I’d like to take a moment and apologize for the outage we’ve experienced over the past 24 hours. Our host was in the process of transitioning us to a new, more advanced data center, but the process didn’t go as smoothly as anticipated. It may take a few more hours for our new address to [...]
Dave here, your Camels With Hammers webmaster! Dan asked me to provide todays installment, as it’s one of my favorite artists, Ryan Adams, who I run a fan website and message board for at alt-country.org. Ryan fronted Whiskeytown, one of the most influential alternative country bands during the 90′s, and launched his solo career in [...]
Via Prometheus Unbound comes a post from a Christian who attended the Creation “Museum” as part of the Atheist tour group. He was appalled by how they were treated by other Christians: There were hateful glances, exaggerated perceptions, waxing surveillance by security, and anxious but strong ‘amens’ accompanying a lecture on “The Ultimate Proof of [...]
Via Friendly Atheist, this is perhaps the most inoffensive atheist bus ad one could possibly come up with, and yet it’s been pulled: Members of Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers are being asked to help out: We would like our members to please contact DART either via telephone or email. They can be reached at 515-283-8111 [...]
MSNBC Reports: The proposal is part of a Kremlin effort to teach young Russians morals in the wake of a turbulent period of uncertainty following the collapse of the officially atheist Soviet Union. Medvedev said preteen students at about 12,000 schools in 18 Russian regions would take the classes. They will be offered the choice [...]
An excellent question posed by a Scot, a reader at The Friendly Atheist. While Richard gives a fine answer supposing belief in a supernatural version of Karma, I find several of the comments interesting and more akin to the way I’ve used the term. Gary says: Actually, the word “karma” is sanskrit and simply means [...]
Via The Friendly Atheist. Among the changes recommended by the three conservative reviewers on the panel: Include more study of religious revival movements: Evangelist Billy Graham should be included on a list of transformational leaders of the 20th century and students in fifth and eight grades should study the colonial-era religious revival known as the [...]
The military is developing technology that, when surgically implanted into an insect, would allow us to control its flight: Instead of attempting to create miniature robots as spies, researchers are now experimenting with developing insect cyborgs or “cybugs” that could work even better. So far scientists can already control the flight of moths using implanted [...]
Following up on Debunking Deniers of Climate Change (which is excellent, watch the video if you haven’t done so yet), a new study considers the difficulties involved with making predictions about current climate change based on historical models. And there’s the possibility of feedback loops making a bad situation worse: An alternative is that there [...]
A new study by Joshua Greene and Joseph Paxton investigates the mental processes behind honest behavior: They recruited 35 people and asked them to predict the result of computerised coin-flips while sitting in an fMRI scanner. They were paid in proportion to their accuracy. In some ‘No-Opportunity trials’, they had to make their predictions beforehand, [...]
From ScienceBlogs’ Ed Brayton. The law states, in part: 36. Publication or utterance of blasphemous matter. (1) A person who publishes or utters blasphemous matter shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable upon conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding €100,000. [Amended to €25,000] (2) For the purposes of this section, [...]
Francis Collins, former head of the Human Genome Project, evangelical Christian, and author of The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, has been selected by President Obama to lead the National Institutes Of Health. Chris Wilson has an excellent article at Slate, discussing whether Collins would set anything aside as being beyond [...]
The Primate Diaries reviews a study by The American Naturalist describing how competitive bacteria form cooperative colonies. These high-level patterns emerge despite the fact that individuals in the colony behave selfishly. To understand the emergence of apparent cooperation, consider ants on a sidewalk: Have you ever wondered why ant trails in the city so often [...]
The brilliant minds behind reality TV turn their attention to religion: A Turkish television show is offering contestants what it claims is the “biggest prize ever” — the chance for atheists to convert to one of the world’s major religions. The show, called “Tovbekarlar Yarisiyor,” or “Penitents Compete,” features a Muslim imam, a Catholic priest, [...]
Ars technica considers an analysis of how our beliefs determine the information we allow ourselves to be exposed to: Analysis of the studies shows that people are almost two times more likely to select information that is congenial to their current beliefs and behaviors than they are to pick information that opposes them. That is [...]
