I need to change my approach here. Damn good topics are piling up in my draft box. If I do my usual weekly 1K, they’ll all be stale by the time I get to them. So I’m going to more of a 400-word norm for a while, twice a week, with the odd novella.
Next time:
DALES OF OUR LIVES 7:30PM MOL-TV
“Weird Science.” The Great Karmic Wheel threatens to run Dale over. The very same day he posts about good and bad teaching in Georgia science classrooms, his son comes home with bad news about his current high school science teacher! Hilarity ensues when Dale’s usually live-and-let-live wife insists that he “do something!” He knows she’s right, but what to do? Great fun for the whole family. TV14: PARENTS STRONGLY CAUTIONED (Sex, Language, Bad Science)
I always get a chuckle out of blog posts that apologize for a long absence, as if readers are locked in solitary with a Kindle that can somehow only find the one blog. I know you were sleeping around while I was out of town. I’m hurt, but I still love you, and recognize pathetically that I need this relationship more than you do.
I actually tried to post something two weeks back, but a server switch at my host company preferred that I not. They say it’s been fixed, but I won’t know until I click PUBLISH.
Watch for a new post by week’s end. In the meantime, go jump into Hemant’s arms, see if I care, tramp.
May you come to the attention of those in authority
May you find what you are looking for
May you live in interesting times Three (alleged) Chinese curses
Life is a bit too interesting at the moment. Since some of it relates to my books and other things of potential interest here, I’d like to file a brief report.
Foundation Beyond Belief ended its first quarter after raising $12,500 for charities and started its second with a brilliant new slate of beneficiaries. An extensive article about the Foundation is scheduled to appear in the New York Times this Saturday and another in the Chronicle of Philanthropy next week.
I submitted the final draft of my self-published second novel this week and learned that a (frankly) wonderful book I was planning about Radiolab will not go forward after all. I am trying desperately to finish my long-promised sixth video for the PBB Channel on YouTube, preparing for a seminar in Albuquerque, and co-teaching an online course on humanism for the Center for Inquiry this month.
Meanwhile, I’ve learned that my gall bladder has resigned in disgust and that steps must be taken to evict it from the premises, and soon. And we are planning to shortly make an offer on a house.
It’s all a bit much. But aside from the gall bladder and the dead Radiolab book, it’s good. Just know that posts will continue to be sporadic until I can clear this deck a bit.
Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
Inigo Montoya
Too many things to blog about. I get started on a post and suddenly three new things pop up. I need to clear the deck a bit or I’ll never get back to the Can You Hear Me Now? series, which I swore I’d finish by Krismas. So here goes:
1. “Faith on Campus” is a video contest co-sponsored by Patheos and the Washington Post “On Faith” blog. College students are invited submit videos with their personal views on faith/belief. This challenge asks students 18 years and older to describe their beliefs on video. Students can submit videos here. In February, Patheos will award a $2,500 cash prize to the top video. Three runner-up prizes valued at $1,000 will also be awarded for each of the following three categories: (1) Why I am a [fill in your faith/belief]; (2) How I live my beliefs on campus; (3) Rituals and practices of my faith/belief.
Do I have to say how unbearably cool it would be for a secular humanist student to win this?
2. It’s a lovely week for Parenting Beyond Belief, which gets a mention in the current issue of Parenting magazine, another in Metro Parent Detroit, and an especially good article in Portland Family.
3. The whole McGowan family is co-featured in the current issue of Ruckus magazine in an article about secular families and their approach to Christmas. (Click on the turning pages to read the full mag online. Article starts on p. 26.)
4. St. Louis Memlings: A great event is afoot in St. Peters one week from today. The Ethical Society Mid Rivers is hosting an event called “Raising Freethinking Kids,” led by Foundation Beyond Belief board member Trish Cowan. It’s Wed, Dec. 9, 7:00-8:30 pm at St. Peters City Hall. More info here.
5. I’ve heard your prayers! The annual page of PBB Recommended Gifts for science-minded kids is now updated and reposted. Each recommendation is based on a combination of formal reviews, customer ratings and comments, personal recommendations gathered from parents and kids, my own experience, and/or runecasting.
8. Someone please pull me off Tim Minchin. He’s turning blue.
9. Foundation Beyond Belief continues to march toward the full launch on January 1, with forums, personal profiles, and the ability to set up automatic deductions and distribute your impact among ten selected charities. Looking for one last tax deduction before the end of the year? We’d be grateful for your support. Thanks SO much to those of you who’ve already chipped in. While you’re on the site, why not join up?
Okay, that clears the dance floor a bit. See you soon.
We interrupt the series Can You Hear Me Now? to bring you even more combinations of 26 letters and 10 punctuation marks.
I’ve begun receiving more than the usual number of questions about my “path” vis-a-vis religious questions — which as it happens is the topic of my chapter in the newly-released 50 Voices of Disbelief: Why We Are Atheists. So I’ve decided to post the chapter here.
First of all, a note about the cover of the book, which I mentioned in passing a few weeks ago. I asked the co-editor Russell Blackford what the thinking was behind the snuffed black candle in darkness, which I thought might play into the idea of atheism as the death of hope.
No, he said:
It is supposed to represent the light of reason kind of snuffed out, and surrounded by the darkness of superstition. When you open the book, there’s a reference to this in the introduction, but then each essay has a lit candle near the top of its first page, next to its author’s name, as if the various authors are relighting the candle of reason.
Lovely. A bit subtle for the average cover-skimmer (c’est moi!), but there it is.
I just received my copy in the mail last week, so I’ve only just moved beyond cover-skimming to page-riffling, but it looks like a good read. Russell and Udo’s idea was to gather personal stories from prominent nonbelievers (and me) about why we believe as we do. Surprisingly, this was something of a gap in the literature, and I’m happy to be a part of filling that gap.
My contribution is too long for a regular post, so instead it’s a link in the sidebar, and will remain so. Might be a good thing, since I manage in the course of the essay to answer most of the common questions I get about my own background. Now, instead of stringing together letters and punctuation over and over, I can point and grunt.
Really I’m not. First of all, it’d be pretty damn cheeky to complain of too much work when so many people, including several of my friends, have too little right now. Plus I can’t stand people who define themselves by how busy they are.
So I am ex-, not com-, plaining.
My freelance writing puts me at the computer way too much. My keyboard’s A and L keys are worn completely blank, and O and M appear to be next, even though I have never (until now) typed LMAO. I have, however, ghostwritten over 170 articles and 105 blog entries for clients since January. I’m U.S. Communications Coordinator for a fantastic civilian peacekeeping organization. And I’ve written or edited 9 newsletters, 26 columns (mostly about banking), and an annual report.
And you thought I sat around thinking seculo-parental thoughts all day. It is to laugh.
That is part of it, of course. I did 16 PBB events in 11 cities so far this year. Then there’s the new YouTube channel, the Foundation, and this blog. No surprise I’ve been bathing in the glow of this screen 12 hours a day and seven days a week since New Year’s.
The work itself is (mostly) very satisfying and interesting. But I have a real and growing fear that my kids will remember me, only and always, behind a laptop. That makes me ill. So I’ve made some promises I intend to keep. I now stop working at 5pm on the dot and no longer open the laptop on weekends at all. That way I can be a parent again instead of just playing one on the Internet.
Among other cutbacks, I’ll now be posting blogs only about once a week and YouTube videos about once a month. (I just filmed #5 and have to completely reshoot because I look and sound like Ben Stein.)
I’ll give y’all a real post (on the downside of older siblings) in a couple of days, then start the weekly schedule. Thanks!
The Meming of Life is taking a break from the Feast of Doubting Thomas to St. Swithin’s Day, and possibly a tad beyond. In the meantime, here’s the third in our video series on YouTube.
Coming video topics and very approximate schedule: P.T. Barnum’s Birthday: Indoctrination vs. influence John Paul Jones’ Death Day: “What if my child becomes religious?” Constitution Day (Puerto Rico): The moment of the question Francis Scott Key’s Birthday: Three myths about death Feast of Santo Domingo: Teaching kids about evolution
The results of my informal podcast poll are in! I’ve listened to long excerpts from 35 podcasts recommended on this blog and by friends on Facebook and in TheRealWorld. That’s all it takes, really — within 3 minutes I have a strong inkling whether a podcast is for me. If I’m still listening at ten minutes — rarely the case — it’s decided.
Here then, in no particular order, are the eight podcasts that are, at this point in my life, for me:
Clever Little Pod (comedy)
Friday Night Comedy (BBC)
Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me (NPR)
The Bugle (topical comedy with John Oliver etc)
This American Life (narrative nonfiction)
The Moth (narrative nonfiction)
RadioLab (science and culture)
The Naked Scientists (science)
…and though those are in no particular order, one podcast — after hearing just half of a single episode — has risen waaaaaay above the rest: RadioLab — “where science meets culture and information sounds like music.”
Holy shite, that’s a great program.
I first heard about RadioLab about a year ago — in fact, I think it was from Joe, the designer of the PBB website. I checked it out, thought it looked good, then filed it away, since I wasn’t into podcasts at that point.
Then another friend mentioned it, and another. Finally I put out this call for recommendations, and several people screamed RADIOLAB.
Now I see why.
Titled “Stochasticity,” the episode I’m halfway through is about randomness. And even though I was already familiar with the principles they’re talking about, I’m still eating it up alive. I also played the first bit for the kiddos, who likewise feasted on its tasty innards.
After just half a listen, I’m so well convinced that I downloaded 62 past episodes — 62 hours of RadioLab. [Cue Homer Simpson's gargle when thinking about bacon.]
As promised, a plenary indulgence is now winging its way to kcruz, barrettc, MCable, tarrkid, Jenny, and several others who wouldn’t know what to do with a plenary indulgence even if it did windows. And a retroactive one for Joe.
I’ll be doing a post about stochasticity shortly. Thanks ever so very seriously much to everyone for your suggestions. My earbuds are buzzing with gratitude.
Always a few years behind the curve, I’m finally getting into podcasts. Not many — in fact, very, very few.
I was interviewed by DJ Grothe for the Point of Inquiry podcast last month, a well-produced show from the Center for Inquiry that I listen to once in a while. But when I got an iPod Nano for Father’s Day (poetically so, since my previous one was destroyed by an actual offspring of mine), it wasn’t science and skepticism podcasts I thirstily reloaded. It was comedy.
My almost-fourteen-year-old has had it with my sense of humor. So have I, truthfully, though I’m nicer about it. When I recently made some pointless bit of wordplay, as I do every 45 seconds (see post title), he looked at me with unforgiving eyes and said, “You know what you should do? You should, like, save them up. When something pops into your head, just don’t say it. Save up a hundred, and maybe they’ll add up to one good one. Then you can let that one out.”
I know exactly what he means.
As I’m getting older, I notice that it’s harder to really make me laugh. I see the joke coming, which kills it, or it’s no good to begin with and deserves to die. My standards were lower once. I used to laugh at things just because they were funny. Now, to get a laugh out of me, it has to be (1) funny, (2) smart, and (3) unexpected.
I have tried over thirty new comedy podcasts since Father’s Day, mostly British, which has a much higher success rate with me. Precisely zero hits. I’m still down to just two unsurpassably brilliant weekly podcasts that I’ve listened to for a year, waiting breathlessly for new episodes like the slathering, smart-comedy-starved dog I am:
(Warning: This second one alternates, four on/four off, with a decent but much less funny BBC program called The Now Show).
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that both are comedy quiz shows based on current events. Like The Daily Show, there’s nothing better when it’s done well, and I never, ever survive either of these shows without being snuck up on, a dozen times at least, by great comedy. And that, along with my wife, my kids, and coconut red curry beef, is just about all I ask of life anymore.
Alrighty then: What podcasts do y’all favor, whether comedy or otherwise? A free plenary indulgence to the first twenty people who turn me on to something ab fab.
For the past 110 days, Nonviolent Peaceforce, the global civilian peacekeeping organization for which I work, has been traumatized by the kidnapping of one of our peacekeepers on Basilan Island in the Philippines, a Sri Lankan national named Umar Jaleel. Since his abduction on February 13, I have had the privilege of watching from the inside as this frankly amazing organization worked tirelessly to bring about his release without violence or ransom. I can finally talk about it publicly because today, at 1245 UTC, Jaleel was released and is now receiving medical attention before returning home to his family. We are all beyond relieved.
Jaleel is one of a team of 17 International Civilian Peacekeepers (ICPs) serving in the Mindanao region of the Philippines, where fighting between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and an Islamic separatist group has put tens of thousands of civilians in the line of fire. The ICPs offer accompaniment and protective presence to displaced persons while working with local peacebuilding groups to create lasting structures for nonviolent conflict resolution. The idea is to protect civilians during this conflict while building civil society structures to prevent the next one. A new model for managing and resolving conflict — and it works.
This afternoon I talked for over an hour with Jeff MacDonald, a reporter from the Christian Science Monitor. He’s working on a piece about how the nonreligious movement in the U.S. is not only growing but changing in character — becoming more humanistic, as it were, more comfortable with and interested in the emotional side of things — less exclusively focused on the intellectual. More Sally than Harry, you might say.
Then there’s the growth of Foundation Beyond Belief. Since the announcement on June 1st, over 550600 650 people have signed up on either the Facebook Causes page or the mailing list. I was hoping for 1,000 Foundation members by January 1. While mailing list does not equal donating members, I do think it’s time to upgrade my dreams a bit.
In addition to the general interest, I’ve been blizzarded with messages from people wanting to help in one way or another, and even a few from organizations hoping to be considered as beneficiaries.
I daresay we’ve struck a chord.
I’ll keep you all updated as we hit major landmarks. Much fun and sweat ahead!
May you come to the attention of those in authority
We interrupt the series Can You Hear Me Now? to bring you even more combinations of 26 letters and 10 punctuation marks.
The results of my informal podcast poll are in! I’ve listened to long excerpts from 35 podcasts recommended on this blog and by friends on Facebook and in TheRealWorld. That’s all it takes, really — within 3 minutes I have a strong inkling whether a podcast is for me. If I’m still listening at ten minutes — rarely the case — it’s decided. 
Always a few years behind the curve, I’m finally getting into podcasts. Not many — in fact, very, very few.
This afternoon I talked for over an hour with Jeff MacDonald, a reporter from the Christian Science Monitor. He’s working on a piece about how the nonreligious movement in the U.S. is not only growing but changing in character — becoming more humanistic, as it were, more comfortable with and interested in the emotional side of things — less exclusively focused on the intellectual. More Sally than Harry, you might say.
Then there’s the growth of 
