Stargazing Encore This Friday

When: Friday, August 29th, 2008, 6:30pm - midnight.
Where: Sean Kelly's and Blue Mountain Observatory

Our last stargazing event was cut short by uncooperative clouds shortly after we watched the International Space Station streak across the sky. The Space Station won't be flying overhead this Friday, but hopefully the clouds will stay away too. Regardless of the weather, the first half of this event will proceed as normal, consisting of dinner and socializing at Sean Kelly's in downtown Missoula. We'll grab a table in the back area and possibly pull two together if it looks like enough people will be there. If you're not sure what any of the M.A.S.S. regulars look like, Jon will probably be wearing his Geocentric 'Teach the Controversy' T-Shirt ( ... Jon's is black, not yellow.)

At about 8:00pm, we'll pay our individual tabs and caravan to the Blue Mountain Observatory for their Open House. You'll get to peer through the big telescope several times as they swing it around the sky to point at globular clusters, a nebula or two, and maybe even a planet or other celestial points of interest. People will also be there to explain how to identify stars and constellations and answer questions in between your turns at the telescope. Plan on staying until at least Midnight. Children are welcome!

You should dress relatively warm, as it can get can get rather cold on top of the mountain at night this time of year. You will also ABSOLUTELY NEED to bring A SMALL FLASHLIGHT to find your way down the trail from the observatory back to the parking area. It's very dark at the observatory and flashlights here are discouraged, so expect a lot of walking around outside on rocky terrain in the dark. If your night vision is significantly worse than most people's, consider yourself duly warned.

If you'd like to RSVP (not required, but helpful), you can do so on Facebook.

God vs. Modern Medicine

Kudos to Jeff over at the Missoula Skeptics Blog for spotting an AP story in today's Missoulian about a study that found 57% of Americans still believe that "God’s intervention could save a family member even if physicians declared treatment would be futile." I would have completely missed this story if Jeff hadn't blogged about it.

Jeff sounds pretty discouraged by the results of the study, but I actually found it encouraging (I guess you could call me a "glass 43% full" kinda guy). The news for me here is that 43% of Americans do not believe that god's intervention could save a family member. Regardless of whether or not god would intervene, these people apparently don't think she's capable of changing the outcome.

That's a significant proportion of Americans who are at least starting to think about these kind of things rationally. Most of them would probably still say that they "believe in god", but they're starting to recognize that she's irrelevant. If they don't believe that she's going to do anything about a suffering loved one, then she probably doesn't have any influence on the more mundane moments in their lives, either.

"Left in the West" ~ Catholic League Approved

Here's an amusing tidbit. Missoula blogger Jay Stevens over at "Left in the West" posted last night about his surprise that the Catholic League has apparently reviewed and approved that blog... and then Jay promptly attempts to correct the embarrassing situation.

"Acts of Violence" threatened against author/former Missoulian

There's an article in the Missoulian today about Sherry Jones, a former citizen of The Garden City, who is back in Missoula for the time being because it's "where I feel safe and comfortable."

It seems she was in the process of having her first book published by Random House about A'isha, the youngest of Muhammad's 12 wives. The publisher canceled the contract, however, at the last hour because they received warnings that the book “could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment.” Random House justified the decision by stating that the book "might be offensive to some in the Muslim community.”

So what? Who doesn't get offended now and then by someone else's words? I know that I do. There's no point in declaring "freedom of speech" if nobody ever says anything that someone else disagrees with. Nobody, not you or I or anyone else, has the right to never be offended, or to threaten violence against others simply for saying something we don't like.

Check out the Missoulian article, and then when Jones' book, "Jewel of Medina," is eventually published (by someone with more courage than Random House to defend freedom of speech), buy several copies as gifts for all your friends, even if it sucks. Always work to ensure that threats of violence to suppress freedom of speech consistently backfire and draw exponentially more attention to the very speech that was supposed to be suppressed.

Update (09/03/08): The book apparently has a new publisher, yet to be named. The English version now due to be released in October.

"Left in the West" comments on UC court case.

Jay Stevens, a Missoula blogger for Left in the West and 4&20 Blackbirds posted some short commentary on a recent court ruling regarding the University of California and their right to reject some high school credit from private religious schools that don't meet UC's standards for acceptance. In case any readers here missed Jay's post, I thought I'd send them on over to read it.