1. How to bend a spoon with just your mind

Comment #315000 by DKPetersen on January 7, 2009 at 11:57 pm

Comment #314903 by Icipher

"Regarding the last spoon trick, I'm pretty sure that the spoon had already been weakened. If I remember correctly, there was a video with Randi where he talks about how he was consulted by... the name of the old late night show escapes me, when Uri Geller was going to be on."


That was done on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. On a separate appearance on the same show, Randi exposed the faith healer Peter Popoff (Randi had intercepted radio transmissions from Popoff's wife... she was providing him specific information on audience members she had collected previously. Popoff claimed to be getting the information from god, and was conning money from loads of people.)
There are several videos on Youtube and Google video featuring James Randi, I have to say they are some of my favorite skeptical videos online.

2. Hitchens v Albacete - Excerpts

Comment #285305 by DKPetersen on November 17, 2008 at 2:06 am

Interesting 'debate', I just wonder who the hell is fencing in the background the whole time :)

3. Teaching hate in UK schools

Comment #275256 by DKPetersen on October 31, 2008 at 3:06 am

I was barely able to stomach the response video - it seemed more like an excuse as to why she looked so foolish during the interview than defending the policies of the school.

The producers of this video seem to be upset that she was stuck in a corner and had absolutely no wiggle room at all. She can't blame that on an interviewer, she needs to take some responsibility for once and admit, at the very least, that her school was teaching something that does not fly very well in a country like Britain.

Her tactics during the interview (not answering the questions, sticking to her talking points, and distorting simple facts) and her subsequent spin in the response video(blaming the media, dodging the original issues), really makes me wonder why she is not working for the McCain campaign. She would fit in quite well.

4. Teaching hate in UK schools

Comment #275234 by DKPetersen on October 31, 2008 at 2:18 am

This is truly disgusting, although not at all surprising.

I agree with posts #8 and #10. Imagine if any non-islamic school taught anything remotely derisive or dismissive of Islam - there would be riots in the streets and buildings set ablaze. The double standard here is astounding. I am not claiming all Islamic private schools are like this, but this particular school should be shut down or forced to overhaul its curriculum.

This is exactly the form of child abuse explained in TGD, and should not be tolerated in any group.

5. Turek vs. Hitchens Debate: Does God Exist?

Comment #274307 by DKPetersen on October 29, 2008 at 11:48 pm

I had to stop every so often and take a break on this one, as I could not sit through the entire thing at once.

I found Turek likable enough, for a christian blowhard. I just could not stand the constant argument Turek was making about morals not being mandated by "oxygen molecules" so therefore a materialist could not explain morality. I could not endure the fact that he was constantly allowed to argue from his assumption that there is an objective morality that exists outside of human society, and that he was further allowed to use this assumption as an argument for god's existence. The only reason this really bothered me is that he repeated this nonsense several times, without much opposition. I wish Hitch would have explained the shifting moral zeitgeist to this guy.

6. Bill Maher's Religulous Opens Today

Comment #260263 by DKPetersen on October 5, 2008 at 3:30 am

Saw it earlier this evening in a theater in Sacramento with a couple of friends. Neither had heard of it and I almost had to drag them to the theater, but afterward they kept thanking me for insisting that they see it.

The theater was packed and I was pleased to notice that virtually everyone erupted with applause and laughter throughout the movie.

I very highly recommend seeing it, but even more than seeing it yourself, drag someone you know to it.

7. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #241791 by DKPetersen on September 3, 2008 at 4:39 am

"There seems to be a false idea that the president or vice president is a sort of a skyhook that can perform overnight miraculous transformations of society's ills and problems. It's somewhat delusional."

Hey tocqueville, I generally agree, although I would point out that the president has the power to veto anything he happens to disagree with, based on whatever ground he sees fit, derailing an already impotent congress. I would argue that while a president cannot really make things much better, he (or she) can keep things from getting better, or perhaps just make matters worse.

Maybe we can convince the christians that are so enamored with her that they should stay home and pray for a McCain/Palin victory, rather than actually voting for them.

8. Science Has No Place in Politics

Comment #237898 by DKPetersen on August 27, 2008 at 11:40 am

Truly sad, yet not surprising.

Perhaps they fear having a scientific debate would force them to come out of their shell of generalizations, something at which politicians are naturally afraid.

Also, they wouldn't want to display just how much scientific insight they truly regard as factual, lest they upset the religious voters.

9. Common New Atheist Fallacies

Comment #232810 by DKPetersen on August 18, 2008 at 4:17 pm

MonkeyBoy42 "And did anyone else think that this guy missed the boat with the clips that he showed? "

That is exactly what I was thinking. If I was trying to make the point that the presenter in the video was talking about (Ad Hominem attacks) using Hitchens, I would have tried to find an example where he was asked a question or responding to a point in which he purely attacked an individual or group rather than giving a valid point. In video two, where Hitchens was used as an example, I didn't see a connection between the presenter's point of Hitch being abusive at all.

I honestly think these videos are doing nothing to further the creationists' cause, but then again I have only watched the first two parts as of right now.