Mad science - woohoo

http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2012/02/09/better-living-through-electrochemistry/

As a simple Aussie atheist, I have to say that American football and fundy religion is just Incomprehensibleness²

Free will: Illustrated

Years ago, when I was just a little tyke, my parents bought me a book of Peanuts collected comics.  One of the comics in that book was quite life-changing for me:

http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1976/01/25

I must have read this when I was about 8 years old, and it has been in my memory ever since.  So whenever there has been any thoughts about free will, this image and dialog always popped up.  It's funny how a comic that I read when I was so young can still have a profound influence on my thinking today.  It must be one of those "fundamental-truth" things.

Does Nerf Violence Solve Nerf Problems?

In a previous post I displayed my Nerf Vulcan EBF-25 gun.  It is not very practical, but that is what Nerf is for.  Or is it?

My brother came to visit since then and we decided to find out, through experimenation, if Nerf violence solves Nerf problems. 

The tests are inconclusive.

Update 1) My brother has made a testable observation as a result of the day's activities:

• "Nerf guns don't kill people-people with Nerf guns... don't kill people...either"

Correcting Hitchens' Razor to Hitchens's Razor

In an earlier post, I suggested the take up of "Hitchens' Razor: That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence."

On reflection and several comments on Why Evolution Is True, I have compelled myself to get it right. This is important for a Gnu Scientismist, as Pedantism* is one of the Preferred Virtues.

According to the Apostrophe Protection Society and my Vietnamese-born wife, the correct use would be "Hitchens's" due to the possession being singular. If there were multiple Hitchenses that owned the phrase, it would be "Hitchens'" but we all know there was only one Christopher Hitchens.   I do recall from English classes that if the word ended in an "s" the apostrophe had to follow it, but that may be either mis-remembering, or bad teaching.  It appears I only know grammar with bad practice, and not in theory.

So, it is somewhat fitting that I need to correct the record and make this a teachable moment, because:
a) Everyone should get into the practice of unashamedly realising, admitting and correcting mistakes;
b) Christopher Hitchens would have appreciated being a teachable moment for the correct use of the apostrophe; and
c) Pedantism, as a virtue, can be fun.

* Ie: Being pedantic - pedantism is not a word :)

Today is Human Rights Day

One of the greatest advances in human history (IMHO) is celebrated today, the 10th December.  It is Human Rights Day, celebrating the United Nations adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10th December, 1948.

Please have a read of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Go on, it's not that long.  I feel that  it is one of the best things that humans have ever done for themselves.  The production of the declaration out of the ashes of the Second World War was in part to have nations everywhere declare, "never again" and to specifically set out how the modern human world will interact with itself.  This document was a turning point in human history, as stated by Steven Pinker in The Better Angels of our Nature in the chapter on the Rights Revolution.  What followed was an acceleration of the decline in violence, and the increase in rights (human, animal, ecological) over the rest of the century.  It is a positive document that says how humans have a right to be treated, and how to treat others.

Importantly, it is a secular document - no theology is needed for the clauses to come about.  In fact, there is still a struggle even today to have the declaration followed throughout the human world, notably the worst places for human rights are totalitarian dictatorships (such as North Korea) and theocracies such as Iran.  Given the complexities of the modern nation-states, with certain countries advocating for blasphemy laws to be exempt from the declaration, sometimes I wonder if such a document could be written today.  Still, we have it, and for the last 63 years it has set the benchmark for how we treat each other, and having such a universal benchmark is a remarkable and important thing. 

For the past billion years or so, life on this planet has been based on the principle of basic survival and reproduction.  Any living thing that could take advantage to promote its survival, or that of its offspring, would take it without any second thought.  It is only in the last fraction of a fraction of the time that life has existed here that any life form has declared that a living entity has rights, simply by virtue of being alive, and affirms that all people have the right to pursue their own enlightened self interest, without interference*.

So, Happy Human Rights Day to all!


*Note:
1) Article 14 clarifies that actions that are unlawful are not granted under this declaration, so it is not a free-for-all.
2) Edited several times as other thoughts arise and for clarity.

Skyrim: is there anywhere else to spend summer?

I am currently on holiday in Skyrim, and enjoying the scenery, and getting to know the colourful natives, and the wildlife.

I managed to take a snapshot of a rare clear day at Azura's Shrine, I hope it comes out OK:

Words as weapons, or tools?

I agree with both Dave and matt.  The choice of words is a good example of the difference between the Abrahamic tradition religions and the Eastern (Taoist and Buddhist) philosophies.  An Abrahamic would refer to items or statements as "weapons" whereas an Eastern would refer to them as "tools".    After all, in The Art of War it is said that winning without fighting is best.

I get tired of these discussions being dominated by an Abrahamic mindset, where words like "blasphemy" and "heretic" have meaning.  The idea that a god set out all of the instructions for humankind in a badly worded and contradictory immutable book to a set of remote tribes in a small corner of the world is laughable, and to continue to engage in discussions with this as the philosophical basis is equally silly.  Abrahamic religions just seem so completely prescriptive and dictatorial, with no scope for dissent.  Quite immature by comparison really.

As far as I am aware (and would welcome correction if anyone knows it) the words "blasphemy" and "heretic" do not exist in the context of Taoism or Buddhism.  After all, in Taoism there is the idea that a person is a fool to laugh at the Tao, but without the laughter, there would be no Tao.  I state this not to explain what the Tao is, but to point out contrary opinions are welcome and indeed necessary for a living philosophy and world view to flourish.

Ugh, it is 1:07am here, so I don’t know if this is making sense.  I fear that I will wake up later today and be terribly embarrassed.

Cultural Interlude #1.

From an early age, I have enjoyed classical music, as well as other forms of music.  One of my favourite pieces is this one, played by John Williams:



John Williams has had a rather impressive career as a soloist, but he was also a member of the progressive rock band Sky.  You may know of Sky from this:



The bass and overall composition in Toccata is quite powerful, and rounds out the music to give a satisfying umph.  The bassist is Mr Herbie Flowers. 

I should back up a bit here, and explain what brought on this reminiscence of enjoyable music from the past.  One of the more colourful ways that the Bible is described in WEIT is as a fairy story, with an angry giant, talking snakes and magical trees.  The mentioning of a fairy story brought on a memory of another Sky piece, which is actually quite a nice piece to listen to while reading the more serious parts of the Bible:



Herbie Flowers is still around, as far as I know, and is a very versatile jazz musician.  You may not know his name, but you probably know of his work as the writer and player of one of the most famous bass riffs in modern music, described hereunder:



From what I understand, Herbie Flowers had a condition for joining Sky: he was learning to play the tuba at the time, wanted to do a tuba solo at some point in a live performance.  The resulting masterpiece is a particular favourite of mine, and could well be my unofficial theme song, if I could have one.