Category Archives: Review

Harrison Bergeron Review

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The dystopian short story Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut is an interesting tale of life in the year 2081, when all humans have been made “equal.” They’re equal because anyone who is exceptional is given government-issued handicap devices: masks for the beautiful, constant weight for the strong, and mind-numbing noise for the intelligent.

The premise in this story is an interesting one. It makes you think about some arguments for “equality.” The premise is reminiscent of Atlas Shrugged for me, although the dystopia was not as fully developed. The story is being made into a (short) film called 2081, which is how I first heard about it. I am a big fan of Vonnegut, so it’s always nice to get to read some of his work. I’m hoping that the film can expand the dystopia and make it more tangible for non-readers. Keep an eye out for it in the future, and read the story today. See the first link for the full text.

4/5

Review: John Mayer’s Where The Light Is

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I’ve been listening to a copy of Where The Light Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles for a couple of weeks, and I’m really enjoying it. The album is live in front of a crowd of about 7,000 in L.A. John plays a set of 5 acoustic songs, including an interesting cover of Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’. The acoustic sounds are done well, and you definitely get a sense of his passion as he sings, which is something I find lacking in performances from other bands. The concert then dramatically changes over to an electric guitar-laden blues album that had me at the first riff. This set includes a cover of Hendrix’s Wait Until Tomorrow and (I think) a few originals. One of the best quotes of the album comes when Mayer speaks to the crowd early in Out Of My Mind, when he proclaims something to the effect of, “It’s 2007. We just launched into a slow blues, and 7,000 people in L.A. just went nuts. All is not lost.” The album continues with some more familiar Mayer tunes in a “band set,” including an impassioned take of Gravity that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I think I’m partly enjoying this album so much because it was so unexpected. I had heard a few of Mayer’s songs on the radio, but never had an album. I put this on in the car one day and found myself almost instantly loving the acoustics. The fantastic blues set in the middle of the album was an unexpected and very welcomed surprise. It was definitely the highlight of the album. You can buy a CD of Where The Light Is on Amazon ($15) or buy the DRM-free MP3 album from Amazon MP3 ($14). For a 2-disc album, the money is well worth it! You could also grab a DVD of the concert ($15), which might add another dimension to the performance.

All-in-all, this is an awesome live album by John Mayer.

4.5/5

Ubuntu Review: One Year In

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After a somewhat belated New Year’s resolution last year, I did manage to complete my goal much more easily than I previously thought possible. In the last 9 months, I can probably count on my two hands then number of times I’ve booted into Vista or XP. I’ve been using Ubuntu on a regular basis since at least February. Now you may ask why I made the switch to Linux. I intend to answer that by giving a summary, including the ups and downs, of my first year with Linux.

I had heard of Linux in the past, but it always seemed like something that was beyond my ability to comprehend. I had become a huge fan of WordPress and Firefox, and I love the ideals of free software. As I sat there and thought about it, I couldn’t believe that I was still using a proprietary system like Windows when a free operating system like Linux was out there. I did some research on Linux and found Ubuntu to be exactly what I was looking for. It’s self-proclaimed as “Linux for Human Beings.” It’s got the best support for hardware of any Linux distribution and a very welcoming community for newcomers. Since I was a new medical student, the last thing I wanted was something I had to pore over for hours and hours in the command line just to use it.

Ubuntu is everything a person could want being new to Linux. You can download it for free and burn it to CD to install it. It’s a LiveCD, so you can run the entire operating system from the CD to test it out without changing anything on your current system. Just restart your computer with the CD in your CD-ROM drive, and you will boot into Ubuntu. In order to install it, you just run through the installer on the LiveCD, which asks a few fairly easy questions, and after installing for about 45 minutes, you’ll be booting into Ubuntu. If you’re not ready to completely ditch your current system just yet, you can shrink your installation of Windows. If you’d rather not mess with Windows at all (just in case you don’t like Linux), you can install Ubuntu just like a program right inside of Windows using the wubi installer. Using the wubi installer is a great idea for someone who just wants to try Linux, since it is a little bit tougher to uninstall Linux after installing via the LiveCD, which changes the partitions on your computer.

My first few weeks with Ubuntu were great. I couldn’t believe how much this free operating system could do. Nearly any type of application you could think of was either built-in or easily installed right from inside Ubuntu. It came with Firefox, the OpenOffice.org office suite, Evolution Email, Pidgin (for multi-protocol instant messaging), and the GIMP Image editor. Plus the “eye candy” was easily enabled to check out Compiz-Fusion’s desktop effects and the Avant Window Navigator, a dock similar to that found in Mac OS X.

My friend Usama and my dad were both interested enough to try it out for themselves. They played with Ubuntu for a few weeks, but neither of them took to using it full-time. They’re both “power users” on Windows, and getting used to new applications and setting up a completely different type of system might have been too much trouble for them. I don’t think either of them have given up on it completely, but I think they probably needed a little bit of direction in setting things up effectively. I couldn’t see what the problem was since I had very little trouble with my hardware and I didn’t have any pressing software needs. One of the things that helped ease my transition to Ubuntu was that I forced myself to use the system every day and only boot into Windows if I couldn’t do something in Ubuntu that I absolutely needed to. I quickly realized that there was almost nothing that I couldn’t do in Ubuntu. My new webcam worked after an upgrade to Ubuntu 8.04 (the Hardy Heron) and Amazon MP3 released a Linux client so I could buy full DRM-free mp3 albums.

With the release of Ubuntu 8.04 (the Hardy Heron), GNU/Linux seemed better than ever to me. I began to wonder how there could be so few people using it. I mean, sure it’s not for everyone (notably computer gamers, since few computer games were released on Linux). Around this time, I heard about the Linux Hater’s blog, which was causing somewhat of a ruckus in the Linux community. This is mainly because his rants, though crude, were strikingly poignant. He obviously had an in-depth knowledge of the various Linux communities and software, and he loved to point out their flaws. After a few months, he threw in the towel, but not before opening my eyes to some of the shortcomings of GNU/Linux. I think reading this blog was important for me. Although it often depressed me, it helped me see where Linux is strong and where it needs improvement. I knew all the software wasn’t perfect, but I thought it was just a matter of time before this was fixed. The blog helped me see some of the discordance and problems in the communities themselves that are, in some instances, preventing their own success. Yet as I continue to read about the progress that’s being made in all of these areas, I am hopeful that this problems will solve themselves. There are a lot of developers doing great work who understand the problems, and with the rise of netbooks more companies are contributing resources and manpower to solve some of these issues.

With the release of Ubuntu 8.10 (the Intrepid Ibex), some of Ubuntu’s warts began to show. My webcam no longer worked. One of my favorite new productivity applications, Gnome-Do, started showing some significant bugs that make it unusable at times. My wireless card, which was already a little bit buggy, started causing some more issues. My desktop’s CD/DVD-ROM drives no longer functioned correctly. All-in-all the release brought some great new features, but broke some of my confidence in Ubuntu’s stability. Some of these issues have been resolved and some have not. Some of these issues are specific to Ubuntu and some are not. My problem was that these issues were known prior to release time. I know releases can’t be held up for just anything, but when all CD/DVD drives fail to function properly, it seems like a show-stopper. Unfortunately, Canonical seems to value their time-based release schedule a bit too highly over quality, which is really, really going to hurt them in getting people to try and stick with Linux. I would much rather have had them do what Automattic did with WordPress 2.7 and delay the release date for a month so that all the bugs could be ironed out.

Now, I don’t want you to get the idea that I’m growing weary of Linux. Despite some flaws, I’m confident that things will be resolved in future releases, and I have no intention of giving up on an operating system that I love using. It’s just that flaws like these (along with some usability issues and a lack of centralized documentation) make me understand why adopting Linux might be harder than I first envisioned. I do hope that some of the higher-ups understand these issues, since it’s a major barrier to adoption. Ubuntu tends to do a better job at handling these sorts of issues, but as they continue to push for more users, I hope they continually readdress how to keep their current users happy while still progressing their system.

One of the things I like best about using GNU/Linux is how much I learn while doing using it. I’ve learned a lot about security and operating systems in general, and I’ve done it all using free software. I’ve discovered a number of free software applications that I probably never would’ve even heard of. By using free software, I began paying attention to its development to find out about great ideas and features in upcoming versions. I’ve also been keen on helping to test new software and report bugs. I’ve installed both new versions of Ubuntu while they were still in beta to help with bug reporting.

Since one of the cornerstones of Linux is its variety of distributions, or “distros,” I’ve also started using VirtualBox to test some of them in virtual machines inside Ubuntu. One of the things about Linux that really interests me is its versatility to run on a wide variety of hardware and using a variety of software. It’s used to run super-computers at big companies and to resurrect ancient hardware that’s not capable of running any modern version of Windows. Linux can also be used as a “green” operating system both in its own right and through the LTSP. LTSP can be used to connect many low-power, lightweight computers to a single workhorse machine, so an entire computer lab can be run on minimal power. Linux can be used to power your home media center and your cell phone. The versatility of Linux allows it to underlie many great technologies of today and tomorrow.

So how would I summarize my first year with Ubuntu? I think it’s exactly what I needed. It has helped me plan for the future in medicine and my life and better understand some technology along the way. It’s definitely not for everyone, but I do think Ubuntu and Linux is a viable operating system for a majority of users who have never given it a chance. Besides addressing some of the underlying issues in development (as highlighted by The Linux Hater’s blog) and preventing regressions, the Ubuntu community could use a effort to implement or improve a centralized, up-to-date set of documentation for new users. Far too many problems and issues are only addressed in random blog posts or on online forums, both of which tend to be outdated or doing things in an overly complicated manner. Ubuntu would be greatly improved by including some significant “Getting Started” documentation for new adopters and finding a way to point directly toward an up-to-date official wiki with more complicated tasks. The Linux community is continuing to lower the barriers to adoption, and addressing some key usability issues might be just the thing they need to attract the swarms of users leaving Windows and even catch a fed-up Apple user or two. Great strides have been made already and more are planned for the coming months and years. I’m excited to keep participating and to see what’s in store in my free software world. If you’re interested, try out Ubuntu. It’s simple to burn and try. The risks are pretty minimal, and you’ve got a lot to gain. You’ll never have to pay for any computer software again, you’ll learn a lot, and you’ll be ensuring the future of your digital life. Just don’t forget that Linux is different and for the most part you should try to enjoy it.

(Also, this is my sort-of convoluted thoughts on Jono Bacon’s meme)

Big Buck Bunny

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Big Buck Bunny (code named Project Peach), the second short open source movie to come from the Blender Foundation, was released online on May 30, 2008. I can still remember hearing about Elephant’s Dream (code named Project Orange) back when it became the first open movie ever released.

Screen capture: Blender Foundation / CC-By 3.0

Screen capture: Blender Foundation / CC-By 3.0

Open movies are made with free software. Both Elephant’s Dream and Big Buck Bunny were primarily animated using Blender, a great program for creating 3-D animations. While I was unable to find an exact list of the software used on BBB, I’m sure it’s very similar to that listed for Elephant’s Dream. Another benefit of using Blender to create these movies is that numerous improvements were to be made in order to make the visual effects cinema quality. It’s great to see a group pushing the limits of what can be done with free software to help find its weaknesses and then collaborating to make it do what they needed it to do.

Another really cool aspect of open source movies is that the content is also free. I don’t just mean that you can watch the movie for free. BBB was released under a Creative Commons BY license, the most liberal creative license offered by CC. Any part of the movie can be “remixed” into your own creation, provided that you properly attribute the original work. It’s really cool because the character “files” are freely available. That means that anyone using Blender can simply load one of the bunnies and make it do whatever you want. Imagine being able to do that with Sully from Monster’s, Inc. or Woody from Toy Story. That’d be really awesome!

Big Buck Bunny is available for streaming on YouTube, but I’d highly recommend downloading a high-quality 1080p version from the website (see 1920×1080). They’ve got copies in a few different formats, including Ogg, all with HD available. When I tried, the US server for the 1920 OGG file wasn’t working, but the Italian server worked great. Grab the torrent if you’d like to help spread the film and save bandwidth.

Also if you’re interested, the Blender Foundation’s latest is Project Apricot, an open source 3-D game using some of the characters from BBB. The next movie project will supposedly be an action/fighting short. They should hire Randall Munroe to help write it! :D

Easy Upgrades

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WordPress 2.6 came out yesterday (ahead of schedule). It’s got a few nice new features to it, but not nearly as many changes as was found in 2.5. It was certainly more of a fit-and-finish release, but it looks like (as usual) they did their homework and fixed some good stuff. One of the features from 2.5 that’s still working great is the automatic plugin upgrades. Any time a new plugin comes out, I get notified and upgrading is as easy as clicking a link that pulls the latest version right on to my site. Matt Mullenweg (founder of WordPress) had mentioned a similar idea to automatically upgrade WordPress itself in the future. Well as I was going to download the WP database backup plug-in (that I didn’t have installed for some reason), I saw that an automatic upgrade plug-in for WordPress has been implemented (but not by the WordPress team). Once I was sure I had everything backed up correctly (I learned my lesson), I decided to try out this new plug-in. Needless to say, it worked great. It even has automatic back-up features built in for files and the database. If only Drupal made upgrades as easy as WP, it would make maintaining RMstudents a whole lot easier.

So far, WP 2.6 seems to be working great! Man, I love this software. It’s got to be one of the best pieces of FOSS out there. Grab it today!

The Road

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I just finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I credit Sadie for recommending this really great book. Or maybe I should just credit Oprah ( :P ). The Road tells the story of an unnamed man and his son who are traveling across a post-apocalyptic America. The entire world appears to be covered in a layer of ash that also blocks out nearly all sunlight. The boy and his father are two of a handful of survivors roaming the planet and scavenging to survive. The Road is a story of survival. It’s a story of a father who has lost everything and everyone he knows, save his son. The world has to be one of the scariest settings imaginable: hardly any light in the daytime, pitch black at night, bitter cold, almost zero visibility, no food or supplies, and dangerous scavengers around nearly every bend. The story contains some mind-bending, horrific imagery that has to be seen (read) to be understood.

The writing itself is also very different. It definitely took some getting used to. While it doesn’t completely lack punctuation, quotation marks, commas, and apostrophes are left out (and maybe more). While some of the descriptions are eloquent, the dialog between the father and son remains fairly simple. I think the phrase “Okay.” must have been used at least 200 times in the book, and the two saying “Okay” to each other was a common resolution to any discussion. While I found this strange at first, as the story progressed this phrase seemed to demonstrate the strong bond between the characters.

The story was horrifying, endearing, and truly moving. Despite the bizarre setting, every aspect of the story was fully believable, which makes things all the more horrific. The different writing style took me a little while to get used to, but once I did, I flew through the book. I highly recommend you check this out if you haven’t already. It is truly one of the most unique stories I have ever read!

4.5/5

Just remember that the things you put into your head are there forever, he said. You might want to think about that.
You forget some things, dont you?
Yes. You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

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I finished Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll a few days ago. I must say that I was looking forward to reading it, but somehow it seems to have missed the mark for me. I’ve heard so many good things about it and hardly any bad, so it was frustrating to have it be a book I almost loathed reading once and a while.

One possible reason for this is that many of the jokes, puns, and fractured nursery rhymes were based on old English ones that I’m not familiar with. But if that was my only problem, I wouldn’t consider it a bad thing. While I’ve read a little bit about how Alice represents the epitome of youth, with it’s lack of societal inhibitions, I couldn’t help but getting frustrated with Alice throughout the entire book. There were numerous times I found myself literally yelling “Shut up already!” at the book. It wasn’t just at her incessant babbling to herself and her cats (for example, which takes up the first 5 pages of Through the Looking Glass), but it was more about her tendency to interrupt people’s stories over and over and over again. Even when characters got mad at her for interrupting and she’d promise to let them finish without a peep, she’d chime in a few sentences later. Her interruptions were almost never for a respectable reason, but almost always just simply because she thought it was a good idea to share her thought about everything. It felt real, though, because I could just hear a little kid doing this. I guess this is showing the youth’s lack of society’s inhibitions, but it made the entire story difficult for me to get into.

Don’t get me wrong, though. The book’s not all bad, and I still feel like it should be read by anyone looking to read a classic piece of literature. I will say that I enjoyed Through the Looking Glass a bit more than Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Both books definitely have some notable quoteables, but I really enjoyed some of the poetry and puns in Through the Looking Glass. The Walrus and the Carpenter is a classic Carroll poem, and I can definitely see the religious overtones suggested in it (as I recall being discussed in the movie Dogma). Jabberwocky is another interesting poem in the book, and while I can’t understand it, the Jabberwock seems frightening.

I did enjoy both the stories though, despite my issues with Alice being annoying. While I can’t give it a great review, I did think it was a decent story with plenty of room for interpretation. Of course you could always feed your head with White Rabbit if you’re trying to make sense of some things. Those lyrics should make it all as clear as mud. :)

3/5

On a side note, both of these books are public domain works and thus are available for free online: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass. Some of my favorite quotes are copied below.

‘Then you should say what you mean,’ the March Hare went on.
‘I do,’ Alice hastily replied; ‘at least — at least I mean what I say — that’s the same thing, you know.’
‘Not the same thing a bit!’ said the Hatter. ‘You might just as well say that “I see what I eat” is the same thing as “I eat what I see”!’
‘You might just as well say,’ added the March Hare, ‘that “I like what I get” is the same thing as “I get what I like”!’

‘Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?’
‘Begin at the beginning,’ the King said gravely, ‘and go on till you come to the end: then stop.’

“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master— that’s all.”

Alice laughed. “There’s not use trying,” she said: “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

“I see nobody on the road,” said Alice.
“I only wish I had such eyes,” the King remarked in a fretful tone. “To be able to see Nobody! And at that distance, too! Why, it’s as much as I can do to see real people, by this light!”

Web site creation and standards guide

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I’ve been reading the Free Software Magazine on-and-off for a few weeks now, whenever something looks particularly interesting. Some stuff is not incredibly impressive, but this article “Creating web pages, the right way” by Mitch Meyran offered a lot of incredibly insightful information as to some of the true considerations for designing a page. He touches on a little bit of theory and a little bit of practicality that made me wish there was more than 5 pages to read. It is a bit technical, so if you’re not at all familiar with web design or web standards, you can probably skip the article. This one is meant for the true designers and coders out there. It made me rethink quite a few poor decisions I’ve made that I can correct in the future.

Review: Free Culture

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I finally finished reading Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig a few weeks ago. With my impending exams, I decided I should wait to write a review. All-in-all this was probably one of the best non-fiction books I’ve ever read. Normally I am not a fan of non-fiction, but this book tackled a subject that I was very interested in: freedom.

Lessig is a law professor from Stanford who has dedicated a large chunk of his career to copyright law. His interest in constitutional law led him to this statement:

The Congress shall have Power [. . .] To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries. -US Constitution (via Wikipedia)

The key phrase in that statement, for Lessig and many others, is the term “limited Times”. One of the most interesting parts of the book was the subject of public domain. I found it interesting mainly because before reading this book, I had almost no idea such a thing existed. See, I’m not very old (24), and I have very little experience with copyright. What I learned from Lessig in this book is that there’s a thing called a public domain. Any books (or other works) whose “copy right” has expired enters this domain. In the public domain, no one owns the rights to the book. Anyone is free to reproduce it, republish it, modify it, and make any other number of changes to it, and needs no one’s permission. Now, I had been vaguely familiar with the concept of public domain from things like Project Gutenberg, but I mainly thought that this was only for really old books (say over 100 years old). What I did not understand is that up until the beginning of the 1900′s, works entered the public domain fairly quickly after they were published. Before 1909, any published work could receive a copyright in the US if you filed the correct paperwork with the US Copyright Office. The term for the copyright was 14 years. After 14 years, the copyright was renewable for one additional 14 year term at the copyright owner’s discretion. Thus, after a maximum of 28 years, any published works entered the public domain. This short term of copyright allowed many adaptations of older works, for example Walt Disney was quickly able to make a film adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s famous Alice in Wonderland without securing any sort of permission from Carroll or his estate. The work had moved to the public domain. In fact, Disney and his company profited heavily from the adaptation of other works, including the creation of a well-known mouse named Mickey, who began as Steamboat Willie. Steamboat Willie was actually a parody of a comedic film by Buster Keaton. Disney made this parody and adapted it, making it a hit by being the first cartoon to have sound. How different would the world be today without Mickey Mouse? Yet if Disney had not incorporated the idea of adding sound to his cartoon (films had already begun using sound), Mickey’s long-lasting popularity may not have stuck around.

Ever since 1909, however, the US government has been incrementally increasing the term of copyrights. Where they started out at a maximum of 28 years, they are now up to 95 or 120 years or 70 years after the author’s death. Where before only certain works were even copyrightable and a specific request had to be made in order to obtain a copyright, now virtually anything imaginable can be copyrighted, and the copyright is inherent as soon as pen touches paper (no formal request needed). This change has caused an inordinate amount of work to be held out of the public domain, often with no good reason.

The great thing about this book is Lessig’s approach to presenting the problems and his arguments. He doesn’t resort to extreme ideas to counteract current copyright policy. He never argues to abolish copyright and make creativity a free-for-all. He believes that creators deserve and need the right to protect their work. He simply wants, as many want: a more prudent copyright system. One that balances the power of creators with that of the public good from works entering into the public domain. One that will promote a tradition of creativity that our country was founded on. He diffuses many counter-arguments by simply addressing the problem from the other side of the table. It makes his arguments rock solid. Plus, he uses a number of examples throughout the book to demonstrate how and why the law was different in the past and how it compares to today. Unfortunately, a problem like the one with copyright law does not garner people’s attention until they see the effects of it. Those who are not actively attempting to create something new from something old do not understand the importance of what a barrier this places on creativity and why that’s such a bad thing. Therefore, he also takes the time to demonstrate how crippling current copyright law is to creators.

Another of the main issues addressed by the book is piracy, most specifically music piracy. This is because the book was published when the ideas of copyright law were being brought under question in regards to file-sharing of music. Lessig also addresses these issues, specifically how the Internet has changed copyright law and how the corporate industries are attempting to preserve their profits by exploiting their copyrights under the guise of protecting the artists and creators. The RIAA and MPAA abhor the idea of a public domain. Unfortunately, they have gotten so big and have so much financial backing that they are able to pressure the government with what’s best for their bottom-line.

Overall, this is one of the best books I’ve ever read. I highly recommend it to everyone so that they can gain an understanding of the system in the US and how much it has changed for the worse over the past 100 years. Lessig’s examples perfectly illustrate the complicated situations that copyright law creates and how to understand them without a legal degree. My only minor complaint, which can’t really be attributed to Lessig, is that the law is very complicated sometimes and understanding the problems it presents can be a bit of a challenge. This makes it a book where you have to stop and think about things once or twice before you fully understand it, which may be a turn-off for some. The full contents of this book is available for free online via a Creative Commons license. However, it is a very good idea to buy it if you’d like to do more than browse.

4.5/5

Ben Stein Is Expelled

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I just saw a commercial on TV for a movie featuring Ben Stein called Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. It appeared to be a documentary about religion and science. I had always assumed that Ben Stein was a fairly intelligent individual, but it appears that even if that is the case he made a mess of a film.

I will point out 2 things off the bat. I have not seen this movie. In fact, it just came out today in the US. There is a short video clip available to watch online, and I’ve gotten some information from Wikipedia. Secondly, while I disagree with his position in this debate, I am more disappointed in the way he appears to have addressed the facts. I would also like to take this opportunity to point out that Stein attempts to martyr himself (and drag you along) by asserting that if you want a career in anything scientific, you’d better not even watch this movie, or you’re risking your future. The implicit assertion here is that to question him is to prove him right. By saying he’s wrong, you’re proving that people who disagree with him will attempt to tarnish his movie. By disagreeing with his theory, you’ve been duped by the scheming scientists to keep any questions of Darwin’s evolutionary theory swept under the rug.

The basic premise of the movie is to demonstrate how a number of well-known scientific researchers have had their careers torn apart by proposing “Intelligent Design” as a means of explaining creation and evolution. I don’t doubt that they have. He then continues by asserting that this occurred simply because they attacked Darwinism and evolutionary theory. This is the assertion I have a problem with. No one is saying that questioning Darwin’s theories will ostracize you from the scientific community. The truth is, people should question Darwinism every day. The trouble is that it’s a pretty solid theory, and it continues to be proved right all the time. Indeed, the issue here is not that these scientists propose a competing theory to Darwin’s, but rather the theory they’re proposing does not assimilate well with scientific theory.

Let’s imagine you and a few friends are walking down the street and you see a man in a large coat and a black top hat. After chatting with him a few minutes, he briefly shows you his sleeves and hat and proceeds to pull a rabbit out of his hat. Everyone is amazed. You and your friends begin to discuss how he might have done the trick. One person says that maybe there was a false bottom to the hat, and the rabbit was hidden in it. That seems pretty reasonable, and you all agree that was correct. A little while later, another friend says that he believes that the rabbit was too big to be hidden in a false-bottomed hat. Perhaps there was some sleight-of-hand and the magician pulled the rabbit from under his coat and slipped it into the hat. That was also plausible. Another friend chimes in that he also agrees that the rabbit was too big for the false-bottomed hat, but perhaps it was really magic that made the rabbit appear in the hat. To attack this friend’s theory and call it silly is not the same as to defend the original one. In fact, there are plenty of plausible explanations that could account for the trick that don’t include “magic”.

I don’t mean to step on any religious people’s toes. If you believe in “Intelligent Design”, that’s great, but don’t assume that someone attacking that idea is defending another. The other has plenty of merit on its own. If you think that “Intelligent Design” explains things well enough, then why not think of the scientists as trying to figure out how God’s mind works? Really, that’s all Intelligent Design is doing anyways: accepting the explanation as “magic”. That’s fine and all, but it doesn’t help much when you want to try the trick yourself.

What really irks me about this movie is the tactics he used to produce it. In traditional Michael Moore style, Stein proceeded to interview a few prominent figures in the scientific community who deal with this debate and quote them to make it seem as if scientists have no idea what’s going on in our world. Most notable, for me, in that list was Richard Dawkins. Dawkins has made a career not out of simply telling people Intelligent Design is wrong and Darwin is right, but by explaining where and how the theory of Intelligent Design is flawed. Intelligent Design claims that the intricacies of the world are too numerous and perfectly fit together, so there must be designer (a watchmaker). Dawkins points out in his book The Blind Watchmaker that not only does intricacy not prove there is a designer, but also that if there were a designer, it did a pretty poor job in some cases.

The point of all this is not to attack religion or even the theory of Intelligent Design. The point is that it just doesn’t jive with scientific principles. Science bases its theories and assumptions on measurable facts, but Intelligent Design attempts to fill in all the little gaps in our knowledge with an idea that “if it can’t be explained, it must be because of God’s design.” Despite the flaw in that logic, the real reason that these scientists Stein presents in his movie were ostracized by their colleagues is because they were scientists proposing ideas that are not supported by any evidence. Evidence is a foundation of science. Would anyone have even heard of these scientists if they collectively decided that it was invisible pixies that threw together the first cells? I doubt it. They’d just be labeled delusional. But if the explanation has a religious backing, society doesn’t consider them delusional, and you’d better be prepared to withstand the full force of their wrath.