Comments by Goldy

2551. 'I despise Islamism': Ian McEwan faces backlash over press interview

Comment #198410 by Goldy on June 23, 2008 at 7:53 pm

Further along the north African coastline...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/world/africa/23algeria.html?ref=world
Why sometimes it's not the people's fault they are as they are...

2552. 'I despise Islamism': Ian McEwan faces backlash over press interview

Comment #198400 by Goldy on June 23, 2008 at 6:45 pm

Despite the report, the holiday season at the Taba/Sharm El Sheikh/Alexandria is as busy as ever. Great coral treasures at the red sea for those who are interested.

I have to say I really enjoyed my holiday there. Of course, after the Luxor massacre security was damn tight. I think Cairo is one of the nicest cities I have been to - don't know why but it felt really good there. Friendly people too.
As for the heeadbanging mark - it that any worse than walking around with a Bible, as I believe the Bush administration does...?

2553. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #198348 by Goldy on June 23, 2008 at 3:43 pm

I'm wondering how many times I've been trolled for worthless comments now ;-)

2554. 'I despise Islamism': Ian McEwan faces backlash over press interview

Comment #198339 by Goldy on June 23, 2008 at 3:28 pm

Meanwhile, in Egypt...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7469221.stm

2555. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197972 by Goldy on June 23, 2008 at 2:42 am

I was trying to talk about the context in which accumulated information finally allows us to "transcend" (there's that pesky word again) undirected selection.

Hmmm. If selection made us the abstract and logical thinking machines that we are, would the "directed" selection merely be a continuation of the "undirected" selection? We think we are directing it, but in fact we are just following what selection has conditioned us to think?
Getting out of my area of comfort now :-)
Jethro, the same Genesis that has God making men and women on the 6th day? Forgetting to make it rain? Making Adam after the 7th day and Eve some time way after that and confusing forever those of us who were told Adam and Eve were the first people? I have read through Genesis - a more blatant cut and paste job is hard to fathom. What is even harder for me to fathom is how it endured...

2556. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197921 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 10:48 pm

What I'm interested in is, what's the reason why our particular type of agency---a rather complicated form, no doubt---makes our deliberate intervention in our genome a different type of selection from all the others that fit so nicely into being "natural"?

That I am not sure of. I think it is natural. We know what we want - why? Because it has been imprinted into us, as it were, by our evolution. By carrying on the same theme "outside" natural selection doesnt make sense to me as natural selection got us here - we're not transcending anything but carrying on the same journey, as it were.
We evolved into thinking things naturally. That the thinking makes us try to direct the evolution is part of our evolution. That by natural selection we got this far shows it is a good strategy and we carry on the same because we select for it ourselves following our instincts (hmm, is that the right word - hopefully you know what I mean. Nothing to do with aliens...).
Hominids have already selected smaller brains - H. neanderthalis had bigger brains, apparently. And then there's the Flores hobbits to consider (though that seems to have really gone into all sorts of directions now!).

2557. Atheism's Wrong Turn

Comment #197916 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 10:35 pm

Written language, I believe, originated with clerics to record taxes and revenue, expanding to tracking production, crops and trade, then general government bureaucracy (with bureaucrats recruited from the clergy as only they were literate much of the time).

Are you sure about the role of clergy here? Sounds very Eurocentric and Dark Ages to me. Roman grafitti suggests otherwise...and reading one the origins of writing as we have it in the west, cuneiform usage suggests not so much clergy as accountants being the main users.

2558. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197908 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 9:53 pm

Well, now I feel like a naughty child. But you're right LL1 - I'll stop.

2559. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197900 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 9:22 pm

Maybe I need your help to solve Roswell.

Ok...but first you help me extract hydroxychloroquine from tablets!
I done plenty of speculating on this one and I'm still getting really poor yields.
Don't you ever let your mind go on a flight of fancy? And the aliens was completely irrele...ah, forget it. Yes, they were central to my argument! You win! Beers on you!

2560. 12 Year Old Girl Prodigy Paints Pictures of God

Comment #197894 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 9:06 pm

some of you should be ashamed to be posting comments like this. I think it is definitely possible that this girl is just extremely gifted and God has blessed her with that kind of talent. Is it so hard to believe there really is a God?

yes, it is hard ot believe there is a god. She'd paint the same, God or no God. You can tell - she painted a white bloke with a beard, by the looks of it. She is talented, I'll give her that. With the right tuition, she could be really good.

and have some respect for those of us who believe in God.

Eh? Fuck off! Earn the respect first, then come to us, you homophobic, Jew hating, mysogenistic, ritualistic, self important, deluded and arrogant individual.
Edit - well, it was a very vacuous entry to put into an atheist site, wasn't it.
PS - there is no god.

2561. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197893 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 8:59 pm

As a scientist I don't see the point in seriously speculating on something like that.

And, as a scientist, I find speculation sometimes helps me get out of a rut.
Ah, well, I see you cannot see the argument for the aliens. Wish I had never mentioned them now.
Anthropogenic - seeing as it means born of humans (if my classical Greek isn't too far off) then yes, everything we do and make is, by definition anthropogenic. Anyone who argues the point doesn't know what the word means. Those termite mound would be termitogenic and so on (can't find the Greek for beaver or I would included them).
Never mind, I'll detach humanity from nature and leave it at that then. Much easier.
Brian

Goldy, you really are takin' the piss from me today. If we couldn't survive, the possibility of survival was non-existent, then we didn't survive. So, we could survive, however poorly, but still it was possible, in fact it occurred. :)

:-D It's that manuka wheat beer I made. Wonder how I'll be when the chilli chocolate beer is ready? ;-)

2562. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197884 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 8:23 pm

If it were to change so abruptly that we couldn't survive, well then we couldn't survive. :D

But it did and we did :-) I'll concede the sun thingy, mind. If it changed drastically or even went out, we'd be fucked.

2563. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197883 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 8:20 pm

http://www.jqjacobs.net/anthro/paleo/bottleneck.html
The bottleneck thingy.

How do you do that? Can you even begin to imagine what kind of thought processes an alien would have if they even existed? We have a hard enough time understanding other human cultures. How do you propose explaining an unknown alien?

That's where imagination comes in - I am a human, not a Vulcan! And I try and project how we look at things "below" us upward, as it were :-) But again, as you say, I am inferring a human quality on these aliens - for all I know they'd just see us as...carbon based complex molecular structures. But that is not what i was trying to illustrate - the aliens are completely irrelevant except to illustrate how we have to look at ourselves. You're focussing on the completely wrong end of the argument. The aliens are not the important bit, the important bit is what is natural and what isn't and where does one draw the line...

2564. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197881 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 8:14 pm

What if it's global? What if everything changes quickly and drastically?

Our DNA suggests we have been there before, that we are all descended from a handful of people. We occupy a variety of different anvironments, from arctic cold to desert heat (I'm remembering the Afari tribesmen here - what was that program? They were running about playing footy with an English bloke. He suffered, they didn't - was at about 50°C)
A few are bound to survive. Whether they have what our ancestors had to reach the stage we are at now, who knows. Maybe they'll be rabid atheists - bye, bye God!

2565. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197878 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 8:08 pm

I'm sure they do, they believe in god. I fail to see what this has to do with us not showing a belief in fictional characters.

Sometimes one has to step a bit out of the box in oreder to get the people one is talking to to try and view a point from another angle, if you see what I mean. I am not saying aliens from the planet X exist, but in order to view ourselves, we have to try and see things from a non-human point of view, eh?
Now, Comment #197873 by txpiper , note him. Not only is he wildly more speculative than I am, he actually believes the stuff he talks about is true! No philosophical musings for him! Everything he writes is, to him, fact. Not even theory or even hypothesis, but fact.
Brian, other than the sun getting too hot, I think we'd cope. Even an ice age (though not, methinks, the ice sphere of our txty's imagination). Yes, even a nuclear winter - that would be akin to a mega eruption, would it not? We survived Toba about 70-odd thousand years ago, I believe...

2566. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197875 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 7:58 pm

You have the right to your own thoughts. I'm just wondering if a scientific forum is the place to raise fictional questions like that. I'm sure there are forums for that kind of discussion.

Don't forget that religious people come and read these forums. If we start speculating about aliens we may lose all our credibility. "AHA! You don't believe in God but you believe in aliens. What if aliens are God..."

They would then get a quick tutorial in the difference between idle speculation nad philosophical thoughts on subjects and the sheer fuckwittery that is faith in gods :-)
Brian

If our environment changed so abruptly that we couldn't counter the negative effects with technology, then surely evolution would be no help as it requires long time spans. We'd just become extinct.

Luckily we, as humans, occupy a variety of different environments. I guess we'd cope...

2567. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197866 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 7:41 pm

Goldy, are you suggesting that Termites have the cognitive ability to decide any issues, not least building their mound? If so, please present the evidence. Imagine all those extra billions of sentient beings we'll have to consider when making laws......

Heheheheh! No, I don't. And for all I know they make the mounds more as an easy lunch bar for ants rather than for themselves ;-)
TeraBrat, you're right, I'm wandering into complete personal speculation. Just wondering how an outsider would view us...as we view ourselves or as we view other non-sentient creatures. Assuming there is an outsider to speak of, of course...

2568. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197865 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 7:38 pm

Now, some can argue that because consciousness arose naturally, and because we are natural creatures then it's natural selection. But this just confuses different meanings of natural. And anything, including a computer would be termed natural under this broader idea of nature. In fact, everything would be termed natural because it exists and the substrate of existence is material.

Yep. Which is why I get confused! :-(
But is natural selection made us what we are now, surely everything we do follows the same principles of natural selection? What if environmental pressures change and the less thinking of us have an advantage? I know we can change our environment to a degree, but to what degree? Certainly we are not any different from our immediate ancestors and look how the mini ice age of the late middle ages altered things. Should we enter an ice age, would we be able to change things? Despite our knowledge and reasoning capabilities, we don't seem to be making much of an impact on maintaining the status quo regarding climate change (apart from heating things up!). And there is debate regarding the global warming too...
Argh. Think I'll go back to trying to extract hydroxychloroquine from tablets...

2569. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197860 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 7:28 pm

You're takin' the piss Goldy. Termites deliberately building their mound. What next? Termite construction company decries building regulations. ;)

Don't laugh, mate - bloody regulators get everywhere! But then, the environment is changed and who is to say it isn't deliberately done (in termite terms)?
Terabrat

Do I need to go on?

Yes, I know - but step out of H.sapiens shoes for a bit, become an alien and would you see it the same way or would you conclude that we have evolved ways of changing the environment? After all, we are the product of natural selection as much as any other animal here. The fact that we are destructive might be no different to those petri dish colonies that collapse once population saturation has occurred and nutrients are lost due to demand.
We look at ants and aphids and beavers and stuff and say it is natural and yet ours is not. Would others think the same of us or the same as us?

2570. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197858 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 7:21 pm

Quine

Goldy, it is a big subject....

You are not kidding! Sometimes a bit out of my depth when discussing it, I have to say. I do feel, though, sometimes it stumbles on matters of definition...eg, thinking. I say our thinking is due to natural selection, so thinking could be under the same as eye colour, fatty deposits to combat cold, etc. Yet thinking, per se, is not, is it? If we make an AI machine, it's thinking is not due to natural selection as such.
After that I start to get confused....

2571. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197852 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 7:12 pm

OK, most creatures do not deliberately atler their environment or select other creatures for certain genetic traits. I would say at this point the evidence is that we are the only ones who do this.

Termite mound not a modified environment? Beaver dam? Ants looking after aphids? Or indeed their own (honeypot ants, is it?)?

2572. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197820 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 5:51 pm

A bit emotional, isn't it? Comment #197810, I mean. I have been in a slaughterhouse - watched sheep bleed to death while suspended upside down. Made me hungry and so I went, after work, to get a lamb shank. Many, many people kill the animals they are going to eat - talking to my parents, they had to kill chickens to eat them. They still like chicken.
I have also watched, via the medium of television, baby animals being ripped apart by carnivores who specifically targetted the baby because of it's vulnerability.
Emotion is one thing and it can be very admirable but it does not win arguments.

2573. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197807 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 5:42 pm

Goldy and Quine,
Was it you guys that talked about 'transcending' our natural selves a while back?

Sort of - I argued against.
Terabrat

But they can't survive without us. So the success is artificial. If we go they go.

The housefly uses us like crazy. As do rats, mice and a horde of other wee besties. If we were to die off, they would too..ish. Obviously those that don't need us as much would, evolutionarily speaking, have an advantage which they would pass on to subsequent generations.
The fact that some animals are completely dependent on us and that there are genetic problems is neither here nor there. They survive...becasue we provide the environment. Of course, one can argue that we make an artificial environment and that naturally they would die off. But I say that we are how we are by natural selection and the fact we provide this host mechanism is also part and parcel of the natural selection process.

2574. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197776 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 4:45 pm

But that's not selection acting on us directly. And one can say because we are as we are by natural selection, then our action on the floral and fauna is by natural selection with us as the environmental pressure.
Tenuous, I know...and almost smacks of goddiness.

2575. Oystein Elgaroy - the Christian defender who became an Atheist

Comment #197770 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 4:30 pm

Am I too late to congratulate Oystein for his intellectual honesty?

I'd say not. Go on, give him a big congrats :-)

2576. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197769 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 4:29 pm

Quine :-)
I know. But then again, one can say there is a lack of intention on our part. We grew bigger brains and developed the parts for abstract thought (unintentionally). That unintentional development leads us to try and rise above the Natural Selection (as we define it) but surely that is the result of the way we developed...unintentionally. So we are doing what we think still...without knowing why we do what we do :-)
Hmmm, need more coffee....

2577. Oystein Elgaroy - the Christian defender who became an Atheist

Comment #197765 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 4:12 pm

Teratornis, I cycled for 3 years before. My main gripe at the time was the buses - they are driven by shaved apes, taught some rudimentary language and minimal driving skills. Unfortunately, we have to share the bus lanes as cycling lanes are not that extensive. Cyclists are told they are not used much, so councils do not set aside money for extending them, by as cyclists say, it is hard when the cycling lanes appear to disappear and we have to share with the traffic.
However, there is some action trying to get cycling more "rights" - http://www.caa.org.nz/ and http://www.getacross.org.nz/
The rising petrol prices does seem to have thinned the ranks of car drivers, but it still is very crowded on wet days (Auckland, unfortunately, is not known for its lack of rain).
I also used to cycle in the UK before emigrating. 2-3 miles down to the Thames, then a 5 mile slog up to Sonning Common to work at Johnson Matthey - I was involved in fuel cell research, plating palladium and silver onto ceramic tubes to purify hydrogen. The journey back was great due to the long hill down to the Thames...but there was a school on the way. Scary things, myopic mums in trucks picking their little darlings up and driving them the few 100 metres back home...

so every country would adopt a one-child policy to arrest population growth

Isn't this why Europe needs immigration? There are no policies on the number of children there. In China there is, yet the population is not really going down, as far as I can tell. One doesn't need a policy - just raise the standards of living (if possible) and people will opt to have less children. They eat into one's leisure time. As it is, the next generation pay the taxes that pay the pensions - having less children can lead to rather large social disruptions...higher taxes for the new generations and less pension for the older.

2578. 'I despise Islamism': Ian McEwan faces backlash over press interview

Comment #197751 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 3:39 pm

In the pictures I only see men on their prayer mats, are the women in a back room of the mosque?

Given their views on sex, it is a huge no-no to be together. After all, the women could raise impure thoughts in the men, distracting them from their prayer...
Mind you, Allah doesn't like women (despite protestations to the contrary by those who believe...protestations without much evidence) so their prayers aren't worth diddly.

2579. Christianity 'could die out within a century'

Comment #197749 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 3:36 pm

Christianity dying out and leaving a huge vacuum for Islam to fill. Oh, wouldn't that be lovely?

How? Besides, who's to say Islam not the vacuum for atheism to fill? ;-)

2580. 'I despise Islamism': Ian McEwan faces backlash over press interview

Comment #197746 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 3:26 pm

I was thinking of letting one go in a mosque.

I pity the person prostrating in prayer behind you... ;-)

2581. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197743 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 3:24 pm

It will have less and less impact on the nature of humans as we understand how to take over from it

Not really. Everything we do is following the selection process. As we are of Nature, then even our active selection on ourselves is...natural selection :-)

2582. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197741 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 3:22 pm

Jethro, if you need a god why does it need to be God? You need something out there for...? A thing that is outside, that listens but doesn't listen, that interferes in the lives of people but gives us free will to do what we want, the one can pray to but never expect an answer...why do you need this thing?
Hope my tone comes across as puzzled as opposed to belligerent. Why do we need gods? Even if they created everything, they do not care for humanity, do they?
Luckily you don't sound as mad as batchit like some of the contributers, so I should hopefully get a reasoned reply as to why you need a deity.
Right, off to work I go :-)

2583. 'I despise Islamism': Ian McEwan faces backlash over press interview

Comment #197739 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 3:14 pm

I wonder if the story highlighted here and this http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2171300/Young-Muslims-'are-turning-to-extremism'.html are related in any way...

2584. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197442 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 3:52 am

Here, txty, somethig for you to ponder.
I'm off to bed.
http://www.archaeology.org/0003/abstracts/books.html
Enjoy :-)
You know, you are getting whupped so badly it is getting rather embarrassing.
I'm enjoying it ;-)

2585. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197440 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 3:49 am

Domestication of cereal crops is another interesting subject. Supposedly, this happened around 9000 BC, back in Quine's "Stone Age". But it is hard to figure out exactly how this happened, at least for someone possessed with incredulity like I am.

Well, we better not get onto potatoes then, or taro...
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/27/america/LA-GEN-Peru-Chile-Spud-Spat.php

Andres Contreras, a researcher at Chile's Austral University in Valdivia, said archaeological studies have found the first evidence of human consumption of potatoes dating back 14,000 years in southern Chile, long before evidence emerges of spud consumption in Peru.

And taro is poisonous (as is the ur-spud, I belive) if not processed correctly. And yet, 5000 years ago, it has got as far as India
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taro

2586. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197435 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 3:30 am

Do you know the difference between good and evil? Is the man being good to the cow? Or evil?

Aha, another Uncle Mikey! This Uncle Mikey deals with relationshiop problems of postgraduate students and other sundry 20-something year old girls...
PS, the man must obviously been evil to the cow - after all, slavery is evil...and that cow had no free will, eh?
;-)

2587. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197424 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 2:58 am

No tooth fairy, no Santa Claus, no Easter Bunny, no Uncle Mikey and no global flood.

Uncle Mikey is right here. Any more mixing him with mythological personae may result in a serious sulk!
;-)

2588. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197422 by Goldy on June 22, 2008 at 2:54 am

txty, txty, txty...

It did? All ten layers, with a 120 million rod cells and 6 million cones? How would you characterize the mutations that produced the three different cone types that respond to different wave lengths so that you can see in color? Were those all produced by a general mutation or were they separately installed?

just the first thing I read...man, oh man, oh man...what a celar display of personal incredulity! And, oooh, let me guess, there was this great orb of ice around the Earth which melted and caused great flooding....
I shake my head. You profess incredulity as a simple 101 style explanation yet accept, without, I hasten to add, any questioning, science fiction.
Amazing!
Edit...

I could be wrong. I'm still a lone wolf on the ice lens idea. AIG, ICR and others all reject that idea.

Jesus, not only are you are you disagreeing with simple elementary science, you also disagree with cretinism and IDiocy! Holy Moley! You are stupid to us and stupid to them too! Man, you must be lonely!

2589. PZ Myers - Science and Atheism in the Blogosphere

Comment #197093 by Goldy on June 21, 2008 at 4:33 am

But, then this begs the question, why do we continue this way? You're probably the most prolific blogger on this site? Is there anybody who has posted more?

Dunno about Steve, but I find it cathartic. Otherwise the students I work with would have to put up with my ranting against the sheer fuckwittery of life that's been addled by superstition and idiocy. I write because I have to tell people how fucking wrong they are and that I can't believe grown people can be so fucking stupid. And hopefully, fingers crossed, there's someone somewhere that might, just might, read my diatribe or even my fairly well researched answer to a question and think, actually think, that maybe they are wrong and that maybe, just maybe, there's something other than some god or fairytale that has real meaning in life.
And, as Steve said, one learns so much, not just about life, the universe and everything, but on how to talk to those that are....damn, what can I say...people that I cannot comprehend, people that I cannot see getting through a day never mind a whole lifetime. I can, here, talk to people who are in my mind more intelligent than any I could ever hope to meet and people who really should have been institutionalised for their extreme lack of intelligence.
This site is a drug. I'm hooked.

2590. Should Strident British Atheist Richard Dawkins Dictate Education Policy to US States? Barbara Forrest Apparently Thinks So

Comment #197088 by Goldy on June 21, 2008 at 4:21 am

Now for something completely different, time to watch the All Blacks thrash England in the rugby.
back in 90

Don't tell the score until tomorrow - haven't got Sky Rugby Channel here in NZ! Going to catch it on Prime...

2591. Should Strident British Atheist Richard Dawkins Dictate Education Policy to US States? Barbara Forrest Apparently Thinks So

Comment #197069 by Goldy on June 21, 2008 at 2:57 am

The article itself, in the Telegraph (sorry, I don't know how to make it jump automatically, but notosobad's original comment does it) implies that Islam is increasing as Christianity declines

Dunno about that. Less Christians obviously means that the ratio of Christian to Muslim tilts more to Islam. Doesn't mean there are more Muslims as such. One can also say the ratio of non-believers to Muslims is tilting towards non-believers....and that's not such a bad thing, is it?
C'mon, Richard, glass 1/2 full, please ;-)

2592. Should Strident British Atheist Richard Dawkins Dictate Education Policy to US States? Barbara Forrest Apparently Thinks So

Comment #197067 by Goldy on June 21, 2008 at 2:51 am

Christianity 'could die out within a century'

Been done - didn't happen
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19660408,00.html

2593. Should Strident British Atheist Richard Dawkins Dictate Education Policy to US States? Barbara Forrest Apparently Thinks So

Comment #197064 by Goldy on June 21, 2008 at 2:47 am

Should a British person's opinion influence US policy? Heck why not - after all, a dead Jewish person's olicy has influenced the world. A dead Arab warlord has influenced the other half (apparently). We drive German cars, eat French or Italian food (I just had a pizza - top tip, put porridge oats in the pizza dough...rather tasty!), see US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan...need I go on?
We can't pick and choose what we want to follow - look at any Christian following the Bible - and we can't shut out ideas by saying it's a foreign idea.
Deny Richard, Hitch, Dennett, Harris et al and you may as well deny Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha too - all have as important a message as each other in these global times :-)
So, Richard D (Dicky D, as some people call you in the Dept of Pharmacology at Auckland Uni) - don't get all defensive (Comment #197015). Your nationality has no bearing on your views if they are accepted by people in other countries. By accepting your views, they make your views theirs and by inference, you views become as American, German, Italian, Chinese, etc as the people who subscribe to them.
Hmmm...hope that makes sense...

2594. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #197059 by Goldy on June 21, 2008 at 2:31 am

...being on the wrong side of the formidable intellects here.

Formidable intellect? Like...you think I'm one of them? No! Really?? Cool! (Please don't burst my bubble by saying you actually meant someone else!) Makes a change from being an opinionated tubby Pom! :-D
Again, please accept my apologies! I'd offer you a beer, but e-beer just don't quite cut is...so I'll drink this beer I have now and think of you ;-)
Really sorry for misunderstanding! And a little before I had to apologise to DR too. Hmmm, best just keep mind under wraps for a spell!

2595. Oystein Elgaroy - the Christian defender who became an Atheist

Comment #196960 by Goldy on June 20, 2008 at 5:29 pm

Bicycling is actually fun enough to do even when there is no destination, just a recreational loop ride back to the start.

Having commuted by bicycle for years (until family came along...then I got lazy) I can sort of agree. Living in a slightly hilly area sucks, mind...especially if one has an old fashioned single speed bike...

2596. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #196909 by Goldy on June 20, 2008 at 3:20 pm

T'was the "Jeez" immediately preceding that did it for me. Sorry, I work with students just out of their teens - "jeez" is always accompanied by eye rolling and assertions of my old fashionedness and unhipfulness! ;-)

2597. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #196904 by Goldy on June 20, 2008 at 3:11 pm

If it seems I was being"arrogant" or "superior" my apologies that was not my intention. After such a long exchange which I have not been part of.
Im am stunned that it came across as such.

In that case I shall get off my very very high horse and apologise unreservedly...*hops off*....AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH! *THUD!*
I'm sorry....call a doctor, I think I broke my legs on landing!
;-)

2598. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #196869 by Goldy on June 20, 2008 at 2:16 pm

Jeez, Another little gem. Its amazing what you find when stumbling around this site.

Ummm, OK - we have someone telling us the Earth is younger than the domestication of farm animals, that there was a world wide flood caused by some ice shield surrounding the Earth melting, that evolution is a hoax and that everything on Earth is, was and evermore shall be as they are (until extinction, I guess), that there was an ark where all (make that ALL) the animals on the planet lived....need I go on? And yet, this is what you pick up on. This little snippet, this personal opinion (from someone who is condemned by many for his sexuality, a state that had absolutely no active input from himself, that was in no way a lifestyle choice of his own choosing) - you can overlook the jaw droppingly inane and incredible assertions, assertions without a scrap of evidence other than the Bible (other holy texts being, it seems, wrong) and just point to this one paragraph and chuckle in an arrogantly superior way.
As you say...

Its amazing what you find when stumbling around this site.

2599. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #196393 by Goldy on June 19, 2008 at 9:11 pm

As for all this dieting talk: stop making me feel guilty. Bikini season is fast approaching and I dread it.

Don't wear bikinis. Go topless, then no one notices...

Goldy, I am thinking of brewing my own beer this summer. I know it is not good for the gut (the shape of it anyway).
Chili-chocolate? I like both those things.
Recipes

I haven't gone beyond beer kits. But I thought a malty dark beer would suit the chocolate flavour and chillies and chocolate do go together particularly well. Don't use strong chillies - habaneroes would just kill it - go for a reasonably sweet and tangy chilli. Chocolate...I used Dutch cocoa powder. Just dropped it all in. I chopped up the chillies and boiled them in water, then added the cocoa then the malt and stirred. Boil the chillies for a while before adding the other stuff.
Then just follow the instructions on the kit :-)
I have no idea how it will trun out - will be adding finings and then transferring to another container (the keep the dross out and to mix in the carbonation sugar) before bottling.
The wheat beer and manuka honey mix worked quite well. Didn't fine it, so it is a bit cloudy, but tasty. 6 months or so wait should see it good. Maybe I should have finished brewing with champagne yeast...hmmm....

2600. Muslim countries win concession regarding religious debates

Comment #196390 by Goldy on June 19, 2008 at 8:58 pm

Too much protectionism is only going to result in more insults :-) Besides, did the US listen to any UN resolution? Israel (and given most of the resolutions againt Israel are from, errrr, Muslim countries)? Does anyone think China will give a toss, or India?