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Geert Wilders is a Dutch politician, an elected member of that country's Parliament, infamous for his right-wing views on immigration and social policy. In 2008, he released a short film, Fitna , which criticizes Islamic radicalism by interspersing video footage of terrorist attacks with quotes from ...
Update 7/2/08 : Sounds like the lava flows from Llaima are increasing ... or that there are more of them. The lava flows, as mentioned below, pose a threat to melt the ice on the volcano and produce lahars, or at least flooding. Lots of news this morning about a new eruption at Llaima in Chile ...
Today's post on morality takes up the topic of forgiveness for wrongdoing. In superstitious times, forgiveness was obtained through magical rituals. Most of these assumed that guilt could in some fashion be transferred to an animal or other being, which was then killed or driven off to provide a ...
Almost 9 months since its last eruption, Ruapehu is keeping New Zealanders guessing about its next move. Brad Scott of GNS Science (NZ) reports that the crater lake at Ruapehu is reading unusually warm temperatures and high gas emissions, well after geologists there would have expected after the ...
The number of different religions on this planet is vast, and all their associated arguments and apologetics form a library that's vaster still. No matter how well-read or well-traveled any atheist is, they're bound to run into claims every so often that they've never heard before. It happens to me ...
The Florentine mathematician, astronomer and cosmographer Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli (1397-1482) is probably best remembered for his proposal in 1474 to the Portuguese court of a scheme to sail west as a shortcut to reach the fabled Spice Islands in the east. Toscanelli never made it across ...
The other day while browsing in the library, I found out that Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, authors of the Left Behind series, have also written a trilogy of prequels. (As long as Christians continue to purchase these awful books, it seems, they intend to keep churning them out.) The final ...
I found this picture on the SF Chronicle website and it speaks volumes about the destruction wreaked on Chaiten, Chile. The ash has buried the town and what the ash hasn't damaged, the water and debris from the swelled river in the background have finished off. This is what volcanoes can do ...
I have two short announcements to bring to your attention: • Daylight Atheism commenter Eshu has started his own blog, Bridging Schisms. If the first few posts are any indication, it ought to be a fine addition to the ranks of the atheist blogosphere. Go check it out and tell him I sent you ...
Since the "surprise" eruption of Chaiten in southern Chile (still erupting away), I'm sure there has been a lot of talk about better monitoring and predictions for volcanic eruptions. Now, we don't know the full extent of the facts, but usually an eruption of the magnitude of Chaiten (VEI 6, i.e ...
Today's installment of "Do You Really Believe That?" will leave behind Judaic and Christian mythologies to examine a doctrine specific to Islam, the doctrine of abrogation. This belief holds that Allah originally revealed certain practices and rules to Mohammed, only to later issue new revelations ...
What is it with airlines and maps? Which part of ‘atlas’ don’t they understand? You’d think that, being the business of transportation, they’d get their distances and directions straight. Some time ago, I posted a map by Swiss Airlines that placed a lot of its destinations at a worrying ...
If Alaska wants to take a cue from Iceland, it might find itself with more power than it can use. That is, if the dreams of the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas come true. They are planning to lease land on Mt. Spurr and possibly Mt. Augustine for geothermal exploration. Both of these volcanoes ...
(click on image to enlarge) The Zeitgeist of the mid ‘fifties probably wasn’t shrinkwrapped in quite so many layers of irony and political correctness as today’s is, or a map like this would never have been made – let alone contemplated. It looks like a tourist map of New Jersey, inviting ...
Things have quieted down on the volcano-news front lately. I did catch a report that Fuego (Guatemala) is having small explosions (stombolian eruptions; link in Spanish), producing small (100s m-tall) ash columns along with some throwing incandescent blocks 30-50 meters from the vent. Just the ...