1. Ancient African Exodus Mostly Involved Men, Geneticists Find

Comment #312199 by King of NH on January 4, 2009 at 5:42 pm

Perhaps they were matriarchal societies. If the women "owned" the land, then the men and unlanded women would be the ones to move out to find new pastures.

I don't think this is far fetched, since many ancient cultures offered reverence to women and some early animistic religions worshipped goddesses. I know this sounds like some form of reverse xenophobia, but there were so many good posts already here, I wanted to say something different.

In truth, I think the naggers were the ones who followed the men, nagging through the last 60,000 years! We should of run off while they were in the bushes.

2. Richard Dawkins on The Big Questions - 28th Dec 2008

Comment #311770 by King of NH on January 4, 2009 at 6:28 am

I would like to chime in on the manners aspect. As a teacher-to-be, I find the "you must earn respect" attitude of the young woman to be foolishly and dangerously ignorant.

She fails to comprehend that, as a teacher, she represents the education system as a whole at every class. Allowing students to ignore or disrespect her in the role of a teacher is to allow those student to disrespect academia and all it has to offer.

This is the same idea as, say, giving the finger to a police officer. If you flip off a man who's job is a police officer because he is acting as an off duty dick-head, you disrespect the man. To flip off the same man in uniform, simply because he is dressed as a police officer, your statement is directed at the institution itself, not the random man in blue you spied.

These are important distinctions that I can only hope to have emphasized here. We must respect the student teacher relationship even if we do not respect the individuals within that relationship.

3. Religious Test

Comment #309788 by King of NH on December 31, 2008 at 3:30 pm

I think we have set ourselves too great a task, religion can never be overcome.

We said the same for smallpox, polio, plague, slavery, suffrage, space travel, and a black president.

Perhaps, just maybe, possibly, we need to stop convincing ourselves the effort is too great, the odds too little, and enemy too unreasonable. I hate to hear people state, as though it were a fact, that war will always be here. Poverty, crime, racism, and disease are not "just a fact of life." There is no sound reason to accept this. There is no evidence to support the idea. There is only a past filled with such misery, but a past that has continually improved in both health and social justice.

I admit. I do have faith. Like a theist rationalizes his imaginary patriarch, I rationalize my hope for a better future. I have faith that men and women will forge a better society that does not include religious babble or grossly excessive wealth at the cost of millions. So sue me! (not really, don't sue me, I'm not excessively wealthy)

On the eve of the year of Darwin, I'll reflect on this: from a simple glob of aimless RNA to a sophisticated replicating survival machine, I have come too far to surrender now!

4. The New Atheism, a definition and a quiz

Comment #308558 by King of NH on December 30, 2008 at 3:53 am

I think most people are New Atheists, and they don't believe in the new gods (Flying Speghetti Monster, Invisible Pink Unicorn). Clearly, Brown finds this deplorable and thinks we should welcome and worship these new deities.

I think of myself as both an Old Atheist, having the mental capacity to think beyond Jewish tribal myth, and a New Atheist, having the knowledge of when and why the new gods came to be.

But alas! who are we such undeveloped creatures of godless stupidity to argue with Brown? Evidently, his faith has shown him the noodly appendages and that is better than reason. Someone send the man a pirate hat.

5. Saudi court tells girl aged EIGHT she cannot divorce husband who is 50 years her senior

Comment #305829 by King of NH on December 23, 2008 at 5:08 pm

Why didn't I think of this???

A daughter sells for £5000?!?!

I need more wives. Have fun, make money, and destroy humanity all at once, and get away with it by assuming piety! These people are geniuses!!!

My religion declares that children are property and fit to be sold to my bail bondsman. If you argue, you are being xenophobic and hateful! Now give me government cheese so I can enforce this.

6. Origin Of Life On Earth: Simple Fusion To Jump-start Evolution

Comment #305828 by King of NH on December 23, 2008 at 5:02 pm

Fairly educated man in rapt attention at the dancing monkey.

...can't...look...away...smile...too...big...for...feet...hideous...yet...beautiful

7. Origin Of Life On Earth: Simple Fusion To Jump-start Evolution

Comment #305755 by King of NH on December 23, 2008 at 2:52 pm

Comment #305730 by Steve Zara:

Luckily for us, the earth is well funded with salt. It's very probable that the early earth had much more expansive salt distribution, only pooling into oceans after many years of water erosion carried it there. Every puddle was probably like a pool of tears (pool of tears? Shut up, I'm trying to be poetic).

The hardest time I have understanding evolution in the fullest sense is the absurdly simple process. I think we all too often slip back into 13th Century science mode.

"What great energy from what cataclysmic event shaped RNA to DNA?"

"Oh, vinigar at room temperature does the trick nicely."

Ah, the immortal phrase - Keep It Simple, Stupid!!!

8. Would you Adam and Eve it? Quarter of science teachers would teach creationism (Response by Dawkins and Jones)

Comment #305738 by King of NH on December 23, 2008 at 2:36 pm

"...and so the greater the mass of the object, the more gravity it exerts. Take the moo..."

"But my religion says that Grifnickle hold us down to the earth by blowing kisses"

"Oh, well, yes, that is certainly a possible explanation. But if we stay with Newtonian..."

"I think clouds use laser guns to keep everything in place"

"Er, how do lasers... Well, I mean, that is a wonderful idea, and I am sure it is true also. But this calculation can tell us how fast to shoot this..."

"Fairies can glue our feet with morning dew!"

"Yes, they can! And rockets can escape earth's gravity if they trav..."

"The clouds shot my ice cream into the morning dew and it splattered."

And so, Professor Dawkins II is forced to admit defeat in the above "Oxford of 2015" class dialogue. The good news is he was able to send the class off a cliff yelling "Catch me, fairies" while he watched, sipping a pina-colada and humming Jimmy Buffet songs.

9. Key Event That Breaks Continents Apart Discovered

Comment #301394 by King of NH on December 14, 2008 at 6:06 pm

xsjadolateralus:

You are asking too many questions, I think, to get into. Good questions, but a lot. There is gravity pulling on one edge that pulls the plate over. There is erosion. There are lunar, tidal forces. There is the heat ramining from earth's birth.

Maybe someone here knows a good book?

10. Key Event That Breaks Continents Apart Discovered

Comment #300785 by King of NH on December 12, 2008 at 2:22 pm

I still don't see how this could account for our oceans considering much of the ocean's surface is somewhat smooth and without debris.

The ocean's surface is smooth and regular because it is water, and tends to attempt a spherical... Oh, wait, probably means the bottom. Okay. There, too, though, it is the water. The water "evenly" disperses the soil into a relatively smooth surface, since there is no underwater runoff to gouge paths through this surface. It is, as defined, the bottom. If we were to blast the sand out of the way, we would find a rocky and disjointed surface preserved in its scarry birthpains.

Iceland is one of the evidences that the ocean is not even or smooth. But Iceland will eventually erode and fall as a sandy cloud, drifting evenly down to the ocean floor.

I guess the best opportunity to see this effect is to go to a mountain lake. There you can climb the rocky outcropings to a craggy shore, put on some goggles and tip toe across the sharp mineral debris and shards of quartz, and swim down to see the smooth, sandy lake floor. The ocean is just this on a much bigger scale. [caution: mountain lakes are often very, very cold]

11. Teachers 'beat and abuse' Muslim children in British Koran classes

Comment #299447 by King of NH on December 9, 2008 at 6:21 pm

Or...

Parents that willingly submit their children to abuse can lose their rights of raising that child (and all others) and spend a few years in a prison cell. Period. What utter cowards with such lack of intellect that they resort to abuse to deal with a five year old. Seriously? I should think that "Allah's inspiration" would be somehow, I don't know, more grand than "beat the little brat!" The world seems to be getting crazier.

Time for the plan B. Space ship for the rest of us.

12. Here Be Dragons - The Movie

Comment #298851 by King of NH on December 8, 2008 at 5:40 pm

Are you really trying to imply that anyone with a religious belief is a gullible fool?

I'll say it: YES! Every reason to believe in religion is based on the same reasons to believe in polarizing energy detox eye wear. Religion is a flat out failure to correctly judge fact from fiction. Religion is gullibility. Correlation does not mean causation, but it can imply it. Once implied, and probed more, it appears the actually is causation. Uncritical thinking and delusion enforced authority causes gullible and reckless behavior. Giving a 10% tithe to save your "mystical inner being (soul)" is EXACTLY like paying $19.99 for a braceless to balance your "mystical inner being (chi, booga booga, etc)."

Perhaps you think religion deserves more merit. I think it deserves the same as every other snake oil. It should, I feel, be required to admit, "Statements made by this church are unsupported by critical reason, and faith is not meant to be used to treat or diagnose disease, political affiliation, sexual relationships, money management, education, and personal responsibility. Faith is intended for entertainment purposes only."

13. We can't hide in our labs and leave the talking to Dawkins

Comment #292144 by King of NH on November 27, 2008 at 4:59 am

I do agree that science needs to be communicated, and loudly. So please do not argue this fact on the rest of my post.

What I disagree with is the idea that scientists have any duty at all, as specific individuals, to explain things to the public. I will not risk overstating with a "most", but will say many scientists are drawn to the field because they can hide in an ivory tower. This is me. I hate people! I'm not sitting in any clock towers or poisoning bottles of Advil, but I can say that fame terrifies me. I have worked very hard to enter the academic field specifically to avoid the general public. It is only here that my ideas and my work are treated (almost) purely on merit. We must respect that it is the woman who locks herself in a lab for three weeks straight that finds radioactivity. It is the man who shuffles dusty tomes of patents that discovers relativity. It is the lonely sailor temporarily grounded that finds evolution.

I do not mean to distract from Galileo (Animal) Galilee, or from Benjamin (Winks-N-Drinks) Franklin. Some find inspiration in public revelry, and those of us that hate such personal invasion hold these men and women, these Sagans and Dawkinses dear. But please, PLEASE, take the "Welcome" mat from below my tower.

NO LOITERING!

14. Regenerating a Mammoth for $10 Million

Comment #290363 by King of NH on November 25, 2008 at 4:03 am

Dr. Church said that “there is some enthusiasm for it,” although making zoos better did not outrank fixing the energy crisis on his priority list.

Who says it's one or the other? Such scientific breakthroughs can lead to surprising solutions to other areas of concern. The age of atomics has resulted in more than bombs and underground landfills. I think this research may in fact be the solution to our energy crisis. I'm thinking: riding a mammoth through the streets of Boston! Yeah baby! Suck it Hummer, this is the original off-road! Mua-ha-ha-ha

King of NH, PhE (Philosophiæ Evil)

15. It came from outer space: Fireball streaks across Canadian Prairie, crashes

Comment #289656 by King of NH on November 24, 2008 at 3:47 am

What a strange perspective. I would expect that most people would see this as a meteorite making it though the atmosphere. But the petrol station attendant thought is was "like fireworks or a missile coming down". Do Canadian schools not do science yet?

Perhaps I expect too much from this Mr. Mitchler who spends his days thinking he is "pumping gas" when actually it's a liquid.

I would have also considered missiles or crashing planes. Not many people are any more familiar with these sights than meteors, but Hollywood has primes our brains to see just that. I think you are expecting too much from anyone if you expect them to say to themselves "Oh my, a giant ball of flames shooting toward my town with an eerie roar. It must be a harmless, grapefruit sized peice of orbital debris superheated by the atmoshere's friction to appear so large. Huh."

"Gas" is used here as a short name for gasoline, and most people understand that it is not the same as, say, helium gas. I doubt this man invented the term and is probably using the term 99% of the rest of North America uses, you know, so he can be understood.

16. Arguments From Design, First Cause, Something Rather Than Nothing, Fundamental Constants

Comment #282710 by King of NH on November 12, 2008 at 4:15 pm

Was there a recent lab experiment that showed something could come from nothing?

I need to explain the "Big Bang" to a theist, thanks. (Yeah, I know, he's not asking for much is he.)

Something cannot come from nothing, or at least so far as I am aware. But this is not at all what happened at the Big Bang. All the matter and energy of the universe was condensed before it expanded. All the matter and energy in the universe is hardly "nothing" in my definition.

But, according to many physicists, it would be nearly impossible to understand much beyond the first, say, minute of the universe. The reason is that at the levels of energy/matter density, all traditional laws of physics cease to work. We can't really study this very well since no light, and therefore no information, can escape a black hole.

Our understanding of the beginning of the universe is like our understanding of a shoebox being tossed. We have no idea what is in the box, but we can make assumptions based on how the box travels. If the wind blows it easily, it is probably not filled with lead. In the same way, we understand black holes and the original Big Banger in the same way. We see what happens outside and can infer certain things. Then we use math to see if it holds up to scrutiny.

What existed before the Big Bang is unfortunately a long way from our knowledge. At the time the known universe coalesced into the infinitely dense ball the would bang, all the information about whatever was here before was lost, like shoving Playdough back into the can, the previous sculpture is erased (though a magnitude less efficiently than at the big crunch). We can no more easily decipher this than we can discern what type of car was recycled into our soda can.

17. In a Novel Theory of Mental Disorders, Parents' Genes Are in Competition

Comment #282696 by King of NH on November 12, 2008 at 3:45 pm

Sounds very gendered, which immediately causes me to be suspicious, since most people are raised with very polarized views of gender that aren't necessarily based on objective fact.

Has science really established that female brains are more social and males are more mechanically inclined?

The article doesn't discuss any such gendered stereotypes, though. The article deals at the genetic level. By the proposals suggested, each fully formed human would have an equal chance to lie anywhere on the spectrum, since we all have .5 father DNA and .5 mother.

Male pattern hair loss is also attributed to the female genes. I always here I have my mother to thank for my bald head, and looking at my father (full head of hair) and his father and brothers and cousins (the same) and comparing them to the shiny heads of my mothers family, I have reason to give the idea value. Yet my mother, as most people would expect, does not have a quickly receding hairline noticeable in her early 20's.

Just because the gene tends to pass along the female line does not, in any way, mean that women are more likely to express than gene.

18. Marine census discovers more than 200 new species

Comment #282077 by King of NH on November 11, 2008 at 3:42 pm

A unicellular beast the size of yer thumb?!

A giant squid nerve cell can be 40 feet long! But I would love to just watch, with unaided eyes, these monsters breed. Imagine just watching mitosis from any angle with just a tilt of your head, and with minimal intrusion to the bacteria. I wonder when we can order some of these babies at the Discovery Store? Sea Monkeys hell! These are Sea Gorillas! I wonder if my wife will believe they followed me home. I know she’d agree they’re cute, in a slime mold way.

==edit: When I say I would like to watch them breed, I mean divide. I'm not THAT open minded.

19. Gay Marriage Outlawed in California

Comment #279147 by King of NH on November 5, 2008 at 3:33 pm

Why are we voting on civil rights? How long would it have taken blacks to be treated, at least in the eyes of government, as equals if it had been put to popular vote? Does anybody think Georgia, Alabama, or Mississippi would today be any closer than 1908? This is absurd!

Democracy, as Plato pointed out, is both the best and worst form of government. The best is when well educated people carefully consider their neighbors (the globe, today) and cast a vote that they believe is fair and beneficial to all (this never happens, of course). The worst form of government is when everybody votes for their own warped and hideous self ideology and titter with psychopathic glee at making others suffer beneath the weight of the goliath "US".

California, you are among the worst members of Democracy!

20. Beware - creationism's march will go on

Comment #276662 by King of NH on November 2, 2008 at 10:21 am

Rod the Farmer:
I plan to ask them to require high school students from that state take an additional year of remedial science classes before being accepted as first-year students.

This is an excellent idea. Some universities are already requiring all new students take remedial courses for the basics. Sad, sad, sad.

This article should also have us asking, "Who should we try to change?" The creationists will stop at nothing, and take the world with them, to fulfill whatever insane goal they have. It's unlikely we will change that. But while there is an international, well funded, and unified push to destroy science and secular reason, those of us that stand against such backwardness can't agree on a bus slogan for London. If atheists continue to pride ourselves on the 'cat herding' mentality we will lose this fight. I don't have any great ideas on how to unify, but I hope someone does.

21. Turek vs. Hitchens Debate: Does God Exist?

Comment #274510 by King of NH on October 30, 2008 at 6:15 am

I can see why this guys wife wins every debate. He's probably right about one thing: he should have sent his wife.

22. New Simonyi Chair appointed

Comment #273662 by King of NH on October 29, 2008 at 4:54 am

NOooooo! Looks like I was turned down. What a shame, too, dontchaknow? Another 'elitist' professor drawn from the 'educated' insiders. No, really. What we need is a Joe Six Pack Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science. I hear this Sautoy isn't even an American! Ya, tell me about it. I would have been highly qualified, too. I see the library every day on my way to work, and live just an hour north of MIT, and Harvard, and an hour east of Dartmouth. I think most people didn't know that about me. What books have I written? You know, all of them that have my name on the... People think NH is this far away... Oh! And job creation. Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science is what people need for new jobs and health care.

No?

Please?

*sigh

Le roi est (retired), vive le roi!

23. Secrets of worm grunting support Darwin's instincts after 127 years

Comment #272048 by King of NH on October 26, 2008 at 11:38 pm

tvictor: Ha - I love original people, and going to a festival where everyone shares a passion for worm grunting must be the peak of insanity!

Dhamma, if you're ever near the east coast, simply get off on any I-95 exit south of the Carolinas and north of Miami and you are certain to find these festivals around Labor Day. I knew my residence in Georgia would be short lived when I saw a giant catfish driving a police car around gas stations to lure tourists to the party. Funny if you don't live there, scary if you do.

24. May your god go with you

Comment #272040 by King of NH on October 26, 2008 at 11:28 pm

But it would be a mistake to assume that had religion not been there to justify the execution, it wouldn't have happened. Some other justification would, of course, have been found (as Arthur Miller showed by linking witch-paranoia and anti-communism – and before you counter that it wasn't as bad, remember that people were put to death as a result of the red scare).

I would argue that "witch-paranoia and anti-communism" are religions, in the sense that they are built on unthinking and irrational dogma. Of course the world would be in little or no better shape without supernatural beliefs (although I would suggest you read Harris's or Hitchens's take on Islam). Rather, the world would be better off if at least the majority, or the leaders, sought reason above belief.

I call (violent) anti-communism, racism, homophobia, sexism, xenophobia, nationalism, and even atheism (when sought for "cool points") religions because they fail to rationalize their ideas with serious study and calm, reasoned conclusions.

So, including religions that do not require the supernatural, I say YES the world would do better without religion. It seems every argument against this simply seeks to blur the religion=dogma distinction and blame reason equally.

25. Countdown: Palin Wants To Help Special Needs Kids By Doing Away With Science

Comment #271592 by King of NH on October 26, 2008 at 3:49 am

Hitchens always comes off as such a prick. Don't get me wrong, I think it's funny and love to see him tear idiots new ones, but sheesh. I do concede, though, that he needs to interrupt and talk over others and stay on the offensive because he wouldn't get to say anything otherwise.

Anyhow, Palin has to rank among the most ignorant, uneducated, and willfully stupid people to have ever come so close to such power. I would gladly, happily, gleefully take four, eight, 30 years more of Bush rather than one day of Palin. Her ideological (idiotogical?) fantasies coupled with her severe mental handicaps and moral emptiness should be criminal, and I am shocked and disgusted that so many Americans approve of her. Is this an end to democracy? Have we proven that "The People" have such a weak grasp on reality that this grand experiment has failed? Where is progress?

Excuse me while I retire to a dark place and drown in tears. America, you had, have, potential. WAKE UP!!!

26. Video Game Pulled Due to Qur'an Quotes

Comment #266490 by King of NH on October 19, 2008 at 4:52 am

I hate theists so much. There are more clever ways to say it. Kinder ways to say it. More constuctive ways to say it. But after reading this, all I can say is I HATE THEISTS!

All I ask is that these people stop, think, and reason. Is it really that hard? Really? I mean, I like to think I'm intelligent, but I'm more likely around average. Yet I get it. Stop, think, reason. Simple. Nobody should be dying, or fearing death, because of words. I hate theists.

27. Faith Attack

Comment #266157 by King of NH on October 18, 2008 at 6:01 am

Okay, Stalin and Pol Pot are examples of atheists (I will grant Stalin was, but haven't seen solid evidence) doing horrible things. Wonderful!

Theists killed by Stalin because they were theists: ?

Theists killed by Pol Pot because they were theists: ?

Jews killed by Hitler because they were Jews: 5,590,000 (low estimate)

Non-Christian women burned alive by the European Inquisition because they were Non-Christian: 50,000 (by Vatican count, with another 50,000 killed by other means)

But at the heart of the article, let's look at these supposed "new atheists" that, the article implies, think "some religious beliefs�"beliefs�"deemed so dangerous that those holding them should be killed."

Number of people killed by Dawkins: 0

Number of people killed by Dennet: 0

Number of people killed by Hitchens: 0

Number of people killed by Harris: 0

Number of people killed by PZ Meyers: 1 (although, most rational people don't count crackers as people)

28. 'Intelligent' computers put to the test

Comment #262161 by King of NH on October 8, 2008 at 4:03 am

Conversation 2 reminds me of an American VP candidate.

29. Surviving Waco

Comment #262151 by King of NH on October 8, 2008 at 3:47 am

Styrer:

It's okay. We have a camp for people like you. A beautiful white camp set in the smokey mountains where we can help you fight the urges to be in a same-sect relationship with David Robertson.

"When they were telling you the world was round back then, when people believed it was flat. Didn't they say they were mad, they were crazy?"

Didn't they also have evidence, demonstrable proof?

30. The camp that 'cures' homosexuality

Comment #262144 by King of NH on October 8, 2008 at 3:38 am

I'm happy that the lawful same sex marriage/civil unions are spreading. As we work to gain legal recognition for people to openly love who they love, programs like this will have a harder climb.

What absolutely pisses me off to no end?

Speech over, he asks people to come forward to be prayed for. A boy of no more than 16 steps up, hanging his head. When he returns from the stage to the sound of applause, his stony-faced father nods in approval. His mother weeps.

The one thing I ask, and recieve, from my parents is the support to be who I am and the support to find my happiness there. For me, this was atheism in opposition to their Catholicism, but they supported me and guided me to college where they said I would find more like minded and open people.

If this young man's parents would just focus on their responsibility and support their son, love their son, and keep their noses out of his pants, they would find the peace Exodus promises, but can never deliver.

31. Two new fleas are discovered!

Comment #261555 by King of NH on October 7, 2008 at 3:21 am

So how many books have they written to unsuccessfully discredit one?

It has been completely unsuccessful, since the only people that would be swayed by these fleas would have just as easily been swayed by an argument from a dandelion. Oh, wait, they were swayed by dandelions (I see a flower and know there's a god).

Now that we have Einstein, Sagan, Dennet, Dawkins, Darwin, Harris (Even Hitchens in his rabid squirrel lovability), atheism is coming into an age where we no longer refute the religious meaning of life alone, but we are offered a scientific meaning, full of enough wonder one can get wrapped in so tightly that one has been dead for a century before the brain slows enough to realize it (not really, but I hope you get my point). I think this is the biggest reason for the fleas. For the first time, we have the better story, and it's backed by evidence and free of tithes.

32. Maybe We Should Blame God for the Subprime Mess

Comment #261550 by King of NH on October 7, 2008 at 3:08 am

I'm fairly certain that most of the poeple that blindly jumped into debt, cosigned by their lord and savior, will now begin the long law-suits against anybody and everybody except the "god" that supposedly put the loan through, no questions asked.

Depending on how many of these bad loans came from these faith-heads, and how many went bad at the same time (it's easy to see a snow-ball effect here: God bought me a house! Really? I'm gonna get me one!), it seems fair to blame God and his foolish flocks for some of this mess.

33. Big Bang or Big Bounce?: New Theory on the Universe's Birth

Comment #261541 by King of NH on October 7, 2008 at 2:40 am

Bumbles Bounce! (Damn you, Dawkins! Now I have a viral meme stuck in my head!)

This is fascinating. It could be completely wrong, but it does seem to tidy up some of the mess in astrophysics. When I have time, I'll have to audit some courses and revisit this. It sucks there's so much to learn in this world and I have only one brain to absorb it.

34. Leading geneticist Steve Jones says human evolution is over

Comment #261537 by King of NH on October 7, 2008 at 2:20 am

I strongly doubt these findings, but am open to enlightenment.

Evolution also uses one more element not mentioned: environmental change. Currently, humans adjust the environment to meet the needs of our species. This would negate evolution. Rather than making a species more fit for the world, we have made the world more fit for our species. But we have done a rather poor job of it. In a climactic Armageddon (forgive the phrase) humans would be forced back into "red in tooth and claw" survival. Those same people from Glasgow, the ones that wear shorts in January and say it's not that cold, are already adapted to a colder earth and would be better suited to an icy end to civilization. The ones wearing sweaters in June (*cough, Brits) would fare better in a steamed end.

The human population is riddled with genetic variation, though less than many other species. When we lose our ability to shape our world, our world will once again shape our population using the existing genetic diversity, and then compounding it. If we don't just go extinct, that is.

35. The rival to the Bible

Comment #261532 by King of NH on October 7, 2008 at 1:57 am

Haha

I can't believe the scientists fell for this. Scientists really are stupid. Satan put these books onto the island to test our faith and pull our minds toward him. And all you dumb thinkers fell for it.

After the whole "fossil" embarrassment, I thought scientists would look and see if they've violated any of the Bible's claims. Hey scientists, if evidence and the Bible don't agree, one of them has to be wrong. Sheesh.

36. Strippers, armadillos inspire Ig Nobel winners

Comment #260686 by King of NH on October 5, 2008 at 10:07 pm

I wonder if there is a time when men are more fertile. Perhaps a time of year, or a time of month, time of day even. I'm not sure it's ever been studied, given that the focus of fertility is on the more varying degrees of a woman's cycle. Does anybody know of any studies?

Armdillos are the devil it seems, burying all those fossiles deep into lower strata.

37. Catholic priests cane YouTube over blasphemous vids

Comment #259776 by King of NH on October 3, 2008 at 11:33 pm

The Holocaust involved millions of PEOPLE; men, women, and children; who were brutaly slaughtered for reasons that are still mind boggling. Respect for the horrible crime against humanity is in no way related to the Jewish faith needing respect. If they believe in Yaweh, they're idiots. And the Christians should never, never desecrate the memory of such a tragedy with their pathetic pandering. How dare those pediphile freaks compare a cracker to an innocent child?

I'm all for free speech, and will grant them their right to make such a horendous comparison if they see fit, but THAT is blasphemy.

Ah, feel better now. Time to read some less agrivating, science posts.

38. Debate: Would We Be Better Off Without Religion?

Comment #257791 by King of NH on October 1, 2008 at 5:53 am

Mr. Plimer:

I would gladly pull the Higgs Boson out of my pocket to show you, but as I am quite sure you are aware, my pocket would then disolve. That was a rather silly request anyhow. Perhaps meant to cover for the two outright lies you had stated earlier. There was never a global flood, since there is not enough water to flood the earth. And if the earth has not warmed in a decade, how could the ice caps be shrinking?

Not only is theism immune to serious study, but so are theists, apparently.

39. Sherri Shepherd, Bill Maher Spar Over God: Bill Tells Sherri She Should Go To Psych Ward

Comment #257735 by King of NH on October 1, 2008 at 3:19 am

I actually liked the question about asking God what he thinks. I fully agree, that would answer a lot. Of course, I disagree on why it's a good idea.

I did notice that The View's Palin supporters believe the 6000 year old earth was flooded by a loving god killing all life except the millions of creatures rounded up by a 900 year old man and kept on the ancient world's largest boat built by only 3 people where the creatures survived for months with no need for food because this is the best way the creator of the universe can solve crime problems.

Just admitting you believe such a story should be the first of 12 steps, not cause for applause.

40. Respect for religion now makes censorship the norm

Comment #257542 by King of NH on September 30, 2008 at 3:47 pm

...the UN human rights council passed a resolution earlier this year condemning defamation of religion and calling for governments to prohibit it.

Fuck your god and the cloud he/she/it rode in on.

There, UN. Now you can come arrest me, throw me in prison, and get back to preventing, oh, you know, stuff like GENOCIDE!!! Maybe help keep babies from starving to death on a poppy farm. No rush. I mean sure. First we have to stop hurting the feelings of other people's imaginary friends. Priorities, I understand.

41. Conservative Pastors to Break Law by Endorsing a Candidate

Comment #257332 by King of NH on September 30, 2008 at 10:26 am

Maybe if all churches follow suit, the resulting tax revenue can be used to support the bail-out? C'mon Catholics! Heya Popey, who should we vote for? Mormon Elders have anything to say? There's some rich buggers.

42. Coming soon: 'In God We Trust' tags

Comment #257326 by King of NH on September 30, 2008 at 10:16 am

I agree, Olliedog, but then I'm a tad biased.

43. Cathedral seminar to equip clerics to deal with Dawkins

Comment #252853 by King of NH on September 23, 2008 at 5:08 pm

Ditto, Gamma ut (comment #20)

Seriously, what else is there to say? I guess the fight is on.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. Dawkins -vs- Jesus. The battle of iconoclasts!

And apparently, the Anglicans think Dawkins has a good chance, or they wouldn't need the summit to help a GOD beat Dawkins.

I wonder how the good professor feels now that he's entering the hallowed realm of Galileo as a blasphemer to be wary of.

44. Why albino monks won't conduct stem cell research

Comment #251936 by King of NH on September 22, 2008 at 11:03 am

I wonder where they'll draw the "Stem Cell Research" line. Does it mean they'll never study conception? Will they never examine bone marrow? Since the human body (rather, all life) is composed of stem cells and switched off stem cells, it will be hard for them to keep with that plan.

45. It's Time for Science and Reason

Comment #250584 by King of NH on September 20, 2008 at 12:32 am

Silly JohnFrum:

Holy shit! CFI just labeled a couple young children as secular humanists. Apparently the people over at CFI haven't had their conscientiousness raised.

Hahaha... No, no, no. When we do it, it's fine. It's when they do it that we get mad.

I'm kidding. But I don't think we should slam them too much. Raising the collective conscience will take some effort and time. Just labasting them for labeling children as secular humanists will get you nowhere, because the concept probably hasn't been explained that far. Just as we can't judge the past by present standards, we can't judge the present by future (we hope) standards.

Good catch. Very good catch. But be patient and understanding with people. Some do refuse to learn, but this could have been an honest, well meaning oversight.

46. Turkish edition of The Ancestor's Tale sells out within a day!

Comment #250578 by King of NH on September 20, 2008 at 12:16 am

First, let's see what happens to the 2 thousand copies. I hear American flags and oversized GW Bush dolls are also very popular in some nations.

I hope this is a sign that the harder these religious nuts push, the more they damage their own cause. Look at the controversy and hysteria caused by a book. No suicide bombing, or honor killing, or violent assault, or prison sentence, or burning churches... A book. If the freethinkers stay on the side of peaceful debate, maybe we can win more minds. After all, we don't need to push and preach nearly as much, since we aren't proposing the preposterous.

47. Creationist Britain (would you Adam and Eve it?)

Comment #250219 by King of NH on September 19, 2008 at 5:12 am

Jane, who has written two books on her faith, condemns the media for failing to give Christian scientists a platform. She says: "You hear on TV the world is millions of years old �" they just say it!"

*screaming in a generalized easterly direction*

They just say it? The 'creation' of the world, the Big Bang, was a mistake? Everyone has different views? Are you [censored] [censored] [censored] kidding me!?!?!?!

[censored] [censored] [censored][censored] [censored] [censored] *smashing head on desk* [censored] [censored] [censored][censored] [censored] [censored]

*calming down*

I give. No matter how you explain it, no matter how much evidence you provide, no matter how simple you make the coloring books, they refuse to listen. It's not they don't understand or find anything hard to believe, they just CHOOSE to refuse any of it. I give. I give. It's time we band together, build a giant space ship, leave earth, and travel around the universe inserting anal probes into idiots like this we find on other planets.

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

Comment #250029 by King of NH on September 18, 2008 at 10:18 pm

I'm looking forward to it with an open mind. Not reading Colfer's addition because Adams was the original would be like not reading Dawkins because it would be sacrilidge to Darwin. Perhaps Dawkins isn't as fine a writer or scientist as Darwin, or perhaps he's better, but it doesn't matter either way. The stroy continues with or without a writer, and the enjoyment is in experiencing the work, not in comparing it to some older "original" work or some ideal.

And those of you who think the original should never be tampered with? One word: Shakespeare.

49. It's All In The Hips: Early Whales Used Well Developed Back Legs For Swimming, Fossils Show

Comment #250026 by King of NH on September 18, 2008 at 10:07 pm

Rod the Farmer:
Curious parallel that hip-wiggling is an attention-getter for human sexual interest.

Ahhh... That makes sense. Whales evolved from exotic dancers. It should then follow that the ancestral form might have some extant cousins near major bodies of water, like California and Florida beaches. I'll be heading out to research this.

50. Charles Darwin to receive apology from the Church of England for rejecting evolution

Comment #247623 by King of NH on September 14, 2008 at 4:35 pm

I believe in The Flying Spaghetti Monster
Maker of heaven and earth.
And in pirates
His only real absurd,
Who was conceived by the Holy Chef,
Served with a Bloody Mary,
Stuffed onto many plates,
Was eaten, chewed and swallowed;
He descended into bowels;
The third day he rose again from the bowels;
He ascended into heartburn,
And sits on the right ventricle of me, the Eater Almighty;
From thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in
The Holy Chef;
The Holy Pasta Church;
The Communion of Cheese and Tomato;
The forgiveness of sporks;
The tenderness of the noodle;
And serving al dente.