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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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However far back we may be able to trace the — so to speak — internal history of the Universe, there can be no question of arguing that this or that external origin is either probable or improbable. We do not have, and we necessarily could not have, experience of other Universes to tell us that Universes, or Universes with these particular features, are the work of Gods, or of Gods of this or that particular sort.
Antony Flew, "The Presumption of Atheism" God, Freedom, and Immortality, (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1984), p. 51.
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Category: Communicating science • Lindau • Personal
Posted on: July 2, 2009 7:31 AM, by PZ Myers
I just did an interview about science blogging for An Kathab, "Al Jazeera's weekly high-tech news magazine". Look for it to be broadcast on the 8th, 9th, and 10th of July, and to appear on youtube shortly thereafter.
This is so going to confirm right-wing histrionics, isn't it?
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Highly Allochthonous 11.05.2009
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Starts With a Bang 11.04.2009
Comments
Posted by: Eljay | July 2, 2009 7:45 AM
The darwintollah PZ, I can see the headlines now.
Posted by: Felix | July 2, 2009 7:46 AM
Totally OT: After 150 yeras, homosexuality is now no longer prohibited in India. It had been outlawed as 'unnatural' in 1861.
Guess who protested the Indian supreme court's decision: that's right, the Muslims, Christians and Hindus (several large religio-orgs) were on the side of suppression and ignorance once again.
To my homosexual brethren ans sisthren: congratulations!
Posted by: MadScientist | July 2, 2009 8:00 AM
atheism = mohammedanism!
And of course communism, stalinism, satanism.
I can't imagine it would be received well in the USA, especially given how Fox and others like to demonize Al-Jazeera. For those people who actually wanted fair reporting on what's happening in the Middle East rather than the Fox swill, Al Jazeera was one of the few reliable sources. They've lost an awful lot of reporters in the war zones as well - that tends to happen when you're in the middle of the action rather than behind the tent at command central yapping about what's going on somewhere behind a rusty hummer in the background.
Posted by: Andrés Diplotti | July 2, 2009 8:01 AM
I knew it! All evilutionist athiests are muslins!!!
(Sic, sic and sic).
Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | July 2, 2009 8:05 AM
:-D :-D :-D
Posted by: Andrés Diplotti | July 2, 2009 8:10 AM
Oh, sorry, I forgot all caps:
IT ALL MAEKS SINCE!!!!
Posted by: Feynmaniac | July 2, 2009 8:19 AM
Also, Nazism.
Posted by: Jim A. | July 2, 2009 8:26 AM
Well working there has certainly made Josh Rushing very popular with right wing commentators.
Posted by: Zeno | July 2, 2009 8:43 AM
I've never been able to figure this out: Why are all Muslim reporters named "Al"?
Posted by: Felix | July 2, 2009 8:47 AM
Zeno, isn't it obvious? They're all clones. They wear different clothes and hairstyles to hide the fact, but everything after the 'Al' is not really a surname but actually a code word for numbers. Clones are always numbered, it's the rule.
Posted by: Hurin | July 2, 2009 8:49 AM
YOU TERRIST ISLAMOFASCIST!!11!! WHY DO U HATE AMERICA!!1!1
-----
Yup. You can probably expect lots of that in the future. I'm sure you probably got some of it already though, right?
Posted by: FlyingSpaghettiTroll
|
July 2, 2009 8:51 AM
Okay, this isn't related, but I needed to post it somewhere. Chuck Norris has opened his mouth and vomited out some real bible thumping crap:
http://www.wnd.com/index.php/index.php?pageId=41572
Posted by: Bill Bigge | July 2, 2009 8:57 AM
Wikipedia has a page about it here but then wikipedia is all knowing.
Posted by: Felix | July 2, 2009 8:57 AM
Whoa, is something going on? Suddenly both rdnet and unreasonable faith are down at once. Is it Christian DDOS week again?
Posted by: Virgil | July 2, 2009 8:58 AM
Who is is Al Jazeera bloke? Is he a relative of Al Franken? I hope his show is funny.
Posted by: Alan Bombria | July 2, 2009 9:07 AM
"The darwintollah PZ, I can see the headlines now."
Thread over. Eljay wins one internets.
Posted by: Felix | July 2, 2009 9:19 AM
ok, it's just rdnet acting up again, as it does about four times a week. From their admin posts, it appears they get heavily targeted by ddos attacks and similar stuff. A while ago a Christian troll openly announced the possibility that 'someone' might start doing that. I guess a whole lot of Muslims, probably from Turkey, would also love to see rdnet shut down.
Having provoked Muslims and Christians into demonstrating what morality and following the law of the perfectly good lord is all about, rdnet will need CIA hq level e-security soon.
Posted by: Watchman | July 2, 2009 9:19 AM
Erm... wasn't he the guy who sang "Mammy"?
I love, LOVE the fact that such a thing exists. It's downright subversive.
Posted by: protocol | July 2, 2009 9:25 AM
#2 Feliix, Section 377 of the Indian Penal code that criminalized homosexuality was the a doing of Victorian prudes (obviously they were quite religious to boot). Also it was not really enforced after independence (it was basically an excuse for police to sometimes hit gay clubs for bribes etc.). But good news anyways (the hard part now is to fight the social stigma attached to it).
Posted by: Jason R
|
July 2, 2009 9:26 AM
Al Jazeera
Now that is just friggen cool!
Posted by: Sarah in Chicago | July 2, 2009 9:39 AM
protocol -
Isn't that a bit of a redundancy? *smile* ... that era was seriously screwed up; we're still dealing with a lot of the cultural consequences of that era.
But to return to the topic at hand ...
I really like Al Jazeera, as they tend to model themselves on BBC-World and not CNN-International, which means far more of the viewpoints of people on the ground experiencing events ... hell, they seem to get into areas that the others won't go into, often to risk of their lives. They're willing to critique anyone, any regime, and are not beholden to any one country's viewpoint or blinkers.
But then, according to those that watch Fox, that is most probably all part of the fact that I am a raving liberal lesbian atheist, part of the UN black-helicopter brigade, working hard to take over the world!!!
Posted by: Matt Penfold | July 2, 2009 9:42 AM
Well they did recruit a lot of their staff from the BBC, both TV and radio, and not just in front of camera talent either.
Posted by: Rey Fox | July 2, 2009 9:53 AM
Fucking atheist Muslim commies.
Posted by: SC, OM | July 2, 2009 10:04 AM
You probably won't see this is the news, but the coup leaders in Honduras have now suspended several constitutional rights at night:
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/honduras-coup-congress-cancels-five-basic-liberties
Posted by: Naked Bunny with a Whip
|
July 2, 2009 10:21 AM
More evidence that PZ enjoys getting email from crazy people.
Posted by: The Count | July 2, 2009 10:41 AM
Well, it should be obvious since PZ is Horde and by default that would make him a heathen as well!
For the Alliance
Posted by: fyreflye | July 2, 2009 10:43 AM
Seriously, subscribing to the Al Jazeera channel on YouTube is one of the best ways to access news that the American media often ignore or bury in the back pages. This doesn't mean I think Al Jazeera isn't biased, just no more so than CNN.
Posted by: Cathal | July 2, 2009 10:51 AM
Plus you've got that beard, the facial hair of choice for both terrorists AND commies.
Posted by: Interrobang | July 2, 2009 10:52 AM
Wow, PZ, you're getting really famous! Al Jazeera is great.
Isn't that a bit of a redundancy? *smile*
No. Ever read Victoria's diaries? Whoo, steamy.
Posted by: Qwerty | July 2, 2009 12:03 PM
You and Obama - secret Muslims - I knew it! I knew it!
Posted by: Stuart | July 2, 2009 12:36 PM
It's probably worth pointing out that that programme is on Al Jazeera Arabic and not the English language version.
So whereas we'll be able to watch you, the majority of readers of your blog won't understand a word of it!
Posted by: Brain Hertz | July 2, 2009 12:44 PM
OMG... I expect some monumental asplosions over this.
Posted by: Brain Hertz | July 2, 2009 12:49 PM
I'm sure that the fevered imaginations of the crack news team at WND will be able to fill in the blanks...
Come to think of it, it will probably just be interpreted as more evidence of some giant evil conspiracy. Can't wait to see what they come up with ;)
Posted by: wasd | July 2, 2009 1:02 PM
It was of course the conservative religious types at “accuracy in media” who got the excellent and free Al-Jazeera English pretty much banned from US cable networks.
For me the best way to get news CNN and US networks tend to ignore is to get a cheap used ku-band digital satellite dish for tens of Euros. The European continent is covered with endless free-to-air news channels. (NHK in English from Japan, France24 in English, Chinese and Russian state TV in English*) In the US you will need a big old c-band antenna to get Al-Jazeera and little more. When every channel is very busy ignoring then tens of thousands killed in Sri Lanka in the beginning of this year alone then you can just tune into Tamil TV and see the horrific images from which the rest of the world is spared.
When Iran wants to stop the BBC and Al-Jazeera from being watched they have to send the police onto peoples roofs to trash peoples illegal dishes. Its the same in Cuba, North Korea. And when things heat up they have to used sophisticated satellite jamming.
All the American Appalachian trail hikers association... no, sorry, I meant the Scaife funded “accuracy in media” has to do to censor a channel in the land of the free is to put out survey with the question, and I am not making thus up: “Al-jazeera in the Arab language television network financed by the government of the middle eastern country of Qutar. Al-jazeera says it offers an Arab perspective on the news, while some U.S. Officials have accused it of supporting terrorist causes. Al-jazeera now wants to launch an english language channel in the United States called al-jazeera international. Would support or oppose Al-Jazeera launching a network in the united states”... Want to guess how many “strongly opposed” the idea after being presented this introduction? A whooping.... 38%?!?!?!?
http://www.aim.org/pdf/AIM_Poll_on_Al-Jazeera_International.pdf
A further 15% of respondents “somewhat” oppose the idea creating a total opposition of 53% to the foreign arab terror channel. 20% strongly favoured the network and 9% favour it somewhat, so you have to imagine AIM did some free market research showing at least say 10% of the US TV audience would watch the channel.
Someone somewhere should have started smelling a profit. Instead cable networks are scared away once the get a fews letters from the religious types.
I am trying to dig up a 2 hour long TV interview with Al Jazeera chief Waddah Khanfar. Want to know how come most networks don`t even have someone in at least Iraq OR Pakistan OR Afghanistan while Al Jazeera already has someone on the ground the moment there is a central American coup, a Mexican swine flu outbreak, protest in Tibet, Fighting in Sri Lanka, or a US funded and armed nut starts a war with Russia while there is still US troops on his soil thus creating the conditions for one stray bomb to create a US/Russian conflict while McCains chief foreign policy guy is his chief lobbyist resulting in McCain more or less goading him*
Waddah Khanfar grew up in Palestine and used to be a foreign correspondent. Thats why they have correspondents in every conflict not matter how small and un-sexy.
*) Remember when North Korea launched a “satellite”?
Japans NHK had endless details where it was launched, how it flew over Japan, how and where everything splashed into the ocean. Russia Today had a different story. The launch was a success and Russia was studying the orbit of north Korea's satellite. Armscontrolwonk.com explained: Russian radars cant detect North Korean launches, meaning any incoming intercepting missiles from the US “missile shield” would be the first and only thing they see... How would Russia react to a lot of unprovoked US missile launches in its direction?
Good question.
Fun detail: Neocons opposed/defunded joint US/Russian launch detection satellites because such a thing obviously lack the patriotism and machismo of reagans “missile shield”
**) I get why US papers would say for weeks that Russia started the war “Russia invading a tiny democracy”. I get that after weeks on page 20+ they finally say something like “some observer on the ground are beginning to wonder if Georgia might share some of the blame...” that's just a great Brussels based PR firm combined with plain old Judith Miller levels of incompetence. Nothing new there. But what I don`t get is that the US press completely fail to notice Randy Scheuneman, the IRI and McCain encouraging Saakashvilli thus putting US troops in harms way during an election season. American media suck is what I am trying to say. Just to be clear, this wastn`t even in European newspapers, but one look at the foreign agent lobbying records of McCains staff at fara.gov was all that was needed. Standard background check stuff. I mean how come the US can be in in the grips of terror and two wars while even serious US journalist don`t know the resume of the foreign policy advisor of one of the candidates?
Also that Chuck Norris link is two years old.
Posted by: blf | July 2, 2009 1:22 PM
Al-Jazeera English (AJE) is good.
wasd@34 claims (my emphasis):
Banned? How in hades can that happen in the USA, or be legal? The Wikipedia article doesn't mention anything of the sort, other than Comcast caving to the nutters shortly before AJE started up. It does say AJE is not widely available on cable in the USA, but there's nothing I can see about any “ban”. What exactly is that claim going on about?
Posted by: David | July 2, 2009 1:34 PM
P.Z Myers has joined Al Queda: Ray Comfort.
Posted by: Dawn | July 2, 2009 2:11 PM
@Interrobang: most Americans think of Queen Victoria as the "we are not amused" prude, instead of the woman who worried about not having "fun in bed" with her husband. While there was no birth control, having 9 kids seems to imply she rather enjoyed sex (even then, there were ways to avoid having sex, and I imagine for her there were even more ways). From reading her biographies, she certainly enjoyed the "marriage bed" although she did not enjoy childbirth at all and really didn't even like babies or small children. Have to wonder what she would have been like in later years if Albert hadn't died and left her without regular sex.
Posted by: Jafafa Hots | July 2, 2009 2:39 PM
Al Jazeera did a report on Buffalo NY - the problems there, the possible future, the mayor's office... and it was amazingly well done, even-handed, excellent journalism. It was a far better job than the US media would have done - but the US media doesn't even DO that kind of story anymore.
Posted by: Jadehawk, OM
|
July 2, 2009 2:54 PM
Al Jazeera has done a handful of stories on the U.S., and I generally find them very informative, and the stories are usually about stuff you don't get from CNN, or even BBC sometimes.
Posted by: Snarla | July 2, 2009 3:24 PM
مبروك يا استاذ
Given that PZ probably didn´t learn Arabic for this interview, I have feeling his English-speaking fans will be able to understand it, whether it appears on the Arabic or the English version of al-Jazeera.
I hope you will post it here. My cable provider doesn't have al-Jazeera in the lineup.
Posted by: Owlmirror | July 2, 2009 4:08 PM
Since "Ayat-ollah" means "Sign of God", it ought more properly be "Ayatdarwin".
/pedantry
Posted by: Stuart | July 2, 2009 7:21 PM
@Snarla
It is a programme on the Arabic version and they translate everything into Arabic, so unless you can lip-read you won't understand PZ :(
Posted by: 'Tis Himself
|
July 2, 2009 8:47 PM
His Italian cousin is Al Dente.
Posted by: Jadehawk, OM
|
July 2, 2009 8:56 PM
oh, and I missed this the first time 'round. Thanks for the updatem SC.
Posted by: That is funny | July 2, 2009 9:23 PM
Congradulations P.Z. You are now officially a traitor to the USA. Shall we commence proecutions?
Why would anyone do anything for Al Jazeera and the Islamofascists that own, operate, and fund it? Might as well have done something for PBS. At least we get to see Bill Moyers' face light up when global warming finally peaks and light the planet on fire.
Posted by: BMS | July 2, 2009 9:31 PM
And another cousin, Al Fresco.
Posted by: MAJeff, OM | July 2, 2009 9:44 PM
Did anyone here watch the docu "Control Room"? Remember the American "information" officer (the total hottie) Josh Rushing? He works for Al Jazeera now.
Posted by: MadScientist | July 2, 2009 11:07 PM
@FlyingSpaghettiTroll:
Thanks for the link - that's hilarious. Uh ... wait ... Chuck thought he was being serious, didn't he? Well, his kung-fu is no match for science!
Posted by: FlyingSpaghettiTroll
|
July 3, 2009 1:48 AM
No problem. And yes, Chuck was being serious. His background is in karate, and he's avoided competition since before he became a star. Chuck has failed at martial arts, faded from the spotlight of entertainment and shown brutal ignorance of the world around him... I think it's time for him to show up bloated and OD'ed in a hotel room.
-FST
Posted by: Knockgoats | July 3, 2009 8:38 AM
Have to wonder what she would have been like in later years if Albert hadn't died and left her without regular sex. - Dawn
Have you seen Mrs. Brown? (May have been Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown in the US.) Judi Dench as Victoria, Billy Connolly as John Brown, the rough, hairy Scottish servant who was popularly believed to have become her lover, or even her husband, after Al Consort died. The film doesn't take a position either way on these rumours, but shows their emotional closeness helping her to get over her grief. Quite possibly the rumours (at least about them being lovers) were true, and she was getting the regular sex as well.
Posted by: Marion Delgado | July 3, 2009 10:57 AM
I want to see P.Z. Myers' BIRTH CERTIFICATE!!!!
Posted by: Snarla | July 16, 2009 6:36 PM
I've been looking for this clip and haven't found it yet. Link, PZ?