Rare Solar Eclipse a Warning from God?

It's being billed as an event that takes place only once every 100,000 years. This from a website (WorldNetDaily) that thinks the earth and the rest of the universe is only 6,000 years old. Do the math on that and you'll find something missing. Like science.

It's a total solar eclipse that will happen just at dawn over the North Pole. And because it is over territory that is not claimed by any nation, it will serve as a sign from god to all nations that the End Times are near. It's an "unmistakable" sign of judgment.

And it's going to happen THIS FRIDAY!!! Be afraid, be very afraid!

WND's "biblical experts" are all creaming their jeans over this. According to one professional expert, Little Bobby O'Dell, "This is likely a message from God to the entire world."

Another "expert", Pastor Mark Blitz, says, "In Jewish tradition, a total solar eclipse is a warning to the Gentiles and a sign of judgment on the nations. When we look at where the darkness will be, it will be in northern European countries like England and Sweden where we see the rise of Islam and anti-Israel sentiment. Europeans especially should take heed."

Yeah, uh-huh.

This reminds me of the old story about the explorer in the wilds of the Amazon who is captured by the natives. They are going to perform some kind of horrible savage death ritual on him when he suddenly remembers that there is an eclipse coming at two o'clock.

"Let me go," he says. "For I am a powerful wizard who will block out the sun and plunge the world into darkness and all of you will die."

"Yeah?" says the chief. "Well, you better hurry up about it since there's going to be an eclipse in an hour."

Today is an Extra-Special Once-in-a-Lifetime Pi Day

Today is Pi Day. Every March 14 is Pi Day. It has been around for a while, since 1988, actually, but today's Pi Day is special, because it is 3-14-15, which the astute reader already knows, represents the first five significant digits of the mathematical concept of pi -- π -- , which, as the ancient Greeks figured out, is what you have to multiply the square of the radius of a circle by in order to get its circumference.

Or, as it's usually represented, πr²  -- or "pi r squared".

Anyway, at 9:26:53 this morning, and again this evening, an even more special event will occur: π to ten digits, or 3.141592653 -- that's why today is a extra-special once-in-a-lifetime Pi Day.

Traditional celebrations of Pi Day include, naturally, eating pie and throwing pies. I intend to do both and I enthusiastically encourage all of you to celebrate as well.

Unless you were home-schooled and the Bible is your only source of knowledge. Then you can look at 1 Kings 7:23 and figure out your own version of π. You probably also subscribe to the Pie Are Round, Cake Are Square school of mathematics as well.

Much has been made of this apparent mistake by god in calculating the circumference of a circle -- see here for example -- but since I don't accept the Bible as a reliable guide in any other sense, I'm not going to squabble about what is essentially a rounding error by an "inerrant" god.

Nevertheless, Happy Extra Special Pi Day, everyone! We won't see another one like this for 100 years.

• Want to see π to 100,000 digits? Got it!.
• How about π to ONE MILLION digits?

Obama, Romney and Science

The prestigious journal Scientific American has just published Obama and Romney Tackle 14 Top Science Questions, and it's well worth the read to find out where the candidates stand on top science issues in this campaign.

But if you don't want to read the whole thing, let me summarize it for you:

OBAMA: [Really smart stuff about hard science and its answers to the issues we face].

ROMNEY: [Blah blah blah GOP Talking Points Blame Obama blah blah blah].

And there you have it.

The Daily Show and Rightwing "Science"

It's a full episode on the Daily Show website, but I couldn't find a shorter and embeddable one.

It's the Oct 26 show with guest Lisa Randall. Watch it in full if you like (it's worth it), but do be sure to watch the Aasif Mandvi segment starting at about 05:38, wherein he tongue-in-cheekily demolishes a moronic woman who is pretending to be intelligent and educated.

Aasif: "So it's not fair that surgeons are the only ones who get to perform brain operations, then?"

Idiot Woman: "That's right, now you see the problem with science."

Farnsworth: "Aiyyyyyyeeeee!" Hits forehead with palm smack, raps head on keyboard.