Russian Man Grows Penis on Arm

thanks, nick. this is exactly what i needed this afternoon.
helps to remind me that my frustrations could be much worse.

my penis could be on my arm.

Who then was the being whose blond hair inexplicably became wrapped around Peter Khoury's penis?

via warren ellis

Boing Boing: Parrot uses 950 words to converse with people

i know half of you have already seen this, but this is the most amazing thing i have heard all week.

further evidence that we continually underestimate other species and overestimate our value on the planet.

I won't be happy until I lose my legs

one more thing in the world that i didn't know existed. intense and amazing.

Boing Boing: Inkjet printing with live stem cells: "bio-inks"

i'm a little sad at how excited this makes me, perhaps for obvious reasons. still, i hate myself for actually considering the thought that it might be possible within my lifetime.

kurt, r and i had brunch on sunday at hobees, as we do every sunday morning. kurt is reading 'the world is flat' as well as richard dawkins book, whose title escapes me at the moment (and i am on the train, so i can't look it up).

kurt can no doubt give a better review than i can, since he is reading it. but the discussion that he prompted has kept my wheels turning, though perhaps not in the way he would wish.

reading the book does not interest me. it might be very good and it might be silly of me not to read it. but if i am not interested, it will take some effort to convince me to spend time on something i don't find stimulating in some manner.

kurt seems interested in it because (and correct me if i misquote you, kurt) it presents a topology of the current science vs. religion debate. speaking of this, kurt brought up the importance of education and the responsibility of society to educate children on the full spectrum of the subject.

while i do not disagree with this, kurt is not religious and does not believe in god. he believes a child should be exposed to as much as possible in order to let the child chose their own beliefs. he has told me that he will raise his children as atheists, as is his right.

what amuses (and makes me think), is that i have difficulty distancing kurt's arguments from his beliefs. he wants children to be raised outside of religion, but it is because this is what he believes. he acted surprised at brunch yesterday when rachael and i countered a bit about the role of the parent's belief system.

and this is what brings me back to the dawkins book — i told him yesterday that i am not excited by a book authored by a scientist who is explaining why god does not exist in science. it is an old discussion, going back hundreds, if not thousands of years. the topic is one that will not be solved until god shows back up on the scene in a very real way. needless to say, this could be a while.

by this point in my life, i have made my bed. i have come to an understanding, in my own head, of how i believe god and science overlap and the roles each play in the universe. i am comfortable with the arrangement i have made in my head. as a child, i was exposed to religion (and still am — my parents chide me every time i go home for the fact that r and i dont say blessing before eating) but the personal belief system i have created is mine.

will a book by someone i know nothing about who says something i don't care about change my mind? no, it won't. is it close-minded of me not to read it? perhaps. but do i feel i owe it to myself to read it? again, no. and perhaps that is a mistake.

at the same time, is it a mistake to not watch fox news since i am a hard-core leftie? i believe people should expose themselves to differing opinions — but where does that line get drawn. at what point is it acceptable to stop re-evaluating? (it must be at some point — otherwise every decision we make in life would be up for continous scrutiny.)

at the end of the day, i believe in god. and i believe science is not incompatible with my belief in a higher being. but my definition of god is very flexible and individual; simply writing a book saying that there is no room in science for (a) being(s) with greater powers or awareness than we have as humans is, in my opinion, just as ignorant as blindly believing a literal translation of a series of writings written thousands of years ago.

(and a more specific point, one that is more interesting to me than science vs religion is: what is a parent's responsibility in what they teach their children?)

kurt has asked me to clarify my beliefs to better understand where i fall. this is tough for me, but i will try in the future. however, this post is not meant to be about his beliefs nor mine — i am far more interested in the question i ask 1 paragraph above….thoughts?

13 things that do not make sense - space - 19 March 2005 - New Scientist Space

holy crap. instead of spamming everyone i know with this article, as i was about to do, i decided it was easier to just post the link.

read this, stat.

(grain of salt) i am a big nerd. but this is the coolest thing i have read in a long time.