WATERLOO — Although prominent intellectual Christopher Hitchens wasn’t at the University of Waterloo in person for a scheduled debate this weekend, he was larger than life, bringing the audience to their feet in a standing ovation. In his characteristic way, Hitchens, a prolific speaker and author, had the crowd in his grip as he spoke […]
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I am not a fan of Lady Gaga’s music. But I do respect her for her public advocacy for gay rights, and the timing and location of her latest appearance could not have been more perfect, the ancient Circus Maximus in Rome, just after participants of a gay activist rally had openly criticized the Vatican […]
The publishing industry doesn’t seem to understand that they need a new business model. Digital books are the future. Independent publishing via on-line sites will be the model. Even big on-line publishers such as Amazon don’t get it. They are charging prices for digital books comparable to paper editions. What are their costs to sell […]
The conference was held from June 11-12, and I am more than a little bit disgusted by the mission statement of these cretins : WCDN is an Interdenominational organisation composed of Christian Medical Professionals of the World. WCDN wants to motivate the Christian Medical Professionals to reflect the love of Jesus Christ and to be […]
Jerry Coyne over at WEIT asks “Are there too many atheist meetings?“ So let me expand on my initial short answer a little bit, I did comment at WEIT, but it’s probably worth a post on its own. There is a wide variety of meetings for sceptics, atheists and rational folks out there now, from […]
One of the most interesting and impressive people I met at the atheist conference in Dublin last week was AronRa, he of “Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism” fame on Youtube. Here is his talk during one of the panel discussions : Share this: Facebook Reddit StumbleUpon Digg
A reader has sent me a copy of some pages from a magazine called “Health Matters“, a quarterly published by Australia’s biggest private health insurance fund for teachers, Teachers Health, that in its latest edition features “an introduction to alternative therapies“. Now, my most charitable interpretation of those pages is that they have some rogue […]
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I’ve crossed the ocean back to continental Europe, and am currently spending some time with friends back home in Germany. Look, I can live with the fact that my trusted old Black Forest hideout is currently about 5 feet away from major road and path building works, and that my room provides a nice panoramic […]
Some people actually use smoking to control their weight. Others hesitate to quit smoking because they fear the weight gain that often accompanies smoking cessation. Now researchers from Yale and Baylor have discovered a mechanism by which nicotine suppresses hunger in the brain. What happens is that nicotine influences the melanocortin system in the hypothalamus, […]