ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 767
March 13, 2015
Virtual Distance: Technology Is Rewriting The Rulebook For Human Interaction
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What did you say? Image of babies via www.shutterstock.com
Consider the following two situations.
In the first scenario, a man and a woman sit across from each other at a romantically lit table in a fancy restaurant texting – looking down and talking to others, maybe each other – but rarely glancing up except to place drink and food orders.
Racism in Oklahoma: should the offending students be expelled?
When I saw the videos of the members of the University of Oklahoma’s ΣAE fraternity singing racist songs on a bus, I was thoroughly appalled. Not only were they singing about how they’d never have a black person in their fraternity, but, using the “n” word, they sang about lynching, saying that “you can hang them [blacks] from a tree.” Apart from the lynching, it reminded me of my father’s experience at Penn State in the 1930s, when no fraternity—out of about 40—would ever accept a Jewish student, except for the two all-Jewish fraternities, the only place they could go. Clearly, racism is alive and well on campuses, as is anti-semitism and sexism. They’ve just gone underground, so it’s no longer kosher to utter these sentiments in public. When they become public, as they did in this case, disapprobation and punishment is swift. At least we’ve moved that far in society. The elimination of bigotry begins when it’s no longer socially acceptable to be a bigot in public.
In light of this overt racism, the University of Oklahoma expelled two students who were both identifiable and making the offensive chant. The university also closed the fraternity house, giving the members only a day to remove their belongings and find other housing. I found the fraternity closure a bit draconian, for it punishes every fraternity member for the transgressions of only some of them.
But I also find the expulsion of the two students unacceptable—on grounds of free speech. The University of Oklahoma is a public university, an arm of the state government, and as such it’s governed by the First Amendment. That means that free speech is permitted—even speech that is horribly offensive—so long as it doesn’t incite immediate violence. Those racist students were therefore free to say what they wanted without fear of punishment.
POLITICS & GAY RIGHTS: American Thinker says Obama will strike down gay marriage bans to make us more Islamic.
American Thinker is a very ironically named conservative site, which makes it a lovely outlet for humor on occasion. Today they have an article for Ken Blackwell and Bob Morrison (both from the Family Research Council, which uses the word “research” as ironically as American Thinker uses “thinker”) suggesting that Obama plans to make America more Islamic by paving the way for same-sex marriage.
So, how might overturning marriage in America not simply advance a radical homosexual agenda, but also serve an Islamisant goal?
The legal standing of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is one of the greatest barrier to Muslim Shariah law in this country. It is the greatest obstacle to mainstreaming Muslim practice of plural marriage.
When Parents Hesitate About Vaccines, What Should Health-Care Providers Say?
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Helping parents decide to immunize their children may be a matter of communication. frankieleon, CC BY
In recent years, the US has witnessed multiple outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illnesses, including pertussis (whooping cough) and measles.
Pumping CO2 Underground Can Help Fight Climate Change. Why Is It Stuck In Second Gear?
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The first commercial-scale carbon capture and storage operation at a coal power plant went online last year in Canada. SaskPower
There are many uncertainties with respect to global climate change, but there is one thing about which I have no doubts: we will not solve climate change by running out of fossil fuels.
Understanding this leads to three possible pathways we can follow to lower greenhouse gas concentrations, and explains why I’ve chosen to focus my research on carbon capture and storage. We can:
Look, Your Eyes Are Wired Backwards: Here’s Why
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The retina captures light signals and sends them to the brain. from www.shutterstock.com
The human eye is optimised to have good colour vision at day and high sensitivity at night. But until recently it seemed as if the cells in the retina were wired the wrong way round, with light travelling through a mass of neurons before it reaches the light-detecting rod and cone cells. New research presented at a meeting of the American Physical Society has uncovered a remarkable vision-enhancing function for this puzzling structure.
Upgraded LHC Pushes Physics Into The Unknown
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Look into my high-energy particle physics and what do you see? CERN
Upgraded with more powerful magnets to smash particles together with almost twice its previous energy, this will bring with it the opportunity to discover new, even more massive particles – just as with the Higgs boson – that will signpost the way beyond our current understanding of particle physics, the Standard Model. Why do we think this?
I Guess God’s Going to Decide the Winner of the Pacquiao/Mayweather Match
Even if you’re not a sports fan, you may have heard that Manny Pacquiao (below) will soon fight Floyd Mayweather, Jr. in what will surely be the most hyped (and lucrative) boxing match of all time.
But Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach is a little concerned about his pupil’s religiosity:
For starters, Roach is a little concerned that his pupil’s conversion to evangelical Christianity has gotten in the way of his training and softened his killer instinct in the ring.
…
To that end, Roach has been scouting around for Christian scholars who can point Pacquiao to passages in Bible that support violence and aggression. But Pacquiao has already been pushing back against his efforts, Roach says.
“He tells me, ‘Let’s just fight and let God decide who wins,’” says Roach. “I said, ‘Manny, God doesn’t give a fuck who wins. He’s got bigger things to do.”
March 11, 2015
Atheist Experience #908: A Year Without God
The Atheist Experience #908 for March 8, 2015 with Russell Glasser and Ryan Bell.
Living a Year Without God. Former minister Ryan Bell describes his unusual path to atheism.
Callers:
Phillip – Chicago, IL
Joseph – Colorado Springs, CO
Bob – Palm Coast, FL
Dustin – Las Vegas, NV
Bernard – London, Canada
We welcome your comments on the open blog thread for this show.
► http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/2015/03/08/open-thread-for-aetv-908-russell-with-guest-ryan-bell/
WHAT IS THE ATHEIST EXPERIENCE?
The Atheist Experience is a weekly cable access television show in Austin, Texas geared at a non-atheist audience. The Atheist Experience is produced by the Atheist Community of Austin.
VISIT THE ACA’S OFFICIAL WEB SITES
► http://www.atheist-community.org (The Atheist Community of Austin)
► http://www.atheist-experience.com (The Atheist Experience TV Show)
More shows and video clips can be found in the archive:
► http://www.atheist-experience.com/archive
DVDs of the Atheist Experience can be purchased via:
► http://www.atheist-community.org/products
NOTES
TheAtheistExperience is the official channel of The Atheist Experience. “The Atheist Experience” is a trademark of the ACA.
Copyright © 2015 Atheist Community of Austin. All rights reserved.
Nine Dwarf Galaxies Discovered Orbiting Around the Milky Way
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This illustration maps out the previously discovered dwarf satellite galaxies (in blue) and eight of the newly discovered candidates (in red) as they sit outside the Milky Way / Yao-Yuan Mao, Ralf Kaehler, Risa Wechsler (KIPAC/SLAC).
Astronomers analyzing imaging data from the Dark Energy Survey have discovered nine new potential dwarf galaxies orbiting our own galaxy—the largest number ever discovered all at once. The findings, published as two studies available on arXiv, may help explain some of the mysteries about dark matter, that invisible substance holding galaxies together.
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