Direct download here by right clicking and "Saving As.." or on iTunes
This week:
- Everyone seems to have allergies ('cept Donna)
- Rover Spirit shuts down
- Corrections from last week
- New Regular Feature: Lightning Round of Topics
- UPdate to Young Conservatives of Texas and LGBT
- Oregon Passes a "No Faith Healing" Law
- Cognitive Dissonance and the Rapture
- Oprah's 25 years is over
- A discussion of the Conservative Right's anti-woman actions and sexism in general
- The dogs try their hand at building a dark energy intensifier to vreate better dog treats.
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So do you want a comparison between RFK and Charlie Brown? It might be possible. Anything's possible. From a certain point of view.
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Thursday, May 26, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Happy Towel Day!
Do you know where your towel is?
To quote from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
"A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very, very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with."
So there. Know where your towel is! Or more allegedly grammatically proper: know where is your towel! Or completely frapped: Towel your is where know!
To quote from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
"A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very, very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with."
So there. Know where your towel is! Or more allegedly grammatically proper: know where is your towel! Or completely frapped: Towel your is where know!
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Skeptic Wire Podcast 006 is served!
Get it here, directly or on iTunes!
This week:
- Theta Healing
- John Hagee's church inundated with protesters
- San Antonio playhouse has a gay Jesus play
- Florida bans sex with all animals
- More creationists considering science on the Texas State Board of Education
- Coffee is good for you!
- Morgellens Disease isn't one
- Sirhan Sirhan, Dr. Daniel Brown, and repressed memory therapy
- Tim Minchin is coming to Austin
And: the dogs warm up for an unrecorded aria.
Follow on twitter: @theskepticwire
Write us at: skepticwire@gmail.com
Leave us a voice message through the iPhone podcaster app (coming to Android soon?)
Friend us on Facebook
This week:
- Theta Healing
- John Hagee's church inundated with protesters
- San Antonio playhouse has a gay Jesus play
- Florida bans sex with all animals
- More creationists considering science on the Texas State Board of Education
- Coffee is good for you!
- Morgellens Disease isn't one
- Sirhan Sirhan, Dr. Daniel Brown, and repressed memory therapy
- Tim Minchin is coming to Austin
And: the dogs warm up for an unrecorded aria.
Follow on twitter: @theskepticwire
Write us at: skepticwire@gmail.com
Leave us a voice message through the iPhone podcaster app (coming to Android soon?)
Friend us on Facebook
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Fmr Senator Santorum: McCain doesn't understand torture
Last night I read about this and was truly flabbergasted. I mean, when Santorum was still in grammar school, John McCain was subjected to abuse at the hands of the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. John McCain has been a strong advocate of proper and outlined doctrine regarding "traditional" interrogation. He also speaks virulently about how "enhanced" interrogation does not work. And if there is anyone who should know- its someone who has been subjected to these various techniques.
But oh no... not according to Santorum.
Despite what Leon Pannetta said and I mean, he's just a cabinet member.
Despite what the chair of the Senate Intelligence committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein has stated.
But Rick Santorum, knows that A leads to B which leads to C which led to the death of the most wanted man in the world.
According to Rick Santorum, "I mean, you break somebody, and after they're broken, they become cooperative. And that's when we got this information. And one thing led to another, and led to another, and that's how we ended up with bin Laden"
This makes it sound like Khalid Sheik Mohammed is a horse. I mean we break horses like this to make them do what we want, to make them more docile. But I shouldn't be surprised by this... (He does seem a little concerned about this man-animal connection)
In the end, I finally found someone who said everything that I was thinking... Rachel Maddow addressed this last night during her show. And she was apparently just as flabbergasted as I was by these statements.
Thank you Rachel!
But oh no... not according to Santorum.
Despite what Leon Pannetta said and I mean, he's just a cabinet member.
Despite what the chair of the Senate Intelligence committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein has stated.
But Rick Santorum, knows that A leads to B which leads to C which led to the death of the most wanted man in the world.
According to Rick Santorum, "I mean, you break somebody, and after they're broken, they become cooperative. And that's when we got this information. And one thing led to another, and led to another, and that's how we ended up with bin Laden"
This makes it sound like Khalid Sheik Mohammed is a horse. I mean we break horses like this to make them do what we want, to make them more docile. But I shouldn't be surprised by this... (He does seem a little concerned about this man-animal connection)
In the end, I finally found someone who said everything that I was thinking... Rachel Maddow addressed this last night during her show. And she was apparently just as flabbergasted as I was by these statements.
Thank you Rachel!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Skeptical, musical Comedian Tim Minchin on Craig Ferguson 5/12/2011
It's a little late, but they take a while to post episodes to the web.
Tim's the last segment of the show at 34:55.
Enjoy!!!
Tim's the last segment of the show at 34:55.
Enjoy!!!
Monday, May 16, 2011
The End of the World is Nigh?
This Article attempts to explain how the Family Radio guys figured out that this Saturday is Rapture Day. This group believes the Bible puzzle is a big puzzle that awaits solving. And Mr. Camping- the leader- thinks he has done that....again. The question I have, then, is which translation should you use?
Camping disagrees with the "established" literalist date of 4004 BC (via Bishop James Ussher and also Gaiman and Pratchett in Good Omens) and puts the creation at 11013 BC (I'd use BCE, but that doesn't really apply here, does it?). This is primarily because he doesn't believe all the "begats" indicate direct parentage, but rather familial ties, perhaps through grand or great-grandsons.
Thus, the Great Flood happened in 4990BC, as opposed to 1440BC...or 2000BC. This appears to be key to the calculations and timeline, as then you can count that a day to God is 1000 years, because that's a clue that's given in 2 Peter 3:8 and 7000 years from the flood is taken from Genesis 7:4 and Genesis 7:11.
Consequently, we have only 7000 years from the flood until the end of the world. And that, according to Camping, corresponds with 21May, 2011. At 6pm. When earthquakes are going to shake the world.
Or you couls use this explanation (from The Washington Post):
"The number 5, . . . equals "atonement." Ten is "completeness." Seventeen means "heaven." Camping patiently explained how he reached his conclusion for May 21, 2011. "Christ hung on the cross April 1, 33 A.D.," he began. "Now go to April 1 of 2011 A.D., and that's 1,978 years." Camping then multiplied 1,978 by 365.2422 days - the number of days in each solar year, not to be confused with a calendar year. Next, Camping noted that April 1 to May 21 encompasses 51 days. Add 51 to the sum of previous multiplication total, and it equals 722,500. Camping realized that (5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17) = 722,500. Or put into words: (Atonement x Completeness x Heaven), squared. "Five times 10 times 17 is telling you a story," Camping said. "It's the story from the time Christ made payment for your sins until you're completely saved. "I tell ya, I just about fell off my chair when I realized that," Camping said.
I love math. I wonder if he used any Greek letters for the variables or if he drew little icons?
So we have until 6pm on 21May. But 6pm in which time zone? Is it going to travel around the world via GMT? Or perhaps from Bethlehem? Regardless, this is definitely the most publicized End of the World scenario in a long while. And what a waste of money it's been, especially as Camping believes that there is nothing to be done about it, and only God's Grace will save: and not just being a believer.
Therefore, as Edward Current says: I am converting to all religions...just in case.
Sources:
http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/05/16/by-the-numbers-how-may-21-2011-was-calculated-to-be-judgment-day/?iid=moreonnf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Camping
http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/undergod/2011/01/may_21_2011_harold_camping_says_the_end_is_near.html
Camping disagrees with the "established" literalist date of 4004 BC (via Bishop James Ussher and also Gaiman and Pratchett in Good Omens) and puts the creation at 11013 BC (I'd use BCE, but that doesn't really apply here, does it?). This is primarily because he doesn't believe all the "begats" indicate direct parentage, but rather familial ties, perhaps through grand or great-grandsons.
Thus, the Great Flood happened in 4990BC, as opposed to 1440BC...or 2000BC. This appears to be key to the calculations and timeline, as then you can count that a day to God is 1000 years, because that's a clue that's given in 2 Peter 3:8 and 7000 years from the flood is taken from Genesis 7:4 and Genesis 7:11.
Consequently, we have only 7000 years from the flood until the end of the world. And that, according to Camping, corresponds with 21May, 2011. At 6pm. When earthquakes are going to shake the world.
Or you couls use this explanation (from The Washington Post):
"The number 5, . . . equals "atonement." Ten is "completeness." Seventeen means "heaven." Camping patiently explained how he reached his conclusion for May 21, 2011. "Christ hung on the cross April 1, 33 A.D.," he began. "Now go to April 1 of 2011 A.D., and that's 1,978 years." Camping then multiplied 1,978 by 365.2422 days - the number of days in each solar year, not to be confused with a calendar year. Next, Camping noted that April 1 to May 21 encompasses 51 days. Add 51 to the sum of previous multiplication total, and it equals 722,500. Camping realized that (5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17) = 722,500. Or put into words: (Atonement x Completeness x Heaven), squared. "Five times 10 times 17 is telling you a story," Camping said. "It's the story from the time Christ made payment for your sins until you're completely saved. "I tell ya, I just about fell off my chair when I realized that," Camping said.
I love math. I wonder if he used any Greek letters for the variables or if he drew little icons?
So we have until 6pm on 21May. But 6pm in which time zone? Is it going to travel around the world via GMT? Or perhaps from Bethlehem? Regardless, this is definitely the most publicized End of the World scenario in a long while. And what a waste of money it's been, especially as Camping believes that there is nothing to be done about it, and only God's Grace will save: and not just being a believer.
Therefore, as Edward Current says: I am converting to all religions...just in case.
Sources:
http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/05/16/by-the-numbers-how-may-21-2011-was-calculated-to-be-judgment-day/?iid=moreonnf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Camping
http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/undergod/2011/01/may_21_2011_harold_camping_says_the_end_is_near.html
Sunday, May 15, 2011
And in crazy as bat guano news...
Just how crazy do you have to be to have the Ku Klux Klan repudiate your actions? Apparently, the Westboro Baptist Church is too crazy for even the Klan to get behind... These are the same people who are so radically "conservative" that they call the Tea Party a bunch of whiny socialists. Okay, the whiny was an extrapolation on my part but still, they did call them socialists.
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