Cult Mom Who Starved Son to Death For Not Saying 'Amen' Pleads Guilty

March 30 2009
From CBS News:

A former religious cult member pleaded guilty Monday to starving her 1-year-old son to death after making an unusual deal with prosecutors: If the child is resurrected, her plea will be withdrawn.

Ria Ramkissoon, 22, also agreed to testify against four other members of the now-defunct religious group known as 1 Mind Ministries. All four are charged with first-degree murder in the death of Javon Thompson.

According to a statement of facts, the cult members stopped feeding the boy when he refused to say "Amen" after a meal. After Javon died, Ramkissoon sat next to his decomposing body and prayed for his resurrection. Read more

(via Doctor E)

Woman Goes With Jesus on a Tour of Heaven and Hell

Play all videos (3)
See also:

• FOX News: Man Spends 23 Minutes in Hell
  
• British Islamic Preacher Abdul Rahim Green Describes the Torments of "the Hellfire"
  

Atheist Britons Seek 'De-Baptism'

From Breitbart:

 More than 100,000 Britons have recently downloaded "certificates of de-baptism" from the Internet to renounce their Christian faith.

The initiative launched by a group called the National Secular Society (NSS) follows atheist campaigns here and elsewhere, including a London bus poster which triggered protests by proclaiming "There's probably no God." Read more

Get your certificate of de-baptism from here

Thanks to TroisVitesse

Glenn Beck Celebrates 'Earth Hour'

March 30 2009 on FOX 'News'
*New tag: Glenn Beck (11 posts)

The Big Questions: Is It Right to Advertise Abortion Services?

Play all videos (2)
Aired March 29, 2009 on BBC One
Thanks to TroisVitesse

JREF Youtube Account Suspended!

by dprjones

To complain to youtube follow this link
Scroll to the very bottom and click on "new issue"
Select "suspended account" from the options and express your opinion.

UPDATE From JREF:

Our YouTube account has been suspended, which means all of the Randi Speaks and other JREF videos are temporarily unavailable. We're researching the problem, and will be back online as soon as possible. Thanks very much for your patience.

(via Pharyngula)

Family Guy: Not All Dogs Go To Heaven

UPDATE: Video was removed from Youtube
Click here to watch it via Hulu (Viewers outside the US can use Hotspot Shield)

March 29 2009 - Season 7, Episode 11

Meg becomes extremely religious, and tries to convert Brian from Atheism. Meanwhile, after the family visits a Star Trek convention, Stewie kidnaps the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation and forces them to hang out with him.

(via Pharyngula)

Pilot Jailed For Praying While Plane Was Crashing - UPDATED

March 27, 2009 on HBO
The Guardian:

A pilot accused of praying when he should have been taking emergency measures to avoid a crash in which 16 people died has been sentenced to 10 years in jail by an Italian court.

Captain Chafik Gharby was at the controls of a plane belonging to the Tunisian charter airline Tuninter that crashed in the sea off the coast of Sicily four years ago. The 23 survivors were left swimming for their lives, some clinging to a piece of the fuselage that stayed afloat after the turbo-prop aircraft broke up on impact. Read more

UPDATE: Cockpit voice recording minutes before the crash
Thanks to Peter for the tip

Rep. John Shimkus: Only God Decides When The 'Earth Will End'

From the March 25, 2009 hearing of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment.

See also: Rep. John Shimkus: Capping C02 Emissions Will Steal 'Plant Food'

Christopher Hitchens on 'Real Time' with Salman Rushdie and Mos Def - UPDATED

Play all videos (3)
March 27, 2009 on HBO

UPDATE: Part 3 'Overtime' added to playlist

New Domain: www.atheistmedia.com - Please Update Your Links

We finally acquired Atheistmedia.com after the previous owner's registration ended.
Thanks to GoDaddy's automatic backorder service.
*Requeued

Real Catholic TV: Shame, Shame on You, Notre Dame!

by Real Catholic TV:

Along with thousands of other Catholics and Notre Dame alumni, RealCatholicTV.com is reacting with shock and horror to the news that Barack Obama is to give the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame.

Thanks to JC for the link
(via Theo Spark)

'Life Of Brian' Screened In Welsh Town - Decades After It Was Banned for Blasphemy

Added March 28, 2009 on SKY News

Thirty years after it was banned, Monty Python's Life of Brian is finally going to be shown in Aberystwyth in Wales. Two of the controversial movie's stars Michael Palin and Terry Jones are expected to meet up with another cast member - the town's very own mayor, Sue Jones-Davies.

Nightline Face-Off: Does Satan Exist? - 70% of Americans Say Yes

Watch The Full Episode
March 26, 2009 on ABC Nightline

The "Face-Off" is a recurring series where opposing sides debate hot topics. In 2008, Ron Jeremy and Vivid porn star Monique Alexander debated "porn pastor" Craig Gross and former porn producer Donny Pauling about America's addiction to porn.

In 2007, the first "Nightline Face-Off: Does God Exist?" pitted actor and evangelical Kirk Cameron and his partner at the Way of the Master against two self-proclaimed atheists.

In this third installment, philosopher Deepak Chopra and Bishop Carlton Pearson will face-off against Pastor Mark Driscoll of the Mars Hill Church and Annie Lobert, founder of the Christian ministry "Hookers for Jesus" about the existence of the Devil.

South Park: Jew Pays For Everyone's Debts

(via Doctor E)

Gary: Young, Psychic and Possessed

Play all videos (6)
Aired March 24, 2009 on BBC 3

Twenty-year-old Gary Mannion calls himself Britain's youngest psychic surgeon, channelling a spirit from the dead to operate on the sick. He is a rising star in the world of spiritual healing, travelling the world to bring his alleged ability to effect miracle cures to a devoted following.

In Young, Psychic and Possessed filmmaker Emeka Onono follows Gary as he tries to prove he really does have the power to heal. It is a journey into the supernatural that will challenge both sceptics and true believers. Emeka hears stories of miracle cures, watches Gary operate, and even participates in seances, before turning to science to try to separate fact from fantasy.

Thanks to TroisVitesse

Sarah Palin Couldn't Find Anybody to Hold Hands and Pray With

March 26, 2009 on CNN

Katie Couric: Creationism Should Be Tought In Religion Class, Not Science

March 25, 2009 on CBS News

Katie Couric discusses a debate in Texas concerning the teaching of evolution in classrooms. Couric says that alternative theories, such as creationism, should be taught in religion class.

ABC News: Gay Bashing at a Sports Bar - What Would You Do?

March 24, 2009

ABC News "Tested Americans' increasing open-mindedness", they staged a verbal gay-bashing scenario at a local sports bar in Linden, N.J. They hired actor Vince August to play a homophobic patron. Dusty St. Amand and Dominic Benevento, a gay couple in real life, played the targets of his slurs. Two additional actors, Traci Hovel and Brad Lee Wind, played a heterosexual couple at the opposite end of the bar.

Catholics Protest Obama's Scheduled Notre Dame Commencement Speech

March 24, 2009
From CNN:

The bishop for the Ft. Wayne/South Bend diocese said Tuesday he is boycotting the university's graduation ceremony. Bishop John D'Arcy said his decision "is not an attack on anyone, but is in defense of the truth about human life."

"This will be the 25th Notre Dame graduation during my time as bishop. After much prayer, I have decided not to attend the graduation. I wish no disrespect to our president, I pray for him and wish him well," D'Arcy said in a statement. "I have always revered the Office of the Presidency. But a bishop must teach the Catholic faith 'in season and out of season,' and he teaches not only by his words - but by his actions."

Anjem Choudary: Islamist dickhead

by Pat Condell
See also:

• "All homosexuals should be stoned to death"
• "Make every woman wear a Burkha"
• "I want to see the flag of Allah flying over Downing Street"
• Pictures: Andy Choudary's ungodly past
• Choudary explains how Islam will take over the UK (Video)
• Petition against Sharia Law

Adam Carolla Interviews Seth MacFarlane on Religion

March 17, 2009 on The Adam Carolla Podcast
Subscribe on iTunes

BBC Horizon: Can We Make a Star on Earth?

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Aired February 28, 2009 on BBC Two

Professor Brian Cox takes a global journey in search of the energy source of the future. Called nuclear fusion, it is the process that fuels the sun and every other star in the universe. Yet despite over five decades of effort, scientists have been unable to get even a single watt of fusion electricity onto the grid.

Brian returns to Horizon to find out why. Granted extraordinary access to the biggest and most ambitious fusion experiments on the planet, Brian travels to the USA to see a high security fusion bomb testing facility in action and is given a tour of the world's most powerful laser. In South Korea, he clambers inside the reaction chamber of K-Star, the world's first super-cooled, super-conducting fusion reactor where the fate of future fusion research will be decided.

*New tag: Brian Cox (6 posts)
(via Skepticat)

African Albinos Become Prey to Witchcraft

March 20, 2009 on CNN

Albinos in East Africa are falling victim to hunters who desire their skin and body parts.

Celibate Catholic Priest Writes Sex Manual

March 19, 2009 on Russia Today

A guide to a healthy sex life is nothing unusual in the 21st century except, that is, when its a sex manual thats written by a Catholic monk.

Darwin's Dangerous Idea | Episode 3: Life and Death

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Aired March 19, 2009 on BBC Two

In the final episode of this ground-breaking series about Charles Darwin's legacy, Andrew Marr discovers how Darwin's ideas are helping us to save ourselves and all life on earth from extinction. Marr argues that Charles Darwin is the father of ecology. The modern environmental movement was built upon his insight that all life on earth is linked by a delicate web of connections. He also discovers that Darwin's dangerous idea is inspiring scientists to create a 'flotilla of Darwinian Noah's Arks' to help save life on earth from disaster.

Exploring the impact of industrialisation, intensive farming and our growing hunger for meat, Marr tells the story of our slow awakening to the full implications of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection and our own destructive powers as a species. After showing how Darwin developed his ideas by digging up fossils, exploring coral reefs and studying the habits of the humble earthworm, Marr explains how Darwin's dangerous idea was launched into the space age. He discovers the mysterious movements of the 'mouse society', snorkels over a coral reef and visits a 'boiling cauldron of evolution' - the tropical rainforest - which is now threatened by the shadow of mass extinction.

Over the last 150 years, the combination of Darwin's ideas with politics has often had disastrous social consequences. In this programme, Andrew Marr argues that our failure to combine politics with Darwin's insights into the delicate connections between all life on earth could be accelerating the countdown to our own extinction.

Thanks to TroisVitesse

Bring It On: Salvation, Prayer, and Ghosts

March 19, 2009 on CBN
Questions:

1. I have embraced Jesus ever since I was a child. I am now 50, but I have never been reborn. Do I need a "defining moment of salvation"?
2. If God is all knowing, why do we need to pray?
3. My friend sees demons and ghosts. Is that biblical?

If you have any questions for Pat send them here

BBC Horizon: Do You Know What Time It Is?

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First aired December 2, 2008 on BBC Two

Particle physicist Professor Brian Cox asks, 'What time is it?' It's a simple question and it sounds like it has a simple answer. But do we really know what it is that we're asking?

Brian visits the ancient Mayan pyramids in Mexico where the Maya built temples to time. He finds out that a day is never 24 hours and meets Earth's very own Director of Time. He journeys to the beginning of time, and goes beyond within the realms of string theory, and explores the very limit of time. He discovers that we not only travel through time at the speed of light, but the experience we feel as the passing of time could be an illusion.

ABC News: What Would You Do If You Thought You Saw a Child Bride?

March 17, 2009 on ABC News

Colorado City, Ariz., home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, seems like a town stuck in the 19th century. Women wear old-fashioned clothing and sport elaborately braided hairstyles, and the practice of polygamy -- having more than one spouse at one time -- is not uncommon.

The FLDS, which has been renounced by the Mormon Church for it's practice of polygamy, has been accused of arranging marriages between underage girls and much older men who already have multiple wives. Young women have spoken out about allegedly being forced into marriage when they were as young as 14, and wishing they'd had help escaping their fates.

So how would people react if they thought they were seeing a young girl being forced into a polygamous marriage against her will? Read more

Australian Cleric: Men Can Force Wives to Have Sex

January 21, 2009
Herald Sun:

A Melbourne Islamic cleric says his male followers can force their wives to have sex and hit them if they're disobedient.

Bruno Interviews "Gay Converter" Pastor Quinn

An old clip from HBO's Da Ali G Show
Sacha Cohen's new movie Bruno is scheduled for release on July 10, 2009
See also:

• Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno crashes gay marriage ban rally
• Sacha Baron Cohen premieres bits of Bruno at SXSW
• SXSW: A Sneek Peak at Bruno

Pope Benedict: Condom Distribution Will Fuel AIDS Epidemic

March 17, 2009 on CNN

Pope Benedict XVI said condoms are not the answer to the AIDS epidemic in Africa and can make the problem worse, setting off criticism Tuesday as he began a weeklong trip to the continent where some 22 million people are living with HIV.

The Daily Show: Science Undermines The American Way of Life

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Stem Sell

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

March 16, 2009

John Oliver: Science, with its rational methodology and fact-based process, undermines the American way of life

Viewers in Canada can watch it here
(via Pharyngula)

Free speech is sacred

by Pat Condell

Dan Dennett: Cute, Sexy, Sweet And Funny - An Evolutionary Riddle

Filmed Feb 2009; Posed Mar 2009 on TED Talks

Why are babies cute? Why is cake sweet? Philosopher Dan Dennett has answers you wouldn't expect, as he shares evolution's counterintuitive reasoning on cute, sweet and sexy things. For a topping, try his new theory on why jokes are funny.

Michael Shermer Interviews Georgia Purdom at The Creation Museum

by Michael Shermer
(via Pharyngula)

Evolution and Oxygen

by Hila

3 Billion years ago cyanobacteria appeared on the planet, changing the course of life on earth. Scientists call this event the Oxygen Catastrophe.

This video discusses the appearance of cyanobacteria and the effect it had on the evolution of life over the next 3 billion years.

Suitable for an introduction to evolution, endosymbiosis and the appearance of photosynthesis and oxygen. The video includes an introduction to iron strata formation and the relationship between cyanobacteria and chloroplasts.

Christianity Does Not Cause War!

by Edward Current

Darwin's Dangerous Idea | Episode 2: Born Equal?

Play all videos (6) | Episode 1
Aired March 12, 2009 on BBC 2

Andrew Marr discovers something surprising about his own evolutionary history as this epic series continues with an exploration of Darwin's impact on politics and society.

Under the banner of Survival of the Fittest, Darwin's theory of natural selection has been used to justify imperial expansion and the oppression of indigenous peoples; to inform the science of eugenics - the selective breeding of humans which was implemented in the United States in the early 20th century; and to provide a veneer of scientific respectability to Nazi plans to create an Aryan master race. It was also used quite explicitly to explain the twisted logic of the final solution.

But Andrew Marr also finds a kind of redemption for Darwin's theory of evolution. After the Second World War, it was a founding idea behind the democratic, anti-racist values of the United Nations. More recently, it has also been used to help eliminate a fatal genetic disease from the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn. Marr goes on to consider the difficult social and political choices presented by predictive DNA testing - the final frontier of Darwin's Dangerous Idea.

Thanks to TroisVitesse

Billboard: 'Great sex, God's way'

March 12, 2009

CNN's Kiran Chetry speaks to a pastor whose congregation put up billboards to promote his sermons.

Monkeys Floss, With Human Hair

March 12, 2009

Japanese researchers from Kyoto University have discovered hygiene-conscious Thai monkeys apparently teaching their offspring how to floss their teeth using human hairs.

Read more: Flossing monkeys, Proof animals teach tool use
*Updated with higher quality video from AP

Deborah 13: Servant of God

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Aired March 10, 2009 on BBC 3

Documentary about 13-year-old Deborah Drapper, who, unlike other British teens has never heard of Britney Spears or Victoria Beckham. She has been brought up in a deeply Christian family and her parents have tried to make sure she and her ten brothers and sisters have grown up protected from the sins of the outside world.

Deborah is a bright, confident girl who has big ambitions for her life and the film spends a summer with her as she ventures out in the world to see what life outside her family could be and starts putting her beliefs forward to a wider audience.

Thanks to TroisVitesse

White House Prayer on Embryonic Stem Cell Reversal

by Faith and Action:

Rev. Rob Schenck and Rev. Pat Mahoney talk after holding a prayer service outside the White House as President Obama held a ceremony inside marking his reversal of a presidential order protecting nascent humans from destructive medical experimentation

Saudi Court Sentences Elderly Woman to 40 Lashes for 'Mingling'

March 9, 2009 on CNN

A Saudi Arabian court has sentenced a 75-year-old Syrian woman to 40 lashes, four months imprisonment and deportation from the kingdom for having two unrelated men in her house, according to local media reports.

According to the Saudi daily newspaper Al-Watan, troubles for the woman, Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi, began last year when a member of the religious police entered her house in the city of Al-Chamli and found her with two unrelated men, "Fahd" and "Hadian."

Fahd told the policeman he had the right to be there, because Sawadi had breast-fed him as a baby and was therefore considered to be a son to her in Islam, according to Al-Watan. Fahd, 24, added that his friend Hadian was escorting him as he delivered bread for the elderly woman. The policeman then arrested both men.
Read more

(via Cynical-C Blog)

Survey: Religion on the Decline in US

March 9, 2009 on CNN

America is a less Christian nation than it was 20 years ago, and Christianity is not losing out to other religions, but primarily to a rejection of religion altogether, a survey published Monday found.

Survey finds percentage of of Americans identifying themselves as Christian has fallen over two decades.

Three out of four Americans call themselves Christian, according to the American Religious Identification Survey from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1990, the figure was closer to nine out of 10 -- 86 percent.

At the same time there has been an increase in the number of people expressing no religious affiliation.
Read more

Thanks to Dan for the tip

Target Women: The Golden Age of Skin Science

by Sarah Haskins

Obama Ends Funding Ban for Stem Cell Research

March 9, 2009 on AP
From Wired Science:

A strange and confused chapter in the history of American medical research ended Monday morning, when President Obama signed an executive order ending a ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell lines that were developed after August 9, 2001.

The ban has been roundly denounced as hypocritical and destructive, stunting advances in one of the most exciting fields of medical research. Some restrictions will still apply, and whether research will provide much-anticipated cures is an open question — but at least the question will be answered by science, with the government's full weight behind it.

"This is a momentous occasion for anyone who believes in the pursuit of biomedical knowledge for the betterment of human health," said Harvard Stem Cell Institute researcher George Daley. Read more

Al Jazeera: Religious groups criticise US stem cell reversal

March 9, 2009 on Al Jazeera English

Restrictions on government funding for stem cell research are set to be lifted in the United States, as Barack Obama reverses yet another policy of his predecessor.

President Obama is expected to formally make the announcement on Monday - but it's already drawing criticism from religious groups.

Finally Tonight, Jesus on a...

A brief look at the news coverage of religious apparitions in 2008.

(via Everything Is Terrible)

Heckler at Dawkins' OK Lecture

March 6, 2009 at the University of Oklahoma

From Norman Transcript:

A lecture given by evolutionary biologist and author Richard Dawkins on the University of Oklahoma campus Friday night was received with varying levels of applause and cheers by a generally sympathetic crowd.

The only disruption during the evening was a protester who spoke up during the question-and-answer session following the hour-long lecture.

The man carrying a yellow legal pad, who described himself as a biologist, condemned Dawkins, telling him to "shut the f--- up" and that the controversial scientist, a self-professed agnostic with strong atheistic leanings, would "burn in hell." Read more

Thanks to Jawsh for the tip

The Satanic Verses Affair

Playlist
Aired March 7, 2009 on BBC 2

Twenty years ago, novelist Salman Rushdie was a wanted man with a million pound bounty on his head. His novel, The Satanic Verses, had sparked riots across the Muslim world. The ailing religious leader of Iran, the Ayatollah Khomeini, had invoked a little-known religious opinion - a fatwa - and effectively sentenced Rushdie to death. Never before had a novel created an international diplomatic crisis on such a scale, and never before had a foreign Government publicly called for the killing of a private citizen of another country.

This film looks back on the extraordinary events which followed the publication of the book and the ten year campaign to get the fatwa lifted. Interviews with Rushdie's friends and family and testimony from leaders of Britain's Muslim community and the Government reveal the inside story of the affair. Rushdie himself was forced into hiding for nearly ten years. Arguably this was the moment when religious identities, in Britain and abroad, became more important than ethnic and cultural belonging.

Thanks TroisVitesse

Darwin's Dangerous Idea | Episode 1: Body and Soul

Play all videos (6) | Episode 2
Aired March 5, 2009 on BBC 2

In the first episode of the three-part series, Andrew Marr explores how Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection has taken on a life of its own far beyond the world of science.

He argues that Darwin's theory has transformed our understanding of what it means to be human. Over the last 150 years, Darwin's ideas have challenged the need for a creator, undermined religious authority, and provided new ways of looking at the origins of human morality.

Marr's journey begins following Darwin's footsteps in Tierra del Fuego at the southernmost tip of South America where Darwin first encountered an 'uncivilised' native tribe. This began to raise questions in his mind about the origins of the human race. The answers to these questions would emerge over the next 30 years, culminating in the publication of On The Origin of Species in 1859.

Marr then traces the development of Darwin's idea in the years since then and finds a range of influences that Darwin could never have imagined: from the existential philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche to the battlefields of the First World War; from the Freudian psychoanalyst's couch to the Vatican; and from the genetic logic of kindness to an Islamic creationist's claim that Darwin is to blame for modern terrorism. Darwin's dangerous idea is as influential and challenging today as it was 150 years ago.

Thanks TroisVitesse

Stephen Colbert Becomes Scientology's Galactic Overlord

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Stephen Becomes Scientology's Galactic Overlord

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor

Rap Battle
Joke of the Day

March 4, 2009 on The Colbert Report
Viewers in Canada click here
Thanks to Michael for the tip

Richard Dawkins Responds to Oklahoma Resloution to Outlow Him

March 6, 2009 at the University of Oklahoma
More info here: Oklahoma legislator proposes resolution to condemn Richard Dawkins
(via Pharyngula and RichardDawkins.net)

Harun yahya Follower Disrupts Vatican Evolution Conference

Read more about this at New Humanist Blog and Heresy Corner

President to Reverse Embryonic Stem Cell Research Ban

March 6, 2009 on CNN

James Randi: Questioning the Bible

Bart Ehrman: Jesus, Interrupted

Play all parts (4) | Audio link
March 4, 209 on NPR:

What is the story of Jesus' birth? How did Judas die? What did Jesus say when he was crucified?

The answers to those questions vary depending on which Gospel you read, says Bible scholar Bart Ehrman.

Ehrman is the author of Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don't Know About Them). He says that each Gospel writer had a different message — and that readers should not "smash the four Gospels into one big Gospel and think that [they] get the true understanding." Read more

Thanks to Dan for the link

Richard Dawkins on Minnesota Public Radio

March 4, 2009 on MPR:

Richard Dawkins says atheists should be just as forthright in their views as those who believe God is real. The prominent atheist talks about why he wants to convert more to his way of thinking.

GUESTS
Richard Dawkins: Evolutionary biologist and author most recently of "The God Delusion." He's also the author of "The Selfish Gene." His new book, "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution" is due out in the fall.

Thanks to Peter for the link
(via RichardDawkins.net)

Susi Neunmalklug Explains Evolution

(via Pharyngula)

Chimps Invent Brush Tool

March 4, 2009 on Discovery News

"New and improved" could describe a brush-tipped probe invented by wild chimpanzees in Africa that found it did a better job than previous versions of the tool at gathering termites for consumption, according to a new study.

The discovery adds to the growing body of evidence that technological advancements are not limited to human populations. Read more

The Mother Fish

by Nature Video Channel

Evidence of reproduction by internal fertilization has been discovered in a large group of ancient jawed fish. Embryos discovered within fossils of these animals confirm that live birth in prehistoric times was much more widespread than previously thought. Watch the researchers talk about the fossils and techniques used to find them.

A Monkey That Walks Upright

(via Cynical-C Blog)

What If God Disappeared?

by Edward Current

Jared Diamond: The Evolution of Religions

Jared Diamond, professor of geography at UCLA, received the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction in 1998 for Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. In 1999, he received the National Medal of Science. His most recent book is Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2004).

Professor Diamond argues that religion has encompassed at least four independent components that have arisen or disappeared at different stages of development of human societies over the last 10,000 years.

See also: Guns, Germs, and Steel [Documentary]

Bill Introduced to Repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

March 2, 2009 on CNN

Watchdog: Kymatika 'K-Test' debunked

February 16, 2009 on BBC 1

Watchdog's Julia Bradbury goes under cover to reveal how a 'food intolerance' test available from many high street gyms, spas and chemists in the UK is a waste of money.

The Kymatika K-Test is marketed as a 'revolutionary' non-invasive way to diagnose food intolerances.

Clip includes an interview with Ben Goldacre - Guardian columnist and author of the excellent blog Bad Science

From TroisVitesse

The Rachel Maddow Show: Apocalypse Now?

Febraury 27, 2009 with Left Behind authors Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye.
Partial transcript:

Maddow: You think that Obama is a socialist and you think that a world socialist system is a… necessary precondition for the Rapture, and then after the Rapture, then there’s the Antichrist.

LaHaye: Yes.
…

LaHaye: [Obama] might be a closet Christian. You know, he claims to be a Christian. So if he is, when the Rapture takes place, he’s out of here, too.

(via Friendly Atheist)

Neil deGrasse Tyson: It's Not About 'Church and State'

From The Amazing Meeting 6
(via JREF)