Humanlight

I blogged about this already, then forgot about it and now see Humanlight pop up in searches that reach my site so I looked into it again, the winners of that contest are on the site.
Its a bit late now and the designs of the 2008 winners don't really do it for me, I like this one from 2006 and ordered a pack (which will arrive in Januari) so that I can spread some love after the obligatory period ;-)

Lord of War - The life of a bullet

Excellent intro!

What's Morally Wrong With Homosexuality?

I stumbled on this but it is awesome!
Love "the parts don't fit" argument and morals from animals bit.

Amazing, horrible, wonderful, sickening

Warning this is gonna be a post with some horrible things and the links also contain some pretty disturbing pictures, so you're warned.

This is all those things and more.

However the parents (and a lot of the commenters) should be a bit more careful with when talking about miracles, I know the article only mentions it once and the parents are probably genuinly thankful to the doctors and science for allowing their baby to survive this.

As I see it the only actual event that could in a way be defined as a miracle was the development of the 2nd fetus insite the baby's brains, all that follows is pure science and their luck of living in the western world.

I wish them all the best and thank goodness that humanity has progressed so much already to be able to give that baby a chance to live.
(via Pharyngula)

Kleine opmerking

Ik ben deze interessante site aan het lezen

Wie heeft het beste wereldbeeld? 

Een kleine snelle opmerking, in de 2de tabel staat:

3. God - wetenschap kan geen uitspraak doen over God (bevestigen noch ontkennen)

Nu zo een stelling is waar voor een wel bepaalde god, een god die geen eigenschappen heeft of die geen interactie heeft met de materiële wereld.

Die stelling zo uitdrukken kan door religieuzen worden aangehaald als het punt waarop ze gevalideerd worden om toch maar te blijven geloven, het is de stelling die voor hun de weddenschap van Pascal in het voordeel van hun god doet kantelen, het kan zijn dus ...

De wetenschap kan wel degelijk uitspraken doen over een god die eigenschappen heeft, of een god die interactie met de materiële wereld heeft (bvb. dat een god de aarde 6000 jaar geleden gemaakt heeft of gebeden beantwoord)

Dit word verder in de tekst ook wel met wat meer woorden gezegd maar dit punt zou altijd op alle niveaus duidelijk gemaakt moeten worden, indien het niet gedaan word kan hiermee steeds alle wetenschappelijke discussie over religie van de tafel geveegd worden.

Black Jesus Answers YOUR Stupid Ass, Vol. 1

I believe in HIM!

The Parrot Sketch

Legally and in HIGH Quality!!!
Monty Python is NOT dead!

Here's a YouTube channel to keep an eye on

JeansTake

Can I just say that the comments on her video's made me all warm and fuzzy and no I'm not THAT sick anymore! ;) )

Atheism is becoming a great community and current technology is letting us reach out to everyone, this is indeed a great time to be alive (and to be an atheist)!

Also the atheists are supportive but still insist she finds out the details herself (people are not sleeping forever when they die ;-) ) while theists are either negative (granted for the moment there's only one) or fall back on "praying for you" and here's an authority that says you gotta believe MY dogma!

(via Friendly Atheist )

Back among the living

After a weeks hibernating/regenerating here's a funny link for the weekend (via linkdump van ReteCool)

A little mention of a useful tool

It's something that I use everyday but hardly ever actually see:

http://www.foxmarks.com/

It lets you sync bookmarks and favorites of all your PCs or laptops once setup it just sits there doing it's business, you can create sync profiles like Work/Home and select folders and individual bookmarks that are only synced to that profile (so that P0rn folder doesn't end up on your work PC, not that I have one of those, really!).

It used to only work for FireFox (hence the name) but they now also have an IE version (and there's also a Safari version, all these can work concurently with eachother), the news was in their blog .

And even if you're on a PC without such a browser or cannot install the add-on or software then you can still go to the FoxMarks site and access your bookmarks from that site (it's what I do on my mobile phone or on a public computer)

Why do they always sleep better somewhere else ...

Because my wife was a little sick yesterday and I had to go to the owners meeting of our apartment at 8pm (which lasted until 11pm grrrr) we let our daughter sleep over at her grandparents.

Now at 2yo I think she sleeps good, occasionally we get a few nights when she'll wake up from wanting a bottle or a bad(or exciting?) dream but I'd say 70% of the time we get the sleep that we need and she sleeps a good 9-10 hours, she does go to bed late (around 10pm) and we'd like to change that but she can sleep until 8 or 9am so we figure it'll change automatically when she has to go to school and has to get up earlier.

I figured a new place (the last time she slept at my mom's was about a year ago) would disrupt her a bit but no, she slept from 6pm!!! until 7:30am I was on the phone this morning when she woke up and she sounded happy and of course well slept!

They have the same bed and I don't think it there's less noise.

Still, good for her but I don't get it :-)

School

I can't believe we're already doing this.
We've chosen a school for Alina, she can start kindergarten in January but we're planning to only send her in March because we want her to be a bit more comfortable with the 2 languages we're speaking to her.  At daycare it does frustrate her a little when people don't understand what she says in one language and we hope she'll make the distinction better when she's a bit older.
The choice of school will provide a bit more meat for this blog when it starts because it's a catholic school.  The primary reason for the selection is that the school is the closest one but my wife finds the catholic bit an extra bonus (I find it a mild negative).
Being a Belgian school it is not too heavy on the religion, it didn't come up during her registration and I only spotted one promotional poster that was just a soft message that I would agree with too and at the bottom in very small print it had the bible chapter/verse reference.
So I'm pretty sure it'll be ok but I'm gonna keep my eyes open :-)

Lest we forget

This is also a big loss for the Christian God as one of His more fervent supporters put it thusly:

You could and you did!

Well done USA for this first step towards change, now show the world what you're really made of!

Too bad that for the moment (about 50% counted) it looks like CA Prop. 8 will make it, but it seems like CA Prop. 4 will not and in WA initiative 1000 (doctor assisted suicide) has resoundingly made it (though it seems like a very limited initiative but again it's a first step)

Now to try to stop looking at the results and get some work done ;-)

Suggestion

Even if this (warning: gruesome) was a single case it should be enough for all good people to update any guidebooks, reference material and/or teaching aids to explicitly denounce such practices or remove the offending paragraphs, in fact decent people should think about either abandoning or rewriting the entire content of materials that once contained such practices.  The originals can be kept for historians in libraries and museums but should not be used anymore in reference to current events.
The sad truth is that it is not a single case and even sadder that millions, nay, billions of books, websites and other media which contain, condone and even promote such practices are being used as guides and reference material for current events and sit on the bookshelf of decent people who keep advancing it as a source of guidance (and I admit there is even one in home though I do not advocate using that book for guidance).
I don't advocate book burning but some material is not suitable for some situations (like pornography for children or in this case books which contain and advocate gruesome punishments for non-crimes for moral guidance), the original texts should not be removed from existence but please fellow humans, update the books you say you use for moral guidance and help in removing such practices from this earth let them be just a memory we read about in history books in the proper context of rejection of those ideas not in books that are being promoted as "good".

Thoughtful and intelligent interview

Sid Schwab of Cutting Through The Crap has posted a video of an excellent interview with Barack Obama.

How anyone could even think of voting for the other side just boggles the mind!

Sarah Mania! Sarah Palin's Greatest Hits

It's almost like watching The Office episode where Ricky Gervais does his dance routine, but then without the laughter ...

How Steven Hawking began

Amazing story, amazing man.

We all knew "the good book" was dangerous

And here's proof, quoting the Bible can get you in jail. It really should come with those warning stickers that say it contains violence, hate speach and sex.

"As far as I know, Pinkney's the first preacher in the history of America to get locked up for quoting the Bible," Davis says. "Deuteronomy is a great chapter—especially that part about killing all the men, women and children from every city."

(via The Stubborn Curmudgeon: Wrong Verse)

Why probably no god?

You could probably(!) guess, it's because of the automatic protection religion gets in our society.

See:
http://www.atheistcampaign.org/probably/

A valid point is raised in the comments, a definite christian message should not be allowed as well so as not to offend muslims or other religious sects (and vice verso)

What's so good about Belgium

Well this article (in dutch) has the following table:

(translated)

	Further ease of abortion	Euthanasia for minors	Adoption for gays and lesbians
unacceptable	21,4%	24,1%	26,3%
undecided	21,2%	18,5%	13,9%
acceptable	57,4%	57,5%	59,8%

The full analysis (PDF) can be downloaded at the end of the article, it is a survey done last year on about 1000 people in Belgium.

Okay, it could be better but then it can always be better.  Clearly a majority of Belgians are quite progressive.

This is why I'm not too worried about any religious education that my daughter might be getting when she'll be at a catholic school, chances are most of her teachers won't even believe in a god ...

Atheists doing something!

Check this out, who ever said that atheists can't get organized ...
A target of £5,500 reached and then some (it's at £35,000!!! at the moment) in just one day (correction, a few hours).
And Richard Dawkins is chipping in too, matching that first £5,500

The times they are a changing:

http://www.justgiving.com/atheistbus

update: I even saw Sarah Palin chiping in ... ;)
And if you want there's a Facebook group for this action:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=32985131033

Muslim McCain Fans Confront Intolerance At Rally

There may be hope for humanity to overcome extremism.

Sarah Palin Song! (I Picked a Girl!) BBK#3

The song starts around 1:30, pretty good.

Women on waves

http://www.womenonwaves.org/

This is such a great cause, it is sad that the world needs it but it is very beautiful that there are people who are willing to devote their lives to helping women in oppressing societies!

Donations can be made here:
https://secure.vuurwerk.nl/~womenb/transaction_e.html

From Bors Blog

LOL, I'll be smiling all day now.

 

 

 

 

MailBag Douchebag

via Bors Blog by Matt Bors on 10/15/08

bruceaajr@yahoo.com:

YOU SUCK!

In the words of Obama...

I...HOPE... your penis falls off. That would be a good...CHANGE.

Gook: John McCain's Racism and Why It Matters

Amazing, well done video but it shouldn't even need to be explained like this.

Atheïstishe trefdag 2008 Belgie

Ik ga alles proberen om erbij te zijn!
'k ben tenslotte lid van HVV

2009 Yamaha VMAX - Gallerij

I'm dreaming again ...
2009 Yamaha VMAX - Gallerij

Libertyville Abortion Demonstration

Who are these people? Really, do they only have one brain cell?

Atheist? Take this survey

Take this survey, it's open for everyone (well if you're an atheist ;) )

(via Friendly Atheist)

Sarah Palin, Thomas Muthee and witchcraft

I hope the Salem witch trials got rid of all witches in the US if Sarah becomes the VP

Winner: Hitchens

God 0, Atheism 2: Hitchens Eats Another Religious Figure for Lunch

Daily Show with Christopher Hitchens

Found on Emancipate Yourselves From Mental Slavery

Part 1


Part 2

Dodelijk arbeidsongeval aan kerk in Laken

Heel erg dat dit gebeurd is en ik hoop dat die man er wettelijk werkte zodat de nabestaanden ten minste niet met die problemen te maken hebben.
Maar er zit hier toch ook een beetje ironie in, de man was aan het werken om een kerk te renoveren, en Pools zijnde was waarschijnlijk diepgelovig Katholiek, en dan gebeurt dit?
Zijn god hypothese heeft toch duidelijk niet gewerkt volgens mij ...

Dodelijk arbeidsongeval aan kerk in Laken

via Deredactie.be - de nieuwsstroom on 9/24/08

Een Poolse arbeider viel van een stelling bij renovatiewerken aan de Onze-Lieve-Vrouwkerk.

Interesting cartoon

The American River Ganges 

By Thomas Nast

Thought experiment

This post and a YouTube video I saw recently got me thinking.

Suppose that today on all screens and on all street corners, even inside all houses for every person on this earth their particular version of god or concept of supernatural entity would appear (Jesus for the christians, Vishnu for hindu's, even Zeus for those few that still believe in them, cosmic energy beam for the new agers etc.) and those characters would all tell the believers that actually they are all from the same alien race and that starting all those religions was a sociological experiment and that this alien race lives very prosperous without religion, even then I still think a large portion of the world's population would kindly take that information, put it aside and continue going to church and believing in their god much the same as before that revelation, and if they did not return to church by them self then any priest putting even a little twist on what happened would have his church full of believers again.

I'm 100% certain of this, I could not believe that the first answer by Lindsey in that Friendly Atheist post was made by a believer, I kept reading thinking that she was being humorous but no, that answer really is enough for her to cast aside all rational explanations of modern science (look at the horses answer!).

Unbelievable, there are books with titles that claim the writers do not believe in atheists, well I do not believe in theists, I have to think that in the dark of the night when she's all alone she is laughing at us atheists that we believe that she actually believes that stuff.

I have believe this to because to me the theory of evolution would crumble, no sane person who can use a computer could be so daft, it just cannot be, evolution should have naturally selected against such really, really gullible people by now!

(BTW that last paragraph was satire)

Angels exist

This is art

Ayaan Hirshi Ali on The Colbert Report

Seona Dancing

Ricky Gervais REALLY was in a band in the '80 !!!

Dawkins on The Colbert Report Part 2

Richard Dawkins on The Colbert Report 1

Just the link

It is not a recent story and I don't wanna comment on it ...

Pope satirist convicted in Poland  

But there is hope

Ricky Gervais on the Daily Show!!!!

HumanLight Design Contest

I kinda like the christmas atmosphere and ignore the supernatural stuff, (if I send christmas cards they're sans religion) but this sounds like a better idea, if the winners are good I'll probably order some if I can.

 

CALLING ALL NON-BELIEVERS: Express yourself in a HumanLight Design Contest

HumanLight is a holiday celebrated around December 23rd specifically to acknowledge reason, family, friendship, and other shared, secular values of humankind. To learn more, visit the website: http://www.humanlight.org

The HumanLight Committee is hosting a HumanLight Holiday card and ornament design contest for secularists of all ages. Contestants should design an artistic expression to positively address these questions or some aspect of the HumanLight holiday.

What do we have to celebrate during the winter holiday season? What do you hope for in the future? What's the Humanist view/perspective?

ELIGIBILITY: All are welcome to enter!

Category 1: Ages 11 and under.

Category 2: Ages 12-17.

Category 3: Ages 18 and up.

One entry per artist. All media, (painting, printmaking, collage, digital art, photography, or perhaps something even more creative?) is accepted.

TO APPLY: Email the image as a high resolution (at least 300 dpi) JPEG

to humanlightcontest@gmail.com. In the body of the email, include the artist's name, age, what country and state (if it applies) he or she is from, and what method he or she used to create the image.

DEADLINE for entries is November 1, 2008.

Judge: Martha Knox is a fine artist, Humanist celebrant, art teacher, and Director of the Humanist Association of Greater Philadelphia.

Prizes: Three images will be selected, 1 from each age category. Cards and ornaments displaying all three winners will be available for purchase at the HumanLight merchandise webpage. Each prize winner will receive an ornament and set of cards with their image, as well as some HumanLight candy! The winners and their designs will also be featured on the main HumanLight website www.humanlight.org.

All images in this contest are owned by the artist. By submitting images to this contest, the artist agrees to grant the HumanLight Committee the right to print or otherwise re-publish the submitted images in marketing or web materials for the purpose of promoting HumanLight so long as credit is given to the artist as the original creator of the image(s). All proceeds from HumanLight merchandise sales will go toward further promotion of HumanLight.

Spread the word!

An atheist under (legal) attack

by an insane theist of course, there's no doubt he'll win the case but even so those things actually cost money (so help him out a bit if you can) but things like that also carry a cost for society at large and should be stopped!


This is just insane

There should be more like him in Hollywood

Brad Pitt donates $100,000 to fight gay marriage ban 

I feel like Arthur Dent

I feel like Arthur Dent on that infamous Thursday.

Turkey bans biologist Richard Dawkins' website

Turkey bans biologist Richard Dawkins' website 

And I'm going there on holiday later this year, and I'll be bringing my "A" t-shirts (and I still have some RDF stickers ...)

Safe, legal and falling

Restrictive laws do not reduce abortion

Gay Scientists Isolate Christian Gene

Finally!

uh, I think I'll go home now...

LHC Webcam

Condom, condom!

Activists promote safe sex in India with cellphone 'Condom, condom!' ring tones

Religion, always running behind science

Always trying to limit it ...

http://www.space.com/news/060615_ap_hawking_news.html

Famed physicist Stephen Hawking said Thursday that Pope John Paul II tried to discourage him and other scientists attending a cosmology conference at the Vatican from trying to figure out how the universe began. 

 

The British scientist joked he was lucky the pope didn't realize he had already presented a paper at the gathering suggesting how the universe was created. 

There's a clip about this too:

http://atheistmedia.blogspot.com/2008/09/stephen-hawking-on-creation-myths.html

 

I have to go back to Nantes

Pictures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ochblog/sets/72157607198700794/

Movies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8n0rsGcQpE

More movies

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ile+de+nantes

Les Machines de L'île 

PZ would probably get a kick of this one ... 

Calamar geant

Just to be sure

Has The Large Hadron Collider Destroyed The World Yet 

It gave me a nice calm feeling, not unlike when I first read "Don't Panic" written in large friendly letters on my HHGTTG ...

Interesting

The catholic league continues to be offended by abuse directed towards a little food item.

They are crying babies, really, and to show us they have responded to the deluge of hate mail that PZ Myers got by posting a selection of what they them self got:

http://www.catholicleague.org/catalyst.php?year=2008&month=September&read=2452

One must assume that those are the worst of the worst that the catholic league got, do notice the lack of death treats, threats to do physical harm, only one is in all caps, most are even reasoned messages that want to engage in honest discussion, even profanity is not over abundant.

Really if that is the worst they got then I'm proud of my side ;-)

I have to make a pilgrimage to Tennessee !!!

Evolutionists Flock To Darwin-Shaped Wall Stain

Settlements Reached in Chicago Clergy Abuse Case

I think Hitchens once said something like:

It is not the abuse itself that shows the failing of religion but that a life devoted to religion does not stop the abuse.

Also this article, it boggles the mind that even with the apparent need for such measures people still think their churches are morally superior.
Definitely have a look at the second comment by Sister Maureen Paul Turlish:
Should priests give kids piggyback rides?

TV reminder, today, BBC2 9pm

God on Trial
This evening on BBC2!
Sound interesting
Here's the wiki not much there, perhaps after tonight ;)

My PVR is set and ready

Chrome

Posting this with Google's new browser Chrome.
Looks really clean but I have so many useful add-ons in Firefox that I use all the time I do not think I'll be switching. The one thing I'd really like to see in Firefox is the tearing away of tabs into their own window, that is just so awesome and useful.

Tone it down!

Italian church loses battle over loud bells

GOD Versus LESBIANS

Hell yeah, I might have to get some approval from my non lesbian wife, but if I say that it is for science I don't see how she can object to me participating in that experiment ...

god.voor.dommen

Bekijk mijn pagina bij .god.voor.dommen

Just one more and then my weekend starts

Porn in the sky not a problem, f-you religinuts!

That puts AA on my list of fav airlines!
(not that I look at porn, it's for the articles :-) )

Will the world end on September 10?

This post gives some betting odds

What Will the LHC Find?

Lottery players would probably go for one of the following though in the first case there's nothing to collect, in the second case, well I hope it's not the one everyone thinks of:

Stable Black Holes That Eat Up the Earth, Destroying All Living Organisms in the Process: 10^-25%. So you're saying there's a chance?

...
God: 10^-20%. More likely than stable black holes, but still a long shot.

For normal people those 2 are obvious jokes, I hope this one will not occur:

Absolutely Nothing: 3%. It's always possible that we won't find anything really new, not even the Higgs. If that turns out to be the case — well, suffice it to say that there will be great wailing and gnashing of teeth. It's not a prospect I am especially worried about, but reality is what it is, and I'm sure we will find a way to move forward if that's the case.

For the others you'll have to visit the site.

Radical catholics

Dutch article:
Katholieke vandalen vernielen condoomautomaten

Short Translation:

"Radical catholic" vandals destroy 4 condom dispensers in protest of contraception and abortion.  4 youths have been arrested on charges of vandalism for destroying the condom vending machines. The youths come from strict catholic families.

We all know that catholics can verbally show outrage (warning, thousands of comments make that link dangerous to click!) but they alway hide behind their (current) non physical nature, well these catholics acted and destroyed property, the step to harming people is not unthinkeable
Not that I thought that catholic belief was/is immume to violence (heck look at priest abuse) but it is a common reply that catholics are "enlightened" and that they have no radicals in their mids.

Don't know what I'd do with it

But I would really like one of these
Dragonflyer X6


Too bad about the price ... I guess this is more in my league.

Never thought I would be spending my saturdays like this

Watching endless Pingu clips on Youtube ...

We saw The Magdalene Sisters

The Magdalene Sisters was on TV, we only got in when about 3/5th of the movie was already done.
That was still enough though to get an opinion of how horrible those places were and the support the catholic church had to operate them.  It peaked out interest, well it seems only mine as I went to look for some more in-depth information (ah, Wikipedia, how did we do without you, I do read the discussion pages and check the history to see how controversial an article is or what opposing views are left out, this one seems fairly accurate).
Truth again appears more brutal than fiction, I find it really striking that the catholic church took over something that was good and and turned it into something evil.
What more do people need to see that such philosophies are not beneficial?  Those nuns, those priests, those parents, those caretakers all thought they were doing good in sending those girls to those places and treating them the way they did, it was all in the name of their dogma perhaps with exception of the priest's sexual abuse (in the movie the abused girl screams the he is not a man of god, I would offer than none of the people in charge of those asylums fit the god belief that that girl had), but that part was not the central theme of the movie nor the main reason why those things were evil and had to be shut down, it added to the case of-course but it does not exonerate the catholic religious mindset nor the hierarchy's responsibility.

I said that it only peaked my interest, I sent the links to Wikipedia and what I said here to my wife and got no reaction.  In a discussion after the movie her immediate reaction was one of protection of the catholic faith, she basically gave this answer:

The catholic institutions that I know are good and they do not force labor and let people leave voluntarily and I know people that became a nun and left without problems.

And that was enough for her to dismiss this issue as something that does not involve her church. 
It is sometimes difficult to keep cool, someone not willing to separate personal experience from the real world will never change their minds, peaceful Palastines (they must exist ;-) ) growing up in Hamas controlled regions will also see them providing education and health care, they could (and do) use the same logic to keep supporting the organisation and probably dismiss the violence Hamas does in the same way ....

Yamaha VMAX

Ooooh man, I had the first edition of the V-Max, it was in fact my first bike ever, the first bike I remembered from when I was young and the bike I really wanted, I didn't wanna start with a 600CC or some other whimpy bicycle I wanted a real BIKE and the V-Max was gonna be it (you can't believe how many people said that I was crazy to start riding on a 300kg 1200CC bike ;-) )
And when I had my licence and the financial means I bought one and LOVED it, my next bike which I bought for practical and sensible reasons was a BMW R1100RT it was much too sensible and consequently not that much fun.
Then when my daughter was born I slowly stopped riding until I bought a really good new car when I stopped riding altogether and now I am about a year without bike.

Due to a conversation last weekend I went to have a look what Yamaha was offering now and I landed on the NEW

Yamaha VMAX

W! O! W!
1679CC! 1679CC? One thousand six hundred seventy nine!? on a bike, a vehicle with only 2 wheels and still only about 300kg, suuuhweeeeetttttt no mention of the HP of that thing but it will probably beat the already awesome 140HP of the original V-Max
And a lot of the add-ons that tuners added seem to be there already, the exhausts are beautiful as are the scoops, there's a shiftlight, a sort of boardcomputer, ABS breaks, ...
And it is still a real V-Max, only a 4 gallon tank (about 15liters) I could get about 160km (100mi) out of one tank if, IF I managed to take it easy (the VMax is not meant to take it easy!)
And the tank is still under the seat, I wonder what the release mechanism will be like on the new one, it is good that it was such a fun system on the old one because with only 160km I had to stop at the gas station a lot ;-)

It will not be in the near future but someday I will own and ride that bike!  Someday...

Weer zo'n zever gekregen ...

For my English readers, this is about this hoax, since it is already thoroughly debunked in English I'm putting the Dutch version I received on-line so that while this kind of things will never be stopped its spread can at least be slowed a little.

Ik heb in een mail weer zo'n hoax gekregen, ik moet zeggen dat ik soms mensen zie die blikjes eerst afkuisen alvorens ze ervan drinken, waarschijnlijk slachtoffers van de mail op het einde van deze post.  Nu uiteindelijk is het niet zo'n erge hoax, het stoort niet dat mensen hun blikjes eerst even afwrijven alvorens ervan te drinken, het is niet veel tijdverlies en de mail zelf brengt ook niet veel extra internet verkeer, er zitten geen beeldjes in of zo, een goed filmpje blokkeert veel meer bandwith dan duizenden van deze mails dus waarom voel ik de noodzaak om 'm toch te ontkrachten?
Wel omdat het niet waar is, en de waarheid licht mij nauw aan het hart.

Dus hier in het Nederlands enkele punten die de hoax ontkrachten:

1. Er bestaan verschillende versies van dit verhaal, in verschillende talen, allen even vaag over de details.
2. De Spaanse studie is onbestaand (of onvindbaar)
3. Blikjes in opslagplaatsen zijn meestal wel beschermd door folie.
4. De gevallen waarvan sprake zijn onbestaand (of onvindbaar)

Dat zou genoeg moeten zijn.  Nu, ik zeg het nogmaals, ik ga niet zeggen dat je je blikje niet mag afwrijven maar ik maak mij geen zorgen als ik mijn Cola drink uit een niet gewassen blikje ;-)

De volledige mail:
---------------------------

Zeker lezen

VOLKSGEZONDHEID
NIET VERWIJDEREN ZONDER TE LEZEN - Het is in het belang van iedereen!
Artikel verschenen op 'Caducée', professionele informatiebron in de medische sector.
Onlangs is een persoon in absurde omstandigheden gestorven.  Hij was op een zondag per boot met vrienden vertrokken en had blikjes drank in de frigo
van de boot gezet.  De volgende dag werd hij opgenomen in het ziekenhuis, waar hij 's anderendaags overleed.
Een autopsie heeft uitgewezen dat het ging om een snel intredende infectie met leptospiren, veroorzaakt door een blikje waaruit hij op de boot gedronken
had, zonder de inhoud in een glas te gieten.
Het onderzoek van de blikjes heeft bevestigd dat zij besmet waren door urine van een rat, die leptospiren bevatte.  De persoon in kwestie heeft vermoedelijk
het bovenste deel van het blikje niet gereinigd vooraleer er van te drinken.
Het blikje was besmet door urine van een rat, die giftige en dodelijke stoffen bevat, waaronder leptospiren, die leptospirose veroorzaken.
Drank in blikjes, en andere voedingswaren in gelijkaardige verpakking, worden gestockeerd in magazijnen die dikwijls wemelen van knaagdieren.  Zij
worden vervoerd naar de verkooppunten, zonder eerst gereinigd te worden.
Telkens wanneer u een blikje koopt, reinig zorgvuldig het bovenste deel met water en een detergent, alvorens ze in de ijskast te zetten.
Beter nog, koop geen blikjes.
Volgens een studie van INMETRO (Spanje) zijn de deksels van drankblikjes méér besmet dan openbare toiletten.  De studie wijst uit dat de hoeveelheid
kiemen en bacteriën op de deksels van drankblikjes zo erg is, dat ze absoluut met water en een detergent moeten gereinigd worden.

Gelieve deze boodschap aan zoveel mogelijk mensen te verspreiden.
Ontvangen van de Personeelsdirectie van het kantonaal hospitaal van Genève.
J.-M. BOUQUIAUX
Premier Attaché Ministère de la Région Wallonne
Direction générale de l'Agriculture Division de la Politique Agricole
Direction de l'Analyse Economique Agricole,
Chaussée de Louvain, 14
Bureau Bd/2/08
5000 Namur
Tel : 081- 64 94 54
e-mail : jm.bouquiaux@mrw.wallonie.be

I've been interviewed

By The Atheist Spot blog so I guess my bit is coming up soon.
I must say that I haven't been looking at the Atheist Spot much (I subscribed to the RSS feed).
The atheist community seems to be in a real state of flux, all these forums and social sites are vying for members and attention the Atheist Nexus, forums on RichardDawkins.net, atheist blogs with comments and forums.
I give them all my membership and those that are easy, interesting and useful will have return visits ...

I Met The Walrus

What a 14 year old!
I'm not much for putting people on a pedestal but John Lennon is on one in my view.

okay, I guess it's funny video post day

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

via Friendly Atheist

You can trust it with your kids!

Priest off (via GiFS)

Funny pics

Bush + Gates @ the olympics

Brave woman

Already a woman at 14 years old, taking on such pressure by the most powerful organization in her country and still standing by her conviction.

http://www.federa.org.pl/?page=news&newsid=432&lang=2

The priest from Lublin keeps calling her. She also keeps receiving text messages. A psychologist recommended by the priest from Lublin comes to see her at the center.

 

-I'm tired with the pressure all these people are exerting on me. I'm not strong enough to take this – Agata tells us.

...

Yesterday Agata submitted written consent for the procedure at the hospital office for the second time. She tells us that she is sure of her decision. – I could go through with the abortion even today. I don't want this child. I'll become a mom when I'm grown up – she doesn't conceal her decision.

Also:
http://jezebel.com/5017886/14+year+old-polish-rape-victim-now-caught-in-abortion-rights-battle
http://www.neww.org/en/news/news/1,4384,3.html
and many more


It is strange how those kind of religious anti abortionists think, my proposition for them would be this:

If you force someone to have a baby you can be fairly sure the baby will not grow up with much faith in your religion so the person will be doomed to hell anyway, why not let the abortion go through and let the "sinless" child-to-be go straight to heaven (since the pope annulled purgatory for unbaptized babies anyway)

I think if a person of authority in the church said something like that it would fit right in their dogma and would be accepted by the majority of sheep euh believers.  It would also make the issue of church state separation much easier, any law that doesn't fit with their dogma is okay because it is a law for the damned :-)

no no no NO

The Jewel of Medina Censored

Instead fear of terrorism and a reticence about any kind of open discourse about Islam and its founder has caused the publisher Random House to postpone the publication of The Jewel of Medina indefinitely. Sherry Jones and her literary agent are shopping the book to other publishers.

Freedom comes with a price people, fear of violence should not be a reason to censor opinion, it should not be a reason to censor books!

This off-course will only draw more attention to the book.

Saw this DVD laying at a friends

What bleep do we know.

And indeed the house was full of angels, crystals and self-help books. 
Like the BBC review says, gullible indeed but I put it down with a smile, bit my lip a little, didn't bring it up and continued to have a good time ... is that what a "friendly atheist" does.
I must say that I never acted any other way, being an atheist doesn't have to ruin a good evening and I'm not out to pounce on every bit of fantasy that people choose to believe in, I did state my disagreement when she proclaimed that children born via caesarean section were supposed to be less assertive but only after she started it and dropped it pretty quick, I'm not entirely read up on that subject so must claim a "I don't know" but the way she stated it as a matter of fact I could not agree with.

It does feel good to have a lot more knowledge about such things, makes me more confident for when my child(ren?) will come with "The Questions" :-)

Survey on Evolution

http://www.evolutionsurvey.com/

Not an easy one this, no simple boxes to tick, you have to actually answer 2 questions with words.
But after that it's back to selecting from a list or ticking boxes between "Not at all" and "Very much" ;-)

Hey, we're not dead yet!

The Large Hadron Collider apparently passed its first tests

There must be some cover up happening already because the countdown site is down ...

This is all a sign off course, prophecies are being fulfilled catastrophes are coming, you can run but you can't hide ....

I'm not sure if the tests are done already, this BBC report says the first particles will be piped through for the first time tomorrow so the earth may still be engulfed in a big black hole ... ;-)

Religion Free DVD player

And it's good news too!!!

This is beautiful

PZ at Pharyngula has done it again again, no other blog has me dropping my jaw so frequently.
Look at this post:

So this is what a witchunt looks like…as a target

I began reading it, and things move around in my brain, at some point for myself I concede to thinking that the poor sap PZ is talking about has some little teeny weeny point that the physical destruction of something is a teeny tiny step further than merely discussing things:

It is one thing to say that belief in God is foolish and wicked and that Catholicism and Islam deserve scorn. It is quite another to physically desecrate the artifacts believers hold sacred.

(ooh I wish I could put the crazy Monty Python background like PZ, it really is soo appropriate)
Anyway, like I said, in my opinion there is a tiny bit of truth in that, PZ accurately and correctly dismisses it in saying that it is an enormous hyperbole to bring up that defense against what he has done.
But then comes the clincher, the point at which I'm really happy that my morning coffee is safely in my stomach and not my mouth.
You see the poor sap, Dreher, had already commented on Wafergate and his message was quite different:

If P.Z. Myers had any guts, he would put out a call for someone to send him a Koran so he could blow his nose and wrap fish in it. After all, it's nothing but frackin' ink on paper, right? So what's stopping you, Big Man? It's easy to shit on what Catholics regard as sacred. But just try doing the same thing to what Muslims regard as sacred. Let's see what you're made of.

That is just so brilliant, so eloquent, do those people not have memories?
Most likely they do not think about what they say.

Children books

Hmmmm, during my "vacation" in Poland I came across something like this
The Usborne Book of World History you can get a glimps inside here note the "new testament" chapter.

Now that book may actually not be so bad as the one I saw, it was most certainly not that book, the illustrations were different and it actually started with the beginning of the universe.
From what I understand of Polish and of the matter at hand all those parts were accurate enough for children, talking about billions of years, evolution, dinosaurs (without humans!), cavemen, Egyptians, Greeks etc.
But about in the middle of the book there was a chapter called "The Bible" and I kid you not it started straight from the beginning again with Genesis, Adam & Eve, the flood, Jesus... with illustrations similar to the ones in the "real" part and with from what I could see just as much authority as any other chapter, no hint that this was the fantasy part of the book.
After those 5 or 6 pages the book continues with the middle ages, renaissance, French revolution, America ... again accurate as far as I can see.

How can someone hold such views together, it really is a mystery to me, compartmentalization like that should be studied, it is what keeps religion in its place, both the creator of the book and it's readers seem to be living in for them 2 very distinct but very real realities.

As an added bonus, have a look at the comments on Amazon for the book I mention in the beginning, for example:

The drawings and illustrations are fantastic except for a few pages with women without tops (shirts). We don't feel that is appropriate for our grade school boys so we returned the book.

Some even say that it's a pornography book, amazing, so little Billy, you're not gonna learn about those cavemen unless they start putting on some clothes !!! ;-)  I guess they skipped over the good parts of the bible ....

Devendra Banhart - Carmensita

Is that really Natalie Portman? Really?
Of course PZ loved the ending ...
Catchy tune anyway.

Who knows Flew?

The media keeps going on that Flew was supposed to have been this well know atheist but I never heard from him before he converted to deism or theism (not even sure about that) and wrote (or let someone write) a book about it.
Well here's a poll, I'm posting the poll at several locations but it is all the same poll.

Online Surveys & Market Research

Over de hostie, 30 jaar geleden ...

Voor de onder ons Nederlandstaligen:

http://weblogs.vpro.nl/radioarchief/2007/11/29/de-affaire-komrij-vervang-de-hostie-door-aan-schijfjes-gesneden-abortusjes/

Het eerste fragmentje is HILARISCH !!!

For the non-dutch a rough translation (sketch done by a Dutch comic 30 years ago):

Lets change the eucharist ritual, instead of some bread product they should use the flesh of aborted children, Catholics say aborted fetuses are God's children anyway this would solve the abortion question because abortion would be allowed without any guilt and the wafer would be replaced by a delicious sweetbread.  But by all means lets keep the wine, catholisism owes too much to drinking anyway.

Challenge for Catholics

Suppose I have 2 communion wafers, one is an ordinary communion wafer straight out of the box (it was raining when it was taken out of the box so some water may have fallen on that wafer), the other has undergone transubstantiation in a church by a priest.

If any catholic can tell me how I will be able to distinguish one from the other I will publicly convert to catholicism and send a letter to the pope stating that I was wrong and that atheism is bunk.

(also I will do all the work for that catholic to enter and win the JREF $1million)

update: this is off course in response to Wafergate

Atheist Nexus

I added a little badge to the right ---->


View my page on Atheist Nexus


They had some startup controversy but I think they're quite legit and it could be a good, needed addition to things like Facebook

Pole dancer acquitted

The following link is in dutch and I doubt there will be any foreign articles about this even though it is something that could be a success on many "weird news" sites.

http://www.deredactie.be/cm/de.redactie/oostvlaanderen/080711_paaldanseres

Let me tell you what happened, a pole dancer from Knesselare, Belgium had a retired priest as a client (surprise, surprise, NOT ;-) ) and this priest let her use his car for "services rendered" (wink wink).
Now that's all well but this girl needed some oil for her act and used what she found in the car, now this was no ordinary oil, it was holy oil and the priest didn't like that so took her to court.
Thankfully our court system does not stand for such silliness and said that since it was proven that the use of the car was granted by the priest and that oil is oil (I don't know why her lawyer gave a statement in her defense that she "used the oil for other than holy reasons in her profession") the girl is fully acquitted for the infractions against the priest, YAY for reason ;-)
(to be complete: the article mentions that she does have to do some community work and pay a fine for other small infractions)

Catholic Blasphemy

Oh yeah!
Very relevent to PZ's latest post
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/07/its_a_goddamned_cracker.php#more

How do they know that

Another twinkling star in the sky perhaps?

Father Damien en route to be a saint

It's on the news here 'cause he was a Belgian, and I'm not saying that he didn't do good, even if his wiki page has a positive bias the man still did good.
However the good he did while alive was real and deserves respect and remembrance but why do some humans feel the need to supplement that with imaginary good and a fantasy of continued life?

What also strikes me as odd is that the "miracle cures" are the usual (easy?) cancer and a seemingly banal tummy ache.
You'd think a man who devoted his life to the sufferers of Hansen's disease (leprosy) and having contracted and died of the same disease would at least cure somebody afflicted with that, but I guess in the afterlife he must have gained some knowledge that it's not a problem anymore or perhaps there's a learning curve and everyone has to start with the easy stuff before they can move up to more difficult diseases, who knows, a tummy ache in 1895, a cancer in 2000, such a step in 100 years suggests that in about 100 years he may be able to grow someone's limb back.

Quick post

It's been a while since my last post, good weather has arrived and I wanna spend some time with my daughter.

Just listened to this (it was posted on RichardDawkins.net by Nick6742 and he's actually the one defending atheism
It's quite interesting, I can't believe that the girl at 33:10 is actually studying to be a doctor.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4814737602943516661&hl=en

I hope I never get her!

Top Gear

I taped (is that still valid when it's a HDD recorder?) Sunday's start of the new series and watched it yesterday.
I was on the floor, literally laughing out loud!
It is even better because I used to have a Suzuki Vitara and a friend of mine has a Fiat Coupé. (that comment by Hammond, "until it breaks" is priceless!)

California bucks the trend

Survey shows Californians less religious than rest of nation

And yet California is one of the most prosperous states ... I guess god loves the godless ;-)

Why indeed

Why Won't God Heal Amputees?

New Facebook friend and books

So I'm now (Facebook) friends with Hezus who links to this excellent cartoon!

Also added Back to the Barrens and True North by George Erickson (yup, listening to Atheist Talk) to my future reading list, I took a ride in a floater plane once (this one from Seattle to Victoria), I recommend it to anyone, it's so different from a regular plane even other small planes, the pilot we had was quite skilled, he had a coffee cup on the dash and didn't spill it during the landing, soo smooth, we could only feel the waves when we stopped.

A great loss

George Carlin dies at 71

A generation of comedic masters is passing away before our eyes, let's hope the future still has great minds like these in store for humanity and lets them express their views unsuppressed.

He'll be missed!



Forgot to mention:
Fucking shit this piss cunt motherfucking cocksucking titless twat farted a turd!

A poor man left a comment on my previous post

He who must not be named (because of attention whore (nsfw) syndrome, will henceforth be called by his initials d.m. ) left a completely non relevant comment to my post on resolution 1464.
His gripe is with the JREF Challenge, in his comment d.m. claims to have personally stopped the challenge, what's really puzzling is that the JREF Challenge IS STILL ON until April 2010 (so still almost 2 years to go!)
Plus James Randi has not hinted at what will be done after 2010, the challenge may continue in another form, it may become more public (I hope) ...
From the comment it is obvious that d.m. is probably a teenager who is not very well off and is nearing the end of high school and he does not like the prospect of having to work for a living so he probably thought that he'd be able to win some money without doing anything and now is throwing a hissy fit, I suggest he gets a real job.

What's strange is that on a forum he links to he has posted this excellent video, just goes to show that the deluded only see what they want to see:


(oh, and I'm not going to allow his comment, I'm very liberal with comments and they do not even have to be really relevant but I'm not gonna allow rants!)

Resolution 1464 (2005)

(posted by black wolf on RichardDawkins.net)

Resolution 1464 (2005)
Women and religion in Europe

1. In the lives of many European women, religion continues to play an important role. Whether they are believers or not, most women are affected in one way or another by the attitude of different faiths towards women, directly or through their traditional influence on society or the State.

2. This influence is seldom benign: women's rights are often curtailed or violated in the name of religion. While most religions teach equality of women and men before God, they attribute different roles to women and men on earth. Religiously motivated gender stereotypes have conferred upon men a sense of superiority which has led to discriminatory treatment of women by men and even violence at their hands.

3. At one end of the spectrum lie the extreme violations of women's human rights such as so-called "honour" crimes, forced marriages and female genital mutilation, which - although still rare in Europe - are on the rise in some communities.

4. At the other end are more subtle and less spectacular forms of intolerance and discrimination which are much more widespread in Europe â€" and which can be just as effective in achieving the subjection of women, such as the refusal to put into question a patriarchal culture which holds up the role of wife, mother and housewife as the ideal, and the refusal to adopt positive measures in favour of women (for example, in parliamentary elections).

5. All women living in Council of Europe member states have a right to equality and dignity in all areas of life. Freedom of religion cannot be accepted as a pretext to justify violations of women's rights, be they open or subtle, legal or illegal, practised with or without the nominal consent of the victims - women.

6. It is the duty of the member states of the Council of Europe to protect women against violations of their rights in the name of religion and to promote and fully implement gender equality. States must not accept any religious or cultural relativism of women's human rights. They must not agree to justify discrimination and inequality affecting women on grounds such as physical or biological differentiation based on or attributed to religion. They must fight against religiously motivated stereotypes of female and male roles from an early age, including in schools.

7. The Parliamentary Assembly thus calls on the member states of the Council of Europe to:

7.1. fully protect all women living in their country against all violations of their rights based on or attributed to religion by:

7.1.1. putting into place and enforcing specific and effective policies to fight all violations of women's right to life, to bodily integrity, freedom of movement and free choice of partner, including so-called "honour" crimes, forced marriage and female genital mutilation, wherever and by whomever they are committed, however they are justified, and regardless of the nominal consent of the victim; this means that freedom of religion is limited by human rights;

7.1.2. refusing to recognise foreign family codes and personal status laws based on religious principles which violate women's rights, and ceasing to apply them on their own soil, renegotiating bilateral treaties if necessary;

7.2. take a stand against violations of women's human rights justified by religious or cultural relativism everywhere in the world, including in international fora such as the United Nations or the Inter-Parliamentary Union;

7.3. guarantee the separation between the Church and the State which is necessary to ensure that women are not subjected to religiously inspired policies and laws (for example, in the area of family, divorce, and abortion law);

7.4. ensure that freedom of religion and respect for culture and tradition are not accepted as pretexts to justify violations of women's rights, including when underage girls are forced to submit to religious codes (including dress codes), their freedom of movement is curtailed or their access to contraception is barred by their family or community;

7.5. where religious education is permitted in schools, ensure that this teaching is in conformity with gender equality principles;

7.6. take a stand against any religious doctrine which is antidemocratic or disrespectful of human rights, especially women's rights, and refuse to allow such doctrines to influence political decision making;

7.7. actively promote respect of women's rights, equality and dignity in all areas of life when engaging in dialogue with representatives of different religions, and work on achieving full gender equality in society.

Hands on with the Garmin Nuviphone

Here's a Youtube version of that movie about my next cellphone ;-)

J.C.V.D.

Gotta see this film



Here's an oldie:

nüvifone !!!

http://blog.laptopmag.com/video-of-garmin-nuvifone-in-action#more-2120
It took ages to load the video but I'm SOOOO gonna buy that thing when it becomes available in Belgium!

Gotta stop listening to podcasts

Yesterday I added Women Aren't Supposed To Fly by Harriet A. Hall to my reading list, today it's The Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios.
And I still have 5 books on my nightstand waiting to be read ...

Beautiful nature

This was WikiPedia's picture of the day:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Haeckel_Stephoidea_edit.jpg

Never heard of these Radiolarians but they're absolutely gorgeous:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiolarian

John Safran: The Pope vs the Dalai Lama

Important post on Pharyngula

Support cancer research now

More people should be aware of the issues raised in that post.
And even though there are lots of conflicting emotions I consider it a very positive message!

If you are a British citizen

Sign the petition

I made some comments on this post

Is it wrong to burn people to death

jason seems like he could be a reasonable person but his brain has some serious flaws.

Ik heb nog niet gekeken maar het staat op mijn PVR

Een eerste reactie op Het Zesde Zintuig (VTM)

I hope there will be a lot of posts

on this (not a) blog and not only because I hope he gets back home safe.

It gives us all a great inside look at the deployment of a US soldier (who btw is an atheist, with a sense of humor!)

http://www.notablogtm.com/2008/06/04/deployment-update-week-3/

Holy CRAP (literally)

South Park episodes on-line, here's a good one to start :-)
http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/103969/


(a lot of commercial breaks though)

Lets see if this still works

Blogger is down.
I'm trying the mail2blog feature, I guess if it works y'all will see this when it is back up again ;-)






Google search

update: it's back!

Had to hold back tears

http://www.paulgravett.com/articles/133_china/133_china.htm
http://www.paulgravett.com/articles/133_china/133_china_1.htm

No matter how godless someone is, tragedy is never deserved

Evolution

It's still happening ... ;-)
I know it doesn't work on an individual entity but it is clear that this fella's genes have an advantage that will be passed to the next generation ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7410421.stm

Yes I read my horoscope

But only the one on The Onion, mine (Scorpio) for today had some interesting advice, I already knew that but it doesn't hurt to repeat it ;-)

Scorpio October 24 - November 21

Remember: Just because you read it in a book doesn't mean it's true. There's no such thing as a "John Updike."

http://www.theonion.com/content/horoscope/may-27-2008

Crucufied frog?

Yup it's offensive to some.
Apparently a crucified frog is being exposed for the opening of a museum in Bolzano, Italy and off course certain people are offended.
The piece is by German artist Martin Kippenberger and it offends so much that the curator of the museum must hand out leaflets explaining the art.

Behold, "Fred the Frog Rings the Bell"
http://artscenecal.com/Announcements/0704/LagunaMsm0704.html

I think he's a lot cuter than the original version, with that pint it looks like he's plastered and just chillin' ;)

Some news sites:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3362095,00.html
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=7343

Osteopathie

Juist in de krant gelezen dat ze voor de rechtbank gaan eisen om erkend te worden ...
http://www.deredactie.be/cm/de.redactie/binnenland/080527_osteopaten

Ik vind het een beetje vreemd want gaan ze dan niet ook eerst echt moeten bewijzen dat hun ding werkt ...

Het laatste van de volgende pagina op de Skepp site (de brief van een osteopaat aan Skepp) vond ik wel interessant:

Veelvuldig manipuleren of kraken zorgt ervoor dat de ligamenten uitgerokken worden of beschadigd waardoor de gewrichten onstabiel worden.

Dit is natuurlijk ook een teken aan de wand ...

Wim Betz: "De niet bestaande obstructie van de stroom van het hersenvocht moet dan ook nog geregeld worden langs het andere uiteinde van de wervelkolom, door het staartbeen of heiligbeen te manipuleren. Dat doen ze dan met een vinger in de aars of de vagina. Voor alle zekerheid heb ik gezocht op welke datum dit nummer van de "Mutualistische Weergalm" geschreven werd, en het was niet op 1 april."

http://www.skepp.be/artikels/alternatieve-behandelingen/osteopathie-wetenschap-of-kwakzalverij