1. China finds major dinosaur site

Comment #314159 by ClemIsMe on January 6, 2009 at 10:37 pm

Every time I read of a new find I am seven years old on a trip to Dinosaur Monument again. Like every new astronomic find leaves me feeling like the 11 year old wathcing the first episode of Cosmos. I dunno bout anyone else, but science makes me feel young and imaginative.

2. Wanted: More science and math teachers in the US

Comment #308209 by ClemIsMe on December 29, 2008 at 3:36 pm

My brother taught for a few years. He related his concerns to me summed up as "the problem with teachers and students is parents and tax payers." I think this is true. We in the States are getting what we have earned. Nothing less, and unfortunately nothing more. We really have no right to complain.

3. New online database of Theoretical Physics lectures

Comment #304895 by ClemIsMe on December 22, 2008 at 12:43 pm

I, again, love the internet.

4. VOICES OF SCIENCE - Available Now on DVD

Comment #211035 by ClemIsMe on July 15, 2008 at 12:51 pm

What do we do?

Love the internet.

Why do we do it?

See above article.

5. Periodic Table of Videos

Comment #210429 by ClemIsMe on July 14, 2008 at 2:11 pm

My son just took Chemistry last year! There would have been perfect. They still are, but timing is so crucial... Well done.

6. PLEASE WRITE IN SUPPORT OF PZ MYERS

Comment #208813 by ClemIsMe on July 11, 2008 at 9:22 am

I am a poor writer, but I sent an email. I suggested freedom of expression has to trump outrage, warranted or not. If he is a religious man I would hope he understands the need to remain secular in these decisions, at any rate.

7. Carlin on Religion

Comment #198240 by ClemIsMe on June 23, 2008 at 12:30 pm

Unreplaceable. In my house growing up all you had to say was "It's Meatcake!" and everyone would fall about the place. For a comedian, five decades of truly relevant and quality material is astounding. Right to the last special, he always found the angle that seemed so obvious in retrospect. It really feels like my favorite uncle died.

8. The Challenge of the New Creationism

Comment #187493 by ClemIsMe on June 2, 2008 at 8:42 am

I find that, when you come to a stop in the audio, you can drag the progress counter along a bit and it comes back. You miss a little content, however. I think it is worth it.

9. Richard Dawkins on The Big Questions

Comment #157162 by ClemIsMe on April 8, 2008 at 3:44 pm

When I see these things and I consider my neighbors and countrymen I can't help but feel that I should just make peace with the fact we are not going to make it. The best we can hope for is a few hundred years of relative sanity in a vast churning continuum of feral lust and fear. Sort of like Asimov's Foundation stories in reverse.

10. Happy Birthday, Richard Dawkins!

Comment #149929 by ClemIsMe on March 26, 2008 at 10:39 am

Happy Birthday and a big thanks for the books, the DVDs, and the webvids and articles, lectures and conferances all brought to me through this site and your hard work. You get the wishes for a wonderful day, but I feel like I got all the presents.

11. Richard Dawkins on The Alan Colmes Show

Comment #143866 by ClemIsMe on March 14, 2008 at 2:17 pm

Wow. I mean, man, wow.

Given that talk radio is not what it was even a few years ago, and given that it was always populated by a certain almost predictable set of character types, you really have to stand in awe and wonder that they can dial phones. Humans, truly, are wonderful and complex creatures.

12. The Encyclopedia of Life, No Bookshelf Required

Comment #133812 by ClemIsMe on February 26, 2008 at 9:43 pm

Have I mentioned lately that I love the internet, and I love being alive here and now?

13. Richard Dawkins on five of his favorite books

Comment #133050 by ClemIsMe on February 25, 2008 at 2:43 pm

I got a fiver because it has to be fiver. It ought to be a septupleter:
Demon Haunted World - Carl Sagan
Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy
Climbing Mount Improbable - some bloke
Gone Baby Gone - Dennis Lehane
Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy - some other bloke

Five is not enough, but these are the sentimental faves.

14. New meat-eating dinos identified

Comment #127059 by ClemIsMe on February 14, 2008 at 9:25 pm

babrock, all dinosaurs kind of intrigue me. When I was an actual kid I of course loved the big predators - allosaurus especially because I live in Utah. But the more I learn the more I appreciate the whole spetra, as far as I can take it in. The idea that it all stemmed from the way the legs developed under the dinosaurs, giving them a speed and mobility edge that exploded into something like a brachiosaur AND a ceratosaur AND a stegosaur just takes my mind and puts in on a roller coaster. One little evolutionary improvement and then 150 million years of unbelievable variety...it's a bit humbling.

15. New meat-eating dinos identified

Comment #126881 by ClemIsMe on February 14, 2008 at 12:22 pm

Does the child in you ever fail to stomp it's way to the top of your consciousness when the terms "New Dinosaur" flash by?

He says thanks, by the way. This made his day.

16. The New Atheist Movement

Comment #123111 by ClemIsMe on February 6, 2008 at 1:17 pm

Sorry, I can't get past the "Hi, I'm Troy McClure" announcer. It all sounds like a bit.

17. Are Darwin's Theories Fact or Faith Issues?

Comment #120339 by ClemIsMe on February 1, 2008 at 1:37 pm

I have a thick skin and no love for creationists, but I felt... almost sorry for everyone but Mr. Myers.

18. Belief in Belief

Comment #117294 by ClemIsMe on January 28, 2008 at 2:25 pm

Since coming out of the haze I have come to regard faith as the problem at all times. A somewhat strict use of the word where better terms are not preferable. Willful credulity? The unexamined and jealously protected demand that you know something you can't. Religion is just a symptom.

19. Heath Ledger Death: Baptist Group To Protest At Memorial

Comment #115544 by ClemIsMe on January 24, 2008 at 10:02 am

An Idea for positive change in the world: Instead of "What Would Jesus Do", how about "What Would Phelps Picket". Find that thing and accomplish it.

20. Lewis Black - The Devil's Handiwork

Comment #115065 by ClemIsMe on January 23, 2008 at 1:36 pm

My family watched this together the other night, and I have to say that this portion had all of us in tears.

The Cheney hunting accident bit was a close second though.

The happy kind, not the creationist kind.

21. Way of the Master Radio talks about Dawkins' Christmas Comments

Comment #100436 by ClemIsMe on December 18, 2007 at 3:48 pm

I am stupider for having listened to this. And I was already toleranced to the low end of the stupid scale, so I may just have found religion.

22. Daniel Dennett Debates Dinesh D'Souza

Comment #93554 by ClemIsMe on December 3, 2007 at 1:15 pm

Has anyone watched any these debates (the above or any others from this site) and come away with a changed mind? I think I prefer lectures.

23. Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial

Comment #88404 by ClemIsMe on November 16, 2007 at 1:41 pm

Cursed streaming too slow. And quicktime. Bah.

24. 'Growing Up in the Universe' now available free online

Comment #88363 by ClemIsMe on November 16, 2007 at 7:36 am

This is a bit how I felt watching Cosmos when it originally aired. Every time something was presented or explained I wanted the "next" question answered...to wit:

Episode 3, 2.5 minutes in, regarding the leaf insect's "second line of defense" - it looks like a scorpion in that it's abdomen curls up over itself like a scorpion's tail. I suddenly HAD to know (compliment extended to the program makers) ...scorpion mimic who found better camo as a leaf or leaf mimic who is slowly finding better protection as a scorpion...? Both? Neither? Just a fancy lad of a bug?!? THIS is why I love reality: every story has a story with a story. And the answer is never "just because" (godidit).

25. 'Growing Up in the Universe' now available free online

Comment #88019 by ClemIsMe on November 14, 2007 at 7:01 am

Enjoyed the hell out of the clips of these I have seen. Thanks so much!

26. Sam Harris at AAI 07

Comment #82477 by ClemIsMe on October 26, 2007 at 12:22 pm

I find the whole idea that the label matters enough to give a talk on distracting. I have this discussion from time to time:

"You are an atheist?"
Sure.
"So you know there is no God?"
Nope.
"Aha, then you are an agnostic!"
OK.
"OK? You just said you are an atheist!"
Look. Call me a $%^$ing cabbage if it makes you happy. You have presented nothing in the way of evidence for your claims about a God. My label doesn't change that. Step up your game or get out of my way.
"You are very angry."
OK.

27. You can't prove that you love someone, so don't expect proof of God

Comment #81368 by ClemIsMe on October 24, 2007 at 4:20 pm

I generally wing it.

"Love is an emotion. Is God an emotion? Because if that is your argument, that God is a biochemical reaction in the brain based on thousands of succesful generations of evolutionary necessity, babyman, I am right there with ya. God is a reaction to your own mortality and ignorance, coupled with your feral urge to do as little as possible to get answers to hard questions. I would not dispute that. But if you are suggesting that God is a thing somewhere apart from your brain that does things and accomplishes goals and such, then you are implying Love is that sort of thing as well, and we have the same problem we started with: you make insane claims you can't back up."

28. Eddie Tabash at AAI 07

Comment #81141 by ClemIsMe on October 24, 2007 at 8:43 am

As always, good council from Tabash. And I can tell you from personal experience, where the intricacies of Dawkins and Dennet, or the intellectual bluntness of Hitchens and Harris may be autoignored by a lot of faith based people, the facts presented by Tabash are generally too simple and too verifiable to ignore. I have had a lot of success using his videos and articles - relatively speaking.

29. Shalom Auslander, Voicing a Comic 'Lament'

Comment #77400 by ClemIsMe on October 9, 2007 at 7:54 am

For someone who experienced so many thing differently than I have, I found much common emotional ground. Anger at family and community and the emotional conditioning that undermines the intellectual. Great interview and at least one book sold. Terry kicks ass, BTW. Always has.

30. There Go The Dinosaurs

Comment #73781 by ClemIsMe on September 26, 2007 at 6:53 am

Ah, Mister Chick...how many evenings spent waiting to go on at some little dive were made more tolerable by playing drinking games to your cliche ridden tracts left backstage? Words cannot express my thanks.

31. Review of Darwin's Angel

Comment #70138 by ClemIsMe on September 14, 2007 at 7:47 am

I grew up around addicts and enablers. Why, when I read critiques of the current tide of atheist literature, do I hear so many echoes? Must be me.

32. Griffin's 'offensive' Emmy speech to be censored

Comment #69535 by ClemIsMe on September 11, 2007 at 4:24 pm

If E! claims any kind of testicular or ovarian weight they will cut the rest of the program and simply air her comments, then beam it directly into Donohue's private plane. That guy's a simple punk and should be getting no face time anywhere. I am no fan of the holy right regardless, but he's just a petty thug.

33. CNN Request for 'I-Reports' on religion

Comment #64967 by ClemIsMe on August 22, 2007 at 2:06 pm

I find no hope in faith. Just the opposite, really. I find faith allows people to make decisions based on something other than solid, hard earned evidence or rational consideration. I think this leads to negative consequences, as often as not, that many times could have been avoided if reason was valued more than lust and fear.

I am in the camp of Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris and Dennet. If this means I am attacking faith, then I am. Through conversation, however, and that's an important point. Should a time ever come that anyone in my country is threatened with punitive actions for their faith, I will be the first to shout, and will not hesitate to fight. My fellow Americans are guaranteed the right to faith even as I am guaranteed the right to a lack of faith. Attacking someone's intellectual position is perfectly acceptable and should be encouraged, but in the end our minds are our own. I will not stand beside any atheist - or theist - who would take that fundamental right away.

34. Enemies of Reason

Comment #64940 by ClemIsMe on August 22, 2007 at 12:51 pm

Have I mentioned how much I love the internet?

35. Rational Atheism

Comment #64891 by ClemIsMe on August 22, 2007 at 7:47 am

Just a note: I am not entirely disagreeing with Dr. Shermer, but I do think there is a balance to be struck here. What I find, again and again, is that I am TOLD by the faithful (in whatever faith) how things are and then have to fight my way to a reasonable position. When I am asked by the faithful, or they offer an opinion (as opposed to a sermon) and allow me to argue against that opinion or answer that question, I end up making friends - or at least having interesting, civil dialogs with these folks. But I am also not shy about what I am and what I think, and if you presume with me you will get both barrels, as it were. I am too old and tired to play semantic games or act the wallflower. If someone offers equality and decency they receive it. If someone offers condescension they certainly better be able to back it up. I love a fight.

Again, let me stress, this is conversation. I think Dr. Shermer is a great writer, thinker and has always been someone I offer to the faithful as a welcom to reason as a life philosophy. Sagan and Shermer are great diplomats for criticism and ration. I wouldn't want him to change his methods of persuasion even if I thought he might. And he certainly has the duty and the right to express concern as he sees fit. I wasn't trashing him, I was simply making my case.

36. Rational Atheism

Comment #64861 by ClemIsMe on August 22, 2007 at 5:39 am

I agree completely that the right of the theist to believe what they believe is paramount to our society, even if it destroys it. Same with the racist, the sexist or the nationalist. But this is, after all, discussion. No one is holding a knife to their throats. And frankly, King did not raise consciousness in a vacuum. He was the good, wise and noble face of larger and very complex movement. Recognize King or deal with X...

As has been pointed out the friendly nudging has left those of us in the States dealing with at least thirty years of downward spiral, and finally with George Bush Jr. who, I cannot stress enough, was elected to office twice. Half of the voting public thought he was a good idea AFTER four years of fail. And a vast portion didn't even care enough to bother voting at all. If we want to last long enough as s society to see a new enlightenment the gloves have to come off, conversationally at the very least. At it's heart this is not about atheism. It's about what I leave my son.

37. Could these books be part of the problem?

Comment #60945 by ClemIsMe on August 3, 2007 at 6:53 am

The books are not the problem. Money to be made. The problem is that there is a market for them.

38. Sally on Sunday with Alister McGrath

Comment #52849 by ClemIsMe on June 28, 2007 at 8:21 am

It is not going away, is it?

39. Der Digitale Planet (lecture)

Comment #49791 by ClemIsMe on June 13, 2007 at 12:51 pm

I would like to complain about the internet. When I was a young man we had a little thing called broadcast television, where we could hopefully see one good science program a month. I remember going nearly mad at missing an episode of Cosmos when it first aired. I didn't know if it would ever swing around again! A WHOLE EPISODE!

You kids and your interwebs have it dead easy.

Thanks for posting this treasure, and all the others.

40. Photos of The God Delusion Event in Second Life

Comment #46755 by ClemIsMe on June 1, 2007 at 12:04 pm

Where are the middle aged, overweight, one eyed bucket-of-ugly people in this virtual world? Or do I just need to start my own account?

41. Another Christian Science Fair embarrasses itself

Comment #44740 by ClemIsMe on May 25, 2007 at 8:38 am

This is a job for the ATF. These children need to be rescued.

42. Christians and Atheists to Debate Existence of God in First-Ever 'NIGHTLINE FACE OFF'

Comment #37115 by ClemIsMe on May 3, 2007 at 12:05 pm

Nightline gives this nonsense popular legitimacy. I suppose you have to applaud someone taking up the challenge for reason, but I very much doubt it will gain rationalists much credence - I fear the opposite. Never deabate an actor, even a very bad actor.

43. Richard Dawkins Explains 'The God Delusion'

Comment #28628 by ClemIsMe on March 30, 2007 at 7:13 am

As to the repeated questions...and assuming no addressed it yet... I go to a lot of forums and answer the same questions over and over again ofr the same reason: new readers/listeners. Not everyone has heard the responses. WE have, but we already knew there was no God. It's always about the new students, the new friends and the lurkers. At least that's how I feel.

44. If God is talking to you, too, Mr Cameron - don't listen

Comment #23499 by ClemIsMe on March 1, 2007 at 5:59 am

"Those who look for judgment not from the electorate or parliament or a free press but from God release themselves from the constraints of democracy."

Going in the folder.

45. Neil deGrasse Tyson - Death by Black Hole

Comment #20110 by ClemIsMe on January 31, 2007 at 12:44 pm

I haven't seen him on Nova, unfortunately, but I did watch the Beyond Belief online vids, and his presentation was "infectious". I felt like a kid watching Cosmos for the first time again. I wanted to rush out buy a hundred Astronomy books. I kind of did, in fact. Thanks for posting this and TDS vid!