Poor Thomas gets a bad rap

Anyone with a religious upbringing is familiar with the story of the apostle Thomas doubting the resurrection until he observed Jesus for himself. When this story is told, he is often cast in a very negative light for his skepticism. Even as a child this story rang incredibly shallow to me. The moral of the story was implied to be that one should have faith without evidence.

Note that in the story, Thomas isn't even doubting Jesus himself, so it can't really be described as a religious faith issue (which would hold -slightly- more water, but still not enough to keep the story afloat). He is doubting the other apostles' account of Jesus' appearance. The moral of the story applied to a real life situation seems to be that if you came up to me and told me that you chatted with my dead grandmother a few days ago, that I should take your word for it instead of saying "O rly? Pix or it didn't happen".

To this day whenever I hear a reference to the story, it makes me cringe a little that people actually think that requiring evidence for wild claims is a negative quality. As someone who loves science and just generally as a human being, there are few qualities that I would hold to be higher. Requiring evidence is good. Skepticism is good. These are keystones to knowledge accumulation. I am quite proud to consider myself a Doubting JD. But don't take my word for it.

Newest food fad

For those who enjoy keeping up with my eating habits, my latest meal that I eat 2+ times per day has become the toasted ham and cheese sandwich. Toast the bread, stick some ham and cheese in there, microwave for ~20 seconds, eat. Repeat at least daily for best results. Shockingly, it has been several days since I've eaten a hot dog.

What food will displace the mighty toasted ham and cheese sandwich from its throne? Stay tuned to find out. Maybe in a few years.

America the illiterate

Read it or else. (if you can read, of course)

Don't mess with Law students

or you'll get your ass kicked

What a fucking tool

I rarely use profanity in this blog, but Bill Donahue truely merits it. Bill Donahue explemplifies everything that is wrong with religion in this country. He's not just some fringe loony, he is mainstream Catholic, represents a large Catholic organization, and has clearly shown that is he completely intolerant of nontheists. This kind of bigotry is completely unacceptable. The ad compaign can barely be interpreted as even minorly offensive, but apparently even just trying to increase awareness of nontheist viewpoints is a crime against society.

Oh, and to my readers, please be good for goodness' sake. And have a happy holidays.

Planets!

Astronomers have actually imaged planets from outside of our solar system! This is like the most amazing thing ever. Check it out.

Amazing pictures of Antarctica

here

Every few days they post a bunch of hi res pictures on a new topic (not just Antarctica). I've added this rss feed, and you should too. Or else.

Well, I guess it's time to get off of America

Sorry, but I've been ordered to by a Real American (TM) from Alaska.


P.S. I'm sorry crime is so rampant, that's my bad.

An article I found all by myself

From The Onion

Joe the Plumber

Poor Joe

A Venn diagram that speaks to me

The only thing that's inaccurate is the relative size of the circles.

Trivia

What is the farthest point on the earth's surface from the center? Mt. Everest, you say? Nopers.

Mt. Chimborazo

The Republican Party doesn't want my vote

Apparently my desire to see like minded people represent me in congress and to see a more secular government makes me a danger to America.

link

The Funny

There's a comedy blog I subscribe to called Photoshop Phridays. Basically the idea is that every week they have a theme, and people photoshop images to match it. It can be pretty funny. This week the theme was merging two movies together. My favorites were:

I finally found someone cooler than me

link

Google labs invention

FINALLY

If only blogger had something like this, maybe I wouldn't make worthless posts at 1:00 PM on Tuesdays.

My last Will and Testament

This flu is killing me. I leave all my cool stuff to TC, all of my lame stuff to Al-Pal, and my Elly to Mz.

Love,
Dead JD

The future is hopeless

link

Noise conducted a survey of 506 girls, ages 13-18 and asked the young ladies for their top career choice. (The girls were allowed to pick more than one career.) Thirty-two percent chose "model."

What is wrong with you people? Yeah, I said it, "you people".

The financial crisis in cartoon form

Because it makes you slightly less sick to your stomach when it's stick figures explaining it.

here

Baseball and Books

A physicist makes an argument that baseball statistics are bullshit.
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2008/09/baseball_statistics_are_crap.php

Looking for new reading material? There's no better reading material than the books that THEY don't want you to read. Find some here

http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/bannedbooksweek/challengedbanned/frequentlychallengedbooks.cfm

Sadly, I only have one of these books on my reading resume.