BRIAN STOKES FORMS NEW PARTY

NDP Organizer to form New Egress Party Party, to advocate for increased rights to landlords

EDMONTON – NDP organizer Brian Stokes threw his hands up yesterday, and declared his intention to form a new centre-left interventionist party.

“This just sucks,” said Stokes. “All the NDP cares about is helping deadbeats – I mean, working families, like the ones in my building – but what about the landlords?”

Stokes says he intends to poach key members from the Alberta NDP by forcing his tenants to sign on to his effort. Many residents of his building in Old Strathcona are currently NDP members.

“The New Egress Party Party (NEPP) will addess the real issues in Alberta, and take away what few rights our provinces’ tenants have left,” he said.

NEPP will also focus on bailouts for big landlords and condo developers hurt by the recession.

Stokes added that he has already engaged in discussions with Edwin Erickson on the fledgling Progress Party, as well as Joe Anglin of the Alberta Greens, who are at risk of being deregistered due to its failure to comply with Elections Alberta registration guidelines. He says that the three parties will attempt to work out a seat-swapping arrangement to avoid splitting the very-silly vote.

Stokes intends to brand his new party with the motto – “Alberta’s Egress Party Party: NOT On Your Side.”

Tenants from the building Stokes manages refused to comment – but pointed out that Brian does have a vacant suite if anyone else is interested in joining the new cause.

Happy April Fools,

Alberta NDP E-news
Alberta NDP

Many around the world spent today celebrating the widest known mathematical constant, that share’s it’s name with a tasty treat:

π

The celebrate today because as March 14, or 3.14, it is a representation of π.

However this is wrong.

π in decimal (base-10) is 3.14159…, however, the calendar is not based on a base-10 system. So when is the real “pi day?”

We could consider a year to be like a circle, in that at the end (December) it connects right back to the start (January). In this representation we could represent the total number of days in a year (365.25) equal to the total angle of a circle (360 degrees, or 2π radians). This system would make “pi-day” to be approximately July 1st (or 2nd on a leap year, which also helps deal with rounding errors). This would also give us a 2π day on New Year’s Eve.

Or perhaps we should use the year’s total number of days as a base of counting, in which case π would have to be converted to that base and that would be the date. (Check my math perhaps) I think this date works out to April 24th or 25th (depending on leap years again).

However, explaining to people why you’re calling April 25th, or June 1st pi day and eating pie (which I did indulge in today), might take longer than the brief amusement provided by the idea.

But I think this requires a closer look and a bit more physics.

In his first picture (Squirrel Wavelength), we see the squirrels would travel with approximately 1/4 a fence-length wavelength. We’ll call this a wavelength of 0.25.

In the newer picture, taken at a lower temperature, we can estimate a wavelength of roughly 0.1 (it’s a little shorter but that’s not too much of an issue).

Phil’s concern is that quantum mechanics predicts that as temperature decreases, wavelengths increase. However, by demonstrating this relationship, these squirrel’s have disproved quantum mechanics!

Now, one commenter suggests that this could be due to multiple squirrels superimposing their tracks, or even one squirrel that crossed the fence multiple times, however, this explanation is just not fun enough for these sorts of exercises.

The general relationship for energy and wavelength is given by E = hc/?, where E is the energy, h is Planck’s constant, c is the speed of light and ? is the wavelength. Energy is proportional to temperature, so wavelength is inversely proportional to temperature.

But there’s a problem here: the squirrel’s aren’t moving at c (roughly 300 000 km/s), they aren’t even moving at a constant velocity!

If we assume that the frequency of the squirrels, f=v/? where v is the velocity of the squirrel, is constant (a safe assumption for most waves), then we can figure out a relationship for the squirrels velocity with respect to temperature.

So since the squirrel’s wavelength decreases with temperature, to maintain the constant frequency relationship, we must infer that the velocity increases with decreasing temperature!

Basically, the little buggers move faster because it’s really cold.

This relationship will have to be further developed as it only takes into account non-relativistic squirrels, and the relationship would seem to imply that as the temperature continually dropped, the squirrels would approach near infinite speeds!

There’s a caveat here though: at a finite temperature the body functions of the squirrel will shut down and kill the vermin, thereby preserving the laws of physics for us all.

This one blasts Campus for Christ for holding an election on the existence of God. Mainly I follow the line that “existence is not a popularity contest.”

I can already see the letters coming in now though:

That Ian Bushfield is one angry atheist.

He’s such a fundamentalist, with his belief that God doesn’t exist.

He’s so militant, writing words in a campus newspaper rather than taking up arms or violence.

He’s so arrogant, suggesting we should test ideas against the real world before accepting them.

He’s so intolerant, speaking out when we want him to shut up.

He’s so evangelical, wanting people to question their beliefs, regardless of what they may be.

He’s so Utopian, hoping for a better world.

He’s such a progressive liberal-leftist, even though he hasn’t written about politics or economics yet.

He’s so ignorant, for not accepting or understanding every nuance of my religion.

He’s so immature, clearly belief in God is sophisticated endeavour.

He’s so immoral, I mean, how can you really be good without someone watching over you?

He’s so self-centred, because he doesn’t think God talks to him personally.

He’s so nihilistic, for thinking that for him since life ends at death, he should value every moment he has alive.

He’s so communistic, since he clearly worships the state above his fellow human being.

He’s so angry, because he has to put up with intolerant jerks like us.

God loves you,

Anonymous Christian Student

Today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

As a special tribute, I want to make ye all aware of the Computer Engineers of the University of Alberta. They be the rowdiest crew of plunderers since the Last Saskatchewan Pirate (see the video).

Doubt my words about the mighty CompEs? Just watch the video below (2 parts):

As a final word, any buccaneers that be reading this in the area of Edmonton should do well to drop by Dewey’s on campus after 15h00 and visit the Pastafarians of the UofA Atheists and Agnostics.

Until next year, keep plundering the booty!

The first I came across was the [tag]bikini[/tag] girls [tag]cat fight[/tag] over [tag]atheism[/tag]:

The sequel to the cat fight features the [tag]girls kissing[/tag] and making up:

Finally, there’s the sexy woman in a towel arguing about the [tag]Bible[/tag]:

Check out his website for more on the book.

We all want to see Religulous.  Bill Maher looks scathing and hilarious.

However, it seems Maher has more in common with Mathis then we might like to admit.

On how he got people to talk to him: “It was simple: We never, ever, used my name. We never told anybody it was me who was going to do the interviews. We even had a fake title for the film. We called it ‘A Spiritual Journey.’ It didn’t work everywhere. We went to Salk Lake City, but no one would let us film there at all.”

On the element of surprise: “Larry Charles’ theory is–just keep going till they throw you out. I guess he learned that on ‘Borat.’ The crew would set up and at the last second, when the cameras were already rolling, I would show up. So either they’d be seen on camera leaving the interview and lose face or they’d have to talk to me. It was like–‘And now here’s … Bill!’ You could usually see the troubled looks on their faces. At the Holy Land theme park, the PR woman freaked out and finally told us to leave. She was definitely not a happy camper.”

On his encounter with Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor, who tells Maher he believes the biblical account that Earth was created 5,200 years ago: “He’s not going to be happy with this movie. I suspect he’s going to say that the editing is not favorable to him [laughs]. And he’s not completely wrong about that. But we didn’t make anything up. When I told him I was worried about people [with such literal interpretations of the Bible] running the country, he’s the one who says, ‘Well, you don’t have to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate.’ “

One difference that remains is the extent to which interviews were cherry-picked in the two movies, and whether or not Maher expells any stars from the premieres (unlikely).

So The Friendly Atheist asks us:

So, does Religulous get a free pass from atheists because this movie is on our side? Are we condoning the methods used to make the film because they show religious belief at its kookiest?

Or will we come out and admit the tactics used to make this movie were no different from those of the despicable Ben Stein and his crew, lowering us to their level?

I think there are a couple a difference between Mathis and Maher’s movies.

First, Expelled was (supposed to be) a serious documentary, Maher is a comedian talking to the craziest people he can find to expose that (no surprise) they are crazy.

Second, if you are trying to get quotes from atheists that science is keeping religion out, then although it is easiest to get the quotes by misrepresenting yourself it’s dishones.  Whereas if you are making a comedy purely for the sake of making fun of people (which in itself may be questionably moral), then it seems more justifiable to use shock interviews.

Finally, did anyone (besides the college guys who looked like idiots) really criticize Borat for misrepresenting people?  It was a comedy and did what it aimed to do.  Religulous is more the same as Borat than it is Expelled.

So I will say I was disappointed that Maher stooped to this level to make his movie, I will go see it however (I would have seen Expelled if I hadn’t heard it was so boring) but purely for a laugh.

I’ll leave you with this bit from a follow-up in the LA Times.

I found it a little suspicious that Maher confronted all sorts of people in the film, but never lost an argument.  Wasn’t the deck stacked? “I’m not going to lie–the deck was stacked,” Maher said. “Let’s face it, when it comes to religion, there is no convincing argument. If you believe in the Bible in a way where you think you can live to be 900 years old and turn your wife into a pillar of salt, you’re going to lose any logical debate. Your story just falls apart.”

Check it out if you’re having a bad day.

π

The celebrate today because as March 14, or 3.14, it is a representation of ?.

However this is wrong.

π in decimal (base-10) is 3.14159…, however, the calendar is not based on a base-10 system. So when is the real “pi day?”

We could consider a year to be like a circle, in that at the end (December) it connects right back to the start (January). In this representation we could represent the total number of days in a year (365.25) equal to the total angle of a circle (360 degrees, or 2π radians). This system would make “pi-day” to be approximately July 1st (or 2nd on a leap year, which also helps deal with rounding errors). This would also give us a 2π day on New Year’s Eve.

Or perhaps we should use the year’s total number of days as a base of counting, in which case π would have to be converted to that base and that would be the date. (Check my math perhaps) I think this date works out to April 24th or 25th (depending on leap years again).

However, explaining to people why you’re calling April 25th, or June 1st pi day and eating pie (which I did indulge in today), might take longer than the brief amusement provided by the idea.