This is God’s Thundering Subwoofer [Audio]

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My brother worships two things: God and Subwoofers.

We were raised to be quiet, well-mannered Lutherans. But for Erik, there was nothing quiet about the gospel. In church, he sang as loud as he could. He didn't care what anyone else thought – he was reaching out to the Lord and it was our problem if it made our ears ring.

One Sunday, the rumbling bass and baritone voices in the choir sang, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," and Erik felt God's presence. That rattle and boom was God's voice literally vibrating his heart. We were still young but it decided everything: he would do the Lord's work and it would be loud.

He enrolled in seminary as soon as he could, spent some time in the Holy Land and discovered that a low-end 25 watt sub could not adequately convey the genius of either John Paul Jones bass work on Led Zeppelin IV or the sermons of that other John Paul. Both required an upgrade to a 125 watt Miller & Kreisel MK II sub.

God understood.

My brother must not have mentioned his acoustic theory of divinity when he was ordained because the Bishop assigned him to an elderly congregation in rural Washington State. The greeting committee could hear Pastor Erik coming from miles away – the sound of a booming bass floated across the raspberry fields and through the apple orchards. Things didn't quiet down after he parked his car in the church's gravel parking lot. Erik rejects silences with a roaringly good-natured laugh and a voice that would feel at home in the Super Dome. The senior citizens responded by permanently notching down their hearing aids.

Pastor Erik didn't mind - he just spoke louder and pointed out some immediate problems with the pretty, white steepled church. First, the 20 year old sound system was not up to the task of conveying God's word.

"This is the Word of God we're talking about," he said. "It needs dignity and a high power 12-inch subwoofer with a neodymium magnet and a vented enclosure."

The Church Elders blinked. Pastor Erik was not like their other ministers.

This young whippersnapper wanted to take this flock in a new direction. It didn't matter if they needed walkers, dialysis or a hip replacement to get there– they were going to hear and feel God's word.

He met any resistance with an out-pouring of Lutheran wisdom. Why spend thousands of dollars upgrading the sound system for a congregation of only 80 people? Because in 1541, Martin Luther himself said, "Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world." Pastor Erik watched his congregants closely and asked if they were willing to run the world's greatest treasure through a dusty old sound board that muddled the low range? Would Martin Luther want that?

The Elders decided to approve a budget of $9000 and Pastor Erik set to work.

His first move: bring in Jim Hall, an acoustician who has spent 42 years installing commercial audio systems in the Northwest. Hall and the Pastor huddled near the altar and laid out a battle plan. Hall wanted to deploy a four speaker TOA HX-5 variable dispersion system above the altar to ensure speech clarity. It's what he typically recommended for small churches.

"But it won't rock, will it?" the Pastor asked.

Hall was a little surprised – most churches were content with the HX-5 system. But this minister was sharp. He knew the HX-5 couldn't deliver the low end. The Pastor was asking Hall to push himself, to dig deep and that could mean only one thing: the FB-120B.

The 120B is a crunk-ready 600 watt sub guaranteed to strip the paint off the steeple of any church silly enough to order it. It's exactly what Pastor Erik was looking for.

The system took eight hours to install. They added a 16 channel Mackie 1604 VLZ3 mixing board, an EAW CAZ 1400 dual-amp for the HX-5 and an additional CAZ 800 amp interlaced with an Ashly cross-over for the sub. The final touch: two 1 inch tweeters over the choir.

"It's got to be the best system for a church its size in the Northwest ," Jim Hall says.

To test it, Pastor Erik grabbed the nearest CD he could find: a copy of Veggie Tales left behind by a pre-schooler. He pressed play and the voice of Larry the Cucumber boomed across rural Washington as if Abraham himself had just come down from the mountain to tell the world that he had a new hat and it was made of lettuce.

Pastor Erik heard the music and it was good. It didn't matter what the Cucumber was babbling about. The tune sent its shock waves through his bones and brushed across his soul like a divine wind.

Now and truly, God was in da house.

Joshua Davis is a Contributing Editor for Wired Magazine who wrote about deep sea cowboys and the world's largest diamond heist. (Both of which are being adapted for film.) He's also the lightest man to ever compete in the US Sumo Open.



Acer AspireRevo R3610 Review: An Affordable Nettop That Makes a Great HTPC [Review]

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I've spent a considerable amount of effort trying to convince you to get an HTPC, and nettops like the AspireRevo R3610 are a big reason why. It's affordable at $330, and it delivers a quality HD video experience.

What It Can Do

Play HD Video
Like it's predecessor, the R3610's handling of HD video is impressive for such an inexpensive machine. I watched plenty of downloaded 1080p video and playback was generally smooth. This is where the AspireRevo really shines.

Casual Gaming
This isn't a system for serious gaming, but for casual gamers that don't need the graphics cranked up to the max, the AspireRevo delivers thanks to the inclusion of NVIDIA Ion. With the settings set at a low but acceptable 1024x768 resolution, I was able to play World of Warcraft with no problems at all. Of course, the game is five years old and designed to be easy on the graphics.

Networking
The AspireRevo features 802.11b/g/Draft-N connectivity, so it does a great job of streaming media. If you need more storage than the 160GB on board, you can easily connect the Revo to a network-attached storage device if you decide to go that route.

Ports, Ports and More Ports
So yeah, six USB 2.0 ports on this thing. It also has HDMI, VGA, a media card reader, eSATA and S/PDIF. Basically, everything you need and then some.

What It Can't Do

Multitasking
The R35610 has a beefier processor this time around (Dual Core Atom 330), but let's not kid ourselves into thinking that this nettop is going to satisfy the hardcore crowd. I experienced some sluggish loading times—especially when multiple programs were running.

Play Blu-ray or DVDs
If you want to play Blu-ray movies or DVDs, it ain't gonna happen without a built-in optical drive. You will have to buy that separately.

TV Tuning
There is no TV tuner or CableCARD on board, so you will need a USB adapter for DVR functionality. Fortunately, you will probably have a free port.

What Needs Tweaking

Internet HD Playback
Until Adobe releases Flash 10.1, which includes support for NVIDIA Ion graphics acceleration, you are going to have to deal with some choppy video from sites like Hulu and YouTube. It's a massively annoying problem, but only a temporary one. I'm impatient, so I went ahead and downloaded the 10.1 beta, which seemed to remedy the situation quite well.

Web Surfing
The AspireRevo R3610 isn't the kind of computer I would rely on for power web surfing. I encountered problems with web pages sticking, choking or freezing altogether. On several occasions, the whole computer seemed to lock up. I could still control my mouse, but there was no response to clicks or commands. Sometimes this issue resolved itself, other times I did a hard reboot out of frustration.

However, things improved after I loaded Flash 10.1 and lessened the load on the GPU by disabling the Windows 7 Aero interface. Browsing seems a bit snappier and I haven't experienced the mysterious lock up issue since, but it's still not perfect. Chrome seemed to run the best when compared to IE and Firefox, but I still experience hiccups. For example, Google Wave is almost unusable on all three browsers (Yes, I actually use Google Wave).

Conclusion

If you are looking for a budget desktop computer, the AspireRevo R3610 will do the job as long as you are not pushing its limits. However, it's best to play to the strengths here and use it as an HTPC. The R3610 is small enough to tuck behind your TV, it handles HD video admirably, and the inclusion of Flash 10.1 will get the most out of NVIDIAs graphics acceleration, thereby overcoming the problems you will experience out of the box with streaming internet video.

The Windows 7 experience is decent, and you will be able to enjoy all of the benefits of Windows Media Center, but you may need to sacrifice graphics features like Aero in order to optimize performance. Still, I would say that the AspireRevo R3610 is a definite "buy" for anyone looking to get an HTPC on a budget. [Acer]



Transhumanism as a "nonissue"

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Vladimir Nesov on Facebook:

Atheism (not believing in fairies) and transhumanism (not believing that you should do what's bad for you) are good sense about how to live our lives in general, part of what you aptly termed rationality+

Vladimir introduces a different way of thinking about h+: rather than as an addition, a cherry on top of human life, we should think of it as the absence of a specific set of mental disorders that cause people to strive for things that are ultimately bad for them.

For example, many people are extremely resistant to the idea of rejuvinative medicine and an end to involuntary death and suffering. They argue against rejuvinative medicine, but, as a matter of fact, when they get old and their partner dies after a long battle with dementia, their tears tell the truth more aptly than any ethical argument.

How the Apple Tablet Is Already Making People Rich [Data]

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It's understandable that Apple stock is doing well—they've had a very, very good year. But after a huge rally this morning, their stock it at its highest price ever. See, yesterday, something magical happened.

A few minutes before the NYSE's 4:00 EST closing, at 8:18 PM GMT (3:18 EST), the Financial Times published a rumor: Apple will make a major product announcement on January 26th in San Francisco. That was it! But in the context of the increasingly frenzied rumors about an Apple tablet, this could only mean one thing to tech followers. And, apparently, to investors. I'll spare you the strained metaphysics of a full Santa/tablet analogy, but trust me, it's there, somewhere.

A small part (read: all) of me wants this whole thing to be a joke, and for Steve Jobs to take the stage in January to announce the long-awaited followup to the iPod Hi-Fi, and a new capacity option for the iPod Classic. There would be no bitterness. Just respect. [Reuters]



V-Screen Faux-3D PSP Kit: Yes, It Actually Works [Gaming]

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A lot of people wrote about the V-Screen 3D kit for the PSP when it was announced. Jokes may have been made! But now Ars has actually tried one, and their results are surprising: It's not perfect, but it works.

According to Ars, the V-Screen uses an old trick, popular with flight sim devotees, whereby a fresnel lens—at a size slightly larger than the device's screen—is placed a short distance away from the display. This magnifies the image a bit, and more importantly, adds a sense of depth. For 3D games where depth in important, like racing games and FPSes, the effect is apparently "more compelling than it sounds on paper," to the point that "it's going to be hard to back to playing the games on a standard screen."

There's no doubt that this is a faux-3D setup, but it's also fairly cheap—$40, to be exact, which might not buy you honest 3D, but it'll buy you the sensation. Like a Fleshlight, for your eyes! Yes. [ArsTechnica]



Last minute holiday gift advice, Part 2: books! | Bad Astronomy

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OK, this is it. Last day to buy stuff in a panic before Christmas. What to do?

I suggest the bookstore. Who doesn’t like books? And it just so happens I have a few to recommend.

dfts_thumbDeath from the Skies!
You may not know this, but I wrote a book. Nothing says holiday cheer like a trillion ton asteroid barreling down on the Earth at 45,000 kph. And it has a happy ending! The entire Universe dissolves.

This book may not save Christmas, but it might save your life. All your friends need copies. Even strangers. Buy 50.

dontbesuchascientistDon’t Be Such a Scientist
This book, by Randy Olson, is a primer for how scientists and science-types should communicate with the public. As someone whose job it is to do that, I found it readable, funny, and of great use. I chuckled a lot reading it, seeing many people I know being described in its pages. Not specifically, of course, just in general.

At first I was thrown a bit by his comparison of science to Hollywood, but it soon became clear that the lessons Olson learned in Tinseltown really do need to translate to the way we talk about science, at least on TV and in movies. Books are still books, and blogs still blogs, but if we science supporters want to reach millions of people all at once, then we could do a lot worse than heed Olson’s advice when we’re on camera or in front of a microphone.

And if his name is familiar, it’s because he created the mockumentaries "Flock of Dodos" and "Sizzle, A Global Warming Comedy". If you’ve seen those, you know what the book will be like! If you’ve ever been in a conversation with someone and you’ve tried to explain something scientific, this book is a good one for you.

unscientificamericaUnscientific America
Speaking of communicating science to the public, my Hive Overmind co-bloggers Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum wrote Unscientific America as a call to arms for scientists everywhere. This book doesn’t complain about how the public doesn’t get science, it actually has advice — good advice — for how people can take up this charge.

It’s aimed at science lovers, but also at scientists themselves. Chris and Sheril are careful to show just where things have gone wrong: a public with a short attention span, media all too willing to make that worse (and to screw up science every chance they get, through ignorance or greed), antiscience promoters, but also scientists themselves. I see a whole lot of scientists trying to communicate science, but honestly not that many are good at it. That should be self-evident, even to scientists themselves; some are theorists, some experimentalists, some field workers, and so on; the point being we all have our areas of expertise. Not everyone is good in front of a camera, and we need to find the ones who are and groom them.

Chris and Sheril took a lot of heat from scientists about this claim, most of which I found ridiculous and unfair. Scientists need to accept our share of the burden of blame for where we are in America right now — we do own part of it, folks — and we need to shoulder that blame and do something about it. Also, there is a section in the book taking the so-called "New Atheists" to task for fanning the religious flames in America. Although the situation is pretty complicated, I think there is truth to what Chris and Sheril wrote, and I also think that this part of the book should be read by skeptics and atheists very carefully. I won’t go into details here — I’ll save it for a lengthier post sometime — but I think what they’ve written is salient and should be considered by everyone.

atheistsguidexmasAtheist’s Guide to Christmas
Speaking of which, this is a good book for the non-believer in your circle of friends and family. I’ll simply point you to my previous exhortations about it and remind you that all proceeds go to the UK HIV charity Terrence Higgins Trust, a secular group that provides information, advice, and support for HIV positive people in the UK.

[UPDATE: The outspoken ZOMGitsCriss has put up a video plugging Atheist's Guide, and says very nice things about my essay in the book. Thanks Criss!]

whydoese=mc2Why Does E=mc2
Regular readers know about my friend Brian Cox, a particle physicist with CERN who has dastardly plans to destroy the Earth using the LHC is charming, funny, and an excellent spokesman for science. This book is a wonderful explanation of relativity, one of the best I’ve read. It was inspired by his awesome wife Gia, who asked him the title question one day.

You’ll need to think while reading this; it’s not a breezy beach thriller. But I found it to be a very enjoyable and fascinating primer on, exactly, why energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. It explains things in ways that hadn’t occurred to me before, and I found myself nodding my head as I suddenly understood concepts that had always bugged me (like, why do massless particles travel at the speed of light, and just why is that the ultimate speed limit of the Universe?). It’s a great book, and I highly recommend it.

7thson7th Son
J. C. Hutchins is a science fiction writer and podcaster. He’s among the new group of writers who serialize their fiction and give it away as audiocasts. Once an audience is built up, they can then turn their serialization into book form. I won’t give away the plot of the book, but it’s an engaging read involving some fun science fiction concepts. My only complaint is that he needs to write the sequel yesterday. Too bad it’s not a time travel book!

If you’re curious, Hugo-winning author John Scalzi has a blog post up about J. C. and the book that’ll entice you, too.

There are lots of other books I could recommend, but I’ll cut it off here. Do you have ideas? Post ‘em in the comments! I’m sure we all have books we love and would recommend. Tell us!


Stan Lebar has Passed Away

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Passing of Stan Lebar, NASA Goddard

"Stan Lebar, who led the Westinghouse Electric Corporation team that developed the lunar camera that brought the televised news images of Neil Armstrong stepping onto the moon to more than 500 million people on earth, died on Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2009."

"During his long and distinguished career, other camera programs he managed for NASA included the Apollo Color TV Cameras, the Skylab series of TV cameras, and the TV cameras for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Program (ASTP)."

Gifts You Can Still Buy at the Very Last Minute Online [Gift Guide]

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You waited. Then you waited some more. And now it's Christmas Eve. You should be finishing shopping right now, but you're sitting lazily at your computer. Luckily, with our last minute gift guide, such limited exertion is not a problem.

Netflix/Gamefly Subscription: Anyone who wouldn't appreciate a year's worth of unlimited game or movie rentals is not someone worth buying a gift for. And the great thing about Netflix/Gamefly is that you can't possibly buy them this subsciption from a physical store. In other words, you won't look lazy when their gift announcement arrives in eCard certificate form. Starting at about $100/year. [Netflix/Gamefly]

Nook: How can you possibly buy someone a Nook for Christmas when it's been delayed until February? Exactly! Order a Nook today and then say, "Sorry, I ordered it for you well before Christmas, but those darned manufacturing delays for this highly anticipated product seemed to have spoiled my plans." $259 [Nook]

iTunes album/movie: In case you wanted to go a bit more personal than an iTunes gift card (and you are too lazy to leave the house to buy one, even though that just means running to the drug store), gift an album straight through the iTunes Store. It's easy, just right click on the buy icon and select the gift option. All you need is an email to send a friend an album. Also, you can always print it out, too. $10ish

Magazine Subscription: Every time I receive a copy of Chicago magazine in the mail, I think about how my mother-in-law kindly gifted it to me. But you know what? She could have ordered that subscription AFTER she handed me a symbolic copy on Christmas morning. Spice things up a bit by buying a magazine that's hard to acquire. My best recommendation? Edge, the best-written, most beautifully laid out gaming magazine in the world. $76 [Edge]

Zune Pass/Last.fm: If you've never used an unlimited music service, you've missed out. It's basically radio on demand without a $1 charge every time you want to listen to a song. And while subscription fees might keep you from buying it for yourself, this is a gift, so the recipient need only enjoy. Zune Pass and Last.fm are both excellent options for unlimited tunage. Zune $15/month Last.fm $3/month Note: I'm fairly certain you can gift Zune Pass online, but didn't go through the whole process. [Zune/Last.fm]

Burned Disc of Torrentz: I wouldn't recommend this for mom or grandma, but for a friend you casually meet over the holidays, why not just burn them a copy of something valuable you...err...procured online. Your favorite music, a movie that hasn't left theaters yet, a bootleg of Windows 7 Ultimate—whatever—just make it something you know they'll like, and be sure to stick a bow on it $$=FREE

Bacon of the Month Club: 12 months. 12 different artisan bacons. Need I say more? $315 [Grateful Palate]

Don't Buy a Star: There are a countless number of stars in the Universe. And you know what? When we're traveling the cosmos, no one plotting star charts is going to acknowledge Mark Rox Bacon 2009 as the official name of some red giant on the verge of engulfing the first intelligent life we encounter. Or, even worse, the star's name will be acknowledged and your love's name will go down in infamy. Smooth move. [Star Registry]



Voyager Unveils the Mystery of the Interstellar Fluff from Hell [Space]

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For years, astronomers have been puzzled by the fact that our solar system is crossing a cloud of interstellar hell. One that shouldn't be there at all. Intergalactic plot to keep us isolated or cosmic event? Voyager got the answer.

Using data from Voyager, we have discovered a strong magnetic field just outside the solar system. This magnetic field holds the interstellar cloud together—"The Fluff"—and solves the long-standing puzzle of how it can exist at all.

The Fluff is much more strongly magnetized than anyone had previously suspected. This magnetic field can provide the extra pressure required to resist destruction.

The Voyagers are not actually inside the Local Fluff. But they are getting close and can sense what the cloud is like as they approach it.

At least, that's what NASA's Heliophysics Guest Investigator from George Mason University Merav Opher says in the December 24 issue of Nature. I lean to the intergalactic plot to keep our primitive world from entering the Federation of Advanced Civilizations. That, or Ming of Mongo trying to crush our puny asses.

It's ironic how the whole thing works. Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere protects us from the Sun's magnetic field and radiation. Then, the Fluff is not destroying us thanks to the Sun's magnetic field and the solar winds, which is what form the 6.2-billion-mile-wide heliosphere. So my question is: Who protects the Fluff?

I will leave you with that. Go think, my little Earthlings, go. [NASA]



Virgin’s web traffic planning

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Yesterday industry publication Web Host Industry Review reported that UK-based hosting company DediPower had been selected to host the Virgin Galactic web site. The announcement made it sound like Virgin was expecting a wave of traffic to come to the site in the future: it mentions that DediPower would provide a hosting solution “capable of handling the large volume of traffic expected for the site” and it was providing custom solutions “to accommodate the traffic volume”.

Other data, though, hasn’t indicated overwhelming demand for the site in the past. The ranking service Alexa gives virgingalactic.com a traffic rank of 79,1000 as of Thursday morning; the rank is based on a combination of average daily visitors and pageviews. The site did see a spoke in activity on December 7 for the SpaceShipTwo rollout, when it got into the top 5,000 or so of sites, but that traffic ebbed in the following days. Looking at two years’ worth of data, there have been a few similar, predictable spikes in traffic: the unveiling of the design of WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo in January 2008, the rollout of WhiteKnightTwo that July, and the groundbreaking of Spaceport America in June of this year. However, there hasn’t been any sustained, heavy demand that would keep the site regularly in the top 100,000 sites on the web.

However, the Virgin Galactic site has undergone a redesign in recent weeks, shortly before the SpaceShipTwo rollout, with a greater emphasis on interactivity, such as the ability for visitors to post comments on press releases. That, couple with increased visibility as SpaceShipTwo goes through its flight test program and heads towards commercial service, might indeed leave result in increased traffic on the site in the future.

JVC’s Updated $800 Audiophile Wooden Earphones [Earphones]

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JVC has updated their original wooden headphones by slashing their price as well as their size. The company claims the wood construction gives the earphones superior sound quality, in addition to superior style.

While the original cans went for nearly $800, the JVC HA-FX700 will come with a $330 price tag. Though the price is steep, you're paying for undeniably pretty earphones, purportedly high sound quality, and a lot of little parts:

The JVC HA-FX700 will be available in Japan in February and likely obtainable through your preferred Japanese electronics importer. [CrunchGear]



Lp(a) Maybe there’s something there that wasn’t there before?

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I unwrapped the NEJM this week and to my surprise it has a Lp(a) stuff in it. One of the things we do to prevent heart disease is take family histories. We also check cholesterol levels and include something called a Cardio-CRP. One thing we haven't been including is a Lp(a). Why? The only data I see that is good on this is on women.


We use validated risk tools like Reynolds and Framingham Risk. It was with great interest that I read about this recent "candidate gene" model of assessment for Lp(a) genetic link to levels and risk. Clarke et. al.

They also looked at the other GWAS linked regions and what they found was most surprising in my mind.

LPA, which encodes apolipoprotein(a), was the only true "candidate" gene on this custom array that was significantly associated with coronary disease.

Now why would the other regions not be as strongly linked? Or better yet, why was Lp(a) more likely to be linked and associated?

Well, LPA the gene produces a protein called Lp(a) which is hypothesized to carry oxidized proinflammatory phospholipids, thus promoting inflammation in coronary arteries in turn creating niduses for clot and heart attack.

What do the other regions do? Dunno. I think that is the teaching point here.

GWAS great for illuminating possible pathology, which then in turn must be dissected and validated.

Candidate screens are good for risk markers IFF there is some hint of WTF the proteins are doing for the disease.

This is why I am just flummoxed by the fact that people are still pushing tests which have little to no clinical use or even prognostic capabilities.

Listen, you want to discover yourself? Go get a cholesterol, Glycohemoglobin, and complete blood count. Check your blood pressure, check your BMI. If any of these are abnormal, go seek professional help.

But please, please, please don't use SNPs that have no science behind them as true science or clinical markers. research them, sure. But using them like MDVIP has........Risky guys.

Which reminds me. I am taking care of a patient who recently left MDVIP.......the patient had the Navigenics SNP scan done.........what do I find on family history?

The patient met Bethesda Criteria for HNPCC.........

Guess someone was too busy scanning Unproven SNPs.

That being said, this current study by Clarke suggests a few things

1. Two LPA SNPs explain approximately 36% of the overall variance in plasma Lp(a) lipoprotein levels. That could be like the CRP story. Yeah CRP levels but no association with risk. Big Whoop, but....

2. Both SNPs (one coding for the amino acid substitution I4399M and the other non coding) are associated with coronary disease. Ahem, like to see some replication here......But it could be true.

3. After adjustment for the plasma Lp(a) lipoprotein level, the association between LPA genotypes and coronary disease was abolished. Well.....that means to me, phenotypic testing with Lp(a) levels may be more useful than I had thought.....And definitely more useful than genotype testing.

The Sherpa Says: Hmmmm, maybe we will see much more of this trend. Non-genetic molecular testing being more valuable than genetic testing for risk prediction.....Wait a sec'

Video tour of Spaceport America

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KRQE-TV of Albuquerque published this week a three-minute video tour of Spaceport America from a recent tour of the spaceport, part of a new bus tour program being offered to allow the public to see the spaceport under construction. The video includes a number of aerial shots that shows the current progress on the spaceport’s long runway as construction crews lay down layers of concrete and asphalt.

Thread forming taps

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I have to tap about (60) holes in aluminum 6061 for 4-40 machine screws. I'm trying a thread forming tap for the first time, hoping it will go faster than with thread cutting taps and with less chance of breakage. Can you tell me what procedures to follow, as to lubricant, power vs hand tapping?

Geeky Pics: Geeky Christmas Trees

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From [Geeks Are Sexy] Technology News:

Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, it's kind of hard to avoid the decorations. Of course, after seeing your millionth tree-topping star, strand of silver garland, and candy cane reindeer ornament, the trimmed trees all start to look the s

Joy to the World | Cosmic Variance

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Atheists can be such uptight downers. And I say that completely seriously and non-sarcastically, despite being a card-carrying atheist myself.

The latest example appears at the Illinois State Capitol, where someone from Freedom From Religion Foundation had the genius idea of erecting this sign among the holiday displays (via PZ):

At the time of the winter solstice, let reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is just myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.

Well now, there’s an uplifting and positive message. I’m sure that lots of religious folks came along to read that sign, and immediately thought “Gee, whoever wrote that sounds so much smarter and more correct than me! I will throw off my superstitious shackles and join them in the celebration of reason.”

There is a place to argue for one’s worldview — but not every single place. I happen to agree with all of the sentences on the sign above, but the decision to put in front and center in a holiday display merits a giant face-palm. (So does calling it “hate speech,” of course.) It’s like you’re introduced to someone at a party, and they immediately say “Wow, you’re ugly. And your clothes look like they were stolen off a homeless person. And you’re drinking a domestic beer, which shows a complete lack of sophistication.” I don’t know about you, but I’d be thinking — “Such taste and discernment! Here’s someone I need to get to know better.”

Until atheists learn that they don’t need to take every possible opportunity to proclaim their own rationality in the face of everyone else’s stupidity, they will have a reputation as tiresome bores. They could have put up a sign that just gave some sort of joyful, positive message. Or something light-hearted and amusing. Or they could have just left the display alone entirely, and restrained the urge to argue in favor of waiting for some more appropriate venue. (Maybe they could start a blog or something.)

Understanding how the real world works is an important skill. So is understanding human beings.


The Top 10 Science Stories of 2009

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From Scientific American:

The H1N1 pandemic, the Copenhagen climate talks, the restart of the world's biggest experimental device--2009 sped by many scientifically relevant mile markers. The year also celebrated several important past events: It saw the bicentennial of Charles Dar

Christmas Laser Beam Cats

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From Neatorama:

The guys who brought you An Engineer's Guide to Cats are having a friendly battle with Christmas laser beams. Things turn ugly when the nuclear hairball is deployed!

Read the whole article