As I drove into work this morning in the rain, again, my thoughts went back to a dry day in November 2007. That day the governor of the state of Georgia, Sonny Perdue, joined lawmakers and ministers at the Capitol Building to pray for rain. Naturally, this brought the question of church vs. state and made headlines worldwide. I think more than the religious connotations, it also brought up the idea of looking to mystical ideas to change natural events outside of our direct control. Why not do a rain dance or start some human sacrifices while we’re at it?

God was apparently slow in answering that prayer as the rains didn’t return in force until fall of 2009. And, boy howdy, did the rains return! Much of North Georgia had what was categorized as 500-year flooding in October. Rehearsals for a show I was in at the time were canceled due to rain, something I’ve never experienced before. Since October, we’ve had regular rain, and will probably continue to have rain through the spring. This is all thanks to El Niño, which means “the boy” in Spanish. I’m thinking of petitioning for a name change to El Bastardo.

Anyway, I was thinking of all of this on my morning commute. Apparently, I’m the only one as that prayer meeting in 2007 seems to be old news. No one is blaming the governor for the flooding and non-stop rain. I wonder if we had only received moderate rainfall, bringing Lake Lanier up to full pool over time instead of overnight, would people have praised Perdue for “taking action” in 2007? Is the only reason no one is linking the increase in rain to that prayer because of how destructive the rain has been, because that couldn’t possibly be what God would do, could it? I’m not sure what logical fallacy that might fall into, maybe a form of confirmation bias, it’s just something I find interesting.

As for me, I do blame the governor for all this rain, not because I think the prayer did anything at all, but just because I can. Well, that and he threatens to veto any law allowing Sunday alcohol sales, but that’s a whole different story.

Despite Republicans running all Georgia government, the Christian right in Georgia has lobbied heavily in opposition to a couple of Republican-sponsored bills in the legislature.  They held a press conference together today.  The groups who made it to the press conference were the Georgia Christian Alliance, the Georgia Christian Coalition, Georgian Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition, and the Georgia Baptist Convention.  Georgia Eagle Forum president and former state senator Nancy Schaefer is leading efforts against these bills.  Republican gubernatorial candidate John Oxendine was at the press conference, but did not speak there.  Most of this information comes from this AJC article/blog entry.

The weighty issue they are screaming about, against the Republicans who presented these bills?  The bills would allow young girls (under 16) to be placed into diversionary programs instead of arresting them and putting them into the criminal system with prostitution charges.  The argument in favor of these laws is that legally, children cannot consent to sexual intercourse, and so, legally, cannot be considered guilty of prostitution.  The argument against these bills, best as I can determine, is that the pseudoChristian protestors are just implementing the words of Jesus Christ, when He was asked about the 12-year-old prostitute: “Let that ho fry!“

» Continue reading “Georgia Christians support sending little girls to jail?”

I love the Bert show, let me say that right now.  Day after day, they entertain me like few other morning shows have.  I like the charity projects that they do, like Bert’s Big Adventure.  Chances are that if you have been in the Atlanta area, you have at least  heard of them.  I personally love the critical eye they cast towards listener’s dubious stories.  If you call in and you don’t have your story straight, you will be eaten alive!

The problem is that when it comes to pseudoscience and woo they are woefully inadequate.  I’ve been forced to listen to those damn Atlanta Ghost Hunters too many times.  Now, their latest golden calf is this weight loss supplement called Healthe’ trim.  They have numerous commercials throughout the day with Bert Weiss, the namesake of the show, giving his testimonial of how effective this supplement is, followed with testimonies of actual users.

My inner voice stewed, “These commercials are so annoying! This is CRAP!”  I turned on the radio today and listened to the creator use Bert show airtime to hawk this junk.  In response I sent this email: » Continue reading “Celebrity Endorsements or Why I Love/Hate the Bert Show”

Generally I support the idea that politics should stay out of science and vice-versa, but when talking about problems that can be accurately measured and quantified, I think science can lend a hand in providing solutions. Case in point: the new super speeder law that has become official on 1 January 2010. This law will tag on an additional two hundred dollars to a speeding ticket when the measured speed is thirty-five miles over the posted limit.

There are two stated reasons for this extra fine: the first is that Georgia lawmakers want to reduce the amount of speeding in the state. If you’ve ever been on any part of I-285 you know what I’m talking about; it’s a frakking racetrack. The second reason stated that this extra money will go fund trauma centers, but (fine print) the legislature can do whatever they want with it.

I don’t want to talk about Georgia politics, (but I will if given half a chance); instead I want to focus on the idea that higher fines will decrease speeding. Surely, other states have tried this approach. There should be a mountain of data out there confirming or unconfirming this idea. Can we move this from an idea to a testable hypothesis? » Continue reading “Evidence Based Government”

This is just a quick follow-up to my previous post about Scientology moving into Sandy Springs. Last night the city council of Sandy Springs approved letting Scientology move into the office building at Glenridge and Roswell Road by a tiebreaking vote. Despite this, the saga isn’t quite over.

The Scientologists are planning on filing a religious liberty lawsuit against the city because they will not be allowed to add a fourth floor to the building, but are stuck with what’s already there. They will probably end up getting what they want considering the money and horde of lawyers they have backing them.

Another lawsuit may be coming from the other direction as some home owners in the area are convinced the building in question does not have enough parking and will make traffic in the area worse. I personally doubt this will go anywhere. It looks inevitable that the Georgia headquarters of the Church of Scientology will be moving into my potential backyard.

I was visiting my mother in the hospital a few months ago – nothing serious; she reacted badly to anesthesia during an outpatient procedure – and I happened to glance over at the rolling cart they put the meals on that extends over the bed. There was a tube of HeadOn. (For those of you unfamiliar with HeadOn, it’s a tube of wax that you rub directly on your forehead to relieve headache pain.)

“Mom? HeadOn? Really?”

“Don’t start. I know it doesn’t work, but it works for me.”

Well. There you go. The power of the placebo illustrated in one short sentence. It effectively stopped the conversation. Could I argue against it? Should I? I just changed the subject.

» Continue reading “The Power of the Placebo”

As skeptics it’s very easy to become bogged down with certain things. For example, the entire debacle over Ray Comfort and his version of Origin of the Species was probably taken more seriously by skeptics than by the general public or even the college students Comfort was trying to reach. We, myself included, spent a lot of energy worrying and trying to act against something that most likely had very little impact.

Two days ago, New York state became yet another state to reject gay marriage, and I know personally I had no idea a vote was even happening. Brian Thompson (a.k.a. the Amateur Scientist) discusses this in his latest blog entry. In it he puts forth the idea that while the reasons against gay marriage are typically religious, there has been a history of middle-of-the-road religious people who are willing to put aside ideology in support of the things they believe to be “right:”

Last year, California voters struck down marriage equality by passing Proposition 8. This would seem like a damning statement about the harmfulness of religion, but the numbers tell a different story. 47.76% of voters chose to preserve the civil rights of gay people by voting against the measure, according to the official election results. But only about 20% of California’s population identifies as non-religious. This means that a large percentage of voters who fought for gay rights at the ballot box were religious people. Like the scriptural ban on eating shellfish, they were able to put their compassion and reason above dogma. If this means reinterpreting scripture, so be it. The effect is the same.

Continue after the break:

» Continue reading “Priorities”

Conspiracy theories have long been an area of focus for skeptics.  The Illuminati, the JFK Assassination and more recently the events of 9-11 have all spawned their own.  A couple of things are happening next week to bring conspiracy theories back to the forefront here in Atlanta.

First, Atlantan Ben Ruder is promoting a sort of “conspiracy night” at the Plaza Theatre on Ponce on Tuesday, December 1st at 8 PM. The main event is a screening of John Carpenter’s cult conspiracy theory classic They Live starring none other than “Rowdy” Roddy Piper of wrestling fame. The evening will also feature a display of conspiracy-themed art in the lobby. The event is being promoted via a website that links to many conspiracy theory believer videos on YouTube. It will be interesting to see if the night is populated more with conspiracy believers or wrestling fans. (Perhaps there’s some overlap there?)

Second and more prominently, Atlanta’s own Turner Broadcasting is launching a new program dedicated to the topic, Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura, which premieres Wednesday, December 2 at 10 PM on truTV (formerly Court TV). Read more about the new show after the fold… » Continue reading “Apparently it is “conspiracy theory week” next week”

Hey, for all of you who don’t get to peruse your very own Ray Comfort “Banana Man” edition of  Darwin’s Orgin of Species (mine sits next to me at my desk, just in case…), you can go see an actual early edition copy without the moron creationist introduction at our very own Emory University.

ORIGIN celebrates the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species and the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin.

Not unlike Darwin’s famous voyage aboard the HMS Beagle (1831 – 1836), the exhibition brings together people of diverse disciplines and presents connections between poets, scientists, scholars, thinkers and visual artists in dialogue with one another. The origin and immutable evolution of their ideas, research and creations stem from passionate and novel exploration, interpretation, translation and collaboration.

Here is more info

I’ve been to the exhibit and it is cool.  Bringing the arts and science together is a new mandate of Emory’s Center for Creativity and the Arts, and they are doing a smash up job.

My goal for this time next year is to get my own place. While I like my roommate, we’ve known each other since high school, after three years I’m ready to live alone again. While I’ve debated moving to Decatur, since many of my friends live there, and also because it feels like I’m either in Decatur or the Highlands every other weekend. However, my job is in Alpharetta. Every time I think about moving toward Decatur, the ominous thought of Atlanta traffic raises its frustratingly slow head. Because of this, I’ve zeroed into an apartment complex on Glenridge Drive between the Glenridge Connector and Roswell Road. This would give me quick access to 400 going either direction, as well as 285. I’m not sure how I feel about my potential neighbors however.

More after the break:

» Continue reading “There goes the neighborhood, maybe.”