1. Bush Bureaucrats at Dept. of Health and Human Services Redefine Contraception as Abortion

Comment #213054 by SomeDanGuy on July 18, 2008 at 5:12 am

Chris: You may have the numbers, but I think you forget how disproportionately we outspend the world on our military. ;-)

Oh wait...all our forces are in Iraq! Curses!

2. Bush Bureaucrats at Dept. of Health and Human Services Redefine Contraception as Abortion

Comment #213052 by SomeDanGuy on July 18, 2008 at 5:09 am

Fun fact these religious folk should consider: Somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-80% of fertilized eggs are aborted *spontaneously*.

Turns out your god really has it in for unborn souls, and in fact, NOT being brought to term is the most 'natural' course for a zygote.

3. Man Sues Church Over 'God Injury'

Comment #209946 by SomeDanGuy on July 13, 2008 at 3:29 pm

Fleecers fleecing fleecers?
Awesome.

4. The $10,000-a-Month Psychic

Comment #200723 by SomeDanGuy on June 28, 2008 at 7:05 am

"But just as there are no atheists in foxholes, a bleak business climate can make believers out of anyone. "
Ugh, repeating that lie enough as a given premise won't make it true.

Obviously, hiring a psychic to read opponents' minds is silly, but I think bringing them in to help with how your employees work together is not unreasonable. They have a remarkable skill set when it comes reading body language and discerning subtle queues of what people are actually thinking. Of course, if they go with the usual tactic of telling you what you want to hear, that won't help much.

5. Texas Supreme Court rules church can't be sued in exorcism

Comment #200721 by SomeDanGuy on June 28, 2008 at 7:01 am

I can psychology abuse and scar youths if I say it's part of my religion? Good to know, Texas.

How does freedom of speech allow you to hold down and torment a teenage girl??

6. Oystein Elgaroy - the Christian defender who became an Atheist

Comment #194999 by SomeDanGuy on June 17, 2008 at 2:12 pm

Hurray! The campaigns of the 'new atheists' ARE working. If only logic could prevail for every believer...

(Heh, broken link side-stepped. We're a crafty bunch around here.)

7. Physicists in Congress Calculate Their Influence

Comment #193836 by SomeDanGuy on June 16, 2008 at 5:51 am

I'd like these guys to write something about how they got into politics, and provide any advice they have for other scientists looking to change our nation. I'm getting tired of just complaining on the sidelines instead of getting directly involved like this, but I'm afraid I share the worries they address - that politics is a dirty business based on slimey networking and backroom deals.

8. Bible Theme Park Faces Opposition in Tennessee

Comment #180745 by SomeDanGuy on May 15, 2008 at 4:49 pm

Well isn't this telling:

There's a lot of people who would like to go on a trip to the Holy Lands," he says, "but only a small percentage do, and that's because of time, money and fear

9. The Stupidity of Dignity

Comment #178993 by SomeDanGuy on May 12, 2008 at 11:10 am

I've always known I disliked Kass from a few excerpts in past bioethics classes, but I had no idea he was so totally insane.
Ice cream licking? Seriously??

Wagers on how long before he gets a Medal of Freedom?

10. An Atheist Goes Undercover to Join the Flock of Mad Pastor John Hagee

Comment #176616 by SomeDanGuy on May 7, 2008 at 7:17 pm

Now imagine you're in seventh grade and your youth group talks of an awesome "white water rafting trip" with go-karts and minigolf. ....except it turns out that's only day 1 of 4 days. Guess what the other 3 are? :-/

11. A Conversation with Expelled's Associate Producer Mark Mathis

Comment #165351 by SomeDanGuy on April 21, 2008 at 11:36 am

Hahahaha: "It was also necessary to have roads"

To quote the internet: pwned.

12. Flea of the week

Comment #163470 by SomeDanGuy on April 18, 2008 at 11:46 am

Richard, you seem to have created a whole, thriving industry here. As evil as atheism is, at least you've put food on the tables of dozens of christian writers.

13. Scientists take drugs to boost brain power: study

Comment #158863 by SomeDanGuy on April 11, 2008 at 6:06 am

And this doesn't even include caffeine. Imagine the rates of stimulant drug usage in science if you included coffee.
Speaking of which, I have a long day in the lab ahead and I'm rather tired at the moment....

14. Evolving Mistakes

Comment #134168 by SomeDanGuy on February 27, 2008 at 10:54 am

Fascinating article! At first I thought it was just going to re-hash things I already know, but it turned out to have some new insights I had not previously considered

15. Study: Religion colors Americans' views of nanotechnology

Comment #128365 by SomeDanGuy on February 16, 2008 at 8:50 pm

Am I the only one confused about the discrepancy between the article title and what the study actually showed? Granted, I only read the article posted here and not the actual paper, but it seems that the only thing actually surveyed was whether people find nanotech morally acceptable. The idea that religious views are responsible seems to be just a guess by the study's author and not actually shown in the data.

16. A Tyrannical Romance

Comment #126519 by SomeDanGuy on February 13, 2008 at 12:03 pm

All I ever wanted to know about penises and more! This article was great - I love any article that compares diversity across the animal kingdom, and if it happens to involve reproduction even better!

And movingshadow: that gif is hilarious. I'm definitely sending it to my wife for Valentine's tomorrow.

17. There Are No Ghosts in Your Brain

Comment #120477 by SomeDanGuy on February 1, 2008 at 6:47 pm

^ Family Guy

18. Scientists discover way to reverse loss of memory

Comment #118988 by SomeDanGuy on January 31, 2008 at 8:49 am

With all the positive comments, I feel I should provide some cautionary ones:

1) Watch out for epilepsy! Hopefully they're using tiny, focal currents, but I worry that repeated use will cause epilepsy. (This is known as the 'kindling' model of epilepsy - give enough repeated electrical stimulation and you get an animal that has recurrent, lifelong seizures)

2) stereoroid is right: Who says these memories are even accurate? I would not be surprised if putting a big field in could aggregate aspects from various stored memories into one, new memory. That itself would still be fascinating though.

3) I wouldn't get too hopeful about this helping Alzheimer's where you have structural damage to the brain's connectivity and architecture (plaques and tangles). Putting a larger current into an already-fried circuit board isn't going to magically make it work again.

19. Atheism and Violence

Comment #117847 by SomeDanGuy on January 29, 2008 at 7:47 pm

This makes me appreciate some of the other theist essays I've read: they used many fewer words to be so completely wrong.

20. Ethical storm as scientist becomes first man to clone HIMSELF

Comment #113638 by SomeDanGuy on January 20, 2008 at 8:45 am

My handy dandy Theological dictionary says "The majority of catholic theologians agree that the soul is infused at the moment when the cells of the parents are united (not at birth: D 1185; and not upon the first intellectual act: D 1910)."

21. Ethical storm as scientist becomes first man to clone HIMSELF

Comment #113635 by SomeDanGuy on January 20, 2008 at 8:37 am

Steps remaining before this can become useful:
1) Learn how to screen for accumulated mutations in the donor nucleus (although the ability to even survive takes care of some of this)
2) Find a way to reset the epigenetic marks on the donor DNA. I'm concerned about trying to push forward to therapeutics before solving these problems, especially the second.

22. Why (Almost All) Cosmologists are Atheists

Comment #110500 by SomeDanGuy on January 11, 2008 at 11:46 am

Animavore: You're right, nothing new, but he warned at the beginning that would be the case.
It is certainly...thorough. A very rigorous account of typical scientist beliefs

23. The empty myths peddled by evangelists of unbelief

Comment #97047 by SomeDanGuy on December 11, 2007 at 10:41 am

I have to wonder if posting and reading the constant stream of inanity and illogical 'arguments' from various religion-supporters is going to cause long-term damage to our brains.

24. Nurses Told to Turn Muslims' Beds to Mecca

Comment #94051 by SomeDanGuy on December 4, 2007 at 4:31 pm

My religion requires that I have an expert physician standing next to my bed at all times, a steak dinner every night, and that I pay my bill in handfuls of jellybeans. Please accommodate or I will sue for religious discrimination and mental anguish.