Archive for October, 2007

Videos From Burning Man 2007

Sunday, October 21st, 2007

10-minute Time Lapse Sequence

Includes the “early burn” during Monday’s total lunar eclipse.
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The Monkey Chant

I wasn’t at this year’s Kecak, but got to participate last year when it was in Center Camp.
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Homoroborous By Day

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Homoroborous By Night

As the monkey swings, the serpent approaches holding an apple… the monkey eats the apple and the serpent. I thought that was extremely cool.
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The Light Saber Battle

Around 10,000 light sabers were given away by the event’s organizer.
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The Light Saber Battle Invades Center Camp

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Light Saber Battle: Final Celebration

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At the Top of Crude Awakening

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Crude Awakening Sculptures

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Crude Awakening Fireworks

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Crude Awakening Fireball

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Michael Clarke Rubel, R.I.P.

Monday, October 15th, 2007

Mike Rubel, the master of Rubel Castle, died peacefully and among family this morning. It was an honor and an inspiration to know him.

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The Nuclear Baby: Stillborn

Monday, October 15th, 2007

Yisrayl Hawkins, False Prophet

I just couldn’t let October 13, 2007 pass without a mention that four-fifths of the Earth’s population have not died due to nuclear war. The Nuclear Baby is stillborn.

Call it schadenfreude, but I would love to be a fly on a wall in the House of Yahweh right now. Please, if you’re in proximity to the HOY, leave a comment with your take on what’s going on there.

It will also be quite interesting to hear Hawkins’ “post-apocalyptic” sermon MP3 if his webmaster doesn’t desert him.

Truly, if you’re in the HOY and continue to follow Yisrayl Hawkins beyond this point, you’ve got impeccable credentials as a world-class idiot. Too bad there’s so little demand for idiots, except among Hawkins and his ilk.

But it’s not too late! You’ve had an expensive, yet valuable lesson in the need to think for yourself, and you have the rest of your life ahead of you: time to get on with living it.

Friends Church Sign of the Week

Monday, October 15th, 2007

Number 8 in a series.

Those who seldom think of heaven are not likely to get there.

This is a masterful example of the “Veiled Threat.”

Translation: If you don’t accept our brainwashing, you are likely to be tortured for all eternity.

“I don’t believe in an afterlife, so I don’t have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse.” — Isaac Asimov

“I have never seen the slightest scientific proof of the religious theories of heaven and hell, of future life for individuals, or of a personal God.” — Thomas Edison

“In heaven all the interesting people are missing.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“There are many millions of people who believe the Bible to be the inspired word of God… They forget its ignorance and savagery, its hatred of liberty, its religious persecution; they remember heaven, but they forget the dungeon of eternal pain. They forget that it imprisons the brain and corrupts the heart. They forget that it is the enemy of intellectual freedom.” — Robert Green Ingersoll

“Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.” — Mark Twain

“Heaven, as conventionally conceived, is a place so inane, so dull, so useless, so miserable, that nobody has ever ventured to describe a whole day in heaven, though plenty of people have described a day at the seaside.” — George Bernard Shaw

“I was driving alone one day and I saw a hitchhiker with a sign saying ‘Heaven.’ So I hit him.” — Steven Wright

“My intensive study of the subject has led to the following conclusion: there cannot be more than one Christian. Everybody else will go to hell, and when that Christian dies he will go to heaven and his first duty will be to have a long talk with God. There is some very slight possibility that he will let God stay.” — Michael Painter, on alt.atheism.

“Imagine there’s no heaven, It’s easy if you try, No hell below us, Above us only sky…” — John Lennon

You’re Gonna Get Schooled— On YouTube

Friday, October 5th, 2007

U.C. Berkeley has been making many of its lectures available in downloadable audio and streaming video (that unfortunately requires the RealPlayer.) Now UCB is making its lectures available on YouTube, which is a more convenient format for many people.

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Here is the first lecture from Physics 10: Physics for Future Presidents. Everyone should know this stuff even if you never plan on being President. The rest of the semester can be found in the YouTube playlist here.

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Currently only 9 courses are available on YouTube, but that’s already 200 hours of video, and UCB promises to continue expanding this offering. Many more courses going back to 2001 are still available in the RealPlayer format.

Slate: Sex Ed 2.0

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007

Slate offers some good advice on talking with your kids about sex in the age of the Internet.