1. Forced to Marry

Comment #295320 by Drool on December 2, 2008 at 4:20 am

If you're into BitTorrent, you can get it from a little site called uk nova dot com. However, you need to create an account (sign-up is free) and there's a small download delay for new users (a couple hours if I remember correctly). Remember to seed!

2. Why We Believe

Comment #274174 by Drool on October 29, 2008 at 5:25 pm

From notsobad's article:

...believers "psych each other up. Sitting in pitch darkness you hear noises, which are common in these old houses, but believers see and hear things that just aren't there..."

3. Zehirli Yilanlar, Kaygan Yilanbaliklari ve Harun Yahya

Comment #252767 by Drool on September 23, 2008 at 3:16 pm

@mistralgagnant - Is it confirmed they're blocking RD.net by mere DNS? In that case, you should also be able to thwart it by using OpenDNS:

http://www.opendns.com

Note: you can escape backslash characters with double backslash... \\

c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

4. Secular schools of thought tainted

Comment #252272 by Drool on September 22, 2008 at 6:24 pm

"It is obviously inappropriate to compel a child to attend a school that preaches a religion or philosophy different from the one taught at home."

5. Large Hadron Collider readies for world's biggest experiment

Comment #243300 by Drool on September 5, 2008 at 11:49 am

Here is an article by the same author on the hype surrounding the black hole thing.

6. Priest Antonio Rungi wants beauty contest - for nuns

Comment #236713 by Drool on August 25, 2008 at 6:56 am

Typical muslima.com profile:

Religion: Islam - Sunni
Star Sign: Pisces

Astrology and Islam?! How does that work?

7. Sincerity no substitute for evidence

Comment #233543 by Drool on August 20, 2008 at 3:04 am

I like this one:

"I used to keep an open mind but people kept putting rubbish in it!"

8. 'The Genius of Charles Darwin' DVD (PAL Region 2) Available Now

Comment #233377 by Drool on August 19, 2008 at 8:26 pm

You can also get it, free of delivery, from Play.com (Play appear to be the official CH4 store, as it will take you there if you visited the www . channel4 . com / shop link advertised at the end of the aired version).

Personally, I'm going for THIS one.

9. After Bibles seized, U.S. group won't leave Chinese airport

Comment #232713 by Drool on August 18, 2008 at 2:17 pm

I wonder if both sides could agree to settle matters more amicably... Allow disclaimer stickers to be slapped on before handing them back.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MLEsj_f67DU

10. Richard Dawkins replies to Libby Purves

Comment #227391 by Drool on August 9, 2008 at 7:44 pm

I note that in her blog entry, she's corrected the date of the Horizon poll, albeit without mentioning a correction was made...

11. Richard Dawkins replies to Libby Purves

Comment #226879 by Drool on August 8, 2008 at 8:13 pm

Oh and I forgot to mention; as you can see from the link, ID is clearly explained to the pollees:

The "intelligent design theory" says that certain features of living things are best explained by the intervention of a supernatural being, e.g. God.

Edit: I normally don't trust polls as a rule, for they can be deceptive and intentionally so (mainly due to how some organisations write them as opposed to their statistical accuracy). Yet they can highlight trends and concerns and this one does just that. 39% is bad, even half that - for either flavour of creationism/ID - is bad enough to be worried about.

At the very least, it shows a deep lack of science education and an awareness of reality and of nature, which is why programs such as the Genius of Charles Darwin are made.

12. Richard Dawkins replies to Libby Purves

Comment #226871 by Drool on August 8, 2008 at 7:34 pm

Why does she say the poll is from 1976? It's from early 2006 and the original data is from these guys:

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/content/bbc-survey-on-the-origins-of-life.ashx

13. Vicar supports Life of Brian ban

Comment #222429 by Drool on July 31, 2008 at 12:27 pm

This is just stark raving bonkers but, good to see the reverend making a fool out of himself and demonstrating the irrelevance of religion once more. Pile on the ridicule I say.

From aberystwyth-today.co.uk, he also says:

"If it was an unpleasant film 30 years ago, then it remains an unpleasant film 30 years later. I have not seen the film, nor have I any wish to do so."

Fantastic.

Good job blasphemy laws in the UK have finally been repealed, just in time to get the ban lifted.

Apparently, Life of Brian was also banned from theatres in Ireland for blasphemy (a ban which was only lifted after 8 years).

It was also banned in Norway for blasphemy. Sweden marketed the film as "The film that is so funny that it was banned in Norway!"

14. A third of Muslim students back killings

Comment #219921 by Drool on July 27, 2008 at 7:08 pm

I graduated from Queen Mary & Westfield (as it was called) back in 1999 and you know what, I'm shocked but not entirely surprised at it being highlighted as a problem uni...

There were several conflicts over one of the Islamic societies breaking various rules. I can't remember the exact details, but I remember the muslim community were certainly very active and confrontational with the staff and lecturers.

For my own encounters, I had several heated debates with fellow students who were trying to convert me over to Islam! Was quite bizarre, because at the time, even though I was a (reserved) atheist, my opinion of religion was entirely benign - hadn't really thought about it much, or considered its negative sides, or that it had any. Yet, as an atheist, they accused me of following a religion, atheism! Hah. Surely that revelation could only cause me to begin questioning their own, and their tactics?

(Great uni tho. Some of the staff and faculties were top notch - the astronomy unit there especially, I think, is still quite excellent.)

15. Islam subway ads cause stir in New York

Comment #216142 by Drool on July 22, 2008 at 7:24 pm

More drivel by Harun Yahya on that very site: whyislam.org/877/Modern_Science/Fall_of_Atheism.asp

(I figure you can copy and paste the URL into the browser address bar yourself, a proper link will only help their google index.)

16. VOICES OF SCIENCE - Available Now on DVD

Comment #212142 by Drool on July 16, 2008 at 5:07 pm

Kristopher, Bullshit.

17. VOICES OF SCIENCE - Available Now on DVD

Comment #211312 by Drool on July 15, 2008 at 6:27 pm

The torrent seemed to be dead so I grabbed the web copy and started seeding with it...

However, it appears to be a tracker-less torrent using DHT (Distributed Hash Table) and I can only see Azureus clients. As far as I know, Azureus' DHT is incompatible with the mainline DHT, which the 'other' most popular BT client, utorrent uses.

So I fired up utorrent to seed and lo, the rest of the peers are there - utorrent, BitComet etc.. Basically, the peer to peer network is split and the two halves aren't peering with each other.

A dedicated tracker would certainly be useful. I'm guessing though, bandwidth only becomes a major issue for RD.net when something is first put up - during peak periods when different parts of the world wake up and decide to tuck in all at once. BitTorrent is ideal for these moments.

18. Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection

Comment #204798 by Drool on July 5, 2008 at 7:06 pm

Je.. I mean, Simon H. Christ!

Well at least they won't have to change the name of their religion...

19. Prayer refusal pupils 'disciplined'

Comment #204785 by Drool on July 5, 2008 at 6:34 pm

Agreed. The one on AOL, which seems to have come from The Press Association, says:

"...were given detention for being "disrespectful" to the prophet..."

Can never trust the media.

20. Prayer refusal pupils 'disciplined'

Comment #204776 by Drool on July 5, 2008 at 6:16 pm

The original source for the article, I *think* came from Congleton Chronicle. (I just don't trust much of the media these days, so tend to look these things up as a rule.)

The really story here is not what the kids did (although I'm surprised they refused to partake - good on 'em I say), it's that they were punished for 'disrespecting' a known paedophile (probably unbeknownst to them, but hey - I bet the teacher wouldn't have taught that lesson!).

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

Comment #204238 by Drool on July 4, 2008 at 1:16 pm

The Door to Hell, in Turkmenistan.

22. Aliens need Christ's redemption, too

Comment #202032 by Drool on June 30, 2008 at 4:28 pm

Rising Ape wrote:

Vulcans are far too logical to believe in religious fucktardism ^_^

23. Aliens need Christ's redemption, too

Comment #201554 by Drool on June 29, 2008 at 7:47 pm

Sci-fi often requires a suspension of disbelief but this guy takes the biscuit!

How can any Christian, while reading that article, not begin to question the mental gymnastics on display here? What strikes me is how he claims monopoly on imagination and then concludes: We Christians can imagine a world of God, therefore it exists.

What utter loblocks. Obviously he didn't rank evidence much while he was a supposed atheist.

24. Astronomers find batch of 'super-Earths'

Comment #194368 by Drool on June 16, 2008 at 4:40 pm

Newbie question. The article mentions mass, but aren't they just indirectly measuring size and inferring mass - or does size generally correspond to mass for planets of this type?

25. Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind

Comment #191496 by Drool on June 11, 2008 at 4:36 am

Looks like a good book, will put it on my long list. By the way, I've always known it to be pronounced kl-U-j, as in... fudge.

26. Hints of structure beyond the visible universe

Comment #191205 by Drool on June 10, 2008 at 11:22 am

Synchronium, use Firefox.

But these asymmetrical spots are expected to be few and far between, meaning that there is only a 1% chance that our observable universe would happen to occupy one.

27. Loyal to Its Roots

Comment #191181 by Drool on June 10, 2008 at 10:29 am

mordacious1 wrote:

My mom, and many others, believed, that if you talk to your house plants, they grow better. I tried to explain, that if you're spending that much time with your damn plant, you're more likely to notice when it needs water or more light, or that it has bugs. Hence the plant grows better.

28. Regime change in heaven

Comment #191146 by Drool on June 10, 2008 at 9:38 am

"Though, of course, being omniscient, He didn't actually need to listen to be aware of our intentions. Either that or He was in hiding. Which seems unlikely, given that He also claims to be omnipresent."

29. Holiday in Hellmouth

Comment #190893 by Drool on June 9, 2008 at 8:32 pm

"...and all he can fix up is 87 quid?"

Don't forget the CD player!

30. Logical Proof of the Existence of a Divine Creator, Why Atheism is Not Logically Sound

Comment #190865 by Drool on June 9, 2008 at 7:10 pm

mordacious1 wrote:

Then he was painting the bedroom, and I asked why it was taking so long, and he said he had to put 7 coats on this "dark spot" and it still wouldn't go away. I explained that the dark spot was a shadow.

31. Holiday in Hellmouth

Comment #190800 by Drool on June 9, 2008 at 3:11 pm

Heh, oh the irony. *slaps self for not reading propa*

32. Holiday in Hellmouth

Comment #190759 by Drool on June 9, 2008 at 2:03 pm

Sorry noodleson, but in this case it's still wrong and inconsiderate. Countries aren't languages. What to do with Brazil/Portuguese, Canada/French... the colour blind. There are perfectly good ways to represent it - using the name of the language written in the language itself. e.g. http://europa.eu

33. Holiday in Hellmouth

Comment #190671 by Drool on June 9, 2008 at 11:06 am

Peacebeuponme - I was being facetious. Although sure, my own preference is chiefly British, because that was how I was taught, but 'zed' isn't the only bastardisation.

But well, my post was really a good opportunity to raise some consciousnesses, specifically regarding the use of flags to represent language, which is just wrong and stupid. < /offtopic >

34. Holiday in Hellmouth

Comment #190496 by Drool on June 9, 2008 at 7:46 am

Peacebeuponme wrote:

Actually, just to be picky, though you are right that convention leads the UK to prefer "s", "z" is not an Americanism and used to be perfectly acceptable in the UK as well.

35. Holiday in Hellmouth

Comment #190052 by Drool on June 8, 2008 at 9:29 am

Good article. Just in case some haven't already sussed, make sure to follow the actual link and read all five pages, the cut 'n paste jobbie above is short.

36. When two worlds collide: threat of class warfare over faith-based schooling

Comment #187753 by Drool on June 2, 2008 at 2:23 pm

"This argument leads to a line we should not cross, where children are denied the right to an education whose values reflect the faith of their families and community."

37. 'Uncontacted tribe' sighted in Amazon

Comment #187470 by Drool on June 2, 2008 at 7:43 am

I thought this was an interesting short movie by one of the mentioned organisations. Check out the other ones after it finishes (Peru, Brazil etc.):

http://www.survival-international.org/campaigns/uncontactedtribes

38. Scientists rally against creationist 'superstition'

Comment #187240 by Drool on June 1, 2008 at 3:31 pm

The original MORI pole data (if indeed that is the source for this article) is more telling I think. They've described all three possibilities as "theory". As if they're of the same type and strength. This connotes for Joe public, a persistent idea that it's acceptable to hold personal opinion as equally worthy to a well-founded scientific theory, tested over centuries. But painting ID as a scientific theory? Hell no.

This is the problem, it isn't just about religion, or lack of science education in a certain field. In this country (UK), there's increasing tendency of people to willingly pre-prepare their minds to be vulnerable to fuzzy squishy notions of the supernatural. "Keep an open mind" they say. "Anything's possible". "Think for yourself". "There's got to be something to it.". "Scientists are just making this sh-theory up".

It sounds reasonable (i.e. keeping an open mind) to Joe and his friends. So they're not stupid, they choose to be wilfully ignorant. They already made a conscious decision not to trust science or anything it has to say. Because they don't appreciate how science actually works. They're happy with their astrology, spiritualist church, crystal healing and the FREEDOM to believe just about anything they bloody want - [Edit: so long as it ain't from a know-it-all scientist].

What's needed is a good education in the basics of the scientific method itself. I didn't even know what that was until adulthood (but would otherwise say I had a very well-rounded science education), it just lacked the butter to the sandwich. Oh and demonstrations in the value of scepticism - the kind that requires evidence, not the UFO-fake-moonlanding-9/11 conspiracy-theory kind of paranoid scepticism that seems abundant these days. :/

39. 'Uncontacted tribe' sighted in Amazon

Comment #186736 by Drool on May 31, 2008 at 8:29 am

Gah. How much of the Star Trek franchise have you actually seen, Mitchell? I mean, besides from the original series and the odd TNG re-run. I'm afraid I don't recognise the version you depict there at all...

While on the surface, the ST world may seem utopian (it naturally would appear so in the future, when compared to ours, if humankind strived to eliminate war, famine, disease, greed etc. through the use of technological advance).

In my humble opinion, the main point was to show humans in conflict, and to show it in a way that would make us think more reasonably about today's important issues. (And hell it's good entertainment.) How can a universe in conflict be considered utopian (i.e. perfect as opposed to better) anyway? I just don't see it.

Anyway, this misses the point. I think most agree that contact, if inevitable, should be considered with caution. I would just add - with no prior assumptions, should we make. These people aren't so necessarily backwards that they're sacrificing children which need to be saved or something. Nor should we assume they do or don't want to be contacted or haven't already decided so.

I agree though, it will be a learning experience. It'd be interesting to know if they have Gods. Or, if we've just become one, in the form of a noisy, shiny object in the sky. :)

40. 'Uncontacted tribe' sighted in Amazon

Comment #186689 by Drool on May 31, 2008 at 4:14 am

Cartomancer - Sounds like another Star Trek story device, aside from the Prime Directive - that of 'first contact'. Just before a civilisation becomes warp-capable (and hence close to contacting the outside world), the Federation goes in to secretly monitor the culture to determine how best to make contact. The idea being, of course, the consequences can be devastating, irreversible and so should ideally be 'managed'. Prior knowledge of the civilisation is important in deciding how or indeed IF they should be interfered with in the first place.

Makes a lot of sense to me. I'm thinking of the disease angle first, but also of what impact missionaries typically make when they stick their noses in. Without rebuttal. I tend to think, that if they wanted to be contacted, they'd have ventured to the borders of their own lands and sought us by now. Had they already? Maybe they didn't like what they saw.

I'm reminded of a Star Trek episode [edit: called 'Who Watches the Watchers'] where such a first contact mission was taking place and their accidental interference caused these people to believe they were gods, due to their [transporter?] technology. Picard then makes a particularly vitriolic anti-superstition speech which I remember hit me for how strongly worded it was for the times (considering the story was related to religion specifically).

(This is my first post here by the way, hello y'all. :) )