A couple of years ago, when I was looking to score some sweet fresh Jesus for a little home art project, it would have been so convenient if he’d come in an easy-open package. The future has arrived. Behold, mass-produced, factory-sealed, god in a plastic container!
John Wilkins talks about AI and the transhumanist agenda. I think we both concur that a lot of artificial intelligence and brain uploading bozos are living in a fantasy.
Angel Mario Vega, a student at Minnesota State University Moorhead, tried a too-typical stunt: he got a couple of young women (one of them under age) disgustingly drunk, literally carried one of them to his dorm room, set up a camera, and filmed himself raping her. Oh, and of course he bragged to his buddies about it and invited them to come watch. Stupid and a rapist, that usual sweet combination.
But then something interesting happened.
It’s not a great morning. The sun is shining, I got a lot done yesterday, I got a good night’s sleep, and my class notes for tomorrow are all in order, so I get to just kick back and relax today, but it’s still not a good day. I started it by catching up on my email.
Every review of Nick Spencer’s Atheists — the Origin of the Species leaves me less inclined to even want to read it. The man can’t possibly be as big an idiot as the reviewers make him out to be, can he?
The latest paean to Spencerian inanity comes from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It always puzzles me how such a secular country can have a major media outlet that so blithely props up religious twits, but here they go again with the director of the Centre for Public Christianity, Simon Smart, who’s apparently spent his whole life trying to defy the name he was saddled with at birth.
Now you know.
An Idaho State University assistant professor with a concealed-carry gun permit shot himself in the foot with a semiautomatic handgun that accidentally discharged from inside his pocket in a chemistry classroom full of students, police said on Wednesday.
That’s my hypothesis, and I’m sticking to it. My obnoxious, curmudgeonly ways must be an adaptation, selected by evolution over many generations to optimize my mating opportunities by forcing stupid people to flee from my presence.
This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly.
Status: Heavily Moderated; Previous thread
Hello everyone, Randi here.
As you now know, there are major changes taking place at the JREF.
We’ve been successful in our mission as an educational resource, but for some time we have felt that we could be doing more to make a difference, especially with regards to cultivating a new generation of critical thinkers. So, our prime focus for the future will be to build our educational content, and to develop more and greater opportunities to promote critical thinking in the classroom.
I also want to reassure you that, never fear, the Million Dollar Challenge lives on!
And, in exciting news, we are beginning to plan TAM 2015 — our 13th! JREF Fellow and long-time volunteer Ray Hall has agreed to be the Program Chair for the next summer’s meeting. Ray says to expect a full agenda of scientific skepticism, critical thinking, Sunday Papers, informative and inspirational talks, new insights, the warmth and family of the TAM community, and all the usual magic that is The Amazing Meeting.
