It’s the weekend baby!

Just do it your way…

The “open mind” conundrum

“Do not be so open-minded that your brains fall out.”

Variations of this quote have been attributed to a number of different people such as Richard Feynman, G.K. Chesterton, Richard Dawkins and Bertrand Russell. However, having recently debated a literalist Christian on this blog, I have realised that it sounds rather crude.

My detractor claimed that I don’t have an open mind, which is why I will never understand, let alone accept the assertions in the bible. In hasty retort I quoted the line that precedes this post.

So as I’m currently re-reading Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World – Science As A Candle In The Dark, I was reminded of that encounter in a chapter titled The Marriage of Skepticism and Wonder, which I think perfectly settles this conundrum.

As I’ve tried to stress, at the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes – an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive, and the most ruthlessly skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense. The collective enterprise of creative thinking and skeptical thinking, working together, keeps the field on track. Those two seemingly contradictory attitudes are, though, in some tension.

There, now everything’s clear as daylight. Thanks Carl.

Lout of Africa

I really didn’t think this waste of a human life would go ahead with it. But he did.

In yet another infamous day on the African continent, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda signed into law a bill that could (and most likely will) imprison for life anyone convicted of (repeat?) homosexuality. The law goes further in requiring that heterosexuals denounce anyone suspected of homosexuality, effectively demanding that ordinary citizens become spies for the government, which brings back horrifying recollections from history of how this was abused in Medieval Europe and during the Salem witch trials. No doubt the keepers of the law will find ways to “deal” with those who refuse to out homosexuals.

I don’t have to defend my position to all good people who are upholders of basic human rights, but neither am I going to attempt to convince those who find this reprehensible act of cowardice and bigotry justifiable. You are simply not good people, no matter how much conviction, solace and comfort you find in your archaic religious texts. If you really must know why this is so reprehensible, read this journalists column here.

This law isn’t just bad and evil on a purely discriminatory level, but is an indictment on Africa, Africans and the state of leadership on this continent. Africa is telling the world that it simply refuses to move forward to a progressive world order, preferring to indulge antiquated customs, traditions and contracted thinking. In short African leaders insist on reminding the world that it will live up to its label of the “Dark Continent.”

While it would be fitting if the US and the EU makes good the threat to impose harsh economic sanctions on Uganda, it would only adversely affect the ordinary citizens of this country, because the fat cats in government such as Museveni and that ghastly excuse for a human, Simon Lokodo with the pompous title of Minister for Integrity and Ethics, will still be able to live it up at the expense of the people.

Meanwhile to add to the ignominy that this day has spawned, almost due South in Zimbabwe, another shameful specimen in the form of Robert Mugabe, used his 90th birthday celebrations to launch into a tirade (as he does annually on his birthday) against homosexuality. Why this arrogant little tyrant cares about such things at his age is truly baffling.

In all of this, the silence from the so-called leaders in my own country (South Africa) is deafening and ominous. Is this a sign of things heading our way too?

When the words astound you…

Driving along in traffic listening to Bush’s Greedy Fly…

And then it hit me.

… And we are servants of our formulaic ways…

I must have listened to this song a hundred times before, and never took notice of that line. And no, I’m not gonna go into a philosophical rant about what it means. I just thought it was so appropriate for the times we live in and aptly describes so many people, maybe even me.

The song below really only gets going around 2 minutes into the video, but it’s well worth watching.

Greedy Fly by Bush

Do you feel the way you hate, do you hate the way you feel
Always closest to the flame, ever closer to the blade

I am poison crazy lush, built these hands to lift me up
We are servants of our formulaic ways
I’m screaming daisies
From 14 miles away I’ve got my own time
Got it all today

Make up your mind, need some help to find this mind, mind, mind
Limbo this and limbo that, you were this and you were that
Ever know that what you fear is what you find
This Indian summer I signed my life away
There’s a greedy fly in here and I fly away

Make up your mind, need some help to find this mind, mind, mind
Make up your mind, need some help to find this mind, mind, mind

Make up your mind, need some help to find this mind, mind, mind
Mind, mind, mind, mind, mind, mind

A More Perfect Heaven – How Copernicus Revolutionised The Cosmos, by Dava Sobel

I’ve been meaning to review A More Perfect Heaven for more than a month, and yesterday would have been the ideal opportunity on the 541st anniversary of Copernicus’ birth. Alas, one day later will have to do.

Nicolaus Copernicus needs no introduction. If he does…Jeez man, where the hell have you been?

A More Perfect Heaven is a book in three parts, and relates how Copernicus, a Catholic cleric came to turn on its head the common notion at the time, that the Sun revolved round the Earth. The first and third parts are set against the backdrop of political and religious upheaval in Europe and is thus purely historical. Interestingly, Copernicus grew up and lived during the times of the Teutonic Order and was a contemporary of Martin Luther who led the breakaway from the Catholic Church. Sobel used many primary sources of knowledge, including accredited letters written by Copernicus himself, to paint her historical picture of his life and death.

Perhaps because of the social, religious and political climate at the time, it would seem that Copernicus was reluctant to publish his many decades of observational work on the heavenly bodies, and only did so after collaborating with and being prodded by Georg Joachim Rheticus, a German mathematician.

The middle part is quite intriguing as I’ve not come across this device in a book before. Sobel conjures up a two-act play in which she imagines a collaboration and dialogue mainly between Copernicus and Rheticus, which may have eventually convinced the former to publish his book, On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, which forever changed humankind’s understanding of the universe.

Whether it is part of folklore or fact, the play closes out with a sickly Copernicus receiving a published copy of his book in his deathbed, and promptly died.

The third part of the book provides the historical context in which the book was eventually published, largely due to the efforts of Rheticus, and its reception in Europe by the religious fraternity and the scientific community. In this third part we are also introduced to other famous scientists such Galileo Galilei who were persecuted by the church authorities for supporting and following Copernicus’ discoveries.

I received this book as a Christmas present last year and it was quite an easy and quick read; it is untechnical and you don’t need to know much or anything about science to follow it. If you enjoy history or science or both, this book is perfect.

Electric Lights and Time Warps

Nothing wrong with a little nostalgia for the Valentine’s weekend…

And so the girls and I started it off in style on Friday night by attending the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) concert at Emperors Palace. These guys can still rock. The all-female string section was amazing too. They had us dancing in the isles and singing along to familiar tunes such as The Diary of Horace Wimp:

Later, it was back to the hood for more late-night moonlight (yes, a full moon) dancing like hippies.

Saturday saw us at a superb performance of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. And the Time Warp of course:

Seeing quite a few of the other attendees in full drag kind of made me regret not daring to go the full monty. All I could risk was being draped in feathers. Maybe next time…

2014 = 205

Darwin Day

No, 2014 does not equal to 205. It’s just that this year and specifically this day, is the 205th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin.

The 12th of February is celebrated in mostly scientific and humanist circles as Darwin Day. Why humanist? Well that’s a long story; ask any fundamentalist Creationist. Don’t know any? Good for you.

Amazingly since the publication of his seminal work On the Origins of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life in 1859, Charles Darwin has been both vilified and praised, and continues to be the subject of misinformation and abject lies. Fortunately modern science is slowly tearing apart the veil of ignorance and mischief that has plagued the Theory of Evolution originally postulated by Darwin and refined by others.

You will find a brief history of the origins of Darwin Day here.

Darwin Award

And on a somewhat lighter note… The Darwin Awards has nothing whatsoever to do with Charles Darwin, although had he be still been alive, I’m pretty certain he would appreciate the humour.

The Darwin Awards were dreamed up by people on USENET groups, a precursor to modern Internet Newsgroups or Forums. The idea was to award individuals who through an act of sheer stupidity eliminated themselves (usually permanently) from the human gene pool.

It’s therefore fitting that just two days prior to Darwin Day, a member of the human species (debatable really) was involved in what I would call an act of premature disintegration, boldly announced his candidacy for a Darwin Award with a bang.

If this report in an Israeli publication is true (note that I haven’t read it anywhere else), then the Iraqi suicide bomb instructor who during a training exercise blew himself and 21 of his students up, is a winner by miles. Unfortunately the 21 students, will just have to be satisfied with being a piece of history.

Freshly Played #26: Abdullah Ibrahim

To kick off the week, something local…

Abdullah Ibrahim is a South African jazz pianist and composer, born Adolph Johannes Brand in Cape Town, he performed under the name Dollar Brand both locally and internationally.

After his conversion to Islam in the 70’s Brand changed his name, and chose to live in self-exile in New York because of the apartheid system in effect in South Africa. He has since returned to South Africa and lives in Cape Town.

Probably the best known “Dollar Brand” recording is Mannenberg which was inspired by the Cape Flats township Manenberg, and later came to be associated with the struggle against apartheid.

This is a shortened version of the much longer track which runs for nearly 14 minutes.

The Third Force. Shudder!

It’s election year in South Africa, and the polling date of 07 May has just been announced. Which means that electioneering by the opposing political parties and their henchmen kicks into overdrive. Meanwhile…

There has been a remarkable upsurge in violent protests by residents of various towns over poor to zero service delivery. You know, the simple stuff like running water, the winning party promised in the last elections but either failed to deliver for one or more reasons, or couldn’t be bothered to.

We could speculate why the government did not deliver on these services, but there is ample reason to believe (from massive evidence) that it is a direct result of corruption, nepotism and downright incompetence.

But wait for the response of the government cronies… A Third Force is involved. Yes, a Third Fucking Force. They would have us believe that the protests are not about service delivery, but that a sinister force is stoking the flames of protest and instigating people to demonstrate violently and provoking anger and resentment towards the ruling government. They don’t actually say that certain opposition parties are responsible, but they’re not exactly telling you it’s aliens from Planet X, either. The implied accusation is plain to see.

That’s pretty lame and unimaginative coming from the current government. The previous apartheid regime used the very same scare tactic to entrench apartheid, then the ANC resurrected it over recent years, only to breathe new life into it just as we enter the final straight to elections. Through nearly 20 years of being in power they just couldn’t think of a new excuse with which to mask their failings.

However the thing that astounds me the most is that these same protesters will vote into power the same henchmen all over again. They’ve done it before. There’s some pretty screwed up psychology involved here.

Or maybe they’ll astound me yet again, and do the right thing this time around. One can live with hope.

Update:

This just in. While a government official was being interviewed on State Television about the poor state of the roads, an accident is captured on camera. You just can’t make this shit up.

More on that old debate

I’ve been reading some of the responses to the Evolution-Creation debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham, but the most interesting one comes from the least likely source.

Pat Robertson is well-known for saying the most absurd things while marketing conservative Christianity, but his response to Ken Ham after the debate, is probably the sanest thing he’s ever let slip through that bigoted pie-hole.

Let’s be real, let’s not make a joke of ourselves.

I’m flabbergasted Pat but it would be absolutely stunning if you’d reconsider those other peculiar views you hold about perfectly natural human tendencies… and abandon creationism entirely. There’s just no sense in going half-way.

However, not everyone is as enlightened (relatively) as Pat concerning the creation myth. Some, if not all of these messages collated after the debate by BuzzFeed is mind-numbingly ignorant. Take this one for example:

How do you explain a sunset if their is no God.

And no I’m not even referring to the spelling…