ODDS & ENDS



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MOVIE REVIEWS MISCELLANEOUS
Astronomy Book Reviews
Biology Fun Things
History Interesting Things
Christian TUNES
Islamic Religious
Atheist Other Tunes


Astronomy Movies

Origins: Nova

How the earth was made

If we had no moon

Hyperspace

National Geographic: Journey to the Edge of the Universe

History Channel TV Series: The Universe

Microcosmos

Biology Movies

Genesis

Miracle Planet

Walking with Monsters

Walking with Dinosaurs

Walking with Beasts

Walking with Cavemen

Ape to Man

Journey of Man

History Movies

Slavery and the making of America

300 (The Battle of Thermopylae)

Last Stand of the 300 (The Battle of Thermopylae - different version)

Engineering an Empire

Christian Movies

The Ten Commandments starring Charleton Heston
(No, really. This is a great movie)

Islamic Movies

The Stoning of Soraya M
(best viewed on an empty stomach)

Atheist Movies

Religulous
(starring that wacky Bill Maher)

Agora
(Christianity plunges humanity into 16 centuries of darkness)

The God Who Wasn't There
(scholars examine biblical evidence)

A Rough History of Disbelief
("Rough" was an understatement)

The Golden Compass
(Intense pressure by Christians
forced the cancellation of the last 2 parts of the trilogy)


NOTE: All book reviews are 1 page long
(with the exception of the last 2: the Bible and the Koran)


Free Will (Bob Doyle)
A

All The Presidents' Bankers (Nomi Prins)
A

Death From The Skies (Phil Plait)
A

The God Delusion (Richard Dawkins)
A

The Atheist Camel Chronicles (Dromedary Hump)
A

Beyond Outrage (Robert Reich)
A

QED: The Strange Theory Of Light And Matter (Richard Feynman)
A

Atheist Manifesto (Michel Onfray)
A

god Is Not Great (Christopher Hitchens)
A

Unnatural Acts (Robert Carroll)
A

Letter To A Christian Nation (Sam Harris)
A

An Objectivist Secular Reader (many essay authors)
A

The Greatest Show On Earth (Richard Dawkins)
A

God: The Failed Hypothesis (Victor Stenger)
A

The Counter-Creationism Handbook (Mark Isaak)
A

Becoming A Critical Thinker (Robert Carroll)
A

The Better Angels Of Our Nature (Steven Pinker)
A

One Nation Under God (Kevin Kruse)
A-

Nonbeliever Nation (David Niose)
A-

Kingdom Coming (Michelle Goldberg)
A-

Why People Believe Weird Things (Michael Shermer)
A-

Fads And Fallacies (Martin Gardner)
A-

The Demon-Haunted World (Carl Sagan)
A-

A 21st Century Rationalist In Medieval America (John Bice)
A-

The Armageddon Factor (Marci McDonald)
B+

The Family (Jeff Sharlet)
B+

The Encyclopedia Of Claims, Frauds, And Hoaxes (James Randi)
B+

Doubt (Jennifer Hecht)
B+

Atheists (Bruce Hunsberger & Bob Altemeyer)
C-

The Koran (Allah)
F

The Bible (Yahweh)
F

Of all these books, the one that is most likely
to convince you to become an atheist, is by far ...

the last one

Let's Have Some Fun!









9/18/17

In the video below, 2 master chess players battle.
One makes 17 consecutive pawn moves before developing any pieces,
making this one of the most unique games ever played ...

and he won

(If you want to watch this video, I recommend that you reduce playback speed to 75%)



In addition to the 17 consecutive pawn moves to open the game,
Emil makes 2 absolutely brilliant moves in the second half of the video (at 6:30 & 7:00)


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4/23/15

In an effort to modernize American education and make it more relevant,
here is the new curriculum for political science majors at all major Universities:

New undergrad required courses:
Fundraising
Hiding money obtained from fundraising
Avoiding taxes resulting from fundraising
Remaining anonymous in conflict of interest cases
Avoiding direct questions from the press
Avoiding direct questions from your spouse
Kissing Babies
Kissing Ass

New Graduate-level courses include:
Advanced fundraising techniques (or how to cultivate The Rich)
Advanced avoidance techniques when dealing with the press
Hiding Affairs
Hiding Bodies
When and how to "Lawyer Up"
Fundraising while incarcerated
Tax loopholes for the imprisoned
Restarting your career


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2/27/15

Make sure you follow some of the links in this story
so you can see more puzzles.

This went viral on the internet

Try to force your mind to see these illusions
the way others do (not an easy task)

The only puzzle where I was finally able to do that
was the one with the spinning girl ...
and that was quite hard to do.


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7/21/14

Okay - let's take a break from battling bad guys ...

and watch this cool illusion (1:45)


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10/20/11

Let's take a moment to relax and have some fun!

Nova interactive crossword puzzle

(if you don't know an answer, click "solve")


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6/11

From 1 Timothy 6:10
"For the love of money is the root of all evil:
which while some coveted after,
they have erred from the faith,
and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
"

So what does science have to say about that?

This ...



Einstein stopped too soon - he should have kept going.
He recognized that energy and mass were related.
But had he continued his analysis
he would have also proved a great ancient truth ...

Transposing, and then dividing both sides of the equation by "M":
C2 = E / M

Then taking the square root of both sides of the equation:
C = √E / M

And finally, translating the equation into English, yields:
"C"hristianity teaches = the "Root" of all "E"vil is "M"oney

(I'd say the Christians got that one right)


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Interesting Things


9/25/24

32 of the world's smartest animals

Note: on a list of the 32 dumbest animals on the planet
you would also find humans.


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8/14/24

There have been enormous gains in longevity among humans in recent years ...

global life expectancy now stands at 73 years (12:38)


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5/25/24

Petrochemical use is more complicated than many suspect ...

Here are 10 things we use it for - that may surprise you


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3/30/24

The debate: Where is the boundary for our solar system?

The Kuiper Belt, the Heliopause, or the Oort Cloud?


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2/19/24

List of American presidents by greatness
(spoiler alert - Trump was dead last)

The Presidential Greatness Project 2024

This committee was composed of political science experts.
The small percentage of conservatives on the committee
concerned me at first until I remembered that
nearly all science-based committees are nearly devoid of conservatives.


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8/19/23

Mississippi is renown for being at the bottom
of nearly every list that compares the 50 U.S. states ...

"Thank God for Mississippi!"

I just found another ...

natural disasters

Its population is about 3 million (less than 1% of the U.S.).
I'm still trying to figure out why anyone still lives there.


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4/2/23

Which country on Earth has the worst weather
resulting in constant disastrous calamities?

the U.S.

The history of the "Bible Belt" (slavery, poverty, etc.)
combined with its unfortunate geographic location
would seem to indicate that God isn't all that pleased
with his most zealous followers.


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2/25/23

Why don't astronauts see stars when they are out in space?

This will explain it (9:36)


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7/11/22

The world population continues to explode
as Earth prepares to surpass 8 billion people this year, and ...

India will surpass China next year

btw ... This is NOT a "good thing."


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4/28/22

Study reveals that the breed of dog determines personality ...

less than expected


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1/3/22

This article explains why it is impractical to try to burn up our trash in ...

volcanoes


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10/20/21

Researchers determine that horse domestication first occurred ...

in the Greater Caucasus around 4,000 years ago


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8/18/21

Researchers rewrite science after finding evidence
that audio memory is not sequential but ...

concurrent with other memory processing tasks

That study helps explain how we can perform tasks like ...

Dual N-Back


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5/6/20

So where is the North Magnetic pole right now?

Glad you asked

It's racing from Canada to Russia


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6/12/19



How I play Sudoku

You might also enjoy this video (22:24)
in which I solve 2 extremely difficult Sudoku puzzles ...

using the method described above


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2/27/15

This web site ranks America in many different areas.
For the richest country on Earth (by far) ...

we didn't do as well as one might expect

With our wealth, there is no excuse for America
not to be near the top in everything;
and if we could ever bring the Oligarchs under control ...

we could probably would be


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1/24/14

The largest animals of all-time (3:50)




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DRUMROLL PLEASE!
THE BEST SCIENCE NEWS STORY OF 2011 ...
WAIT ...
THE BEST SCIENCE NEWS STORY OF THE 21st CENTURY, IS ...

Religious experiences shrink the brain

We needed science to tell us that?
Didn't most of us already have that one figured out?


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Religious Tunes

(my hymnal)


David Barton



So, one of the most dishonest men in America
has found the answer to our financial woes:

People Are On Welfare Because They Don't Read Their Bibles

Why did Barton make a claim
that could be easily disproven by any middle school student?

Because he knows the 'Flock' well.
People who are capable of believing that the sun froze in the sky for one day
are capable of believing anything you tell them.

If ever a song were written with one special person in mind ...

this is it (2:34)

Even Jesus pukes when He hears David Barton's name.


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I would like to dedicate this song to all you Muslim Apologists out there

in the "Regressive Left"

(2:42)



Like the man said ... piss off


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The infallible and scientifically accurate Koran

(2:51)




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This Land Is Mine ... sung by Andy Williams

(3:32)




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Other Tunes









Oligarchs strive to divide us into warring tribes.
But music, love, and toleration are uniting us ...

(4:08)

I didn't see thousands of different people in this video -
I saw thousands of different versions
of the most incredible creature the world has ever seen.

These are the people ... for whom I fight


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Astronomically correct Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

(2:09)




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Jesus's Republican sing-a-long

(2:05)


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On this special day, let us give thanks to those who most deserve it ... our Congress

(0:43)




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An updated version of "America The Beautiful" by Jaclyn Glenn

(3:50)

"America The Beautiful"


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