Skip to Main Content (access key 1)
Skip to Search (access key 2)
Skip to Search GO (access key 3)
Skip to comments (access key 4)
Skip to navigation (access key 5)
Skip to top of page (access key 6)

Comments by Darwin's badger


1. Science is thrilling - except in our schools

Comment #204023 by Darwin's badger on July 4, 2008 at 3:40 am

41. Comment #203817 by TeraBrat on July 3, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Titrating is "yawn" boring

I can think of worse things than assigning scores to different sets of breasts. :)

That's a great article by Johann Hari. He's correct in saying that science classes can be boring, but I think that a lot of that is due to what the general public considers to be exciting. In the UK, it's all Big Brother/X-Factor shows and which vapid blonde is marrying which airhead footballer. I hasten to add that there are those who attempt to rise above it, but my guess is that a straw poll would show that more people know who Colleen McLoughlin is than Richard Dawkins, which is tragic.

2. New Zealand man sells his soul to 'Hell'

Comment #204017 by Darwin's badger on July 4, 2008 at 3:27 am

Comment #203623 by garywheron on July 3, 2008 at 9:00 am
Can I assume that if he doesn't deliver his soul in time the company will get it for free?

*applauds*

3. It can be right to discriminate against the religious

Comment #202335 by Darwin's badger on July 1, 2008 at 10:26 am

Oh, I forgot to mention: Bushra Noah had applied to 25 salons and been rejected every time, before she decided to sue, which suggests that it wasn't merely about her appearance. The owner of the salon, Sarah Desrosiers, is not some multi-national chain. She's an independent businesswoman who runs on a tight margin, and this has cost her nearly £6k with legal fees. If the court had awarded Noah the full amount she wanted (£15k), Desrosiers would have gone bankrupt.

4. It can be right to discriminate against the religious

Comment #202329 by Darwin's badger on July 1, 2008 at 10:05 am

Comment #202323 by Barbara on July 1, 2008 at 9:45 am
This is excellent news. However,...

I'm not so sure the girl who wasn't hired at the salon was wrong in suing the employer. Wearing a headscarf wouldn't impede her ability to perform as a hairdresser.


Barbara, my wife and I own a hair/beauty salon, and I can tell you for a fact that people don't just come in because of the quality of the haircuts. The staff are an extension of the salon, inasmuch as their appearance goes a long way toward the public's perception of the salon. I'm quite sure that people who aren't as attractive as supermodels could wear the clothes and walk up and down a catwalk, but the model is an extension of the fashion house, and by pairing beauty with the clothes, there is a psychological bond created; a form of classical conditioning, if you like.

If it's required that her hairdressing abilities be on display, she could keep a portfolio of her work at her work station.
With all due respect, most hairdressers don't cut their own hair anyway. :)
On the other hand, if the girl were refusing to perform a task that was essential to the job, of course, she should not be hired.
As I said above, "looking the part" is a task that's an essential part of the job, if one wishes to work in a trendy salon.

5. A secular world is a sane world

Comment #200438 by Darwin's badger on June 27, 2008 at 4:20 pm

Keep fighting the good fight, Pat. Great stuff as per.

6. Band T-shirt draws charge

Comment #199369 by Darwin's badger on June 25, 2008 at 3:36 pm

34. Comment #199352 by Lucas on June 25, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Can I just have a shirt that says "cunt" all by itself?


You could get a James Blunt T-shirt, which is not only excellent rhyming slang, but also describes the man and anyone willing to wear the shirt. :)

7. Evolutionarily Preserved Signature Found In The Primate Brain

Comment #199131 by Darwin's badger on June 25, 2008 at 8:13 am

Comment #198589 by TeraBrat on June 24, 2008 at 9:24 am
Homosexuality is natural occurence. It occurs in the animal kingdom and there's nothing to "fix". In fact I think it's a good thing. There's a reason for it or it wouldn't exist.
Not a comment upon homosexuality, but a comment upon this argument: Do you feel the same about cancer, which is also a natural occurrence in the animal and plant kingdom?

It's a sloppy argument, in the same way that some people argue that herbal remedies must be safer than manufactured drugs because they're 'natural'. They've obviously never heard of atropa belladonna or amanita phalloides.

8. Award-winning comedian George Carlin dies

Comment #198033 by Darwin's badger on June 23, 2008 at 4:45 am

Big, big shame. The Frisbeetarian roof gets another soul.

9. Muslim countries win concession regarding religious debates

Comment #196426 by Darwin's badger on June 20, 2008 at 12:16 am

Comment #196365 by black wolf on June 19, 2008 at 7:55 pm
There's no need to discuss religious matters in depth at all.
Quite. Richard's "Leprecology" comment is perfectly apt here.

10. Couple charged in Norway over genital mutilation of daughters

Comment #190060 by Darwin's badger on June 8, 2008 at 9:56 am

You are correct, Vanitas. Reaching conclusions without evidence does this site a disservice, methinks.

11. A New Step In Evolution

Comment #188242 by Darwin's badger on June 3, 2008 at 12:10 pm

There's a cool interview with Zimmer on this weeks Skeptic's Guide to the Universe podcast.

12. Mark Steyn vs. the 'Sock Puppets'

Comment #185733 by Darwin's badger on May 28, 2008 at 11:44 am

I'm not your buddy, guy!

13. How Are Humans Unique?

Comment #184486 by Darwin's badger on May 25, 2008 at 1:17 pm

Yeah, huzonfurst - and why is the theory of gravity still called the THEORY of gravity? Get out of that one, Rommel.

/sarcasm

Bullet, are you a troll or just really ignorant?

14. Five Things Humans No Longer Need

Comment #184228 by Darwin's badger on May 24, 2008 at 3:27 am

Comment #184019 by Fire1974 on May 23, 2008 at 12:19 pm


It seems impossible to me that anyone could know even the basics of anatomy and physiology and still be a creationist. Does anyone know of a creationist who's gotten through Med-School?

Michael F%*&ing Egnor.
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/02/dr_michael_egnor_challenges_ev.php

15. Kenya mob reportedly burns 11 'witches'

Comment #183839 by Darwin's badger on May 23, 2008 at 2:11 am

The story of an Indian whose "magic leg" was stolen was reported on the SGU podcast a couple of months back - I can't remember if it was reported on RD.net.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7142920.stm

It seems that wherever there's ignorance and superstition, violence isn't far behind.

16. In God's Name

Comment #182915 by Darwin's badger on May 21, 2008 at 5:51 am

Comment #182835 by Tyler Durden on May 21, 2008 at 3:00 am

"Hell is other people." John Paul Sartre

"Yes, but all of Sartre's mates were French."

Dave Lister

17. The amazing intelligence of crows

Comment #181346 by Darwin's badger on May 17, 2008 at 2:20 am

34. Comment #181216 by Quine on May 16, 2008 at 4:23 pm
DB, see this study of language and "footedness" in African Grey parrots.
Thanks Quine, it's much appreciated. I have an exam that includes animal learning and cognition next week, so this will be going in there!

18. The amazing intelligence of crows

Comment #181199 by Darwin's badger on May 16, 2008 at 3:41 pm

5. Comment #181071 by Richard Dawkins on May 16, 2008 at 11:41 am
For me the really exciting example here is Betty, the crow who bent a wire into a hook and used it to get food. The work was done in the lab of my Oxford colleague Alex Kacelnik, and he should have been given credit.

Richard
Richard, there was an interesting article in New Scientist that you may have seen last summer, entitled "The scheming minds of crows". It's fascinating inasmuch as it suggests that the "theory of mind" module that Simon Baron-Cohen has investigated exhaustively may exist in a much smaller brain than that of primates.

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/mg19426091.700-the-scheming-minds-of-crows.html

*edit* Incidentally, it was suggested in the main article in this thread that handedness in humans may have been a result of hemispheric specialisation for speech. I'm studying psychology , so I know a little about Broca's area and neural plasticity etc., but I was just wondering if the cart hasn't been put before the horse here; could it be that handedness is a precursor for speech, rather than the other way around? Favouring one side of the body over the other (for instance, the right) would lead to a greater cortical density on the contralateral side, which in turn could encourage the development of more fine motor control in the larynx, the tongue and the lips, each of which play an important part in creating speech.

This has probably been done to death by Chomsky or Pinker, but if anyone has a quick and easy answer that won't lead me to search through my gazillion textbooks, I'd appreciate it. :)

19. Richard Dawkins Interview on TVOntario

Comment #180991 by Darwin's badger on May 16, 2008 at 8:48 am

I d/l The Agenda quite regularly, as they have some interesting guests and it's less sensationalist than most current affairs programs. Steve Paiken seems to know what he's talking aboot. ;)

20. UC Berkeley is going to court over Evolution website

Comment #180682 by Darwin's badger on May 15, 2008 at 2:43 pm

You may well be correct, Max. I can't help but feel that what he wanted to be true got in the way of what was true, in that respect.

21. UC Berkeley is going to court over Evolution website

Comment #180676 by Darwin's badger on May 15, 2008 at 2:31 pm

Comment #180664 by joshuaslocum on May 15, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I wish Stephen Jay Gould were still around just so he'd have to see how pitiful and misguided his Non-overlapping Magisteria construct really was.

I wish he were still around, but mainly because he was a decent (although misguided) chap and he died at an inordinately young age (by modern Western standards); if he were still alive, he might well have retracted NOMA by now, given the fact that it's not helped to defuse the tension between believer and non-believer which was, IMO, his aim at the time.

22. The Dissent Of Darwin - The World Of Richard Dawkins

Comment #180601 by Darwin's badger on May 15, 2008 at 9:44 am

Quetz, why do you even bother with this tool? He's a troll, and not even a particularly bright one.

23. Is Science Killing the Soul?

Comment #180461 by Darwin's badger on May 15, 2008 at 2:44 am

I skipped straight ahead to the article when I saw that it was RD and SP, and didn't realise that it was an old one until Richard's sentence, "My friend Douglas Adams has a wonderful story about television sets." It reminded me of how poignant I found Richard's eulogy for Douglas when I read "A Devil's Chaplain" for the first time.

Rearding the content of the article, it was as good as I expected. I never even knew that it existed, so thanks for posting this discussion between two of my favourite thinkers.

24. The Neural Buddhists

Comment #179685 by Darwin's badger on May 13, 2008 at 1:58 pm

Phew, that's cleared that up then! :D

25. The Neural Buddhists

Comment #179670 by Darwin's badger on May 13, 2008 at 1:47 pm

I've not read all of those that he recommends, but of those that I have (Damasio, Gazzaniga, Siegel, Haidt, plus many, many more) have all attempted to explain the religious experience as a neural process within the brain, not suggest that it's a valid perception of external stimuli. The guy who wrote this comes across as a new-age woo-merchant who has read the bits that he likes and ignored the rest. X-(

26. God seekers go public

Comment #179411 by Darwin's badger on May 13, 2008 at 8:15 am

What predictions can you make in a lab regarding intelligent design?
"We predict that when you look at the inner workings of a biological organism, it'll really, really look like it was designed by an intelligent being."

Along those lines, I expect. Should be a good exercise in spotting the logical fallacy.

27. Evolution: What is 'Natural'?

Comment #178912 by Darwin's badger on May 12, 2008 at 8:16 am

You'll ignore any evidence that contradicts your belief, so I'll bring the conversation down to your level, AD, and say that you're a warped, obfuscating, willfully mendacious wanker. I'll even supply evidence if necessary.

http://richarddawkins.net/userComments,page1,30762

28. Scientists Know Better Than You--Even When They're Wrong

Comment #177934 by Darwin's badger on May 10, 2008 at 2:15 am

Sociology is the science of telling people what they don't need a degree to know already. *rolly eyes emoticon thingy*

29. Richard Dawkins interviewed by John Humphrys on Cardinal Murphy O'Connor

Comment #177739 by Darwin's badger on May 9, 2008 at 3:15 pm

Evidence??? SRWB, can't he just say "But I really, really believe in God"? There's no better evidence than a subjective anecdote.

< /sarcasm >

30. Richard Dawkins interviewed by John Humphrys on Cardinal Murphy O'Connor

Comment #177736 by Darwin's badger on May 9, 2008 at 3:11 pm

Sorry, there are none, we're all individuals here.
I'm not.

(Sorry, couldn't resist it!) :)

31. $271 Million for Research on Stem Cells in California

Comment #177724 by Darwin's badger on May 9, 2008 at 2:50 pm

This almost atones for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

32. Evolution's Critics Shift Tactics With Schools

Comment #175220 by Darwin's badger on May 4, 2008 at 11:44 pm

Been said already, but I can't help but worry about the long-term future of the USA, and for that matter, the rest of the world. If there is a brain drain (and if science/technology funding is cut to the bone, there almost certainly will be), it won't be long, IMO, until the country is a theocracy, one with more nuclear weapons than any other on Earth.
Science help us all.

33. Anti-Evolution Film Misappropriates the Holocaust

Comment #173142 by Darwin's badger on April 30, 2008 at 12:29 pm

Thought up a catch phrase.

Religion is History
Science is present.
Palm-reading is the future. :)

34. Religion a figment of human imagination

Comment #171664 by Darwin's badger on April 28, 2008 at 4:56 pm

Dolphins definitely have imagination, if you include their penchant for blow-hole sex.

35. Gunk in T. Rex Fossil Confirms Dino-Bird Lineage

Comment #169114 by Darwin's badger on April 25, 2008 at 2:49 pm

I had a bird who looked like Marc Bolan...does that count?

36. Is religion a threat to rationality and science?

Comment #167182 by Darwin's badger on April 23, 2008 at 5:39 pm

Strange that Winston would approvingly quote a passage that basically says: "Who are you to think you can question me?" One commentary I found on this passage ends with "Humble faith and sincere obedience see farthest and best into the will of the Lord." Why would a scientist encourage us to shut up and do what we're told?
He only does it when it's his crutch that's being questioned. When it's the Catholic Church, he calls them liars. He's the stereotypical religious hypocrite who rationalises his hypocrisy in order to ease his cognitive dissonance.

37. Is religion a threat to rationality and science?

Comment #166333 by Darwin's badger on April 23, 2008 at 6:45 am

If, as a Jew, I decide to adhere to totally irrational dietary laws or bizarrely not travel on a bus on Saturday, does that make me an extremist? If I go further and wear a kippa on my head and build an eruv around the part of London in which I live, is that an unacceptable excess?

No, but it does align you with others who wish to justify their wanton disrespect for rationality. I don't remember Richard Dawkins or Dan Dennett ever saying that people who wear a religious garment are extremists, just that they are acting as a powerbase for those that do wish to become extremists. That's what Winston has failed to grasp: Belief in the supernatural glorifies ignorance and encourages people to turn away from rationality. Once they've started on that slope, how far they go is a line arbitrarily drawn in the sand. The fact that an intelligent guy like Robert Winston is willing to turn off his reasoning abilities every time his faith is called into question only highlights how dangerous religious belief can be.

38. Sex for diploma offer caught on tape

Comment #164314 by Darwin's badger on April 20, 2008 at 3:34 am

Yeah, this is a bit of a non-story, and it doesn't do the site many favours.

39. Evolution: 24 myths and misconceptions

Comment #163159 by Darwin's badger on April 18, 2008 at 3:19 am

MG, you seem to be suggesting that sexuality is merely the product of environment. Do you have any evidence to base that upon, or is it just a gut feeling?

40. Evolution: 24 myths and misconceptions

Comment #163073 by Darwin's badger on April 18, 2008 at 12:31 am

Comment #163064 by Damien White on April 17, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Any children produced by heterosexual reproduction at the behest of or for the benefit of gay couples are still produced heterosexually.

Natural selection of any such children will not be affected by the ideology of their parents.

Ideology? WTF are you on?

41. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

Comment #163072 by Darwin's badger on April 18, 2008 at 12:27 am

Ah, brilliant! :)

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

Comment #162504 by Darwin's badger on April 17, 2008 at 3:16 am

I'm surprised that they have any part of their collective foot left to aim at, it must be riddled with bullet-holes by now. :)

43. 'Expelled' ripped off Harvard's 'Inner Life of the Cell' animation

Comment #159351 by Darwin's badger on April 12, 2008 at 2:20 am

Comment #159265 by Dr Benway on April 11, 2008 at 7:38 pm
The stoopid..... it burns!

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_040808/content/01125112.guest.html

Oh


My


Science.

"...one of these guys in Ben Stein's movie, guy named Hawkins who's over at Oxford I think, Oxford or Cambridge..."

That just about says it all.

44. Lungless frog discovered in Borneo

Comment #158850 by Darwin's badger on April 11, 2008 at 5:52 am

Bluebird, my son is also covering evolutionary biology at the moment, and he came out from school yesterday with a big grin on his face. "I knew everything that the teacher knew, plus loads of stuff that she didn't," said he. I told him about the frog this morning and he was really interested, so a big "Thank You" to the original poster of the article, and of course, to Richard Dawkins for making evolutionary biology so interesting that my son enjoys hearing me talk about it and wants to pass on what he hears! He doesn't share my enthusiasm for Reeves & Mortimer yet, but give it time...I've only just got him into Alan Partridge, so I'm hopeful of a conversion in the not-too-distant future. :)

45. Scientists take drugs to boost brain power: study

Comment #158843 by Darwin's badger on April 11, 2008 at 5:42 am

I'd be very wary of taking anything that I didn't precisely know the long-term risk of. Mind you, I'm in my thirties. When I was student age, I'd have given plenty of things a go that I wouldn't go near now. At least they're using them to learn, not to get out of their faces.

46. Reviews of Expelled

Comment #158471 by Darwin's badger on April 10, 2008 at 3:12 pm

Man, Mathis is a sleaze. It's ironic that the person that the religious right are happy to get behind is the very antithesis of truth and honesty. Lying for Jesus? Why the hell not.

47. Reviews of Expelled

Comment #158139 by Darwin's badger on April 10, 2008 at 6:02 am

Comment #157991 by mundusvultdecipi on April 10, 2008 at 12:02 am
I am constantly amazed that there is not more of a backlash whenever the holocaust is invoked in such a cavalier manner, is it just me or does anyone else find it incredibly offensive to play fast and loose with such an horrific historical event ? We saw it invoked again, recently, with that eccentric UK bishop who thought books critical of christianity were somehow akin to holocaust denial.


My only surprise is that Stein, Mathis et al didn't attempt to pin the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event upon Darwin somehow. After all, if he's that evil, surely he has the ability to travel in time, wreaking havoc along the way?




Bugger, I've just remembered that they don't believe in 65 million year-old dinosaurs either. That'll be why Darwin escaped. However, I did hear that his time-travelling vehicle-of-choice was a white Fiat Uno, and he had a penchant for Parisian underpasses...

48. Cult leader Pyotr Kuznetsov tries suicide after realising he was wrong about doomsday

Comment #157560 by Darwin's badger on April 9, 2008 at 9:05 am

Yep, Keith is this forum's version of Viz's "Raffles, the gentleman thug". :)

(Link for those who aren't familiar with the character)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raffles,_Gentleman_Thug

49. Hitchens vs. Hitchens

Comment #157458 by Darwin's badger on April 9, 2008 at 5:54 am

I know what you mean, I feel the same about some people and it takes a lot of discipline to adhere to sometimes.

Serdan, everything I know about it is via the internet - wikis, etc. I'm not an expert by any means.

e.g. Wikipedia: LaVeyan satanism was founded in the 1960's, based on occult influences from Crowley and philosophy from Rand and Nietzsche.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laveyan_satanism
Theistic satanists are not atheists and view satan as a deity and/or force.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theistic_Satanism

etc.

I couldn't give a monkeys, to be honest. I don't think either one is particularly humanistic.

50. Hitchens vs. Hitchens

Comment #157421 by Darwin's badger on April 9, 2008 at 4:34 am

Serdan,
it depends on whether or not one is referring to theistic satanism or not. LaVeyan Satanism is a relatively new take on a centuries-old tradition.

More Pages: 1 2 3 | Next