1. 'Spiritual' dentist fined $10,000

Comment #180774 by DasSquid on May 15, 2008 at 6:37 pm

DasSquid, the 2 am law doesn't stop you drinking, just bar hopping after 2am. And the Casino is exempt, so if all else fails you can go there and get plastered until the trains start in the morn....

As for fucktardery, I occasionally see stupid little billboards out the front of churches saying stuff like 'another inconvenient truth, those who don't accept Jeebus will burn forever' Such loving folks......

2. 'Spiritual' dentist fined $10,000

Comment #180769 by DasSquid on May 15, 2008 at 6:26 pm

As for fucktardery, I occasionally see stupid little billboards out the front of churches saying stuff like 'another inconvenient truth, those who don't accept Jeebus will burn forever' Such loving folks......

3. 'Spiritual' dentist fined $10,000

Comment #180767 by DasSquid on May 15, 2008 at 6:18 pm

LeeC, Brian English

That's actually quite a lot I didn't know, but to be honest, I have never heard of a problem with abortion before. Obviously I can't back it up with any evidence however I know of a friend of mine that had an abortion.

Just went to her GP, got a referral or what have you, and went and got it done.

I think the abortion law is likely yet another law that is completely ignored and the changing of it would really change nothing in society as a whole.

A touch off topic, one law I certainly don't agree with is this 2am law... I can't believe that the government thinks that it's going to make the city safer. What do they think will happen when groups of people are stranded in the city, drunk (likely) with nothing to do until 6-8am depending on which train/tram line you're on... Either that or they're trying to set up a bunch of drunk drivers for a fall.

A little bit more on topic: LeeC, Brian English, have either of you come across anything that you could attribute to religious fucktardery? I've honestly wanted to ask the question for a good long while because I feel like I'm either VERY lucky at having seen none of it, or just living in a bubble of ignorance.

Note: I don't accept TV or anything like that, as I refuse to watch that refuse.

edit:

DasSquid:

"I'm happily living in Victoria."

This is physically impossible, even if you did manage to win the match on the weekend :o)

4. 'Spiritual' dentist fined $10,000

Comment #180401 by DasSquid on May 14, 2008 at 7:49 pm

I'm happily living in Victoria.

I'm happy also that my Governing bodies take this kind of thing, slap the dentist on the wrists and warn him that if he does it again, he's out.

I'm actually not being sarcastic. Hurrah for Victoria, and not putting up with any shit from Religion!

Note: In Victoria's Captiol, Melbourne, We have more than a few Catherdrals, and most of them are Museums now. I love it.

It's things like this I wonder why Dawkins has referred to Australia as a religious country? Oh, and Ken Ham sooooo doesn't count.

edit: screwed up the italics

5. The History Channel might do something right

Comment #176152 by DasSquid on May 6, 2008 at 5:19 pm

This could be an interesting development, as pointed out this has the ability to take the people who watched Ben Stein's Movie's ad, and get them to watch this, could possibly plant some seeds of doubt, which is fantastic... however a lot of the language here disturbs me.

...equipping approximately 95 percent of living species...

...In the pre-Cambrian era, insects...

6. Truly Bizarre : Indians Throw Babies 50ft From Roof To Thank God.

Comment #174942 by DasSquid on May 3, 2008 at 10:37 pm

Or better yet, maybe a religiously motivated nuclear conflict will flare up between Pakistan and India and all those irrational monsters in that part of the world can die, right? Eliminating people who don't have proper drinking water - let alone proper education - is what we rationalists are all about, after all! High five!

7. Truly Bizarre : Indians Throw Babies 50ft From Roof To Thank God.

Comment #174923 by DasSquid on May 3, 2008 at 9:08 pm

Brilliant Idea!

But as mentioned before, let's remove the blanket, and have the people catch the falling babies with their faith!

Yes! With their faith, and if the babies fall to their deaths, the adults' faith obviously wasn't strong enough!

So just keep trying, and keep praying harder!

Eventually you'll prove yourselves right, or more likely, you'll run out of children and your whole nation will be eraddicated in a single generation because of faith.

Oh please, I'm begging of you, can't you see? I'm on my hands and knees here begging for you to kill yourselves.

8. Yoko Ono, Filmmakers Caught in 'Expelled' Flap

Comment #162959 by DasSquid on April 17, 2008 at 6:00 pm

Now I'm absolutely beyond a doubt sure that Santi Tafarella is either a Troll, or somehow connected with Expelled.

BUT this shouldn't constitute the end of the discussion as to how evolution and eugenics interact. Nor should we ignore, because it is uncomfortable to think about, how evolution has been used by social Darwinists in the 19th century.

9. Yoko Ono, Filmmakers Caught in 'Expelled' Flap

Comment #162930 by DasSquid on April 17, 2008 at 5:14 pm

Aquaria, I'm very much with you there.

Anyone saying that Expelled (producers, et al) shouldn't be sued for their use of Imagine is just... well, plain retarded window licking useless wastes of air.

Anyone trying to say it's a form of 'Fair Use' because it's 'oh so brief', pull your head out of your arse, 35 seconds is over 1/6th of the fucking song! That's not brief, that's grand fucking larceny!

Also, as others have previously said, I don't think that 'Fair Use' extends to using the song in a for-profit situation, someone using it for non-profit purposes might have a 'Fair Use' leg to stand on, but these slimeballs certainly don't.

Edit: Having looked through the Wiki page on Imagine for the length of the song, this controversy is yet to make it to the Wiki.

10. Yoko Ono, Filmmakers Caught in 'Expelled' Flap

Comment #162915 by DasSquid on April 17, 2008 at 4:52 pm

I think that Boyce's position is entirely definsible in regards to his article, and the timely retraction is quite nice.

Though it's his job to report the facts, I wish to give him leniency in the assumption that if a piece of music is in a film that it has been cleared. Though the track record of this production has been the worst that anyone has ever seen in a 'major' production, it's still a major production, and having said that I think it's fair enough for the reporter to think that even the most BASIC of BASIC legal shit had been done.

Obviously he was wrong and he retracted it, which was the proper thing to do. I think it unfair of those here who have derided the man for this mistake, and giving him even more scorn for his retraction... that's ludicrous! He made a mistake, he apologised, what more do you want?

As for the issue, it's likely going to work in our favour ever so much. Yoko will likely take them to the cleaners over this, hopefully she'll stop the release etc, and she clearly has more than enough money and time and most of all, power, to pull it off. Then when the breaks are finally put onto this whole piece of crap, it's 'Big Music' that took them down and not 'Big Science'.

11. Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss

Comment #161853 by DasSquid on April 15, 2008 at 7:39 pm

Is it just me, or did ASMarques post make absolutely no fucking sense at all?

How can you possibly say that the Holocaust is a religion?

Unless of course you are a saying that you don't think the Holocaust happened. I don't think I even need to describe what a religion is, but whatever you think it is, it's wrong.

While the numbers tend to be rather disputed, there is no fucking way that a whole mess of jews/gays/gypsies/what-have-you weren't slaughtered during Hitler's reign, this whole area, you know, that little spat that happened in the late 30s, early forties? yeah, you remember that? it was World War II, and the oopsies that the Nazi's inflicted upon those innocent civilians? yeah, we call that the Holocaust.

Just thought you might like to know.

Edit: Haha, sorry Szymanowski, was typing away while you posted that.

12. For sale: 13-year-old virgin

Comment #161054 by DasSquid on April 14, 2008 at 5:42 pm

*sniffs the air*

My My... smells an awful lot like a troll in here.

13. Did pre-big bang universe leave its mark on the sky?

Comment #158591 by DasSquid on April 10, 2008 at 7:42 pm

I don't think it's the spanner just yet.

These guys will publish their paper, and it'll be peer reviewed, already there is some resistence against this idea. However if their paper gets through peer revision and becomes a credited scientific theory then it'll become a great spanner.

And just on a personal note, it's one I like, the version of the universe I prefer is the expanding/contracting model, and even though Hawking has pretty much proven that wrong, I still like it, it gives the universe thing the ability to literally be forever.

My musings are completely irrelevant however.

14. 'Darwin chip' brings evolution into the classroom

Comment #157958 by DasSquid on April 9, 2008 at 9:37 pm

flobear, what I can gather is going here is this...

The original ligase is being dumped in a solution with a high concentration of RNA molecules. Each time the ligase is replicated it's not replicated perfectly (this is the mutation part), so some ligases(ligasii?) will be better at detecting RNA and bonding with it, and some will be worse. In particular solutions there's likely a threshold the ligase has to meet so it can detect RNA and replicate.

As the ligases that have replicated over and over are moved into pools of less concentrated RNA then that particular threshold increases, here is the natural selection, only the ligases that have the better abilities at detecting the RNA are able to find the RNA molecules and therefore replicate, passing their 'genes' onto the next generation.

So eventually they just keep getting better and better due to the pools of RNA having less and less concentration. So finally, only when the concentration of RNA in a pool is incredibly low, the only ligases that can survive are a whole buttload more efficient than those at the beginning.

This is a fucking marvelous little tool, and being able to have it in classrooms is just sooo damn cool! I wish I was a kid again.

15. Richard Dawkins: 'Growth in creationist beliefs a problem for schools'

Comment #156698 by DasSquid on April 8, 2008 at 6:56 am

I pop off for a short while and a discussion takes place... Damnit.

Well, to be honest, I'm not in this for the Politics, so perhaps I should stay out of such conversations, just stating what I'd seen and obviously I hadn't seen much. Heh.

I'm here for the science side of things, working my way towards getting enough money to study and such, yeah yeah I'm young. I still think Dawkins needs to come on a tour to Australia, there's much support here.

16. Richard Dawkins: 'Growth in creationist beliefs a problem for schools'

Comment #156610 by DasSquid on April 8, 2008 at 3:30 am

Haha, I feel particularly special that one of irate_atheist's responses that wasn't a beautiful string of profanities was directed at me!

Ok, Granted, I can see what you mean, aaand secondsoprano, ok I didn't know that.

I know I sound like some kind of nut, but could it be that one of the reasons that the leaders of the Western nations are professing to be Christians merely out of fear? Fear of the US?

I personally can see it, but I'm a kook. As it seems right now, there are no religiously inspired actions coming out of our Government, and until there are, I really couldn't care what religion the leader of my nation is. PERSONALLY I would prefer atheistic leaders, but at this point in time, it's unfortunate to lend him political leverage with America to profess to be a Xian. I personally don't care what ANYONE thinks in their own lives, just as long as they don't use it in the defense of any of their actions as it seems to be used all the time in America, as we all verily know.

Nothing of the sort is used here, and ol' Johnnie Howard's excuse for heading into that Middle East Mess with America was pretty much 'Because America are our allies and we support our allies.' ... Not a direct quote, but if said in his funny voice, it's still funny as all hell and pretty much what he said. There was NO mention of 'God' in his arguments to head into that mess. This is my point of it not being particularly important to me.

17. Richard Dawkins: 'Growth in creationist beliefs a problem for schools'

Comment #156571 by DasSquid on April 7, 2008 at 10:37 pm

Shuggy, hardly. The city with the most gay oppression from the church is Sydney, and they have an incredibly high concentration of homosexuals there, I believe it to be around 1 in 4 men living in the Sydney CBD area or some such (please don't trust my figures here, I merely 'heard' this somewhere and haven't the time to investigate.)

There is nothing on television, media, or anything that is remotely religious, other than the obvious kooks spouting things from street corners in Melbourne city here, whom are pretty much either ignored or laughed at. We're an incredibly secular country, hell, I don't even know if Kevin Rudd (our current Prime Minister) is even religious! Becuase it just doesn't matter here.

18. Richard Dawkins: 'Growth in creationist beliefs a problem for schools'

Comment #156542 by DasSquid on April 7, 2008 at 7:31 pm

Comet I agree. Hell, I've actively set out to look for arguments at times.

I even went to a Christian High School for all of it, and they were pretty damn liberal. Science stayed in Science, and Bible stayed in Bible. There was honestly only a SINGLE actual Christian in my class!

I think Richard needs to come on down to Australia to see for himself (nudge nudge wink wink) My dear fellow you may stay with me, I've an apartment overlooking the ocean and a FINE selection of Tea!

19. Vatican: Islam surpasses Roman Catholicism as world's largest religion

Comment #152862 by DasSquid on March 31, 2008 at 4:48 pm

Ah, this only generally happens because of the punishment one receives for not being part of said religion.

In a Muslim country dominated by Sharia law, one would assume that if you didn't know the ins and outs of the Muslim religion, you wouldn't be having many more breakfasts, whereas in the European 'Catholic' dominated countries, the award for not going to church or believing in the sky fairy is an extra day to sleep in. Not everyone who is born into the catholic faith MUST be catholic methinks, however we all know the penalties if you even SLIGHT the islamic faiths.

Bah.

20. I always aim to misbehave

Comment #151536 by DasSquid on March 29, 2008 at 12:20 am

PZ... I... I think I love you.

Just... wow.

Indeed he is certainly a hero. Striving to sew chaos in the already chaotic world of these nincompoops. But of course, the likely outcome of all this will be them having a go at PZ for being 'shifty' in obtaining the two-way call function, for which it was already obviously the radio station's fault. (The previous sentence is obviously taking PZ's word as truth in the matter.) If we could possibly get an mp3 of either the entire show or even just of a short leadup to PZ's butting in and their reactions, I would like to have a few belly laughs tonight!

Edit: Oh, silly me, thanks to SkepChick, downloaded and... listening to it in a moment. Ah, poorish quality... anyone got a better quality?

21. Police: Girl Dies After Parents Pray for Healing Instead of Seeking Medical Help

Comment #150414 by DasSquid on March 26, 2008 at 9:24 pm

I know I'm a cynnical hate filled man, but bare with me.

If the atheist movement as a whole can make a big enough fuss about this, ala have as many of the big guns make a fuss over this specific case (or any of the related cases pointed out by the fellows here) then we can turn this into the biggest PR fiasco for the Xians in America.

If we were organised enough, which we likely aren't, we could really hammer in Dawkins' Child Abuse claim, and just really throw it in their faces if they EVER try to argue about this in the future. Next time some redneck calls a radio show to fumble out of his wretched mouth something resembling a question at The esteemed Dawkins about Child Abuse (I'm pretty sure it's been asked before) not only should the reply be about the labelling, but a VERY poignant example made by this case.

Even the dumbest individual can see the problem with this case.

As a side note, these 'parents' should be taken out back and shot, at LEAST the other children MUST BE REMOVED FROM THEIR CARE IMMEDIATELY!

22. The death-of-god debate

Comment #148961 by DasSquid on March 24, 2008 at 7:00 pm

Most religions are smart enough to use spring as a metaphor for reincarnation. Birds sing, eggs hatch, buds burst into life and, if you like, God is love. Only a misanthrope would deny the stirring of springtime juices and not dream of resurrection. Can atheism and religion find some accommodation at Easter?

23. Writer Arthur C Clarke dies at 90

Comment #146114 by DasSquid on March 18, 2008 at 4:14 pm

Having read many of his essay I can say that beyond a doubt that it's an absolute crime that Sir Arthur could not have been the very first guest at the Earth's first Orbital Hotel, which he dreamed of many a year ago.

It's quite scary in ways how accurate a portrait that this great man painted so many years before anything of the such occurred.

*shaves his head getting ready for his later predictions*

One thing can be absolutely certain. The name Sir Arthur C. Clarke will never be forgotten by human civilisation. Congratulations good sir! For such a wonderful life!

24. 'Anonymous' takes anti-Scientology to the streets

Comment #144742 by DasSquid on March 16, 2008 at 5:07 pm

I'm VERY pleased that this is getting coverage here. Had I the time at the moment I'd post all of what I could, links and the such, but I'm sure that if you just search for Anonymous.

I am proud to say I'm participating in this, in terms of the way things have been going, nothing that Scientology has said Anonymous has done, has been done by Anonymous, though we're all individuals, we're highly accountable for each others' actions, people who do this kind of thing within Anonymous, one can be assured that they will be turned in to the authorities as soon as possible.

The best part of it all really, is that our goals are being realised. People are LOOKING INTO it, which is precisely what we're after, after people... ordinary people look at this, and chuckle, thinking that they're crackpots (which most probably do) then we're doing out job properly. :)

On that note, the next Activity is Scheduled for April 12, Project Reconnect, based on Scientology's Disconnection policy, stands will be set up all over the world for which people in families of Disconnected people and hopefully Disconnected individuals themselves. Most of these people likely don't have the knowhow or the ability to get a video of themselves on the net. We will then record a video of these families and post in on the internet (obviously with their permission) we shall Digg it, get it out there as far as we can get it, hopefully it will get to the intended people.

And Kate Olsen, we hope you can see your family some day soon!

25. Please Call Earth. We Still Haven't Found You.

Comment #137909 by DasSquid on March 3, 2008 at 3:12 pm

I personally think that finding extra terrestrial life is more important than anyone can possibly know.

It has been a running theory of mine that the only time in which humans band together in solidarity is when they perceive a greater outside threat.

Family vs Family, band together for Cave vs Cave, Band together for Moutnain vs Mountain, Town, Province, County, Country, Power Bloc (as we see these days)... The logical next step is to perceive an alien threat, when this occurs we're far more likely to band together, get past the pitiful differences and actually get some shit done.

The other thing I've also been thinking if it were truly a goal for most governments for Earthican solidarity (which it SO isn't) is to fabricate an alien threat. That certainly would band our arses together to get into the ships and get off this rock.

26. Are they running for President or Pastor-in-Chief?

Comment #136809 by DasSquid on March 1, 2008 at 6:28 pm

Forgive me if I'm wrong, probably am, haven't really followed it much due to time.

But I believe that America's greatest hope at the moment is Barack Obama. It's rather obvious that he's an Athiest in a Christian's clothing (for election purposes). I base most of my assumptions on the man from a few of the speeches I've seen him make over YouTube, the Candidates@Google one is especially appealing, he claims to want to put a lot more funding into science and whatnot and severely reduce military spending etc.

Can any Yanks help me out with some information? I ever so rarely see him being discussed, but it is my honest opinion that he's the only hope you lot have.

Edit: Note: I'm from Kangarooland.

27. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #134496 by DasSquid on February 27, 2008 at 10:24 pm

Richard refers to Atheists who are okay with the existence of religion as "patronizing and condescending." Yet I noticed some of his answers to callers were very patronizing and condescending. That's the only way I know how to deal with believers. Therefore, I shall remain in my intelligence high horse until there's an easier way.

28. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #134293 by DasSquid on February 27, 2008 at 2:43 pm

By the way, the picture of me is from a trip to Dublin, Ireland a couple of years ago. The funny thing to me was that in Dublin, there's a huge Guinness brewery, and right on the adjacent street to the brewery is an alcoholics rehabilitation hospital. ;-)

29. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #134274 by DasSquid on February 27, 2008 at 2:20 pm

Off Topic.

Is it her voice is it her accent? but it frustrated me to no end everytime she said "The Gaaahd Delusion."

30. The Encyclopedia of Life, No Bookshelf Required

Comment #133697 by DasSquid on February 26, 2008 at 2:45 pm

Steve,

The thing is, if no one even tries because of the reason you've given there, then the human species would be pitiful indeed.

AT THE VERY LEAST they can get the names of the species of Bird/Plant/Blah life onto a centralised website for someone like myself, if I wanted to know more about an animal/plant I don't have to root around and look for something that I have no idea where to begin.

Granted it could never be FINISHED, doesn't mean it should never be STARTED.

31. The Encyclopedia of Life, No Bookshelf Required

Comment #133671 by DasSquid on February 26, 2008 at 1:51 pm

This is a fantastic idea.

A pox on any of the people that have said that, 'Oh, it's far too big let's not even bother.'

Perhaps have some sort of Scientist Wikipedia style thing happening, with moderators and scientists able to contribute to any particular page, etc.

This, I must say, is a fanTASTIC idea and once starting, it'll steamroll into awesomeness with easily accessible information for all of us.

32. Holy missing link! Ancient bat flew without 'sonar'

Comment #129829 by DasSquid on February 19, 2008 at 3:56 pm

Awesome. Another mystery solved. Science, like 6 gazilion, religion zero.

33. Cutting Edge: Baby Bible Bashers

Comment #129825 by DasSquid on February 19, 2008 at 3:53 pm

Brothers, Sisters!

This Video is wonderful! This couldn't help our cause more!

We have an EASY answer now to the 'Teaching my children Christianity is not abuse.' etc... Pointing them to this video, if they can't EASILY see the problem with it, we can just as easily laugh our arses off at them and destroy any kind of argument they may think to have.

As many posters have said before, this is the height of evil, I mean, I don't like children, and certainly at the moment am not planning on having any, but THIS is absolutely disguisting and makes me sick to my stomach.

Yet another video, I'm fairly sure, that has given me cancer... shit. MEDICAL SCIENCE! SAVE ME!

edit: Rather than make a new post thought I'd just edit this one.

Watching further my brain cancer is subsiding and laughter is taking over... Dude walking around with a sandwhich board in a city, were I to see that I would likely laugh out loud and point him out and get others to giggle. Like some of the people in DC are doing to the kid.

Little black kid has a great voice and stage presence, maybe he should try performing arts instead of preaching... but then again preaching IS a performing art.

Brazillian girl is just creepy. That's all I have to say about that really.

34. The Passion of 'Anonymous'

Comment #126141 by DasSquid on February 12, 2008 at 1:46 pm

MaxD,

I would have to whole-heartedly disagree with you there.

Scientology actively stops people from seeking medical attention, the worst that Christianity(Catholocism et al) gets, (at least to my knowledge) is they do their best to stop condom usage in AIDS ridden Africa and things of the such.

They certainly don't take someone from their hospital beds, force them into a hotel room and leave them there until they die (effectively). The story of Lisa McPherson is truly an horrific one, and it is my good bet that such a story hasn't happened in Christianity.

Remember people, Prayer does nothing, but Scientology Kills.

(not to mention any of CoS's other tactics like Fair Game, and their Lawyers.)

35. The Passion of 'Anonymous'

Comment #124972 by DasSquid on February 10, 2008 at 2:24 pm

Lucas is mostly right there.

Anonymous' strategy in fighting against the CoS is a particularly effective one. CoS have a track record of being able to track down individuals and punish them with the lawyer hammer, however when anonymous isn't really anyone in particular, who can they go after? Anonymous certainly believes that it is the CoS themselves who sent the white powder to their offices, as that is, possibly, their way of thinking that we'd act, and also a great way to galvanize the general population against us.

I know for certain that if it was a member of Anon that he would be immediately ostracized and the police would be notified of it as soon as we found them. Sure, the first week or two's activities against the websites of CoS were illegal in part, however we did not do that to undermine free speech, or anything of the such, it's just the easiest thing we can do at short notice to get people's attention.

I was proudly part of the 250 procession in Melbourne yesterday commemorating Lisa McPherson's birthday (www.whyaretheydead.net). An ENTIRELY peaceful protest with absolutely no hooliganism, grafiti or any other such nonsense. Though truthfully our protests were mostly meaningless as the CoS presence in Melbourne and Australia is minimal at best, they were generally there for the moral support of Europe and American Anonymous groups. In fact in some ways it was inspiring, I, a staunch athiest, was standing shoulder to shoulder with a devout Christian. So at least we're agreeing on SOMETHING. haha.

I enjoy being part of this, and I'll enjoy continuing being a part of this, as long as everything is kept legal, so we can gain the support of the media, and other highly experienced anti-scientology people, like Xenu.net and that fellow from Xenu TV.

36. A Mutant Obsession

Comment #123192 by DasSquid on February 6, 2008 at 3:05 pm

Ultraviolet G,

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I believe Prof. Dawkins has said that he's wanting to write a childrens book for his next piece.

I can only assume that he's writing a book for kids that explains evolutionary biology in simple terms, so if that's what you're meaning then he indeed IS going back to science for a bit, but is more concerned with getting it to the kids early (which is obvously also 2 birds, 1 stone, etc.) by having them doubt the creation story if/when they hear it.

And again, at risk of causing anger elsewhere, I believe Richard's fight against religion is in the name of science also, surely his earlier works were inspired to educate people in the ways of Evolutionary Biology, and his new work is mostly about religion, but you must relize that these aren't mutually exclusive, in fact they are deeply intertwined. Every moment that is taken out of any scientist's time to step aside and intelectually pummel a creationist is a moment lost not only by the scientist, but obviously a life of reason lost by the creationist.

I just think that his crusade against religion will make the study of evolution and other sciences much more fruitful when they are 'beaten back' to a minority.

37. Scientists discover way to reverse loss of memory

Comment #118614 by DasSquid on January 30, 2008 at 7:41 pm

If we can learn precisely where certain memory is held it'd be great, for example, I have fantastic visual memory, I read or see something, and I RARELY forget it. I have atrocious audio memory, I meet someone new, they say their name, moments later I have no clue.

It seems weird, but at a party if I meet someone new they say their name, if I want to remember it, I whip out my mobile, write their name down and wham, I'll NEVER forget it.

I'd love to be able to stimulate my audio memory... This is rather exciting news indeed!

38. US scientists close to creating artificial life: study

Comment #115814 by DasSquid on January 24, 2008 at 9:01 pm

"The important question is not 'how long?', but 'how wise?'" said Jim Thomas from ETC.

It's interesting that certain people always have this knee-jerk reaction to almost any scientific work, but then they never engage in a thoughtful discussion about it. Instead, they remain in a loop--always fearing the potential ethical implications but never moving forward to help actually develop ethics for the new technology.

39. Questions Delay Creationist Master's Degrees

Comment #112647 by DasSquid on January 17, 2008 at 4:49 pm

If the commissioner of higher education, Paredes, really does insist that the perpetrators of this fuckwittian proposal must actually provide a description of the research they are prepared to do, it will be their undoing.

What research could they possibly propose??? The mind is boggled!

40. Ben Stein Bribing Schools to See His Anti-Evolution Movie 'Expelled'

Comment #112641 by DasSquid on January 17, 2008 at 4:17 pm

Wait... wait... what?

On reading the original article up there, I thought it was just a joke, I was having a good ol' laugh. Then I read a little further... and wait... it ISN'T a joke? The pose... the megaphone, the exaggerated school-like uniform... that cries 'comedy'... not to mention he does look a bit like a comedian we have down here.

But wait what? it ISN'T a comedy? (in as far as proper comedies go?) ...

*sigh* The path to worldwide enlightenment has yet another few cracks and broken bits...

41. Questions Delay Creationist Master's Degrees

Comment #112638 by DasSquid on January 17, 2008 at 4:09 pm

Australia seems to be pretty good on the edumacation scale also, can't be sure but I'd hope for the people in Australia who say Evolution is Fact is high...

Anyway, I'm rather unknowledgeable about such things, however is there ANY kind of court process or something like that which can once and for all make it legally binding that creationism/I.D. is a crock of shit? I know we have things like the Dover case to look on, but I'm thinking more along the lines of Evolution Vs. Creationism as opposed to Group Vs. Dover School board, or some such.

I'm sure if it went ahead, science can prove it's position to a judge, and we could finally just have a piece of paper, or a final ruling finally ruling out Creationism forever... that'd be pretty sweet and make life MUCH easier/more convenient to us.

42. The Group Delusion

Comment #112335 by DasSquid on January 16, 2008 at 9:30 pm

Styrer, I was moreso referring to the course of my everyday life, and I see no reason to turn on me so.

Perhaps I should have made myself clearer.

Shut the fuck up. I believe the motto of this website is 'A Clear thinking Oasis.', you and this Wooter fella are obviously clouding the clear oasis. Best thing to do would be to take my advice aaaaaaand shutthefuckup.

43. The Group Delusion

Comment #112326 by DasSquid on January 16, 2008 at 8:44 pm

Guys. Just calm down.

This is precisely what we shouldn't be doing, both a.) Veering wildly off topic of the forum, and b.) Fighting amongst ourselves and throwing abuse all over the place.

Normally I welcome the abuse slinging and whatnot, but this is the only area in my life where I'm serious about things, so let's keep it serious. Except of course for Diacanu as he's serious about the subject AND aptly able to use abuse in his retorts.

44. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111809 by DasSquid on January 15, 2008 at 7:59 pm

Read through the rest of the posts since I last posted...

One thing that strikes me, now please don't take it as a personal attack because it's now, but do you people understand the idea behind a hypothetical situation?

It mostly works on some personal assumptions as well as assuming some things that are likely impossible. My personal assumption on the hypothetical posed by Shermer here is that it's not 'EVERYONE earns 25k and you earn 50k etc.' it could just mean 'AT the job you're working at now, you earn this much and that much. blah blah' The assumption that things cost the same is made, though it may be an impossible one... same as 'Imagine I'm a girl.' Impossible, I'm NOT however, hypothetical baby.

Anyway... yeah... arr! Stop grinding the article to pieces because y'all can't grasp a hypothetical situation!

45. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111432 by DasSquid on January 14, 2008 at 3:00 pm

Diacanu,

I do agree with you, but unfortunately money is the god of our times, forgive the expression.

I loathe it and I wish something better came along, I'm sitting in front of a computer screen right now, my skills totally unused and there's no light at the end of the proverbial tunnel for me, I'll be doing shit jobs for quite some time yet.

*sigh*

Ah well... Every little time that I get to break out of this hell I'm pleased, every chance to get drunk and whatnot...

46. George Scales, War Hero and Generous Friend of RDFRS

Comment #111412 by DasSquid on January 14, 2008 at 2:30 pm

Dear Mr Scales,

As with my fellow Australian there Damien, I also wish you the speediest of recoveries possible from your operation. Your support in such a time shows an outstanding amount of moral fortitude and clearly shows to the rest of us what I'm absolutely sure that everyone near you already knows, what a wonderful man you are.

With much love from Australia,

Jake Shilling

47. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111176 by DasSquid on January 13, 2008 at 9:58 pm

Damien,

So, if I'm to understand you correctly...

Even though these people are actually earning less, their perceived gains at earning MORE than other people are sufficient to justify you considering that the utility of the lower income is greater? If that is the case, those people are possibly deluded and have severe personality issues.

Well, to be honest, I had never even THOUGHT of this before reading this article. If asked that question on a survey I'd have obviously answered 100k, I just didn't think anyone would answer the other way. So it is important, at least for me, for Shermer or someone to have put this in print, as I'd never have thought of it otherwise.

48. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111166 by DasSquid on January 13, 2008 at 8:26 pm

Damien, I truly don't understand what you're getting at.

The way I've read the hypothetical posed by Shermer is that both situations are precisely the same (so, I'm taking it as same job, same workload same responsibilities etc.) the only thing different is the money that is earned by you and your workmates.

He's also stipulated that everything is costing the same (so a pot of beer is still 4 dollars if you're earning 50k as well as if you're earning 100k) THE ONLY difference in the 2 situations is the money earned.

I believe at least, that he's saying it's odd that people would choose the 50k path for no other reason than to be earning more than everyone else, as opposed to earning double that, but still be earning less than everyone else.

There is not matter of utility or anything of the such, for myself, it's a clean cut matter, one of pettiness in wanting to hold it over other people that you earn more than they do. To me, that's the height of stupidity.

49. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111161 by DasSquid on January 13, 2008 at 7:48 pm

Cartomancer

Ah, roger that. As I did my best to point out that I know absolutely nothing, my only thoughts were due to the fact that after the fellow gay man had been identified that it was a little more promiscuous than the hetero relationship (though I guess my views may be a little tarnished by the uhh... rather promiscuous lesibans I've known in my life) who knows? Maybe you just have a poor gay scene ;)

Anyway, a reinvention if indeed that is what you wish to call it, is a rather fun thing, and since I did it to myself I couldn't be any happier. Forgiving the term for the moment but I consider my Fridays out with my group as pretty much 'holy'. Any one or any thing that intrudes for the worse is considered sacrilegious, such a thing to say on this website, eh? Yeah, we're drinkers, we've probably done a hefty amount of damage to our livers in our short lives, but hey, it helps us have a lot of fun!

I believe that at the moment I'm far too young to be taken very seriously on many subjects, particularly the ones I'm interested in, were I to attempt to debate pastors and whatnot in my area, they'd likely see me as an impudent lackwit, even if I did out wit them.

This gives me many years to hone my arguments, research more, and then generally employ my time in a meaningless and unprofitable way.[/Kryten]

50. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111120 by DasSquid on January 13, 2008 at 4:22 pm

I'm fairly sure that the hypothetical is that they're relatively similar if not the same jobs, it wouldn't make sense if in the hypothetical that the jobs were so radically different.

If the 100k job was boring and the 50k job was a whole lot of fun, then for sure I'd go for the 50k job, 50k is more than enough to get me by and get me on some fantastic holidays, and since I would be having fun at work then I'd feel pretty good all the time, so certain things can be taken for granted, such as this.