible. Changing history can be a terrible thing, and historical revisionism is a scourge that must be routed. Brian has joined me to talk to you about an example of historical revisionism by misquoting and fabrication.
Brian delivered his speech on the dubious claims of John Ray, and also went on to tell everybody about his exclusion from a group of climate sceptics who wouldn’t let him in because he was too skeptical.
Once Brian was seated again, Professor McGonagall stood. “That brings us to the end of this incredibly enlightening evening. I hope you’ve all learned how important it is to think critically about everything. In case you need even more information on this crucially important subject, I recommend you contact our good friend James Randi, a wizard of high standing who chooses to live in the muggle world in the hope of educating them to think as critically as he does.
(Thanks to everyone for their submissions. The next skeptics’ circle will be held on August 18th, over at Atheism Guide. For the full schedule, see the main Skeptics’ Circle site).
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