365 de zile de Astronomie

365 de zile de Astronomie va fi un podcast pe zi incepand cu data de 1 ianuarie 2009, în celebrarea Anului Internaţional de Astronomie. Puteţi asculta în fiecare zi la http://365daysofastronomy.org/ dar mai bine, te poţi înscrie pentru a participa sau crea un podcast care va fi auzit în întreaga lume!



De Anul internaţional al Astronomie (IYA2009) va fi o sărbătoare de astronomie la nivel global şi contribuţiile sale la societate si cultura, evidenţiate de către 400 de ani de la prima utilizare a unui telescop astronomic de către Galileo Galilei.
Obiectivul Anului este de a stimula interes mondial, în special în rândul tinerilor, în astronomie şi ştiinta sub tema centrală "Universul, al tău de descoperit".
IYA2009 evenimentele şi activitatile vor promova o mai mare apreciere a inspiratelor aspecte legate de astronomie care cuprinde în sine o resursă partajată nepreţuită pentru toate naţiunile.
La IYA2009 activităţile vor avea loc la nivel global şi regional, şi în special la nivel naţional şi local.
Noduri naţionale au fost formate în fiecare ţară pentru a pregăti activităţi pentru 2009.
Aceste noduri stabilesc colaborări între astronomi profesionişti şi astronomi amatori, centre de ştiinţă, educatori, si comunicatori de stiinţa.

Sursa: http://astronomy2009.org/

Religulous (full movie)

"Religulous" este un film documentar foarte controversat, al carui titlu este o combinatie satirica intre cuvintele "religion" si "ridiculous", si care prezinta punctul de vedere al celebrului comediant, scriitor, producator si gazda a unui popular show de televiziune pe postul HBO Bill Maher asupra diverselor religii ale lumii. Bill Maher intervieveaza in timpul unor calatorii spre destinatii cu tenta religioasa, precum Ierusalimul sau Vaticanul, o serie de credinciosi apartinand celor mai variate religii, culte si secte, de la scientologi pana la satanisti si adepti ai poligamiei si de la musulmani pana la reprezentantii miscarii iudaice hasidice, originare din Polonia si Rusia sau reprezentanti ai organizatiei evanghelice crestine Jews for Jesus. De asemenea, el poarta o discutie interesanta cu omul de stiinta Andrew Newberg, cercetator la Universitatea din Pennsylvania si autor al lucrarii intitulate "Why we believe what we believe", care scaneaza creierul persoanelor in timp ce rostesc rugaciuni sau in timp ce mediteaza, pe care de-asemenea l-ati vazut intr-unul din videourile de pe un post anterior - "Deluzii paranoice", chiar primul video de pe pagina.

Storm

Un poem absolut genial al lui Tim Minchin, care pledeaza pentru stiinta, ratiune si valori umaniste, in timp ce demasca homeopatia, pseudostiinta, medicina alternativa, si religia. Enjoy!


Storm

Inner North London, top floor flat
All white walls, white carpet, white cat,
Rice Paper partitions
Modern art and ambition
The host’s a physician,
Lovely bloke, has his own practice
His girlfriend’s an actress
An old mate from home
And they’re always great fun.
So to dinner we’ve come.


The 5th guest is an unknown,
The hosts have just thrown
Us together for a favour
because this girl’s just arrived from Australia
And has moved to North London
And she’s the sister of someone
Or has some connection.

As we make introductions
I’m struck by her beauty
She’s irrefutably fair
With dark eyes and dark hair
But as she sits
I admit I’m a little bit wary
because I notice the tip of the wing of a fairy
Tattooed on that popular area
Just above the derrière
And when she says “I’m Sagittarien”
I confess a pigeonhole starts to form
And is immediately filled with pigeon
When she says her name is Storm.

Chatter is initially bright and light hearted
But it’s not long before Storm gets started:
“You can’t know anything,
Knowledge is merely opinion”
She opines, over her Cabernet Sauvignon
Vis a vis
Some unhippily
Empirical comment by me

“Not a good start” I think
We’re only on pre-dinner drinks
And across the room, my wife
Widens her eyes
Silently begs me, Be Nice
A matrimonial warning
Not worth ignoring
So I resist the urge to ask Storm
Whether knowledge is so loose-weave
Of a morning
When deciding whether to leave
Her apartment by the front door
Or a window on the second floor.

The food is delicious and Storm,
Whilst avoiding all meat
Happily sits and eats
While the good doctor, slightly pissedly
Holds court on some anachronistic aspect of medical history
When Storm suddenly she insists
“But the human body is a mystery!
Science just falls in a hole
When it tries to explain the the nature of the soul.”

My hostess throws me a glance
She, like my wife, knows there’s a chance
That I’ll be off on one of my rants
But my lips are sealed.
I just want to enjoy my meal
And although Storm is starting to get my goat
I have no intention of rocking the boat,
Although it’s becoming a bit of a wrestle
Because - like her meteorological namesake -
Storm has no such concerns for our vessel:

“Pharmaceutical companies are the enemy
They promote drug dependency
At the cost of the natural remedies
That are all our bodies need
They are immoral and driven by greed.
Why take drugs
When herbs can solve it?
Why use chemicals
When homeopathic solvents
Can resolve it?
It’s time we all return-to-live
With natural medical alternatives.”

And try as hard as I like,
A small crack appears
In my diplomacy-dike.
“By definition”, I begin
“Alternative Medicine”, I continue
“Has either not been proved to work,
Or been proved not to work.
You know what they call “alternative medicine”
That’s been proved to work?
Medicine.”

“So you don’t believe
In ANY Natural remedies?”

“On the contrary actually:
Before we came to tea,
I took a natural remedy
Derived from the bark of a willow tree
A painkiller that’s virtually side-effect free
It’s got a weird name,
Darling, what was it again?
Masprin?
Basprin?
Asprin!
Which I paid about a buck for
Down at my local drugstore.

The debate briefly abates
As our hosts collects plates
but as they return with desserts
Storm pertly asserts,

“Shakespeare said it first:
There are more things in heaven and earth
Than exist in your philosophy…
Science is just how we’re trained to look at reality,
It can’t explain love or spirituality.
How does science explain psychics?
Auras; the afterlife; the power of prayer?”

I’m becoming aware
That I’m staring,
I’m like a rabbit suddenly trapped
In the blinding headlights of vacuous crap.
Maybe it’s the Hamlet she just misquothed
Or the eighth glass of wine I just quaffed
But my diplomacy dike groans
And the arsehole held back by its stones
Can be held back no more:

“Look , Storm, I don’t mean to bore you
But there’s no such thing as an aura!
Reading Auras is like reading minds
Or star-signs or tea-leaves or meridian lines
These people aren’t plying a skill,
They are either lying or mentally ill.
Same goes for those who claim to hear God’s demands
And Spiritual healers who think they have magic hands.

By the way,
Why is it OK
For people to pretend they can talk to the dead?
Is it not totally fucked in the head
Lying to some crying woman whose child has died
And telling her you’re in touch with the other side?
That’s just fundamentally sick
Do we need to clarify that there’s no such thing as a psychic?
What, are we fucking 2?
Do we actually think that Horton Heard a Who?
Do we still think that Santa brings us gifts?
That Michael Jackson hasn’t had facelifts?
Are we still so stunned by circus tricks
That we think that the dead would
Wanna talk to pricks
Like John Edwards?

Storm to her credit despite my derision
Keeps firing off clichés with startling precision
Like a sniper using bollocks for ammunition

“You’re so sure of your position
But you’re just closed-minded
I think you’ll find
Your faith in Science and Tests
Is just as blind
As the faith of any fundamentalist"

Wow, that's a good point,
Let me think for a bit...
Oh wait, my mistake,
That's absolute bullshit.

Science adjusts its views
Based on what's observed.
Faith is denial of observation,
So that belief can be presrved.

If you can show me, say,
Homeopathy works,
I will change my mind,
I will spin on a fucking dime.
I'll be as embarrassed as hell,
Yet I will run through the steets yelling,
It's a Miracle!

Take physics and bin it!
Water has memory!
And whilst its memory
Of a long lost drop
Of onion juice is infinite,
It aomehow forgets
All the poo it's had in it.

You show me that it works,
And how it works,
And when I've recovered
From the shock,
I will take a compass
And carve
'Fancy that'
On the side of my cock.

Everyone's just staring now,
But I'm pretty pissed and
I've dug this far down.
So I figure...
In for a penny, in for a pound!

Life is full of mystery, yeah, but,
There are answers out there
And they won't be found,
By people sitting around,
Looking serious,
And saying: Isn't life mysterious,
Let's sit here and hope,
Let's call up the fucking Pope,
Let's go on Oprah,
And interview Deepak Chopra.

If you must watch telly,
You should watch Scooby-Doo,
That show was so cool!
Because every time
There was a church with a ghoul,
Or a ghost in a school,
They looked beneath the mask.
And what was inside?
The fucking janitor,
Or the dude who ran the water slide!

Because throughout history,
Every mystery,
Ever solved,
Has turned out to be -
NOT MAGIC

Does the idea that there
Might be knowledge frighten you?
Does the idea that one afternoon
On wiki-fucking-pedia
Might enlighten you,
Frighten you?

Does the motion that there might not be
A supranatural,
So blow your hippy noodle,
That you'd rather just stand
In the fog of your
Inability to google?

Isn't this enough?
Just
This World?
Just
This,
Beautiful
Complex
Wonderfully Unfathomable
Natural World?

How does it so fail to hold our attention,
That we have to diminish it
With the invention,
Of cheap man-made
Myths and monsters.

If you're so into your Shakespeare,
Lend me your ear

To gild refined gold,
To paint the lily,
To throw perfume on the violet,
Is just fucking silly.

'Or something like that'

Or what about Satchmo?
I see trees of green
Red roses too...

And fine, if you wish to,
Glorify Krishna and Vishnu,
In a post-colonial,
Condescenting,
Bottled-up-and-labeled
Kind of way,
Whatever, that's okay,
But here's what gives me a hard-on,

I'm a tiny, insignificant,
Ignorant bit of carbon.
I have one life,
And it is short and unimportant,
But thanks to recent scientific advances...
I get to live twice as long,
As my great-great-great-great
uncleses and auntses.
Twice as long!
To live this life of mine,
Twice as long,
To love this wife of mine.
Twice as many years,
Of friends, of wine,
Of sharing curries and getting shitty,
At good looking hippies,
With fairies on their spines,
And butterflies on their titties.

And if perchance, I have offended,
Think but this and all is mended,
We'd as well be ten minutes
Back in time,
For all the chance
You'll change your mind.

Deluzii paranoice

Set elaborat de crezuri, frecvent experimentat de schizofrenici, caracterizat de neincrederea significanta in altii si sentimente de persecutie.

Schizofrenia este caracterizata de psihoza, sau o pauza din realitate. Oamenii care sunt psihotici gandesc si se comporta in cai care au putin de-a face cu realitatea, aratand depreciere semnificativa in cam orice domeniu important de functionare - perceptie, gandire, limba, memorie, emotie si comportament. Oamenii cu schizofrenie pot expona oricare dintre aceste simptome:

-Percep chestii care nu sunt acolo - aceste halucinatii sunt de obicei de auz (auzitul vocilor),dar halucinatiile vizuale si tactile (vazandul pe Dumnezeu sau pe diavol, sau simtind insecte pe sub piele) de asemenea apar relativ frecvent.

-Crezand chestii care nu sunt adevarate - deluziile paranoice sunt particular comune. O persoana schizofrenica poate crede ca guvernul este impotriva ei sau ca extraterestrii planuiesc sa o omoare. Totul poate fi interpretat in contextul celui deluzionat, chiar si chestile care sunt menite sa ajute, asadar medicatia este vazuta ca otrava. Deluziile puternice sunt deasemenea comune: o persoana schizofrenica poate sa creada ca este cineva faimos, cum ar fi Elvis sau Iisus Hristos, si va insista in a se comporta ca atare si a fi tratat ca persoana aceea.

-Folosind un limbaj ciudat sau bizar, cum ar fi intelesuri particulare pentru cuvinte comune sau cuvinte inventate (neologisme) care au inteles doar pentru ei. De asemenea s-ar putea sa decurga la tangente cand vorbesc.

-Perturbari in afect - afectul plat poate rezulta la lipsa de expresii faciale si emotionale, discursuri monotonice, pe cand afectele nepotrivite sunt caracterizate de rasul cand nimic nostim nu s-a intamplat, plansul cand nimic trist nu s-a intamplat, sau devenind furios cand nimic deranjant nu s-a intamplat.

Cea mai bine vanduta poveste.

Fragmente din Zeitgeist, partea cu crestinismul. Cu subtitrare in limba romana. Sunt 3 parti! Pentru a le viziona pe toate, apasati pa YOUTUBE!

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Partea 1 din 3


Sa va spun si o asemanare din cultul Musulman:
Mohammad a fost pe un munte unde a fost facut profet. Dupa ce a murit, cei *12* nepoti ai lui au imprastiat mesajul pana la ULTIMUL. Al 12-lea nepot a disparut, dar si in prezent se asteapta intoarcerea lui (ca si a lui Iisus). Dupa cum vedeti, toate religile se aseamana mai mult sau mai putin, si toate sunt MINCIUNI. Cea mai mare minciuna din istoria omenirii si motivul a milioane de crime, motivul multor razboaie... Totul este o MINCIUNA!

Comportamentul invatatului

Modelele de comportament sugereaza faptul ca toate comportamentele, inclus anormal, este un produs al invatatului, principal invatand prin asociere.
De exemplu, conform modelului clasic conditionat de invatare, daca un barbat experimenteaza dureri de piept care rezulta in anxietate in timp ce face cumparaturi intr-un magazin, el poate dezvolta o frica de magazine si incepe sa le evite deoareca el le asociaza cu anxietatea. Nu este nimic inspaimantator la magazine, dar acestui barbat ii este frica de ele din cauza asocierii care el a format-o cu anxietatea in legatura cu un posibil atac de cord. Aici este un alt exemplu conform modelului operant de invatare: daca o femeie tanara cu greutate normala incepe sa piarda din greutate si prietenii si familia ei o lauda pentru ca face asta, ea poate continua sa piarda din greutate, chiar daca inseamna sa moara de foame. Comportamentul ei restrictionat de mancat va continua deoarece ea acum asociaza o reductie in dieta ei cu laudele si acceptarile altora.
Un al treilea tip de invatat, care nu se bazeaza pe experiente personale de a stabili asocieri... In invatatul observational, comportamentul este invatat simplu prin observarea altuia facand ceva si observand ce li se intampla. De exemplu, un tanar poate invata sa fie agresiv dupa ce priveste colegii actionand agresiv.
Fiecare dintre aceste modele de invatare au fost construite pe o fundatie solida de cercetari empirice, si acolo este o mare de dovezi ca fiecare din cele trei procese de invatare joaca un rol important in comportamentul anormal.

Citeste si aceasta postare ca exemplu: Click AICI

Gandire distorsionata

Modelele cognitive de comportament anormal se concentreaza pe felul cum oamenii gandesc despre ei, despre altii si despre lume (ex. persoane ce cred ca detin "adevarul absolut", fara nici un fel de indoiala). Procesele cognitive distortionate, cum ar fi participarea selectiva la unele informatii si ignorand alte informatii (ex. credinciosi dand exemple din cartile lor "sfinte", crezand ca sunt argumente, fara nici un semn de intrebare), sentimentele negative exagerate, asteptandu-se la mai rau, sau facand atributii inexacte despre evenimente, s-a aratat a juca un rol important in diferite tipuri de tulburari psihice.

De exemplu, presupunand ca o femeie are o zi grea la servici. Daca isi spune, "ei nah, maine va fi mai bine", ea probabil se va simti mai bine. Dar daca isi spune, "ohhh, sunt o persoana oribila fara viitor" (daca exagereaza cu sentimentele ei negative), poate deveni deprimata. Sau presupunand ca un tanar pierde la un joc de carti. Daca el gandeste, "Cu siguranta am avut ghinion cu cartile astazi", se va simti bine. Dar daca gandeste, "Prietenii mei sarlatani cu siguranta au trisat!" poate deveni ostil si agresiv.

Si cam aceeasi chestie se aplica si la atributiile inexacte despre acceleratorul de protoni de la Geneva, sfarsitul lumii, si multe altele...