Thorsday - Our Greatest Challenge

Science offers answers to the enormous challenge of global climate change. It would take world co-operation but we can do this.

Lyrics:

[David Attenborough]
We are a flexible and innovative species and we have the capacity to adapt and modify our behavior Now, we most certainly have to do so if we're to deal with climate change. It's the biggest challenge we have yet faced.
[Bill Nye]
The same thing that keeps the Earth warm
CO2!
May make the Earth too warm
It holds in heat

Methane, Chloroflourocarbons, water vapor and
Carbon dioxide - they all trap heat

[Isaac Asimov]
It is important that the world get together
To face the problems which attack us as a unit

[Richard Alley]
The evidence is clear
[Nye]
The globe is getting too warm
[Alley]
We can avoid climate catastrophies
We can do this

[Nye]
We can change the world
[Alley]
Science offers us answers
To these huge challenges]
[Nye]
It's one global ecosoystem
[Alley]
We can do this
[Nye]
We can change the world

Every single thing every one of us does
Affects everybody all over the world
It's one global ecosystem

Warm, wet, cold or dry
Climates all start in the sky

When the C02 is high, the temperature is high
Moving together in lock step
When the C02 is low, the temperature is low
Moving together

(refrain)

[Richard Alley]
Our use of fossil fuels for energy is pushing us towards a climate
unlike any seen in the history of civilization

Adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere
Warms things up
The rise in C02
Comes from burning fossil fuels

When you burn them, add oxygen
That makes C02 that goes in the air
We're reversing the process by which they formed

[Asimov]
We're talking about something
That affects the entire Earth
Problems that transcend nations

(refrain)

ThorsdayTonics - This Remarkable Thing

Yet another achingly beautiful video about the awesome possibilities in the universe by Philhellenes.  A dose of tonic for the human spirit on a Tuesday morning. Soak it in and be recharged!

Because I am still on family vacation, I'm going to link to several excellent blog posts and articles this morning. These writers have said what I have been thinking about this week, but generally much better!

First, it looks like the ironically-named Illinois Family Institute is targeting Hemant Mehta again for some of its weapons grade bigotry and stupidity. IFI's Laurie Higgins seems to have a particular agenda of hatred against Hemant which she made very personal and very political a couple of years ago when she tried to use her influence to get him fired from his job as a high school math teacher because he is an atheist. Now, Higgins and her execrable organization are back to their campaign of hateful bigotry, urging parents to attack school teachers directly if they attempt to make their classrooms safe places for GLBTQ kids, because individual teachers make a much softer target than state and federal laws.

IFI issues ridiculous back-to-school warnings. Friendly Atheist, August 7, 2012

IFI is upset that people are mocking them. Friendly Atheist, August 9, 2012.

Not to be outdone by a mere state "family" association, the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer likens children to same-sex couples to slaves who ought to be kidnapped and removed from the protection of their families by "underground railroads" of Christian haters.  Seriously.

Bryan FIscher: Children of Same-Sex Couples Must Be Saved Through "Underground Railroad" Kidnapping Zack Ford, ThinkProgress, August 8, 2012.

This next story opens up the very real possibility that not only has Mitt Romney avoided paying his fair share of taxes for many years, but that he may also have participated in tax avoidance activities on a corporate level that could not only affect his candidacy, but could actually land him in legal hot water:

Did Romney Enable Company's Abusive Tax Shelter? Peter C. Canellos and Edward D. Kleinbard, CNN special report, August 8, 2012.

Follow up on the LCWR Nuns on the Bus post:  We're With You Sisters. NBCnews.com, August 9,2012.

Thorsday Tonic - Seascape

Seascape by W. H. Auden

Look, stranger, at this island now
The leaping light for your delight discovers,
Stand stable here
And silent be,
That through the channels of the ear
May wander like a river
The swaying sound of the sea.

Here at the small field's ending pause
Where the chalk wall falls to the foam, and its tall ledges
Oppose the pluck
And knock of the tide,
And the shingle scrambles
after the sucking surf, 
and the gull lodges
A moment on its sheer side.

Far off like floating seeds the ships
Diverge on urgent voluntary errands;
And the full view
Indeed may enter
And move in memory as now these clouds do,
That pass the harbour mirror
And all the summer through the water saunter.

Thorsday Tonic - Doe and Fawn

Right outside Nifty Manor, right now.

This is the beauty and magic of reality.  A tonic for a tired writer on a hot, humid Thorsday.


The Fawn

There it was I saw what I shall never forget
And never retrieve.
Monstrous and beautiful to human eyes, hard to
believe,
He lay, yet there he lay,
Asleep on the moss, his head on his polished cleft
small ebony hoves,
The child of the doe, the dappled child of the deer.

Surely his mother had never said, "Lie here
Till I return," so spotty and plain to see
On the green moss lay he.
His eyes had opened; he considered me.

I would have given more than I care to say
To thrifty ears, might I have had him for my friend
One moment only of that forest day:

Might I have had the acceptance, not the love
Of those clear eyes;
Might I have been for him in the bough above
Or the root beneath his forest bed,
A part of the forest, seen without surprise.

Was it alarm, or was it the wind of my fear lest he
depart
That jerked him to his jointy knees,
And sent him crashing off, leaping and stumbling
On his new legs, between the stems of the white
trees?

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Thorsday Inspiration

                         (full screen viewing strongly recommended)

via Newfoundland and Labrador

Some days, you just need a little awesome.

Visual and musical inspiration.

Balm for the weary spirit.

Happy Thorsday, All.

You Make Your Own Purpose!

I posted Tombstone Da Deadman's Purpose a few months ago, but I think it is important to post it again. The rational warrior both inspires and challenges in this excellent remix. The music is great, and the thoughtful message is even better.  Enjoy!


LYRICS:
All of my life I was the type that thought that I was worthless
unless defined by some designer that would grant me purpose

I was a clown that was down with religions 3 ring circus
and convinced that daddy would hurt us and throw us in a furnace

I used to think that Lucifer was waiting by the corner
just planting the seeds of destruction and causing all disorder

total illogical thinking adopted from primitive people
from an era where they first tried to define what's good and evil

how could you apply that to what we know today
as if we haven't advanced or learned in the slightest way

when I look back I think about all of the time that I wasted
praying to the sky for nothing and mad cause I can't replace it

so now I've gotta live my life by standards I determine
and not be burden with the sermon of some clergy vermin

far as I am concerning it's ridicule they deserving
and I'll just keep laughing at their dumb ass til my sides are bursting I spend my time sidestepping the meaningless drivel
They tell me I should be nicer but it's hard to be civil

to all those people who demonize me on every level
and really believe that I'm in league with their fictitious devil

see if the human race was suddenly erased from off the face of the Earth
the universe would not even be hurt

so these delusions of grandeur that humans entertain
about how this was all for their benefit is truly insane

trillions of years have gone by while we weren't even here
the universe was doing fine and didn't seem to care

see all your arrogance is painfully apparent when
you don't even get the fact your presence is irrelevant

no matter how you try to be divinely inspired it seems
to just be some foolishness created from your wildest dreams

but my mentality greatly prefers reality and that's what makes me
disregard thoughtless irrationality

It's my way or the highway and not some god that hides away
that claims domination over me and says what I'm allowed to say

cause I accept responsibility for if I fail or if I succeed
nobody can get it or take credit for it except me

and all of my failures are because of lack of ability
no demons no curses will be the thing that ends up killing me

It's my life....it's my time...it's my choice...it's my mind
so I define...my purpose and see the world through my own eyes

no excuses....so keep your god illusions...
I'm feeling that you blinded sight obscured by your delusions

if you're connected to something higher then introduce him
if you're so sure that it's fucking real then please produce him

maybe some evidence...please at least a shred of it
something that's convincing that's overwhelming could settle this

anything except for this fantasy that you're peddling
about a god with nothing better to do but meddling
       ------------------------------------------------

More good work (and you can buy his album) at Tombstone Da Deadman.

Thorsday Tonic - A Wave of Reason

Lyrics:
Russell:
When you are studying any matter
Or considering any philosophy
Ask yourself only: what are the facts,
And what is the truth that the facts bear out

Sagan:
Science is more than a body of knowledge
It's a way of thinking
A way of skeptically interrogating the universe

If we are not able to ask skeptical questions
To be skeptical of those in authority
Then we're up for grabs

Shermer:
In all of science we're looking for a balance
between data and theory

Harris:
You don't have to delude yourself
With Iron age fairy tales

Porco:
The same spiritual fulfillment
That people find in religion
Can be found in science
By coming to know, if you will, the mind of God

Krauss:
The real world, as it actually is,
Is not evil, it's remarkable
And the way to understand the physical world
is to use science

Dawkins:
There is a new wave of reason
Sweeping across America, Britain, Europe, Australia
South America, the Middle East and Africa
There is a new wave of reason
Where superstition had a firm hold

Plait:
Teach a man to reason
And he'll think for a lifetime

Sagan:
Cosmology brings us face to face with the deepest mysteries
With questions that were once treated only
in religion and myth

The desire to be connected with the cosmos
Reflects a profound reality
But we are connected; not in the trivial ways
That Astrology promises, but in the deepest ways

Feynman:
I can't believe the special stories that have been made up
About our relationship to the universe at large
Look at what's out there; it isn't in proportion

Russell:
Never let yourself be diverted
By what you wish to believe
But look only and surely
At what are the facts

Randi:
Enjoy the fantasy, the fun, the stories
But make sure that there's a clear sharp line
Drawn on the floor
To do otherwise is to embrace madness

Instruction Manual For Life

A little awesome for a Thorsday morning:

TheraminTrees' beautiful, silent, short, animated video, Instruction Manual For Life.

there are no gods (3/3)

Part 3 of 3. Really excellent stuff.

Thorsday Tonic - GU Universe Episode 2

Sit back and enjoy some awesome inspiration on a Thorsday morning!

GU Universe:  The Heritage of Life, Episode 2  (Episode 1 can be found here)

Thorsday Tonic - The Burden of Proof

(via Friendly Atheist) QualiaSoup on The Burden of Proof.

Just after I finished up my post about the conviction, without evidence, of Catherine Snow in 1834, Hemant Mehta posted this excellent video about a related topic on his blog.  Good timing!

If you've ever found yourself in a frustrating and seemingly pointless debate with a determined theist, here is a video which will explain to you what is happening, and hopefully help you to see how you can approach the theist in a way that might get hir to understand why hir "debating" methods are not honest.

Of course, it also explains why most theists are so resistant to understanding anything of the sort, but at least you will know!

(My only complaint about this superb video - what is up with the one-eyed characters?)

Thorsday Tonic - Bill Nye on Evolution Part 2

Sit back and enjoy Part 2 of the evolutionary science video featured on Tuesday.

Bill Nye the Science Guy:  Evolution (Part 2)

Thorsday Tonic - GU Universe Episode 1

Sit back and enjoy a little inspiration on a Thorsday morning.

GU Universe:  The Structure of the Universe.

(Note:  if repetitive, unnecessary video game "music" gives you a headache, this might not be for you. But it is an excellent and clear description of the universe with a backdrop of gorgeous Hubble photography)