1. Puncturing the Acupuncture Myth

Comment #286514 by DeepFritz on November 18, 2008 at 4:32 pm

It becomes bogus when (some) practitioners attach meaningless concepts like energy, meridians, yin yang etc. to it, or when they make grandiose claims for its efficacy.

2. The Sea Turtle's Tale: Back to the sea, and back again to the land

Comment #286510 by DeepFritz on November 18, 2008 at 4:29 pm

The Ancestors tale is my favourite piece of all of Richard's works. It is a supreme achievement and a beautiful series of stories about why living creatures are the way they are.

I think the Redwood's tale (talking about carbon dating) should be compulsory learning material (infact the entire book should be) for every schoolkid.

3. Puncturing the Acupuncture Myth

Comment #286501 by DeepFritz on November 18, 2008 at 4:12 pm

One thing that I would like to present as "Evidence" that chiropractors would be the x-ray's of my back pre and post chiropractic work... One can definetly see the improper curvature of my spine has been rectified and that the associated muscle groups are working better because of it. It makes a difference to my running :)

If it takes something like acupuncture or a good placebo to get those muscle groups to relax, then I am all for it :)

4. Puncturing the Acupuncture Myth

Comment #286322 by DeepFritz on November 18, 2008 at 1:33 pm

Having had back and knee pain relieved by acupuncture performed by my chiropractor (who also enjoyed cracking bones), I am one who sits in the pro-acupuncture camp, despite my usual pro-skeptic leanings. If it is purely placebo, then so be it.

My chiropractor also attached electrodes to the pins (generally 4 were used). One could then turn up or down the current flowing through the affected muscle group. The net result after about 15 minutes of this, was that the affected muscle group is relaxed.

I would be very interested in comparing various techniques scientifically and seeing some genuine scientific research into this. The claims in this article aren't quoting any scientific papers - remember you have to apply the skeptical filter to the article despite what it says...

If I have been placeboed into pain relief then it was worth every penny :)

5. Japanese researchers make brain tissues from stem cells

Comment #279856 by DeepFritz on November 6, 2008 at 1:32 pm

How about sending some in my direction!

Better still see if we can program it to disbelieve and implant it in faith heads!

6. Paddy Power offers odds of 4-1 that God exists

Comment #278343 by DeepFritz on November 4, 2008 at 4:30 pm

Given this is an olympic year, I am holding a race for all of the people who claim to be Jesus.

It is called the "100 meters I am the son of god running race" and it's to be held at the SWIMMING POOL!

7. Paddy Power offers odds of 4-1 that God exists

Comment #278265 by DeepFritz on November 4, 2008 at 2:20 pm

I am not to sure about my own existance sometimes! I am willing to offer 4/1 to anybody who can prove it...

8. Atheist Bus Campaign Comic

Comment #274928 by DeepFritz on October 30, 2008 at 2:27 pm

I actually like it - infact, I want to see 70 people dressed as Jesus hop on to the Bus! The comic could at least have a halo around the dude at the bus stop...

You are talking about the best kind of publicity that you could ever get.

9. Interview with Richard Dawkins on fairy tales and retirement

Comment #273352 by DeepFritz on October 28, 2008 at 3:21 pm

Is anybody going to send Richard a copy of Harry Potter'

I too highly recommend the Steven Fry cd version... Also the movies are not too bad a thing to watch.

Might make a good retirement present ;)

One thing that hasn't cropped up is kids believing they can fly on broomsticks - though the muggle quidditch societies at various universities might disagree ;)

10. Interview with Richard Dawkins on fairy tales and retirement

Comment #272552 by DeepFritz on October 27, 2008 at 3:05 pm

Harry Potter is a great read and a great escape to a fantasy land. It does make great use of historical witchcraft and legends and expands upon the possibilities if some of these things were to be true. It actually does a great service to parents, because it actually gets their children interested in reading.

One of the funniest medical papers I have seen is to be found in the New England Journal of Medicine 2003;349:1779. Howard Bennett of George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, D.C., has described the appearance of a new childhood ailment--"Hogwarts headaches," caused, perhaps, by the sustained suspense and tension of young readers as they spend long periods enchanted and excited by these books.

I think it is the same sort of fantasy experience that I got from WInd in the Willows - nobody believes in a talking Toad, weasel, stoat, water rat, mole or badger. But it makes for hours of entertainment.

As one grows up in the universe, the story of how a mole evolved into the creature that it now is, I find to be far more exciting and interesting, but the fictional world, opens one's mind to the thinking about the world around you.

11. Ecological Flea

Comment #264527 by DeepFritz on October 14, 2008 at 4:53 pm

I am going to write a cookbook - The Flavour Infusion!

Hopefully the ride on the coat tails will lead to more cash :)
That is all these fleas are setting out to do - make money...

12. Artist Builds Temple of Science

Comment #257634 by DeepFritz on September 30, 2008 at 9:20 pm

I am amazed by the amount of totally negative comments here... The dude is trying to do something positive.

I think the aims of the exercise are thus:
To create a space where people can gather on a regular basis and experience the awe of science. To invoke something like that is going towards the aims of Carl Sagan of harnessing the science that we know posses with the gathering strength that religion has.

The one thing that I am totally jealous of religious groups is how they can gather together as a community in such large numbers. It is very rare for a scientific event to pull the numbers the way the church can...

The mantras of the scientific method and challenging exisitng understanding and improving our textbooks must be paramount to the improvement of such a place. If nothing else, it would provide focus.

13. Brunswick school board to consider creationism teaching

Comment #256196 by DeepFritz on September 29, 2008 at 12:15 am

How dare they impose the truth! We like to be kept ignorant of the facts and we want our kids kept that way too!

Somebody needs to club Joel Fanti over the head with a stegasaurus ribcage!

14. Eoin Colfer to write sixth Hitchhiker's Guide book

Comment #249866 by DeepFritz on September 18, 2008 at 3:25 pm

Before anybody gets too overheated, just remember that Professor Richard Dawkins has being writing sequels to "Origin of the Species" for decades now!

I am still amazed at how well Tom Clancy is writing now a days. 2-pac seems to be able to keep on releasing albums along with Jeff Buckley. Whilst we are on that subject, I am sure that most people enjoyed Oasis after listening to the Beatles.

As for other books, I am sure that Harry Potter will long out live J.K. Rowling...

If a book is going to be produced, then the real task for mine lies not just with the authors, but the people who publish the book - to avoid churning out pulp in order to make a buck...

15. YouTube Removes Viral Video on Palin's Churches For Inappropriate Content

Comment #248300 by DeepFritz on September 16, 2008 at 3:35 am

Cell phone annointies?!

As a member of the payroll for a telephone/communications company I am thinking that this marketing strategy needs to be expanded EVERYWHERE!!!!

16. Sleek Probe To Map Earth's Gravity

Comment #245456 by DeepFritz on September 10, 2008 at 9:03 pm

Gravity is just a theory!

Actually my bet is that they will find an average value of 9.81m/s^2. I know I am being controversial with this one ;)

17. Gay support group gets straight 'no' from Brethren

Comment #243888 by DeepFritz on September 7, 2008 at 4:44 pm

This is so emaberresing that this has happened 2 Hours drive from where I live. Just out of Melbourne. I have actually stayed at this dump of a camp (for a school camp a few years ago)...

I tend to find that the people who come out against homosexuality are people who are uncomfortable about their own sexuality...


It would be very ironic if it were the YMCA who were concerned about a gay support camp...

18. Yale Researchers Find 'Junk DNA' May Have Triggered Key Evolutionary Changes In Human Thumb And Foot

Comment #243683 by DeepFritz on September 6, 2008 at 8:36 pm

"Our study identifies a potential genetic contributor to fundamental morphological differences between humans and apes," said James Noonan, Assistant Professor of Genetics in the Yale University School of Medicine and the senior author of the study.

The line should actually say - the difference between humans and other apes. Humans are still apes...
There is less difference between us and orangutans than there is between a horse and a donkey.

19. Participating In Religion May Make Adolescents From Certain Races More Depressed

Comment #243007 by DeepFritz on September 5, 2008 at 12:39 am

#10 It's definetly the music...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ope-1Zb5t-k

I think Eddie Izzard here has got it absolutely spot on!

20. B.C. health official says mumps outbreak began with unimmunized religious group

Comment #238136 by DeepFritz on August 27, 2008 at 3:55 pm

Having had mumps as a kid, I can tell you that it is one of the most painful things to get...

To think that things like measels, mumps, poxes, malaria, etc could be totally eridicated if people had faith in science...

21. Imagine No Religion' signs to go up around town

Comment #236993 by DeepFritz on August 25, 2008 at 4:17 pm

I actually hope that there is some attempted vandelism to at least one of the signs. Nothing will gain exposure quite like that. I am sure that some wingnut will try to burn it...

As long as they don't get hit by lightning!

22. Call to teach biblical creation as science

Comment #225601 by DeepFritz on August 7, 2008 at 4:58 am

After reading the article about Mervyn Storey and getting angrier the more I read the dribble coming from his mouth. It got me to thinking...

How big a stockpile of fossilized animals do we have in the world? Can we rub his face in them? Maybe if we have a few spare T-Rex leg bones could we clobber some sense into him?

I am thinking we need to seriously dumb this story down and hammer it down these geezers throats...

For example:
Here are some bones of a dinosaur we know it is this millions of years old for 3 important reasons:

1. There are no dinosaurs living around on the earth and there have not been for quite some time.
2. We can date them using some form of radioactive dating (several different forms). All methods would demonstrate the age of a fossil to within a margin of less than 1%
3. From the location of where the fossil was found (how deep in the layers of rock it was buried), which can be clearly demonstrated along cuttings or cliff faces we shall find that animals evolved over geological time. The deeper something is in the layering of rock formations, then the older it's fossil must be. Funnily enough the age of the radioactive dating matches the age of the rock layer. You also notice other things occuring such as why are there no rabbits in the pre cambrian era? It's because they hadn't evolved by then!

You can believe in a god if you must (I can not disprove him/her/it/them), but please do not disbelieve in evolution. It has occured and is still ongoing...

23. Richard Dawkins interviewed about 'The Genius of Charles Darwin'

Comment #222677 by DeepFritz on July 31, 2008 at 5:24 pm

Can't wait for the TV series. Though the school student bit was very disturbing...

"You can hang up fossil dinosaurs infront of my face, talk about how the light from stars of the distant galaxies takes billions of years to reach us, display the evidence of rock formation and demonstrate the process of evolution over geological time. But, I will not believe it because it isn't written about in my book of make believe and I believe the world is only a few thousand years old!"

Do you have to be a complete MORON as this kid sounded to believe literally that BS!

Could it be that your 4000 year old holy textbook is wrong? Why can you not even possibly consider that?

One of the things that I have noticed about scientific textbooks is that they get rapidly updated and the information changes as more information comes to hand. Just look for example in textbooks as to how many moons Jupiter has. We have gone from around 15 (at the time of Voyager) to around 82 at last count i think. That is in the last 25 years that our knowledge has increased that much, imagine what we have come to learn in 4000 years...

24. Red hot enlightenment led me to believe in one fewer god

Comment #217856 by DeepFritz on July 24, 2008 at 5:54 pm

I always favoured dong over donk in that department... Then again I was born in Wollongong and live in Melbourne. There seems to be a language divide within our 2 cities...

Just ask what the locals mean by football ;)

25. Red hot enlightenment led me to believe in one fewer god

Comment #217843 by DeepFritz on July 24, 2008 at 5:41 pm

Nah Laurie, the engine is called the "Guts" ;)

26. Red hot enlightenment led me to believe in one fewer god

Comment #217756 by DeepFritz on July 24, 2008 at 3:31 pm

Catherine Deveny is one of Melbourne's best Journalists/Media personalities. Her sarcastic wit has been highly developed over time and reading her opinion on what's on the box for the weekend is always amusing even if you like the show that she is trashing.

Instead of World Youth Day - why don't we have World Adult Day? World Adult Day is like World youth day, except we have "Grown Up in the Universe!" and shed off the mythical beings like the tooth fairy, santa and god...

27. Disproving Conventional Wisdom On Diversity Of Marine Fossils And Extinction Rates

Comment #210479 by DeepFritz on July 14, 2008 at 4:34 pm

I think Terry Pratchett had it correct:

SCIENCE: A way of finding things out and then making them work. Science explains what is happening around us the whole time. So does RELIGION, but science is better because it comes up with more understandable excuses when it is wrong. There is a lot more Science than you think.

-- From A Scientific Encyclopedia for the Enquiring Young Nome by Angalo de Haberdasheri (Terry Pratchett, Wings)

28. Band T-shirt draws charge

Comment #199519 by DeepFritz on June 25, 2008 at 10:03 pm

Blasphemy is a victimless crime ;)

29. Intelligent people 'less likely to believe in God'

Comment #192272 by DeepFritz on June 12, 2008 at 4:08 pm

Let's take this the other way. Work out ways to make everybody more critical in their thinking and improve the intelligence of the population. Call it a subversive recruitment campaign...

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

Comment #156237 by DeepFritz on April 7, 2008 at 6:53 am

Us Australians really are too lazy to be bothered to be religious...

If Moses was Australian he would have gone up the mountain with a slab - and after finishing the slab he would have come down with one commandment... BUGGER IT!