AtheistRamblings.net

"When I asked what the difference was between a religion and a cult, someone replied “a good..."

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:39:09 +1100

“When I asked what the difference was between a religion and a cult, someone replied “a good accountant”.”

- Catherine Deveny, “Atheism is a broad church”, via www.smh.com.au

"Isn’t atheism just another religion? No. A religion believes in supernatural power. Sure,..."

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:37:13 +1100

“Isn’t atheism just another religion? No. A religion believes in supernatural power. Sure, Dawkins is super and natural - but he’s not supernatural.”

- Catherine Deveny, “Atheism is a broad church” (via www.smh.com.au)

Whales Dying in Record Numbers Near Argentina

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:19:18 +1100

Whales Dying in Record Numbers Near Argentina:

Southern right whales, frequent visitors to Oz, are dying in record numbers along Argentina’s Patagonian coast. Since 2005 a total of 308 dead whales have been recorded, 85% of which were calves less than 3 months old.

So far nobody knows why whales are dying in such numbers.

Trivia: the southern right whale is so named because when whaling was legal in Australian waters it was the “right” whale to kill.

Texting From Beyond The Grave

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:11:32 +1100

Texting From Beyond The Grave :

In the “olden days” all that you could leave on a headstone was a few basic facts; name, date of birth, date of death, and the names a few who survived you.

Now you can get a headstone that can text your entire life history

It’s Avalanche Season On Mars )via( Discovery News)_

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:08:19 +1100

It’s Avalanche Season On Mars )via( Discovery News)_

(via ageofreason)

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:46:16 +1100

(via ageofreason)

via...

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:18:06 +1100

via posnonrel:

friendlyatheist:

deadlypotato:

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

A classic that will never get old.

(via schbank) I fear it’s true …

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:10:53 +1100

(via schbank)

I fear it’s true …

"If the earliest Cro-Magnons had left accounts of their gripes, I’m sure they would have included how..."

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:35:16 +1100

“If the earliest Cro-Magnons had left accounts of their gripes, I’m sure they would have included how the kids these days don’t know how to tie a stone axe to a good handle, and how these kids don’t appreciate how hard it was to hunt mammoths back in the old days before the spearthrower was invented.”

- Review: Guyland @ Yes Means Yes Blog (via notemily)

“You kids don’t know how good you’ve got it! When I was your age we didn’t have home computers, xboxes, and the web wasn’t even invented.” Me to my kids last week …

via greaterthanlapsed: mitochondrion: remedyloame: Fred Equal...

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:45:17 +1100

via greaterthanlapsed:

mitochondrion:

remedyloame:

Fred Equal Measuring Cup

electricpower: Why Seawater Isn’t the Answer to the Lithium...

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:32:05 +1100

electricpower:

Why Seawater Isn’t the Answer to the Lithium Squeeze

Seawater: It offered the Ancient Mariner not a drop to drink, but plenty of scientists and entrepreneurs have ideas for how to use the salty stuff for green technologies. Some aim to desalinate it with high-tech membranesto produce fresh drinking water, while others envision it providing irrigation for salt-loving plants to be used as feedstock for biofuels. Add to the listSouth Korea’s ambitious plan, reported Tuesday by the Financial Times, to collect lithium from sea water for electric car batteries.

earth2tech

You can also extract uranium from seawater too.

(via schbank)

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:29:22 +1100

(via schbank)

Keyboard problems

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:28:53 +1100

I’m having problems with my wireless keyboard and my Linux system. One or the other is dropping letters as I type. And I’m not picking up on all the times this happens. So if you repost any of my postings please feel free to fix up any obvious typo’s. It’s kind of embarrassing like “pubic” instead of “public”…

schbank: Ok, they’ve got us there.

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:24:13 +1100

schbank:

Ok, they’ve got us there.

“I Am” (via xkcd)

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:21:34 +1100

“I Am” (via xkcd)

"My personal feeling is that citizens of the democratic societies should undertake a course of..."

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:05:32 +1100

“My personal feeling is that citizens of the democratic societies should undertake a course of intellectual self-defense to protect themselves from manipulation and control, and to lay the basis for more meaningful democracy”

- Noam Chomsky (via Discovery News)

A bit of science education wouldn’t go astray either.

"The scientific basis for the greenhouse effect and the potential impact of human emissions of..."

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:04:00 +1100

“The scientific basis for the greenhouse effect and the potential impact of human emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2 on climate is well-established and cannot be denied.”

- Taken from a 1995 report by scientists working for The Global Climate Coalition, which consists of the American Petroleum Institute, BP, Exxon-Mobil, Shell and a number of large car makers. The coalition buried the report and spent millions convincing the public that the exact opposite is true. (via Discovery News)

Australian Scientology inquiry voted down.

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 12:56:00 +1100

Australian Scientology inquiry voted down.:

The Australian Senate has voted down a call to conduct an inquiry into the Church of Scientology cult.

The fault for this probably lies with independent Senator Xenophon who originally called for the inquiry. Rather than leave it as a focused inquiry into some of the activities of CoS he broadened the terms of reference, at the suggestion of The Greens, to include the tax exemptions of all religions, something that would never pass the Senate.

Xenophon now looks like an idiot, so no change there, and The Greens can do what they do best and beat their chest about the in-action of the Government; which usually comes about because the Greens do everything in their power to sabotage any action the Government tries to take - can somebody please explain what justification the Greens had for voting against the carbon Emissions Trading Scheme?

The losers of course are those who were abused and mistreated by the CoS and are still waiting for some sort of justice.

And the winers are the CoS which can still go about it’s grubby business with impunity.

Cartoon by Peter Brookes, via Times Online Definition of Bashing...

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 12:30:49 +1100

Cartoon by Peter Brookes, via Times Online

Definition of Bashing The Bishop in case you can’t work it out; it’s a sin if you’re Catholic.

"We’re not going to change the world by forming Facebook groups"

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 12:26:20 +1100

“We’re not going to change the world by forming Facebook groups”

- Sathnam Sanghera, “Workers, you have nothing to lose but your petitions” (via Times Online)

Blogging about it doesn’t work either.