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I currently have no plans for Thanksgiving.
Mbeki still denies HIV
Nice description of homeopathy and placebos.
Village of idiots analogy of the cell and genome.
I may not be a Ron Paul supporter, but I don't see the point of raiding these people issuing coins in his name.
Dinesh d'Souza vs. Mark Twain (atheism)
If you've heard of that "surfer dude" physics thing, the first few comments here have a couple of links to cautious descriptions. In short: symmetry groups have had a big role in particle physics, but seemed to run out of steam when it came to gravity; the guy found a big complicated group which seems to help. Whether that's genuine or because the group's so big it can fit anything if you look is unclear, especially as no calculations have been done yet, if they even can be done. But: not a crank/kook. Also, stop reading New Scientist.
Me babbling about new tropes in science fiction.
Greta Christina on the Jasmine arc on "Angel" and atheism vs. theocracy.
"When the stability and peace of a society is built on the foundation of a false belief, nothing is more important than perpetuating that belief, and stamping out non-belief. A society built on reality and truth and evidence can be questioned... but a society built on a false belief -- or even an unproven and unprovable belief -- has to bolster that belief, or else it will crumble."
Which reminds me: in Juuni Kokki, the moment when Youko confronts and kills (not that that's ever acknowledged, tangential gripe) the monkey scabbard demon (ep 7 of the anime, chapter 44 of the book) is a great moment of atheist morality, boiling down to "I'll be nice and good because I want to be." I think the anime actually brings this to life better than Eugene's translation, proficient though it is.
LA Times has a 1-page PDF on the ineffectiveness of the War on Some Terror. And![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ginmar notes that al-Sadr, commander of the biggest militia in Iraq, declared a cease-fire on US troops a few months ago, which might have something to do with reductions in violence credited to the surge.
Mbeki still denies HIV
Nice description of homeopathy and placebos.
Village of idiots analogy of the cell and genome.
I may not be a Ron Paul supporter, but I don't see the point of raiding these people issuing coins in his name.
Dinesh d'Souza vs. Mark Twain (atheism)
If you've heard of that "surfer dude" physics thing, the first few comments here have a couple of links to cautious descriptions. In short: symmetry groups have had a big role in particle physics, but seemed to run out of steam when it came to gravity; the guy found a big complicated group which seems to help. Whether that's genuine or because the group's so big it can fit anything if you look is unclear, especially as no calculations have been done yet, if they even can be done. But: not a crank/kook. Also, stop reading New Scientist.
Me babbling about new tropes in science fiction.
Greta Christina on the Jasmine arc on "Angel" and atheism vs. theocracy.
"When the stability and peace of a society is built on the foundation of a false belief, nothing is more important than perpetuating that belief, and stamping out non-belief. A society built on reality and truth and evidence can be questioned... but a society built on a false belief -- or even an unproven and unprovable belief -- has to bolster that belief, or else it will crumble."
Which reminds me: in Juuni Kokki, the moment when Youko confronts and kills (not that that's ever acknowledged, tangential gripe) the monkey scabbard demon (ep 7 of the anime, chapter 44 of the book) is a great moment of atheist morality, boiling down to "I'll be nice and good because I want to be." I think the anime actually brings this to life better than Eugene's translation, proficient though it is.
LA Times has a 1-page PDF on the ineffectiveness of the War on Some Terror. And
ginmar notes that al-Sadr, commander of the biggest militia in Iraq, declared a cease-fire on US troops a few months ago, which might have something to do with reductions in violence credited to the surge.