Photography – Page 6 – Nicolas Demers

PZ Myers in Vancouver

Biology professor and godless liberal PZ Myers was in town last Friday to give two lectures: one at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, in the afternoon, one at UBC in the evening. The advertised title for both was “Atheism in the Scientific Battleground”, but the focus in each was a little different.

Speaking in Abbotsford Prof. Myers focused on how religion, as an attempt to understand and gain knowledge about the world, has been a complete failure. It has never given us useful insights about the world, has never competed with science. He went on to give a few examples, starting with developmental biology (his specialty, after all): the Church-favoured preformation theory (ie: that beings already existed fully-formed in either sperm cells or ova and only needed to grow bigger) was only laid to rest in the 19th century when new scientific findings led to the conclusion that embryos emerge from an unformed mass of cells through a complex process.

“As you know, I’m a fairly aggressive atheist. Because somebody has to be.”

Yet these findings—at least in humans—is still not really accepted by pro-life folks. To them, since life and identity begin at conception, even a fertilised egg cell is already a full-fledged human being. PZ showed us pro-life billboards spouting inane platitudes such as embryos having ears and a nose at 3 weeks, therefore abortion is wrong. Mind you, these posters never show actual embryos, only cute smiling toddlers. And they don’t mention that though embryos at 3 weeks do have little bumps and ridges that will develop into actual ears and facial features, they also have proto-gills and tails.

Myers argues that it’s social science which must decide who’s protected. But religion has failed to provide good answers, and “life begins at conception and barely-humanoid embryos are already cute little babies” is not a good answer.

And then there’s evolution. I don’t think I need to go into too much detail about creationism, or the Creation Science Museum in Kentucky where PZ rode a triceratops, but let’s just say that PZ’s thesis holds up there too. The Biblical creation story is, quote, “Zoology written by a guy who doesn’t care about zoology”.

Lest people believe he’s always singling out Christianity, PZ had a few words about Islam—Quranic astronomy and Quranic embryology, both of which are quite worthless. There was one Muslim in the audience, who argued that Mulsims believe in God and evolution, and that Muhammed wrote about the Big Bang, but these are exactly the same arguments used by fundies desperate to see science in the Old Testament: interpreting vague bits of a creation story in light of current scientific theories. Nothing new here.

(Incidentally, this was my first time at UFV. It’s a pretty little campus and, even though I got there late, I’m glad I made the 90+ min trek from downtown. Snapped a few photos for your pleasure, including a killer view of Mount Baker.)

There are good reasons to be dogmatic about evolution.

The UBC lecture focused more on atheism. In fact, the title in his slides was “Science and Atheism: Natural Allies.” PZ started off talking about evolution, and how at this point nothing could prove it wrong. It’s never going to happen. Why? The theory certainly isn’t complete, there are still many unanswered questions and new data being discovered all the time. But it is not a tentative hypothesis. It’s a solid, well-established theory that’s withstood 150 years of criticism. If somehow some fantastic new findings came along that revolutionised the field, it would not lead to the death of evolution. It would lead to a more complete theory that would include the present one as a special case, just as the theory of relativity includes Newtonian mechanics as a special case.

So yes, there are good reasons to be dogmatic about evolution.

Next, he asked: what would convince us that God exists? Weeping statues, Jesus or the Virgin Mary appearing on burnt toasts, a vision of a 900 ft. tall Jesus? But all these things have non-divine explanations, including (in the last case) “I’m going out of my mind.” So it looks like there’s no way to prove God exists (or, to be fair, does not exist). So given that, what does it mean to be an atheist? The dictionary definition’s no help, since it only talks about belief, or lack of, or belief in lack of. But there must be a reason for disbelief, just as there is for belief.

The atheism PZ is endorsing is based on scientific thinking. This is a positive thing, unlike popular perceptions of atheism, based on rebellion or nihilism or what have you. Science, when you get right down to it, is an error-correction mechanism for our flawed and easily-fooled brains, which evolved to find food to eat, avoid being eaten, and try to get laid. They were not evolved to write sonnets, build space shuttles or ponder quantum mechanics. Key to scientific thinking is the requirement for empirical evidence, plus rigorous and open reasoning.

Not to take away from PZ’s eloquence, but Terry Pratchett, Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart said it best in The Science of Discworld II:

This, then, is science. Questioning authority. Complicity between theory and experiment. And being within a community of like-minded people to question your work. Preferably accompanied by a conscious awareness of all of the above, and gratitude to your friends and colleagues for their criticisms. And what’s the aim? To find timeless truths? No, that’s asking too much. To stop frail humans from falling for plausible falsehoods? Yes—including those of people who at least look and sound just like you. And to protect people from their willingness to believe a good story, just because it sounds right and doesn’t upset them.

Oh, and after the lecture a bunch of us went for a bit and a drink at Moose’s Down Under downtown. At one point, the conversation somehow wandered into the topic of tentacle sex. (Why? FOR SCIENCE!) Did you know that Pharyngula comes up on the second page when you google “tentacle sex”? It’s true!

Vancouver Pride 2010: Liberate!

The day started out a little cool and overcast, and some were afraid it would rain (especially since it actually had rained for a little bit on Saturday). That would have been a first for me. The only rainy Vancouver Pride Day I remember was in ’96, and I wasn’t even in town for that. I’d moved to Vancouver in early August ’96, and remember seeing pictures of the parade in Xtra! West.

But no, there was no rain, and though the sun did come out in the afternoon, it never got terribly hot. Which was a good thing, because I had to move my ass for over two hours, either walking, dancing or volleying. I was with the VGVA group again this year; our setup didn’t change much, except for the lack of a net. That turned out to be a good thing, since it took up less space (an issue on crowded Robson Street), and we didn’t have to assign 2 people to hold it up. But the crowd-pleasers remained: dancers, volleyballs flying back and forth, and of course those two giant balls. They were too awkward to pass, so we just rolled them around and into the crowds. Kids love that, they push it back towards us, it gets them involved. It’s win-win!

A little after we turned on Denman, Symone joined us for a bit to toss balls around. I tell you, you haven’t lived until you’ve seen a six-foot drag queen, dressed so fine, volleying with perfect form—she used to play in VGVA, dontchaknow! Just not in drag.

All those hours of listening to ABBA’s greatest hits finally paid off!

And is it just me, or are there a lot more straight people in the parade lately? Besides the usual sponsors and politicians, I mean. I’m thinking especially of CFI Vancouver and the BC Humanists, most (all?) of whom had never been in a Pride parade. And maybe it’s because I’ve got my ear to the twitterverse more, but it seems to me they’re talking about Pride not just in terms of a fabulous party, but also in terms of human rights. I approve of this.

After the parade, I took a few hours to rest and recuperate, then I was off to the Big Gay Sing. Is there anything gayer than a couple hundred men singing along to an ABBA medley, Over The Rainbow or I Will Survive? I don’t think so! I had so much fun, and the aforementioned couple of hundred singers around disguised how totally off-key I was. And I’m glad that all those hours of listening to ABBA’s greatest hits finally paid off!

Celebration of Light 2010: Tribute to China

Now that’s what I’m talking about! The 2010 Celebration of Light ended on a high note with our tribute to last year’s winner, China. Stunning and inventive visuals, great music, what’s not to love?

Celebration of Light 2010: Team Mexico

That was… different. I don’t think I’d call it a success, but Mexico’s show was definitely interesting. If I had to pick a word to summarise it, it’d be “refined”. The music (from what I could hear) tended towards the classical, with some very soft, very soothing stretches, especially towards the beginning.

That was probably a mistake, since the fireworks show during those soothing stretches was also extremely low-key. For a couple of minutes, we were treated to small sparkly golden arcs, rising in time to the music (I think)… and nothing else. One little girl sitting close by told her father, “They look like tears!”—which I didn’t really see, but I thought it was too good not to write down.

The big problem, I think, was that Mexico’s team designed the show around the music, with the fireworks only as accompaniment. But that leaves people without a radio out in the cold. The firework should stand on their own, and I don’t think these quite did. There were some good photo-worthy moments, but on the whole it didn’t gel. Sorry, Mexico.

Celebration of Light 2010: Team Spain

It’s fireworks time in Vancouver, with the Celebration of Light, taking place on July 21, 24, 28 and 31. I have already gone to the first two shows—Team USA and Team Spain, and will definitely see the rest. Hey, it’s great entertainment, and I live right by Sunset Beach, so why not?

The Team USA show on the 21^st was good but not great. Honestly, I’d half-expected them to do a long rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner and a red-white-blue theme, but they stuck to red and green, with Big Band and old-school rock music, which was all kinds of fun. Yet, it didn’t rise much above fun. Catchy? Entertaining? Definitely. But, it didn’t feel creative or inventive; it didn’t feel special.

I didn’t have my tripod with me on Wednesday because I’d come straight from volleyball to the beach. Saturday, though, I came prepared. That included getting there extra early, and staking out a spot by the Inukshuk. The crowds were already fierce, even a couple hours before sunset, but at least I had a good unobstructed view.

And my god, was it worth it! The Spanish fireworks were moving and captivating, telling half-understood stories in sound and light and overheard snatches of music. Beginning with sharp, shocking thunderclaps—guns, war, death—rousing music (I think I heard Flight of the Valkyries) interspersed with calm, soothing, Celtic-ish-sounding notes, gold light falling like rain—heavenly grace, peace, or death—all leading up to a deliriously over-the-top explosive finale, it drew me in as non-verbal art rarely does.

Later I found out the theme was “Hell and Heaven”, so I was kind of right. Great job, Pirotecna Igual!

Pride Picnic in the Park

Vancouver Pride Week kicked off Saturday with the Pride Picnic in the Park, a fun and casual all day event at Brockton Oval, near the eastern tip of Stanley Park. I was there with a small group from VGVA to set up a volleyball net for picnickers to enjoy. Last year we put it up way over at the south end of the park, and hardly anyone came over until the end of the afternoon. This time we were playing near the booths and beer garden, and you know that’s where the action is.

The picnic’s a very casual, family-friendly event. There were lots of parents (queer and otherwise) with their kids and/or doggies, hanging out and enjoying the day. But there’s lots to do besides getting some sun (or staying out of the sun)! The kiddies (and kids-at-heart) can enjoy a number of fun queer games, such as the high heel toss:

(Unfortunately I snapped this picture a tiny bit too early, getting only the windup.)

Then came the sack race:

And the drag race. The challenge here is not to race in drag, but to put on your outfit piece by piece (bra, dress, scarf, purse, wig and hat), then race back to the starting line. No cheating by wearing your dress around your shoulders like a cape!

Then the tug of war. The picture here is (I think) of the second round, with gay men against lesbians. One of the guys said they were going to, quote “beat some pussy.” Joke’s on him, because the lesbians won.

Lastly, melon eating is a good way to cap off a scorching hot day.

We took down the nets around 5:00; the picnic was winding down by then, almost all the remaining people were sitting in the (cool, shady) beer garden. I got home, showered and changed, and got ready for some fireworks…

Vancouver Skepticamp

That was a really awesome day. I’d never gone to a Skepticamp before, had only heard about it a few weeks before, and didn’t really know what to expect. I was sort of imagining a big convention, sort of thing, with panels so I could pick and choose which brilliant presenter to study at the knee of. But no, it all took place in one auditorium at UBC, from 10AM to 6:30 (with a lunch break), an audience of about 80 people, and 16 presenters (more if you count the Radio Free Thinker people separately) expounding on a wide range of topics, from the scientific to the social to the philosophical.

That was a really awesome day. I’d never gone to a Skepticamp before, had only heard about it a few weeks before, and didn’t really know what to expect. I was sort of imagining a big convention sort of thing, with panels so I could pick and choose which brilliant presenter to study at the knee of. But no, it all took place in one auditorium at UBC, from 10AM to 6:30 (with a lunch break), an audience of about 80 people, and 16 presenters (more if you count the Radio Free Thinker people separately) expounding on a wide range of topics, from the scientific to the social to the philosophical.

It’s always a thrill to be in an explicitly skeptical space, where everybody’s speaking the same language, and you don’t have to worry about offending or confusing people by talking about “woo” or “the FSM” or “argument from ignorance” or whatnot. But even aside from that, and especially seeing as it was billed as a community participation event where anyone could register as a speaker, the level of polish was generally quite high and with just a couple of exceptions I really enjoyed the presentations. They were informative, funny, inspiring or infuriating, sometimes all four at once.

The best part of the event for me, though, wasn’t so much the talks, but the Twitter conversation happening in parallel; a half a dozen of us shooting comments back and forth, looking up and posting links, and it was so exhilarating! I’d never been part of such an online conversation, with so many interesting people who had been strangers a minute before. I felt like I was contributing to something greater than me, something important, unlike short back-and-forths in Facebook statuses.

Or maybe I’m overdramatizing this. I don’t care; it was a rush, and I can’t wait for my next opportunity. At least now I’ve figured out how to use hash tags. And another thing I’ve learned: next time I’ll be sure to bring a portable charger or something. Oh, my poor battery! That might explain why the twittering slowed way down in the afternoon; I guess everybody’s laptops and phones were running dry.

I’ll just post some thoughts on a few of the presentations, because otherwise we’d be here all week.

Fred Bremmer: a demonstration of Charpentier’s Illusion
Dr. Steve Wiseman: The Troubled Relationship between Psychiatry and the Church of Scientology
James Bernath: Private programs for going into space
Greg Bole: Defending Darwin
Shannon Rupp: Rational Journalism
Dr. Jaymie Matthews: Who Needs Paranormal?
Gerry Armstrong: Scientology

Fred Bremmer: a demonstration of Charpentier’s Illusion

Basically, this involves underestimating the mass of a large but light object (in this case, an empty styrofoam cooler) against a smaller object (medicine bottles partly filled with copper shot). There are various theories about why we do this, but it’s very predictable, and in the end only three people in the entire audience got the mass right. Actual masses of the medicine bottles: here. What the audience perceived: here

The moral of the story? Skeptics, being human, aren’t free of biases and flawed perceptions. But we are more aware of them, and more willing to subject them to rigorous reality checks.

Dr. Steve Wiseman: The Troubled Relationship between Psychiatry and the Church of Scientology

Wow, that was some impressive airing out of LRon Hubbard’s dirty laudry, some of which I knew—that Hubbard was kind of a dismal failure at everything until he lucked into the Dianetics scam—some of which I didn’t: where did he first publish an essay on Dianetics? A cheesy sci-fi magazine. Awesome. Or should I say, “Astounding”? Plus, some interesting history about early psychiatric pharmacology, and how some of those successes seem to be directly linked to the rise of Scientology and LRon’s paranoia.

James Bernath: Private programs for going into space

Mr. Bernath is very skeptical of the viability of privately-funded space flight, because so far they haven’t gotten anywhere near what government programs have achieved. Which… I don’t think is a fair conclusion. I agree that there are tremendous technical problems, especially if you want to transport humans into deep space (or, hell, even as far as Mars). Not that humans can’t get there, of course, but casual tourists are right out. We won’t have a Mars Hilton on the Valles Marineris anytime soon. Two parts of his presentation grabbed me, though:

Bernath also dismissed the idea of space elevators, since he saw too many problems just with getting the damn things up, not to mention docking spacecraft at the top. But my view is that since Arthur C. Clarke could imagine them, I believe they’ll be a reality some day, so nyah! Which is perfectly objective and rational, totally not magical thinking in any way. Really. Shut up.
He brought a few interesting space artefacts to pass around. The best was a fuel tank from a downed Soviet satellite, which crashed in a Saskatchewan farm in 1981. Doesn’t look like much, a dark metallic sphere, with a weird nipple-like bit where reentry caused it to melt slightly. But it used to be up in space! I held in my hand something that floated in orbit high above the Earth! That’s… really fucking cool.

Greg Bole: Defending Darwin

Greg Bole is a Darwin impersonator. Didn’t think there was such a thing as a Darwin impersonator? Yeah, neither did I. I guess they get most of their business at events such as the Cambridge Darwin Festival. (Too bad Bole didn’t give his talk in costume, though.) The focus of his speech was on Ray Comfort (he of the banana as proof for God—no, it’s no better than the Babel Fish) and his plan last year to distribute copies of The Origin of Species, with a special new introduction. Of course, Bole points out, Comfort’s spiel is really nothing new. It’s just the same tired old canards creationists have been trotting out for decades. An audience member asked him if creationists have advanced any new arguments, in light of recent advances in genomics or paleontology. No, he said, it’s always the same old crap, maybe dressed it up a little (ie: Intelligent Design) but essentially unchanged.

Shannon Rupp: Rational Journalism

Rupp, a journalist herself, says, “Only journalists are in the business of journalism. Newspapers are in the business of eyeballs.” Editors and publishers don’t care about accuracy, or even truth, as long as it gets people buying their papers—and thus making advertisers happy, which is where their business really lies. Checking facts costs money, and it’s the easiest thing to cut because not many people notice, and fewer care. Besides, writing puff pieces is much safer since advertisers don’t get alienated, readers don’t get alienated, and you won’t get sued. in short, the whole system is set up to penalise good journalism and reward sloppy, shallow writing.

But, Rupp warns, don’t just blame the evil media and evil advertisers. Schools and universities, which should be in the business of educating, are also peddling woo and confusing students with pseudoscience. Just as a for instance: Royal Roads University offering a course on astrology. The university gets more money, but also gets inextricably linked with the astrologers and entrail readers and whatnot. The latter get recognition and prestige, while the university’s reputation gets tarnished.

Dr. Jaymie Matthews: Who Needs Paranormal?

Ah yes, Jaymie Matthews. I remembered him from a CFI talk he gave a year ago, about the MOST deep-space telescope. It’s so obvious that he loves his work, because it’s cool science and because it reveals so much of the beauty of the universe. How many exometeorologists—ie: people figuring out weather patterns on extrasolar planets—do you know? One line he said really stuck with me: “Paranormal is the new normal; normal is the new paranormal.” Paranormalists’ myths and imaginations are really very small and petty when you come right down to it. Especially when it’s Nazi-flavoured occult crap being peddled to suckers. Reality, as revealed through science, is the thing that’s mindbogglingly weird and crazy and enchanting.

Gerry Armstrong: Scientology

This is the personal account of an ex-Scientologist who has been persecuted by the Church of Scientology for decades now. His talk—the attempts on his life, the harassment, the insane lawsuits—just drove home how disgustingly evil the Clams are. Read more on gerryamstrong.org

In conclusion

I had such an amazing time, and I’ve already marked down the next Skepticamp’s date (October 23^rd)! Meantime, here are more pictures!

Now that the party’s over…

And, just like that, the 2010 ~~Spring~~ Winter Olympics are done.

Frankly, I’m not missing them. The choppers flying around day and night, the road closures, the crowds, the noise… It could have been worse, though. I could be living right next to one of the venues.

And, just like that, the 2010 ~~Spring~~ Winter Olympics are done.

And I realise I probably would have felt differently if I’d gotten more in the Olympic spirit. And don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed some of the events, but overall I wasn’t as flag-wavingly fanatical as some of my friends who put up a Canadian flag on their Facebook profile, or spent every hour of every day watching the events, and who are now all going on about Olympic withdrawal.

Here’s what I enjoyed: first, watching a friend of mine run with the Olympic torch.

Second, the opening ceremony, which I’ve already blogged about. It managed to stir some patriotic pride in me, which I hadn’t felt in a long time.

After that, I followed the events somewhat, though never live (I’ll say this for CTV, their dedicated Olympic site kicks a lot of ass. I did cheer for Alexandre Bilodeau, our first gold medalist of the season; I cheered and wept with Joannie Rochette; I high-fived strangers on the street whenever we won a medal, and sometimes when we didn’t. And on Sunday, though we were supposed to play volleyball, the director agreed to let us listen to the hockey game live on the radio. I totally didn’t mind. Go Canada!

What else? Well, I did the tourist thing in my own city, and checked out the mint and cauldron, and Vectorial Elevation, and the cauldron again. Swung by to visit a few of the houses (such as Maison du Québec and Place de la francophonie) but those places aren’t really touristy places to visit, they’re to hang out in and drink and watch the games.

Oh, and I went to see Laurie Anderson’s show Deluded. That was… pretty fucking surreal. Which I expected, of course, so it’s all good.

And… that’s about it, really. I caught part of the closing ceremony online; that wasn’t nearly as impressive as the opening ceremony. Besides the nice pomp and circumstance, and an Olympic anthem I could actually understand (and a Russian anthem that kicked so much fracking ass), there wasn’t much that really grabbed me. Michael J. Fox is made of awesome, as are William Shatner and Neil Young, but the rest? All those cutesy self-deprecating jokes? Meh. Also, John Furlong should never, ever try to speak French again. Ever. The live feed died about halfway through, and after a couple minutes’ trying I gave up.

Though I will tell you, my heartstrings were tugged at the end of Young’s Long May You Run, when the torch just… went out. And I though, Oh, wow, it’s really over.

Okay, I admit it. Part of me will miss the games. But you gotta move on, right? I just hope all our guests left with a good impression of Vancouver. And, congratulations to our Canadian athletes. First in gold and third in overall medal count? Awesome.

Night Lights

A few photos I took last night, as a friend and I went out on the town:

I wanted to see Maison du Québec, especially since I heard some Cirque du Soleil acrobats were there the night before. Nothing much was happening when we got there (6:00 — 7:00) so we wandered around Ontario House and Hockey House and a couple of other houses, swung by Robson Square, watched some foreign dancers for a bit and listened to the screams of people going by on the zipline above.

Off to Sunset Beach to check out the lights (I meant to go back with a tripod. My camera dealt with low lights very well, but the pics were still a little blurry). I tried to experiment with taking different exposures of the Burrard Bridge to play with HDR photography, but all photos ended up more or less the same. Damn. I’m not sure what I was doing wrong. Oh well, it’ll still be there tomorrow.

Then cutting right across downtown again to check out the Olympic Cauldron. Which I’ve never seen at night. Bowing to popular pressure, the powers that be did cut a little band in the surrounding fence at about eye height, so people could at least stick their cameras in and take proper pictures. I don’t know, I understand about security and safety, but surely there were better alternatives than some dreary chain-link fence?

I don’t remember if it was near Robson Square or the Art Gallery that we saw this little structure that smelled of delicious cedar. Mmm. Was that Haida Gwaii House? I’ll have to go back and check.

Next on the list: Granville Island attractions. Maritime House and Place de la Francophonie, anyone?

Purple Mountain Majesties

Sometimes things have a way of working out. Not for the “best” (this isn’t Candide, after all) but for the pretty good.

My flight home from Ottawa was supposed to take place Sunday night, connecting in Calgary. Nothing too special, I’d done it before. Except, what with the Christmas Day terrorist attempt, all airlines were in complete and utter chaos. I was warned that my flight to Calgary would be 2 hours late, so I could (a) stay in Ottawa and fly in the morning, or (b) … hey, there’s another flight going through Toronto, leaving right now.

That’s when the fun began. Long story short, my original flight was canceled, I was put on another flight (also to Toronto) which left a little later. Not a problem, I should still make it in plenty of time. Except I ended up leaving Ottawa over three hours late. Everybody on board missed their connecting flight, and had to be put up in a hotel.

I reached the Westin Bristol Place at about 11:30PM, one of over a hundred cranky fliers. Over two hours later, I was checked into my really quite awesome room. Too bad I had to get up in three hours to catch my rescheduled flight.

And that’s where you could say things worked out. Because my flight from Toronto was pretty smooth. Checkin was easy, security seemed a little more alert but not that paranoid. It even left on time! How about that! Even better: apparently to avoid the jet stream, our plane took a southerly route, heading straight across the Great Lakes as far as South Dakota, then angling up more or less in a straight line to Vancouver. That meant I got to see some scenery I’d never seen before, except in photos and that gay cowboy movie. Too bad there was too much cloud cover for most of the flight except over Montana and part of South Dakota.

Enjoy the rest!