Sapere Aude!

Keith Olbermann, Sean Hannity Friendly At Yankees Game

Keith Olbermann, Sean Hannity Friendly At Yankees Game.  Hannity has an iPhone, he must be a closet liberal.

Beyonce Egypt Show Called "Insolent Sex Party" By Islamic Conservatives

CAIRO — As Egypt gears for pop diva Beyonce Knowles' first performance in North Africa, Islamic conservatives are branding her show an "insolent sex party" that threatens the Muslim nation's "social peace and stability."

via www.huffingtonpost.com

Beyonce is our secret weapon in the war against Islamo-fascism.

The Best of Voodoo Fest 2009 on Fuse TV

If you were not able to make it to Voodoo this year you can catch some of the action on Fuse TV starting tomorrow night (10pm EST).  Be sure and check it out. It was Eminem's only full concert performance of the year.  Here's the trailer.

And, Eminem's performance is only one of the highlights from this year's festival. I hope they show some of the Gogol Bordello set.  If you're so inclined you can vote for Eminem's "3am" video here.

News: Darwin, From the Creationists - Inside Higher Ed

News: Darwin, From the Creationists - Inside Higher Ed.

An anti-evolution group is getting ready to unveil a new tactic -- with college students as the target.

Living Waters, an evangelical group that argues for the literal truth of the Bible, is planning to distribute 175,000 copies of The Origin of Species on university campuses next month, just in time for the 150th anniversary of its publication. But these won't be ordinary copies. They will feature a "special introduction" to Darwin's classic.

Materials being used in fund raising by the group say that the introduction "gives a timeline of Darwin's life, and his thoughts on the existence of God. It lists the theories of many hoaxes, exposes the unscientific belief that nothing created everything, points to the incredible structure of DNA, and notes the absence of any undisputed transitional forms. To show the dangerous fruit of evolution, it also mentions Hitler's undeniable connections to the theory, Darwin's racism, and his disdain for women. In addition, it counters the claim that creationists are "anti-science" by citing numerous scientists who believed that God created the universe...."

I guess it's time for religious skeptics to pass out some Bibles with a special introduction.

Pew Forum: Scientists and Belief

From Pew Forum:

A survey of scientists who are members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press in May and June 2009, finds that members of this group are, on the whole, much less religious than the general public.¹ Indeed, the survey shows that scientists are roughly half as likely as the general public to believe in God or a higher power. According to the poll, just over half of scientists (51%) believe in some form of deity or higher power; specifically, 33% of scientists say they believe in God, while 18% believe in a universal spirit or higher power. By contrast, 95% of Americans believe in some form of deity or higher power, according to a survey of the general public conducted by the Pew Research Center in July 2006. Specifically, more than eight-in-ten Americans (83%) say they believe in God and 12% believe in a universal spirit or higher power. Finally, the poll of scientists finds that four-in-ten scientists (41%) say they do not believe in God or a higher power, while the poll of the public finds that only 4% of Americans share this view.

via www.pewforum.org

What conclusions should we draw from the fact that the more educated you get, the less likely you are to believe in God?  It would be interesting to see how those scientists that do believe performed on tests designed to identify motivated reasoning.

Let's really get the government out of our bedrooms. - By Michael Kinsley - Slate Magazine

Let's really get the government out of our bedrooms. - By Michael Kinsley - Slate Magazine.  I really struggled with the question of whether or not to get married, i.e. get the government involved in my promise-making to my 'ole lady.

Nice Voodoo Review

New Orleans Voodoo Experience: More Than A Music Festival « Rock Is A Girl's Best Friend.

Sesame Street Mocks "Pox News," Conservative Blogger Not Amused (VIDEO)

Sesame Street Mocks "Pox News," Conservative Blogger Not Amused (VIDEO).  Hilarious.  I might have to start watching Sesame Street again.

Twitter as Educational Tool?

A professor at my undergraduate institution thinks Twitter is a great educational tool.

For W. Gardner Campbell, director of the Academy of Teaching and Learning at Baylor University, there is no question that fear of straying from the status quo has inhibited the development of Twitter as a teaching tool. “I go to conferences like Open Education 2009, and I come back with T-shirts like this: ‘Reuse, Revise, Remix, Redistribute,’ ” he said Wednesday at the annual Educause conference here. “And all it adds up to is more punishment at the hands of well-meaning, sometimes, but ultimately self-preserving institutional structures.”

While some higher ed officials — including nearly everyone at Wednesday's debate between Campbell and Bruce Maas, CIO of the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee — use Twitter for fun, many balk at the idea of incorporating it into the classroom.

Not Campbell, who also serves as an associate professor of literature and media at Baylor. “This network has been vitally important to me as a professional,” he told a packed audience, many of whom were discussing the session live via Twitter on a projection screen near the stage. Eventually, after he realized how useful the site is as a real-time resource for feedback and information, “I think, ‘If this network is good for me as a learner, could it be good for my students as learners?’ ”

Maas, representing a more sober view of Twitter’s educational utility, pointed to studies indicating that young people have not been as active in the realm of microblogging as their older counterparts. He said the evidence that the site might prove more a distraction in the classroom than a resource was right there in the room — Maas gestured to the overwhelming activity on the session’s Twitter discussion thread (the number of comments approached 500 by the end of the 45-minute gathering).

But Campbell had a different take on the implications of audience members feverishly typing away while a presentation is still in progress. “That’s a godsend!” he said. “Suddenly, I’m not just the one at the front just dispensing everything, and the students aren’t just sort of milling about doing their thing — we’ve actually got a team of people working together. And Twitter is the glue that holds the team together.”

So, Twitter gives you real time feedback on lectures and moves the discussion beyond the classroom, with a limit of 140 characters.  I think Campbell might be overstating Twitter's contribution to education a little.  I get real time feed back about my lectures by scanning the faces of the people in the class.  I can do this without using my computer or cell phone to read people's tweets.  A shy student might tweet a question they would not normally ask in class.  But, if it's on a live stream everybody is going to know who asked it anyway so I do not see how that's going to put the shy student at ease.  You might get more questions though, since there is only so much time in class.  So, that's one benefit.  But, still there are limitations.  Often you have to go back and forth with a student several times to clarify what the are trying to ask in the first place.  So, as an in-class tool, I do not see much benefit from Twitter.

Prejean Sex Tape Triggers Settlement | TMZ.com

Prejean Sex Tape Triggers Settlement | TMZ.com.  Fake hair color, fake boobs, fake Christian morality.