51. Sarcasm Seen as Evolutionary Survival Skill

Comment #198466 by esuther on June 24, 2008 at 4:09 am

Humor certainly seems to be a feature of advanced intelligence, and to exist on a continuum. Chimps (and infants) laugh when you tickle them. Older children (and some of my, ahem, more limited, acquaintances, laugh at pratfalls, snot hanging from someone's nose, pies in the face, slapping matches, etc. As you move up the level of complexity, you get into areas which require common understanding of the 'set-up'for a joke to work. Word-play jokes only work for people adept in the language (I speak both French and German, and even when I 'get' their word-plays, they are never amusing.) Jokes based on penis size that men and some straight women -- neither category of which I belong to -- seem to find so hilarious, drop like rocks at my feet. But sarcasm I can appreciate, and would adore an evening's conversation with Cartomancer.
Of course, sarcasm too has many levels, but as it gets subtler, you have to acknowledge the wit of the one inflicting it. You can find yourself laughing along with someone who has just made fun of YOU. I quite like the subtle sarcasm of "riiiiight" and the archetypal gay sarcasm of "oh puleese."

However, one of the funniest, jokes I ever saw was a "Far Side" cartoon. It was three dinosaurs, two of them holding their bellies in derision as a small furry mammal scampered past them. One of the dinosaurs, however glances up and peers at some mysterious new substance that the reader knows is snow. The very process of studying the cartoon and slowly having the light go on in the brain, made me laugh out loud and and forward the cartoon to dozens of friends.
Far Side gets my personal "best of cartoons" prize, just as Life of Brian gets my "best ever religious critique" award. Both are sarcastic at a pretty high level.

52. The Flea Delusion

Comment #197711 by esuther on June 22, 2008 at 2:14 pm

Actually, why don't I just ask.

Josh, how many languages has TGD been translated into? The blurb that says "over a million and a half copies" is already old -- does that refer to sales in all languages? If so, it dates before I bought those two copies in French.

53. The Flea Delusion

Comment #197699 by esuther on June 22, 2008 at 2:03 pm

I wonder how many copies of Richard's book have been sold worldwide, that is, in all its translations. I ask because I have given two copies of it in French to friends (just doing my part here) and I know it is available in other European languages too. I don't recall seeing any French fleas -- although I will have to look closer next time.
I'm willing to bet that most of those flea books are all small run short-lived publications and certainly not translated.

I don't suppose it is possible to get any numbers regarding flea sales, but there can't be very many. People looking for rationalizations of their wobbling faith have already bought the first ones.

54. It Doesn't Take an Einstein

Comment #197204 by esuther on June 21, 2008 at 10:47 am

Tetra

So, it's yes on all questions then. Wow. It seems you are locked into a pretty primitive and hate-filled world view. I haven't heard those kind of stereotypes since my KKK grandfather raved about the niggers wanting to rape white women. It would be too exhausting to pick away at all the myths and partial myths, and twisted facts you have offered, so I will simply ask you to answer the final -- probably the most important-- question.

What do you propose as the final solution for the Palestinian problem? What should be done with all those angry Palestinians? What would you like Israel to look like in 50 years and how should it get there?

55. Pastors Challenge Law, Endorse Candidates From Pulpit

Comment #197145 by esuther on June 21, 2008 at 8:06 am

Hey Tetra,

We're missing you on the Einstein thread. There are some unanswered questions. Hope to see you there again.

Anyhow, regarding dietary changes from Kosher diet, I can understand your becoming vegetarian. (I am vegetarian myself, for lots of reasons). It is only a pity that you did it so soon. You missed out on some absolutely wonderful flavors -- ones that represent the happiest taste-bud memories I have.

The best non-kosher (anti-kosher?) foods on the planet are:

1. Bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich. On white bread toast, heavy on the mayo, and with the bacon very very crisp. And maybe an extra dash of avocado just to add to the fat content.
I always thought if you could serve this kind of BLT to a child in a conservative Jewish or Muslim home, you would halfway liberate her right then and there.

2. Pork roast. In heavy gravy with half-potatoes roasted in the pork fat. Heart-stopping but once a year is not so bad.

3. Coquille St. Jacques. (Scallops in cream sauce served on a clam shell)

I'll never eat any of those things again, but a woman has memories, after all......

56. It Doesn't Take an Einstein

Comment #197039 by esuther on June 21, 2008 at 12:54 am

Tetra

It is very difficult to discuss issues of justice with a settler since clearly you have all your Zionistic interpretations �" a mix of facts, myths, and propaganda all ready to haul out to justify BEING a settler. Of course on our side, we have our facts and interpretations and a fair share of propaganda as well. So let's see if we have YOUR perspective clearly defined. Am I correct in assuming the following. A simple yes or no will suffice.

1. Whatever unfortunate methods were used to seize a significant part of Palestine for Jewish occupation, it was in principle justified.

2. The 700,000 (more or less) Palestinians who fled in 1948 were not forced by Jewish forces or Jewish threats but just ran away all by themselves, for no good reason.

3. Israel is justified in refusing to re-admit these refugees to the homes and lands they fled from. (Finders keepers?)

4. Palestinians are mostly savage and want to kill all infidels, even Jews, who are not infidels, for religious reasons, unrelated to Nr 1,2,and 3 above. (You pretty much said this already, so I take this one as a 'yes'.)

5. Palestinian Israelis are potentially savage too (because they are Muslim) but they behave themselves because they are grateful to be able to live in a democracy. (this also appears to be a 'yes')

6. The ongoing seizure of Palestinian land for Jewish-only settlements is justified because Palestinians whose land is being seized don't deserve it and the Jews do.

7. Bulldozing houses and tearing out olive groves is always because the Palestinians living there want to kill Jews and would do so if allowed to stay.

8. All peace efforts have failed because the Palestinians are savage and unreasonable (for no good reason).

9. Israel, in spite of its massive military, its gargantuan subsidies from the US, and it's network of military installations all over Palestine, is the victim. Israelis are being persecuted by Palestinians. (I believe you said this in your original post, that sparked this diversionary thread. So this also appears to be a 'yes')

10. Although Hamas was democratically elected, it does not count because Hamas is terrorist. Palestinian government must therefore be approved by Israel in order to be acceptable.


We could talk about the Wall, or the seizure of Palestinian wells, or the murder of Rachel Corey, but I assume you have a settler's interpretation of those items too, so why stir up more dirt.


And last of all, what do you see as the 'end solution' of the Palestinian problem. How do you suppose it is going to look in, say, 50 years. How would you like it to end?
While you are unashamedly racist (see Nr. 4, and 5) I am willing to assume you are not genocidal. So what would you like to do with all those Palestinians whose land you are occupying?

57. Bright Chunks At Phoenix Lander's Mars Site Must Have Been Ice

Comment #196821 by esuther on June 20, 2008 at 1:13 pm

I swear to Darwin it looks JUST like a tire mark on dirty snow. You know, like it just stopped snowing about an hour ago but dust settled on it and then a car ran over it and smeared it but exposed some of the clean snow beneath.
You just want to reach out and scrape it up with your mitten.
I'm also old enough to remember when Mars was just a red star in the sky about which we knew almost nothing.

58. It Doesn't Take an Einstein

Comment #196798 by esuther on June 20, 2008 at 12:51 pm

Al,

My sources have been Haaretz, Tanya Reinhart, Ian Pappe, Brit Tselem, (which I am sure I am spelling wrong), Physicians for Human Rights, and ongoing reportage by people like Robert Fisk who lives in Lebanon. I met Fisk once, and I want to have his baby. (0kay, so that's an exaggeration, but he really has my respect for being 'on the scene' for a score of years.)

There is a good video on Utube of Ian Pappe giving a talk on the history of Israel. So my sources are all Israeli. I actually read very little that is Arab. Hard to quote Arab sources in an argument and win any credulity, even if they happen to be true.

59. It Doesn't Take an Einstein

Comment #196785 by esuther on June 20, 2008 at 12:39 pm

elephant

Seriously, there IS no easy solution, rather like there is now no easy solution to Iraq. But letting go of the strangle hold on the Palestinians would be a good start. Hamas was (democratically) elected because they seemed to be the only force that stood up to the Israeli occupation. The choice was:
be strangled and do nothing, or be strangled and put up resistance. Hamas was the party that offered resistance.
I have heard a few voices in the wilderness suggesting a one-state solution, which both Israelis and Palestinians resist, but it may be inevitable. When Palestinian land is eaten up to the extent all that's left of is a few un-connected outdoor prisons, then there will effectively be a single state, and sooner or later, even the US will notice the misery and will finally see the sordid face of a completely racist state . That may be 50 years down the road, but I don't see how it can be avoided. When one state eats up another state, you end up with one state.

But I like the short term solution too. Baby oil is good. Can I wrestle a Jewish woman, or does Al have dibs because he said it first?

60. It Doesn't Take an Einstein

Comment #196591 by esuther on June 20, 2008 at 7:32 am

Tetra

The British did not oversee the Israeli State. When it was voted on in the UN, Britain abstained. They later offered their help and it was refused. After everything they had done to deny us our rights and allow the Arabs to massacre us and prevent Jews from Euroupe entering the country, remember the White Papers? If Jews had been allowed in between 1920 and 1935, if the Balfour Declaration had been honored, the Holocaust might not have happened.

Furthermore, the British knew about the concentration camps and death camps from the Yishuv and they could have bombed the infrastructure that the Nazis were using to annihalate the Jews but didn't. The same can be said about the US. At least they had a bit of a conciense and realized that we need a state and voted for it.

61. It Doesn't Take an Einstein

Comment #196567 by esuther on June 20, 2008 at 7:05 am

Tetrabrat

Please remember that about 90% of these people are Muslims the rest are Christians. The Muslim faith calls for the death and destruction of all "infedils" and Jews are "infedils". There is a high percentage of atheists and agnostics in Israel, I'm estimating 20%, an much higher percentage of "traditionalists" about 50%, and the Jewish faith is not concerned with killing or forcing its ideas on the rest of the world. Those are fundamental differences in outlook and tolerance that cannot be disputed

62. It Doesn't Take an Einstein

Comment #196563 by esuther on June 20, 2008 at 6:57 am

The fact is that the Palestinians use the settlements as an excuse.

63. It Doesn't Take an Einstein

Comment #196557 by esuther on June 20, 2008 at 6:47 am

Al,

I cannot speak to the background of your remark. I would say generally that there is a difference between Jews who were forced (I take you at your word here) to migrate to Israel, where they were welcome and became part of the new state, and the Palestinians who were often not welcome in the surrounding Arab countries and still live in shoddy refugee camp/cities, waiting to go home again.(And the respective host country can't wait for them to leave). I also cannot speak to the propaganda of Arab government, which I also trust you on. But if they really ARE refugees, then where is the propaganda in pointing to their misery?

But Palestinians are still forced from their homes, today. For Security, I assume Tetrabrat would say. The choke hold that the Israeli government has on Palestine commerce and movement is apartheid and nothing less.

64. It Doesn't Take an Einstein

Comment #196545 by esuther on June 20, 2008 at 6:24 am

Tetra,

Well, of course you call our information propaganda and we call your information propaganda. You call Arab numbers of Palestinian fatalities inflated and we say Palestinian fatalities are ignored. That argument can go on for days.
But please do not give us this "I know more than you do because I live there" crap.
That would mean that only Israelis and Palestinians have anything to say about it, and that's nonsense. All of us can read UN reports and journalistic accounts and Haaretz (sorry if I spelled that wrong). And I myself was in Palestine (working with a team of Jewish doctors, incidentally). So I am not ignorant of the conditions.

But so that we stop swapping "terrorist" stories (in which we surely agree that both the suicide bombers and the IDF have committed terrorist acts), lets look at the big picture.
That is, the state of Israel was established through the forced expulsion of some 700,000 Palestinians. Now those people didn't just up and leave because they wanted to do some traveling. The manner in which they were forced out can be debated (I am sure you have a very different take on it) but the fact remains that there are hundreds of thousands of refugees that Israel will not allow back into their homes and villages. Refugees, by definition leave because they are forced to.
That, my friend, is called ethnic cleansing. And people who fight against it are called resistance fighters. And whether you shoot someone with a military issue rifle, or blow them up with a body bomb, they die. And something like three times as many Palestinians die each year as Israelis and way more Palestinian children die than Israeli.

Now about those settlements. If the Israeli government were remotely interested in co-existence with the pathetic little shards that remain of Palestine, they would stop building their racist (and often religious) settlements, together with their Jewish only roads, all guarded by well-armed IDF. We will not speak about the Wall,(ah, I can just hear you inhale, ready to say the magic word: "Security") that seizes even more Palestinian land.

And one last thing. If you are an agnostic (I believe you said you were) then I presume you don't believe that Jehovah promised His Chosen People the land of Israel. In the absence of this divine promise, how can the establishment of the state of Israel be anything other than a ruthless siphoning of Europeans and Russians into a land where the indigenous population could not defend itself? On the basis of a myth and a religious chant of "Next year in Jerusalem".

All that death and misery for a religious chant.

65. It Doesn't Take an Einstein

Comment #196226 by esuther on June 19, 2008 at 1:32 pm

TeraBrat

I see you have all your Palestinian Terrorist myths ready for posting. I'm sure you can call up a whole lot of them.
Here is a good history of the whole catastrophe. I'm assuming you won't want to look at it since it makes Israel look pretty bad, but maybe someone else on the thread might want to glance at it and get a more detailed picture of the "persecution" of the Israelis.
And it doesn't have to 'derail' the thread.

http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/ref-nakba.html

66. It Doesn't Take an Einstein

Comment #196212 by esuther on June 19, 2008 at 1:12 pm

It is good to know the letter exists and can be quoted if necessary. But we all know that the believers will simply find THEIR Einstein quotes and the debate will go on. It's a variation on the ad hominem argument anyhow, isn't it?
Einstein's belief in god, even if it were traditional, would not be evidence for the existence of god.

67. It Doesn't Take an Einstein

Comment #196201 by esuther on June 19, 2008 at 12:59 pm

(It is) as Jews and Israeli's that we were and are persecuted

68. Is the Universe Actually Made of Math?

Comment #195516 by esuther on June 18, 2008 at 11:38 am

Okay, reading this article just about fried my brain, but I just HAVE to try out my new found skill at block quoting.

Level III comes from a radical solution to the measurement problem proposed by a physicist named Hugh Everett back in the 1950s. [Everett left physics after completing his Ph.D. at Prince­ton because of a lackluster response to his theories.] Everett said that every time a measurement is made, the universe splits off into parallel versions of itself. In one universe you see result A on the measuring device, but in another universe, a parallel version of you reads off result B. After the measurement, there are going to be two of you.

69. Oystein Elgaroy - the Christian defender who became an Atheist

Comment #195514 by esuther on June 18, 2008 at 11:29 am

You can look it up at Comment Posting Guidelines (next to the Post a Comment window).
To quote, use the tags {blockquote} and {/blockquote}, replacing the {} with <>.

70. Darwinmania!

Comment #195254 by esuther on June 18, 2008 at 1:26 am

Great article. So where can I get one of those Darwin teeshirts?

71. Oystein Elgaroy - the Christian defender who became an Atheist

Comment #195245 by esuther on June 18, 2008 at 1:12 am

Clearthinker,

Wow. What a long-winded post. Must have taken you hours. You need to get out more, dude.

72. Oystein Elgaroy - the Christian defender who became an Atheist

Comment #195241 by esuther on June 18, 2008 at 1:08 am

Teratornis:

>>>>>Even though belief in a god might seem like a binary decision, it's much more complex than that. Your former belief system depended on many individual ideas, like the many rivets which hold a ship together. The ship can start popping rivets and taking on water, yet remain afloat as long as the bilge pump of piety keeps pace with the influx of reality. Religion is, after all, an effort. It takes work to believe in nonsense.

There may be one last critical rivet which fails and finally overwhelms the ship, but if the other rivets were holding intact, the loss of that one would have been trivial.<<<

Excellent analogy for the process. Vivid image, too. I'll have to remember it.

73. Rapture site sends unbelievers their last chance ... via email

Comment #194758 by esuther on June 17, 2008 at 8:39 am

Evidence:


>>>>>Don't want to stereotype or insult anyone, but the founders of this little gold mine might be Jewish.<<<<

Wow. I haven't seen a remark like this in ages. I am assuming it is meant ironically, right?

But why wouldn't you assume they're um...atheists?

In fact, it's such a smart scam, and probably legal, that I would have no trouble at all attributing it to atheists wanting to shame fundidiots.

Wish I had thought of it.

74. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #194538 by esuther on June 16, 2008 at 11:20 pm

RtG
Please stop sputtering. We are all waiting for you to make your case for Design.
What is your evidence?

75. Gay brains structured like those of the opposite sex

Comment #194141 by esuther on June 16, 2008 at 1:05 pm

gr8hands

If you read my post carefully, I was suggesting that both categories 'declared homosexual' and 'declared heterosexual' are unreliable. I also identified as hetero in college, even took part in a written sexual orientation survey as a hetero, simply because I was still lying to myself. If I had been in that brain scan study, they would have put my brain information in the hetero column.

And all of those gray area sexualities I listed, what would their brain scans look like?

So my point is that the study itself is suspect, because it is treating social categories as if they were biological ones (i.e. height, eye color, possession of specific genes). Just as suspect as trying to measure the brains of cowboys and accountants.

76. Vatican bans Dan Brown film Angels & Demons from Rome churches

Comment #194011 by esuther on June 16, 2008 at 9:26 am

Since I write anti-church/anti-religion fiction myself, I confess to being bitterly jealous of Dan Brown's success. TDC was dreadfully written, but I have to hand it to him, he did have a fast paced plot and colorful settings. And it was not ever intended as a revelation of a conspiracy, just entertainment. I don't know what evidence that Fanusi has for the TDC causing a sudden increase in Opus Dei people skulking around. Even if it did, it also caused a sudden increase in people LEARNING about Opus Dei and laughing at it.

But for movies that make profound and hilarious statements about the idiocy of religion, I think the prize winner will always be The Life of Brian.

77. Gay brains structured like those of the opposite sex

Comment #193985 by esuther on June 16, 2008 at 9:04 am

I find any study of what 'causes' homosexuality to be suspect. I can appreciate that this study was a genuine attempt to examine the brains of self-identified gays for differences with self-identified straights, but the initial assumption, that sexual orientation is binary, is false.
It is initially false to say a certain percentage of men or women is, in any absolute sense homosexual or heterosexual. Of course, for practical reasons, people chose one or another sex to pursue. (Life is short and most of us have jobs). But while you CAN say that person A is six feet tall or person B carries the gene for hemophilia, it seems to me you cannot say exactly what constitutes a homosexual. For example: would you attribute homosexuality or heterosexuality to the following persons:

A married woman who has lesbian fantasies while having orgasmic (i.e. unfaked) sex with her husband.

A married man who has a 'happy' marriage but goes to a gay bar once a month for a blow job

A woman who has passive sex with another woman using a dildo

A man who has passive sex with his wife using a dildo

A man who makes a career of the military/the clergy and whose primary sex is masturbation.

Boys/girls who grow up in sexually divided societies who marry but have intense friendships and occasional sex with their own genders (as in rigid Arab societies).

Abused women (or women who have been genitally mutilated) who never have a chance to have good sex with their husbands and look to women for love.

A priest/nun who really IS chaste but who has erotic dreams about the Holy Ghost.

There are probably more 'gray area' sexualities, but I think you get my drift.

As a politically active lesbian, I have know hundreds and interacted at big events with thousands of lesbians, and I can certainly attest to the wide spectrum of personality types. Among my friends and ex-lovers, there is also a spectrum of histories, from long fairly satisfying marriages to men (before me), to total interest in women. Butches and fems and regular women.
So my point is, other than the self-identification, which may have a great deal to do with social circumstances, how can you scientifically' say "this subject is a homosexual and his/her brain is such and such"?
And if you can't say for sure that your subject is either homosexual or heterosexual, how can you proceed with a study of their brains?

78. George W Bush meets Pope amid claims he might convert to Catholicism

Comment #193731 by esuther on June 16, 2008 at 1:02 am

Mord:

I think it is useful to focus on one of the central themes of National Socialism, which was "purifying" Germany.
After the humiliation and deprivations of WWI, Germany was, in a rather twisted way, trying to reaffirm its identity. As nationalism won out over internationalism (Communism was quite strong in the 20s) the theme of purification took on a physical aspect, that is first and foremost, getting rid of deficient Germans. The first people to be gassed were Germans themselves: retarded and incurably ill. Then the practice spread to include all "social undesirables": repeat criminals, gypsies, homosexuals, Slavs, and of course, that old European bugaboo -- Jews. While the sheer number of Jews who were murdered is breathtaking, it is important to remember that the program was wider than Jewish genocide. It was purification in all its forms, and the furtherance of a stalwart race of mentally and physically fit nordic types. Thus, the constant focus on Hitler's reference to Jews is somewhat misleading. Jews were widely considered to be a "problem", not just in Germany, (and that in itself is worth an entire dissertation) so it was logical that any purification agenda would involve getting rid of them somehow.
As a professor in "Germanistik", I spent a couple of decades of my academic life studying the phenomenon of National Socialism/hypernationalism and as the years went by, it seemed to be more and more like a destructive impulse that lies deeply imbedded in all cultures and that must always be monitored by clearer heads.

The Voss book sounds interesting. My personal obsessoin has always been with Leni Riefenstahl. Another phenomenon deserving a dissertation or two.

79. George W Bush meets Pope amid claims he might convert to Catholicism

Comment #193723 by esuther on June 16, 2008 at 12:25 am

mordacious

Strange. For some reason, many of the words just had a jumble of symbols and I assumed it was the umlaut.

Anyhow, I appreciate MPhil's argument. National Socialism spread gradually but forcefully through Germany in the 30s and while the whole phenomenon is horrifying, it was, in its earliest phases, not unlike the flag waving hyperpatriotism of the US. (Other parallels too: Trade towers - Reichstag fire, Patriot Act = Enabling Act, etc. ) If you can blame the Hitler Youth for WWII, you can blame flag waving boyscouts for Bush's invasion of Iraq. Because that's what HJ were, hyperpatriotic little snots. But not much else.

That's not to say Ratzinger doesn't give me the creeps as he stands there in his pretty dresses squinting out at the world and making those magic hand signs.
(I'll take Dumbledore, any day. At least he was queer.)

80. George W Bush meets Pope amid claims he might convert to Catholicism

Comment #193719 by esuther on June 16, 2008 at 12:09 am

Hey MPhil and Mordacious
When you write German (which I speak) please use e for your umlauted words. If you use umlauts, it comes out gibberish in my message. Thus, it becomes difficult to eavesdrop on your private conversation.

Vielen Dank

81. George W Bush meets Pope amid claims he might convert to Catholicism

Comment #193716 by esuther on June 15, 2008 at 11:57 pm

Whitepearl,

Just curious. Can you explain what you mean by this?

>>>the Crusades was a walk in the park compared to the damage inflicted by the mighty Mohammed and his modern day followers.<<<

Are you referring to modern day invasions by Muslim armies into non-Muslim countries and the slaughter of non-Muslims? What would those be?

(Not defending Islam here, just wondering at your comparison.)

82. Stephen Hawking: ministers' £80m error puts science at risk

Comment #193421 by esuther on June 15, 2008 at 2:59 pm

RightWingAtheist

What a strange reaction. What's your point? That he's a hypocrite?
Professor is a job title that is earned, like Doctor.
It's not an honorific like "Sir Stephen".

83. Report: Troubling texts at Va. Islamic school

Comment #192439 by esuther on June 13, 2008 at 4:09 am

Ah, so it was Islam all along. I had no idea it was as simple as that. Silly me.

Okay, boys. Fire up the nukes. We got some towelheads to cook.

84. 'In Our Time': Trofim Lysenko

Comment #189964 by esuther on June 8, 2008 at 12:24 am

Phil -- damn you. Now I have to go and get a sponge and wipe the coffee splatter off my computer screen.

85. Storm erupts over 'virginity' divorce

Comment #188134 by esuther on June 3, 2008 at 8:55 am

Appleby wrote:

"I'm sorry if I'm coming across as a homophobe."

No. Mostly you're coming across as someone pathetically in need of attention and assertion of your sexuality. At this point you have some 15 pages of it. Will you shut the hell up now?

86. Storm erupts over 'virginity' divorce

Comment #187742 by esuther on June 2, 2008 at 1:58 pm

WHY in Darwin's name is everyone still feeding this Appleby troll? Clearly he is reveling in the attention he is getting -- which he probably gets nowhere else.

He doesn't engage; he jerks off.

Like god, if no one talks about him or to him, he will go away.

87. Random Acts of Evolution

Comment #187214 by esuther on June 1, 2008 at 1:48 pm

It's a fascinating article (and amusing due to the repetition). I had NO IDEA that our genome was mostly junk. And here I thought that nature just plowed along, saving things that were efficient and discarding things that didn't work. And that nothing totally functionless stayed around very long.
Apparently not. We have a tiny (5% !!!) engine that drives us and makes us what we are, and boxcars and boxcars of trash dragging along behind us.

Would some of the biologists in the group also please explain to me how a creature can have a bigger genome than homo sapiens? Or a 'more efficient' one?

And I want to hear more about those onions.

88. Storm erupts over 'virginity' divorce

Comment #186769 by esuther on May 31, 2008 at 9:35 am

Comment #186761 by mordacious1 on May 31, 2008 at 9:15 am
Appleby
>>You should really reconsider going through your life as a sexist and a homophobe.

Tee Hee!

89. Storm erupts over 'virginity' divorce

Comment #186400 by esuther on May 30, 2008 at 8:46 am

The contracts I have seen (I have translated scores of them) have been international business contracts, but all contain the phrase "subject to the laws of..."
I would be curious to know if this was an actual paper 'legal' contract, subject to the laws of France. If so, do the laws of France specify that virginity of one of the spouses may be a condition of the marriage? If it is a contract concluded by the families privately it is should have less weight.

I am thinking now of the marriage of Diana and Prince Charles which required that Charles' bride -- for obvious reasons of royal lineage blah blah-- not be previously squirted at. (The fact that Charles had done considerable squirting himself was of course irrelevant -- even in the question of royal bastards). Presumably that WAS a legal contract, with a dozen lawyers stamping and signing.

I suspect this marriage contract was a private one, and so am baffled that the French courts would uphold it.

As for the woman, I do not envy her. She will not be welcomed back in her father's house. I suggest she emigrate immediately to, say, Denmark.

90. Senate bill allows display of Lord's Prayer, 10 Commandments

Comment #186381 by esuther on May 30, 2008 at 8:25 am

Historical documents, eh?

How about one or two of the treaties the US government made with native Americans and then broke, or the contracts which show that Jefferson and Washington owned slaves, or the Supreme Court decision in the Dred Scott case, or the order by Truman to drop the Atomic Bomb?

All KINDS of documents out there which show the ideological foundation of this nation. And all far more relevant to US history than the bloody lord's prayer!

91. That's it. Texas really is doomed.

Comment #185958 by esuther on May 29, 2008 at 8:29 am

Al-rawandi

Usually I find myself nodding in agreement with your opinions but I have to disagree with this one. It is a red herring.
I could ask the same question of you with regard to the services provided to you by your local fire department.
Do you think it is better for fire departments to be financed through public monies (obtained, obviously, from taxation) or should individuals be given back that portion of their tax which is used for emergency services and let people individually all take out "Fire Department Insurance". Those who do not take out the FDI will then be denied the right to call for emergency services in the event of a fire.
I have no more love of the IRS and government than you do, but do see a certain logic to having basic services generally available. Or maybe it is simply a more humanitarian social view. Terrible things happen to people without health insurance, and many of those are children.
I live in Belgium where health insurance is a public service paid for through taxation. While everyone complains about the high taxes, they don't complain about the fact that a doctor will make a house call for 30 Euros, and two thirds of that is reimbursed to you -- the same day if you are strong enough to stagger to the dispensing office.
That right applies equally to the upright citizen and to the drunk who falls into the gutter -- and that's fine with most Belgians. It's certainly fine with me.

92. Town moves against Islamic school

Comment #184848 by esuther on May 26, 2008 at 9:39 am

More and more I am for enforced secularism, as in the French schools. If schoolchildren are required by federal law to attend public school, they can do their voodoo, sorry, religious study on the weekend the way kids have been doing it for decades. The whole idea of a Catholic School, a Yeshiva, or a Muslim 'school' (which is the same as a Yeshiva) is repugnant to me -- regardless of how liberal or enlightened the curriculum might be.

On the other hand, the arguments put forth sounded pretty racist to me. All those white folks in Australia seem to have forgotten that they took Australia away from another culture. They don't OWN Australia. It sounds obnoxious to me that they immediately assume that the school will breed terrorists. There are thousands of mosques and moslem schools in Europe and the US that go about their business and bother no one.

But before making a final judgment, I'd like more information. Why, for example, is this Muslim community building a school so far away from Sydney, where all the students live?

93. What Genes Remember

Comment #184696 by esuther on May 26, 2008 at 1:47 am

Re T4Baxter:
>>>>>It's not the job of great minds to ponder on the curriculum of Hogwarts. <<<

Hey, let's have a little more respect for Hoqwarts and its curriculum. Okay, so it's magic and pure fantasy, but it's waay more fun than those fantasies that make up the current hypocritical, sado-masochistic, and brutal monotheisms. And surely, Dumbledorf is a great mind.

Though a retired (literature) professor and (sigh) a muggle, I'd give up retirement in a minute if I could teach a course at Hogwarts. In countering the forces of evil, perhaps, or maybe just creative writing.

94. How Are Humans Unique?

Comment #184685 by esuther on May 26, 2008 at 1:09 am

Bullet? Bullet? You still out there?

Hmm. He seems to have fallen silent. Poor kid.
I guess you guys pommeled him with too much fact.

Hey Bullet. Come on back. No one's gonna hurt you. It's safe to ask questions, state arguments you think you can defend, and be prepared for counter-arguments. We promise not to bite this time. There's nothing harmful about a polite give and take of ideas. It might even give you some good ideas for your next term paper.

95. How Are Humans Unique?

Comment #184439 by esuther on May 25, 2008 at 8:41 am

While the gap between the social behaviors of non-human animals and humans seems large, I think Mr. Tomasello is too anxious to prove that humans are better and does not give enough mention of studies indicating complex social and even apparently moral communications among non-human animals.
That is, that the difference is in degree, not kind.

Esuther

96. Richard Dawkins lecture at ASU's Tempe Campus

Comment #183701 by esuther on May 22, 2008 at 2:25 pm

What great fun it was listening to this while I puttered quietly around the house. Like the old days, when people listened to the radio. RD has a very smooth style, a style of speaking that is soft-spoken and at the same time utterly authoritative and with that lovely upper class British accent.

What a relief, after reading through the horrible daily news, media propaganda and gov't lies, to pop over to RD's site and read/listen to something so lucid, logical, reasonable and solid.

97. Lab agrees to test Shroud of Turin for new theory

Comment #182994 by esuther on May 21, 2008 at 7:43 am

It always looked hokey to me, even way back before I was a snarly old atheist. The face and markings are far too exact, far too identifiable to be the accidental smearings from a cadaver whose blood would have already half dried and been smeared by handling, etc. The shroud looks like a prop from one of these 50s MGM movies like The Robe. It is so fake looking, it couldn't even be the burial shroud of ANYONE, so my money is on a clumsy fake. If it's medieval, it would have been a handy item to encourage an army of believers to head south to slaughter Saracens for Jesus.

98. The amazing intelligence of crows

Comment #181733 by esuther on May 18, 2008 at 5:07 am

Another incredible crow.

The first part of the video is a bit hokey, but stay with it. There is some brief but astonishing footage of a crow taking care of a kitten. Not a trick that someone taught it, but spontaneous behavior.
Who knows what lurks in the 'minds' of animals.


"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JiJzqXxgxo&mode=related&search"

99. The amazing intelligence of crows

Comment #181723 by esuther on May 18, 2008 at 4:22 am

Since we are talking about birds in general, I have a story too.

Some years ago I was sitting by the high wooden fence in my garden. Looking up, I noticed that, due to my long-haired cat's constant climbing over the fence, a fringe of her fur had formed that waved gently in the afternoon breeze. Then, while I idly watched, a bird hopped along the fence, gathering the cat hair to line her nest. Whether that qualifies as avian adaptability or madness, I can't say, but it was a very poetic moment. I kept imagining the chicks hatching onto the soft cat fur and perhaps developing a preference for it over twigs and straw for THEIR later nest-building.

100. Richard Dawkins Interview on TVOntario

Comment #180977 by esuther on May 16, 2008 at 8:22 am

When was this broadcast? I went to the TVO website looking for the survery the interviewer mentioned and found no record of the Dawkins interview. Is it more than a year old?