The Word - You-Genics

If your boyfriend or husband beats you, you might want to start thinking about keeping extra ice in the fridge because insurance companies are denying medical claims on the grounds that domestic abuse counts as a pre-existing condition. That pimple you had when you were a teenager? Also a pre-existing condition. Breathe air? Yep, that too...

And if you're thinking about having a baby, Stephen knows just how to get insurance companies to pony-up the cash for your kid every time, and it's not racist at all ;)

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - You-Genics
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Religion

People are afraid that a socialized healthcare system might include death panels. With for-profit private insurance companies, isn't that exactly what we have?
.

Nature's Great Events - The Great Melt

When the ice in the Arctic starts to melt as the sun rises in the sky, things begin to happen, life resumes its annual cycle, and David Attenborough is there to tell us all about it to the sight of some spectacular photography. Watch as polar bears come out of their hibernation dens in search of tasty seals only to discover that the polar condition is being threatened by global warming and the disappearance of firm ground on which to hunt, stand and rest. Increasing numbers are already drowning and starving to death.

But the same phenomenon is good news for others: belugas and narwhals grace the Arctic open water with their almost magical appearance, walruses embark in their own all-you-can-eat clam buffets, and whales gorge as only they know how. Guillemots also make the long trip north and take advantage of the conditions to breed and teach some survival skills to their newly-hatched chicks: like how to jump from 300-feet high cliffs (with no prior experience in flying) and avoid crashing or being eaten by Arctic foxes. Unfortunately, they're not always as successful as one might wish :(

Breaks your heart, doesn't it? Let's save the world, shall we?
.

Cornel West on Living and Loving Out Loud

Cornel West, one of America's most popular leading intellectuals, just paid a visit to Stephen Colbert to talk about his autobiography. The man has a lot of good ideas, a compassionate heart, enviable erudition, personality to spare, and a clear vision of his philosophy. Despite the chaotic nature of the mental associations he often decides to employ (just see the non-sequitur lessons he derives from a colon and a comma below), West is an expert rhetorician who could convince a fly that it is mightier than the fly swatter :)

If you think his charm and personality go far beyond the rational power of his arguments, I'd say you are right... In all fairness, and as you might be able to tell, I have a love/hate relationship with the dude's ideas, but that's no reason why all of you should not benefit from watching him in action.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Cornel West
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Religion

This must be the first time I ever hear Brother West speak without making reference to St. Augustine :)
.

Ecce No Homo

If you think your religion is just not homophobic or misogynistic or racist enough, you are in luck! The Catholic Church is sending out an open invitation to Christian conservatives who have a problem with women becoming priests, gays getting married, or uneducated Africans using condoms instead of infecting each other with HIV. And as always, child abusers will continue to receive the institutional protection of the Vatican. Convert now; it's a no-brainer!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Ecce No Homo
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Stephen Colbert interviews an Episcopal scholar on the issue:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Holy Water Under the Bridge - Randall Balmer
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Religion

Quick FYI for Balmer, the Bible was used to justify slavery and segregation...

If the expression Ecce Homo sounds familiar to you, you might be thinking of Pontius Pilate... or you might be thinking of Nietzsche, who succinctly explained why religion authorities are so self-righteous:

Psychologically considered, "sins" become indispensable in any society organized by priests: they are the real handles of power. The priest lives on sins, it is essentially for him that people "sin." Supreme principle: "God forgives those who repent"—in plain language: those who submit to the priest.

Richard Dawkins also has a few choice words to share about this issue.

In the Pope's defense, though, his sense of fashion is fabulous! :)
.

Rory Sutherland - Life Lessons from an Ad Man

We philosophers tend to take the etymology of our profession rather seriously: we are sort of obsessed with the love of wisdom. And because wisdom requires knowledge, and knowledge requires truth, we tend to focus on 'objective' truth, the kind of truth whose reality doesn't depend on the vicissitudes of any particular mind. Scientists also tend to fall into the same trap, and for the same reason. As such, we all have a tendency every now and then to ignore an important component of reality: our own subjectivity.

Sure, there are important philosophical and scientific implications here, but there are also important social consequences. We now know, for instance, that many of the presuppositions to come out of the Enlightenment, such as the fact that humans are intrinsically rational agents (over and above biological, psychological or social creatures) is simply false. If we want to succeed at educating the public or at persuading them to accept certain beliefs, we have to move beyond simply presenting the facts: how we present those facts is just as important, if not more so, than the facts themselves. The mind is a very quirky thing that works according to the historical accumulation of evolutionary adaptations, and these are not always consistent with optimal, rational design.

The following presentation by Rory Sutherland presents a fascinating and truly hysterical window into the workings of the mind from the point of view of a marketing expert. The main lesson he presents, and one that will be tough for philosophers, scientists and engineers to swallow, is that sometimes the most efficient solution to a problem could just be a change in our attitude and our perception. Are you wincing already? :)

Would you have ever guessed that philosophers and scientists would have to take lessons from an advertising guru? :)
.

Justice - What Is the Right Thing To Do?

Episode 5. The previous lecture opened up the question of whether state conscription violates citizens' right to life, or whether and under what conditions this practice might be legitimate. Would it be preferable to have a paid mercenary army controlled by a free market instead?

Today's first lecture starts with an account of the Civil War: American citizens were conscripted to fight in the war effort. However, men had the option of hiring replacements to fight in their place, if they could find them and afford them. As you might imagine, many of the wealthy chose to hire people to do their fighting for them. Do you think this system was fair and discriminatory? Worse still: Is today's 'voluntary' army open to the same objection?

The second lecture explores the role of the free market as it relates to the issue of reproductive rights. We tend to impulsively condemn eugenics, but we are all simultaneously guilty of breeding ourselves selectively to produce a new generation that embodies some conception of health and attractiveness. We do this by choosing certain mates and excluding others, but we can also do this through the selection of sperm and egg donations. Should donors be paid for premium gametes? Are these mere commodities that can be easily transferred according to free market principles, or is there something fundamentally wrong with this outlook?

The discussion then moves to the question of surrogacy, and starts with the story of Baby M, a famous case in which Mary Beth Whitehead, after having signed a contract agreeing to become a surrogate mother for a desiring couple, decided to keep the baby after it was born (the egg used was hers). Should the courts uphold her decision? Should the contract be enforced? Is informed consent the only legitimate limitation on the kinds of contracts that citizens can freely engage in? Does anyone 'own' a baby so that it can be sold to other people? These are some of the questions that today's fascinating lecture explores.

So, if I can get Cryobank to accept my sperm, could I use their acceptance letter to get into Harvard? :)

Episode list: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
.

iWatch... Because It's Simpler Than iThink

The following Public Service Announcement comes from the LAPD's citizen surveillance program and promotes the idea that, as responsible and caring citizens, we should report any suspicion of possible terrorist-related activities to the authorities. Even when we are not sure about the veracity of our own suspicions, the recommendation is that we "let the officers decide."

On the surface, the message seems innocent and based on a sense of communal love, but, actually, it carries with it the seeds of divisiveness. If you don't have to worry about whether your tips can be substantiated, you don't have to care, and this opens up the floodgates to the kind of racial profiling and communal spying that can only make people trust each other less and less, and spy on one another more and more. It's the gift that keeps on giving. Instead of iWatch, maybe it should be called iSpy or iParanoid or iDouchebag...

Tired of that weird foreign neighbor you can't quite figure out? Why not report him as a potential terrorist threat? Let the police decide... as they violate his civil rights. Hey, why not send a message to that new young minority couple across the street: that they are not welcome in the neighborhood? You don't have to worry about the consequences because, after all, you can hide behind the pretense of patriotism...

Of course, if anyone thinks you're a jackass, iWatch will allow them to send some Vick Mackey to kick down your door and make you his bitch, all in the name of safety and neighborly love :)

And did they really say "think about that"??? The irony, it hurts!

And unless there really is that much terrorist activity going on, the fact that iWatch was responsible for the submission of 1,500 tips in just a few months should make obvious the need for an upgraded program: iThink...

NPR has a story on iWatch.
.

Guns, Germs & Steel - Tropics

For the past three decades, historian Jared Diamond has been studying the historical reasons that might be able to explain human inequality in our own time.

In the first episode of this series, Diamond discovered that although our species originally came from Africa, geography (and the many other variables that go with it) eventually endowed some previously nomadic societies in the Fertile Crescent with the environmental and natural resources that could help them sustain increasingly larger populations.

The second episode demonstrated how a long and violent history of war molded Europe in the direction of increasingly sophisticated weapon technology, which the Europeans subsequently unleashed on the unsuspecting inhabitants of the new world. It also helped that the Europeans brought with them all kinds of bacterial infections to which the natives had not yet had a chance to evolve modes of resistance.

But what happens when you come full circle to Africa, the very place from which our species originated? How did guns, germs and steel fare then? Part of the story is already familiar to you, but then it gets a lot more complicated and a lot more heart-breaking...

Will we learn from the lessons of history and mend our ways now that there is virtually no more undiscovered land to exploit and abuse, or will continue with the trends that will eventually consign us to our own doom?
.

The Invasion of Ukraine, Depicted in Sand

This one goes out to all my... let's call them Soviet friends, to be sufficiently inclusive :)

The following video depicts a touching and powerful interpretation of the invasion and occupation of Ukraine by German forces during World War II, masterfully told through the medium of sand.

Now, this may sound like the cheesiest idea ever, especially for such an important and sensitive memory for so many people, but I can almost guarantee you will be blown away by it, and might even be moved to tears (everyone in the audience does). It's that good...

And having Apocalyptica cover some Metallica tunes in the process doesn't hurt either :)

And if that's not enough sand art for you, check out this other gem.
.

Toy Soldiers

Recently, I posted a time lapse video of China's 60th anniversary celebration and lamented our own lack of discipline and coordination. It turns out the French don't want to be left behind either, and here is their aesthetically pleasing response.

I don't know exactly how this video manages to make everything look like a miniature toy, and I may be way off base here, but the ultimate effect, at least as I see it, shows soldiers as obedient puppets and mindless automata lacking any personal sense of identity other than that accorded by their social group. So, on second thought, probably not what they were going for...

What's your take on it?
.

Justice - What Is the Right Thing To Do?

Episode 4. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson penned these immemorial words: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed."

What you may or may not know is that Jefferson's inspiration for these ideas came from the British philosopher John Locke (one of his three intellectual heroes, along with Francis Bacon and Isaac Newton).

Locke argued that individuals have certain rights so fundamental, like property, that no government can ever take them away. This is why libertarians tend to like Locke. In fact, however, as much as we tend to intuitively like this idea, and use it to justify free license in our conduct, the unalienability of these rights presents some rather paradoxical consequences as they relate to what individuals are entitled to do, even with respect to their own rights. But what happens to these natural rights when we consent to enter civil society and be bound by a system of laws?

If we all have unalienable rights, like life, liberty and property, that no government may ever take away, how can a government justly enforce tax or conscription laws? In other words, how can fundamental and unalienable individual rights be reconciled with the enforcement of majority rule in a democracy? Stick around and find out :)

Episode list: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
.

When Nietzsche Wept

I am somewhat conflicted about posting the movie below. On the one hand, since philosophy deals with ideas and abstractions not easily captured through a visual medium, it's difficult to find video material that I can use to expose my intelligent audience to ideas and thinkers with whom they might not yet be familiar, which normally means I want to jump at any opportunity that presents itself. On the other hand, the following film is a far cry from an accurate representation of 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, or his ideas (which require a lot of philosophical and historical background to be properly understood... and seldom are).

Here, then, is a disclaimer in the form of explanation. The film is an adaptation from an interesting book written by a psychoanalyst who has made a hobby out of writing fictional accounts of historical figures, philosophers primarily, as they embark in a process of self-discovery through psychoanalysis. In this particular case, many of Nietzsche's own philosophical and psychological insights (though often cited out of context) are used as the conceptual framework through which Nietzsche and his own therapist can both overcome their personal demons and weaknesses. You might call the film an exercise in biographical and philosophical fiction.

Incidentally, these ideas also play the role of seeds that will germinate in the articulation of a psychological revolution by a now young Sigmund Freud, or as they call him in the film, Siggy :)

And in case you're wondering, for those of you in the know, Lou Salome is a central character in the film and, as is to be expected, she's pretty hot :)

Check out more serious accounts, and some humor, on Nietzsche.
.

Beau Lotto - Optical Illusions Show Us How We See

Look at the cube on the right. Is the center piece on the top side of the cube lighter or darker than the center piece on the left side of the cube? Whatever you 'think' is the right answer (and feel free to test for yourself), there is no denying that the top piece looks darker than the side piece. If the light hitting your retina in both cases is exactly the same, however, why do they look not simply different but radically different?

With the exception of a few optical illusions here and there, the average person thinks that one's perception reflects an external reality as it is in itself. The 17th century philosopher George Berkeley, however, demonstrated that the only thing we can ever know directly is our perceptions, and not what those perceptions are about. That's right, good-bye external world... Even the wall you are about to punch so you can refute Berkeley is only known to you as a series of perceptions of color and hardness, soon to be followed by pain :)

Any scientist who invokes Bishop Berkeley's got my attention, and in this truly mind-blowing presentation, Beau Lotto does just that in order to explain why context in visual perception is even more important than the colors that actually hit your eyes.

With the use of simple but fantastic optical illusions, Lotto will mess with your mind to the point you might think you're tripping on acid, and despite all the confusion and cognitive insecurity, by the end you will know a little bit more about how we perceive the world.

I think that Kant would also be pleased :)
.

How to Rebrand the GOP: Condescend to Everyone

I refuse to believe Michael Steele is black... Only a white man can be this lame and transparent...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
You've Got Fail
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

All of a sudden, Clippy looks cool...
.

Sell the Vatican, Feed the World :)

In celebration of World Food Day (that's today, by the way), comedian Sarah Silverman has come up with a deliciously ingenius plan to make sure every single person in the world can receive some much needed sustenance, all while helping the Catholic Church finally become the kind of moral heroes they've always wished they could be :)

Amen to that! :)
.

Justice - What Is the Right Thing To Do?

Episode 3. The previous episode of this fascinating series of lectures on ethical and political philosophy from Harvard University focused on some of the implications of the aggregative requirements of utilitarianism. John Stuart Mill's advocacy of rule-utilitarianism as a mechanism capable of securing and justifying the primacy of justice and individual rights doesn't quite seem to measure up to intuitive conceptions of why these concepts ought to be taken seriously.

Enter libertarianism, a political theory that takes the idea of rights so seriously, it becomes its philosophical basis and demands that we re-evaluate virtually all our beliefs about the role of government. Philosopher Robert Nozick (pictured above) began his masterpiece, Anarchy, State and Utopia, with the following lines: "Individuals have rights... So strong and far-reaching are these rights that they raise the question of what, if anything, the state and its officials may do. How much room do individual rights leave for the state?" According to Nozick, the answer is simple: not much.

As in previous occasions, Professor Sandel presents a fair articulation of the theory's rationale, and then masterfully demonstrates what always happens in philosophy: you start with an idea that seems obviously true, and you end up in the twilight zone :)

I must confess that although I personally tend to lean in the libertarian direction, I've always been bothered by the unquestioned assumption of the idea of rights.

To me at least, the ontological status of rights is not self-evident, and that creates the possibility that if the theory rests on the assumption of a false claim, the whole thing becomes questionable, even while containing some nuggets of truth :)


And is it just me, or does the idea of self-possession seem painfully question-begging?

Episode list: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.

.

Planet Earth: Jungles

Continuing with his grand exploration of the great diversity of life on our planet, David Attenborough takes us on a journey to discover the world of the jungle and the incredible varieties of life that make their appearance there.

Attenborough's got all kinds of interesting things up his sleeve, from birds of paradise and their grandiose courtship displays to howling monkeys, flying frogs, the eerie cordyceps, and even a disturbing case of warfare and cannibalism among chimpanzees :(

As always, the footage is simply captivating... they even manage to make fungi look beautiful :)

Check out the rest of this wonderful series here.
.

Stephen Hawking - A Brief History of Time

Stephen Hawking is one of the world's most famous theoretical physicists around. Everyone knows who he is, partly because of his physical disability, partly because of the synthetic voice through which he communicates (and refuses to upgrade), and partly from his cameo appearances in The Simpsons and Family Guy :)

None of that explains why he is so famous among the members of the scientific community, however, and the answer has to do with his incredible work on some of the biggest questions posed by physics, as well as his fearless willingness to play with new ideas and tread in unknown territory, all while being faithful to scientific principles and rigorous thinking.

Because of this powerful combination, not to say anything of his sheer intellectual brilliance, Hawking has made incredible contributions to cosmology and theoretical physics. His study of black holes, for instance, and the prediction of Hawking radiation and its relationship to the event horizon, demonstrated for the first time the real possibility of making quantum mechanics and general relativity compatible with each other.

But Hawking is not simply pure (virtually disembodied) genius; he's got quite the personality and sense of humor, and this is his story.

I bet that guy learned not to overload the wheelchair, didn't he? :)
.

Obama to Enter Diplomatic Talks with Raging Wildfire

Everyone was surprised last week when President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This immediately raised the kind of irrational and vociferous debate that we've come to expect as normal, so it's kind of ironic that such a prize has had the effect of further dividing people instead of bringing them together. Still, whatever your opinion of Obama, one thing is clear: he is an all-inclusive diplomat, as The Onion reports :)

Is that fire working for Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity? :)
.

Evolution: Evolutionary Arms Races

Evolutionary arms races are one of the most powerful forces driving evolution, giving rise to the creation and ever-increased perfection of multiple adaptations. The predator-prey relationship is one obvious example: as predators become faster generation after generation, prey become faster and more adept at escaping (at least those who survive and pass their genes on to the next generation). Of course, being a faster predator doesn't help much when your prey is getting faster, and running faster away from predators isn't much help when they are chasing you faster too. It's like running on a faster and faster treadmill: you may run faster, but you're not going anywhere :)

That's why this principle of evolutionary arms races is also known as the Red Queen effect (from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass). The Queen remarked that "it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place" (relative to your competitors). And once you understand this runaway principle, you'll start to see it everywhere: in the preposterous height of trees, in male vs. female sex strategies, pathogens, sexual selection (think the peacock's tail), sexual body dimorphisms, mimicry, defense mechanisms, venomousness (is that even a word), etc.

In terms of human evolution, and ignoring diverging sexual strategies between men and women, one of our toughest competitors are infectious diseases, who seem to get better at overcoming the attacks of our immune systems, and who are constantly evolving resistance to our drugs. You may think evolution is a bitch in this respect, but as you'll see, it may also be the solution because arms races can also take the form of cooperation between different species :)

Check out all the episodes of this documentary series.
.

Justice - What Is the Right Thing To Do?

Episode 2. It seems Harvard University is making Michael Sandel's popular course on justice publicly available in its entirety, so I will continue to post episodes on a regular basic (most likely weekly).

The first of today's lectures presents an analysis and application of utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham's felicific calculus. The idea is simple: since utilitarianism is a consequentialist moral theory, when deciding on how to act, we ought to perform a cost-benefit analysis and choose to act in such a way as to maximize utility (quantitatively) for the greatest number involved (no word on how to distribute that utility).

The second lecture starts with a famous and hilarious account of what happens when you take seriously the notion that all values can be assigned a numeric rate. This opens the door for Sandel to introduce philosopher John Stuart Mill's analysis of lower and higher pleasures and the question of whether the value of different kinds of pleasure can be evaluated from within utilitarianism or whether that represents a violation of the utilitarian framework.

50 pence a night? Man, I think I've been getting ripped off! :)

Learn more about Jeremy Bentham's contributions to free thought here.

Episode list: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
.

Meet President Thomas Jefferson

I don’t know whether other countries share this tradition with their respective historical figures, but here in the U.S. we have a delightful tradition of people –scholars in many cases— who take it upon themselves to embody and reenact the lives and ideas of the Founding Fathers for the benefit and the education of the general citizenry, to give them an opportunity to get acquainted with or reminded of the principles upon which this great experiment in self-government and liberty was originally established.

Of all the Founding Fathers, I find Jefferson to be the most philosophically interesting, perplexing and admirable (despite his personal flaws), and I don’t think I am alone in that judgment. When welcoming a group of Nobel prize winners, John F. Kennedy once remarked that the White House had never seen so much talent pooled together simultaneously… with the possible exception of those occasions on which Thomas Jefferson dined alone :)

Here is Bill Barker, of Colonial Williamsburg, masterfully portraying President Jefferson and sharing some historical wisdom on this most enigmatic of Founding Fathers.

Don't forget to visit the Founding Fathers tag.

You should also listen to The Thomas Jefferson Hour, with Clay Jenkinson, every week. Ask your local public radio station to play this essential show on history and civics if they don't broadcast it already.

.

Inside Nature's Giants - Giraffe

When it comes to uniqueness in animals, giraffes really seem to stand out on a category all their own. The striking thing, though, is that their anatomy, odd as it may seem to us, is simply a modification of the same basic body plan all mammals, humans included, share. This, of course, is to be expected as a basic prediction of evolutionary theory, but it's still a remarkable thing to observe.

Today's documentary investigates the selection pressures that have driven the evolution of giraffes, as well as the anatomical and physiological solutions they have developed to cope with the stringent demands imposed by their impressive height.

If you've ever asked yourself how giraffes manage to keep their necks up on an angle without getting exhausted, how they manage to successfully circulate blood throughout their tall bodies, or what kinds of functions their patches fulfill, then you've come to the right place. You'll also learn why they are essential to space research and exploration :)

The dissection, as you will see, also reveals the redundancy of the recurrent laryngeal nerve, one of those quirks of evolutionary history that could not reasonably be explained through the assumption of intelligent design. Richard Dawkins explains (and he also reflects on this experience in his latest book, The Greatest Show on Earth).

If that's not enough for you, you might want to check out the episode on elephants.
.

The Word - Learning Is Fundamental

President Obama has proposed that we need to increase our time investment in education if we hope to be able to compete with the rest of the world. You might think that makes sense, but Fox News is concerned about the local small businesses, like the neighborhood pimps and drug dealers, who will lose their competitive edge and go bankrupt because their employees and customers are in a classroom in some school, getting the skills necessary to make it as respectable citizens...

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Learning Is Fundamental
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Michael Moore

"What you earn is more important than what we learn." Ouch! :)

Great work, Andy, but of course, word to the wise, asking children whether they want universal healthcare might not be the wisest strategy :)
.

Chicago Nope

Chicago's hope to become the host of the 2016 Olympics was crushed this weekend when they came in dead last in the proposals. The Olympics will now be officially celebrated in Rio de Janeiro, and though you might feel disappointed America lost, that just means you're not a real patriot... or at least that's what America-loving conservatives seem to think.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Chicago Nope
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

You're not alone, Chicago, the Thpaniards thympathize... :)
.

New Anti-Smoking Ads Warn Teens "It's Gay to Smoke"

The Onion Today Now Show reports on a brand new Center for Disease Control and Prevention ad campaign directed to reducing the amount of smokers, especially among teenagers.

The campaign's logic is both simple and brilliant: appeal to teenagers' insecurities, homophobia and intolerance :)

Of course, the ads could always backfire...


And what really complicates the story is that The Onion has reported in the past that second-hand smoke is tied to second-hand coolness...
.

John Searle - Beyond Dualism

Descartes' philosophical articulation and defense of psycho-physical dualism (the idea that the mind has an existence different and independent from the physical body), and the idea that the mind cannot be reduced to simple physical processes, have carried immense weight on the philosophy of mind for the past four centuries. It has taken immense amounts of work and amassing of evidence to be able to convincingly argue that dualism is most likely a false (and not merely questionable) theory. We now know, for instance, that Descartes was simply mistaken when he argued that the mind is indivisible. We have the unfortunate case of epileptic patients in the 70's to thank for that nugget of wisdom :(

Still, for its fundamental mistakes, dualism may yet be right about its skepticism of reductionism, and conversely, for all its merits, physicalism (or materialism) may still be wrong about its explanatory power, or so argues anti-dualist philosopher John Searle in this delightful and funny lecture.

If you are interested in these topics, check out the Brainspotting tag to have your mind blown some more.
.

Getting Screwed by a Horny Chick

Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine are traveling to the remote corners of the world (I thought it was flat?) in search of animals on the brink of extinction.


When they went to pick up a kakapo in New Zealand, this peculiar looking chick ended up making Carwardine its bitch and giving the term 'skull-fucking' an entirely new meaning :)

How can such a horny animal be going extinct? Oh yeah, maybe the whole bestiality thing...
.

China's 60th Year Anniversary Time Lapse

As you may already know, China is celebrating this week 60 years of Communist rule, and when the Chinese want to get patriotic (or nationalistic, whatever you want to call it), and they're not silencing their own citizens, they know how to put on a big show.

Think what you will about the merits of the individualism and personal freedom we exalt in the West... it's virtually impossible to imagine Americans having the kind of discipline and synchronization required to create the kind of display the Chinese have become famous for.

It's sad, here in America, the only thing we seem to be able to do is tea-bagging protests, but at least we can report them with awesome humor :)

And if you don't know much about the leader of China, you're not alone... neither did president George W. Bush :)
.

Stephen Colbert vs. Richard Dawkins

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins paid a visit to Stephen Colbert last night to promote his latest book, The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution.

As it was to be expected, the visit quickly turned into a hilarious debate in which Colbert beautifully illuminated the misconceptions presupposed by those who don't get evolution, and hence opened the door for Dawkins to clarify :)

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Richard Dawkins
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Michael Moore

Did you notice the crocoduck tie? :)

You might also enjoy a hilarious debate between Stephen and philosopher Peter Singer.
.