W o t W (June 13, 2009)

The Word for this Week is:

"Mondegreen" as coined by Sylvia Wright in her essay "The Death of Lady Mondegreen," which was published in Harper's Magazine, November 1954.

Thank-you.

Mr. Deity returns and takes on Virgins.

Episode 007 - Posted

Episode 007 is posted please refer to works cited page for additional information.

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Watchable, mais... (my review follows)

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

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"Trekking for Stars"
So I didn't hate STAR TREK (2009). It was beautiful, actiony, explody, sexual, pretty, glossy, dark, Romulany. Much like eating a meal of ice cream, it may at first seem like a really good idea, but then you get the feeling that, perhaps it was a bit excessive. And you feel a bit full. Then sick. And then you remember, you don't really like ice cream all that much and you are lactose intolerant.

--BBY

Edit. Qqv. P Zed Myers' more eloquently put analysis of Star Trek (2009).

Did anyone notice the interior design of the Romulan ship? Funky weird platforms with no guardrails suspended over a huge empty space. Only the Mario Brothers could like that layout.

Ha! "Mario Brothers" indeed. And Roger Ebert's:

[The] franchise has become much of a muchness. The new movie essentially intends to reboot the franchise with younger characters and carry on as before. The movie deals with narrative housekeeping. Perhaps the next one will engage these characters in a more challenging and devious story, one more about testing their personalities than re-establishing them.

Wait for the next one, eh? Neither read as glowing endorsements.

Episode 007 - Works Cited Page

Works Cited Page
for
Episode 7: Poe's Law

The wonderful super mega awesome opening music is Jonathan Coulton's "Skullcrusher Mountain," a sad song about unrequited love between a mad supervillain and the object of his affection who seems to be less than enthused by the number of ponies murdered to construct a monstrous hybrid pony beast as a present. Thank-you Mr. Coulton, thank-you to the brilliance that is Creative Commons.

We recommend you go here:

●NESS/Skeptic's Guide to the Universe
●Science with Dr. Karl on Triple J
●Sunday Night Safran
●Savage Lovecast
●Atheist Experience
●Jonathan Coulton (primer)

Blogs:

●Pharyngula
●Bad Astronomy
●Joe.My.God.

The theme for today's episode is what is known popularly as "Poe's Law". For those of you in the know that means we're going to be talking about religious extremism today. Since my training is religious studies foremost, I feel quite comfortable addressing this topic at length.

The Urban dictionary is a fun project and has a good definition of Poe's Law here.

1. Word of the Week:
L'esprit d'escalier
Good definitions can be found here & here.

Denis Diderot (1713 – 1784)

and l’esprit d’escalier. Here & here & and here.

2.
The Book for this Week is:
The Portable Atheist edited by Christopher Hitchens.

2b.
Quote for this Week
The Atheist Experience.

Before quoting the Bible to atheists, always ask yourself whether the same statement would be just as effective in your mind if you were quoting Captain Kirk.

Which can be found here.

3. Les Nouvelles

Extreme positions are dangerous and they abound. Here are some recent headlines:
● The CNN: April 30th, 2009 Churchgoers more likely to back torture, survey finds
● AFP: April 30th, 2009 Saudi 8-year-old granted divorce.
● CBC: April 30th, 2009 Evolution classes optional under proposed Alberta law.
● AFP: May 5, 2009 Man stoned to death in Iran for adultery.
● GayCityNews: April 30, 2009 Iraqi Gays Face Gruesome Torture/ Murder Technique
● Bad Astronomy: Oprah drinks the antivax Kool Aid
● (There are also more stories on anti-science and anti-vaccination throughout the Bad Astronomy blog such as here which is particularly disturbing, upsetting (as it should fucking be!) and a good one on the flu/washing your hands.

Edward Current is available at. In particular, we recommend the video "God Only SEEMS Nonexistent!" Enjoy:

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Pat Condell lives at. In "Islam's war on freedom" Mr. Condell's usual acerbic wit as gone in favour of angry polemic here:

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#1 Extremism in Islam.

#2. Jack Chick. He Who Makes the Tracts.

Here is a good collection of them on Islam:
●On Allah. Where did he come from?
●On Allah as a Sonless Moon God.
●On Errors in the Qur'an.

I refer you specifically to the Chick.com "article" that has the gall to talk about Muslim fallacies:

If the Qur'an is the infallible Word of God, then it stands to reason that it would not contain factual errors of science. By "factual errors" we mean errors that can be physically examined . . . Many Muslims believe in the Qur'an as a blind leap of faith. They really do not care if it is filled with mistakes and contradictions . . . The more closed minded they are, the more fanatical they become in their religion. When ignorance unites with arrogance, fanaticism is born.

#3. Ms. Palin, another fundie. Sarah Palin has links to Joel’s Army, “is an apocalyptic movement of 'hyper-charismatic' preachers that claim to have a divine mandate to physically impose Christian 'dominion' on non-believers during end times.”

#4. Father Robert Barron on Bill Maher’s Religulous is available here:
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I Quote: “these poor people . . . if he really posed these serious questions to serious people who’d know how to respond to him. But he just knocked down strawmen. ...It was just line up stupid people.”

Father Robert Barron’s proper page is www.wordonfire.org.

#5. P Zed Myers v. Roger Ebert as inspired by the "lovable" Ben Stein.
Myers v Ebert
Ben Stein and Expelled or better yet here for their well deserved trashing.

Myers calls bullshit citing the problem with Poe’s Law:

Imagine if, in 1729, there had been a number of letters to the editor by various authors proposing that Irish children be exterminated and eaten. Imagine that laws of that nature were being seriously debated in Parliament, and that one of the parties had made it a part of their platform. While the laws were being regularly defeated, opponents still had to stand up and seriously debate why it was unethical to eat babies. Imagine that a candidate for prime minister actually solemnly suggested that we ought to at least consider the merits of eating Irish children. . . .

That's Ebert's mistake. He presented a plain statement of creationist beliefs with satirical intent, but that intent cannot possibly be seen in a world where millions say exactly the same things with sincerity. Does Ken Ham have invisible quotation marks around the AiG Statement of Faith? No. Was the Wedge Document an amusing practical joke by the Discovery Institute? No. Is Sarah Palin pulling the entire nation's leg when she attends her speaking-in-tongues, young-earth-creationist, End-Times-worshiping church? I wish.

Ebert gets the Post-post-script here:

Let me suggest that while satire was certainly my purpose, creationists were not my intended audience. By stating their beliefs accurately, my hope was that on a site such as mine they would reach a wider readership that might have heard about creationism but didn't realize what it actually believes. Only 4 percent of Americans are creationists. Do you have any idea how many Americans don't know what it teaches? I don't. I know the original article was linked far and wide, which is encouraging.

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We are reachable via courriel or l’email if you prefer France-French:
podcast at b e a r dot s t

I am also on Facebook, Brendan Bao-Yi. As is our Heretical fan page, which is currently craptacular because I am the one who put it up. Salut, à la prochaine fois.

Christopher Hitchens v. Sean Hannity

Doing the tour of the talk shows, flogging his book, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Hitchens shows Hannity to be a fool.

[In response to what he says a time mark 0:57 - The Engineer]




Something we're going to be talking about in Episode 7

Episode 006

This is Episode 006 of our podcast, titled "We are All Fucking Immigrants"

Play in Mp3 Format

You can download this episode.

(Right Click > Save As)

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This weeks interview is with Melanie the Library.

Born and raised in Alberta, Melanie obtained a Bachelors Degree at the University of Calgary in Philosophy. She then proceeded to obtain a Masters in Library Sciences at McGill University in Montreal. Currently Melanie is working as a consultant for an information technology firm in the Ottawa-Gatineau area. There she works with a diverse set of clients, helping them with their information organization need. Apparently, not everything is sorted by the Dewey Decimal system, or so she says.

Melanie doesn't have a blog or website for us to link to yet, so we will display this XKCD comic about librarians instead.

The following list of links are our works-cited or additional reading related to this episode.

• The Onion:Immigration: The Human Cost
• Calque on Wiktionary
• Blag Hag: Review of The Professor And the Dominatrix
• Law is Cool: The Honorable Jason "Pork chop" Kenney Blames the Immigrants
• YouTube: Republican's "Diversity" Convention
• YouTube profile: JasonKenneyMP
• Law Is Cool: Defunct Reform Party's Immigration Platform
• Enough of the Multiculturalism, Bring on the Melting Pot
• Joe.My.Blog:XenoPhoboQuotable - Rep. Betty Brown
• The Onion: Most Popular U.S. Baby Names
• Cyberpresse: De nouvelles obligations pour les immigrants >> [ENGLISH]
• Immigrer:Un nouveau contrat d’intégration pour les immigrants>>[ENGLISH]
• Canoe: Un «contrat» pour les immigrants>>[ENGLISH]
• Straight.com: Stephen Harper's Hidden Agenda
• Family Guy Quotes: We've been Cancelled
• [Petition]: Tell Parliament to Restore the CBC via rabble.ca

Most Popular US Baby Names as Presented by the Onion

I mentioned this in Episode 6: We're all fucking immigrants. Well Mostly as a counter to the xenophobic screed of Texas State Representative Betty-I Can’t think of an Ad Hominem Right Now–Brown:

"Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here. Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?” - Texas state Rep. Betty Brown, speaking to a member of the Organization Of Chinese-Americans. She refuses to apologize.

When I read that quote posted in Joe.My.God, I was reminded THE ONION "content node" which you see to above. Having lived and worked in Asia, I can attest that the adoption of insipid “English” names for the simplicity of dealing with the West is really, really common. It appears the fact that Chinese-Americans would have the gall to retain some of their ethnicity and heritage with Chinese surnames clearly bothers the fuck out of Representative Betty-I Can’t think of an Ad Hominem Right Now–Brown.

How dare they?

Works Cited Page "Episode 5: Resurrection?"

The Problem with Magical Thinking:

The Rapture, currently sitting at 6.6/10 on IMDB and 72% on Rotten Tomatoes is surprisingly relevant. Maybe Mimi Rogers’ best performance? Some of the more interesting lines follow.

Angie: Have you heard the word of God? It's the greatest gift of all time. You have to trust completely in God. He'll forgive you of all your sins.
Sharon: Who forgives God?

Randy: Sharon, it's just a drug. You're in pain. Instead of doing heroin, you're doing God.

[last lines]
Sharon: Forever.


There is a fair film review by Don Willmott here at Filmcritic.com.

Another good one from, "Not coming to a theater [sic] near you":

The Rapture:
This, do know, is but one of the film’s revelations, and analogizes the film with other depictions of verified paranoia (They Live, The Matrix, Terminator), but unlike these thematic similarities, religion is The Rapture’s blatant agent of faith (it is much more ambiguous in the aforementioned films), which the film is designed ingeniously to question. Late in the film, in sudden and intense anguish, Sharon fires the remaining rounds in a revolver directly into the air; the gesture illustrates the film’s angered and unsatisfied interrogation. The film culminates in the word “Forever,” and ends with a tragic image of permanence, followed by a silent credits scroll. [ Italics mine].


News story links:
Mom's plea deal includes 'resurrection clause'

Mother Starves Son for Resurrection Experiment

"'Child-witches' of Nigeria seek refuge"
Mary is a pretty five-year-old girl with big brown eyes and a father who kicked her out onto the streets in one of the most dangerous parts of the world. Her crime: the local priest had denounced her as a witch and blamed her "evil powers" for causing her mother's death.

This Week In Holy Crimes


James Lunney, Asshat:
James Lunney v. Evolution
Nanaimo Daily News
You can send your thanks here to Mr. Lunney's very own website. Tell him what a bang-up job he's doing and his views clearly reflect the mores and values of Canada.

Comics:
Via the BBC: the Death of Dave Arneson (see also the BBC on the death of Gary Gygax).
The Order of the Stick (episode 644)
XKCD (episdoe 202)
Liō by Mark Tatulli

The discussion I had with Mr. Tatulli regarding a recent, less than stellar, issue of Liō follows. I titled it, "Thank-you for using the macron, it's just cooler that way." The link above is to the issue of Liō discussed. It was weak and kinda gay. It bugged me because I love the comic and felt something needed to be said. So I found myself an email address and sent it out to the creator and writer of Liō. And this is what I wrote:

Dear Mr. Tatulli,

Thank-you for the creation of such a wonderful surrealist, minimalist comic strip in Liō. I have heard that it has some detractors they are clearly unable to appreciate subtle, smart humour and whimsy.

I think very highly of Liō. It is my current favourite comic and I consider it in the company of other great comics like the also brilliant webcomic XKCD. And the successor to the narrative of the weird lives of a little boys as depicted in the long retired Calvin and Hobbes.

I love the surreality; love the giant squid; love the sweet creepiness of Liō himself; and his healthy relationship with his father (the instance when his father renamed his lunch items was touching). I like allusions to the world and the magical realist and science fiction plots.

So When I read the most recent issue I was just disappointed. A lame gay joke. A limp wristed, light-in-the-loafers robot singing showtunes. You can do so much better.

Sincerely a fan,

Brendan

He replied. Like hours later. I was quite surprised.

Thanks for the feedback, Brendan...

The joke to which you refer has nothing to do with "gay"...it has everything to do with showtunes. I happen to love showtunes and that is primarily the only thing I sing when it comes to karaoke night. But I always get the same reaction...much rolling of eyes and people staring dumbly with a look that says, "is he serious?"

So you see the joke is about the social-stigma attached to showtunes, and how strange it would be for LIO, who know doubt expected this robot to start marauding, to suddenly break out in "If Ever I would Leave You" from CAMELOT.

Thanks for writing!

MT

I see his point, but my critique still stands and here's why:
In sci-fi all robots are male as evidenced by the way female robots are males with breasts (and sometimes hair and/or girl colours and/or big eyes and/or curves...). The splayed fingers, tilted wrist, raised foot are the stereotypes of drag when done by a male. Because, Tatulli is working with a visual medium he must chose everything that goes into every panel. Relying on stereotypes as conventions work because they convey heavy messages with simplicity. let me use an example that is relevant and possible in the weird and wonderful world of Liō: Liō finds a giant sized mixing bowel full of what looks like meringue or whipped cream. He jumps in, has some fun and climbs out. Because of his weird cow-licked hair, he comes out covered in white, with a conical shapped head and two blinking eyes. Not a good choice of image--although entirely plausible within context--just not a good choice because of the offensive ideas that such an image would carry with it.

However, despite what he says his intention was ---satirizing the contempt people have for show tunes--- what he has created is easily read as being satirizing flaming homosexuals. I love a good gay joke, this wasn't a good gay joke.

I always suspected that Liō, being one of the freaks, would either be homophobic (conflicts between various factions of losers and outcasts can be vicious) or hang out with the gay kids (it can also bring solidarity). Panel by panel we see the following: Gay robot. Cause of gayness the wrong software (what does that imply?). Angry kid (Why is he angry?). Mocking Radio Shack employees (such things still exist?), having played a gay joke on the weird kid. Nice.

Episode 005

This episode's interview is with Kris.




download mp3


Works Cited
Music by "Trips and Falls"

Episode 004

Part 1


download mp3


Part 2

Interview with Jacob Romero of the band "Trips and Falls"


download mp3


Show Notes
Music by "Trips and Falls"

Episode 003 Released

Related Links

• Rip! A Remix Manifesto - National Film Board 
  
• A Short History of Progress - Google Books 
  
• Collapse - Google Books 
  
• Guns, Germs and Steel - Google Books 
  
• Definition of : Ammoniacal - Merriam-Webster 
  
• Ideas - CBC Podcast 
  
• Detroit's Beutiful, Horribl Decline - Time 
  
• BLH's Tour of Chaernobyl - GRcade 
  
• After Bible Siezed, U.S. Group Refuses to Leave Chinese Airport - CNN 
  
• Proposal at U.N. rights council to criminalize 'defamation of Islam' -UNWatch 
  
• U.S. to Sign UN Gay Rights Declaration - Joe My God 
  
• UN Peace Talks and Battlestar Galatica (goto March 17th) - UN 
  
• Canada's science minister's evolution position worries scientists - Digital Journal
  
• Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory - The Onion 
  
• Canadian Science Minister update: kinda. - Bad Astronomy
  
• I've got irony poisoning! - Science Blogs
  
• Global crisis 'to strike by 2030' - BBC
  

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Episode 002 and 002a Released

Engineer here, 

I have finished editing episode 002 and the interview with our friend Amit. The interview is a separate file for time. 

Also the interview has an ear-raping audio quality, I apologize for this and will make sure I use proper settings in the future. 

Episode 002

[DOWNLOAD]

Episode 002 part 2

[DOWNLOAD]

Show Links

Episode #2 Delays

Engineer here,

Sorry for the Delay of Episode 2, but the interview was quite crackly and ugly. So I am attempting to clean it up as much as possible. Next time we will try to record to a mini disc player. USB headsets are really lame, especially Logitech brand ones. Also sometimes fooling around with aggregated devices in Mac OS can lead to poor audio quality. 

Engineer out. 

Episode 001 Uploaded

Engineer here!

We have finished authoring the first episode, of our podcast, so check it out! I am still working out kinks with the feed and website so hopefully everything runs smoothly. Please post any questions you may have here or on our pod bean page.

[LISTEN]

Here are the links to items that were mentioned in the show.

• Kluge
• Hillary Phone Call Ad
• Tongue-tied Clinton gets warm EU welcome
• Opening and Closing Music “CCMixter.org” by CODE