Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy has been making excellent documentaries about the growth of fundamentalism in Pakistan and Afghanistan. I posted a clip from her documentary, Children of Taliban, last May. Here is her opinion piece for The Independent regarding the recruitment of children by the Taliban for suicide bombings. If there is still any room not to be disgusted and appalled by the Taliban (at least...
Thursday, July 30, 2009
A long view of science
Science (July 10) has a review of an interesting and ambitious book: Science - A Four Thousand Year History by Patricia Fara. The review is is decent and the book, written by a historian of science at Cambridge University, seems to have some new and interesting things to say. For example, it is great...
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Natural theology in a 1958 religious infomercial from Pakistan
Ok...so I'm finally back in US. And Matt, no - the freemason (ultra-secret) hand signal didn't work at the immigration. I must have used the wrong finger. In fact, I had an hour long chat with an immigration officer. The conversation was actually quite pleasant - the guy was Catholic and accepted evolution, his mother does not. Oh - and he also asked me how I spent my 20 years in the US. Yes, it is...
Monday, July 27, 2009
Book recommendation: The Road
If you can stomach violent imagery then you will find Cormac McCarthy's The Road to be a phenomenal read. It is as dark as it can get in its depiction of a post-apocalyptic America, and yet it is gripping in its details and in tracing the survival instincts of humans. But it is not a depressing book...
Travel blues
The pleasures of summer travel. Before I get to that, let me say that Venice kicks ass! Florence is also phenomenal - but (unsurprisingly) has a very different feel to it. A review of a Galileo exhibit coming up soon.However, here I want to chronicle the pleasures of summer travel (of course, the internet...
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Blown away by Peter Greenaway
It is not very often when one has the opportunity to say, "I have never seen or experienced any thing like this before". This was my reaction when I saw an exhibit by Peter Greenaway (best known for The cook the thief his wife and her lover) in Venice, The Wedding at Cana (tip from Olga Gershenson)....
Monday, July 20, 2009
Ibn Battuta and Mars
An advisee of mine at Hampshire College (Lindsay Barbieri) is working this summer at Brown University mapping Martian gullies and looking at their geology - a fantastic project. She pointed me to the Ibn Battuta Center that is also working on Mars. I think its very cool that this center has equated planetary exploration with this remarkable 14th century Moroccan journey man who traveled for 30 years....
Saturday, July 18, 2009
"Islamtoday" on Evolution
Usually, Islamic responses to evolution have been based on straight forward misconceptions about biological evolution ("just a theory", missing links, etc.) rather than taking the theory seriously and looking at a theological response (see links below). Here is a response prepared by the "Research Committee of IslamToday.net under the supervision of Sheikh `Abd al-Wahhâb al-Turayrî". They specifically...
"Oh God said to Abraham..."
Ok..this is funny (tip Pharyngula)And of course, any chance to include Dylan in a post. From Highway 61 Revisited:Oh God said to abraham kill me a sonAbe said man you must be puttin me onGod said no, abe said whatGod say you can do what you wanna butThe next time you see me comin you better runWell abe said where dyou want this killin doneGod said out on highway 61Here is the full so...
Friday, July 17, 2009
A roller coaster conference
I must say - this conference has been a bit strange. I have heard some amazing talks here. For example, Ron Numbers on creationism in the global context, John Evans in bringing sociological research to science & religion, Marwa El Shakry on the early reception of Darwinism in the Arab world, and today' talk by Jon Roberts on the religious reception of Darwinism in America 1859-1920 (summaries...
Thursday, July 16, 2009
At Oxford: Science Taxi, Hair Salons, and Faucets
This is my first time at Oxford - and it is a lively place! And the campus is huge. There are a lot of tourists towards the old campus - but we are fine here at Saint Anne's College. Couple of quick things: On my walk from the bus station, I saw this periodic table taxi:I think all cabs should be like...
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Up with Darwin's Down House
On Tuesday I had a chance to go to the Down House. I was joined by an avid amateur astronomer from Pakistan, Umair Asim (see his post about the visit here).Couple of comments:If you visit London, do take some time off to visit Darwin's home. It is about 20 minutes from the trains with an added 15 minutes...
Alone on the dark side of "Moon"
A few weeks ago I had posted a positive post about the movie "Moon". Here is now an opinion/review piece that I wrote with Kevin Anderson (he teaches film at UMass). It was in yesterday's Daily Hampshire Gazette (however, one needs a subscription to read it). Here is the full article:Alone on the dark...
Monday, July 13, 2009
Science, poetry, and ficton in the 'age of wonder'
This looks fantastic and has been getting fantastic reviews: The Age of Wonder: How the romantic generation discovered the beauty and terror of science by Richard Holmes. Here is a review from the New York Times (tip from Laura Sizer):William Herschel, the German-born, star-gazing musician who effectively...
Law & Order: The "genie" unit
I was thinking that I won't have much entertainment while I wait in Boston to catch a flight for London. But fear not - we have this story from Saudi Arabia:It seems that a jinn ("genie") in Saudi Arabia is being sued for harassment. A local court is investigating the charges: A family in Saudi Arabia is taking a "genie" to court, accusing it of theft and harassment, reports say. They accuse...
Friday, July 10, 2009
In England next week for a conference
I will be attending Religious Responses to Darwinism 1859-2009 conference at St. Anne's College, Oxford (from Jul 15-18). In addition to that, this coming Tuesday, I plan to take a day-trip to Darwin's Down House (right) outside of London. There is a new exhibition there to celebrate the bicentenary...
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Leading an army into the afterlife
Now this is really cool. Emperor Qin Shi Huang, 2200 years ago, prepared an army of lifesize replicas of Qin soldiers (Terracotta army) and horses to empower him in the afterlife (from this week's Science):In life, he subdued China's warring states and became the country's first emperor. In death, he...
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Madrassas vs private schools in Pakistan
A reader here recently pointed me to this fascinating article, The Madrassa Myth by Asim Khwaja. The main argument is that the importance of madrassas in Pakistan (and their subsequent impact on terrorism) has been greatly exaggerated. If nothing else, it provides an alternative view point that can...
Arab Science Jouranalism
Last week's Nature had a series of articles focusing on science journalism. One of them addressed science journalism in the Arab world. It paints a relatively optimistic picture - with an increasing interest in science. This is positive news indeed, but I wonder if the author is more talking about technology. I don't read Arab newspapers, so I can't say much about that, but I know that science content...
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Tracing human evolution via mistakes
Kenneth Chang has post on Tierney Lab about the role of natural mistakes that have provided some of the strongest evidence for evolution. Some simple conceptual predictions - and fantastic confirmations. Science at its best. Here Chang quotes from a recent talk by Ken Miller. If you don't want to read the whole thing, I have also embedded below a relevant segment from the NOVA episode about the Dover...
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