Religion: Even Stevphens

As my readers know, I'm not a big link-poster--I post only when I think I have something original to say. (Of course, that leads to some awfully awkward silences, like most of October!) Though I do often fall in love with my own ideas, I post strictly original content for an entirely different reason--I personally find most link-posts disappointing and redundant, and I'm really not looking for volume (look, Ma, no ads!).

Of course, the only thing worse than a link-post is a link-post with a long-winded caption... like this one!

But the clip below just made me laugh too hard not to share it. Furthermore, with all the recent media recognition of the New Atheism, this video gives me unprecedented hope in the positive direction of our collective intellect.

Thanks to my friend Rabbi Alex Seinfeld for sending me this clip. If you happen to read Seinfeld's blog (and yes, he's related to Jerry), you might guess correctly that I'm Adam, the un-named atheist who pocket-calls the rabbi late at night.

Enjoy!!




Update: This video no longer works. It is a victim of Comedy Central's legal campaign to cleanse YouTube of copyright-infringing material--it appears that Viacom is sore at not being invited to the Big Payoff Party that Mark Cuban describes here. If Mark is right, the strategy was bound to backfire as copyright owners lined up for their payoff. YouTube couldn't license or issue stock grants to every potential claimant--the long tail of plaintiffs like this one is rather long.

I have been unable to find even a link to the content on Comedy Central's site. Suggestions are welcome.

New Update: According to this, Viacom is letting the clips run again on YouTube.

"Like our peers in the media industry, we are focused on finding the right business model for professionally created content to be legally distributed on the Internet," the statement read.

You can see the emphasis on "Like our peers," which means How come we didn't get a piece of the deal?

Disclosure: As I cast my little stones, I should disclose that any criticisms I have for YouTube may in fact stem from (i) Bessemer's investment in the copyright-respecting video service Revver, and (ii) insane jealousy at YouTube's great outcome.

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Richard Dawkins Coming to Kepler's!!!

Michael Shermer's brilliant appearance at Kepler's was such a sellout success for him that he helped us convince the great Richard Dawkins to squeeze Menlo Park into his latest book tour, tickets for which have been selling out across the country. Indeed, the Oxford University professor will appear at Kepler's this Sunday at 5:30pm to sign his latest book The God Delusion, and you don't need tickets.

Dawkins is the pre-eminent evolutionary scientist alive, having authored the classic exposition The Selfish Gene, as well as Unweaving the Rainbow, The Blind Watchmaker, and my personal anti-Bible A Devil's Chaplain. In his latest book, Dawkins coaxes the silent crowds of atheists out of the closet so we can reckon with obsolete religions that retard science, stifle educators, cripple government, outlaw stem cell research, promote terrorism, preclude peace, suppress women's rights, and impoverish the gullible. In its groundbreaking cover story this month, Wired calls Dawkins "the leading light of the New Atheism movement."

From Salon's abstract of their interview with Dawkins:

In the roiling debate between science and religion, it would be hard to exaggerate the enormous influence of Richard Dawkins. The British scientist is religion’s chief prosecutor — “Darwin’s rottweiler,” as one magazine called him — and quite likely the world’s most famous atheist. Speaking to the American Humanist Association, Dawkins once said, “I think a case can be made that faith is one of the world’s great evils, comparable to the smallpox virus but harder to eradicate.

Of course, no news is real news until Stephen Colbert says it is. Here's his interview this week with the "scientist who argues there is no God...with an eternity in Hell to prove it."


I expect that on Sunday Professor Dawkins will talk about his new Foundation For Reason and Science. I hope to see you all there, with plenty of books in hand for the rottweiler to sign.

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I Shouldn't Drink and Jive...

I'm in the back seat of a car connected by Verizon EVDO, on my way home from the happenning Business 2.0 Disruptors roundtable and party on the Hotel Vitale terrace. They served no dinner--only wine--so please excuse my spelling. (It's all a bit of a blur--I hope I didn't make any investments...)

Congrats to NextMedium and Zopa, two Bessemer companies named in Business 2.0's coverage of the top 11 disruptive startups. At tongiht's event, Paul McNamara told me about Coghead (backed by El Dorado), a hosted visual app development environment that sounds so cool I begged him to let me bypass the long line for Beta accounts.

I've always chided my kids for being disruptive--perhaps I should reconsider.

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