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6. desember 2002
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When will you die?
It's weekend, folks, and time for a stupid quiz again. Take The Spark's Death Test.
To me it said: Mark your calendar or Palm V. You can expect to die on: June 11, 2048 at the age of 79 years old.
7:53:25 PM 
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Humans with tails: a problem for creationists
It is a little-known fact that sometimes, human babies are born with tails. Not only small rudiments that coincidenatlly looks like tails, but the real thing: a complex arrangement of tissue and muscles that makes a tail which can even be moved at will. This is one of the most potent examples of what is called throwbacks; that is, where a mutation reactivates a part of our genome to bring back an organ or feature that once existed in ancestor species.
Of course, to creationists, who deny that humans are the result of evolution, this is an extremely inconvenient fact. I found an interesting disucssion of this, including full references, on Christian Forums.
Comment: I want one of those tails, too!
7:35:51 PM
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A Serious Rise
A concept used in science fiction, a space elevator using a 100,000 km long cable to pull objects and humans alike into space, may actually be viable, some scientists say.
What muzak do they play in space elevators?
5:00:54 PM
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An athetist goes to church, and likes it
 I received a few funny comments when I announced that the Secular Blasphemer himself had gone to church yesterday. And a Christmas mass, no less.
Some time ago, a friend of mine, who may or may not be a Christian, and is gay, told me that he'd first attended and then joined the "open church group" (Åpen Kirkegruppe), which is a church organisation for gays and lesbians here in Norway. I expressed some curious interest in attending one of the services, partly because it is pretty embarressing that a person with an MA in history of religions never ever has attended a mass in the Christian church, and partly because I wondered what attracts gay people to one of the most homophobic institutions imaginable.
Around a dozen people attended the mass itself, a nice ceremony, and a talk which combined the advent motif with the problems faced by gay Christians, and some news about the developments in the debate that still rages in the church.
Then it was the highlights: church coffee, a tradition that is really the key to success for the Norwegian Lutheran state church. I have to say that the group really lives up to its claim to openness. Not only was I the only infidel present, I was the only straight person there (except the priest). And I greatly enjoyed a long conversation with those present, generally highly educated people in all age groups. It is not, after all, very often I get a chance to discuss history, religion, politics and Greek and Latin philology over a cup of tea. I'm very tempted to find an excuse to be back, if I needed one.
3:44:45 PM
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Bogus "Security Alert" pop-ups in court
 Have you seen the annoying pop-up ads that pretend to be "security alerts"? It is of course yet another trick by marketers to fool web users. They may have taken it too far this time.
Annoyed browsers have launched a class action lawsuit in Washington State against Bonzi Software, the unscrupulous firm behind the ads.
This is one of the very few cases where I'd support the death penalty.
3:24:41 PM
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Burial Box' Authenticity Questioned
The alleged burial box of James the brother of Jesus, reported to great fanfare and making the rounds in the press, is now subject to serious doubts. Especially differences in the writing styles of the original inscription suggests that at some later time the text "brother of Jesus" was added, making it yet another forgery in the history of Biblical archeology.
You can read what I wrote about the find when it first surfaced in October. I have since followed the professional debate around the find to some degree, but did not feel qualified to write very much about it at that stage. I am glad to see the mainstream press picks up the criticism not only the initial proclamations.
2:54:18 PM
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New Theory for Origins of Life
"Professor William Martin of the University of Dusseldorf and Dr Michael Russell of the Scottish Environmental Research Centre in Glasgow, claims that living systems originated from inorganic incubators - small compartments in iron sulphide rocks." (Science Daily news release)
This falls well in line with a lot of research into the origins of life over the last decade or so, for example Cairns-Smith crystal replicator theory. Many abiogenesis scholars now believe the first living things, primitive replicators, were not organic, but somehow helped give rise to organic replicators that evolved into life as we know it. You have to allow for some journalistic liberties, but calling a theory Russell and others have been working on for years "a revolutionary new theory" stretches the credibility quite a bit.
2:14:29 PM
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What I hate about XMas #1
That radio DJs start playing Wham's Last Christmas all the time.
1:56:57 PM
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Wired on God
 Secular Blasphemy has written about quite a few articles in Wired magazine lately. It seems the always-hip magazine has decided to go religious. Most notable, perhaps, was my short debunking of Gregg Easterbrook's article The New Convergence, which was also featured on Occoquan. The Raven also wrote a dismissive entry about this piece of journalistic mumbo jumbo.
I was quite surprised to see that that very nonsense article is the main feature in December Wired. The blurb accompanying it now is if possible even more braindead than the article itself, saying "After centuries of battle, scientists and theologians are finally forging a grand unified theory. Think Eternity = mc²". Whoever wrote that sentence must have flunked high school.
I know it's a dream of many religious people that science should suddenly come around and "confirm religion", and that is exactly what it is: dreams. Various religious journals and newspapers in religious areas (read: the USA) have frequently made similar claims. What is common about all of them is that these articles are written by people who are utterly clueless about science, and that it is utterly false. Science, at its very core, is methodologically atheistic. The facts of science have all but debunked any and all claims of theistic religions that even attempts at describing the physical world. Religion nuts: those are the facts. Deal with it. Don't write nonsense articles to lie to the religious public.
Some of the other Wired articles were more sound and balanced. I wrote about the article A Prayer Before Dying in my blog here. And I wrote a longer commentary on the interesting if speculative article God is the Machine on November 27.
1:29:49 PM
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Oldest American Writing
Archeologists have found evidence that a culture in Mexico used writing 350 years before the Mayas, more than 2500 years ago.
4:20:17 AM
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No Encore
The Berlin population is obviously used to avant garde performance artists. When a woman jumped to her death from the window in an art gallery, the passers-bys thought it was a piece of performance art and were slow to react.
1:20:46 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 14.01.03; 22:08:52.
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