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Comments by Friend Giskard


101. Small, Yes, but Mighty: The Molecule Called Water

Comment #55236 by Friend Giskard on July 10, 2007 at 10:06 am

Rtambree

Evaporation occurs because some molecules near the surface have enough speed to escape from the liquid. This can happen at any temperature.

Boiling is more than this. Consider a bubble of vapour that chances to form inside a liquid. At the surface boundary between the vapour phase an the liquid phase you have molecules from the vapour colliding inelastically with the liquid surface and becoming part of it, and molecules escaping from the liquid phase into the vapour. If the former process is happening faster than the latter, the bubble will shrink and disappear. In this case the liquid is below boiling point. If the latter process is happening faster then the bubble will grow, and the liquid is boiling. Adding further heat at this point will not increase the temperature, but only cause the production of more vapour and bubbles.

The temperature at which this change in behaviour occurs depends on the ambient pressure. Up a mountain the boiling point of water is less than it is at sea level. (In the past this was a way of measuring your altitude. I got this nugget from the film "Mountains of the Moon.")

102. A force for evil?

Comment #55165 by Friend Giskard on July 10, 2007 at 6:59 am

The only sentence I had to read more than once was this one:

"Nothing that is not in essence this is a religion."

That's one ugly sentence.

103. Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature

Comment #54894 by Friend Giskard on July 9, 2007 at 8:55 am

"but it's ruthless truth at its peak"

There's nothing wrong with this grammatically. I don't know what point steveroot is trying to make. To be fair, he doesn't actually say that it's wrong.

104. For Muslim Extremists, Religion Matters

Comment #54290 by Friend Giskard on July 6, 2007 at 9:31 am

Re-interpret the Koran? Why not just repudiate the Koran altogether? I am constantly disgusted by the stupidity of the people I have to share the planet with. Why can't thay see the Koran for the worthless piece of shit that it is?

105. 'First west Europe tooth' found

Comment #53284 by Friend Giskard on June 30, 2007 at 2:43 pm

"But evidence for the tooth-fairy still remains elusive," admitted Mr Bermudez de Castro.

106. A child's Darwinian revolution (Review of 'Growing Up in the Universe')

Comment #53282 by Friend Giskard on June 30, 2007 at 2:32 pm

"2001 - a faith atrocity." Hehe. I shall commit that to memory.

107. Yes, the universe looks like a fix. But that doesn't mean that a god fixed it

Comment #52918 by Friend Giskard on June 28, 2007 at 1:54 pm

Bonzai. I agree. That's why I deliberately used the word hypothesis and not theory.

Although one could debate whether "scientific hypothesis" is too strong, you can't deny that it is at least a hypothesis.

108. Got to have faith?

Comment #52912 by Friend Giskard on June 28, 2007 at 1:43 pm

What a bunch of total c*nts.

109. Yes, the universe looks like a fix. But that doesn't mean that a god fixed it

Comment #52902 by Friend Giskard on June 28, 2007 at 12:52 pm

The multiverse theory certainly cuts the ground from beneath intelligent design, but it falls short of a complete explanation of existence.

But who ever claimed it was a complete explanation of existence? And since when do we evaluate the merits of a scientific hypothesis by asking whether it constitutes a complete explanation of existence? And how do Davies' ideas not also suffer from this shortcoming?

Then, as the information content of the universe climbed, the laws focused and homed in on the life-encouraging form we observe today.

Why?

I don't understand his reasoning at all.

110. In the name of the Father

Comment #51500 by Friend Giskard on June 23, 2007 at 6:26 am

Hitchens has written a book that is seriously harmful...

Hehe. The religiotards are rattled.

111. 'Purity' ring case in High Court

Comment #51281 by Friend Giskard on June 22, 2007 at 7:46 am

All this girl needs is a good seeing to. I'm off to Horsham.

112. Rushdie knighted in honours list

Comment #50869 by Friend Giskard on June 20, 2007 at 8:56 am

Look at this
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/06/20/do2002.xml

QUOTE

If Pakistan is so offended, however, there is a dignified way to deal with the problem.

Last year, Tony Blair went to Lahore to praise its "enlightened moderation" and to announce a rise in our aid budget to Pakistan from £236 million to £480 million. If this is tainted money, it can presumably be returned.

Why are we giving £480m in aid to these ungrateful dogs who have obviously spent more than that on nuclear weapons?

113. Rushdie knighted in honours list

Comment #50867 by Friend Giskard on June 20, 2007 at 8:48 am

Unsurprisingly, Margaret Beckett has just apologised to the poor hurt muslims.

114. U.S. circumcision rate drops

Comment #50546 by Friend Giskard on June 18, 2007 at 5:40 pm

Comment #50544 by thebigredmachine

Perhaps that outrage might be tempered a bit when one looks at the health benefits...

The incidence of breast cancer could be reduced to zero if we surgically removed the mammary glands from all newborns. Perhaps thebigredmachine thinks that this would be a good idea too.

115. Rushdie knighted in honours list

Comment #50455 by Friend Giskard on June 18, 2007 at 8:40 am

This may lead to riots and deaths, like the equally ridiculous motoon affair and the Miss World affair. Seems that muslims will never miss a chance to remind the world what a bunch of dickheads they are. Is it any wonder no-one repects them?

116. Rushdie knighted in honours list

Comment #50288 by Friend Giskard on June 16, 2007 at 12:54 pm

If it's Charles that does the honours (and he does from time to time stand in for the queen on such occasions), Rushdie had better watch out. Charles is a crypto-muslim, and Rushdie is a notorious apostate. Charles will be holding that sword very close to Rushdie's neck.

117. Quackbuster causes too much flak for university

Comment #49796 by Friend Giskard on June 13, 2007 at 1:31 pm

Ugh! Nasal hair!

118. Tome truths

Comment #49296 by Friend Giskard on June 11, 2007 at 12:20 pm

Alas, religion still has a "place at the high table of politics and public life", and still enjoys "automatic respect, privilege, sensitive handling" in most circumstances.

119. Tome truths

Comment #49294 by Friend Giskard on June 11, 2007 at 12:17 pm

Is the Onfray book any good? It doesn't get mentioned around here much.

120. Americans believe in both evolution, creationism: poll

Comment #48963 by Friend Giskard on June 9, 2007 at 6:16 pm

A recent example of doublethink:

"Religious faith is not inconsistent with reason." - Tony Blair
http://richarddawkins.net/article,1253,We-of-little-faith,Sue-Blackmore-Guardian

That is right up there with "war is peace" and "freedom is slavery"

There is another good example of Blairite doublethink here:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/terry_sanderson/2007/04/integration_or_segregation.html
(See the brilliant comment by radished below the article. "Segregation is Integration". Haha)

121. Americans believe in both evolution, creationism: poll

Comment #48955 by Friend Giskard on June 9, 2007 at 6:00 pm

Actually, the OED quotes it thusly:

"His mind slid away into the labyrinthine world of doublethink. To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy."

122. Americans believe in both evolution, creationism: poll

Comment #48948 by Friend Giskard on June 9, 2007 at 5:45 pm

Doublethink:

"The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them..." - Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four

123. Dobson and John MacArthur fantasize about the downfall of America

Comment #48814 by Friend Giskard on June 9, 2007 at 5:47 am

I just wanna say, Lesbian sex rules! Woohoo!

124. Christopher Hitchens on Religion

Comment #48314 by Friend Giskard on June 7, 2007 at 11:49 am

Listening on, I think you're right.

125. Christopher Hitchens on Religion

Comment #48303 by Friend Giskard on June 7, 2007 at 11:15 am

Hitchens: "We didn't know that the sun went round the earth"

This is the second time I've heard Hitch make this slip. Does he make it in the book too?

126. Tales of Hay-on-Wye

Comment #45863 by Friend Giskard on May 29, 2007 at 12:24 pm

The Flying Spaghetti Heroes?

127. Debate between Richard Dawkins and Robert Winston

Comment #45633 by Friend Giskard on May 28, 2007 at 3:38 pm

In his lecture The Science Delusion Winston says: "It is as equally 'deluded' to believe that Science has all the answers as it is to profess a belief in God"
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/externalrelations/events/lectures.html

Presumably Professor Winston believes that anyone who believes that 'Science has all the answers' must be 'deluded' to a very high degree.

But it follows from this, and his statement above, that somebody professing a belief in God must also be 'deluded' to a very high degree.

I hope he will be apologizing soon to the world's faith communities for using such patronizing and insulting language in connection with their sincerely held beliefs.

128. Richard Dawkins to appear in Second Life

Comment #44182 by Friend Giskard on May 23, 2007 at 2:44 pm

This is off-topic, but there's a terrific new piece up at Pharyngula that all should read:

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/05/donothing_atheists_and_reignit.php

PZ sure can write a bit.

129. Goodness without Godliness

Comment #42997 by Friend Giskard on May 20, 2007 at 8:51 am

From the article,

I just don't have faith. Sorry.

Never, never, never apologise for not having faith. If anybody should be apologising it's the faith-heads.

130. Pedal power takes Islamic shape in Iran

Comment #42480 by Friend Giskard on May 18, 2007 at 9:24 am

For anybody who wants a good laugh at the funny ways of our muslim cousins, this is a must read: http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/016504.php

Quote:
"...the Egyptian Parliament is now discussing a fatwa from an Al-Azhar cleric that aims to circumvent the prohibition on a male and a female who are not married to each other from working together in private. All she has to do, you see, is suckle him. Then he becomes her foster child, and they can be together without a chaperone."

Hahahahahahahaheeheeheeheeheeheehee!

131. 5000 Darwin letters go online

Comment #41608 by Friend Giskard on May 16, 2007 at 11:46 am

5000 letters. Wow! What a lot of letters. I haven't even written close to 50 letters in my whole life. I can go for years and years without writing one.

For this rich source of information we must thank the fact that they didn't have telephones in those days.

132. Furor over author Ayaan Hirsi Ali's visit stirs debate on religious freedom

Comment #40530 by Friend Giskard on May 14, 2007 at 12:15 pm

'Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.' (Bukhari vol. 9, bk. 84, no. 57)
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/084.sbt.html#009.084.057

133. Among the Disbelievers

Comment #40524 by Friend Giskard on May 14, 2007 at 12:01 pm

The author calls atheism an ideology.

Does he think that not believing in fairies is an ideology too?

To be consistent he would have to.

134. Pale Blue Dot

Comment #40509 by Friend Giskard on May 14, 2007 at 11:31 am

What a lovely video.

nogod says,

the cosmos i would say is the most important tv series ever aired .Its a shame that tv today is no where near as good.

Cosmos was a blip. An anomaly. There will never be another program like it because TV is run by people to whom this stuff is not important, i.e. humanities graduates.

135. My response to the GOP evolution question

Comment #37622 by Friend Giskard on May 5, 2007 at 11:36 am

In the Wikipedia entry for "Protection racket":

see also Jizya

This is appropriate. Yes, one of the world's major religions was founded by a gangster who ran a protection racket.

My only quibble with the vid is that I would question whether it was 300 years of science that (partially) eliminated slavery. Human rights movements are not particularly scientific. (Not that I know much about it.)

136. 4 Sermon for Matins: 'Dawkins and The God Delusion'

Comment #36526 by Friend Giskard on May 1, 2007 at 12:27 pm

Some years ago I tried to read The Selfish Gene and failed.

Sheesh. What a moron.

137. Against All Gods, by A C Grayling

Comment #36098 by Friend Giskard on April 30, 2007 at 7:34 am

vestis umidus or wet suit

This is incorrect. Vestis is feminine. It should be vestis umida.

138. Evolution Booklet

Comment #35522 by Friend Giskard on April 27, 2007 at 1:06 pm

Pity no-one will read it.

139. Iran arrests 300 'insufficiently veiled' women

Comment #35224 by Friend Giskard on April 26, 2007 at 3:55 pm

Sluts.

140. Was Muhammad Epileptic?

Comment #35220 by Friend Giskard on April 26, 2007 at 3:45 pm

They cross the line in adovacting mass deportation.

This is a lie. Bonzai is a liar. He will not be able to supply evidence (URL, please) to support the claim that Robert Spencer advocates mass deportation. Bonzai is a liar.

Also, that swipe about Catholic idealogue is ad hominem.

141. Was Muhammad Epileptic?

Comment #35216 by Friend Giskard on April 26, 2007 at 3:33 pm

Comment #35197 by Vinelectric

Islam does its fair job of encouraging family values, charity and many other humanist values.

Yes, family values like wife beating and polygamy. And where the Qur'an recommends charity, it is only meant to be towards other muslims, and to hell with everybody else. The Qur'an makes it clear that unbelievers are the "vilest of creatures" and to be treated harshly and made to feel their inferiority.

The asinine quote from Vinelectric shows the dangers of learning about islam from muslims themselves, or from non-muslim apologists who have themselves learned it from muslims. All you'll get that way is lies.

Start here,

http://www.islamundressed.com/
http://www.faithfreedom.org/
http://www.jihadwatch.org/

142. Was Muhammad Epileptic?

Comment #35179 by Friend Giskard on April 26, 2007 at 1:40 pm

It is funny that Hitchens, who is careful enough elsewhere to refer to Princess Diana as "the Diana Spencer girl" on the grounds that he does not recognize the claims of the House of Windsor, has no qualms about conceding to Muhammad title of "Prophet", and is even well-disposed enough to give him a capital P.

(But, reading on, I see that he at least puts "revelation" in quotation marks. Good.)

143. Fighting Words: A wartime lexicon

Comment #34956 by Friend Giskard on April 25, 2007 at 5:48 pm

Don't pussyfoot, Hitch. Tell us what you really think.

144. Kadra attacked in public

Comment #32061 by Friend Giskard on April 15, 2007 at 12:04 pm

Behavior where one goes to physical attack on someone you disagree with violates Islamic teaching and the prophet Muhammad's sunnah (lifestyle).

This is a lie. This is the exact opposite of the truth. If the attackers had followed the example of Muhammad they would have killed her.

145. T. rex tissue shows they are related to chickens

Comment #31456 by Friend Giskard on April 12, 2007 at 6:51 pm

The way this article is written, and its title, could leave one with the impression that T.rex is more closely related to chickens than it is to some other types of bird.

But if this were so then T. rex would have to be classified as a bird.

This could be misleading to some readers.

146. The BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2007

Comment #31383 by Friend Giskard on April 12, 2007 at 8:27 am

Philip1978 writes:

I still think they should have an award for The Most Gratuitous Use of the word Dawkins in a Serious Work of Non Fiction!

Hehe. Good one. The Prof will appreciate that.

147. Pope says science too narrow to explain creation

Comment #31382 by Friend Giskard on April 12, 2007 at 8:18 am

Papa stultissimus est.

148. 'God Is Not a Moderate'

Comment #29644 by Friend Giskard on April 3, 2007 at 7:06 pm

#28952

Assuming that atheists feel a sense of social responsibility (which I know they do-- they are not all nose-picking solitary physics students...

Screw you, Larry.

149. U.N. Panel OKs Measure on Islam

Comment #28873 by Friend Giskard on March 31, 2007 at 12:30 pm

Everyone should see this electrifying video of UN Watch director Hillel Neuer's damning speech (March 23, 2007) before the UN human rights council:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhWgZu6tcZU

150. Believers are away with the fairies

Comment #27957 by Friend Giskard on March 27, 2007 at 12:20 pm

Get a haircut Grayling, you hairy yeti.

(But keep on bashing the faithheads. Good work.)

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