From the horrors of three days ago, when a centipede decided to take a walk around my mouth, I moved on to visit the surface centre of the earth, which, apparently, is very close to where I spend my holidays. See the photos for “proof”.

Other than that, it has been a relatively bad week music-wise, as my two visits at a nearby beach bar were halted abruptly when the safety threshold of bad music was surpassed: more than a third of the songs were from my list of all-time worst “rock” bands -you can get an idea of that list here.

I am waiting for my visit to GOA beach bar tonight to rectify this situation and experience an amazing sunrise under the sounds of “interesting” psychedelic-trance tunes.

Centipedes like moist environments as they have an issue with dryness (poor them). Our house by the beach where I currently spend my holidays, is obviously moist. Can you see where this is going?

It is potentially the worst way to wake up (OK, OK, except when you wake up to the sounds of Celine Dion singing), but it happened to me yesterday: I woke up because a 6 cm long centipede was touring my mouth and nostrils! Thank Poseidon it didn’t go into my mouth…

In case you do not know or remember how disgusting centipedes are (especially the closer they get to your mouth), I am attaching a nice photo (courtesy of the University of Nebraska).

Holiday season has just started for me so do not expect this blog to be updated more frequently than twice a week probably!

Other than that: enjoy your holidays everyone and see you soon online! All three of you that occasionally read this blog!

At some point religious people have to realize that it is called faith for a reason: there is no evidence and hence no arguments in favor. Get over it, have as much faith as you want, but:

1. Keep it to yourself. Don’t try to impose it to others -we hate this when you do it.
   
   
2. Don’t misinform and mislead other people -we hate this too.
   
   
3. Don’t discriminate based on it -yes, hate it.
   
   
4. Don’t use your “holy books” as moral guides as this will inevitably lead you to hurt other people -you know…
   
   
5. Don’t bother us with your credulous idea of a bearded guy in the sky -we don’t necessarily hate this, it can actually be quite funny sometimes.
   
   
6. Don’t obstruct science because it goes against your irrational beliefs -we particularly hate this.
   
   
7. Stop scaring innocent children with your fantasies about Hell, Purgatory, and eternal torture, just because they cursed or lied -this is human nature. Instead start thinking why you feel so comfortable that you are going to paradise just because you go to church every Sunday.
   
   
8. Don’t assume that everyone accepts your ridiculous ideas and don’t expect everyone to abide by them or even respect them! If you do not want people to laugh or criticize your beliefs than do not hold laughable beliefs -or at least do not publicize them…
   
   
9. Stop bothering us with your hallucinations and pareidolia cases of the virgin Mary on sandwiches, doors, asphalt etc. It just shows how credulous you are and makes the rest of us be ashamed that you are a member of the same species.
   
   
10. If you don’t know then shut up!

It is supposed to be something personal, remember?

Yes, it is now a fact. There is lots of evidence that point to that direction. The focal point of Global Warming is my living room.

So, what do we have this week? A focus on the wars between science, reason, and rationality against creationism, lunacy, and arrogant ignorance. A very creative “demonstration” of how random mutations along with selection pressure make evolution not as improbable as creationists would like us to believe. A round of misinformation from creationists, regarding the Altenberg meeting of leading evolutionary biologists. Also answer to the questions “what really happened at the Altenberg meeting“, and “does atheism require faith too?”

• Over at Happy Jihad’s House of Pancakes, Bing discusses a recent show by a creationist spewing out ignorance coupled with the usual arrogance. But what I really liked from this post, was the simple yet very creative demonstration of how random mutations along with natural selection (where there is nothing random about it!) create a not-so-improbable evolutionary mechanism as creationists would like us to believe.
  
  The example is quite interesting and you can find it somewhere in the middle of the post (if you do not feel like reading the whole article).
  
  
• Nick Matzke, at The Panda’s Thumb, discusses the various distortions originating from the Intelligent Design (ID) camps, as to the contents of the Altenberg meeting of 16 evolutionary biologists. The *actual* meeting agenda was about “discussing the current status of evolutionary theory, with a particular emphasis on developments — some of them under intense debate — that have occurred since the last version of it has been in put in place back in the 1930s and ‘40s” as the meeting organizer himself, Massimo Pigliucci, has put it.
  
  But, of course, according to ID proponents and creationists (aren’t these the same thing?) the meeting was about finding an alternative to neo-Darwinsim (wtf?) because evolution is, apparently, currently a theory in crisis!!! Those guys… they never learn from their humiliating mistakes…
  
  
• To continue on this story, as it is quite important, Massimo Pigliucci is publishing notes from the Altenberg meeting on his blog, Rationally Speaking. Part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here, and the final statement which was signed by all participants, can be found here.
  
  
• Finally, Skeptico discusses why the argument “Atheism also requires faith” is as ridiculous as the rest of the theist/creationist/ID proponents arguments. Get over your lack of arguments and just accept that faith is a personal thing, based on no evidence whatsoever -this is why it’s called “faith”, remember?

Enjoy!

I want one of these! From the description: “A group of percussion instruments perform music by way of metal balls that fly out from pipes.”



[Animusic]

A few blogs I have recently (well, not so recently but anyway) added on my RSS feeds.

• A canna’ change the laws of physics: with the intend to write about good and bad science; the use of statistics; the abuse of the scientific process and anything else that takes my fancy.
  
  
• A Drunken Walk Through Science: A Discussion About Recent Scientific Advances And Science News Minus The Technical Jargon (Whenever Possible)
  
  
• A Photon In The Darkness: It’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness
  
  
• EpiWonk: Epidemiology, Health, and Medical News Media Watchdog: A Blog for the General Public
  
  
• Good Math, Bad Math: Finding the fun in good math, squashing bad math and the fools that promote it!

You can see the whole blogroll here (accessible from the “Blog” menu below the site header).

Enjoy!