Washington Post asked Richard Dawkins about the end of the world

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It just had to happen I guess, but the Washington Post called up Richard Dawkins and asked him for his thoughts on it all. Now least you have missed it by burying your head in the sandpit, Family Radio evangelist Harold Camping believes that he has calculated the exact date of the rapture: May 21, 2011. (yes just a few days away) While many are laughing at the suggestion, Camping’s followers are taking him seriously, bringing his message of impending doom to billboards and public spaces around the country. Richards reply is great, here is what he said …

Why is a serious newspaper like the Washington Post giving space to a raving loon? I suppose the answer must be that, unlike the average loon, this one has managed to raise enough money to launch a radio station and pay for billboards. I don’t know where he gets the money, but it would be no surprise to discover that it is contributed by gullible followers – gullible enough, we may guess, to go along with him when he will inevitably explain, on May 22nd, that there must have been some error in the calculation, the rapture is postponed to . . . and please send more money to pay for updated billboards.

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#SuperInjunction

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Now that the concept of super injunctions is falling apart in the UK, I can  reveal that I am not having an affair with Jeremy Clarkson. Also, it has now been disclosed that Clark Kent is Superman.

(OK, tongue placed firmly in cheek, but stick with me here, I have a skeptical point coming up later on)

Folks not in the UK might be wondering what this is about, so as a quick aside I better explain. In the UK if the press catch you doing something you should not have been doing (think shenanigans one night with a supermodel), you can take out a legal injunction to prevent publication. However, what can then happen is that the press can be a bit sneaky and report that there is an injunction in place that prevents them reporting something and so they name names without actually saying what happened. To prevent this, there is the concept of what is now known as a super-injunction to prevent them reporting on the very existence of  the injunction. To do that costs about £50K.

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Relativity a myth? – Conservapedia claims it is.

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I’m sure that I need not tell you about “Conservapedia”, the degree of craziness is well-known, but just in case you don’t (yet) know, its the home website for all the right-wing theist kooks. Everything you might expect is there, for example …

  • Anti gay bashing
  • Obama bashing
  • Misleading anti-abortion rhetoric
  • Creationist stance and opposed to evolution
  • Claims that dinosaurs and humans co-existed
  • Claims that Fox News is fair and balanced
  • Etc …

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Saying sorry for something somebody else did

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An apology has been offered for the Spanish Inquisition.

Can you actually apologise for the actions of others? It is debatable, but to a degree perhaps yes, for example some corporate representative says or does something inappropriate, then later when discovered, a career is terminated, and another representative for the same organisation steps in to grovel, apologise, and explain that such behaviour is not part of their culture. Ah, but what happens when somebody starts to apologies for actions that took place centuries ago?

The latest example of this is reported in today’s telegraph, “Jews receive apology over Spanish Inquisition execution“. It reads …

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Measles

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In the UK, the Thames Valley Health Protection Unit has issued a letter to the parents of every single child via the local Education Authorities because there has been an increasing number of cases of measles during 2011, especially among children. A similar rise has been observed in other countries in Europe, especially France, but also including Spain, Romania, Bulgaria and Germany. What has been happening is that folks have been away on vacation, and as a result their unimmunised children have been picking up measles, and then bringing it back.

In the US it is a similar story, they are on course to have its worst outbreak of measles in more than a decade. Travellers are catching the highly contagious illness while on vacation, then bringing it back to the U.S.

What is going on here?

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