Aaah, XKCD

It speaks for itself...

click for a version you won't need your readers to make out

XKCD is almost always worth a visit.  The Oatmeal is awesomely hilarious in its hilarious awesomeness this week too (not that I'm recommending you go there...nosireebobs!).  Please remember, XKCD and The Oatmeal are frequently NSFW.

Dawn Arrives at Vesta

While some lament the end of the space shuttle program, NASA is still doing serious science using robots to explore the wonders of our solar system and beyond...

This weekend NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, launched in 2007, will enter orbit around Vesta, our solar system’s second most massive asteroid. Dawn has traveled 1.57 billion kilometers using an electrically powered ion propulsion system (and a gravitational assist from Mars) to visit Vesta. Dawn will map Vesta from orbit until next July when it will move on to Ceres, the largest asteroid in our solar system and an actual dwarf planet. These asteroids are described by some as proto-planets, "baby planets" whose growth was interrupted by Jupiter, the gravity of which slurped up all the spare planet-making ingredients in its neighborhood. Vesta has a diameter of roughly 330 miles (about the distance from Minneapolis, MN, to Grand Forks, ND), is 2.5 times farther from the Sun than is Earth, and exerts only 2% the gravity we feel on Earth.  While the STS is about to be finally grounded, humankind is still exploring Mercury, Mars, the asteroid belt, and Saturn, and has a mission half way to the not-planet Pluto and its moons, and dozens more looking here and there.  We're doing okay (if not always great) as a species committed to discovery.

Tools, Not Just Entertainment

The pace of innovation is astounding, but so is the need...

Listened to a POP Tech talk by Nathan Eagle titled Global Mobile Workforce on my iPhone the other day. According to his POP Tech blurb "Nathan Eagle is harnessing mobile phone data in emerging markets. He’s launched txteagle, a program that enables the under-employed to earn money or phone credits by performing tasks on their cell phones. Through partnerships with over 220 mobile phone operators, txteagle is active in nearly 100 countries." Give it a listen; his approach is simple, clever, and makes use of an ubiquitous technology to improve lives and communities.  Cool beans.

As I was poking around at the POP Tech site I found these other awesome projects percolating in the POP Tech Accelerator.

PeaceTXT is a multidisciplinary project to explore the potential of mobile technology to amplify a proven approach to reducing violence. The program brings together several renowned partners including:

CeasefireChicago maintains that violence is a learned behavior that can be prevented using an interdisciplinary disease control model. The Interrupters is a documentary about the program made by the film maker Steve James, who filmed the excellent 1994 documentary Hoop Dreams.

FrontlineSMSMedic or Medic Mobile uses mobile phone apps to extend the reach of community health programs.

Ushahidi is a non-profit tech company that develops free and open source software for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping.

Sure beats whiling away the hours watching silly pet tricks on YouTube, or texting while driving.

PS, If you like TED (as I do) you'll find POP Tech an interesting take on the idea, but from a slightly different perspective.

Feminism ≠ Skepticism ≠ Atheism

Something very interesting - and more than a little disturbing - is happening in the skeptical blogosphere...

If you've read it you know where this is going

Rebecca Watson, Skepchick and one of the rogues at Skeptics Guide to the Universe, was speaking at a conference in Dublin, Eire.  In the context of discussing the issue of sexism in the atheist movement, she mentioned an uncomfortable incident during which she was hit on by some guy in an elevator cab at 4:00 am in the morning.

Another female skeptic made a post suggesting she was over-reacting.

Watson called out the insufficiently sensitive female skeptic by name.

Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, who has an angry atheist fan-boy posse bigger than Texas, made not one but three massively insensitive blog posts comparing female genital mutilation, being solicited for sex by anonymous strangers, and chewing gum.

Several male atheist bloggers sided with Watson.

Some others, including some women, did not.

Watson was told to "Shut and sing."

The blogosphere exploded with recrimination.

All this just in time for The Amazing Meeting, "TAM Nine from Outer Space," THE annual celebration of science, skepticism and critical thinking.

Skeptics are mostly male, mostly white, and frequently what most folks call nerds. Should skeptics also be feminists, enlightened, or at least sympathetic to women?  Perhaps they could at least agree to not to sound utterly clueless.  As a middle-aged white guy from the suburbs I may not even be entitled to an opinion in this argument, but this issue is demonstrating some significant fissures in a variety of movements.  Atheists are not necessarily skeptics about anything else.  Skeptics are not necessarily feminists.  Female skeptics may not be able count on male skeptics or male atheists not to be dicks (much like lesbian activists complain that gay rights activists can be extremely sexist).  Male skeptics and male atheists should no longer count on the few women involved in those movements to tolerate the sexism, and sometimes outright misogyny, encountered there.  At least not for a while, and perhaps never again.

Will there be a hot time or cold shoulders in Las Vegas? Will battle lines be drawn? Will public apologies be offered? Will once stalwart friends attempt to steer a middle course and lose all?  Are these alliances of convenience or birds of a feather?  Does the future offer renewed solidarity or bitter factionalism?  Only time will tell...just like the outcome of the Spanish Civil War.

UPDATE: The 'sphere is still going at it hammer and tongs.  My perspective on this issue is evolving but instead of rewriting I'll just re-post a couple of my comments made elsewhere...

On a thread featuring Iszi's wicked rip on Richard Dawkins "Richard Dawkins, oh dear," a poster asked:

"Can Rebecca and Dawkins please just hash this out in person at TAM?"

That's right, no reason to get excited. Sexist behaviour in the atheist-skeptical-rational-humanist movement can be sorted out by two people over a coffee.

"I’m confident that this actually will be settled at TAM and a month from now this will be largely forgotten."

Yeah, the sooner we all get back to the status quo the better. Cognitive dissonance makes me feel icky.

In a post titled "Oh hell, is Elevatorgate going to ruin TAM9?" the Atheist Experience blog one of the hosts wrote:

"In six words: Dawkins is wrong, Rebecca is right."

Dawkins should apologize and if his failure to do so ruins next weekend's skeptical hijinks for his fan-boy posse so be it. Praying for "Elevatorgate" to blow over in time not to ruin TAM Nine sounds like hoping that bus boycott doesn’t prevent the housekeeper from getting to work on time. There IS a pall hanging over the skeptical community. Hopefully, outrage at Dawkin’s loutish utterances will result in a big enough brawl to bring the conflict squarely into the light of reason. Were we to manage to put this all back in the bottle, what precisely would there be to celebrate at TAM, other than having found a way to assuage our cognitive dissonance? It’s time for everyone to dispense with their illusions. Male atheists are not feminists. Skeptics are not rational about everything. Several Über-famous skeptics are AGW deniers. When will the movement get around to dealing with that bullshit? A super-trendy atheist movie-making comedian is Big Pharma conspiracy theorist. How about the movement deals with that in real time? Putting this situation in perspective, "Rebecca was right, but let’s remember all that Dawkins has done for us," is rationalizing not rationality. There never was an atheist, skeptical, liberal, humanist, feminist monolith. Is this an alliance of convenience or are we birds of a feather? It’s better to decide sooner rather than later. Let's get dis-illusioned!

At Chris Mooney's Discover blog Intersection where he is defending his decision to interview Rebecca Watson for the next episode of Point of Inquiry...

Chris, I look forward to the episode. Before then if anyone cares to hear what RW actually says (instead of what you think you’ve heard) about the entire situation give a listen to the most recent SGU podcast; nothing “feminazi” about it. Actually, some of the more radical responses to the incident seem to have been written by male skeptics who sound like they’re trying to earn their “Enlightened” merit badge. Of course, some of the female responses read like an entries in a Phyllis Schlafly essay contest. This entire situation is fascinating and troubling. Is it men in general or just Richard Dawkins’ fan-boys who are circling the wagons around their atheist hero and telling women they’re “too sensitive?” Is it women in general or only the Skepchicks who are complaining that sexism is a barrier to female participation in the skeptical-atheist-humanist-rationalist movement? This is playing out like the cognitive schism between conservative AGW denialists and liberal AGW “realists” (sorry, is there a better term?). Hard core atheists side with Dawkins. Skeptics seem inclined to side with Watson. Haven’t heard much from the humanists. There isn’t so much rationalism in evidence as there is rationalizing, motivated reasoning, and attempts to soothe a boiling pot of cognitive dissonance. Keep up the good work, Chris; if you’re pissing off both extremes you’re doing something right.

PZ at Pharyngula was an early promoter of the idea that the movement needs more women (and got blasted by feminists for saying it wrong).  It was his blog where Dawkins stepped in it, not once but thrice.  At this point in the fracas he appears to be trying to play honest broker...

Have any of you read Orwell's Homage to Catalonia? According to George the Republicans spent as much time second-guessing, double-crossing, and backstabbing its allied factions as it did fighting the Nationalists. I find the parallels instructive and I hope the results are not the same. Be of stout heart and good cheer, people.

REUPDATE: The issue of diversity was examined in detail at TAM 9.  Still no apology from Dawkins.  Watson has made some useful comments on the issue (though an critical examination of her treatment of Stef McGraw does not seem to have occurred).  The world according to skepticism, atheism, secularism, and humanism has neither imploded nor exploded as a result of this incident and its aftermath.  All that said...

Atheism ≠ Skepticism ≠ Feminism

My First Tutoring Assignment!

I'll be volunteering at ISD 191 GED prep course for the rest of July...

You may recall I took the ESL and ABE tutoring courses from Minnesota Literacy Council this past winter so that I can become a volunteer in adult literacy programs.  I finally set aside a variety of distractions and met with the ISD 191 School for Adults team this week.  They need a volunteer at their GED center in Savage for the balance of their summer program.  Then we'll see where they need help this fall.

image from Photos8.com