And the new Pope is...

Black smoke: a tell-tale sign?

What the hell are they getting up to in that Sixtine Chapel?

I've never seen such utter black smoke billow out of a chimney! As if it came straight from Satan's bottom.

I mean, we all saw the Italian fire brigade on the roof installing the pipe extension but did they sweep the chimney first?

They could be in for a down right nasty surprise down in the Vatican.

All those cardinals sealed up in a room. They could all have died from carbon monoxide poisoning for all we know.

Alternatively, they could be: 

a) having a barbeque

b) having an old fashioned cross burning

(pdw) tribute

So sad to hear about the demise of our fellow skeptic (pdw). Dr Livingstone and I pulled into our local pub to pay our respect by drinking some Omers.
Patrick's not aware of this, but I know he's probably screaming up at us and we'll delete him from our address book in 6 weeks time.
It was awesome knowing a true skeptic like Patrick.

Thomas the Unbelievable has a point

I'm currently reading a book I got as a present for my birthday from Dr Livingstone.
It's called: 'De ongelovige Thomas heeft een punt'.
Translated: Thomas the Unbelievable has a point.
It's a 'manual for critical thinking'.
Actually it goes through the very basics and explains logical fallacies, the tricks the brain plays on us like wishful thinking etc and how people use that to trick people.
Examples like the basketball-gorilla thing, a whole chapter on Randi debunking Geller, Houdini vs Conan Doyle etc.
Most of the stuff I already know through the SGU podcast. I haven't been listening for aaaages due to lack of time.
But some interesting things (so far) and some basic stuff I hadn't heard of like the hot hand fallacy.

They put up a website to illustrate some of the bits in the book. It's quite cool, it has all kinds of youtube movies, bits of lectures and so on grouped per chapter.

I've read 1/3 of the book so far. I'm going to the hairdresser in a bit, I hope to read on in there.

Is high-tech modern architecture dangerous?

An interesting piece in the New York Post on Saturday.
An octogenarian smashed into an Apple store window.

“Apple wants to be cool and modern and have the type of architecture that would appeal to the tech crowd,” said her attorney, Derek T. Smith. “But on the other hand, they have to appreciate the danger that this high-tech modern architecture poses to some people.”

Several interesting but very different ideas expressed in this little quote.
Let's analyse:
1) There is a type of architecture that appeals to the tech crowd
2) High-tech modern architecture poses a danger to some people
3) There is such a thing as high-tech modern architecture
4) The client has to appreciate his dangerous commisioned architecture

"Evelyn Paswall, a former Manhattan fur-company vice president, claims the tech company’s signature glass architecture is a menace to little old ladies after she failed to see the glass door at a Long Island location and smashed her face."

I'm sure Bruno Taut is turning in his grave.

Glass Architecture a menace to little old ladies. Paswall. Oh, the irony.

©Picture Apple Store Manhasset: Apple.com

More lives than one

Today, a new book was delivered by the postman, who, very annoyingly, drove his moped all the way up to our front door!
It's More Lives Than One(1938) by Claude Bragdon, best known for being the architect who designed the New York Central Station, Rochester, N.Y. (alas, demolished).
I came across Mr Bragdon while doing research for my paper on electrical lighting in churches and he seems to have dabbled in church and lighting design.
Bragdon is a very interesting, but strange character. He was a theosophist, following the writings of Madame Blavatsky.

On a different note, there is a very interesting book I recommend, alas it has not to my knowledge been translated yet.
It is De geheime wereld van James Ensor [The Secret World of James Ensor] by John Gheeraert.
I think it should be translated because it recounts a very interesting period in Ensor's life while Blavatsky was in Ostend writing her Secret Docrine (published in 1888) and, according to Gheeraert, he was fascinated with her and her ideas.

The author Gheeraart says: 'The key to Ensor's secret lies in his Brussels period. There he got into contact with the famous freethinker Ernest Rousseaux. I further discovered that the co-founder of the Theosophical Society, Helena Blavatsky, between 1886 and 1887 a year in Ostend and lived there her "secret doctrine" wrote the bible of the theosophists. My research showed that Ensor, in his most creative period, much of the esoteric works were derived from Blavatsky. But Ensor was also friends with famous Asia-traveler, Alexandra David-Neel. She also spent some time in Ostend. I discovered such totally unexpected sources that provided insights about a painter whose life is usually seen as 'boring'. "

The book does teeter on the edge of fiction as it is not a full-blown biography, but still some interesting stuff.

In a DeLorean

You will be missed, blunt poet.

I raise my glass bottle in honour of your life and works.

The Methodologies of Art

Another book arrived in the post last week. I have only read thirtysomething pages of Laurie Schneider Adams The Methodologies of Art and can see plenty of things going awry. This is not a book I'm going to enjoy very much, as I'll get more and more frustrated as I progress.

In her preface she talks about the prolifiration of methodologies, but I am lacking a small side note to this: stressing that not all methodologies are equally 'scientific' or are masquerading as scientific.
She draws an analogy to the interpretation of dreams. 'Works of art, like dreams are multiply detemined'. Ok, I smell parapsychology right round the corner there. I do hope it was poetic license and not to be taken literally.

In the first chapter Adams tells the reader that all methods reinforce one another'. Again, this could very well be the case, but not all could pass the rigours of scientific research.

Anyway, I'm going to delve deeper into this book, and see if I can read on without bias.

The humanities have always teetered on the edge of 'pure' academic (=scientific) research, but it is just that fine line that needs a bit of scrutiny.

I have written on skepticism and art history before, maybe I should do a full length paper about it.

Jenny McCarthy Body Count widget offline

My Jenny McCarthy Body Count widget had gone off-line and I haven't had time to look into it, until today.
Apparently the lay scientist has gone offline and layscience.net won't be back relaunching until summer 2011.

Dava Sobel - Galileo's Daughter

I finished Dava Sobel's Galileo's Daughter the other day. The book had everything I had expected te read. After reading Longitude, I knew I was in for another good read on science history.
In June I had also read Steven Shapin's The Scientific Revolution for a more philosophical approach to the whole matter, encompassing a few centuries of -his conclusion- a non-revolution.
I even had to recommend the book to someone teaching at the history department at my university. The lady in question had never heard of Torricelli. She mistakenly proclaimed Blaise Pascal to be the inventor of the barometer.
Luckily she had corrected her mistake before she forwarded the handouts to all of the students.
So I highly recommend reading Galileo's Daughter. It discusses (among other things) Galileo's Inquisition Trail plus all the events leading up to it.
And I highly recommend Longitude too, if you haven't done so already.

So I added a little cartoon for comic relief's sake. But it is inaccurate (if you read the book you'll know why). And if you haven't or aren't planning on doing so, here are the reasons:

- Galileo discovered the moons of Jupiter in 1610. He measured observed mountains on the Moon in 1609.
- The edict against Copernican doctrine wasn't issued until 1616.
- The pope 'in charge' as you will when the Inquisition Trial was in effect was pope Urban VIII. He didn't become pope untill 1623.
- The papal grudge against Galileo only took form around 1632 after the publication of his Dialogues.

Now I feel like a real pedant. And the cartoon isn't funny to me anymore. It is factually wrong.
Meh. Sometimes being a geek feels like a curse instead of a blessing.

Opinionated and controversial

I just love waking up in the morning, having heard the postman's van and while my coffee water is boiling collecting the mail and finding ... another parcel!
I wasn't too pleased with the packaging though. It was wrapped in cardboard only, no bubblewrap. And it was a soft cover so it has little dents at the bottom of the cover.
The book is Prejudices: A Selection. It's a collection of works by H.L. Mencken. I got the 2006 John Hopkins UP edition. I can't believe I'd never heard of the man untill a couple of months ago. And I am a huge Mark Twain fan. And a sceptic. So this should be right up my ally because (as it says on the cover) the thirty-five essays in Prejudices are a stick of dynamite with a burning fuse.
Kabooom!

All quiet on the blogging front

I've rather run out of flippant remarks this week. And time to blog. As I have the usual exams preventing me from leading a normal life. James Randi is giving a talk in Utrecht on the 11th, I'll have to miss that too. Two of my internet acquaintances are going. So, yes, I will sacrifice myself on the altar of education (again).
Dr Livingstone is out with the usual former cocaine guitar playing millionaire so I have the house all to myself.
Except for Mouser who keeps me company at all times. I still need to put ointment in its left eye four times a day. It looks like it is healing properly, although quite slowly. Kitteh ran into something and her lens has been damaged (again). It's similar to like last time albeit a very deep scratch. I think I'm going back tomorrow to our strange neurotic vet to have a check-up.
So it'll be all quiet on the blogging front for a while.

Untill then, I will leave you with a final look-alike match. As I was viewing the red carpet pictures from the Robin Hood premiere at Cannes I came across the unshaven face of Russel Crowe. He looks like that Verstrepen guy that hopped parties a while back. They sport the same foppish hair. My guess is they'll be using it to mask a rapidly receding hairline in a short while; actors and politicians tend to be very self-absorbed and share a common trait: vanity.

Shroud of Turin

The shroud of Turin is back on display for a limited time only. This thirteenth or fourteenth century piece of cloth has been restored. Some catholics still believe it was used to wrap Christ's body in and it magically transferred an image of a man that had been subject to a round of whipping and crucifiction onto its surface.
What science or religion have failed to prove either way is not why the image of a man believed to be Christ appeared on the fabric when everyone can clearly see it is the image of the Devine Frank Zappa!
We even have a picture of him when he appeared on the cover of his 1979 album Sheik Yerbouti wearing some kind of similar head gear.
There you go. Mystery solved!

Van Meegeren’s Fake Vermeers

This summer I'll be in Rotterdam visiting the exhibition on Van Meegeren's forgeries. This is a truely fascination one, not to be missed. Musea tend to stow away their fakes once they are unmasked. The works are condemned to a life in the museum depot, some art experts cannot live with the shame the art has brought upon their reputation and that of the museum.

We wouldn't be fooled anymore by the ghostly, sickly looking figures Van Meegeren painted. But I always take Van Meegeren as a good example and a warning for my own budding research.
- Always take a sceptical stance on everything. Never take anything for granted!
- Even people who are experts in the field make mistakes (in this case one worth 540,00 guilders)
- Science does not provide a 100% conclusive answer (but it sure helps).
Paul Coremans summed it up rather nicely.

From the exhibition press release:
The exhibition ‘Van Meegeren’s Fake Vermeers’ includes approximately ten forgeries by Han van Meegeren (1889-1947). Most are in the style of Johannes Vermeer, but the works also include forgeries of Frans Hals, Pieter de Hooch and Gerard ter Borch. Van Meegeren’s life as a forger is further illuminated through a documentary film and objects from his studio.

A masterpiece
In 1937 the director of Museum Boymans, Dirk Hannema, purchased ‘The Supper at Emmaus’ for 540,000 guilders. There was great interest in the painting, which most experts believed to be an early masterpiece by Vermeer. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam even offered Vermeer’s ‘The Love Letter’ in exchange for the painting, but Hannema rejected the offer. Museum Boymans exhibited the work as one of the highlights of its collection and art experts praised the work’s high quality.

Exposure
At the end of the Second World War a painting from the Netherlands was found in the collection of the Nazi minister, Hermann Göring. The painting was traced back to Han van Meegeren, who was immediately arrested on suspicion of collaboration. Van Meegeren admitted to having sold the work, but also claimed to have made the painting himself. He had sold Göring a forgery. Van Meegeren’s confession became worldwide news and he was hailed as a hero as ‘the man who swindled Göring’. Meanwhile the art world was thrown into disarray. Van Meegeren demonstrated his forgery techniques to an expert panel and during his trial his forgeries were hung in the courtroom, as can be seen in the documentary film included in the exhibition.

Reassessment
Van Meegeren’s technique remains exceptional. For his masterpiece ‘The Supper at Emmaus’, Van Meegeren used a genuine seventeenth-century canvas and historical pigments. He bound the pigments with bakelite, which hardened when heated to produce a surface very similar to that of a seventeenth-century painting. This technique, combined with Van Meegeren’s choice of subject matter and composition, was an important factor in convincing so many people of the authenticity of his works. Van Meegeren created the missing link between Vermeer’s early and late works. The exhibition at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen sheds new light on Van Meegeren’s technique, resulting from new technical research undertaken by the Rijksmuseum.

Again, as I have done earlier, I suggest reading Edward Dolnick's The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century and the 1949 book Van Meegeren's faked Vermeers and De Hooghs written by Paul Coremans, who was involved in Van Meegeren's trial and gave evidence as an expert witness. I still haven't been able to pick up Jonathan Lopez' The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren. I hope it will be on sale in the bookshop at the exhibition.

Flying Spaghetti Monster apparition in Belgium

His Noodlyness appeared in front of our garage around 2 pm yesterday afternoon.
Truely this apparition is even more proof that there is a steady decline in pirates due to global warming.
We are the chosen ones.
Ramen.

Blasphemy is an epithet bestowed by superstition upon common sense

“Blasphemy is an epithet bestowed by superstition upon common sense”
Robert Green Ingersoll (American Statesman and Orator, noted for his broad range of culture and his defense of atheism. 1833-1899)

Ireland has adopted an anachronistic blasphemy law, as part of the revision of the Defamation Act. From 1 January 2010, the new Irish blasphemy law becomes operational and the Irish Atheists have started a campaign to have it repealed.

Blasphemy is now a crime punishable by a €25,000 fine.
The new law defines blasphemy as publishing or uttering matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby intentionally causing outrage among a substantial number of adherents of that religion, with some defences permitted.

This new law is both silly and dangerous. It is silly because medieval religious laws have no place in a modern secular republic, where the criminal law should protect people and not ideas. And it is dangerous because it incentives religious outrage.

Everyone has a right to be treated justly, and a responsibility to treat other people justly. Blasphemy laws are unjust: they silence people in order to protect ideas. In a civilised society, people have a right to to express and to hear ideas about religion even if other people find those ideas to be outrageous.

And one of the most crucial points is this: Because atheism is not a religion, the Irish blasphemy law does not protect atheists from abusive and insulting statements about their fundamental beliefs. While atheists are not seeking such protection they do want to point out that it is discriminatory that this law does not hold all citizens equal.


I hope the Irish blasphemy law will be repealed as soon as possible for a rational, ethical, secular Ireland.

So before I set foot in lovely Ireland again, I must repeat the words by Matthias, son of Deuteronomy of Gath:
"Look, I had a lovely supper, and all I said to my wife was that piece of halibut was good enough for Jehovah.”


More information on the Irish blasphemy law and why it should be repealed: blasphemie.ie.
Also check out the list of 25 blasphemous quotes.

A word from Carl Sagan:

Caturday spirit

The cheers are over, the bunting is down, the mad hysteria is at an end. For another year, anyhow.
Luckily we don't partake in any of these Christmas things. Alas half of the modern world does and there is no escaping it.
Even the Turkish guy in the kebab shop wished us a happy Christmas. Nice try, but it doesn't work for the likes of secular humanists.
I'd rather call it Caturday. 'Have a nice Caturday' would actually sound nicer. And I'd even politely reply: 'Why thank you good Sir, and a very merry Caturday to you and your family'.
Shops and staff are eager to close and scarper off the day before Sandy Claws comes along. I was bundled out of the library on Thursday ten minutes before closing time. One of the librarians standing next to the door to unfasten the heavy iron door securing the valuable collection of manuscripts of the university was incessantly jingling the bunch of keys like a prison warden. They should put up a sign: 'We're closed 10 minutes before closing time'. They've got signs for everything else. I'm sure one more won't do any harm.

Portable oven wants you!

Today I received one of the most hilarious emails I've had in a while. The resourcefulness of some spammers really is sidesplittingly funny. Here's a small excerpt:

If you have any old portable wood burning oven and in case you don't use it anymore, we will be very grateful to you if you can donate it to us and organize transport of this oven to our home.
We are located in central part of Russia, 180km from Moscow.