I want to use the word 'Skookum' more often in conversations...

Are we so self subtractive of nature that this is actually the norm? Hmmm....... I tend to agree with the sentiments of this comic....which is why I posted it. On the web. Irony, perhaps.

In Addendum to "Garbage"

Perhaps a tax on ratio of packaging to product would be sufficient to force some to stumble across potent yet slim packaging?

So, for example:

A chocolate bar would have a reasonably stated 1:1 ratio (Im basing this on surface area, with proper allocations for product weight, product fragility, product structure. Could there be a base tax on the products "NeedValue"? A tv is in the want category, upping its tax, while a bag of wheat is in the need category, negating it from the tax...)

An MP3 player would have a 8:1 ratio;



Toilet Paper a 1:1 ratio;

Cereals (bulk or large scale) a 1:1 ratio;


New software a 12:1 ratio;


...and a refund or tax deduction for companies that are able to promote package free products, establishing a greater emphasis on local, small scale products? Such as local produce, paper (ouch- I hate to say it), and so on, being cheapre than that attained from further detinations reguiring much more packaging (among other eco-costs). Does this ram heads directly with NAFTA and similar trade discourse, or is it just simply a glancing defelection? Not sure.


Reducing waste, increasing reuseability of the package, making it out of a compostable product (for domestic consumptive products...?). I can see an outdated oil-patch worker being gainfully employed in such research pursuits.

Garbage

Compost.

Recycle.

Reuse.

minimize use.

Purchase with highest regard to the packaging.

These simple five steps has made our landlord question if we understand the garbage policy in Prince George. Before the end of the year I was walking home from work and I met up with our friendly and ever so helpful landlord. He and I made small talk, talked about things unrealted to our house, just like two men on a street woudl do, and then he let it fly: " um, you know that garbage day is ednesday in the morning....so, I see that....you know you can put it out the night before if you cant make it out in the morning on time....that is ok you know....I noticed that you never really get your garbage out on time...". I tried to explain that we actually knew this and that we were well aware of the fact that the night before is an apt way to meet the stringent deadline of morning collection, but the main point was lost. And today as I gulped my coffee and looked outside I saw all of our neighbours dragging their assigned garbae trolly to the curb. Most, as usual, were overflowing. Overflowing!?!?
We have made a concerted effort to minimize our waste and to support entities that think likewise and who make it easy for us to conserve and limit. The five steps I listed above are all we do. They are simple. We dont put out our garbage. We dont have garbage to put out every week. I treid to explain this to our landlord who, to his great support, was trying to help us. That is true. But I was trying to help him realize that we simply do not amass a bin's worth of waste in one week - I would say that every five weeks is our average, and even then it is not overflowing to the point of the neighbourhood. It is concerning.
It really is.

How can you allow a society to waste so much, to throw out and make (biologically) inert so much material that could assist growth. How can a city survive without realizing that so many people throwing out so much 'stuff' is a highly unsustainable route? Especially in a remote northern city, large enough, but remote enough to realize the reality of our singularity as a city among the rest of nature. Our system is not coherent with the rest of the natural world...yet we maintain wasting everything and being supported. If we need more garbage days, then I am sure we will get them before we get fewer....

...perhaps i'll go on. Not here though. Not now.

Why I believe religion to be abusive to our youth

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/01/29/the-evangelical-war-on-science/

Browse over here, and either download or play the video. It is about 6.5 mins long, so it is less than a good cup of coffee...although if I am the norm my coffee was spit out at about the time the first lady began to speak. I will sum up some of her fundamentalist thoughts: "its just easier to teach the bible...it makes more sense...". So - she is allowing her child's mind to be shielded from research, truth, investigation, evidence, fossils, radio dating, gas chromatography, AIDS research, cancer research, malaria pills, hydrology, biology, geology, physics, chemistry, free speech, pedology, climate research, anthropology, ... , in lieu of something that is just easier for her uneducated, free-thought deprived mind. She believes the bible because it is easier, and therefor so should all her children (who I hope were brought unto this world through a union presided over by god). It gets good at points, it gets weird, it gets emotional (Nobel laureate for creationism....!!). Check it out. The first guy actually believes the literal version of the bible, and he is allowed to, uncontested, force feed it to the children. Abuse. Nothing but abuse.

I need to go get more coffee because between uncontrolled laughter and astonishment I spat mine out....it was damn good coffee too.

Something for your vehicle, or your mind, or your free voice, or your thoughts, or your laughs, or your ...

A tuesday morning link for your ... whatever:

http://www.stampandshout.com/shop/religious-right/bumper-stickers.php


Originally linked to at http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/ today, these were a cute little read for the morning coffee. I was not able to post the best one because of an internal error (perhaps god was staving off criticism by not allowing me to post it?!?) but these are decent too.

An end to a literary era: for me

And in the end, the subversive powers of all characters rang their tunes in equality and in equity; they did what they should do, and the sadness that reigns in my thoughts now is a spiritual discourse only. Sadness, of course, is only precursor to happiness. Happiness, of course, is only ignorance of reality. For now, I am happily seated in my ignorance of reality, and sate in my memories of friends: Doc, Bonnie, Hayduke, Seldom Seen Smith. Thanks for your vision, thanks for your tales, see you again someday - maybe.
I'm proud of you.
For now, I will put you all on my shelf and rest my sheepish gaze to you when I am in need of your woeful confidence and your inspirational philosophy, courage and lucid action. I will keep in touch, but never again with the same feverish pace as I did these last few days. I hope you understand.

Everyone lives!

...for a while.

Thanks Edward Abbey.


(1927-1989)


The End.

The Reward:Literature comes home

After many first quarter moons spent searching, monitoring, perusing, calling, checking, ordering, appealing for help.....I finally secured my own copy of Hayduke Lives! - the somewhat under acclaimed sequel to The Monkey Wrench Gang. It eluded me for so long, ws absent from every corner I looked - but it has revealed itself finally, and I now accept my reward of time and passionate search with the book itself.
It took much time, and for that I am almost greatly appreciative. Almost, because I would much rather have read it right after the original, but time has cast its fond glow of poignancy and desire to the book I now hold in my garish palms. Hayduke Lives! is the one book that truly took me to so many used book sellers, book swaps, venues of literature and fed so many inquisitive looks through peoples personal libraries and fuelled conversations. How I procured this book is not important, although I shall report that it was not done in the most democratically proper fashion, yet it was also not attained in great discord with the law; a happy medium. No more about this. Had I stolen it from a church I would have bragged herein, so rest assured that one option is negated.
I have had it some time now, months....two perhaps. Only recently have I had the chance to focus on reading it and appreciating it. Now, as I pass through the last chapter, I am openly aware that a yearning...a passion...a desire unmentionable before has been lost. Lost, perhaps, but sated in that I have finished the literary meal I so desired. Or , rather, am aboutg to finish. 16 pages to go. Hayduke Lives! shall sit upon my book shelf, with its friend and family member TMWG and rest in peace. Once I finish it, that is. Now, with no work today and a pseudo crepuscular ray gleaming through my front window I sit, tea steeping, candles lit, on the floor and digest the remainin features of my lust, the great and never-to-be-lost-again Hayduke Lives!.

Carve a little Carving

Wow,the right tools and the job becomes a pleasure and not a test of your will.

Me in the act...


The piece...


The three of them together; A knight, a pawn, and an artistic rendering of nothing (yet) but will soon become a stand alone picture and picture frame - I just need an inspiration on what to actually carve as the picture. A wolf failed, and now I am thinking of something more profound and more contemplative. Yes, it will take a while.

Look to the twilight....

Toinight.
Twilight.
Venus. Moon.
Close.
2 - 3 degrees separation.

Go see it. Reprieve for those of us (me, at least) who regrets not seeing more of Comet McNaught. It should be a doozie!

Wordless appreciation.

www.spaceweather.com

Do it...do it...go there and feast on the optical...feast.

Here is the best, so far. McNaught a la southern hemisphere. I think this is taken from New Zealand.

How Peacefully Boring...

...to assume that all that there is to know is already known, or to assume that all there is to know is not for us to know.

But the virtues of knowing god better, by reading his one book over and over again, praying to him, killing in his name, sacrificing in his name, torturing in his name, violently erasing cultures in his name, forcing habitual male chauvinism in his name, accepting that you are born with sin and living a life of fear and self remorse (in his name) - that is spiritually and intellectually elevating. Really?

I am curious why people always strive for the maintenance of a religions society - thus embracing the christian way and the christian god - when they are treading defiantly on their own purpose by ignoring other religions. They are saying that they wish not to have their religion (the one they see as correct) succumbed to forces of intelligence and scientific scrutiny but they make no space for the equal rights of other religions. Not that I would, either, but I also do not make any room for the 'rights' of christians. Nor do I make room for the 'rights' of Believers of Thor, Prayers for Winnie the Pooh, ..., or other myriad fictional novels.

To placate ourselves with an earnest desire to learn, to expose, to find truth...that is the never ending fodder that keeps science moving. To assume that we already know, or thus should not know, is simplistic closed-mindedness that prospers 'the church', extols the virtuous lives of priestly figures, and brings in millions of yearly dollars to the biblical foundation. Millions of dollars that are, at best, inequitably spent on food-for-religion atrocities that are fleetingly accepted as good-will missions.

I have read that god wanted Earth to warm, as a sign that the 'end' is coming, and as such we should no longer attempt to either try to reverse or slow global warming (thereby going against gods wish and plan) or spend time worrying about it - we should worry about eradicating sin form Earth (non christian religions) and trying to satiate god by kissing his ass. Basically. This is the intellectual framework that it is safe for our children, our planet, every living things living and to be alive planet?!?


Kindly,
Your Atheist Friend
...and someone who will proudly, in defiance of god himself, drive less to try to use less fossil fuel. I can proudly walk to work knowing that I am defying god...any god. And smarter for it.

Comet McNaught III

Comet McNaught is only getting better (I procalaim as I sit under a blanket of clouds and peer into the sky restlessly hoping for the snow to stop and the sky to once again be blue) and remote viewing is pretty darn good when you have SOHO doing the looking for you. Below are two images from SOHO that show the comet and its brightness. I am guessing that it is now at about -1 mag? I can check this out, but it is a daytime object and that means it has passed a given threshold of brightness...just not sure specifically. It doesnt matter, really. The piintis that SOHO has some pretty neat stuff. Here they are:

The sun is (blocked out) in the middle and the comet is, need I say it, the bright thing in the upper left quadrant.

This is the latest image from SOHO (Jan 14/07) showing not only the comet but the tail a well. Wow.

I wrote earlier (quite incorrectly) that this comet would be comming back in its orbit about the Sun again in our lifetimes; greater minds and those who are actually plotting this diddy have posited that this is in fact not true and that this may be the only time we (or any earth bound species) will see Comet McNaught. Its eccentricity is greater than 1, meaning that its orbit is not circular and the escape velocity (energy to escape a given gravity) is going to be reached for this star it is passing. Basically, the sun is too small (thus the mass causes to little gravity) to lock this thing up and to keep it comming back, and if Jupiter or Saturn gets a hold of it on its way around it will get a slingshot of alternate gravity that spells 'goodbye' to our famed comet. Even without other planetary gravity causing it trajectory confusion, this comet (as is currently understood) is not going to be a solar system object for long.

So, if you want to see the comet of our time, now is the time.

see ya.

Comet McNaught II

This is the more prescriptive twilight/sunset view of the comet that I got a few days ago as I molested my body with cold.

This is a shot taken today (Jan 13/07) as it became a daytime visible object. Pretty astounding, no?

These are obviously not my pictures. I copied them from SpaceWeather.com (link below) as clouds have won the battle around PG.

And more on the comet, now suggested to be, at its brightest, the brightest of the century. Pretty neat for something that kinda came out of nowhere (nowhere being, yes, the Kuiper Belt, but relatively nowhere...).

http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2007/01/12/comet-mcnaught-videoblog/

Yes, another link to BadAstronomy.com

Clouds have hampered any realisitc chances of getting another view, daytime or nighttime view, of this celestial tansient so the best I can do is go straight to the source...and then link to it. Here Phil has set up a neat little videoblog of his bino's and it makes for a great shot - when you consider the technology he is dealing with - of the comet. Check it out, and if you have clear skies one last attempt is worth it. Look west as the sun sets and go about (umm..this is a rough estimate) 1 degree away from the sun and it should be that bright comet-like thing. Venus is actually opposite it(opposite side of the sun) so it if the comet is visible then wait a few more minutes and try to spot a solar companion. A less transient one, at least!

Also check out http://spaceweather.com/ for up to date info about all things astronomical.

Enjoy.

Kudos to Phil and BA

A blunt taste of our education politics

This comic was instigated by the inability for American educational leaders to move beyond Christianity and Jesus-centric ideologies and realize that there is a scientific truth overtly apparent to anyone who (without being funded by ExxonMobil) studies or pays attention to the research of our environment, specifically climate. Children are not being allowed to learn about our climate because the religious (not only extremists) portion of the population wish to rather believe that any warming is either due to god's spite or due to natural causes - exonerating both church and state, religion and oil.
It makes for great conversation, yes indeed. But the stark and horrible reality is that at the end of the day millions of children in one of the most guilty regions of the world are going home ignorant of their actions. They are bred to maintain a stance of being unaware that god is neither here to save nor spite them, and that the control of the sustainability of this planet is not a question for debate, but for action. Allowing a foreign and domestic policy to be dictated by a religion is an arcane way of dealing with a country, let alone a country that is one of the roots of the problem.

An atheist approach clearly erases this illusion of godly saving. It puts the onus on us, our way of being, our cultures. It puts the onus on those who wronged to do right - our energy system has worked, but it is now wrong and it is now proving to be more wrong than imaginable - and we need clarity and separation from religion to do so.

So, education is but another puppet of the christian fed politics of America.

And in Canada, the land of "god keep our land, glorious and free", we are not much further ahead in the effort for enlightenment. Less controlled by the bible, but still, as a population, controlled by it. Stand in a classroom and see how long it takes before the christian myth is assumed to be true through the curriculum and conversations.

We are enganging in demonous acts all in the name of a mythical creature (god, jesus, moses, Abraham, ...), of a mythical history, or a fiction novel. We are (well, certainly not me and not in my classrooms) maintaining an unhealthy predisposition to christian based ideologies, which have demonstrably injured all life on Earth.

God....god nothing.

Pharyngula Blog Link

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/01/ridicule_is_a_useful_tool.php#more

PLEASE! Please go and check this blog out. Specifically, the post about the biblical literalist (need I say more) and global warming.

Comet McNaught

I just spent an hour standing still in the frakin' cold starring out across the vast expanse of horizontal glory to try to spy the illustrious comet McNaught on one of its last days of visibility (for a while, at least). It is the brightest comet to grace us in the last 30 years and is actually a daytime naked eye object (if you are careful enough to properly block out the sun and peek a few degrees to the left of it).

As soon as I clambered us the snowy slope of a hillside I gazed out, steadfast beside a fellow amateur astronomer, and saw...clouds.

Clouds.

Beautiful, crimson red and deep yellow clouds. Beautiful, yes, but completely, 100% obstructing my view of the object of my desires. In -25 c weather, as the sun completely vanished from view, on my last chance to see the comet of the decades, clouds took away the show.

All ready to pack up and call it a viewing, I turned away to hear the bellow of my companion through my parka hood, balaclava and toque - "I see it!!".

Then, turning quickly and grasping for a piece of sky that hosted a bright object that looked unnatural for an evening view, I saw a brights spot emerging from the clouds and resting placidly in a gap.

Rummaging for my bino's, I took off my gloves and allowed my fingers to go numb as I stood and gazed in awe at the sight through the magnified eyes. It was beautiful, and bright. I lowered my biono's and took it in with naked eyes, and was not let down. For the next five minutes I switched between my bino's, naked eye, and my companions telescope to witness this piece of astronomical history. Fingers dead with cold and beyond repair of consolation from my armpits and heated breath, I had to call it a night as the clouds one again took over the show and sheltered us from the comet. We quickly packed up, scrambled down the hillside and went our separate ways.

I have never experienced fingers so cold before in my whole life, and I sat there warming them up for a good 15min before I could feel them. However, that was not as graceful as I had hoped because once I could feel them I felt nothing but agonizing tingles and thumping pain. Pain, it seems, enjoys to stay. It stayed until I I got home, and even then it was a ragged attempt to keep them warm in my armpits, driving standard, in icy conditions, dodging logging trucks and trying to sing along with the Rheostatics (you have to have music to subdue the pain...ya gotta!).

Now, safely at home and assured that my fingers are not due to be chopped from the vices of frostbite, I am quite amused at my evening and more than satiated that I did get to see, through many lenses, the comet of the decade(s). Bring on summer astronomy!

Here, then, are the views we were greeted with as our eager retinas scanned for the ghostly bright spot of Comet McNaught...these are NOT of a comet, but rather of a glorious sunset. My fingers were far to cold to physically operate any device more complex than mittens or armpits. Pictures of the comet were nearly impossible. Digits too cold. Feet too cold. Face too cold. Head too cold (it is now shaved). Body achingly cold....but I saw it and I have the memories to chill my bones as I sleep.

peace, enjoy. This is the west of Prince George.

I am a Father

I now own a SeaMonkey...

Better said, I take care of a SeaMonkey (the only pet I know to come in a "just add water" package...no kidding).

-T

TAIWAN: XIV

And this is why we come to HeHuan - the mornings and the views.

A poisonous snake that I decided to get too close to...barefoot.

Sunrise.

Sunrise.

Sunrise.

Sunrise junkies.

Taiwan: XIII

Hehuan Mountain (Hehuan shan)

The time of the year when typhoons do not penetrate every orifice of weather (huh?!?) and that the heat is not so impregnating that it causes your flesh to shrivel and ooze sweat simultaneously is the best time to venture to the mountains. I believe this to be so, at least.
So this was the time the Ross and Lindsay came to visit. After some time in Taipei and some rambling about Hualien, eating magi and drinking Taiwan Beer, and before they took off to the grandeur of Green Island to the south, we headed into the geological abyss of the interior mountains. Unquestionable beauty. A thesaurus offers no words that could encompass the joy and ease I felt while pausing in the mountians, overlooking the craggy valley below and hearing the tropical birds vocally vying for a mate in the summer sun - it is humbling to sit on the mountainside, perched high over the river below and gaze across endless beauty, and consider the world. The whole world....the wars, the grief, the pollution, the hatred peddled by religions, and at the same time be subdued by calm. It is almost like a drug - a cognitive placebo drug to calmness.

But...before the doozies (the sunrise pics, that is), here are some plenary pic's from their time in Taiwan with us. Aside from the obvious enjoyment of seeing friends abroad, after being secluded socially for a while and immersed in the chinese culture it was refreshing to catch up and share old storeies and make new ones.

Remember the epic search for the fake glasses? And to think the ocean almost stole them....

Thanks for comming to visit - I had a time of times. Im glad we could share Taiwan for a while.

These are sorrily out of order in terms of chronology.

The day we needed glasses...and then lost them.

R and L high on a foggy cliff (well, the cliff itself wasn't foggy, but it was foggy AND they were on the cliff....).

R L and C mid hike in the fog.

R L and T at a roadway stop on the way to HeHuan. And scoters...there are two scooters.

What kind of a sale is this?!?

TienHsiang towniste; this marks the end of Taroko Gorge proper, but beyond (further into the mountains) is one of the most wonderful drives available on the island. This village has had a quite turbulent history, which I wont go into, but it is a black mark on both the chinese and japanese histories. Today, it is a prosperous place in its own right. This is taken from the TienHsiang Pagoda (see below).

This is the opposite view of the picture above. I took this from the village, looking up tio the pagoda. Nestled into the folds of the mountains, this proved to be one of the most relaxing places I visited in Taiwan. There was an earthquake in the recent past that destroyed a large portion of this buddhist momnestary and they are still actively working to rebuild and to regain their composure.

Now in Hehuan already, after a gusty hike in the mist and fog, we settle down to try and get warm in the hehuan cabins. These are Japanese styled, reflecting the Japanese influence of their occupation.

Us, while it is still sunny and warm, along the road to HeHuan.

This is actually even before we got to TienHsiang (and thus before we got to HeHuan); Ross and I are by the river trying to make the sand fall in along the weaknessess - which may sound bland but give it a try and youll be hooked! Compare the size of the boulders and the bedrock to us...quite a contrast.

This is a closer view of the TienHsiang Buddhist Monestary. I took this also from the top op the pagoda (the tall thin building from a picture above). As you can see they are still rebuilding some portions of it from the earthquake.

I would love to say that they were re-enacting some relevant process of Darwinian competition, or at least they had a horribly majestic glue accident and couldn't separate their helmets, or at very least that they were trying to squish a poisonous midge between their heads because it was at risk of harming us and they could not use their hands to cull it (due to the poison...); but no, I cannot in any sincerity say that they were dong anything other than having a mid-mountain headbutting contest. I forget who won....but does it matter? Really?

The beauty of simple symbiosis. Darwin be vindicated.

Ok, waaaaay back at the beginning of the trip; this is the entrance of the Taroko Gorge road. Under this little geological burrow you enter the majesty of rocks and the serpentine trail to the heart of the mountains.

These were the best walnuts ever! EVER!

BEST.....ACTION.....SHOT.......EVER......!

Ahh...Betel Nuts.

Left- After

Right - Before

I spared you the action shots of us spitting and spilling our slobbery drool among the tables as we hunkered down under a shady tree and devoured a bag of these in TienHsiang.

Ok, back in Hualien City. This is a shotif the local military base. Not really supposed to take, let alone publish, these, so look quickly and move along...move along....

Japanese BBQ - one of our first meals in Hualien (I think?).

Lucidiy of Lyrics

As I was going up the stairs,
I met a man,
Who was not there.

He wasn't there again today,
I wish that man,
Would go away.

As I was going down the stairs,
I met a man,
Who was not there.

He wasn't there again today,
I wish that man,
Would go away.
-Rheostatics ("As I was going down the stairs")

A Quote

As reported today (from a previous statement made by the government of AB) on CBC in a discussion about solar and alternative energies:

"the Alberta government does not yet know what to do with solar energy because they have not figured out how to tax it."

THAT is where their priorities are.

THAT is where their ideological principles are comming from.

THAT is why we still have a stifled sustainable energy sector.

And THAT is why the oil patch is so fecund and clean energy so bastardized by governments.

And THAT is all. For now.

News this morning...

"She doesn't want her children exposed to other beliefs"

...a quote from a christian parent in BC who was angry that her child was doing yoga in class at school. She did not care about the health benefits, the stress relief, or anything biological, but was angry and concerned that her child would be witness to another way of thinking and another way of understanding other than that of the opression of christianity.

I repeat - she was worried that her children would hear something other than that wich is espoused at their church. How is this liberal intelligence?How is this not oppression?

BAH!

Morality

Why is it that a priest is given more stature than anyone else. Why, when all they do is flog hate, irrationality and credulity. A person who travels across the globe to destroy a culture, a way of life, all to spread a fable (one of many, many, many, many, many fables...) that is inherently hate based. When I see a priest I do not give unchecked admiration. But our culture does, and it shows that although a strong majority are atheist, they, or we as a culture, still maintain a foundation on religion and mythological sotries to guide our lives. It is disturbing to realize this, really. How can grown, cognitively developed people maintain a glorious and blindly devoted belief in a fairy tale. If I suggested that the tooth fairy was a real entity that actually came to my pillow, or if my neightbour suggested that the boogie man attacked her and her pets last night (and the only way to satisfy the boogie man was to kill three virgins....that is why I did it officer) we would both be seen as (clinically) insane. Yet, because their tooth fairy or boogy man is dubbed god, jesus, holy spirit, whatever, it is allowed and promoted to be a sane belief. It blows my mind that people dont realize this, but I guess it lies in thei ability to have free thought. Science and nature promotes this, religion defies this. Here are some thoughts on morality, as it suggests one link these ideas.
It is well written that people inclined to pious ideologies confer upon themselves the foundation of morality - without god there is no morality, without an omnipotent creator to follow there is no need for social order.How is it, then, that it is actually religion itself that brings upon us immorality, and it is atheism that brings us to the highest order of morality? Morality in this case ceases to be a construct of anthropocentric designation and spreads to be a construct of nature - everything. For it is that 'everything' that evolved in a systematic ecological structure that today allows us, moral humans, to survive. Morality is not a construct of a religion, a religious person, a religious nation or a religious household. Morality is a direct consequence of understanding nature and understanding the natural place of humans, as one piece of a inexplicably complex Earthly system. This system, quite probably, is not confined to Earth at all, but is theoretically extant the universe(s?) over. The idea of multiverses thick with life, not our life or life as we understand it or as developed as we witness it, but life, chagrins the notion that we are either alone or special. Disquieting thoughts to theists and the blindly faithful. Lets move back and leave this point alone, for our tangent has taken us onto astrobiology and it was never intended to go this far. So, back to morality.Religions are bred to hate other religions - islamics hate, christians hate, catholics hate, ... hate - but atheism is never, repeat never, bred to hate. Quite the opposite. Incredulous people are never founded on hate of any other belief system, but forced to accept and enjoy them as theories. It is when these theories cause hate to spread, such as religions, and to cause murder, environmental rape and abuse, political corruption and myriad other ailments, that understanding atheists take a stand and say your wrong. Morality is founded on understanding how you can survive and how your group can survive, and said survival does not depend on how many times you pray to a wall (that presumably a mouse and a spider inhabit, and nothing else...) or how many times you give your money to a lying and culturally bastardizing priest. It beguiles me to understand how this can be thought of as important, let alone necessary, let alone the foundation of goodness. Morality is based on a ( I will say scientific, because it is the method of understanding our environment and the processes within) framework of intelligent understanding and witness to nature, all of nature, and understanding that we are nothing special. Nothing special. We are an animal, we evolved, we have genetic lineage companionship with other living species and we have simply (I am simplifying a great deal with this statement) evolved a trait that made us prosper and gave us selective advantages over other species at the time of our mutations and thus our development, our cognition, has enabled us to create a god, and to seemingly create morality. However, all animals have morality and although they are not aware of it, they are certainly enacting it. Look at a herd of anything. See how they interact - they have strict morals that enable their survival. There is no god telling them to be good. There is no god doing anything or meddling in their lives at all. Morality, then, is a construct of our cognitive development (development meaning change, not betterment, for it could be argued that our superior cognitive development will be - and is - our downfall in geological retrospect).
Morality is the antithesis of religion. The bible spreads hate for so many forms of people and animals, whereas any biologist, geologist, ...ist, or anyone well versed or well read or well experienced in nature and understanding of processes that enable nature to survive will have a higher degree of morality (true morality because pious people have certainly culled any recognition that their beliefs are not viable) than those who carry a leather-bound book around and try to destroy 'heathenistic' cultures and kill those who oppose their views.
When a scientists has a new idea, the old idea says "hmmmm...lets check this new idea out and see if we can learn something. When a religion has a new idea, the old religions says "kill".
I posit that while morality is a recognizable entity in human cultures, it is not prospered or founded in any way in religion, but quite the opposite. Atheists are truly more complex and moral individuals because they think, not blindly believe, and they choose their morality based on what they know to be correct, and not on what an outdated mythological text tells them to do.
Religion breeds not morality but rather immorality.

Fly me to a science class...

Fly me to the moon,
Let me play among the stars,
Let me see what spring is like,
On a-Jupiter and Mars

Oh, Franky.

I heard this diddy once to often again this year to let it go without comment - and this is where I can comment freely so I shal make use of the ability.

The moon, although near one star, is significantly no nearer to any star than Earth to surmise that being there would allow you to be 'among the stars'. It is similar to saying that standing in Vancouver and taking one step east allows you to see how they live in Halifax. One step would be unaccountalbly useless. So, therefore, going to the moon to reconoiter with the stars would be equally useless. You would not even be all that much closer to our star, the Sun, because you would orbit the outer path around Earth and therefore take yourself further away at points. To that end, going to the moon would distance yourself from any star. Earth is approximately 150 million km from the Sun. The moon is approximately 400 000 km from earth, equating to about 0.28% of the total Earth-Sun distance? If you were lucky you would be about 0.28% closer to 'the stars' by going to the moon, but then by equal chance you could be equal distance or 0.28% further from 'the stars' by taking the trouble of going to the moon.
If you were to try to suggest that you would be significantly closer to 'other' stars, it is an equally erroneous idea. Proxima Centauri is about 4.3 light years from the Sun (1 light year = 9.46 million million kilometers). It is actually a part of a three star multiple system - alpha, beta and proxima centauri of which Proxima is the smallest, but closest to us, of this integrated stellar package; so Frank could have meant these 'stars' but the scale difference at such great distances negates and significant closeness either from Earth or our Moon.

So, Frank, or whoever wrote your lyrics, dont bother flying to the moon. Stay home, save some money and some fuel, and buy some binoculars to get 'closer' to the stars.

...and.....who would ever care to personally witness a spring on jupiter?

Compromising the Truth for the Blindly Faithful: Again

So, the new year is here and so am I...at the keyboard...typing away and breezing through missed posts from my regular list of 'must-reads'. And, not that it is a profound thing to have found something on the Bad Astronomy that excites me or angers me, I came across a relevant and purportedly accurate dismissal of truth. There is a story, which you can read for yourself by going to http://www.badastronomy.com/, that details the power of a fake god over truth, science, knowledge and history (the real history..the one that is for animals and plants on Earth some 4.6 billion years old). From there you can link to myriad sources that carried the story (unfortunately some are from Fox News ... not the source of any resounding intelligence).

To summarize, it was told to the National Park employees of the Grand Canyon that they were not to tell tourists about the geological history of the canyon, the age of the canyon, or to delve in any way into the realm of science and sedimentology - in the fear that doing so may insult the more pious (read: stupid) and those who believe the biblical version of Earth. They were to negate their science knowledge and their geological prowess and tell people only of how beautiful the park is.

Theism is insulting.

Have a nice day. I didn't after reading about this.