Monthly Archives: November 2007

Is Ungrammatical Text Really Harder to Read?

Posted on November 28, 2007 by arensb

I’m in the middle of Steven Pinker’s How the Mind Works. He talks about experiments in which subjects are shown letters in random orientations, and have to figure out whether the letters are mirror-flipped or not. What was found was … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Things I've Learned | 10 Comments

Reality Can Be Mean

Posted on November 27, 2007 by arensb

GMAFB: DUNDEE UNIVERSITY has been accused of “antagonising Christians” with a forthcoming Christmas lecture that challenges one of the central tenets of the faith. Second-year dental student Emily Mackie said the university’s decision to call its inaugural Dundee Christmas Lecture … Continue reading →

Posted in Evolution, FFS, Religion | 5 Comments

I Don’t Get Creationist Humor

Posted on November 27, 2007 by arensb

Over at the “playground” section of the Expelled site, there’s a video of a can-can where the dancers’ heads have been replaced by those of Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Eugenie Scott, Sam Harris, and Charles Darwin. This was made with … Continue reading →

Posted in Creationism, WTF? | Leave a comment

Monday Playlist

Posted on November 26, 2007 by arensb

Hey Joe, Jimi Hendrix Hey Jude, The Beatles Hey You, Pink Floyd Hey Ah, Laurie Anderson Hey! Hey!, Cabaret Voltaire Hey Ho!, Lords of Acid Hey Bulldog, The Beatles Hey Man Nice Shot, Filter Hey Hey What Can I Do, … Continue reading →

Posted in :-) | Tagged | 1 Comment

Priest Off!

Posted on November 24, 2007 by arensb
Posted in :-), Religion | Leave a comment

Innate Social Skills

Posted on November 22, 2007 by arensb

CNN has a story about an experiment that suggests that 6- to 10-month-old infants have at least some innate social skills: The infants watched a googly eyed wooden toy trying to climb roller-coaster hills and then another googly eyed toy … Continue reading →

Posted in News, Science | Tagged | Leave a comment

I See A Pattern

Posted on November 21, 2007 by arensb

Remember Conservapædia, the neocon alternative to Wikipedia’s liberal bias? Here’s a snapshot of today’s list of today’s top ten most viewed pages. See if you can notice a pattern. (HT Wonkette.)

Posted in :-), Politics, Religion | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

How Not to Lose Disks

Posted on November 20, 2007 by arensb

Have you ever upgraded a machine, only to find that during the upgrade, your device names got rearranged, so that your filesystems aren’t where they used to be, and you can’t mount anything? This happened to us at work: we … Continue reading →

Posted in Geek, Things I've Learned | Leave a comment

Australia Starts the War on Christmas

Posted on November 17, 2007 by arensb

According to News.com.au, Nov. 11: SANTAS working in shopping centres across Australia have been banned from bellowing “ho ho ho” because it might frighten children.[…] “The reason behind that is we find that in some cases the little kids can … Continue reading →

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Phillip Johnson on “Judgment Day”

Posted on November 16, 2007 by arensb

On Monday, Phillip Johnson appeared on the ID the Future podcast, and talked about being interviewed for Judgment Day, the Nova episode about Intelligent Design and the Dover trial. He said that while the producer and crew were pleasant enough, … Continue reading →

Posted in Intelligent Design | 7 Comments