Don’t rain on my armageddon

Update 3: One of the people who escaped from the underground bunker now claims 2 group members have died since November. One from cancer (no doubt, and more correctly, from being denied treatment for cancer), and the other from fasting. 11 people remain in the bunker.

Update 2: More sodden group members have emerged. Also looks like all the children are out now. 

Update: It seems that at least some members of the group hunkered in the bunker have come to their senses (barely – they’re still praying, so all is not won yet). Two of the children reported in previous articles have emerged, two remain underground while their parents pray for their god to tell them what to do next.

A group of Orthodox Christians in Russia has been hiding in an underground shelter to wait for the end of the world (coming to a planet near you this April), and now Russian authorities are trying to get them to vacate because their shelter is danger of being consumed by mudslides from heavy rain.

I would normally say, well, perhaps leaving them alone is the best policy, since the mudslides and the subsequent endings of their personal worlds might just allow them to feel the thrill of being right. But then I read this:

Four children remain inside the bunker.

If that isn’t chilling enough, these people are willing to sacrifice their children on the whim of an obvious con-man. I know there are many factors which influence a person’s religiosity, but you would think simple logic, even simple emotion, might be able to plant the seed of doubt, especially when your life and the life of your children depend on it.

Pyotr Kuznetsov, the self-declared ‘prophet’ of the group, is not actually in the bunker with his followers:

Mr Kuznetsov did not join them, saying God had called him to other tasks.

Kuznetsov was arrested and charged in 2007 for setting up a religious group which condoned violence, but he was declared unfit to stand trial by psychiatrists. Exactly the kind of guy you want to trust with your life.

Not that his followers would know all this, of course, as they are not allowed to watch television or listen to the radio. It seems the only modern technology they are allowed is gasoline, with which (it is reported) they have threatened to blow themselves up, if they are not left alone by the media. Others claim the cult would have emerged from their bunker sooner if it had not been for the journalists hanging around.

Either way, it seems it is the fault of reporters that these people are about to suffocate under a mudslide. Just keep praying.

I just hope that instinct kicks in at some stage, and that panic forces these people out of their rabbit-hole, so they live long enough to realise they’ve been conned. Hopefully, then, they’ll do something about it – and not just keep praying.

The Rheostatics: one year after the last show

I love you/because you took a stand/for those of us who are the weaker/’cause we’re not fakes/we are wild and we are screwed – ‘In This Town’, from Introducing Happiness (1994)

It’s March 30th. One year ago, the Rheostatics played their last show at Massey Hall in Toronto.

I’ve already lamented at length about not ever having seen the Rheos play live, so this post is going to be about something more positive. Consider this my tribute to my favourite band on the first anniversary of their break-up.

I am a science boy/I grew up on dinosaurs/a million different species of birds, and aircraft – ‘It’, from Melville (1991)

The Rheostatics were a smart band. Their lyrics were clever and touching, and they wrote about smart things. The song that first clicked with me was a live version of ‘Saskatchewan’, from the 1997 Double Live album. I didn’t hear this song until 2001, when I was living in Toronto. My then-boyfriend-now-husband would play Double Live every night as we fell asleep… and in that comfotable drowsy territory between waking and sleep, I would hear Martin Tielli singing of sailors caught in battle, a spine-tingling ambush, and memories of gentler days before war.

Who are these guys? I thought, Who writes this stuff?!

I kept listening, and the more I listened, the more invested I felt in this band and their stories. I fell in love and I hungered for more.

In the back of the class, we giggled, sniffing rush/the best of friends, we rode the Islington bus/your gum was sweet but the chewing was tough - ‘Fat’ from The Blue Hysteria

Listening to the music of the Rheostatics was like being in the company of treasured friends. Like so many great writers and musicians, it felt like they were sharing a private joke with you. You felt that no one could possibly understand them as well as you.

I suppose that’s true, in a way. It seems every Rheos fan has a story to tell, about a concert, a song, or meeting the members of the band, which is intensely personal. But the emotion behind those stories – the respect, the love, the joy – is shared by all of us. To simultaneously be meaningful on an individual and a universal level is what made (and continues to make) the Rheostatics such a force of nature, and goes a long way to explaining why Rheos fans are as passionate as they are.

One fan in particular has been passionate enough to become the unofficial archivist of the Rheostatics. Darrin Cappe has painstakingly collected recordings of live shows, photographs and television appearances on his Rheostatics Live website; he has also assembled a Rheos ‘box set’ – a series of 9 compilations that trace the history of the band from their very earliest demos to the final curtain. This weekend, on the occasion of the anniversary of the last concert, Darrin released 2067, Covers, and the Last Whale, the final compilation of the box set.

All the clouds get together and cry/all the trees in the wind wave goodbye/bye, bye/all in a row – ‘Row’, from Introducing Happiness (1994)

The last show at Massey Hall was, by all accounts, an emotional affair. Dave Bidini (one of the singer/songwriters, and co-founder of the band) describes the final moments of the concert it in his book Around The World in 57 1/2 Gigs (2007): 

“For our encore, we did two acoustic songs in the crowd before saying goodbye. Everywhere I looked people were crying, and for the last verse and chorus of “Record Body Count”, they were both crying and singing…

Through an ocean of tears, it felt good, partly because we’d died an elegant and good death…” (p. 306-7)

The videos of the encore, posted around the internet, show those of us who weren’t there the weeping, giggling, nervous intensity of the final moments.

So The Rheostatics are gone. But the members of the band continue doing what they are best at, with Dave Bidini working on a solo album and writing books (and winning Canada Reads this year with his eloquent defence of King Leary by Paul Quarrington). Martin Tielli’s performing around the place (notably as part of the Art of Time Ensemble), Tim Vesely is frontman of The Violet Archers. The 3 drummers – Dave Clark, Don Kerr and Michael Phillip Wojewoda – all have their own projects too.

I still haven’t seen any of the members of the Rheos play live, either solo or in any combination. But I’m working on it. I hope they all keep at it for a long long time.

I’d love to hear from anyone about their thoughts on this anniversary, so please feel free to leave comments

Jesus Loves Porn Stars

It’s 12am, and I stumbled across this on the ABC website. Apparently, Jesus loves porn stars!

The XXX Church, which claims to have the #1 Christian porn site, aims to bring the bible to those at the ‘fringes’ of society – in particular, it seems, they are interested in bringing Jesus to the porn industry. So, ok, you’re telling me these guys attend adult trade shows just to hand out Jesus Loves Porn Stars bibles? Like, really? That’s the only reason they’re there? Forgive me for being a little skeptical.

In any case, if you’d like to judge the motives of these guys for yourselves, visit Pete the Porno Puppet (helping kids everywhere say ‘no’ to porn – he has a blog) and Rex the Rabbit (a charismatic, fun-loving bunny helping you navigate the issues on sex).

Hours of porno fun!

Kevin Rudd Meets Dubya

This is the creepiest photo I’ve ever seen: Kevin Rudd & Dubya. Speaks for itself, really.

 

Bad Education: Problems with Teacher Education in South Australia – Part 1

South Australian universities are producing a slew of ‘qualified’ but intellectually lazy, uninspired and semi-literate teachers.

I’ve been grizzling about this for a while now, but two things prompted this post: an op-ed piece on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s website about our new Government’s ‘education revolution’ as it relates to higher education; and my (fairly) recent experiences teaching final-year teacher candidates.

The quality of teaching in schools, and how we monitor it, has been a concern of governments and parents for a long time. The idea of ‘merit pay’ for high-performing teachers was proposed recently in Australia, under John Howard’s watch. Kevin Rudd has now been encouraged to take this proposal and run with it, at least at a trial stage, as part of his ‘education revolution’. I don’t know if ‘merit pay’ schemes will work. But rewarding ‘good’ teachers with money only tackles part of the problem.

The rest of the problem is that we are, in our desperation to fill vacant teaching positions around the country, reaching down to the very bottom of the barrel.

In 2008, the minimum entry scores (TER – Tertiary Entrace Rank) at three universities in South Australia, for degrees equivalent to the one I have (Bachelor of Education – Junior Primary and Primary), are: 77, 77, and 77.15. Keep in mind, there is no other pre-screening for teacher candidates in this State – no additional testing or interviews.

In comparison with Bachelor degrees for other professions at the same universities, a Commerce student would have to have a minimum of around 83.2, a Law student a minimum of around 95, and a Civil Engineering student a minimum of around 80.

The situation is similar across the border, in Victoria.

Low TER scores might attract more teacher candidates to fill our teacher shortage. But are they the right candidates? Are we attracting candidates into Primary teaching courses, where it would be stretching the truth a bit to say we have a ‘shortage’, or into Science, Maths and Technology teaching courses, where true shortages exist? Lowering TER scores does not guarantee that teacher supply will match demand. It does, however, pretty much condemn you to churn out (many) bad teachers with the (fewer) good teachers.

Here endeth Part 1. I’m working on Part 2. Please leave comments in the interim.

Hamlet’s Soliloquy in Weasel Words – my next short film

I’m staying with my weasel words theme for this post. I am in the throes of writing a short film, which is basically the “to be or not to be” scene from Hamlet, but done entirely in weasel words.

Hamlet, in Act 3, Scene 2, speaks thusly:

Hamlet: Do you see yonder cloud, that ’s almost in the shape of a camel?
Polonius: By the mass, and ‘t is like a camel, indeed.
Hamlet: Methinks, it is like a weasel.

Poetic, isn’t it? Rolls off the tongue… completely unlike the spirit-crushing emptiness of the language I come across every day at work. I’ve often considered writing emails to my colleagues and clients in verse, but instead, I will seek a more constructive outlet.

I started thinking… what would Shakespeare have written if he were a public servant in 2008?

The weasel reference from Hamlet himself, combined with the fact that most people recognise “to be or not to be”, drove me to pick this play to make my point.

Has anyone come across any fabulously cringe-inducing weasel words or phrases that I could use for the film? Any suggestions are welcome!

"pls. action": shite emails I have known

I only had one email when I logged on to my computer at work this morning.

Odd, I thought to myself.

I double clicked on the email – noting it was from my boss and that there was no subject heading except “FW:” – and two words greeted me:

“pls. action”

And below these lonesome literary companions, there was a 9 message long exchange of emails.

I’m assuming the “pls. action” relates to these 9 emails in some way. A call to action, probably. But what does it REALLY mean?

First, let’s look at “pls.” What is “pls.”? It looks like some kind of abbreviation – I’m basing this on the full-stop at the end of the word. He could have been in a hurry when he wrote it. Maybe his office was on fire? Or perhaps he has to pay by the letter when he sends emails?

Perhaps I’m just taking it out of context. So let’s put it next to its succinct second-cousin. Nope, even in context, the three mysterious letters don’t make things any clearer. Is “action” the name of the email? Maybe my boss is commenting that it is an “action email”, which much like the “action movie”, is a lot of form and little substance. Ah! That’s it! A self-referential minimalist artistic statement! No, wait… even that doesn’t seem right. Because he’s also put the “pls.” in there. A redundant inclusion, minimalistically speaking.

I’ve read the 9 messages below these concise companions, but no help there. It’s just a bunch of speculation about things that someone, somewhere should do in order to achieve some urgent milestone or other.

I’m not the sort to give up on a challenge easily, so I will leave the email sitting in my inbox until I can crack the code. No point hassling my obviously super-busy boss with my petty ignorance.

And Say We Did finds meaning… or something like it

Clean up your act, Sumen.

I noticed that this blog is actually getting hits, so I’m going to stop fartarsing around for a moment and introduce myself properly.

My name is Sumen, I’m female, married, and I live in Adelaide. I started this blog because I’m writing my first novel and I got stuck on Chapter 3.

I have played many roles in my life thus far – writer, actor, singer, filmmaker, teacher, science communicator, research analyst, grad student, and now… blogger.

This blog is like a playground for me – so I can get all those thoughts jostling around in my head out in print, to leave room for ideas for goddamn Chapter 3. I will be writing about a number of things, since I am nothing if not eclectic… well, actually, it’s because I’m indecisive and I couldn’t work out a single theme for this blog. So you can expect to find posts about:

Science: I heart astronomy, but reserve the right to blog about any other field, since awesome astronomy-related blogging already exists at the Bad Astronomy blog.

Skepticism, critical thinking, and education: I trained as a teacher, and was science communicator, for the last few years… and I still have nightmares about some of the things I saw and heard people say to kids. One day I hope to be as good at skeptical writing as these folks.

Music, books, and film: These things excite me like nothing else (except the two things listed above).

Excerpts from my novel or other works: From time to time, I will post some of the short films I’ve made or excerpts from things I’ve written, just so SOMEONE sees them

and…
pretty much anything else.

Horton Hears A Who-le lot of anti-skepticism – updated

Update: I still haven’t read the book, but my husband mentioned today that Horton Hears A Who! was originally written as a reaction to McCarthyism. That makes sense if you consider the broad themes that are present in the film (and no doubt, in the book). This post is not about the book, or about its author’s intentions. It is about the film, which is, necessarily, a different beast – and I stand by what I’ve said below so far.

I went to see Horton Hears A Who! with my niece last weekend. She spent most of the film running up and down the steps in the cinema with the other young kids, and I would have been inclined to do the same if I had not been compelled to watch what was unfolding on-screen with a distinct sense of unease.

I don’t have an issue with Horton speaking to microscopic Whos, or with Whos speaking to a giant elephant they can’t see. In the world of the film, Horton really is speaking to the Who Mayor, and the Mayor really is speaking to Horton. They both really exist. Fine. I can suspend my disbelief thus far. Talking animals are cool.

My problem is with the way the film portrays the skeptical masses of Whoville and of the forest. The epitome of this characterisation is Kangaroo, the overbearing parent who ‘pouch-schools’ her joey because she thinks the local teacher, Horton, is flaky.

Kangaroo is a nasty, obnoxious character in this film, but I found myself siding with her, because hell, I wouldn’t believe there were microscopic people I couldn’t see perched on a dust mote just because a fleet-footed elephant told me so. In Kangaroo’s own words, “If you can’t see it, hear it or feel it, it doesn’t exist.”

But Kangaroo has one particular line that made me want to throw sharp objects. Not at her, but at the writers of the film. She proclaims, “Horton is a menace. He has these kids using their imaginations!” (She is referring to the stories Horton is telling the kids of the forest about the Whos).

The writers of the film are confusing imagination with credulity. There’s nothing wrong with people using imagination. There is something wrong with unquestioningly believing someone when they say the voices they are hearing come from a civilisation of little people living on a speck (or any variations thereof), if they don’t have any evidence.

So if the character of Kangaroo the skeptic had been written more accurately, she would have been complaining that Horton was a menace because he was convincing kids to believe in things they couldn’t see. That NO-ONE could see, by the way – don’t get me started on the whole “you haven’t seen the Great Wall of China so therefore you believe it doesn’t exist” line of reasoning.

I’m hoping this confusion was a simple mistake on their part, and not a calculated attempt to discredit skepticism by equating it with killjoy child-repressing imagination-haters.

Do you see where I’m heading here?

This film reeks of religious fervour and the glorification of ‘faith’… and I’m not the only one who has noticed.

People have been writing about the pro-lifers’ bullshit adoption of Seuss’ “a person’s a person no matter how small” to promote their cause, especially since a bunch of them appeared at the premier of the film in LA. I haven’t found much written about the religious undertones of the film, and this is worrying me.

Parents and children who are not otherwise religious, but who may not look beyond the slick animation and the cute story of HHAW, are imbibing the religious messages of this film.

I’m sure some will think I’m overreacting. It’s just a kid’s film, they’ll say.

But why wouldn’t a child take the idea in the film that people who question your faith are mean, and apply it to the concept of religion, god, or New Age woo in the real world? It is illogical and inconsistent to celebrate faith in one setting, and then tell our children to be ‘critical thinkers’ in school and about the the evening news.

Thoughts, anyone?

Kiss My Asteroid: new rock gods of the skeptic world

Listen up, asteroid hunters -

If you find a previously undetected chunk of rock out there in the heavens, and you’re at a loss as to what to call it, I’d like to humbly offer the use of my name.

Until the day I receive that honour, however, I will be content to bask in the glory of others. In particular, the respective glories of:

Phil Plait (165347 Philplait) – the Bad Astronomer, and like, omg, totally huggable
Rebecca Watson (153289 Rebeccawatson) – whom I’ve admired from afar for doing what I would have loved to do for women and skepticism
Michael Stackpole (165612 Stackpole) – I haven’t actually read any of his books…eep
PZ Myers (153298 Paulmyers) – keeper of the Pharyngula science blog, and the same who was expelled from the recent preview screening of the creationist flick that should be given the flick, Expelled (Hah! How’s that for a sentence!)

These asteroids were detected by Jeff Medkeff, and his own account of the naming can be found at his Blue Collar Scientist blog. Jeff has previously named asteroids after Skepticality podcast hosts Derek Colanduno (106545 Colanduno) and Robyn ‘Swoopy’ McCarthy (106537 McCarthy) . Obviously a man with great taste

To be floating about… up there (waves hand vaguely)… with these folks is now on my list of things to do before I turn whatever arbitrary age, which I’ll decide later, based on my progress towards this goal. I don’t believe in setting unrealistic targets for myself – it only leads to disappointment.

And thus, reinvigorated with purpose, firm in the belief that one day, ###### Sumenrai will be on the lips of astronomers the world over (now there’s an interesting image), I return to my…

work… compiling lists… ugh.

Damn. No one’s giving me an asteroid for this.