- Anti-woman cabinet members rile Pakistani activists – “Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, charged with presiding over a “jirga” which gave away five young girls as a form of compensation, and Israrullah Zehri, who recently made international headlines after defending the burying alive of women in “honour-killing” cases, have been elevated to ministerships.” From DMS.
- Mankind to detect life by 2025 says SETI astronomer – There are, of course, caveats. From Steve.
- An atheist bus campaign in the US – I really like this ad. It’s simple, cute, and at the same time communciates one of the key parts of humanism – being good for goodness’ sake! Of course, some people are offended. Apparently humanists are grinches, via Question Authority.
- DNA replication Backstreet Boy style – From MathMike, who made my morning with this hilarious video.
- And don’t forget, the deadline for submitting a blog entry to OpenLab 2008 is coming up! Nominate your favorite science blog post published between 12/20/07 to 12/01/08.
Hmm, Christmas-themed atheist slogans. There’s a lot of potential there. Maybe something involving naughty and/or nice? Or you could do a whole series of “You don’t have to believe” ads. (e.g. You don’t have to believe in a god to say Merry Christmas.)
There’s something wrong with me when I not only laughed my ass off over the song, but I wanted to correct them and say it’s DNA polymerase III that replicated, not DNA polymerase. There is more than one kind of DNA polymerase floating around in our cells.
I’ll try and ignore the jab at chemistry even though chemists figured out a lot about DNA replication.
That DNA song just got emailed to my Biology professor. Hilarity! I shall never have to study again!
While checking out the “humanists are grinches” link, I spotted another headline about Billy Graham: “Son: Billy Graham ending work with presidents”. So I clicked on that.
and
further,
Do you suppose he registered as such before the Republicans’ “Southern Strategy”?
I am a Hedge
Re: Atheist bus campaign. Big surprise here: Fox News people totally don’t get it.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Fox_hosts_Atheists_deserve_to_feel_1112.html
I really like the latest bus ad, too. It’s attractive, positive, and to the point. In fact, I think it makes one of the most important points that needs to be made – that goodness is its own reward. I don’t see why so many people apparently see this as a “humbug” or “grinch” message. I think it’s very positive and uplifting. If just people would ask themselves the question, “Why should I be good?” and take a minute to think about the answer.
Maybe Teek can chime in with her expert opinion. Based partly on her analysis of the British bus ads, I don’t see this one as very good. But I am no expert in the area.
Who is it aimed at? Some of the reports say its aimed at atheists and agnostics. If that is the case, why say “Why believe in a god?”? Atheists and agnostics don’t need this question asked of them. If it is actually aimed at theists, it’s a silly question. Any theist who bothers to devote a bit of mental energy to the ad will easily come up with a couple reasons why they believe in a god. The ad could consist only of the second sentence, “Be good for goodness’ sake”, without the dig at belief. But then, what would be the point? As it is, what is the point?
I find it hard to believe that the intent really is to say anything to atheists and agnostics. This seems to do little more than provide an opportunity for ridicule, which is hardly helpful to an atheist/agnostic having difficulty with the christmas season.
I am a Hedge