Pareidolia is a type of illusion where you take a vague stimulus and perceive it as something clear and distinct. As an example, there was a Casino that paid $28,000 for half a grilled cheese sandwich with the Virgin Mary on it. Well, to be completely true it was only half a sandwich (apaprently the other half bore no discernable holy images), and there was a bite taken out of the half that was sold. Just imagine what the whole sandwich would have gone for!

Pareidolia is not restricted to visual phenomena; it also accounts for audio as well. This is what gives rise to the urban myths about “backward masking” on record albums that was so prevalent when I was younger. Michael Shermer of the Skeptic Society spoke on this subject in his TED talk on Why People Believe Weird Things.

This misperception can work for you as well - back in the long ago before time, when I was in high school our band covered REM’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It”. Nowadays you can get these lyrics online (although I would wager that some of them may not be completely spot on) - however, back then we didn’t have this cool internet thingy. We had to figure out lyrics ourselves. Through many, many listenings singer extrordinaire Mark Tompkins managed to produce a handwritten sheet of the words. Well, not really the words - but more or less what he thought the words sounded like. To this day I can sing along to the song; to this day I probably only get 1 out of 10 words to match what the band wrote. I still have the original xeroxed lyrics sheet somewhere in a box; maybe some day I will scan it in and post it here. A bit of history from my misspent youth.

This is all leading up to a rather funny video I came across that really hammers the pattern-seeking point home. O Fortuna is a movement from the Carmina Burana Suite by the German composer Carl Orff. Trust me, you know this one from countless movies, tv shows, and advertisements. This actual lyrics sung by the choir are in Latin; this video comes up with English equivalents. If you listen to the piece without watching the video you probably won’t come up with many of the lyrics they use; however, when prompted by the text on the slides it will all fall into place. Either way, enjoy.

Todd and I were briefly discussing politics this morning. I really can’t stand politics - it’s the whole “wheels within wheels” component that I can’t stand. I know some people enjoy the hidden meanings, innuendos, and subtexts that are part of the political world, but not me. The political sphere is one area where I’d rather hear the unvarnished truth than have to decode the spin that is applied to a particular issue.

Since I’ve been old enough to care, the Presidential elections have always been a disappointment to me. I can’t think of a time where I’ve been excited about either of the two candidates. Southpark really hit the nail on the head when it comes to our Presidential elections - the choice normally comes down to either a Giant Douche or a Turd Sandwich. I can’t remember where I heard it first, but my favorite quote about the presidency is that “the very qualities you would want in a president would prevent that person from running for office.”

OK, I’m done with the political mini-rant. As I told Todd, my concern with this election year is that whoever gets elected is most likely going to get to appoint a new Supreme Court Justice to take Justice Stevens place when he retires. Given some of the disturbing dissenting opinions to come out of the court (mostly from Justices Scalia and Thomas) I have some real concerns that the appointment of an ultra-conservative Justice could fundamentally alter the way Church/State separation issues are judged. I know that I’m generalizing here, but having a government that can favor one religion over other world views (whether they are religious or not) is a very bad thing. No matter what your beliefs are; in fact, I would contend that unless you were part of the particular religious sect or movement that was being favored you would have some degree of displeasure with the results.

While doing some research on this subject - I try and be somewhat informed before I make noise - I came across the “Freedom First” petition linked to from the website for the Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Take a second and review the petition and see what people and organizations are signing it. For the impatient, I’ve included the text of the email that you can send from their site to your friends; although it is boilerplate, it distills down the purpose for the petition in one paragraph.

I just signed the First Freedom First petition — about the importance of safeguarding separation of church and state and protecting religious liberty. The founders of our nation believed that all Americans should have the right to worship according to their own beliefs, or not to worship at all. It was so important to them that they placed it in the first sentence of the Bill of Rights. I believe that religion is a deeply personal matter and that Americans must be free to practice their religion without coercion. Simply put, there must be a separation of church and state. I know that we agree about the importance of these issues, so I hope that you will ACT NOW, like I just did. Be a part of First Freedom First. Sign the petition and encourage others to join you. Together, we will send a powerful and resounding message — safeguard the first freedom! Please visit the website below and join me in standing up for this fundamental American freedom.

http://www.FirstFreedomFirst.org

For the last year or so I’ve been steadily reading my way through Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. If you’re not familiar with the books, you are probably unaware of what a monumental task this is. I’m currently in the home stretch - I’m on book #29 and moving my way through the last several books of the series.

After which, I will probably start going through and reading them from the start again, although probably not with the same speed as this first go-round. I don’t know how I manage to not stumble upon his work until I was 35. The satire of this series has to be experienced to believe. He is one of the few authors where days after reading one of his books I find myself bursting out laughing when I finally make the connection to some subtle joke embedded in his text.

Which brings me to the subject of the post. For some time, I’ve been telling myself that I needed to write up a bit on the Discworld series, just because it’s been so damn enjoyable. Also, I reasoned, it would stop my friends from killing me for constantly recommending that they read the books. However, today I was reading through Boing-Boing in my RSS reader and I came across an article about Rat Kings.

Prior to yesterday, the phrase “Rat King” would have just passed me by. However, as fate would have it last night I finished reading Pratchett’s The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Discworld #28, for those of you keeping score at home) and this book has a Rat King woven into the story line (yeah, it’s a slight spoiler but I’m good with it).

So, for you enjoyment, I offer the somewhat disturbing picture up at the top (from Wikimedia) and the link to the Boing-Boing article above, which reads in part:

Seen here is an example of a purported rat king, a giant rat beast created when many rats get their tails tangled together. Legend has it that the rats then grow together into a single creepy entity. This mummified “rat king” was discovered in 1828 in Buchheim, Germany and is currently on display at the museum Mauritianum in Altenburg, Germany.

Personally, I think it’s quite a bit more likely that someone tied the tails together, rather than believing that they spontaneously knotted up somehow. Of course, I’m a buzzkill skeptic so you’ll get that.

Wow. Democracy is on the march in Afghanistan! Yes, that was sarcasm. To be honest, nothing much shocks me these days in terms of international and world news. However, for some reason this one just irritated the shit out of me.

Why is it that years after we “liberated” the freedom-loving people of Afghanistan - years which have included a good number of American boys and girls being killed and maimed - that someone can be sentenced to death for downloading a report from the internet. What is the subject of the report? Why, the report addresses the issue of women’s rights in a Muslim society. It was downloaded by a student journalist, Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, who was convicted of blasphemy by an Islamic court; from everything I’ve read it appears that he was tried without recourse to legal council. The sentence for downloading this report? Why, death of course! Makes perfect sense. Or not.

One would think that this is something that our government would want to get involved in - after all, if we are really interested in spreading democracy shouldn’t freedom of expression and freedom of inquiry be protected? How about to the right to a trial by a jury of your peers? Aren’t those some of the key elements of the democracy and freedom that President Bush fills his speeches with? I’m not an expert in foreign relations here, but it certainly looks like Afghanistan is sliding it’s way towards exactly what we saw with the Taliban - namely, an environment where the religious powers impose their will on the general populace and where questioning their absolute rule is something you only do if you aren’t too concerned about your personal safety.

I’ve pulled a few quotes from this story in the Independent to illustrate just how this story is viewed by those in Afghanistan:

Demonstrations, organised by clerics, against the alleged foreign interference have been held in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, where Mr Kambaksh was arrested. Aminuddin Muzafari, the first secretary of the houses of parliament, said: “People should realise that as we are representatives of an Islamic country therefore we can never tolerate insults to reverences of Islamic religion.”

At a gathering in Takhar province, Maulavi Ghulam Rabbani Rahmani, the heads of the Ulema council, said: “We want the government and the courts to execute the court verdict on Kambaksh as soon as possible.” In Parwan province, another senior cleric, Maulavi Muhammad Asif, said: “This decision is for disrespecting the holy Koran and the government should enforce the decision before it came under more pressure from foreigners.”

Now it may just be me, but I think it is sickening that we are supporting a government that not only condones this type of behavior, but also actively participates in it (as evinced by the Afghanistan Senate passing a motion confirming the death sentence). Dare I say that this seems to be an issue with Church and State being co-mingled? That is, without a strong demarcation between the two you run the risk of things like this happening, where a crime against Dogma is also a crime against the State.

Update - it looks like the Afghan Senate has withdrawn their confirmation of the death sentence. It is now up to the Afghan Court (and any appeals) to determine the sentence.