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Daniel Dennett's talk at AAI 07 is especially good. I'm loving these videos that are coming out of the conference. Dennett also wins the Richard Dawkins Award. Also features small parts by Julia Sweeney (I am eagerly awaiting her movie Letting Go of God) and Richard Dawkins.

(if you want to skip the introductions and get right to the lecture—I recommend that you don't, but if you do—it starts around 17 minutes)

Remarkable story, if you are unfamiliar with Ayaan Hirsi Ali and her story please watch this speech given at AAI 07. The Q&A is well worth your time as well.

This is from The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science's AAI 2007 conference. Andy Thomson goes over the motivations of those who engage in Suicidal Terrorism. An eye opening and powerful lecture on an issue that has shaped politics and international relations for the past couple decades.

As the baseball playoffs fast approach all but the National League Wild Card has been decided. The teams that have made it?

American League East: Boston Red Sox
American League Central: Cleveland Indians
American League West: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
American League Wild Card: New York Yankees

National League East: Philadelphia Phillies
National League Central: Chicago Cubs
National League West: Arizona Dimondbacks
National League Wild Card: Either the Colorado Rockies or San Diego Padres, pending tiebreaker tomorrow.

The Colorado Rockies and the San Diego Padres are tied for the Wild Card in the National League, and since the season is over, they will have to play each other to see who goes to the playoffs.

With my Dodgers officially out of it (they have been for awhile) it's time to decide who to cheer for in the playoffs. That presents me (and fans like me) with a quandry: who to root for if your team isn't in it. Others may choose arbitrarily, but I have a system (that has, until now, resided only in my head) for picking who to root for.

The System
Here is my rough system for deciding who to root for. It is based on the NL vs. AL fued, but also roughly based on geographic loyalty.

1. The Los Angeles Dodgers always take precedent, no matter the circumstances.
2. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim always take precedent, with the exception of the Dodgers.
3. The National League always takes precedent over the American League, with the exception of the Angels, provided they are not playing the Dodgers.
4. West Coast Teams always take precedent over East Coast teams.
5. West Coast Teams always take precedent over Central League teams.
6. Central League teams always take precedent over East Coast teams.
7. Any team in the National League takes precedent over the San Francisco Giants or San Diego Padres.
8. Any team in the league takes precedent over the New York Yankees.

Now, this does not take into account games where West Coast teams play each other. In the National League, this is largely influenced by its effect on the Dodgers in the standings. In the playoffs (where, due to the Wild Card, two West Coast teams may end up playing each other to advance), preference is as follows: Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Padres, Giants. The Dodgers, as mentioned above, always take precedence, and the Padres and Giants are always loathed, due to geographical rivalries. In the case of the Rockies and Diamondbacks, my choice is mandated by geographic proximity.

In the American League West, like the National League West, the Angels always take precedence, and during regular season play I root for whatever outcome most favors their success in the standings. In the playoffs, the order goes as follows: Angels, Seattle Mariners, Oakland Athletics and Texas Rangers. Texas is an oddball in the American League West, as they are more in the center of the states geographically. The Athletics are from Northern California, and and thus must be brought down a peg. The Mariners are definitely a West Coast team, so they take precedent over Oakland and Texas, but not the Angels.

Regarding possible playoff matches of two Central League teams or two East Coast Teams, my attitude is largely indifferent and my choice completely arbitrary. If the teams had a negative impact on either the Angels or the Dodgers, I will tend to disfavor them. I also may tend to root for the underdog in these cases.

Playoff Priority
Okay, so here is a rough order of preference for teams in the playoffs.

1. Los Angeles Dodgers
2. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
3. Arizona Diamondbacks
4. Colrado Rockies

5. Chicago Cubs
5. Milwalkee Brewers
5. St. Louis Cardinals
5. Houston Astros
5. Cincinnati Reds
5. Pittsburgh Pirates

6. New York Mets
6. Philadelphia Phillies
6. Atlanta Braves
6. Washington Nationals
6. Florida Marlins

7. San Diego Padres
8. San Francisco Giants

9. Seattle Mariners
9. Oakland Athletics
9. Texas Rangers

10. Celeveland Indians
10. Detroit Tigers
10. Minnesota Twins
10. Chicago White Sox
10. Kansas City Royals

11. Boston Red Sox
11. Toronto Blue Jays
11. Baltimore Orioles
11. Tampa Bay Devil Rays

12. New York Yankees*

* Please, anybody but the Yankees

What It it Means for 2007
Tomorrow, the Rockies play the Padres in a Wild Card tiebreaker. According to the above specs, I root for the Rockies.

Later this week the following playoff series will take place (National League playoffs still to be influenced by Rockies/Padres tiebreaker):

LA Angels vs. Boston Red Sox
Cleveland Indians vs. NY Yankees

The Angels will take precedence over the Red Sox and the Indians will take Precedence over the Yankees.

My ideal American League champion? The Angels, naturally. My ideal National League champion? Right now it would be the Diamondbacks. My ideal World Series Match-up for this year?

Angels vs. Phillies, in 7. Because I love the drama of East vs. West Coast.

Alton Brown, host of Good Eats

Since I'm now officially done with school one of my new life goals is to learn how to cook. My grandmother and mother are excellent cooks, but their knowledge hasn't really be transferred to me.

So, what to do? Well, I've been semi-religiously watching Good Eats for awhile now and I have purchased two books by Alton Brown. My approach to teaching myself to cook is not to teach myself to cook but rather learn from Alton. My plan is to go through episodes of Good Eats, starting way back in season one, and work my way through each episode, acquiring proper skills, knowledge and tools as I progress.

This seems to me like a fairly good approach, because the first season or so of Good Eats have very simple, basic knowledge and as the show went along more complex things are discussed, all the way up to making Sushi.

My aim with all of this is to slowly build my knowledge, skills and tools and have some fun in the process. Right now I can do little more than use the Microwave, Cook Pasta, or Heat a Can of Soup.

I'll be documenting my progress on this blog, so stay tuned for updates. My first task? Steak. Yum.

"We Will Never Forget"

It is a phrase that has become mind-numbingly cliché. What was once a powerful promise of dedication is now diluted and weak, a statement that must be refreshed simply because it was a promise to begin with (that other cliché, 'Never say never,' comes to mind). Yesterday was the sixth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, but you couldn't tell from hearing about it. Everyone simply refers to the event as "nine eleven," as if it's better not to mention the physical building that fell or the city in which it occurred.

Even so, it still seems somewhat distasteful to dread the flux of pseudo-patriotism that occurs on the day each year—and I'm hesitant to even bring it up. Regardless, I can't help noticing that everyone mumbles about "never forgetting" and "heros" but I doubt people remember, nor do I think they care ninty-nine percent of the rest of the time. People have lives to live.

Is it absolutely necessary that we, as a nation, do this to ourselves? Six years have now passed since September Eleventh, and while I understand the need to commemorate and mark the occation properly, must we still remain in a collective grief?

But what of the victims families, one might ask. But does all this exposure really help those of the families to grieve? Does allowing these people a chance to move on with their lives, without having to relive the horror of the day each year, constitute an insult to the victims? I don't know the answer, but I'm hesitant to rip open old wounds.

Perhaps it is my distance from the epicenter (one also hesitates to call the WTC site "Ground Zero") that makes me complacant. Maybe I'm cold-hearted and cruel. Or maybe it's is growing apathy towards an event that has lead to a new era of terror, war, and the strip mining of civil liberties on unprecedented scale in this country.

But all these things aside, I think overall, it's that when I hear people recite the trite greeting card messages from six years ago, I don't sense sinserity in their words. I'm sure there are plenty of people that will dispute that, but I don't see it.

Yesterday was September the Eleventh. And I'm glad it is over. 

One of the things that has always confused/pissed me off is reactions to mainstream music like this:

Show us what's on your nightstand.
Submitted by Mike E.

On my nightstand.