Tom Tomorrow takes on Republican stall tactics
Cartoonist Tom Tomorrow takes a few swings at the Republican so-called approach to health care reform in "This Modern World."
VD is for everybody!
Check out this public service announcement from 1969. "VD is for Everybody," according to this catchy tune. I actually remember seeing this PSA as a teenager. Viewing it now, though, it appears as though having VD is a good thing. [via Shaggylocks at Salon.com]
Chris Mooney: New Atheists’ attack on religion is counter-productive
Chris Mooney is the author of The Republican War on Science, Storm World, and Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future (co-authored by Sheril Kirshenbaum). He is also an atheist who, for years, has engaged with believers on the validity of religious claims. He strongly believes that those who respect the scientific method should question religious claims. In this interview with D.J. Grothe at Point of Inquiry, however, Mooney takes on the New Atheists (starting here at about the 10:30 minute mark). Instead of attacking religions, Mooney advocates that we should promote scientific literacy. Yes, we should refute the baseless claims of fundamentalists, but it is equally critical to "mobilize the religious moderates," and not alienate them by attacking all religions. Mooney argues that the New Atheists have painted with much too broad a brush, and that they have used an aggressive tone that achieves "nothing at all." He points to P.Z. Myers as being one of the most prominent culprits.
String around the Earth: excellent math question
Have you ever considered snugly wrapping a string around the entire Earth? If you did that, and then you added merely one additional meter of string (which would then raise the string uniformly off the surface of the Earth), how much higher off the ground would that new string be (the original long string, plus one additional meter)? Here's a simple statement of the problem, allegedly first used by Ludwig Wittgenstein. Here the math. Wonderful problem and surprising solution.
Welcome to our store! . . . sort of . . .
Customers of this Dollar Tree store in St. Louis are greeted with the following signs located on the main entry door:
Here's how I interpret the above: Welcome, honored guests, but it you rip us off, we'll throw your ass in the slammer before you can even utter "Merry Christmas."