While I can’t say anyone has ever had the temerity to attempt to express this to my face (I’m not a little or meek-looking guy,) there is a very prominent tendency to automatically equate “atheist” with “immoral,” one of the little triumphs of religious influence – in fact, it may come second only to “faith is a virtue” in the realm of common
Author: Al Denelsbeck
Classical allusions
Just in case you were wondering what might have become of my Rubenesque models from this post, they’re still around, living happily (I’m assuming) in the azalea bushes out front – I make it a point to see if I can find them daily. The number I can spot varies at least one is a regular
Why would they lie?
There’s a common argument that crops up in discussions of UFO sightings, always from UFO proponents (which, for my purposes here, denotes those who feel that the large number of reports are indicative of something significant – there isn’t a consensus on exactly what.) It can also crop up in regards to paranormal and even religious experiences. Made in regards to eyewitness accounts
Showoff
So yeah, I’m well outside of the range of the annular eclipse, still taking place as I type this I believe, and my friend in Kansas thought he was too. But at least he was watching carefully at sunset when he got the right conditions.
No filters needed when it’s this low on the horizon, since the atmosphere cuts the light levels down to manageable levels. Notice
Too cool, part 14: Up close with the shuttle
Okay, first off, I apologize to those whose attention span will not be able to handle a 45 minute video – I know, this is the internet, the TL;DR Channel, where three minutes is a chore. Chill out, get a Pepsi or some tea, and stay on the same page for a bit (it’ll make me happier when looking at the site stats, too.)
Second, I’m really sorry they didn’t do this sooner, before
Followup: The artful dodger
In the previous post, I took Philosopher of Science Elliott Sober to task for a relatively simple question that he’s been flogging at the expense of huge amounts of oxygen and electrons – and at the same time, ripped philosophy in general. I’ll be honest and say that I would really like someone
Final answers aren’t
Over at EvolutionBlog and Why Evolution Is True, Drs. Rosenhouse and Coyne have taken down the same philosophical question posed by Dr. Elliot Sober, to wit: Can science establish that genetic mutations are not caused by god?
It is questions like this that have guided my abiding dislike of philosophy,
A year goes by fast
Last year about this time, I published a post about my little friends the fishing spiders, whom I call ‘friends’ not because we hang out and hammer down Pepsi together, but because my first photo sale featured one as a subject. Lately, a few have been making themselves obvious, clearly begging to
The road’s longer than it looks
Okay, let’s do a variation of an exercise I perform with my students sometimes. I’ll preface this by saying, this isn’t a trick question, nor is there a ‘right’ answer. It’s simple: look at this image and tell me what you can glean from it.
Well, it’s a stream or pond, with a rock at the edge or perhaps in the middle. The air appears reasonably still, from
One good reason
Did I mention that, to be a nature photographer, you had to get up early? No one ever looks back on their life and says, “I wish I spent more time in bed.”
Okay, wait, that’s probably a tad inaccurate. It likely happens a few hundred thousand times daily. That doesn’t make it a bad proverb, though.
Okay, yes it does. But ignoring all that, if you want to get interesting nature