1. Ayaan Hirsi Ali asks for protection

Comment #128089 by an_ant_under_a_penny on February 16, 2008 at 4:53 am

Rtambree: Maybe I'm being paranoid, but is it a good idea to publicly announce this on a website? The walls have ears. ;)

2. Interview with Richard Dawkins: On Christmas

Comment #100446 by an_ant_under_a_penny on December 18, 2007 at 4:03 pm

heathen2: The Archers is a soap opera that's been broadcast by the BBC for about half a century.

Here's a link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/archers/

3. Malaysia firm's 'Muslim car' plan

Comment #88006 by an_ant_under_a_penny on November 14, 2007 at 5:38 am

Anyone got any ideas as to what an atheist's car might involve? Or, for that matter, a Buddhist or a Jewish car?

Why, a Buddhist car comes with prayer wheels, of course! Builds up good karma with each mile. Guaranteed to fend off earthwormhood for all eternity. :D

As for the atheist's car - airbags, seatbelts and anti-lock? And an extra compartment for the God Delusion, of course.

4. Don't write off religion - it can be the key to a stable family

Comment #82860 by an_ant_under_a_penny on October 28, 2007 at 4:03 am

And sit in a car with a bunch of 10-year-olds discussing reincarnation, as I did recently, and you'd have heard as passionate an engagement with moral, religious and philosophical issues as you'd come upon in any Muslim madrasa, Jewish yeshiva or other kind of seminary.

I've always suspected that what I would get to hear in a madrasa etc. would sound very much like a bunch of 10-year-olds having an argument. ;)

5. Richard Dawkins receives the Deschner Prize

Comment #78871 by an_ant_under_a_penny on October 15, 2007 at 6:56 am

I was there, too. I loved the fact that the prize was in honour of someone who is still alive. I'd mainly come to see the Prof, but was very impressed by Deschner as well. His speech was extremely well-written, complex, poetical and at times so involved I daresay Richard was not the only one who didn't understand everything. ;)

And Richard's speech rocked the house, of course.
Congrats and thanks again for signing my copy of the God Delusion and patiently attending to the long chain of admirers queueing up after the talk.

BTW, I left my signed copy of the God Delusion on a chair in the foyer because I was busy trying to get some good snapshots of RD (I hope he didn't mind my fangirldom too much...but then he did seem somewhat flattered.) So, if anybody finds they have a copy of the God Delusion too many - a British hardcover edition with a blue bookmark inside, perhaps - I'd be eternally grateful if you could contact me. (Here or at porzellankiste AT web PUNKT de).

6. Richard Dawkins receives the Deschner Prize

Comment #78860 by an_ant_under_a_penny on October 15, 2007 at 5:46 am

Here's the direct link to the avi.file for the technologically challenged (I hope managementboy doesn't mind my posting this):

http://blip.tv/file/get/Managementboy-20071012DeschnerPreisDawkinsRede2917.avi

Here's the downloadable flash video:

http://blip.tv/file/get/Managementboy-20071012DeschnerPreisDawkinsRede2917.flv

For any of the other speeches, the download links are in the lower righthand corner on each page.

7. The Panel

Comment #53415 by an_ant_under_a_penny on July 1, 2007 at 11:03 am

I think that specialisation may be the problem here. We specialise to early in life, training only those things we're already good at and neglecting the rest. The point of allowing people to choose their subjects at school, for example, is to acknowledge a variety of talents. But the downside is that you remain ignorant of a lot of things. I dropped physics and chemistry at the earliest convenience, and, predictably, failed on all questions having something to do with it.
(No, actually I did get the light switch thing right. *g*) Maybe we need a checklist of "scientific facts any educated person should know," and you shouldn't be allowed to specialize until you've learned all of them.

8. Rival to evolution may enter schools

Comment #52793 by an_ant_under_a_penny on June 28, 2007 at 5:09 am

I actually do think that ID should be talked about in science classes. Not to present it as an "alternative theory", of course, but simply to warn students against it. You wouldn't even have to spend a lot of time on it, just quickly explain - or better still, let the students find out - what's wrong with it.

Reason: There is now so much discussion about this non-issue, and so many pamphlets produced etc, that most students will be reached by ID propaganda in some form or other. And they may be in danger of falling for it. ID poses as a kind of "Maverick" theory, after all, something that "challenges" the establishment. And we all know how appealing that kind of thing is to kids. When I was fourteen I would have bought into almost anything as long as it wasn't the mainstream view. ;)

What's more, students generally need the ability to distinguish between real science and quack science. They need to learn to separate the wheat from the chaff so that they don't trust the first person in a lab coat who (in RD's words) "comes on and spouts long words." Discussing the ID spoof in class could provide an opportunity to foster critical thinking, so to speak.

9. Germany imposes ban on Tom Cruise

Comment #52133 by an_ant_under_a_penny on June 26, 2007 at 9:00 am

Perhaps i'm being naive here but--questions about Cruise's skill as an actor aside--i'm confused about why his being a scientologist would have any bearing on whether or not he will give a 'serious and authentic' portrayal of Count Stauffenberg.

I've googled around for a bit and I think I've found the answer:

Their argument is that scientology uses the same inhumane methods to keep its members under control that the Nazis employed, and that bits of the scientologists' warped ideology follow in the tradition of Nazism.

The whole row was started by a conservative MP, it appears, one Antje Blumenthal who acts as the Christian Democratic Party's "expert for religious sects." It appears that she 'alerted' the minister of defence, who hadn't heard about the film until then but is quoted as saying: "That's completely out of the question."

Another MP, Klaus-Uwe Benneter from the "Social Democrats" (never heard of him either ;)) has also criticized the project, saying it was inappropriate for Stauffenberg to be portrayed by the most well-known representative of a "sect that uses dubious methods to lure people in and then exert pressure on them so that they remain loyal at all cost." (my translation)

Source (German): http://www.tagesspiegel.de/weltspiegel/;art1117,2326806

10. Free Speech

Comment #25635 by an_ant_under_a_penny on March 14, 2007 at 12:05 pm

"While the entire speech was wonderful, the last 5 minutes sent shivers down my spine. Very powerful." - Comment #25571 by Shine

The last five minutes would have deserved standing ovations. That they only got lukewarm applause probably means that most of the people in the audience didn't agree. Which is scary.

PS: for those of you with precambrian media players (like myself), an mp3 of the file is here: http://digg.com/podcasts/Big_Ideas/170324/
Beware of the very slow download speed, though.