Unavoidably Awkward

2009-08-16T20:19:00.005-07:00

1. Nietzsche Family Circus. Read it.

2. Science always goes down better with some cat.

3. Somehow I'm not surprised.

4. Beck, who has a regular audience of some 2.5 million viewers on his nightly show, has even "re-floated militia conspiracy theories of the 1990s alleging a secret network of government-run concentration camps," said the SPLC.

Oh. Great.

5. Brilliant.

Still Backlogging

2009-08-15T11:33:00.004-07:00

1. I almost lost this link, but all I had to do to find it again was google "LED sheep."

2. Were they trying to help an injured sea turtle, or were they really trying to create a sea turtle/stingray hybrid....

3. Why is it that I find little dogs in clothing irritating yet find this so endearing?

4. So this clinic is pretty unethical what with the parading as something it's not (a medical facility). But when you have this many red flags popping up so early in your visit there, it's kind of your own damn fault for walking willingly into their trap:

I’m filling out a form. It’s only two pages long and doesn’t ask the usual personal and medical information. One page asks for my name, contact info, date of birth and date of my last period. The other is a disclosure form. It notifies me that the people I’m about to talk to do not have psychological degrees and have not gone to medical school. The volunteers, the form says, should not be considered a substitute for professional counseling. Oh, and the pregnancy test I’m about to take, the form tells me, should not be considered a clinical diagnosis.

Now I know women can be panicky when they're facing an unplanned pregnancy. But still. Honestly. If you still think you should trust these people with your health after reading that, you have to take most of the blame for whatever bullshit they throw at you. You, after all, asked for it. It's not like they're the only option in town.

5. The question is, do any of these soldiers actually give a shit about the goat?

Backlog!!

2009-08-14T19:08:00.005-07:00

1. So museum officials and patrons take it in stride when creationists criticize secular science museums, but atheists criticizing the Creation Museum is frowned upon and "ruins the experience" for the other museum-goers?

2. That is clearly Vet Wrap, not "splints", on that frog's legs.

3. OH MY GOD, THOSE SICK BASTARDS CUT OFF DOGS' NOSES AND MOUNTED THEM ON-- ...Oh. I see what you did there.

4. Well, it sucks that the Seattle Lucy exhibit was pretty much a failure, but I'm damn glad I got to see it. I also find it amusing that my favorite parts of the exhibit were also Johanson's.

5. So...crusty.... Yet somehow...compelling....

2009-03-09T21:46:00.006-07:00

1. They had already been banned from schools as teachers said they were “too distracting” for other pupils - so they have never learnt to read or write, one of their biggest regrets in life.

Holy shit.

Thank god nothing like that happens now. Thank you, ADA/IDEA.

2. I'm not the most sedentary person in the nation!

3. This study involves some categorization/conception of religious belief that I found pretty interesting. Including this definition and analysis:

Fundamentalism (the belief that there is one set of religious teachings that clearly contain the essential, inerrant truth) was linked both to greater homophobia and racism. So fundamentalist religion generates group cohesion that's sufficiently powerful to overcome the non-racist message of conventional Christianity.

4. Sweet.

This especially kind of blows my mind:

So many Americans claim no religion at all (15%, up from 8% in 1990), that this category now outranks every other major U.S. religious group except Catholics and Baptists.

Not that I think non-believers should take over and/or start converting. But I can't help but think this will mean increased visibility and therefore increased societal acceptance.

5. So yeah. Old news:

The controversy erupted when media reported that a nine-year-old girl from the northeastern Brazilian state of Pernambuco had had an abortion to remove twin fetuses. The girl and her family learned she was 15 weeks pregnant when she went to hospital complaining of pains.

The girl, who has not been identified, told authorities her step-father had sexually abused her since age six. The 23-year-old step-father is currently in police custody.

Here's the kicker:

Upon learning of the abortion, the regional archbishop excommunicated the doctors, as well as the girl's mother. He did not excommunicate the step-father, saying the crime he is alleged to have committed, although deplorable, was not as bad as ending a fetus's life.

Holy.

Fucking.

Shit.

Sometimes I truly hate this world.

2009-03-07T16:46:00.004-08:00

1. Why do I find animals scratching themselves so amusing?

2. Interesting.

3. Ding dong the witch is dead. An era has truly come to an end.

4. So I talk about wanting to get armor for my horse, but this is even more ridiculous.

5. Yay Missouri!

2009-03-06T13:01:00.003-08:00

1. Score! Now I just need to find a way to get a photo taken with/near one.

2. This has got to be the most professional journalism I've witnessed in a long time....

3. Horse milk is still drunk in Kazakhstan, usually fermented into an alcoholic drink known as koumiss.

Ewwww.

4. So. Much. Processed. Meat.

5. Like their aquatic counterparts, pet chickens don't have very long life expectancies, usually hanging on for just a few days or weeks.

Hmm. I'd imagine a dead baby chicken would be a bit more difficult/complicated/traumatic to dispose of than a goldfish. I don't think it'd flush easily.

2009-03-05T21:05:00.003-08:00

1. I'm so excited to move back!

2. Oy.

3. Somewhat related to the above.

4. Vote for Xenu! Make (more) fun of Scientologists!

5. So you're saying I'll be less anxious if I convince myself to believe in God? Hmm....

Nope. Still not worth it.

2009-03-03T13:57:00.003-08:00

1. Anecdotally, it is often said that brass players - often overwhelmingly male orchestral sections - drink the most.

Yes. Let's blame it on the gender ratio....

2. Ha.

3. Sad.

Obviously there's something wrong with that second X chromosome.

4. Did I mention that I received one of these as a gift?

5. Maybe if you put on some pants, you could accept God into your lives.

2009-03-01T21:41:00.003-08:00

1. Gift ideas, anyone?

2. First, ow. Second:

The scientists then pumped up the sexual organ with a tiny artificial inflator powered by a water-jet vacuum pump.

...Wow.

3. Another one! But this one didn't spontaneously regenerate a smaller version of itself while in captivity.

4. They have the opportunity to train a penguin, and they train it to go shopping....

5. I'm amazed Brown doesn't make an appearance on this list.

2009-02-28T22:54:00.004-08:00

1. Yay.

Well, not yay that they're all dying....

2. Ha. Classic.

Though I'd probably look similar if I were standing next to that much talent.

Also, John Mayer ain't lookin too good.

3. Glass-bottom fish!

4. It's like they just discovered the existence of gaited horses. Oy.

5. Nice.

2009-02-24T15:18:00.005-08:00

1. So this incident is pretty old news, and nothing unique, but I did notice this part:

The Police Department has an autism response team, but it was not dispatched.

Really? That's kind of cool, I guess. I'm a little worried about what kind of special training this team receives. Can't they just do some disability awareness for all of the police?

2. Awesome. When are they gonna teach it ASL? (Or BSL, given that it's in the UK.)

3. Contemporary archaeology is a response to the problem of preserving and recording our disposable, rapidly changing culture.

Interesting. Hadn't thought of it from that angle -- the need for archaeology as a response to rapid change (instead of a response to lack of recorded history, etc.)

4. For some reason, my first thought upon seeing this was, "It's snack sized!"

Also, this design just looks man-made to me. Strange that it occurred naturally.

5. The mustang was white all over, with dark spots on his rear, betraying some Appaloosa in his ancestry, but with hooves like dinner plates, suggesting the additional introduction of something more along the lines of a draft horse. He'd been named Dot by the inmates at the Honor Farm near Riverton, where he'd been trained as a wild-born five-year-old. As a result the mustang had both native sense and correctional-facility manners, and you can do a lot worse than that in a horse.

Ha. True.

2009-02-17T20:21:00.005-08:00

1. parents with higher incomes and more education gestured more broadly to their children

The hell? Does being poor make your arms weak? Do they teach nonverbal communication in college and I'm just not aware of it?

Interesting observation, but I'm wondering about the why.

2. I could totally do this.

3. Pretty.

4. Brain scans revealed that when men are shown pictures of scantily clad women, the region of the brain associated with tool use lights up.

Perfect. Women take their clothes off and suddenly men possess no theory of mind.

5. Spewing hatred and accusing Obama of being the antichrist is all okay if you end it with a cheery salutation!

Thanks for asking!

Shirley Phelps-Roper

2009-02-13T16:38:00.004-08:00

1. I wonder how many 'costumed actors' have been strangled by irritable women having contractions?

2. I knew it.

3. I knew there was a reason I didn't eventually settle on archaeology as my major....

4. This is the real Robinson Crusoe?

Hunting goats became a sport for Selkirk. He learned to outrun them and throw them to the ground while running.

So you're saying he was a hillbilly?

5. It's about time.

2009-01-30T21:02:00.003-08:00

1. Here we go again.

"This textbook discusses evolution, a controversial theory some scientists present as a scientific explanation for the origin of living things. No one was present when life first appeared on earth. Therefore, any statement about life's origins should be considered a theory," the proposal continues.

If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, should any statement about it be considered a theory?

2. Sad:

“If (homosexuals) can marry, what is the reason that public policy says one person can’t marry more than one person?” said Suffredine, a former provincial lawmaker.

And what do you want to bet the polygamists are religious enough to think homosexuality is an abomination against god? Yet they take their side when it suits their purposes, of course....

3. My first and only cubicle, hopefully.

4. My full name has some seriously Not-Safe-For-Work acronyms.

5. Ha. Lesbian couple denied family membership at a community recreation center, but the YMCA welcomes them with open arms. I love seeing religious organizations do the right thing.

2009-01-23T15:31:00.003-08:00

1. I always knew I was on the right track.

2. This is awesome, but I can't help but think Obama's PR machine might resent it....

3. Not much of a reason to include this link other than the fact that I want the t-shirt mentioned.

4. So someone else is complaining about the British atheist bus ad (The one that says "There’s Probably No God. Now Stop Worrying and Enjoy Your Life":

the rationale behind it is that people can be less careful about their lifestyle choices and general approach to life’s consequences by discounting the likelihood of a Creator and an afterlife

Isn't this what I tried to warn people about in the beginning? I hate to say I told you so....

this causes concern to Christian and Muslim people, many of whom feel embarrassed and uncomfortable travelling on public transport displaying such advertisements and would not wish to endorse the advertisements by using that public transport

Yeah. And those atheists who might be embarrassed or uncomfortable when confronted by religious messages plastered throughout the world? Fuck 'em.

5. A hedgehog even white supremacists would approve of.

2009-01-21T12:55:00.003-08:00

1. Hey jackass, it's free, so eat the fucking waffles.

2. So this guy apparently got bitch-slapped by Helen Keller:

"I had heard that Helen could speak and I wanted to feel her speak, so I reached out to put my hands on her face, hoping that she would speak to me that way," Smithdas recalls. "But to my surprise she slapped my hand away. I wasn't amused. I thought it was a crude gesture."

And then this....

Journalist Barbara Walters, who spoke at Smithdas' retirement luncheon Friday, said Smithdas was remarkable.

"Truly, the most memorable person I had ever met was Robert Smithdas," she said. "I remember going to Bob's house, and he cooked me a meal. I was amazed he was able to do this and didn't burn his hands."

Okay people. If you're gonna call someone remarkable, do it because of their personality or talents, etc., not simply due to skills they learn to cope with life. People with disabilities don't want to be admired for their adaptations -- they want to be admired for themselves. Focusing on how 'remarkable' someone is for overcoming their disability is basically equating their entire identity with their disability. Get over it and try to find out who the person really is....

3. Sad. (More bus-ad shenanigans.)

In fact, speaking as one myself, I think it shows quite a cheek for Christians to make a fuss about this. We’ve spent decades covering public places with verses from the Bible, and posters promising that if you let Jesus into your life everything will be all right for ever.

Then as soon as the opposition get the money together to do the same thing we’re outraged, and think that God is as cross as we are.

4. Apparently, the Italian atheists violated The Code of Advertising Practice (roughly translated below).

Article 10 — moral, civil, religious and human dignity

Advertising must not offend the moral, civic and religious citizens. It must respect human dignity in all its forms and expressions.

Convenient how non-believers aren't included in this....

And again. Questioning or critiquing beliefs is not the same as offending the people who hold those beliefs.

5. Fuck yeah.

(Anyone who gets PBS have a DVR I could commandeer?)

2009-01-18T18:59:00.005-08:00

1. A New York hunter may be feeling a bit sheepish after mistaking a feral llama in Paradise Valley for a Rocky Mountain elk, but he apparently did not violate any laws.

I'd like you to focus on the words 'feral' and 'llama'. They're next to each other. This amuses me greatly.

2. A flow chart of sorts, showing which languages are considered most difficult by other language speakers. Based mostly on the equivalent of the phrase "it's all Greek to me" in various languages. I wonder where Icelandic would fall on there....

3. There's plenty of ridiculous fundamentalist bullshit here, but the funniest part is that they assume that only homosexuals get up to these kinds of shenanigans.

Though I agree it's kind of sketchy to book this kind of event at a venue that isn't fully informed of the planned activities. While I'm fine with consenting adults -- of any sexual orientation -- participating, somehow I don't think it'd be cool for some poor kid staying at the hotel to stumble across some of the spillover....

4. I find this paper and its subject pretty boring, honestly, but the title is pretty awesome.

5. Ha. I'm so looking forward to re-entering academia.

2009-01-11T14:09:00.006-08:00

1. It got kinda cold while I was in KC for the holiday.

Now try and complain about the 'cold', Pacific Northwestern-ers. You don't know the meaning of cold.

2. And now a trip down memory lane. Also known as 'Sarah Humiliates Herself for Fun and Profit.' But without the 'profit' part.

I appear to be milking a plane in this one.

And then there's the phase where I decided I really wanted to find out how much sunburn my scalp could tolerate.

Good times.

3. Scary as hell, of course.

Makes me a little more worried about Obama using him as a strategy to appease the fundagelicals. Surely he could've found someone a little less odious?

4. It's time for Fun With Ted Haggard!

Haggard said a co-worker of his father molested him when he was 7, an experience that "started to produce fruit" later. Clarifying that Friday, Haggard said: "I'm certainly not saying that because of that, I did this. I did what I did by my choice, and I'm responsible for it."

Yeah right. You don't mention an experience like that in this context without meaning to imply a causal relationship.

Asked to expand on his attitude toward homosexuality, Haggard said, "I believe all human beings fall short of the standards they believe in."

Oy. Still not good enough, my friend.

Since my experience, I know more about the power of love and forgiveness. I know a lot more about the necessity of people not judging one another.

Yeah. Just like saying that homosexuality = 'falling short of one's standards' is non-judgmental....

I have learned enough to know a lot can happen to anybody. And when Jesus is our Lord, we can't plan our path.

So he's saying that bad shit happens to good people because of Jesus??

[T]he church chose not to forgive me

Well duh. That's what you taught them to do.

Haggard has said his childhood experiences, including same-sex "sex play" with friends when he was in the seventh grade, started to manifest themselves when he turned 50

Yeah right. He didn't 'turn gay' until some repressed memories bubbled up when he was 50? Uh huh.

Don't get me wrong. It looks like the guy's attitude has improved from his previous stance. But he still has a loooong way to go.

5. I really really wanna go here. What a perfect excuse to finally go to San Francisco.

Especially if I could take this. Holy crap that'd be awesome.

2009-01-10T21:05:00.005-08:00

1. Me in my natural habitat: surrounded by dust and manure, convincing a 1000-lb animal to do something it would really rather not do.

2. Someday I want to live in a house like this.

But in Iceland.

(Photo taken on the Vashon Island Ferry sometime last spring.)

3. Let's go to my room Pig!

(magnets!)

(pencil included for scale!)

4. Worst. Dinner. Ever.

(But it made a nice bowl.)

5. Inedible sushi. It's a sacrilege, I know.

This was my favorite purchase while Christmas shopping. Of course I bought it for myself....

They're supposedly erasers. The fish detaches from the rice balls.

This time, a pen is provided for scale.

2009-01-10T00:38:00.006-08:00

1. Chomsky...says, “language evolved, and is designed, primarily as an instrument of thought” [italics mine; p. 22]. Communication, for Chomsky, is secondary.... [source]

Whoa. For some reason I thought Chomsky wouldn't want to touch Sapir-Whorf with a ten foot pole. Granted, Sapir-Whorf didn't propose a theory of language evolution (that I know of), but that's still a whole lot of language-influencing-thought there.

The speech that emerged was not a pidgin or protolanguage, but true language.

Huh? So humans went from 0 to 60 in one generation? I can't quite wrap my mind around that.

Chomsky’s point is that without true language you cannot think deeply enough to gain a survival advantage....

I hope he's not proposing that without language you can't have intelligent thought. I've discussed this before, but Temple Grandin makes a pretty convincing argument for visual thinking and its effectiveness in higher-order cognition (I know I linked to her article on visual thinking in a much-earlier posting here, but I'm too lazy at the moment to dig it up). Granted, there may be/may have been some selective advantage to linguistic thought over visual thought.

Pure thought, which Chomsky says came before any “secondary” linking to a “sensory modality,” is not contaminated by the sound or words, the image of objects, or some other kind of perceptual sensation.

Is this based on any science? Or is it just armchair philosophy? It's interesting either way, but I hope he's not claiming that the idea has more validity than it does.

First, Chomsky's basic position is just a restatement of the old "what good is half an eye?" argument.

Oh no! Chomsky's a closet creationist?!1!

(I have no idea if he is, actually, and I'm not sure I care.)

2. From The Stranger's yearly list of apologies/regrets:

Moreover, Mr. Schmader regrets the inability of countless self-victimizing religious conservatives to understand that being deprived of the ability to oppress another is not the same as being oppressed.

Awesome.

On June 4, Brendan Kiley posted this ad on The Stranger's classifieds page: "Wanted: Intern for The Stranger's Theater Section—the old one has lost consciousness. Must be reliable (seriously, no flakes), available on Monday and/or Tuesday afternoons, and believe mindless data entry is a means to getting head." That should have read: "a means to getting ahead." We regret the error, which confirmed everyone's suspicions about us.

Ha.

There might've been more quotes I wanted, but I'm too lazy to find the rest. I'm noticing a theme tonight....

3. Ha. Someone thought Prop 8 The Musical was a blatant example of Christian-bashing. See quote above.

From here:

INSTANCE #5: Chaplains Fired for Praying in Jesus' Name

Chaplains for the State of Virginia are being denied their right to pray in Jesus' name. Six chaplains were fired for continuing to pray in Jesus' name. Earlier this year in Virginia, Rev. Hashmel Turner, a city councilman in Fredericksburg, was told by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that his prayers during city council meetings that ended in Jesus' name will continue to be banned.

Uh. They're not being denied their right to pray, etc. They're being denied the (unconstitutional) privilege of praying in a government building at a government function.

And finally, the #1 Christian Bashing Instance in America for 2008...

INSTANCE #1: Radical Homosexuals Assault Prop 8 Marriage Supporters in California

During and after the November campaign stories flooded in of pro-Prop 8 signs being taken, people verbally and physically assaulted, church property and private automobiles vandalized, and person's jobs and pastor's lives threatened simply for exercising their right to campaign and vote in support of traditional marriage.

I agree that vandalism and threatening lives is uncalled for. But come on -- the Christians can't deny that they started it by gay-bashing in the first place. And they weren't threatened for 'exercising their right...to support...traditional marriage." They were threatened for taking away someone else's civil rights. It's almost like the KKK complaining about getting flak for exercising their right to support 'traditional' ethno-cultural values.

4. The things I do for my father's dog.... And does she show one ounce of gratitude?

5. It's hard to believe that this cat used to look like this. Poor guy. Brain parasites that kill your sense of balance and fuck up your metabolism are a bitch.

2009-01-04T17:41:00.005-08:00

1. The celebrated and unmentionable Nutrinomicon.

(No reason for that except pure weirdness.)

2. Whoa. Someone's making a movie about Temple Grandin.

I hope to god they do her and the issues justice.

3. An interesting -- if at times infuriating -- article about Australian Aboriginals. Mostly interesting to me due to the parallels with the US government's treatment of Native Americans. Though you don't see that issue getting as much publicity as the Australian counterpart....

Instead the nation was looking ruefully back into the past and apologizing for certain welfare policies between 1910 and 1970, a period when Aboriginal children were sometimes removed from their homes and parents for what was believed to be their own wellbeing, were taken elsewhere to be fostered or adopted, and were ‘brought up white’.

And almost the exact same thing happened to Native Americans....

Most provocatively, and absurdly, the report concluded that the removal policy constituted "genocide".

Well, I agree that exact word doesn't quite describe the situation. No one was killed. But equally strong language is called for here, I believe. The government was aiming to eradicate an entire culture. Possibly with benevolent intentions, but still.

On the front page of the issue for March 14, 2008, readers learnt that tribal elders at a place called Aurukun “are calling for children to be removed in the face of a comprehensive breakdown of social norms.”

Well yeah, but those horrible conditions wouldn't have occurred if the Australian government hadn't put them in that position....

How is it that at the very time when nothing remotely resembling traditional Aboriginal culture any longer exists at places like Aurukun, where the community has fallen into a cesspit of mutually reinforcing pathologies, the Australian intelligentsia adheres to a vision of indigenous culture that exists—if it exists at all—largely in the metaphysical realm?

How? Guilt. They feel justifiably guilty for eradicating indigenous culture and turning it into a 'cesspit of mutually reinforcing pathologies.' Sure, an apology alone won't create tangible change. But it's a start. And possibly a necessary step toward more practical solutions.

Oy. I can't take re-reading that article anymore. So many wrong-headed assumptions. So many misunderstandings.

4. Fucking Scientology. Someone seriously needs to shut them down. How many people have died because of their 'beliefs'?

Regardless of whether the kid legitimately had Kawasaki's or autism or whatever, he clearly had a seizure disorder. Most of those can be medicated to prevent or at least minimize the occurrence of said seizures. What do you wanna bet the Scientologists told Travolta not to give his son those meds? What do you wanna bet he wouldn't have fallen and gotten himself a fatal head wound if he hadn't had a seizure in the first place?

5. Braille's harder than it looks:

The reason why it was necessary to write from right to left was that, in those days, without the sophistication firstly of mechanical and then of electronic Braille production, the dots had to be pressed downwards and, when turned over, would provide a mirror image.

It was therefore not only necessary to write from right to left, but also to reverse the actual letters so that with the exception of letters like A and C, other parts of the alphabet had to be reversed.

Damn. Makes learning to write a tad more complicated....

Invented by Louis Braille at the age of 15, the idea came from a soldier who had served in the Napoleonic army in Poland and had attempted to devise a system that could, with night-time manoeuvres, allow messages to be sent and instructions to be passed from hand to hand.

Huh. Didn't know that.

You can't simply write Braille in large form so that as with print you can "catch your eye" on something that it is absolutely vital to deliver or to emphasise. Underlining is possible, but more out of technical form than in terms of being able to quickly highlight what needs to be referred to and at what point.

Again, never thought of that. Interesting.

2008-12-31T14:24:00.004-08:00

1. Neanderthal genetic analysis?

Another, a variety of FOXP2, is related to speaking and the capacity to create a language and therefore suggests they could communicate orally.

Dammit. Not again.

Even Wikipedia knows that the presence of FOXP2 does not equal language ability:

Different studies of FOXP2 in songbirds suggest that FOXP2 may regulate genes involved in neuroplasticity: During song learning FOXP2 is upregulated in brain regions critical for song learning in young zebra finches.

FOXP2 has also been implicated in the development of bat echolocation.

2. This has got to be a joke.

If interpreted as such, it's pretty damn funny:

As Governor Palin and the Wasilla Assemblies of God Church will tell you, the End Times will soon be upon us. As noted in the video linked below, Governor Palin recognizes that Alaska will be a refuge for Christians in the End Times. This is why she tells us (and the Masters Commission graduates she's addressing) that the $30 billion natural gas pipeline she's promoting is God's Will.

See? This can't possibly be real:

After that, I can't muster up the legitimate fear to be seriously scared by the 'Theocracy Now' bumper stickers.

2008-12-30T21:14:00.003-08:00

1. Really interesting (study on autism and eye gaze).

2. Idiots. I live in a city full of idiots.

3. I want one!

It'd also be a good teaching/ABA/occupational therapy tool.

4. I need to make sure I make it down here before I move away from the northwest.

5. An interesting argument for the use of alternative medicine:

The problem is, an evidence-based medical practitioner cannot really use a placebo to full effectiveness.

But there's another way. We can get people who are naturally more convincing - because they actually do believe in the effectiveness of the treatment. And if that helps the patient believe, we may be able to take more complete advantage of the placebo effect.

That is, I'd like to consider the possibility of the established medical fraternity co-opting the alternative medicine crowd (at least where the treatements are clearly harmless, like homeopathy) in order to take the fullest possible advantage of the placebo effect when it's the most effective treatment available.

2008-12-29T08:49:00.002-08:00

1. The best photo of a hippo's ass you'll see all day.

2. The study helps to explain why metal concert goers often seem dazed, confused, and incoherent.

Beavis & Butthead are studied as test subjects:

It is well understood, however, that cartoon characters are able to tolerate greater than normal impacts without injury.

3. The subject of many a childhood nightmare right here. The worst part was peeking through the curtains to see the motionless animatronics pre-show.

And there's a documentary....

4. It's kinda cool that no one really knows his/her gender. But I find it hard to believe that a woman would create a series with such a dearth of truly interesting female characters....

5. Deep-sea superorgasm.

Or not. But the porn soundtrack doesn't help.

2008-12-28T10:34:00.006-08:00

1. Perfect.

2. Win!

(After the fact, but still.)

3. Why isn't there one of these in every city? I'd join in a heartbeat.

4. Best insult ever:

You can slide down my hunchback using your tongue as a brake.

From here. I wonder how many of those phrases/words actually mean what they claim when interpreted by a native speaker.

5. Why can't we, as a species, get past the point where women are seen as possessions to be given away as rewards? I myself don't enjoy being equated with a pat on the back. (Though I'm all for supporting the shoe-thrower.)

2008-12-27T18:21:00.005-08:00

1. Quoth Answers in Genesis:

Chimpanzees do have intelligence. They do have general learning abilities, limited though they are (by comparison to those of human infants). They can ‘learn’ words, but the don’t ‘acquire’ language naturally.

And...

The various experiments which have produced language learning in chimpanzees have been achieved by methods that are not those used by all normal babies around the world, who spontaneously and sequentially acquire speech/language.

Are they just ignoring Kanzi? Sure he didn't acquire full human language, but what abilities he possesses he definitely acquired. He was not taught. He merely observed and applied what he observed.

2. The subject, in its spiritual, religious, and even eschatological dimensions, needs to be treated and debated among us, not simply as an unfortunate social deviation or ephemeral social fad, but as a cutting-edge component of a rising, all-encompassing religious world view that is diametrically opposed to the world view of Christian theism.

What is the subject at hand, you may ask? Materialism? Communism? Liberalism? Atheism?

No. Homosexuality.

An "all-encompassing religious world view that is diametrically opposed to the world view of Christian theism"?? What about gay Christians? They're more diametrically opposed to Christian theism than straight atheists?

Thus, while sexual liberation in its popular, successful, government-financed versions strategically associates itself with "civil rights," pro-choice civic values, and politically-correct tolerance, often studiously avoiding any obvious religious dimension, its ultimate legitimization-since all human beings are religious-proceeds from the age-old dogmas of paganism, which, unlike their modern equivalent, never tried to hid behind a thin veil of temple-state separation.

They just throw that in there so casually, that all humans are -- of course -- religious. Heh.

In a time of moral confusion and politically correct intimidating "tolerance" [....]

Ha. Tolerance is intimidating. Okay then.

In 1923 Feder Mühle, a businessman who became involved in Spiritualism, founded the Gottesbund Tanatra in Görlitz, Silesia-home of Jacob Böhme. Members wore the God's Eye badge and believed that homosexuals "were vocationally mediums."66 They also, with a certain logical consistency, held that heterosexual intercourse impaired the mediumistic talent. This small detail of Germanic occultic history is significant. Since leading contemporary homosexuals make the same claims,67 without any apparent dependence on the theories of Mühle, such parallel thinking would suggest an organic connection between homosexuality and shamanistic religious activity.68

Leading contemporary homosexuals believe that heterosexual intercourse is harmful??

3. This basically re-states my feelings on the Atheist placard in the WA state capitol. Worth a read, though. Especially for the argument in the comments section....

4. Scarily accurate.

5. They are not tame, and are still convinced after four months that I'm going to eat them in the morning. This is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

They are very noisy. If your neighbor has a barking dog or annoying offspring, these would be fine revenge. If you just find it amusing to see brainless alien freaks that look like old-style football helmets running around on tiny orange legs, they will fit the bill.

2008-12-17T21:51:00.001-08:00

Can't talk. Coming down.

2008-12-14T19:18:00.005-08:00

1. The saga continues some more.

But he was offended by the atheist message, which he felt was designed mostly to mock religion.

Well, not solely, I'm sure. And in the FFRF's defense, how many Christian displays/messages do you run across that proclaim that they're right and everyone else is wrong?

I still don't like the sign very much, though.

2. Snails have teeth??! Shit. Something else I need to be afraid of.

3. What the hell is up with this scale illustration?? Is that a woman in a long dress? A priest in a cassock? Is that a neckerchief or an ascot?

4. Jesusduck!

5. And these nimrods say that all dinosaurs died out like 65 trillion years ago? I'm a Christian, and even I know that number is insane, but leave it to science to brainwash the masses using "data" and "carbon dating". You can't tell how old a rock is without reading the Bible. We know from the Bible that the world is about 6,000 years old.

I'd like to expand the use of that phrase: "You can't know ____ without reading the Bible."

You can't know I got that exam question wrong without reading the Bible.

But Officer, you can't know I was speeding without reading the Bible.

2008-12-12T12:53:00.004-08:00

1. This is really scary. And dangerous. People actually want the world to become worse and back it up with religion.

2. Ow ow ow ow ow. That poor woman with the paperclips....

3. Cephalopod!

If reincarnation exists, I want to be some sort of cephalopod. Preferrably not a calamari squid. Or one of those giant squids that ends up dissected by scientists live on the internet.

4. A really good idea. Now all they need to do is schedule more of these. Maybe divide them up like they do concerts -- one all-ages, one over-21?

5. Ha. I didn't know Twilight was written by a Mormon.

2008-12-11T20:04:00.003-08:00

1. Way to make horn players look good, guys....

And apparently what makes their acts criminal (or at least one thing that does) is that they're "ritualistic." Apparently rituals are illegal in Louisiana.

B.(1) For purposes of this Subsection, "ritualistic acts" means those acts undertaken as part of a ceremony, rite, initiation, observance, performance, or practice that result in or are intended to result in:

(a) The mutilation, dismemberment, torture, abuse, or sacrifice of animals.

(b) The ingestion of human or animal blood or human or animal waste.

What about Communion?

C.(1) No person shall commit ritualistic mutilation, dismemberment, or torture of a human as part of a ceremony, rite, initiation, observance, performance, or practice.

Circumcision? And I'm sure Baptism could be argued to count here.

(3) No person shall commit ritualistic psychological abuse of children or of physically or mentally disabled adults as part of a ceremony, rite, initiation, observance, performance, or practice.

Sunday school? Vacation Bible School? I could go on for days here....

2. The tsar and his wife Alexandra believed that Rasputin had the power to heal their hemophiliac son Alexei, so they kept Rasputin around the house as sort of a turn of the century Kato Kaelin.

Best metaphor ever.

3. The saga begins.

I was with them until the fourth sentence, which I tend to agree with generally, but it's unnecessary on the sign.

4. Sheep!

5. Yay!

It's always nice to find allies in unlikely places.

The American creed is faith in liberty for all, not the religion of most.

It always struck me as strange when people try to argue that America's a Christian nation simply because most of its citizens are Christian. That would mean that it's also a Euro-Caucasian nation because most of its citizens are white. Clearly there's some faulty logic at play here.

2008-12-10T21:51:00.002-08:00

1. And yes, someone has finally complained about the least offensive atheist publicity-stunt ever.

Re: the Christians protesting:

The billboards are not about them. They’re not even mentioning, much less attacking, their beliefs.

And how many Christian billboards have I seen? And how much more aggressive are they?

2. I want one! I want a whole house made out of those things. It'd be like living in a beehive.

3. Aside from the obvious political and emotional impact, this is also just a really beautiful photo.

4. Orthodox Christianity and/or Russian culture didn't try to stifle women's sexuality, did it? Surely not....

5. Truly disturbing gas-masks? Check.

All the more reason to join the military!

NCSE-sponsored review of the Creation Museum

2008-12-06T19:56:00.008-08:00

Some interesting excerpts from a review of the Creation Museum that I ran across the other day:

A December 15, 2003 posting on the AIG website went into considerable detail about what the museum would have to counter traditional natural history museums and eventually christened the "Creation Museum" with the far more appropriate name of "The Anti-Museum." Hence the title of this review.

This reminds me of that "What's Your Anti-Drug?" campaign. The Bible is my Anti-Museum.

In front of the ticket booth is a very nice composite wooly Rhino fossil from Siberia on loan to AIG from two of its supporters. I thought this was merely a cast when I first saw the skeleton, because only a thin strip of cloth blocked it off. This cavalier attitude towards a valuable specimen is rather remarkable for a museum, even this one. The mannequins of various biblical characters that appear much later in the museum tour were much more protected by railings and other security.

That's really scary. I suppose they either don't realize the value of the fossil, or they assume that their guests will all behave like good Christians and look but not touch.

About the planetarium show:

The closing credits listed Dr. Jason Lisle as the writer of the program. Dr. Lisle has a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He moved to Kentucky after his graduation to work for Answers in Genesis. He has yet to publish his claims about Blue Supergiants and time dilation of light in peer reviewed journals.

Man, what a loophole. If you want to get your claims 'legitimized' the easy way -- without submitting to peer review -- just give them a Creationist spin and send 'em on over to the Hamster.

If fish could scream, the ocean would be loud as shit. (Thanks Mitch.)

Some actual text from the Museum:

Views about fossils have come and gone. But fossils do not tell us where these creatures came from or how they died.

Um. Sometimes they do. Go check out a children's paleontology or archaeology book from the library. You'll find plenty of examples there.

Genesis also gives an eyewitness account of a catastrophic, worldwide Flood, about 4,350 years ago

This got me thinking. What was happening worldwide at around that time, according to "secular" scientists? Has anybody ever made parallel timelines? I'm just wondering what that flood is supposed to have been interrupting. Not that the AIGers would agree -- they already know what was going on at the time because they've read the bible.

Most fossils are a silent testimony to God's worldwide judgement.

So fossils are God's way of saying, "If you don't listen to me, this is what'll happen." How...merciful. I've thought it for many years, but this emphasizes the fact that the Christian god (as a literary character, of course) is a complete asshole.

POV switch! Back to the reviewer:

The display also included a really poorly reconstructed Iguanadon eating a cycad tree model. The artist must have read that Iguanadon had pebbly skin texture and gave him giant platy pebbles unlike what skin impressions really reveal about this dinosaur. The cycad plant is so bad that it looks like a giant pineapple.

People, do your research. You knew you were gonna be scrutinized by unsympathetic viewers. It's not rocket science. Give the job to a Bible college intern or something. Make sure they've got an internet connection and a library card, throw a few bucks their way for some journal subscriptions, and you're done.

Re: the Ark display:

I really loved the animated figure with the Yiddish accent.

Oh no. Where's Mel Gibson and his historical linguistics team when you need him?

Paleozoic sedimentary rocks are depicted as forming catastrophically in underwater environments, although many terrestrial environments, including tidal flats, soils, and desert dunes are well represented in the Paleozoic. Another biggie in Flood geology is having Pennsylvanian coals form from floating forests that are catastrophically buried. There is a really nice mural of a "floating forest" on one wall. Most Mesozoic terrestrial and marine environments are also depicted as forming under water. One plaque reads "as the sea level rose, flood waves reached farther and farther inland. Ecosystem after ecosystem of plants and animals were carried out to sea and buried." An accompanying cartoonish diagram depicts a dinosaur walking underwater with its mouth open and leaving footprints.

I just don't think I get this. Terrestrial ecosystems form underwater? I have to be missing something. Please let it make more sense than this.

The presence of a marsupial-dominated vertebrate fauna in Australia must really worry the creationists. A most remarkable explanation is given: "marsupials, which have pouches, can nurse their young while moving. That may explain why on each continent [marsupials] were the first mammals buried and preserved after the Flood."

Uh. Is that true? Are marsupials the earliest mammals found on every continent? And when they say "first mammals buried and preserved," do they mean those that are farthest down in the strata? That are dated as being the oldest? Do they buy into "secular" dating methods for fossils/artifacts at all? Is that statement based on anything factual or was it pulled out of their asses (and/or their bibles)?

Races apparently begin with Noah's sons and are dispersed after the Confusion of Tongues at the Tower of Babel. After Babel, Ham's descendants go to Africa, Shem's to Arabia and Asia, and Japheth's go to Europe. This is basically insane, outdated 19th Century quack anthropology, but no one else seemed to notice. Homo erectus, Neanderthals, and Cro-Magnon are claimed to originate from these refugees from Babel and became cave dwellers.

Erectus originated from Noah's sons? Were they Homo sapiens? So they evolved backwards?

It was most fascinating and disturbing to see religion sold in the same way as diet pills, male enlargement creme, baldness cures, and the Bass-O-Matic ™.

Heh.

The walls had a number of fossil displays, but most were not yet labeled.

I wonder if they use any of the fossils for specific, fact-based displays? I hope the "yet" above is correct and they will label them as time permits. Otherwise, it's sounding to me like they just threw in a few fossils here and there to make the place look credible. Which is a huge waste.

According to artwork in the film, children in ancient Japan even had pet Stegosaurs.

Man. Japanese kids get all the cool toys.

The special effects consisted of the chairs vibrating every time the angels flew by and water being squirted from a hole in the back of the seat in front of you every time there was a water scene (like the Ark floating in the violent Flood).

You've got to be kidding me.

From a distance it was apparent there were several outdoors dinosaur models there including an outdated tail-dragging Tyrannosaurus.

Again. Research. Please.

Okay. I looked up a bit of AIG's thoughts on fossils, and here's what I found:

Of course, species is a man made term used to describe many variations of the same kind. There are several species of dog, but really they are all part of the same kind.

There aren't many species of dog, if they mean domesticated dogs. And I hope they do, because that's how the lay reader will interpret it. If they don't mean what the average reader will get out of their text, it's dishonest of them to publish it without clarification.

Anyways, all domesticated dogs fall under a subspecies (Canis lupus familiaris), not a species. Poodles, German Shepherds, and Labradors are not species. They're breeds, further subdivisions under the subspecies Canis lupus familiaris.

If you're gonna attack the concept of species and/or naming, at least be clear (and correct) about what you're attacking.

Of course, there is evidence of variation within the kind in the fossil layers. But they obviously didn’t change into each other, since the vast majority of the fossils in the fossil record died together.

They did?? Evidence? Who did the dating/stratigraphy?

Imagine this illustration of bad science:

In 300 years, people began digging in a human graveyard that was from a battle in WWII and find human bodies. They began lining them up by arm length and say that over long periods of time, the arms of people began to get longer!

But this is what evolutionists are doing

*headdesk*

I can't even summon a response to that. If they're that ignorant/deceitful, it's not even worth my admittedly worthless time and effort to refute them.

There is a predetermined age for certain fossils (once again based on assumption), and when they are found in a certain rock layer, that rock layer is given that age. Interestingly enough, the fossils are dated by the rock layers they are in, an example of circular reasoning.

How about some absolute dating methods? I know the good folks at AIG aren't ignorant of the existence of them:

Before we get into the details of how radiometric dating methods are used, we need to review some preliminary concepts from chemistry. Recall that atoms are the basic building blocks of matter.

But that's Just A Theory!

Anyways, this accusation of circular reasoning is dishonest -- they know it's not circular logic if it's correlated with absolute dating. Even if they don't agree with the 'Darwinist's' interpretation of said dates, they can't call the logic circular.

Interesting that Lucy is used as a evidence, considering the fossils reveal that it was a male, as anatomist Dr. David Menton points out.

Wow. Just...wow. Has he tried to publish this information? Is Johanson aware of it? Do any paleoanthropologists agree with him (you'll notice that his degree is in cell biology, not paleoanthropology or even anatomy, though he did teach the latter)?

[Dr. Menton's bio reveals that he's a Brown alum. Nooooooo!!! *Platoon-esque-fists-raised-heavenward*]

2008-12-05T12:41:00.004-08:00

Damn. I've built up quite a backlog of stuff to post. [Just be glad I didn't go for the obvious pun with 'backlog.']

1. Mmm...self-referential.

2. Kentucky, you make me sad.

3. Only the stories of dead religions can be appreciated for their beauty. Living religions require much more of you.
--Salman Rushdie

Some good stuff. Some neutral stuff. Some stuff I disagree with. But good overall.

4. Paint sandwich!

5. This is starting to look like an advertisement for a career in jazz anthropology.

2008-11-28T21:35:00.005-08:00

1. I find this vaguely...disturbing.

Maybe it's the tiny green cowboy hats. I didn't even know those existed.

Maybe it's the fact that the ducks look like they're being choked by their own collars.

Maybe it's the manic, hungry glint in that dog's eye.

2. If Michael Crichton were still alive, I'd suggest he re-write Sphere with one of these things included.

3. Heh. I doubt I'll get an opportunity to use this, but it sounds like fun.

4. Oh shit. Here we go again. I can't really say it any better than this.

Though I do disagree that all segregation is automatically bad. We segregate school children by age. We segregate high school sports players by skill level. The segregation only teaches kids the wrong lesson if they misunderstand its purpose. That's why you explain it to them.

I haven't thought this through as thoroughly as I could, so I might be wrong. But that's where I stand at the moment.

5. Hey. I feel threatened. I think I'll pick up a smaller animal and wave it around to scare away the bad guys.

Or I could try wearing a velcro bodysuit.

2008-11-22T16:42:00.005-08:00

1. College is the perfect time to expand your mind and challenge your own views. You can’t do that if you’re constantly surrounded by people who agree with you.

I have to agree. That's the main reason I didn't go to a smaller liberal arts college. I might have fit in too well.

2. Sad. Sad sad sad sad sad. And more sad.

Also, Eureka Springs! Yay.

3. A decent article on atheists. Nothing earth-shattering or new, but one of the better pieces I've read in awhile.

Kansas City FreeThinkers hold monthly walks in a dog park and weekly coffee-house meet-ups, advertised online.

Sweet. I'll have to remember that for when I move back.

Some Christians find the billboards deeply offensive, especially at this time of year. In recent weeks, press releases from the religious right have accused atheists of "mocking" and "insulting" Christmas.

Okay. I'm personally not offended by Christmas stuff, even the fairly religious stuff, simply because I realize that a majority of the population celebrates it. But all you have to do is reverse the above position and it's identical to how atheists/non-believers could feel about any religious expression. And do we complain? Occasionally, and only recently. I think such complaints are justified when concrete issues of church-state separation are at stake. Otherwise, both sides can just suck it up and learn to live with disagreeing viewpoints.

Remember, children: expression of disagreement does not equal oppression.

4. First, this url amuses me. www.pbs.org/pastafarians? www.pbs.org/nihilists?

Second, it's a pretty good documentary about a fascinating cultural phenomenon. I thought it struck a decent balance between proponents and critics of the religion itself.

5. Missouri finally made up its mind, and I'm sad. Amazed at how close the vote was, but sad.

2008-11-16T19:11:00.001-08:00

1. Today I rode a horse named after a chicken.

Okay, okay, named after a John Wayne character. But the chicken is more amusing.

2. A good paleontology documentary, notable mostly (for me) due to one interviewee's statement that a chimpanzee with a popsicle stick could perform basic excavation.

(I've wasted the last several days watching the majority of those online Nova episodes.)

3. W.W.B.n.D.?

(What Would Bush not Do?)

4. Dinosaurs used as weapons during the Civil War?

...Sure. I'll go along with that. Whatever you say.

5. A sadly unsurprising look at yet another way the federal government is still screwing Native Americans.

2008-11-14T14:29:00.005-08:00

1. And now we have an American version of the bus ad. I like it better than the British version, but it could still be (mis?)interpreted as being a bit combative/condescending. I like that it addresses the morality-without-religion issue, though.

I have no objection to this, however.

Seriously. Well done. There's no way critics can call that offensive without looking like defensive idiots.

2. Everybody raise their hand who's surprised that Haggard is blaming someone else for his behavior.

Anyone?

Bueller?

3. In a brilliant and tactful move, a government official has unwittingly compared all non-Christian beliefs to despotism. Discussing a (non-Christian) religious group's request to place a monument beside the Ten Commandments:

"You have a Statute of Liberty, do we have to have a statue of despotism?" said Chief Justice John Roberts.

4. How do conservative talking heads do it? Just like you'd think they do it -- by playing on people's fears and their desire to be thought of as oppressed underdogs.

5. Kick-ass Aztec costume/make-up. I'm confused by the Aryan-blue eyes, though.

2008-11-13T13:51:00.001-08:00

Overheard at work:

Tutor: [Explains what the vocabulary word "masochism" means.]

Student: You mean like emo kids?

2008-11-11T20:40:00.010-08:00

1. The Jewish group isn't alone.

Long story short: Mormons are giving long-dead (Jewish) Holocaust victims baptisms-by-proxy.

In an example of breathtaking hypocrisy, a Mormon Elder said:

We don't think any faith group has the right to ask another to change its doctrines[.]

This was said in defense of this particular Mormon group's practice of proxy Baptism -- anyone stopping them would be asking the Mormons to change their doctrines. Forced, post-mortem conversion, however imaginary...sorry, "by proxy," isn't perhaps a little bit similar to "[asking] another to change [his/her] doctrines"?

2. For some reason this looks really delicious. I think I skipped dinner....

3. Any theories on what exactly this lobster does with its weird-ass claw during "skirmishes with other crustaceans"? It doesn't look like it, or its little teeth, could withstand much force or pressure.

4. Found a review and photos from the Sigur Ros concert in Portland last month.

During one of the quieter, more introspective songs (yeah, I know...which one), they had just two or three of these giant Chinese-type lanterns illuminated -- the ones in the back and to one side. It was an incredibly simple but evocative effect. The perfect amount of pretension. I mean that in an entirely positive way. I fucking love this band.

After the Great Fog Machine Debacle of October 2008, this picture just makes me nervous....

The confetti! I didn't notice the rainbow lights at the time. Suppose I was too busy running to the front of the aisle.

So far no recordings have surfaced of this particular night. Oh well. Next time.

5. I read the paper on secularism and its correlation with societal "health." It's a good, mercifully short read. I know correlation doesn't prove causation, but it soundly disproves the idea that secularism => the decline/collapse of civilization. Some highlights:

In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy, and abortion in the prosperous democracies[.]

No democracy is known to have combined strong religiosity and popular denial of evolution with high rates of societal health. Higher rates of non-theism and acceptance of human evolution usually correlate with lower rates of dysfunction, and the least theistic nations are usually the least dysfunctional. None of the strongly secularized, pro-evolution democracies is experiencing high levels of measurable dysfunction.

There is evidence that within the U.S. strong disparities in religious belief versus acceptance of evolution are correlated with similarly varying rates of societal dysfunction, the strongly theistic, anti-evolution south and mid-west having markedly worse homicide, mortality, STD, youth pregnancy, marital and related problems than the northeast where societal conditions, secularization, and acceptance of evolution approach European norms[.]

And be sure to check out Figures 2 (homicide rate), 5 (life expectancy), 8 (teen abortion rate), and 9 (teen pregnancy rate).

2008-11-09T17:45:00.004-08:00

1. Baby hippos are slimy.

2. Complicated and dangerous issue, here.

3. I need to read this when I have time. Which will be sometime in the 2020s.

4. The intent is good, but isn't this just begging for the anti-atheists to cry moral irresponsibility? "Stop worrying and enjoy your life" is pretty easy to mis-translate into "do whatever you want without regard to consequences."

5. Silent Hill in North Korea.

2008-11-06T14:19:00.005-08:00

1. Michael Crichton died. He was responsible for most of the books I read as an 11-year-old. 'Congo' is still one of my favorite brainless reads (and one of my favorite terrible movies). Maybe now I'll get around to reading 'Next'....

2. Anyone wanna buy me a house? It's for a good cause....

3. Yay.

Even better:

Barack Obama and Joe Biden will also work to change IDEA’s definition of “autism” to Autism Spectrum Disorders to ensure that all children diagnosed with ASD disorders receive the support they need.

Hopefully he continues to tap whatever knowledgeable resources he used to come up with that policy.

4. I need to actually read through all of this at some point. Lord knows I need to assign myself some more homework.

5. Wtf, Missouri?! When will you make up your mind?

2008-11-05T11:39:00.003-08:00

1. Need gift ideas for loved ones? The answer is here.

2. "This model is a three speed so you can really tear it up."

3. "I bought this bike for 300 dollars from a retired mercenary that fought in both World War 1 and World War 2 and had his right arm bitten off by a shark in the Phillipines while stationed there as a shark handler."

4. Collaboration between Radiohead and Sigur Ros? Check. Performative uncertainty? Check. Modern dance? Check. My excuse for not being there? Disappointingly absent.

5. I doubt I will ever see a more pissed-off looking horse in all my days.

2008-11-04T20:03:00.000-08:00

Thank. Fucking. God.

2008-07-01T20:28:00.003-07:00

1. About damn time. Though, like it says in the article, it needs to be expanded to first-years too.

2. Wasn't Sesame Street supposed to be educational?

What precisely is the lesson to be learned from this? That information can be looked up in books?

And this? That disco is scary and early techno is good?

3. Let's learn about animals!

(From a 16th century bestiary....)

The Hyena

[I]t stalks the sheepfolds of shepherds and circles their houses by night, and by listening carefully learns their speech, so that it can imitate the human voice, in order to fall on any man whom it has lured out at night.

The hyena also [imitates] human vomit and devours the dogs it has enticed with faked sounds of retching.

The Parrot

Its skull is so thick, that if ever you have to admonish it with blows to learn - for it tries hard to speak like men - you should beat it with an iron rod.

Man

Varro says that the kidneys, renes, are so called because streams, rivus, of the obscene fluid [semen] rise there.

The loins, lumbi, get their name from the wantonness of lust, libido, because the seat of fleshly pleasure in men is there, just as in women it is in the navel.

The word for testicles, testiculi, is a diminutive of testis, witness; there is a minumum of two. They supply to the penis, calamus, semen which the kidneys and loins take from the spinal cord, in order to create a fetus.

The posterior parts of the body are so called because they are at the rear, turned away from the face, lest when we empty our bowels, we should defile our gaze.

4. This is far too much fun.

5. It's always amazing how much the human body can be modified and still function.

2008-06-29T11:44:00.006-07:00

1. HOLY CRAP!1!!1 This is awesome. My undergraduate major in television form. Kind of.

2. Human Sacrifice, the Coloring Book!

3. The Deaf Youth Drama Program closed, before I even had a chance to see any of their productions. Sad.

4. And for the 12-year-old boys among us, A Tale of Two Boobies.

5. Best. Job. Ever.

2008-06-28T18:54:00.006-07:00

1. Yay museum. Though the chances of me ever getting to see this one are slim.

2. On the newest Indiana Jones movie:

"Instead of fighting Nazis, Indy will spend a good portion of the movie working to accumulate sufficient grants for his field excavations."

"Following the roughly five minutes of the movie devoted to the dig will be an hour and a half long exploration of Indy’s laboratory analysis and publications. Assisting Indy in this work instead of some runaway Asian child will be a series of underpaid and often overworked graduate students, hoping to get their names down as coauthors."

(From here.)

3. Pirate jokes, anyone?

My favorite, of course:

Q: What's a pirate's favorite aspect of computational linguistics?
A: PARRRsing sentences.

4. I want one! (Of course.)

5. Can one actually make money doing this? I mean, it's really cool, but...crayons? Fine art?

2008-06-26T20:36:00.003-07:00

1. Gross.

I hate it when people I otherwise respect say/do stupid shit like this.

2. How delightfully cruel.

3. Holy shit. Bad. Idea. Even if it's reversible. We're getting into Clockwork Orange territory here.

4. Sad. I suppose they'd prefer this?

5. This thing looks like something from a Silent Hill game.

2008-04-28T17:42:00.003-07:00

Beach donkeys? Why don't we have a tradition like that over here? We could use some more donkeys on our beaches.

I also have a simple solution for their problem: Replace the donkeys with Mammoth Asses. Just think of the puns.

Also, I want a zorse.

2008-04-18T15:49:00.003-07:00

1. Owwwwww....

If she was in pain and there was no way to alleviate it, sure, killing herself seems reasonable. If she just didn't like the way she looked or the fact that she lost her sight, etc., then I'm a bit more skeptical. Either way, though, she should've been able to (legally) decide for herself.

2. An interesting idea. Hopefully they don't fuck it up.

3. Conservatives don't like school?

4. Awesome.

5. I heard llamas and alpacas do a better job at this.

2008-04-17T22:27:00.002-07:00

1. First, I want this book.

Second:

[O]striches were thought to have a huge appetite for iron. One of them died in the Tower after being fed more than 80 nails.

2. Small (and scary as hell) world.

3. A pretty detailed account of how a parent applied Scientology to "curing" his son of autism. Don't get me wrong -- I'm happy for the kid, if he's happy himself, and for the parents, who seem happier with/for their son after applying their pseudo-medical techniques to him. But that won't stop me from criticizing.

For me, my 20 years of slave labor as a Scientology and Sea Org staff, with its countless 85 hour work weeks and 16 hours days, all done for little or no pay, except for Training, Processing and Knowledge and the tooth and nail struggle to overcome dozens of brutal Technical programs that seemed designed to make all but the toughest 1% fail, on that count alone, have paid off.

So this guy is deeply indoctrinated. Of course he's gonna think any success is due to Scientology. He probably already attributes everything else good in his life to it.

On applying False Data Stripping to parents of and professionals who work with autistic kids:

False ideas to be gotten rid of are concepts that the unresponsive autistic child is “unaware” and that Enforced control (or any other form of Violence) is ever going to prove beneficial. Also false concepts about communication, life and control may require addressing as well.

You don't need Scientology to do this. This just sounds like re-framing the kid's abilities in your mind, which any parent and any professional worth their fee should do in the first place.

The next layer consists of having a complete ability and desire to communicate with the individual without any bias of any kind and without any evaluation (even those made privately in one’s own mind). This is a true test of pure “OT communication” without any vias.

Again, nothing specific to Scientology here. He just slaps on the "OT communication" label at the end there to fit this step into his preferred framework.

In many cases the response of the Autistic is non-verbal. It can be, at times, almost as hard to perceive an answer as it is while doing a “Comatose person assist”.

Oh my god. You're saying they apply TRs and auditing to comatose people?? Good lord. How do they charge them for said services? Do their families pony up? Those poor, poor people....

While it is true enough that Autism can be defined as an inability of the person to communicate with his environment, the truth of the matter is that it in the case of Autism it is not the Thetan (or Being) who has trouble communicating, it is the Thetan + Body that has trouble.

Huh. So the Body has sensory processing problems, but the Thetan doesn't?

Out of communication-ness is what bothers parents and therapists about Autistic children.

To the child, he knows damn well he has a problem with communication. Only a complete boob would be unaware of that fact. He wants to communicate using the “via” of his body and he cant. That becomes a PROBLEM.

Well, yes, communication is a common problem for people with autism.

Notice he says "child," not "person" or "individual." In his mind, I suppose Scientology can cure all cases of autism and therefore no one has to reach adulthood uncured....

I disagree that all people with autism are aware of their communication difficulties at all times. It varies. How many autistic people has this guy met? Only his son?

Also, I don't think all autistic people want to communicate in the same sense that neurotypical people do. And I don't think they all want to communicate with their bodies, necessarily, either.

The most lasting results are accomplished when a minimum of 15 hours a week are spent personally with the child. Weeks of 25-35 hours produced the improvements. As the child reaches a new plateau, he may stall, or even begin to regress. When this occurs, it is best to take a break for several weeks and let the child adjust to his new level of awareness until he is comfortable. After several years, as the child improves and matures, the amount of work done can gradually drop, as long as the child is continuing to make good progress.

The same can be said for any therapeutic or educational program.... How can that much dedicated one-on-one time with anyone who's truly interested in the child's progress not result in improvement, regardless of their methodology?

As far as the cause of Autism, I can’t say at this point. What little I did of research[....]

Yeah, we can tell you haven't done much research into autism in general....

A non-Scientologese version of this article is being published in a number of specialized publications dealing with Autism.

I believe it. He makes some good points, but like I said, none are exclusive to Scientology. And none are new to anyone familiar with typical behavioral intervention.

4. Ha. A good idea.

"Recall a traumatic experience."

I think about puppies and rainbows.

Rosemary points to the E-Meter. "Look! You can see the traumatic experience registering here. Our courses can help eliminate the pain caused by that memory. Now think of a pleasant experience."

I imagine a nuclear holocaust.

"The E-Meter records how you are content with that thought. Now let me give you the personality test."

...

"We have courses which can help you deal with your childhood traumas and depression," she says.

"But Dieter's music is about childhood traumas and depression. Listen to the album A Coffin Is Home."

"Our courses can make your music that much better. You'll find yourself writing about brand new things."

"If Franz Kafka were not depressed, would his writing be just as good?"

Rosemary's smile grows. She thinks she's going to gain ground in her argument.

"I think his lyrics would be even better. He would have a whole list of new things to write about!"

I tell her to listen to his latest album, The Metamorphosis.

5. Good lord.

"Only two legs and his skull were left," the report said.

2008-04-13T15:39:00.002-07:00

1. Not that it says much about Scientology and its validity (being ad hominem and all), but here's some info on its founder, The Great and Mighty Hubbard.

His followers assert that he is not only the reincarnation of Buddha but also Maitreya, who according to Buddhist legend will lead the world to enlightenment.

I thought all religions and philosophies (except Scientology, of course) are false images implanted into Body Thetans during Incident II? Presumably, the followers mentioned above hadn't reached OT III and gotten access to that information yet.

Many outlandish claims were made by Hubbard about his achievements while in the U.S. Navy. For instance, he bragged that he had been the first returned casualty from the Far east. In fact, he was shipped to Australia in December 1941, and he sufficiently antagonised his superiors to be returned to the U.S. after only a few months.

That's one way to get out of military service, I suppose. Annoy your superiors into submission.

Hubbard managed to involve a number of craft in a 55-hour battle against what he believed to be two Japanese submarines. The incident was reviewed by Admiral Fletcher who pronounced "an analysis of all reports convinces me that there was no submarine in the area ...The Commanding Officers of all ships except the PC-815 (commanded by Hubbard) state they had no evidence of a submarine and do not think a submarine was in the area."

Hubbard completed this "shakedown cruise" by firing on a fortunately uninhabited Mexican island.

Ha. Awesome. He just wanted to play cowboys and Indians. Come on.

In October 1947, when according to later accounts he had "cured" himself through Dianetics, Hubbard admitted to suicidal tendencies and begged for psychiatric help in a letter to the Veterans Administration.

Heh. Perhaps his bad experience here led to his later hatred of all things psychiatric?

Hubbard continued to perform black magic rituals and started to use self hypnosis, confiding to his notebook such hypnotic affirmations as "all men are my slaves".

Useful preparation for auditing, I'd say.

Hubbard was already addicted to the barbiturate drugs originally prescribed for his ulcer. His drug use continued during his Scientology career, even though he was to sponsor the Scientology anti-drug group Narconon. Although Dianetics claims to overcome compulsions with ease, Hubbard was unable to kick the tobacco habit, and chain-smoked over 80 cigarettes a day.

Do what The Hubbard preaches, not what He practices.

Marrying hypnotic technique to research long abandoned by Freud, Hubbard came up with Dianetics.

Interesting. Dianetics is a Freudian tribute band.

Hubbard redefined the existing term "engram" as a label for traumatic incidents where the individual has lost consciousness. Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health proclaims that by "erasing" the engrams, the individual is freed from compulsions, obsessions, neuroses, and such conditions as heart trouble, poor eyesight, asthma, colour blindness, allergies, stuttering, poor hearing, sinusitis, high blood pressure, dermatitis, migraine, ulcers, arthritis, morning sickness, the common cold, conjunctivitis, alcoholism and tuberculosis. Hubbard soon claimed cures for cancer and leukaemia.

What, no athlete's foot or hemorrhoids?

Hubbard's following diminished as people realised that his claims were grossly exaggerated, and with the collapse of the first Dianetic Foundations and Hubbard's second marriage. Sara Hubbard charged that her husband had tortured her with sleep deprivation, drugs and physical attacks. She claimed that he had once strangled her until the eustachian tube to her left ear ruptured, leaving her hearing inpaired. Hubbard fled to Cuba, after seizing their baby daughter, in what proved to be a successful attempt to silence Sara.

It just gets better and better.

It was only in the late 1960s, with increasing criticism of its methods by western governments, that Scientology retreated behind the trappings of religion.

Of course.

The first stage of recruitment is to focus the person's attention on the most distressing areas of his or her life (the "ruin"). [...] Any intense emotion tends to overwhelm critical thinking. [...] he recruiter then plays upon the person's fear that the condition will worsen. Then the "solution" of Scientology is offered.

...

Scientology indoctrination usually begins with the Communication Course Training Routines or `"TRs". These are supposed to enhance the ability to communicate, but have been called by one expert "the most overt form of hypnosis used by any destructive cult".

...

the recruit might well go on to the "Hubbard Key to Life Course" (at a cost of[[sterling]]4,000 or $8,000). This supposedly undercuts all previous education by returning the individual to the basics of literacy. Factually, because it treats all clients as pre-school children, it tends to cause age regression, making people yet more susceptible to Scientology.

...

In 1959, Hubbard introduced "security checking", where Scientologists are interrogated, having to answer long, prepared lists of questions about their moral transgressions. The E-meter is used as a lie detector throughout these "sessions". A careful record is kept of all confessions, and this has proved to be a highly effective means of silencing dissidents.

...

Re: OT III and the Incident II story:

Anyone hearing of this material will supposedly become ill and die within days. However, towards the end of his life, Hubbard wanted to release the story (certainly one of his best) as a movie, to be called "Revolt in the Stars".

I somehow missed the part about making a movie. Imagine if every major religion made a movie version of itself....

"Disconnection" is virtually identical to the "shunning" practised by certain extreme fundamentalist groups.

And how is Scientology not an "extreme fundamentalist group"?

The RPF is still in use in Scientology organizations throughout the world. Those who fail to comply with orders, make mistakes or simply fall short of their production quotas are put onto the RPF. RPFers can only speak when spoken to, they are meant to eat table scraps, sleep even shorter hours than other staff, and comply immediately and unquestioningly with any order. They work a full day, doing physical labour, and are then expected to spend five hours confessing and hearing the confession of their RPF partner.

Only when they completely accept the authority of their superiors are they allowed to leave the RPF. Taming an individual in this way can take up to two years.

...

Speaking of a hypothetical splinter group in 1955, Hubbard wrote, "if you discovered that some group calling itself `precept processing' had set up ... in your area, you would do all you could to make things interesting for them ... The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment ... will generally be sufficient to cause his [sic] professional decease. If possible, of course, ruin him utterly."

What a charming man.

For eight years, from 1967 to 1975, Hubbard and his retinue (numbering several hundred) plied the Mediterranean and the Atlantic in a flotilla of unseaworthy vessels. The incompetence of the crews led to many accidents.

This would make a great sitcom. At least a made-for-TV movie.

Hubbard dismissed Buddhism through his statement that "No culture in the history of the world, save the thoroughly depraved and expiring ones, has failed to affirm the existence of a Supreme Being."

Where does Scientology affirm or even discuss a Supreme Being? OT VIII and beyond? You're only allowed to know about the Supreme Being after paying around $400k?

Also, Hubbard needed to read some basic cultural anthropology.

Scientology contradicts the teachings of all of the major religions by propounding that great wealth is a virtue, a measure of spiritual success.

That doesn't contradict some versions of Evangelical Christianity nowadays....

As Hubbard put it, "When you let a person give nothing for something you are factually encouraging crime".

Heh. How precisely does one encourage factually?

Explanation of Hubbard's work is forbidden; the materials must be quoted exactly.

...

failure to achieve spectacular success (i.e., euphoric states) is always considered to be the fault of either the auditor or the preclear, never of the techniques.

...

"Advanced Courses [in Scientology) are the most valuable service on the planet. Life insurance, houses, cars, stocks, bonds, college savings, all are transitory and impermanent ... There is nothing to compare with Advanced Courses. They are infinitely valuable and transcend time itself." -L. Ron Hubbard speaking of his "Operating Thetan Courses" Flag Mission Order 375.

...

Scientologists speak and think in an elaborate language created by Hubbard (Scientology dictionaries run to over 1,000 pages of definitions).

Well, it's not a language. It's a lexicon. But close enough.

2. SECURITY CHECK CHILDREN
HCO WW Security Form 8

...

1. WHAT HAS SOMEBODY TOLD YOU NOT TO TELL?

...

15. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN MEAN OR CRUEL TO AN ANIMAL, BIRD OR FISH?

16. HAVE YOU EVER FORGOTTEN TO GIVE FOOD OR WATER TO A PET ENTRUSTED TO YOUR CARE?

...

19. DO YOU HAVE A SECRET?

...

34. WHO HAVE YOU MADE GUILTY?

Gee. That question isn't leading at all....

35. HAVE YOU EVER DONE SOMETHING YOU SHOULDN'T WHEN YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE IN BED OR ASLEEP?

Oy.

Relatedly, I wonder what Hubbard decided Scientology's views on sex were?

Since children are regarded as an unnecessary overhead in the Sea Org, young women who get pregnant are usually pressured into aborting their unborn children.

I presume, then, that birth control wasn't/isn't frowned upon.

70. HAVE YOU EVER CRIED WHEN YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE?

It's like he designed the questions specifically to make children insecure and psychologically unstable. And if they become more docile and suggestible as a result, that's just an unexpected bonus, sure....

3. An English translation of the OT III material.

Anyone who encounters this material without having undertaken Scientology courses up to OT 2 will supposedly die from pneumonia.

You've been warned.

Hubbard was taking barbiturates and drinking heavily when he wrote this material, according to letters he wrote at the time which are kept from scientologists by the management of Scientology.

Why didn't Hubbard just hold himself up as an example of how drugs are bad?

OT III glossary for those who have the original materials but cannot make head nor tail of them:

...

cognite - realize.
comm laggy - (comm - communication) hesitant.

I'm going to incorporate the word "laggy" into my daily vocabulary.

Interiorization processes - designed to return an "exterior" being into his body.

I assume this isn't a process anyone would want inflicted upon them?

R6 - the "reactive mind", supposedly created by the "OT 3 implant" or "incident 2".

I still haven't figured out what the number 6 has to do with anything.

theta bop - E-meter reaction, supposed to indicate that the thetan or spirit is going in and out of the body.

A dance?

TR - training routine. Role play drill (which can be practiced to hypnotic excess, leading hallucination, euphoria, heightening of colour and sound and a feeling of floating). The most famous of these is TR 8 where scientologists shout "stand up" and "sit down" at an ashtray.

Hee. What would happen if someone did that in a public place?

4. Going more deeply into the E-meter and its uses.

5. Sad!

Very Space Opera

2008-04-12T18:10:00.007-07:00

1. Those are some damn expensive books and cassette tapes.

2. Every once in awhile when I hear someone say "OT" in the context of therapy, my mind interprets it as "OT" in the context of Hubbardism.

Hmm. I wonder what The Great and Mighty Hubbard's take on sensory integration therapy would be.

On an unrelated note:

All thetans on this planet and on twenty-one nearby stars have Incident II and 'R6' in common. Hubbard refers to these twenty-two planets as 'the Confederation'. [From above "OT" link.]

Somehow this tidbit escaped my attention during my last Scientology-related reading binge. What exactly is the function of this interplanetary Confederation, if any? Does Hubbard ever identify said stars and/or planets? Did he also claim astronomy as one of his numerous areas of expertise?

although 'mocking something up' usually means 'imagining it', in Scieno-lingo it means more than a mental picture; it is supposedly a self-created object; it is a thing which one can be. Operating Thetans are, again supposedly, able to 'mock up' a picture that has dimensions and location in space and time.

Someday I might have to do a specific analysis of Scientology's co-opting of existing words/phrases and re-defining them for its own purposes. We already know it's a common brainwashing technique, but I wonder if there are any interesting patterns in how they manipulate language. Even better, how does Scientology jargon work in non-English languages?

On the mental imagines implanted into thetans during Incident II:

The pictures contain God, the Devil, angels, space opera, theaters, helicopters, a constant spinning, a spinning dancer, trains and various scenes very like modern England. You name it, it's in this implant we call in its entirely "R6".

Somewhat telling that Hubbard includes "space opera" in this list of false knowledge. Are we to deduct that his very own space opera is a false implant as well?

The thetans were gathered on "electronic ribbons", packaged together as clusters and given 36 days of implanting, to render them servile and incapable of decision.

Try replacing "thetans" with "preclears," "electronic ribbons" with "Church of Scientology," and "implanting" with "auditing." Sound familiar?

In Hubbard's own words:

Body Thetans are just Thetans. When you get rid of one he goes off and possibly squares around, picks up a body or admires daisies.

Ha. Admires daisies. Why hasn't the image of a daisy been worked into the symbolism of Scientology?

Thus we get the concept of a "black theta body". This would be actual BT's stuck to a thetan plus pictures of BT's stuck to a thetan.

How...recursive.

Incident II sometimes forms gigantic clusters. In such there is a leader, an alternate leader and several (eight to eighteen) more.

How numerically specific. Also, Body Thetans are starting to remind me of barnacles that need to be scraped off the hulls of boats.

Incident 2 Patter: DETERMINE IF A LOYAL OFFICER, RESIDENT OF EARTH, or FROM ANOTHER PLANET.

I don't quite know why, but that just kills me. It's like you're asking the BT to identify which class its RPG character belongs to. Also, do BTs have gender identities??

About 1/2 of the BTs come off and leave and go live their own lives by doing the lower Bridge right, and the other 1/2 come off here by doing OT III correctly.

Yet the Church still requires you to pay for further courses all the way up to OT VIII....

3. Fun with Kern!

“You know gays are infiltrating city councils,” she said. “Did you know, Eureka Springs, anybody been there to the Passion Play? Have you heard that the city council of Eureka Springs is now controlled by gays?"

Hahaha. Oh noes! Not Eureka Springs! One of the nation's top 25 Small Arts Communities. Imagine gay people living there! How dare they take on leadership roles in their own communities!

Matter of fact, studies show no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than, you know, a few decades.

Captain Anthropology, your services are needed....

Anthropology to the rescue! Homosexuality has been around, accepted to varying degrees, in various cultures for thousands of years. And it's not like the almost exhaustive number of animals that perform homosexual acts all go extinct after a few decades, but I suppose such base creatures are exempt from the Law of God.

4. A Day in the Life of a Scientologist on OT 7

So I cruise around in my mind[,] check through my body, above it, around it higher, lower, inside of it, mmmmmmwhere is this BT? (Usually I was able to locate what I thought were BT's Pretty easily.) Ok.....one foot to my right....meter Falls.

So Body Thetans could in fact be located some distance away from the body?

BT: I am very upset because I am tired of people asking other OT's if they can heal people. I'm not healed so this question upsets me.

Heh.

Left Shoulder- Fall. (meter reads, someone is there)

(me) "What are you?"

(BT) "A broken bone"--Fall

(me) "I'd like to indicate you are a broken bone".

BT: Cool.....blow. F/n.

Ha. So to get rid of these Body Thetans, one need only 'indicate' its location/identity to make it go away?

And the following indicates how badly the CoS wants to keep its upper-level information away from the masses:

Me: Damn!! I forgot to lock that stupid window. It's closed, My entire house is locked up...this is crazy to have to do lower conditions for this one window no one can even get to.....but per the Security pack, I violated
it...so I'll call and see.

Now you have to Call your Director of Processing, in Clearwater, and tell them. They send you to "Ethics" on the phone, and you are assigned "Treason" and told to write it up, and call them once you get up to "liability". Then you have to "Make up the
Damage" by doing some work needed, and get an OK to return to OT 7.

5. HCO BULLETIN OF 11 DECEMBER 1978
[Meaning straight from Hubbard's mouth, or at least OK'd by him.]

Unblown BTs or clusters, or BTs and clusters messsed up on OT III, are sometimes at a distance of 6 - 8 - 10 feet out from the body.

This is a perimeter you wouldn't normally think to handle. They blew out to this perimeter and stuck there.

Huh. I guess so.

BTs or clusters who tried to blow but hung up against other BTs or clusters or ridges or bones.

Well shit. BTs can want to check out but get tripped up by your ribcage??

After handling a BT or cluster do not recheck or repeat the Repair list line, as doing so would invalidate the fact that you have handled it, and would restimulate others, cause others to mock up (copy) what was just handled.

It seems that moderation is sometimes encouraged even in the wacky world of Scientology.

Sometimes a BT or cluster will answer at first with a wrong item or items. Then there won't be any valence shift, nor will there be any blow. Finding the correct item (the valence the BT or cluster is obsessively being), will shift the BT or cluster out of that valence, and remaining steps of acknowledging the item, and asking "Who are you?" will produce the cognition: "I'm me", and it will blow.

BTs lie?! That sucks. But forcing them to acknowledge their true identity sets them free. Sounds like an after-school special.

Example 1 :

"What are you ? "

A tree

A tree trunk

A branch

A twig

A broken limb LF - F/N (The item)

Example 2:

"What are you ? "

A sword

An arena

A crowd

A wild animal

A lion

Dust

Blood

A dying man

A gladiator F - F/N (The item)

Whoa. I could have some dust or a lion or a gladiator attached somewhere to my body?

It is imperative, mandatory, that the Flub, Cram, Retread System be used on this listing technique on NED for OTs, and no C/S, Cramming Officer, nor Tech/Qual executive may get reasonable about this, nor allow any persuasion or pressure to undermine or counter this system.

Ha. I love the jargon-y use of the phrase "get reasonable" here. Reason and rationality will not be tolerated!

If despite the above handlings the same person persists in repeating the same errors, then you up against a case situation described in HCOB 8 MAR 62 THE BAD"AUDITOR", and HCOB 15 MAR 62 SUPPRESSORS, and such a person must be removed from Tech/Qual lines for the sake of others.

Of course it's always operator error if you require acknowledgment of the infallibility of the tech.

The following is an example which illustrates this routine, taken from the case history of a Pre-OT who was physically ill and under constant heavy PT stress.

1st session, 1st day.

The auditor began flying the rudiments. Not all ruds were flown as the Pre-OT brightened up and had a win on spotting the source of an upset. (None of the ruds flown in this session read as belonging to aBT or cluster.) Time: 10 mins.

...

4th session, 3rd day.

The ruds were flown (very little on ruds this session), then the NOTs Repair List was continued and the second line taken up resulted in a BD from TA 4.5 to 3.0 and a line charge. The session was ended with the Pre-OT in high spirits, F/N, VGIs and joking at Exams. Time: 0=2E16 mis.

(Of interest is that the BD above resulted from the Pre-OT recalling a this life person who "thought he was everyone, All is one".)

At this point the Pre-OT was put onto a biochemical handling in addition to the auditing. This consisted of: vitamins, minerals, and Cal/Mag to remedy deficiency; freshly squeezed fruit juice as Vit C issaid to go out of fruit juice within half an hour; and because the Pre-OT was under- weight and had been off oils and fat, a supplement of a blend of oils (soy, walnut, peanut and safflower) preceded by taking a balanced combination of enzymes a few minutes before eating to help digest the oil/fat. These were taken as a supplement to te Pre-OT's diet.

...

7th session, 6th day.

(After the last session pain turned back on again.)

In this session the auditor began by locating the area of the body where the pain had turned on, then identifying it as coming from a cluster. The cluster didn't answer up and so was run on "Hello & OK" until it woke up and came into communication. Then it was blown with NOTs Valence Technique, with a large TA BD, wide F/N, VGIs, Pre-OT line charging and amused.

...

Despite extreme and heavy stress on the Pre-OT from day to day, a full recovery to health was accomplished, with no further relapse since, and all of this in but one week !

So. Much. Jargon.

This doesn't apply just to NOTs, one time a girl who was sick - nigh unto death - and in looking it over it was obvious this girl was sitting on a withhold from her parents. There was an assess- ment of the ruds, and on the reading one I asked "What might that be?" and next thing there was charge flying off all over the place and she got a resurgence on that alone.

...

A pc one time got sick after a session during some auditing and turned on a 104.5 degree temperature and still raising and he was about to be rushed off to a hospital. The C/S looked over the folder and made up a little assessment of about eight items that it could be and had it assessed. The biggest read was on "wrong item" and this was indicated. The TA BDed from about 5.0 to about 2.5 and this guy sat up in bed and said "Oh yeah, so that's what it was!". His temperature turned off and that was that. No further action taken.

...

Example:

HCOB 20.12.79

Auditor: "Is there an ARC break?" (no read)

"Is there a present time problem?" Fall.

Pre-OT: Answers stating the PTP.

Auditor: Acknowledges the answer.

Auditor: "Is that present time problem yours? (Fall),

a BT's? (no read), a cluster's? (no read")

The auditor indicates what read.

This PTP will either F/N (if it hasn't

already) or it is taken E/S to F/N.

(Note: If you get into a tangle ask "Is it also yours ?", "Is it also a BT's ?", "Is it also a cluster's?", even "Is it also theirs ?".

There's a possibility it could belong to everyone present.

Keep in mind that "everyone present" means one person (the preclear or pre-OT) and all the BTs (Body Thetans) and BT clusters attached to his/her body. And remember that BTs are the unsettled, hypnotized souls of possibly-extraterrestrial beings that were abducted, brought to Earth, and murdered millions of years ago.

I believe that's enough of that for one day.

It's Scientology Day!

2008-04-08T16:12:00.006-07:00

1. If this is valid, it's pretty damn hilarious due to the sheer amount of nerve one would need to make a statement like this:

The practice of declaring people FAIR GAME will cease.

FAIR GAME may not appear on any Ethics Order. It causes bad public relations.

This P/L does not cancel any policy on the treatment or handling of an SP.

Ha. We avoid the previous terminology due to bad PR, yet the policy referred to by said terminology remains unchanged. If we keep changing the name, maybe they won't notice??

2. So they're against not only their detractors but also people who don't give a shit either way?

I'm probably mis-using the term, but this is one of the hallmarks of what I tend to call 'fundamentalism.' Insistence that your beliefs/methods are correct and everything else is wrong. It's the opposite of pluralism. Which, when taken too far, can be just as idiotic. It's that whole moderation issue again. Gets you every time.

3. One learns Hubbard's so-called truth about why human beings are so limited in their abilities, and what can be done to correct this.

Limited in comparison to what? The superpower-laden space aliens in Hubbard's warped imagination?

Xenu sent out tax audit demands to all these trillions of people. As each one entered the audit centers for the income tax inspections, the people were seized, held down and injected with a mixture of alcohol and glycol, and frozen.

Well, I can't criticize the moral of this story. The IRS is scary.

When Xenu's Air Force had finished dumping the
bodies into the volcanoes, hydrogen bombs were dropped into the volcanoes and
the frozen space aliens were vaporized.

Why would one feel the need to do more than dump someone in a volcano? Wouldn't that do enough damage?

The concept of religion, including God, Christ, Mohammed, Moses etc., were all an implanted false reality that to this very minute are used to control WOGS on Earth.

I can't help but think Hubbard was making a little joke here. After all, his dearest wish was to implant all humans with his 'religion.'

For those who oppose Scientology and stand in their
way like the Lisa McPherson Trust and all Scientology critics, Scientology
promises to do away with them "quietly and without sorrow".

They don't always do such a good job with the 'quietly' part....

The
average cost for Scientology to OT 8 is a mere USD 360,000[.]

Seriously, do any other religions demand this kind of investment for participation? There's begging and tithing, sure, but those aren't Official Policy that prohibits people from joining.

If the
person does not experience the fragmented condition as a "conscious
and literal fact", or if he cannot accept Hubbard's interpretation of
the psychological phenomena expected at this level, the person is
labeled a "bypassed case" and is sent back to redo his lower levels.

And of course has to re-pay for all the courses and auditing required to get back up to speed.

That Scientology publicly protests criticism of their "religious beliefs" is itself dangerously misleading, in my opinion. Hubbard did not characterize the OT 3 incident as a "belief"--he taught it as a factual incident and as a scientifically researched psychological explanation for the state that OT 3's find themselves in at that level.

Heh. So his teachings were "fact" when he addressed his followers, but "belief" when he addressed the government for First Amendment protection and tax exemption.

Hiding the truth about this space opera serves several functions, including, a) recruitment -- few would join if they were told about the alien beliefs up front; b) money -- holding back the information buys time to collect more money from a recruit before the colorful information is revealed; c) control -- holding back the information allows Scientology to use the "tech" to indoctrinate and induce a person not to bolt when they do hear the alien story.

Remember that Scientology breeds irresponsibility and that Scientologists become addicted to that irresponsibility. What else could happen when throughout your experience in Scientology firstly it's "Engrams" and your
reactive mind that are the root cause of your problems; then it's space aliens (BT's); then when you think you have eliminated all your BT's you discover you've got drugged BT's, then sleeping BT's, then unconscious BT's and finally you find that the entirety of the physical universe is a false reality that can be done away with by auditing even more BT's so that you are able to step out of the physical universe and be above matter, energy, space and time.

Scientology abhors criticism so much that it misuses the mantle of religion to promote and justify hatred and bigotry by its members[.]

True. Though if criticism of religion loses its taboo in this country, they'll be screwed.

4. Here, somebody says it better than I did:

Scientology claims to be any of science, business or religion, according whether trying to impress people, charge money, or hide behind some tax-exempt divine right of religions to do and say whatever they please with nobody having the right to criticize them.

Superstitious fear is neither religion, nor ethical business, nor science, and deserves to be challenged.

I have to say, though, that for better or worse, superstitious fear overlaps a hell of a lot more with religion than any of the other areas listed.

n his OT3 statement Hubbard clearly stated Earth as one of the 76 or so planets ruled by Xenu that were suffering human overpopulation, with the Earth's population given at 250 billions. Earth's population in the 1990s is about 5+ billions, giving a present-time human population density only 1/45th that claimed by Hubbard for 75 M.y. ago!

I hadn't ever thought of what a Scientologist's take on evolution would be. I assume they'd be equally contemptuous of both Darwin and Intelligent Design. Though, as far as I know, Hubbard never addressed where humans first came from before they started overpopulating the universe 75 million years ago.

Incident 1, preposterous as an event in its content, is dated ten thousand times older than science dates the universe, (going by "Big Bang" theory).

Heh.

A 1975 bulletin [31] prescribes as a remedy for inability to run past lives, running of expressly imaginary past life incidents, with steering then involved towards accepting these as real and valid.

Oh good. They encourage false recovered memories.

I thus conclude that the Scientology actions of OT3 represent disguised cognitive procedural training that results in fanaticism, and debilitation of mental independence and cognitive functioning of the individual.

OT3 is sold to Clears under menace of getting seriously ill or dying if not done speedily [HCOB 23.12.1971 rev. 1983, sample AOSH letter out and [29].

There is also humiliation to be avoided with recognizing that one has wasted huge amounts of money getting to this secretive stage. Large sums are charged to ensure that this happens.

A number of people have committed suicide as result of OT3.

Dude, you lost me there. That's no way to make an argument. Plenty of people have committed suicide as a result of _____. Fill in the blank. Doesn't prove anything.

5. In arguing to keep the court documents sealed, the church has told its members that it could be physically and spiritually harmful for them to learn about the upper levels of Scientology before they have mastered the preparatory courses. Scientology attorneys have argued that disclosure of the material violates the group's religious freedom.

Hmm. This sounds fishy. Does any other religion have secret upper levels that us plebeians have to be protected from?

What is rarely discussed, however, is Hubbard's secret teachings, which disclose his thoughts on why mankind has been plagued by problems through history, the topic of the disputed documents.

We've been plagued by problems through history? Well, yeah. Who/what hasn't? And from a evolutionary standpoint, humans have been pretty damn successful and problem-free.

Superior Court Judge Alfred L. Margolis, over strong objections, had issued an order Friday making the documents public at 9 a.m. Monday - on a first-come, first-served basis.

Scientologists, by snaking the line through three courthouse hallways, made sure they were the only ones to buy copies of the materials.

Well, you gotta admit their methods are effective.

2008-04-06T16:30:00.005-07:00

1. How is it that Jeff Goldblum is always good for a laugh? It's inhuman.

And the best part is, he'd probably think it was funny too. Goldblum is content.

2. Oh. My. Fucking. God.

At least the guy had a sane and civil response to such frothing at the mouth:

Sherman: Thank you for sharing your perspective with me, and I’m sure that if this matter does go to court—

Too bad it wasn't taken in the spirit in which it was given.

Davis: You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon.

All I can do is shake my head. Why do we let people with such ignorance and anger attain positions of power?

3. I agree that this could backfire. If they were working with a group that included believers with similar objections (like Americans United), that'd be better.

4. Welcome to the glamorous world of archaeology!

5. It's looking at me. Make it stop looking at me.

2008-04-04T19:43:00.004-07:00

1. Sulloway says four different studies, involving more than 5,000 subjects from five countries, also support this contentious view. "They have shown that first-borns are rated as being more conscientious, less agreeable, less extroverted – in the sense of being fun-loving and excitement-seeking – and less open to experience than later-borns," he says. "Several studies have shown that later-borns are judged to be the 'rebels' of the family and that they are actually more likely to rebel in real life."

Hmm. Definitely not true for my siblings and I, but I suppose it's true for my dad and his siblings.

two Swiss psychologists, Cecile Ernst and Jules Angst

Whoa. Where can I get a last name like that?

Harris explains that the strategies children learn to use at home to get along with siblings are not the same as those they employ outside home and in later life.

Not sure I agree here. Sure, kids behave differently in different social situations, but I doubt the in-home and away-from-home patterns are completely unconnected. Especially for only children who didn't have close cousins or friends of similar age early in life.

"What Sulloway is trying to explain here is the embarrassing fact – embarrassing not just to him but to all believers in the nurture assumption – that only children do not differ in any systematic way from children with siblings," Harris says. "These children have missed out on the experiences that play such an important role in Sulloway's theory: they haven't had to compete with their siblings for parental attention, and they haven't had to learn how to get along (or not get along) with a bossy older sister or a pesky younger brother. And yet their personalities are indistinguishable from those of children with siblings."

I beg to differ. The differences aren't huge, and they tend to disappear as school years progress, but they're there.

2. Oh good. Missouri and Kansas are doing their parts to further implement theocracy in our country.

3. Calm down, people. Jeez.

At her blog at http://itlovesyou.blogspot.com, Ariel Safdie has stated the statue is “intended to create discourse on the role of religion on public property.” Whether or not the statue was put up to ridicule the notion of religion influencing public policy I cannot prove. However, I do think it’s safe to say there are some out there who look at someone allowing his or her faith to influence his or her views on government to be as ridiculous as considering the Flying Spaghetti Monster as a respectable deity.

Um, that is in no way connected to the statement made by the statue's maker. "The role of religion on public property," in my mind, addresses government endorsement of one religion (or any religion) over another (or none). Not whether beliefs influence views on government.

While some may argue the statue was not locally done in effort to mock or belittle Christians, the idea of the spaghetti monster in its original context was proposed to do just that. In other words, the spaghetti monster concept was created to undermine the credibility of Intelligent Design as an alternative theory to Darwinian evolution.

When did "criticize" or "satirize" become synonymous with "undermine"? People criticize theories and ideas in academia all the time without vicious intent to "undermine" or overthrow said theories. Why is religion exempt from this?

In spite of their best efforts to appear as the objective, rational party, those opposed to Intelligent Design and the influence of religion upon the state have shown themselves to not be so “neutral” after all.

Again, confusion with language here. "Objective" and "rational" do not equate with or even imply "neutral".

Upholding something as tangible as the spaghetti monster affirms a connection to an ideology through a symbolic bond. This ideology holds that “separation of church and state” means one must divorce any conviction gained from religious faith from public policy[.]

Again. Complete misunderstanding. That's not what separation of church and state means at all. If you don't know the difference, go do some reading. I don't have the time or energy to elaborate here.

By a fallacious interpretation of the First Amendment, many in our society believe government cannot legislate based on ideas derived from ideologies deemed religious.

Yes, that's a fallacious interpretation. But church-state separationists don't ascribe to that interpretation. Sigh.

Okay. Fine. I'll elaborate briefly. I don't have a problem with someone legislating issues that overlap with religious issues if the resulting law doesn't limit or punish those who don't follow said religion themselves. Since the moral codes of many religions and sects resemble one another, it'd be damn near impossible to make laws without referencing morals that showed up in one religion or another. It's when those morals go beyond common sense and start oppressing people with different beliefs (say, prohibiting same sex marriage, or enforcing abstinence-only sex ed) that the church-state separationists get upset.

4. I just like the icon on the map here.

5. I believe that no linguist has ever said that comprehensibility implies standardness[.]

A nice little piece on language ideology there.

2008-04-02T13:12:00.004-07:00

1. Sad.

“I don’t see how any human being could look at them for any prolonged period of time without getting physically ill… I thought I would throw-up if I looked at them any longer.”

First of all, how immature is that? Seriously. Grow up. And get yourself a spine while you're at it.

Second of all, how sheltered is this woman if she's so unused to facial piercings that she can't stomach the sight of them? Do we really want someone so ignorant and naive in a position of leadership?

Thirdly, would she have the same reaction to someone with a non-voluntary facial disfigurement? Or someone with facial modifications condoned or encouraged by their culture? She'd be crucified for that. What's the difference between these situations, really?

2. I don't think I know (or have ever known) Brown's motto. I'm not particularly motivated to look it up, either.

Impactful or not, does a college really need a motto? Quick: What's the slogan of your alma mater? An extremely informal and decidedly unscientific survey indicates that many people don't know.

See?

Reed College's underground slogan is "Communism, Atheism, Free Love." Students at Swarthmore College experience "Guilt Without Sex."

Heh. Imagine, I considered going to both of those schools. Shocking.

If pressed, I'd say Brown's motto would be something like "Figure it out your own damn selves" or "You may be about to make a huge mistake, but we're gonna let you go through with it because it's a learning experience."

3. Finally, a public monument I can stand behind.

More coverage here.

4. I like this kid, even if she gets her prepositions a bit mixed up:

“It’s cool ’cause you can, like, think freely by yourself,” [eight-year-old Jane Kovak] said.

And her parents:

As for Jane, her parents believe that her religious beliefs, or lack thereof, should be up to her.

“They have had many discussions about this, and we’ve had our discussions too,” said her mother. “I think that we just give our view, I always tell Jane that she has to make up her own mind, she has to experience her experiences — figure it out for herself.”

Shocking that I went to the "figure it out for your own damn selves" college, eh?

5. I always did enjoy a good blooper reel.

2008-04-01T14:42:00.006-07:00

1. I like the way this is phrased:

Well, a language is a system of practices, not a designed system, so some things are as they are just because of the way they developed over time; there are plenty of anomalies and irregularities in every language.

2. Plastinated squid!

the 21.2-foot-long (6.5-meter-long) sea beast was drained of its fluids and refilled with a polymer. The process caused the animal to shrink by about 7 feet (2.5 meters).

3. Those poor starfish. Did anyone ask them if they wanted to participate in a photo op?

Also, those things look exceedingly slimy. Is that what all starfish look like when they've recently been taken out of the water or is that some strange antarctic adaptation to cold?

4. Ignoring the fact that the headline is not confirmed truth, this is still a disturbing story.

"There is no physical evidence of abuse or neglect," he said.

Yeah. For the kids who are still alive. Well-intentioned neglect is still neglect. Mary Bass was probably well-intentioned in her own mind, after all. [I recognize that there are difference between the two cases, but still....]

Another source elaborated:

She had diabetic ketoacidosis, which means that had she gone to a hospital, doctors could have saved her. For her to get in this condition, she had to have been exhibiting symptoms for quite a long time, but her parents chose to pray away clear signs of distress - nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst, loss of appetite and weakness.

I don't like the idea of parents being forced to ascribe to specific medical philosophies and treatments. But when do common sense and preservation of life override one's right to seek alternative 'treatments' in place of more mainstream ones?

5. If this is true:

Her mother said the girl has a learning disability and was "mentally not a regular 11-year-old."

Then the cop who tased her needs some serious talking-to. And that kid needs to be placed in a school environment where her behavior is better understood.

2008-03-31T11:10:00.009-07:00

1. Adventures in Repatriation: Part II. This time, it's International.

Almond says it was decided at a meeting of the main Australian museums that no one would take any of the shows presently touring the world that are spinoffs from the original plasticated body parts shows of the German anatomist, Gunther von Hagens.

"There is a Chinese exhibition which, as far as we could tell, was coming from executed criminals, and also one that showed a whole room of fetuses, mostly female," Almond says. "We will not support this."

Okay, first: it's plastinated, not plasticated, right?

Second, why are they refusing all the exhibits? I'm pretty sure (from the reading I did about a year ago) that there are at least one or two that have good, documented proof that all of their exhibits came from fully consenting participants.

The executed criminals issue is difficult. As are the rumors that unidentified/unclaimed bodies were used. If the criminals didn't give consent before execution, that's not okay. But the unclaimed bodies? There's no way to know if they would've given consent or not. One person's respectful treatment of a dead body is another person's sacrilege. You're pretty much rolling the dice as far as offending the former owner of the remains, no matter what you do with the body. Should you put it to some positive use rather than letting it go to waste? I personally would rather my body be used as a med school cadaver or plastinated for some museum display than have it buried in some religious ceremony I don't ascribe to. But one shouldn't apply one's personal preferences to everybody else in a blanket manner.

And the guy has a problem with displaying plastinated fetuses? I can see having a personal or religion-based distaste for the idea, but that doesn't mean no one else should be allowed to see it. Again, as long as consent was taken into account as much as possible (difficult in the case of an unborn fetus, but that's another topic).

Also, I hadn't made the connection between treatment of archaeological human remains and the plastination exhibits. I suppose the only difference between the two situations is the amount of time passed since death. But I definitely think descendants have more rights to archaeological human remain than scientists. It'd be nice if the two parties could cooperate for the sake of knowledge and preservation, but if a choice has to be made, I gotta side with the descendants.

2. Sad:

Mr. Kilpatrick promotes the linguistic equivalent of a planned economy. Linguistic rules are to be invented by experts like him, on the basis of rational considerations of optimal communication, and imposed on the rest of us. For our own good, of course.

This view of language always reminds me of intelligent design. Not surprising that if someone ascribes to one, they often believe the other.

most academic linguists that I know are political liberals

Huh. Never thought of that, but the same is true in my experience. Though it doesn't help that most of the linguists/linguistics students I know are somehow affiliated with Brown.

3. The squids have something to teach us: how to anchor a knife blade in Jell-O.

Squid beaks are one of the hardest organic materials known.

They really are gonna rule the planet someday.

The findings offer a potential solution for the longtime engineering struggle to attach mechanically mismatched materials.

Good point. Also, awesome.

the beak's tip is stronger and stiffer than any synthetic polymers.

It's remarkable that the squid beak comprises strictly organic materials, Miserez said. In contrast, mammalian teeth contain up to 90 percent minerals.

That's it. We're doomed.

4. Oh dear. This is gonna be a long one.

A sixteen-year-old named Zach, from Bartlett, Tennessee came out to his parents in 2005. His parents reacted by sending him to the Memphis ex-gay ministry Love In Action, which ran a two- to ten-week teen camp called “Refuge.”

Love In Action’s Refuge program was dissolved in June 2007, and was replaced with a four-day program called “Family Freedom Intensive.”

Still.

Refuge Program Rules
[Greatest Hits]

2. No sexual/emotional misconduct. Any temptations, fantasies, or dreams are to be presented to one’s staff worker only. Sexual misconduct includes viewing pornography, visiting an adult bookstore, emotional dependency, voyeurism, stalking, masturbation, mutual masturbation, or any form of genital or sexual contact with another person.

Emotional dependency? I agree that can be unhealthy. But I hardly think it leads to or promotes homosexuality.

Women: Women must shave legs and underarms at least twice weekly.

Because female body hair is Evil and will drag you to the Dark Side of Lesbianism!

The clients may not wear Abercrombie and Fitch or Calvin Klein brand clothing, undergarments, or accessories.

Ha. Why this specific targeting of brands?

Women: Bras must be worn at all times, except while sleeping.

Pfft. I'm surprised skirts aren't mandatory.

Monday through Thursday, clients must wear pants, a clean shirt, and shoes or sandals with socks.

Now bare feet are a cause of homosexual tendencies?

Women may wear open-toed shoes or women’s dress sandals without socks.

Ahh. Only male bare feet.

Sports bras may only be worn while working out.

Jesus. Is this an indoctrination center or bra-fitting academy?

7. No continuing education while in the program. Home-school Refuge clients may be allowed to continue their studies during the program, pending approval by LIA staff.

Ha.

Because public schools are incubators for the gay community and its Agenda.

10. Absolutely no journaling or keeping a diary outside of the MI process unless directed or approved by staff.

That's not suspicious at all.

12. Additional (i.e. beyond one per week) one-on-one counseling sessions will be granted by C.O.C. appointment only.

Because, lord knows, we're not actually here to help you.

any belongings, appearances, clothing, actions, or humor that might connect a client to an inappropriate past are excluded from the program. These hindrances are called False Images (FI’s). FI behavior may include hyper-masculinity, seductive clothing, mannish/boyish attire (on women), excessive jewelry (on men), mascoting, and “campy” or gay/lesbian behavior and talk.

Way to further confuse adolescents about their already tenuous self-image.

3. All photographs will be taken for the purpose of sobering re-evaluation.

Oy.

2. While on the LIA campus, Refuge clients must be in phaseat all times, whether indoors or out of doors. A client is “in phase” when he or she is with two or more other clients (whether Refuge or residential,) one of whom must have been in the program for at least eight weeks.

Solitary reflection will NOT be tolerated.

Because healthy and appropriate same and opposite-sex relationships are encouraged, dating and exclusive relationships of any kind are prohibited while in the program.

Random hookups are fine, as long as it's non-exclusive.

1. All new Refuge clients will be placed into Safekeeping for the initial two to three days of their program. A client on safekeeping may not communicate verbally, or by using hand gestures or eye contact, with any other clients, staff members, or his/her parents or guardians. In case of a practical need, Safekeeping clients may write down their question or request and show it to another client, staff member, or their parent or guardian. Writing may only be used when absolutely necessary. Parents and guardians must enforce their child’s safekeeping status at home or in their temporary lodging.

No eye contact? Jesus. Does this have any other purpose besides control and intimidation?

5. Safekeeping clients are required to spend a minimum of two hours (in one sitting) a day alone in their room (note: by “alone” it is understood that parents or guardians can be in the room but are not to interact or disrupt the alone time of the safekeeping client).

Ohhhh, so introspection is not only allowed but required if it's bundled together with an overarching punishment scheme.

1. No discussing therapeutic issues at home.

Huh? Again, not suspicious at all....

5. Refuge clients may only read materials approved by staff.

6. No television viewing, going to movies, or reading/watching/listening to secular media of any kind, anywhere within the client’s and the parent’s/guardian’s control. This includes listening to classical or instrumental music that is not expressly Christian (Beethoven, Bach, etc. are not considered Christian).

Especially avoid Tchaikovsky.

12. Refuge clients must be accompanied by a parent during any trip to a public restroom.

Ha.

18. Refuge clients are allowed a one-time 15-minute maximum closed bathroom door time for shower/grooming purposes. The only other closed-door alone time allowed is for using the restroom.

19. Refuge clients must keep their bedroom doors open at all times, day or night.

20. Proper bedclothes must be worn during nighttime sleeping hours. Appropriate bedclothes include full pajamas (tops and bottoms) or a pair of non-underwear-type shorts and a T-shirt. Nightgowns are not allowed.

What about reinforcing appropriate gender roles? Do real girls sleep in pants?

9. Say “I love you _____” after each person is finished relating.

Heh. Because we're preparing you for healthy and appropriate platonic relationships. Where it's common practice to tell casual acquaintances that you love them.

11. Do not talk at, preach to, or teach one another. Each person should keep the focus on him/herself and how he/she feels.

3. Clients are expected to give back. This includes watching out for one’s brothers and sisters.

So helping each other is frowned upon, but ratting each other out is encouraged!

Places of Honor for Women:

Respect for women may be shown by offering them first priority in a number of ways:

1. Please invite women (not just LIA clients) to be the first in line to eat.

2. Encourage women to accept the more comfortable seats in a room. Men should consider offering a woman their chair when there are none left in the room.

3. Men should think about opening doors for women, both when entering a building and when entering a car. This simply adds a level of respect, consideration, and value.

We encourage antiquat-- er, appropriate gender stereoty-- uh, roles.

Refuge Program — Parental Rules

(Not to be given to client)

Ooh. Secret rules.

3. Respect all Love In Action and Refuge rules. If you do not understand them, support the program in front of client at all times and gain clarification from LIA staff. Do not sabotage or defocus your client.

Mandatory enforcement without comprehension. Interesting.

Consequences for Rule Violation:
3. Program dismissal. This does not need to be addressed with the client (The client may sabotage his/her own program due to purposeful dismissal consequences).

No shit. Who could blame them?

Thankfully, this program no longer exists in this exact form....

5. Yay!

2008-03-29T16:28:00.005-07:00

1. Something in my brain is broken. I'm excited about an interactive IPA chart.

2. Another article on the possible link between a Siberian family of languages and Na-Dene (Native American) languages.

Vajda said his research puts linguistics on the same stage as archaeology, anthropology, and genetics when it comes to studying the history of humans in North Asia and North America.

I'm not entirely comfortable with that characterization. It's been tried before, with poor results. And language change is by no means regular or consistent, so it makes an unreliable tool for determining anything time-related. But they might have something here. I doubt I'm informed enough to judge one way or another.

3. First, the town is named Effingham. That's always been good for a cheap laugh in my book.

Secondly, re: skunks as domestic pets:

“Once you have the animal descented, which is a nonevasive procedure done early in the animal’s life, having one is a complete joy. It’s like a cross between a house cat and a calm monkey[.]”

Just what everyone wants in their home. A calm monkey.

4. This is sad, mostly because my parents have Papillons.

But the hawk story sounds made up to me. Its much more likely some random passer-by snatched the dog. Or the dog daycare center did something shady with the dog and had to concoct a cover story. Still, it's an amusing image.

5. I don't know if this is lazy/sloppy journalism or bad linguistics/anthropology:

since body art is a form of communication, this implies that the Neanderthals could speak

Communication does not imply speech. Communication implies...communication. And possibly language, but not necessarily speech.

d'Errico, who presented his work on 15 March at the Seventh Evolution of Language Conference in Barcelona, Spain.

Anyone wanna pay my way to go to next year's conference?

"The archaeological record does not show that they ever attained the cultural level of the humans who could talk as we do," says Phillip Lieberman, a linguist at Brown University, Rhode Island, US.

"Neanderthals possessed language, but their linguistic and cognitive ability was inferior to the humans who replaced them," he says.

Hey! It's Lieberman! I took his evolution of language class. We watched a video of him talking weird on Mt. Everest. Anyway. He, or the article's author, forgot to mention that Neanderthals also probably lacked the anatomy necessary for speech.

2008-03-28T16:24:00.007-07:00

1. Some scientists decided to basically duct tape a camera to an elephant's tusk. This is one of the resulting photographs. I don't know why that amuses me so much. It might be the idea that the boar is staring back at the elephant-camera hybrid and wondering what the fuck is going on.

2. There have been excavations going on at Orcas island, and I wasn't invited!

3. Come on, people. Surely we've progressed beyond this.

At least the guy is doing something reasonable about it and not just throwing lawsuits left and right:

Wade said he wants to make sure all the employees at the restaurant receive disability awareness training,

He said, "Little People of America is going to write a letter on my behalf stating that they do some type of disability awareness training."

According to the franchise owner's statement, all her employees will receive additional training to ensure they serve all customers with respect.

4. Again. Aren't we past this yet?

During an August 1998 episode of the show, Turner reminded Hannity that were it not for the graciousness of the white man, “black people would still be swinging on trees in Africa[.]”

And then:

We’re teetering at the edge of believing that you’re a secret society, a massive collection of sleeper cells just waiting for your chance to do serious harm to the rest of us. You’ve made it possible for us to believe that.

Um, I think the paranoid bigots who want to believe that already believe it, regardless of what black people say or do.

5. Yet another record-breaking find for paleoanthropologists. When is a hominid fossil not a significant finding lately? I don't get it.

But anyway, this one is significant because:

"It is the oldest human fossil yet found in Western Europe," said co-author Jose Maria Bermudez de Castro, director of Spain's National Research Centre on Human Evolution (CENIEH) in Burgos.

I'm a fan of how (relatively) thoroughly the article covers the dating methods used:

The Spanish researchers used three different techniques to date the new fossils: palaeomagnetism, cosmogenic nuclide dating and biostratigraphy.

Also, re: the chart at the bottom of the article, I'm a bit confused. Last I remembered, homo erectus was thought to be direct descendants of homo sapiens, not related side-branch? Maybe I'm mis-remembering.

Another decent job at explaining dating methods:

The complex of fossils allowed scientists to use a variety of methods to confirm the age of the fossils, including magnetic analysis, radioactive dating, and geologic studies of the clustered bones and artifacts—a necessity because the dating of human fossils remains a controversial area of research.

2008-03-27T19:24:00.006-07:00

1. From the TWoP recap of Dancing with the Stars:

Backstage, everyone is chanting for the Gute. I think they all had a little too much sugar before the show.

No, I still think Penn started it.

Penn pretends to fall down while walking backstage because he can't not be the center of attention.

Ha. So true. But so entertaining.

2. An amusing take on the taboo of criticizing religious beliefs.

The most common excuse is to claim that non-adherents of a religion should not "offend" religious believers by criticizing their faith. This argument is based on the idea that criticism of a belief system is the same as a personal attack on the believers. Sometimes, and in some cases, such a connection may be valid -- but for the most part it is not.

Good point.

3. Your God must be a real dick.

4. This is a good idea, actually. And why am I not surprised that they're based in Oregon?

5. Is Atheism Only a Bundle of Sentiments?

exposing atheism “more as a bundle of sentiments than a coherent doctrine.”

I don't know about anyone else, but part of the reason I'm an atheist is because there isn't a doctrine. Atheism, to me, is a loose group of ideas or ways of thinking. That's all. But that's a good thing.

This semester, I learned that one of my colleagues is teaching our Sociology of Religion course with two supplemental texts, neither of which could be characterized as sociological in nature.

Since when do texts used in social science courses have to fit strictly into their specific little subfields? And notice the word "supplemental" up there? Yeah. That means they're extra, not the core of the readings. You said it yourself, dude.

And then there's this:

Back in my days as an atheist, speaking truthfully on a panel would have required a public admission that I rejected Christianity largely because it would not have allowed me to continue getting drunk and high every night while splitting time between four girlfriends.

Because one guy's reason/s for being an atheist is surely the same as any other person's reason/s. [The same argument applies in reverse, though. One guy's idiotic reason for believing in god doesn't mean that all believers are equally idiotic.]

This did make me think, though, about why I'm usually reluctant to talk about my personal reasons for being an atheist. When it comes down to it, I think it's a combination of three factors. 1) I suck at arguing/debating anything, 2) I don't want to offend the usually religious person I'm talking with (which is nigh unavoidable since many religious people think the very existence of atheism is a personal attack against them), and 3) I've been burned too many times already.

Don't get me wrong. I've had it relatively easy. I've never lost real friends or a job due to my nonbelief. But I grew up in the Midwest. I've experienced enough friction over this topic to make staying in the closet often preferable to confrontation.

2008-03-25T19:38:00.004-07:00

1. Wow.

At first, I was thinking how it was great that the museum allows these guys to lead their tours there. Then I realized that was hypocritical. Of course these guys should be allowed to lead their tours. They're not actually harming anyone. Just criticizing.

That doesn't mean their critique is in any way informed, however. Check out the bit at 4:08. I love it when people delude themselves into thinking they understand archaeological dating methods.

2. When all else fails, go north.

3. Also you're Asian.

4. Hubbard vs. Astley:

Rickrolling has also come to mean a disruptive blast of the Astley song in a variety of situations. Former Scientologists protesting against the church, for example, have been playing and singing the song this year outside Scientology offices in London, Washington, Seattle and other cities.

My money's on Astley.

5. Finally, some recognition for The 'Foe.

I really hope that's EW's attempt at acknowledging Easter.

Jeff Gordon goes all in!

2008-03-24T20:34:00.003-07:00

What do you wanna bet that Penn started the "Gute! Gute! Gute!" chant for Gutenberg.

Also, the intro for the music for Penn's dance??! Oy.

2008-03-24T16:55:00.003-07:00

1. Yay!

The plan is part of a wider programme launched by the Saudi monarch a few years ago to encourage moderation and tolerance in Saudi society.

Hopefully sanity will continue to gain ground.

2. Holy shit.

Because of Steve Irwin, every single stingray-related incident in the world is going to get huge media coverage, right? Sad.

But the thing killed her while she was on a boat. Jesus. Granted, it died too.

Death by Suicidal Stingray?

3. Easter vs. Commercialization.

Yet, we still have this. All is right with the world.

4. Dammit. Well, at least they got one thing right -- going to church can feel like a punishment.

Hopefully this guy would've gone to church anyway and isn't feeling pressured to do so by the law?

5. Still. Goddammit. Please please please let this be temporary.

2008-03-23T17:22:00.004-07:00

1. Don't kick the baby.

2. I hope this doesn't apply to my Volvo.

3. Yay!

I didn't know Thomas Harris was connected to the case.

4. More bullshit about being so impressed/shocked that Marlee Matlin can dance without hearing the music. Oy.

5. Some covrage of the Expelled vs. PZ Myers incident, for those who haven't already read about it ad nauseum.

2008-03-21T16:03:00.004-07:00

1. More archaeology, this time in Florida.

Thus the way was opened for a deal that will see the building of a cultural museum on the site.

Sweet. Much better than condos.

possibly the most important Native American treasure trove on the continent

Only because of the comparison to Stonehenge, I'd wager. What about Cahokia? Or Chaco Canyon? I suppose this site may predate those.

It is the only known evidence of a permanent structure cut into the bedrock in the United States, and considerably predates other known permanent settlements on the East Coast.

Ah. There we go.

The developer Baumann, keen to continue construction of his condominium, offered to pay to relocate the circle to another site for preservation

How the hell were they planning on pulling that off? It's a structure carved into the bedrock.

Also it has been suggested that the holes were for either standing stones or totem poles, though there has been no evidence forwarded to support this.

I think totem poles are only found in the Pacific Northwest. So yeah, it's doubtful that a couple dozen showed up in southern Florida.

Here's the site on Google Maps.

And just for fun, here's Cahokia.

2. Hee. Reminds me of the first snow some of my Brown friends saw.

3. Fuck. Hope the margin doesn't get any narrower.

4. Starmageddon?

Some were curled up, their spiny feet pointing towards the sky.

Sad.

"In the Thames estuary they were once regarded as pests, and fishermen used to try to kill them by slicing them in half and throwing them back. But, of course, all they were doing was doubling the numbers."

That's actually kind of scary.

And the arms aren't just for moving. The tip contains a primitive eye that allows it to see light and dark - and detect movement[.]

Whoa. I didn't know their arms had eyes on the ends.

5. People who believe in God are happier than agnostics or atheists, researchers claimed yesterday.

Using data from Britain and Europe

Isn't there a significantly lower percentage of religious people there (than in the US)? Would that fact affect these findings?

Believers, for example, were less likely to look for a new job if they were out of work.

Huh?

Countries with a more religious electorate had lower unemployment benefits.

Which seems strange given the previous statement. So, more religious countries are chock full of people who get fired but don't find new jobs and receive no unemployment benefits? ...Let's just say I never excelled at statistics.

less than a sixth of churchgoers in Britain believe it is better to divorce than stay in an unhappy marriage.

Oy.

2008-03-19T18:22:00.009-07:00

1. Vote for Penn!

2. This makes me even sadder that optional gender-neutral housing at Brown never worked out. Hopefully it will someday.

And some of these parents, under a doctor’s supervision, have even begun to administer hormone blockers to prevent the arrival of secondary sex characteristics until a “gender variant” child is old enough to make permanent choices.

This is where I start to hesitate. What are the long-term consequences of hormone blockers? This reminds me a little of the Ashley Treatment, which is not a good association in my mind. Well-intentioned, but possibly not the best thing to do?

students will often use gender-neutral pronouns like “ze” and “hir”

Good luck with that. It's been tried before, and it's never stuck.

But today many students who identify as trans are seeking not simply to change their sex but to create an identity outside or between established genders — they may refuse to use any gender pronouns whatsoever or take a gender-neutral name but never modify their bodies chemically or surgically. These students are also considered part of the trans community, though they are known as either gender nonconforming or genderqueer rather than transmen or transmale.

I'm all for expanding the gender binary. Other cultures have done it. But I suppose my attitude is just a by-product of my indoctrination at that liberal brainwashing factory of a college I attended. One too many anthropology courses, I suppose.

In the first week of September, he found out that his roommates had complained to the college’s freshman housing director about being asked to share their rooms with a man. They wanted Rey to find somewhere else to live. According to Dorothy Denburg, the dean who spoke to Rey about the situation, these young women were disturbed when Rey told them on the first day “that he was a transboy and wanted to be referred to by male pronouns.”

One of the reasons we need optional gender-neutral housing in dorms.

Part of the couple’s sangfroid is generational — she and Rey see themselves as genderqueer rather than gay. For them, sexual orientation is fluid. Like some of their peers, Melissa and Rey want to be — and sometimes imagine they already are — part of the first generation to transcend gender.

As long as they realize that plenty of people are still perfectly happy identifying with traditional gender roles. And don't look down on those who do.

While many gender-nonconforming students don’t have “top surgery” in their freshman years, they may still struggle with their colleges’ medical services, not because they want specialized treatments but because they want health care that is sensitive to their new identities. As one gender-noncomforming student complained to me, he hated that health services insisted on treating him “like a girl.”

They're in the medical field. They're not gonna lie about your anatomy. But maybe some sort of staff orientation about gender identity wouldn't hurt.

“gender identity” was recently dropped from the 2007 Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA.

Wait, what? It was in there, but then they took it back out? The hell.

Earlier at lunch, Melissa joked about whether they were even in a relationship, “I’m not sure: Rey doesn’t do labels.”

Heh. I liked the guy until that point, but people who "don't do labels" tend to piss me off.

“Some transmen want to be seen as men — they want to be accepted as born men,” he said. “I want to be accepted as a transman — my brain is not gendered.["]

Well, no, it's not. The word 'gender' refers to societal constructs that correspond -- to varying degrees -- to physical/biological states. Not the biological state itself.

3. An interesting piece about atheism and raising children (via Friendly Atheist).

I really like the author's approach. The more I think about it, when/if I have kids, I'd want to expose them to as many different religions/beliefs as possible. Go visit different churches, temples, etc., and discuss them all. Excluding the more extreme, fundamentalist groups. Children don't need to be exposed to fundamentalism. Churches should be given movie ratings. I'm not sure if Westboro would be R or NC-17. Any votes?

4. Kansas strikes again.

5. "There is no way that modern humans, I believe, could have evolved from a species like Neanderthal," Sawyer said. "They're certainly a cousin - they're human - but they're one of those strange little offshoots."

Does anyone believe humans evolved from Neanderthals? I wasn't aware that anyone who knew anything about paleoanthropology still thought that.

2008-03-18T20:02:00.007-07:00

1. This is pretty awesome. It'll be interesting to see if it's proven in the future or not.

2. Cute.

Though of course, I have to nitpick.

And lead us not into supernatural explanations, deliver us from denial of logic.

Is it hypocritical of me to agree with eschewing supernatural explanations but not with relying solely on logic? I mean, logic is, after all, dependent on human intelligence, which is obviously fallible. But that doesn't mean we should make stuff up to fill in the gaps, either.

3. You've gotta be kidding me.

SAY ‘BYE-BYE, PLANE’

Last July, 19-month-old Garren Penland – who’d just endured an 11-hour delay at Houston airport – said those words repeatedly (as children will) during the safety briefing on a Continental flight. “The flight attendant said, ‘Okay, it’s not funny any more. You need to shut your baby up,’ ” claimed his mum, Kate. Unfazed, Garren kept going, and mother and son soon ended up on the tarmac.

Would the same kid be kicked off the plane for crying? Probably not. That makes no sense.

And I have to say this makes me think about what would happen if someone with echolalia were on a flight. I suppose there's no constitutionally protected right to sit on an airliner, but still....

4. NAGPRA in action. Locally. Sort of.

The 200-foot-deep portion along Marine Drive eventually will be the site of a Lower Elwha cultural center and museum.

Sweet. This is what all archaeological sites should turn into. So nerds like me can go visit them.

After the first remains were unearthed at Tse-whit-zen, tribal members worked beside archaeologists to remove the burials.

Good, but it would've been better if they'd involved them as soon as they realized it was an occupation site connected to the tribe.

5. Laura Linney makes me proud to be a Brown alum.

NYT: As a graduate of Brown University do you think acting requires intelligence?

LL: No.

2008-03-17T16:04:00.006-07:00

1. 38%

2. What precisely is the problem here?

Science museums put small children inside bubbles all the time, and no one cries child abuse there. Perhaps it's an issue of consent?

3. Scientists successfully clone World's Most Terrified Dog.

4. An interesting article on religion and politics.

People choose their religions based on finding those religions reflecting their identities and values back at them.

Well, the smart ones do. The ones who have the wherewithal (and the ability) to choose in the first place.

Religion trades in metaphors that speak to deeper values and ideas. In and of itself, that’s no big deal. The same thing is accomplished in art, literature, bullshitting around the campfire, etc. But what I think helps create chaos is the sense that religion then asks the participants to take some of the metaphors not as stories about something else, but as literal truths.

In fundamentalism, yes. But I doubt you'd find many intelligent, liberal believers out there who take the Bible literally.

What the believers themselves believe and what is just metaphors for what they believe is hard to separate, even for them.

True, though.

Indefensible beliefs that have to be respected in politics is a serious problem in a political system built on the idea of deliberative democracy.

I don't have a problem with beliefs being respected and tolerated (within reason). Making a taboo of analyzing and criticizing those beliefs, though -- that's where we run into trouble. People seem to forget that respectful critique is possible.

5. He used...sarcasm.

2008-03-16T13:26:00.006-07:00

1. My first reaction to this:

Bad principal. Bad. No more treats.

Then I realized he's in a really tough situation.

Principal Timothy Voels and a sign language translator were waiting for Cave and Simba at the entrance and laid down the law[.]

First, if the school provided an interpreter at all times, the need for a service dog would be moot. But I can also see how the kid might prefer being more independent, which the dog would facilitate by eliminating the need for a human shadow tagging along all day.

But school officials think the Labrador Retriever could aggravate or serve as a distraction to students with severe allergies and would pose a danger during fire and emergency lockdown drills.

I can understand the worry about allergies. But distraction? After awhile the novelty would wear off. And if the kid knows what he's doing, he won't let people randomly pet and/or interact with his service dog. Lastly, a danger during drills? I don't quite see that. But I'm open to a more specific explanation.

Cave's family countered that the 1,500-student school could be outfitted with air filters.

Now that's a bit excessive, I think. But then again, do they really have students so severely allergic to dogs that they can't stand being in the same classroom with one for, say, one hour a day?

Also, judging by the photo accompanying the article, that dog is not old enough to be done with its training. It looks like a half-grown puppy. I could be wrong about that. And even if I'm right, I'm not sure what the implications for this case would be, other than complicating matters because the dog is in training and therefore not yet an official service animal (though in-training guide dogs are given the same access as trained guide dogs, apparently).

2. Have I talked about this before?

Even if I have, it's worth another mention. I mean, come on. It's Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter.

3. So the church-sponsored month-long sex-fest is over.

If the goal was to improve marriages, I can't say I agree with their methods. I'd wager that most people's sex drives aren't ideally sated with daily sex. In fact, I'd say that's overkill for most people. Can't the married couples just talk to each other about what their ideal schedule would be? Wouldn't that serve the same purpose? And wouldn't daily sex between an already-incompatible couple only aggravate the problem further? Though I suppose from a practical standpoint, that's probably good. If the marriage isn't working, it's probably best to end it sooner rather than later (except where there are kids involved). And I doubt the church wanted this exercise to result in divorces.

Doug learned that Lorena's top need is spending time together. Lorena learned that Doug's top need is openness and honesty.

"We're finding things out about each other that we didn't know,'' he said. "It's really brought us together as a couple.''

Shouldn't they have known that already, without forced sex as a catalyst for disclosure?

The same goes for Paul Wirth, the pastor at Relevant Church. He and his wife of 16 years, Susie, took the challenge to refocus their relationship and inspire others, using the Bible as their guide.

Are they saying the Bible encourages daily sex for married couples? Can I see a citation, please?

4. An interesting discussion of legalization of prostitution. Before, I'd probably say I was for legalization, simply because I don't think government should prohibit victimless behaviors for the sake of moral policing. But there are some compelling arguments here:

The Netherlands formally adopted the legalization model in 2000, and there were modest public health benefits for the licensed prostitutes. But legalization nurtured a large sex industry and criminal gangs that trafficked underage girls, and so trafficking, violence and child prostitution flourished rather than dying out.

And again, Sweden comes to the rescue:

In contrast, Sweden experimented in 1999 with a radically different approach that many now regard as much more successful: it decriminalized the sale of sex but made it a crime to buy sex. In effect, the policy was to arrest customers, but not the prostitutes.

Some Swedish prostitutes have complained that the policy reduced demand and thus lowered prices, while forcing sex work underground. But the evidence is strong that the new approach reduced trafficking in Sweden, and opinion polls show that Swedes regard the experiment as a considerable success.

Interesting approach.

I think that the problem with legalization schemes is that prostitution is more, for the majority of the customers, about buying the opportunity to treat a woman like utter trash.

Sadly, this is often the case, I'd wager. But it's definitely not 100%. And what about male prostitutes? Or dominatrixes? They're paid to be the treater-like-trash, not the treatee.

Which is why I tear my hair out at the people who focus on the exceptions, like Kerry Howley arguing that prostitution is about women who love sex so much they want to make it a career.

Meh. I think that's a weak and possibly false argument. Though there are probably a few cases that would confirm it.

There’s probably a few high class hookers that fit the “love sex so much I do it for a career” model, and probably even more that are just really good looking women who figure it’s easy cash, even if they don’t have any illusions that it’s a great time having sex with the kind of assholes who pay for it.

I'm actually going to come to the defense of people who pay for sex here, strangely. I doubt they're all assholes. What if someone just wants an honest sexual experience without worrying about the emotional pitfalls otherwise (often) inherent in the process? The fact that it's not an experience I would seek out doesn't mean I have the right to condemn those who would seek it.

5. Didn't this already happen a few years ago? Anyone else remember that?

2008-03-13T19:48:00.005-07:00

1. Deep sea awesomeness.

2. Tribute via Excel?

3. The poor frog just wanted a hug, people. Get your minds out of the gutter. Sheesh.

(The duck does look thoroughly scandalized, I admit.)

4. The bulk of these are pretty fucking disgusting. However, I confess that I enjoy the Bruce Willis a la Van Gogh and the Elvis.

5. Oh Ben Stein. Ben Stein, Ben Stein, Ben Stein.... I used to like you. I watched your show.

[N]ew science standards...for the first time use the term "evolution" instead of such terms "as changes over time" for the scientific theory. They also require teaching evolution in more detail.

Scientists and teachers say the new standards will help students improve their education and better prepare for high-tech jobs.

Isn't this the argument I made yesterday? Sell it as a necessary evil if you must. Social currency.

The bill would allow public school teachers to present views that are contradictory to the theory of evolution.

The bill's language does not require teachers to present alternate views[.]

Oh good. So it's just luck of the draw whether you get the Jesus freak bio teacher who spends time teaching Intelligent Design instead of preparing you for college and adult life.

As a compromise, the Board last month approved compromise language calls for teaching the "scientific theory of evolution."

How many times do we have to go over this?

Gravity is, after all, just a theory.

Sex and the Church

2008-03-12T15:16:00.007-07:00

1. British lawmakers vote to abolish blasphemy laws

Sweet. Even a country with a state religion can legislate sanely.

2. Sometimes, frogs can be sad.

3. On the surface, House Bill 2211 (RTF file) sounds like a nod to religious freedom. A good thing.

If they can argue that one should be able to opt out of science curriculum due to religious freedom, then one should be able to opt out of using Standard English due to freedom of speech. If you're gonna go for one, go for the other. They use the same argument. Yet somehow I don't think the Spanish and non-Standard English speakers (who are mostly non-white) will get quite as much sympathy as the religious fundamentalists (who are mostly white).

Simplest solution: admit that learning Standard English and evolution-based science is a necessity for getting a job in this country. That doesn't necessarily mean the standard is better or more valid; it just means that it's endorsed by whoever's in power at the time.

4. “Kevin and Mandy had been married 18 months and worried that they had not conceived a child.

“It turned out they had never had full intercourse.”

Not to worry -- Church of England to the rescue!

Officials decided to write the book because of concern about the high number of divorces.

Well, lack of sexual compatibility can lead to divorce. But guess what can lead to lack of sexual compatibility? Abstaining from intercourse before marriage so you don't know if you're sexually compatible, perhaps?

5. The Vatican to the rescue: It's A Sin Not To Do It.

Another chapter likely to raise eyebrows unearths theological justification for post-coital masturbation for women who fail to achieve orgasm during intercourse.

Next thing you know they'll be advocating sex for non-procreative purposes!

2008-03-09T23:15:00.004-07:00

1. Tacoma is 12,204 elephants away from Seattle.

2. This has got to be fake. It's just too perfect.

3. Evidence that common sense and basic morality can exist without religion? If so many different religions came up with the same rule, it can't be exclusively inherent to or dependent on the religions themselves.

And of course, a smartass response to the above.

Found at www.friendlyatheist.com.

4. [P]rejudice against Catholicism is the last acceptable bias in America.

Oh really?

I'm not even going to justify that with a response.

5. Also found at www.friendlyatheist.com:

Atheism will lead to the extinction of the human race!

Today's lesson: Mormon Masturbation

2008-03-06T20:28:00.007-08:00

First, that photograph is laughable.

The truth is that not everyone does it (and most of the websites that tell you otherwise are trying to make money off ads related to sex).

So a pro-masturbation stance equates with profiting from the porn industry. Got it.

Thus prophets anciently and today condemn masturbation. It induces feelings of guilt and shame.

And they never considered that those feelings of guilt and shame might be related to the fact that the Church tells people to feel guilty about it?

Luckily, the Mormon Church provides some helpful tips for those attempting to overcome addiction to self-stimulation.

1. Never touch the intimate parts of your body except during normal washing and using the bathroom.

Because self breast exams are the medical establishment's ploy to lure us all to the Dark Side.

2. Avoid being alone as much as possible. Find good company and stay in this good company, especially when you are feeling particularly weak.

By all means, eliminate all opportunities to reflect on your behavior in a rational manner. If you surround yourself with "good company," you're less likely to do something detrimental like think for yourself.

The problem must be taken OUT OF YOUR MIND for that is where it really exists.

Whatever you do, do not think about pink elephants. Those sexy, sexy pink elephants.

6. If the temptation seems overpowering while you are in bed, GET OUT OF BED!

What about wet dreams? Are those just as bad as masturbation? People who say wet dreams are natural and unavoidable are obviously making money from the sex industry.

BUT KEEP THE PROBLEM OUT OF YOUR MIND BY NOT MENTIONING IT EVEN IN YOUR PRAYERS. KEEP IT OUT of your mind!

NO pink elephants. Got it?

Remember it is essential that a regular report program be agreed on, so progress can be recognized and failures understood and eliminated.

But while you're composing and conveying these reports to your Priesthood Leader, KEEP THE PROBLEM OUT OF YOUR MIND.

It is important to turn your thoughts away from the selfish need to indulge.

Yes, catering to biological imperatives is selfish and indulgent. Does the Church also have a program to overcome unnecessary eating or sleeping?

7. Be outgoing and friendly. Force yourself to be with others and learn to enjoy working and talking to them. Use principles of developing friendships found in books such as How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.

By all means, change your entire personality if you happen to be an introvert. God doesn't want you to be yourself. He wants you to Win Friends and Influence People.

If you associate something very distasteful with your loss of self-control it will help you to stop the act. For example, if you are tempted to masturbate, think of having to bathe in a tub of worms, and eat several of them as you do the act. It sounds goofy, but it actually works!

Sexual pleasure will then be forever associated with cringing disgust. This makes for a strong, healthy marriage.

12. During your bathroom and shower activities leave the bathroom door or shower curtain partly open.

Because encouraging exhibitionism and voyeurism is better than touching yourself.

13. Get out of bed immediately in the mornings. Do not lie in bed awake, no matter what time of day it is. Get up and do something. Start each day with an enthusiastic activity.

IGNORE morning erections. They are a figment of your imagination. They do not really exist.

14. Keep your bladder empty. Believe it or not, having a full bladder can cause you to feel sexually stimulated. As strange as it sounds you may find that going to the bathroom often makes it easier to refrain from masturbating.

But doesn't that entail touching yourself more often?

18. It is sometimes helpful to have a physical object to use in overcoming this problem. A Bible, for example, held firmly in hand, even in bed at night has proven helpful in extreme cases.

Unless, of course, your Bible is battery-operated.

That would be awesome. Someone should make a Bible vibrator. To the three people who will read this: get on it.

2008-03-04T20:01:00.009-08:00

1. Oh noes!

2. If Scientology were to ever become an actual religion, it'd be through the influence of these people. I always like it when I see people analyzing and critiquing their belief system of choice. Not because I hope they'll decide it's bullshit, but because it means they'll interpret and apply its teachings intelligently and conscientiously. Translation: these people don't become fundamentalists. So I like them.

3.

More info here.

I've reserved my ticket. You?

4. Portable When Carried would make a good band name.

5. My typical weekend.

2008-02-28T20:54:00.008-08:00

1. Penn dancing?? And Marlee Matlin. Huh. People keep asking how she'll dance if she can't hear the music..... Fair enough question, I suppose, but just use your brain for longer than ten seconds and you'll probably figure it out.

2. Iceland wins. Again.

3. Ikea is bigoted, apparently.

4. Grammar Nazis strike again.

2008-02-19T23:29:00.007-08:00

1. Holy shit. You could put a leash on that thing and take it for a walk.

Also, a purple, pointy-nosed frog.

2. In a test of the American Dream, Adam Shepard started life from scratch with the clothes on his back and twenty-five dollars. Ten months later, he had an apartment, a car, and a small savings.

Well yeah. He wasn't in an overpriced urban area. And he's male. And young.

I'd like to see the same thing done with varying ages/races/genders.

3. Interesting.

4. Financial Woes Force Church To Sell Private Jet

Also, this:

Sullivan says the church's problems could be a combination of the recession and the recent bad publicity about churches preaching the "Prosperity Gospel."

The prosperity churches are based on the idea that success in business or personal life is evidence of God's love.

So if you're poor or unpopular, it's because God hates you.

5. Oh noes!

2008-02-18T08:58:00.007-08:00

1. Hopefully they've just let the kid pick which high school he wants to attend. I can sympathize with the father somewhat, but if the kid's been raised to think for himself, going to a Catholic high school isn't likely to change his mind (permanently, at least). If the kid can get a better quality education at the Catholic school, by all means send him there. Let him make up his own mind on the religion bit.

2. Edenics!

A summary, for those too impatient to follow the link above:

Edenics has overwhelming new evidence that human language was intelligently designed, at Eden, and purposely diversified, at Babel.

Some gems from the FAQ:

Did grunting ape-men evolve a new bone by random mutation so they could whisper sweet nothings? Only speaking, modern humans have the delicate bone floating in our throats called the hyoid bone. The oldest hyoid bone enabling speech that was ever found was NOT dug up in Africa but in the Carmel Caves near Haifa, Israel. If someone wants to speculate about the oldest human language NOT being Semitic, they had better come up with an older hyoid bone from somewhere else.

Because, of course, spoken language is the only valid human form of language. Other modalities, like, say, visual-manual, don't count. Of course.

Most of our data come from dictionaries where the words are spelled in English letters.

Which works perfectly, because orthography always accurately portrays phonology. Always.

Two years later we adopted an eight-year girl from Hong Kong. Her only English word was “McDonald’s”. I began to see how many of her “mistakes” in English were hard-wired. At the table she’d say “pass the life” instead of “pass the knife.” I tied this in with the Mandarin vs. Cantonese dialect switch, with one saying “Nay ho ma?” (how are you?) and the other saying “Lay ho ma?” (how are you?). I learned that the N-L letter shift, unknown in the West, was deep in the brain. And so must be the letter shift shifts that turn Edenic HahR (hill, mountain ) into English HILL or Russian ghora.

Or maybe, just maybe, this 8-year-old girl's phonemic inventory (including the interchangeability of /l/ & /n/) was influenced and solidified by the language she heard during early childhood? Like everyone else?

From the Edenics primer:

Why do peoples with divergent grammars, the Maya, the Chinese, the Persians and the Greco-Romans, have variations of the Bible's Tower of Babel account or The Flood?

Because they're archetypal stories rooted in basic human psychology and common human experience?

more intelligent opponents correctly cite that many coincidences result from there being so few different sounds in the human mouth. True, one may say there only seven basic letters, since all vowels, lip letters (plosives b,f, p, v, w), gutturals (hard c, g, h, j, k, q, x), tooth letters (dentals d, t), liquids (l,r), nasals (m,n) The trouble with this mathematical objection to my findings (say, linking SKUNK to TSaKHaN, stinker) is that there are a billion billion things/meanings in the universe and I am not linking SKUNK to a word that means giraffe, cupboard, them or heavy.

But has anyone tested to see if it's just as easy to link modern English "skunk" with proto-Semitic "giraffe", "cupboard", etc.?

From yet another Edenics page:

I mostly listen to phonemes, the sound of two root letters combined. Anything longer than two letters is a combination of meaning elements, just as anything including H2O has been added to water.

Either this guy thinks he's simplifying linguistic terminology for the benefit of the layperson (in which case, he's simplifying incorrectly), or he just plain doesn't understand phonemes and morphemes. Did he really just take a linguistics course or two in grad school? How does that qualify him to be an expert in historical/comparative linguistics? Or phonology?

Bet, like Pey, is a graphic of the human lips, or what linguists call a bilabial plosive. What is the only difference between the similar looking Bet and Pay? The Pay indicates muscular stress on the upper lip -- precisely that which differentiates a P sound from a B.

Well, kind of. That and voicing, which I'd imagine is the more salient difference to most linguists as well as laypersons.

The difference between D and T is the solid engagement of the top, indicated by the Daled's T-like axis, and the slight gap and quicker, lighter engagement of the teeth ridge by the (ironically) D-like Tet.

Again, with the ignoring of the voicing.

Okay. Tired of that now. Moving on.

3. I'm way behind on this, and I have no idea what the status currently is on this, but....

Affirming the rich spiritual and religious history of our Nation's founding and subsequent history and expressing support for designation of the first week in May as `American Religious History Week' for the appreciation of and education on America's history of religious faith.

Okay. I guess that's fine. Appreciating the historical impact of religion in America seems reasonable. As long as we look at the good with the bad....

Whereas religious faith was not only important in official American life during the periods of discovery, exploration, colonization, and growth but has also been acknowledged and incorporated into all 3 branches of American Federal government from their very beginning

Now wait a minute....

Whereas in 1853 the United States Senate declared that the Founding Fathers `had no fear or jealousy of religion itself, nor did they wish to see us an irreligious people ... they did not intend to spread over all the public authorities and the whole public action of the nation the dead and revolting spectacle of atheistical apathy'

Dead and revolting? Heh.

Resolved, That the United States House of Representatives----

(2) recognizes that the religious foundations of faith on which America was built are critical underpinnings of our Nation's most valuable institutions and form the inseparable foundation for America's representative processes, legal systems, and societal structures

Because good moral governmental practice is only possible via religion. Because morality is only possible via religion. Exactly.

(3) rejects, in the strongest possible terms, any effort to remove, obscure, or purposely omit such history from our Nation's public buildings and educational resources

Educational resources, sure. Public buildings, no. Church-state separation trumps nostalgia when it comes to physical symbols of government, I think. Moderation and common sense prevail, though. Don't go knocking down an entire building because it has a Latin quotation referencing God somewhere. But do remove that Ten Commandments monument from the courthouse front lawn, please.

Much better and more credible responses to the Resolution can be found here, here, and here.

4. Today's headline in News of the Pointless:

Vinyl Gets Its Groove Back

At least I'm somewhat ahead of the curve?

5. Anthropology to the rescue!

...anthropological research supports the conclusion that a vast array of family types, including families built upon same-sex partnerships, can contribute to stable and humane societies.

Take that.

2008-01-15T20:37:00.003-08:00

1. We wanted to be able to give the disabled a taxi service that they could use in a light-hearted manner, in much the same way as they'd ride around in a go-kart at an amusement park. With carers and those being cared for, there's always a tendency for a relationship of dependency to build up. We wanted the disabled to be able to use the car without any fuss, so that's why we got the maids in to do the job

An admirable-enough sentiment. But a weird execution.

2. We've been outranked!

[Have I really been here long enough to use the first person plural?]

3. I used to have nightmares about these things showing up in the lakes I swam in as a kid. Now I'm glad I never knew these existed.

4. Does Michigan's Lake Superior State University not have a linguistics department? Because if they do, surely someone would've told them that this is bullshit.

5. This is a clever application of behavioral psychology, though it unfortunately reminds me of Matthew Israel.

Huh.

2008-01-03T12:26:00.002-08:00

First try:

98 words

Learn Touch Typing

2008-01-03T10:16:00.002-08:00

1. THE Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the US.

I'm not sure what to think of this. I mean, good for them. But I think the chances of this succeeding are slim to none.

2. Apparently Cahokia wasn't the only ancient site to have built a Woodhenge.

Also, I guess the aliens-built-Stonehenge theory is now moot. Who knew. Actual humans were responsible for it the whole time.

3. Most Sexually Healthy City: Tacoma, Washington

Weird. What precisely were their criteria, I wonder?

4. An entire Japanese island that's been abandoned and left to disintegrate. What makes ruins so compelling to me? (There's also some hardcore long-exposure night-time photography going on there that's pretty awesome.)

5. I've linked to this before, but it's so good I have to plug it again. Warnings include some NSFW language and (*gasp*) humorous criticism of the war in Iraq.

2007-12-28T08:04:00.002-08:00

I first heard about the Judge Rotenberg Center several months ago. They've been in the news recently for some controversy regarding their use of electric shock as an aversive for behavioral therapy. I'm by no means the first to write about this place and its methods. I know I can't state my opinion with much authority, as I've never worked with anyone with severe/damaging behavioral issues, but I'm still wary. As usual, I can kind of see both sides.

JRC accepts a lot of cases that were rejected everywhere else. That fact alone might be justification for use of extreme measures. But....

The JRC website's FAQ makes a somewhat convincing argument for the ineffectiveness of positive-only programming for severe aggressive/self-injurious behaviors. One wants to give them the benefit of the doubt. But....

But, there are a few programs and methods of theirs I definitely, strongly disagree with (in no particular order):

1. Using food as a reward/punishment.

Yes, primary reinforcers are powerful tools. But I don't think that justifies this:

When JRC employs mealtime food to motivate the students to change their behaviors, the food is used under either of two alternative treatment programs--the Contingent Food Program (in which all food missed through contracts is made up at the end of the day) or the Specialized Food Program (in which the make up procedure is more restrictive). Neither of these programs can be used unless JRC obtains prior informed consent by the parent, prior approval from a physician and prior authorization by the Probate Court as part of an individualized substituted judgment authorization.

Isn't it common knowledge that behavior/mood is affected by energy and therefore nutrition/blood sugar levels? If the kid is already having behavioral problems, giving him chronic low blood sugar isn't gonna help....

Even if the caloric intake is "made up" at the end of the day, they're still running on inadequate fuel for the majority of the day.

At the end of the day, we offer to students who are on the Contingent Food Program a make-up meal that is composed of chicken and mashed potatoes with liver powder sprinkled on top and that will make up all the calories that the student will have missed by not passing one or more of his contracts earlier in the day. This make-up food is deliberately intended to be an unattractive option, however, because we want the student to be motivated to earn the portions of real mealtime food that can be earned by passing the behavioral contracts.

That's bad enough. But just wait....

For students on the Specialized Food Program (currently it is being used with only 3 out of our 245 students) we do not offer make-up food to compensate for food that the student missed by failing to pass his contracts unless he has eaten 25% or less of his normal daily caloric target. If he has eaten 25% or less, he is offered make-up food to bring him up to the 25% level.

They do all kinds of tests on the Specialized Food Program kids to make sure they're healthy on paper, but still....

I don't even know what else to say about that. It defies logic.

2. "Behavior rehearsal" scenarios.

There are certain behaviors that are so dangerous to the student or to others that one wants to prevent them from occurring even one more time, if one can.

In such situations behavior rehearsal lessons are applied as follows. One prompts the student to engage in the first phase of the behavior. For example one prompts a student to pick up a knife and begin to direct it toward his arm as though to cut it with the knife. Then one arranges an aversive stimulus, for example one administers a GED skin shock. This is called a behavior rehearsal lesson. The student is prompted (against his will if necessary) to begin the undesired behavior (i.e., to move the knife in the direction of the arm) and is then receives an aversive stimulus while engaging in that beginning phase of the behavior.

I can see what they're trying to do, but....

I honestly don't know what alternative treatments there could be for such behavior, yet I still don't think this is the best solution.

First, they're casting one of their staff members in a horrible role. The patient will learn to distrust and fear whoever prompts/forces them to behave in ways that get them punished. That distrust/fear might very well generalize to the rest of the staff or even the entire environment.

They also don't mention -- in this context -- any attempt to find possible triggers of the problem behavior. That's a basic strategy of positive behavior programming (aka Functional Assessment, addressed -- insufficiently, in my opinion -- by JRC here). If you can find out what might cause the problem behavior, you can a) begin to teach/encourage acceptable alternative behaviors, and b) possibly use said triggers to set up more naturalistic, less damaging "behavioral rehearsal lessons." And avoid forcing the patients, against their will, to engage in a behavior you don't want them to continue.

(I have more to say about JRC's use of Functional Assessment, but that will have to wait until later.)

3. Eliminating most psychiatric medications.

It's true that "chemical restraints" are sometimes over-used. I'd also agree that, at least in some cases, use of aversives such as skin shock is preferable to drugs and better preserves the individual's dignity and free will.

However, there are some conditions that, I believe, simply aren't effectively addressed by behavioral methods. Sometimes the problem stems from brain chemistry gone awry and can only be remedied by adjusting said chemistry. Expecting someone to modify a behavior that is chemically or neurologically mandated may be too much to ask, and learned helplessness is the probable result.

4. Their brand of speech/language therapy."

All they work on, according to this description, is requesting behavior. Yes, that's a good first step for communication, but it's not enough. I really, really hope their program is a bit more extensive than this.

Also:

Step 2. Good sitting.

The student learns to sit still for 30-60 seconds, with good posture, feet together, knees together, hands folded in lap and making eye contact with the teacher’s eyes. The teacher is sitting directly in front of the student.

If they treat people with autism like they say they do, that's got to be one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.

Their visual cortex works differently than yours! There's a reason they avoid direct eye contact. Forcing them to pretend to act "normal" won't help them.

5. Behavioral counseling (JRC's only version of "therapy") as an earned reward.

So now you might have to earn the right to discuss your own behavior with a (quasi?)professional ("The counseling is provided by the student’s clinician, by a social worker, by the student’s case manager, by his or her teacher, by a monitor or supervisor, by a member of the treatment office, or by all of these persons")?

They admit that, for some cases, this may be asking too much. But they still don't eliminate the need to "earn" counseling entirely. They just lower the standards for earning.

6. Use of delayed aversives.

Because JRC has a near-zero expulsion policy, and because we see our mission to treat individuals with severe behavior behaviors and not simply to throw the student into the criminal justice system (which will no doubt make the student worse) we use a stronger consequence than the normal one application of the GED. Typically that consequence involves a period (e.g. a half-hour) during which several GED stimulations are applied at unpredictable intervals during the time period. The safest way to do this is to use mechanical restraint to contain the student, in a prone position, on a flexible plastic restraint platform that has been specially designed for the purpose. JRC currently uses this procedure with eight of its students. In each case the procedure was used with the student less than 1.4 times on average and in each case resulted in dramatic improvement for the student.

I seem to remember a key point of behavioral psychology being that reinforcement must be applied immediately after the target behavior. Not over a subsequent period "during which several [reinforcements] are applied at unpredictable intervals."

-----

I'm not precisely sure where I stand on the general skin-shock-as-aversive issue, because I can see that it could be the most humane, respectful way to deal with truly dangerous behavior that had truly resisted all other treatment methods. But I'm not sure I agree with precisely how they use it. I'll save that mess for a later (possibly never-to-be-written) post.

Also, the authors of the JRC website accuse anti-aversive and positive-only advocates of using misleading and euphemistic language.

Well, the anti-aversive advocates aren't alone:

In such cases we may either use multiple applications of the GED, or we may shift, with court authorization, to the use of the GED-4, which delivers a stimulation that is judged to be two or three times more aversive.

"More aversive" instead of "more painful." Even "more uncomfortable" would've been a step in the right direction if still a bit euphemistic. And they brag about the fact that they're honest and above-the-board about their methods.

Also also, JRC has a Human Rights Committee that they claim is not controlled by JRC itself. Check this out:

JRC Procedures Followed by JRC's Human Rights Committee

13. REMOVAL FROM THE COMMITTEE. JRC may remove a member from the Committee for just cause or for violation of any of the terms of this policy. [Also from the FAQ.]

Now, I'm not a lawyer or even a law student. But doesn't "just cause" basically mean they can kick off anybody as long as they have a reason (any reason -- it doesn't necessarily have to be good or even true, they just have to be able to argue it in court)?

Oy. There'll probably be more on this later.

2007-12-27T17:52:00.000-08:00

1. Bite-size frogs!

2. Scary-ass fish.

3. Pygmy possum!

4. Nature red in tooth and claw. And bribery.

Academic content only?

2007-12-26T16:57:00.004-08:00

Let me introduce you to the Gablers. They founded and head "a conservative Christian organization that reviews public school textbooks submitted for adoption in Texas." In their own words:

[W]e review textbooks for academic content only.

Let's see about that....

Review Criteria for elementary reading programs:

Story content should present:

Sensitive treatment of benefits to children of strong, stable, two-parent families

Equal stress on Europe's literary, religious, and cultural heritage compared to other regions [Because Europe is so underrepresented and maligned in the canon of Western literature.]

Review Criteria for high school world history texts:

Prevent stereotypes of whites-as-oppressors and people-of-color-as-victims from slanting discussions of Western imperialism

Review Criteria for high school American Literature texts:

Story content should present:

A universe that rewards virtue and punishes vice, where good and evil are not moral equivalents, and where problems have solutions [Oh yeah. Let's teach the kids that if their problem doesn't have a solution, it's their fault.]

No sensational violence, offensive language or illustrations, occultism, or deviant lifestyles (e.g., homosexuality)

Anthologize substantive selections from...pre-Civil War figures/sources, so that the mid-point of the course is no later than 1865 [Is this a literature course or a history course??]

And here's where we get to the good stuff.

Review Criteria for health texts:

Avoid asexual stealth phrases and definitions that covertly legitimize homosexuality.

"Gender identity" should not mean "sexual orientation," implying that homosexuality is innate, not learned.

"Parenting" should not include homosexual "adoptions." [So now the word 'adoption' only pertains to heterosexual couples?]

Discuss emotional/ethical harm of sexual activity outside marriage.

Reject idle self-contemplation, underachievement, and non-competitiveness. [Because non-competitiveness is such a dangerous and degenerate personality trait.]

Note benefits of population growth, such as better transportation to larger markets and more creativity. [And more people to evangelize!]

2007-12-19T20:11:00.002-08:00

1. I can see both sides of this one, but I think I'm siding with the outraged parents. An atypical neurology does not equate with a malevolent baby-snatcher.

2. Looks like a good movie. I'm a tad worried it'll mean even more people asking me, "How many languages do you speak?" when I mention I'm a linguist. I think I'll manage.

3. Huckabee, of course, thinks wives should submit unconditionally to their husbands. Wonder if he's a fan of our friends here?

4. Is it just me, or could this just as easily be interpreted as "making fun of" nontheists?

And some more Whining from the Privileged:

He continued, “Christians have always been used to being punch bags but I would have hoped that, in a society in which we are seeking to show respect to all people and beliefs, we might have grown out of this kind of nonsense.”

I have nothing to add. Just found that gratingly amusing.

You know, it just occurred to me that it might all boil down to this: For the first time in history of this country, American Christians are being asked/expected/prodded to explain and defend themselves. Every other religion has had to do this since the inception of the nation. Every other opinion, or value, or school of thought, or political movement has had to do the same. It's not oppression -- it's what's expected of everybody. Simple accountability. But Christians have gotten used to not having to be accountable for their beliefs.

5. This is really, really sad. At this rate the species will go extinct five times over before there's an American president who dares to even hint at not believing in god.

2007-12-18T20:06:00.002-08:00

1. Pfft. I refer you to Exhibit A (#4).

2. Fish + skin disease = miracle cure? Keep in mind the fish are actually eating the diseased skin.

Maybe they need to get together with this guy.

3. I want one! Can we expand this technology to other organisms? Glowing carrots? Bio-luminescent crocodiles?

4. So now we're allowing men with the emotional maturity of 5-year-olds to be presidents of city councils? I'm actually not sure yet where I stand on the religious-displays-on-public-property issue. I definitely don't think they should ever be paid for by taxes. But as long as they're relatively neutral and hate-free, I don't really care if they're on public property.

But this council president is just using the nativity scene to blow a raspberry at the FFRA. Lame. I'm sure the city council has bigger issues to deal with.

5. There was a federal insane asylum for Native Americans between 1902 and 1933. Really interesting (if sad) stuff. I suppose it makes sense, given that this was (I think) roughly the era of Native American boarding schools, where similar "assimilation" practices were exercised. Except this has the added charm of the asylum director's desire to sterilize the "mentally deficient" patients before releasing them back into the public. And the very real possibility that many "patients" were only sent there because they got on white reservation agents' nerves, not due to any psychological condition.

2007-12-17T16:49:00.002-08:00

1. I successfully replaced my laptop's distorted LCD. By myself. Armed with nothing but a screwdriver and some print-outs. And I didn't even electrocute myself once. Let's hope it doesn't fall apart next week.

2. Really creepy but strangely compelling.

3. Really fucking creepy but not at all compelling. These people are using the Bible as an excuse to practice lifestyle Discipline/Domination/Submission. I mean, if you wanna do the latter, go for it. But don't claim you're only doing it because God wants you to do it (and not, God forbid, because you get off on it).

4.
From here.

5. Hee.

2007-12-10T22:10:00.003-08:00

1. Haven't gotten your daily overdose of cute yet? Look no further.

I mean, come on:

2. It's a good idea, I guess, but how exactly is this sending a positive message? I mean, it's not sending a negative one, either. It's sending whatever message the reader wants to read into it. Which probably isn't gonna help things.

3. This is what I choose to do with my leisure time as an adult. Who'da guessed.

4. Yet another reason to move to Iceland.

5. Scientologists can't really be serious about this. I mean, come on. Like the link says, it looks like the television set for the latest primetime sci-fi drama. With a portrait of Hubbard in a captain's hat on the conference room wall. Which of course reminded me of George Sr.'s frozen banana portrait.

2007-12-09T19:35:00.003-08:00

1. Can anyone identify which plague is which here?

2. Found out about this site a few weeks ago. Not a bad idea. I just hope it actually works. A few projects I found worthwhile:

Dictionaries for a high school special ed. class.

Sensory integration equipment for a middle school special ed. class.

Video equipment for deaf high school students to record ASL storytelling.

Supplies for a high school special ed. classroom's entrepreneurial endeavor.

3. A Navajo Code-Talker G.I. Joe. Interesting.

4. Oh shit.

A UK clinic has even suggested lowering the autism rate by deliberately eliminating male embryos (because boys are much more likely to have autism than girls) in families where there is a history of autism and ADHD syndromes.

I mean, a line has to be drawn somewhere. I'd say it's morally wrong to create a child who's gonna suffer for their entire life. But then again, everybody suffers. It's a matter of degree. And there's no way everyone will ever agree on what amount of suffering is acceptable, or even what constitutes "suffering" and what doesn't.

For now, I'm gonna have to lean toward people using whatever embryo they want. I know people can be pretty damn evil, but somehow I don't think parents would choose an embryo with the express purpose of maximizing their child's future misery. And that's the only case where I think interference is warranted.

5. Thank god. Hopefully others will follow this example.

2007-12-08T16:23:00.003-08:00

1. By "animal stacking", do they mean this?

2. Faceplant, indeed. I really don't get why, if they want to be taken seriously by anyone, Biblical Archaeologists don't actually, say, study archaeology. You can learn that preservation of soft tissues occurs in numerous circumstances just by reading a few children's books.

3. I told you so.

4. I'm very curious about the number of parking spaces being added to the Creation Museum's facilities....

5. On a more personal note, apparently the fabulous 1970's house I grew up in is on the market again.

Hobgoblins

2007-12-06T18:58:00.002-08:00

Why is this completely different from the last time I did this?

2007-12-06T18:15:00.002-08:00

1. This is old news by now, but I'm just glad that atheists are being represented somewhat positively in mainstream media.

2. Again, old news. I'm still appalled at the massive predominance of packaged, processed food in the western world. Not that I practice what I preach as far as my own diet goes.

3. Heh.

4. Sadly, some good points are made here. Not that making the points is sad, but the points themselves.

I've noticed a pattern over the last few years. [Broad Generalizations in 3...2...1...] Conservative Christians are stronger than ever, yet they think they're being threatened like never before. It all reeks of paranoia and unnecessary defensiveness. Guys, the nation's money already mentions your god. You're not under siege.

It's like white, middle class men complaining that they're now an oppressed minority simply because the privileges they took for granted are suddenly available to someone else. Who's not white. Or doesn't have a dick.

So now Ben Stein & Co. are claiming persecution at the hands of a secular conspiracy. Boo fuckin hoo. You've had your heyday, now step back and let someone else have a turn.

5. Why can't we all just get along?

2007-12-01T12:48:00.001-08:00

1. How long do you spend in the shower?
10-60 minutes.

2. Name something a football player wears under his uniform?
Chastity belt.

3. Name something people hate to find on their windshield.
Paw prints.

4. Name something a man might buy before a date.
Rohypnol.

5. What's another word for blemish?
Leprosy.

6. Something you'd cook in the microwave?
Tea.

7. Name a piece of furniture people need help moving?
Precious Moments curio cabinet.

8. Name a reason a younger man might like an older woman?
Free laundry.

9. Name something a dog does that embarrasses its owner?
Growl/bark at black people.

10. Name a kind of test you cannot study for?
Breathalyzer.

11. Name something a boy scout gets a badge for?
Spelunking.

12. Name a phrase with the word 'Home' in it?
Base/free/boy.

13. Name a sport where players lose teeth?
Competitive eating.

14. Name something a teacher can do to ruin a student's day?
Teach.

15. What is a way you can tell someone has been crying?
Cleared sinuses.

16. Name something found at a Séance?
Gullibility.

17. Name a bird you wouldn't want to eat?
Big.

18. Name something that gets folded?
Socks.

19. Name something a person wears even if it has a hole in it?
How does one manage to wear something without a hole in it?

20. Name something that gets smaller the more you use it?
Life-span. Or patience.

No Surprises Here

2007-11-20T17:14:00.001-08:00

Your Score: 5 - the Observer

Thanks for taking the test !

you chose BZ - your Enneagram type is FIVE (aka "The Thinker").

"I need to understand the world"

Observers have a need for knowledge and are introverted, curious, analytical,
and insightful.

How to Get Along with Me

Be independent, not clingy.

Speak in a straightforward and brief manner.

I need time alone to process my feelings and thoughts.

Remember that If I seem aloof, distant, or arrogant, it may be that I am feeling uncomfortable.

Make me feel welcome, but not too intensely, or I might doubt your sincerity.

If I become irritated when I have to repeat things, it may be because it was such an effort to get my thoughts out in the first place.

don't come on like a bulldozer.

Help me to avoid my pet peeves: big parties, other people's loud music, overdone emotions, and intrusions on my privacy.

What I Like About Being a FIVE

standing back and viewing life objectively

coming to a thorough understanding; perceiving causes and effects

my sense of integrity: doing what I think is right and not being influenced by social pressure

not being caught up in material possessions and status

being calm in a crisis

What's Hard About Being a FIVE

being slow to put my knowledge and insights out in the world

feeling bad when I act defensive or like a know-it-all

being pressured to be with people when I don't want to be

watching others with better social skills, but less intelligence or technical skill, do better professionally

FIVEs as Children Often

spend a lot of time alone reading, making collections, and so on

have a few special friends rather than many

are very bright and curious and do well in school

have independent minds and often question their parents and teachers

watch events from a detached point of view, gathering information

assume a poker face in order not to look afraid

are sensitive; avoid interpersonal conflict

feel intruded upon and controlled and/or ignored and neglected

FIVEs as Parents

are often kind, perceptive, and devoted

are sometimes authoritarian and demanding

may expect more intellectual achievement than is developmentally appropriate

may be intolerant of their children expressing strong emotions

Renee Baron & Elizabeth Wagele

The Enneagram Made Easy

Discover the 9 Types of People

Harper
SanFrancisco, 1994, 161 pages

You liked the test?

so S P R E A D I T ! tell everyone!!!
(use Quick-Paste below)

you wanna know MORE?

so check out, what Wikipedia says about your type...

...even more you'll find in Google

or do you prefer to

You are not completely happy with the result?!

You chose BZ

Would you rather have chosen:

AZ (THREE)

CZ (ONE)

BX (NINE)

BY (FOUR)

Link: The Quick & Painless ENNEAGRAM Test written by felk on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

2007-11-19T19:11:00.002-08:00

1. Here.

2. That answers that question (#3).

The families want the crosses -- let them have them. But don't let them continue claiming they're not religious symbols. Come on people.

3. Snuffleupagus is visible only to Big Bird; since 1985, all the characters can see him, as Big Bird’s old protestations that he was not hallucinating came to seem a little creepy, not to mention somewhat strained. [From here.]

I'd like to think that, if I hallucinated, I'd hallucinate something like Snuffleupagus (Is that really the correct spelling? I would've guessed Snuffalupagus.)

4. Um, actually, paleoanthropologists don't all agree that A. afarensis was a direct ancestor of homo sapiens. Nice try, though.

5. Toucans and penguins, living in harmony. Though I do like that they didn't make Adam a pale, blonde Aryan.

2007-11-17T13:47:00.002-08:00

1. Who knows. It could come in handy some day.

2. I'm confused. Very confused.

Get a Cash Advance

Do I not use enough big words?

3. Sigh. I suppose it would be too much trouble to ask the victims' families what they would prefer?

However, the state and UHP troopers say they are memorials to brave public servants and not religious in nature.

I'm sorry, but a cross, in any context, is religious in nature. Which is fine, if the person it's memorializing would be okay with that.

4. This makes me sad. Very, very sad.

Ben Stein believes in Intelligent Design?? Oy.

5. My latest Monkees phase has led me here.

An interesting read, and it sounds like a hell of a lot of fun. But it's reminded me of a generation gap re: idealism that I keep running across. It's like the anti-60s. People my age are either pessimists or pragmatists of the highest order, and our parents are the dreamers. Strange.

2007-11-16T10:03:00.003-08:00

1. True enough.

2. I've been on a Monkees kick recently (due to receiving this in the mail a couple weeks ago). I found a recent-ish Peter Tork interview with some amusing content.

On conventions:

It gives the fans a chance to meet the celebrities. Connect with the guy that used to be a bunch of coloured dots on your TV screen.

On the prospects of yet another reunion tour:

The Cream has reunited. Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones are touring again. They are getting anything from 100 dollars to 500 dollars a ticket. I think the Monkees would be good value for at least ten to eleven dollars a ticket

On Stephen Stills being rejected at the Monkees auditions:

Oh yes, he was hard done by. He had to settle with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Stephen, if you are reading this interview then I am sorry

3. Holy crap!

Looks like most of the pets I've ever had.

Apparently if you overfeed a goldfish it messes up its swim bladder, forcing it to float on its side at the surface of the water in a disturbingly accurate impression of being dead (I learned this on QI). How many goldfish have lost their lives due to ignorance of this fact?

4. Oh dear lord. This is the last thing we need.

5. Not only can't the Phelps afford to pay the $10.9 million, but apparently they're all in debt. I guess that's what happens when you use credit cards to pay for frequent nation-wide travel. I mean, come on. Credit card debt? I know it happens, but it's not exactly rocket science to prevent it from happening. Though I suppose God told them it was okay to use money they don't have to do His work.

2007-11-11T14:51:00.002-08:00

1. "If you can have 'The Passion of the Christ' on one hand, then you can have 'The Golden Compass' on the other." [From here.]

Uh. Comparing the two? I don't think there's much in the way of drawn out, bloody pornographic torture in the Pullman movie. I also think 'Compass' might also have a plot and not just an ideological agenda to bash people over the heads with.

Not that I'm really all that positive on 'Compass.' I heard the screenplay was shit.

2. While this is not a litmus test for sexual orientation, Witelson said this finding could prove to be one additional valuable piece of information for physicians and individuals who are trying to determine their sexual orientation. "Sometimes people aren't sure of their sexual orientation." [From here.]

This sounds a little dangerous. I don't think anatomy or physiology should be the be-all and end-all of someone's identity. If I were confused about my gender identification or sexual preference, I wouldn't want some glorified version of phrenology (okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but still...) telling me who I am. But this is purely speculative, so I suppose those who've experienced it first hand deserve the final say.

3. This is pretty disgusting. Parents don't always like/get along with their biological children. Yet they don't (usually) try to return them like defective merchandise. First of all, they can't. Second, it would be wrong to do so. You have a child (by whatever means), you automatically take on responsibility until they're of age.

4. Duh.

Though I'd like to see a study done by someone without a vested interest in the outcome....

5. This pretty much sums up my opinion as well.

2007-11-07T19:12:00.002-08:00

1. Yay!

2. The mouse-over makes it worth it.

3. Possible alternative employment opportunity?

4. Remember O'Reilly's expose on Brown's SexPowerGod party? Someone finally realized that it, as well as many of his other segments, was just an excuse to talk about girls making out with each other.

5. I have no idea how school vouchers work in reality, but I actually don't agree with the church-state separationists on this one. If the vouchers work for religious schools as well as prep schools and whatever other private/alternative education options are around, I don't see the problem.

2007-11-05T08:07:00.001-08:00

More Phelps case:

...all of the evidence indicates that [the plaintiff's] reputation, if anything, was enhanced by defendants' words. [From here.]

Say what??