Today my family and I had the delightful privilege of having Joel Watts (possibly known to readers as Polycarp of the blog The Church of Jesus Christ) and his family spend time with us, first at the public library and then at home.

As if this weren't enough of a treat, we had a visit from another family after they left. They just showed up in our back yard. We caught it on video:

.: Just a little something I cooked up while the agarose gels: .: I’d like to put this on a t-shirt, naturally. Any suggestions for reasonably priced custom t-shirt vendors?

When stupid belief systems collide: Amnesty International is calling on Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to stop the execution of a Lebanese man sentenced to death for "sorcery." In a statement released Thursday, the international rights group condemned the verdict and demanded the immediate release of Ali Hussain Sibat, former host of a popular call-in show that aired on Sheherazade, a Beirut based satellite TV channel.
Source, more. Read the comments on this post...

Under what circumstances should individuals have access to their family members' medical records? How to prevent cannibalism in pheasants Now, THIS is interesting (regarding climate change).... Read the comments on this post...

This is it: The fate of health care reform will be decided in the next 48 hours. It could come down to a vote or two. And that means that right now, every last message to Congress makes a difference. It's an all-hands-on-deck moment. Even if you've already called and written your representative, it's time to send one last message. If you haven't yet weighed in, now's the time. And please send this on to friends, neighbors, colleagues, former roommates, and anyone who cares about health care reform. A compiled petition with your individual comment will be presented to your representative. CLICK HERE Read the comments on this post...

I wasn’t positive what to think about this one when I first heard about it.  It’s not quite the kind of thing that I typically go for, but it’s close enough that I thought I ought to give it a shot, plus other similar shows I’ve given a chance in the past have ended up being very good. Just as a reminder, there will be spoilers.  If you don’t want to know how it ends, don’t read any further.  If I spoil anything for you, it’s your own damn fault. Our story opens with Tanaka Ainosuke, a junior high school student, undergoing a cornea transplant of his blind left eye.  The cornea comes from his older brother, Yumehito, who is voluntarily giving his cornea so Ainosuke can pursue his promising artistic skill.  The transplant is a success, but within a few days, Ainosuke hears that his brother has died in a laboratory accident at his job.  He finds an envelope that his brother left for him, containing 2 million yen (about $200k), but has no idea where his brother would have gotten that kind of money.   The police are quick to sweep it under the rug as an accident, but Ainosuke has started to see images in his left eye that he cannot explain; ghostly pictures of things he’s never seen before, that he can only assume come from his older brother’s experiences.  The police don’t want to listen to him, they’ve closed the case and it’s too much trouble to re-investigate, so Ainosuke and his high school nurse, Sayama Hitomi, go out on their own to solve the case.  Along the way, they discover many disconcerting facts about Ainosuke’s brother and eventually, they find that Yumehito has faked his own death and is, in fact, the leader of a criminal organization.  This sets up the plot of the upcoming series, a fight between Ainosuke, who with his new eye can see what his brother is planning and Yumehito, who sees this as a challenge and will continue to try to carry out his criminal campaign of terror.  Who will win?  It’s anyone’s guess but I’m betting on Ainosuke. I think that, at least at the beginning, the most annoying character in the special was Sayama Hitomi, bumbling high school nurse and clear obsessive/compulsive.  She goes on extensive shopping trips when she’s stressed, then spends her days worrying about how she’s going to pay for it all, thus keeping the cycle going.  She also has an incredibly difficult time not doing things she’s told not to do.  If there’s a sign that says “don’t touch,” she’s sure to touch anyhow.  She goes places she’s not allowed, does things she’s forbidden to do and often, it works out for the best.  She starts off really pretty whiny and worthless but over time, she starts to give some insights to Ainosuke and becomes more of a partner than a pest, even though, let’s be honest, she’s got a lot of problems that are just intended as comedy relief. As far as the acting, Yamada Ryosuke, who plays Ainosuke, does an excellent job.  He also played Amakusa Ryu in the well-reviewed Detective Academy Q a number of years ago.  Ishigami Kuniko, who plays Hitomi, also does a pretty good job being an annoying twit, which I’m not sure is a compliment.  She hasn’t been in anything else I’ve seen although she does have a reasonably long resume.  And of course, Yokoyama Kimitaka, who plays Ainosuke’s older brother Yumehito, does a pretty decent job too, but he isn’t seen on screen all that much in this special so we’ll have to see how he performs in the actual series.  Like Kuniko, he hasn’t really been in anything else I recognized, but I have some pretty narrow tastes so that’s not surprising.  I also really liked the performance of Terawaki Yasufumi, who plays the police detective Ohuchi Kenjo, who is constantly seen trying to psych himself up when he leaps into danger. “I’m good enough, I can succeed!” I think the special is interesting, but mostly as a setup for the currently-airing 11-episode TV series that can really expand on the whole “brothers-at-odds” plot.  It gives you all the background, introduces you to the characters, gives you a feel for the kind of thing you’ll be in for in the series, but otherwise isn’t anything particularly amazing in it’s own right.  I’m looking at it as a 2-hour pilot movie for a TV series, not as a standalone movie of it’s own.  That’s not to say you shouldn’t see it, but only as a prelude to the Hidarime Tantei Eye series, which I’ll review separately after I’ve seen it all. Click here to view the embedded video. ***½~ (3.6/5)

LOST Slapdown, Part 7



LOST Untangled - Recon

Our recording of the lecture yesterday may have hit some hiccups - I'll keep you posted. Either way, in the mean time, here are some other videos to enjoy.

First, here's a recent one posted by the BioLogos Foundation:



And then here's part one of a six-part sequence on YouTube with an audio recording of a longer lecture by John Walton:

Jessica Palmer (of bioephemera) has an entry at Collective Imagination Blog about the role of "small talk" in maintaining good health. Check it out.
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Busy times at work, so, art? Hamilton, Texas at sunset — this is on the periphery of town, two blocks off the town square. Click to enlarge!

Thank you to everyone who attended tonight's lecture by John Walton on Genesis 1 and ancient cosmology at Butler University. I was really pleased with the turn-out, especially when there was the NCAA tournament game taking place at the same time.

And congratulations to Butler's team for winning - I know it wasn't your fault the game was scheduled at the same time as the lecture!

The lecture was videoed, and I will let readers know when and where it is available.

And in case anyone is wondering, the picture on the right is not from the lecture...

The Lese of the Ituri Forest raise food in gardens, and they exchange various things for wild animal meat hunted by the Efe (Pygmy) foragers with whom they live in close economic and social association. But the Lese also hunt and gather, to varying degrees, with some individuals never doing it, others often engaged in the process, and among those who are, some degree of speciality. One Lese man I knew hunted only elephants, another mainly fished, and one of the men I most often worked with trapped small forest antelopes using snares. I will call him Marque. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...

The paper that initiated the great MMR hoax has been thoroughly discredited and retracted by the journal that published it, but the anti-vaxxers still claim -- and hoodwink some parents -- that more research is required to establish whether or not vaccines cause autism. I thought therefore that it was time to repost my comments on a rather more surprising source that happily promoted the bogus claim that "more research is necessary". -- --> read more

We shared this planet for fifty years. We lived through cold below freezing, and we lived through heat and mosquitoes. We saw Mexico together. He gave me rides on his motorcycle and let me drive his Jeep when I was far too young. He let me know that Bob Dylan is just a poet and not a singer and wondered why people spend good money on records and tapes when FM radio is just fine and free. Click to continue reading "Hey, Dad" Read the comments on this post...

I'm writing some things that are more unruly than usual. I'm also sleeping 12 hours a day for very good medical reasons. Rumors that I am addicted to Hulu are completely incorrect, although I did enjoy watching the maiden voyage of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea last night. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...

I’ve been trying really hard to avoid more depressing stories that end up in the Religious Horror Show.  As hard as it is to read some of them, having to research and write about them is far, far harder and since I did 6 stories last month, I figured I could take it easier and have done so, avoiding it for more than 2 weeks. But then, you run into things like this that just make you respond. James Wallace Fall, 58, of Minneapolis, has been charged with sexually molesting his 10-year old niece, explaining to police that it was “God’s will” that he marry and have sex with the girl.  The abuse is reported to have gone on for almost a decade.  Fall, according to sources, often alternated nights, one night with his wife, Rosemary, and the next, molesting his niece. The official complaint reads as such:  “Victim 1 described the first sexual assault as occurring when they went on a vacation to Yellowstone National Park…At some point thereafter, the Defendant made Victim 1 his ‘wife.’ As the years went by, the Defendant spent every other night in Victim 1’s bedroom. As far as Victim 1 knew, the Defendant was only having sex with her and not with his wife, Victim 1’s aunt.” The police were surprised that Fall really thinks that this is fine and dandy and that the Bible, according to him, justifies his actions.  He’s been turned over to mental health officials to evaluate his sanity.  “He absolutely believes what he’s saying,” said Jami Wittke, a detective with the Mound Police Department, who interviewed Fall. “He said the Bible tells him that it’s OK to have a relationship with your niece, to marry someone” that young.  Family members have come forward admitting they are afraid of Fall, who seems to view himself as a “prophet of God”.  “I’ve talked to family members and more than one has said Jim Fall believes he’s a prophet of God, of Christ,” Wittke said. “They were afraid of him.” It sounds like nobody is expecting Fall to come back as a sane man.  Even Fall’s lawyer says this hinges on mental stability.  “From a religious perspective this is very unusual,” said David Risk. “We need to explore his mental health. Mr. Fall has a firm set of beliefs. That is something we will have to look at. Some of his beliefs are outside the norm and would cause someone to question his competency.” Just listening to Fall, it becomes clear that he’s a religious nutcase.  “Everything is permissible for me,” from First Corinthians 6:12, was one of Fall’s favorite passages, police said.  “The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband,” from First Corinthians 7:4, was another. Police are looking for family members or friends who will say he needs medication or hears voices or somehow is not in control of his actions, but so far, no one has given any indication that he’s outright crazy.  Well, except of the whole “prophet of God” thing.  So this isn’t a case of a clearly insane individual  clinging to religion as an outlet for their insanity, it’s someone who really believes that the Bible teaches he can do what he did and get away with it.  It’s not insanity leading to religion, it’s religion leading to insanity. Hopefully this guy goes away for a long, long, long time.  He can sit in solitary confinement and read his Bible and talk to his imaginary friend and all of the people who knew him, most notably the girl that he harmed, can be rid of him forever.  Mr. Fall, welcome to the Religious Horror Show.  I hope you rot.

Lawrence Kuhn asks whether intelligent aliens would undermine God.
Jesus Creed has part 2 of "The Challenge of Adam" which includes two videos by Peter Enns.
Gordon Glover offers the latest installment in the Design Detective video series.

Unreasonable Faith suggests that N. T. Wright's interpretations can be too clever by half.
Eric Reitan has been interviewed at Common Sense Atheism.
Steve Wiggins mentioned "Biblical" and "Science Fiction" in a post's title, and so I had to link to it.
The Golden Rule shared a video clip of Hank Azaria as Abraham.
Mark Goodacre pointed out the new web site for the Duke University Religion Department.
John Pieret links here in a post called "Dialogue" and am happy to be engaged in just that with him!

This classic piece of philosophical science fiction by Daniel Dennett, "Where Am I?", is the reading for my Religion and Science Fiction class for Friday. It is a valuable piece in its own right, but also nicely illustrates how science fiction can be useful to philosophers and other thinkers as thought experiments to help us explore difficult and puzzling issues.

Where Am I?

I also found (via Daniel Dennett's home page) this 1988 Documentary "Victim of the Brain" which includes a dramatization of Dennett's story "Where Am I?":



There are other copies of Daniel Dennett's "Where Am I?" online here and here.

Increasingly, the drippy, long-on-sentiment, light-on-reason rhetoric we’ve come to associate with the “tea party” movement yields to just simple violence. So it was with a RedState post a few days back, but really, this is nothing special. We’ve seen it before, and we’ll see it again. Indeed, our RedState “diarist” is only notable for her conformity with this trend: look closely, and you’ll see more and more conservative authors using the phrase “consent of the governed” as a bridge between effusive longing for what they imagine constituted the Founders’ vision for America, and a call to violence. It makes sense. The phrase carries a mighty rhetorical provenance. As surely as the lilting middle stanza of Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” (“The shadow of the dome of pleasure floated midway on the waves…”) eases the transition between the dream and its shadow, in the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson used “consent of the governed” to separate a description of his ideals from the means by which they must be achieved — namely, violence. Notice the shift in tone: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Unfortunately, while the “tea party” groups have stumbled upon a powerful rhetorical device, they’ve nonetheless failed to grasp its real meaning. Conservatives go amiss when they mistake what was written by Jefferson as an indictment of the “Form of Government” for an indictment of the government’s current iteration. Jefferson wasn’t attacking a King; he was attacking Kingship. The mistake is understandable. The Declaration reads as an attack on a single man — King George III. But when Jefferson refers to “the consent of the governed,” it’s clear that he’s not arguing that King George, by committing his identified crimes against the colonies, forfeited a consent he’d somehow earned, but rather that he never even started with that consent in the first place. It’s this lack of initial consent that, alone, justifies a change of “Government,” writ large: since monarchies lack any method for securing the consent of the governed, revolution is the only option. Democracy remedies that defect by creating a process that, when followed, secures the “consent of the governed” by its very usage — even if not by its result. Reading Jefferson to justify modern revolution, then, critically mistakes his meaning. The problem of a bad but duly elected President is a far cry from the problem of a bad monarch, and to fix the former, neither Jefferson, nor the Declaration of Independence justifies any remedy but to wait it out until the next election, or play within the system. Elections have consequences, and those consequences do not of their own force justify revolution, or the threat thereof.