The Barenaked Ladies are not in my bathroom.

But if they were, they might be doing something like what you’ll see in the video below. It’s a response to BnL’s ‘Bathroom Sessions’ in which Ed Robertson, and sometimes Steven Page, sing their songs in front of a webcam, then upload it to YouTube. All in Ed’s bathroom.

This is my first attempt at a long animation using Creatoon (freeware animation software), and I think it isn’t TOO bad for a first go ’round Let me just disclaim that the video quality is pretty shite, but that’s compression for ya.

I won’t be giving up my day job just yet, but stay tuned.

For those who aren’t in this country, Kevin Rudd is Australia’s Prime Minister.

Unfortunately, work has gotten in the way of me writing too much about this right now, but it caught my eye while I was browsing the news. Kevin Rudd has come out as saying he believes there is an intelligent cause for the existence of the universe (ok, not just any old intelligence, but the Anglican god himself).

Kevin Rudd, so far, has been a more progressive Prime Minister than our previous one (John Howard), what with the Apology to the Stolen Generations and ratifying Kyoto and all, but he hasn’t had much time to show us all if he’s actually much the same as ol’ Johnny. I don’t have a problem if my Prime Minister considers himself religious. I really really don’t. As long as his religion doesn’t influence policy. How long before his conscience demands that Intelligent Garbage be taught in science classes as an alternative to evolution? Some may scoff and say that would never happen in Oz, but this statement from Ruddy scares me a little:

If you were simply reducing that to mathematically probabilities I’ve got to say it [creation of the universe] probably wouldn’t have happened.

So I think there is an intelligent mind at work.

Oh, right! He used the phrase ‘mathematical probabilities’, so he must know what he’s talking about.

This makes me angry. More later, as I have some deadlines to meet!

First, for those after news about the small plane crash (as in ’small plane’, not ’small crash’) involving Ed Robertson from the Barenaked Ladies, pick your news outlet of choice:

The Star
CANOE.ca – CNews
The Globe and Mail
and a fairly in-depth one from the Belleville Intelligencer.

I’m sure more news will trickle in as Canada heads towards daylight, so do a Google search if you need more updated info, ’cos I’ll probably be asleep here in Oz

In a nutshell, all reports say Ed and the three other people on the plane are just fine, which is great, great news.

Now, to why I’m blogging this: Ed Robertson is one of those precious rational, science-loving folks in a position of immense influence. I don’t know if his views on gods and science are precisely what Barenaked Ladies fans get from his music and his persona, but he has those views out there, he’s a self-professed ’science geek’, and that is always something to be appreciated.

I guess I’m an agnostic. I suppose it’s possible there’s a God, but I can’t imagine he’s paying any attention to us anymore. Anyone that powerful would have moved on to other things a long time ago. I think we’re on our own, so we need to take care of each other.

Now if only someone could convince him to pose for the Skepdude calendar (c’mon, I’m only human).

There is a second reason I’m blogging this: a weird coincidence nearly made my head explode when I saw the news story about the plane crash.

I’ve been on a bit of a Barenaked Ladies kick recently, since I’ve been listening to (and loving) their new kids’ album Snacktime. I downloaded some of the old Barenaked Ladies podcasts (Live from the studio! Freakin’ out! for those in the know), and today I was listening to them while doing some monotonous tasks at work. I wouldn’t be able to tell you which particular episode I was listening to, but there was Ed Robertson’s voice, telling of how he has never had any major incidents in his airplane flying career (yep, he’s a pilot). Just as I was listening to this, a Google Alert appeared in my inbox: Barenaked Ladies’ Ed Robertson survives plane crash. It was simultaneous. And y’know, I never, EVER, exaggerate.

I had to stop for a moment and wonder if I had inadvertently played a trick on myself, without my self catching on.  

Because I’m a skeptical shrew, I’ve concluded, reasonably I think, that all this is a coincidence. But I’m sure that lady I heard mouthing off on the bus this morning about how psychics are not charlatans would tell me I’m preventing myself from achieving true knowledge by denying my spiritual side, and that I actually knew Ed in a previous life – maybe when I was a Viking chief, as I was once told by a ‘past life reader’ (but that’s another story for another day), or perhaps I was the tree that was cut down to make one of his guitars or something.

Or maybe I actually knew the plane in a previous life.

Anyway, just wanted to marvel at the coincidence for a moment, and to reiterate that I hope everyone on that plane, and indeed everyone in blogland, is doing well.

UPDATE 11/08/08: So, being the well-connected woman of the world that I am (ahem), I spoke with a couple of the South Australian Science Week Commitee folks at a science expo-type event yesterday. I was told that they were given a choice of hosting either Michael Shermer or Luke Hunter (Executive Director of the Panthera Foundation) during Science Week. They went with Luke Hunter – not that I have a problem with that, as he seems to be a very cool guy. But I’m still sad that Shermie won’t be visiting the ’city of *retch* churches’. It also looks like Sydney and Melbourne get to have both speakers, while the rest of us miss out. Right then, where are all those folks who are always trying to convince me Adelaide ISN’T a backwater?

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National Science Week hits Australia from 16 – 24 August 2008.

And… Michael Shermer will be lecturing around the country as part of this event! (Yay!)

But… at the moment, Adelaide is not listed on his itinerary (Boo!)

So… I wrote to the organisers to ask nicely, please, why is this the case? and am waiting for a reply (c’mon, c’monnnn)

Can I count on the rest of you Adelaideans to back me up on this?

I never met the man in person, but through his Blue Collar Scientist blog, Jeff Medkeff did so much to inspire so many, including me. He wrote with deep love of science, with a talent for making himself understood so you would sit back and say, “ohkaayy, now it makes sense”, and with pointed wit.

I didn’t really know the man so all I can do is talk about my experience of him: he was the first person to link to my blog (to a post I did about his naming of some asteroids he discovered), and also gave me the opportunity to contribute a post to his blog, which I will forever be holding up as a triumph. I’m sad that I’ll never get to know more of him than that.

Jeff has left a legacy in the skies, not just with the asteroids he discovered and the one named for him, but also because he was a passionate astronomer, and it will be difficult to look at the stars without thinking of him.

This is very much our loss.

UPDATE: Hm. I suck at leaving this blog thing alone. I think I’ve been here more often now that I’ve told everyone I’m not going to be here for a while. Anyway, I dropped by to tell you all that I’ve made some additions to my blogroll, seeing as how you’re going to be needing some extra mind-expanding material while I’m away. Go visit Ronin of the Spirit for thought provoking commentary, and Thinking is Real has some fabulous dissections of every Australian skeptic’s favourite show, The One (really, you have to see it to believe how bad it is – tonight, 7:30pm on Channel 7, if you’re in Australia). And my standby for when I need clarify my thoughts on something: my friend Lee’s Mobile Science blog.

Here endeth the update.

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Hello, people of Earth.

I’ve been having trouble writing meaningful blog posts in the last little while. I’ve been plagued with such questions as:

• “do I really need to add my brainspew to the already brilliant skeptical blog coverage out there?” (no),
• “will writing a blog really help me increase my writing output on my novel” (no), and
• “how often can one eat ramen noodles without getting sick of them, or off them?” (3 times a week, and counting).

There are things happening in my away-from-the-blogosphere life which I can’t really blog about since I’ve been lax in ensuring my real name doesn’t get linked (easily) to this blog. But a quick Google search of my name leads back here quite readily, and despite the technophobia of my overlords, there is always a chance that somehow, they will stumble upon my words of wisdom and will feel the need to assert their power over me in new and creative ways.

It’s not all about them, though. I am feeling a little unsure about what I’m writing and why I am writing it at the moment, so I’m gonna take a step back and try to see it from a different angle, maybe standing on my head.

In the meantime, let me point you in the direction of my blogroll. You should check out those links, if you haven’t already. Feel free to provide me with inspiration and/or random callouts by leaving comments here, by email or by sitting on my Facebook.

I’ll be back shortly.

It sounds like a B-grade horror flick (and perhaps it is), but the sermon to be given by Archbishop Pell at the World Youth Day Mass starting in just over half an hour will be based on Chapter 37 of the Prophecy of Ezechiel (according to the online Douay-Rheimes Bible).

Go read it if you’re curious about what it has to say. Or if you’d rather wait, I will be back after listening to the Mass to dissect, with the usual dose of snarkiness, the words of *ahem* wisdom spewed forth by Archbishop Pell into the ears of some the world’s most vulnerable youth (ie, the ones caught in the grip of religious fervour).

See you soon, my children. Ramen.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, neither the ABC nor SBS have a recording of Pelly’s sermon at yesterday’s mass, so I’m not going to be able to have my fun with it! Spoilsports. From the snippets of the sermon I have heard, it seems Pelly used the passage about the Valley of the Dry Bones to draw parallels with Australia’s drought. I’m no bible scholar, but: what???

UPDATE 2: Oh, nevermind – I’ve found a pdf version of the sermon (or ‘homily’). Critique is forthcoming. I’m not sure why I’m doing this, but it gives me some sort of sick pleasure to pit myself against everything about this event. Maybe it’s because all those in power have bent over to welcome WYD to Sydney, and apart from mention of sex abuse, even the usually good media outlets like the ABC and SBS have jumped on the bandwagon. But analysing why I feel so strongly about this is another post for another day.

Ok, so my anti-World Youth Day t-shirt idea hasn’t taken off, but I found a list of Top 10 Anti-World Youth Day t-shirt slogans on the SBS television website:

• You can fine me $5,500… But I still won’t believe in God
• WYD08: We close 300 roads so 300,000 can close their minds
• Good luck Pope – I’ve been waiting for a miracle at Randwick for years
• “and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who wear t-shirts that cause annoyance or inconvenience…”
• I survived a Christian Brothers education
• Oh no, I stepped in Dogma
• Too many Christians, not enough lions – Randwick 2008
• annoying & inconvenient
• I’ve been touched by the Catholic Church, so where’s my $2 billion?
• World Youth Day: You can cross yourself, but not the city

I don’t know who compiled these slogans – they made me giggle a little but I don’t think they’re spectacular.

Can you do better? Send me your slogans in the comments!

UPDATE: If you want to try and get your slogan/design on a t-shirt, head over to the REMO General Store website, where they are running a competition that gives you a chance to show off your creativity and snarkiness to the rest of the world (well, Australia, anyway – umm, actually, probably only Sydney. But do it anyway)!

UPDATE 2: The Australian Federal Court has removed a part of the wording of the New South Wales’ new World Youth Day laws – it is now legal to ‘annoy’, but still remains illegal to ‘inconvenience’, WYD pilgrims. Does that mean that anti-WYD t-shirts are ok? Unless someone can find ways to make a t-shirt inconvenient… like maybe, it only has one armhole or something…

The New South Wales Government has announced some new, temporary ’laws’ to coincide with World Youth Day in Sydney (15-20 July 2008). Under these laws, anyone doing anything to cause ‘annoyance’ or ‘inconvenience’ to the WYD pilgrims, (eg. wearing a t-shirt that might protest, say, any of the Pope’s dumbass ideas) can be arrested and/or fined up to $5500.

What, free speech?

Unfortunately, I won’t be in Sydney for this wonderfully retch-inducing event, but if I was, do you think wearing this on a t-shirt would be considered ‘annoying’:

I was talking to some newly-minted friends at work – they’re more than just work colleagues but we haven’t quite progressed to the hanging out on weekends stage – and yesterday I found myself shaking my head in (sad) wonder that some women submit their intelligence to superstition so readily.

These friends and I are all in a similar position, work-wise. We work under the same uninspiring bosses, doing uninspiring tasks, and we’re BORED. So, we turned recently to communicating across the cubicles through emails, and to playing pranks on each other. Yesterday I sent two of these people, let’s call them A and B, a link to this online voodoo doll website.

A bit of fun. The screams are amusing.

I recieved an email back from A, saying that she doesn’t like playing with this sort of thing because of what happened to her friend. Alarm bells started going off in my head, I really REALLY didn’t want her to elaborate, so I didn’t reply.

Unfortunately, B is a curious type, so she asked the question. B then came to my cubicle and told me this in a hushed and awestruck voice (keep in mind, this woman is 30 years old): A’s friends once tried to put a curse on someone by putting that person’s name in a cup and putting the cup in a freezer (wha…?), but they ‘got it wrong’ and bad things started happening to them…

I was about to mouth the words ‘confirmation bias’, but she jumped in first to tell me:

Her very own husband dug up a buried jar when he was a child in India, developed a rash that the doctors couldn’t figure out, then went to a witchdoctor who told him he’d been cursed (what else would the witchdoctor say?).

I wonder if bottled curses come in six-packs.

I took a deep breath and reminded myself that the being saying these unbelievably ridiculous things was a friend. A friend, dammit. A smart friend, who should know better.

She then asked me if I had been thinking about anyone in particular when I played the online voodoo doll thingy. I said no, not particularly, but I don’t think it would make a difference if I had been…

Why, why, why.

I am dumbstruck. I’ve written about the irrational beliefs of my co-workers before, but it doesn’t get me any closer to understanding why intelligent, professional, modern women, who have had all the benefits of a good education, still believe this shit. It makes me angry, because in an instant, they are reduced to quivering, credulous, fearful simpletons – something which women have worked so hard to show they’re not.

Believing in curses, or fairies, or whatever, is an insult to your own intelligence. It’s being unfaithful to your brain. It’s spitting in the faces of everyone who has tried to progress human culture through real knowledge of the universe we live in. How can you possibly, possibly think sticking a bunch of zeros and ones in the shape of pins into a bunch of zeros and ones in the shape of a voodoo doll can possibly hurt a real, living, breathing human being??

And to top it all off, as I was ascending in an elevator to my 10th floor office this morning, the door opened on the 7th floor for someone to get out, and I managed to catch a snippet of a conversation before the doors closed again. One perfectly manicured power-suited woman, briefcase in hand, said to another:

I finally read The Secret last night.