THAMNO

I am a computer programmer turned author and translator who lives in Toronto since 1996.

As a translator, I specialize in IT-subjects, financial subjects and scientific subjects, mainly medical and pharmaceutical subjects. I translate from/into English and Dutch/Flemish.

As an author, I have written five books and co-authored two books, all on computer programming and other computer-related subjects. I am currently working on two projects which are not computer related.

I love technology, not because it is “cool” but because of what it can do for me.

I have a passion for the Japanese culture and language. I sing enka, practice Japanese classical dancing (nihonbuyou), kitsuke (kimono dressing) and wasai (Japanese tailoring).

Living in Toronto, a green city with some amazing urban wildernesses, I love to go for walks in Toronto’s parks and ravines. I take pictures, and at the same time, I am active as a turtle tallier for the Toronto Zoo.

I maintain a website with a mainly scientific and rational interest: thamno.com. I am the Canadian blogger for De Standaard, a major Dutch newspaper in Belgium (in Dutch). It can be found at this link.

I am the Toronto correspondent for Wereldnet, a program by the VPRO on Dutch state-owned radio. This is a link to most of the programs in which I have appeared between 2001 and 2008 (in Dutch). More recent programs are hosted elsewhere, but I still need to obtain a link. The new site is online however, and can be found here.

Recently, I was invited to become the science columnist for newz4u.net, something I have gladly accepted.

I am also a member of CASS, the Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticism.

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Science has evidence, no certainties; alternology has certainties, no evidence

Atheists do not believe there is no God, they simply do not believe there is a God.

Any question best answered by ignorance, isn’t worth asking

Ultimately, what does it matter whether evolutionary theory is true or not, if life behaves exactly the way we would expect it to if it were true?

Science without scepticism is not science. Religion with scepticism is not religion.

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I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. - Stephen Henry Roberts

Science is the poetry of reality - Richard Dawkins

Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich. - Napoleon Bonaparte

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. - Blaise Pascal

There was a time when religion ruled the world. It is known as the Dark Ages. - Ruth Hurmence Green

Religious hatreds ought not be propagated at all, but certainly not on a tax-exempt basis. - James A. Michener

Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away. - Philip K. Dick