The Enemies of Reason

We have a general rule around here about posting on topics of religion and politics. In that, generally, we don't do it. Which is not to say we don't have strong feelings about them both, because we do. It's also not intended to imply that there couldn't be an open-minded and enlightening discussion about them both, because there could be. It's just that the odds are stacked very much against such a conversation.

Even the Free and Accepted Masons outlawed the discussion of both in their Temples.

So it is with trepidation that we present this documentary in two parts. It is titled: The Enemies of Reason, and it was made by one of the world's leading Atheists, Richard Dawkins. It is in the spirit of disclosure, not of persuasion, that we comment on him now. The fact that we have not until now said much about Richard Dawkins in a testament to our general rule. In fact the only regular mention of him we've made is a subtle link to his non-profit organization, The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

Richard Dawkins, a molecular biologist, made big waves with his first book, The Selfish Gene, a controversial book for it's time. (1976) His newest book, The God Delusion (2007) would prove to be even more controversial.

We are huge fans of his, but the dude is a firecracker. Part of his efforts in raising awareness of Atheism is a systematic disrespecting of religion. It sounds harsh (because it is) but he says that no respect is given to a non-believer, so why in turn, does everyone bend over backwards to respect religion?

Dawkins says:

"Even those with no faith have been brainwashed into respecting the faith of others. When so-called Muslim community leaders go on the radio and advocate the killing of Salman Rushdie, they are clearly committing incitement to murder--a crime for which they would ordinarily be prosecuted and possibly imprisoned. But are they arrested? They are not, because our secular society "respects" their faith, and sympathizes with the deep "hurt" and "insult" to it.

If that hasn't left a bitter taste in your mouth, then I invite you to watch his two part documentary:

The Enemies of Reason.
In this documentary Richard Dawkins takes a break from battling Religion to investigate all forms of superstition and psuedoscience, from homeopathic cures to healing by chokra and investigating water dowsers. *spoiler alert* They're all scams.

Part 1:

Part 2:

No Country for Old Men

"Is this guy supposed to be the Ultimate Badass?"

"Compared to what, The Bubonic Plague?"

The new film from The Coen Brothers based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy:
No Country for Old Men.

Care for a Grape Soda?

Frisky Dingo Season II begins THIS SUNDAY August 26th @ 12:00am
on [adult swim]

Destroying the Past

We were standing in line at the grocery store.

I was wearing a t-shirt I had made, on the t-shirt are printed the words "destroythepast" along with a logo of cryptic design. From behind me I hear softly spoken words, they ask me, "What does that mean?"

We turn around to see an older man wearing the uniform of a priest, complete with large metal cross hanging from his neck. I already had my mouth open, I was prepared to start answering before I saw he was a priest. For whatever reason (actually there is a specific reason, but I'll spare you that) I stopped myself from answering immediately. I froze, although my mouth was still open.

"Destroy the past, what does that mean?" He calmly asks me again.

I felt myself deflating. "It doesn't mean anything... It's a quote from the musician John Cage."

But it certainly does mean something. I just didn't have the guts to tell a priest. While frozen, my mind was replaying a scene from Full Metal Jacket. It goes like this:

John Cage said: "There is no need to destroy the past... It is already gone."

I can't speak to what John Cage meant exactly, but I know what it means to me. (get ready) I say destroy the past, because I cannot. When I look back at my life as a supremely socially awkward dork, I wish I could erase all of these embarrassing moments from my life. But without them, who would I be? I say destroy the past because it isn't the past, it's the right now, and it's the tomorrow. My life is a giant undulating and dorky centipede with birth at the tail and death at the head.

Why couldn't I tell the priest that?
I would ask that you please direct your questions to the dorky centipede.

Man vs. Truth

A few weeks ago we posted an article about Bear Grylls' show on the Discovery Channel called Man vs. Wild.

Bear and his show have come under fire for reportedly fudging some survival facts, and in some cases even giving potentially harmful and dangerous survival advice. The biggest eye opener for us was an episode where he stumbles upon a WILD HORSE in an open field. He spends the next 20 minutes hand braiding a bridle made of long grass so he can attempt to ride the WILD BEAST. He ultimately fails, and spooks the WILD HORSE, commenting that he should have spent all day trying to get the horse comfortable with him before attempting to ride it. Turns out, Bear rented the completely domesticated horse from a riding ranch down the street from where he was "surviving."

The show was originally aired on The BBC, who have since launched an investigation into these claims. For what it's worth, we had our own discussion of sorts here on clunkyrobot.com. We mostly came to the conclusion that while we like Bear as a television personality and bad ass survivalist, we are simultaneously insulted by his show's blatant lies.

Commenter Christian C. turned us onto this youtube video someone made exposing one of Bear's made-up survival situations for the joke that it really is.

Thanks Christian.

Still not convinced? Here is video that reportedly shows evidence of Bear wearing a life vest under his sweatshirt as he "white water rafts" using only his backpack as a floatation device. Now there's nothing wrong with being safe, but don't tell us you are doing something as dangerous as this, and then lie and cover up how you've protected yourself.

Finally, in our original post we mentioned Less Stroud and his competing survival show "Survivorman." Our general consensus was that Stroud's show is far less exciting than Bear's. Stroud mostly hunkers down for his 5 days of extreme survival, prompting some people to label his show "Campman." Even fans of Survivorman admit that his show seems more like a PBS program than a survival show. But at least it's REAL.

Behold his works, ye mighty, and despair!

We're back, and the upgrade went pretty smoothly. We only encountered one hairpulling problem that was relatively easy to fix. After the required amount of hair had been pulled.

In other news...
The legendary Rob T. Firefly snapped this picture on the corner of Lafayette Street and Bleecker in NYC.

The Second Season of Frisky Dingo begins Sunday August 26th @ 12:00am
(also known as monday morning)

We've never had a billboard before, not even for Sealab.

Noooooooooooo!

Completely unconfirmed, yet totally disturbing:

Comedienne divorcee Kathy Griffin is reportedly dating Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Movin on up.

We're upgrading to Movable Type version 4.0, our weblogging software of choice. If everything goes as planned, we'll see you next week and nobody will notice a difference.

We are very happy with Movable Type. (it's also completely free for personal use) However, there are many choices to consider when picking your weblog software. Here is an article comparing two of the blogosphere's most popular weblogging programs. (Hint: MT wins)

Untill then...

Brother!

Overdrift: When drift racing, drifting so hard that you pass between dimensions... Where dinosaurs and drift racing meet.

We're in Business

This Andrew Thompson video is rad for so many reasons.

(via boingboing)

The Last Little Bit

Man, do we love The Rentals.

Fronted by Weezer ex-bassist Matt Sharp, this is the first new music from our favorite band since 1999's Seven More Minutes. The Last Little Bit EP contains 3 brand new songs full of Rentals goodness, and even has a remake of an old Rentals favorite of ours.

We are suckers for some moog.

Order the new Ep directly from The Rentals.

The Enemies of Reason

We have a general rule around here about posting on topics of religion and politics. In that, generally, we don't do it. Which is not to say we don't have strong feelings about them both, because we do. It's also not intended to imply that there couldn't be an open-minded and enlightening discussion about them both, because there could be. It's just that the odds are stacked very much against such a conversation.

Even the Free and Accepted Masons outlawed the discussion of both in their Temples.

So it is with trepidation that we present this documentary in two parts. It is titled: The Enemies of Reason, and it was made by one of the world's leading Atheists, Richard Dawkins. It is in the spirit of disclosure, not of persuasion, that we comment on him now. The fact that we have not until now said much about Richard Dawkins in a testament to our general rule. In fact the only regular mention of him we've made is a subtle link to his non-profit organization, The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

Richard Dawkins, a molecular biologist, made big waves with his first book, The Selfish Gene, a controversial book for it's time. (1976) His newest book, The God Delusion (2007) would prove to be even more controversial.

We are huge fans of his, but the dude is a firecracker. Part of his efforts in raising awareness of Atheism is a systematic disrespecting of religion. It sounds harsh (because it is) but he says that no respect is given to a non-believer, so why in turn, does everyone bend over backwards to respect religion?

Dawkins says:

"Even those with no faith have been brainwashed into respecting the faith of others. When so-called Muslim community leaders go on the radio and advocate the killing of Salman Rushdie, they are clearly committing incitement to murder--a crime for which they would ordinarily be prosecuted and possibly imprisoned. But are they arrested? They are not, because our secular society "respects" their faith, and sympathizes with the deep "hurt" and "insult" to it.

If that hasn't left a bitter taste in your mouth, then I invite you to watch his two part documentary:

The Enemies of Reason.
In this documentary Richard Dawkins takes a break from battling Religion to investigate all forms of superstition and psuedoscience, from homeopathic cures to healing by chokra and investigating water dowsers. *spoiler alert* They're all scams.

Part 1:

Part 2:

No Country for Old Men

"Is this guy supposed to be the Ultimate Badass?"

"Compared to what, The Bubonic Plague?"

The new film from The Coen Brothers based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy:
No Country for Old Men.

Care for a Grape Soda?

Frisky Dingo Season II begins THIS SUNDAY August 26th @ 12:00am
on [adult swim]

Destroying the Past

We were standing in line at the grocery store.

I was wearing a t-shirt I had made, on the t-shirt are printed the words "destroythepast" along with a logo of cryptic design. From behind me I hear softly spoken words, they ask me, "What does that mean?"

We turn around to see an older man wearing the uniform of a priest, complete with large metal cross hanging from his neck. I already had my mouth open, I was prepared to start answering before I saw he was a priest. For whatever reason (actually there is a specific reason, but I'll spare you that) I stopped myself from answering immediately. I froze, although my mouth was still open.

"Destroy the past, what does that mean?" He calmly asks me again.

I felt myself deflating. "It doesn't mean anything... It's a quote from the musician John Cage."

But it certainly does mean something. I just didn't have the guts to tell a priest. While frozen, my mind was replaying a scene from Full Metal Jacket. It goes like this:

John Cage said: "There is no need to destroy the past... It is already gone."

I can't speak to what John Cage meant exactly, but I know what it means to me. (get ready) I say destroy the past, because I cannot. When I look back at my life as a supremely socially awkward dork, I wish I could erase all of these embarrassing moments from my life. But without them, who would I be? I say destroy the past because it isn't the past, it's the right now, and it's the tomorrow. My life is a giant undulating and dorky centipede with birth at the tail and death at the head.

Why couldn't I tell the priest that?
I would ask that you please direct your questions to the dorky centipede.

Man vs. Truth

A few weeks ago we posted an article about Bear Grylls' show on the Discovery Channel called Man vs. Wild.

Bear and his show have come under fire for reportedly fudging some survival facts, and in some cases even giving potentially harmful and dangerous survival advice. The biggest eye opener for us was an episode where he stumbles upon a WILD HORSE in an open field. He spends the next 20 minutes hand braiding a bridle made of long grass so he can attempt to ride the WILD BEAST. He ultimately fails, and spooks the WILD HORSE, commenting that he should have spent all day trying to get the horse comfortable with him before attempting to ride it. Turns out, Bear rented the completely domesticated horse from a riding ranch down the street from where he was "surviving."

The show was originally aired on The BBC, who have since launched an investigation into these claims. For what it's worth, we had our own discussion of sorts here on clunkyrobot.com. We mostly came to the conclusion that while we like Bear as a television personality and bad ass survivalist, we are simultaneously insulted by his show's blatant lies.

Commenter Christian C. turned us onto this youtube video someone made exposing one of Bear's made-up survival situations for the joke that it really is.

Thanks Christian.

Still not convinced? Here is video that reportedly shows evidence of Bear wearing a life vest under his sweatshirt as he "white water rafts" using only his backpack as a floatation device. Now there's nothing wrong with being safe, but don't tell us you are doing something as dangerous as this, and then lie and cover up how you've protected yourself.

Finally, in our original post we mentioned Less Stroud and his competing survival show "Survivorman." Our general consensus was that Stroud's show is far less exciting than Bear's. Stroud mostly hunkers down for his 5 days of extreme survival, prompting some people to label his show "Campman." Even fans of Survivorman admit that his show seems more like a PBS program than a survival show. But at least it's REAL.

Behold his works, ye mighty, and despair!

We're back, and the upgrade went pretty smoothly. We only encountered one hairpulling problem that was relatively easy to fix. After the required amount of hair had been pulled.

In other news...
The legendary Rob T. Firefly snapped this picture on the corner of Lafayette Street and Bleecker in NYC.

The Second Season of Frisky Dingo begins Sunday August 26th @ 12:00am
(also known as monday morning)

We've never had a billboard before, not even for Sealab.

Noooooooooooo!

Completely unconfirmed, yet totally disturbing:

Comedienne divorcee Kathy Griffin is reportedly dating Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Movin on up.

We're upgrading to Movable Type version 4.0, our weblogging software of choice. If everything goes as planned, we'll see you next week and nobody will notice a difference.

We are very happy with Movable Type. (it's also completely free for personal use) However, there are many choices to consider when picking your weblog software. Here is an article comparing two of the blogosphere's most popular weblogging programs. (Hint: MT wins)

Untill then...

Brother!

Overdrift: When drift racing, drifting so hard that you pass between dimensions... Where dinosaurs and drift racing meet.

We're in Business

This Andrew Thompson video is rad for so many reasons.

(via boingboing)

The Last Little Bit

Man, do we love The Rentals.

Fronted by Weezer ex-bassist Matt Sharp, this is the first new music from our favorite band since 1999's Seven More Minutes. The Last Little Bit EP contains 3 brand new songs full of Rentals goodness, and even has a remake of an old Rentals favorite of ours.

We are suckers for some moog.

Order the new Ep directly from The Rentals.

The Enemies of Reason

We have a general rule around here about posting on topics of religion and politics. In that, generally, we don't do it. Which is not to say we don't have strong feelings about them both, because we do. It's also not intended to imply that there couldn't be an open-minded and enlightening discussion about them both, because there could be. It's just that the odds are stacked very much against such a conversation.

Even the Free and Accepted Masons outlawed the discussion of both in their Temples.

So it is with trepidation that we present this documentary in two parts. It is titled: The Enemies of Reason, and it was made by one of the world's leading Atheists, Richard Dawkins. It is in the spirit of disclosure, not of persuasion, that we comment on him now. The fact that we have not until now said much about Richard Dawkins in a testament to our general rule. In fact the only regular mention of him we've made is a subtle link to his non-profit organization, The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

Richard Dawkins, a molecular biologist, made big waves with his first book, The Selfish Gene, a controversial book for it's time. (1976) His newest book, The God Delusion (2007) would prove to be even more controversial.

We are huge fans of his, but the dude is a firecracker. Part of his efforts in raising awareness of Atheism is a systematic disrespecting of religion. It sounds harsh (because it is) but he says that no respect is given to a non-believer, so why in turn, does everyone bend over backwards to respect religion?

Dawkins says:

"Even those with no faith have been brainwashed into respecting the faith of others. When so-called Muslim community leaders go on the radio and advocate the killing of Salman Rushdie, they are clearly committing incitement to murder--a crime for which they would ordinarily be prosecuted and possibly imprisoned. But are they arrested? They are not, because our secular society "respects" their faith, and sympathizes with the deep "hurt" and "insult" to it.

If that hasn't left a bitter taste in your mouth, then I invite you to watch his two part documentary:

The Enemies of Reason.
In this documentary Richard Dawkins takes a break from battling Religion to investigate all forms of superstition and psuedoscience, from homeopathic cures to healing by chokra and investigating water dowsers. *spoiler alert* They're all scams.

Part 1:

Part 2:

No Country for Old Men

"Is this guy supposed to be the Ultimate Badass?"

"Compared to what, The Bubonic Plague?"

The new film from The Coen Brothers based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy:
No Country for Old Men.

Care for a Grape Soda?

Frisky Dingo Season II begins THIS SUNDAY August 26th @ 12:00am
on [adult swim]

Destroying the Past

We were standing in line at the grocery store.

I was wearing a t-shirt I had made, on the t-shirt are printed the words "destroythepast" along with a logo of cryptic design. From behind me I hear softly spoken words, they ask me, "What does that mean?"

We turn around to see an older man wearing the uniform of a priest, complete with large metal cross hanging from his neck. I already had my mouth open, I was prepared to start answering before I saw he was a priest. For whatever reason (actually there is a specific reason, but I'll spare you that) I stopped myself from answering immediately. I froze, although my mouth was still open.

"Destroy the past, what does that mean?" He calmly asks me again.

I felt myself deflating. "It doesn't mean anything... It's a quote from the musician John Cage."

But it certainly does mean something. I just didn't have the guts to tell a priest. While frozen, my mind was replaying a scene from Full Metal Jacket. It goes like this:

John Cage said: "There is no need to destroy the past... It is already gone."

I can't speak to what John Cage meant exactly, but I know what it means to me. (get ready) I say destroy the past, because I cannot. When I look back at my life as a supremely socially awkward dork, I wish I could erase all of these embarrassing moments from my life. But without them, who would I be? I say destroy the past because it isn't the past, it's the right now, and it's the tomorrow. My life is a giant undulating and dorky centipede with birth at the tail and death at the head.

Why couldn't I tell the priest that?
I would ask that you please direct your questions to the dorky centipede.

Man vs. Truth

A few weeks ago we posted an article about Bear Grylls' show on the Discovery Channel called Man vs. Wild.

Bear and his show have come under fire for reportedly fudging some survival facts, and in some cases even giving potentially harmful and dangerous survival advice. The biggest eye opener for us was an episode where he stumbles upon a WILD HORSE in an open field. He spends the next 20 minutes hand braiding a bridle made of long grass so he can attempt to ride the WILD BEAST. He ultimately fails, and spooks the WILD HORSE, commenting that he should have spent all day trying to get the horse comfortable with him before attempting to ride it. Turns out, Bear rented the completely domesticated horse from a riding ranch down the street from where he was "surviving."

The show was originally aired on The BBC, who have since launched an investigation into these claims. For what it's worth, we had our own discussion of sorts here on clunkyrobot.com. We mostly came to the conclusion that while we like Bear as a television personality and bad ass survivalist, we are simultaneously insulted by his show's blatant lies.

Commenter Christian C. turned us onto this youtube video someone made exposing one of Bear's made-up survival situations for the joke that it really is.

Thanks Christian.

Still not convinced? Here is video that reportedly shows evidence of Bear wearing a life vest under his sweatshirt as he "white water rafts" using only his backpack as a floatation device. Now there's nothing wrong with being safe, but don't tell us you are doing something as dangerous as this, and then lie and cover up how you've protected yourself.

Finally, in our original post we mentioned Less Stroud and his competing survival show "Survivorman." Our general consensus was that Stroud's show is far less exciting than Bear's. Stroud mostly hunkers down for his 5 days of extreme survival, prompting some people to label his show "Campman." Even fans of Survivorman admit that his show seems more like a PBS program than a survival show. But at least it's REAL.

Behold his works, ye mighty, and despair!

We're back, and the upgrade went pretty smoothly. We only encountered one hairpulling problem that was relatively easy to fix. After the required amount of hair had been pulled.

In other news...
The legendary Rob T. Firefly snapped this picture on the corner of Lafayette Street and Bleecker in NYC.

The Second Season of Frisky Dingo begins Sunday August 26th @ 12:00am
(also known as monday morning)

We've never had a billboard before, not even for Sealab.

Noooooooooooo!

Completely unconfirmed, yet totally disturbing:

Comedienne divorcee Kathy Griffin is reportedly dating Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Movin on up.

We're upgrading to Movable Type version 4.0, our weblogging software of choice. If everything goes as planned, we'll see you next week and nobody will notice a difference.

We are very happy with Movable Type. (it's also completely free for personal use) However, there are many choices to consider when picking your weblog software. Here is an article comparing two of the blogosphere's most popular weblogging programs. (Hint: MT wins)

Untill then...

Brother!

Overdrift: When drift racing, drifting so hard that you pass between dimensions... Where dinosaurs and drift racing meet.

We're in Business

This Andrew Thompson video is rad for so many reasons.

(via boingboing)

The Last Little Bit

Man, do we love The Rentals.

Fronted by Weezer ex-bassist Matt Sharp, this is the first new music from our favorite band since 1999's Seven More Minutes. The Last Little Bit EP contains 3 brand new songs full of Rentals goodness, and even has a remake of an old Rentals favorite of ours.

We are suckers for some moog.

Order the new Ep directly from The Rentals.

The Enemies of Reason

We have a general rule around here about posting on topics of religion and politics. In that, generally, we don't do it. Which is not to say we don't have strong feelings about them both, because we do. It's also not intended to imply that there couldn't be an open-minded and enlightening discussion about them both, because there could be. It's just that the odds are stacked very much against such a conversation.

Even the Free and Accepted Masons outlawed the discussion of both in their Temples.

So it is with trepidation that we present this documentary in two parts. It is titled: The Enemies of Reason, and it was made by one of the world's leading Atheists, Richard Dawkins. It is in the spirit of disclosure, not of persuasion, that we comment on him now. The fact that we have not until now said much about Richard Dawkins in a testament to our general rule. In fact the only regular mention of him we've made is a subtle link to his non-profit organization, The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

Richard Dawkins, a molecular biologist, made big waves with his first book, The Selfish Gene, a controversial book for it's time. (1976) His newest book, The God Delusion (2007) would prove to be even more controversial.

We are huge fans of his, but the dude is a firecracker. Part of his efforts in raising awareness of Atheism is a systematic disrespecting of religion. It sounds harsh (because it is) but he says that no respect is given to a non-believer, so why in turn, does everyone bend over backwards to respect religion?

Dawkins says:

"Even those with no faith have been brainwashed into respecting the faith of others. When so-called Muslim community leaders go on the radio and advocate the killing of Salman Rushdie, they are clearly committing incitement to murder--a crime for which they would ordinarily be prosecuted and possibly imprisoned. But are they arrested? They are not, because our secular society "respects" their faith, and sympathizes with the deep "hurt" and "insult" to it.

If that hasn't left a bitter taste in your mouth, then I invite you to watch his two part documentary:

The Enemies of Reason.
In this documentary Richard Dawkins takes a break from battling Religion to investigate all forms of superstition and psuedoscience, from homeopathic cures to healing by chokra and investigating water dowsers. *spoiler alert* They're all scams.

Part 1:

Part 2:

No Country for Old Men

"Is this guy supposed to be the Ultimate Badass?"

"Compared to what, The Bubonic Plague?"

The new film from The Coen Brothers based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy:
No Country for Old Men.

Care for a Grape Soda?

Frisky Dingo Season II begins THIS SUNDAY August 26th @ 12:00am
on [adult swim]

Destroying the Past

We were standing in line at the grocery store.

I was wearing a t-shirt I had made, on the t-shirt are printed the words "destroythepast" along with a logo of cryptic design. From behind me I hear softly spoken words, they ask me, "What does that mean?"

We turn around to see an older man wearing the uniform of a priest, complete with large metal cross hanging from his neck. I already had my mouth open, I was prepared to start answering before I saw he was a priest. For whatever reason (actually there is a specific reason, but I'll spare you that) I stopped myself from answering immediately. I froze, although my mouth was still open.

"Destroy the past, what does that mean?" He calmly asks me again.

I felt myself deflating. "It doesn't mean anything... It's a quote from the musician John Cage."

But it certainly does mean something. I just didn't have the guts to tell a priest. While frozen, my mind was replaying a scene from Full Metal Jacket. It goes like this:

John Cage said: "There is no need to destroy the past... It is already gone."

I can't speak to what John Cage meant exactly, but I know what it means to me. (get ready) I say destroy the past, because I cannot. When I look back at my life as a supremely socially awkward dork, I wish I could erase all of these embarrassing moments from my life. But without them, who would I be? I say destroy the past because it isn't the past, it's the right now, and it's the tomorrow. My life is a giant undulating and dorky centipede with birth at the tail and death at the head.

Why couldn't I tell the priest that?
I would ask that you please direct your questions to the dorky centipede.

Man vs. Truth

A few weeks ago we posted an article about Bear Grylls' show on the Discovery Channel called Man vs. Wild.

Bear and his show have come under fire for reportedly fudging some survival facts, and in some cases even giving potentially harmful and dangerous survival advice. The biggest eye opener for us was an episode where he stumbles upon a WILD HORSE in an open field. He spends the next 20 minutes hand braiding a bridle made of long grass so he can attempt to ride the WILD BEAST. He ultimately fails, and spooks the WILD HORSE, commenting that he should have spent all day trying to get the horse comfortable with him before attempting to ride it. Turns out, Bear rented the completely domesticated horse from a riding ranch down the street from where he was "surviving."

The show was originally aired on The BBC, who have since launched an investigation into these claims. For what it's worth, we had our own discussion of sorts here on clunkyrobot.com. We mostly came to the conclusion that while we like Bear as a television personality and bad ass survivalist, we are simultaneously insulted by his show's blatant lies.

Commenter Christian C. turned us onto this youtube video someone made exposing one of Bear's made-up survival situations for the joke that it really is.

Thanks Christian.

Still not convinced? Here is video that reportedly shows evidence of Bear wearing a life vest under his sweatshirt as he "white water rafts" using only his backpack as a floatation device. Now there's nothing wrong with being safe, but don't tell us you are doing something as dangerous as this, and then lie and cover up how you've protected yourself.

Finally, in our original post we mentioned Less Stroud and his competing survival show "Survivorman." Our general consensus was that Stroud's show is far less exciting than Bear's. Stroud mostly hunkers down for his 5 days of extreme survival, prompting some people to label his show "Campman." Even fans of Survivorman admit that his show seems more like a PBS program than a survival show. But at least it's REAL.

Behold his works, ye mighty, and despair!

We're back, and the upgrade went pretty smoothly. We only encountered one hairpulling problem that was relatively easy to fix. After the required amount of hair had been pulled.

In other news...
The legendary Rob T. Firefly snapped this picture on the corner of Lafayette Street and Bleecker in NYC.

The Second Season of Frisky Dingo begins Sunday August 26th @ 12:00am
(also known as monday morning)

We've never had a billboard before, not even for Sealab.

Noooooooooooo!

Completely unconfirmed, yet totally disturbing:

Comedienne divorcee Kathy Griffin is reportedly dating Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Movin on up.

We're upgrading to Movable Type version 4.0, our weblogging software of choice. If everything goes as planned, we'll see you next week and nobody will notice a difference.

We are very happy with Movable Type. (it's also completely free for personal use) However, there are many choices to consider when picking your weblog software. Here is an article comparing two of the blogosphere's most popular weblogging programs. (Hint: MT wins)

Untill then...

Brother!

Overdrift: When drift racing, drifting so hard that you pass between dimensions... Where dinosaurs and drift racing meet.

We're in Business

This Andrew Thompson video is rad for so many reasons.

(via boingboing)

The Last Little Bit

Man, do we love The Rentals.

Fronted by Weezer ex-bassist Matt Sharp, this is the first new music from our favorite band since 1999's Seven More Minutes. The Last Little Bit EP contains 3 brand new songs full of Rentals goodness, and even has a remake of an old Rentals favorite of ours.

We are suckers for some moog.

Order the new Ep directly from The Rentals.

The Enemies of Reason

We have a general rule around here about posting on topics of religion and politics. In that, generally, we don't do it. Which is not to say we don't have strong feelings about them both, because we do. It's also not intended to imply that there couldn't be an open-minded and enlightening discussion about them both, because there could be. It's just that the odds are stacked very much against such a conversation.

Even the Free and Accepted Masons outlawed the discussion of both in their Temples.

So it is with trepidation that we present this documentary in two parts. It is titled: The Enemies of Reason, and it was made by one of the world's leading Atheists, Richard Dawkins. It is in the spirit of disclosure, not of persuasion, that we comment on him now. The fact that we have not until now said much about Richard Dawkins in a testament to our general rule. In fact the only regular mention of him we've made is a subtle link to his non-profit organization, The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

Richard Dawkins, a molecular biologist, made big waves with his first book, The Selfish Gene, a controversial book for it's time. (1976) His newest book, The God Delusion (2007) would prove to be even more controversial.

We are huge fans of his, but the dude is a firecracker. Part of his efforts in raising awareness of Atheism is a systematic disrespecting of religion. It sounds harsh (because it is) but he says that no respect is given to a non-believer, so why in turn, does everyone bend over backwards to respect religion?

Dawkins says:

"Even those with no faith have been brainwashed into respecting the faith of others. When so-called Muslim community leaders go on the radio and advocate the killing of Salman Rushdie, they are clearly committing incitement to murder--a crime for which they would ordinarily be prosecuted and possibly imprisoned. But are they arrested? They are not, because our secular society "respects" their faith, and sympathizes with the deep "hurt" and "insult" to it.

If that hasn't left a bitter taste in your mouth, then I invite you to watch his two part documentary:

The Enemies of Reason.
In this documentary Richard Dawkins takes a break from battling Religion to investigate all forms of superstition and psuedoscience, from homeopathic cures to healing by chokra and investigating water dowsers. *spoiler alert* They're all scams.

Part 1:

Part 2:

No Country for Old Men

"Is this guy supposed to be the Ultimate Badass?"

"Compared to what, The Bubonic Plague?"

The new film from The Coen Brothers based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy:
No Country for Old Men.

Care for a Grape Soda?

Frisky Dingo Season II begins THIS SUNDAY August 26th @ 12:00am
on [adult swim]

Destroying the Past

We were standing in line at the grocery store.

I was wearing a t-shirt I had made, on the t-shirt are printed the words "destroythepast" along with a logo of cryptic design. From behind me I hear softly spoken words, they ask me, "What does that mean?"

We turn around to see an older man wearing the uniform of a priest, complete with large metal cross hanging from his neck. I already had my mouth open, I was prepared to start answering before I saw he was a priest. For whatever reason (actually there is a specific reason, but I'll spare you that) I stopped myself from answering immediately. I froze, although my mouth was still open.

"Destroy the past, what does that mean?" He calmly asks me again.

I felt myself deflating. "It doesn't mean anything... It's a quote from the musician John Cage."

But it certainly does mean something. I just didn't have the guts to tell a priest. While frozen, my mind was replaying a scene from Full Metal Jacket. It goes like this:

John Cage said: "There is no need to destroy the past... It is already gone."

I can't speak to what John Cage meant exactly, but I know what it means to me. (get ready) I say destroy the past, because I cannot. When I look back at my life as a supremely socially awkward dork, I wish I could erase all of these embarrassing moments from my life. But without them, who would I be? I say destroy the past because it isn't the past, it's the right now, and it's the tomorrow. My life is a giant undulating and dorky centipede with birth at the tail and death at the head.

Why couldn't I tell the priest that?
I would ask that you please direct your questions to the dorky centipede.

Man vs. Truth

A few weeks ago we posted an article about Bear Grylls' show on the Discovery Channel called Man vs. Wild.

Bear and his show have come under fire for reportedly fudging some survival facts, and in some cases even giving potentially harmful and dangerous survival advice. The biggest eye opener for us was an episode where he stumbles upon a WILD HORSE in an open field. He spends the next 20 minutes hand braiding a bridle made of long grass so he can attempt to ride the WILD BEAST. He ultimately fails, and spooks the WILD HORSE, commenting that he should have spent all day trying to get the horse comfortable with him before attempting to ride it. Turns out, Bear rented the completely domesticated horse from a riding ranch down the street from where he was "surviving."

The show was originally aired on The BBC, who have since launched an investigation into these claims. For what it's worth, we had our own discussion of sorts here on clunkyrobot.com. We mostly came to the conclusion that while we like Bear as a television personality and bad ass survivalist, we are simultaneously insulted by his show's blatant lies.

Commenter Christian C. turned us onto this youtube video someone made exposing one of Bear's made-up survival situations for the joke that it really is.

Thanks Christian.

Still not convinced? Here is video that reportedly shows evidence of Bear wearing a life vest under his sweatshirt as he "white water rafts" using only his backpack as a floatation device. Now there's nothing wrong with being safe, but don't tell us you are doing something as dangerous as this, and then lie and cover up how you've protected yourself.

Finally, in our original post we mentioned Less Stroud and his competing survival show "Survivorman." Our general consensus was that Stroud's show is far less exciting than Bear's. Stroud mostly hunkers down for his 5 days of extreme survival, prompting some people to label his show "Campman." Even fans of Survivorman admit that his show seems more like a PBS program than a survival show. But at least it's REAL.

Behold his works, ye mighty, and despair!

We're back, and the upgrade went pretty smoothly. We only encountered one hairpulling problem that was relatively easy to fix. After the required amount of hair had been pulled.

In other news...
The legendary Rob T. Firefly snapped this picture on the corner of Lafayette Street and Bleecker in NYC.

The Second Season of Frisky Dingo begins Sunday August 26th @ 12:00am
(also known as monday morning)

We've never had a billboard before, not even for Sealab.

Noooooooooooo!

Completely unconfirmed, yet totally disturbing:

Comedienne divorcee Kathy Griffin is reportedly dating Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Movin on up.

We're upgrading to Movable Type version 4.0, our weblogging software of choice. If everything goes as planned, we'll see you next week and nobody will notice a difference.

We are very happy with Movable Type. (it's also completely free for personal use) However, there are many choices to consider when picking your weblog software. Here is an article comparing two of the blogosphere's most popular weblogging programs. (Hint: MT wins)

Untill then...

Brother!

Overdrift: When drift racing, drifting so hard that you pass between dimensions... Where dinosaurs and drift racing meet.

We're in Business

This Andrew Thompson video is rad for so many reasons.

(via boingboing)

The Last Little Bit

Man, do we love The Rentals.

Fronted by Weezer ex-bassist Matt Sharp, this is the first new music from our favorite band since 1999's Seven More Minutes. The Last Little Bit EP contains 3 brand new songs full of Rentals goodness, and even has a remake of an old Rentals favorite of ours.

We are suckers for some moog.

Order the new Ep directly from The Rentals.

The Enemies of Reason

We have a general rule around here about posting on topics of religion and politics. In that, generally, we don't do it. Which is not to say we don't have strong feelings about them both, because we do. It's also not intended to imply that there couldn't be an open-minded and enlightening discussion about them both, because there could be. It's just that the odds are stacked very much against such a conversation.

Even the Free and Accepted Masons outlawed the discussion of both in their Temples.

So it is with trepidation that we present this documentary in two parts. It is titled: The Enemies of Reason, and it was made by one of the world's leading Atheists, Richard Dawkins. It is in the spirit of disclosure, not of persuasion, that we comment on him now. The fact that we have not until now said much about Richard Dawkins in a testament to our general rule. In fact the only regular mention of him we've made is a subtle link to his non-profit organization, The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

Richard Dawkins, a molecular biologist, made big waves with his first book, The Selfish Gene, a controversial book for it's time. (1976) His newest book, The God Delusion (2007) would prove to be even more controversial.

We are huge fans of his, but the dude is a firecracker. Part of his efforts in raising awareness of Atheism is a systematic disrespecting of religion. It sounds harsh (because it is) but he says that no respect is given to a non-believer, so why in turn, does everyone bend over backwards to respect religion?

Dawkins says:

"Even those with no faith have been brainwashed into respecting the faith of others. When so-called Muslim community leaders go on the radio and advocate the killing of Salman Rushdie, they are clearly committing incitement to murder--a crime for which they would ordinarily be prosecuted and possibly imprisoned. But are they arrested? They are not, because our secular society "respects" their faith, and sympathizes with the deep "hurt" and "insult" to it.

If that hasn't left a bitter taste in your mouth, then I invite you to watch his two part documentary:

The Enemies of Reason.
In this documentary Richard Dawkins takes a break from battling Religion to investigate all forms of superstition and psuedoscience, from homeopathic cures to healing by chokra and investigating water dowsers. *spoiler alert* They're all scams.

Part 1:

Part 2:

No Country for Old Men

"Is this guy supposed to be the Ultimate Badass?"

"Compared to what, The Bubonic Plague?"

The new film from The Coen Brothers based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy:
No Country for Old Men.

Care for a Grape Soda?

Frisky Dingo Season II begins THIS SUNDAY August 26th @ 12:00am
on [adult swim]

Destroying the Past

We were standing in line at the grocery store.

I was wearing a t-shirt I had made, on the t-shirt are printed the words "destroythepast" along with a logo of cryptic design. From behind me I hear softly spoken words, they ask me, "What does that mean?"

We turn around to see an older man wearing the uniform of a priest, complete with large metal cross hanging from his neck. I already had my mouth open, I was prepared to start answering before I saw he was a priest. For whatever reason (actually there is a specific reason, but I'll spare you that) I stopped myself from answering immediately. I froze, although my mouth was still open.

"Destroy the past, what does that mean?" He calmly asks me again.

I felt myself deflating. "It doesn't mean anything... It's a quote from the musician John Cage."

But it certainly does mean something. I just didn't have the guts to tell a priest. While frozen, my mind was replaying a scene from Full Metal Jacket. It goes like this:

John Cage said: "There is no need to destroy the past... It is already gone."

I can't speak to what John Cage meant exactly, but I know what it means to me. (get ready) I say destroy the past, because I cannot. When I look back at my life as a supremely socially awkward dork, I wish I could erase all of these embarrassing moments from my life. But without them, who would I be? I say destroy the past because it isn't the past, it's the right now, and it's the tomorrow. My life is a giant undulating and dorky centipede with birth at the tail and death at the head.

Why couldn't I tell the priest that?
I would ask that you please direct your questions to the dorky centipede.

Man vs. Truth

A few weeks ago we posted an article about Bear Grylls' show on the Discovery Channel called Man vs. Wild.

Bear and his show have come under fire for reportedly fudging some survival facts, and in some cases even giving potentially harmful and dangerous survival advice. The biggest eye opener for us was an episode where he stumbles upon a WILD HORSE in an open field. He spends the next 20 minutes hand braiding a bridle made of long grass so he can attempt to ride the WILD BEAST. He ultimately fails, and spooks the WILD HORSE, commenting that he should have spent all day trying to get the horse comfortable with him before attempting to ride it. Turns out, Bear rented the completely domesticated horse from a riding ranch down the street from where he was "surviving."

The show was originally aired on The BBC, who have since launched an investigation into these claims. For what it's worth, we had our own discussion of sorts here on clunkyrobot.com. We mostly came to the conclusion that while we like Bear as a television personality and bad ass survivalist, we are simultaneously insulted by his show's blatant lies.

Commenter Christian C. turned us onto this youtube video someone made exposing one of Bear's made-up survival situations for the joke that it really is.

Thanks Christian.

Still not convinced? Here is video that reportedly shows evidence of Bear wearing a life vest under his sweatshirt as he "white water rafts" using only his backpack as a floatation device. Now there's nothing wrong with being safe, but don't tell us you are doing something as dangerous as this, and then lie and cover up how you've protected yourself.

Finally, in our original post we mentioned Less Stroud and his competing survival show "Survivorman." Our general consensus was that Stroud's show is far less exciting than Bear's. Stroud mostly hunkers down for his 5 days of extreme survival, prompting some people to label his show "Campman." Even fans of Survivorman admit that his show seems more like a PBS program than a survival show. But at least it's REAL.

Behold his works, ye mighty, and despair!

We're back, and the upgrade went pretty smoothly. We only encountered one hairpulling problem that was relatively easy to fix. After the required amount of hair had been pulled.

In other news...
The legendary Rob T. Firefly snapped this picture on the corner of Lafayette Street and Bleecker in NYC.

The Second Season of Frisky Dingo begins Sunday August 26th @ 12:00am
(also known as monday morning)

We've never had a billboard before, not even for Sealab.

Noooooooooooo!

Completely unconfirmed, yet totally disturbing:

Comedienne divorcee Kathy Griffin is reportedly dating Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Movin on up.

We're upgrading to Movable Type version 4.0, our weblogging software of choice. If everything goes as planned, we'll see you next week and nobody will notice a difference.

We are very happy with Movable Type. (it's also completely free for personal use) However, there are many choices to consider when picking your weblog software. Here is an article comparing two of the blogosphere's most popular weblogging programs. (Hint: MT wins)

Untill then...

Brother!

Overdrift: When drift racing, drifting so hard that you pass between dimensions... Where dinosaurs and drift racing meet.

We're in Business

This Andrew Thompson video is rad for so many reasons.

(via boingboing)

The Last Little Bit

Man, do we love The Rentals.

Fronted by Weezer ex-bassist Matt Sharp, this is the first new music from our favorite band since 1999's Seven More Minutes. The Last Little Bit EP contains 3 brand new songs full of Rentals goodness, and even has a remake of an old Rentals favorite of ours.

We are suckers for some moog.

Order the new Ep directly from The Rentals.

The Enemies of Reason

We have a general rule around here about posting on topics of religion and politics. In that, generally, we don't do it. Which is not to say we don't have strong feelings about them both, because we do. It's also not intended to imply that there couldn't be an open-minded and enlightening discussion about them both, because there could be. It's just that the odds are stacked very much against such a conversation.

Even the Free and Accepted Masons outlawed the discussion of both in their Temples.

So it is with trepidation that we present this documentary in two parts. It is titled: The Enemies of Reason, and it was made by one of the world's leading Atheists, Richard Dawkins. It is in the spirit of disclosure, not of persuasion, that we comment on him now. The fact that we have not until now said much about Richard Dawkins in a testament to our general rule. In fact the only regular mention of him we've made is a subtle link to his non-profit organization, The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

Richard Dawkins, a molecular biologist, made big waves with his first book, The Selfish Gene, a controversial book for it's time. (1976) His newest book, The God Delusion (2007) would prove to be even more controversial.

We are huge fans of his, but the dude is a firecracker. Part of his efforts in raising awareness of Atheism is a systematic disrespecting of religion. It sounds harsh (because it is) but he says that no respect is given to a non-believer, so why in turn, does everyone bend over backwards to respect religion?

Dawkins says:

"Even those with no faith have been brainwashed into respecting the faith of others. When so-called Muslim community leaders go on the radio and advocate the killing of Salman Rushdie, they are clearly committing incitement to murder--a crime for which they would ordinarily be prosecuted and possibly imprisoned. But are they arrested? They are not, because our secular society "respects" their faith, and sympathizes with the deep "hurt" and "insult" to it.

If that hasn't left a bitter taste in your mouth, then I invite you to watch his two part documentary:

The Enemies of Reason.
In this documentary Richard Dawkins takes a break from battling Religion to investigate all forms of superstition and psuedoscience, from homeopathic cures to healing by chokra and investigating water dowsers. *spoiler alert* They're all scams.

Part 1:

Part 2:

No Country for Old Men

"Is this guy supposed to be the Ultimate Badass?"

"Compared to what, The Bubonic Plague?"

The new film from The Coen Brothers based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy:
No Country for Old Men.

Care for a Grape Soda?

Frisky Dingo Season II begins THIS SUNDAY August 26th @ 12:00am
on [adult swim]

Destroying the Past

We were standing in line at the grocery store.

I was wearing a t-shirt I had made, on the t-shirt are printed the words "destroythepast" along with a logo of cryptic design. From behind me I hear softly spoken words, they ask me, "What does that mean?"

We turn around to see an older man wearing the uniform of a priest, complete with large metal cross hanging from his neck. I already had my mouth open, I was prepared to start answering before I saw he was a priest. For whatever reason (actually there is a specific reason, but I'll spare you that) I stopped myself from answering immediately. I froze, although my mouth was still open.

"Destroy the past, what does that mean?" He calmly asks me again.

I felt myself deflating. "It doesn't mean anything... It's a quote from the musician John Cage."

But it certainly does mean something. I just didn't have the guts to tell a priest. While frozen, my mind was replaying a scene from Full Metal Jacket. It goes like this:

John Cage said: "There is no need to destroy the past... It is already gone."

I can't speak to what John Cage meant exactly, but I know what it means to me. (get ready) I say destroy the past, because I cannot. When I look back at my life as a supremely socially awkward dork, I wish I could erase all of these embarrassing moments from my life. But without them, who would I be? I say destroy the past because it isn't the past, it's the right now, and it's the tomorrow. My life is a giant undulating and dorky centipede with birth at the tail and death at the head.

Why couldn't I tell the priest that?
I would ask that you please direct your questions to the dorky centipede.

Man vs. Truth

A few weeks ago we posted an article about Bear Grylls' show on the Discovery Channel called Man vs. Wild.

Bear and his show have come under fire for reportedly fudging some survival facts, and in some cases even giving potentially harmful and dangerous survival advice. The biggest eye opener for us was an episode where he stumbles upon a WILD HORSE in an open field. He spends the next 20 minutes hand braiding a bridle made of long grass so he can attempt to ride the WILD BEAST. He