Thinks

For Melanie

2007-11-27T02:51:00.000Z

This is a special post dedicated specifically for the purpose of hopefully raising funds in support of my daughter Melanie, who has recently been diagnosed with incurable small-cell ovarian cancer. Her prognosis is not good, doctor's estimate she has one year of life remaining. She is determined to fight this battle for life and I, along with the rest of my family and her friends, will do everything possible to help.

Advances in medical science happen frequently so all hope is not lost, treatment invariably costs money however, and every little helps. Please go here to help Melanie and be assured of our heartfelt thanks.

Many Thanks,

Geo.

Psychiatry

2006-08-02T19:30:00.000Z

Psychiatric treatment has long been considered to be at best, of dubious benefit to people suffering from mental problems, many learned people hold this view and with good reason.

Unlike other medical disciplines, psychiatry is really non-scientific, e.g.

There are no medical tests to determine mental illness of any kind.
No psychiatrist can claim to have “cured” a patient – not one.
Some psychiatric drugs have proven to be downright dangerous to physical health.
The Freudian and Jungian basis for psychiatry is seriously flawed; the case sample sizes used were far too small to be statistically and/or scientifically significant.

At the annual APA conference a number of interviewed psychiatrists admitted all of the above.

In spite of this, the profession generates over $100 billion a year in the USA alone, so practitioners will not be going away any time soon!

As yet, I don’t have a well-founded theory as to why people give so much credence to psychiatry but it must at least be partly due to the respect given (rightly) to the medical profession as a whole.

I will write further on this subject once I’ve done more research.

Irene 02

2006-08-01T23:42:00.000Z

A bit late

Havering Homeopaths

2006-07-14T16:33:00.000Z

Humankind’s worst natural enemy is the Anopheles mosquito; it carries the deadliest strain of malaria that kills more than 2 million humans a year. An increasing number of these deaths are occurring in people from Europe and the USA who visit Africa on trekking style holidays that take them through mosquito infested zones.

The general nonsensical trend towards so-called “alternative” medicines is making the problem worse. It seems that some backpacking woo-woo’s are ignoring medical advice by taking useless homeopathic placebos instead of real anti-malarial drugs.

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine sent an investigator to visit several homeopaths to ask advice about malarial protection; in every case some form of homeopathic quackery was recommended; only one practitioner said that a doctor’s advice should also be sought. Despite the recent statements made in professional medical publications indicating the ineffectiveness of homeopathy, many people still cling to fallacies. They don’t appear to understand that malaria is not like catching a minor self-limiting ailment that they think was cured by homeopathy but that in fact had simply left of its own accord. Sadly, maybe that’s what it will take, a number of malarial deaths in the homeopathic woo-woo population to ram the point home.

HOMEOPATHY IS NONSENSE AND SHOWS NO EFFECT OVER PLACEBO, YOU MAY AS WELL SIP SOME WATER, WHICH IS OF COURSE, EXACTLY THE SAME THING!

The homeopaths themselves are the real danger in all this; perhaps a naïve few of these charlatans actually believe their own nonsense, but I suspect many of them know they’re peddling crap and don’t care if easily-duped people die in their care.

I herewith challenge any homeopath or woo-woo to provide me with evidence of a case where a homeopathic medicine was proven to work. Evidence mind you; don’t give me comments that are simply stories or tales of self-delusion, I won’t even bother verbally destroying such pathetic garbage.

P.S. If you’re not sure about being a woo-woo, you probably are!

Irene 01

2006-07-13T15:00:00.000Z

This is for Irene, she knows the reason why.

Genome DVD

2006-07-06T02:01:00.000Z

A few years back it was fashionable – perhaps it still is – among wealthy moribund egomaniacs, to make provision for their bodies to be stored cryogenically, in hope of a future time where science had advanced to the point that they could be thawed out and reanimated.

I wonder how long it will be before these expensive freezing facilities go out of business. Pretty quickly I think, and they’ll be replaced by much cheaper smaller establishments requiring almost no maintenance. They will still charge huge fees of course, spinning some bullshit about having to use gold or platinum DVD cases or something equally nonsensical. Now that I think of, it a DVD would be capable of storing a large family, an ordinary CD would be adequate for an individual.

I refer of course to data. It’s now possible to sequence a person’s DNA and store their entire genome as computer data. Sometime in the future it’s virtually certain that a machine capable of synthesizing DNA from data, will be built, this means today’s breed of egomaniac will pay to have their genome stored instead of all that messy flesh, blood, bones and guts. When the time comes someone like a DJ will take your CD, stick it in the machine and hit the “Go” button, a new “you” will pop (arghh) out the other end. I imagine they may even make a reality TV show of the process, perhaps titled “Weekly Resurrection”, “The Swinging Blue Genes” or something equally nauseating!

Yes, I’m having some fun here but the basics are true, indeed, if I had the capital I’d give some consideration to starting a genome storage business, you could charge half what the freezers do and still make a fortune.

Mark my words, someone will do it, just remember, you first saw the idea here!

Well Done Oz (Again)

2006-07-03T03:15:00.000Z

A few months ago I wrote a short post praising the good sense shown by the Australian government, now I find myself having to do it again. If they keep going like this all sensible people will want to live there!

Prime Minister John Howard, Treasurer Peter Costello and Education Minister Brendan Nelson have dealt with rising religious fanaticism in a typical direct, in-your-face, down to earth Aussie manner. Apparently some Muslim clerics have been trying get Sharia law recognised and have been teaching that there are two laws, Australian law and Muslim law.

Costello, seen as heir apparent to Howard, said that radical clerics could be asked to leave the country if they did not accept that Australia was a secular state and its laws were made ONLY by parliament.

“If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you," he said on national television.

Nelson told reporters:

"Basically, people who don't want to be Australians, and they don't want to live by Australian values and understand them, well then they can basically clear off."

Howard angered Muslim clerics by voicing his support for monitoring of mosques to ensure extremist terrorism was not being planned. Here are some further quotes the Aussie politicians made.

“Immigrants, not australians, must adapt. Take it or leave it, I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture.”

“This is our country, our land and our lifstyle, we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this. But once you are done complaining, whining and griping, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great Australian freedom, the right to leave!"

“If you aren't happy here then leave. We didn't force you to come here. You asked to be here. So accept the country you chose.”

Clearly both Bush and Blair could learn from these simple statements but I bet they won’t.

All I can say is:

“Well done Australia”

The World Cup

2006-07-02T13:39:00.000Z

One more week and the World Cup will be over and a good thing too as far as I’m concerned. Everywhere you go football hype surrounds you, pundits and commentators spinning patriotic bullshit and extolling the virtues of the current heroes who are about to make sporting history.

Before the competition, the England team were touted as having a great chance of winning the cup, its’ star players spoken of with reverence. The largely inane crap was enough to make a sane person puke, use of the word “quality” seemed mandatory in all sentences.

As usual, the real world had a different plan.

England scraped their way through the early stages largely due to the luck of the draw, their performance was poor. When they eventually had to face stronger opposition their deficiencies were highlighted and they lost their match against Portugal. Rooney, one of their star players, disgraced himself and was sent off for kicking an opponent in the nuts in a very sportsman-like manner.

Astute readers will have correctly guessed I’m not a football fan although I played the game as a schoolboy. At that time of course, sport was still sport, I lost my interest in it when it became what is today, simply business, just another way of making money. A very effective way also, it uses the primitive in-built tribal characteristics of human beings to automatically make them fans, and causes many of them to part with significant percentages of their income in loyal support of their heroes. Heroes, I might add, whose talents could perhaps be better employed in Hollywood or the theatres of London’s West End. I don’t just mean their feigning on the playing field, the post-match scenes of grown men sitting on the ground with tears running down their faces was terrific theatre. They looked like a bunch of babies who’d had their lollipops stolen; pictures guaranteed to endear them to the hearts of existing fans and perhaps even create some new ones.

When I was at school, sports were a mandatory activity but participation was based upon ongoing academic achievement, it was instilled into us that sport was good but meant nothing when compared to a good education. I may be wrong, but it certainly doesn’t look like that philosophy applies today.

Sport is beloved of all governments; they generally support it whole-heartedly because politicians are well aware of its power over the masses. Giving the public something of no importance to occupy their minds is a great tool in the ongoing government propaganda battle to control us and divert our attention from real issues they don’t want us to think about. Sadly, the majority of us fall for it hook, line and sinker.

I watched the World Cup mainly out of academic interest, to see if things had changed or if improvements had been made. I saw only that blatant cheating was still rife and true sportsmanship was almost gone; sorry, I think the term “beautiful game” is a complete misnomer.

I remain convinced that being a football fan is akin to being religious, to get anything out of it you have to throw your brain out the window.

The Next Dark Age?

2006-06-29T00:45:00.000Z

2300 years ago a man named Eratosthenes proved the Earth was a sphere and calculated its size to a high degree of accuracy. He did this in an age of zero technology using only sunlight and a brain unfettered by mysticism or religion. If you had strolled into the Great Library of Alexandria a few years later and asked the scholars therein if the Earth was flat, they would likely have patted you on the head and explained kindly that their buddy Eratosthenes had proved otherwise.

Now fast forward 1500 years and imagine trying to explain your findings to people in any European city, most likely you would have been forcefully told that everyone knows the Earth is flat. In addition, you would have been reported to the local religious leaders as a heretic and tortured into accepting their dogma on pain of death and eternal damnation. Such was the power that religion held over us at that time. Only a few hundred years after Eratosthenes, the mystics and religites destroyed the Great Library and burned the scrolls, almost nothing remains of what once was the greatest repository of knowledge in the world. They also murdered the female librarian Hypatia, who may have been the world’s first feminist – the Dark Ages had begun.

It seems clear then, that mysticism and religious dogma held us back and suppressed knowledge for more than 1500 years before the changes made during the Age of Enlightenment became accepted. Imagine where we would be now had the Great Library of Alexandria flourished and spread its knowledge and thirst for learning throughout the world, perhaps poverty, famine, ill-health, wars and illiteracy would be but dim memories or may have never even existed.

There is no doubt that some religious bodies in recent times have tried and succeeded in doing good, unfortunately, it’s also true that in general, religion has been the scourge of humankind and has slaughtered millions of us for no sane reason whatever.

As a matter of interest, if you’re a religious person, ask your local minister/pastor/priest or whatever to explain how Eratosthenes did his feat. If you get the answer then it’s likely that they have read about it and should therefore be ashamed of themselves, if not, then I’d bet they wouldn’t know how to do it.

In this world of charlatans, woo-woo’s, astrologers, spiritualists, religious lunatics and sundry assholes, it’s beginning to look as if The Next Dark Age is approaching and I’m reminded of Carl Sagan’s words.

“…the candle flame gutters, the demons are stirring.”

Time

2006-06-28T22:35:00.000Z

For me, time is the most precious commodity in life. I say this because like everyone else, I don’t know how much of it I have left; I do know that the older I get, the more precious time becomes. I’m at the stage now where wasted time annoys me more than at any other point in my life; I try my best to plan living in a way that maximizes what I get out of time spent. I allocate and value time like a miser would allocate financial resources, as far as I’m concerned the old saying that “time is money” means nothing, time is immeasurably more valuable than money.

Please don’t misunderstand; some of my time is spent in ways that others may think of as wasteful – spending five minutes studying clouds, for example. I have what I call “time value yardsticks”, I use these to gauge how much time I should allocate to any activity or even inactivity, such as sleeping. The yardsticks are broadly based and have several sub-sections within each category, as follows:

Learning: this is my most important category that contains yardsticks of time slices for all that interests me. It occupies most of my time and is very well spent; it gives me boundless satisfaction.

Computing: sometimes this activity overlaps and merges with learning but not always, blogging for example, is not learning whilst programming sometimes is.

People: I try to give time to people and personal interaction, sometimes it’s time well spent and rewarding, sometimes it’s not.

Entertainment: most of this comes from involvement with the other categories and I enjoy the occasional movie, but TV is so silly and crappy these days that I seldom watch it. I’m careful and selective about what I watch and strictly allocate only the minimum time required, idly watching TV is a serious waste of time. Having said that, I never miss “The Simpsons” but would not insult myself by watching people demean themselves on “Big Brother”.

Observing and dreaming: I find I’m able to trigger certain types of dream by thinking about things I’ve observed. Just before going to sleep I conjure up mental hypotheses about observations I’ve made; it often leads to excellent dreams.

I had early retirement forced upon me but I can’t say I’m sorry, the increased time available to spend on doing what I want to rather than what I have to, is a huge compensation.

I’m acutely aware that this life is my one and only shot, I won’t get another one so I’m trying my best to get the most out of it before nature recycles me. I know I will never come back but the knowledge that the atoms I’m made of might in the fullness of time form part of some worthwhile structure in the Universe, gives me comfort enough.

Darwin's Champions

2006-06-27T02:31:00.000Z

Richard Dawkins is probably the world’s best known champion of Darwinism; not because he’s a fine scholar – although he is – but because he always has to defend Darwin against fundamentalist detractors. Most of these opponents refrain from attacking Darwin directly, but a few do. One of the worst web sites I’ve come across that makes a venomous attack upon both Dawkins and Darwin, is the Goodschools pages (see my links). This site calls both these men bad scientists and trashes Darwin on racist grounds, which is of course, completely irrelevant as far as Darwinism is concerned. Would a cure for cancer be rejected if discovered by a racist? Only a fool and perhaps the author of Goodschools would answer that question affirmatively. This man simply ignores the huge amount of evidence supporting Darwinian evolution, highlighting the fact that his knowledge of science or even what it is, amounts to zero.

The other day however, I was uplifted by the excellent Charlie Rose video interview that Google is currently showing for free. The program features two of the world’s most eminent scientists, Professor E. O. Wilson of Harvard and Dr. Jim Watson, co-discoverer (with Francis Crick) of the structure of DNA. The video was made about a year ago just after both men had published individual anthologies of Darwin.

At the start of the program Watson states his opinion that Darwin was the most important person who ever lived on Earth – Wilson agreed. Important not just because he was the first to get it right, but because he showed that no Creator was needed.

Watson’s statement that we are now able to see evolution at work within the DNA of persons living in different climatic conditions, is a crushing blow to the weak argument - often put forward by Creationists - that evolution cannot be seen.

Best of all however, was the attitude of Watson and Wilson towards anti-Darwinists, they behaved I thought, like kindly grandfathers mildly admonishing unruly children for talking nonsense through ignorance. If you’re not a closed-minded bigot then I highly recommend you watch this video, you’ll gain an insight in to the minds of real scientists who produce real results that benefit humankind in this world.

Dumb Democracy

2006-06-22T21:32:00.000Z

Political leaders in the so-called free world seem to be making more and more decisions that make less and less sense. I’m sure there are many reasons for it, but one of them seems to be the general “dumbing-down” of Western populations coupled with the rise in fundamentalism taking place. Politicians will always pander to the voters, when voters are largely made up of people who believe in an invisible man who lives in the sky, how can we expect rational political decisions?

The problem with democracy is that it allows almost anyone to vote, no test of intelligence or sanity is applied, only an age restriction, why is that? Age is no guarantee of fitness to vote. Some would argue that nothing needs changed because voters with extreme views would be outweighed by the majority well-balanced view. I say bollocks! It’s akin to the faulty premise of twelve individuals in a jury reaching the right decision, it’s well known that juries can easily be bullied by just one or two determined jurors who consciously or not, are aware of the human tendency to follow leaders and use that fact for their own ends. Politicians and religious leaders understand this lemming or sheep-like characteristic also and manipulate their flock accordingly.

When religious idiots like Falwell call upon American parents to get their children baptized and get them registered to vote, is it any wonder that war-mongering regimes like the Bush dictatorship rise to power and threaten the lives of all of us? I’m amazed that young people in the USA don’t seem to realize they’re being manipulated and filled with a load of religious and patriotic fervour by those who seem to consider them only as cannon fodder in the war to control Middle Eastern resources.

If you doubt that, take a look at current events, young service-persons are sent to Iraq conned into believing they’re fighting terrorists. They’re trained to kill, but when they do so they get punished, when the enemy kills them, well…that’s tough. Has the death of any British or American soldier in Iraq reduced terrorism in the slightest? Of course not, rather terrorism has increased as all thinking people knew it would before the whole deadly fiasco began.

It’s not very long ago that we considered women to be unsuitable voters but thankfully we’ve rid ourselves of that ridiculous situation so I see no reason why a further radical change in the system should not take place. How about restricting voting to those who are not religious? After all, politics concerns life in the real world not in some imaginary place. Yes, I know people would lie but we could monitor their behaviour, this is perfectly in line with the current privacy invasion we tolerate right now! Islamic extremists would love this because they already believe that voting shouldn’t happen at all, only the laws of Allah have any meaning, politics mean nothing to them.

Imagine a world where governments are elected by voters who have demonstrated an ability to make sane rational choices based upon reasoned argument that benefit all, or at least the majority of people. It would I’m sure, be a more fair and peaceful world than the ‘bullshit-the-majority-please-the-privileged-few’ world, we have right now.

In short, our present so-called democratic system is laden with shortcomings that need serious overhaul or perhaps complete replacement.

The Illusion of Freedom

2006-06-20T00:39:00.000Z

Shortly after 9-11, Noam Chomsky predicted that many governments would use the so-called “War on Terror” as an excuse to apply stringent restrictions on their populations. What he said has largely come to pass already and further measures are underway to impose even stronger control over us. Nothing to do with terrorism of course, just the power mongers tightening their grip and adhering to the dictum that a frightened, tightly controlled public is more easily fooled and less likely to ask probing questions.

If you live in the UK or the USA, you probably think you live in a free country but you don’t – you never have; it’s just that your freedom is quite a bit less than it used to be. Having lived in both these countries, I see that Britain is less free than America and its people more easily suckered by their government, just look at the coming identity card nonsense; they will make all of us carry one and make us pay for them! If that happens you can kiss even the illusion of freedom goodbye; you’ll be living in a police state.

He was wrong about the date, but Orwell had it right. The unseen power mongers own the media and pull the strings of their political puppets but are wise enough to keep themselves out of the limelight, they use the media to feed us bullshit designed to make us think the way they want us to. We’re led to think we live in a democracy but since democracy is government for the people by the people, then it’s clear we don’t! When was the last time you saw the British or American governments doing what the majority of their populations want? It almost never happens.

I can think of many examples but let me ask a question about something that been going on for a long time now. What do you think the majority would say if the people were asked if their private mobile phone calls should be monitored? I think most would be against this but it’s happening right now and we never even got consulted on it! Some readers may not believe this but you don’t have to be a genius to devise a test phone call!

The warlike, control-the-world-under-Jesus policy that Bush’s controllers are trying to implement is already eroding the freedom of American citizens and is set to apply many more restrictions on them, all in the name of anti-terrorism of course. I think it was Thomas Jefferson, one of America’s best presidents who said:

“Those who are willing to give up a little freedom for a little security, deserve neither freedom nor security”

I think he was right.

Patriotism

2006-06-19T12:32:00.000Z

Contrary to popular belief, I consider patriotism to be undesirable and dangerous to world peace. Yes, I know we all like that feeling of national pride, that surge of emotion felt when our national anthem is sung or our national team plays sport. But I think we should be suppressing, not indulging in that emotion; it stems from our tribal past and is not appropriate in the modern age.

Politicians encourage patriotism but it’s clearly more in their interests than ours. By standing apart and looking in as it were, I see that nations displaying a high degree of patriotism also display the most warlike tendencies; the USA, Israel and to a lesser extent, the UK, are good examples. At the personal level, I notice that the most patriotic persons are often religious and of limited reasoning capacity.

I know some will feel insulted by what I’ve just said but I can’t help that, it’s just the way things are, those prepared to cast off their tribal dress and take a dispassionate look, may see the same thing.

In the days when one tribe clashed with another, the primitive weapons were capable of causing a few deaths but posed no danger to the species as a whole. Nowadays, our weapons are easily capable of destroying humanity entirely and many of us are obviously still largely driven by primitive, tribal instincts; that’s why patriotism is dangerous.

Since tribal days we have made huge technological advances but very little progress in learning to live with each other has been made. Actually, all we have really done is to increase the size of our tribes and call them nations.

We must change our behaviour before the notions of nationality and patriotism cause us to eradicate ourselves.

America's Hume

2006-06-18T01:52:00.000Z

America, who and where is, your Hume?

The current state of the USA, awash in fundamentalist religious fervour coupled with bad political leadership, strongly reminds me of Scotland as it was three hundred years ago, just prior to the age of enlightenment.

David Hume was one of the many Scottish intellectuals that came to prominence in the 1700’s and was the first to loosen the iron grip the church or “kirk” - as it’s called in Scotland – had on the country at that time. He did it with rationality and the conviction that man controls his own destiny; he wisely stated that only when man is prepared to admit he may be wrong, does the path to wisdom open. Church leaders – correctly – saw this as an attack upon their authority and tried to prosecute Hume as a bad Christian; a mistake, since Hume merely said he wasn’t a Christian at all!

Hume was probably the first atheist to show that you can be a good and wise person without being influenced by any kind of deity, indeed, Adam Smith, his friend, said that Hume was as good and virtuous a man as it’s possible to be, given the frailties of the human condition.

By the mid 1700’s the influence of Hume, Smith and many others, had made Scotland the best educated country in the world at that time, the enlightenment was in full-swing. In the same period the great geologist James Hutton showed without doubt that the earth was much older than people thought, another severe blow for the kirk.

The influence of these men was the catalyst that caused Scots in the fields of mathematics, science, medicine, literature and engineering to rise to world-wide prominence. The number of scientific discoveries and inventions made during the Scottish enlightenment far outstrips that which may be expected from a nation with such a small population. To this day, Edinburgh is a world centre of medicine and biology.

Toward the end of his life, David Hume strongly supported the American rebels and originated the system of a federation of states with an elected president; exactly the system in use today.

So America, Hume initiated your governmental system and Adam Smith showed you how commerce works, you got a good start but you seem to have slipped somewhat. You’re allowing religious fanatics to infiltrate and subvert your constitution in furtherance of their deluded aims, you need a new home-grown Hume to stand up and show you the way to enlightenment once more.

I say you need to do this with some urgency; America is rapidly becoming a laughable but dangerous bully in the eyes of the rest of the world, somewhat like an unruly teenager who’s just found his dad’s gun. The other day, I saw a TV program featuring an American preacher who advocated execution for adulterers and homosexuals; this madman was serious.

How long will it be before rational, thinking persons in the USA – I know they exist, I’ve met many - put a stop to this dangerous trend? Your politicians are weak and must pander to the God-fanatics to obtain votes, it seems only a matter of time before the war mongering religites control your country and have their fingers on the nuclear trigger.

Mugabe Madness

2006-06-06T20:16:00.000Z

I see Zimbabwe is sinking at an increasing rate, supermarket shelves full of food that no-one can afford e.g. a chicken costs 1 million of their dollars! Millions of people were made homeless after the country’s despotic dictator Mugabe ordered the bulldozing of their homes.

We in the West did nothing even though we have known of the plight of these people for a long time. Mugabe is at least as bad a dictator as Saddam Hussein was, we “helped” the Iraqi’s, why don’t we help the Zimbabweans? The reason seems clear; they don’t meet the criteria we demand before we give aid, i.e. they have no oil or anything else that we want to steal or control.

Religion's Red Giant

2006-06-01T19:19:00.000Z

An editorial in the publication “Science & Theology News” - strange bedfellows title; I think – slates Richard Dawkins for his recent TV program that highlighted a few of the evil deeds perpetrated these days in the name of religion. The writer seems to think that educated men like Dawkins should be more respectful to the faithful and their faith and refrain from treating them with ridicule. He also seems to agree with Ted Haggard (the maniacal-looking religious fanatic) that Dawkins was being arrogant.

Arrogant! What could be more arrogant than a fairy tale-believing religite who looks down upon those not of his delusion, and has the audacity to expect to be respected for his madness? For sheer arrogance beyond all measure, religious maniacs are without comparison!

I once had a girlfriend who tried to get me to study theology, five minutes later she was no longer my girlfriend. I asked her what use I could put theology to, what was there to learn? Apart from knowing the content of one book, how can the student be tested? How do you write a theological thesis? Theology, I said, was a nonsensical subject, if subject at all!

I agree entirely with Richard Dawkins; religion is not worthy of the respect some of us still give it. Ridiculing it – in my opinion – is perhaps not the right approach but it’s a lot more appropriate than respecting it!

Religion, and its’ current state, reminds me of the life of a star; a star in its red giant phase. Religion seems to be swelling as does a star in its final death throes before exploding and eventually shrinking to become a cold dead rock.

Let’s hope we can get through the red giant phase as quickly as possible.

Odious Opponents

2006-05-30T16:36:00.000Z

These days it’s commonplace to see adversarial positions against theories or stances, being taken by persons who have really nothing to say and have no alternative to offer, but who are evidently following some agenda, whether stated or not. These people know they cannot win the real argument so they try to damage the reputation or ridicule the author of the original material, in doing so they fail to see they’re simply highlighting their own defeat!

The other day I came across a ridiculous claim that Judge Jones who presided over the Dover ID case, had made a serious error because he hadn’t understood the science behind so-called Intelligent Design!

How daft can you get!

Judge Jones sensibly arrived at his decision against ID precisely because there is no science behind it; a fact obviously lost on the person who made that silly claim.

Evolution is under attack from people who say that the theory is wrong because they claim Darwin was a racist. What is wrong with these people? Whether Darwin was a racist or not has absolutely no impact upon evolutionary theory which is as well supported by evidence as the theory of gravity is; sane people accept both as fact. The theory depends upon evidence, not the character or beliefs of its originator!

Let’s study this nonsense for a moment.

In Einstein’s day smoking was fashionable, almost everyone did it, that situation is now reversed; should we then reject general and special relativity theory because Einstein was a smoker?

During the war, Alan Turing cracked the German Enigma cipher and saved countless lives, should we deny his computational and mathematical genius because he was homosexual?

Should we belittle the best music of Beethoven because it was written when he was deaf?

Should we decry Watson and Crick’s discovery of DNA because of their atheism?

(A quick aside here)

When Jim Watson was accused by a reporter of playing God, he gave the following reply:

“If I don’t play God, who will?”

A cracker, you have to admit!

I think most readers would say “no” to my questions but in spite of that people with agendas (usually religious) seem quite willing to make themselves appear silly by adopting this pathetic pose against well-founded principles and theories. I have in mind a perfect example.

There is a website, “Goodschools”; I think its name is. The author appears to have no agenda although his work reeks of Creationism; he just doesn’t have the balls to admit it.

This person attacks Darwin from a racist standpoint and tries to cover up by saying that evolution is “bad science” although he offers absolutely no evidence against it. He makes a stupid attack upon Richard Dawkins, calling him a “dinosaur” and saying his arguments are “weak”, again however, he is unable to present a sensible alternative. It’s abundantly clear that Dawkins atheism, not his expertise in evolution, is the reason behind this cowardly and pointless tirade.

As you may imagine, several people (myself included) have commented upon his site pointing out the obvious flaws in his argument, he seems to welcome this, not because he may learn something or even engage in healthy debate. No, all he wants to do is meticulously pick apart their statements, not the content – he can’t do that – but the way the statement is made! Yes, that’s right; if he can’t counter your argument he will simply try his best to give you an English lesson!

This man lists himself as a school of arts and science graduate but science is evidently not his forte, he doesn't even know what a theory is, he seems to think it's an idea; a mistake common amongst those ignorant of the scientific method.

His comments are peppered with [sic]’s throughout, this leads me to think he may be an English teacher, if so; he’s the worst English teacher I’ve ever come across. He seems not to know that the main point of language is to convey meaning and apparently believes that the mechanics of it, i.e. the spelling and grammar, are more important.

I conclude that this guy is simply a Creationist sans testicles and is also, well…sic, ’er…I mean sick!

Im resiting the urg to rite him agen becoz i don’t want to add fewl to his websight, id rather he reed this and koment heer.

Medical science has made great advances recently, but squashing that God virus…well, we’re still not there!

What Can I Say?

2006-03-16T19:39:00.000Z

Twice now, I’ve been sent the link below, once in response to an earlier blog post and recently from an American friend who thinks that education in the USA is at an all-time low.

After clicking the link you may agree with him…

http://www.aztlan.net/stupid_americans.htm

Evidence, Evidence, Evidence.

2006-03-15T20:57:00.000Z

If you’re an educated, thinking person with an interest in the world you will I feel sure, be convinced that the Earth is around 4.5 billion years old. Because you are educated, you will have read about the age of the Earth and/or attended lectures by experts on the subject. No doubt the eminence of the speaker or author would have had some bearing upon the degree to which you were convinced, but it would not have been your sole criterion. You will have sought the opinions of other experts, you would have weighed one against the other to see how much agreement or contradiction was apparent, in short; you would have looked for evidence.

Evidence is the foundation upon which the legal systems of sane, free countries are based. Imagine a crazy place where convictions were handed down based purely upon eyewitness say-so; I certainly wouldn’t want to live there! We long ago learned that human beings can lie and are often mistaken; police forces know that eyewitness reports are notoriously unreliable, especially when a complex series of events is involved. That is why evidence is far and away the most important part of any legal system, if the evidence is not beyond doubt, the accused will be acquitted. The key to all this, is that the burden of proof lies with the law, the accused is not obliged to prove innocence, the law must prove guilt.

Evidence controls the belief systems of rational beings, any person or so-called authority no matter who or how important, making a claim unsupported by compelling, solid evidence, will have that claim rejected by any thinking person.

It needs repeating; the onus of proof lies with those making the claim. That really means that any claim failing the evidence test is virtually worthless.

It’s worth noting that there’s a whole host of things that have no supporting evidence whatever, not even bad evidence! These follies and sundry doctrines obviously cannot be tested, they are logically therefore, worse than useless! The late Carl Sagan is his book ‘The Demon Haunted World’, makes this point beautifully in the chapter entitled, ‘The Dragon In My Garage’

“‘What’s the difference?” he asks, “Between an invisible, incorporeal dragon breathing flames that can’t be seen, and no dragon at all?”

Unfortunately, we live in a world where the importance of evidence seems to be lost on most people. The media bombards us with lies, misleading advertising and diversions designed to prevent us seeing the truth. Politicians actively encourage us not to think so they can convince us in the absence of evidence, that their policies are correct.

The Iraq invasion is a perfect example of action being taken because of a claim, a claim with almost no supporting evidence, the claim was WMD, which of course, did not exist. But there’s something wrong here; either Bush and Blair are two of the dumbest politicians who ever lived (entirely possible) or they really believed that Saddam had WMD. In the first case, they’re really stupid because they didn’t even have a cover-up plan standing by for when their feeble reason was shown to be false. In the second case, they’re almost as stupid because they must have fallen for a load of bullshit spun by their lackeys and failed to look for the all-important evidence. Of course all the thinking people knew the real reason behind the invasion and even although a majority of us on both sides of the Atlantic were against the war, they went ahead anyway. Another perfect example, this time of undemocratic democracy, the people didn’t want it but the people were ignored.

History has shown that acting without evidence can have dire consequences, the WMD farce has cost thousands of lives but it won’t matter, we won’t learn any lessons from it. Iran or North Korea will be next, the political con-men are probably working on the scam right now, soon we’ll hear the tale and most will be frightened enough to fall for it. I say this because of evidence, the evidence shows that belief in nonsensical falsehood is growing, Christian fundamentalism, Islamic militancy, the New Age crap; all are examples of daft things with no supporting evidence that frightened people with dull, crappy lives are prepared to swallow.

I hope you can forgive my pessimistic stance, but you have to admit; it’s justified.

Holy Shit - Literally

2006-03-15T02:55:00.000Z

I recently watched the TV show, Dispatches: The New Fundamentalists. It featured interviews with the religious fanatic Vardy himself and his Director of Schools, an idiot by the name of Nigel McQuoid. Vardy came across as an insincere, lying zealot – well, he is a used-car salesman – with an apparent political agenda. McQuoid however, left me aghast; in my opinion, a person stating his belief that God literally created the world in six days is a cretin who has disqualified himself from further conversation with a sane person, yet there he is, directing the schools.

I wouldn’t let McQuoid direct the education of a slug, let alone a human child.

The worst thing of course, is that all this has the backing and financial support - with your money but without your agreement - of the Blair government; it’s unforgivable.

The following things need to happen to prevent this country staggering down the disastrous path we’re being led.

Blair must be ejected from office before his dangerous religiosity can cause any more harm.

The government should give Vardy his money back just prior to kicking his used-car-selling-bible-thumping-arse out of education.

After regaining full state control of the schools, all Vardy puppet teachers - especially McQuoid – must be fired and replaced by sane secular educators following a sensible curriculum.

Perhaps we need some basic sanity testing for the office of PM, the ability to think rationally without religious bias may be a good start. We are rapidly catching up to the USA as the world’s most undemocratic democracy that’s carrying out a policy not supported by the people.

Most of the UK population (64%) are against the divisive, sectarian schools that fail the basic simple principle of all education, i.e. children must be taught how to think, not what to think. But of course the main aim of these religious freaks is not education, it’s indoctrination, they want to add fuel to the fire in a world already aflame with religion-driven violence that’s killing people daily.

It’s time for persons of clear-thinking non-biased rationality to unite and take a stand against these stupid policies, faith needs to be dumped and replaced by intellect if humanity is to progress further.

We think of ourselves as an intelligent species, some of us may be but clearly, our political leaders are not, how can they be? We evolved from slime into self-awareness then elect fools who support even greater fools who deny the process ever happened in the first place!

I ask you, how fucking intelligent is that?

Salvation Is Here

2006-03-14T16:23:00.000Z

The words “saviour” and “salvation” have always puzzled me slightly, not what they mean of course, but the way we use them, almost always in a religious context. It does not have to be this way; a soccer player scoring a winning goal, a batsman scoring the winning run, a mother who snatches her child from the path of an oncoming vehicle; these persons could rightly be described as saviours, their deeds saved the team from defeat or the child from serious injury, possibly death. We describe such people, as “match-winners” or “heroes” but never as “saviours”, although that is what they are!

There is a breed of religious persons who seek and expect salvation, they rejoice perhaps, in being “born again” – personally, I’ve always felt I was born OK the first time – because they feel it improves their salvational chances. I’m puzzled because I don’t understand what they need to be saved from! Is it wild animals perhaps? The deeds of people following the rules of a different deity? Criminals? What?

Personally, I can think of many different dangerous things that I may need salvation from, but I don’t spend much time considering them because they are only possibilities. Death of course, is a certainty that no one can be saved from and so merits no consideration, when it happens it’s the end of me and of the world as far as I’m concerned.

When I consider the future of my species however, it’s a different matter. It is beyond doubt that one day all life on this planet will be extinguished, either by the death of our sun – arguably the real God who lives in the sky – or by some other cosmic catastrophe that could happen at any moment. To my mind we need to think about this certainty now, falling to our knees praying to some imaginary being for personal salvation is not just selfish; it’s downright counter-productive to humanity in general.

Unfortunately, we are a selfish species, we live in a ‘Fuck You I’m All Right Jack’ world, a faulty philosophy that may well hasten our path to extinction. People with this attitude are shortsighted and fail to realise that very few of us can live in this modern world without the support and assistance of others. In our distant past the FYIARJ attitude was probably the right one, basic survival was the name of the game and killing weaker competitors, the individual’s means of staying alive. This is Mother Nature’s way, she has no concept of a crime, and never punished anyone for staying alive by whatever means possible.

But we have moved on, thankfully, most would say and I agree, although the primitive FYIARJ lives on in most of us, it’s the cause of much strife and prevents us from doing that which obviously needs to be done if we are to have even a chance of a long-term future.

I suppose I could stop this post here, readers getting this far will probably guess what follows.

It’s pretty simple, we need to unite and pool the only resource we have that may give us that chance. The resource is knowledge, the knowledge we obtained by using the best tool we ever developed: science.

We need to stop lifting our eyes to the heavens for salvation, up there our nemesis lurks; our salvation is here on Earth, embodied in the members of our species who work to increase our knowledge. The problem is that not many of us recognise the saviours, indeed, many of those who pray for heavenly salvation actively seek to thwart the efforts of the only saviours they’re ever going to have, this strikes me as blind stupidity of the highest order.

So, look for the saviours, when one is found help him/her so that they are not financially dependant upon ignorant, short-sighted politicians with feeble FYIARJ-overloaded brains who want them to make weaponry that could result in our premature demise.

Science has always been a global enterprise, its very nature compels its practitioners to share results and have them verified by colleagues, governments trying to stop this international cooperation, have largely failed.

Therein lies our hope and possible salvation.

Prevent This Nonsense

2006-03-08T21:31:00.000Z

To express their disapproval of the rise in state-funded schools based on religious sectarianism, some sane, clear thinking people in the UK have compiled a petition against this trend.

Please go here www.petitiononline.com/sects to read the petition and become a signatory if you agree with it.

Just In Time

2006-02-28T13:53:00.000Z

This is a lame post. I haven’t had much time this month but I can’t let February pass without adding something. I have a few things I want to say but they’ll have to wait until March.

Magnetic Madness

2006-01-20T17:20:00.000Z

Magnetic bracelets, wristbands, insoles, neck braces and such, have been around for a long time now and people are still fooled into buying these products. Of course, they are just another example of quackery that seems all pervasive today.

My engineering/scientific training means that magnetism is a subject I know something about and I never could – and still can’t – see how any of these things could provide any health benefits. Well, now it seems like the British Medical Journal agrees with me; they have recently issued a statement indicating that so-called magnetic therapy has no proven results and that any healing effect is likely to be small. I think they are a little wrong, I would say that any healing effect is virtually certain to be non-existent!

As usual, the purveyors of magnetic medical trinkets make no attempt to explain – in technical terms that are not hilarious – how magnetism is beneficial, it’s just the same tired old message, don’t think, just believe…and buy! If you have bought, or are thinking of buying a magnetic miracle, try this small thought experiment first.

All the blood in your body has about enough iron in it to make a small nail; the iron is distributed evenly throughout. Now, just consider exactly what could be achieved by the (tiny) magnetic effect upon this iron? The answer is not much, indeed, nothing that you could possibly notice or measure. Always keep in mind the placebo effect and the fact that most ailments are self-limiting, e.g. if you catch cold and take no medication at all, the cold will most likely run it’s course and leave.

Book: The Demon Haunted World

2006-01-16T00:52:00.000Z

This is the first of many book reviews I plan to write from time to time, my reviews will not be in-depth critiques of the work, just the reasons for my recommendations of it. I first read this book immediately after its first publication in 1997; it's been reviewed hundreds of times already, but since it’s the best book I’ve ever read and the current world needs its wisdom so badly, I’m going to plug it again.

I don’t care who you are, what you are or where you come from, you need to read this book. It could serve very well as the thinking person’s bible; it is Carl Sagan’s:

“The Demon Haunted World: Science As a Candle In The Dark”

Whatever you may think of Sagan as a person, no sane reader can deny the value of this book, it’s a veritable gold mine of information and good sense written in Sagan’s elegant style showing his masterly command of the English language. Because it’s written so well, it’s an easily read work that should be made required reading for secondary school children, perhaps they could convince their parents to read it as well!

Each chapter is a gem but two stand out for special mention these are; “The Dragon In My Garage” and “The Baloney Detection Kit”. If you’re not already a critical thinker, digesting these chapters alone will set you on the right path and you’ll never fall for bullshit again.

I repeat; buy it, borrow it, steal it, do whatever you need to do to get your hands on it, it’s a must have item.

Chomsky

2006-01-15T17:21:00.000Z

I didn’t “discover” Noam Chomsky until I lived in the USA but that’s the only regret I have about him. Widely regarded as one of the greatest living intellectuals, the MIT Professor Of Linguistics has a remarkable ability to see the wood in spite of the trees. Chomsky must be the most painful thorn in the flesh Bush and his cronies have to suffer, and I shouldn’t be surprised if he was top of a CIA, people-to-assassinate-if-we-could-get-away-with-it hit list.

Of Jewish descent, Chomsky seems to be disliked mostly by his own compatriots, not surprising when you hear his (correct) analysis of the Arab-Israeli situation. When you listen to him talk you are struck by the simplicity of what he says that quite apart from being logical and verifiable, has that special “ring of truth” character about it that makes you realise that of course he’s correct but makes you also wonder why you never thought of it yourself! The lecture he gave a year ago at Edinburgh University made me think for days afterward.

If you are somewhat politically naïve – as I admit I was – then you should maybe give some time to Chomsky, there are lots of multi-media presentations and lectures by him on the Web, just type “Chomsky video” into Google and he’ll pop up everywhere.

You will also find plenty of anti-Chomsky material on the Web, some of it very well written, but well written garbage is still garbage and fools only those prone to being duped by intellectual impostures - a subject I plan to blog about very shortly.

Noam Chomsky is not a young man but I hope he lives a long time yet, the world will be a much worse place without him.

Heavens Above!

2006-01-15T16:13:00.000Z

How many are there do you think? One, two, three or more? Perhaps even an infinite number of heavens! Let’s face it, we’ve had to put up with hundreds of gods throughout history and I’ve heard at least three of them reside up there somewhere. I can’t imagine only one heaven shared by all the gods, after all, given the degree of violence depicted and advocated in the guide books of the major religions, it seems logical to assume that warlike deities such as Jehovah and Allah would be at each others throats if they had to share a heaven!

I suppose, of course, they could divide heaven up with clearly defined borders but that too would pose problems of encroachment just like their followers down here perpetrate. In addition, given the screw-up record of the gods here, it seems inevitable that soul transportation errors would occur. Imagine spending all your life as a devout Christian only to end up in the Allah sector of heaven! What would the policy be? Would a soul have to stay in Allah heaven until a Muslim transit foul-up happened and then be traded at some heavenly version of Checkpoint Charlie?

I don’t know…it all seems a bit dubious to me, even if each god had his very own separate heaven, there’s only one Earth so the soul-transit problem would still exist. It’s all very confusing isn’t it?

You know what…to hell with it, I think I’ll stay here.

One Last Puff

2006-01-15T14:49:00.000Z

As an ex-smoker, I fully support the smoking ban in all enclosed public spaces shortly to be enacted here in Scotland. Unfortunately, smokers will still be able to puff away outdoors so we’ll still see cigarette butts littering the entrances to shopping centres and other public facilities. In my opinion, that’s as bad as the smoke so I think the ban should be extended to any public place, period, and heavy fines imposed upon the “one last puff” brigade who foul the area.

Being honest with myself, I guess my support of the ban would be less strong if I still smoked but I would not rebel against it. The most striking thing I noticed after stopping smoking myself was how much smokers stink! I remember being in my local library when a one-last-puffer came and stood at the bookshelf beside me, he positively reeked and I had to walk away repulsed.

“Holy shit!” I said to myself, “did I smell like that?” - I suppose I must have.

One thing I will never do however, is look down upon people who smoke, or try to convince them to stop. I once got into a heated argument inside a restaurant in the USA with a woman who had the stupidity to tell me that only people of low intelligence were smokers! People who know me will guess what happened next; I destroyed her feeble argument with a list of the most intelligent people who had ever lived and were also smokers, being a dimwit though, she had probably never heard of most of them.

To all you smokers, I offer this small encouragement from personal experience. I found the hardest thing to overcome when stopping was the fear that it would be difficult, once I’d beaten that the rest was easy. Be aware that the desire to smoke never entirely leaves you, but a short while after stopping, the desire is very weak and lasts only a second or two. At least that was my experience, for you it may differ.

Dafty

2006-01-15T02:31:00.000Z

I will not tell you of William Wallace, I will not regale you with a tale of nationalistic warlike fervour. I will tell you of a man nicknamed “Dafty”, and will regale you - just a little - with a tale of nationalistic intellectual fervour.

To be honest, I try not to be nationalistic because I feel that being so can be more harmful than helpful, but in this case I feel justified because poor old Dafty does not receive the recognition he deserves from his fellow countrymen. The nickname “Dafty” (for you non-Scots) is generally reserved for persons thought to be a little feeble-minded so our hero would not have been too happy about the boyhood name his school chums gave him.

Denigration of people whose behaviour is unusual seems to be a national characteristic of us Scots, especially among those from small towns who often have parochial and static attitudes, (this may also be true of other nations however). I well remember from my own schooldays more than one person who suffered that deprecating nickname, sometimes worse!

The unusual behaviour of this particular Dafty was to show a much higher interest than others in how things worked and the application of mathematics to the world around him. Fortunately for him and much more fortunately for us, the Edinburgh-born schoolboy grew up and the “Dafty” label rightly perished.

His name was James Clerk Maxwell, and he became one of the greatest scientists who ever lived.

In four of the greatest equations ever derived, Maxwell unified electricity, magnetism and light and was the first to realise that these were all manifestations of the same thing; we call that thing, electromagnetic radiation. Maxwell’s equations paved the way for the development of radio, TV, mobile phones and almost any electronic device you can think of. Sadly, today it is only students of physics and science in general who are aware of the tremendous contributions by Maxwell, of whom Albert Einstein once said:

“To few men in history has such an insight been vouchsafed”.

It probably never happened, but I harbour the slight hope that those who nicknamed Maxwell became aware of their folly in their lifetimes but if not, then perhaps they are rotating in their graves with egg on their faces! So I say to all you Scots; next time you settle down for a brain-numbing night of TV, spare a little thought for Dafty, who made it all possible.

Industry Of Deception

2006-01-14T23:42:00.000Z

For a long time now, a multi billion-dollar/pound industry whose sole reason for existence is to dupe people into making mostly irrational financial decisions, has been growing steadily stronger. Personally, I find it difficult to imagine what it must be like to be an employee of this industry; people who spend their time bullshitting and lying their way through life at the behest and in the pay of, their corporate masters. Some people will do anything for money, I suppose.

A few of the leaders of this almost criminal enterprise are actually proud of their efforts at deception; they seem to think they’re being creative! Sadly, the reason for their continued expansion is the willingness of consumers to accept the bullshit and allow their thinking to be done for them. The great mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell, once said:

“People would rather die than think, and in fact they do so.”

This seems to be even truer today that it was when he first said it and this industry of deception called advertising, depends entirely upon this fact.

Imagine a world where we the consumers decided to think for ourselves and subjected products to properly conducted testing of their claims. Take anti-wrinkle skin creams aimed at aging ladies for example; testing would prove these products ineffective in their stated role. Vendors however, could simply re-label them as “brain cream” and then they may even pass tests, because there is little doubt that’s where they’re working!

Change Or Die

2006-01-13T00:12:00.000Z

Change is a fundamental feature of nature, the Universe is expanding, evolution continues, the rule is simple: change or die. In spite of our own foolishness, in spite of religion’s attempt to control and hold us back, humankind has progressed and continues to progress. Unless we self-annihilate, this natural state of affairs will be the death of religion, it will die because it is static and must remain so.

The only way for any religion to live on is to change, it must meet the changing needs of its followers and keep pace with progress. Of course, this cannot happen because religious dogma would have to be altered, bibles and other guide books rewritten to be less fantastic and nonsensical, more in line with fact than fiction. For obvious reasons this will not happen and religion will therefore eventually die, a lingering death perhaps, but a certain one.

I will take some time yet – it’s been around a long time – but the signs are there already. Here in the UK, religion is virtually moribund among educated people; even young children are stating their non-belief.

Don’t be fooled by the apparent upsurge in fundamentalism in the USA, the president may be dumb enough to actually believe it, but most of his handlers and controllers will not, they know that it’s the correct political stance because it gives them “heavenly” control of the largely uneducated believers. In addition, religion helps enormously with the maintenance of the number one domestic policy rule, which is to keep the rich people happy and ensure that the poor people live in fear, either of a vengeful God or a bogeyman like Osama Bin Laden.

Frightened people are easily controlled and thinking about bogeymen keeps them from thinking about other issues the government don’t want them to consider. Creating something for the masses to fear has been a favourite diversionary tactic of power mongers and religious leaders through the ages.

Dawkins Kicks Ass: Without Even Trying!

2006-01-10T23:05:00.000Z

The first of a two-part series entitled “The Root of All Evil”; featuring Prof. Richard Dawkins was screened on Channel 4 (UK) on Monday night. No, it wasn’t about money, the “evil” referred to in this case, was religion. The hour-long episode subtitled “The God Delusion”, showed Dawkins travelling to the USA and the Middle East, the two worst hotbeds of religious strife in today’s faith-flummoxed world.

I had to admire his courage as the hugely-outnumbered Dawkins had to contend with the obvious hatred he faced from a Christian fanatic and a less fanatical but no less dangerous-looking Muslim zealot. In both cases the hatred – it seemed clear to me – was born of anger, anger they felt I think, because deep inside, these men knew their dogma was wrong and they had no recourse but to vent anger when faced with logic and reason. Both were perfect examples of a description written by Dawkins some time ago, i.e. religious fanatics cannot argue rationally, all they can do is resort to violence and often murder those who disagree with them.

Had this not been on TV, I think Dawkins might have feared for his life, the American evangelical, a character by the name of Pastor Ted Haggard, was a particularly nasty-looking specimen; this man’s eyes spoke of the probably murderous thoughts running through his God-virus-polluted brain. These fanatics didn’t even have the sense to see that they were making Richard Dawkins’ case for him! Dawkins could hardly get a word in but he didn’t need to, his reputation had preceded him and the “religites” just wanted to get angry with him so they could brag to their brainless brethren.

Sorry folks, to anyone but an idiot, the score line was a resounding:

Dawkins – 2, Religious Nutcases – 0

To a reader of Dawkins works, the story lines of the program was easily predictable (I even found myself prompting Richard’s next phrase from time to time) but nevertheless definitely achieved its purpose and made Christianity, Islam and to a lesser extent Judaism, look lame and foolish.

The next episode will feature Dawkins postulation that religion can be thought of as a “virus of the mind”, even though this idea is now well known; I still think it will be compelling viewing that any open-minded person will enjoy. I’m looking forward to it!

Game Over?

2006-01-04T17:13:00.000Z

As a species, there can be little doubt that our technological advancement has outstripped our general wisdom and maturity. We have used our best tool, science, to furnish us with a comfortable lifestyle, gadgets galore and artefacts that our ancestors would have considered magical. The majority of us however, still believe in a supernatural deity of one kind or another who has the ability to intervene in our daily lives, watches everything we do and promises that if we’re good, the end is not the end. The fact that not one single instance of deity intervention of any kind has ever been proven, makes no difference to irrational believers.

In the past, this almost unbelievable situation didn’t matter much. If a God-befuddled, power-mad maniac managed to get control of a country, he could threaten his neighbours but that was about it, even the latest weaponry wasn’t powerful enough for him to become globally dangerous.

That situation has changed.

We already have a God-befuddled maniac in charge of the most powerful country on earth that does have globally destructive weaponry and a few more maniacs befuddled by a different God, who either already have or soon will have, similar weapons. For the first time in the history of humankind we have the capability of self-annihilation. It could be argued that things have been this way for fifty years now and we’re still here and that’s true, but up till now only the countries adhering to the Judeo-Christian God myth, or no God at all, have had the nasty weapons. During that fifty year period, - most people don’t know this - had it not been for the actions of a Russian naval officer, nuclear war would have begun between the USA and the USSR.

The significance of religious involvement in this close call is ominous and we have a lot to thank that – probably atheistic - Russian officer for. Can you trust Bush or Blair on the Christian side of a “God” war, or any leader on the Muslim side?

I can’t, and it prevents me seeing any kind of optimistic future.

Next time we may not be so lucky and that next time is coming soon. Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but we are already involved in a God war, it has begun and it’s entirely possible that it will culminate in global nuclear devastation. It won’t be God or Allah’s doing; we will have allowed it; we will be culpable; we will have overridden Darwinism; we will have selected ourselves for extinction because of a fairy-tale.

Bush-Bin Laden: Holy Allies

2006-01-03T19:36:00.000Z

What! I hear you say, Bush and Bin Laden are allies? Yes, I say, the only difference between them is that one is Christian the other Muslim, other than that, their goals and methods are identical!

Both believe in a supernatural God entity; both indulge in violence to further their cause; both entreat their followers to do likewise; both promote and participate in terrorism to support their aims; both profess to be holy men. The aforementioned single difference between them isn’t even real; one fictitious God versus another fictitious God!

Yes, they’re allies all right, and holy allies to boot!

MIT OCW

2006-01-02T14:44:00.000Z

If you like science or education in general you must visit the OpenCourseWare site run by MIT.

The physics section is where you can find more than 90 video lectures by the excellent Professor Walter Lewin. Click my link and when you get to OCW, choose the “physics” link on the left side of the page, hours of education and entertainment await you!

This is the Web being used at its best, well done MIT!

Truisms

2006-01-02T01:26:00.000Z

I don’t think I’ll ever delete any of these but I may add to the list from time to time.

To argue against an irrationally held belief with a rational argument, is very difficult.

If your theory disagrees with a suitably pertinent experiment, your theory is wrong.

Science has no master and no authorities, it matters not who you are, what your name is, where you come from or what your qualifications are. If your theory stands the test of experiment, it and you, will be accepted.

Any story, idea or belief system incapable of being tested, e.g. religion, is virtually worthless.

It is better by far not to know, than believe in that for which there is no evidence.

Faith can be the death of you.

Life has no meaning other than the meaning you give it.

If you disagree with medical animal experimentation and don’t wish to look like a hypocritical idiot, don’t seek medical assistance.

Before you believe something that may be true, imagine how things would be if it were true.

Capital punishment: those without the capital get the punishment!

Religion was invented to control and hide knowledge, keep poor people in order and to prevent them murdering rich people.

If religion doesn’t die it will likely destroy us.

Religion is demeaning and under-values humanity.

Don’t blame God for natural disasters, they’re not his fault - he’s not there!

The more you believe, the less you think.

Mother Nature guards her secrets well, but she never cheats.

Never worry that you may be wrong, just accept that on occasion, you will be.

Don’t fear your own death, it can only exist when you don’t!

Time becomes more and more precious the older you get

In nature, there is no crime.

Woo-Woo Fallacies

2005-12-25T02:05:00.000Z

In the movie Contact, a committee member questioning Ellie Arroway (played by Jodie Foster) makes the silly statement that since 90% of the world’s people believe in some sort of God, then obviously that God must exist. Amazingly, Ellie lets him off the hook with a lame reply when she should have destroyed the argument perhaps with the example that only a few hundred years ago everybody thought the world was flat.

This kind of “majority must be right” fallacy is typical of the woo-woo culture that exists today; they either don’t know or just ignore the fact that history is littered with examples of majority-held beliefs subsequently proven wrong. Here is a short list of silly sayings with their (sometimes obvious) flaws.

“If you’re so smart why aren’t you rich!”

This stupid quotation assumes that the goal of everyone is the pursuit of wealth, ignoring the fact that most clever people do not consider money to be of great importance. The wealthiest persons are almost never the smartest; indeed, some are remarkably dense!

“So-and-so (insert name of well-known person here) said it so it must be right!”

Unless “so-and-so” is a famous intellectual, this is likely to be wrong. Arguments from authority figures and theologians are not to be trusted and statements made by persons famous for trivial reasons (movie stars, pop stars etc.) speaking out with their often-narrow fields of knowledge, are usually worthless.

“I don’t care what you say, I believe in (insert whatever here)!”

People who talk like this are irrational non-thinkers not worth trying to convince of anything. Don’t bother with them; they will eventually die hopefully without polluting the human race with their useless genes.

“What happens when an immovable object meets an irresistible force?”

Perhaps the best example of an absolutely silly meaningless question that I don’t even need to explain!

“What’s your sign?”

The best reply is probably:

‘My sign is “fuck off”, what’s yours?’

Don’t say anymore, people who believe that a zodiacal sign determines your personal characteristics, are beyond help, just run away.

Unintelligent Design

2005-12-14T02:06:00.000Z

It seems like everyone has something to say on this issue so I might as well add a comment.

If so-called “Intelligent Design” had any merit it would be right to give it equal footing with Evolution and allow it to be taught in schools. Unfortunately, it has no merit whatsoever; you might as well teach kids there’s an invisible man who lives in the sky! Forget all the nonsense about balanced views and such, these things only apply to sensible arguments, the balance here is about 99 to 1 in favour of Evolution! I give ID one percent purely on the grounds it may have a small entertainment value – bright kids may get a laugh out of it. That’s what those ID fools can’t seem to grasp, perhaps they would succeed in brainwashing one or two dimwits but intelligent pupils will see the garbage for what it is and in any case, ID vs Evolution only highlights the fact that ID is daft!

I don’t like to use the word “evil” because of its religious connotations, but it rightly describes the attempt to cheat students by presenting ID as a valid argument when it’s clearly just thinly disguised Creationist dogma. So, all you ID’ers out there, aren’t you a little embarrassed? You come up with a crappy tale that shows a sad lack of imagination and have the audacity to call it “intelligent”; you must be joking! Tell you what, I’ll let you use my headline – it’s a much better fit!

Presidents Past And Present

2005-12-13T23:13:00.000Z

Recently, I have been studying quotations made by past and modern American presidents; it’s remarkable and more than a little worrying, that the likes of Lincoln, Jefferson and Adams, show far greater wisdom than the likes of Reagan and either of the Bush’s. Indeed, numerous examples of wise quotations from past office bearers can be found, Jefferson in particular, was an astute and knowledgeable man. In contrast, the only examples you can find from the modern breed are those that highlight their lack of wisdom or education and in some cases, their downright idiocy!

America seems to be going backwards; intellectually, morally and selfishly.

There’s a lot of “blog meat” here, but I’ll keep this post short so I can return to it later!

Judgmental: The Way To Be!

2005-12-11T03:52:00.000Z

When I lived in the USA, I came across several followers of the anti-judgmental brigade.

“Don’t be so judgmental!” they’d say.

I never understood this, so I would say:

“Bullshit, being judgmental is something I do all the time, it keeps me from being stupid!”

So be judgmental, especially with anti-judgmental dumb-asses!

Techno Babble

2005-12-11T03:34:00.000Z

The gap is getting wider. Today the rate of technological development far outstrips the ability of most people to keep up with it. This, I believe, is at least partly responsible for the increase in proliferation of highly expensive, totally useless gadgets designed to separate affluent but technically ignorant people from their money. Examples abound in every field, but especially where the claimed effect or improvement is highly subjective and appeals to those whose egos surpass their judgment skills.

The home audio systems market seems worse than most; you can buy speaker cables more suited as car jumper leads, wooden control knobs that improve the sound clarity, plastic labels that you stick on your CD’s to make them sound better, the list goes on and on. Even worse, the more stupid and technically worthless the devices are; the more expensive they get! Amazingly, there are people who buy them!

When challenged, the manufacturers of such garbage will never offer technical data proving the efficacy of their product; instead they say their customers are highly intelligent discerning audiophiles who know a good product when they hear it.

I say bollocks!!!

If blind tests were carried out, I’d bet your avid audiophile wouldn’t be able to hear the difference between a wooden knob and no knob at all, monster cable and a piece of lighting flex, sonic plastic and a postage stamp!

Technology is not magic, if people just thought a little and investigated, stuff like this would die out. I once had a science teacher who said to me:

“I’m not here to make you a chemist or an engineer, my job is to teach you how to think!”

Wise words, we need more teachers like this today.

Evangelise The Evangelists

2005-11-30T23:29:00.000Z

For those of you plagued by unwanted visits from door-to-door evangelists like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons etc., here’s a little tactic you may find useful and usually quite amusing.

Unlike most people, I don’t make some excuse to get rid of them; I invite them in! They will be slightly taken aback by this - they’re expecting rejection - so you immediately gain the advantage in the coming mind war!

Before they launch into their spiel, tell them that you will give them 30 minutes to present their case but in all fairness they must then give you 30 minutes as you present yours. This will throw them for a further loop because they won’t be expecting to spend an hour with you and they’ll mutter something about it not taking that long. Agree with whatever they say but repeat that you will expect equal time no matter how long it takes (the battle is almost won before it starts).

After they stop talking, launch enthusiastically into your own spiel and do your utmost to convince them of their folly and the wisdom of your logic; most importantly, make sure that you try to take longer than they did. They’ll try to stop you because by then, escape will be uppermost in their minds, but courteously ignore their pleas and offer them tea or other refreshment, do whatever it takes to keep them imprisoned and you rambling on!

I almost forgot; it’s important that they are sitting and you are standing, in fact, pace up and down a little, adopt a lecturer-to-student posture, this will give you further advantage and makes it easier for you to see them squirm!

Pretty soon, one of them - they always come in twos - will stand up and try to terminate the torture. Allow this, but don’t let them escape yet; make them promise to return bringing more of their brethren with them (they never will). I came up with a nice closer the last time I played the game. I said I was somewhat disappointed that they wouldn’t let me finish my statement and asked them to invite me to the local Kingdom Hall on an evening of their choice, where I would present a talk on the virtues of atheism! Of course, I didn’t get an invitation; they almost fell over each other trying to get out the door!

Disappointingly, I haven’t had an evangelical visit for quite a while now; maybe the word is getting around, but it was great fun while it lasted.

Try it yourself sometime!

Flight Simulation

2005-10-30T21:58:00.000Z

I recently made a flying video of an F-22 Raptor modelled for Microsoft FS2004. The cockpit interior is not meant to be an accurate representation of an F-22. It is basically a platform for instrumentation and gauge design and coding and as a demonstration of flying in FS2004 Tower View mode - similar to flying an R/C aircraft. Go here to watch it! http://www.youtube.com/?v=nun_xWv5nR4

Sense; At Last

2005-10-22T20:25:00.000Z

Elsewhere in this blog, I made my thoughts clear on the subject of fanatical so-called animal rights activists and their criminal acts carried out in the name of various creatures. Now, at last, a sensible judge has seen fit to retaliate on the behalf of reason and common sense, by seizing the bank account of a group and using it to fund the costs of a case they lost against a company they had been harassing.

Apparently, the fanatics had a joint bank account that they held as an unincorporated association; this legal term enabled the judge to exact justice in a very appropriate way. Hopefully, we shall now see more cases of companies and individuals under attack or threat, suing those idiots who dig up human graves and perpetrate other despicable acts.

However, to solve the problem in a permanent way, these misguided people and their ilk are in need of education on the ways of the world and their place in it; they evidently don’t understand nature’s way or what life is about. As I said elsewhere, let the cretins put their health at risk, don’t give them medical assistance where the treatment was obtained through animal research (that’s almost all of it) maybe this will help them see sense.

Finally, I repeat my blood campaign plea. Don’t give blood unless you receive a legal written statement, indicating that it will not be used to help people who obviously care more for animals than they do for you.

Heaven And Hell

2005-10-20T15:18:00.000Z

The other day on TV, I saw a woman proudly proclaim that she believed that God literally created the Earth in six days about six thousand years ago. In addition, she also proudly affirmed that both Heaven and Hell were real places with the Devil in charge of Hell and God the boss of Heaven; sadly, this woman was middle aged and appeared to be of sound mind. Well, I’m afraid I think she was not of sound mind.

How is it possible that a person can live for fifty years or more on this Earth and still believe in such infantile nonsense? What goes on in the mind of someone who in half a century has learned nothing of the world they live on or the Universe of which it is a part?

I can state with 99.99% confidence that Heaven does not exist anywhere in the sky, and while the centre of the Earth is certainly full of fire and brimstone, it is not the domain of some nasty-minded, horny-headed man with the feet of a goat and a big dick! I can say these things because we have explored the sky and a little bit beyond, and we have pretty good knowledge of the Earth’s geology, so why do some people reject knowledge in favour of fantasy? Does religion and other fantastic beliefs fulfil some deep-seated psychological need in weak-minded individuals?

I don’t know the answer to these questions but from personal experience of talking with such people, I find that they are uneducated or are willing to throw their education out the window when it comes to matters of what they want to be true. “Want” is the key word here; to many people, the desire for something to be true, in their minds, makes it true; this desire seems powerful enough to overcome their capacity for rational thought. What do these people tell their child who asks – as children often do – a penetrating question? Do they tell the truth and say they don’t know? Or do they fob the child off with an admonition not to ask silly questions? I’d bet it’s the latter.

I’m glad I can’t imagine what it would be like to spend my entire time on this planet believing in crap some other like-minded fool told me without even thinking about it for myself, sadly, many people seem to do just that.

What a waste of life!

Safe, Naturally?

2005-10-20T02:17:00.000Z

It always annoys me when ads advocate the “naturalness” of a product. They are often worded in such a way that “natural” is made to seem good or safe whilst “synthetic” is bad, dangerous or inferior; this, of course, is utter nonsense.

I can think of many substances that are entirely natural but are also highly toxic, ricin for example, which comes from castor beans or any of the bacteriological diseases that afflict us.

Unfortunately, this trend seems to be allied strongly to the woo-woo culture that embraces sensationalism, quackery and wishful thinking, yet rejects the very science that enables woo-woos to be woo-woos in the first place!

The Simpsons And The BBC

2005-10-15T02:49:00.000Z

There is no doubt in my mind that many – if not most - of today’s TV programs are designed for a viewer that is held in low regard by TV company bosses. They seem to think that viewers are mostly dim, easily-fooled creatures who would rather live in a woo-woo world than face reality. No doubt they would cite the necessity for programs to please the masses so that advertising revenues can be maximised, as the reason for the production of so much crap.

Well, I suppose I agree with them to some extent, but the percentage of bad programs seems out of proportion to the number of dullards out there so maybe there’s another hidden agenda at work here. In any case, it’s not true that programs have to be silly or dim-witted to attract viewers and therefore advertisers.

“The Simpsons”, is the best program on American TV; this is my opinion and the opinion of thousands of others, indeed, a strong case could be made that it’s the best program on TV anywhere! Let’s analyse it a little. There is no question that to get the most from The Simpsons, a certain degree of intelligence is required, it’s full of political undertones and topical nuances that would be lost on certain people and yet there it is, voted the best cartoon series ever. So it seems that we are not as dumb as TV bosses think and they would do well to learn a lesson from that bunch of yellow characters. Incidentally, what does it say about us when TV’s best show doesn’t have a single human being in it?

I’m often complaining about the BBC whose standards have plumbed new depths in recent years, and now I see they want the license fee increased so they can carry out ambitious future plans. I hope these plans don’t include more of the nonsense they’ve made recently! I was really annoyed when I found out that they spent £1 million per month on, wait for it…taxis! How the hell can they justify spending our money to the tune of £12 million annually on taxi fares?

When David Attenborough was the boss, the BBC made some of the best TV programs ever and was the world’s best broadcaster by a long way…we need him back but sadly, it won’t happen. I despair when I think of how things could be had we had the sense to use the power of TV to educate and inform as well as entertain, but it’s too late, we’ve gone too far down the woo-woo road and there’s no way back.

Miller Socks

2005-10-12T01:20:00.000Z

I have always liked Dr Jonathon Miller but until recently, have not been aware of his socks. In no way has my appreciation of him declined because of his socks, indeed, if anything, I like him even more!

I mean...well, anyone who would wear socks that looked like they were cobbled (ahem...) together by a ten-year old fanatic hooked on knitting and frantic colours, has just got to be a good guy! I say this because they must have been custom-made, I have searched everywhere and can't find a pair to buy.

Jonathon! I want to know where you get your socks!

The Lion

2005-10-12T00:27:00.000Z

Who is The Lion? Well, it's my nickname for soprano June Anderson. With that mane of golden hair she is somewhat reminiscent of a lion (not a lioness) but I call her "The Lion" more for her bravura performances on stage and tremendous voice.

Way down this blog I have a small post about her asking if she was in the movie "Amadeus", it turns out that she was not on screen but it was June who sang the famous Queen of The Night aria "Der Holle Rache" , in the film.

I haven't seen or heard her lately and to be honest, I don't particularly want to. I fear that in the elapsed ten years she may have declined a little and I want to remember her as she was then, in the recordings and DVD I have of her.

June is not a pretty woman - she is beautiful; the pleasure she gives me when I listen to her is more valuable than mere physical characteristics. Her effortless high notes, purity of tone and amazing coloratura work make her rank very highly in my list of the best sopranos. If I got the chance to see her in a good production of "Lucia Di Lammermoor", it would certainly be at the top of things I'd want to do before I die.

So June, if by chance you happen to read this, I want to thank you and make you aware that your fine artistry is greatly appreciated, may you live long and happily.

Just In Case

2005-10-11T23:17:00.000Z

Some years ago I prepared a short statement that following my death and subsequent judgement, I would recite to God in the unlikely event that I had been totally wrong about him. Unfortunately, I can't find the original text so I'm going to recreate it as follows.

"God, I admit my error. Yes, I have been wrong about you all these years, but excuse me God, if I don't genuflect and quake before your wrath. You see, I have no fear; I was told many times by several of your sheep that you are a loving and forgiving deity, kindly disposed toward errant sinners who recant their evil words."

"So, with this in mind, I can't see how you can possibly refuse me entry to Heaven, after all, you'd be making yourself look like a spiteful, petty asshole if you decided to make an example of a poor cretin such as I. Therefore, I look forward to a happy eternal existence with only one condition that I must insist upon. I have spent my life learning, so I need an interesting job up here, I will not be fobbed off with crap work like sewing the wings on angels or similar shit like that, so bear this in mind and we can have a fruitful partnership."

I think I have Him by the bollocks, what do you think?

God Bad For Society

2005-10-07T02:09:00.000Z

“In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies. "

“The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developing democracies, sometimes spectacularly so.”

This is the basic conclusion of a study carried out by social scientist Gregory Paul whose findings were the subject of an article by Ruth Gledhill, the Religion Correspondent of The Times. The oft-repeated crap about moral behaviour, kindness, clean-living and generally good conduct coming from God has been shot down many times and this study just rubs more salt in the wound.

Read the full article here. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1798944,00.html

Criminality vs Religion

2005-10-02T20:03:00.000Z

This is in response to another Anonymous comment.

The figures I give here are taken from the results of various studies in the USA and from the National Census in the UK.

The USA can claim to be the most religious country in the world with 81% of the population claiming some sort of religion and 11% claiming atheism/agnoticism. So, non-theists are outnumbered, the ratio being roughly 7:1, in prison however, non-theists are outnumbered by a whopping 2000:1 (you like ratios Anonymous, how's that?). Under the highly religious Bush government, the USA prison population has risen to 2 million, its highest ever, this is 25% of the world's prison population in a country with only 5% of the world's people!

In America, it's beginning to look like religion leads not to heaven but to the penitentiary! Incidentally, Roman Catholics seem to be the worst crooks since they form a disproportionate number of the jailed criminals.

In the UK, atheists form 16% of the population while 71% claim some form of religion. It's difficult to be certain here because at the 2001 census, around 9000 people claimed Jedi Knight as their religion! (no joke) The signifcant difference is that religion is not taken nearly as seriously in the UK as in the USA, only 11% of British people said religion was important to them, while 53% of Americans did. I'm finding it difficult to get precise religious/non-religious figures for UK prisoners but it looks to be on a par with the USA situation.

Now Anonymous, on to the "many scientists" you say believe in some sort of omnipotent god. Well, of the elite scientists in the USA and Europe i.e. those who are Fellows of National Societies, 97% say they have no religious belief, sorry pal, 3% is not "many" by anybody's standard!

You accuse atheism of being the downfall of these "friggin' Soviets" as you call them. Well, I can't let you away with that (neither, I suspect, will the Russians). Perhaps you are unaware that some the finest composers, artists, mathematicians and certainly some of the very best scientists, were and still are, Russian and atheistic. You need to be less insular and parochial, study the real reason for the Soviet transformation.

In conclusion, I stand by my original post, if a properly conducted scientific study were carried out, I think the results would show atheists to be more intelligent than theists. In addition, it's not belief (as you say) that's dangerous, it's belief in a doctrine that kills people that is dangerous. Religion, is one such belief.

Applause For Australia

2005-09-30T22:52:00.000Z

Well done Australia!

My recent research on the teaching of ID (Intelligent Design) in schools, indicates that supporters of the dumb-ass doctrine are getting a good old ass-kicking down under! Their Minister For Education has said that he would allow it to be taught in religious education classes only and would not support any attempt to teach it as science, since it is not science. In addition, under no circumstances would he agree to let it supplant the teaching of evolution.

What a pity that American and British politicians are unable to see this kind of simple sense.

P.S. Hope this makes up a little for losing The Ashes...

Feng Fooey

2005-09-30T22:08:00.000Z

After a public outcry, Nanjing university in China has withdrawn a proposal that a Feng Shui course be available in its syllabus. It seems that sensible Chinese people recognise nonsense when they see it, even when it originates in their own country.

Nice one!

My State of Mind

2005-09-30T18:50:00.000Z

In a comment about my "Bright Is Right " post, an anonymous reader accuses me of closed-mindedness like that of the religites I'm insulting; this is in response.

There is a huge difference between my position and that of godites. I can't prove there is no god, but if convincing evidence became available in support of one, I would accept that, reverse my stance, and retract all my anti-god writings. I am therefore open, not closed-minded. Believers by contrast, accept God in spite of the extreme unlikelihood of his existence and are simply not prepared to listen to rational argument, they are therefore, closed-minded.

I long ago discovered that godites cannot be reasoned with rationally because their beliefs were not obtained rationally, the vast majority were brainwashed into believing when they were children; when their minds were naturally, open to suggestion. I may be wrong about gods, I admit that remote possibility, but when was the last time you heard a believer say their belief may be ill-founded, I suspect the answer, is never.

I suppose that my tone indicates a degree of anger and this may upset some people, well, that's tough! I am angry because of the danger religion presents and the fact that many religites are the most arrogant people I've ever met, some of them actually think they can make me a believer if I just accept their word for it! I take that as an insult - who wouldn't?

Because of the accessibility to instant worldwide communication, religion is perhaps more dangerous today than it has ever been and could possibly result in the death of us all if some religious fanatic got his/her hands on the nuclear trigger. As Sagan said, we are literally made of stardust, we are the Universe trying to understand itself; how tragically ironic and stupid would it be to annihilate ourselves over a fairy tale?

So, you are wrong Anonymous and I take this opportunity to acquaint, or perhaps remind you, of the the great quotation by NASA engineer James Oberg, who said:

"I like to keep an open mind, but not so open my brains fall out!"

To conclude on a positive note, I'm reminded of the show business maxim that there is no such thing as bad publicity, any comment, good or bad is better than none, so I thank you for reading!

Feng Shui Shit

2005-09-29T23:19:00.000Z

This is a computer motherboard designed under Feng Shui principles, go here http://www.bbspot.com/News/2004/07/feng_shui_motherboard.html for a hilarious send-up of this in-vogue nonsense.

Bright Is Right

2005-09-20T02:06:00.000Z

Some time ago, two educators named Mynga Futrell and Paul Geisert started an organization named "The Brights", their stated aims and views were in accordance with my own so I became a member. Basically a secular entity, the main tenet is that members are persons who have a worldview free from the encumbrance of a deity or deities. For a fuller explanation of the organization's goals and possibly to become a Bright yourself, visit the website http://www.the-Brights.net, you'll discover that many Brights are well-known personalities.

The name "Bright" is used as a noun and the idea was that it should become memetic like the word "gay" has become for homosexuals. Unfortunately and understandably however, religious persons chose to ignore the noun usage and decided that Brights were setting themselves up as an elite group, the implication being that non-Brights should be named "The Dims" perhaps. Well, many leading Brights denied this and emphasized that it was merely an appropriate name, of course, no matter what, with such a name, some people will always cry "elitism".

Originally, I felt "bright" was not a good name choice and offered fuel to detractors but now I think it's OK and if people don't like it, well... fuck 'em. As far as I'm aware, no large scale properly conducted study has been done to see if non-believers are, in general, more intelligent than believers; I'd be prepared to bet that if such a study were carried out, non-believers would win hands-down.

So tough luck Godites, if your shepherd tells you that atheists and their ilk think they're "brighter" than you, stop bleating, he's probably correct. They are!

A.C.E.

2005-09-16T23:39:00.000Z

A.C.E. they call it, another American import that’s gained some ground in the UK thanks to the assistance of Blair’s religion-tainted, poorly thought through policies. If you’re a religious nutter wishing to poison the minds of defenceless children, (with the blessing of their god-befuddled parents of course) then all you need is £2 million and the British government will give you more money so you can set up a school where you can decide what the kids will be taught.

Accelerated Christian Education, is just another pathetic attempt by Creationists to subvert reason, evidence and the fact of evolution and replace it with nonsense, silly ideas and fairy tales. There was a saying popular some years ago that went: “Give me a child till the age of seven and I will give you the man” there is much truth in that unless you send your child to an A.C.E. school where the much more appropriate slogan would be: ”Give me a child as young as possible and I will give you the non-critical, non-thinking, easily-fooled, easily-controlled obedient dolt”.

All this child abuse is being perpetrated under the banner of diversification and inclusion, all very fine if you don’t realise that diversity is only good if wisdom drives it. A.C.E. is an excellent example of stupid diversity and even dafter inclusion! The obvious political agenda of being diverse and inclusive (vote winning) is taking precedence over the education and future of our children, and cannot be allowed to continue.

Richard Dawkins has oft-times said that just because there may be two opposing ideas does not mean that they should be given equal weight, one of them may be simply wrong; that is the case here. A huge body of observable evidence that underpins all of biology and medicine supports the theory of evolution, no educated person denies this. The creation myth is just an idea that has no observable evidence at all supporting it, and is therefore not even a worthy alternative to evolution and should not be given anything like equal consideration.

I propose the following idea that the government - in order to avoid a derisory public response - would have to back.

The raising of £2 million would be easy for the number of us atheists in the UK without being a burden on any individual (I would certainly donate), we could elect the appropriate leader and start our own school also named A.C.E. (Accurately Conducted Education) We would of course, teach the kids evolution and the creation myth and let them make up their own minds, Evolution would naturally take longer to teach than Creationism, but at least the pupils could have a good laugh before moving on to serious study.

In conclusion readers, I don’t really like the name “Accurately Conducted Education”, if you can think of a better one, feel free to comment.

Clamouring For Cricket

2005-09-15T20:03:00.000Z

I have long been a cricket fan and played it as a young man. This summer we have seen probably the best test match series ever and has left much of the public clamouring for more cricket, of course, this is generally great for the game but a niggling thought keeps coming to mind. The game has changed, it’s faster, more exciting and without doubt, more entertaining and unfortunately, more commercial.

Professional cricketers do, of course, deserve to make a good living; I just hope that salaries don’t rise to the obscene levels we see in football. Apart from being a much more tactical and interesting game, there’s a major difference between cricket and football; there is still some sport in cricket, it’s not all about money, football is largely money and tribalism. Sadly though, the first small signs of loutish behaviour are becoming visible, again, we must make sure it does not increase to football levels. On a positive note, I think cricket will never reach the level of popularity that football has and so will be less susceptible to infiltration by the wrong kind of “fan”.

I found the singing of “Jerusalem” and the excessive English patriotism to be mildly puke-making. This is the sort of thing we must guard against, patriotism is generally never a good thing in the long run; it undermines sportsmanship and encourages those of limited intellect, to be violent.

Football would be much improved if it’s customers behaved more like cricket supporters, can you imagine a group of soccer fans going to a match dressed perhaps as babies, complete with nappies (diapers) and dummy teats (pacifiers). Somehow, I can’t see that, the average football fan doesn’t seem to have that kind of personal assuredness. Since the prime reason for a football club’s existence is to make money, I’m surprised the owners are crap businessmen (maybe that’s why takeovers are happening), they aim their product (the game) at only a third of the population; women and children are largely not catered for! You’d think they would want to capture as many customers as possible but fail to provide the atmosphere (and safety) at a football match to make it attractive to families. They would do well to emulate the Americans in this respect; they are much better at managing the business of sports than the British.

This post is supposed to be about cricket, I’d better conclude with it! The plan to make cricket on TV payview will, I hope, be scotched. I am really annoyed that one of the few things worth watching on televison is not remaining free-to-air. I realise that commercial television has to aim it’s programming at the masses in order to be attractive to advertisers and cricket is, as yet, not followed by the masses. However, the BBC is paid handsomely to provide us with programming a cut above the (largely) crap produced by commercial TV and had the cricket rights in the past, why can’t they have it again!

So come on BBC (yes I’m on your case again) stop behaving like a dumb-ass commercial company, forget all that New Age, sensationalist nonsense that you seem to be in love with. GET THE CRICKET BACK ON!!!

BBC Sinks To New Low

2005-09-10T02:51:00.000Z

Yes, they've done it again. This one was perhaps the worst and most pathetically bad example ever made by any TV company - including American ones that have to worry about ratings. I refer to the recent screening of "Science And The Seance" that the BBC saw fit to waste my - and probably your - money on. They mentioned a few scientists who had been fooled by the flummery more than a hundred years ago, but nary a word indicating that science has advanced enormously since then and not a single syllable from a modern scientist! Instead, all we got was the same old crap from the charlatans who were pandered to by the pathetic presenter who didn't ask a single probing question during the entire program.

I've tried complaining a few times but the BBC don't want to listen to reason, they seem obsessed with sensationalism as if they needed ratings. Part of their remit is to educate, but they fail miserably on that score, indeed, they seem bent on making sure that the public is "dumbed down" as much as possible, the message is simple: "don't think, just believe the crap we feed you and you'll feel better"

I hope my readers will agree with my position but I know that most won't, so for that majority here are some of my thoughts that may help you see sense, hate me, or maybe just go away.

Nobody talks to dead people, not a single proven instance in the history of humanity, I predict there never will be.
Not the merest shred of evidence for spirits or ghosts or any similar nonsense, never was, never will be.
There is no "other side" this is the only "side" there is, this life is not a rehearsal, you get one shot - you're having it so make the most of it.
Religion, Spiritualism, and other sundry bullshit may provide consolation for some and that may be good, but in no way does it mean that any of it is true.
Probably a majority believe in some form of afterlife fallacy but again, it means, and proves nothing, only a few hundred years ago everyone thought the world was flat...

Incidentally, during one my harangues with the BBC, I made a proposal for what I thought might be an entertaining program. I would offer myself as a guinea pig in an experiment, they had to find the most scary haunted building possible and I would spend the night there while it was all recorded using night-vision equipment. All I asked for was a bed, a book to read before sleep (as is my custom) and a modest financial reward for my time. Viewers would be held spellbound watching me read and then listening intently, as I snored and farted my way contentedly through the night. Sadly, the BBC showed no interest.

The Darwin Centre

2005-09-04T01:31:00.000Z

The Natural History Museum in London has some great multimedia presentations on it's site. Particularly good are two videos featuring Jonathon Miller, Richard Dawkins and Norman McLeod, they take the format of a discussion with audience participation and are well worth watching!

When you get to the site, use the search field or click the "list all videos" link.

Foolish Filenames

2005-01-02T18:38:00.000Z

I'm getting fed up of proliferating stupid computer file names. Back in the old days of DOS we had only 8 characters, a dot and a 3 character extension available to us; this made us think a little about how we named a file to make it easy for the name to be meaningful. Nowadays, with 32 bit operating systems, long file names, relaxed and less restrictive naming conventions, you'd think that people would have no problem giving files a name that could tell something about the content, but no, not a bit of it. In fact, if anything, filenames are becoming sillier every day.

WIth today's large hard disks, good file management becomes vitally important if confusion is to be avoided. One of my pet hates are filenames containing dashes spaces and underscores; these characters take up space without conveying any useful information. I wish more people would learn the use of modified Hungarian Notation that programmers employ when naming variables etc. The method is very applicable to file naming; basically you use upper and lower case lettering to make the name clear and easy to read. One of my hobbies is computer flight simulation and people in this area are about the worst file namers you can come across. Here are some examples of bad file names and my suggested improvements.

RLADSC-5.ZIP Believe it or not this is a filename for a Lockheed Galaxy aircraft.
My alternatives GalaxyC5.zip, C5Galaxy.zip, LockheedGalaxy.zip

OH_BLA_DI_OH_BLA_DA.MP3 Space-wasting underscores.
How About? OhBlaDiOhBlaDa.mp3

mylatestcv-v-3.doc Someone's CV (resume)
Better as MyLatestCvVersion3.doc

the_pics_of the party_23rd-DEC2004 Party pictures
Better as PartyPictures23Dec04

gkwxmas.mp3 The carol, Good King Wenceslas
Simply GoodKingWenceslas.mp3 or GoodKingWen.mp3

The key point is that a filename should be unambiguous and give some idea of what it's about. If you have a bunch of files on your system that you named a long time ago but now cannot remember what they are at a glance, then your naming conventions are bad. Worst of all; if you regularly send or give files to others do not embed your nickname or an abbreviation of your name in a filename, this form of self-aggrandisement does not impress and has nothing to do with content.

Lastly, if someone sends you a file whose name sucks, rename it well and send it back to them - maybe they'll get the message!

The Lack of Meccano

2004-12-29T18:40:00.000Z

One of the best Christmas presents I ever had as a child was a Meccano set (Erector Set, USA), it was the only gift that lasted for several years and actually grew as I requested expansion kits and accessories for it from Santa. By age eleven I had a steam engine, an electric motor and a good selection of gears, I could make real machines with my Meccano. It was at that time that my lifelong interest in science really started, I wanted to get more power from my electric motor and so I had to learn about electricity to achieve my goal. In a short time I understood how transformers worked and realised that I was hooked on this new "magic" of electricity and electronics, I avidly read everything I could on the subject, often late at night under the blankets with a torch because I wasn't allowed the light on.

Eventually my interest in electronics drew me away from Meccano and I played with it less and less but it had "started me out" so to speak, and I still have a fondness for it to this day. Sadly, the company that made Meccano has been out of business for many years; I believe that part of reason that many children today display poor dexterity skills and mechanical ineptitude may well be due to the lack of Meccano. Only a week ago in a DIY store, I overheard two boys discussing how a nut went onto a bolt, when I was their age you would never have heard that, everybody knew how a nut went on a bolt.

Parental encouragement also seems to be in decline these days and may be related to the overall "dumbing down" of children. Every child expects their parents to be able to answer any question and of course this is unrealistic, but parents today seem unable to say "I don't know", they would rather fob the child off or even tell it not to ask silly questions etc. My own father had a slight problem in this area, he always tried to answer my questions but I never heard him say "I don't know". I have a vivid recollection of asking him what electricity was, he should have said he didn't know but replied that nobody knew. A few years later I told him to ask me the question; he wasn't too pleased when I told him exactly what electricity is.

Come back Meccano, we need you badly!

Population Problems

2004-12-28T22:55:00.000Z

The population of the world is almost 6.5 billion people increasing at the rate of 128 million per annum, this means that 40 years from now there will be nearly twice as many people on the Earth. How are they going to eat? What are they going to eat? How will they avoid annihilation? If we don't do anything, the current religious and ethnicity based wars that we currently fight will seem insignificant compared to what our young children of today will face as adults.

Humankind can easily live without religion but not without food. Wars fought over food will be much more deadly.

Personally, I see a gloomy future ahead; greed and selfishness is everywhere and I don't have a solution to the problem. I could write a thousand words detailing the reasons for my pessimism but I won't, instead, I invite readers to send me their ideas and proposals. Please try to be realistic and sensible, I will delete nonsensical comments or suggestions that we start praying or hoping for divine intervention.

Organic Update

2004-12-28T22:16:00.000Z

Since I wrote the GM post below, I've done some more research on organic vs genetically engineered plants. It seems clear that because organic growing methods are so inefficient, there is no way that it would be able to provide the quantity of food we need, for that reason alone, GM crops will definitely be produced.

As to nutritional value, there is no evidence favouring organic foods; the safety worries about pesticides used on GM plants are unfounded; indeed, it seems more likely that organic produce may have at least as much if not more, health risk; all produce should be washed before consumption anyway. There is no evidence that cow dung and horse manure is any better than synthetically manufactured fertilizer, as far as the plant is concerned they are the same. The manufactured fertilizer simply skips the part where the nutrient has to pass through the gut of an animal.

The bottom line is this: if a plant shows healthy growth, then it's getting the correct nutrients no matter where they come from.

GM Anyone?

2004-12-08T18:49:00.000Z

The hubbub on GM crops seems to have abated somewhat; I hope this doesn’t mean that development is slowing down. I’m slightly fed up with seeing all that organically grown ‘natural’ produce in its obviously expensive packaging taking up space in supermarket shelves, we are being conned here folks; all this ‘organic’ and ‘natural’ nonsense is just an excuse to double the price.

Let’s examine the situation more closely.

A few thousand years ago the stuff we ate that grew in the soil was indeed natural, we wandered around tasting things, if good, we ate. Then some bright spark realised that by planting seeds, protecting young plants from weather damage and from being eaten by other creatures, we could have more of the stuff for ourselves, thus was born that very unnatural device; agriculture. Then we found ways to improve the quality and size of the produce, by various grafting and crossbreeding techniques we obtained fruits, vegetables and cereals that were much better than their ‘natural’ counterparts. All these genetic modifications became so successful and popular that we gave the process its own special name, we called it; farming.

So, now we’re aware that we’ve been GM’ing for at least two thousand years, why not continue? Nothing really bad has happened that can be blamed on a farmed crop, I can’t recall anyone being raped by a perverted potato or murdered by some strawberry strangler! GM crops will be developed; get used to the idea; economics alone will ensure it happens. There’s nothing inherently wrong with modifying something, we just need to be sure that good modifications are made, if we follow this simple plan we’ll have no worries about some triffid-like ambulatory foliage having its planty way with us! Taste will be all-important of course, but given that, which would you rather have? A sorry-ass ‘organic’ spud that’s riddled with screwworm holes and costs a fortune, or a beautiful blemish-free potato that on command, peels itself (thinly of course) then jumps automatically into the cooking vessel of your choice?

I’ve made up my mind!

Afterlife Antics

2004-12-08T01:05:00.000Z

At first, I didn't believe it but unfortunately it's true. There is a web site that offers to deliver afterlife telegrams. They charge $5 per word with a 5 word minimum. It's done by getting your message memorised by a terminally ill person who will pass it on to the already dead recipient when they themselves snuff it.

Still, I got a good laugh when I read their solemn statement that no mentally incompetent people will be used as messengers... talk about the blind leading the blind!

Mediums beware! This new scam makes your scam look lame and may possibly be the death of you!

NHS Gets New Quantum Medical Machine

2004-12-05T16:17:00.000Z

A new treatment that has amazing health benefits, has been developed in Eastern Europe.

Professor Ludwig Lippensticht, the inventor, says his system can promote weight loss, hair growth, and clarification of the complexion almost instantly! The treatment works at the quantum level and no chemical medication is involved, the patient is treated by the insertion of a nano-probe that is attached to a special machine. Complete details of the machine are still secret but the professor wants to show that no quackery or trickery of any kind is employed, and so has provided the following partial technical description of the machine’s workings that will be of interest to scientists and technically minded persons.

The secret lies in the rearrangement of quarks (the building blocks of matter) by using a special mangulatory field whose range is very small but easily spans the very short quantum distances. The field is generated by taking the output of two oscillators and mixing them to produce a differentially integrated heterodyne signal. The first oscillator uses voltafaradation techniques, whilst the second relies upon capacitosaturation coupled with resistorial inductocoercivity. These signals are then fed into a double-balanced mixer comprised of biologically-doped geranium diodes, the mixer output is then amplified causing squegging megacurrents to flow through sub-atomic spicules aligned in high permittivity mode. This gives complete control of the quarks allowing them to be arranged in a manner suitable for the desired effect, generally, up and down quarks are converted into diagonal quarks whilst strange quarks are eliminated entirely.

The exact geometry of the quarkological effect is still secret; a switch governing the process is labelled appropriately for each treatment, so the user has a simple interface to deal with. Prof. Lippensticht wishes to make clear that the known dangers of field mangulation are not a problem with his machine, automatic demangulation takes place upon probe extraction.

As to availability, the professor has indicated that the British NHS will be the first recipients of the machine.

"The British NHS has shown remarkable stupidity...er, sorry, foresight (my English not so good) when it comes to offering new treatments like crystal healing, homeopathy and dowsing", said Lippensticht.

"I feel it appropriate that their victims...ach! so sorry again, I mean patients, should be the first to get the benefits of my new technology", concluded the professor.

A spokesperson for the New Age department of the NHS said:

"We will implement the new machine immediately, it won't undergo double-blind testing, we've found that technique to be useless with alternative medicine; nothing ever passes!"

Mundane Matters

2004-12-03T20:22:00.000Z

Am I alone, or do others get infuriated by labels and various tags attached to garments in the most uncomfortable places? There's nothing worse than a new shirt with a huge, coarse label double-stitched into the back of the neck, the first thing I do is cut it right off.

Listen, you ignorant garment producers, we don't need to be reminded of our size by having the skin abraded from our necks! If you must attach a label then make it a stick-on one or use some other means of easy detachment, I'm fed up damaging new clothes trying to dislodge obstinate labels!

From now on I will visit a large store at least once a week and ask them if they know any other store where I can buy a shirt without neck labels. Making it clear that they just lost a sale may make them put pressure on the manufacturers. If lots of us do it, they will get the message.

Ideas and Theories

2004-12-03T03:16:00.000Z

I'm fed up hearing the phrase "it's just a theory" being used. Of course, it's always people who don't know what a theory is, that use the phrase. This short post is for their benefit.

A theory makes predictions that can be verified by observation. If a theory's predictions disagree with observation, the theory is wrong; it will be modified or perhaps discarded. Clearly then, a theory that survives such testing is very likely to be of high value and until a better one comes along, it may be the accepted wisdom.

People using "just a theory" are confusing theories with ideas. There are good ideas and bad ideas, there are no bad theories, bad theories die quickly. Ideas don't have to prove or predict anything, they can be total nonsense, that's why they're "just ideas". Of course, there is nothing to prevent a good idea being developed into a theory - that often happens - but the difference between idea and theory is enormous, and that is the point to be kept in mind.

Finally, a couple of examples:

Gravity: a theory, first developed by Newton, further refined by Einstein, now an accepted truth.

God: an idea, first developed by many different people, has had no refinement for thousands of years, that's why it's still an idea.

Identity Cards: Threat to Freedom

2004-12-03T01:58:00.000Z

“Those willing to give up a little liberty for a little security deserve neither security nor liberty.”

That was true when Benjamin Franklin said it and it’s true today. Here in Britain, we seem to have forgotten what democracy means; many of us behave as if we must do as the government decrees. In a democratic society it is the job of government to carry out the will of the people, not the other way round, they work for us we don’t work for them We need to put that authoritarian Home Secretary Blunkett in his place and remind him for whom he works!

The greatest threat to our freedom is not terrorism or the chance of war with other countries; the greatest threat is our own government. Freedom is a precious thing but it places the burden of responsibility and duty upon those who desire it, each of us has a duty to ensure that tight rein is kept upon those we elect to govern the country. The introduction of Identity Cards is just another example of how an out-of-control government tries to further erode our freedom. I say further erode because we are already in deep trouble, we are spied upon everywhere we go, it’s a simple matter for government to monitor us if they want to. Use a mobile phone, an ATM, a credit card, buy an airline ticket; you leave a computer trail behind you If we allow ID cards then soon afterwards I predict we will be asked to show them when making certain purchases, checking into hotels or making travel arrangements etc.

Personally, I will NEVER under any circumstances carry an ID card. I was born of a Scottish mother and an English father, I am truly British, I DEMAND and will FIGHT for, the freedom my forbears died for. To add insult to injury they have the audacity to expect us to pay for the cards! If we fall for that nonsense then we truly deserve what Franklin said, neither security nor freedom.

Animal Rights Activists

2004-12-01T20:52:00.000Z

This group seem to have lost a large part of their reasoning power (or maybe they never had any) their willingness to desecrate human graves in an attempt to advance their cause will, I’m sure, do nothing for them. Instead it will mark them as unbalanced persons prone to the commission of dangerous acts of folly.

I have nothing against animals myself – I even had a dog that I liked more than some people – but I managed to keep a balanced view, I think more of people in general, than I do of animals. Most of us are aware that many - if not most - medical advances made, are largely as a result of animal experimentation; the humble mouse has been of great help to us, ask any biologist. People who commit crime on behalf of animals should be treated in a way that forces them to think carefully about the long term.

I propose a simple way of dealing with them as follows:

They should have to register themselves as Animal Rights Activists (or whatever title they choose) with the government. Initially of course, registration would be voluntary unless they committed a crime which would make it mandatory.
Such a nationally maintained database would enable medical staff to withhold on logical grounds, treatment obtained through animal research (i.e. most of it) from any registered person seeking medical assistance. Any activist not wishing to look like an idiot would of course have to agree with this policy. Let them put their health where their mouth is. As a small concession, I suppose we could make arrangements with local zoos to allow activists to seek help from their animal friends.
Before giving blood, I would urge all donors to get a signed and sworn statement that their gift will not be used to help registered activists. Would you give your life-blood to a person who thinks more of animals than they do of you? I wouldn’t!
Finally, all activists should carry a national; “turn-me-into-pet-food” card so that they can properly be processed when they die. This scheme would also create jobs because of the special new buildings and butchers required! On second thought, I see that the money for this would have to come from the activists (I certainly wouldn’t pay) so I further propose that they be forcibly licensed. Because of their relatively small numbers the fee would not be trivial but I think £500 annually from each activist ought to cover it.

I think I might send this proposal to Downing Street – see what Tony thinks of it.

Nixing Nonsense

2004-12-01T15:50:00.000Z

Here is a list of items that are almost certainly false or have actually been proven false. I have hammered a short, fat nail into each one of them.

Astrology
Perhaps the silliest of things that a few people still believe in. I won't debunk it, it's too obvious and has been done many times, speak to a ten-year old if further explanation is needed.

Homeopathy
One of those "alternative" healing methods, it says that the more a medicine is diluted with water, the more effective it becomes! When the obvious nonsense is pointed out, the homeonutters say that the water retains a "memory" of what was in it! If true, this would deal a very serious blow to our knowledge of physics. But of course it's not true. In fact, when subjected to the double-blind testing that all normal medications must pass, it fails; fails every single time. As indeed it must! Otherwise it would just be part of usual medical practice, no need for the nonsense "alternative" label.

As an aside, a few months ago I noticed my local health centre had a brochure pinned to the notice board stating that one of the centre's doctors was a homeopathy practitioner! I was aghast! Here was a person who had a degree in medcine - a science-based discipline - had hopefully been taught how to think correctly and yet was prepared to throw her training out the window. I didn't actually make a formal complaint, but I expressed my surprise that a document advertising mumbo-jumbo was on display in a scientific establishment. The next time I visited, it had gone.

Mediums
A brand of trickery that depends on people believing in spirits, ghosts and some form of afterlife, all of which there is absolutely no evidence for. Never in human history has any "medium" been able to prove their claimed abllities and I would bet any amount of money that none ever will. I notice that mediums always tell people what they want to hear, the "other side" never has any bad news, everything's fine and no blame is ever attached to the living! I also notice that "other side" inhabitants all seem to be dimwits, they never have any useful information to impart, isn't it more likely that it's the dimwitted, unimaginative mediums who are trying to ensure that clients are always pleased and will therefore return?

Imagine the situation where a medium who has just contacted a client's dead husband say; instead of telling her (via the medium) everything's fine here, don't worry, it's not your fault etc., the spirit says:

"You lousy bastard! I blame you for my demise, if you hadn't been whoring around I would never been in the fight and never would've been shot! I'm going to haunt you till the end of time, you evil slut!"

Do you thnk it likely the lady client would have left the seance comforted and pleasantly uplifted by the experience? More likely she would have torn the "medium" a new asshole and refused to pay the fee!

Many of these charlatans have been exposed and some have even confessed their crookery, yet people unwilling to think or prepared to believe nonsense over fact, happily give them money. Amazing, isn't it?

Faith-Healers
These hucksters also depend upon gullible believers-in-magic for their success. However, they are a different breed, they are cruel, heartless and callous creatures who prey upon sick people who may often be terminally ill. Modern medicine has made tremendous advances in recent years but it's still not perfect, there are some unfortunate persons that medicine cannot help and it's those that the faith-healer often swindles. Popular in the USA, these low-lifes have often been exposed but they keep appearing, cheating dying people is a big lucrative business, there will always be some crook willing to do it.

Dowsing
More nonsense, but perhaps not as bad as some. I don't think James Randi's million dollars (see www.randi.org) is in any danger of leaving him on this - or any other - score, no dowser has ever been able to prove any kind of abliity either. But still, even goverment departments have been silly enough to hire them to look for water, oil etc. Is it surprising that dowsers abound?

The Loch Ness Monster
I wonder how much money has been taken by the businesses around the loch and the general area since the tale was invented? I hope they hold an annual thanksgiving party for the kindly person who started the story! The only thing that surprises me about these kind of tales is that there are not more of them, quite a good ploy for an economically depressed town or area. Come to think of it, how about "The Glenrothes Goliath", often seen on Friday and Saturday nights stumbling aimlessly around town.

Christian Scientists
So far, (thankfully) I don't see much evidence of them in the UK but I did come across these maniacs when I lived in the USA. Firstly, let me say that there is absolutely nothing scientifc about them, they're about as unscientific as you can get. They are people who are prepared to let their kids die rather than seek medical help. Craziness of the highest order seems to be a prerequisite for joining their ranks, they think prayer alone can solve any problem, if prayer fails, it's God's will.

These people are seriously sick in the head, and have been responsible for the deaths of many children over the years, many of whom might easily been saved had medical help been sought. They should be in jail but no, they perpetrate their evil ways with impunity. Sadly, now that the religious fanatic Bush is in government, I wouldn't be surprised if they were given federal cash to help them spread their stupidity. And these are the kind of people who maintain that if you're a moral, kind and compassionate person you must be a God believer...Arghhh, excuse me, these cretins make me puke!

June Anderson?

2004-11-30T14:28:00.000Z

There is a scene in the director's cut of the movie "Amadeus" where Mozart is introduced as the music tutor to a young woman. Because of the period costume and wig I was uncertain, but the person looked like the opera singer June Anderson, she didn't sing or even speak so there was no further evidence.

Does anyone know if she played this part?

Annoying Word Usage

2004-11-30T02:36:00.000Z

Here are some words that are often incorrectly used and/or pronounced. I'm always irritated when I hear or see them and so poke fun at them and their users now.

Asterick

What the hell is that? Why do so many - mostly Americans - find it difficult to say asterisk?

Aks or Axe

As in: "I want to aks you a question", I'm not being racist here but it's mostly black Americans who can't say "ask".

Heighth

American again I'm afraid, the word is height, there's no "th" on the end of it!

Uz

Uzed or used by people in the west of Scotland, I can't understand this one, what's wrong with uz or us?

Eck Cetera

Sounds like the name of a Scottish footballer but no, I've heard it blethered all over the world etc. or even et cetera.

But

Another west Scotland one. What's wrong with "but"?, you may say. Well, nothing, as long as it's not the last word in a sentence as in:

"I'm going to the pub but."

or:

"What's for dinner but?"

Sorry world, some of us do talk like that!

Finally, the daddy of them all and almost the exclusive property of George W. Bush, the fabulous word:

Nukular

Much more difficult to pronounce than the real word nuclear, George looks as though he's trying really hard to concentrate when he utters it. I imagine the following with one of his language coaches:

"Now Mr President it's quite simple, say the word 'new' " (George says it)

"That's great sir, now say the word 'clear' " (again George obliges)

"Finally sir, put them together and you have?"

"Nukular", says George.

"Close, Mr President, close".

Faith, Fact, and Opinion

2004-11-30T01:13:00.000Z

I can't recall who originally said:

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not to their own facts!"

It's an easy trap to fall into; to talk as if what you're saying is a fact, when in fact, it's just your opinion! I've made the mistake myself although I do try - unless the point is purely philosophical - to say or write only that which a reader or listener can independently verify. But some things require effort to verify and many people can't be bothered to do it, some things are impossible to verify, so they just accept or reject things based upon their world-view or faith.

Faith is a belief in that for which there is no evidence. Faith is something you never get from within yourself. Faith in yourself is not faith, it's knowledge of your own abilities. Faith - when it comes to instilling confidence - is nowhere near as powerful as knowledge. Faith in fact, is something that someone else wants you to have based entirely upon their say so, they expect you to believe what must only be their opinion, otherwise it would be verifiable and be a fact that did not require faith!

Faith is very confusing and best avoided.

Facts are much simpler and easier to deal with, the only trouble with facts are that you must convince yourself of their truth; this may require some work. It's not surprising therefore that many - perhaps most - people live their lives not really knowing the difference between faith, fact, and opinion. They don't want to think, it's too much like hard work.

Please look around you for independent verification.

Sport And Politics

2004-11-27T22:38:00.000Z

My conclusion: they are two sides of the same coin.

There is no doubt that sports - especially team games - are thinly disguised versions of warfare, politics and sport have the same objective; defeat the enemy. Both are a kind of tribalism that extends easily into nationalism. If, for whatever reason, you can't kill your foes, then the next best thing is to defeat them at sports.

Sportsmen and their supporters who think that sport and politics should be kept separate, don't realise what they're dealing with, it's not possible to separate them. Even some politicians seem unable to grasp the connection, although many do, and often use it for their own ends.

Here in Scotland, we have always been very tribal (one of our downfalls) and there are many individuals today who still rely heavily on the security to be gained from membership of a tribe; I'm thinking here mainly of football fans but it applies to other sports also. The importance of this modern tribalism is clearly reflected in the ridiculous sums of money we pay tribal heroes who are sometimes unable to even speak coherently. Tribalism itself is undesirable enough, to glorify it in this way, is foolish.

There are many forms of tribalism still around and although some tribal organisations make token beneficial gestures, most of them have an overall negative effect on society. This is something for another post, methinks.

Mozart Moves Up

2004-11-26T05:02:00.000Z

Mozart has never been my favourite composer and that has not changed, but recently he has certainly jumped up a few notches. I've always liked some of his music but always had the feeling that he lacked depth - wrote catchy tunes but never had the power to do for me what Beethoven does.

Recently I've been studying four of Mozart's operas; Cosi Fan Tutte, Le Nozze de Figaro, Don Giovanni and Die Zauberflote. These have caused me to change my mind a little, some of the music in Figaro and Cosi convinced me of his genius. Of the four I would rate the "Flute" the lowest, it epitomises what my earlier feelings were; several catchy tunes but no real substance, the same cannot be said of the other three, they are without doubt among the finest operas ever written. Some say Don Giovanni is the best opera ever, but not for me, I like Cosi and Figaro more.

I find it hard to make a list of favourites because my favourite depends on my mood, so here are some of them in no particular order.

Classical Music

Beethoven symphonies 5, 6 and 7
Beethoven Violin Concerto
Bruch Violin Concerto
Mendelsohn Violin Concerto
Beethoven Moonlight Sonata
Some of the work of Handel, Bach, Brahms and Tchaikovsky

Operas

La Boheme
Tosca
Carmen
Madam Butterfly
Rigoletto
L'elisir d'amore
Lucia di Lammermoor
Le Nozze de Figaro
Cosi Fan Tutte
Don Giovanni
Norma
Don Carlos

I like most kinds of music except Country and Western and some of the crap that masquerades under the name of music today. Modern pop music has lost it's way, since the Beatles and a few others from that era, no-one has come close to producing good stuff.

It's true that music is very subjective and a matter of taste, but I think the following statement can be fairly made:

Music can be tested, if it stands the test of time, it's good: if not, it's crap.

That's why the music of the great composers is as popular now as it was hundreds of years ago, in some cases, more so! Most of the stuff nowadays will be forgotten in a month, never mind a hundred years!

Aliens: Where Are They?

2004-11-25T23:05:00.000Z

I don’t know; and irrespective of what you may have read, neither does any other human being. The trouble with almost all reported alien stories especially the silly abduction tales, is that they depend upon the ignorance of those reading them. And I mean “ignorance” in the sense that persons ignorant of what is possible, not possible, likely or unlikely will find it difficult to make a decision about the veracity of a story.

When we study the Universe, we see the laws of physics we have on Earth are applicable everywhere, it is reasonable to assume therefore, that an alien species will have the same problems as we have when faced with the difficulty of inter-stellar travel. These problems are not trivial, even for a species that may be far more advanced than we are. For various reasons I won’t go into here, it’s very unlikely that an advanced alien society could exist within a 200 light-year radius of the Earth, but for the sake of argument, let’s say one did. If they wanted to make the trip here they would have to find a way to travel really fast, even at the speed of light their life span would have to be at least a thousand years for any wanting to return home and tell the folks about it, alternatively, they would have to breed on the way.Yes, I know all about worm-holes bending space-time and that may be possible, but for us right now, it’s impossible and may always be, and I suspect that no matter how advanced a species becomes, some things will always be difficult and perhaps impossible. These circumstances pose a big problem for UFO buffs and alien-abduction fans, even if they solved the distance problems is it likely that aliens would come here just to tamper with us sexually – most of the stories feature this - then leave? I think not.

In fact, there is a good clue to the truth here, these stories tell us more about the storyteller than anything else. Even we are able to perform genetic feats without all the probing and primitive experiments, aliens advanced enough to come here would most certainly be far more sophisticated. As I said, insight is gained into the mind of the people inventing these stories.

These tall-tale spinners also display strong ignorance of evolution and biology and a significant lack of imagination. The chances of any alien species looking even slightly like us are astronomically slim, even if life on Earth was snuffed out and had to start over, the likelihood of anything like us arising again, is almost zero. Yet in every story there they are, very human-like and displaying remarkably human traits and foibles. Another nail in the UFO/Alien coffin I think, and while I’m at it, I’ll knock another one in.

A lot of us have been around long enough to see how the stories change. In the fifties and sixties the aliens were mostly reported as Martian or Venusian but now we’ve sent probes to Mars and seen nothing remotely like intelligent life; we found that the surface temperature of Venus is hot enough to melt lead. Lo and behold, the aliens no longer come from Mars or Venus, now it’s Boolshot or Krapton 69 or whatever, must I mention why?

I for one would be enthralled if we made contact with an alien species, it would be the greatest event in human history, but I would wait forever for the real thing rather than fall prey to silly tales.

I think all the alien brouhaha is simply the modern version of imps and demons, witches and fairies; these things seem to fulfil a deep-seated need in the human psyche.

Bad Hair/Religion Day

2004-11-25T15:38:00.000Z

Some people have so-called "bad hair days", I don't, I have "bad religion days" and today I'm having a whopper!

One of the main problems of religion is that it's a static, dogmatic load of nonsense that doesn't take into account the fact that we live in a dynamic ever-changing world. People have become a little more sophisticated - at least some have - over the past two thousand years, you can't expect to trot out the same old story about some geezer who lives in the sky and expect to get away with it! The tale was told and the book was written at a time when things were very different to the way they are now, people are better educated and not intimidated by the fear of god anymore.

The main reason that man invented religion was to keep the masses in order, unfortunately for religion, some of the masses are now more intelligent than the perpetrators of the god myth and so amongst educated people, religion is - thankfully - in decline. It hasn't escaped my attention - and hopefully not yours - that religiosity is strongest in parts of the world where education is lacking. It usually goes hand-in-hand with poverty but not always - the USA is a good example of this. America would not be considered a poor country and religion still has a good hold there, but the fact is that most Americans are not well educated and religion is strongest in the poorer states.

I don't want to seem like I'm bashing the USA, while I worked there I met many bright people but of course I was in software development, where a brain is kinda necessary.

In recent years some religious leaders have made a few puerile attempts at dogma modification in order that it become more suited to modern times, but their efforts are doomed to failure. It's too little too late, to win hearts and minds again they'd have to scrap the whole deal and start over, but of course that would make a joke of the entire thing! If we manage to survive the religion wars that are currently taking place then there's a good chance that given time, it will all disappear.

I predict christianity will be first to go; the reason being that christian countries have better education and the story is very nonsensical. Probably, some of the Eastern religions will linger longest because they make more sense and they have a lot of followers who are not yet educated.

I've just had a final thought...if religion were true and there was a heaven, what would be the point of being here on Earth?

Think about it...I will.

The Second Coming

2004-11-25T13:20:00.000Z

I imagine that most christian sects would be delighted to learn that the arrival of Jesus was impending, but I bet not many have given thought as to how it would actually happen. It would be difficult for some guy claiming to be The Son of God to get taken seriously, even if he was wearing a robe and carrying a few fish and a loaf!

But let's be generous, let's say Jesus was able to convince christian leaders like George Bush and Tony Blair that he was the genuine article, what good would it do? Not much, I suspect. Worldwide, christians are vastly outnumbered by non-christians who would probably be mightily unimpressed by the news, in fact it may have to be kept quiet so that christians didn't become the laughing stock of the planet! Imagine how we in the christian dominated part of the world would react if another religion announced it's God had returned? Would we believe it? I think not.

No, a second coming is the last thing we need from any religion, if true, it would be a worldwide disaster. Imagine what would follow if any one religion could say with certainty:

"See, we told you so! Ours is the one and only true God!"

Planetary mayhem would erupt the next day.

Luckily, this is not going to happen....well, I can't be absolutely sure of that, only about 99.9999999999999999999999999999% certain!

The Meaning Of Life?

2004-11-24T02:02:00.000Z

Five hundred page - maybe larger - books have been written on this subject. Mine is a short simple version, the answer is; there is no meaning. We individually give, or take away, meaning from our lives. You and I are here because our parents were an evolutionary success, that is Nature's way, that's all there is to it.

Of course as humans, we may feel that those simple facts are a little brutal and perhaps not worthy of such a magnificent species as us but that's wrong; we are just primates who have gained some intelligence. Personally, the search for truth gives meaning to my life, it gets me high, I have no need for drugs, intoxicants, fairies, gods or mumbo jumbo of any kind. It doesn't matter what you do, if it gives you a feeling of fulfillment, then you have meaning in your life.

I admit the feeling that we will probably be one of the shortest-lived species ever to inhabit the Earth, leaves me a little depressed. In fact, our demise may be as a result of our intelligence, we have learned and discovered many things in a short time but seem pathetically unable to reach the realistic level of maturity required to handle the knowledge. Many species on Earth have been here much longer than us, they are the kind of creatures we would consider among the least intelligent, reptilians, for example.

It seems clear then, that intelligence has little, if any, survival value. Perhaps that is the default condition of life in the Universe - rarely, a species evolves to intelligence and then promptly destroys itself because of distrust, national fervour or religious nonsense. I harbour a glimmer of hope that we may survive our technological adolescence but sweeping changes must occur, here are just a few.

All organised religions must go away, they have killed millions of us already and still pose the most dangerous threat.
Nationalism and patriotic fervour are also dangerous, nations must go, we need to become citizens of the planet.
It seems obvious, but needs to be said: survival of the species needs to be the goal of each and every one of us.
The foolish greed that drives some of us must be suppressed, we need to ensure that all of us can reach our potential.
The worth of a person must be measured by what they can do that benefits humankind in general, desire for fame in a nonsense activity is worthless.

Now, being realistic, I know that most of these things will not happen soon and a few may never come to pass, that's why I don't think we'll make it. It's highly unlikely but possible, that those younger than me will witness contact with an intelligent alien species at some future time. I'd be willing to bet that many, if not all of the characteristics above, will form part of their culture.

I will also bet that no-one in their culture will be capable of calmly sawing the head off one of his fellows whilst mindlessly chanting that god is great.

Animals like these are unworthy of the name "animal".

Warning! Religion Definitely Makes You Stupid

2004-11-24T01:40:00.000Z

Well, it does if you really believe that self-proclaimed archbishop Gilbert Deya can give women babies by prayer alone, since his is the fastest growing religious cult in the UK, the inescapable fact is that there are thousands of stupid people out there.

This evening the BBC broadcast a programme about this charlatan that posed the question: “Miracle Babies?” I’m surprised it needed to be aired; this man has already had at least one court judgment against him for child theft that most people have heard about. No, there’s no doubt or question here, these are most certainly not miracle babies. Why is this crook not in jail? Why is Scotland even thinking of allowing him to open a “church” in Glasgow? Why does he already have one in London that is currently undergoing a £1 million facelift? Just to clarify the situation, here are a few things that have emerged in this case.

A woman (Deya’s wife I believe) has had 13 children in 5 years, we know this this is not possible – they must have been miracles right?
The parents of stolen children have won their cases through simple DNA tests.
He even has a TV show that explains to women how they can become pregnant just by watching. The show started in Kenya (his homeland) but is available in the UK.
This criminal says that we in Scotland are full of demons and need his help!
Not all the babies are stolen, several female followers proudly display their prayer-only induced, fat bellies.
One woman said that after a successful praying session her son was born three months later (he was a whopper, no doubt)!

The saddest and most depressing fact of all is this:

All a trickster has to do is say that it’s the work of Jesus and people just throw their brains out the window. There’s no escaping this, these poor dupes must have heard the overwhelming evidence against Deya and yet they still believe him, not only that, but they must be giving him large donations! How else could a man who started in a Nairobi slum afford top-of-the-range cars and be able to lavish a fortune on his so-called churches?

Worse still, those same Deya disciples - were they able to read and write - would probably be daft enough to argue against my writings here!

What is wrong with some people? Is there a thickheaded religion gene at work here, a relic of The Dark Ages? I'd like to hear Richard Dawkins thoughts on that. This is one of the most simple, straightforward cases of religious chicanery to come to light in recent years, yet it takes a trick! Come on ladies! Even the dimmest among you must have at least a vague recollection of a man doing...something strange with your body?

Ah, what I would give to have no conscience, I can think of many ways to make money from foolish “sky daddy” followers but I just can’t do it. Maybe I’ll go to heaven…(ugh).

The Grand Canyon

2004-11-23T14:21:00.000Z

So, the biblical flood made the canyon - at least the book that Bush backs, says so.

It seems that the perpetrators of the Bush government's "Faith Based Initiatives" have decreed that the book be sold in the canyon educational centre alongside sensible journals that explain the real geology. Letters of protest from the Park's Director and others had no effect.

What's next I wonder?

The world today is awash in religious stupidity; not devotion; not even fervour, just plain old stupidity. On the one hand we have fanatics who care nothing for life, on the other we have idiots who believe that all species on Earth would fit in a wooden boat. We need to stop showing any kind of deference or respect for people who try to hide behind religion and use it for their own pathetically obvious ends.

If you really think that the Noah's Ark story is true, or that a martyr will go to heaven and be master of seventy virgins, you're not being devout; all you're doing is showing sensible people that you're amazingly fucking stupid!

For Kenny

2004-11-16T20:04:00.000Z

Hello Kenny.

When I first put the Burqa Report together, I realised that there may just possibly be one or two individuals who have perhaps, been trapped in a cave somewhere and therefore may be unaware of the whole Taliban/Afghanistan situation and their suppression of women via the burqa. In addition, these people may also fail to make the religious connection, especially if their knowledge of American politics and republican hypocrisy is minimal.

However, my attempt at humour would have at least been diminished if I had to explain everything, so I decided to give readers the benefit of the doubt. There you have it Kenny, sorry you missed the point - or perhaps not...depends on which Kenny you may be!

Would all other cave-dwelling potential Kenny-type commentators also please take note of the above explanation.

What I'm Saying Is...

2004-11-14T16:12:00.000Z

Know what ah'm sayin'?. Know what ah'm sayin'?

No, I don't know what you're saying, but if you put a little effort into improving your fluency, then perhaps I will!

Burqas Are Dead

2004-11-13T14:04:00.000Z

(Readers tip: start at "Bush's Burqa Deal" below )

It is with mixed feelings that I report to you on the death of the American burqa.

In a shock announcement the President, flanked by Falwell, Ashcroft and Victoria Vindictive of the ASF, said that with a heavy heart, he was forced to shelve the burqa project indefinitely. Citing failure of the Afghani supplier as the reason, Bush stated that he felt personally cheated by "Them "b******* in Afghanistan".

"That's the thanks I get after all the help I gave them", he said.

In interview, Falwell said that he, Ashcroft and Vindictive, had spent the last week trying to get the burqas manufactured in the USA.

"All the companies said they could make them, but the price of the burqa would rise to $350 instead of the $25 we'd already promised the American people", said Falwell.

"We realize that such an increase would do our re-election prospects no good at all, so we had to admit defeat", he said.

I immediately contacted Mustapha Phag, head of the Afghani consortium, to get his side of the story.

"Yes, it's true", said Phag.

"We turned Bush down because he didn't want to honour his side of the deal".

"It's not about money, it was trying to avoid the religious issue that angered us", fumed Phag.

After much cajoling, I managed to get Phag to give me the scoop. It seems that as part of the original deal to get each burqa for for 60 cents and a Big Mac, Bush had agreed that he would get legislation passed that would grant all followers of Islam immediate United States citizenship, with six months free accomodation in a luxury hotel while they looked for a job. Additional legislation would be passed forcing American employers to hire the Muslims at a special, Islamic-only, minimum wage rate of $50 per hour.

"I guess the spineless little bastard had second thoughts when he got back home", sneered Phag.

"Well, fuck him and his GOP, he'll get no cheap burqas here", were his closing comments.

Well folks, I guess that MAB, AAAB, and most others will feel they've won a victory even if it wasn't their efforts that achieved it. I had a final word with Bertha Bulbous of BAG, the minority group.

"We're very upset" said Bulbous.

"We larger-than-normal ladies always get fucked, well... we don't get fucked, but we get fucked figuratively if you see what I mean", she cried.

I expressed my sympathies and slipped silently away.

Burqas Are Cool!

2004-11-13T13:32:00.000Z

Well, I must admit I didn't expect it but a new feminist group named BAG (Burqas Are Good) has emerged and to everyone's surprise, is solidly behind Bush's Burqa Plan. Their leader, a somewhat large lady named Bertha Bulbous, had this to say:

"Here at BAG, we love our burqas, the average woman needs to understand the advantages"

She then went on to recite a list as follows:

Perfect for shopping (or shoplifting) the burqa can easily be modified to have large internal pockets. On returning home, a lady can tell her husband she bought nothing - he'll be none the wiser!
The baggy shape of the burqa hides the body perfectly - no more embarassment over flab or cellulite.
The head part is a real money saver, no make-up, no hairdos, imperfections like facial or protuberant nasal hair, are completely hidden!
Finally, the burqa has a dietary advantage, the physical difficulties presented by the visor ensures that women can only eat in the privacy of their own homes - weight loss is guaranteed!

With a very upbeat tone Bertha added:

"Laura (The First Lady) has invited myself and a few others to a lawn party at the White House, she wants to tell us of even more benefits of the burqa!"

BREAKING NEWS

During burqa trials in Florida two of the women involved, have died from heat exhaustion. After removing their burqas, doctors discovered that both were wearing full outfits of normal garments underneath! A health official in Boca Raton said:

"We stress that burqas must replace normal clothes, Floridian ladies need only light underwear." "In fact, they can be nude underneath, no-one will give them a second glance anyway"

Some Mo' Burqa

2004-11-13T01:21:00.000Z

I knew it! It was only a matter of time before AAAB (African Americans Against Burqas) got in on the act. So far, the group have yet to find a suitable spokesperson, but are nevertheless making their presence felt by lobbying and picketing outside department stores. They lost a little ground recently when one of their escapades backfired.

After successfully stopping a large truck supposed to be containing burqas outside the Atlanta based J.C. Nickels store, several crates were thrown into the street and set alight. Within a few seconds the boxes started exploding and the calm air was filled with a wonderful odour! It turned out that the shipment was really a consignment of those large crown-shaped car air fresheners.

Just to prove that it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good, a spokesman for the KKK in Mississippi stated recently:

"I have to admit our popularity and power has waned in recent years, but this here burker thing has given us a new lease of life".

" 'Cos blacks don't like them burkers, we's fixin' ta git all our members togged up in 'em, then we gonna have us an old fashioned necktie party!"

All this has had little effect on the GOP, Bush and the ASF who are still adamant that burqa wearing is right and proper for American women, the President has stated that if Congress doesn't back him, he'll sign an executive order and that will be that!

More Burqa

2004-11-13T01:06:00.000Z

Folks, this burqa thing is taking over my life! I just had a call from a lady named Penelope Pernicious who said she was founder and President of MAB (Mothers Against Burqas).

"We're really pissed about this!", she said.

"All of us voted for Bush but we didn't expect that asshole to go this far!".

I asked her to calm down and moderate her language but she pressed on in the same vein.

"Fuck that!" she yelled, "I've got three kids of burqa age and I want to know how the fuck I'm supposed to know who the hell they're playing with?"

"They'll all look the fucking same!" she railed, "It could be the daughter of any scumbag my kid is playing with, it's not good enough, those GOP bastards haven't thought this thing through!"

I agreed she had a point and suggested she call Victoria of ASF to see if something could be done.

"That whore!" she screamed, "I tried her before I called you, she's a fuckin' evil bitch with her own agenda and no help at all!"

Eventually I managed to stop her cursing and promised to use what little influence I may have, to help her. I get the nagging feeling that this thing is opening up a king-size can of worms, there's a whole lot more to come. Stay tuned for more on the American burqa saga!

Burqa Battles

2004-11-12T23:15:00.000Z

Since news of the burqa deal broke, ASF have been inundated with calls from women expressing consternation about the implementation laws. A vociferous lobby of celebrity females are worried that fans will no longer recognize them.

"We'll be able to mingle freely with the public!" complained a well-known starlet.

"I want some kind of name tag ID on my burqa", said another.

Victoria Vindictive of ASF said:

"While we have some sympathy for them, we can't go changing the rules just for some air-headed celebs, for example we've made concessions on color choice, they'll be able to get black or brown versions now!"

"After tremendous pressure from the Jewish community, we also made a jewellery concession; any woman can wear as much as she likes as long as it's under the burqa"

All this turmoil has caused the President himself to step in, after consultation with the Evangelicals, he finally decreed that each state will hold an "I Love My Burqa" pageant every 4th of July, the winner will receive a specially made "Stars and Stripes" burqa with dispensation to wear it for a whole day!

I'll be following burqa developments closely, so rest assured that you'll be kept informed.

Bush's Burqa Deal

2004-11-12T19:51:00.000Z

NEWS FLASH!

It's just come to my attention that George W. Bush and a feminist group named ASF (American Subservient Females) have formed a corporation that will import 100 million burqas from a cheap labour supplier in Afghanistan, the garments will be on sale at department stores throughout the USA. All American females over six months old will be required by federal law to wear the burqa but to avoid price gouging, the price nationwide will be fixed at only $25.00 per item (only $2 more for the special version with built-in diaper! Restrictions may apply).

A spokesperson for the group proudly stated that the money earned will be used to furnish every school in the land with a special morning prayer room and the provision of a 6'x6' plaque depicting the Ten Commandments, to be nailed securely to the wall of every classroom. She added that people of the highest possible moral, religious and ethical standards, will be appointed to administer the distribution and police the wearing of the garments. Although the spokesperson would give no names, other sources close to the group indicate that Jerry Falwell will be appointed as chief of distribution with John Ashcroft chief of burqa police.

Most declined to be interviewed but one highly placed gentleman of the religious right said:

"This can't happen soon enough, it's about time we put the women of this country back in their proper place as stated in the Bible, under the dominion of man!"

"Furthermore", he continued, "We will solve this pro-life, pro-choice issue at a stroke; it stands to reason that if a woman's tits and ass are hidden from view, no man will show interest and we won't need them abortion guys no more, got it! "

As usual however, it's swings and roundabouts, although jobs will be created in the construction industry with all the school work, people in the cosmetics business fear major job losses because women will have no further need of make-up.

STOP PRESS

Fast-food giant McDonalds, have said they will be first with burqa-friendly utensils, they already have a special thin drinking straw that fits easily through the holes in the burqa visor.

Pathetic

2004-11-12T18:50:00.000Z

Holy shit! It's happening already! No sooner have Americans voted in the wrong guy but he's biting their ass! I just found out that 20 affiliates of the ABC TV network cancelled a Thursday screening of the movie "Saving Private Ryan", the reason: fear that the FCC would fine them for, wait for it...INDECENCY!

I've seen the film a few times, as far as I can recall, not a single pubic hair, not the merest hint of a nipple, not even the smallest bum-crack, was visible throughout the entire movie! Indecency? I don't think so! No, what they really mean is that they don't want the American public seeing what soldiers really do in battle, God forbid! Children may be watching! The FCC obviously think American adults are too dumb to censor what their kids see - they need to do it for them.

Actually, I think the movie should be shown with the strong prior recommendation that American parents view it with their children. If you really believe that kids are influenced by what they see on TV, what better thing to do? We need to impress upon them that war is bad, bad, bad and a sign of a nation's failure to solve problems peacefully.

Worst of all, is that the real American forces are doing the kind of things portrayed in the film (and worse) every day in Iraq - this whole farce is an example of idiotic hypocritical behaviour, no doubt backed by Bush and his flock of brainless sheep. H'mm...I may be doing Georgie a disservice here; he doesn't have the wit for it; my guess is that some evangelical puppeteers with just a smidgin more brain, may be pulling his strings.

Music Heals

2004-11-12T05:16:00.000Z

I have long been aware that music had the ability to affect my moods, but only recently did I discover it's ability to improve health. I've had some health problems over the last two years and during times when I felt low, I listened to pieces of music I knew well and discovered that I felt physically better afterwards! Of course, I realised it wasn't a direct effect but more likely a by-product of the psychological boost the music had given me. But hey...the result was good and that's what matters!

Come to think of it, what a marvellous accolade for a guy who died hundreds of years ago - to have a positive effect upon a living person.

Un Bel Di

2004-11-12T04:46:00.000Z

Like many opera lovers, I have known and liked this famous Madame Butterfly aria for many years. Recently however, I obtained a video of a recent performance of the opera and watched it several times, I was struck by the beautiful way Puccini crafted it. It reminded me of feelings I had when I first understood the genius of Beethoven's (my favourite composer) Moonlight Sonata. So, I like "One Fine Day" even more than before and Puccini has eased himself up another notch.

Pavarotti Past It

2004-11-12T04:32:00.000Z

I'm embarassed for Luciano, the last time I heard him was not enjoyable, he should retire. I want to remember him as a life-enhancing performer.

Question For Americans

2004-11-12T04:27:00.000Z

I lived in the USA for ten years and got to know something of the culture and politics, my question is. How can anyone with a functional brain, vote Republican?

Favourite Quotes

2004-11-12T03:55:00.000Z

Here are a few quotes that may amuse or enlighten you.

"I like to keep an open mind, but not so open my brains fall out!" - James Oberg, NASA engineer.

"Ockham's Razor is blunt, but it always cuts!" - me.

"If we don't play God, who will?" - Jim Watson (of DNA fame)

"Let's take a visual look at this" - a work colleague.

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" - Carl Sagan, scientist.

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" - Sagan again.

"I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father" - Greg Norman, golfer.

"The needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many" - James T. Kirk, starship captain and selfish bastard!

"Screwing Tasha Yar almost made me human" - Commander Data, Starfleet officer and android.

"The main thing wrong with fundamentalists, is that they're fundamentally wrong! - me

"Wisdom is not the product of schooling but the result of the lifelong attempt to acquire it" - Albert Einstein

Cotton Pickin' Evolution

2004-11-12T03:34:00.000Z

Foolish creationists often bleat that evolution can't be seen working although actually it can - they just don't want see it! Just look at those states most strongly opposed to evolution, their cotton crops are being damaged by insects that evolve too quickly to be completely controlled! I guess old Charlie would chuckle. It's beautiful - you have to admit!