I go back to school in about two weeks. This will be my senior year in High School. Luckily, I received the obligatory Summer injury just in time. Specifically, a sprained ankle.

It happened while my sister and I were watching the Leonid meteors. We were near a local Lutheran (pre-) school in a small field with apple trees lining the perimeter of the field. At some point, I saw some guy walking by. He stopped when he saw us and started to move towards the bushes that were near the apple trees on the east edge of the field. I was not particularly worried. I just thought it was some prankster trying to spook us for a laugh. My sister noticed that he had been standing in the bushes, watching us for awhile. She became worried and we both opted to go back home.

A national, general strike is in the works and we need as many people as possible to participate. The strike will occur on the much remembered date of 11 September. If you are angered, or even just worried at the path the US is taking, then please participate and make yourself heard. We can turn a day of mourning and loss into a day of truth and change.

More information (and flyers) can be found at the website provided below:

http://www.strike911.org/

Without enough people, this will just be another faint sigh of quiet dissent.

Cheers!

I would assume that most anyone on this site has heard of OpenCourseWare. It is a brilliant idea and only helps to expand and envigorate human knowledge and advancement. But, for those who have not heard of OCW, a good place to start are the MIT Courses. If MIT isn't your 'cup 'o tea' there are many other universities and colleges offering on-line education for no cost. You may have to find some external resources that may compliment a course. For example: the MIT Classics in Western Philosophy course requires Classics of Philosophy by Louis P. Pojman. But, the texts included in the Classics of Philosophy compilation can be found, in full, and on-line using a handful of sources (a simple google search is usually all that is necessary).

I've thought about this before, but only in a joking, jocular sort of way. Ever since my dad was hired for his latest job (~2005) my mom has become increasingly 'fundie' in her belief. My dad's current job schedule precludes my dad's ability to regularly attend church service (there are no blue laws in WA), so he eventually stopped trying to attend. My mother on the other hand, has continued to go to church regularly; I think this is what is causing her 'fundie-ness'. The fact that she and my sister are the only ones attending church in my family probably causes a holier-than-thou mentality. Perhaps my mother thinks the rest of the family is becoming un-godly.

There is a very interesting article on Ars right now that concerns the fate of cosmology and the universe. Most of the technical stuff flies right over my head, but the concept intrigues me. Going outside ~100 billion years from now (probably a good guess to say that humans, in their current form at least, won't be around) and seeing a shrouded sky at night would really be sad and unfortunate. Enjoy it while you can. I always grin when I see a picture of some distant galaxy, or star cluster, or nebula, etcetera. The Hubble Deep Field is my favourite picture of the cosmic deep; everyone should have the chance to see it.

The final week of my 11th. year of public schooling is here. The final week is always a bit odd. There is a sense of urgency, but then there is a pervading laziness about everything.
I'm currently setting up my German final. It is a 4 minute monologue of various, sometimes random things. My math final is Wednesday, I think. I'm already done setting up for my Computer Apps. class. In Computer Apps., we had to come up with a project; do the project and then present the results. I chose to learn my way around Rhino 3D and model a turbofan engine. It was actually somewhat easy and the presentation will be a breeze. I'm planning to just do a quick demo of modelling techniques in Rhino; I actually look forward to this. It is something I like to do.

As you all may know, the Creation Museum in Kentucky was opened not too long ago. I can't read anything about it without laughing. Ars technica has a great review of the museum with many pictures.

Some of my favourite highlights from the Ars review:

"...they claim the reason poison frogs aren't poisonous in captivity is due to the Almighty. I'm fairly sure it's due to the lack of poisonous mites in their diet, but there you go."

"There was also an explanation as to why, with only one progenitor family, it wasn't considered incest for Adam and Eve's children to marry each other. Apparently there was less sin back then, and therefore fewer mutations in their DNA."

I'm not really surprised, but it seems one of the most religious developed nations is also frighteningly ignorant of what they believe.

Links to digg:
http://digg.com/politics/Americans_believe_in_religion_but_know_little_about_it

A very interesting article from the Washington Post exposes the obvious fact that people who are ignorant of religion are more prone to believe in a religion. The abundant un-knowing in such a large population reminds me of the Catholic Church only allowing the bible to be in Latin during the Middle Ages.

It's very easy to manipulate people if you keep them ignorant of something that they believe can cause them eternal pain. They will come back to you since they think you're the only one who can keep them safe.

I just got a copy of The God Delusion. I'm on Chapter 4 and have been enjoying it very much. I don't really agree on how Dawkins thinks we should handle religion. We should argue vehemently against it, yes, but not with the vigour he is advocating.

I'm afraid that if atheists start berating the religious, there will be a collective backlash. Perhaps that is unfounded worry.

After reading The God Delusion, I'm planning on reading Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. So, I have a lot to look forward to.

Does anyone have any reading suggestions? Anyone? Anyone?

Something humorous happened in one of my classes. We were reading a short story about a meeting between a bigot and a homo-sexual minister (it was a strange story). After the class read the story, the teacher asked Jane (not her real name) what she though of it. Jane is the class jesus-freak and always seems to mention God at least every half-hour. She often writes about the 'oppression' of Christians in America (how America will be dominantly Muslim in 5 years?).

Jane responded, "It's completely opposite of what I expected--a gay guy being a minister."

The teacher asked her to elaborate further on her opinion. Jane replied by saying it was strange and weird. Then teacher then mentioned that 3 out of the 4 ministers at her church were homosexual. Plenty of awkward, blank stares ensued.