Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Reader “gravelinspector” travels the world as a geologist, working (I gather) on oil rigs. Right now he’s on a ship in the Gulf of Guinea, and has a post on his website, Rock Sniffer’s Scribbles, about watching and photographing the eclipse. Here’s one of the pictures (click to enlarge):
Reader Sara sent me a photo of the eclipse in which the eclipse isn’t really visible, but something else of interest is:
This picture is photographically underwhelming, but I thought you might enjoy it. I went out on my balcony this morning to see if I could catch a bit of the eclipse – I live in Montreal, so the partial phase of the eclipse was to be visible from sunrise at 6:37 ET until about 7:12. Of course I couldn’t see anything of note given my tiny amateur camera, not to mention the ribbon of cloud on the horizon. But it was still a pretty sunrise.
After a while, I noticed that my neighbour’s cat was watching me from the window with great curiosity. Unless he was also hoping to see the eclipse?
Sam Harris already posted this 7-minute clip on his site, but in case you missed it, this Muslim “peace conference”—held in Norway in May to dispel misconceptions about Islam—has in fact reaffirmed the view that Islam is far from a “religion of peace.”
The video, and the audience reaction, is unbelievable.
At 1:07, the moderator asks why the media is always focusing on the supposedly bad tenets of Islam while ignoring those of Christianity and Judaism. One panelist responds as follows:
“The answer is very simple: Islam is the truth. And Christianity and Judaism are not the truth.”
Can you get any more cocksure or arrogant than that? So much for the claim that religionists are humble.
At about 2:30, Norwegian Islamic leader Fahad Qureshi appears and asks the audience a series of questions.
At 3:30, he asks the audience how many of them are “not radical” but “normal Sunni Muslims.” All raise their hands.
At 3:47, he asks the audience, “How many of you think that men and women should stick separate?” All raise their hands. General approbation for the suppression of women.
At 4:09, Qureshi asks the audience whether they agree that Qur’anic-based punishments like stoning for adultery and other crimes constitute “the best punishment ever possible for humankind, and that is what we should apply in the world.” All raise their hands, and Qureshi approves with an “Allahu akbar!” (“God is the greatest”). In other words, they’re affirming sharia law.
At 5:05 Qureshi asks the audience whether they consider themselves Muslim extremists. Nobody raises their hand. (Remember, these are Muslims who live in Norway.) They again affirm that they are regular Sunni Muslims.
Of course there may be social pressure here, so that everyone in the audience must raise their hands to avoid social opprobrium. Still, this gives the lie to the notion that Muslims, particularly those who live in Europe, are rarely fundamentalists, and certainly do not adhere to the extreme tenets of “radical” Islam like stoning for adultery or death for apostates.
Some of you will say that this is not a representative sample of Muslims. But remember that this is a “peace conference” designed to portray “normal” Islam and dispel media misconceptions. And these are Muslims who live in Norway. They are not the Taliban.
Actually, the media does have misconceptions, but the wrong way around. It seems that much of the media fosters the notion that Islam is a religion of peace, and that those who believe in the subjugation of women, sharia law, jihad, and so on are but a tiny minority of extremists. In this case, though, the media has it backwards, for the evidence is that “radical” Muslims constitute a substantial fraction of all Muslims, including those who live in Western countries. It’s time that we realize this and stop cozying up to Islam in the name of interfaith harmony.
The coddling of Islam by mainstream media, and the presence of who cry “Islamophobia” every time that faith is criticized, is a function of “mainstream” Western religion. It is in the interest of all religions to support each other’s delusions, for if you show that one faith is based on no evidence, then you show that they all are.
Islam happens to be the most pernicious faith in the world today, and it’s disingenous to not see that. For one thing, it disenfranches half of its adherents: those who have two X chromosome.
And those who should recognize these dangers, and should criticize vicious Muslims like those in the video above, are the genuinely moderate Muslims. Where have they gone?
Be sure to start watching the live video posted below (i.e. in the post right before this one) SOON: totality will be at about !4:25 Greenwich time in Kenya, or 9:25 a.m. Eastern time in the U.S. The Moon has already started nibbling at the Sun, so if I were you I’d start watching at about 14:15 Greenwich time (9:15 Eastern). If you’re not up in the U.S. by then, you’re not only lazy, but missing this very rare event.
On YouTube, which I wasn’t aware did live-streaming, they’re showing the eclipse live from several places off and in Africa. Just click on the video below. The partial phase in Kenya will begin in about 45 minutes from this posting, or about 1:30 p.m. (13:30) Greenwich Time, or 8:30 a.m. Eastern time in the U.S. (remember that our clocks went back last night).
The YouTube notes:
Join the Slooh Broadcast Team on November 3rd for complete coverage of the incredibly rare Hybrid Eclipse live from Kenya, Gabon, and the Canary Islands. Slooh Astronomer Paul Cox will be broadcasting live from the wilderness of Kenya to bring the clearest images of the Solar Totality, while live feeds from Gabon and the Canary Islands with show the Annular portion of the Eclipse as the Moon’s shadow starts its path across the Earth’s face.
Much of Africa, including Gabon and Kenya will have near totality:
Hili: Play with me otherwise I will tilt the sky* and it will rain on you.
Justyna: Well, if you put it that way…
________
*In Polish “I would tilt the sky for you” means “I would do anything for you”. Obviously, Hili has heard the expression without knowing what it means and took it rather literally.
In Polish:
Hili: Baw się ze mną, bo ci nieba przychylę i będzie na ciebie padał deszcz.
Justyna: No jeśli tak stawiasz sprawę…
Here are most beautiful postprandial words one can hear:
As we all know, pies are one of America’s greatest contributions to world cuisine (and don’t mention the French tartes, which, although often superb, are not PIES, while the best British pies are the savory ones, like Melton Mowbray pork pie). Our other great contribution is barbecue.
I’ve been keeping a mental fork all week, ever since I saw the announcement of the Second Annual South Side Pie Challenge held in the Ray School, an elementary school a mere two blocks from my office. The best pie-makers of Chicago’s South Side bring two exemplars of their finest pie to the Challenge, and enter in one of four categories: fruit, nut, cream, and sweet potato/pumpkin.
The judges taste one of the two pies before the competition, and then the doors open to let the eager public in to sample for themselves. I, of course, was right on time, hoping to eat as much pie as I could. For $3 you could purchase one piece, or for $10 four (with one cup of coffee per slice). I, of course, went for four, concentrating on the prizewinners. I managed to down two pieces on the spot, and brought the others home for tomorrow to avoid sugar shock.
A beautiful sight:
The fruit pies:
Moar fruit pies:
The cream pies:
The nut pies (I forgot to photograph the pumpkin/sweet potato pies, but they weren’t moving fast):
And some fruit pies:
Two blueberry pies, one of which I sampled (the first one below, of course, as it was the prizewinner):
Cherry almond pie. Ain’t that a pretty sight?
Nut pies (these were all pecan, the best of all nut pies):
The prizewinner: pecan fudge, which is reposing in my fridge right now:
The pies were served by cute schookids:
The creme pies, starting with one of my favorites:
Raspberry strawberry cream cheese pie. I much regret passing this one up:
“S’Cream” pie: peanut butter cream pie topped with crushed peanut M&Ms. A prizewinner, so I had to try it:
Turtle fudge pie: chocolate cream, and a ribbon of caramel, topped with a hard chocolate topping and then whipped cream and pecans. I had to have it.
After I polished off the blueberry pie, I had the turtle pie. It was fantastic, one of the best pies I’ve ever had:
And my pies for the morrow: the peanut butter cream pie and the prize-winning pecan fudge pie:
Oy, am I full!
My favorite pies are sour-cream raisin, cherry, low-bush blueberry (as served by Helen’s Restaurant in Machias, Maine), sour cream/raisin, lemon chess, strawberry, and the Midwestern staple, sugar pie.
Just this morning J Pararajasingham posted the third installment in his series of “Academics speaking about God” (go to the links for part 1 and part 2). At 50 atheist academics per video, he’s up to 150 now. He’s also put together videos of Christians speaking about God and writers speaking about God; you can see them all on Pararajasingham’s YouTube channel).
I’ve listened to the whole thing, and asterisked and put in bold those people whose words were most interesting to me. I’ve also indicated the time in the video that they appear.
The winner for me is Steve Jones, perhaps because he’s my friend, but also because although I’ve known him for 30 years, I’ve never heard him speak so forcefully about the incompatibility of science and religion.
101. Sir Andrew Huxley, Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine
*102. Steve Jones, UCL Professor of Genetics 2:04; incompatibility of science and religion
103. Yujin Nagasawa, Professor of Philosophy, Birmingham University
104. Dame Alison Richard, Cambridge Professor of Anthropology
*105. Peter Millican, Oxford Professor of Philosophy 4:10
106. Gareth Stedman Jones, Cambridge Professor of History
107. Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
108. Michael Mann, UCLA Professor of Sociology
*109. Brian Greene, Professor of Physics, Columbia University (a touch of accommodationism) 6:27
110. CJ van Rijsbergen, Cambridge Professor of Computer Science
*111. Louise Antony, Professor of Philosophy, UMass 7:46
112. Leonard Mlodinow, Cal Tech Professor of Physics
113. Lisa Jardine, UCL Professor of History
114. Aaron Ciechanover, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
115. Herbert Huppert, Cambridge Professor of Geophysics
116. Geoff Harcourt, Australian Academic Economist, Cambridge
*117. Elizabeth Loftus, Professor of Cognitive Psychology, UC Irvine 10:47
118. Paul Rabinow, Berkeley Professor of Anthropology
119. Sir Brian Harrison, Oxford Professor of Modern History
120. Lisa Randall, Harvard Professor of Physics
121. Gabriel Horn, Cambridge Professor of Zoology
122. Jonathan Parry, Cambridge Professor of Anthropology
123. Masatoshi Koshiba, Nobel Laureate in Physics
*124. Frank Drake, Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, UCSC 15:35
125. Jared Diamond, Professor of Geography, UCLA
*126. Sir John E. Walker, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry; incompatibility of science and religion 16:19
*127. J.L. Schellenberg, Professor of Philosophy, MSVU 17:16
According to a long and informative post at space.com, tomorrow will be a rare “annular” eclipse, where parts of the world (unfortunately not mine) will be able to see the Moon blotting out the Sun except for a ring of the Sun’s light around the edge. Sadly, most of our readers, who are in the U.S., Britain, Europe, and the Antipodes, won’t be able to see it, but if you’re in Spain or southern France you’re in luck. And the few readers in Africa and northern South America are in for a treat.
For most North American observers, the partial eclipse will coincide with sunrise. But within a very narrow corridor that extends for 8,345 miles (13,430 kilometers) across the planet, the disks of the sun and the moon will appear to exactly coincide, providing an example of the most unusual type of eclipse: a “hybrid” or “annular-total eclipse.”
During annular solar eclipse, the sun looks like a “ring of fire,” while the moon and sun line up perfectly during a total eclipse. Throughout a hybrid eclipse, however, the celestial sight transitions from annular to total.
Here is a video (path of eclipse is the pale, elliptical shadow that moves across the Atlantic) as well as a map of its path:
In the U.S., it starts at about sunrise: 6:45 ET (don’t forget to set your clocks back tonight!). If you’re sleeping then, you can watch it streamed live here.
Here’s what it will look like if you’re in the good zone:
Space.com has a lot of info, but I’ll just give a bit more:
During the 21st century approximately 4.9 percent of all central solar eclipses — those eclipses where the moon crosses directly in front of the disk of the sun — fall into the hybrid classification.
In most cases, an annular-total eclipse starts as an annular, or “ring of fire” eclipse, because the tip of the moon’s dark shadow cone — the umbra — falls just short of making contact with the Earth; so the moon appears slightly smaller than the sun producing the same effect as placing a penny atop a nickel leaving a ring of sunlight shining around the moon’s edge.
Then the solar eclipse transitions to total, because the roundness of the Earth reaches up and intercepts the shadow tip near the middle of the path, then finally it reverts back to annular toward the end of the path.
However, as pointed out by the renowned Belgian eclipse calculator, Jean Meeus, the hybrid eclipse of Nov. 3 will be a special case: here the eclipse starts out as annular, then after only 15-seconds it will transition to a total eclipse, and then it remains total up to the very end of the eclipse path. The last time this happened was on Nov. 20, 1854 and the next such case after 2013 will occur on Oct. 17, 2172.
Here’s a picture of a solar eclipse taken from space (the dark sphere in northern Africa is the moon’s shadow):
