Intelligent Falling

Congrats to gays and lesbians in California!

2012-02-07T22:41:00.000-05:00

I'm happy to report that today (Feb. 7, 2012) a federal appeals court overturned California's Proposition 8, thus reinstating the rights of same-sex couples to be legally married. The ruling made it clear that

Although the Constitution permits communities to enact most laws they believe to be desirable, it requires that there be at least a legitimate reason for the passage of a law that treats different classes of people differently.

It continues to say that "There was no such reason that Proposition 8 could have been enacted." And gets even more direct,

All that Proposition 8 accomplished was to take away from same-sex couples the right to be granted marriage licenses and thus legally to use the designation of 'marriage,' which symbolizes state legitimization and societal recognition of their committed relationships. Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples.

Well said. Do I hear wedding bells?

Conservative MP wants to create false dichotomy

2012-02-07T10:00:00.000-05:00

CBC News reports that the Member of Parliament for the Kitchener Centre riding, Stephen Woodworth, wants to know when life begins.

It's probably no surprise that Woodworth is in the Conservative party, noted for their anti-abortion stance.

Woodworth brings up a good point... that we already have a 400 year old definition of when someone becomes a human. From his press release, "The important question is whether this 400 year old Canadian law is supported by 21st century medical science and principles of human rights." I agree. The definition should be looked at, and then tossed away.

So, what's wrong with trying to determine the instance when life begins?

The problem is that it's a false dichotomy. The terms "life" or "alive" are used to label categories of things that usually exhibit certain properties: reproduce, consume resources. But there isn't any scientifically defensible definition for life. After all, we're all just bundles of atoms moving around. For example, if a person is blown to bits by a bomb, their cells will continue to live for a time in clumps strewn on the ground. Is that person dead or alive? Neither... it's a false dichotomy.

This definition (or lack thereof) for life might strike you as shocking. But it's the same for the term "species"; we have no bullet-proof definition. The widely used "population of organisms that can interbreed" seems okay, until you find two populations that CAN interbreed, but don't because they're too far apart. So, many define a species as a geographically localized population of organisms that can interbreed. In the end, though, the word "species" is just a label to help us categorized what we see. Just a word. It does not carry the fundamental cleaving of reality that most people think.
Life is the same way. It's not an all-or-none phenomenon.

The logical snags of the question even show up in Woodworth's own words, "Is it a correct principle for a Canadian law to designate anyone who actually is a human being as a non-human?" Huh?!

In the end, trying to paste a starting-line on when life begins is - at best - a value judgement, and - more probably - an attempt to make an end-run around science and install good'ol religious fundamentalist values into Canadian's lives, whether they like it or not.

Have you met Linda?

2012-02-02T09:55:00.001-05:00

Here's an interesting factoid you probably didn't know about yourself. Let me introduce you to Linda.

Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and also participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations.

Which is more probable?
Linda is a bank teller.
Linda is a bank teller and is active in the feminist movement.

Go ahead, pick one.

If you're like most people, you picked the second one. However, that's not correct. Why? Answer this similar question.

Consider of a room containing 100 people.

How many of those people are:
bank tellers?
bank tellers who are also active in the feminist movement?

Which set of people is larger? Of course, option one contains all bank tellers, both feminist and non-feminist.

This is an example of the conjunction fallacy, in which people answer the probability question by instead thinking of plausibility. But when you're asked the same question in terms of concrete numbers (instead of percentages), you are more likely to answer correctly.

I got this from Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman.

Why do we vote in churches?

2012-01-30T11:21:00.001-05:00

I'm listening to the book Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. It's a fascinating book about the interaction between intuition and deliberative thought (though he uses the terms "system 1" and "system 2" for those). In it, he discusses voting.

Our vote should not be affected by the location of the polling station, for example. But it is. A study of voting patterns in precincts in Arizona in 2000 showed that the support for propositions to increase the funding of schools was significantly greater when the polling station was in a school than when it was in a nearby location [1]. A separate experiment [1] showed that exposing people to images of classrooms and school lockers also increased the tendency of participants to support a school initiative.
(2:34:36, chapter 4)

As far as I can recall, my voting station is always in a local church. Could that be helping our local Conservative politicians? Recall that in 2008, the Liberals lost our riding by a mere 17 votes.

[1] J. Berger, M. Meredith, and S. C. Wheeler, "Contextual priming: Where people vote affects how they vote," Proc. of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 105, no. 26, pp. 8846–8849, Jul. 2008. (link)

Are chimps closer to humans or gorillas?

2012-01-24T10:52:00.001-05:00

Check out my post on my other blog, "Stuff My Prof Shows Us". It says that chimps are more closely related to humans than to gorillas.

Great quote by Steven Pinker

2012-01-19T09:26:00.000-05:00

I'm listening to an audiobook version of How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker. It's excellent, if long (over 26 hours!).But it's a tour de force of human behaviour, with explanations from both neurology and evolutionary psychology.

Near the beginning of chapter 8, entitled "The Meaning of Life", Pinker writes,

Given that the mind is a product of natural selection, it should not have a miraculous ability to commune with all truths. It should have a mere ability to solve problems that are sufficiently similar to the mundane survival challenges of our ancestors.

According to a saying, "If you give a boy a hammar, the whole world becomes a nail", if you give a species an elementary grasp of mechanics, biology and psychology, the whole world becomes a machine, a jungle and a society.

He goes on to say that religion and philosophy are, in part, the application of mental tools to problems they were not designed to solve.

The Yoga Nazi

2011-12-05T09:27:00.001-05:00

Sorry, but if you're Catholic then yoga is out of bounds. Why? According to this page,

Yoga is incompatible with Catholicism because the best known practice of Hindu spirituality is Yoga. “Inner” Hinduism professes pantheism, which denies that there is only one infinite Being who created the world out of nothing.

So if you're Catholic, or even Christian, Jewish or Muslim, then NO YOGA FOR YOU!!

Glad we got that sorted out.

Choking Game: Mum on 570News

2011-11-28T12:44:00.001-05:00

My mum was interviewed by Jeff Allan on 570 News. Here is the interview.

Science vs. Religion, in a nutshell

2011-11-24T12:26:00.001-05:00

My IEEE-EMBS Lecture

2011-11-17T22:09:00.001-05:00

You might be wondering what IEEE and EMBS stands for. IEEE is an international engineering association. EMBS stands for the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, one of IEEE's many societies. The Waterloo student EMBS chapter holds invited lectures now-and-then, and I was happy to give one of those lectures today.

I had a choice: I could do the safe thing and talk about image registration, a topic that I've published in, or I could talk about my real passion, the brain. I chose to talk about the brain. The title was "Computational Neuroscience". The image on the right is the poster advertising the talk.

The lecture went well (from my perspective, anyway). Addie was nice enough to lend me her kitty stuffy so that I could demonstrate what a neurophysiology experiment entails.

I was gratified to see the lecture hall fill up. The room wasn't very big, but it felt nice to know that some people were willing to stand for an hour to hear what I had to say.

My take-home message:

Your sensations, perceptions, thoughts, feelings, memories, intentions, beliefs... are all patterns of neural activity in your brain.

Don't believe me? You'll just have to go to my next lecture.

7 Billion People

2011-11-01T12:01:00.000-04:00

October 31, 2011, is the day that UN forecasters estimate the earth's population reached 7 billion people. Man, it wasn't long ago that the population was a mere 6 billion (1999). Heck, I can even recall 5 billion (1987). And though I don't remember it, I was 4 years old when the earth reached 4 billion (1974).

The CBC "Offbeat Math" page has some interesting ways to interpret how many people that is. One that struck me is that if we were ALL at a concert - standing room only - we'd take up half of PEI. That doesn't seem like that much to me. But if we all stood hand-in-hand, we'd form a chain 7 million km long, nine times the distance to the moon.

Finally, the web page has a video interview with Joel Cohen, a math biologist from Columbia University. He makes it clear that we are prospering on borrowed time. One of the interviewers says that growing world population is a boon to the stock markets, and a dream scenario for investment in general (I can only assume that he's playing devil's advocate, and asking what other people might be wondering). Prof. Cohen repeats his stance, that this rate of growth cannot continue and current prosperity is at the expense of future generations.

Nerd jokes

2011-10-31T22:02:00.000-04:00

Here's one for all you mathletes.

This moment of nerdiness was inspired by a T-shirt sold by MathSoc. It had the slightly more straight-forward

That's math for ya'. Full of hidden messages. It would be fun to look for satanic messages like the credulous do when they listen to audio recordings in reverse.

Evangelical Pastafarian

2011-10-31T09:29:00.003-04:00

Happy Halloween. Here is the costume I donned for a party over the weekend. Can you guess what I am?

Here's a hint. Though you can't see it in the pictures above, I'm actually wearing a name-tag.

That's right. I was dressed as a Pastafarian, a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Arrr matey!

Aggressive Door-to-Door Sales: National Water Heater Scam

2011-10-20T11:17:00.000-04:00

Last night after dinner, there was a knock on our door... great, salespeople. Two young guys. One introduced himself, and said the other was a trainee. He said they were from National Home Services, and were in the neighbourhood replacing outdated rented water heaters.

We had someone similar at our door a few weeks ago, but I can't remember the company. After that encounter, I looked online and decided that I was happy with our current arrangement with Reliance Home Comfort.

That's what I said to the two guys from National... "Thanks for coming by, but we will decline."

Apparently, that wasn't sufficient to send them away. As I was closing the door, he kept talking, "But we're a Canadian company..." I re-opened the storm door and said, "Do you even know who we rent our water heater from?" To which he answered, "It's either Reliance or [some other company that I can't remember>]." I retorted with, "See, you don't even know what we have. Thanks for your visit, but we will decline."

As I proceeded to close the door again, he had a stern facial expression and maintained eye contact with me. Think about it. That's highly unusual, and struck me as aggressive. At this point, I experienced a twinge of fear that these guys could possibly go beyond a sales call, and get nasty... I pictured them vandalizing my property or harassing my family.

I opened the storm door again and said, "OK, I don't want to be rude. I told you we're not interested. Thank you, and good luck."

I finally closed the door.

Try googling "national water heater". Most of the hits are warnings about scams.

Suck it, Alt Med

2011-09-12T09:26:00.000-04:00

The Canadian Medical Association wrote to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, slamming their draft policy on alternative medicine. The CBC did a good job of covering it.

My brain arrived by mail

2011-07-10T12:28:00.006-04:00

In my research, I study the brain and how it works. It's useful to have a feeling for the shape of the brain, and where the parts are. So, I purchased a brain model from AllHeart.com.

I was pleasantly surprised. It's approximately life-sized, solid rubber, and weighs over 3 pounds. Basically, close to a real human adult brain (except for the rubber). Here is a view from the bottom.

It also comes apart. Here is a sagittal view of the left hemisphere.

It has 8 pieces in total. These are the 4 pieces for each hemisphere.

And it even comes with a handy dandy stand, shaped especially to fit your cranial curves.

I'll use it when I teach about the brain.

I can be good without God... not.

2011-06-27T22:00:00.003-04:00

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) recently posted billboards that look like this,

I know... Dylan is such an ass-wipe.

Or he's religious.

At least, that seems to be the opinion of a nearby church in Columbus Ohio. The billboard is on their property (I suppose under lease), and they asked the advertising company to take the ad down.

But let's think about this. Can Dylan be good without God?

Since the church asked to have the billboard removed, then they must disagree with it. Technically speaking, the logical negative of the statement is

Either Dylans is not good, OR he believes in God.

And that's an inclusive OR, so it includes the case where Dylan is a jerk AND he believes in God. Maybe that's what they had in mind.

Do they know something about Dylan that we don't? Perhaps they have insider information that shows Dylan is actually a real butt-head. Or maybe they found out that he's a closet Christian.

In any case, it goes to show that being an atheist is not seen as an asset in today's society. But that's prejudice.

More likely, the church is hoping to keep its members from being enlightened.

Summer solstice: it's worth celebrating

2011-06-21T09:48:00.005-04:00

Today is June 21. It's summer solstice, the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere.

For my birthday last May, I asked for a globe. I wanted to be able to illustrate solar-system phenomena to my kids, as well as show them the true geometry of our world. For example, the shortest path from Vancouver to England passes through the arctic circle.

A couple days ago, I pulled the blinds over the window, grabbed a lamp and my globe, and showed my 3 kids what summer solstice means, why it happens, and how it's linked to the seasons. It's the day when the earth's spin axis is maximally inclined toward the sun. Here's another - more technical - way of putting it. Imagine a line connecting the sun and the earth, passing right through the centre of each. Now draw another line along the earth's spin axis, also through the centre of the earth. Those two lines form an imaginary plane. Another imaginary plane is formed by the earth's orbit around the sun. A solstice occurs when those two planes are perpendicular.

You might have heard of the arctic circle, equator, and the tropics. These earth zones are all defined by the earth's tilt and are related to the solstice.

(Taken from this video.)
The tropics are the range around the equator, from 23.5^o north (Tropic of Cancer) to 23.5^o south (Tropic of Capricorn), where the sun is directly above at some time of the year. We never get that in Canada... we're not in the tropics. The closest we get is today, summer solstice.

Finally, here is a picture of Tricia on our honeymoon.

What the hell does that have to do with summer solstice, you ask? Notice that her shadow is directly below her. This picture was taken in Mexico right around the time of the summer solstice, the only time I've seen the sun directly overhead.

(And Trish isn't too hard on the eyes either. :-)

Poor Gideons lose their unfair advantage

2011-06-20T21:39:00.007-04:00

According to the KW Record, the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) voted 8-3 in favour of a motion to discontinue the tradition of allowing the Gideons to distribute the Bible to grade 5 students. It's about friggin' time.

Here's the interesting thing. It seems that it took the threat of a Muslim group distributing the Qu'ran to put the brakes on the entire practice. Because once the school board allows the Muslims, then they'll have to grant the same courtesy to the Anglicans, Jews, Hindus, Bhuddists, Baha'i, and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

So, I'm glad that the school board put an end to all this nonsense. Don't worry about board trustee Cindy Watson's comment that the vote "sends a negative message that we are anti-Christian". Rather, the fact that they've allowed it for so many years suggest the exact opposite; the school board has historically been far too pro-Christian. This vote was a corrective adjustment to make it equal for all religions.

But Watson said something that I liked, "Banning the Bible is not the answer." Apart from the fact that the Bible is not being banned, I quite agree with her. I'd like to see ALL religions taught in grade school. Perhaps the grade 5 kids could spend a week learning about each of the major religions. Once these belief systems are compared head-to-head, it becomes patently clear how ridiculous they all are. Think of it as part of the childhood vaccination schedule.

I sure hope the Muslims are pressuring the government for a publicly-funded separate school board.

(Thanks to Chris Burke for pointing this out to me.)

Homeopathic "doctors"

2011-06-14T09:54:00.002-04:00

Here is a short video from a colleague of mine, Iain Martel. It seems that many homeopaths are illegally using the title "doctor" or "Dr.", even though these designations are protected by the government.

Fairy Land 3D

2011-06-13T11:16:00.004-04:00

We went camping last weekend and had lots of fun. Trish got the kids making "Fairy houses" and she blogged about it. Don't get me wrong... I'm not claiming that fairies exist; they're only slightly more probable than God.

We took a bunch of pictures of the fairy entrances, and I noticed that two of my pictures -- when shown in succession -- give the illusion of 3D.

Popoff makes me sick (that's irony)

2011-06-08T15:52:00.004-04:00

Peter Popoff appeared in Toronto a couple weeks back. Some of my skeptical friends attended.

(The exposé letter they showed at the end... that was written by me.)

Measles outbreak in Quebec

2011-06-07T12:54:00.005-04:00

Instead of the usual "one or two cases of measles every year", Quebec has seen over 200 in the last month.

If only there was some way to prevent measles.

Oh yah, there is...

The Geo Centre kicks ass!

2011-06-01T19:22:00.005-04:00

I decided to go to the Johnson Geo Centre this morning to catch one of their sciencey movies called "Earth: The Power of the Planet". I know, I thought it sounded awesome too.

Unfortunately, a school group of 13-year-olds had the theatre booked to see a movie on volcanoes instead. Fortunately, it was actually a really amazing movie. After that, I watched the movie I planned on. It was also great.

Let me share with you some of the amazing things I learned.

The giant meteorite thought to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs is not visible directly. It's on the tip of the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. However, the outer rim of the crater is marked by cenotes, or sink holes... holes in the ground leading to elaborate caves filled with water.

Another amazing meteorite crater can be seen in Arizona.

View Larger Map
The movie on volcanoes had an excellent demonstration of plate tectonics. It showed a time-lapse movie of a lava lake in the Erta Ale volcano in Ethiopia, similar to this video,

I thought that was a really vivid illustration, especially since continents moving over millions of years is pretty hard to grasp intuitively.

Speaking of land moving, the movie also mentioned that some mountains grew about 5 metres after a single earthquake.

I was taken aback when "The Power of the Planet" movie went on and on about how special the earth is. Just the right distance from the sun, with just the right mass, and atmospheric CO₂, etc. It was starting to sound like a privileged planet argument that you would get from Intelligent Design proponents. But in the end they were simply making the case that our (human) influence on the planet can disturb the balance and render earth unliveable. The take-home message: earth will survive a long time, but we might not. I think that's an important message.

Another interesting factoid I hadn't realized; about 700-million years ago, the earth was covered by ice and snow. They call it the "snowball earth".

I got to touch a rock that is about 3.8 billions years old. Newfoundland and Labrador is made up of multiple patches of earth plates, with dates of rocks ranging in age from 450 million years to 3.8 billion years. The rocks around St. John's are about 450 million years old... just babies. But that's old when you consider that the Rocky Mountains were formed a mere 100 to 200 millions years ago.

Iceland sits atop a huge plume of magma that protrudes up through the earth's mantle. It's right where two major plates meet. Iceland probably formed from an underwater volcano.

The centre also had a nice section on human evolution. I especially like their coverage of cultural evolution, "Speech and language gave rise to counting, writing, ... and much else that forms the foundation of culture, including art, music and religion."

Going for a jog... and calling 911

2011-06-01T16:42:00.008-04:00

Finally got some nice weather here in St. John's, Newfoundland. So I went for a run to see downtown from the east side of the harbour. You can see the GPS track here.

I saw some quaint houses on the far shore, at the bottom of Signal Hill.

I also spotted what looks like fossilized ocean floor (something I saw earlier today in the Geo Centre).

I ran to the end of the road, to Cahill Point. While looking around, I heard a teenage boy yelling "Help..." I turned around and saw him standing on the top of a rocky hill, waving his arms. He was yelling, "HELP, my friend's dying!" Now, I was skeptical, but thought I'd better take some action. I waved back and called 9-1-1. I told the 911 operator what was going on, and that I wasn't sure if it was legit. He asked where I was, and I replied "Fort Amherst" (and he repeated "for-dammers"). There was another kid on the cliff who didn't seem too concerned, so I told the operator that I wasn't sure if it really was an emergency. He said he'd probably send someone anyway, and took my phone number (I run with my iPhone... spare me the geek comments).

As I was leaving, another kid came down the rocky hill slowly, and I asked him if he knew the kids up top. He said he did, and that they were joking. Turns out, the kid on top was just teasing his somewhat chubby friend who couldn't make it all the way up the hill. The chubby kid apologized for his friends, and I told him he should tell his buddies to look up the story of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf". Just then, a fire rescue vehicle came around the corner, lights flashing.

After finding out what was up, the fireman radioed the station to ask the other vehicles enroute to "stand down". Except for one... I'm wondering if it was a police car on its way to set the kids straight.

Incidentally, a couple with two children also heard the boy's calls for help, and we briefly discussed whether or not to call 911. Turns out, they are also from Waterloo, and live about a 10 minute walk from me. Small world... when one attends math conferences, anyway.

Now I know what they mean by "Not even wrong"

2011-05-26T21:11:00.004-04:00

Warning. Watching these videos might induce intellectual comatose.

I've listened to lots of anti-evolution propaganda, but this junk makes William Lane Craig and Kent Hovind look like Nobel laureates.

Either they are deliriously incompetent, or unapologetically dishonest. They repeat that there are absolutely no transitional fossils over and over again. And say with authority that modern scientific evidence continues to disprove the theory of evolution. Believers in the theory do so because they want to live their nihilistic lifestyles without the guilt of god holding them back.

My favourite quote comes 8:40 into episode 5, "It's really not about convincing your intellect. It's about setting aside your pride and listening to your conscience."

Yes, truth is about trusting your gut. Gosh, the earth sure seems like it's the centre of the universe because I'm staying still and the heavenly bodies are all moving around me. It's obvious to me so it must be true. I won't worry my silly little intellect over all that data of planetary orbits around the sun. I'll just follow my conscience, because it knows best.

Science is hard. No one ever said that the laws of the universe have to be easy for you to understand. No scientist ever claimed that comprehending the theory of evolution was as natural as breathing. It takes effort to understand this stuff BECAUSE much of it falls outside of our common-sense experiences.

Here's another ripe quote from the videos.

The truth is the Bible is full of scientific facts. And the so-called science of evolution is the one that over time has proven itself to be the one that simply cannot stand up to scrutiny.

Redundant grammar aside, nothing could be further from the truth. People do not find predictions in the Bible, they find postdictions. That is, quotes that can be interpreted to be consistent with something already known. Example, Esaiah 40:22 mentions the "circle of the earth", and some take that to mean that the earth is spherical. However, a circle is not a sphere. The quote is also consistent with a flat pancake earth. Any similarity the Bible has to science is strictly coincidental, or a result of post-hoc rationalization and quote mining. (BTW - Muslims make the same claim about the Quran... see the comments).

On the contrary, I really like Steven Novella's recent quote,

In fact the entire history of human knowledge (factual knowledge about how nature works) is one of cultural beliefs (largely superstition or philosophy-based or simply quirky cultural history) being systematically replaced by science-based ideas. When we started to take a rigorous systematic look at nature with methods that control for bias we found that almost everything we believed about the world was wrong.

Finally, the videos do a pretty horrendous job of taking quotes from real scientists out of context. Well, here's a quote I got from the videos, "Evolution... is... true."

Arithmetic fail

2011-05-18T12:45:00.011-04:00

My sister-in-law asked me to clarify this simple arithmetic expression.

The question is, do they mean

(1)
Or, do they mean

(2)
In the absence of brackets to clarify, mathematical convention would suggest that option (1) is the correct interpretation since the division symbol pertains to the first operand on its right. In our case, it's a 2. If they had intended option (2), then they would have to enclose 2(9+3) all in brackets, as in

The problem is we don't know the mathematical sophistication of the person who came up with the question. How many times have I seen a "skill testing question" that looks something like this...

Following standard mathematical convention, my answer would be 16.166666... But, somehow that's less satisfying than the unconventional answer of 3.

Arithmetic fail

2011-04-25T20:30:00.002-04:00

Looking through a book about 100 with Heather, we came across this page.

Let's recap.

3 + 7 = 10

and

30 + 80 = 100

Any questions?

Craig vs Harris debate: Does Good Come From God

2011-04-13T10:46:00.000-04:00

I listened to this debate between William Lane Craig and Sam Harris. Here is the first of 9 YouTube installments...

My thoughts...

Dr. Craig is a good debater. However, I disagree with most of what he said. For example, he said that the existence of God guarantees objective morals. That's not at all obvious to me. God could have simply decided that he wouldn't bother making objective morals. The Deist outlook, for example, is that God set the universe in motion (with physical laws, etc), and simply stands back to watch what happens.

Most of Dr. Craig's arguments seemed to be based on semantics.

God is intrinsically good.
Thus, good must come from God.

That's a simplified version, but captures the circular nature of the argument. I'm not buying it.

The real question is does the absence of God necessarily mean that there are no objective morals. Dr. Craig says "no". I agree with that.

And this is where Dr. Harris and I disagree. He claims that objective morals CAN come from natural causes. His book, The Moral Landscape, tries to make that argument. While I agree with almost everything that he says in the book, I don't agree that there is a universal, absolute way to define good and bad, or right and wrong. One of his arguments asks us to consider the universe with the worst possible misery for everyone. To him, this establishes a global anchoring point, and any move from that universe will result in less misery, and therefor be good. Though I haven't nailed it down yet, I feel that there is something wrong with this line of reasoning. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that -- no matter how bad the universe is -- I can always imagine a universe that's worse.

I cringe when I hear Dr. Harris authoritatively state things like female genital mutilation is objectively and universally wrong. It's not that I think genital mutilation is a good idea... I don't. But my reasoning is not motivated by a universal moral; it's based on my emotions. I would hate to see anyone subjected to that kind of torture, but that doesn't make it objectively wrong. It just feels subjectively wrong to me.

I routinely mutilate the bodies of other living organisms when I eat. Does that make me bad? Should I stop eating? And the rightness or wrongness of killing someone always seems to depend on the circumstances; where you defending yourself? These questions of morals always seem to hinge on your point of view. To me, that suggests that there are no objective morals.

My first sermon

2011-04-12T09:23:00.003-04:00

On Sunday morning, I gave a 20-minute talk during the service of the First Unitarian Congregation of Waterloo. My talk was entitled "Beliefs on Trial". My main point was that we cannot trust our own subjective impressions. There are many cognitive traps that we fall into, and they can lead us to believe in things that just aren't true. I gave a number of examples, including optical illusions, confirmation bias, and change blindness. Here is a video I showed, courtesy of Prof. Richard Wiseman.

The people there were very nice, and I really enjoyed myself. If I were a church person, THIS is the congregation I would belong to.

It's kind of a strange thing... many of the members are atheists and agnostics. And yet the service starts out with "Call to Worship". Begging the question, worship who?!

My sense is that this kind of church is meant for those who have rejected the other supernatural forms of religion (ie. ones that explicitly worship a supernatural God). But not going to church left a hole, so the Unitarian church is a way to have the community of a church, but without the guilt, hell and blind faith of most religions.

I thought my talk went well, and many nice folks approached me afterward saying that they enjoyed it. I appreciate that.

I had some interesting discussions after the service. In particular, I ended up talking to a woman who said she was a physician and a therapist. We talked about beliefs and how science does not know everything. True enough. But when the conversation turned to homeopathy, it came out that she is a believer. I said that there is no known mechanism for water memory. She retorted that "water memory" was just a place-holder description for an as-of-yet undiscovered phenomenon. That may be true. But there's still no evidence that it does anything. She seemed convinced that homeopathy works. But I reminded her of the main point of my talk, that it's easy for us to fall into the psychological traps and believe in the untrue. I was happy that someone else in the conversation saw things from my perspective.

Looks like Johnny Depp to me

2011-04-04T10:44:00.003-04:00

Check out this image of the face of Jesus that appeared in a cheese pizza in Brisbane.You can buy it on eBay. Though, you can probably get a slice of pizza and a better photo of Johnny Depp for less.

Matlab liked my idea

2011-03-31T12:30:00.008-04:00

Matlab is one of the most frequently used programming languages for science and engineering.

Though I can't verify it, it seems that Matlab has incorporated one of my ideas into its standard distribution.

Back in 2006, I was working on reconstruction algorithms for computed tomography (CT). Here is a video I made that demonstrates CT reconstruction. It takes the radon transform (at the bottom) and constructs the image slice (top).

I found Matlab's code slow, so I replaced the time-consuming part of their code with a faster version that I wrote. It was faster because I precompiled it using mex... nerd detail. I submitted my code to their File Exchange service so other people could benefit from it.

Anyhooo, in preparing my lecture on CT reconstruction today, I was suprised to see that Matlab's code was now faster than mine. WTF?!

I looked at their code, and saw that they had replaced the exact same part with mex code, just like I did.

Here is what a snippet of their original (slow) code looked like.

I replace it with the following code that calls the program I wrote (LinearBackproject).

And now this is what their new code looks like.

They even used my 0/1 flag (the last argument) to indicate to the iradonmex subroutine whether to use nearest-neighbour or linear interpolation.

Even if Matlab did use my code directly, I have no financial recourse. But it feels nice to be appreciated.

The Paradox of Choice: Book Review

2011-03-25T20:52:00.004-04:00

Just finished listening to the audiobook version of The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less by Barry Schwartz.

I'd first heard of this book a while back, and it sounded amazing. I reconnected with it in a rebroadcasted episode of the Skeptically Speaking podcast (actually, radio show).

Here's the idea. You walk up to a samples table at the grocery store and are faced with 6 brands of jam. You can try any or all of them. After, you can choose to buy some jam, or mosey on with your other business.

Suppose instead that you are faced with 24 brands of jam instead of 6. Logic dictates that you're likely to find a jam that's superior to any of the 6 in the original scenario. Again, you are free to purchase.

Which scenario do you think garners the most jam sales? The 24-jam case? WRONG! Significantly more people opt to buy jam when there are only 6 brands to compare. ... I know... WTF!

Paradoxically (hence the title), including more options actually makes all options seem less appealing, even though it gives one more of an opportunity to find the BEST option. Why? Dr. Schwartz offers a number of reasons. For example, when faced with more options, you have more pressure to find the best.

Another example: Students taking a photography course were allowed to keep one of their prints. However, half were allowed to reconsider their choice, and had the option to change their mind and select a different one of their prints to keep. Even though very few actually exchanged their prints, a survey revealed that those with no option to trade were happier with their print. Somehow, adding the option to change their minds made the free-to-choose group less satisfied with their choice. Paradox.

While having too much choice can make you unhappy, he's careful to point out that too little choice can also be a problem. He's not condoning slavery and destitution. But most of us are offered more options than we can realistically understand.

One of his central theses is the differences between "maximizers" and "satisficers". A maximizer is someone who wants to consider ALL the options, and is seriously interested in finding the best. A satisficer, on the other hand, is someone who wants to find an option that is simply good enough. I can related to being a maximizer, thinking of each decision as a challenge. But Schwartz supplies ample evidence from the scientific literature that maximizers are less happy than satisficers. Well, that sucks.

Luckily, he offers suggestions on how to limit the impact of choice in your life, to make you happier and regret less. But you'll have to read the book to find out what they are.

Evolution and Beer, two of my favourite things

2011-03-01T15:23:00.004-05:00

Now there's a beer for all you Darwinists,

The circular seal on the left says, "Created in 27 days, not 7". Here's what it says on the back label,

I bought it at a ski resort in Utah, near Salt Lake City.

COSYNE Day 2: Mormon Temple Square

2011-02-26T16:53:00.004-05:00

Many of the talks today were about the molecular mechanics of neurons. Not quite my cup of tea, since I didn't understand much.

I did, however, spend some time at the Mormon Temple Square. The buildings are beautiful. I was amazed to hear that this big chapel was started in 1853, and completed in 1889.

I toured the visitor centre. It was basically divided into 3 parts: (1) the building of the chapel, (2) the words of the modern prophet Thomas Monson, and (3) families.

I watched about 6 of the short sermons given by Thomas Monson, the current president of the Mormon church. He's also considered a prophet.

In one video about raising children, he talked about how early life experiences can affect a person. I was amused when he used phrases like "The evidence reveals..." He accepts scientific evidence when it's convenient, but rejects it if it contradicts his faith.

As I watched him speak, I became aware of the striking contrast between his talk, and the talks I'm attending at the conference. If anyone at the conference makes a claim that goes beyond their evidence, they are promptly called on it. Of course, you might argue that a sermon and a scientific conference are entirely different. But are they? In both cases, the expert is sharing their wisdom with others. The only real difference is that in a scientific conference you're free to question and demand evidence for claims. No so in religion.

I spent some time talking to a couple young lady missionaries; that's what they call the volunteers with the name tags that wander around looking to talk to visitors. One girl was from Ottawa, and she did almost all of the talking.

I asked her if Mormons were encouraged to talk to their peers about their beliefs. She said that they were, and that anyone would want to talk about their passion. I was relieved to hear that, and told her that I consider myself an evangelical scientist. I guess I agree with her on that, at least. So, she tried to talk me into becoming a Mormon, and I tried to talk her into becoming... a secular humanist, I suppose.

I was conscious that she kept us moving away from other visitors.

We basically established that her "evidence" is an emotional knowing, and is subjective. I told her - a number of times - that subjective truths can easily lead to irreconcilable conflicts. When religion A disagrees with religion B, who is right? Science, I continued, is based on objective truth, a reality that we can all agree on and share. She nodded politely. It seems that she prefers her own reality.

In case you're not aware, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was started by Joseph Smith in 1830. Joseph had a revelation, in which God asked him to transcribe some gold plates into modern English. He was told where to find the plates, buried in New York state. The result was the Book of Mormon, considered by Mormons to be a new testament that rescues the Christianity that had gone off the rails. Disappointingly, the gold plates disappeared and went back to Heaven. The only remaining evidence is the Book, and the signed testimony of 11 witnesses that claim to have seen the plates.

That's a nice story, and might even be true. But I offered a different explanation. Perhaps Joseph Smith decided to start his own religion, so wrote a book and made up a story about it being divinely inspired.

The nice girl had never heard of Occam's razor, but I suggested that my explanation was in many ways more parsimonious... requiring fewer miracles (none, to be exact). That clearly pissed her off. She said, "Yes, even though there are 14 million of us", as if to imply that 14 million people can't be wrong. I said that many religions have lots of followers. I wish I'd thought to say that popularity dos not make something true. Flat earth, for example.

I felt bad for making her mad. I certainly wouldn't expect her to change her mind overnight, since her entire family would probably stage an intervention to reel her back in.

COSYNE Day 1

2011-02-25T19:20:00.004-05:00

I'm at a conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. The conference is called Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE).

What have I learned so far?

That there are many MANY monkeys and mice out there with electrical probes in their brains. The majority of talks so far talk about measurements of neural activity in various regions of the brain, and the subsequent data analysis that tries to make sense of it all in light of the stimulus that caused the activity in the first place.

The first talk was amazing! E.J. Chichilnisky described a project in which they put a piece of a retina on an electrical array (that picks up electrical activity), and shone various configurations of light on the retina. Correlating the input image with the output electrical activity, he was able to isolate the activities of individual cone photoreceptors, as well as how the cones pool their activity for individual retinal ganglion cells - the long, thin neurons that are bundled to form the optic nerve. Basically, elucidating the wiring diagram of the retina, and what image processing gets done in the back of your eyeball. Cool.

I also learned that the visitors' centre of the Mormon Temple (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) is open from 9am to 9pm. The "sisters" that I spoke to were very friendly. I'm really curious to check it out, and find out what makes these people tick. I think I'll spend an hour or so tomorrow looking around and asking questions.

One more thing. I got a kick out of Chichilnisky's talk when he said that his "focus was on the retina".

Homeopathetic logic

2011-01-20T12:10:00.004-05:00

It's so cute when homeopaths try to talk all sciency. This web page tries to offer responses to common challenges to homeopathy.

Here's the challenge...

Argument #3: There is no scientific proof from placebo controlled human trials that homeopathy is effective therefore homeopathic remedies are nothing but a placebo.

And the response...

Rebuttal #3: Placebos are by far the best studied medicines. Their benefits have been evaluated and proven in every placebo controlled study ever conducted. Placebos definitely have an effect; in fact they have become the standard by which all pharmaceutical are compared. ...

How can you test the efficacy of a placebo in a placebo-controlled study? It's like saying you can fly by pulling up on your bootstraps.

But let's not lose sight of the most glaring issue. To quote the Homeopathy Evidence Check from the British House of Commons,

In our view, the systematic reviews and meta-analyses conclusively demonstrate that homeopathic products perform no better than placebos.

Free hotel

2011-01-19T22:01:00.005-05:00

I just booked my hotel for the conference ICIAM. What a bargain! Here's the confirmation page.

Indeed, I had to enter my VISA number to pay $0. Hmm... somehow this seems too good to be true. I'll wait a bit, and then call to confirm the reservation.

Reverse Speech: Hear what you want to hear

2011-01-11T12:51:00.003-05:00

That's the title of my latest SkepticNorth blog post. Check it out.

Thanks to my sister's band, The Rotten, for the picture of Jan, their lead singer.

Numerology in the Quran

2010-12-23T13:40:00.005-05:00

Some claim that numerology is proof that the Quran is the divine word of Allah. Here is a sampling of the evidence (taken from here):

The statement of “seven heavens” is repeated 7 times. “The creation of the heavens (khalq as-samawat)” is also repeated 7 times.
The word “Day (yawm)” is repeated 365 times in singular form, while its plural and dual forms “days (ayyam and yawmayn)” together are repeated 30 times.

Those are kinda neat, but would be trivial to implement. It's a shame that the word "Day (yawm)" couldn't be repeated exactly 365.256363 times.

Now for the amazing number 19!! Again, just a sampling:

The first verse of every sura (chapter) known as “Basmalah” (bismillah al-rahman al-rahim) consists of 19 letters.
The Quran consists of 114 suras, which is 19 x 6.
The total number of verses in the Quran is 6346, or 19 x 334.
6234 numbered verses & 112 un-numbered verses (Basmalahs) 6234+112 = 6346. Note that 6+3+4+6= 19.
The Basmalah occurs 114 times, despite its conspicuous absence from Sura 9 (it occurs twice in Sura 27) & 114= 19 x 6.
The Zakat charity is mentioned in [a number of verses that] add up to 2395. This total does not quite make it as a multiple of 19; it is up by 1.
The Hajj Pilgrimage occurs in 2:189, 196, 197; 9:3; and 22:27. These numbers add up to 645, and this total does not quite make it as a multiple of 19; it is down by 1.
Thus, Zakat and Hajj, together, give a total of 2395+645 = 3040 = 19×160.

The list goes on and on, quoting many MANY quantities that are divisible by 19.

It occurred to me that every 19th number is divisible by 19.

Moreover, suppose you have 100 different quantities that you tabulate in a document (eg. number of chapters, or times a word is used). If you consider all possible combinations of those quantities, you'll get about 10³⁰ values. In combinatorial notation, that’s

(100 choose 1) + (100 choose 2) + … + (100 choose 100).

If one out of every 19 of those is divisible by 19 (as one would expect), then you’re left with more than 10²⁸ “coincidences”… combinations of quantities that are divisible by 19. In fact, there will be a comparable number of “coincidences” for 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, etc.

These numerology "miracles" are statistically unimpressive, and certainly not proof that the Quran is the divine word of Allah.

Mohammed vs Jesus

2010-12-20T20:29:00.010-05:00

I'm taking part in a little online convo over at Extraordinary Claims. The entry on Allah has quite a few comments. In the latest round, I couldn't help noticing the Quran talking smack about Jesus. In one comment, commenter "atom" includes a litany of quotes from the Quran. Allah drones on about those who reject his revelations, "We will make his punishment long and terrible." [19:79] Blah blah blah.

But this seems a little unfair...

Those who deny Our Revelations are deaf and dumb, living in many layers of darkness. Allah confounds whom He wills, and guides to the Right Way whom He pleases. [6:39] ... Those who deny Our revelations, We draw them step by step closer to destruction in ways that they do not realize,[7:182] and even though I grant them respite; My plan is surely effective.[7:183] ... None can guide those whom Allah confounds and leaves them blundering about in their rebellious transgression.[7:186]

Oh great! So, not only am I going to hell, but no one can stop me, not even myself. That's not fair.

I managed to stay awake long enough to come across the text,

Those who say: “The Compassionate (God) has begotten a son,” certainly preach such a monstrous falsehood,that the very Heavens might crack, the earth might cleave asunder and the mountains might crumble to pieces – at their ascribing a son to the Compassionate (God), It is not befitting to the Compassionate (God) that He should beget a son.[19:88-92]

Soooo... I guess Jesus is out of the question. Couldn't help wondering what the Christians might have to say about that. And it seems that the New Testament is not an "enlightening Book",

Yet there are others among people who wrangle about Allah, though they neither have knowledge nor guidance, nor an enlightening Book, twisting things around in order to lead others astray from the Path of Allah – for such persons there is disgrace in this life, and on the Day of Judgment we shall make them taste the punishment of burning fire,[22:8-9]

Oh good, so it's not just me, but all Christians too.

Hmmm... which religion is right? Which one should I choose?

NEITHER!

Latest SkepticNorth post: John of God

2010-11-22T10:56:00.001-05:00

I posted on SkepticNorth about John of God. Crazy stuff.

Medical outsourcing - Liberation Treatment in Costa Rica

2010-11-21T21:57:00.003-05:00

An article in The Record on Saturday November 20, 2010, was entitled "Woman to have controversial MS surgery". It was about a Canadian with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) that decided they wanted to receive Liberation Treatment. But you can't get that procedure in Canada.

The problem is there is very little evidence that the surgery does anything useful. On the other hand, the procedure has some very serious risks. In a rational health system, unproven mediocre gains do not outweigh serious risks. That's why Canada doesn't offer it.

So, people are spending big bucks to fly down to Costa Rica and get the surgery done there. Well, that's their prerogative. What I don't like is that the Canadian health system will likely end up paying for the medical complications. That can cost a lot of dough.

A couple things I would also point out. The clinic is called Clinica Biblica. I, personally, wouldn't feel comfortable getting a medical procedure done at a clinic named after a book of magic.

Also, the article says that the patient will continue treatment in Canada, including homeopathy. Figures.

There is a follow-up article in The Record, Nov. 21.

Journals, make up your friggin' minds!

2010-11-17T14:38:00.004-05:00

I just love going through the "Instructions for Authors" when I submit a manuscript to a journal. The instructions are often grossly out-of-date, and usually self-contradictory. Here's a very typical example,

Each figure should include a single illustration.

versus

If a figure consists of separate parts, it is important that a single composite illustration file be submitted, containing all parts of the figure.

AAAAHHHHGGG!!

Cell-tower and WiFi hysteria: the REAL science

2010-11-16T11:48:00.003-05:00

Have you ever heard of the dangers of living too close to a cell tower? I have, and I wasn't sure what to think of it. Recently, some of the same people have been lobbying the government to ban WiFi from public school because some of the students were having "cardiac arrest". Sound sketchy? You bet. Read this scathing review on SkepticNorth about the case for electrohypersensitivity.

If you read the deposition of Mr. Rodney Palmer to the House of Commons Standing Committe on Health, my favourite line is, "Some [student] report dizziness and vertigo, but only when they're in the school."

Dude, don't rain on my placebo effect

2010-11-12T13:41:00.006-05:00

This article by Edzard Ernst puts homeopathy in its place. It's simply placebo.

I agree. But when I condemn this sort of quackery, people sometimes ask me why I have to be such a downer... what's wrong with placebo? If it's helping someone, then why not just let it be?

In the words of Prof. Ernst,

The answer is that it prevents clinicians telling the truth to patients. Being honest would defeat any placebo effect: if I tell my patient, "Take this remedy; it contains nothing and the trial data shows nothing," she is unlikely to experience a placebo response. Hence, homoeopaths, knowingly or unknowingly, deprive patients of informed consent. This paternalistic approach is recognised as unethical.

Furthermore, he points out that the placebo effect is often slight, unpredictable, and short-lived.

Prof. Ernst says that If you want someone to experience the placebo effect, give them a REAL treatement. Then they can benefit from both the treatment and the placebo effect (and the doctors don't have to lie).

My latest SkepticNorth post

2010-11-08T09:04:00.004-05:00

Getting a little more mileage out of my SkeptiCamp talk, here is a post on SkepticNorth about it.

How NOT to be gay

2010-10-27T11:04:00.000-04:00

I watched this documentary called "Cure for Love" about how an evangelical Christian program tries to convert homosexuals, and help them to follow a righteous lifestyle. I'm relieved to hear that it fails more often than it succeeds. I feel sorry for the married guy and his wife; they both know they're gay, but force themselves to live in a heterosexual relationship so that they can be whole in the eyes of God. Bleh.

SkeptiCamp Toronto

2010-10-26T21:24:00.006-04:00

On Oct. 23, 2010, I attended SkeptiCamp in Toronto, hosted by CFI Ontario. It was a great opportunity to meet like-minded people, and hear some enriching talks.

I gave a talk (not to suggest that MY talk was enriching). Well, you can judge for yourself. The projector bulb blew, so I didn't have my slides for my talk. So, I've taken the liberty of recording it and putting it on YouTube.

It's entitled "Being Right is Not Enough", and it's about why we can't trust our experiences, emotions, or the popularity of a belief in our pursuit of truth.

Sidewards - an invented word

2010-10-17T12:05:00.004-04:00

Here you see Lauchy sitting in a position that he calls "sidewards". That's not a word (not one that we use, at least), but it demonstrates the ability of a little person to apply learned linguistic rules to new situations.

Sidewards. Makes sense to me.

Oops, I just checked the dictionary. It says that "sidewards" is another word for "sideways". Hmm... maybe he's been reading the dictionary.

Kitchener-Waterloo, the place to buy property

2010-10-14T16:26:00.000-04:00

I noticed this story in a magazine a few months ago. Here it is online. Basically, Kitchener-Waterloo is ranked as the best real-estate investment in Ontario. I'm happy to say that we are Waterloo home-owners.

Run for the Cure

2010-10-03T14:21:00.003-04:00

We did the Run for the Cure today, in honour of my younger sister, Angi. She kicked breast cancer's ass this year, and we're all proud of her.

I noticed lots of dogs there. This one, in particular, caught my eye. Well, hellooo sweetness!

We just did the 1km walk, since we had our three kids with us. Thanks to all those who donated; I raised about $270 for breast cancer research.

Make that $300... thanks Greg.

Two victims overnight

2010-10-02T13:30:00.000-04:00

Last night, Trish heard some squeaks. We looked for mice, but found none near the kitchen garbage. Then Trish heard Charlie (one of our cats) do his funny purr/meow. She found both cats in the stairwell "playing" with a small grey mouse. I captured it in a glass, and pitched it into the brush in our backyard.

Victim #1

This morning, we had just settled down to have our coffee in the livingroom, and Trish noticed a dead mouse on the rug.

Victim #2
(and Heather's finger, for scale reference)

That's two mice in less than 12 hours.

Robin Hood, with specs

2010-09-13T15:04:00.000-04:00

This banner ad was in an e-mail I got from Rogers.

Doesn't it look like the dude in the background is wearing glasses?

Moving things with your mind: Neuroprosthetics

2010-09-02T15:14:00.001-04:00

Miguel A. L. Nicolelis

Holy cow, what an amazing talk I just went to. I'm at a conference in Buenos Aires, called "Engineering in Medicine and Biology". It features many scientific and engineering advances in fields like medical imaging, bioinformatics, and neuroscience. I make it a habit to attend the plenary talks because they're meant for a general audience, and they're often a good way to see a nice overview of a field of research.

This afternoon, I attended a plenary keynote lecture called "Towards a Whole-Body Neuroprosthetic", by Miguel A. L. Nicolelis of Duke University. What an eye-opener!

The theme behind his research -- implantable arrays that can read electrical activity from thousands of neurons. This activity is used to derive numerical models of behaviour. For example, a monkey is trained to play a little computer game in which it has to move a cursor into a circular region on the screen by manipulating a joystick. While this is going on, an implanted probe in the monkey's motor cortex reads off the neural activity associated with the movements. Later on, the experimenters remove the joystick, and instead derive the INTENDED motions directly from the monkey's neural activity. And it works beautifully! The monkey is able to control the cursor with its mind (similar to classical EEG-based attempts, but no training is needed; the device reads your intentions from your brain's natural internal language).

This technology could be used in corporeal augmentation for the paralyzed (artificial limbs and other actuators could be controlled directly by the brain). That's the first application that comes to mind (no pun intended). But there are other applications, such as remote manipulation... controlling a limb over the internet.

In the talk, he also described experiments where they fed electrical activity INTO the brain. This could be thought of as an aditional form of sensory input. The example he gave was a mouse that lives in a cage with a complex magnetic field. The mouse has a magnetic field sensor that sends information into its brain. It will be interesting to see how the mouse's brain incorporates the new input. Presumably, the mouse will have a completely independent perception of where it is in its cage, so that if you gouged out its eyes and plugged up its ears, it would still be able to navigate in its cage without hesitation. Sounds strange, but you've already got something similar. Most people don't realize that they have more than 5 senses; your inner ear houses your equilibrium, your sense of which way is down. Close your eyes, and stand on one foot. You can still stay upright because of your sense of equilibrium. The mouse's magnetic sense is sorta like that.

Using these neuroprosthetic input and output devices, Prof. Nicolelis' goal is to have a quadraplegic walk onto the field to open the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil (Nicolelis' native country). The person will be strapped into an exoskeleton robot, and implants in their brain will give the robot the complex instructions for walking.

Finally, Prof. Nicolelis urged us to loosen our grip on the idea that cognitive functions are localized in the brain. He said that this division of the brain is a model that we like because its easy to understand; he offered the rather paradoxical quip "our brains don't think the way we think". He also emphasized that the brain is a general-purpose statistical inference machine. No matter what input you feed it, it will start to build the structure of the input into its model of the world. I like the way Nicolelis thinks.

Driveway biology project

2010-08-22T18:52:00.000-04:00

A little dead bird appeared on our driveway one day. Probably the work of our nimble and deadly cat Tassie. Anyway, this is the scene a couple days later (you might want to put down your bowl of cereal).

Nature walk to work

2010-08-16T10:51:00.000-04:00

OK, so I'm on my way to work, walking through Waterloo Park. I stopped to take a picture of this tree that had fallen over the weekend (I keep my camera in an easily-accessible pouch just for such occasions).

After I took the picture, I noticed this going on. Warning: explicit!

And then a few metres down the trail I witnessed this high-speed chase!

All in a day's walk, I suppose.

Wait, is this chiropractor joking?

2010-08-12T12:43:00.000-04:00

Is this chiropractor for real?

Doncha just love the careful measurement technique ("Pull baby's legs, but not too hard.") The sad thing is that the chiropractor probably doesn't even know he's deluding himself.

Looking under the hood of intelligent design

2010-08-11T22:38:00.000-04:00

Here is my next post on Skeptic North.

My wife knows me well

2010-08-11T15:38:00.000-04:00

She knows me well enough to take a picture of this bumper-sticker for me.

I appreciate it when people advertise their scientific ignorance. I try to keep my distance from drivers that believe a magical man is looking out for them.

Today's irony lesson is brought to you by spam

2010-08-05T11:30:00.000-04:00

I got this e-mail today.

Dear Webmail User, ANTI SPAM UPDATE
This message is from WEBMAIL MANAGEMENT MESSAGING CENTER to all Webmail account users. We are currently upgrading our data base and webmail account center.
This is to enable your webmail account take a new look with new functions and help protect against spam e-mails.
We are therefore deleting all unused email account to create more space for new accounts and updates.
To help us fight spam and to prevent your account from closing you will have to update it below so that we will know that it's an active account.
CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL IDENTITY BELOW

Email Username:
EMAIL Password:
Date of Birth:
Alternative Email:

WARNING!!! All account owner that refuses to comply with this update will lose his or her within seven days of receiving this notice.
Thank you for your understanding. We are delighted to bringing communication closer to you.

WEBMAIL ADMIN.
tech.taem@9.cn

They claim that they're trying to help you get rid of your spam. The irony, of course, is that the e-mail is spam.

I don't use webmail. And even if I did, I wouldn't e-mail my account credentials to some address in China just because they asked for it.

And the capstone of irony... the grammatically-challenged closing sentence, "We are delighted to bringing communication".

New MacBook Pro

2010-07-29T12:15:00.000-04:00

I just picked up my new MacBook Pro. It's got 8GB of RAM, a 500GB disk, and a sweet SWEET new smell. Once I got the box back to my office, I ripped it open like a giddy child on Christmas morn. Here is a picture of it downloading 1.02GB of software updates. How adorable is that?!

While I was at the CampusTech Shop, in walked David Johnston. He was accompanied by a body guard.

Change is good

2010-07-23T11:28:00.001-04:00

If you know me well, you know I like change. My blog's fresh look is thanks to Google Blogger's new set of templates. Ahhhh...

I just have to tweak the banner.

How to start a fire (if you're a pyromaniac)

2010-07-19T21:16:00.004-04:00

Here is how my (pyromaniac) friend likes to start fires.

Step 1: Carefully place sticks and cardboard in fire pit.

Step 2: Generously sprinkle fire pit with fuel.

Step 3: Light a match.

Step 4: Stand back.

Step 5: Toss match into fire pit.

Step 6: Stop, drop, and roll.

Enjoy!

8: The Mormon Proposition

2010-07-19T10:47:00.003-04:00

My wife and I watched "8: The Mormon Proposition" over the weekend. It's a documentary about the involvement of the Mormon Church with Proposition 8 in California's election in 2008.

The California Supreme Court had determined that denying marriage to gay couples was against the constitution, so ruled to allow same-sex marriages. Proposition 8, also called the California Marriage Protection Act, was a constitutional amendment to reverse the Supreme Court's decision.

The Mormon Church (a.k.a. the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or simply L.D.S.) is a highly controlling religion, bordering on a cult by many metrics. They believe that homosexuality is an unnatural and pathological condition; so-called gays are simply mistaken, and need therapy. The documentary points out that this approach leads to a lot of teenage suicide.

Their rationale for this wisdom is even worse than citation from the Bible. No, their doctrine also come from the writings of a guy named Joseph Smith in 1820. That's right... some guy wrote down what he thought, said it was the word of God, and now it's a religion. That puts it in the same category of loony as Scientology.

The LDS church prohibits the use of alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea, does not allow women leaders in the church, and insists that its members donate 10% of their income to the church. That's what paid for this

One thing I'll say for them, they have great commercials.

OK, back to proposition 8. According to the documentary, this is the first time in American history that a constitutional amendment has taken rights away. Nice work.

It's only a matter of time before that silly amendment is removed.

Gad Dang immigrants

2010-07-17T12:42:00.003-04:00

In this month's Good News trashazine is an article entitled "Immigration: How a Foreign Invasion is Reshaping the West".

Here's the executive summary: Let's barricade our borders so that Muslim immigrants don't overtake Christianity!

The article obsesses over Islamic terrorists, and how accepting such people as citizens is a big mistake. Of course, God saw this coming a long time ago, and even warned us in Deuteronomy 32:25 of the "terror within".

Here's a quote I actually agree with.

Mixing cultures, and especially religions, can be volatile!

Not so much the cultures part. But religions typically do not play nicely together. Especially if one religion has an opportunity to bully the other out of existence.

Nuthin' like good'ol hate propaganda to keep your religion alive and well.

Abortion pictures on my walk home

2010-07-12T21:03:00.003-04:00

A number of people from www.showthetruth.ca held large placards with graphic pictures of aborted fetuses at the corner of University Ave. and Seagram today. Here is a taste of what they were displaying (taken from their pamphlet).

I looked through their pamphlet, and it was effective, but for the wrong reasons. I've always been wary that my emotions only reflect what feels best, not necessarily what is best. Given that I have 3 children, it's not surprising that I felt a tinge of sorrow for the unborn, bloody babies.

But, I don't think that's the best way to think about abortion. Nobody wants to get an abortion. It's not like it makes you feel good. But it doesn't take much imagination to come up with a situation where abortion is the lesser of two evils.

Their pamphlet states, "we need science to tell us when life begins." That's like asking where the end of a circle is. There is no clear-cut instant when a new life is formed. It's all a gradual chemical process with a few milestones along the way. So I'm afraid science isn't going to help there. But this is not really a scientific question, anyway; it's a value judgement.

Not surprisingly, their web page is sprinkled with Christian biblical quotes. Using the bible to support their views is probably the least scientific thing they could possibly do.

What I don't like is that some people feel pompous enough to try to introduce laws that will limit others who don't share their viewpoint. I don't mind them showing the pictures. I'm just glad I live in a country that is rational enough to give women the choice. Last I checked, the world wasn't short of people.

I'm not saying that abortion is a great replacement for birth control, or that a woman should be allowed to abort a fetus whenever she pleases. I also acknowledge that many people want to adopt babies. All I'm saying is that it should be a choice. And perhaps it's better to make a rational choice than an emotionally-charged choice.

Nonscience conference

2010-07-10T20:10:00.006-04:00

As I said in a previous post, I get lots of e-mail advertising conferences. I delete pretty much all of them, but not before I peek at the conference title. This one intrigued me.

The Jerusalem International Conference on Integrative Medicine

The description in the e-mail reads,

The Conference will deal with ways to unite the scientific principles of modern medicine with the holistic principles
of alternative medicine

Well, here's my idea of how that should go. Any medical treatment or therapy without useful evidence is called "alternative". If an alternative treatment is shown to actually work (in an objective scientific setting), then it becomes medicine and is no longer considered to be alternative. Pretty simple: no evidence=alternative, evidence=medicine.

Of the 28 members of the "Scientific Committee" listed on the conference website, only 3 have a Ph.D. Two others have an M.Sc., but most of them are M.D.s (medical doctors). I have a feeling that the papers presented in this conference will be utterly useless.

I've shaken the hand of the next Governor General of Canada

2010-07-08T15:33:00.002-04:00

David Johnston is the president of the University of Waterloo (where I work). Today, the news broke that he will be the next Governor General of Canada.

Yes, I've shaken his hand, and chatted with him. In addition, I've received letters from him... like this one, and this one (ah, but that's a different story, and I doubt he had much personal involvement in the process).

He is very diplomatic and will make a great Governor General.

Where did you say that conference was?

2010-07-08T11:59:00.004-04:00

I receive a lot of e-mails advertising conferences. This one is being held in an interesting location... the e-mail doesn't say where the conference is, but here's a snippet from the message.

Sign me up!

New tent

2010-06-27T13:55:00.004-04:00

We have a very small and light 2-man tent. I bought it just before my first bike trip in 1994. It works for Trish and I. But once we started family camping, we bought a HUGE tent; it has a hinged door, light fixture with remote-control, and I can easily stand in it. We set up two queen-sized mattresses and a playpen inside, and still have ample room for storage. It weighs about 50 lbs, and takes about a half-hour to put up (if I have help).

I wanted something in between, that we could set up in the backyard in short order, and I could "camp out" with Heather and Addie and sleep in it over night. So, I looked on Kijiji and CraigsList, and found someone in Kitchener (near Victoria Park) who was asking a mere $30 for this tent.

The guy that sold it to me was honest and told me that the zipper often sticks and splits (the two sides don't interlock even after the zipper passes over). I bought it anyway, and he was right. The zippers were almost useless... at first. Then I did a google search and found out that zippers sometimes need to be lubricated. Dishsoap did the job.

Looking forward to some backyard camping.

Damage caused by today's earthquake

2010-06-23T15:01:00.004-04:00

A 5.0-magnitude earthquake occurred near Ottawa today at 1:41pm. I was at work, and though I didn't feel the tremors (I was standing at the time), my office sustained significant damage.

Before the quake...

After the quake...

Well, I guess it's time to start rebuilding my life.

My science mentor

2010-06-20T14:45:00.000-04:00

I volunteer with a science outreach program called Let's Talk Science. They recently sent an e-mail to their volunteers asking them to write a short tribute to their science mentor. That got me thinking; who is my science mentor?

Looking back in time - to my formative years - none of my teachers stand out (though many of them were talented and impassioned). My consistent source of scientific wisdom and awe came from my dad.

I remember a number of specific "learning moments"... when my dad explained a concept to me and I experienced the desired a-ha. For example, my dad was painting our van (with a paintbrush!?!) and he told me that the colour comes from what part of the light is absorbed by the paint, versus what part is reflected. A-ha! I got it, right then and there.

Another time... I was in my room (which I shared with my brother Mike). Our light was a big sphere attached to the ceiling, made to look like a planet or star. I guess my dad was explaining to me and a friend that seasons are caused by the earth going around the sun. I remarked that the sun also causes day and night, and joked, "That must be some complicated rotation." Dad calmly explained that the seasons are caused by the earth revolving around the sun, and day and night are caused by the earth rotating on its own axis. A-ha! There are two different rotations! I got it.

I also remember sitting at our dining room table in the evening with my dad. He'd tell me about how crystals are formed by atoms arranging in a matrix. Or how the hydrogen bomb works. He taught me so many things, and I remember just soaking it all up. And loving every minute.

That's why my dad is my science mentor.

Happy Fathers' Day, dad.

Birth Order Book: A book review

2010-06-15T15:05:00.004-04:00

I listened to the audiobook version of The Birth Order Book: Why You Are The Way You Are, by Dr. Kevin Leman.

Sadly, this book fell well short of my expectations. I was hoping for some real insight into what makes a person tick. Instead, this book was more like a long, drawn-out horoscope.

The observations made by Dr. Leman are only that... observations. Very little effort is made to substantiate those observations with objective evidence. Indeed, lots of qualifiers are thrown in as a safety net. So that if his description of first-borns doesn't fit you, then you should think of it as only a guideline.

It's not that I got NOTHING out of the book. I did get a sense of the three basic personality types.

First born

Conscientious, orderly, organized, driven to please mom and dad

Middle child

Peace maker, independent, chooses a different route to recognition than older siblings

Last born

Disorganized, impulsive, attention-seeking, creative

However, those personality classes are very difficult to apply. Why? Because his definition of who is in those categories is vague. You are a first-born if you are the first girl or first boy in your family, or if your next older sibling is at least 5 years older than you. Similarly, you are a last-born if you are the youngest in your family, or if your next younger sibling is a least 5 years younger than you. A middle child is one who doesn't fit those categories.

I have an older sister (15 months older), and a brother who is about 5 years younger. That makes me a first-born and a last-born. But in many ways, I also fit the definition of a middle child. How uninteresting is THAT?! Without a clear picture of what class you're in, the book descends into an arbitrary list of personality types, and my personality spans across all of them. Bleh.

These songs are uncannily similar

2010-05-22T13:19:00.010-04:00

I recently watched the movie Brothers, and recognized the theme song from the Oscars. Here is the beginning of the song.
Doesn't it sound a LOT like the beginning of the song July Flame by Laura Veirs? Here is how that song starts.
Uncanny. But both are good songs, IMHO.

I tend to like movies with scores by Thomas Newman; he did the score for American Beauty, my favourite movie of all time.

It's my tenure-versary

2010-05-21T09:00:00.000-04:00

One year ago today, I walked to work with dress-pants, a dress-shirt, and a tie, ready to face the tribunal at my tenure hearing. In case you haven't read ALL my blog posts, you can find out more about the big day in my first post. As I walk to work today, I'm remembering the motivational messages that Trish and Fiona wrote on the sidewalk with chalk.

What an amazing feeling to have such support (not unlike the feeling of being thrown a surprise 40th birthday party).

Over the past year, I've allowed myself to grow in a number of directions (happily, none of those refer to my waistline... quite the opposite, in fact). I started my blog the day after I got tenure, and also embarked on a new major research project in computational neuroscience. A week from now, my grad student and I will be submitting a paper to NIPS (Neural Information Processing Systems conference). The research has produced some interesting results that might help to unveil the algorithm that the brain uses to learn.

President's Run

2010-05-20T14:00:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday, I took part in the UW President's Run (for the 4th time, I think). Here is a picture of the start (I'm number 34).

And here is a picture of me kicking some guy's ass as I sprint past him to the finish.

Totally a negative split!

Awesomerest birthday weekend

2010-05-18T21:33:00.007-04:00

Last weekend was my 40th birthday (Friday May 14, to be exact). A bunch of families arranged to spend the night at Great Wolf Lodge. It has an indoor water park... totally awesome!

A little tube before bed never hurt nobody.

On the way there, Trish informed me that we were going out for dinner on Saturday night with Shannon and Rob. That sounded delightful (even though I can't stand them :-). Well, Saturday evening had arrived, and so had the babysitter, so we set off to Shannon and Rob's house to pick them up. Only when we got there, most of my other friends and siblings were there too. They yelled "SURPRISE!!" I pooed in my pants.

Rewind 10 years. Trish and I were going out for dinner in Gastown, Vancouver, to celebrate my 30th birthday. To the Spaghetti Factory, actually. But when we got there, a bunch of my friends were already seated, and they yelled "SURPRISE!!". I pooed in my pants.

How could I be so blind to let this happen two decades in a row?! I even joked with Trish, "Oh yah, we're going to Great Wolf Lodge... RIGHT." But I can say in all honesty, I was completely unsuspecting when I walked into that party. Trish, Shannon and Rob caught me utterly offguard. Well played, my friends. Here is me with Shannon and Rob (a.k.a. "the culprits").

And here is Trish in what I've dubbed her "Tina Fey dress".

I am extremely lucky to have Trish. In fact, it probably shows a lapse in judgement on her part. But I'm all the better for it. Thanks Trish, and thanks to all the family and friends that attended. GROUP HUG!

Pampers gets a bum rap

2010-05-11T10:07:00.002-04:00

Check out my latest article in Skeptic North.

She has such great spatial perception

2010-05-09T10:30:00.004-04:00

This is Addie. She drew a picture for me, and showed it to me. But then she decided to add some more details.

What's interesting is that the extra people she's adding are upside-down for her, but she drew them right-side up for me. Maybe that means she has good spatial awareness. Her mom (Happy Mothers' Day, Trish) is excellent at knowing her way around, intuitively. Or maybe I'm just super-proud. Yah, that's probably it in any case.

Stiff: A book review

2010-05-04T20:43:00.000-04:00

I listened to the audiobook version of "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" by Mary Roach. What a treat. Am I a sicko, or what?

In her explorations into how human cadavers are used, Mary tells us - in gruesome detail - about many of her site visits. These include a cosmetic surgery workshop (for anatomical education), a human-remains research "farm" (used to infer time of death), and a tissue digestion company (an alternative to cremation). She also outlines a lot of the history around early anatomists, and how they used to hire body-snatchers to supply corpses by digging fresh graves, or otherwise.

One of my favourite parts of the book is her chapter on head transplants. Umm, make that "body transplants". Not done on humans, but on dogs and monkeys. I even took the time to look up the 1971 Surgery paper she described, entitled "Cephalic exchange transplantation in the monkey" by Robert J. White et al, which is where this rather disturbing figure comes from.

Mary has a humourous candor that comes out effortlessly from Shelly Frasier's reading. I highly recommend this book, if you have a strong stomach and a fascination with the macabre.

Motivational posters for atheists

2010-05-04T15:29:00.005-04:00

There's a whole gallery of them. These are my favourites

Why Women Have Sex: A book review

2010-05-03T20:21:00.004-04:00

Listened to the audiobook version of "Why Women Have Sex: Understanding Sexual Motivations - from Adventure to Revenge" by Cindy M. Meston and David M. Buss.

The book is about the psychological and evolutionary motives for women to engage in sex. Their evidence comes mostly from a large survey they conducted in which thousands of women of various ages, socio-economic standings, and sexual orientations reflected on their sexual experiences. Their motives ranged from "I was curious to see how good he was in bed", to "I thought if I had sex with him, he'd stop pestering me", to "I wanted to make my ex jealous".

While the subject matter is acutely interesting, unfortunately I found this book a little dull. Much of the book was devoted to simply reading the comments from their survey. It didn't have the same evolutionary depth as David Buss' other book that I thoroughly enjoyed, "The Murderer Next Door" (you can read my review of that one by clicking).

Primitive laptop

2010-04-29T11:18:00.005-04:00

Heather used some cardboard from a cereal box to fashion her own laptop.

Observations:

not a QWERTY keyboard
number keys
cursor keys
space bar (or track pad)
icons/buttons on the screen

It's so cute... except for what it says about our parenting. Well, at least she's not simulating intravenous drug use.

My brains, spread all around the world

2010-04-28T20:55:00.006-04:00

Every now and then, I get an e-mail from someone asking if they can use my MRI data for their paper or project. In case you've never seen "My Brain" page, it has a link to download a 3D stack of slices of my head. One of the 129 slices is shown on the right.

A couple years ago, I was approached by the creators of ImageJ, a free image-processing application offered by the National Institute of Health in the U.S. They asked if I would agree to allow them to use my MRI data as a standard sample dataset. OF COURSE! So now anyone that has ImageJ can get my MRI slices by simply choosing "Open samples..." from the File menu. They can also see a volume rendering from that MRI stack. ... the scanner adds at least 10 pounds.

Dude time

2010-04-23T09:51:00.007-04:00

The Orchard ladies went to a birthday party yesterday afternoon, so the dudes (Dinders and daddy) hung out and did guy stuff. We started by checking out the diggers next to campus, and then walked over to see the damage done by the fire.

We saw a fire truck.

Sure enough, Sugar Mountain was destroyed. Though, looking through the windows at the in-tact Simpsons mural, I can't help wondering if there is still lots of perfectly edible (if wet) candy in there.

One of the front-wheel assemblies fell off the stroller. You know... guy stuff.

We got pizza, frozen yogurt (OK, that wasn't so manly), Lauchy had a lollipop, and we finished off in Waterloo park looking at the animals. This lama looks like my country cuzin' Buck!

We had a great time. And Lauchy told mommy all about it at bed time, "i-keem" (icecream), "gabba" (candy), "pee-ta" (pizza).

Why is that helicopter circling me?

2010-04-22T09:34:00.004-04:00

On my walk to work, I noticed a helicopter in the sky. And I kept noticing it... circling and circling. It suddenly dawned on me that I might be in the middle of a police man-hunt.

Luckily for me, that wasn't it. As it turns out, there was a big fire nearby earlier in the morning. CTV has some brief coverage.

According to more recent CTV footage (probably from the helicopter I saw), it seems that Sugar Mountain was one of the businesses that went up in flames.

View Fire, April 22, 2010 in a larger map

Bulletin board fail

2010-04-21T13:33:00.004-04:00

Well, this bulletin board is a little awkward, given the recent scandals alleged against the Catholic Church.

Books I've Read or Listened To

2010-04-20T19:03:00.004-04:00

In case you're curious about what books I've gone through, here is a list. If you're not curious, then you can leave me a nasty comment about how I'm so narcissistic.

Oh my DOG!

2010-04-16T07:58:00.002-04:00

Not sure what to make of this artwork by Addie.

As far as the eye can see

2010-04-14T16:59:00.003-04:00

It's final exams, and anxious students are busy sealing their destiny.

As I type this, my students are writing the final exam for CS473, "Medical Image Processing". I can feel the mental heat emanating off these focused, talented people.

Choking game... not so much fun

2010-04-12T12:00:00.004-04:00

My mom, Anne Phillips, was interviewed yesterday on CTV news. My brother died while playing a hypoxia game in 1993. Senseless. Here is the short piece that aired on the 6 o'clock news yesterday.

(click to see video)
You can find out more about what happened to Mike here. You can also find out more about hypoxia "games" (a.k.a. choking games, hyperventilation games) at www.aheadofthegrief.me.uk.

Interesting license plate

2010-04-08T09:32:00.004-04:00

Saw this today. Thought it was worth a mention.

WARNING for the uninitiated: Before you google "milf", you might want to check wikipedia.

The Deluded Mind: a review of "The Divided Mind"

2010-03-26T14:41:00.003-04:00

Here is my next contribution to the Skeptic North blog. It's a book review of "The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders" by John E. Sarno. Do you think I liked it? You'll have to read it to find out.

Back pain breakthrough: Part 2

2010-03-26T09:15:00.003-04:00

Yep, the extra pillow worked again last night. And this time I didn't even take any meds. I have an appointment with a physiotherapist next week, nonetheless.

Back pain breakthrough

2010-03-25T14:17:00.003-04:00

Over the last couple weeks, I've been getting horrible pain in my mid-back. It starts around 5:00am, and keeps me from falling back to sleep. During the day, I'm fine.

I've tried a number of different things, but last night I tested a theory that my ribs were pushing my thoracic vertebrae and causing discomfort (A in figure). So I used an extra pillow to put my shoulder on to keep my ribs slightly elevated (B in figure).

I woke up with no pain at all! I'll try it again tonight.

Fastest way to the Ontario Science Centre -- According to Google maps

2010-03-20T20:25:00.004-04:00

We were on the 401, heading toward Toronto to visit the Ontario Science Centre. I used my iPhone to ask Google maps for directions.

Apparently, the most direct route is to exit the 401 on Hurontario street, drive 419m south, do a u-turn, and then get back on the 401.

Super job, Google!

Celebrating 1000 visitors

2010-03-18T06:29:00.001-04:00

According to my statistics counter (on the right), I've had 1000 visits. Thanks to all those who took the time to read my rants.

Three questions

2010-03-17T16:08:00.003-04:00

Karen Michel is an independent radio producer, and she decided to ask people in her neighbourhood three questions.

What do you live for?
What would you die for?
What would you kill for?

My answers are below, though you might want to think about your own answers before you look. Here is a cute picture to distract you.

I live for my wife and kids, and for discovering and teaching scientific truth.
I would die for my wife and kids, but not for truth.
I would kill to defend the lives of my family and friends.

What are your answers?

First haircut

2010-03-17T11:06:00.006-04:00

Lauchy had his first haircut today. Well, his first PROFESSIONAL haircut (I cut his hair a few months ago). Here is the photo that Trish took with her cell phone. A little blurry.

What a little man!