The trailer from Comic-Con is up and can be found here. I think it’s really damn hard subject matter to make work – and the trailer isn’t half bad, in fact a bit better than I expected.

Can’t wait to see it in HD on the Quicktime site.

Why aren’t you playing this?

It’s free! Go get it now on Steam. It’s awesome sauce with guns! It’s 4-player co-op!

As reported over at slashdot:

AFP reports that the US Senate has passed (by a ‘unanimous consent’ voice vote) a bill that prevents US federal courts from recognizing or enforcing a foreign judgment for defamation that is inconsistent with the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech.

This is fantastic news as libel tourism is a serious issue to anyone that writes or publishes – especially if the material is critical in nature.

The tenants of libel tourism rest on the fact that person A in some country (let’s say the Middle East, cuz it’s happened) can sue person B in another country half-way around the world, and have that lawsuit carried out in a completely different country where the libel laws are draconian (say, England).

In short, it’s crap, and there was really no way to protect yourself – until now.

The bill is now on its way to Congress where it’s expected to pass without issue.

This is the stuff I wish our government would spend more time on.

Not my words, but something uttered by Carl Sagan decades ago in regards to what will ultimately destroy our civilization and species.

Yet another school board is looking at teaching the supernatural as fact in a setting where it has no place – the science classroom. The Livingston Parish School board in Louisiana is about to go blundering down that same path that the school boards of Kansas and Delaware went so unsuccessfully.

As reported in the 2theadvocate:

The Livingston Parish School Board will begin exploring the possibility of incorporating the teaching of “creationism” in the public school system’s science classes.

During the board’s meeting Thursday, several board members expressed an interest in the teaching of creationism, an alternative to the study of the theory of evolution, in Livingston Parish public school classrooms.

Really? An alternative? Would any sane individual propose alchemy as an alternative to chemistry? Astrology to Astronomy?

Benton said that under provisions of the Science Education Act enacted last year by the Louisiana Legislature, schools can present what she termed “critical thinking and creationism” in science classes.

Board Member David Tate quickly responded: “We let them teach evolution to our children, but I think all of us sitting up here on this School Board believe in creationism. Why can’t we get someone with religious beliefs to teach creationism?”

Fellow board member Clint Mitchell responded, “I agree … you don’t have to be afraid to point out some of the fallacies with the theory of evolution. Teachers should have the freedom to look at creationism and find a way to get it into the classroom.”

Critical thinking and creationism are anathema. The father of Protestantism, Martin Luther knew and wrote, “[That] Reason in no way contributes to faith. [...] For reason is the greatest enemy that faith has.” Creation stories fall apart under any sort of scrutiny for they are metaphors. To take them literally is absurd.

Which brings us to the next point – which creation stories would they try to teach in science class? How do you parse out and decide which of the scores and scores of creation stories out there? Do you really believe panties and knickers won’t be twisted if a non-Christian creation story is proposed?

Conversations of creation myths are best left to philosophy and literature classes where they can be properly examined using the proper tools.

I will wait in eager anticipation for board member Clint Mitchell to point out some of those evolution  fallacies. It should be a riotous affair.

But wait! The gem of the article has to be:

Martin, noting that discipline of young people is constantly becoming more of a challenge for parents and teachers, agreed: “Maybe it’s time that we look at this.”

Oh my, that theory of evolution is ruining the kids’ discipline! What harm must gravity be doing to them? Holy fuck, look out kids, physics is heading straight for you!

The real crime here isn’t that someone wants to talk about creationism – those tales have been around in the human culture for a long, long time. The issue is replacing something that works, evolution – the foundation of numerous sciences – with myths.  The school board, the self-same people in charge of ensuring educational standards, is seriously proposing instituting policies that would undermine these kids’ education. In this crap economy, the last thing you want to do is keep kids bereft of the knowledge and skills in the fastest growing markets – science and engineering.

In essence, capitulating to these school board members’ backwards superstitions and rather stupid suppositions (it’s only a theory!!111) we’re priming the next generation to fail.

Good job. A+ Louisiana. Perhaps there will be a future in oil clean-up for these students you are trying to screw over.

I wasn’t sure how I missed this meme until I saw the date. Damn that was a busy year.

Machete looks to have an awesome cast and sufficient death and dismemberment to be a fantastic experience.

However for pure fun and laughs I’m betting Scott Pilgrim versus the World will be the underdog comedy of 2010.

How can you NOT like anything with Michael Cera?

Really, religion does its best to minimize women and subjugate them to secondary roles, if not worse.

The latest peach is from the Vatican itself:

The Vatican today made the “attempted ordination” of women one of the gravest crimes under church law, putting it in the same category as clerical sex abuse of minors, heresy and schism.

There you have it ladies, your new worth in the eyes of the Pope and every devout Catholic.

Is it battered woman syndrome? Help me understand why you would willingly put up with this decree as opposed to nailing a new Diet of Worms directly into the Pope’s forehead that tells these robed ignoramuses to fuck off?

There’s been a growing discussion in the science and skepticism circles about behaviors. The gist of it is that some members of the community are too loud, that not enough honey is being spread around, or that people of opposing view points are put off when you fail to properly accommodate them.

I don’t doubt this happens.

People, for any number of reasons, forget their manners. They are rushed, they are tired, they are frustrated and, well, sometimes, they are just inherent assholes.

Effective communication relies on all tools being available for us and I am beginning to loathe the this latest meme that the vociferous voices out there are hurting rather than helping. There are arenas where ridicule and humor are the only avenues through the insanity.

Example A: Draw Mohamed Day. I’ve covered this before, and it was a clever use of humor, ridicule, and disrespect to draw attention to the deplorable actions of Islamic clerics and the stupid notion that people’s lives should be forfeit over cartoons. There’s no better way to fight a bully then to get everyone to point and laugh.

Moreover does anyone really expect that a rational change will come about by addressing this in polite conversation? The point is to push irrational beliefs and behavior into the open so people can see it’s ugliness,  hatefulness, and pure ridiculousness.

In fact, the point has been proved as everyone’s favorite cleric, Anwar al-Awlak took the bait:

Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki – the radical who has also been cited as inspiring the Fort Hood, Tex., massacre and the plot by two New Jersey men to kill U.S. soldiers – singled out artist Molly Norris as a “prime target,” saying her “proper abode is hellfire.

Polite conversation and being nice is what has let kooky religious threats like these carry on for decades and centuries. It only ends when people make it clear that this type of intimidation and bullying will no longer be accepted-  at which point you are left with two options to stop it – physical force or intellectual force.

We’ve already seen what physical force has wrought. A war closing in on a decade-long that has done nothing to change attitudes. That leaves the intellectual route – smart humor and smart ridicule that makes people think and reassess.

Dara O’Briain is a shining example and  encapsulates this idea of humor and ridicule perfectly in this YouTube clip when he talks about a number of things from homeopathy to pseudoscience. I’d bet it’s far more useful and thought-provoking than any polite conversation you could have with an individual who staunchly believes that a bottle of water has magical properties.

There is a line that becomes counter-productive once crossed. Once your argument goes from ridicule to ad homenim, you’ve lost – and there is a fine line there. It certainly gets crossed all the time on the internet, hell trolling has become an art form in its own right (it’s fun trying to spot a Poe, sometimes…).

I think a fear of that line being crossed is being unfairly used to justify this new push for accommodation, which is a surefire path to nowhere. Accommodation is the environment where bad ideas thrive. It’s the same thought process that puts expert views on par with crackpots for the sake of equal time.

It’s what allows assholes like Anwar al-Awlak to put forth fatwas on a cartoonist’s  life while the nice and polite people look the other way for fear of making waves.

This is when we need the vociferous among us who can wield the humor and ridicule when polite and nice is not enough.