What Is a Leap Year?

As it turns out, there are people who don't quite understand the concept of a leap year. And while I was looking for pictures to post on this entry, I discovered that I wasn't aware that there is some movie by the same name. I wasn't impressed by the trailer, so why don't we take it one step at a time and just resolve for now the more important and interesting question regarding the astronomical concept of a leap year with a quick, fun and educational animation?

And if today is your birthday, happy leap birthday! Hope you feel younger than the rest of us.

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Unhate

Contrary to what the majority of people all over the world believe, I'm pretty sure this is the only life we will ever know. To some, that is a depressing prospect, and an indication of the futility and meaninglessness of human existence.

To me, however, it underscores the responsibility each of us has to make it count, to make it meaningful, and to make sure we have some sense of perspective and proportion with regard to the things that matter to us. Are our pride, convictions, resentments, race, differences, disagreements, history, ideology, etc. worth hating each other?

I seriously hope not. And hopefully it's not too late for any of us to open our hearts, make amends, forgive and enter into communion with others.

How will we know when things are really getting better: when we get to see an unphotoshopped picture of the Pope kissing Sheik Mohamed Ahmed el-Tayeb

Amen!

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History of the English Language, Animated

Have you ever tried to make sense of the English language? If you've taken courses on linguistics, logic or philosophy of language, you've learned that grammar is supposed to give us a formal understanding of the structure underlying any particular language. To a surprisingly large extent, the rules of grammar do a pretty good job of organizing this formal structure, especially for languages like Latin or its romance derivations.

But the English language is kind of an unruly child, partly because it is, more so than many other languages, an amalgamation of disparate historical and geographic linguistic influences (Anglo-Saxon, Latin, German, French, Norse, etc.), as the following funny and educational 10-minute animation makes clear:

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Stephen Colbert - Posthumous Mormon Baptisms

You may remember that recently Bill Maher had a rare moment of comedic genius when he decided to un-baptize Mitt Romney's dead father-in-law. Well, the news about these posthumous baptisms have continued over the past few weeks, especially as it was discovered that Anne Frank (who's upset about people reading her diary, by the way) has been posthumously baptized into the Mormon religion nine freaking times!

Well, some people, such as Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel, are infuriated about this insensitive and offensive religious practice, so Stephen Colbert decided to even things out by posthumously circumsizing all dead Mormons :)

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Of course, this whole business is silly, but there's something incoherent about the objection that these DEAD people are being baptized "AGAINST their will and without their knowledge"... sorry, but if you're dead, there is no you, so nothing can be done against your non-existent will or without your knowledge since there's no longer a you for anyone to hide anything from... Whatever wrong is being done here, it is not being done to those dead people, and that may be a distinction worth keeping in mind.

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Faster Than the Speed of Light?

Some months ago, news broke indicating that scientific measurements in Italy had determined that some neutrinos could travel faster than the speed of light. The media jumped on the hype bandwagon and declared the "death of Einstein's theory of relativity." Physicists (aka, the experts on these questions) were skeptical because ALL previous experimental and observational data, including neutrinos and light traveling from super nova explosions really really far away and reaching Earth at exactly the same time, confirmed Einstein's predictions, so they concluded there must have been some error in the measurement, the analysis, the equipment, etc. on which the Italians relied. Of course, there were also cultural reasons for doubt: as Sergio Bertolucci, research director at CERN indicated, "I have difficulty to believe it, because nothing in Italy arrives ahead of time." :)

News are starting to pop up everywhere now that there was indeed a glitch in the equipment. Still, whatever the real answer turns out to be, and since everyone seems to be paying attention to the story, this presents a great opportunity to learn some fundamental lessons not only about relativity and other ground-breaking research in theoretical physics and cosmology, but how science itself works and makes the tremendous progress it does, so let's watch this delightful documentary narrated by Professor Marcus du Sautoy:

Sometimes I do wonder whether these physicists are insane in the mem-brane :)

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Meet the Lampyridae (or firefly) Again

You didn't think that just because scientists have figured out how to isolate the genes that help fireflies produce light and use it to produce life-saving antibiotics, that there weren't still a hell of a lot of other applications to which these little bugs might be put to use, right?

Consider the fact that light is energy, and since the energy that goes into producing the light at the tail end of fireflies comes from ATP, and ATP is found in all living organisms (I know, high school biology flashback), now we have ourselves a little life-detecting test that can be used even in outer space exploration. Voila!

Fireflies contribute to the accumulation of knowledge through their butts... how about you? :)

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Critical Thinking Animated Primer

One cannot stress enough the importance of critical thinking. Without it, we would be defenseless against the manipulative tactics of other people, governments, religions, the media, corporations, politicians, swindlers, etc. Without it, we would not be able to make progress in our knowledge of the world, society and ourselves; we would not be able to make wise decisions; we would not know how to become better citizens of the world; and we would not be able to have a hope of engaging with, and maybe even discovering the answers to, some of the deepest philosophical and scientific questions the human mind has ever pondered.

Hopefully I've been able to give you a comprehensive and fun introduction to logical fallacies in the past, but it's never a bad idea to sometimes go back to the basics, as the following animated clips on argumentation, fallacies and cognitive biases demonstrate:

Part 2: Broken Logic

Part 3: The Straw Man fallacy

Part 4: Ad hominem attacks

Part 5: The Gambler's Fallacy

Part 6: A Cautionary Tale

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Bill Moyers - Freedom Of and From Religion

As we've seen before, the Obama administration mandate that tax-exempt and government-funded religious institutions make contraceptives available to their employees, should the latter choose to use them, has resulted in outcries of religious persecution on the part of churches and political conservatives hoping to score political points.

In moments like these, it's always a good idea to pay attention to what cooler and reasonable heads make of the situation, and what more fair-minded person can one think of than Bill Moyers?

In the following short essay, Moyers makes the right case: the first Amendment to the Bill of Rights, or what Jefferson referred to as the wall of separation between church and state, guarantees both freedom of religion, as well as freedom from religion. No one can impose their beliefs on you, but by exactly the same reasoning, neither should you be allowed to impose your beliefs on the rest of us.

RAmen!

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Christopher Hitchens - Philosophy and Booze

If you're familiar with the late Christopher Hitchens, you probably know that besides being a prolific writer, social commentator, public intellectual, fierce debater and a master rhetorician, the man loved his booze and his smokes.

In the following clip, and true to form, Hitch decides to give an impromptu performance of Monty Python's famous philosophers' song, which he sings/recites by heart.

Since my own memory sucks big time, that's really impressive :)

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Richard Dawkins & Lawrence Krauss - Something from Nothing

One of the most persistent intuitions we humans rely on when thinking about the question of the origin of the universe is captured by the latin phrase ex nihilo nihil fit, which can be roughly translated as "nothing comes from nothing," so where did everything come from?

On the one hand, you can argue that since ex nihilo nihil fit, the universe, in one form or another, must be eternal and must have always existed. One potential problem with that point of view is the question of whether actual temporal infinities can really exist. On the other hand, the traditionally preferred answer has been: God did it. Of course, this answer doesn't explain anything, since it leaves the question of how even God could have created something (everything, in fact) from literally nothing, unsolved. Yes, God of the gaps argument, not a real solution.

But the question remains: where did the universe come from? And in the following fascinating, amusing and thought-provoking conversation, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss tackle this and other equally important and interesting questions. Of particular interest is Krauss's distinction between the way scientists understand "nothing" from the way theologians understand the same word. It's a really interesting way of turning the question around on the believers. I wonder what you'll make of it...

Hope that leaves you with an intellectually satisfying weekend.

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Ricky Gervais, Jon Stewart and Panda Porn

When it comes to the debate between intelligent design creationism and evolution, the late Stephen J. Gould thought that instead of focusing on the marvels of biology, such as the eye, we should focus on the instances of poor biological architecture. The idea was simple, but brilliant: we would not expect to find cases of incompetent engineering in organisms that were "intelligently" designed, whereas we should definitely expect to see the accumulation of historical antecedents giving rise to sub-optimal adaptations if the organism in question had evolved.

Well, one of Gould's own favorite examples was the panda's thumb. This spur is the epitome of retarded design. I won't get into the details now, but suffice it to say that no intelligent designer would have created such a thing, and as Ricky Gervais and Jon Stewart unwittingly discover in the following hilarious conversation about panda/racoon sex, porn and viagra, there may have been some details about pandas that even such an eminent evolutionist as Stephen J. Gould forgot to consider :)

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Well, now we know the why behind those black eyes :)

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The Vagina Ideologues

When the Obama administration mandated that churches and faith-based employers (just like every other employer in America) include birth control and other reproductive health services for their employees, churches all over the country went ape-shit complaining of religious persecution and violations of conscience. Inevitably, the Hitler references soon followed. That's a particularly bad strategy, given that when Hitler started his persecution of Jews, it was precisely the Catholic Church that not only stayed silent but actually endorsed his authority. Where was their conscience then? Oh, maybe conscience only exists when you live in a liberal democracy that respects people's freedom of expression and conscience :)

Of course, the healthcare mandate didn't say that individuals will be forced, against their will, to use birth control, only that it should be made available to them (by tax-exempt and government subsidized institutions) if they needed it. To claim that the Obama administration is violating religious conscience is an instance of what logicians call the fallacy of composition: taking the fact that individuals have a conscience to conclude that the institutions that those people comprise also have a conscience. But unless you really buy the claim that institutions and corporations are people, you can probably see right through the fallacy in such a comparison.

To further exploit this idea of religious persecution, Faux News decided to bring in a panel of experts on female reproductive health, which, true to Faux News form, was a total sausage fest. Fortunately, Jon Stewart brings his comedic genius to clarify the situation.

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And of course, this wouldn't be complete without Stephen Colbert's two cents:

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Sex: An Unnatural History - Love

If you know anything about biology, you know that sex has existed for a long time. It's the vehicle through which organisms reproduce; we wouldn't be here without it. Somewhere along the line, however, and quite recently in fact, a new phenomenon seems to have evolved: love. And that's thrown a wrench into what previously used to be a pretty straightforward instinct.

The relationship between love and sex is complicated. You'd have to be blind not to see the differences, subtlety and complexity behind the relationship between these two instincts. Yes, often love and sex go together like peas in a pod, but there are times when you can have one without the other, times when you can use one to get the other, and times when you can use one to destroy the other. It's a mess.

Continuing her exploration of Sex: An Unnatural History, Julia Zemiro explores in today's episode the reasons we fall in love, what maintains it, why this emotion confounds even the greatest of minds, whether human are wired for monogamy, and whether there is a new horizon opening up for us or whether we are trapped in the struggle between these two all-pervasive biological tidal forces.

Oh yeah, happy Valentine's Day...

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Shit Happens - The Economics Version

If you're anything like me, your memory sucks, big time. So how do you manage to remember events, definitions, dates, names, concepts and so on?

Well, one possible method is to employ the use of mnemonics or heuristic devices designed to create associations in your mind that help you make sense of otherwise seemingly arbitrary words.

And, according to Yoram Bauman, the standup economist, what better and funnier way to try to understand world religions or different schools of economic thought than through the "shit happens" model?

And if you want more of this guy's hilariousness, don't forget to watch him break out Mankiw's Ten Principles of Economics.

And if you still need more, you might also enjoy the Hayek/Keynes rap.

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Darwin's Dangerous Idea - Body & Soul

It took Darwin about twenty years to publish the theory that made him feel like he was confessing to a murder (God's perhaps?), but how did he come to articulate the theory in his own mind? His voyage in the HMS Beagle had a lot to do with it, certainly, but it's not all confined to the Galapagos Islands only, nor was it confined to his observations of non-human animals...

Part of it started with his politically and philosophically liberal views concerning the equality of all human beings, and the logical consequences of such equality: if we're all equal, then slavery, and the exploitation of blacks and other foreigners must be wrong.

In the first part of this truly fascinating documentary, Andrew Marr explores the scientific idea of natural selection as formulated by Darwin, as well as some of the ways in which this description of the living world has taken on a life of its own, with implications that go far beyond the world of science, revolutionizing the way we think about ourselves, challenging the need for a creator, undermining dogma, tradition and authority, and making us question the origin and nature of human morality.

Happy birthday, Chuck!

He's an enthusiastic fellow, isn't he? :)

And yes, I may have failed to mention there would be some remarks about thinkers as wide-ranging as Marx, Nietzsche, Malthus, J.B.S. Haldane, William Hamilton and George Price, but now you know :)

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Judge Rules White Girl Will Be Tried as a Black Adult

We in America have something of a tarnished history when it comes to inequality, what with slavery, racism, institutional discrimination, etc.

Still, we rightly affirm the value of this ideal, and are constantly working to make sure we do not discriminate against people simply on the basis of morally irrelevant criteria, like people's ability or inability to withstand sunlight and tan, or whether they happen to have been born with male or female genitalia.

So, it is with great patriotic pride, pleasure and promise that The Onion reports we're making historic strides to make sure people are treated equally, starting with the fact a white girl accused of a brutal murder will now be tried as a black man :)

"This is America... nobody deserves to be treated like a black man." Classic!

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Three Minute Philosophy - Descartes

Though I tend to disagree with a lot of Descartes' philosophy, even though I admire him a great deal, I've always been sympathetic to his methodological doubt, not only because it provides the prospect of a possible method for acquiring true knowledge, but because I'm frequently confronted, both in an epistemic and an existential sense, with skepticism and the question of what is real.

For the past two days, I've had a massive fever, and I had multiple experiences that seemed completely real at the time, but which, after checking for remaining evidence of their happening, now seem to have been nothing other than figments of an afflicted mind working overtime. Of course, I'm working on the assumption that I'm awake now and no longer hallucinating, but there's the rub, isn't it?

Anyway, if you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's a quick and funny introduction to the father of modern philosophy and modern science:

Check out the Masters of Philosophy tag for more serious and funny treatments of some of the greatest thinkers of all time.

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Atheism is a Religion like Abstinence is a Sex Position

When it comes to debates between religious folks and non-believers, it's not uncommon to hear the former claim that atheism is itself a religion ultimately based on faith. And it's not just your ordinary bible-thumping redneck either. If you've ever watched any of the debates on this blog featuring the philosopher and theologian William Lane Craig, you will have noticed that he's a conniving master at trying to shift the burden of proof to the atheist. He claims that the atheist has to prove that atheism is true (in various logic, probabilistic and evidence-based ways) while the believer merely has to make a case for the possibility of God or to use God as the best explanation for a given set of facts (never mind the fact that he has to posit the existence of the supernatural, without proving it, in order to make his case).

Not only is this disingenuous, and quite possibly impious, but as a philosopher and a self-professed scholar, he should know that those who make affirmative claims (such as "God exists") are the ones who have the responsibility or proving their case. The skeptic is entirely free to reject any claim that doesn't satisfy her own standards of reason and evidence. If I tell you that the Flying Spaghetti Monster touched me in my no-no place with his noodly appendage, it's up to me to prove the truth of this claim. It's not up to you to disprove it.

But back to atheism being a religion. Well, why don't I just let Bill Maher handle this one? Since many people believe that atheism is a religion, then atheists should get to do all the wacky things the religious get to, right? It's only fair. So, Maher decided he's going to unbaptize Mitt Romney's dead father in law :)

Oh, that remark about Ayn Rand just made my day :)

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Drug Testing Poor Pee-Ple

There is a growing contradiction in American values: on the one hand, we like to think we are the best nation ever, full of great people, great promise, Christian family values, compassion and love for our neighbors, blah blah blah. On the other hand, we hate the idea of supporting and extending a hand to our brothers and sisters during their times of need (especially when they belong to minority groups), and we will go to great political lengths, often unconstitutional, to make sure we institutionalize the idea that the "other" is not to be trusted, and certainly not to be helped. And once this discrimination is institutionalized, we get to wash our hands of any personal responsibility for not helping our fellow man since we're now just being good "law-abiding citizens." It's a little too convenient if you ask me.

Of course, no one likes to sound like a bigot, so we mask our contempt for other groups under more exalted principles and values, such as justice, opportunity, freedom, etc.; and through sweeping generalizations, often false, we argue that those we don't want to help are irresponsible, opportunistic, lazy, undeserving, etc. That paints a picture that helps us rationalize our dislike for helping others, especially when they don't look very much like us.

So, when someone wants to argue that we should drug-test people requesting government assistance (probably because conservative fiscal policy destroyed the economy on which the poor previously relied for employment and an honest income), we all tend to jump on the bandwagon of "justice" and "merit," and recite that heartless cliché: "why should my hard-earned money go to some lazy, irresponsible junkie who's just going to blow it on drugs?" As if politicians' cocaine habits weren't also paid for with your tax dollars...

But if we are seriously going to argue that anyone who is going to receive money funded by tax-payers should be tested for drugs, the implications of that assertion go far beyond welfare applicants, as Aasif Mandvi hilariously demonstrates in this clip:

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But why require such conditions of the poor only? It can't be use only, since virtually every group has members who partake in the occasional festivities. But why only drug-test the poor? What about students who apply for financial aid? Or scientists who depend on government grants for their research? How about government and military contractors? Remember Blackwater? Didn't they go on killing sprees of innocent people while drunk, further endangering our troops abroad? How about the wealthy who are taxed at lower rates than their maids and secretaries? How about farmers who receive subsidies for producing all the corn that's contributing to our obesity and early onset diabetes epidemic? How about churches that receive tax exemptions (and government funding) while they openly discriminate against various other groups? Last time I was in church, the Padre was rosey-cheeked drinking wine in front of the entire congregation. :)

Is the welfare system open to abuse by free-riders? Or course, and I would never be rash enough to deny that. But do the 2% who might abuse the system justify violating the constitutional rights of the other 98% of welfare applicants? Should that 98% be automatically perceived with the contemptuous eyes that presuppose them guilty before any facts are in? Don't we in America believe in the principle that one should be presumed innocent until proven guilty? Not only that, the Constitution grants us all the right against searches not based on probable cause, and correct me if I'm wrong, but last time I checked 2% was not more probable than 98%.

Still, even if the percentage of drug users among welfare applicants were more probable than those who don't use drugs (and notice the equivocation this fallacious argument depends on), the very idea of rights implies that nothing can be done to you (as an individual) just because others who might superficially resemble you in some way might be guilty of some iniquity. If 98% of people like you are guilty of some crime, no one has the right to arrest you unless there is direct evidence tying you to that crime. Whatever the social utility that profiling might confer on society, the whole idea behind the Bill of Rights is that there are certain things that can't be done to you as an individual with "inalienable rights," regardless of their expediency or social utility.

But hey, if you're not going to demand that your politicians, stock brokers, bankers and investment managers be drug-tested so that they don't blow your hard-earned money on cocaine and hookers and lobbyists who are going to run the country to the ground just so they can buy yet another yacht and more blow to snort through hundred dollar bills that they will subsequently burn while lighting cigars and making fun of the poor, maybe you should be a little bit more compassionate toward people who are struggling, often because the other rich douchebags (whose outrageous fortunes are the result of financial speculation and political manipulation instead of real production of value, good or services, but that's a rant for another occasion) have created a system that furthers their own interests while perpetuating the poverty of the poor...

Thus spoke the Philosophy Monkey. :)

Now feel free to weigh in and tell me why I'm an idiot.

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A Brief History of Mathematical Geniuses

Math, unfortunately, is usually taught, and consequently thought of, as a set of cold, bloodless tools to solve practical and theoretical problems that are somehow removed from real lived experience.

However, the truth of the matter is that math has a fascinating and mesmerizing life of its own, and those who have really confronted its secrets have found it to be a source of love, respect, admiration, inspiration, despair, confusion and wonder. Whatever else it may be, math is not boring... not if you actually pay attention.

In the following set of short documentaries, which you should definitely share with your mathophobe friends, Professor Marcus du Sautoy explores the lives, the insights, the contributions and the influence of some of history's greatest mathematicians.

Newton and Leibniz:
     

Leonard Euler:
     

Joseph Fourier:
     

Evariste Galois:
     

Carl Friedrich Gauss:
     

The Mathematicians who helped Einstein:
     

Georg Cantor:
     

Henri Poincare:
     

Hardy and Ramanujan:
     

Nicolas Bourbaki:
     


What other mathematicians would you have included in this list?

And for a touching and fascinating biography/tribute to Cantor, don't forget to check out the spectacular documentary Dangerous Knowledge.

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Landmark Civil Rights Act Made Racism Slightly Less Overt

As we start to celebrate Black History Month, The Onion wants to make sure we remember key historical events that a nation proud of its rich and diverse cultural heritage should never forget.

One such event is the Civil Rights Act, that landmark piece of legislation that finally made it illegal to openly discriminate against black people and women.

Of course, if you could get creative and indirect in your discrimination of these minorities, then that's a completely different story. Then, you're a creative person who should be allowed to freely express that racist creativity in novel, interesting, inconspicuous and unexpected ways. Can I get an Amen?! :)

Why not check the Martin Luther King, Jr. tag while you're here?

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The Best Sentence I Read Today

"Most men will not swim before they are able to." Is that not witty? Naturally, they won't swim! They are born for the solid earth, not for the water. And naturally they won't think. They are made for life, not for thought. Yes, and he who thinks, what's more, he who makes thought his business, he may go far in it, but he has bartered the solid earth for the water all the same, and one day he will drown.

Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf

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