Suck it, Alt Med

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

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.

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

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

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"

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

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.