Carnivalia, and an open thread

Hey PZ, I read that this blog is mentioned in Nature. Congrats!

From NCSE-News (Evolution Education Update):
'A brief story in Nature lists the top five science blogs -- "those written by working scientists covering scientific issues" -- by popularity, including P. Z. Myers's Pharyngula and the collectively authored The Panda's Thumb, both of which provide a wealth of information and commentary on the creationism/evolution debate.'

White House kept "major program" secret

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration was running several intelligence programs, including one major activity, that it kept secret from Congress until whistle-blowers told the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, the committee's chairman said on Sunday.
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You know me so well.

The battle for free inquiry has many obstacles, including getting the word out. Here is a case in Canada that I found out about from a news site

http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/

"Canada's largest retail bookseller has banned another magazine from sale in its 260 stores across the country.

Indigo Books and Music this week halted circulation of an estimated 500 copies of the June-July issue of Free Inquiry, a small U.S. periodical published near Buffalo by the Council for Secular Humanism. A senior Indigo executive contacted in Toronto late yesterday afternoon gave no reason for the ban, saying she needed time to consult her superiors.

In the meantime, Free Inquiry's Canadian distributor reported that the magazine is now operating under Indigo's "issue-by-issue inspection" regime, meaning it will have to submit in advance, for an unspecified time, the cover and table of contents of each issue.

The actions mark the second time in less than six weeks that Indigo has dropped a U.S. magazine. In late May, the bookseller stopped selling an estimated 3,000 copies of Harper's after discovering its June issue contained all 12 of the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published last year by a Danish newspaper. In a memo to staff May 26, Indigo officials said the decision to remove Harper's was "based on the fact that the content . . . has been known to ignite demonstrations around the world.""

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"That led Free Inquiry editor Tom Flynn and Paul Kurtz, chair of the Council for Secular Humanism, to send a letter yesterday to Indigo chief executive officer Heather Reisman questioning "whether the censorship of our June-July issue was in retaliation for having published" the cartoons, "or whether it was motivated by some controversial content" in the latest issue."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060707.MAGAZINE07/TP…

Considering the content of the two issues mentioned, one might ask if it wasn't also some other articles criticizing religion and ID that are the reasons for the ban. Articles such as "Intelligent Design after Dover".

http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?page=index&section=fi

http://www.secularhumanism.org/fi/

As a footnote to my post, I just found out that bookstores Borders and Waldenbooks(Walden!)also banned the issue from their stores.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/03/29…

I hate parents like this:
Zidane blamed Materazzi comment

The father of Marco Materazzi believed his son was the real victim in the incident.
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"I spoke to my son briefly after the game," said Giuseppe Materazzi.
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"Marco had told me he had been provoked. It's as though they have something against him each time.
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"In the past two years, Marco has only been on the receiving end and the injuries he has sustained are proof of this.
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"I don't want to be controversial, but there are things that have to be said instead of just pointing the finger and putting a black mark against someone."

While pawing through my wife's alumni magazine from Berkeley, which has always been an OK read and lately improved a lot (and moved online), I found this gem about Indian (asian) atheism in an interview between two Berkeley economists of Indian origins:

Pranab Bardhan (PB): Your book, The Argumentative Indian, challenges the rather naive interpretation of Indian culture in the West - that analytical reasoning is quintessentially Western, and that Indian culture is primarily concerned with spirituality and uncritical religious faith.

Amartya Sen (AS): That interpretation of Indian culture and civilization has been dominant in the West's relation with India. When the British were first establishing themselves in the 18th century, people like William Jones and others were quite interested in Indian mathematics and astronomy, and science generally. But by the time the empire settled down, James Mill - who was very proud of the fact that he wrote his history of India without going to India at all, and who also didn't speak any Indian language - argued that if there was anything to Indian culture, it's just kind of spiritual, religious stuff. Whereas Jones had discussed important astronomers and mathematicians in ancient India, like Aryabhata, who rejected the prevailing view of the sun going around the earth.

PB: This is in the sixth century?

AS: He was very late fifth century - his major book was completed in ad 499. He also discussed diurnal motion of the earth and why is it that objects don't get thrown out into space.

His students and followers, like Varahamihira and Brahmagupta, argued that every object attracted every other - early speculations on gravity. Making India the domain of religion played a part in the undermining of Indian culture. To some extent, India fell into the trap. Rather than contesting that there was quite a strong tradition of science, and also one of atheism and materialism (the earliest atheistic verses you see in the Rig Veda itself, which is around 1500 bc), they said, "Okay, the West is terrific in science, but we are very good in spirituality." It's something quite important to resist.

Thanks for that tidbit, thwaite. I was considering doing a Doggerel entry on "Western," and I've definitely got to find a way to squeeze some of that in.

...Rather than contesting that there was quite a strong tradition of science, and also one of atheism and materialism (the earliest atheistic verses you see in the Rig Veda itself, which is around 1500 bc), they said, "Okay, the West is terrific in science, but we are very good in spirituality." It's something quite important to resist.

If you want to followup on Indian atheism, I'd suggest starting with key words Carvaka (atheist/materialist movement dating to 600 BC) and Lokayata (materialism). Unfortunately, almost none of the original Carvaka writings survive*, so modern knowledge of it is reconstructed from criticisms of opposing schools.

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* With the possible, and strongly disputed, exception of the Tattvopaplavasimha of Jayarisi Bhatta.