1. British Airways takes beef off the menu to avoid offending Hindus

Comment #178259 by yyuryyub on May 11, 2008 at 3:29 am

"The airline has instead switched to a fish pie..." Mmmmm YUM!

After a dose of that, beef will be back...

2. What really goes on at the Large Hadron Collider

Comment #175694 by yyuryyub on May 5, 2008 at 10:13 pm

TED is always a tonic. Especially if, like me, you just tried to sit through the Stein/Beck (no relation to the author) interview.

Cleansed the deamons.

glad someone else thought so too, gd_edi

3. Dumb and Dumber: A discussion between Ben Stein and Glenn Beck

Comment #175688 by yyuryyub on May 5, 2008 at 9:51 pm

I can usually take a deep breathe and watch this stuff. Not today! After the Peter Singer comment and then editing Richard to say "Space Monkeys did it" followed by that twit of a host saying "Well who made the aliens then" (Richard's actual point) I lost my nerve and turned off the video. My reflux is playing up...

4. The books that inspire me

Comment #157348 by yyuryyub on April 9, 2008 at 1:01 am

Anyone who hasn't read Wodehouse, go and do it this instant! Hilarious and as British as it is possible to be (at least from an Aussie perspective). 'Code of the Woosters' is a good one to start with.

5. Richard Dawkins on The Big Questions

Comment #157237 by yyuryyub on April 8, 2008 at 6:46 pm

The funniest thing has just happened (like right now)! While watching the last of these, a car load of jehovah's witness just showed up at my place. I have been waiting for this, expecting to strike up a fiery argument. I declared right away that I was a gay atheist, and he was ready for me!

"Oh, yes religion causes a lot of war and heartache and is only after your money but please read this magazine". Impressed with his tactics I did a deal with him: Seeing as though I'd already read his book (Bible) I would take his literature and read it if he would read some of mine...

His faced dropped a little but he agreed. I quickly scrawled down a few websites he might find interesting and offered him a paperback copy of TGD (I have a couple).

I now know more about the 'Ancient Kingdom of Lydia', armageddon and the 'true' cause of global warming than I needed to and probably wasted a copy of a fine book. But you never know, he may just read it as he promised...

6. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #148799 by yyuryyub on March 24, 2008 at 12:23 am

I just watched the link( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYTTkenu60Y ) provided by Sinful Messiah and I suggest everyone does the same. I don't think Stein is as devious as Mathis (Wallace?), he is just plain old STUPID. Incredibly, shockingly stupid and ignorant of anything to do with science.

He basically says, 'Biology is not physics or astronomy therefore I should be allowed to say "God did it" in a university setting'. Wow!

7. Religious groups want Russian cartoon channel shut down

Comment #146181 by yyuryyub on March 18, 2008 at 5:58 pm

I hope they also show: Family Guy, Drawn Together, Harvey Birdman, Bromwell High that should get the censors nice and pink.

Happy Tree Friends and Friends banned? I thought innocuous and innocent on the outside/violent and repressive on the inside would be right up both Russia's and the religious' alley.

8. Charles Simonyi Professorship in the Public Understanding of Science

Comment #126275 by yyuryyub on February 12, 2008 at 9:13 pm

Rtambree: "8. James Cameron - science literate, has done science documentaries and would have enormous reach through the media."

I was with ya up till then. James Cameron went digging for Jesus' grave in the middle east (presumably to find the holy grail or something)! About as scientific as Ben Stein...

9. Charles Simonyi Professorship in the Public Understanding of Science

Comment #125722 by yyuryyub on February 11, 2008 at 11:24 pm

DeGrasse Tyson is way too busy in New York and seems to love it there...

My vote would be for V. S. Ramachandran, Larry Krauss or Stephen Pinker, I never tire of hearing them speak or reading their work, just like Prof. Dawkins.

10. Are Darwin's Theories Fact or Faith Issues?

Comment #121146 by yyuryyub on February 3, 2008 at 2:35 am

Let's not forget the fact that this guy Simmons is a medical doctor! I would be horrified to find out my medico didn't believe in evolution.

In fact this is a question I've asked (in a round anout way)that started a fascinating conversation. Luckily she isn't insane and, as it turns out, is a Dawkins fan. Phew... I hope Simmons isn't still practising

11. The Evangelical Rebellion

Comment #103274 by yyuryyub on December 24, 2007 at 9:58 pm

Calm down people! Even if Huckabee gets the nomination (unlikely), he almost certainly will not win the general election. Even if that did happen ('god' forbid) the congress will still be majority Democrat.
As for 'spilling the blood of the Christians'? That is a totally rediculous, ignorant and unhelpful comment. I hope those people making these types of noises are around fifteen years old and don't know better... In any event, they need get teached!

12. Christmas with Christopher Hitchens

Comment #102222 by yyuryyub on December 22, 2007 at 4:07 am

Rtambree, I agree that if homeopathy and "what the bleep do we know" type credulity is the worst of it then we are doing ok. My point is that we will never eradicate credulity as you seemed to be saying these countries had. They haven't, I don't think it's possible.

13. Christmas with Christopher Hitchens

Comment #102154 by yyuryyub on December 21, 2007 at 7:54 pm

Rtambree: "I disagree with this statement: Look, the whole point about religious faith, in my opinion, is that it's not possible to imagine us ever living without it, or eradicating credulity

Just look at Sweden, Norway and Finland and extrapolate forward one or two generations."

Yes, look at those countries. The Abrahamic faiths may be in decline but there's an astrology guide in almost every newspaper and "The Secret" is a roaring success. Credulity reaches further than religion per say.

14. Turkey probes atheist's 'God' book

Comment #91641 by yyuryyub on November 28, 2007 at 7:33 pm

Just a quick idea. If the RDF wants to do something to truly shake things up they should spend whatever money they can raise to translate TGD into as many languages as possible and post them on the net.

I would give money for this to happen and I'm sure Dawkins has already been well compensated for his brilliant work.

Translate it, publish it on the net for free. It would spread so fast that no government could simply ban a website to get rid of it!

15. 2006 Charles Simonyi Lecture: 'Can the Internet Save The Enlightenment?'

Comment #90964 by yyuryyub on November 26, 2007 at 8:23 pm

Oh dear. I have been deeply shocked. I did not realise the deeply poisonous nature of the Templeton Foundation. The distance between my John Barrow and Paul Davies books and my rubbish bin shall be considerably reduced tomorrow.

16. 'Growing Up in the Universe' now available free online

Comment #87939 by yyuryyub on November 13, 2007 at 6:18 pm

I bought this a couple weeks ago!! Don't mind supporting RDF though. Look out for some of the questions Dawkins asks of his volunteers such as: "Have you ever used a mouse before?" 15 years is a long time technologically, and the DVD is worth watching just to see how far we've come.

17. FFRF 07 Conference Footage

Comment #83646 by yyuryyub on October 30, 2007 at 7:19 pm

Just like to say I think Hitchens was totally misrepresented by this blog of Myers (a man I'm disliking more and more). If you listen to the links to the whole speech, he actually gives quite a good account of "why it's wrong to compromise" using East Timor as a very convincing example. Here in Australia East Timor was a huge deal as it was mostly our soldiers who went in and 'eyeballed' the Indonesians. I don't always agree with Hitchens but we must critisize him for what he actually says, not just what PZ thinks he heard.

18. Sam Harris seems like a nice fellow, but very confused

Comment #77223 by yyuryyub on October 8, 2007 at 7:48 pm

These petty, circular debates are surely part of the reason so many people are turned off by the label 'atheist'. I use the term freely myself though I see absolutley no need to become a whining pedant when someone has a different view...

It reminds me of Monty Python when Brian is about to be crucified and, instead of doing something, the Front have a meeting about coming to a form of words that suits all members before action on those words can be taken. So very tedious...

19. Debate between Richard Dawkins and John Lennox

Comment #76122 by yyuryyub on October 4, 2007 at 7:20 pm

It never ceases to bewilder, amaze and stupefy me that intelligent people, scientists no less, can trot out this rubbish and then sit back, fold their arms and smile as if they have totally destroyed your argument... I feel ill!

20. Der Digitale Planet (lecture)

Comment #70127 by yyuryyub on September 14, 2007 at 7:29 am

While I love Jarred Diamond's books, his speech really irks me when he translates into German. For Example: Macadamia nut into macadamia nuut. Surely if the Germans can figure out what he's talking about generally they can figure out "white lab coat" without the perfunctory translation...

21. Richard Dawkins and Alister McGrath

Comment #62526 by yyuryyub on August 10, 2007 at 3:21 am

Forgive me for not reading almost 2000 comments -in case this has been raised before- but this seems like almost every single argument I've had with 'post-modernist' undergrads... "I concede your point about science, though let me twaddle on for five minutes making absolutely no sense and raving about oppression etc." Post-mods are a little easier to bring-around I've found...

22. Richard Dawkins: Author of the Year!

Comment #55930 by yyuryyub on July 13, 2007 at 12:49 am

Professor Dawkins is a great articulator of science and all the praise he receives is deserved. I have literally read all his books. I do feel, however, that some people are starting to build a personality cult around Dawkins that makes me a little queezy... your thoughts welcome.