Final Flight of the Shuttle

Wow, it's been a while since I posted! Anyway, I didn't want to pass this up: the final Space Shuttle launch of the Atlantis is about to take place which, though not quite skeptical, is nevertheless a momentous occasion. You can watch it live here, and as soon as it appears on Youtube I'll post a couple of links to the same. If you like real time updating social media type stuff, you can check out #STS135 on Twitter. So wherever you are, try to keep and eye/ear out for a view of this momentous milestone in the history of human spaceflight. The launch is due for 15.26GMT, and currently seems to be on schedule and the tanks are full. All four astronauts are currently aboard and, as you can see;


it's something of a tight fit! That's Commander Chris Ferguson, squeezing in for his third space flight.

Best of luck to all involved!


UPDATE
Shuttle up, everything according to plan, despite a slight delay at T-31 seconds! Video below: Lets hope this is only goodbye to the Shuttle program, and not goodbye to the role of humans in the exploration of space. Video here

Censorship is a terrible thing

Across the world people have begun to pay tribute to James Joyce’s magnum opus of modernist literature, Ulysses, by eating breakfasts of inner organs of beasts and fowls, thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, stuffed roast heart, liverslices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencods' roes, and of course, grilled mutton kidneys which give to the palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine. As a classics student, I find that I love the narrative, the references and the story, but at the same time I can see how anyone who isn’t at least mildly schizophrenic could have difficulty following it, not like it and be branded as a cynical philistine.

The book was dismissed as indecent and blasphemous when it was first published for its language, vivd lavatory guide by Mr. Leopold Bloom, and light hearted attitude to religion. I find it amazing to think that the ballad of Joking Jesus could be considered offensive, but it just goes to show you how insecure people are about their beliefs (“If anyone thinks that I amn’t divine, he’ll get no free drinks when I’m making the wine”). Although Joyce is one of the giants of literature who shows that we Irish have other talents besides political backwardness and alcoholism, the book itself was rejected in Ireland, but did not quite suffer the fate of the many, many others that were outright banned in Ireland.

State censorship is a terrible thing, and if there were an award for it, Ireland would be up there with North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Airstrip One. It’s been said that the 1957 Register of Prohibited publications reads like an everyman’s guide to twentieth century literature. Being banned in Ireland was a mark that you’d made it as a writer, and everyone from Steinbeck, to Huxley to Hemingway, not to mention Irish writers, Joyce, Beckett, Kavanagh, Sean Ó Faolain and others was presented with this badge of honour. The State would have been kinder to the trees to publish a list of books that weren’t banned. The ban-happy Censorship board were not the sole culprits in these grave crimes; the Customs authorities and An Post used to search imports from “disreputable publishers” to make sure people couldn’t pollute their minds with "indecent" and "obscene" materials. What these words actually meant was left entirely to the discretion of the Censorship Board, a quintet of busybodies from the Catholic Truth Society of Ireland and the Knights of Columbanus, with a token Protestant from Trinity College thrown in for good measure. Eventually, the superfluous liberal from Trinners resigned because of the committee’s in-built 4-1 majority, and the board became exclusively Catholic, now unhindered to bring the dream of the Ayatollah-I mean, Archbishop McQuaid and Dev to life.

The Ayatollah’s- sorry, slip of the tongue, Archbishop’s vision was realised in the form of an Ireland where literature could not pollute the minds of Irish virgins and boys. Pity Kohmein-, McQuaid’s own institutions didn’t have similar aspirations for their bodies. An average of 589 books between 1949 and 1953, and an utterly disgraceful 1,034 bans in 1954, all copies of these books were met either with return-to-sender or burning, yes book burning.

Censorship is absurd, as are the individuals who take it upon themselves to go out in the world to find things to offend them. It reminds me of the story about the lexicographer Samuel Johnson. After the publication of A Dictionary of the English Language, he was approached by two ladies who commended him on the exclusion of all naughty words. "What! my dears! Then you have been looking for them?" he retorted, and they promptly dropped the subject.

Before I picked up Ulysses and followed the story of that famous Dublin day in 1904, I read Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, and what made the book all the more pleasurable, (although it's an amazing and excellently written story in its own right) was a sense of defiance surrounding it. All the way through, I remembered that there are people out there who do not want me to read this book, and there are people who would have (and indeed have) killed because of it, and that made the book a precious thing. That I could read it and enjoy it was a triumph of freedom of expression and ideas, and to take a lead from Alan Moore's V for Vendetta, no amount of censorship or violence will silence ideas, because ideas are bulletproof.

_________________________________________________________________

EDIT: Apparently I had my facts muddled up when I wrote this. Ulysses was not banned in Ireland, but it was rejected by publishers in the country.

Behind the times, late redesigns, donalfall with his head hanging low...

Hallo all the Galway Skeptics...

Sorry I've been neglecting the blog for a few weeks, I was distracted by Birthdays (mine) and Work (also mine). I'm still hoping to get my other big article together, and we're still holding out many, many spare days on the blog for anyone who wants to contribute?!? Still looking for more of the female voices, btw. *cough, cough*

Anyway, more than a day late, a quick update for all you all. Got this lovely email from the JREF to the Galway Skeptics email address - it's nice to know we're being counted!


Hi, everyone.

My name is Brian Thompson, and I'm the new Field Coordinator for the James Randi Educational Foundation. If you're receiving this message, your group has been listed in our database of grassroots skeptical organizations all around the world. We currently have nearly 200 such groups on file, spanning from North America to Europe, Africa, and Australia. Groups like yours represent a huge number of people who value science and reason over credulity and superstition. Many of you have even spearheaded local, national, and international campaigns to fight what the JREF's founder James Randi famously calls "woo-woo". In the process, you've educated the public about those who purposefully or unintentionally do them harm, and I like to believe you've even saved some lives.

Many of you have been in touch with the JREF before, but this may also be the first several of you have heard from us. As one of the premiere skeptical organizations in the world, we have the resources and the ability to serve as a helping hand for groups like yours, and I'm writing to let you know that hand is always extended. In the weeks ahead, I'll be providing you with more specific details about what we have to offer, but some of our services include free educational materials and classroom modules on topics such as ESP, dowsing, and even the Cottingley fairies. JREF staff and colleagues are also available to visit your local groups and lead workshops on skeptical activism, and we continue to offer educational grants. Plus, in the near future, we'll be opening our own speakers bureau to bring the most entertaining and insightful voices for science and reason right to you.

We also want your ideas for services we can provide to you in the future. If there's a project you've always wanted to start but didn't have the knowledge or resources to get off the ground, we would love to hear about it. I'm your personal contact with the JREF, so please feel free to get in touch either by email or phone at any time. The JREF sees groups like yours as our foundation. You are of the utmost importance to us.

Thank you for all the work you do, and get excited about the future.

The best is yet to come.

Sincerely

Brian Thompson

So, if anyone has any ideas for projects that could do with funding, or any ideas for them, email the galwayskeptics (at) gmail address & I'll pass you on Brian's address. Also, if anyone wants to join the blog schedule, send in an email also.

I'll be more active now, with a promotion sun & a blog redesign. Hoping to hear from you all. Don't forget the next meeting is next monday in McSwiggans around 20:30 PM.

donalfall out.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from Media Hysteria. Amen.

Yea, and behold our glorious and infallible Media hath come down from the mountain of W.H.O. bearing the grimmest of news! Oh wretched peasants, run in the streets with fear, for truly the Devil himself walks among our number, to bring more untold suffering! Having wrestled with the Archangels of Science, the Prophets hath decreed that our mobile phones shall smite us with cancer of the brain! For the Media, whose newspapers’ word is true hath spoken. Run in the streets and denounce the nefarious infernal devices, lest ye be struck down! Preserve thine children from the vices of text messaging and Angry Birds! Mark in this warning from on high, my flock!

At this rate, it would be easier to make a list of the things that don’t “cause” cancer. Certainly, it would be shorter. The lists of carcinogens and superfoods seem to increase with each new issue of the Times' Health Supplement. The latest in these prohibitory commandments from Mt. Scienai comes from the Gospel according to W.H.O. “And thus it came to pass that the Lord spake unto the two-dozen and eight scientists from fourteen nations, saying ‘Thou shalt not partake of either the mobile phone, or the Android, or the Blackberry or the iPhone, for I hath decreed these to be contraptions of great turpitude, and he who doth not obey, I shall smite with cancer most foul.”.

The press, that old nest of vipers, often misrepresents scientific findings, the most catastrophic incident of this in living memory is the popular hysteria induced following the publication of Andrew Wakefield’s paper in the Lancet which alleged a correlation between MMR vaccination and autism. Following investigations by reporter Brian Deer, it came to light that Wakefield had engaged in all manner of unethical behaviour, a veritable multitude of sins, and had and interest in manipulating a certain outcome of the “study”. Wakefield was subsequently discredited, banned from practicing medicine and the paper was retracted. But, because of the media’s unwavering faith in Wakefield, the damage had been done. Now the little seeds of doubt had been planted in parents' minds, and we’re reaping what they have sown. Vaccination rates have fallen beneath acceptable levels, and as a result incidents of these preventable diseases are on the rise. Forgive them, for they knew not what they did? Misled by a false prophet? I say, spare the rod, spoil the paparazzi.

Sure, it’s easy for me to judge with my holier than thou skepticism, but when it comes to Antivaxers, my cup runneth over with condemnation. What the public should have taken from that disastrous nontroversy, is that you cannot believe everything in the press, on television or on the internet. And now, all three have teamed up to tell us that mobile phones will give us inoperable cancer. I, for one, can’t remember a time where I wasn’t told my phone might give me cancer. A detail that might, just might be significant that the press seems to be downplaying is the conclusion of this WHO paper that it’s "not clearly established that it [mobile phone usage] does cause cancer in humans". I genuinely found it difficult to stay awake while reading the various papers’ bits of filler on the issue. In the end I was left with the impression that my mobile is definitely maybe but probably just possibly carcinogenic, and so the best action would be inaction but I should still be concerned about it.

Cells in our bodies turn cancerous every day, it just means that they start reproducing ceaselessly, it’s one of those unfortunate flaws of the imperfect processes of natural selection. A tumour is a mass of cells descended from a rogue cell that slipped past the immune system, and when the cells metastasise to other parts of the body, that’s when things get complicated. There’s myriad of factors which determine the probability of developing cancers, everything from genetics to diet and lifestyle. You can abstain from wine, women and song for your entire life (which will only have the effect of making your life seem longer) and there’s still no guarantee that one of the little buggers won’t slip past your white cells. When it comes to radiation, it helps to have some perspective on the matter . Here endeth the lesson, but if you want to see an absolutely surgical dismemberment of the W.H.O. Study, check out Brian Hughes’ post on TheScienceBit.net.

So it was a spiritual coming

Well none of us ascended to heaven on Saturday and it was rain falling from above instead of fire and brimstone. I've been excitedly waiting for Harold Camping's statement since he was proved wrong again and it's pretty special.

You can see a video of it here and here but essentially what he says is that it was a spiritual coming, rather than a physical coming as he had understood it would be, but that we are now being judged. A merciful god spared us the pain and suffering of five months of hell on Earth, but the world is definitely still ending on October 21st. Great how he managed to turn that one around isn't it but what's he going to do in October in the wake of a 3rd failed prediction? And the end of the world sure would ruin my birthday plans.

Amusing as the whole thing was on the face of it, there are a lot of his followers now left with nothing having donated large sums of money to his station to finance the billboard campaign, left their jobs or not made adequate plans for the future they thought would never come. A few reports muse over the possibility of suing, but it seems unlikely since it was a "charitable" cause and they used the money on billboards as intended.

The sad thing is a lot of those people will believe him again and find themselves in an even worse position on October 22nd. The fact that people still believed him despite his failed prediction in '94 really goes to show that no matter what evidence and precedence is there, some people won't be swayed. (I've got to think of Bill Hicks portraying a playful god planting dinosaur fossils to mess with us)

Yolande.

P.S. I particularly like when he says "I don't have spiritual rule over anybody. Except my wife." Poor woman.

The guys had fun at the fortnightly Galway Skeptics meet up this evening. Sadly, donal was stuck at work.

Some interesting links for you to peruse!

Michael Marshall of the Merseyside Skeptics has been tapping away at the concepts and conceits behind the bad use of PR in news and the media. The run through of his most recent "case" was a backbone of the most recent episode of Skeptics with a K. If you're not into podcasts like myself, he did a write up in this blog post here which touches on some really egregious use of "stats" in the news recently.

The Skeptics Guide to the Universe had some great news articles this last week, but it also had a fantastic interview with Jon Ronson about his new book, The Psychopath Test, which I am *really* looking forward to.

That's it for neow. Galway Skeptics out.

Our Lady of A-Stump-tion.

Apologies for the brevity of my previous post, but now that I’ve conquered the Manflu (using the traditional remedies of my people; tea, strepsils and Flat 7Up) I can get back in the skepticmobile for a spin around the neighbourhood of superstition and ignorance.

If you’ve ever looked up at the clouds drifting across the sky, you’re sure to have noticed a cloud that looked like something familiar: a rabbit, a dragon, perhaps an iPhone or a piece of fruit. Seeing shapes in the clouds like this is a popular cliché in film and television, often with a foreboding or prophetic element to it. The reason for this is a phenomenon called Apophenia, or as Skeptic Michael Shermer calls it, Patternicity. Humans are pattern seeking animals, it’s one of the many reasons why we survive and adapt to new environments so well. It makes sense that the animal with that’s at least a little bit paranoid and good at finding patters would be a good survivor; if you mistake the stick for a poisonous insect it’s no big deal, but it could cost you your life if you mistake the poisonous insect for a stick.

Speaking with Richard Dawkins in his 2010 documentary, Faith School Menace, Dr. Deborah Kelemen of the Child Cognition Lab in Boston College said that young children have a propensity to offer purpose based explanations for the origin of objects. One of the examples given in the documentary was the posing of the question to young school-children “Why are rocks pointy? Because lots of stuff pilled up over a long time, or so that animals could scratch themselves on them?”. The children typically elected for the purpose driven explanation. For me, that drives home the fact that the oft touted religious assertion “Everything happens for a reason” is genuinely puerile. When you combine this with our natural disposition towards pattern seeking, it’s no wonder that in the past, humans placed such an importance on divination and religion. Astrology, Palm Reading, Phrenology, and other antiquate curiosities are all based on the assertion of meaning or intent in meaningless patterns. The Roman Senate, once the most powerful government in the ancient world, would not sit if their Augurs saw the gods’ disapproval in animal entrails. Our species has such an aptitude for perceiving intention in randomness that it once frightened governments into inaction! Crucial decisions were taken by generals based on the flight path of birds or the position of the planets in the sky at that moment in time. Sheer lunacy!

This unfortunate combination of traits can explain various paranormal phenomena from UFOs, to ghosts, to Martian structures, and to the oh-so-frequent apparition of Biblical figures on toast. The best and most cringe-worthy example of this in recent memory being the Holy Stump of Rathkeale, Country Limerick. Some locals believe that the Virgin Mary and Jesus appeared in the stump of a tree that was being chopped down outside the Parish Church. You’ve honestly got to worry about these peoples’ higher reasoning faculties. The question has to be asked, what is more probable, that omnipotent super-beings and a bimillennigenarian¹ Jewish woman have a penchant for making appearances on burned pancakes and tree stumps or that humans brains are pattern seeking and have a childish disposition towards seeing purpose and intention in random events?

¹ Bi means two, millennial means thousand, and -generian à la octogenarian, an eighty year old. So it’s an obscure but perfectly cromulent word.