Quality Publication Spotted at Local Library

I've been sitting at the library for some hours now, decided to take a pause from writing and have a look at the magazine selection.


Homeopatia - Suomen Homeopaatit ry - 1/2008

Yay, it's a homeopathy publication! And even better:


HIV Infections and Homeopathy

They're helping in fighting HIV in Africa! They even provide plenty proof that it actually WORKS! One anecdote siding with homeopathic remedies and over a page of talking how homeopathy is superior to allopathy with no references to any research are proof plenty. Bite that, evil Allopathianists!(?)

Photo for Week 17

Along this spring I've been helping with running a parkour club for youngsters. This week we had this season's penultimate training session and decided to get out of the gymnasium and hit the pavement.

I happened to be lugging my camera around with me that day, resulting in snapshots such as this.



The motion being performed would be called a tic-tac to a cat-leap in PK parlance.

Stupid Movie of the Year, Courtesy of Religious Nutjobs

Expelled Exposed

Ben Stein is my new hero. Discussing the question on the origin of life on Glenn Beck's show [link] he says:

"They ["Darwinists"] have an answer but it's a BS answer. It's an answer that wouldn't make sense to a small child."

If it doesn't make sense to a child, it doesn't make sense to Ben Stein. Makes sense.

Ray Comfort Pleases His Master the Way Only He Can

I've been a fan of Ray Comfort for years. Lately, I occasionally drift back to read his blog to see what he and his cronies are up to. This is the story of my latest posts on Ray's blog.

April 6th, Ray posted an article he titled "Science Fiction". In this post he shows to his readers how stupid the evolutionary scientists are, by sharing snippets from a book called "The Wild World of the Future". This book introduces creatures from a hypothesized future world (based on scientific principles) hundreds of millions of years after our time.

As per usual, Ray didn't really say much that is worth commenting on, but he ended the article with this brief paragraph:

By the way. In case you think that this is a book for children. Not so. It is the "Companion book to the Discovery Channel series: The Future is Wild" (page 96).

Ray supplied his readers some pictures he had taken of the book, and glimpsing over them I suddenly got this tingle between my ears that only a Ray Comfort article can elicit. I surfed around the 'net for a couple of minutes, and posted something along the lines of this on Ray's blog:

Sure looks like a children's book to me. But maybe I should cut Ray some slack. Surely, he can't be confused about something like this.

(2 minutes later)

From Barnes & Noble online bookstore:

"Claire Pye is an author and editor of non-fiction books for children and adults covering subjects as diverse as healthy eating, computers, sharks and dinosaurs. Before writing The Wild World of the Future for children, she edited the adult version of the book, entitled The Future is Wild."

*sigh*

Unfortunately, my original post was censored by Ray and nobody ever saw it, so I'm working from memory here and the above might not be verbatim to what I wrote. After seeing that I got censored I tried posting again, just to see my words disappear in another puff of virtual smoke.

I'm used to being censored by Ray, but it's strange how it often follows a certain pattern. If my comment gets censored, Ray follows through with an edit of his original post. Maybe I'm giving myself too much credit here, but soon after I posted my first comment on that thread, Ray removed his original last paragraph, and inserted a new one with his revised view on the book:

Obviously, this book was written for children, and it is billed as the "Companion book to the Discovery Channel series: The Future is Wild" (page 96).

I tried posting a third time, rather frustrated at Ray's antics, and actually got through. Still, it was another lesson in futility, as Ray doesn't answer questions he doesn't like to answer.

I'm intrigued: did Ray Comfort really, honestly in all sincerity think that this was a book aimed at mature audiences? If so, it could serve as some sort of hint as to what kind of literature creationist kooks surround themselves with.

I love you Ray. Don't ever change.

Memories of Minesweeping

Toilet Etiquette Weekly, ep. 1

Once upon a time ran into a photo of a college dorm hallway on the Something Awful forums. I didn't preserve the photo, but traced a vector image from the salient element in it: an instructional plaque next to a bathroom door. The image haunted me from time to time, as I browsed past it in my images folder:



It always caused my mind to silently scream out a barrage of WH words, but I ignored the impulse to look into the matter.

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I recently finished Pekka Virkamäki's book, Arka ja ahdas ismi (roughly translated: A Timid and Constricted Ism). Virkamäki was involved in the Hare Krishna movement for almost 15 years, vascillating between almost leaving the cult and ending up in high ranking positions. The book is his account on how he came into his faith, relished it, but eventually felt estranged, constrained, and left it behind. It's an excellent read presented in a respectable manner: the gloves are off, but there's really no vitriol, just observational and self-reflective explication.

The high point in the book for me was to be able to connect the above picture into a sensible context. Devout Hare Krishnas aim to lead an extremely ascetic life, abstaining from all earthly indulgences and comforts. Lush mattressess: evil. Recliners: evil. Toilet bowls: not that evil but you might want to emulate evacuating your bowels into a hole in the ground to feel better about yourself. This also prepares the Hare Krishnas for their inevitable visits to India and temples therein, where the invading western style toilet bowls have not yet replaced the indigenous population.

The dorm the plaque was in had probably accommodated Hare Krishnas sometime in its lifespan. The ultimate reason for its emergence remains unknown. Were the caretakers complaining about exceptionally grimy toilet seats? Was it a health risk, perhaps someone cracked their skull open as the misused bowl exacted revenge? Some mysteries will remain sans answer...

--------------

Religion does make people do strange things. In a quest to push the envelope, I actually happen to have a new religion in the works, just so that I can begin posting this variation of the instructional plaque all around Finland, and eventually, the world:

Spycat sees your typing

Solar system?

~source~

"One of the most basic laws in the universe is the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This states that as time goes by, entropy in an environment will increase. Evolution argues differently against a law that is accepted EVERYWHERE BY EVERYONE. Evolution says that we started out simple, and over time became more complex. That just isn't possible: UNLESS there is a giant outside source of energy supplying the Earth with huge amounts of energy. If there were such a source, scientists would certainly know about it."