I find this video hilariously ironic. Don’t get me wrong, I think Faux News is a steaming pile of bias like most sane individuals. But this video is chock full of exactly the kind of scare mongering that it is accusing Faux News of delivering. I can almost hear an announcer saying “They’re worse than Hitler because they accuse Obama of being worse than Hitler!!!”

When the hacked emails first came out, I said they would be a quote miners heaven. I was right, but to a much, much lesser extent than I would have thought possible, which is saying a lot. It’s amazing how little material the climate deniers have actually found to backup their claims of conspiracy.

And then someone goes and makes a video like this, blasting the two most “damning” quotes out of the water.

As usual it’s not looking good for the deniers, and I’m sure that as usual they’ll simply ignore that fact and continue to proudly proclaim their “victory”.

(Thanks to Pharyngula for this one)

A while back I happened upon a collection of really great videos on YouTube known as the Foundational Falsehoods Of Creationism made by a guy names Aron Ra. Unfortunately after loving them dearly for awhile, I got side tracked by such stupid things as work and marriage and a blog and I kind of forgot about them, and him.

Then recently I found this video floating around the blogofractal and it reminded me of why I loved those original videos.

Aron has the rare ability to explain things with such clarity that thereafter you can’t help but think that it’s just obvious. For example, Nick Matzke over at Panda’s Thumb said this about this particular video:

Everyone liked the immune system cross of Behe during the Kitzmiller case, but Aron-Ra has got the point so well he gets all the way down to the 3^rd- and 4^th-level emergency backup-backup excuse arguments Behe brings out to attempt to explain why his statements about the failure of the peer-reviewed literature were not refuted. And all in just a few minutes.

In case you’re not sure.

I think people automatically think on a kind of logarithmic scale when contemplating extraordinary distances simply because the analogies used by our intuition cause magnitude to be lost. The moon orbiting the earth is roughly analogous to the earth orbiting the sun and so our minds map the moon to the earth and the earth to the sun, and the difference in magnitude is lost. We look at a galaxy and it appears roughly similar to the solar system. We can tell ourselves that the galaxy is incomprehensibly larger, but in our heads we see a solar system and the size difference is reduced to “It’s like this, but bigger.” We look at the universe, at all of the galaxies out there, and it appears roughly similar to the stars in our own galaxy. “It’s like our galaxy, but bigger.”

My hope is that these resources might help you get a grip on the actual sizes involved when thinking about the universe.

First, this website (http://www.phrenopolis.com/perspective/solarsystem/) shows the solar system to scale. According to the site: “This page shows a scale model of the solar system, shrunken down to the point where the Sun, normally more than eight hundred thousand miles across, is the size you see it here [approximately 6 inches]. The planets are shown in corresponding scale.”

Next a comparison of celestial bodies, including the planets and various types of stars.

Finally, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3D.

All this really does for me in the end is highlight just how bad I am at imagining the sizes and distances involved in the universe. Even knowing it I find myself unable to do any better.

Our intuition is formed by what we commonly experience in our lives.

This video shouldn’t be surprising, given even a basic understanding of how water and air interact. And yet it is because our intuition automatically includes the concept of up and down. Bubbles float up, and water droplets fall down. Get rid of up and down and things don’t act “the way they should”.

I love videos like this that remind me to question intuition. After all, what is intuitive isn’t necessarily true.

(Thanks to Maggie over at Boing Boing for this video)

Demonstrating that they have no clue what the real “War” is about, FoxNews once again frames it as an atheist attack on Christianity.

The reality is that it’s about preventing the government from saying that ONLY Christian symbolism is allowed on public property. It’s not an atheist issue, but a 1st Amendment issue. Atheists “won” last year by being allowed to put up a display of their own. This year is a “victory” only in the sense that all religions are being treated equally for once. That is to say that Christian symbolism is not allowed, just as Buddhist, Islamic Jewish, etc… symbolism is not allowed.

EDIT: Forgot to thank the Atheist Media Blog for the heads up.

Apparently Obama loyalists flexed their military muscles and shot a nuclear missile at the Denver International Airport!

Either that or it was a meteor. But what are the chances of that? It’s much more likely to be a vast government conspiracy to hide nuclear attacks right in the middle of the U.S. MUCH more likely! MUCH MORE LIKELY!!!!</crazy>

Okay, now that that’s out of my system, this video really is very cool. Dr. Plait over at Bad Astronomy points out that these kinds of meteors probably happen multiple times a year. The difference now is the ubiquity of recording devices which are able to actually record such events.

You know, there may be a lot of drawbacks to the idea of pervasive surveillance, but this is definitely one of the benefits.

Two near heart attacks in a row.

This was so obviously faked! First of all, you never see the punch actually land. Secondly, credible eye witnesses placed Buzz two blocks west when this supposed assault happened. Third, I have in my possession actual footage of the rehearsals of this exchange which I plan to release as soon as I can guarantee the safety of me and my family. Finally, if you watch very closely you can see the head snap back and to the left just before moving out of sight, indicating a second punch-man behind the cafe sign.

I’m not saying there’s a vast government conspiracy to make Buzz look awesome. I’m just a simple man asking simple questions.