I know I've been gone for awhile....

I know I've been gone for awhile, but I've been swamped with homework, and I apologize.

My rant for today:
I'm a poor college student, so I have to wait for movies to come out on the $1.00 rental kiosks before I can actually watch them.  If you've already seen "Contagion", please forgive my outdated rant. 

I just finished watching "Contagion" and was very disappointed.  There were two things that really bothered me and if I am wrong on my assessment, please correct me.

First: The digital depiction of the so called virus in the movie was actually a protein (if I've paid proper attention in basic biology class). 

Second: The mention that babies actually get half of their immune system from the father is completely wrong (if I've listened to my immunology lectures correctly).  From what I understand, infants are not born with an immune system at all.  Infants are initially given antibodies from the mother (through breastfeeding) initially and then develop an immune system, over time, based on the vectors that the mother has been exposed to.

Maybe I'm completely wrong, but I thought that the director, or producers, of the movie might have actually consulted an immunologist before proceeding with the screenplay. 

The only good thing about the movie, besides all of the cameo appearances, was the complete denigration of the 'anti-vaccination' - 'homeopathy' movement in the piece.  Homeopathy is such a crock of shit, as is the anti-vaccination movement.  Kudos to the directors/producers for that point.

Otherwise, the movie was just an entertainment, but not anything to take literally.  Don't take what you hear from me, or anyone else as absolute fact.  Do your research and trust in the 'scientific method'.

This Guy Is So Nerdy, He's Cute!

Skyzthelimi7 is a cute little Irish nerd, who I first saw on YouTube during the World Atheist Convention in Dublin.  He presents us with a new video featuring Richard Dawkins being subjected to a plethora of nonsense.  It hurts me to think of poor Richard sitting through this entire panel interview; the topic of which was whether or not the bible is relevant "today".  Skyzthelimi7 has chopped it up quite a bit, but I still think it was worth watching.   He's so easily exasperated.   =)

What An Evening

Tonight, the Discovery Channel aired the premier of "Curiosity" starring Stephen Hawking.  Considering the title of the episode (Did God Create The Universe?) and Hawking's stance on that question, I expected to be pleased, impressed, entertained, etc.  Disappointment ensued.  The only thing that made watching the episode entertaining was my participation in The Evolving Scientist's "Live Blog". 

Not only was "Curiosity" extremely boring (it seemed to be dumbed down so much, that it might as well have been geared towards preteens), but it essentially skirted the question (although Hawking did answer the question with No).  The panel discussion, afterwards, was worse.  The theologian on the panel brought up the notion of NOMA (for those of you who don't know this term, it stands for Non-Overlapping Magisteria, which basically says that god is out of the realm of science; put another way, science is for the how, not the why) and he invited Hawking to have conversations with theologians (somehow, I think Hawking has better things to do with his time, such as, unifying physics).

I hypothesized, during the Live Blog, that the Templeton Foundation might have some secret involvement in the creation of this episode, but it was probably presented, in the way that it was, out of fear.  Fear of pissing off the majority of Americans who are highly religious and sorely under-educated.  It really is a shame.

Salvation Boulevard

A new movie described by FFRF as "a mystery [book]-turned-into-new-movie starring Pierce Brosman and Greg Kinnear, a study of faith vs. atheism wrapped inside a comic thriller."



Be sure to check out FFRF's interview with the book's author, Larry Beinhart, on Freethought Radio.