Do I really need to say anything?
March 5th 2010
So have you heard this story? Harry Taylor, a 59-year-old philosophy tutor and “militant” atheist, has been arrested and charged with three counts of religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress under the Crime and Disorder Act. His crime? Leaving humorous cartoons poking fun at various religions in the prayer room of John Lennon airport in Liverpool. In court the cartoons were described to the jury as being “sexually abusive and sexually unpleasant” but for the life of me I can’t see where they are getting this from based upon the description of the cartoons listed in the Telegraph.
February 27th 2010
They didn’t even wait this time,
Our end of the world predicting friends have changed their minds again, and this time we didn’t even reach the date of their last prediction before they did it. Could that be a sign that they are starting to have doubts? Nah, that’s just crazy talk. Anyway for those keeping track here is the new date for your calendars:
WARNING:
Will The Rapture & Sudden Destruction take place ON OR BEFORE:
Rosh Hashanah, 2010?
For those who don’t know Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year holiday, which this year takes place between September 28th and September 30th. So according to our rapture ready pals we have to worry about the end of the world happening at any point between now and the end of September. Great, that’s not going to put a crimp in my plans at all.
February 17th 2010
…quoted on Ray Comfort’s blog.
Misplaced trust
“Rabbitpirate said…Let’s play ‘One of these things is not like the others’. Ok here we go: 1. Trust in Doctors, 2. Trust in Banks, 3. Trust in Pilots, 4. Trust in Mechanics, 5. Trust in God. Which of those things is not like the others? And the answer is….Number 5, Trust in God. All the others are based upon some form of evidence that allows them to demonstrate that they are trustworthy. A untrustworthy Bank would not get much business. An untrustworthy doctor would not get a lot of patients. However with God the trust is not based upon evidence but upon faith. You have faith that God is worthy of trust.”
RabbitPirate…I ask respectfully–what planet do you live on? You said that “an untrustworthy doctor would not get a lot of patients.” Don’t you know that doctors bury their mistakes? Medical mistakes are the eighth leading cause of death in the U.S.
You said that an untrustworthy bank would not get much business. They don’t need it. They get bailouts.
Do you trust pilots? Did you know that most plane crashes are caused by “pilot error”?
Then there’s your faith in car mechanics and manufacturers. Do you have faith in Toyota’s mechanics?
You trust everyone but God, and yet He has never let one person down, ever. He is utterly faithful. If you don’t trust Him, that is a flaw in your character, not His.
However, I can think of no greater example of misplaced trust than the faith that believers have in the theory of evolution. They are an example of “blind” faith, with no need for any empirical evidence. The only “evidence” they have is a belief that what they have read or have been told, is true.
My comment was in response to another of Ray’s posts about how “When the Bible speaks of “faith” in God, it is referring to a “trust” in Him.” Ray compared our trust in doctors, pilots, teachers etc to trust in an invisible God. I simply pointed out that we have evidence that we can trust doctors etc but that no such evidence exists with regards to God, in reply to which Ray switches track completely and starts going on about how we can’t trust doctors, pilots etc. I have to say I’m confused.
February 11th 2010
The NHS does something useful,
Yeah, who’d thunk it. Anyway this is a nice little video produced by the NHS staring Ben Goldacre about the Placebo Effect. For more on the placebo effect check out my post on the subject.
February 8th 2010
…if this wasn’t the exact argument they actually make. Watch out for the Gay Gestapo, they’re gonna get ya.
February 8th 2010
This thing is awesome, if every so slightly creepy. Introducting the Big Dog, a robotic creation from the labs of Boston Dynamics, not to be mistaken for Massive Dynamic which is a different company entirely. This robot is designed to assist troops on the battlefield by carrying much needed equipment across rugged terrain. It is still in its prototype phase but DARPA is so impressed it has just awared Boston Dynamics a $32 million contract to improve the design. My dream of some day having a robotic dog is now one step closers.
It really does move like it is alive which is why I think there is something a little unnerving about it. Still fricking cool though.
February 8th 2010
You wait ages for one hot Japanese babe…
…And then two come along together. So my last Birthday Babe was a Japanese gravure idol who happened to pop up in the corner of one of the websites I use for my Birthday Babes posts. So at the weekend I loaded up the site and spotted another lovely young lady of whom I had never heard smiling at me from the corner of the screen. I of course clicked the link to check her out and was suitably impressed. Things would have probably ended there however if the site hadn’t listed her birthday as being the following Monday, that’s today. Ah well what’s a guy to do. So please join me in wishing a very happy 22nd Birthday to the lovely, if unpronounceable, Nozomi Sasaki. I think I have come to the conclusion that I rather like gravure idols and I hope you enjoy the pictures too.
PS. As you can probably tell I had trouble narrowing the pictures down on this one as well. Damn these models and their perfectly formed bodies and wide collection of revealing outfits, damn them all to hell.
February 7th 2010
Holy caption competition Batman,
So I found this little Batman and Robin comic strip generator on the intertubes and as it made me chuckle I thought we could have a little competition to see who could come up with the best dialogue. Here’s one I came up with:
Yeah ok so it is a bit naff. Think you can do better? Go for it and post the results in the comments. If you don’t know how to post images then just copy the code below, replacing the text between the “” obvious part with the address of the image you create, and paste it into a comment.
<img src=”copy and paste the address of the image you created here”>
[img]replace this text with the address of the image[/img]
Let’s see what you got.
UPDATE: My original instructions on how to post a picture in the comments didn’t work. I have now corrected them so that they do. Alternatively you could just click on the “You can add images to your comment by clicking here” link under the submit comment button that I just added, though some browsers may block this method.
February 3rd 2010
Last year I went to the excellent TAM London and had myself a very good time. Well the DVD of the event is now available for pre-order and they have released a little trailer that I thought I would share with you so that you can get a better idea of what it was all about.
I didn’t spot myself in this video but I expect I will be somewhere in the finished thing as I was very near the front for the whole event.