Ricky Gervais Tweets About Religion

From a post at the Ink Tank, The 10 Smartest Ricky Gervais Tweets About Religion:

God doesn't prevent terrible things because:
A) He can't
B) He doesn't want to
C) He causes them
D) He doesn't exist 

Please vote now

Note: it's not clear to me whether this originated with Ricky Gervais or Nicol de Villiers (@Durbanville) on Twitter -- although it is credited by sites like Ink Tank to Gervais, I only find a Twitter link to de Villiers, and the de Viller's tweet looks to be two+ hours earlier so either Gervais or an assistant may have copied it (if he indeed tweeted it).  Regardless, it's apt. 

Yeah, I'm doing this wrong.  I should be re-tweeting Ricky Gervais (or the somewhat less prolific Nicol de Villiers).  But this is a blog.

"40 Maps That Explain the World"

At the Washington Post there was an interesting post a couple of days ago collecting a variety of geopolitical maps that offer insight into the world.  They don't quite "explain the world" -- maps on, say, oil deposits and mineral resources, education levels, locations of armies and missiles, rainfall, etc. -- might offer something more in the way of explanation, but these are fascinating nonetheless.  A few examples via Tim!):

Large image of map below here.

Large image of map below here (different colors).

Large image of map below here.

Large image of map below here.

Large image of map below here.

From Smithsonian, the Story of a Russian Family that Lived Apart from All Civilization for 40 Years

If this was not published by Smithsonian Magazine I'd find it hard to believe. In 1978 a six member family, thee Lykovs, was discovered living in a very remote part of southern Siberia, the Abakan, where they had been since 1938. They had no knowledge of World War II or, indeed, anything outside of their lives during that period. Two of the children had never seen anyone but family members.

They had fled into the wilderness in fear of religious prosecution. They were "Old Believers," a sect of very conservative Russian Orthodox who were first persecuted by Tsar Peter the Great, and who had split off from the main line of the church in opposition to reforms, an event known as the "raskol."

The Lykovs repeatedly faced starvation, their metal pots rotted away, their seeds and few crops sometimes eaten away by animals. Their lives were phenomenal acts of endurance in the bitter cold and short summers without any technology, with few clothes all filled with patches. They, of course, had never seen television, did not believe people had been to the moon, were amazed by transparent plastic.

Sadly several of the Lykovs died shortly after they were discovered. Their patriarch, however, lived until 1988, and one daughter still lives today. Go to the story for the full fascinating tale. And, with an update via Kotke, here's a three part YouTtube series (1, 2, 3) of an untranslated Russian documentary on the family.

(N.B. I've noticed several sites refer to the place they were living as "the Taiga". "Taiga," in fact, refers generally to boreal forest all across Russia and Canada.)

Kumbh Mela

Kumbh Mela is a Hindu festival held every three years in which the faithful wash themselves in one of four rivers sacred to Hinduism -- the Ganges, Yamuna, Godavari, and Shipra. Each Kumbh Mela involves visiting that cycle's river at a specific festival site, so each site and river is visited once every twelve years. (Actually, there are also "half" festivals and the Yamuna is visited where it joins the Ganges and, supposedly, the Sarasavati -- the collection of the three rivers known as the "Triveri Sangam" -- so some of the rivers are visited more than once.)

This year is the Maha Kumbh Mela ("maha" means "great") in Allahabad (also known as Prayag, its Hindu name; "Allahabad," the name given by the Muslim Mughal Emperor Akbar in 1583, means ~"City of God" using the Arabic for "god"), which is the location of the Triveri Sangam. It's a big deal, supposedly the largest gathering of people on Earth. The Boston Globe's photo site The Big Picture has a spread on it, and here are a few of the images:

Upcoming Posts at Galileo Feynman

When I began this blog I imagined a mix of posts on art and politics, music and culture, science and society interspersed with short essays on a variety of more philosophical subjects. I haven't had much chance to focus on the essay side -- which I'd normally post under the tag Blah blah blah, among others -- but I thought I'd mention what's in the hopper. It's all pretty nerdy, so abandon all hope if you're looking for something else. A lengthy list follows bellow the break.

God Intervenes on Behalf of Cindy Jacobs' Shoes

Yes, ha ha, she's a nut and possibly should be institutionalized. Oh this is funny. Except that Cindy and Mike Jacobs run a huge evangelical Christian network and are leading supporters of Texas Governor Rick Perry. According to their site God Knows "[t]he ministry has moved from a small gathering in Texas to an international movement to reform the nations of the world through ministering in the prophetic and apostolic." Here's some summaries from Right Wing Watch which, although not intended this way, make for hilarity if, um, you have a good sense of dark humor.

How We Know the Earth is a Sphere

And after these things I saw four angels standing on the fourcorners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.

Revelation 7:1-3

Yes, yes, it's like shooting fish in a barrel, but still it is valuable to consider how we know things:

I would add we know the Earth is not flat for many other obvious reasons, like, if it were flat gravity would be markedly greater in its center, tidal forces would tear the Earth apart, meteorites or comets could make holes the Earth (depending on how thick the Earth was and how large the meteorite or comet), seismological tests would not make any sense (since they disprove the flat Earth), plate tectonics would not make much sense, satellites would not orbit the Earth in the manner they do ... we could just go on and on.

The Goddamn Apoalypse

The Goddamn Apoalypse tells you how many predicted apocalypses you've survived, giving you the details of the prediction of each. Darn you're lucky.

Steven Pinker on the Brain, the Mind, and Evolution

While researching The Spectator article I linked to earlier tonight (well, this morning), I noticed this provocative quote from Steven Pinker's facebook page:

Why do people believe that there are dangerous implications of the idea that the mind is a product of the brain, that the brain is organized in part by the genome, and that the genome is a product of evolution?

I am So Tired of People Who Mispronounce "Christmas"

"Christmas" is mispronounced by people who hate "Christmas." The correct pronunciation is here. Say it with me, "Christmas" ... "Christmas" ... "Christmas." See? It's easy. And that's the way the baby Jesus intended it.

Banned In Leviticus

The Bible's Book of Leviticus famously states "[t]hou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination," which is where the Bible prohibits homosexuality. (A parallel statement in Leviticus is here. The Bible, including the New Testament, mentions homosexuality or sodomy 5 other places and in Deuteronomy, 1 Kings, and 2 Kings refers to cult prostitution which could involve homosexuality -- it makes no explicit references at all to lesbian sex). But even a cursory reading of Leviticus would revel to anyone with a clue that it consists of the ancient ramblings of a primitive tribe. The verse immediately before that prohibiting men laying with men prohibits "let[ting] any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech." Here's a list of some other things Leviticus prohibits that may be applicable to the modern man or woman:

It's Hanukkah! (Here's What Not to Get Me)

The Hebrew characters for Hanukkah/Chanukah 

So, on Hanukkah (or Chanukah, you pick) we celebrate the fact that after the Syrians and Greeks under evil king Seleucus, who was the son of not quite as evil king Antiochus III who had captured Israel from the Egyptian Pharaoh Ptolemy but then lost to the Romans and had to pay tribute, were rebuffed when Seleucus sent his minister Helyodros to steal the gold from the Temple but then Helyodros had a vision of God and so would not go into the Temple, so then Seleucus died, though he's the namesake of the Seleucid empire, and his super evil brother Antiochus IV took over and he got rid of the High Priest of the Temple and replaced him with one stooge after another in an attempt to make the Jews be like Greeks, but then the Jews thought Antiochus IV was dead even though he was in Egypt and so the Jews rebelled, and when Antiochus IV got back and he was really p.o.'d so he had tons of Jews murdered and burned the Torah and tried to make the remaining Jews worship false idols (and Hannah's seven sons were murdered in front of Hannah by Antiochus IV after they refused to renounce God and then she killed herself), but the Jews resisted, and then in the village of Modin the Jew Mattityahu and his sons and friends murdered Seleucid soldiers who tried to get them to convert to pagan beliefs, leading Mattityahu and co. to flee to the hills of Judea where they began a rebellion, but then Mattityahu died so the rebelling Jews were led by Mattityahu's sons Judah Macabees in warfare and Shimon the Wise for other stuff, and then over two years they wiped out three separate attacks by Antiochus IV, ultimately beating over 40,000 Seleucid soldiers, so then the Maccabees, which is what they called themselves then, went to Jerusalem and they kicked Seleucid butt there, too, but their golden menorah had been stolen so they made another not so fancy one yet they only had one day of sacred olive oil available but MIRACULOUSLY the menorah stayed lit for eight days until they got some more sacred olive oil, which is why we now eat delicious foods cooked in olive oil like latkes.^* Also there's the candle thing.

"Simpson-Bowles is Magic"

Via Brad Delong and Paul Krugman, I've come to this excellent article at Salon by Alex Pareene on how the Simpson-Bowles economic plan works. It's so simple, I wish I had known this sooner. I must quote at length:

Not many people know this but “The Simpson-Bowles Plan” is magic. It is whatever you want it to be. It will fix the deficit and grow the economy and it does it without raising taxes on anyone, unless you want to raise taxes on some people, and then it does that. It cuts all government spending but in a way that doesn’t hurt Medicare or The Troops. If you stand in front of a mirror and say “Simpson-Bowles” three times David Gergen and Gloria Borger appear out of nowhere and praise your wisdom and seriousness. “The Simpson-Bowles Plan” gives you Your Country Back and makes it the ’90s again, or the ’50s, or whatever past decade you wish it was, when things were better. Simpson and Bowles were two kindly wizards and they granted America three wishes but dumb Washington, D.C., is too Partisan to make the wishes. Obama and the Republicans need to Grow Up and Get Serious and Pass “The Simpson-Bowles Plan,” everyone in America agrees.

That is basically the way the press and most of Washington talk about the deficit, the “fiscal cliff” and the deficit reduction “framework” endorsed by two old white guys named Simpson and Bowles. No one actually knows or cares what’s in the actual Simpson-Bowles plan, but at this point it doesn’t actually matter. Here’s Fred Barnes counseling Republicans to endorse Simpson-Bowles despite the fact that it includes the expiration of all Bush tax cuts, a thing he does not support. Here’s reasonable old David Gergen warning that Democrats are overreaching by asking for more than $1 trillion in new revenue, and invoking Simpson-Bowles yet again as an example of the Proper Way to do a Grand Bargain. Simpson-Bowles includes more than $2 trillion in new revenue.

The smarter Republicans have long since figured out that the entire deficit “debate” is an elaborate farce, which is why John Boehner just pretended to be offering something called “The Bowles Plan,” though it was not actually a plan authored or endorsed by Mr. Bowles. Mitt Romney kept saying he loved the Simpson-Bowles Plan, though of course he would never have actually signed it into law had be been elected. (Not that it ever would’ve passed Congress!) He “had his own plan,” which was probably going to be tax cuts and more defense spending. ...

Pareene goes on and on. It's excellent.  I wished I had realized that Simpson-Bowles is magic, like Christianity. Dang. It works so well now.

Bill Nye on the Age of the Universe and Creationism

The False Positive Paradox

I've posted before about my affection for Randall Monroe's webcomic xkcd and his related work, humor, and insight, and tonight (via Neatorama) I learned that it's been two years since his fiance was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer.  She's beating it so far.  He's noted the stats, and had a webcomic on this, but it also reminded me of something separate: the false positive paradox. (Well, that sounds like a downer, but it's not.)

The false positive paradox arises when a fairly reliable test yields fewer correct positive results than incorrect positive because the incidence of whatever is being tested is so low in the population. For example, imagine 1% of a population has a disease and a test for the disease is 95% accurate. That means if one gets a positive result there is, in fact, only about a 16% chance that one actually has the disease (specifically, the chance of a correct positive result is 1% x 95% = .95%; the chance for a false positive result is 99% x 5% = 4.95%; the chance of having the condition with a positive result is then .95 / (.95 + 4.95) ≈ 16%).

The GOP and Me

The blogger Rany, who normally writes about his strained relations with his former hometown baseball team, the Kansas City Royals, took time out to describe in detail why Muslims in the U.S., who used to be overwhelming Republicans, are now overwhelmingly Democrats. Muslims, although their extreme fundamentalists are an aberration, still tend to be conservative. What gives? The short answer is intolerance:

[W]hen the PATRIOT Act was signed into law, Muslims were taken aback by the far-reaching implications. Citizens could have their phones or computers tapped with neither their knowledge nor any recourse. Muslims in Indiana found themselves on the No-Fly List because they had the misfortune of sharing the same name with a terrorist suspect in India - and there was essentially no way to clear their name from the list. Thousands of Muslims, many of whom had lived and worked in America for decades, were arrested on flimsy immigration violations and deported back to their countries of birth.

Rany goes on to describe one insult after another, one injustice after another. Republicans are in disarray right now trying to figure out what they did wrong. (They have a lot of theories, such as the electorate is stupid and disappointed them; I'll post on that soon when I can collect them.) One crazy ass thing the Republicans might try is not being intolerant of those who do not have purely European ancestry. Just shooting in the dark here. It is sad, though, when those who are rejected by a group still hang on to the group, as American Muslims did so long with the Republicans. Via Meta Filter.

A Few Words on Valuing Education, Intellectual Attainment, and Science, and the Role of Religion

In the United States education is primarily provided by state and local governments rather than the federal government. Indeed, for many U.S. states, education is the largest budget item. Nonetheless, federal contributions still are very large -- about 10.8% of the overall funding for primary and secondary education. At both the state and federal level ideological issues have intruded into the attempt to teach facts.

Oh Boy! Oh boy! Only Two Days Until Jesusween!

As everybody knows, October 31 is Jesusween, and it's going to be great this year! We're going to draw pictures of Jesus v.2.0 and some people will even come in costume and we'll have storytelling and even hand out fantasy stories and people will wear their white tops [very unfair link] and we'll eat Jesus Harvest Seeds which aren't candy corn, and we will all go to heaven. Jesusween: because nobody can party like Jesus.

A Map Showing the "History of Religion"

This is interesting but a little simplistic. Where are Confucianism and Daoism? Where are animistic and shamanistic religions? Where are the New World beliefs? And wouldn't be better to show the mixing of religion rather than just colored regions with hard edges between them (color is actually great to show religion because one can use shades and show mixing and degree). But I expect too much.

A Freezing Water Droplet

Via Neatorama an article at Phys.Org on the structure of water droplets as they freeze backed up with a series of pictures.  The formation of the point is caused by water expanding as it freezes while being constrained by the surface tension of the drop. (I have to note, having observed a few water droplets in my day, that the structure must be limited by the size of the drop and speed of freezing (and sometimes gravity) since I've seen many frozen drops that are humped and not pointed.)

The water droplet, once frozen, forms an ice crystal "tree" as water from the atmosphere condenses on it. That's also cool (pun accidental!), and what's also cool (pun intended!) is the process, since it is exothermic but a physical structure is formed. Those anti-evolution nuts who claim that claim that evolution is impossible as supposedly violating the second law of thermodynamics may want to take a look at this.