Santa Lives!

In this latest and most blasphemous War on Christmas my faith compels me to respond to those unbelievers who would deny even the existence of the One who is the true reason for the season: Santa Claus. These people must be cognitively defective, unable to see the visions of Santa we all experience daily, or to feel His spirit moving within them (or they deny it's there when they really, secretly,

NOE on DVD

Breaking News: The Nature of Existence is now available on DVD. In fact, there is an affordable two-disc set available that has 80 minutes of additional material (which possibly includes more footage of Roger's interview with me), and a seven-disc companion set that does what I had hoped for (and asked for in my review of the film in The Skeptical Inquirer): explore all the questions that the

Essentials in Politics

I have added a new section to my Richard Carrier Recommends Amazon storefront. For those who might not remember (see earlier blog about this) my Amazon Storefront is a place where you can buy books from Amazon and I get a cut of Amazon's profits. It's a nice way to help support me, and get some great books that have been influential on me, and that I think are essential reading these days. I

Reliable transport vs. reliable transport

One of the most contradictory uses of terminology in communications concerns the word transport as used by the IETF and the ITU-T communities. To make matters worse, the term’s prevalent modifier reliable leads to even further divergence in meaning.To the Internet community, transport refers to the fourth layer of the OSI layer stack (a layer stack known to the ITU-T as X.200, but largely assumed

IETF79 - Beijing !

I haven’t had much time to blog of late, having to catch up on work since returning from Beijing.Beijing ? I hear you ask. Yes, the 79th IETF meeting was held 7-12 November in the Chinese capital.This was my 26’th IETF, and things have changed since my first meeting. Back in the “old days” the meetings were mostly in the US (e.g., Minneapolis in the winter) and occasionally in Europe. This was

OAM for flows

Continuing my coverage of the recent joint IESG/IAB design team on OAM, this time I want to discuss the issue of OAM for flows in Packet Switched Networks (PSNs).From a pure topology standpoint any communications network is imply a set of source ports (i.e., interfaces into which we may input information), a set of destination ports (i.e., interfaces from which we may receive information), and a

IETF and OAM

On October 12nd and 13th the IESG (Internet Engineering Steering Group) and IAB (Internet Architecture Board), the two IETF management bodies, held a joint design session on OAM. I was a bit surprised that the IETF leadership would be interested in devoting a separate meeting (not coinciding with an IETF conference) to the subject of OAM; OAM has never been an area of IETF expertise. Indeed, when

Skepticon Selling Out

Just a quick heads up: Skepticon 3 is on the verge of selling out. Only a few hundred seats left (out of some 1500 or so). So if you want in, now's the time...

OAM for FM and PM

The Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) functionality provided in all modern communications systems supports two distinguishable functions, namely Fault Management (FM) and Performance Management (PM).It is important to remember that despite the use of the word “management” here, OAM is a user-plane function. OAM may trigger control plane procedures (e.g., protection switching) or

At CSH Conference

I will be on a panel at the Council for Secular Humanism's 30th Anniversary Conference in Los Angeles (California), which is taking place October 7th-10th (2010). Unfortunately this event was way more amazing than I knew, so it's already sold out. So this notice won't be of any use to anyone--except those already lucky enough to be going. But I will be joining several other speakers on a joint

Deployment, R&D, and protocols

In my last entry I discussed why the last mile is a bandwidth bottleneck while the backhaul network is a utilization bottleneck. Since I was discussing the access network I did not delve into the core, but it is clear that the core is where the rates are highest, and where the traffic is the most diverse in nature.Based on these facts, we can enumerate the critical issues for deployment and R&D

Appearing in Sacramento

I'll be speaking in Sacramento, California, later this month, on Sunday, September 19 (2010). The talk will take place at 3pm in the Fahs Room of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento (UUSS) at 2425 Sierra Boulevard (Sacramento 95825), sponsored by HAGSA (The Humanist Association of the Greater Sacramento Area).
I'll be discussing the contents and controversy of The Christian Delusion

The Infidel Delusion!

Ever since The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails (TCD) came out we've been expecting deluded and irrational attacks. One such going the rounds now is the laboriously long treatment by the Christian crackpots at Triablogue, which they have amusingly titled The Infidel Delusion (I say amusingly because the "I know you are but what am I" tactic only reinforces the stereotype that many Christians

New Vid and Podcast

Quick report on a new video and podcast of me some of you might be interested in.

Video: a decent video of the second Carrier-Licona debate on the Resurrection of Jesus (more a conversation really, a completely different and in many ways more illuminating format than our formal debate on this same topic at UCLA years back) is available for free viewing online. This took place at Washburn

Bandwidth and utilization bottlenecks

Let us consider an end-to-end data transport path that can be decomposed into the following segments* end-to-end path = LAN + access network + core network + access network + LANThere may be distinct service providers for each of these segments, thus many different decompositions may make sense from the business perspective. Yet, the identity of the access network, and of its components * access

The access network equation

My last entry provoked several emails on the subject of the terms last/first mile vs. access networks. While answering these emails I found it useful to bring in an additional term – the backhaul network. Since these discussions took place elsewhere, I thought it would be best to summarize my explanation here.Everyone knows what a LAN is and what a core network is. Simply put, the access network

Last mile or first mile ?

Physical-layer access technologies with limited range are usually called last mile technologies. More specifically, we usually use the expression last mile when considering xDSL, that enables several Mbps to be transported over several kilometers, or a fiber optic link or PON, that enable hundreds or even thousands of Mbps to be transported over tens of kilometers.In the year 2000 the IEEE

How to Be a Philosopher

In Sense and Goodness without God I open with an impassioned plea that everyone be a philosopher, that they replace all the devotion and time they spend (or are told to spend) on religion, all to doing philosophy instead. To which I'm often asked "How?" Indeed, someone on FaceBook just asked me that the other day.

Someday (if I live long enough) I hope to write a book answering that question for

Agora Review

This is an update to a series of blogs I've run on the film Agora, about the murder of the scientist Hypatia in the 5th century A.D. (see Killings Hypatia and Weisz Is Hypatia). Until now I was responding to what other people said who saw it. But then I discovered Agora was playing at a theater in Berkeley, so Jen and I went to see it. I can now give it my own first-person review...

It was a

DNSSEC - Internet root signed

IP addresses (even 4-byte IPv4 ones), are generally not easy to remember, which is why humans prefer to type domain names into their browser address window, even if they are longer. It is job of the Domain Name System (DNS) to translate the domain name into the correct IP address, which is placed in the IP header and enables proper forwarding.The DNS works recursively in the following way. When

Killings Hypatia

A while ago I blogged about a coming film on Hypatia of Alexandria (Weisz Is Hypatia). I've heard reviews from people who've seen it (still hasn't come to where I am, and might never), and they've reassured me it isn't as loose with historical facts as it at first sounded. It does engage in fictional "what ifs" apparently, but that's fine.
One review of note is by a medievalist who posted at the

News Pleas

Today I'd like to send out three quick pleas for your support of other folk trying to fight the good fight for reason and science.

-:-

Help Skepticon III: They are getting so many reservations to attend that they are just about past their current venue size of 500, and reservations are accelerating, so projecting forward they are likely to have 1000 or so attending this year, which means they

Book Updates

I've been very busy of late, almost underground working furiously away, but I finally found a hiatus to blog some news. I have a hodgepodge of things to mention. Two items today...
-:-
First big news is that Sense and Goodness Without God: A Defense of Metaphysical Naturalism is now available as an eBook. You can buy it in various places, but most obviously on Amazon.com (click for Kindle

TICTOC update

This entry is an update for people who have been following the IETF TICTOC working group that I chair. We had a very lively meeting yesterday, and the topic that evoked the most interest was that of how to transfer timing flows (especially 1588, but NTP as well) over MPLS networks.The first question is why anything special treatment is needed here at all - after all, anything that can be carried

Trains, planes, MPLS, and IP

I am in Maastricht at the 78th IETF meeting.In the weeks before the meeting many IETF'ers complained about the fact that there were no direct flights to the venue. The closest airports are Amsterdam and Brussels, but from there three trains had to be taken.At first I had thought that the problem was related to carrying luggage between trains, but discovered that the concerns were more about the

Succulents and (tele)protection mechanisms

My wife and I cultivate succulents, plants that store water. Cacti are succulents, but we don’t collect them – only the cuddly and outwardly types. What I find so interesting about succulents is that the various types are relatively unrelated – there was never a proto-succulent that evolved into many subspecies. Instead many different kinds of plants developed similar mechanisms to cope with the

Shaping / policing in 3G networks

This is my first blog entry on the world of traffic shaping. We have all been hearing about the need for shaping in 3G mobile networks. The subject’s popularity exploded with the publicity of network overload problems that some operators were experiencing with the introduction of the iPhone. Most of that turned out to be due to signaling overload. However, almost everyone is convinced that if

Skepticon 3

It's official. And it's awesome! Skepticon 3 will take place at MSU (in Springfield, Missouri) from Friday to Sunday this November 19th to 21st (2010). Brought to you by the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. For all possible details see their official website Skepticon.org (which will be updated with more details over time as everything gets finalized).
For how amazing the last was, see my

NOE Premieres!

Quick notable note. Last year I blogged about the advance premiere of the odd doco The Nature of Existence by Roger Nygard. Revisit my remarks there to see what I knew about it then. I was interviewed extensively for it, and I have a two second appearance in the film.

I've since received a reviewer's copy and seen it. I gave it a qualified review for The Skeptical Inquirer (which I believe will

The Music of May

Taking a break from renovation and housework for a new addition to my ongoing series on music. I needn't go into too much detail how this time's collection only further proves my original thesis that we live in a glorious post-musical age (though I'll drop some hints). I'll mostly just survey what I've added to my catalog since last I wrote about it. To catch up (if you're new to all this),

Appearing in Walnut Creek

I apologize to anyone who has been wondering where I am. I've been incommuni- cado for many weeks due to Jen and I having just purchased a home. It's our first owned home in fifteen years of marriage. Being poor, we bought a fixer. And boy has it been. Like a voluntary labor camp I've been working 12 hour days seven days a week (even forgetting when weekends were passing) making the house livable

The Christian Delusion

Two years in the making, controversial even before its launch, and perhaps the most definitive refutation of Christianity yet in print, The Christian Delusion (Why Faith Fails) is now available at Amazon and your local bookseller. Edited by John Loftus, TCD contains fifteen chapters by nine authors, including numerous experts with doctorates in their respective fields. Myself included.

It's a

Appearing in Berkeley II

I will be speaking for the East Bay Atheists this April 18 (Sunday) at 1:30pm in the Berkeley Main Library (3rd Floor Meeting Room) on 2090 Kittredge St. in Berkeley (California). It's about a block south of the downtown Berkeley BART station.

Subject: "Why Everyone Says Medieval Christians Invented Science." I'll summarize and expand on one of my chapters in the controversial book The Christian

Defining Naturalism II

Yesterday I posted on my recent article in Free Inquiry on Defining Naturalism, in which I also replied to The Teapot Atheist's response to that FI article. TPA then answered back (Richard Carrier on Richard Carrier on Naturalism...I think just using my last name would have been more economical, but that's just my aesthetics talking :-). He's well in earnest. But still wrong. 

Some of my

Defining Naturalism

An article I submitted years ago has finally made it into the pages of Free Inquiry magazine (issue 30.3 of April/May 2010, pp. 50-51), "On Defining Naturalism as a Worldview," part of their ongoing 'It's Only Natural' column. It was sitting in their queue for ages. It essentially just summarizes the most important points of my more extensive blog on the subject, Defining the Supernatural.

It

Appearing in Tuscon

I will be appearing next month in Tuscon, Arizona, for the Center for Inquiry of Southern Arizona, on Sunday, March 21 (2010) at 10am (until about noon), at the DuVal Auditorium (1501 North Campbell Ave. in the University of Arizona Medical Center, to the right of the lobby, after walking in the main entrance of the UMC). I'll be delivering a reprise of my talk on Not the Impossible Faith (

Appearing in Kansas

The day after my debate in Topeka, Kansas (this coming week) I'll be giving a talk in Olathe, Kansas for the Kansas City Freethought community. That's Friday, February 12. The event will be held at 6pm (and go until 9pm) at the Bass Pro Shop on 12051 Bass Pro Drive (Olathe, Kansas 66061). I'm told you just "enter the front doors, take the center staircase to the second floor, then enter the

Historicity in Calgary

We finally have a venue for this Thursday (Jan. 28): at 6pm (running until 8:30pm or so) I will be giving a talk on the historicity of Jesus and taking Q&A at the Calgary public library (Meeting Room 1, lower level; address: 616 Macleod Trail SE). And if I have any books left from the previous day's debate (quite possibly I won't, it appears that venue may be packed), I'll be selling and signing

AM 770

I might be on AM 770 (a Canadian radio station out of Calgary) this Tuesday night (Jan. 26). Check out their website for a schedule (I'll be on the Rob Breakenridge show) and where there might be an internet simulcast. I haven't been given any precise info on when (sometime between 7 and 10pm Calgary time, whatever that is) or if it will be live (or recorded and aired another day entirely) or

Debate at Washburn

I will be debating Mike Licona on the Resurrection of Jesus at Washburn University (1700 SW College Ave.) in 
Topeka, Kansas, at 7pm on Thursday, February 11 (see meetup notice). The debate is sponsored by the Atheist Community of Topeka and Christian Challenge, and will be held in the Washburn Room of the Memorial Union. I'm not aware of any entry fee. I will be signing and selling my books

Debate in Calgary

I will be debating Michael Horner on whether God exists, in Calgary, Canada (Alberta) this January 27th (Wednesday) at 4pm in MacEwan Hall on the campus of the University of Calgary (2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, AB). $2 admission. I will be signing and selling my books afterward (event is scheduled to run an hour and a half and I'll likely be around until 7pm). I will also be speaking the

Flynn's Pile of Boners

I've finished reading James Hannam's book God's Philosophers, which I'll probably start blogging about next month. But in the meantime I'm overdue to comment on a much screwier exchange on the same subject online. I'll do that now, to whet your appetite for my discussion of Hannam's much more careful and informative treatment.

Mike Flynn (in "The Age of Unreason") levels many correct and valid