lots of good stuff for the second edition so let's get to it!

-Tom Rees at Ephiphenom blogs on Darren Sherkat's soon to be published paper that shows that science education inoculates against religion.

-Taner Edis at The Secular Outpost argues that President Obama is almost as bad as a Republican.

-Hemant Mehta at The Friendly Atheist posted on The Center for Religion and Public Affairs at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity new statement on religious expression in American public life calling it "a handy guide to answering those questions [about church/state separation], stripped of any ideology, just limited to what the law says."
looks like a good resource!

-a new MRI study has provided evidence that dolphins are the second smartest animal.

-what happens when you sell useless "bomb detectors" who's method of action is based on nothing but woo-woo pseudoscience to the tune of US$85 million? you get arrested and charged with fraud by misrepresentation. the UK government has announced(VIDEO) that they're ceasing any and all exports of the devices to Iraq.

-John D at Philosophical Disquisitions discusses divine command theory by asking what if god commanded something terrible? if god is the basis for morality as classical theism has traditionally supposed, if god commands something terrible are we bound to do it? John has more on moral arguments, this time discussing Graham Oppy's work on the subject.

-Jerry Coyne at WhyEvolutionIsTrue blogs on Tomas Rees' (of the blog Epiphenom linked to above) new article that seems to show a correlation between higher rates of religiosity and insecurity. but does it?

-so Charles Darwin suffered from an as yet unknown illness throughout his life. theories abound at to what that illness was. apparently there's a new theory that may be superior to past ones. Jerry Coyne comments.

-IMAGE-religion and science are compatible just like pedophilia and the priesthood are. (via Coyne at WEIT)

-do you live near Topeka, Kansas? you're in luck- Richard Carrier will be debating Mike Lacona on the ressurection of Jesus on February 11th.
in other debate news, Debunking Christianity's John Loftus is taking on Dinesh D'Souza at the University of Illinois on February 9th. the topic: does the Christian God exist?

-Reason.com has a great post on a new paper in The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology showing how the details of protist evolution dispel the myths of intelligent design. discuss this on TA here in the group Atheists Who Love Science

-did humans almost go extinct approximately 1 mya? seems so. discuss this on TA here in the group Atheists Who Love Science.

-detecting and countering comets and meteors that could threaten us is pretty important wouldn't you say? bummer then that such programs are underfunded!

-lakes in Western Australia are serving as analogs for research into what life on Mars, if it existed, may have been.

-remember when having the internet on your cellphone was so new? now the freakin astronauts are tweeting from space! :)

-the latest research shows that gorillas play competitive games like we do, helping to keep games going and even giving younger friends a fair chance.

-turns out that when tobacco plants get infested with hawkmoth caterpillars they have an amazing defense system: just switch pollinators from the hawkmoths to hummingbirds!. Ed Yong describes the new find on his blog too. discuss it on TA here also in Atheists Who Love Science!

-a new study shows the value of sexual reproduction over asexual reproduction. (if you said "SEX!" i beat you to the joke in my head as i was typing this. lol)

-Skepchick Rebecca put up a post about committing Homeopathic Suicide. (pro tip: it's impossible!)
just how ludicrous is homeopathy? check the numbers.

-how bad is creationist Paul Nelson's new movie Darwin's Dilemma? it's really bad.

-PZ Meyers wonders why the book of Genesis is so popular. (IMAGE)

-Austin Cline has a great post on the Synoptic Problem. also, if you're interested in comparing the four gospels side to side, something that's hard to do without four of the same bibles, this is a great little tool.

-wanna see something funny? watch these videos of someone(s?) pranking Christian TV. god is never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down... LOL

-so we all know by now what Pat Robertson thinks is behind the disaster in Haiti but what does he think is behind some other tragedies in the recent past? The Onion has your answer!

-Ebonmuse just put up his eighth post in his blog series rebutting Lee Strobel's The Case for a Creator. it's good stuff.

-(VIDEO)the guys at Mr Deity weigh in on the whole NBC vs Conan vs Leno fiasco. funny stuff.

-Vanity Fair magazine stops by the Creation Museum- hilarity ensues. PZ comments.

-Christopher Hitchens' new article for Slate discusses where to place the blame for the earthquake in Haiti; not god or the devil.

-there are some more reviews coming in on the new Darwin biopic Creation. i saw it myself this past week. my opinion: meh.

-oh those wacky religiously motivated murderers! 200 have died in Nigeria's Christian/Muslim clashes recently.

-got kids? the latest Reasonable Doubts podcast is on raising children without god. (via Luke at CommonSenseAtheism)

-diamonds are a girl's best friend? there's oceans of them on Uranus and Neptune... maybe. coverage here and here. discuss this on TA here- guess where-- Atheists Who Love Science!

-last week i linked to PZ Meyers on new results indicating changing attitudes in the US regarding inter-marrying. Jesse Galef at The Friendly Atheist weighs in now.

-are our brains wired for categorization? seems so!

-ever wonder what happens to 13yo girls who bring their cell phones to school in Saudi Arabia? they get 90 lashes!

-wouldn't it be cool if you could pick what the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snaps pictures of? you can! and while we're on the subject of The Red Planet, why not go outside and get a look at Mars with your own eyes? The God of War is about as close as he ever gets right now.

-the UN's recent admission of having screwed up a bit of their climate data on glacier melt aside, our ice is disappearing.

-how can organisms be robust against the effects of mutations yet simultaneously adaptable when the environment changes? easy!

-Ken at Open Parachute on the famous climate change "hockey stick graph".

-great new Poe out there. Pray4Healing.com.

-got kids? Daniel Loxton's new book Evolution, written specifically for kids, looks good.

-what should science organizations say about religion? Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy: a lot!

-there's a new theory on the origin of primates.

-The Teapot Atheist explains how to prove a miracle.

-the US's lead in science keeps slipping, slipping, slipping.

-100 of the best free science documentaries online!

enjoy you guys! see ya next week. and remember to check out Johnny's SMS!
and, hey, why not check out the Groups tab and see if you find any good groups to join. sure, there are plenty of great discussions among the blog posts and in the forum but there's a whole 'nother world of discussions in the groups. current events, women of TA, dog lovers, gamers, a skeptic's guide to history, plus all kinds of local and regional groups.