We’ve got one more brilliant event coming up on top of our annually scheduled local meetups. This Saturday and Sunday San Francisco is host to the 15th annual Ghiradelli Chocolate Festival. Two solid days of featured confections and prestigious culinary artists, all of whom are offering samples of their most delectable wares. It’s enough to wet anyone’s appetite. Among the vendors invited to share their gastronomic artistry is Oakland’s very own Victory Harris, owner and solo chef of Reuschelle’s Cheesecakes. Victor won the East Bay Express’s “Best...

Monday we discussed something I called the “myth of the learn’d astronomer.” This myth - that by explaining something we somehow explain it away - reflects a thought process so utterly foreign it may as well be expressed in classical Greek. As a challenge people were given the opportunity to explain what it is about da Vinci’s Mona Lisa the brilliant masterpiece that it is, without resorting to a reason and evidence based response. Stepping into the shoes of someone upset by what science finds is a difficult task, so oriented are we toward rejoicing sciences...

Stephen Hawking's latest foray into the public eye has sparked a good deal of healthy conversation, most of it negative, much of it ignorant. (Not that this is anyone's fault - when it comes to the subject of cosmology we're all ignorant compared to Hawking.) The reaction is expected, though in reality all he has said is no different from a person saying god is not necessary to explain disease, or lightning, or where babies come from. We know the forces behind these phenomena, and while people are free to believe God plays a role, a deity is not a requirement for the theory to...

In his mindblowingly brilliant work A Brief History of Time the eminent physicist wrote of physics allowing us to know "the mind of God." Despite this and other oft-quoted choices of language, in June of this year Hawking came out with his personal views on the matter. In an interview he told Diane Sawyer he believed that "there is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, [and] science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works." Since then he has fallen out of favor with the science proves god crowd and...

In this corner, weighing in with five consecutive victories in the US House of Representatives, three-terms as a California state Senator, we have House Majority whip and incumbent Barbara Boxer! Pro-women's choice, strong on the environment and one of the few Senators to stand against the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Boxer's record speaks for it owns. In the opposite corner, opposing our local heavy weight, is none other than ex-Chief executive officer of Hewlett Packard, first woman to lead a Fortune 20 company, Carly Fiorina! Anti-abortion, pro-globalization, with possible leanings...

Creationism is weird. The people who adhere to it are nice enough, but man they believe some kooky stuff. Most of the time delving into that world of cherry-picked isolated facts, misrepresenting findings and general quackery isn't really worth it - unless they're pushing their way into a school board or otherwise moving out of their homeschool isolationism I'd rather just leave things be. Other times a Creationist will say something that is just so utterly incomprehensible and silly I'm forced, against my better nature, to try to make sense of it.  This is one of those...

Outside of the "War over 'nice'" there is another debate within Skepticism over tone that doesn't get as much attention. Regardless of whether we're nice and polite or cynical and confronting, there exists in Skepticism a hesitancy to tackle politics; Liberal vs Conservative, Libertarian vs Objectivist, Constitutional Originalism vs not... these are issues we rarely see approached as critically as say, homeopathy or vaccination or Creationism. While attending Dr. Kiki's lecture during this years SkeptiCal there were whispered mumblings about launching more...

That question is the focus of a conversation as old as the internet and there isn't an end to it in sight. The general positions people espouse on this issue aren't varied to any tremendous degree, with the two outer edges arguing for a greater ability to commit atrocity for belief versus the lack thereof, with a few clustered around the middle pointing out certain nuances others might be missing. Yesterday a godless columnist in Australia added his own voice to the debate. It's appreciated that the author doesn't shy away from the fact that the Communist regimes of Pol Pot,...

Years ago, while cashiering at a Discovery Channel Store, I stumbled across an interesting, well written book titled Bad Astronomy written by some random astronomer named Phil Plait. Seeing that it discussed some common misconceptions about the cosmos immediately around us - including quite a few things I simply assumed were true - it was quickly purchased, thoroughly read and then left on my bookshelf to gather dust, half forgotten. Well that book became two and following in the tradition of science that blows threatens the blow things up, Death from the Skies is now coming to a television...

In architecture and photography forced perspective is a technique that manipulates the viewers mind into believing - at least temporarily - that some object is bigger (or smaller) than it actually is. With careful arrangement a skilled illusionist can make a grown man appear a child or turn a wall into the floor. Film makers are keen to use this trick, such as Michel Gondry's use of an adapted ames room in the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The technique was commonplace in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Just about every scene with a Hobbit required some form of forced...

Yesterday the Bad Astronomer, Phil Plait, put up a video of his TAM8 talk titled "Don't be a Dick". That's sage advice to anyone, but at the largest Skepticism conference in the country, it has special significance. As self appointed guardians of reality, we Skeptics are often the bearers of aggravating news; No, there is no magical being bestowing morality from on high, we need to figure that out for ourselves. No, praying your tumor away won't work, you need expensive chemotherapy. No, you can't prevent autism by avoiding vaccination, sorry but all you're...

The Ninth Circuit decided yesterday to extend last Thursday's stay on Judge Walker's Proposition 8 ruling until at least Dec. 6th. This is bad news for those who have time and time again had their marriage hopes delayed repeatedly, but there is a ray of light at the end of this tunnel. From the decision: Appellants’ motion for a stay of the district court’s order of August 4, 2010 pending appeal is GRANTED. The court sua sponte orders that this appeal be expedited pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 2. The provisions of Ninth Circuit Rule 31-2.2(a) ...

Decisions, decisions, decisions... If you're looking for something fun to do this weekend, man are you in luck. Three must-see events are hitting the calendar this weekend; SETIcon, Atheist Film Festival and a very special star-studded Skeptics in the Pub. Atheist Film Festival We covered this one in detail earlier this week, so just the highlights. Hosted out of the wonderful Red Vic Movie House on Haight, the AFF is a free event (donations accepted) sponsored by Center For Inquiry SF, the San Francisco Atheists and a group of citizens designed to open up discussion among freethinkers and...

[Update: Judge Walker has ruled against the stay in judgement and in favor of same-sex marriage in California. Details and discussion below.While Prop. 8 may have been ruled unconstitutional, the requested stay, which would prevent that verdict from being put into practice has yet to see a response. According to the Sacramento Bee, tomorrow that will change, with Judge Walker expected to release his ruling on that point around noon Thursday.In short, should he lift the stay, gays and lesbians will be able to legally marry come tomorrow afternoon NOW.On where the case will go from here, I...

If you were watching the skies last night you were in for quite a sight, as the annual Perseids meteor shower lit up the late night sky. The view was likely made better by yesterday's new moon. With the suns reflected light missing, each meteor that cut through the night was made that much brighter. Coincidentally that annual event (the new moon, not the meteor shower, though no doubt someone is out there finding "deeper" meaning in their overlap) marks today as the final day in the month of Sha'ban. That makes tomorrow the official start of Islam's holiest month, Ramadan. With...

An atheist film festival is an interesting thing: as a term of negation, technically any film screen that does not affirm the existence of a deity is a-theist. Of course it's hard to get people together for a festival of randomly assorted films whose only commonality is a lack of reference to gods. As fun as back to back screenings of Wall-E, Spider-Man 2 and Some Like it Hot might be, it's hard to call that a "theme". So what does it take to be an "atheist" film? Not a lot really - simply a healthy dose of skepticism aimed toward religion and the religious, injected...

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is set to replace Hubble as our eye to the heavens sometime in 2014. With a primary mirror nearly six-times the size of Hubble's, the JWST will peer deeper and with more clarity than any telescope before it, beaming near infrared images of the universe in its earliest moments back to earth. Orbiting the Sun at the Lagrangian point L2 the JWST will have a travel time equal to that of the Earth, whose own gravitational influence counters the increased distance, equalizing the orbital period of both points in space.  Bored yet? Well allow my...

After yesterday's Same-Sex Marriage victory, granted under the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the United States Constitution, a large swath of the countries myriad anti-gay institutions chimed in with their own unique interpretations on the decision. Judging from many of the comments left here in the wake of Judge Walker's decision, it is obvious that the themes these advocates for traditional marriage invoke are shared by a decent percentage of the Examiner readership, so I thought, hey, let's address these things together: Via RightWingWatch Judge Walker should have recused...

Prop.8 overturned     Court Decision on Prop 8 by albany_tim // Flikr As discussed yesterday, Judge Walker has released his decision in the case of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, ruling on the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8, which revoked the rights of homosexuals to marry their partners. With rallies, marches and parties planned across the country, we're glad to report. Judge Walker ruled the act as unconstitutional Plaintiffs challenge Proposition 8 under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.  Each challenge is independently...

[Update] It appears as though there may be a several hour delay in the release of the decision as last minute filings by the defense request Judge Walker to rule on a stay of judgement.Essentially the Prop. 8 folks are expecting Judge Walker to rule against their position and have made it clear they will be filing an appeal - and with that in mind are requesting Walker stay his judgement in order to prevent any legal gay marriages from ocurring in the month between decisions ordinarily seen.Proponents have moved the Court to stay its judgment pending appeal if it rules for Plaintiffs. ...