Monthly Archives: March 2009

Unicode and the Pope

Posted on March 31, 2009 by arensb

I keep thinking that Unicode has everything, but it turns out that it doesn’t. In particular, there’s a collection of emoji that’s been proposed, but hasn’t been approved by the powers that be. The reason I bring this up is … Continue reading →

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Teasing Information Out of Noise

Posted on March 30, 2009 by arensb

Bennett Haselton has an interesting article at Slashdot about how to develop a “scientific” test for child pornography. Given that Slashdot is all about technology and gadgets and stuff, you might expect the article to describe a new image-recognition algorithm … Continue reading →

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Religion and Legal Insanity

Posted on March 29, 2009 by arensb

You may remember a story from last year about a 16-month-old infant who was starved to death by his mother for not saying “Amen” at mealtime. Today’s Post has a followup. The story is ghastly and appalling, and the mother … Continue reading →

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A Smart Person With Daft Beliefs

Posted on March 29, 2009 by arensb

PZ has a post today about how intelligence and atheism don’t always go hand in hand. Intelligent people who are indoctrinated into a faith can build marvelously intricate palaces of rationalization atop the shoddy vapor of their beliefs about gods … Continue reading →

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HPV Vaccine: Then and Now

Posted on March 26, 2009 by arensb

Remember back in the summer of 2007, when two pharmaceutical companies released a vaccine against human papilloma virus (HPV), how if girls were vaccinated against HPV, it could prevent them getting cervical cancer later in life, and the religious right … Continue reading →

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Russian Orthodox Church Also Wants People to Die

Posted on March 24, 2009 by arensb

A lot of people have written about the pope’s remarks about about condoms in Africa and AIDS. Comments that, if heeded, will cause the death of hundreds or thousands of people. But Ebonmuse at Daylight Atheist points out that the … Continue reading →

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Lore Sjöberg and the Burden of Proof

Posted on March 23, 2009 by arensb

I’ll have to remember this Bad Gods strip the next time someone demands that atheists disprove God: Or when any random douchenozzle completely misunderstands the concept of “burden of proof”.

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Bill Nye Booed for Stating Fact

Posted on March 18, 2009 by arensb

Looks like Texas is the new Florida. Think Atheist is reporting that Bill Nye the Science Guy was giving a talk in Waco, TX, and mentioned that despite what it says in Genesis 1:16, the moon does not emit light, … Continue reading →

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Catholic Clergy Have Their Own Psychiatric Hospital?

Posted on March 14, 2009 by arensb

Today’s Post reports: A Silver Spring psychiatric hospital that specializes in treating Catholic clergy has been cited for problems that are “serious in nature,” according to a report from Maryland health officials who investigated the facility after a patient drowned … Continue reading →

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GOP Not Reactionary Enough for Dwyer

Posted on March 12, 2009 by arensb

Legum’s New Line is reporting that Maryland General Assembly member, arch-reactionary, homophobe, reanimated corpse, and all-around asshat Don Dwyer (R-I Feel Sorry for Anne Arundel) has left the Republican caucus because they wouldn’t support his attempt to amend the Maryland … Continue reading →

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