Providing Data for a world that makes decisions based on beer can labels
Reimagined and Revamped. Fighting the spread of nonsense often feels like a Sisyphean task. However, the joy is in making the information available, not the hope of conversion.
I wanted to take a moment to remark on the fact that there is quite a dearth of skeptical software as iphone apps (and therefore I presume a dearth of android and blackberry apps). I'll go over what is out there that I have found, the good and the bad (or perhaps not as good), and how you can make your own app, even if you dont know any programming at all!
Searching the iTunes store for things like "skeptic", "evolution", "vaccination" and so forth bring me to the following applications.
Skeptic's Bingo: Yeah that one is mine, I thought I'd plug it again, go buy it and leave a constructive comment. This is a bingo game, with tiles that cover about 30 common claims from various arenas, such as evolution, vaccines, CAM and so forth (although I have only completed evolution for now).
Skeptical Science: Wow, this guy John Cook, spent a great deal of time pulling apart common global warming dissident claims and presenting them in a clear, easy to navigate app. The graphic design is clean (apparently his wife did it, can she help me clean up my program?). All I can say is: Nice work John! He also has put in some interactivity that lets you mark down when you hear a certain claim. I'm presuming that he is collecting data on what the most common claims are, as these may change with time.
At this point i'd like to point out that PZ Myers posted about an iphone app, counter-creationism Handbook, that basically had the Talk Origins website in it. I was also going to make an app like that but I did know the copyright ramifications of doing that, and I didn't know who to get in touch with over there. However, this app, presently seems to have disappeared. I am not sure why.
I'll stop here for a moment because that is essentially it for skeptical iPhone apps, that are actually like, you know, applications. There are a couple of more apps from the skeptical community.
Skepticality: for $1.99 this app basically offers a conduit to the podcast. Skeptoid: for $1.99 this app basically offers a conduit to the Skeptoid podcast. Its layout and functionality is identical to the one above (and made by the same folks).
Making your own app These last two apps point out that, basically, if you have a blog (or a podcast) for a small amount of money you can have an app. This is exactly what Answers in Genesis did when they made their app. Turns out, there is a service out there who provides software to turn you blog into an app. For a couple of hundred dollars, the AppMakr folks will turn your blog into an app and submit it for you into iTunes. The software seems pretty robust, so if you have a popular blog, there is no reason not to follow Swoopy, Derek, and Brian's lead and make an app out of it. Maybe you can make a buck or two. Or you can follow the AIG model and make it free.
But what if you don't want to make a conduit or just transform your blog. What if you want to make a real app? Well, thats what I wanted to do, so I'l tell you the process.
Well, this is more difficult and/or more costly.
You could learn to program it yourself. You need to buy a mac (you can get a mini for about $550, I got a macbook for about a grand. Then you need to drop about 100 bucks to become a developer. Then you get all the programming tools (no extra cost), and Apple's developer website is filled with forums, sample code, and documentation to get you going. There is a lot there, so much that it is a little overwhelming.
You also need to learn objective C. That's the programming language that is used for iPhones (and Macs in general). There are a number of good books on the subject, plus Stanford has a podcast in itunesU that is their entire course on iPhone programming.
This is the path I started down. But man, I ended up not really having time (work, landlording, two kids, two dogs, you get the picture). So what do we do when we can't do a job ourselves? We pay someone.
There is an excellent, but rustic, website called rentacoder.com (there is another one, I think, called guru.com, but I didn't evaluate that one). On this website you can describe what you want to do, and have people bid on it. I used it for Skeptic's Bingo, but I also used it for having someone make Excel macros for me for work. It's an excellent service.
However, if you want to make a full application and put it up for bid at rentacoder.com, I STRONGLY suggest that you take the time and come up with a detailed software specification (you can google that to see an example) that fully describes the app, each screen and what each button does. This way, when people bid on it, they really know what they are getting into. Prices?
Well let's say, I had someone in Russia doing Excel macros that had to collate data and graph things in a flexible manner and that cost between 30 and 80 dollars. Skeptics Bingo cost about 3000 dollars for an american programmer, and the he didnt do ANY of the content or artwork. This is why I'm charging a buck, I hoping to recoup that cost, and be able to pay a graphic designer to clean up the app so it doesnt look like a left handed engineer made it.
My programmer did the bingo functionality, the flexibility for me to expand the program myself (so I can add new bingo games like vaccines and CAM), he did the zooming functionality and the in-app purchase.
One other difficulty in doing this yourself is that due to iTunes store security there is a lot of barely intelligible stuff you got to do to your program to get it on iTunes. I did this part myself because I want to update it in the future without the help of someone else, but you can get the programmer to get it in the app store himself. Someone who does it often probably will have an easier time. To do it yourself, you must have the dev kit, create things like Provisioning Profiles, set stuff up in the AppStore conduit (called Connect) and a number of other steps.
Then you have to get past their approval folks. Yak! This is where I stumbled a lot. Sometimes I screwed up, sometimes it was because they didn't understand how to use the software (even though the help button really spells it out).
That's a lot of work! Why bother? It is a lot of work, time, and expense to design a game or utility. There is no doubt (unless you are just "Appifying" your blog). So why? Well my opinion is that I would really like to see more skeptical applications on iPhones, iTouches, androids, and iPads. It puts a vast array of information in your pocket, in a format that is better than using the internet. It's more concentrated, more accessible if done right.
Further, perhaps some of you creative skeptics can make something fun?
I also challenge you to look through the AppStore. Never mind the unending versions of bible apps. Never mind the Answers in Genesis app I mentioned above. Check these out:
There are 5 acupuncture apps. There are 5 traditional chinese medicine apps. There are 4 chiropractic apps. There are at least 2 "Natural Cures" Apps.
Taking a look at the "health & fitness" category yields many, many apps filled with utter nonsense. Some of them claim to heal you by putting hte iPhone near you! It would be nice to see some more rationally based apps out there that have similar keywords so they show up in similar searches, are based on actual scientific information, and are 1 dollar or free.
What is Skeptical Software? I've been thinking about this a lot recently. I hate to admit this, but I really don't know. I have not come to a good conclusion of what it might be. Skeptic's bingo is obviously software geared to the skeptical community. The Mad Scientist mentioned Aardvark (vark.com). Sometimes you get a good answer (like I asked what the 3 best arguments for creationism were, and all three answers was "There isn't any", but when I asked about vaccines schedules, I got a bunch of hocus pocus).
It would be great if you could focus your questions to particular groups of people with that. you can crete a circle of friends, but I would rather ask a cloud of christians a specific question, or ask a cloud of epidemologists a questions rather than just putting out to a general cloud.
So, I guess a source that lets you retrieve information efficiently could certainly reside within the bounds of whatever "Skeptical Software" is. But is that it? Any topic that includes scientific investigation? Consumer protection? What about new topics that arise? What about the podcast and blog conduits?
Further, as skeptics we like to analyze and take apart problems and situations looking for "reality" or how something really works. This same characteristic is embedded into RPG games like World of Warcraft when you take down boss monsters. It a puzzle, it takes trial and error, it takes observation. But would I say that WoW is skeptical software? No, while some of the skills may arise, I certainly wouldn't put it in that category.
Well, whatever Skeptical Software is, I have two or three more ideas that I would like to implement, some of them are iPhone apps, and some of them are web based information sources. I hope my app get bought enough that I can pursue these other avenues of developing skeptical software, I hope you come along for the ride.
this week Apple told Mobile Roadie, a company that provides templates for clients to build iPhone apps, that the App Store would no longer accept “cookie-cutter” apps — apps made with app-generating services that do little more than reproduce websites or pull RSS feeds from the internet.
Looks like apple feels similarly to Skeptico in the comments below. That is quite a blow to those companies making blog conversion software. There is another interesting comment in that article.
If you are like me, you use your smartphone a lot. I use mine for engineering work, snapshots and photo editing, tweeting, reading pdfs while on the road, listening to podcasts....oh and its a phone too.
I am pretty enamored with the state of these devices, growing up in the 70's and 80's, the common iPhone, blackberry or Android phone really seem like a device from the future. As you probably know, there are well over 100 thousand apps for the iphone (and most of them are junk, really).
Well it's time to get some real skeptical software on these machines! One message I took away from the last NECSS conference, was from Rebecca Watson. A great time to help spread the skeptical viewpoint of various subjects is to go to presentations by creationists, antivaxxers, and so forth, and ask sharp questions. You aren't trying to convince the presenter, that person is probably already lost (you'd know this if you ever watched Jenny McCarthy flail around defending her ridiculous ideas about vaccinations). However the audience is generally a little more prone to being jarred if someone pointedly makes remarks that are logical or data driven refutations of items that were presented. If you are anything like me, you feel better having actual data in your hand, well here it is.
In this vein, I created a game for your iPhone. Skeptic's Bingo. Its not a brilliant game. Its pretty obvious. But I have at least made something that you can use to pass the time during one of these lecture. However more importantly, it presents information about common tripe that is usually put forward in various areas like creationism, anti-vaxers (well thats coming next), and other areas (which I will add as time goes on).
Mark the things that you have heard so you can come back to them later. Use the information provided to formulate a good question that puts the presenter on the spot. get out there and get good information into the heads of the people listening there with you.
At least I hope you will download the game, pay the measly dollar for access to the functionality that flips over the tiles for the information (this money will go toward the improvement of this game and the skeptical community).
And please, rate the program before angry creationists "pharyngulate" my reviews. Have you seen how many bibles there are in the app store?
Coming soon as updates to this app: Vaccine Bingo Refined Layout List view of claims (as opposed to bingo board) Psychic Bingo CAM Bingo
Basically if people show interest in this app, I'll get right on these items. Right now, I only have the evolution one.
Posted Wednesday, September 23, 2009 by
Techskeptic
First off, I am a tardy, tardy, lame blogger. I am sorry I have not gotten around to this for so long. Real life caught up with me in such a big way. A new kid is really getting in the way of maintaining my outlet for stress relief.
Second off, sorry I couldn't Tweet. The auditorium was underground and there was no cell service. However I have very few followers on Twitter, so I doubt it was really a big deal.
So lets get started... The North East Conference on Science and Skepticism!
The night before the conference there was a skeptic's in the Pub event at a place called Dewey's Flatiron in NYC (uh, because it was near the Flatiron building). I'm originally from NYC, it was not really a problem to find it.
Well, I showed up alone which is always a weird feeling. Upon enetering, I noticed it was relatively empty. Strange for a friday night at 9:00, but whatever. After asking a waitress, it turns out the skeptics had, for the most part, parked themselves upstairs. So, even after 500 years of college, its still weird to jump into a large group of people you don't know and start mingling. I'm afraid my method is to make scene and point at people who are going to be stuck with me for the short term. It works pretty much every time because people are generally nice and everyone is basically in the same boat.
At the bar I met a few skeptics, but of course the one guy I end up talking with was brought there by his skeptic friend. This guy, who I will call Sam because I have completely forgotten his name, was a proud Catholic and obvious (after a short amount of conversation) libertarian. Nothing wrong with that, except his unbelievable pomposity was abhorrent.
We started out with some small and somehow we got on to Joe Wilson, you know the "You Lie" guy. I simply mentioned that it was such a weird thing to risk your career on when he was easily demonstrably wrong.
Sam, was like "What do you mean?" I pointed out that part of the bill (the house version at the time), that stated simply that benefits for paying for insurance was not to be given to unauthorized residents. The rest of the plan is what we have now, anyone can buy insurance if they wish. Sam said that there was not enough teeth, no verification. I said, that it's irrelevant how it is enforced as far as this bill goes, its illegal to give benefits to illegal immigrants under the bill and Wilson is demonstrably wrong. Sam entered into a litany of how its so horrible that we don't enforce our laws, democrats want ACORN around to give them votes, etc etc. I pointed out that being illegal and enforcing the laws are two different issues, Obama would have won with or without any of the folks ACORN signed up, etc etc.
But then he got to the good part. Socialism is bad. His point was that, in theory, socialism simply can not financially work. I have no idea if that is right or wrong. So I said, "OK, which country is purely socialist?" My point obviously being that it doesn't matter if something doesn't work in its pure form if that isn't what anybody is actually doing and not something anyone is proposing.
Same thing happened later. He told me he was the head of something or other that represents 28 biotech firms and that America has the best healthcare system. I pointed out that he was conflating healthcare technology and healthcare system. And even at that, its quite disputable that we have the best healthcare when so many countries have longer lifespans than we do (and at half the cost for healthcare). But he was adamant...we have the best healthcare in the world. So fine, I asked him how his 28 biotech companies are primarily funded.
Lets just say he got quiet for a moment. I knew that they exist on government funding. It was an easy win. Regardless he was a true believer, it didn't really matter what I said. Socialism is bad in any form because in theory pure socialism is financially unsound.
It's pretty much par for the course for me to get hooked up with someone like that during an event that is supposed to be fun. I didn't see anyone else getting in a heated conversation.
Anyway Sam left, I spoke with a few other skeptics in a much more calm way on more interesting topics. I even met Rebecca Watson. From her tweets, Skeptic's in the Pub seems to be her element. She was very friendly and nice. Sadly I was too drunk by this time (3:00 AM) to be anything even close to witty. Oh well. I'm long past the age where I can do this more than one night in a long while.
I have no idea how I got up for the conference (felt I had to be there by 8AM since I had misplaced my ticket), but I did and I was pretty chipper too. It was at the French Institute which has a pretty good auditorium. However, as is typical for NYC theaters the freaking rows of seats are too close to each other which sucks for the long legged members of our society like me. after an hours my knees we killing me. For the second half I changed seats to a place where there was a little more space.
One more little note: Its such a strange feeling to see these people who I have been listening to for over a year every single week. I saw the Novella Clan on the street while they were arriving to the event. I couldn't help it but I made a crack about them being early (they were) as if I knew them. They must get this all the time, but still, I had a hard time not being an ass in that way. I'm glad the skeptical community is generally made up of truly nice people.
Jamy Ian Swiss Mr. Swiss was our host for the day. He was energetic, amiable, a little dorky like the whole audience, and a good choice for this event. He said he was a magician by trade and cofounder of the New York City Skeptics. He got the ball rolling with our first presenter.
Dr. Paul Offit I didn't know what to expect from Dr. Offit. Would he be angry at his treatment by antivaxxers? Was he this evil character the nut jobs have made him out to be. No, he was a very eloquent speaker and really hammered home many of the issues of science in the media that we are all familiar with. It was during his presentation that I realized I didnt really learn anything. I got a dull pang of worry that this whole event would be worthless if I was not going to learn anything.
During his talk I couldn't help but think, "Why the hell are you preaching to the choir?". His presentation contained a lot of information that people who are on the fence need to hear. Happily he addressed that and pointed out that he is simply not invited to speak at events that pander to the woo. Further he doesn't get to go on shows like Oprah to provide a little sanity. They specifically said no to him. Its a pretty sorry state we are in. Anyway, it was a good talk, but not one in which anyone in this audience actually needed to hear.
We then got treated with a live presentation of Skeptics Guide to the universe. After almost all of them coming out poorly timed, we were treated to Dr. Richard Wiseman as being part of their panel for the day.
I have to say this right now: if you ever get to see something with Dr. Wiseman in it, Go! He is very funny, charming, superlatively optimistic and enthusiastic and really adds to anything he is part of. I say this in light of the fact that while I also listen to his podcast, I am not that enamored with it.
OK, by the way, I found this picture of the event from Tim Farley's (of whatstheharm.net) Facebook page. There is me with my shiny head.
When Steve Novella came out he took a picture of the audience with the camera he has mentioned a lot in the podcast. But I don't see it posted anywhere. So you are stuck with this one. Sad, I was hoping to see it somewhere.
Anyway, the SGU talked about a number of topics as the always do. I gotta say, Rebecca was on a roll that night, Bob, not so much (was he hungover?). She was very charming and funny. Some jokes went on and on too long (like the overdone joke mentioning Dr. Wiseman's new book 59 seconds). It was far more juvenile than normal (lots of penis/sex jokes), but still funny for us geeks.
Their latest podcast is the one they did at NECSS, so I wont rehash it here. I just wanted to say that it went well but Bob novella was having an off day. It really appeared that he didn't do his homework. Steve had to step in to clear up his topic.
There were questions, some were good, but only one was memorable. Someone asked about dealing with a talk that Robert Kennedy was about to give and what they thought he should ask him. Steve rightly pointed out that there was not one question tht would ruin the day for him, that Kennedy would simply weasle out some lame answer and move on. Rebecca hit it on the head with an excellent suggestion, which I think is the only way we can deal with this sort of thing.
The goal is not to change the mind of the speaker, the goal is to put information into the heads of the audience. She suggested that the best thing to do would be to get a group of skeptics to go to the meeting and barrage him with a number of questions that include data (like your body makes more formaldehyde naturally than is being injected in a vaccine and why should it matter, or that there is a difference between ethylene glycol and polyethylene glycol and so forth). That way, the audience would know that they were fed a bunch of bull.
I can't stress enough of how good I think this idea is. She was right on.
George Hrab I finally got to see George. He just did songs, was totally cool about people leaving for lunch. I stuck around for "Skeptic" and left because my stomach was hurting from lack of sleep and hunger. Sorry George.
After lunch (which I had at some fancy schmancy place with the guy who sat next to me during the first part, but the food was very good), Mr Swiss came back out and showed us some weird optical illusions. I'm not going to describe them in detail, but apparently your brain is weird enough that if you stare at a spinning spiral for 30 seconds or so and then look at someone's head, it will puff up. If you look at the ame spiral spinning the other direction and do the same thing, the head shrinks. We are weird animals.
Panel: Rachel Dunlop, Howard Schneider, John Snyder - moderated by John Rennie. I had never heard of Schneider or Snyder, but it was neat to see Dr. Rachie and listen to John Rennie. Mr. Rennie wrote "15 answers to creationist nonsense", one of many sources which I used to create my Creationist Bingo.
It was a good panel discussion. Dr. Rachie and John Snyder both took the side that "balance" in the media is truly hurting the advancement of science and the proliferation of knowledge. They also pointed out that the media never distinguishes between scientifically controversial and socially controversial.
Dr. Schneider took the side that presenting balance is in fact a responsibility of the media. However, I couldn't help thinking that he was presenting some No True Scotman fallacy there as he was obviously distinguishing between news, and newslike programs like Bill O'Reilly. I don't think a lot of america actually makes that distinction and that to me is a big part of the problem.
I wanted to ask about this, but here is a tip: If you are going to a conference and are the type of person who would like to ask a question, dont sit in the center of the row. The effort to get out far out weighs the desire to ask a question.
I really thought this panel was going to be a bore. I found it pretty interesting in the end.
I was really looking towards the next panel.
Panel: Why is it so difficult to be a skeptic? Richard Wiseman, Massimo Pigliucci, Kaja Perina and moderated by Michel De Dora
First off it was nice to see such a young dude being a moderator. Mr. De Dora is currently involved with the Center for Inquiry. While there was some nervousness, he did a really good job.
Its too bad the panelists were such a bore. uh, except Dr. Wiseman. Maybe I misunderstood the title, but I really was hoping for some insight to quandries like I have written about before. But Alas it was not to be found. I think the academics don't really find being a skeptic in a normal life to be very difficult. I don't think these guys truly encounter poor critical thinking on a day to day basis. At least it didnt seem that way.
Massimo read notes off his iPhone. I could swear he wrote them on his trip down from wherever he lives. I didn't glean anything valuable from Ms. Perina.
Only Dr. Wiseman really got the topic. He mentioned some stuff that I have directly experienced, like when I told someone about the conference. Dr. Wiseman asked "What do you say, when asked what this is?". And he went on to explain that while its hard, and while its frustrating, its working. I dont know how we measure this (for another post one day - are we doing anything?), but he is really able to delineate true enthusiasm and honest optimism on what we are getting done. I really want to believe him, but I'd really like to know how we measure progress. As you can tell by the name of my blog, I am not as optimistic as he is (although I am a very optimistic person).
Finally we came to Carl Zimmer. Dr. zimmer gave a great presentation on skepticism in general. He pointed out a lot fo the good work bloggers are doing and covered a lot of typical skepticla issues. He is a clear speaker and a great asset to the skeptical movement.
I finally asked a question. Here is what I wanted to ask:
"What things would you suggest that we, as fellow technology literate bloggers, can do to help the non technically oriented to discern the scientifically supported subject matter we present from the nonsense dressed up like science?"
What came out was something far longer, mentioned my PhD, mentioned my Techskeptic pseudonym, mentioned Skeptico and Skeptiko, mentioned my wife, mentioned a host of other things and I'm guessing, from his response, I was completely unintelligible. In my head at the time it sounded great, as I was saying it my head is going "What the fuck are you trying to ask, moron?"
He pointed out that this is not a new issue. James Randi has been dealing with it for years. Yeah, duh, thats why we are all here. Are non professional bloggers helping or not? So to Dr. Zimmer, I'm sorry I was a rambling moron.
I have left out tons of funny and interesting stuff from this event. While the anti-vax issue dominated the entire event, it was still widely varied and I enjoyed it. I will most certainly go again next year. Especially if Dr. Wiseman chooses to participate again.
Well I was not one of the lucky thousand who had time and opportunity to go to TAM. However, the upcoming NECSS is actually within reach for me both financially (I grew up in NYC, mom still lives there) and timing-wise (Lady Tech has agreed to watch the homefront and corral the kiddies). So I am off to the North East Conference on Science and Skepticism!
Looks like a good gamut of speakers. Here is the schedule:
09:30 AM - Doors open
10:00 AM - Welcome
10:10 AM - Speaker: Paul Offit - Communicating Science to the Public
11:00 AM - Live SGU Podcast taping (w/guest Richard Wiseman)
01:00 PM - Break for lunch
01:10 PM - 01:40 - George Hrab lunchtime musical performance
02:15 PM - Panel: Skepticism & Media - Rachael Dunlop, Howard Schneider, John Snyder, John Rennie (moderator)
03:40 PM - Panel: Why is it So Difficult to Be a Skeptic? - Richard Wiseman, Massimo Pigliucci, Kaja Perina, Michael De Dora (moderator)
05:00 PM - Speaker: Carl Zimmer
06:00 PM - Exit
Looks like fun. James Randi was supposed to be there, but looks like he is going to have to take a pass on this one until his health gets better. To add to the grooviness there is a Drinking Skeptically event at Dewey Flatiron on friday at 8, which I will also be attending. I want to see how this is done, so I can start a Skeptic's in the pub in my area (albany area in NY).
Anyway, if there any questions or things you might be interested in at this event, leave a comment and I'll be sure to follow up for you.
I'll also twitter anything useful I see from this event. You can follow me if you wish at TechSkeptik (yeah careful of that last letter, i'm pissed someone took my normal handle).
Every religion has a number of rites of passage. These, for the most part, seem to be an important part of each society. They bring together the family and friends to celebrate various stages of ones life. They are a mechanism by which we can confer our status from one to another. And there are both secular and religious rites of passage. some of these include:
Baptism Circumcision Communion First haircut (first poop, first shoes, etc. babies get tons) Birthdays Sweet sixteen Graduations (there are even preschool graduations now) Bar Mitzvah Thesis defense Military rank advancements
I could go forever, Wikipedia has a much larger list. The point is that we seem to crave these points of recognition. And why not? Other than physical mutilation, and accepting that people are religious, I don't think there is much controversy about any of these milestones of life. I was very proud the receive my PhD and celebrating it was a nice way to do so. I enjoy my birthdays too!
There is a very uncelebrated milestone that 95% of us go through (78% of you english folk). Vaccinations.
Why don't we celebrate this? This is an awesome achievement over disease and death. Vaccinations has provided a completely new level of longevity. The diseases that use to plague humankind barely come into our daily conversation. Diphtheria, tuberculosis, measles, flu. While people in industrialized nations still die from these diseases, usually due to a lack of vaccination, we as a society hardly think of these diseases as one of our ills anymore. We should be celebrating this achievement!
I propose a series of celebrations that align with the vaccination schedule your country uses. Perhaps in America we would celebrate the following events:
First Immunion: This is a small family affair that happens at two months old. The traditional Immunion ceremony is some well wish for strong health of the baby. It starts with the ceremonial washing of hands of all participants. It continues in dim light and silence with the mother holding the baby while the first round of injections are provided. While the child is usually crying at this time, a ceremonial bottle with one or two ounces of breast milk or formula is plied to the baby.
Second Immunion: This ceremony may be shared by close family, but also friends may come to this. This ceremony is held at around 4 months old. While it may be held at the doctors office, it may be more prudent to invite the doctor to the second Immunion so it can be done at home or other facilities that provide enough space for everyone. The Healthy, Happy and strong song is sung by all. This time the father holds the baby while the vaccinations are injected. Once again the baby might not be happy, but the ceremonial 2 ounce bottle of breast milk or forumula is given to the child again.
Third Immunion: This ceremony is often skipped, but may be celebrated. Usually it is done in the morning before the first nap. This is to symbolize the refreshing confidence of long term health that is so refreshing.
Grand Immunion: This ceremony happens just after the first birthday, although it may be combined with the first birthday if desired. At the grand immunion we are celebrating the largest barrage of disease fighting antibodies. The Grand Immunion is usually celebrated amongst family and friends. Although it is also encouraged to put a small ad in the paper that can be saved when the child is older as a keepsake of this wonderful celebration. Often, for the GI, presents are given to the child that are associated with strong heath, like books with pictures of people being strong in the face of adversity, sailors eating spinach, and other stories. Further, the needle of the vaccination is broken off and the syringe is saved as a memento. For this event they make purple syringes.
Terminduction: At the age of 5, the child is Terminducted. This is celebration of the end of the childhood vaccinations and lets the child know that he has entered a new and exciting time in his or her life. It is explained to the child how strong and robust he or she is with respect to some pretty nasty diseases. There is some training that goes into this ceremony before the actual event. The child must be able to recite all the diseases he is vaccinated against. He or she also explains why it is so good to vaccinate to increase the immunity of his whole community, a force everyone associated with the child can share in. The doctor administers the final immunizations with a gold plated syringe, the child recites the diseases he is immunized for from memory. A large bell, canon, or gong is sounded and the all the guests cheer: "Chigee Chigge Chee! Hize Hize Hize! [child's name] is now immunized!"
Pappiloo: Papiloo is a time of education and reflection. Usually its a bonding time between one or both parents and the child preparing for Pappiloo. The parent tells their 12-14 year old about how disease works, what viruses and bacteria are. They then go through the Pappiloo Book. This is a book that details various diseases like AIDS, Gonorrhea, Syphilis and Chlamydia, and others. It has pictures of the symptoms (they are pretty gross), and discusses how these diseases can be avoided. This book is shared with only the teenager and one or both parents. After the book is finished, goals and dreams of the teenager are discussed. Each desire and outcome that the teenager describes is jotted down and put into a Pappiloo box. The box is stored safely somewhere for the son or daughter to open in times of confusion about what to do with themselves scholastically or in their future careers. Most often Papiloo is celebrated by going on a trip to someplace that the teenager has never been before.
Just saw George Clinton. Holy Moly what a show! I don't care what kind of music you like, this is a show to see. None of that laser crap, and no smoke and special sound effects. Just awesome music, singing and moving. They have like 5 guitarists, 2 keyboardists, and everyone singing, ther must have been 20 people in that band. And a lot of it is hard!
I forgot how much I like p-funk, it was a real pleasure to see them. This was in fact my first time. Clinton is getting up there in his years. I don't know what will happen to this band after he is gone, so really, dont miss this. If they go to your area, make the trip.
George Clinton has always reminded me of a happy colorful Santa Claus.
