How do the (secular) geeks celebrate the birth of Our Teacher?

Let’s find out how they celebrate His birth courtesy of Short Sharp Science:

In a twist on the traditional Christmas carol service, British comedian Robin Ince has come up with a show called Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People, which he describes as “a rational celebration of Christmas”.

On Friday night, I went along to see how his atheistic vision – starring luminaries such as Richard Dawkins and Ricky Gervais – measured up.

In the meantime enjoy the Dawk talking with mentalist Derren Brown.

[via Short Sharp Science and Boing Boing][image from Waka Jawaka on flickr]

The price of revenge – pranking speed cameras

UK-style GATSO traffic speed cameraYet again, the street finds its own use for things – even the things installed by The Man to make the street safe. Students in Maryland in the US have hit upon the idea of making up fake license plates for their cars which match those of someone on whom they wish to exact a bit of revenge, and then driving past the automatic speed cameras in the area at high speeds. End result? The unsuspecting victim is automatically sent a ticket for speeding, even though they didn’t do it. [via SlashDot]

Of course, we Brits have our own version of the same system, but over here people clone the plates of similar vehicles for the purpose of avoiding their own fines; they’re not so bothered about who ends up paying them, so long as it’s not them.

Remember, folks: state-owned automated surveillance systems. If you’ve done nothing wrong, then you’re perfectly safe.

Well, mostly. [image by 91RS]

Presenting the fact and fiction of tomorrow since 2001