the tweney review

Today our excellent crew of carpenters put the roof beam in place, and we celebrated in traditional style by hanging a pine wreath on the end of it.

Penn Jillette goes way beyond mere atheism.

NPR: There is No God

Buddhist Tradition Thickens Parts of the Brain

Brain imaging of regular working folks who meditate regularly revealed increased thickness in cortical regions related to sensory, auditory and visual perception, as well as internal perception — the automatic monitoring of heart rate or breathing, for example.

Encouragingly, the study’s subjects were ordinary folks (not monks) who meditated for about 40 minutes a day.

My latest story for Technology Review (on their brand spankin’ new web site, which is about 30 times faster than the old one):

Esperanto for Toasters
The ZigBee wireless standard could teach a common language to your lights, appliances, doors, and even your cell phone.

Sure, intelligent design is bad science, because its central propositions can’t be tested — more precisely, there is no test that could show them to be false. But doesn’t it give you an extra frisson of schadenfreude to know that ID is also bad religion? J. M. Tyree points out ID’s theological underpinnings, and summarizes some of the best arguments against it, going back to Hume.

Despite the new cloaking device of pseudoscientific language, ID is actually a recent mutation of one of the oldest, most persistent, and most tempting of religious ideas, the so-called “teleological argument” or “argument from design.” … The most devastating objection is that even if you assume the world was designed, it does not appear to be designed by a very nice deity. … The Designer who so Intelligently Designed our world, in theory, could be malevolent or capricious just as easily as he could be all good. He might have designed us intelligently, but for the purpose of watching us tear each others’ throats out.

In other words, God might be Cthulhu … or maybe even the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

by Clara (transcribed, and annotated, by a teacher at preschool)



Once upon a time I rided a bike to school. Cause it is hard to get to school on the freeway cause there is traffic. Traffic is so you can’t get through. It never ever lets you. Traffic is cars and they make sure you don’t get to school and you don’t get any energy. Energy is so you can play. Adults use energy to make sure kids don’t get hurt. Riding a bike feels like we’re on a roller coaster. It feels like we’re on a train in the cars. My body moves both sides. My job is to hold on tight to my friends so they don’t fall. Stuffed friends. Daddy’s job is to pull all my straps so I don’t fall down.

My favorite thing about riding a bike to school is moving and going so fast. I like to play. You get to play when you get to school.

The End.

10/11/2005